The Illusion of the Self

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There's no you beyond the contents of your consciousness that's it that's all there is and when your eyes are open and you are observing the world in addition to sounds and sensations and feelings you're also seeing the world. That's how you understand what the self is or a non-elusory self is it is just identical to everything that we're experiencing consciouslyYeah I mean I would with a couple of caveats and that one is that there are uses of the term self to which I don't object at all, I'm not prejudging any of the metaphysical questions about Consciousness.

Sam Harris returns to the podcast to talk about meditation and his new Waking Up meditation app. What are the goals of mindfulness practice - stress reduction and greater focus, or something much deeper? Can it cure David's existential dread? Tamler's fear of his daughter going away to college? Can sustained practice erode the illusion of self? Is that even something we'd want to do? What if it diminishes our attachment to people we love? And what is the self anyway? Is Sam a defender of panpsychism? So many questions... Plus, the ethics of creating talking elephants by curing them of their autism through bonding and possibly mounting. (Seriously.)

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