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Précis of Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy

Précis of Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and... Précis of Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy Philosophy Department, University of British Columbia evan.thompson@ubc.ca The central idea of Waking, Dreaming, Being is that the self is a process, not a thing or an entity.1 The self isn't something outside experience, hidden either in the brain or in some immaterial realm. It is an experiential process that is subject to constant change. We enact a self in the process of awareness, and this self comes and goes depending on how we are aware. When we're awake and occupied with some manual task, we enact a bodily self geared to our immediate environment. Yet this bodily self recedes from our experience if our task becomes an absorbing mental one. If our mind wanders, the mentally imagined self of the past or future overtakes the self of the present moment. As we start to fall asleep, the sense of self slackens. Images float by, and our awareness becomes progressively absorbed in them. The impression of being a bounded individual distinct from the world dissolves. In this hypnagogic state, the borders between self and not-self seem to fall away. The feeling of being a distinct self http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Philosophy East and West University of Hawai'I Press

Précis of Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy

Philosophy East and West , Volume 66 (3) – Jul 25, 2016

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Publisher
University of Hawai'I Press
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 University of Hawai'i Press.
ISSN
1529-1898
Publisher site
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Abstract

Précis of Waking, Dreaming, Being: Self and Consciousness in Neuroscience, Meditation, and Philosophy Philosophy Department, University of British Columbia evan.thompson@ubc.ca The central idea of Waking, Dreaming, Being is that the self is a process, not a thing or an entity.1 The self isn't something outside experience, hidden either in the brain or in some immaterial realm. It is an experiential process that is subject to constant change. We enact a self in the process of awareness, and this self comes and goes depending on how we are aware. When we're awake and occupied with some manual task, we enact a bodily self geared to our immediate environment. Yet this bodily self recedes from our experience if our task becomes an absorbing mental one. If our mind wanders, the mentally imagined self of the past or future overtakes the self of the present moment. As we start to fall asleep, the sense of self slackens. Images float by, and our awareness becomes progressively absorbed in them. The impression of being a bounded individual distinct from the world dissolves. In this hypnagogic state, the borders between self and not-self seem to fall away. The feeling of being a distinct self

Journal

Philosophy East and WestUniversity of Hawai'I Press

Published: Jul 25, 2016

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