Strange Feeling of Nonexistence

[Billy T]

The truth is we don't really exist. Our bodies do, but what we think of as our selves is really an illusion of continuity created by the brain. When the brain stops thinking, we stop existing.

You can't have it both ways, those statements contradict each other. We do exist both body and mind ...

I strongly agree with spider on this as briefly outlined in this post:

Yes as Chambers said "consciousness is the hard problem." I doubt any set of hard ware can ever be made to have even simple experiences ("Qualia") that humans have all the time.

However, I think we have them because the brain, specifically the parietal part, is running a real time simulation and creating "us" in the process. I have also suggested that because of this genuine free will is not necessarily inconsistent with the natural laws that control the firing of every nerve in your body. See how I think we have experiences and may even have genuine free will (but I doubt that) at: http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=905778&postcount=66 ...

SUMMARY: My POV is not that we are living in simulation, but that we are part of a real time parietal (brain) simulation. I.e. "we" are not a physical body, but an informational process. Note "I" ,"we" "us" etc. in quotes refers to this created psychological self not the physical self /body.

From: http://www.sciforums.com/showpost.php?p=2757580&postcount=21 ,but for much more detail and many observed supporting facts in many different fields (neurology to historical events) which can best, if not only, be understood from the Real Time Simulation POV see the link given in the above quote.

I will just mention two of the many medical facts supporting this strange POV that "We" are NOT physical bodies; Or as Spider put it (except for periods of deep dreamless sleep) “we” are: "illusion of continuity created by the brain." Or in my own terms, "We" only exist when the Real Time Simulation in parietal bran is executing, creating the world we perceive, our qualia and "us." We do not exist when our body is in dreamless sleep, or dead.

After a large parietal stroke, one side of their body is not recognized as being part of them. In one case, reported in the literature, the attending doctor picked up their hand, which for them was not their hand and asked: Who´s hand is this? "Yours" was the patient reply. Then the doctor showed his two hands and asked: How can I have three hands? The patient replied: "Because you have three arms."

Quite commonly when patient is first recovering from their stroke in the hospital bed they will call the nurse, and complain that someone´s leg has been left in the bed. It is disgusting! - Please remove it; or in a few cases try to throw their physical leg, which for them is not theirs, out of the bed.

People with "phantom limbs" are the exact opposite case - Their self, constructed in parietal brain, has four normal limbs despite their body having only three. They consciously learn the phantom is not "real" but for them it is real - just as real as their physically existing limbs.

This statement is not based on only their self reports, but also on their automatic (unthinking) behavior. For example, if the phantom arm rigidly extends out from the body, and they are asked to quickly run thru a maze with many narrow doors or passage ways, they automatically twist their body, as you would, to keep their non-existing arm from banging into the side of the door frame, etc.

"Out of body" experiences are caused, usually, by being the reality created in parietal brain. They are not physically real, but are real as it is only by or based on this directly experienced reality upon which we INFER the physical world does exist.

 

[oak]

Damn Billy T, your GFW post was pretty darn fascinating

What about documentations of out-of-body experiences in which the individual was able to obtain information from a distance that would be physically impossible to see? How would something like that fit into a real-time simulation theory?

 

[Billy T]

Damn Billy T, your GFW post was pretty darn fascinating

What about documentations of out-of-body experiences in which the individual was able to obtain information from a distance that would be physically impossible to see? How would something like that fit into a real-time simulation theory?

Thank you. many don´t want to go thru that long post.

I don´t think there are any more than chance cases of "individual was able to obtain information from a distance that would be physically impossible" either "In or Out of body" that are not simply after the fact claims. Few now believe Dr Rhine of Duke Univesity demonstatation, 30 or more years ago, of ESP, etc.

Do you have any link that seems to proove someone (in or out of body) has actually obtained information, impossible to explain by accepted physic laws?

In dreams, the parietal created reality is not very much tied to the physical external reality your senses are reporting. (No evoluionar pressure for this as in your dream, you can jump off high cliff, etc and not die.) In my opinion, out of body experiences are likewise when the RTS is not tied to the neural stimulation of your senses are providing - sort of an "awake dream".

 

[Balerion]

All that happened was that you were overwhelmed by the thought of an infinite vastness. I used to get that way when trying to reconcile the idea of a creator that did not need to be created.

 

[cosmictotem]

To be fully conscious to the Universe is to be unconscious (to not exist) because, ultimately, the Universe is nothing.

 

[Amag]

I'm not sure if it's the same, but I often experience the idea of me being the only thing that does exist. It may sound vain and self-centered, but it makes sense to whomever thinks it. The world is through my eyes from my perspective, so does the universe just not exist when I don't exist? It is a feeling bigger than anything, it sends your brain in loops just trying to conceive the idea.

 

[diverightindia]

daydreaming when i was a kid was kind of like experiencing astral travel.

 

[domalmond]

Yes! I got this a lot as a kid between the ages of about 5 to 16. Not so much anymore but still occasionally. It was such a strange felling and I'm glad I found someone who has the same experience as me.

 

[Billy T]

I'm not sure if it's the same, but I often experience the idea of me being the only thing that does exist. ...

A more extreme view was expressed and believed more than 300 years ago by Bishop Berkeley. - He believe his body and every material thing did not exist. God gave his spirit these {false} impressions.

The point I like best was his explaining why the universe he perceived followed regular rules - what we call the the laws of physics. He noted that miracles are the violation of these rules so if they too did not exist, not even God could work miracles. I.e. God made his perception as if they were normally govern by physical laws, but if God wanted to, he could make the sun stand still as Bible tells it did, etc.

The good bishop´s god was indeed a very powerful real-time processor of information. - For example, as the ocean wave hits the beach, god made every grain of sand it touched appear to moved following the physical laws. Billions of times faster than any computer humans can even image a design for. Perhaps only millions of times faster as god knew where he had every spirit looking. - Did not need to even make impressions of grains of sand where no one was watching. Hell, the famous: "Is there sound when tree falls but no one is near?" had the easy answer: "Of course not - there is no impression of a tree then." If the only spirit god was making have impressions was Berkeley´s, then perhaps only thousands of times faster than Berkeley spirit could imagine.