augusteo
12 days ago
The manipulation part is what fascinates me. They didn't just correlate alpha wave frequency with ownership perception. They used transcranial stimulation to artificially speed up or slow down the waves, and the subjective experience changed accordingly.
That's a pretty direct causal link between a measurable brain state and something as fundamental as "where does my body end?"
BrtByte
12 days ago
It also makes the self feel uncomfortably fragile
cogman10
12 days ago
That fragility is something you have to come to grips with if you've ever known someone that has a brain injury.
The self changes rapidly when dementia, alzheimers, a car crash, or a concussion which rocks someone's world the wrong way.
Who we are is incredibly fragile. You are just one bad infection away from being a different person.
accrual
12 days ago
I agree with you and I think we're changing at every moment, all the time, but it's usually gradual enough that most people don't notice or care until it manifests as new behavior.
My life is materially the same as it was on Friday but I definitely feel different after events this weekend.
hirvi74
12 days ago
"A man cannot step into the same river twice, for it is not the same river, and he is not same man."
- Heraclitus
user
12 days ago
tehmillhouse
12 days ago
Buddhism has bad news for you
bamboozled
12 days ago
I once read “The Joy of Living” by Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche. It should come with a warning. It broke me for a year. I’m actually grateful for the existential crisis it caused me. But it was a brutal experience at first.
jhickok
12 days ago
I had a similar experience with Derek Parfit's "Reasons and Persons", but he offers some solace:
‘When I believed [that personal identity is what matters], I seemed imprisoned in myself. My life seemed like a glass tunnel, through which I was moving faster every year, and at the end of which there was darkness. When I changed my view, the walls of my glass tunnel disappeared. I now live in the open air. There is still a difference between my life and the lives of other people. But the difference is less. Other people are closer. I am less concerned about the rest of my own life, and more concerned about the lives of others.
When I believed [that personal identity is what matters], I also cared more about my inevitable death. After my death, there will be no one living who will be me. I can now redescribe this fact. Though there will later be many experiences, none of these experiences will be connected to my present experiences by chains of such direct connections as those involved in experience-memory, or in the carrying out of an earlier intention. Some of these future experiences may be related to my present experiences in less direct ways. There will later be some memories about my life. And there may later be thoughts that are influenced by mine, or things done as the result of my advice. My death will break the more direct relations between my present experiences and future experiences, but it will not break various other relations. This is all there is to the fact that there will be no one living who will be me. Now that I have seen this, my death seems to me less bad.’
nuancebydefault
12 days ago
I think we could summarize all as follows: _everything_ is inter-connected and hence influences its surroundings and hence everything, indirectly. Some connections (in-brain) are stronger/wider than others (human to human etc).
Hence 'I' is relative.
bamboozled
10 days ago
I would say this is very relatable. Thanks for sharing. I might read that!
iJohnDoe
12 days ago
Can you share a bit more?
Should more read the book to get the same powerful benefit you received or stay away from the book?
bamboozled
10 days ago
I would recommend the book.
Sharing more: It shattered my prior beliefs about who "I" thought I was. When I read certain passages from the book, I knew it was true. It hurt my ego because it was undeniable. My old belief system was floored. My ideas about myself and others was insufficient. That shattered "me".
In many ways, it probably just helped me to be more compassionate and accepting of my situation and that of others. You cannot really put a price on wisdom like that and I guess for some people, getting to that point doesn't come without collateral ?
inanutshellus
12 days ago
OK so... what warning should it have had that would've prepared you for it?
bamboozled
10 days ago
"Eastern philosophy can be confronting for those that have not been exposed to it and that meditation isn't jut by default healthy for everyone. Before proceeding, especially if you're prone to any kind of mental illness, make sure you have a strong support network around you before proceeding" ?
Maybe there was some warning in the book, but I was young and keen enough that I would've just heeded that.
Even the author of the books father is a renowned meditation teacher, I'm sure that was helpful.
luxpir
12 days ago
I read it last year, enjoyed the book, no existential crisis.
I already subscribed to the idea of the self and identity being independent and constructs. A lot of reflection around that and physics in younger years maybe helped.
bamboozled
10 days ago
I could imagine how your prior experienced helped.
Some knowledge of physics would help for sure. From memory, there is some mention of psychics it in the book?
judahmeek
12 days ago
This technique is likely to be utilized in some government interrogation methods now.
An excellent example of research that maybe shouldn't have been pursued, although it's possible that there are a large number of potential recuperative applications as well that I'm not aware of.
E-Reverance
12 days ago
I don't think we should stop learning about ourselves out of paranoia. This sort of research could end up just like many powerful tech before (ex. nukes->green energy)
sylos
12 days ago
I think the advent of social algorithms and the technologies of that ilk indicate that there are things that shouldn't be explored.
gamacodre
11 days ago
With those examples though, how would we know ahead of time that they "shouldn't be explored?" They sure looked interesting and maybe even potentially beneficial a couple decades ago.
Now, of course, we know those algorithms warp regular users (and by extension societies). Or... maybe they don't? Some research has suggested that just putting this many people in direct communication with each other is the root cause of the problems we see. There could be other ways to fix those without shutting down the internet. How would we know without more exploration?
user
12 days ago
prayerie
12 days ago
[flagged]