A scientific method to explore consciousness
Website design By BotEap.comTo what extent is it possible for us to search for and discover “truth” as we explore consciousness itself? How knowable is our internal reality?
Website design By BotEap.comOf course we have the scientific method. Observed. Hypothesize. Proof. To make conclusions. Take advantage of the results. And obviously the repeated application of the scientific method has produced some remarkable discoveries in the outside world.
Website design By BotEap.comBut unfortunately we can’t just apply the scientific method to help us understand consciousness itself. Why not? Because the scientific method presupposes an independent observer, and we don’t have that privilege when we study our own consciousness. You cannot independently observe your consciousness without affecting it. We cannot separate the subject from the object in our experiments in consciousness. We play the role of both the observer and the observed simultaneously.
Website design By BotEap.comBy “awareness” I mean your sense of awareness. Your conscience is the thinker of your thoughts. We can use external devices to measure our brain waves, and we can take drugs to alter our state of consciousness. But we don’t have any external means to measure consciousness from the perspective of consciousness itself. I can experience my own consciousness, but only my own and no one else’s. I cannot observe or test your consciousness while you experience it.
Website design By BotEap.comAnd yet, despite these problems, we are not entirely helpless. We have some ability to observe our consciousness. We can become aware of our own thoughts and beliefs.
Website design By BotEap.comBut how do we study these subjective experiences with any degree of intelligence? The scientific method only allows us to study the periphery of consciousness but not its juicy interior. So if we can’t use the scientific method, what smart alternatives are available to us?
Website design By BotEap.comI don’t have an ideal answer for this question. Although we cannot collectively apply the scientific method, we can do our best to apply an individualized and subjective version of the scientific method, where we experiment on ourselves and play the roles of observer and observed. It’s messy and imprecise, to be sure, but I think it’s better than nothing. It provides some useful data, although interpreting that data can be like unraveling a spider’s web.
Website design By BotEap.comProbably one of the most helpful methods I’ve found is to alter my beliefs in some way, experience reality from within that new belief system, and take lots of notes about my perceptions and thoughts, especially those that seem to have changed. Then, when I change my beliefs again, I can review those notes as well as my own memories… now seeing them from a different perspective. And I can do this multiple times as I continue to change my beliefs. Again, it’s messy and imprecise because my notes and memories aren’t a perfectly accurate record of my consciousness, but for now they are the best tools available to me. This method allows me to examine the changes in my consciousness as a semi-independent observer because I can take advantage of the perspective of time. I can re-examine the impression of those experiences after they have occurred, as a paleontologist examines fossils.
Website design By BotEap.comTogether, my notes and memories allow me to partially reload a previous context in my consciousness. It’s like loading a piece of software from your computer’s hard drive into its RAM, where the CPU can run it. With a little practice, I can now do a pretty good job of dividing my consciousness into a kind of multitasking processor. So I’m simultaneously running a previous experience and also looking at it from another perspective.
Website design By BotEap.comYou have the ability to do this too, although you probably haven’t tried to develop it much. Do you know the concept of hindsight? Hindsight is when you remember a past experience from a new perspective. So you play the role of the observer (your current perspective) while simultaneously charging the observed (your memory). So you remember the things you did as a teenager and you think, “That was really stupid.” Teen readers, take note. But instead of simply reliving the memory and associating with it, you remain disassociated and observe it from the distance of time.
Website design By BotEap.comHindsight only gives you one perspective, though, and that’s too limiting for our purposes. When you use hindsight, you are only looking at the past from the point of view of the present. However, have you ever tried using hindsight backwards? I encourage you to give it a try if you can handle the mental gymnastics. In this case, he would go back to the past memory and become fully associated with it. See it through your own eyes, really be there. Use your imagination to make it feel as real as possible. Listen to the sounds. Smell the smells. Think about the same thoughts you had then. For a moment allow yourself to become that person. Reload your past self into your consciousness.
Website design By BotEap.comNow, while holding this past perspective, charge your present reality as if it were a memory. Stay disassociated and view your present from a third-person perspective. It may help to imagine your present self on a movie screen, with your real self (which in this case is your past self) sitting in the theater watching the movie. So you are seeing your present self on the screen from the perspective of your past self sitting in the theater. Then allow your present reality to unfold a bit and allow yourself to interpret it from the perspective of your past. I think you will find this reverse retrospective a truly fascinating and enlightening experience. For example, you can use it to imagine what your teenage self would think of you today. Try it!
Website design By BotEap.comYou can also use this method with two past memories or two imagined future memories or one of each. By mentally switching to different perspectives as you play the roles of observer and observed, and then taking notes on what you discover (so you can review them later from even more perspectives), you’ll ultimately create a pseudoscientific logbook to use to Explore your own consciousness.
Website design By BotEap.comThrough this process I have been able to discover how I feel about atheism from the perspective of being a Catholic, a Buddhist, an agnostic, a fellow atheist, etc. This helped me sort out a degree of “truth” that seemed independent of my perspective. For example, no matter what belief system she had, it was important to me that she feel good. A belief system that kept me in a state of fear may appear normal from the inside, but it invariably looks horrible from the outside looking in. I felt that I could make better decisions once I was able to examine different beliefs and their consequences both from the inside looking out and from the outside looking in.
Website design By BotEap.comYou can also use this method to help you make decisions about your future. For example, suppose you’re trying to select a career for yourself, and you’re not sure which one feels right. This is very common among people in their 20s. Let’s say you can’t decide whether to go to medical school (to become a doctor) or to go to law school (to become evil). I’m kidding! 🙂
Website design By BotEap.comSo you can imagine what it’s like to be a doctor and then imagine what it’s like to be a lawyer. But chances are you’re imagining both from your current perspective, and that may not give you the information you need to help you make this decision. I would recommend you do that first, but then do this as well: Imagine you’re the doctor, and fully associate yourself with that role, and while you’re doing that, imagine yourself as a doctor thinking about being a lawyer and see how that feels. . Use the movie screen technique I mentioned earlier. Then do the opposite. Imagine yourself as the lawyer thinking of being the doctor. This is not hindsight or prospective, so I guess it would be a side view. But I think you’ll find it useful in situations where you have to choose between equally attractive (or unattractive) alternatives. You may find that the additional information is exactly what you need for clarity. If you become a doctor, will you regret never being a lawyer? And the opposite scenario?
Website design By BotEap.comThis process helped me make my big career change last year. Writing and speaking about personal development was the only career that made sense from all perspectives. And it especially looked good from the inside looking out. It was the one race that didn’t leave me thinking, “Maybe I should be doing something else.” And that was exactly how it turned out.
Website design By BotEap.comI hope this is enough to give you an idea of my pseudoscientific method for exploring consciousness, or at least the belief systems that are part of consciousness. It’s still a bit wild at this point, but so am I. 🙂
Website design By BotEap.comThis method should at least give you a way to begin exploring your own beliefs with some degree of ability to observe, hypothesize, and test without getting too lost in the folds of your own thoughts. And if you’re afraid to try, well, your lack of courage is a good place to start experimenting then, isn’t it?
Website design By BotEap.comSo take a look at your own conscience and please let me know if you discover anything interesting. Of course, do not drink the water.