“No-Self” and “Self-Forgetting”

The developmental psychology superstar Alison Gopnik made a very interesting observation in her book The Philosophical Baby. Gopnik says that the two completely opposite states of “highly diffuse” and “highly concentrated” attention actually arrive at the same destination: both can trigger a feeling of “no-self.”

1. “No-Self” through Highly Diffuse Attention

When attention becomes highly diffuse, the subjective experience is that feeling of “dissolving into the universe” after taking a psychedelic, which our New Psychology Insights Course has been talking about throughout this period.

Deep meditation is also a state of highly diffuse attention, and the feeling of “no-self” can be just as intense during meditation. The interesting thing about meditation is that when we move from an awake state into meditation, we first have to focus our attention on one point (for example, on our breathing). But once we enter a deeper meditative state, attention becomes highly diffuse. In meditation, different experiences can be held apart, and we can observe various feelings and thoughts from something like a second-personality perspective. All of this is attention spreading out.

2. “Self-Forgetting” through Highly Focused Attention

The exact opposite state is highly focused attention, with all our cognitive resources concentrated on one point. The subjective experience this produces is flow: “This experience comes from carrying out one’s plan perfectly and effectively, whether that means dancing, shooting hoops, or writing beautifully.” At such times, people are completely absorbed in the task they are doing, unaware of time passing and even unaware of their own existence. When people are in flow, they experience a powerful sense of “self-forgetting.”

Psychedelics and meditation → highly diffuse attention → no-self;

Flow → highly focused attention → self-forgetting.

Although there should be some subtle difference between no-self and self-forgetting, it really is fair to say that they are a case of different roads leading to the same place—when attention is highly diffuse or highly focused, there is no room for “me.”

3. The Self and Ecstatic Joy

What I find really interesting is that these two experiences, no-self and self-forgetting, are both often linked to the emotion of ecstatic joy. I’ve come across plenty of accounts of people feeling ecstatic, even having some kind of peak experience, while meditating or in flow.

By that logic, the self is practically happiness’s natural enemy. When the “self” is clearly present, happiness seems to have trouble showing up. The moment there is no “me,” the moment I forget the “me, people go into ecstasy—how much must this “happiness” dislike the self, anyway?

This really is a fascinating paradox. You would think that the subject experiencing happiness should be the self—don’t we normally say, “I feel happy”? And yet it is precisely in these two extreme states, when people cannot feel the self, that they are so likely to reach a peak of happiness.

p.s.:

As a law-abiding citizen and someone who cannot sit still, I have never experienced the no-self of psychedelics or meditation;

But as a creator (embarrassing, I know), I do often experience flow when I’m writing. It’s great~

References:

Gopnik, Alison. (2014). The Philosophical Baby. Zhejiang People’s Publishing House.

Note

• The articles in this New Psychology Insights Course series were short popular-psychology essays / rambling pieces written at the time to accompany the relevant content of “Zhichao Wei: New Psychology Insights Course”. They were published on the now-closed platform Fantuan, and the original link no longer exists.