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Jun 3·edited Jun 3

What if I said everything you just described was also a model - neurons and all, and that all we have are models of models?

What if there is nothing outside of the models?

Or if all science is done within the model (neurons, labs and all), and we can't ascribe causality to it, then where does the causality lie?

"The cortical columns are connected, using synapses, to form networks that control the structure and flow of information through the brain, allowing it to “sculpt” its model of the world."

But the cortical columns are also the model.

Isn't it like saying the characters in a film wrote the script?

Is anyone in neuroscience working out a way to talk about this stuff but without ascribing causality to the observed brain functions?

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great read, loved it. i wonder which mechanisms shift perception during meditation.

as one goes through the states, there is a successive ceasing of mental activity and fading of the ego and dualistic worldview.

its being replaced by awareness itself, which also starts to fade in the eigth jhāna and everything gets very dreamy and trippy when the mind stops forming perceptions altogether. you cannot tell if you are awake or dreaming at this point.

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Hey buddy, I had a past life that involved a fair amount of methamphetamine, although I never completely shat the bed on it, I came away from it feeling cold and soulless. The more I've taken psychedelics the more visual and interesting they get and the more my 'soul' has been restored. I've read that it's common for dopamine addicts to have severely atrophied Pineal glands (also found in psychosis patients). I know in Psychedelia the Pineal gland has a lot of theories around it and there is an idea that Melatonin may play a role in the trip (why people lock themselves away in dark rooms). I'm wondering if you may be able to see a chemical connection between atrophied Pineal glands impacting the power of the trip. I'm still yet to breakthrough on DMT even though before I went down the wrong path I would break through with ease.

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