If the brain creates our thoughts, memories and sense of self, who is actually experiencing them?
If your brain creates your thoughts, your memories, your perceptions and even your sense of self… then who is actually experiencing all of it?
That question took me much further than I expected. There is a very interesting book exploring this matter.
The book begins with something relatively familiar: free will and decision-making.
From there, it moves into consciousness, the brain, personal identity, death and the possibility that our current understanding of reality may be incomplete.
One idea became the central hypothesis of the book: the Vessel Hypothesis, the possibility that the biological body may be more than simply who we are, but could be the vessel through which consciousness experiences the world.
Some things in the book are supported by evidence.
Some are philosophical arguments.
Some remain disputed.
And some are deliberately speculative.
Do you think consciousness is entirely produced by the brain, or is there a possibility that consciousness is something more fundamental?
Let’s discuss.