BBC Focus Magazine

[Liam Sheppard]

did anyone watch horizon last night?

A guy searching for empirical evidence of the self.. awareness.. the consciousness and where it is, fundamentally.. where in the body is the 'I'

It was very very interesting with some interesting experiments.

[Shadowwolf]

Alas no I did not, sounds interesting though; what kinda experiments?

[Thinker]

Damn I missed that one. I'm dipping in and out of a book called Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett at the moment and that deals with all of those issues. It's a bit of a head spinner though.

[Liam Sheppard]

he put on a helmet with little screens for each eye that displayed images from cameras elsewhere...

first the cameras were behind him. he therefore had the illusion of being sat behind himself.
the tester, then proceeded to poke him in the chest while standing by him, simultaneously prdding the air towards the cameras. so he had a visual stimulus of being poked and also felt it.. then however he got a big hammer and swung it at the camera's.. and he thought he was about to be hit.. even though he could see himself sat infront of the man..

then the other man out the maeras on his head and shook his hand, so he had the illusion of being in the body of the scientist shaking his own hand..

also, evidence that people unconscious can hear and respond to people speaking.

[Shadowwolf]

Sounds weird, like those instances where you can almost think you can see from someone else's perspective.

Cool though.

[Colm]

Damn sounds good! Wonder if it will be repeated... Or on the BBC website maybe

Thinking about it... I always feel like "I" am in my head, and all other body parts are an extension of that... Is that because my brain is in my head, or because eyes and ears are there?

[Thinker]

I used to suffer from depersonlisation/derealization where you feel you are not quite in touch with reality. It's a really strange sensation. You know who you are and you can think and feel everything around you, but you are not there. You feel like a ghost.

Christian Bale's character in American Psycho put it a better way:
"...though I can hide my cold gaze and you can shake my hand and feel my flesh gripping yours and maybe you can even sense our lifestyles are probably comparable: I am simply not there."

Don't feel alarmed!

[Shadowwolf]

You don't have a yellow rain mac no?

Thinking about it... I always feel like "I" am in my head, and all other body parts are an extension of that

I know that one as well, like a pilot behind the glass of the eyes.

[M Paul Lloyd]

"Yellow rain" how strange?