Here is a thought experiment for you to try.
You may have heard some people talk about how they view life as a game. How each challenge is just another obstacle to overcome in the quest to get to the next level. I even once heard the concept of things like healthy food and sleep being like power-ups! And bad food being the opposite of power-ups (power-downs?). It is an interesting perspective and I often use it as a motivator.
I was recently inspired by Steve Pavlina to take the computer game analogy to a new level. Recently he has been exploring the belief of life being a subjective reality. In this subjective reality we are all one conscious and reality is controlled by our our thoughts.
To explains this, he draws an analogy to computer games:
Imagine a first-person video game with an on-screen avatar that you control. You can move it around and interact with other characters in the game world. In an objective reality, you perceive that character to be you. You identify with it. Everything else within the game world is therefore “not you.”
As soon as I read this, I tried imagining my body was just a character that I had inhabited “as a means of influencing the game world and helping to make changes within it”.
This perspective was very, very strange. I was able to briefly disconnect from my body and truely see it as separate from my identity.
Possibly this was an out of body experience, but I’m not sure. It’s not like I could see myself float out of my body; but that makes sense because my eyes are part of my body. But then I didn’t go blind either.
What’s the best way of explaining it?
Imagine life is normally viewed as if you are playing a character in a game. You associate yourself with that character so much that you don’t think about the fact that you are a separate person playing a game. Or if you are reading a book, you associate yourself with the main protagonist; you don’t constantly remain detached and think of yourself as being someone reading a book. But this awareness doesn’t mean you can sense any more of the game or story world. You still have to play by the rules. At least until you find find the cheat book!
If you are playing a real game, or reading a book, this awareness is often accompanied by new insights. You become aware of things outside the game such as your hunger, thirst or the fact that the phone is ringing. In this thought experiment, I also found myself becoming aware of more. Apart from feeling strange, it actually provided some benefit. First of all I was able to view myself more objectively. But more interestingly I felt my negative emotions drain away. They just weren’t possible from this perspective. Positive emotions were not possible either. I guess it was some kind of mild bliss-state, but it is difficult to explain.
I’ve only been able to hold it for a few seconds at a time so far, so I’ll give it some more practice and perhaps I’ll understand these side effects a bit more.
Give it a go yourself, and see if you can experience the same effect.
