Identity Formation: the hallucinatory nature of a personal self
In a dream at night a subjective self is generated by the subconscious mind felt as a real “me”. This imaginary self seems to think, to perceive and experiences various emotional states. But when the body wakes up in the morning, that hallucinated self vanishes as the subconscious mind ceases hallucinating or imagining it and its dreamed environment.
During the dream the hallucinated self seems to think, feel, perceive and act all as autonomous acts of its own; yet no such self was ever there and all those subjective experiences were generated by the subconscious mind alone.
Upon awakening in the morning, the subconscious mind generates a daytime self that also feels like an autonomous “me” who thinks, who perceives, who feels and acts all on its own, according to its own volition. It’s given the feeling of “I”.
(This imaginary self is the seeker, the yogi, meditator and spiritual practitioner)
It seems to be the one that is engaged with its daytime world. But this daytime self is also a hallucination being generated by the subconscious mind as a psychological identity or self-image that is projected to feel that it owns a body, has a mind, owns possessions, has a family, thinks thoughts, has memories, makes decisions, perceives sensory perceptions, responds, believes in god, seeks to attain liberation and enlightenment, wants to be free of negative thoughts and wants to not die or suffer.
But all that just described pertaining to the personal self, only exists as the “story of me, mine and my experiences” which are being hallucinated by billions of neurons functioning as what’s called the “subconscious mind”.
The brain has evolved to generate its own imaginary “captain of the ship” (the boss) felt as the personal identity (“I”) who is “in control” and is experienced as “me”; not more real than the self felt as “me” in a dream.
The daytime self never experiences the actual real external world which exists outside and beyond the body’s skin and sensory organs.
Physical energies make contact with the body’s sensory organs and skin, generating electro-chemical exchanges within the nerve cells of the body which end up in various centers of the brain.
There they are then transformed into colors, shapes, movements, sounds, flavors, odors and sensations and a brain generated 3D inner movie including the illusion of space, depth and time; a representation of what the brain thinks is “out there”.
All those brain generated mental phenomena are then associated with the brain’s memory banks, conditioning and DNA software code; at which point it generates the fake self, built to feel as a real “me”, as being the one to whom this inner 3D movie is occurring along with all its thoughts which are being generated as seeming to “belong” to this imaginary self felt as “I”.
The self in a dream is created by the brain through the functioning of the same neural mechanisms, but the contents of the dream are coming from memory instead of live sensory signals.
What’s truly amazing is that the daytime self as the imaginary seeker, the perceiver, the thinker of thoughts, the decider, the feeler of emotions, the experiencer, the one who understands or not, the one seeking enlightenment, the one who suffers, the one afraid to die and who is believed to be the doer of deeds (good and bad); doesn’t exist as other than patterns of electro-chemical activity being generated by billions of neurons in a human brain; but where the brain can suddenly cease projecting this imaginary self and all its associated processes leaving an indescribable and impersonal state of pure Awareness and Presence but occurring to no one; no self, me, or I.
It’s just a matter of the bio-computer brain becoming aware that all the selfing processes being generated by the billions of neurons, is an illusion which is no more real than the self and its thoughts and perceptions in a dream at night.
Actually the selfing mechanisms cease every night for all humans during deep, dreamless sleep. The brain ceases generating any kind of self, or “me” or “I”, and hence all personal existence, suffering and pleasure cease. It’s not that your “self” is lying dormant just waiting to come out of its little waiting room to spring back into the waking world upon awakening, but rather the neurons aren’t generating any self of any kind yet.
The self so preciously felt as the real “me” and “I” in waking life is actually only the temporary product of the brain’s electro-chemical activity which ceases every night (poof) and is freshly generated every morning as though it had continued to exist while it was only taking a short break.
(poor baby!).
If one feels depressed, suicidal, anxious, angry, sad, happy, in love or bored; know that “that one” is the imaginary self:
Contemplate:
That self is not a real me; it’s body, feelings, emotions, thoughts, mind, actions, possessions, family and memories aren’t mine; and what you actually are can’t be thought about or consciously known by the mind.
Download into the brain:
LSD, psilocybin, meditation and other causes can cause a disruption in the brain’s “default mode network” which is where the sense of personal self is generated. When that happens, the personal self identity vanishes.
Through prolonged meditation, the “default mode network” in the brain of the Buddha became inactive, where he experienced “no self” or anatta. He realized that the psychological sense of self was a kind of hallucination generated by his mind (brain).
The Zen master Dogen, experienced the “falling away of self” through extended periods of Zen meditation called zazen.
These excellent videos expand upon this topic:
Notice especially at 4 minutes 9 seconds in this first video, where she mentions “there is no me”…
Rare footage of 1950's housewife on LSD (Full Version)https://youtu.be/Si-jQeWSDKcHow to Stop Overthinking - Buddhism & The Default Mode Networkhttps://youtu.be/XTk2eh2vPsMMichael Pollan | Dissolving the Default Mode Networkhttps://youtu.be/c71BY2RzZjY‘Default mode network’ is suppressed by meditation practice | Roland Griffithshttps://youtu.be/D8hoXhNwccAThe real dope:
The Default Mode Network & End of Suffering - Gary Weberhttps://youtu.be/QeNmydIk8YoHere it’s explained what “remains” after the DMN (default mode network) becomes inactive and when the mental content as the fictional sense of self and its fictional biography disappear:
This following quote is from the famous cycle of teachings known as the Tibetan Book of the Dead. The text was discovered by Karma Lingpa (born in Tibet around 1329). It is part of what is called “The Direct Introduction to Awareness” teaching of Dzogchen and is meant to “awaken” those who simply read and understand the text without need for any prior or subsequent practice:
"And in the present moment, when your mind remains in its own condition without constructing anything, Awareness, at that moment, in itself is quite ordinary.”
“And when you look into yourself in this way nakedly, without any discursive thoughts,
since there is only this pure observing, there will be found a lucid clarity without anyone being there who is the observer, only a naked manifest awareness is present.”
“This Awareness is empty and immaculately pure, not being created by anything whatsoever. It is authentic and unadulterated, without any duality of clarity and emptiness."
It seems that when the DMN becomes fully inactive in a human brain, a deeper underlying pure and unchanging Awareness is exposed, like the sun no longer being obscured by clouds.
The pure Awareness which has never had a self, is now absent of the modes of the DMN’s illusory thought constructs which seem to be superimposed upon it; like reflections appearing in a crystal clear mirror.
The world you perceive and interact with is one that your brain generates based on the sensory input coming in from the real and existing external world, a world you never can know or see or hear directly.
The one as yourself, interacting with that brain projected world is also a subconscious brain projection. Everything “you” think arises from the subconscious with no influence from yourself, because your entire self is also just another projection of subconscious brain activity.
There is no real personal self experiencing its world. The self felt as “me” is a projection of that part of the brain called the “default mode network” (DMN). When the DMN becomes inactive the personal self felt as “me” vanishes… it was never more than a temporary configuration of the electro-chemical software code within the neurons, as directed by the cellular DNA.
The brain generated self never can “do” anything as it has no more causative powers than does a cartoon character projected on a movie screen.
Because the movie called “our world” only exists subjectively in our heads, it doesn’t spill out as a “substance” to affect the actual external world. Rather it’s only the external world which causes our world of inner experience to appear as it does.
Actually our inner subjective world of experience is only the external world internalized.
All of a human’s life is a dynamic flow of mechanical evolution, a biological process fully organized and determined by the laws of physics and chemistry with no one “in there” who could exercise free-will or who could possess the least bit of autonomy.
Deactivating the DMN is the single and only solution necessary for humans regarding “liberation” from ignorance, self, karma and suffering. Samsara and its inhabitants were only a brain generated illusion.
Bottom line; all that’s necessary is the sudden cessation of the selfing or self construct. With no self, life just happens with no one living that life; no one who dies, with no perceiver, no experiencer, no experience; no subject/object dichotomy; yet vividly radiant, as a magical unfolding of meaningless
appearances, all dancing to their own music. And of course, no psychological “others” exist to be saved or rescued, as any psychological entity or psychological self is imaginary at best.
After this cessation of the fictional self, what remains is the unconditioned Buddha Mind, which was never affected by the appearance of the egoic self, but it was only that the egoic self was dominating the panorama of its view. Even though the movie screen isn’t affected by the movie projected upon it, nonetheless it dominates the screen as what’s experienced.
Understanding all this confirms the most accurate view of our situation and its resolution, is contained within the tradition known as Samkhya which is also the metaphysical background of the Buddha’s teachings.
I recommend developing a sound daily meditation practice as advised in Soto Zen: the deactivation of the Default Mode Network and its conceptualizing mind, is the only answer for human beings to become free from the real cause of our personal psychological suffering. No other practices are necessary.
Zazen deactivates the selfing of the brain’s DMN naturally until “self falls away”. It also facilitates what’s called “nirvikalpa samadhi” or the cessation of all conceptualizing activity.
These following videos can also trigger a sudden and temporary cessation of the brain’s selfing mechanism.
No Self Videos
There is no findable self:
The Illusory Self & Buddhist Philosophyhttps://youtu.be/MUqweDzPYY4Direct Pointing - What is 'I', 'me'? - The illusion of the seperate self - Advaita / Non-Dualityhttps://youtu.be/_FMSggSSJOUNo Central Selfhttps://youtu.be/ZsXn3H2tmokNo Selfhttps://youtu.be/_1M2hn9qgMESeeing That the Self is an Illusion with Matt Tenneyhttps://youtu.be/PWYqVQ_KTSQNo Self, No Progressionhttps://youtu.be/hXfXWBGWzP0Self as a subconscious projectionhttps://youtu.be/uNWdA_gzA54https://youtu.be/Neuroscience and Free Willhttps://vimeo.com/901013689 January 2019https://youtu.be/KsjwgnUchMENeuroscience:
Anil Seth: How your brain invents your "self" | TEDhttps://youtu.be/z7_LwuuPsAE