1) Is there a separate entity 'self', 'me' 'I', at all, anywhere, in any way, shape or form? Was there ever?
No. Certainly not.
2) Explain in detail what the illusion of separate self is, when it starts and how it works from your own experience. Describe it fully as you see it now.
I do not know when it starts, besides from what others have told me, which is in the first few years of life. I see it to be constructed through interpersonal communication, which depends on the function of implication to work. This imagined implication fills "the gaps" between peoples distinct experiences and allows something of a simulated objective reality to be shared. In this "objective" mental pseudo-reality, there are symbols which represent events. One such category of symbols (names/pronouns) are applied to the events that are represented by the idea of "human bodies". These symbols, or labels, act as mental caches - around which the idea of a "self" entity and an "other" entity can accumulate. When the self is established, everything that is then recorded is done so with the additional inference of how it relates to the story of the self, deepening the sense of gravity that the implication "I" carries. Until it is properly investigated, the implied objective reality is not seen to be purely mentally generated fantasy, because of which the body will react to it as if it were detected in direct experience.
3) How does it feel to see this? What is the difference from before you started this dialogue? Please report from the past few days.
It feels nice to have a more clear ability to articulate it and more adeptly deconstruct residual mental blocks. There has been some alleviation of confusion about how thought interacts with the other aspects of experience.
4) What was the last bit that pushed you over, made you look?
I don't remember, it must have happened some time ago before this. What brought additional clarity was the video about the headless way and being guided through how thought projection works.
5) Describe decision, intention, free will, choice and control. What makes things happen? How does it work? What are you responsible for? Give examples from experience.
Storytelling tools, descriptions of appearances that are only relevant in the alleged theatrics of the appearances. In that story, decision is something that happens as directed by intention, when presented with options (choices), in resistance to, while also being an attempt at, control, as the expression of free will. Outside of the story, they are all meaningless labels, for which the required elements for their existence simply are not available to be built upon.
6) Anything to add?
All of this communication and meaning-making is like a game. Any sense of reality it has is derived from a continual collective agreement to participate in the act. This mental projection appears to fulfill a function as a tool of organizing an approach to life. Everything I seem to know is only knowledge within the game, derived from the game, about the game. It has utility in playing the game, but not in understanding anything beyond it.
