And there still seems some , some residual mystery that , you know , at death , maybe something is gonna lift off the brain and go elsewhere , right ? So there's a sense of dualism , uh that ma many people have and obviously that that's supported by many religious beliefs . Um But this feeling it , it is a very peculiar starting point with the people feel that in a , in a they don't feel identical to their experience , right ?
You don't , most people don't feel identical to their bodies and they can imagine this , this is so the origin , the psychological origin and you know , the the folk psychological origin of , of a sense of that , there's , there might be a soul that could survive the death of the body . I mean , most people are , are what my friend Paul Bloom calls common sense dualist , right ? You , you , you're just the default expectation seems to be that whatever the relationship between the mind and the body , there's this , there's some promise of separability there , right ?
And now they're gonna pay attention to something , they're gonna pay attention to the breath or the sounds . And it's from the point of view of being a locus of attention that is now aiming attention strategically at an object like the breath um that there's this dualism that is set up and ultimately the ultimate promise of meditation . I mean , there are really two levels at which you could be interested in , in meditation .
So the illusory of the self doesn't cut against any of those obvious facts . So the , the , the , the , the sense of self that is illusory .
I mean , most people are , are what my friend Paul Bloom calls common sense dualist , right ? You , you , you're just the default expectation seems to be that whatever the relationship between the mind and the body , there's this , there's some promise of separability there , right ? That the , and whenever you really push hard on the science side and say , well , none of the mind is really just what the brain is doing that begins to feel more and more counterintuitive to people .
