Sam Harris’s Wife on What Consciousness Is

[kieranperez]

I will do my best to refrain from ranting but funny enough, my own desire to want to rant has me question “wait... have I become conscious of what consciousness is? Who am I to rant? Do I really know? Or do I just have my picked up knowledge?”

[Leo Gura]

Does she actually say what it is? Or is it just beating around the bush?

[Truth Addict]

There's no Sam Harris, nor a wife.

[Space]

@Leo Gura Listened to the podcast last night actually as I was curious to see what she had to say. Turns out there was a whole lot of beating around the bush. No clear answer as to what she thinks consciousness is. She is promoting a book on consciousness so maybe theres more details in there. Here are my brief notes from the video:

she says the word consciousness means experience.

we can be sure that consciousness is the only thing that exists

whatever experience you’re having is what consciousness is

everything I am experiencing is due to a process in the brain

intuition says that the self is the thing that is making all the choices but neuroscience says that this is nearly a complete illusion, and many people have experienced this with meditation and psychedelics.

free will is essentially an illusion because our decisions have already been made by the brain before we consciously recognise it.

she says the Default Mode Network, a part of the brain, is the root of the sense of self or separateness. Psychedelics and meditation turn this off, resulting in ego transcendent experiences.

many scientists are very open to panpsychism but the majority won’t or can’t speak publicly about it.

‘experience’ is the best or cleanest word for explaining what consciousness is.

a few vague comments about whether plants are conscious and the kind of behaviours they exhibit that might suggest they are conscious.

some discussion on split brain research

some discussion about parasites and how parasites can influence your consciousness? 

Discussion about time, but doesn’t clearly say what is has to do with consciousness. 

Our experience of the present moment is confusing, we have a lot of difficulty understanding what it is.

She’s open to the idea of consciousness being fundamental and material universe being a product of consciousness rather than the other way round.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Space

[Leo Gura]

Yeah... not deep enough. Too lost in materialism.

Consciousness is Infinity!

[AlwaysBeNice]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Yeah... not deep enough. Too lost in materialism.

Consciousness is Infinity!

It's kind of funny right, we've got all these big intellectual heads raving over the question, while they are all literally sitting in the answer of just 'not two', known by even a large amount of people in way for millennia. 

[Evoke]

Still a lot deeper than 99% of society i presume. Most people i know don't even care about this topic, let alone know something about it. (Stage orange materialists)

[Mulky]

I'm extremely conscious of how reasonably attractive she is

[Evoke]

2 hours ago, Mulky said:

2 hours ago, Mulky said:

2 hours ago, Mulky said:

2 hours ago, Mulky said:

2 hours ago, Mulky said:

I'm extremely conscious of how reasonably attractive she is

I'm extremely conscious of how 

is

I'm extremely conscious of how reasonably attractive she is

Well Sam is one hunk of a man too so kind of expected that ? 

[kieranperez]

1 hour ago, Evoke said:

Well Sam is one hunk of a man too so kind of expected that ? 

Sam Harris is a left brained Ben Stillar. I don’t know about that lol

5 hours ago, AlwaysBeNice said:

It's kind of funny right, we've got all these big intellectual heads raving over the question, while they are all literally sitting in the answer of just 'not two', known by even a large amount of people in way for millennia. 

You can’t really blame or pin it on intellectuals corn not knowing this nor being open. It’s all they know and they are merely a byproduct of the system. Being nit picky of them is what’s rather silly in the end.

I’d bet most people on either on the spectrum, ideal nor material have ever actually had the realization of what consciousness is. 

[loub]

@Leo Gura What do you say about Andre Doshim Halaws elaborations on consciousness in "God is Nothingness".

He says that consciousness is dependent on the body and ends with it, as opposed to Nothingness which exists regardless as the formless, underlying foundation to the world of form, but ultimately one with form.

He says: "Some readers may be wondering why I say that Awareness is not the Absolute(...). If pressed as to whether or not consciousness is the Absolute, I would say, that, Mind is not Mind , yet neither is it no-mind. (...) In Nothingness, there is some degree of awareness present -it is not how most people imagine brain death- albeit unconditioned, object- and subjectless. The Consciousness (for lack of better word) of Non-Being is so subtle that the moment we try to reflect upon it to check if we are conscious, we are jarred back into 'bein' and into our ordinary dualistic consciousness. I hesitate even to call this experience 'pure subjectivity' as that invites a metaphysical position that I am not willing to support.

 

Edited August 23, 2019 by loub

[Evoke]

1 hour ago, kieranperez said:

Sam Harris is a left brained Ben Stillar. I don’t know about that lol

Thats not fair When i watched his debate with Jordan Peterson i clearly noticed Sams masculine traits. But then again, maybe it was in contrast with the other guy on the stage ? 

[kieranperez]

1 hour ago, loub said:

@Leo Gura What do you say about Andre Doshim Halaws elaborations on consciousness in "God is Nothingness".

He says that consciousness is dependent on the body and ends with it, as opposed to Nothingness which exists regardless as the formless, underlying foundation to the world of form, but ultimately one with form.

He says: "Some readers may be wondering why I say that Awareness is not the Absolute(...). If pressed as to whether or not consciousness is the Absolute, I would say, that, Mind is not Mind , yet neither is it no-mind. (...) In Nothingness, there is some degree of awareness present -it is not how most people imagine brain death- albeit unconditioned, object- and subjectless. The Consciousness (for lack of better word) of Non-Being is so subtle that the moment we try to reflect upon it to check if we are conscious, we are jarred back into 'bein' and into our ordinary dualistic consciousness. I hesitate even to call this experience 'pure subjectivity' as that invites a metaphysical position that I am not willing to support.

 

That’s still are hearsay

you don’t know whose right till you yourself know what consciousness is. Any linguistic is still just hearsay and does really nothing as far actual direct knowing. 

[loub]

2 hours ago, kieranperez said:

That’s still are hearsay

you don’t know whose right till you yourself know what consciousness is. Any linguistic is still just hearsay and does really nothing as far actual direct knowing. 

There still are more or less direct pointers and more or less accurate pointers. The right idea might mean nothing when compared to direct experience, but it still is crucial to get the conceptual framework right. Everything else will be a waste of energy and time.

[kieranperez]

11 minutes ago, loub said:

There still are more or less direct pointers and more or less accurate pointers. The right idea might mean nothing when compared to direct experience, but it still is crucial to get the conceptual framework right. Everything else will be a waste of energy and time.

Or you can recognize and be open to the truth that you don’t know regardless and you’ll be much more present and open to what’s occurring now, regardless of what you’ve heard. Especially since most people inevitably end up seeking the finger rather than what it’s pointing to since all know of in this case is the finger. Go with whatever metaphor you want. There’s a reason Zen (Andre’s tradition) gives so little pointers. A very wise reason at that. 

Conceptual learning is important for some only until they get sick of concepts and theories as none of them satisfy anything. Then you toss them. Get your fix then throw them away.

You can read about an infinite number of different pointing. It will never show you what it’s pointing to. Only you and you alone can see.

[Leo Gura]

4 hours ago, loub said:

@Leo Gura What do you say about Andre Doshim Halaws elaborations on consciousness in "God is Nothingness".

He says that consciousness is dependent on the body and ends with it, as opposed to Nothingness which exists regardless as the formless, underlying foundation to the world of form, but ultimately one with form.

He says: "Some readers may be wondering why I say that Awareness is not the Absolute(...). If pressed as to whether or not consciousness is the Absolute, I would say, that, Mind is not Mind , yet neither is it no-mind. (...) In Nothingness, there is some degree of awareness present -it is not how most people imagine brain death- albeit unconditioned, object- and subjectless. The Consciousness (for lack of better word) of Non-Being is so subtle that the moment we try to reflect upon it to check if we are conscious, we are jarred back into 'bein' and into our ordinary dualistic consciousness. I hesitate even to call this experience 'pure subjectivity' as that invites a metaphysical position that I am not willing to support.

That's right, God is Nothingness, and Consciousness is Nothingness too.

The word consciousness is tricky. People use it in different ways.

The way I teach, consciousness is the only thing there is. But the consciousness I speak of is not produced by any human brain or body. And it does not end.