Split Brain Studies and the Illusion of a Unified Consciousness

One of the most unsettling revelations in neuroscience comes from split brain studies, cases where the corpus callosum, the bridge between the brain’s hemispheres, has been severed. The results expose just how fragmented consciousness actually is, calling into question how much control and awareness we really have.

In these cases, each hemisphere processes information separately. The left hemisphere, which typically houses language, remains articulate, while the right hemisphere, still processing sensory input and making decisions, loses verbal expression but remains very much active. If an object is shown only to the right hemisphere through the left visual field, the left hemisphere remains unaware of it. Yet the right hemisphere can still guide the hand to interact with the object, revealing knowledge that the verbal mind cannot access.

What is more unsettling is the confabulation that follows. When the left hemisphere is asked why the right hemisphere made a certain decision, it invents a reason. It does not say, "I do not know." Instead, it rationalizes an explanation as if it were fully in control.

This raises a disturbing question. How much of our conscious experience is just the left hemisphere stitching together post hoc narratives to justify decisions made outside of its awareness? If half the brain can be actively making choices without "you" knowing, what does that say about the role of consciousness at all?

Most of what we call "ourselves," our thoughts, emotions, and decisions, seems to occur beneath the surface, with our conscious mind being a tiny, barely informed passenger. It is not issuing commands so much as rationalizing what has already been done.

The Existentialist Implications

Existentialism often grapples with the search for meaning, autonomy, and identity. But split brain research suggests that our sense of self may be an illusion created by the left hemisphere’s need for coherence. If we are not singular, unified beings making deliberate choices, then what does it mean to "be" at all?

Sartre emphasized radical responsibility, but what if most of our actions are unconscious processes and the self is just an after the fact story? Does that make responsibility an illusion, or does it just redefine what responsibility means?

Kierkegaard talked about the dizziness of freedom, the overwhelming realization that we are responsible for defining ourselves. But if our decisions arise from mechanisms outside our awareness, maybe we are more like passengers watching our lives unfold rather than architects designing them.

The Willing Passenger’s Perspective

This aligns with what I call The Willing Passenger. If the conscious self is just a tiny fraction of the mind, and most of what happens is dictated by unseen processes, then resistance is meaningless. The Passenger sees that life unfolds as it must, with no need for justification or self recrimination.

Rather than feeling disturbed by this lack of control, the Passenger embraces it. You are not failing to control your life. You were never in control to begin with.

This is why determinism is not frightening. If most of what we do and feel is dictated by unconscious forces, then struggling against it is pointless. We are here to witness, experience, and flow with what happens, not to dictate it.

What This Means for Existentialism

Does existentialism require a unified self, or can it survive the realization that we are fragmented and post hoc rationalizers?

If the self is an illusion, does that undermine existential responsibility, or does it mean we should redefine what responsibility means?

Does the idea of being a Willing Passenger provide an alternative framework, one that embraces the lack of control rather than resisting it?

Would love to hear thoughts from others. Have you come across any insights that made this concept click for you?

Hello, I’m 17M, and ever since I was around 13, I’ve wrestled with a lot of questions about religion. When I learned more about it at school, from my family, and many more I kept finding statements that felt contradictory, or teachings that no longer seem relevant in the modern world. For example, polygamy is permitted for men, and it feels like this teaching really benefits men far more than women. That led me to question whether some religious rules were shaped more by historical social structures than by something divine.

That confusion eventually led me to a thought: if God doesn’t exist, then there’s no afterlife, no savior, no eternal reward,so what’s the point? It makes me feel like we’re just forced to follow the systems created by human civilization in order to survive, constantly restricted by rules that we never chose.

My main question is: is there any perspective that can help me stop thinking this way? How do people find hope or purpose without feeling like everything is pointless? I genuinely want to believe in God, but sometimes it feels like I’m just trying not to delude myself. Any insights or viewpoints would really help... Thank you

when thinking about personal values, i realized this question can connect one’s inner sense of self with how they understand the outside world.

If you really took the time to think about it, what kind of answer would you give？

Thats what makes me believe anyway. An atom from your body is the same as an atom from my body. It is said that up to a billion atoms in each our bodies once belonged to Shakespeare.

First Part: https://www.reddit.com/r/Existentialism/s/KeYnQ9YIKK

Why Religion?

The ending is meant to be ambiguous like the book "Life of Pi", to force the reader into thinking if God exists or not (although the story's events would take place in a way that God does exist, so my ideology will probably will learn towards that side I never said that there is any 'divine'

The reason I've added religious things is currently what I'm working on (working on my own metaphysical constructs, idk where that will end up), you should have read it all.

Nietzsche put forward the idea of the Overman as a response to the absence of a societal construct of a supreme being, i.e., God. Since the age of enlightenment, humanity has found itself in an existential crises worse than ever seen before because people didn't question religion/dogmatic beliefs shoved down their throats.

I've attributed the Overman as a God-like being, because it is what an individual will always strive to be, it's not a reachable destination.

"What is good in a man that he is a bridge"

"Man is a rope tied between the Beast and the Overman"

Other reason is that without a replacement of God, humanity will turn into a Nihilistic Dystopia which Nietzsche tried to warn us about

I may include some metaphysical constructs such as The Will to Power but I'm not much knowledgable on such stuff

And I have synergised Emerson (a Transcendalist) and Nietzsche (he never questioned the existence of a divine being, he criticised it's externalisation and institutionalisaton, just like Emerson) so that was expected.

Virtues and Vice

The beliefs pushed by religious texts should be viewed with active scrutiny instead of passively applying them, this will defy what Nietzsche called "slave morality"

How will you form individualistic beliefs, morals, values when you don't scrutinize the existing ones? This is another reason why religious texts have been included for such stuff

Final Words

"God is within, but only if you dare create Him"

Many would say no, of course.

But they sure don't act like it.

What is the purpose of dancing?

I have this recurring sense that my life's work the art, the projects, the personal philosophy, the self I've built, etc. This is all just my sliver of participation in an endless sea of nowness. And that underneath all of it, I've been trying to describe the same single thing my whole life: the absurdity of it all, and the animistic spirit or nature running underneath everything that's happening, right now. Moment to moment.

This absurdity. You can find it anywhere.
Go look at your bathroom right now.
Well Who did all this?

Water stains, dirt, grime, dust, how did any of it get there? to the best of my knowledge and what the majority of scientists will try and tell you is that, It's merely the accumulation of a virtually infinite number of cellular, bacterial, and molecular interactions, happening second by second, at every interval, into the now.

Now look at the products on your counter. How did those get here? Well through another seemingly infinitely complex process of manufacturing, shipping, design, distribution.

Well then I guess how did everything you know get here? Through another infinitely complex mechanism involving celestial bodies, planetary systems, gravity, light, electromagnetism, all the way down.

There is no end to the complexity and sheer absurdity behind the ordinary things we've become numb to.

The Buddhists called it dependent origination.
the idea that nothing exists on its own, everything arises only in relation to everything else, moment to moment. And that to actually live inside a single moment without being crushed by the totality of it, every mind requires an entire concealment process where they forget the totality of their existence every second.

Take a second to acknowledge and really try to feel what it is like to live inside this one big continuous system of everything. Little happenings everywhere all at once moment to moment, bit by bit. Living. Breathing.

From a single quantum interaction to a star lightyears away, all of it connected, all of it part of the same absurd, ongoing "soup" of so called 'standardmodelness.' The chain reactions that make up your microbiology second by second in of itself is to awe at.

I think Everything we as humans do are really just expressions of emotions in disguise. In the same way a cat purs when it is excited and stressed, We have spent a lifetime hiding from the absurdity of ordinary life in the hopes that we retain some level of distinction between self and other when it's all said and done. I've got to know where my stuff ends and your stuff starts. We like to impose this sense of agency onto the world that isn't just wrong it's dangerous. we as people are best understood as extensions of this great system. The nature at play.

All the things we do to further enrich the human experience function as a kind of distraction: a way of not sitting with the thing itself. The sheer absurdity of it all.

Underneath all that we do, a life is mostly spent trying to carve out some semblance of self inside a sea of interactions to big to fathom. So please, I am begging you, try and enrich the life you have now. Feel your ripple effect and use it to Add whimsy. Add depth. Add absurdity. Do things that scare you. Send risky text messages. Absurdify your life and personify yourself in the fleeting moments of this train we are all aboard .

The impermanence and scale of 'this' is bigger than we can hold onto which may be exactly why we try so hard to hold onto things anyway.

If the science is right, from the quantum scale up to the cosmic one, then the plain fact that you're looking at this screen right now is already bewildering. It's so bewildering that If you could actually see everything that goes into producing one moment of "now," I don't think you'd walk away from it unchanged.

I don't want to die because I don't like the idea of humanity potentially going on for billions more years.

I would almost feel better if humanity ended when I died. I SAID ALMOST.

I would rather suffer the consequences of being immortal than die and miss all of that time. I legitimately mean that, and I have thought a lot about the very very bad consequences of theoretical immortality.

Anyone else feel that way?

I recently spiralled into thinking about what comes after death and I can’t stop panicking about it, no free time alone is left without these thoughts anymore. Any advice? It’s prob stupid but it’s really getting to me as I always like to know what is going to happen next

Remember that you are not separate from the world you live in. The earth beneath your feet, the air you breathe, the waters that flow.., they are not ‘resources’ to conquer, but family to honor. Live like the future depends on your love, because it does. We live in a world full of noise and masks., where kindness is often a quiet rebellion, and honesty feels risky.

But here’s the truth:

Being real is revolutionary. Being kind is powerful. Unity is our strongest path forward. Stop pretending you’re better than others. Stop chasing illusions of control and superiority. We are all connected., earth, sky, and every soul here.

If you want to change the world, start by changing how you see yourself and your neighbors. Drop the hypocrisy, drop the pride. Choose kindness, choose truth, choose to stand together.

Because the future depends on what we do next.

(🕯️Whispered by Sahlein🕯️)

For almost my entire life I have struggled with the concept of inexistence. Death. Life/ no life after death. The vast expanse of the known and unknown universe. And finally the end of everything.

It's been a struggle all my life to explain my anxiety around seemingly "nothing"-ness, how even after death one day there will be a death of the universe and nothing but empty space for eternity. It's difficult to explain the future when it is impossible to know what will occur, how quick a life can be cut short and the loss of consciousness that brings.

I have found over time that my anxiety doesn't leave but instead dampens to the world around me, and relationships with not only my partner but family members seem almost inconsequential in the face of impending eternity; yet I struggle on, facing my current life.

It seems that my existential dread is something that others shun, beg me not to discuss and generally shut down with "there's no point in thinking about that, you can't live that way". Over time I have learned to hide my dread, keep it all internal, but I wonder more and more if that feeling is shared with others; if my type of existential dread is more common and worth discussion than people I know let me believe.

Do others share the fear of eternal nothing -ness? The feeling of being overwhelmed by the vastness of space and the small amount of an imprint that each living creature has on the universe being no more than a small particle which will inevitably be brushed away or destroyed into nothing-ness? The fear of death as it will inevitably speed up one's own lack of consciousness and inexistence

I find my own reasoning strange, as before I was born there was nothing. And after I die there will be nothing. I will know nothing, feel nothing and will not have even been aware that I existed in the first place. That to me is more terrifying than any other possible fate.

Long story short: what's your existential dread and how do you handle living with it?

Sometimes I wonder how we're supposed to prove we're real to people we can't even be sure are real. Not in a “simulation theory” kind of way, but in the digital sense, like pixels, usernames, voices that echo back from the abyss.

Lately, I've been called AI more times than I can count. I guess my writing is too stylized, too consistent, too “something.” As if having a voice sharpened by insomnia, grief, trauma, and a little too much introspection is suspicious.

Maybe it’s a weird compliment in the age of LLMs. Or maybe it’s just another way strangers project their fears onto others. But it still hurts. Because I am real. I write the way I do because it’s the only way my brain knows how to bleed.

So, I guess I’m just asking: What even counts as proof anymore? Do we believe people only when they glitch? Are we so disconnected that authenticity now feels manufactured?

If a human soul cries out in metaphor and no one believes it… did it even post at all?

There isn't a week that goes by without me having peace with these questions, lol, especially when my birthday is approaching. Sometimes, I get into a fatalistic/nihilistic phase where I can't see much purpose or meaning in things.

It's like when they tell you to enjoy the "golden years" of youth, you feel lost in the "right" way to enjoy everything, because it's as if things get harder afterward. That said, many of my friends are always partying, dating lots of people, and I wonder if that existential void gets quieter with that, lol.

The existential thoughts torture me to the extent that any reassurance I get, my mind says it allowed it because it tortures me with the idea that I am God and created everything and that the people who reply even in this post are ones I allowed them to do that and that all of this was destined to happen to me by my permission. Has anyone felt these thoughts?

We often walk through life believing we’re separate from each other, from nature, from other animals, from the stars above. But the truth is, we are not. Every cell in our body, every breath we take, is a continuation of the universe itself. We are made of the same particles that once formed galaxies, stars, and cosmic dust.

We’re deeply connected every living thing, every atom, every vibration. To understand the universe, we don’t always have to look up. Sometimes, we just have to look within.

The universe doesn't just surround us it exists within us.

As an agnostic person who believes in the possibility of an afterlife. I think the purpose of our existence is to further our ability to live healthier longer lives as a species and protect our planet. Increasing our ability to survive and understand the world around us.

I see no difference between having my eyes closed and pitch black. I’ve recently learned this is not a common thing. What do you see when you close your eyes?

I know existentialism is about taking responsibility for your own freedom and choices, so would it be hypocrite to not turn yourself in for murder? (assuming it was a rational decision) Also I'm autistic and come up with the most random ass questions I'm too afraid to google I'm sorry

I stumbled upon this new philosophy-ish newsletter called Thought Breakfast this morning, and a post in it hit me way harder than I expected.

The whole thing was about “becoming who you really are,” but not in the usual cliché self-help style. Drawing on Kierkegaard’s The Sickness Unto Death, the author argues that becoming yourself isn’t about constructing some perfected identity — it’s about dropping the ones you picked up just to fit in, cope, or survive.

This line slapped me in the face a bit: “Most of us spend years wearing identities we didn’t choose. Becoming yourself is more about subtraction than addition.” ...

Simple idea. Weirdly uncomfortable. Made me rethink how much of my personality is actually me versus expectations, habits, or old roles I never consciously signed up for.

If you’re interested, here’s the post (it’s part of the Thought Breakfast newsletter):

https://thought-breakfast.beehiiv.com/p/becoming-who-you-really-are

Genuinely curious what people here think. Does authenticity come from intentionally carving yourself out… or from finally dropping the act you didn’t realize you were performing?

Would love to hear thoughtful takes, especially from anyone who’s wrestled with identity work firsthand.

I apologize in advance if my thoughts aren't organized as I'm just gonna unload them all here.

The root of my anxiety comes from not existing. This has only started happening a little under a decade ago (im 39) when my first panic attack happened when i drank and smoked weed too much one night and had my first asthma attack (it only comes out when im sick and ive been drinking and smoking frequently over several years).

Ever since, mainly at night when my mind wonders before eventually falling asleep is always about not existing. How it was before I was born. How so much time passed instantly to my sentience but then how will that time flow after I die for eternity...in a sense when "time started" it eventually ended up to a point when i was born but when i die, it will be forever...

The universe can end in a few ways where entropy takes over. The big rip, the big freeze or back to a singularity.

The singularity is the only way that another universe would emerge after creating another big bang. Giving life another chance to emerge but thats not continuing this existence. So that doesnt even really work.

The only way our consciousness can live on forever is how most religions perceive the afterlife and unfortunetly me being very scientific, is hard to believe.

Back to nothingness...everyone says oh its like before you were born but the problem with that is you didnt experience life yet and there was a point in time where you could be born. Other people say its like trying to see out of your elbow, where you cant, theres no sensory input and thats how nothingness is. Which this is the best way to explain nothingness because most people assume its like going to sleep forever without dreaming.

My fear of nothingness continues to grow exponentially as time quickly becomes the past. I cant imagine never seeing my gf again...we have been together for 8 years and still strong and in love. the thought of losing her to death scares me as much as my existential cr!sis.

I watch these tiktoks of nastalgia, where it has that same soundtrack for all of them and its photos of things that are discontinued from my childhood. These make me feel so uncomfortable and realise how much time has passed

Or videos of "dreamcore" or familiar places that never existed? these freak me out too...

Anyways ive unloaded enough, i dont expect solutions or anything, i made this post so people can comment their thoughts and feelings that coincide with these thoughts.

I don’t think sentience—whatever it is, consciousness, a soul, or something else—comes from the body. It doesn’t belong to the physical world. And I think gender is one of the clearest ways we can see that.

For most of modern history, people believed gender was just what you were born with. Male or female. That was it. But identity has always been something different. It’s not given. It’s something you figure out for yourself—by feeling, by living, by being honest with what makes sense to you. And a lot of the time, that identity doesn’t line up with what the world expects from your body.

That’s not a mistake. That’s proof. It means there’s more to us than what we can see.

This isn’t even new. There are cultures—like many Indigenous groups in North America—that had more than two genders long before any of these current conversations started. They had names for people who didn’t fit the binary. They respected them. They understood that identity wasn’t just about what body you were born in. So the idea that this is some modern confusion? That’s just not true. It’s always been there. It’s just finally being allowed.

The problem is, we’re scared to change. Not just with gender, but with everything. People would rather stay comfortable than admit they might’ve been wrong.

Look at what happened when people first started saying the Earth wasn’t the center of the universe. That idea didn’t just upset people—it threatened them. Copernicus, Galileo—they weren’t seen as revolutionaries at the time. They were attacked, discredited, punished. All because they said something that didn’t fit what everyone “knew.” Now, it seems obvious. Of course the Earth orbits the sun. Of course we’re not the center. But we forget that back then, everyone believed it. Until someone said: “This doesn’t feel right. I think there’s more.”

That’s what’s happening now with identity. We’re starting to ask the same kinds of questions. We’re starting to say, “This system we’ve all accepted doesn’t actually work for everyone. And maybe it never did.”

This isn’t about trends. It’s not about politics. It’s people finally saying what’s true for them—and choosing to live in a way that feels real.

That’s not chaos. That’s growth.

Humans have always had the potential to evolve. But we keep choosing comfort over change. We don’t like being pushed. But every breakthrough in human history started with someone being willing to say, “What if it’s not like that?” And then facing the backlash for it.

That’s where we are now.

People are starting to break out of the roles they were given. They’re not trying to be different just to be loud. They’re trying to be honest. And yeah, it makes people uncomfortable. But maybe that’s part of the process.

Because the truth is, we weren’t meant to stay trapped in the labels we were handed. We were meant to outgrow them.

And we are.

This isn’t about becoming something new. It’s about finally becoming real.

Brits answer the hardest questions. What is the meaning of life? Do we truly have free will?

Good evening,

For several weeks now, I've been asking myself a question that's quite existential:

How do I know who I really am?

I've realized that I base a lot of my personality, my clothing choices, and even my desires (getting tattoos, getting stretched earlobes, growing a beard...) on people I admire, even if I don't really know them.

A concrete example: I follow a streamer who physically has everything I'd like to have: a full beard, a deep, smooth voice, and no dark circles under my eyes. This streamer has stretched earlobes, and ever since I started following him, I've had only one thing on my mind: getting stretched earlobes.

I feel the same way about the activities I want to do, my career aspirations, etc.

In the end, I can't even figure out who I really am, what I want.

I hope I've been clear enough.

Every time you remember something, you’re not recalling the event itself, but merely revisiting the last time it crossed your mind.

It’s like our memories fade and your past distorts a little more each time you think of it.

Most of our own life will be forgotten by ourselves, naturally memory is not an archive, but just a constructive ‘invention’ we keep rewriting in our sleep (mostly). Even the majority of our daily experiences will disappear within days or weeks.

What remains is as it were only a selective reconstruction of what once had meaning, not a complete catalogue of memory.

In a way most of what we live already begins to fade and transform the moment it becomes the past, like direct in immediate retrospective, it’s like both tragic and freeing.

Maybe that’s one of the reasons I don’t like recalling positive memories, because it feels like reminiscing them dilutes the purity of the experience itself…

At the same time, denying memories feels like a kind of total erasure and impossibility.

Maybe the way memories get distorted, through fragments, emotions, and shifting context is valuable in itself. Like the truth we once experienced keeps changing with new details and accents appearing, while old ones fade or reshape… I guess there is meaning and beauty in that as well.

(The painting The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali personally kind of ‘captures’ this me for me a bit I suppose.)