--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: This is an empirical claim: Look closely…" description: "\"“This is an empirical claim: Look closely enough at your own mind in the present moment, and you will discover that the self is an illusion. The proble..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dea/sam-harris-457_dead-end_this-is-an-empirical-claim-look-closely_566833.jpg" --- # This is an empirical claim: Look closely enough at your… ![“This is an empirical claim: Look closely enough at your own mind in the present moment, and you will discover that the self is an illusion. The problem with a claim of this kind, however, is that one can’t borrow another person’s contemplative tools to test it. To see how the feeling of “I” is a…” quote by Sam Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dea/sam-harris-457_dead-end_this-is-an-empirical-claim-look-closely_566833.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dea/sam-harris-457_dead-end_this-is-an-empirical-claim-look-closely_566833.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/dea/sam-harris-457_dead-end_this-is-an-empirical-claim-look-closely_566833.jpg) > ““This is an empirical claim: Look closely enough at your own mind in the present moment, and you will discover that the self is an illusion. The problem with a claim of this kind, however, is that one can’t borrow another person’s contemplative tools to test it. To see how the feeling of “I” is a product of thought—indeed, to even appreciate how distracted by thought you tend to be in the first place—you have to build your own contemplative tools. Unfortunately, this leads many people to dismiss the project out of hand: They look inside, notice nothing of interest, and conclude that introspection is a dead end. But just imagine where astronomy would be if, centuries after Galileo, a person were still obliged to build his own telescope before he could even judge whether astronomy was a legitimate field of inquiry. It wouldn’t make the sky any less worthy of investigation, but astronomy’s development as a science would become immensely more difficult. A few pharmacological shortcuts exist—and I discuss some of them in a later chapter—but generally speaking, we must build our own telescopes to judge the empirical claims of contemplatives. Judging their metaphysical claims is another matter; many of them can be dismissed as bad science or bad philosophy after merely thinking about them. But to determine whether certain experiences are possible—and if possible, desirable—and to see how these states of mind relate to the conventional sense of self, we have to be able to use our attention in the requisite ways. Primarily, that means learning to recognize thoughts as thoughts—as transient appearances in consciousness—and to no longer be distracted by them, if only for short periods of time. This may sound simple enough, but actually accomplishing it can take a lot of work. Unfortunately, it is not work that the Western intellectual tradition knows much about. LOST”” [Sam Harris](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/sam-harris/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. The self is a mental construct, not an inherent entity; discovering this requires personal contemplative practice, not borrowed tools. **In simple terms:** The self is an illusion discovered through personal meditation. Key Takeaway Cultivate your own mental “telescope” to examine the self. Themes self consciousness meditation philosophy Mood curious reflective Type philosophical inspirational When to use this quote - personal meditation - psychology research - spiritual practice - philosophical inquiry Key Concepts nondualism mindfulness empiricism Questions to Reflect On - How can you develop reliable tools for introspection? - What evidence would convince you that the self is illusory? 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We had to try but when all said and done tat road was a DEAD END.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-mccarty/we-didn-t-go-down-that-road-for-nothing-we-had-to-try-but-when-all/) [Kevin McCarty](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-mccarty/) [Browse all 319 Dead end quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/dead-end/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“This is an empirical claim: Look closely enough at your own mind in the present moment, and you will discover that the self is an illusion. The problem with a claim of this kind, however, is that one can’t borrow another person’s contemplative tools to test it. To see how the feeling of “I” is a product of thought—indeed, to even appreciate how distracted by thought you tend to be in the first place—you have to build your own contemplative tools. Unfortunately, this leads many people to dismiss the project out of hand: They look inside, notice nothing of interest, and conclude that introspection is a dead end. But just imagine where astronomy would be if, centuries after Galileo, a person were still obliged to build his own telescope before he could even judge whether astronomy was a legitimate field of inquiry. It wouldn’t make the sky any less worthy of investigation, but astronomy’s development as a science would become immensely more difficult. A few pharmacological shortcuts exist—and I discuss some of them in a later chapter—but generally speaking, we must build our own telescopes to judge the empirical claims of contemplatives. Judging their metaphysical claims is another matter; many of them can be dismissed as bad science or bad philosophy after merely thinking about them. But to determine whether certain experiences are possible—and if possible, desirable—and to see how these states of mind relate to the conventional sense of self, we have to be able to use our attention in the requisite ways. Primarily, that means learning to recognize thoughts as thoughts—as transient appearances in consciousness—and to no longer be distracted by them, if only for short periods of time. This may sound simple enough, but actually accomplishing it can take a lot of work. Unfortunately, it is not work that the Western intellectual tradition knows much about. 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