Psychoactive substances or meditation can trigger an experience that the self dissolves and is no longer present. The philosophers Dr. Raphael Millière from Columbia University New York and Professor Albert Newen from Ruhr-Universität Bochum have analysed whether accounts of memories of such experiences should be taken seriously. They conclude that selfless memories are possible. Their reasoning is outlined in the journal Erkenntnis, published online on 12 May 2022.
“Without such experiences, we can’t imagine what it means when the self dissolves,” says Albert Newen. The question he asked together with Raphael Millière was: “Aren’t memories better interpreted as a reconstruction in retrospect, which misjudges the the original experience?” In our everyday consciousness, the self is always present. When you reach for a car key, you implicitly feel that you are the agent and that it…
