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Ego death (Christof Koch) + Illusion reveals brain rule + New map of consciousness - C C - May 3, 2024
Potential developments that might have relevance to PoM (philosophy of mind), along with an essay by Koch. Note that permalinks to WSJ may no longer work after hours, days, weeks or for some regions.
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The gift of experiencing 'Ego Death" (Christof Koch)
https://www.wsj.com/science/the-gift-of-experiencing-ego-death-463c74b8?st=18rgh9b0mqrauod&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
EXCERPTS: Near-death experiences can resemble powerful psychedelic ones. My own psychic death came about with the help of a mighty molecule, 5-MeO-DMT, rather than any physical or medical trauma. In its awful intensity—awful in the original meaning of “worthy of respect or fear, striking with awe”—this experience exceeds anything else in my life.
[...] I ceased to exist in any recognizable way, shape, or form. No more Christof, no more ego, no more self; no memories, dreams, desires, hopes, fears—everything personal was stripped away. Nothing was left but a nonself: this remaining essence wasn’t man, woman, child, animal, spirit, or anything else; it didn’t want anything, expect anything, think anything, remember anything, dread anything. But it experienced. It saw a point of cold white light of unbearable intensity, a timeless universe convulsed to a blazing, icy light. That and a profound feeling of both terror and ecstasy, the awfulness of pure experience lasting indefinitely—for there was no perception of time. The experience wasn’t brief or long. It simply was.
Optical illusion reveals key brain rule that governs consciousness
https://www.livescience.com/health/mind/optical-illusion-reveals-key-brain-rule-that-governs-consciousness
EXCERPT: It's well established that this illusion causes the human brain to falsely fill in and perceive a nonexistent outline and brightness — but there's been ongoing debate about what's going on in the brain when it happens. Now, for the first time, scientists have demonstrated that the illusion works on mice, and this allowed them to peer into the rodents' brains to see what's going on.
PAPER: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46885-6?utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=commission_junction&utm_campaign=CONR_PF018_ECOM_GL_PBOK_ALWYS_DEEPLINK&utm_content=textlink&utm_term=PID100052172&CJEVENT=e1b5c7b5096011ef827500510a1cb82b
New ‘map of consciousness’ could help to wake up coma patients
https://www.sciencefocus.com/news/brain-map-of-consciousness
EXCERPT: Despite being a fundamental part of human existence, we know very little about consciousness and how it happens. Now, scientists have just brought us one step closer to finding out with a new 'map of consciousness' – and their results could help to wake up coma patients.
PAPER: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/scitranslmed.adj4303
RE: Ego death (Christof Koch) + Illusion reveals brain rule + New map of consciousness - Magical Realist - May 11, 2024
Synchronistically? I just read that passage in Koch's new book which I received yesterday. As mystical and transcendental as it sounds, he doesn't espouse an afterlife belief. It is sufficient for him that he merges back into this nirvanic Void and ceases to exist. That's somewhat admirable, although a state of timeless spaceless selfless nonbeing is still consciousness, perhaps at its most primordial level. Maybe it's like wiping the slate clean, empty and open for whatever comes next..