From: Deepak Chopra Sent: Monday, September 12, 2016 7:25 PM To: Michael Shermer Cc: Jennifer Shermer, Leonard Mlodinow Subject: Clarity on my position re consciousness Dear Michael After your talk yesterday I realized that I have not made my position and that of eastern wisdom traditions clear re consciousness or else you have not understood it, so here is one last try 1 Consciousness is the knowing element in every experience--you know you are experiencing that which we as humans refer to as mind body universe. 2 Perceptual objects are experienced in consciousness/awareness. They are a process in consciousness. They are experienced as sense perceptions . 3 The brain including neural correlates and body are sense perceptions experienced in the same way as rocks and the moon , trees, stars etc. 4 Mental objects ( a friend of mine calls them mobjects ) such as thoughts feelings emotions etc are also experienced in consciousness/ awareness.You know you are experiencing thoughts emotions etc. 5 The mind/ body and universe are a unified process in consciousness--you need all 3 to have a "normal" human experience. 6 We can guess that other species are having an experience but have no idea re their mental or perceptual lives even though we can interact with them. 7 I have no idea what I "look " like to a bat or an insect with a hundred eyes or to a mosquito , even though I can feel a mosquito bite . 8 The common ground of all experience is awareness/ consciousness. 9 Awareness/ consciousness is not personal -perceptions emotions are both personal and shared. 10 When your body mind dies as a particular process the universe experienced by that particular body/ mind dies as well but impersonal awareness being formless remains.That which has no form is not in time . 11 The essential " you " is not body/mind/ universe but the awareness in which body/ mind / universe arise and subside in every moment as sensations, images, feelings, thoughts, and