Using the word illusion

[Stranger]

Reference?

Obviously not.

Try this: The Self as a Center of Narrative Gravity.

[Enki]

Use 1...Example... A mirage is the illusion of water

Use 2...Example... The self is merely an illusion of a self

Anyone else see the shortcomings of use 2?

Use 1: Although a mirage can well be described as an illusion(eg. of water), it is in fact an effect which is well known and can be easily explained scientifically.

Use 2:  I think that the idea of self being merely an illusion of self is both confusing and simplistic. I would put it another way entirely. We have a feeling of 'self'. This is not so easily explained but seems to comprise an amalgam or coming together of sometimes disparate and competing parts of the brain to create some sort of unity and this would surely entail complex communication and organization. How this is achieved is open to question but I submit that this leads to the feeling that we call 'self'. As an example of what I mean, I think it is interesting to look at cases where, for instance, the communication between the two hemispheres of the brain has been broken. I am thinking of cases, for instance, where the corpus callosum(where the two hemispheres communicate)) has been severed or badly damaged. It seems that in such cases there is the potential for two selves to show themselves, and they may be somewhat contradictory. This suggests that our idea of one 'self' per person may be far too simple an idea compared with the reality. For instance if one side is atheistically minded  and the other side is theistically minded, this raises all sorts of difficult theological questions. Here is a short video by a neurologist illustrating just this point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFJPtVRlI64

 

[Sriram]

Self awareness is different from the Self.  As I have explained before, when each of us was an infant, we did not have any self awareness, but the Self existed nevertheless.

Self awareness is a mental construction that gets created as we grow up. It is the software that we down load to make the hardware work.  This software can sometimes create problems by creating multiple personalities as in DID. Even in normal people different mental conditions can behave almost like different personalities.

[Enki]

Self awareness is different from the Self.  As I have explained before, when each of us was an infant, we did not have any self awareness, but the Self existed nevertheless.

Self awareness is a mental construction that gets created as we grow up. It is the software that we down load to make the hardware work.  This software can sometimes create problems by creating multiple personalities as in DID. Even in normal people different mental conditions can behave almost like different personalities.

I'm happy to take the view that self is different to awareness of self, if that is what you wish. However, in that case, I would suggest that there is no evidence than that the self simply means all the physical things that make up each unique human being, and that this 'self' changes as we progress throughout our life. No problem.

However, when the OP refers to the self as merely an illusion of self, I assumed that this was associated with our own feelings of 'self' which would entail an awareness of what we mean by the word, 'self' as it appertains to each of us. Only in that way can I even begin to understand what the'illusion of self' means.