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There’s a very good reason why it feels personal. It’s hard to think and feel connected in this way. There’s a lot of evolutionary pressure that keeps us locked into the feeling that “I” am a single, solid human being. You forget that you are made of atoms and star-stuff. Instead you impatiently wait for your food to finish microwaving and get annoyed when people mispronounce your name. Morons.
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SURVIVAL VALUE OF SELFING V OTHERING
Throughout history we needed to hunt, gather, and look out for our emotional and physical wellbeing. It’s probably best if we didn't think of each other as “one” all the time. If I’m over here just feeling my oneness with all of the material world, dissolving all perceivable boundaries, this might not be great for my survival. Without a strong sense of self, you probably would’ve been eaten by a lion by now. Thank you, evolution.
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Privacy is baked into consciousness
One unique aspect about conscious experience concerns the way that it is known. How do you know that a friend is undergoing emotional distress? By seeing the expressions on their face or listening to what they tell you. How do you know that you yourself are undergoing emotional distress? Here, you don’t need to rely on any external cues. You have a kind of direct access to your own conscious states that you don’t have to your friend’s conscious states. Your own conscious states are available to you by way of introspection – what we might metaphorically think of as a kind of ‘looking within’
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