Sam Harris

They can imagine being without hands. And that sense of dualism extends really to everything they can notice about their physical bodies. And I think most people would imagine that Even if they're materialists, what they are as conscious agents is a matter of what the brain is doing.

They can imagine being without hands. And that sense of dualism extends really to everything they can notice about their physical bodies. And I think most people would imagine that Even if they're materialists, what they are as conscious agents is a matter of what the brain is doing.

And if you could have a brain transplant, you would expect to go with the brain and not remain with the body, right? So if you took my brain and put it in another body, I would expect to move over there. At minimum, people feel like they are their brains, but... experience doesn't give us any evidence of even having brains, right?

And if you could have a brain transplant, you would expect to go with the brain and not remain with the body, right? So if you took my brain and put it in another body, I would expect to move over there. At minimum, people feel like they are their brains, but... experience doesn't give us any evidence of even having brains, right?

And if you could have a brain transplant, you would expect to go with the brain and not remain with the body, right? So if you took my brain and put it in another body, I would expect to move over there. At minimum, people feel like they are their brains, but... experience doesn't give us any evidence of even having brains, right?

Much less that the brain is relevant to the nature of consciousness or the nature of what our minds are doing. So it's worth differentiating what people conceptually know about the biology and the mind's dependency on the brain and what they feel subjectively and just phenomenologically how they move through life.

Much less that the brain is relevant to the nature of consciousness or the nature of what our minds are doing. So it's worth differentiating what people conceptually know about the biology and the mind's dependency on the brain and what they feel subjectively and just phenomenologically how they move through life.

Much less that the brain is relevant to the nature of consciousness or the nature of what our minds are doing. So it's worth differentiating what people conceptually know about the biology and the mind's dependency on the brain and what they feel subjectively and just phenomenologically how they move through life.

And there I think virtually everyone feels like they are a thinker of thoughts, an experiencer of experience, a subject very likely in the head behind their eyes, looking out at a world that is not them, that is separate from what they are as conscious agents. And in some sense, that world includes the body. And the body can malfunction. You've got a pain in your knee.

And there I think virtually everyone feels like they are a thinker of thoughts, an experiencer of experience, a subject very likely in the head behind their eyes, looking out at a world that is not them, that is separate from what they are as conscious agents. And in some sense, that world includes the body. And the body can malfunction. You've got a pain in your knee.

And there I think virtually everyone feels like they are a thinker of thoughts, an experiencer of experience, a subject very likely in the head behind their eyes, looking out at a world that is not them, that is separate from what they are as conscious agents. And in some sense, that world includes the body. And the body can malfunction. You've got a pain in your knee.

And you feel as the subject, not identical to that pain, but in relation to it. And you're resisting it from a point outside the pain. You are receiving pain. the pain as a kind of locus of consciousness. You can pay attention to it. You can try to be distracted from it. And then the pain can draw you back. And yet you are up here somehow as a subject.

And you feel as the subject, not identical to that pain, but in relation to it. And you're resisting it from a point outside the pain. You are receiving pain. the pain as a kind of locus of consciousness. You can pay attention to it. You can try to be distracted from it. And then the pain can draw you back. And yet you are up here somehow as a subject.

And you feel as the subject, not identical to that pain, but in relation to it. And you're resisting it from a point outside the pain. You are receiving pain. the pain as a kind of locus of consciousness. You can pay attention to it. You can try to be distracted from it. And then the pain can draw you back. And yet you are up here somehow as a subject.

And if you do a practice like meditation or something like mindfulness and you inspect that feeling of dualism where there's a sense of a subject that can pay attention

And if you do a practice like meditation or something like mindfulness and you inspect that feeling of dualism where there's a sense of a subject that can pay attention

And if you do a practice like meditation or something like mindfulness and you inspect that feeling of dualism where there's a sense of a subject that can pay attention

to experience and then get distracted by thought and then come back and pay attention to experience, that sense that there's a place from which you can focus and then be, that's the meditator, that's you now trying to meditate, that dualism gets maintained even in our spiritual efforts to recognize something about the illusoriness of the self.

to experience and then get distracted by thought and then come back and pay attention to experience, that sense that there's a place from which you can focus and then be, that's the meditator, that's you now trying to meditate, that dualism gets maintained even in our spiritual efforts to recognize something about the illusoriness of the self.

to experience and then get distracted by thought and then come back and pay attention to experience, that sense that there's a place from which you can focus and then be, that's the meditator, that's you now trying to meditate, that dualism gets maintained even in our spiritual efforts to recognize something about the illusoriness of the self.