This is an episode of the podcast where I use this clipped discussion by the podcast Lex Fridman and the author of Conscious: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind by Annaka Harris (partner of Sam Harris) to open a discussion around the self, the idea of it being an illusion, and our sense of will.
Anyway, I’ve always been hesitant in using the language of “illusion” around the sense of self, as I think it can have an unintended spiral effect that is not always helpful for the person coming into a certain “realization.”
Why?
The self is a default mode of being. The self is what we use to operate within the world. Our “self” is interacting with billions of other-selves…it might not always be best to call this an illusion, especially with our understanding of illusion in a modern context.
I discuss more in the episode:)
The self becomes you that is created by the subjective experiences of an individual.
The self exists in some essence and interacts with the universe and the world around us, thus it is constantly moving and flowing and being influenced by our inner state and the external reality. The self flows with the tides of experience.
“Our experience of consciousness is so intrinsic to who we are, we rarely notice that something mysterious is going on. Consciousness is experience itself, and it is therefore easy to miss the profound question staring us in the face in each moment: Why would any collection of matter in the universe be conscious?” — Annaka Harris
The clip the audio is from: here
Stay curious,
Brenden
"The Self is an Illusion" with Annaka Harris and Lex Fridman