The Secret You. Excellent BBC Documentary

Good day ATS,

I have just finished watching this most excellent documentary made by the BBC for their horizon series

Professor Marcus du Sautoy goes in search of answers to one of science's greatest mysteries: how do we know who we are? While the thoughts that make us feel as though we know ourselves are easy to experience, they are notoriously diffecult to explain. So, in order to find out where they come from, Marcus subjects himself to a series of probing experiments.

I highly recomend taking the 60 minutes to watch it all, without giving too much away id like to say that two parts in particular invoked a truely w0w! moment.

one being where an experiment is conducted which shows how easily the mind is tricked into an out of body experiance and how strong that effect is despite the subject clearly being aware he is being tricked. The other wow moment was near the end where a test concluded that many decisions are actually made upto 6 seconds before our consious mind beleives itself to actully having made its decision.

enough of what i think, please watch this and tell me what you think!!




The video posted was from this site www.truththeory.org... it has a great many documentries of interest.

however if the above film does not impress you I am assured you will find something there to both educate and entertain.

so enjoy!

Givin' your thread a bump.

Seems like it would be interesting. I'll have to watch it when I get home from work.

Originally posted by butcherguy
Givin' your thread a bump.

Seems like it would be interesting. I'll have to watch it when I get home from work.

Thanks bud, you won't be disappointed. prob one of the better documentaries I've seen in a good while.

This was great, I really enjoyed it, and it has really got me thinking about the "I" part if me. I have always been one to think in terms of brain vs. soul, like my brain is where I do math problems and think, but my souls is where my emotions come from.
This in a way is saying that it's really more all brain, and the "you" part, the part we call the soul really is just a small part of brain activity.

He missed one or two in the animal kingdom. Dolphins are self aware, there is evidence. Whales and Elephants too!

Thank you so much for posting the documentary, i found it facinating. This is what comes to mind:
When he speaks about his little boy becoming a person, he is saying that the boy was now 'self' conscious. He was already conscious prior to 'self' consciousness arising. The boy now believes himself to be a separate thing with an identity, he has been given a name and he no longer 'knows' himself to be just I, he now 'thinks' he is John and I, one has become two.
Before 'self' consciousness appears there was Consciousness. 'Self' has to appear somewhere, it appears in consciousness.
When you are in deep sleep there is still consciousness but there is no 'self'.
This 'self' is an imposter.
Consciousness is all there is. Awareness in the moment.
'Self' is just a book of thoughts. The book is written each time a neuron trigger is lit by an appearance appearing presently. An image is seen, a neuron fires and the mind writes a story. Whether the story is believed or not depends on what you think you are.
Professor Marcus du Sautoy, the presenter, is not sure what he is now but he sensed that all he is, is what he is feeling. Presence awareness.

Good stuff, thanks for posting. well worth a watch, because it definitely gets you thinking about the reality around you and how you perceive it.

I agree with some of the other folks here. That was well worth the watch. I have watched many things he has put together and I always feel a little smarter after watching. He has a way of making you think in simple terms to understand somewhat complex things.

I did find it curious though, that the brain didnt seem to show any activity of dreaming while it was asleep. Seems that should have shown. Unless of course, that particular subject wasn't dreaming at the time. I would love to see scans of dreamers.

Thanks for posting S&F for you

Thanks for posting this documentary.

Just watched it, its fascinating. As you noted, the out of body experiment. (starting at 29min for those who are impatient) is amazing. Cool to see how our brain just adapts to the next most logic situation when tricked by unreal/unusual vision. As well it remembers me of the movie 'strange days' where they have these brain-recorders.

To the poster above me, on the animal kingdom: yes, dolphins are self aware as well, they would pass the mirror test. Just a random bit of information i read recently: when dolphins sleep they only turn one side of the brain off, so they stay semi conscious to be aware of sharks or other attackers. After a while they switch the side of the brain to rest.


On a sidenote: funky socks, the prof is wearing :-)

reply to post by svetlana84


If dolphins didn't sleep with one hemisphere awake they would drown.

reply to post by Itisnowagain


Good point. And true. They have to catch air like humans (not that often though). Thanks for adding.

Thanks everyone, glad you all enjoyed, i also thought about the dolphins being self aware - i wonder why he never mentioned it?

anyway that was my thread (other than a rant/introduction i worte) so thanks for the flags and stars

The documentary has certainly taught me a thing or two.

Did anyone else notice the object that flew by at precisely 27:50. It is in the church and he was talking about Descartes?

I havent had a chance to freeze and analyze it further, but it looked strange. Some kind of big bug maybe?

reply to post by zike


What a keen eye! god i love ats

So my neurons are still firing on the movie,
especially about the hale barry part: that always the same neurons fire, when seeing a picture of her or
just her name.

Would be interesting to know if you see as well related neutrons firing, for instance,
for instance: you see hale then do the neutrons for "actress", "catwoman", "beautiful woman" fire as well ?

And another interesting question would be, if you can determine from the brain scan alone, which person you think of ? Are there compartments for "family member", "workmate", "boy/girlfriend", "obnoxius person", "film star" and so on ??

The other idea spinning in my head: the Out of body experiment, I really like to try that, it looks like lots of fun and weirdness at the same time.
Basically you need two screens in front of your eyes and two cameras (behind your head) to film and a device that connects the cams to the screens.

How to set it up ? Getting two cams is no biggie (got one already). For screens i am thinking about iphones or an ipodtouch (got one).
Then the connection: cable (USB) does not work, because there is a small USB at the cam, iphone or pod only hast the bigger one..

So for the techies out there: Any ideas, suggestions ?
Let's start the ATS Brain Research Institute

Great video, s&f

Defiantly provided food for thought, thanks for this OP.

Enjoyed it more than Thrive that's for sure.

reply to post by svetlana84


Can you imagine future possibilities like that of those out of body machine things like in Minority Report. I'm not going to like, I'd like to experience what its like to a cat, or a woman. Very intriguing creatures. But cats aren't self aware

reply to post by Hiasyouwant


Yeah, me too, Thrive was a real let down, not sure why so many people are still raving about it,