> I'm not so sure. I have noticed that I can do certain things, for example
> play a very fast game of table tennis, and "loose consciousness".
Me too, but I suspect that a lot of this is just due to lack of processing
power. From the nature of evolution we're probably only just powerful
enough to be conscious and when we have to use a lot of processing power
to deal with external events we can't sustain our 'consciousness' program
as well. Or in maths, something like:
Thought + Emotion + Perception = Constant
> I think the
> ego can be temporarily suspended during the intense thought required to
> solve a complex mathematical problem, for example.
Or writing software, in the famous (at least around here) "coding trance".
I was reading John Lilly's autobiography ("Center of the Cyclone") on the
bus from Seattle to Chicago a few months ago and he talks about this at
the end in his theory of conscious states. His basic neutral state is the
normal ego you're talking about here, and then above that is the "coding
trance" where you stop thinking and just act.
> Remember that we all start out as id, and that our ego comes along when we
> can remember enough of our actions and consequences to form coherent
> patterns from them.
Well, Freudians do, but personally I tend to feel that ego, or at least
the internal monologue which goes along with it, is a bad habit and vastly
overrated.
Mark
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