• [deleted]

Interesting concept, and surely with some basis to be at least partly true. However, why don't we keep hallucinating expectations after we close our eyes? That would be a very critical time of need! I wrote a piece dealing with issues of conscious experience for the FQXi Essay Contest "How Should Humanity Steer the Future?" (2014.)

https://fqxi.org/community/forum/topic/2119

(Pardon not getting LaTeX URL to work.)

6 months later
  • [deleted]

I am a magician. Perhaps you may find some of my thoughts interesting. I am capable of creating reality in the human mind. I have detailed this information in a book titled, The Theory and Practice of Magic Deception.

My conclusion is the mind gathers data from many sources. This data is fed to an internal projection room. The 'I' is then an observer in this room and consciously observes the 3D videos projected. The subconscious (I don't have a better word for this) constructs these videos.

Sources include visual, audio, touch, and the human memory bank.

Here there is not enough space for a complete description. So here are a couple thoughts. As a magician my role is to perform magic. To this end I have found physical gestures that trigger the subconscious to pull video clips from the memory bank and place them in the projection room. The 'I' then does not see what I am actually doing but views a different action. This appears as absolute reality.

Another! Close our eyes and be certain no light is creeping in. Hold your hand in front of your face and move it. While not lit up normally, there is an image of your hand on the wall of this projection room.

I have spent a lifetime studying this and most magicians are not aware of this. Who am I? I have a degree in physics and have programmed a wide variety of machines during my life.

als@alschneider.com

    Hello Mr Schneider, I ahve always loved and been fascinated by the magicians, when I was younger , a child I was more than fascinated, I thought it was real when I was a child lol .I am understanding what you tell us about this subconscious and this consciousness , best regards

    9 days later

    There are different aspects to perception. There is vision without interpretation. It is unusual not to know what you are looking at or the brain making a 'best guess' as an adult, but it happens. Accompanied by 'What is it?' An example is seeing the reflection of lights at night from a distant crisp packet. Then there is analysis of the visual data acquired into understanding or interpretation, which may be more or less accurate depending on visual input. Misidentifications happen like laundry pile cats. Factors such as brightness, duration of input, complexity of scene can have an effect on the analysis ( visual input going on to effect analysis prior to awareness). Factors such as priming and familiarity will also affect the analysis (higher brain processing acting prior to awareness) Both 'directions' are producing the observation product. That is part of the observer's conscious awareness.

    Write a Reply...