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Let's get a grasp here first before we go any further, of what we are talking about-self-awareness. Say to yourself, "I am aware that I exist", be aware. Just for a moment, say to yourself at home, and here, you are aware that you exist, ok? The self, self-awareness. There's a self and then the self's awareness of his own existence. That's what we're referring to here, that even if we were to conclude that all these other machines are empty in this room, and it's just me, I'm still aware that I exist.

Yeah, you.

Person in audience: Uh, how do we know that this self-awareness isn't some kind of illusion already programmed into us?

Jagad Guru: This is what a lot of scientists are saying, very influential scientists. They're saying that in fact, self-awareness, the self that is, I am aware that I exist, see... this inner awareness that I have that I exist, that in fact, this is just an illusion. This is just an illusion. The self is just an illusion and self-awareness is just an illusion. It's, it's actually uh, just uh a characteristic of a complex machine. When a machine gets very complex or something, then this illusion of self awareness is, uh, comes about or something, ok. One very influential scientist in this, in this connection, his name is Francis Crick. He's the co-discoverer of DNA. Very influential, he's writing in a very important scientific journal-the Scientific American, and listen to what he's saying here. This is basically what he is saying. He says, quote "Is there any idea that we should avoid? He says I think there is at least one: the fallacy of the homunculus (the self). Recently I was trying to explain to an intelligent woman the problem of understanding how it is we perceive anything at all. And I was not having any success. She could not see why there was a problem. Finally, in despair, I asked her how she herself thought she saw the world. She replied that she probably had somewhere in her head something like a little television set." Ok? She says, "Well, maybe in my head there is a little television set. He's asking "How do you perceive anything?" Like you at home, or here, you're perceiving me, ok. And he says "Well, how is this happening? How do you perceive anything?" Well, maybe in my head I have a little television set. Maybe there's a little television set in my head, ok. And then, and then he says, uh, this: "So who, I asked, is looking at it?" Who is looking at the TV? "She now saw the problem immediately."

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Siddhaswarupananda - founder of Science of Identity Foundation