Exploring the Essence of Human Experience | Fractured Reality Full Series | BBC Earth Science 

I needed this video. I appreciate all the ppl who make asking questions like these their living bc it helps those of us who are truly lost. I suffer deeply with my mental health, often imagining a world without me in it. If nothing is real, including me, then my “problems” are truly an illusion of my mind! I can change my circumstances just by tricking my mind!

We are not human, this is not even our universe. We visit here for a while, play these roles then return to the source. Just wait and see, something amazing is awaiting us all. See you on the other side : )

Consciousness is reality, it is the self that is the illusion.

Eminem of documentary films doing a great job here.

Dude, he is such an outstanding presenter. Loved this whole thing so much. Well done host, and everybody involved in the production.

Did a mechanical engineering bachelor and a master in project management and ended up in the oil industry with the knowledge of a Psychologist which messes around too much with Philosophy, specially metaphysics, with a lil mix of evolutionary biology... Things are going great (innit?)! Can only imagine what it would be like working in those fields having an "engineering brain"... this video is food for a starving curious mind.

All experience consists of seeing, hearing, feeling, thinking, tasting and none of these would be possible without awareness. Awareness is the constant in our lives. Even when the body is asleep, it is awake. It makes us aware of our dreams. Sights, sounds, smells, feelings, thoughts all come and go, but not awareness. It is the essence of who we are.

Time is the most facinating entity that exists. I have been obsessed with studying it since my teens. Then in college I came across space time and I was even more sucked in into the subject. Its like we all know what time it is but nobody knows what time is.

I would present this question to anyone that has had a near death experience. You will get a very different answer. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Presenter is very entertaining. Does a nice job of bringing the topic to more people with a fun and personal approach. Well done.

Cutting the natural pauses between sentences has annoyed my human experience.

George likes his chicken spicy. Switching from first person to third person really does lessen the stress.

The block universe is key. Our "emergent property" is indeed a passive observer that allows us to form a mirage of time. To me, that demonstrates that we are separate from this experience at the most fundamental level. Science has proved that our unconscious brain makes decisions before we, or I, am aware of it, but it still gives me the impression that I indeed make those decisions. But of course I don't. Just as I don't decide to digest my food or decide to grow my nails or take every breath. I've always wondered why it "felt" very weird to close my eyes and focus on my body breathing how it chooses to whether I like it or not. If I hold my breath, my body doesn't let me for very long. I don't know...NoBODY does.

These are absolutely the most intensely eye opening sets of information I've ever witnessed. Amazingly easy to follow and believe. Someone has accomplished near perfection in creating a monologue that creates fluidity in comprehension and understanding of the most misunderstood notion of self. Thank you

Wow, all my most deepest disturbing existential dilemmas in one video...

This is the best argument I've seen for quantum immortality actually being a real thing.

The trick of consistency of mind is evolutional mechanism to help us as human to survive, i.e. reduction of complexity to give us the sense of purpose - it is similar to high-level programming language. If we are aware of all processes in our brain, our brain will crash and shut down - perhaps, in the past the natural evolution produced those kind of brain, but did not survived. Our brain creates "The Matrix" for us, guide us for survival - it is the similar argument of "Simulation Theory" , because it does not matter.

This is VERY well put together and presented. The effort and skill to script, film narrate and edit this segment is mind boggling on its own. Thank you to all involved. 👏👏👏👏

It is complicated Everyone said their name which is given by someone else their mother or father We didn't choose our name or the language we speak Even the language we speak is created by other people

Awareness is known by awareness alone; is the sole irreducible axiom of reality. To put forth a syllable to the contrary is but to concede.

Then I heard a new sound: a living sound, like the richest, most complex, most beautiful piece of music you've ever heard. Growing in volume as a pure white light descended, it obliterated the monotonous mechanical pounding that, seemingly for eons, had been my only company up until then. The light got closer and closer, spinning around and around and generating those filaments of pure white light that I now saw were tinged, here and there, with hints of gold.

I am an amateur writer. But I only write a new short story when a genuinely new idea emerges and starts to grow in my consciousness. When I decide to write the short story, the plot with its characters, particularities and twists are usually almost ready. I record the short story in writing and make adjustments, but I consider myself just a co-author of the short story that has emerged and grown in my consciousness. The original ideas are born from random, dreamlike combinations of things I've read or seen, but with essential aspects that were consciously impossible for me to notice at first. Things sleep inside me for a long time before emerging. Freud called it the unconscious, Jung called it the collective unconscious. Both are part of my awareness of myself, I suppose.

once at the age of 8 years old, someone laughed at me, and i said to them, how do you know that you are not me laughing at you, if that was the case you would've never known the difference, and she looked at me in awe, and then she said you're very wise for your age, but thinking back of that experience now, i don't really know how i came up with ideas like that.

Amazing content my boy! Some of the best I’ve seen for these topics! Thank you!

"There once was a man who said, "So, It seems that I know that I know. What I would like to see Is the "I" that knows me, When I know that I know that I know"

So called reality is consciousness' take on itself.

Not to forget that half our cells are microbiome. They affect our moods thoughts and behaviors. They are collectively us.

When my wife died in my arms, I suffered with PTSD for over ten years, and couldn’t remember most of the day. Ketamine infusion got me past it, and I suddenly remembered almost everything from that day. No suggestions, no hypnosis , just ‘boom’, I saw it all. My sons, both pre-teens at the time, and the 911 recording verified it. Recovered memories, especially of things too painful to process ‘in the moment’, are real.

Excellent video lots of food for thought!!! I am mesmerized by all of these concepts. I will definitely watch this over and over again. Thank you.

Fair play! I properly enjoyed that. Hats off Max Tobin. Epic take on life itself. 👊

That was the best thing I have watched in a while. That deserves an award. Well researched and excellent interviews

You are not your body and YOU'RE not your brain! YOU ARE THE OBSERVER ❤

Such a deep chill journalism. Cool.

The fact I don’t exist makes me happy, thank you universe

This is excellent 👍

Among the inaccuracies here: Time "seems to slow down" during a crisis because adrenaline changes neural activity, speeding it up. Not simply because you're paying better attention and that's how you mark time. This also is why the feeling of time being slower is ENHANCED in memory: The epinephrine produced in the adrenal medulla stimulates your amygdala, which both processes emotions and is involved in memory formation. It sounds like this part was written by philosophers, or at best psychologists, not someone who understands actual neurochemistry. This and other errors make me distrust the parts I didn't already know. Maybe they're as unscientific...yet presented as if expert fact.

Loved the humor in this video.

I am an infinite spiritual being experiencing a finite human existence as a three dimensional entity within this materialistic reality within the space time continuum, at this precise moment we call now

Only the fact that we have a private persona and a public one, therefore two distinct personality modes, is enough evidence that we are many, not one.

some of those dream machine pictures were really amazing works of art.

It all adds up to the same thing. You exist. No matter how much you think about it, you are still you. Wheels within wheels in a spiral array, A pattern so grand and complex, Time after time we lose sight of the way, Our causes can't see their effects.

I have had a lot of these questions. Especially as my youngest child will be having a second brain surgery soon. She is already missing almost a lime's worth of brain tissue in her left prefrontal cortex. She had brain surgery for epilepsy. And she went a year seizure free. But they came back with a vengence. And she is treatment resistant. So here we go again.

Excellent video! I enjoyed it, and it gave me any things to think about. Thank you.

this is wonderful!

Even if conciousness was an illusion, which is stupid to suggest, it is still a concious experience to have a illusion. Save yourself the time of watching the video. Conciousness is and that is the only fundamental thing you can know

This is the best thing ive seen in a while

Only way to listen to this is at .75 play back speed. Please remix the audio with two seconds pause between statements and sentences.

HAPPY NEW YEARS!!!(YOU ARE RIGHT !) .❤

Self awareness imo could be a sensation like all other.

this is veeeeeery interesting and this guy is a true talent :)))

Its of course interesting to reflect on our experience of who we are - “ what it feels like to be me” - and I think of human experience as multidimensional and very dynamic filled with different colors, energies, thoughts, rhythms , memories, dreams, visions and much more such as different qualities of how you are present in each moment ……. An open question very open indeed 🎶🐦‍⬛🎵🖤

Very good. We take so much time looking into it when we should just look AT it.

I am not my thoughts and not my emotions. I am who is witnessing them.

Thank you

First of all: Very well presented, great pace, great humor. Great details. Thanks for this. I often talk to 'myself', which is more of a mode in which I isolate perspectives, let them 'talk' while keeping other perspectives still for a moment. While one perspective is talking, reactions from other perspectives occur. I feel those reactions, but tell them to hold it for a moment. it is like queueing them up. When the isolated perspective is done expressing, other 'perspectives' can react or question. Often the very first counter expressions are conflicting. I (the overall observer perspective not getting lost in any of the other perspectives) oversees that this 'conversation' between perspectives is executed by some rules: listen to each other, take in the others perspective honestly without enforcing your own, and always honestly express your own reaction or perspective. Then kind of magically these perspectives often work out a unified understanding in which both perspectives were heard, understood, and find a way forward together, without compromise. Which one could interpret as the entropy of the system just got lowered. If you would ask me who I am? I am 'that', a process that is unattached to any story, observing mental processes and mediating where needed. Also I would say that this unattached mediating I is absent most of the time. Fun fact: These communications rules can be applied to me and other people, between these mental perspectives, and me and other beings I encounter during (lucid) dreams (from which I really learn life lessons now and then). So for me that is where the I dissolves, as these communication principles and effects happen and can be applied on different levels: more outside of me (other people) and more inside of me (my own perspectives and then deeper: the dream beings whilst the physical body is sleeping).

The sense of “self” is an illusion created by memory. We are in a constant state of flux, changing every moment. This is obvious when we remember our childhood, but less obvious when we remember five minutes ago.

They keep saying that being an illusion would be unpleasant, but I find it liberating.

I've read, listened, watched and studied (degrees in maths, theoretical physics and cosmology PhD) these ideas before and yet this was a completely novel presentation. Well done I was engaged throughout 😁 keep going I would love to see more content! 🧠 🔬 🌌

This is everything.

This show was so good! Nice one

Excellent video!

An interesting truth on this subject is that, as a person who has experienced a traumatic brain injury, I have memories of life experiences without remembering what it “felt like” to experience them. Much like the previous “me” is/was an unknown stranger…

Good stuff guys. Love the humor.

I found this video incredibly interesting and very well presented.

These were very good to watch. If anyone is interested more in these kind of questions. Recommend David bohm seminars on conciousness.

Consciousness is fundemental

Consciousness is an emergence of a complex system. You can think of it as an analogy to proteins. The atoms themselves don't do much. Even the amino acids don't do much, and they are quite complex already... but combine a few hundred to thousand of them, and you get quite a complex mechanism, like an ATP powered motor... and that's just one protein out of thousands in one cell, which is just one in billions in your brain and body. It's not surprising to me, that there is an emergence of this very very complex machinery. If you were to create a machine complex enough it would automatically gain consciousness.

IMAGINE reality without words,ideas , concepts,thoughts,what reason would there be to believe that there is anything other than what you are aware of ? What evidence is there that there is anything other than what you are aware of?

Very entertaining and informative from the perspective of an awakened person. I'd love to hear what Eckhart Tolle has to say about this discussion of consciousness. Since I can't afford his next seminar in Huntington Beach I'll have to keep tossing questions randomly out to the universe. Are you here now Eckhart?

6:03 hahaha this moment was incredibly relatable

I've really enjoyed watching this ☺ 😊 😍

Awesome video

I know if i see a car coming I'm getting out of the way.

It’s obvious that every thought we have does not just “ float around” in the brain - it immediately radiate out in the whole body an radiates out into your surroundings creating a kind of “colored world” the actions, the body attitude connects us with the moment in a special way - we are never separated we are interconnected and interdependent sharing the air, the earth, the water and the fire - there are no real boundaries we are in touch in-between variety of movements 😄

One hit of 5meo-dmt had me laughing hysterically on the floor with the complete and utter realization that “I” was a fiction. Like suddenly seeing the Eiffel Tower in the stereogram. It was so glaringly obvious that I felt stupid for only just “seeing” it. 20:03

Well done. i loved it.

Lots of praise for the presenter in the comments, and rightly so. But also should be stacks for the writer/s!! Unless it's all the same bloke.... which if it is... could still be debatable, given some of the ideas discussed in the doco. Either way, there's some friggin strong writing here prior to a mic or camera even being switched on. Bravo! Hits all the right notes.

Two sides of B rains 🌊🧼 Thank you 🙏☁

When I look down it feels like I am pushing up and when I look up it feels like I am pushing down. I invert the y axis in games. My sence of self is on my brainstem at the back of my head.

The essence of our being is in our spirit 😊

a 10 minutes Eckhart Tolle lecture is far more beneficial for ones serenity and awakening than the endless confusing scientific trials to explain which is can't be explained by words or theories

The guy presenting this has an accent so particular that it keeps me hooked! Someone knows what part of the UK is it from?

You are the cosmos . Yooz amazing .

Time is an illusion, lunchtime doubly so

I always had a sense of this when I was small.

This is what i needed rn to escape reality ❤

I’ve had an inclinarion for these to[ice since childhood, so I knew most everything said. Still it was ver well made and I greatly enjoyed it.

A segment from 'Saved by the Light of the Buddha Within'... My new understandings of what many call 'God -The Holy Spirit' - resulting from some of the extraordinary ongoing after-effects relating to my NDE... Myoho-Renge-Kyo represents the identity of what some scientists are now referring to as the unified field of consciousnesses. In other words, it’s the essence of all existence and non-existence - the ultimate creative force behind planets, stars, nebulae, people, animals, trees, fish, birds, and all phenomena, manifest or latent. All matter and intelligence are simply waves or ripples manifesting to and from this core source. Consciousness (enlightenment) is itself the actual creator of everything that exists now, ever existed in the past, or will exist in the future - right down to the minutest particles of dust - each being an individual ripple or wave. The big difference between chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo and most other conventional prayers is that instead of depending on a ‘middleman’ to connect us to our state of inner enlightenment, we’re able to do it ourselves. That’s because chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo allows us to tap directly into our enlightened state by way of this self-produced sound vibration. ‘Who or What Is God?’ If we compare the concept of God being a separate entity that is forever watching down on us, to the teachings of Nichiren, it makes more sense to me that the true omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence of what most people perceive to be God, is the fantastic state of enlightenment that exists within each of us. Some say that God is an entity that’s beyond physical matter - I think that the vast amount of information continuously being conveyed via electromagnetic waves in today’s world gives us proof of how an invisible state of God could indeed exist. For example, it’s now widely known that specific data relayed by way of electromagnetic waves has the potential to help bring about extraordinary and powerful effects - including an instant global awareness of something or a mass emotional reaction. It’s also common knowledge that these invisible waves can easily be used to detonate a bomb or to enable NASA to control the movements of a robot as far away as the Moon or Mars - none of which is possible without a receiver to decode the information that’s being transmitted. Without the receiver, the data would remain impotent. In a very similar way, we need to have our own ‘receiver’ switched on so that we can activate a clear and precise understanding of our own life, all other life and what everything else in existence is. Chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo each day helps us to achieve this because it allows us to reach the core of our enlightenment and keep it switched on. That’s because Myoho-Renge-Kyo represents the identity of what scientists now refer to as the unified field of consciousnesses. To break it down - Myoho represents the Law of manifestation and latency (Nature) and consists of two alternating states. For example, the state of Myo is where everything in life that’s not obvious to us exists - including our stored memories when we’re not thinking about them - our hidden potential and inner emotions whenever they’re dormant - our desires, our fears, our wisdom, happiness, karma - and more importantly, our enlightenment. The other state, ho, is where everything in Life exists whenever it becomes evident to us, such as when a thought pops up from within our memory - whenever we experience or express our emotions - or whenever a good or bad cause manifests as an effect from our karma. When anything becomes apparent, it merely means that it’s come out of the state of Myo (dormancy/latency) and into a state of ho (manifestation). It’s the difference between consciousness and unconsciousness, being awake or asleep, or knowing and not knowing. The second law - Renge - Ren meaning cause and ge meaning effect, governs and controls the functions of Myoho - these two laws of Myoho and Renge, not only function together simultaneously but also underlies all spiritual and physical existence. The final and third part of the tri-combination - Kyo, is the Law that allows Myoho to integrate with Renge - or vice versa. It’s the great, invisible thread of energy that fuses and connects all Life and matter - as well as the past, present and future. It’s also sometimes termed the Universal Law of Communication - perhaps it could even be compared with the string theory that many scientists now suspect exists. Just as the cells in our body, our thoughts, feelings and everything else is continually fluctuating within us - all that exists in the world around us and beyond is also in a constant state of flux - constantly controlled by these three fundamental laws. In fact, more things are going back and forth between the two states of Myo and ho in a single moment than it would ever be possible to calculate or describe. And it doesn’t matter how big or small, famous or trivial anything or anyone may appear to be, everything that’s ever existed in the past, exists now or will exist in the future, exists only because of the workings of the Laws ‘Myoho-Renge-Kyo’ - the basis of the four fundamental forces, and if they didn’t function, neither we nor anything else could go on existing. That’s because all forms of existence, including the seasons, day, night, birth, death and so on, are moving forward in an ongoing flow of continuation - rhythmically reverting back and forth between the two fundamental states of Myo and ho in absolute accordance with Renge - and by way of Kyo. Even stars are dying and being reborn under the workings of what the combination ‘Myoho-Renge-Kyo’ represents. Nam, or Namu - which mean the same thing, are vibrational passwords or keys that allow us to reach deep into our life and fuse with or become one with ‘Myoho-Renge-Kyo’. On a more personal level, nothing ever happens by chance or coincidence, it’s the causes that we’ve made in our past, or are presently making, that determine how these laws function uniquely in each of our lives - as well as the environment from moment to moment. By facing east, in harmony with the direction that the Earth is spinning, and chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo for a minimum of, let’s say, ten minutes daily to start with, any of us can experience actual proof of its positive effects in our lives - even if it only makes us feel good on the inside, there will be a definite positive effect. That’s because we’re able to pierce through the thickest layers of our karma and activate our inherent Buddha Nature (our enlightened state). By so doing, we’re then able to bring forth the wisdom and good fortune that we need to challenge, overcome and change our adverse circumstances - turn them into positive ones - or manifest and gain even greater fulfilment in our daily lives from our accumulated good karma. This also allows us to bring forth the wisdom that can free us from the ignorance and stupidity that’s preventing us from accepting and being proud of the person that we indeed are - regardless of our race, colour, gender or sexuality. We’re also able to see and understand our circumstances and the environment far more clearly, as well as attract and connect with any needed external beneficial forces and situations. As I’ve already mentioned, everything is subject to the law of Cause and Effect - the ‘actual-proof-strength’ resulting from chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo always depends on our determination, sincerity and dedication. For example, the levels of difference could be compared to making a sound on a piano, creating a melody, producing a great song, and so on. Something else that’s very important to always respect and acknowledge is that the Law (or if you prefer God) is in everyone and everything. NB: There are frightening and disturbing sounds, and there are tranquil and relaxing sounds. It’s the emotional result of any noise or sound that can trigger off a mood or even instantly change one. When chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo each day, we are producing a sound vibration that’s the password to our true inner-self - this soon becomes apparent when you start reassessing your views on various things - such as your fears and desires etc. The best way to get the desired result when chanting is not to view things conventionally - rather than reaching out to an external source, we need to reach into our own lives and bring our needs and desires to fruition from within - including the good fortune and strength to achieve any help that we may need. Chanting Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo also reaches out externally and draws us towards, or draws towards us, what we need to make us happy from our environment. For example, it helps us to be in the right place at the right time - to make better choices and decisions and so forth. We need to think of it as a seed within us that we’re watering and bringing sunshine to for it to grow, blossom and bring forth fruit or flowers. It’s also important to understand that everything we need in life, including the answer to every question and the potential to achieve every dream, already exists within us.

Science is not everything man, existence is beyond the grasp of Science. Spirituality starts where the Science ends.

These types of videos should increase in the feedback sphere of my RU-vid being

OK, if the brain hallucinates reality, love is a chemical response, self is a construct, time may not exist, then what is the point of anything? I wish I could replace my memories with false ones, I'd probably believe that the world was fair, just and not a massive lie.

Really I like this video

One does not need to perform a callosotomy on one's brain to realize just how fractured one's "self" or one's "persona" is. Good old Lucid Dreaming is a very powerful demonstration of this fact. When one lucid dreams, - one has a very specific set of memories which are relevant in that dream, or that part of a dream, but which doesn't go beyond it. In such a dream you know, for example where the "dream street" you're walking on leads, what is behind the next corner, which bus to take, etc. And yet, - you would not be able to recall what day of the week it is in the waking world, or what your schedule is like on the coming weekend. These memories are unavailable, because being able to recall them would interfere with memory renewal and consolidation. In a sense - the brain gives itself a simulated "conscious experience" , a sort of a sandbox or playpen, so that the unconscious parts of it could self-organize effectively. You are able to "recognize" the people from your dreams whom you never met in real life, even how you behave in these dreams is often inconsistent with your behavior in the waking world. The only thing you know with near complete certainty in a lucid dream is that it's a dream, but even then, part of you doubts that, and this is why jumping from rooftop to rooftop can be so frightening for a novice. But you are never a "complete you" in your dreams, in fact you are never a "complete you" in the waking life, the difference merely is, that in waking life, - your experience of your persona is more seamless, more integrated, and that in waking world - most of your experiences are not self-generated (plenty of solipsists would beg to differ on this one though). My own opinion on the larger issue (and not just mine, many neuroscientists lean this way too) is that the human Complex Abstract Awareness (what most people refer to as "waking consciousness") is the act of brain's self-deception. Your ability to behold the entire worlds populated by beings in your head - is self deception, however, because this self deception also just happened to be the most powerful survival and self-reproduction mutation nature has ever come up with, - the environment naturally selected for it. The fact that it involves a great deal of self-deception, unfortunately, also means that we believe in things like the afterlife, bodies and souls, anthropomorphic God and animal-like gods, why we are natural born Cartesian Dualists who group objects and ideas in two totally separate camps, and why we have hundreds of Cognitive Biases and are susceptible to a cornucopia of mental disorders and illnesses.

It doesn't matter, if you are real or not. Even if you are not real you still have to pay your bills, taxes, and die. No matter the answer of whether you're real or not you're still feeling and experiencing life.

This is a question that Eastern philosophy asked thousands of years ago and found answers

I’m not Real but my pain Is!

However you decide your sense of self in a way that can only be described as transcendent.I remember deciding parts of my sense of self at an extremely young age.As young as four years old.

the presenter is sooooo goood

I am not a person on a spiritual path... I'm 'consciousness' having a 'human' experience... 8 billion+. -namaskaram 🙏 Life is a tale... ...... Told by a fool... ... Full of SOUND and FURY... ..... SIGNIFYING..... ...... NOTHING..... Shakespeare. 🙏

Nice vid!