Bliss, it has been noted, is not conducive to detached observation.? And yet, we are all seeking fulfillment while living at the mercy of changing experience. Whatever we acquire in life gets dispersed. Our bodies age. Our relationships fall away. Even the most intense pleasures last only a few moments. And every morning, we are chased out of bed by our thoughts.
Most of us let our negative emotions persist longer than is necessary. Becoming suddenly angry, we tend to stay angry and this requires that we actively produce the feeling of anger. We do this by thinking about our reasons for being angry, recalling an insult, rehearsing what we should have said to our malefactor, and so forth and yet we tend not to notice the mechanics of this process. Without continually resurrecting the feeling of anger, it is impossible to stay angry for more than a few moments.
Thinking is indispensable to us. It is essential for belief for-mation, planning, explicit learning, moral reasoning, and many other capacities that make us human. Thinking is the basis of every social relationship and cultural institution we have. It is also the foundation of science. But our habitual identification with thought–that is, our failure to recognize thoughts as thoughts, as appearances in consciousness is a primary source of human suffering. It also gives rise to the illusion that a separate self is living inside one’s head.
The optic nerve passes through the retina of each eye, creating a small region in each visual field where we are effectively blind. Many of us learned as children to perceive the subjective consequences of this less-than-ideal anatomy by drawing a small circle on a piece of paper, closing one eye, and then moving the paper into a position where the circle became invisible. No doubt most people in human history have been totally unaware of the optic blind spot. Even those of us who know about it go for decades without noticing it. And yet, it is always there, right on the surface of experience.
One of the most important things we do with our minds is attribute mental states to other people, a faculty that has been vari. ously described as “theory of mind,” “mentalizing,” “mindsight; “mind reading,” and the “intentional stance.”* The ability to recognize and interpret the mental activity of others is essential for normal cognitive and social development, and deficits in this area contribute to a variety of mental disorders, including autism.
A review of the psychological literature suggests that mindful. ness in particular fosters many components of physical and mental health: It improves immune function, blood pressure, and cortisol levels; it reduces anxiety, depression, neuroticism, and emotional reactivity. It also leads to greater behavioral regulation and has shown promise in the treatment of addiction and eating disorders.
Psychedelics such as psilocybin, LSD, DMT, and mescaline all powerfully alter cognition, perception, and mood. Most seem to exert their influence through the serotonin system in the brain, primarily by binding to 5-HT2A receptors (though several have affinity for other receptors as well), leading to increased activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Although the PFC in turn modulates subcortical dopamine production and certain of these com-pounds, such as LSD, bind directly to dopamine receptors -the effect of psychedelics appears to take place largely outside dopamine pathways, which could explain why these drugs are not habit-forming.
Source – Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris
Goodreads – https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18774981-waking-up
Read Previous Article : https://thinkingbeyondscience.in/2025/01/29/the-role-of-mindfulness-in-overcoming-suffering/
Thinking Beyond Science 
Leave a comment