The Self : The Greatest Illusion

The Self: The Greatest Illusion

What is your self?

Oxford dictionary defines the self as “a person’s essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action”. You. 

The self is basically considered to be the essence of you. 

It is your past,your future, your personality, your thoughts, your memories. 

As you lie in bed each morning, just woken up, with your eyes straining to make sense of your

surroundings and the nighttime’s haze slowly lifting from your mind, the first-person observer of reality reassembles itself to take on the new day. That first-person observer is your self.

Your self is many things indeed. But one thing it might not be is real.

The claim that the self does not exist seems erroneous, and even ludicrous. If your self isn’t real, who are you? Isn’t the doubt of the existence of the self, proof enough that the self does indeed exist?

As we try to make sense of it all, getting a grip on the true notion of the self is tricky. Thankfully scientists have amalgamated three fundamental beliefs about the self. First: the self is unchanging and continuous. Second: the self is the “unifier” of the world around us. Third: the self is an agent, meaning it thinks and acts. Two different models of the self, based on these three fundamental beliefs, have been determined: that of a string of pearls, and that of a rope.

According to the first model, the self is a continuous and constant element that runs through our life like a thread runs through the string of pearls. It is present at every moment of our lives yet is always unchanging. Our mood fluctuations, changes of opinions or tastes, symbolized by the pearls, have no effect on this thread of self.

However,the empirical evidence scientists claim so far on the self points towards the second model. Presumably, just as a rope is made up of a sequence of overlapping short fibres, the self would be a continuity of overlapping mental events.

Regardless of the chosen model, it is clear that the sense of self is an effortless, intuitive and axiomatic human experience. But it is nothing more than an intricate illusion.

The Buddhists were the first to assert that there is no unique individual self, by stating that everything is impermanent and the self is an illusion. In Buddhism, “suffering comes from craving, and the idea of the self is a craving for immortality”.

For the less religious, there is also empirical evidence that suggests the sense of self is no more than an illusion, no more than an elaborate construct of the mind.

But it seems to serve us well: the illusion is so anchored in us, and so useful to our reality, that it is impossible- and maybe even dangerous- to shake it off.