# What is the body? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 9, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843 "2019-03-09T19:38:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2019, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/1 "2019-03-09T19:38:33Z")
> **[What Is Your Body? – Lions Roar](https://www.lionsroar.com/what-is-your-body-july-2013/)** > > It’s less than we think. It’s far more than we know. It’s who we are but it’s not. Contemplate the deeper reality of the body. From what the article mentions, what we take to be the body ( a solid and enduring form) is really just a series of momentary conscious events that are happening. Personally I don’t buy it but I want to know what other people think here. I mean consciousness has to come from somewhere right? Like the brain. This just seems to me like a variation of the whole “consciousness is weird” trope. I mean don’t really have a strong response to the whole thing, but I can reliably say that there is a body (i don’t know about a self) and that regardless of what happens with consciousness it is still stable until my heart stops beating. I just think the guy makes too many leaps in his thinking or logic. Like the bit about contemporary neuroscience saying that sense are just consciousness being triggered. Or how we aren’t really experiencing and object or something. I tried to make sense of the whole thing but it just seems like woo to me, not really based in logic or if it is that it is making leaps and bounds based on…something? ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2019, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/2 "2019-03-09T20:36:43Z")
A quote from it: Contemporary cognitive science agrees. All experiences arise when consciousness is activated by a sense organ meeting an internal or external object. (Here, the mind itself functions like a sixth sense organ in relation to emotion and thought.) We assume we are “experiencing” the object that gave rise to the event in our consciousness. But the truth is that the only thing we can verify is the experience itself, however we may be misconstruing it. The idea of the body is like this. It is an idea based on unwarranted assumptions about the coherence of our conscious experience. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2019, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/3 "2019-03-09T22:21:02Z")
On a quick read, there may be an interesting germ of an idea in there: the relationship between what our bodies actually experience and how our minds perceive that experience. But the piece is so poorly written and so full of mumbo-jumbo (wait, exactly \*how \*did Buddha defeat Mara by touching the ground?), any coherent point is pretty much lost. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2019, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/4 "2019-03-09T22:49:55Z")
Seems a bit like solipsism to me. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/5 "2019-03-10T01:54:53Z")
There’s a particular milestone when a baby realizes it’s not of the Mother, but his own self. You can see it happen if you watch carefully. Whether the baby knows it or not his body had always been his body from conception on. So, even if you don’t know it, believe it, recognize it or understand it, it is still your body. A person in a vegetative state still has a body that is a real thing. Not a concept or “a series of momentary conscience events”, the person is not entirely conscience but her body still exists. Does it not? ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/6 "2019-03-10T03:55:10Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > A quote from it: > > Contemporary cognitive science agrees. All experiences arise when consciousness is activated by a sense organ meeting an internal or external object. (Here, the mind itself functions like a sixth sense organ in relation to emotion and thought.) We assume we are “experiencing” the object that gave rise to the event in our consciousness. But the truth is that the only thing we can verify is the experience itself, however we may be misconstruing it. The idea of the body is like this. It is an idea based on unwarranted assumptions about the coherence of our conscious experience. I understand this quote to be suggesting that experiencing our body as a real thing is not to be counted on as we may be misconstruing the experience. Does the author go on to explain with what brain the misconstruing is done, if the body isn’t real? Not getting inspired, here, to read the whole thing. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/7 "2019-03-10T04:04:02Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > I understand this quote to be suggesting that experiencing our body as a real thing is not to be counted on as we may be misconstruing the experience. Does the author go on to explain with what brain the misconstruing is done, if the body isn’t real? > > Not getting inspired, here, to read the whole thing. Not exactly. It doesn’t really prove anything, just assumes that to be the case. I’d still read it all, it’s brief. I just know that when I read the whole thing the only thing I ended up with was “I don’t buy it”. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 6:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/8 "2019-03-10T06:57:32Z")
**What is the body?** Landru is the body. And the body is Landru. Are you not of the body? Be you from the Valley then, hey? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/9 "2019-03-10T07:36:16Z")
A miserable pile of secrets. And chitlins. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/10 "2019-03-10T12:49:27Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > A quote from it: > > Contemporary cognitive science agrees. All experiences arise when consciousness is activated by a sense organ meeting an internal or external object. (Here, the mind itself functions like a sixth sense organ in relation to emotion and thought.) We assume we are “experiencing” the object that gave rise to the event in our consciousness. But the truth is that the only thing we can verify is the experience itself, however we may be misconstruing it. The idea of the body is like this. It is an idea based on unwarranted assumptions about the coherence of our conscious experience. It’s not “unwarranted”; it’s Occam’s Razor in action. It’s a simpler assumption that our bodies _are_ real and the universe is real, instead of assuming some elaborate and completely baseless alternate explanation. It’s also the most useful assumption. “A difference that makes no difference is no difference”; if everything we perceive is indistinguishable from our bodies being real, then there’s no point in acting otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/11 "2019-03-10T15:59:01Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > It’s not “unwarranted”; it’s Occam’s Razor in action. It’s a simpler assumption that our bodies _are_ real and the universe is real, instead of assuming some elaborate and completely baseless alternate explanation. > > It’s also the most useful assumption. “A difference that makes no difference is no difference”; if everything we perceive is indistinguishable from our bodies being real, then there’s no point in acting otherwise. I don’t understand what is meant by consciousness is activated. I don’t think that’s what the studies say, but it’s hard to say without a link. But yeah, the experiencing an object is much simpler than some weirdness about consciousness. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/12 "2019-03-10T17:06:25Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > I don’t understand what is meant by consciousness is activated. I don’t think that’s what the studies say, but it’s hard to say without a link. > > But yeah, the experiencing an object is much simpler than some weirdness about consciousness. When they say “activated”, I don’t think they meant to imply that consciousness is idle prior to a sensory event. I think what they are getting at is the notion that consciousness is an after the fact function (“sixth sense organ in relation to emotion and thought”) that brings together the whole of activity in the system and provides a coherent high level view/explanation that is available to the system/mind. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/13 "2019-03-10T17:44:50Z")
I tried to read the linked article, honest! I got about half way through before the voice in my head saying “beep boop null input please restate the request beep boop” got too loud. So, far out man? ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/14 "2019-03-10T18:11:58Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > I just know that when I read the whole thing the only thing I ended up with was “I don’t buy it”. I assume that happens to everyone when surfing the internet. Why give it another thought? Just say “I don’t buy it” and move on to the vagina/vulva debate in aisle 5. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/15 "2019-03-10T20:51:08Z")
> [@Procrustus](#): > > I assume that happens to everyone when surfing the internet. Why give it another thought? Just say “I don’t buy it” and move on to the vagina/vulva debate in aisle 5. I guess it’s better than my previous approach which is just assuming what I read is true because it’s on some “official looking” website. But since spirituality tends to misrepresent science experiments (quantum physics for one) and he doesn’t cite any studies or people in the field I’m just going to pass on it. Even assuming the quote is true, the first part didn’t justify what he thinks follows from it. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/16 "2019-03-10T21:08:07Z")
Just remember that philosophy is 1% inspiration and 99% (mental) masturbation. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/17 "2019-03-10T21:35:31Z")
The Buddhist teachings on the workings of mind, called Abhidharma, teach us that there isn’t a body per se, just a variety of momentary mental events. some of them we think of as “physical,” even though they’re not. When I feel an ache in my right leg, the Abhidharma analysis goes, this sensation is a mental event produced in consciousness when an object I call a leg activates inner sensors that awaken awareness in a particular way. Likewise, seeing, hearing, and all sense perceptions are mental events stimulated by apparently physical objects. This was the part leading up to the quote I mentioned. I still wouldn’t call the body momentay menta events. I mean there is something physical there of course ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/18 "2019-03-10T22:08:29Z")
Still seems like a useless pile of horseshit to me. ---
**Author:** ![Machinaforce](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/aeb1de/32.png) [@Machinaforce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machinaforce)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/19 "2019-03-10T22:17:38Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Still seems like a useless pile of horseshit to me. Wish I could say that, but dont the rules of argument say you have to say WHY. I mean he says science “agrees with it”. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2019, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843/20 "2019-03-10T22:24:25Z")
> [@Machinaforce](#): > > I mean he says science “agrees with it”. [A _very_ common claim of people spouting horseshit](http://sebpearce.com/bullshit/). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-body/830843.md?page=2)