The great illusion of the self

[Nibbida]

Special issue of The New Scientist: The great illusion of the self

http://www.newscientist.com/special/self

[danieLion]

Special issue of The New Scientist: The great illusion of the self

http://www.newscientist.com/special/self

That's a lot selves talking about the "illusion" of the self here. Neat trick. This reads more like philosophy than science, if you care to make the distinction.

From the link.

1. What are you?
2. When are you?
3. Where are you?
4. Why are you?
5. The psychological self.
6. The self as doer/learner.

Nothing new or too profound here. 1-4 are irrelevant and philosphers have went round and round about them for ages.

For 5, I'd refer you to William James' chapters The Consciousness of Self and The Stream of Thought in his The Pinciples of Psychology. For 6, his chapter in the same titled, Habit. Also of interest, the chapters: The Automaton-Theory, The Mind Stuff Theory, The Relations Of Minds To Other Things, and any of the chapters with the word "Perception" in the title.

See also: John C Lilly's Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer and Robert Anton Wilson's Quantum Psycnhology and Prometheus Rising.