What is it like to be me tripping? Why do ‘I’ and my world change and even disappear?

The science of consciousness studies ought to help, with its famous question, ‘What is it like to bea bat? Yet all current theories face problems and the field is mired in confusion. I suggest a different approach to consciousness. Rather than assuming that physical things can be subjects of experience, I suggest that only models or representations can be – a kind of panpsychism of mental models.

If we ask, ‘what is it like being a mental model?’ the answer is whatever that model says it is like, whether that’s a bat’s model of the world or a human model of an illusory ‘self’ who lives inside its body and has consciousness and free will. Thismeans we need not solve the ‘hard problem’ of how subjective consciousness arises from an objective brain because it doesn’t. Instead, we ask, ‘what models is this system building?’ 

Neuroscience already tells us that LSD and psilocybin weaken long-range connections and disrupt the default mode network which is involved in self-modelling. When this falls apart so does the illusion of a separate self, whether that is terrifying or akin to a mystical experience.  Whether this approach is too obvious to be worth thinking about, or just plain wrong, I would like to explore its possible relevance to psychedelic experience and the validity of psychedelic insights.