For the first time in history, the findings of scientists in the West strongly support, in many cases without meaning to, one of the most fundamental insights of the East: that the individual self is more akin to a fictional character than a real thing. (Location 77)
This book will explore strong evidence suggesting that the concept of the self is simply a construct of the mind, rather than a physical thing located somewhere within the brain itself. Put another way, it is the process of thinking that creates the self, rather than there being a self having any independent existence separate from thought. The self is more like a verb than a noun. To take it a step further, the implication is that without thought, the self does not, in fact, exist. (Location 108)
It seems all-important, so it often comes as a shock when I tell people that based on my work as a neuropsychologist, this “I” is simply not there—at least not in the way we think it is. (Location 117)
Perhaps the reason we can't find the self in the brain is because it isn't there. (Location 127)
Mistaking the voice in our head for a thing and labeling it “me” brings us into conflict with the neuropsychological evidence that shows there is no such thing. This mistake—this illusory sense of self—is the primary cause of our mental suffering. What's more, I contend that it blocks access to the eternal, expansive thread of universal consciousness that is always available to us. (Location 131)
I know it's a big claim to say that all of these kinds of suffering are the result of a fictitious sense of self. For now, the essence of this idea is captured brilliantly by Taoist philosopher and author Wei Wu Wei when he writes, “Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself—and there isn't one.” (Location 137)
After we have examined both sides of the brain and the processes associated with each, I will speculate on what this information may mean for consciousness and how it could also point beyond the ego illusion and toward the mystery of who we really are. (Location 152)
Note: Gjhz
My wish is to guide your consciousness to a different way of looking at your experiences and, in so doing, allow you to go beyond the thoughts of the left brain. I believe this can greatly reduce your mental suffering, as it has mine. As the ancient Zen axiom states, “No self, no problem.” (Location 162)
Gazzaniga determined that the left side of the brain created explanations and reasons to help make sense of what was going on.1 The left brain acted as an “interpreter” for reality. Furthermore, Gazzaniga found that this interpreter was often completely and totally wrong (Location 195)
Think about the significance of this for a moment. The left brain was simply making up interpretations, or stories, for events that were happening in a way that made sense to that side of the brain (a shovel is needed for a chicken coop) or as if it had directed the action (I got up because I needed a drink, or I laughed at my own joke). Neither of these explanations was true, but that was unimportant to the interpretive mind, which was convinced that its explanations were the correct ones. (Location 217)
After conducting his own experiments, Ramachandran found that the left brain's role is one of beliefs and interpretation and that it had little regard for reality in making up its interpretations (Location 222)
As in the studies of Gazzaniga, the left brain was simply making up a story about reality without any regard for the truth. (Location 229)
The truth is that your left brain has been interpreting reality for you your whole life, and if you are like most people, you have never understood the full implications of this. (Location 231)
Misattributed arousal is the idea that when our nervous system is stimulated or excited—when our blood pressure goes up and our heart beats faster—the left-brain interpreter will make up a story about the origin of this arousal, and often that story is completely wrong. (Location 244)
These studies indicate that both attraction and dislike can be just another interpretation of the left brain, and the faster our hearts are beating and the more we are sweating, the more intense that interpretation. (Location 264)
when actions or facts arise from someplace to which the left brain does not have access, the interpretive portion of our mind will simply explain them. Again, this explanation may have nothing to do with reality. The second thing that is overlooked in the explanation “I made an assumption” is the presumption of “I.” In these experiments, the “I” that makes an assumption is really just the interpretive portion of the mind. We have already seen that this “I” can be wrong about so many things in the “outside” world, so is it possible then that the “I” is even wrong about the interpretation of itself? (Location 294)
These traditions, and Buddhism in particular, state unequivocally that the idea of self is a very convincing fiction. Further, they suggest that realizing and accepting that the self is a fiction can lead to the end of suffering. (Location 300)
the self has several built-in mechanisms to ensure it is taken seriously. (Location 317)
even though the left-brain interpreter is always on and cannot be turned off, once it is recognized—or that is to say, once we become aware of its constant interpretations—a new awareness of ourselves and the world begins. (Location 319)
how the left side of the brain works: it focuses on objects in space, labels them, categorizes them, and tries to make sense out of them. We have become such experts at organizing our perceptions into categories and patterns that it's difficult to see reality in any other way. (Location 329)
While the right brain does not control speech, we know from Tan's case and the research on the split-brain patients that it understands the written and spoken word. (Location 352)
When a word was presented to the left visual field/right brain only (the right visual field was left blank and thus the left brain had no input), the patient's right brain must have been able to read the word or the subject would not have enacted the command. This landmark case, in addition to many studies since then, laid the groundwork for our understanding that the left brain is the dominant center for language.2 Importantly, this includes the inner speech we use when we talk to ourselves. (Location 354)
Given that language is controlled by the left brain, it's no coincidence that it is the interpreter's main form of expression. This is most noticeable when we communicate with others, but the interpreter also talks to itself in the form of thoughts. This internal dialogue is happening continually for almost everyone on the planet, and it plays a central role in the creation of the mirage that we call the self. (Location 359)
Our association of our true self with the constant voice in our head is an instance of mistaking the map (the voice) for the territory (who we really are). This error is one of the biggest reasons the illusion of self is so difficult to see. (Location 375)
In what is likely the most studied experiment in the history of psychology, the Stroop effect6 demonstrates how the left brain takes language literally and mistakes the symbol for the thing itself. (Location 377)
Another thing to notice about maps is that they necessarily leave out all sorts of details. Of course, this is why real maps are useful. It is much easier to carry a map of the park in your back pocket than the actual park itself. Maps leave out details which could be confusing if you were trying to navigate by every bird, plant, or car on the street. However, maps stop being useful when they are mistaken for what they represent. (Location 398)
In my opinion, when you mistake the voice in your head for who you really are, the tool is using you. Language creates a story, and this story—combined with our memories and the sense of a command center behind our forehead—creates an illusion of self that virtually everyone on the planet identifies with. (Location 403)
The root of the problem is that many of us do not see language as a representation of reality, but confuse it with reality itself. (Location 417)
In forming a category, one takes several things and believes that they are one thing, different and separate from everything else. Of course, it's all subjective. (Location 432)
Sure, the physical entity of my body and my brain is there, but the “I” attached to it only exists as a thought—and only when I think it. (Location 447)
But unlike the categorical fictions of the university or Canada, believing wholeheartedly in the fiction of self—in effect, making the left-brain interpreter the master instead of the servant—has unintended consequences—suffering being one of them. (Location 450)
This is the conundrum of the left brain: there is a limit to its understanding through categorizing and interpreting, and although we can hit that limit quickly and easily, many people, including some of the most well-known psychologists and Western philosophers, disregard this fact and put all their stock in the power of thinking. (Location 454)
Simply becoming aware of the interpreter and the endless categories it creates through judgment frees you from being tied to the inevitability of these judgments. That is to say, when you become conscious of the interpreter, you are free to choose to no longer take its interpretations so seriously. (Location 468)
Furthermore, when you become aware that the left brain is just doing its thing, interpreting and judging, the stories it creates don't tend to provoke the physical reaction in your nervous system they once did. (Location 476)
Beliefs The left-brain interpreter also creates and sustains a collection of categorical thoughts based on judgments and groups them together as likes and dislikes, ideas of right and wrong, and mental models of how things are supposed to be. We collectively call these judgments our belief system (Location 481)
When you are heavily identified with your left-brain interpreter where your beliefs are housed, it can seem as if they are no longer a constructed perspective created by thinking, but simply “the way things are.” (Location 489)
The idea that we cannot control our beliefs is so fundamental to science that a placebo or control group (a group that is monitored and observed as part of an experiment, but upon which no experimental procedures are taken) is actually part of the definition of what constitutes an experiment. (Location 503)
Having no control over beliefs can be a source of anxiety in belief-based religious systems. Many of these systems are set up such that eternal salvation or morality rest upon relying on a certain belief. And since it is impossible to control our beliefs, it may be impossible to be saved, making this a bit nerve-racking. Worse yet, if you believe there is an omnipotent being that can read all your thoughts, you can't simply pretend or make something up like I do when my wife asks me which curtains I like and I pick one. (Location 512)
To be clear, there is nothing wrong with a belief if you see it for what it is: the outcome of a process that goes on in the left brain maintained by a group of brain cells and neurochemistry. (Location 522)
Is it too much to imagine that the left brain uses all the aforementioned tools of language, categorization, and judgment to create the belief of an individual self? If so, are we so tied to that belief that—in the same way we do with other beliefs—we simply see it as “the way things are,” rather than simply another belief? Holding this possibility in our minds, we can see that once the belief in the individual self is anchored, we then further divide and categorize this individual self and turn this imaginary self into a project for self-improvement. This results in the twin beliefs that “this is how I am,” and “this is how I want to be,” but this internal split is just more of the left brain doing its job to separate all things into opposing categories. Even as it is separating and categorizing the entire outer world, the interpreter also works to separate and categorize the inner world into the conflicting beliefs of a controller (present self) and something else to be controlled (future self), creating an inner conflict that cannot be resolved. (Location 528)
I invite you to spend a few minutes and really think about the merits of the opposite position of one of your most cherished beliefs, as this is a good way to see it for what it is: a thought that exists in your left brain only. Doing this with more of your beliefs can lessen your identification with the left-brain interpreter. (Location 557)
Just like categories and beliefs, most of us have completely forgotten that patterns only exist in the mind and not out in reality. Furthermore, our ability to see patterns is so intrinsic to how we experience and interact with the world that we don't even notice all the ways in which our pattern-perceiving left brain is doing its thing. (Location 586)
When it comes to grammar, 76 percent of the world's languages are structured as either subject, object, verb (“Jim the apple ate”) or subject, verb, object (“Jim ate the apple”). Maybe it was not a coincidence that Yoda from Star Wars, with his Eastern philosophy overtones, always used an object, subject, verb structure (e.g., “Much to learn, you still have.”). English-speaking left brains are not accustomed to this structure, and one wonders if this was an attempt, conscious or otherwise, to sidestep the rule-based interpreter. After all, in the end Luke's lesson was to trust his gut over his interpretive mind in order to become a Jedi. (Location 596)
Identifying patterns is a helpful and necessary tool to navigate the world in many ways, but it is also true that by constantly looking for patterns the left brain “complicates” what is perceived in a way that can be unnecessary and unhelpful. (Location 625)
By seeing patterns that are not there, the mind creates stories that aren't true, and as we've previously discussed, this can lead to unnecessary suffering, anxiety, and depression. (Location 635)
There is also some evidence that neurotransmitters affect our pattern-perception capability. Because of this, it is important to note that the two sides of the brain differ in terms of their neurochemistry.6 The left brain is dominant for dopamine, whereas the right brain is dominant for serotonin and norepinephrine. There are many functions associated with dopamine that range from the euphoria of falling in love to the movements of the body. Since the 1950s, it has also been thought that schizophrenia is the result of too much dopamine. One of the hallmarks of schizophrenia is seeing patterns that are not there, that is to say hallucinations. One fascinating study found that subjects who had an increased amount of dopamine were more likely to find patterns.7 The study used two groups of subjects: one group was comprised of people with a propensity to see patterns in random images (the believers), and the other was made up of people who looked at the same random images and almost never saw patterns (the skeptics). In the experiment, the two groups were shown images from which they had to detect if they were being shown a real word or face or a scrambled word or face. Both groups made mistakes: the believers saw patterns when there were none, and the skeptics often missed when a real face or word was on the screen. When dopamine was increased in both groups, the skeptics started to make the mistake of seeing patterns when there were none. Dopamine turned up the perception of patterns even when no patterns were present. When the dopamine wore off, the skeptics' left brain went back to normal as did their responses. (Location 641)
The tendency of the self to defend its own image through more thinking is a hallmark of understanding in Buddhism. Experienced meditators describe how in meditation, as the mind begins to still and the voice in the head speaks less frequently, there is often a rush of thoughts that are most important to sustaining the self-image. This is how meditators can notice what mental stories and thought patterns are their most prevalent preoccupations, as the mind reverts to replaying these topics as a defense against slowing down. (Location 659)
Some Eastern teachers explain that the mind “keeps talking” in this way because it's the only way it can exist. This is consistent with my view that the self is more like a verb than a noun. It only exists when we think it does, because the process of thinking creates it. (Location 663)
From a Buddhist perspective, we could say that the self is recreating itself in response to the threat of dissolution. In my view, they are one and the same. (Location 672)
In 2006, Doctors Travis Proulx and Steven Heine reviewed research across various disciplines to describe exactly what happens when a belief is threatened.10 What they concluded was that when this occurs, humans turn to other beliefs and increase their intensity. As they put it, “When committed beliefs are violated, people experience an arousal state that prompts them to affirm other beliefs to which they are committed.” (Location 674)
Lastly, I want to add that this pattern-perception machine in the left brain is a biological function that is working all the time and virtually impossible to stop. That being said, simply by becoming aware of the left brain's propensity to see patterns, we can begin to take them less seriously. (Location 697)
To be clear, saying the self is an illusion doesn't mean that it doesn't exist at all, but rather that it's akin to a mirage in the middle of the desert. The vision of the oasis is real, but the oasis itself isn't (Location 713)
Psychology and many self-help practices play the game of categories regularly, when we say things like “this is how I am, and this is how I want to be.” We create an image of ourselves, split that image, and then suffer when one imaginary image can't live up to that “better” imaginary image. (Location 724)
The great tragedy here is that we never realize that none of these conditions will ever be met completely to the satisfaction of the self because the self must continue to think in order to stay in existence and therefore will always change the measuring stick—always adding a new “better” to fall short of. (Location 727)
The trick is to become less identified with your thoughts, to not take them so seriously, to see them as “happenings” rather than “the way things really are.” (Location 736)
Another way to think of the fictional self or ego is that its addiction to interpreting works like a drug. Every day it needs to get its fix, and it does that in a variety of ways: telling stories about what it perceives, comparing and categorizing itself again others, judging things as right or wrong—and it uses all of these processes to define “you” as “yourself.” As you can see by now, a vast array of problems can come out of this thinking. Rather than embrace reality as it is, the left brain is hopelessly addicted to storytelling and interpretations about reality, which provide a short-term hit of purpose and meaning but an inevitable crash of suffering. (Location 749)
Silence is the language of god, all else is poor translation. — Rumi (Location 786)
Note: Wow
Years later, after recovering from the injury, Taylor's left brain was able to tell the story. During the stroke, her constant inner voice was silent for the first time. As the inner language quieted, she reports, “I became detached from the memories of my life, [and] I was confronted by an expanding sense of grace.” She could no longer perceive the boundaries of where she ended and everything else began. She felt her being as fluid rather than solid. She was totally in the present moment, embodied in tranquility. (Location 792)
Remember that even though your right brain can't speak in the traditional sense, it does understand language on its own, as the case studies with the split-brain patients demonstrated. (Location 821)
For instance, in the same way that the left brain is categorical, the right brain takes a more global approach to what it perceives. Rather than dividing things into categories and making judgments that separate the world, the right brain gives attention to the whole scene and processes the world as a continuum. Whereas the attention of the left brain is focused and narrow, the right brain is broad, vigilant, and attends to the big picture. Whereas the left brain focuses on the local elements, the right brain processes the global form that the elements create. (Location 826)
But much like the functioning of these vital and necessary systems, the right brain's activities are just a form of consciousness that we've been taught to dismiss and devalue—not surprisingly, by the left brain. (Location 856)
Can you explain to me how you grabbed it? Here again, thinking wasn't required; you just did it. Because there is no story necessary for reaching out and grabbing something, (Location 864)
The most common answer from my students to the question “how did you do that?” is a blank look and the response, “I don't know, I just did it.” Dismissing this action as unconscious is a result of our overdependence on the language-based interpretative consciousness our interpretive pattern perceiver cannot imagine a world without. (Location 870)
So how can one become more conscious of the right-brain system? Well, in one sense you already are quite conscious of it, but the bias of seeing the world mostly through the lens of the interpreter only makes it seem like you're not. Of course, when I say “you,” I don't mean your ego, because the ego genuinely cannot experience the right-brain consciousness even if it wants to, as it is a left-brain construct only. (Location 873)
Being in the zone is very similar to what psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi has called flow, using this term to describe the experience that someone has while being totally absorbed in the doing of something. He defines flow as: “Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. (Location 898)
The practice of mindfulness is about being in and observing reality rather than thinking about reality—like being a watcher of events in the present, both inside and outside. This begs the question, who is doing the watching? Could it be the right-brain consciousness? (Location 914)
The right brain acts in a way that agrees with the Nike slogan “Just Do It,” and I'm convinced it would yell this out if it could. You don't learn how to play an instrument by reading about what the instrument is; you have to practice. You don't make a basket in basketball by thinking about it; you have to do it. And you can only do it in the present moment. (Location 919)
Even if the left brain wants to go beyond itself, it can only go deeper into itself. (Location 927)
Consider the following quote from the Advaita Vedanta master Nisargadatta Maharaj: “In your world, the unspoken has no existence. In mine the words and their contents have no being. . . . My world is real, while yours is made of dreams.” To live in a world of abstractions—based on language, concepts, beliefs, patterns, labels—is to live in a dream world rather than reality. (Location 932)
At my son's soccer match, I found myself in a conversation with another soccer dad about how stressful work was at the time. I tried to explain that most stress is the result of taking fictitious stories too seriously, but he was having a hard time separating the story (left-brain interpreting) from the reality (right-brain witnessing). So, I pointed to the soccer field and reminded him that there was no soccer championship going on “out there,” there were no teams “out there,” no points were being scored outside of the collective fiction in our heads. The only thing “out there” was a bunch of little boys running around kicking a ball, and everything else made up our story about it. In the reality of the right brain, there are no winners or losers, no teams or championships, there is just being and doing. (Location 938)
Our suffering comes from getting swept up in these stories and forgetting that they are not themselves reality. (Location 948)
The right brain is the “doing it” center of the brain. One way to get more in touch with the right brain is to cut the left brain out of activities by doing them for no reason—not for money, not to improve oneself, but simply for the sake of doing them. (Location 958)
The left-brain ego thinks in terms of cause and effect, and in order for an action to be worth taking, it must have a positive outcome, but this can complicate the actual doing of the tasks. (Location 959)
Never underestimate the power of a single conscious breath to bring you out of a left-brain fantasy and back into the real world. (Location 973)
while the left brain focuses on the parts, the right brain looks at the whole where meaning and understanding reside. (Location 993)
In the 1970s, psychology introduced a theory called “levels of processing,” but it could very well be called “levels of meaning.”3 The theory was very simple: if you process the meaning, you will remember it, but if you process only the surface features by just reading it to yourself or looking at the words, it will be forgotten. (Location 1014)
Only meaning could ever make such a deal worth being grateful for. (Location 1037)
While seeing one thing at a time is a necessary and useful process, it is fundamentally dependent on the larger vision taking place in the right brain. (Location 1059)
Metaphors make connections that are beyond literal meaning—even if the left brain sometimes takes them to be literal. (Location 1069)
Rather than focusing on one thing at a time, the right brain senses the whole picture—both the things themselves and the spaces in between. (Location 1093)
Just as the background defines the figure, space defines all the things in the world, because space is the ultimate background. Without space, or emptiness, no separate things could exist. (Location 1107)
The right brain senses the world in parallel (all at once), while the left brain senses the world in series (one thing at a time). (Location 1125)
Rather, the right brain is a form of consciousness that does not rely on words. (Location 1128)
There is something about space that slows the mind, since the mind has no way to understand it because it has no content and no container. Therefore, when we shift our awareness to it, the interpretive mind slows down. (Location 1142)
The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift. —Albert Einstein (Location 1152)
Note: Bam
Over one hundred years ago, the famous American psychologist William James wrote about a nonsensory type of intelligence he called “fringe consciousness,” which according to James describes a vague “feeling of knowing” that doesn't seem to have a direct sensory or perceptual content to it.1 For instance, if you've ever walked into a particular room for the first time and just felt it to be a great place to hang out; this experience is fringe consciousness. The idea is that you are simultaneously processing the whole room at once—the music, the art on the walls, the furniture, and the relations between the parts—into one vague feeling that you liked it. One possible way to explain this experience is to say that because interpretive consciousness is so limited, the fringe works by processing the whole context and then produces a general feeling of rightness or wrongness, sort of a summary statement about the big picture or all things collectively. (Location 1162)