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Thought(s) Experiment

  • Writer: H.B. Augustine
    H.B. Augustine
  • Mar 28, 2024
  • 1 min read

I conceived of the following thought experiment in a high school philosophy class. It seemed intuitively true that pure consciousness exists independent of our five senses and any other contents of experience. But maybe not. Hence, the experiment. Is consciousness ultimately a matter of sound? Imagine pressing a mental button and “turning off” all sound. Do you still exist? Yes, of course. Now do this for all the other bodily senses. Somehow, amazingly, you still exist. So in this scenario, with all these buttons pressed, what do you experience? You aren’t just your bodily senses of touch, taste, etc. Those aren’t the only contents of experience. You also experience thoughts and emotions. Turn off all negative emotions - no sadness, anger, fear, only the positives. Now, one by one, turn each of those elements of experience off, so all that remains is thought. Now turn the gauge a bit so you experience a thought only every 10 seconds. Now every 30 seconds. Every 60 seconds. What do you experience between thoughts? Nothing. And yet, you still exist. You exist independent of experience. You are pure, infinite, awareness. You are not a thinking thing. You are not thought. You are not a thing. You simply are, and you always will be.

 
 
 

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