A Room With A (Point of) View

This will have nothing to do with the 1985 movie, "A Room with a View", based on E.M. Forster's 1908 novel. It is going to be far more intriguing, especially if you imagine what lies in front of these two windows— akin to the two eye sockets you employ to view the world around you..

Right now, photons from your phone or laptop screen are streaming into your eyes and hitting your retina. Intriguingly, those images project upside down onto the *fovea. You only see the object "correctly" because your brain flips the image right side up, which is a remarkable physiological marvel.

Your brain is the ultimate multitasker. It constantly flips upside-down images while you are cooking, analyzes information from the nose and palate, and calculates how much salt and pepper to add—all while managing your heart rate, breathing, and internal organ functions, etc.

If you touch a hot stove, you pull your hand away in a tenth of a second as nerve cells transmit information to and from your brain at 240 miles per hour. A day in the life of a multi-tasking brain, indeed.

With all of this happening simultaneously, it makes you wonder how these are all being taken care of. The question is: Where are "you" in all of these? We often assume we are the observer sitting right behind our eyes, but can you pinpoint your exact location in the brain? You might say, "I am all of me," but is that true?

Consider the experience of piloting a Boeing 747 on final approach,  at 200 miles per hour while looking through the front windshield at the onrushing runway until eventually arriving at the assigned gate. While the pilot handles the primary flight controls, the aircraft's onboard computers independently manage the mechanical movements, hydraulics, switch operations, cabin pressure and temperature, etc.

In this sense, the pilot is like a **mahout riding an elephant. Just as a pilot directs a plane, a mahout uses strong communication skills to guide the elephant to complete its tasks. A mahout understands the animal's behavior, anatomy, proper care, feeding, and the mastery required to train and lead it.

Ultimately, both the pilot and the mahout possess a deep understanding of their roles in operating the plane and guiding the elephant, while remaining distinct individuals capable of stepping away from the aircraft or the animal when the task is complete.  We cannot do the same with our body, can we?

Now, here's the intriguing part.  OBE is acronym for out-of-body experience. 

/ˌoudə(v)ˌbädē ikˈspirēən(t)s/

noun

"a sensation of being outside one's own body, typically of floating and being able to observe oneself from a distance."

"An out-of-body experience (OBE) is a sensation of your consciousness leaving your body. These episodes are often reported by people who’ve had a near-death experience. Some might also describe an OBE as a dissociative episode".

"People typically experience their sense of self inside their physical body. You most likely view the world around you from this vantage point. But during an OBE, you may feel as if you’re outside yourself, looking at your body from another perspective".

Of course, defining a phenomenon does not mean it is scientifically proven. However, an OBE is entirely real to the person experiencing it. Documented cases exist among epilepsy patients and those who have had Near-Death Experiences (NDEs). One notable case is Pam Reynolds Lowery of Atlanta, Georgia: 

"Pam reported witnessing her surgery from above the doctor’s shoulder, describing specific details about surgical tools and conversations that she could not have observed through normal means. Cardiologist Michael Sabom, among other experts, has found her account persuasive, believing it adds to evidence of consciousness persisting beyond clinical death, despite skepticism attributing such experiences to anesthesia awareness." 

Without photographic or video evidence of how or what separated from a human body, these recollected episodes remain personal accounts. However, they raise broader questions about individuality and human consciousness. We all experience the world from a unique  point of view and perspectives early on. Yet, the broader question remains. As you sit reading this, you view the world through your own eyes from a completely unique vantage point, totally different from the next person reading the same blog. Even identical twins raised in the same environment possess distinct, individual perspectives from very early on in their upbringing.

Consider this: every human begins as an embryo the size of a poppy seed, with physical traits dictated by 46 chromosomes inherited from our parents. While this genetic blueprint forms the physical brain—acting much like a central processing unit (CPU)—our individual consciousness functions more like an operating program. This raises a fascinating question: who wrote the program, and was our consciousness already coded at the embryonic stage the size of a poopy seed? Or, even before then? If the latter, where were you then?

For perspective, from the  photo below, there are approximately 3,000 poppy seeds in that teaspoon. A single poppy seed from whence we came?

I think I've laid out a few ideas here that offer much to unpack at your own pace and from your own perspective, including these questions: Is your subconscious just a passive observer while the brain is the active participant? Are you simply in a room with a view, observing the world from behind your eyes while the brain acts as the orchestrator, music arranger, and ultimately the conductor?

I actually attempted to explore this nine years ago without reaching clear answers in "Gehirn, Geist & Verstand" (linked below):

https://abreloth.blogspot.com/2017/10/gehirn-geist-verstand.html

P.S. 1  *fovea (noun)

.. part of the eye that is approximately 1.5 mm in diameter and contains a high density of cone cells, about 199,000 per square mm

P.S. 2 **Ma·hout (noun)

/məˈhout/ : (in South and Southeast Asia) a person who works with, rides, and tends an elephant.