I’m pointing to the fundamental, day-to-day illusion we all seem to walk around with: that we are distinct and separate “selves,” separate not only from those around us and from the outside world but even from our own bodies, as if our conscious experience somehow floats free of the material world. For example, like everyone else, I have the absurd tendency to regard “my body” (including “my head” and “my brain”) as something my conscious will inhabits—when in fact everything I think of as “me” is dependent on the functioning of my brain. Even the slightest neural changes, via intoxication,
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