0:00:12.330,0:00:13.525
Thanks very much.

0:00:13.525,0:00:17.153
I'm not going to beat Gregory with his[br]saxophone for sure, but bear with me.

0:00:17.153,0:00:21.367
This might be - no, it won't be remotely[br]as interesting, as good or entertaining.

0:00:22.364,0:00:23.771
Is there a real you?

0:00:23.771,0:00:26.475
This might seem to you[br]like a very odd question.

0:00:26.475,0:00:28.707
Because, you might ask,

0:00:28.707,0:00:31.043
how do we find the real you,

0:00:31.043,0:00:33.302
how do you know what the real you is?

0:00:33.302,0:00:34.346
And so forth.

0:00:34.346,0:00:37.182
But the idea[br]that there must be a real you,

0:00:37.182,0:00:38.742
surely that's obvious.

0:00:38.742,0:00:41.708
If there's anything real in the world,[br]it's you.

0:00:42.013,0:00:44.106
Well, I'm not quite sure.

0:00:44.106,0:00:46.957
At least we have to understand[br]a bit better what that means.

0:00:46.957,0:00:50.390
Now certainly, I think there are[br]lots of things in our culture around us

0:00:50.390,0:00:52.495
which sort of reinforce the idea

0:00:52.495,0:00:56.064
that for each one of us,[br]we have a kind of a core, an essence.

0:00:56.064,0:00:59.388
There is something about what it means[br]to be you which defines you,

0:00:59.388,0:01:01.616
and it's kind of permanent and unchanging.

0:01:01.616,0:01:03.988
The most kind of crude way[br]in which we have it,

0:01:03.988,0:01:05.607
are things like horoscopes.

0:01:05.607,0:01:08.218
You know, people are very wedded[br]to these, actually.

0:01:08.218,0:01:10.611
People put them on their Facebook profile

0:01:10.611,0:01:12.094
as though they are meaningul,

0:01:12.094,0:01:14.239
you even know[br]your Chinese horoscope as well.

0:01:14.239,0:01:16.674
There are also more scientific[br]versions of this,

0:01:16.674,0:01:19.695
all sorts of ways of profiling[br]personality type,

0:01:19.695,0:01:22.523
such as the Myers-Briggs tests,[br]for example.

0:01:22.523,0:01:24.158
I don't know if you've done those.

0:01:24.158,0:01:26.239
A lot of companies[br]use these for recruitment.

0:01:26.239,0:01:28.758
You answer a lot of questions,

0:01:28.758,0:01:33.292
and this is supposed to reveal[br]something about your core personality.

0:01:33.292,0:01:36.478
And of course, the popular fascination[br]with this is enormous.

0:01:36.478,0:01:38.261
In magazines like this, you'll see,

0:01:38.261,0:01:41.723
in the bottom left corner,[br]they'll advertise in virtually every issue

0:01:41.723,0:01:43.833
some kind of personality thing.

0:01:43.833,0:01:45.903
And if you pick up one of those magazines,

0:01:45.903,0:01:47.391
it's hard to resist, isn't it?

0:01:47.391,0:01:49.826
Doing the test to find[br]what is your learning style,

0:01:49.826,0:01:52.854
what is your loving style,[br]or what is your working style?

0:01:52.854,0:01:55.107
Are you this kind of person or that?

0:01:55.107,0:01:58.273
So I think that we have[br]a common-sense idea

0:01:58.273,0:02:01.647
that there is a kind of core[br]or essence of ourselves

0:02:01.647,0:02:03.198
to be discovered.

0:02:03.198,0:02:06.315
And that this is kind of a permanent truth[br]about ourselves,

0:02:06.315,0:02:09.006
something that's the same throughout life.

0:02:09.006,0:02:12.222
Well, that's the idea I want to challenge.

0:02:12.222,0:02:14.813
And I have to say now,[br]I'll say it a bit later,

0:02:14.813,0:02:17.510
but I'm not challenging this[br]just because I'm weird,

0:02:17.510,0:02:20.993
the challenge actually has a very,[br]very long and distinguished history.

0:02:20.993,0:02:22.999
Here's the common-sense idea.

0:02:22.999,0:02:24.186
There is you.

0:02:24.186,0:02:28.095
You are the individuals you are,[br]and you have this kind of core.

0:02:28.095,0:02:31.921
Now in your life, what happens[br]is that you, of course,

0:02:31.921,0:02:34.721
accumulate different experiences[br]and so forth.

0:02:34.721,0:02:36.573
So you have memories,

0:02:36.573,0:02:39.466
and these memories[br]help to create what you are.

0:02:39.466,0:02:41.686
You have desires, maybe for a cookie,

0:02:41.686,0:02:44.276
maybe for something[br]that we don't want to talk about

0:02:44.276,0:02:46.447
at 11 o'clock in the morning in a school.

0:02:46.447,0:02:47.740
You will have beliefs.

0:02:47.740,0:02:49.967
This is a number plate[br]from someone in America.

0:02:49.967,0:02:52.934
I don't know whether this number plate,[br]which says "messiah 1,"

0:02:52.934,0:02:55.751
indicates that the driver[br]believes in the messiah,

0:02:55.751,0:02:57.678
or that they are the messiah.

0:02:57.678,0:03:00.658
Either way,[br]they have beliefs about messiahs.

0:03:00.658,0:03:02.120
We have knowledge.

0:03:02.120,0:03:04.378
We have sensations[br]and experiences as well.

0:03:04.378,0:03:06.895
It's not just intellectual things.

0:03:06.895,0:03:09.421
So this is kind of the common-sense model,[br]I think,

0:03:09.421,0:03:10.650
of what a person is.

0:03:10.650,0:03:16.193
There is a person who has all the things[br]that make up our life experiences.

0:03:16.193,0:03:19.076
But the suggestion[br]I want to put to you today

0:03:19.076,0:03:22.347
is that there's something[br]fundamentally wrong with this model.

0:03:22.347,0:03:24.927
And I can show you what's wrong[br]with one click.

0:03:24.927,0:03:30.774
Which is there isn't actually a "you"[br]at the heart of all these experiences.

0:03:31.763,0:03:33.629
Strange thought?[br]Well, maybe not.

0:03:33.629,0:03:34.944
What is there, then?

0:03:34.944,0:03:38.190
Well, clearly there are memories,[br]desires, intentions, sensations,

0:03:38.190,0:03:39.682
and so forth.

0:03:39.682,0:03:42.397
But what happens is[br]these things exist,

0:03:42.397,0:03:44.601
and they're kind of all integrated,

0:03:44.601,0:03:47.948
they're overlapped, they're connected[br]in various different ways.

0:03:47.948,0:03:50.781
They're connecting partly,[br]and perhaps even mainly,

0:03:50.781,0:03:54.288
because they all belong[br]to one body and one brain.

0:03:54.288,0:03:57.187
But there's also a narrative,[br]a story we tell about ourselves,

0:03:57.187,0:04:00.131
the experiences we have[br]when we remember past things.

0:04:00.131,0:04:02.538
We do things because of other things.

0:04:02.538,0:04:06.237
So what we desire is partly[br]a result of what we believe,

0:04:06.237,0:04:09.770
and what we remember is also[br]informing us what we know.

0:04:09.770,0:04:12.071
And so really, there are all these things,

0:04:12.071,0:04:15.002
like beliefs, desires,[br]sensations, experiences,

0:04:15.002,0:04:17.683
they're all related to each other,

0:04:17.683,0:04:20.220
and that just is you.

0:04:22.290,0:04:26.260
In some ways, it's a small difference[br]from the common-sense understanding.

0:04:26.260,0:04:28.216
In some ways, it's a massive one.

0:04:28.216,0:04:30.328
It's the shift between[br]thinking of yourself

0:04:30.328,0:04:33.729
as a thing which has[br]all the experiences of life,

0:04:33.729,0:04:36.532
and thinking of yourself[br]as simply that collection

0:04:36.532,0:04:38.674
of all experiences in life.

0:04:38.674,0:04:41.071
You are the sum of your parts.

0:04:41.071,0:04:43.869
Now those parts are also physical parts,[br]of course,

0:04:43.869,0:04:45.925
brains, bodies and legs and things,

0:04:45.925,0:04:47.865
but they aren't so important, actually.

0:04:47.865,0:04:50.446
If you have a heart transplant,[br]you're still the same person.

0:04:50.446,0:04:53.338
If you have a memory transplant,[br]are you the same person?

0:04:53.338,0:04:56.392
If you have a belief transplant,[br]would you be the same person?

0:04:56.392,0:05:00.737
Now this idea, that what we are,[br]the way to understand ourselves,

0:05:00.737,0:05:05.156
is as not of some permanent being,[br]which has experiences,

0:05:05.156,0:05:07.994
but is kind of a collection[br]of experiences,

0:05:07.994,0:05:10.662
might strike you as kind of weird.

0:05:10.662,0:05:13.005
But actually,[br]I don't think it should be weird.

0:05:13.005,0:05:14.795
In a way, it's common sense.

0:05:14.795,0:05:17.723
Because I just invite you to think about,[br]by comparison,

0:05:17.723,0:05:21.510
think about pretty much anything else[br]in the universe,

0:05:21.932,0:05:25.360
maybe apart from the very[br]most fundamental forces or powers.

0:05:25.532,0:05:27.778
Let's take something like water.

0:05:27.778,0:05:30.192
Now my science isn't very good.

0:05:30.192,0:05:32.877
We might say something[br]like water has two parts hydrogen

0:05:32.877,0:05:35.100
and one parts oxygen, right?

0:05:35.100,0:05:36.667
We all know that.

0:05:36.667,0:05:40.035
I hope no one in this room[br]thinks that what that means

0:05:40.035,0:05:43.894
is there is a thing called water,[br]and attached to it

0:05:43.894,0:05:46.861
are hydrogen and oxygen atoms,

0:05:46.861,0:05:48.161
and that's what water is.

0:05:48.161,0:05:49.599
Of course we don't.

0:05:49.599,0:05:52.666
We understand, very easily,[br]very straightforwardly,

0:05:52.666,0:05:54.351
that water is nothing more

0:05:54.351,0:05:58.706
than the hydrogen and oxygen molecules[br]suitably arranged.

0:05:59.083,0:06:01.530
Everything else in the universe[br]is the same.

0:06:01.530,0:06:04.208
There's no mystery about my watch,[br]for example.

0:06:05.217,0:06:08.205
We say the watch has a face, and hands,

0:06:08.205,0:06:09.901
and a mechanism and a battery,

0:06:09.901,0:06:11.349
But what we really mean is,

0:06:11.349,0:06:13.617
we don't think there is a thing[br]called the watch

0:06:13.617,0:06:15.489
to which we then attach all these bits.

0:06:15.489,0:06:18.686
We understand very clearly[br]that you get the parts of the watch,

0:06:18.686,0:06:21.173
you put them together,[br]and you create a watch.

0:06:21.173,0:06:23.642
Now if everything else[br]in the universe is like this,

0:06:23.642,0:06:25.717
why are we different?

0:06:25.717,0:06:27.386
Why think of ourselves

0:06:27.386,0:06:31.192
as somehow not just being[br]a collection of all our parts,

0:06:31.192,0:06:35.767
but somehow being a separate,[br]permanent entity which has those parts?

0:06:36.388,0:06:39.284
Now this view is not particularly new,[br]actually.

0:06:39.284,0:06:40.727
It has quite a long lineage.

0:06:40.727,0:06:42.342
You find it in Buddhism,

0:06:42.342,0:06:44.985
you find it in 17th,[br]18th-century philosophy

0:06:44.985,0:06:48.754
going through to the current day,[br]people like Locke and Hume.

0:06:48.754,0:06:50.573
But interestingly, it's also a view

0:06:50.573,0:06:54.291
increasingly being heard[br]reinforced by neuroscience.

0:06:54.928,0:06:58.390
This is Paul Broks,[br]he's a clinical neuropsychologist,

0:06:58.390,0:06:59.816
and he says this:

0:06:59.816,0:07:02.456
"We have a deep intuition[br]that there is a core,

0:07:02.456,0:07:04.778
an essence there,[br]and it's hard to shake off,

0:07:04.778,0:07:07.691
probably impossible to shake off,[br]I suspect.

0:07:07.691,0:07:11.371
But it's true that neuroscience shows[br]that there is no centre in the brain

0:07:11.371,0:07:13.915
where things do all come together."

0:07:13.915,0:07:16.262
So when you look at the brain,

0:07:16.262,0:07:20.145
and you look at how the brain[br]makes possible a sense of self,

0:07:20.145,0:07:23.981
you find that there isn't[br]a central control spot in the brain.

0:07:23.981,0:07:27.044
There is no kind of center[br]where everything happens.

0:07:27.044,0:07:29.668
There are lots of different processes[br]in the brain,

0:07:29.668,0:07:32.737
all of which operate, in a way,[br]quite independently.

0:07:32.737,0:07:35.591
But it's because of the way[br]that they relate

0:07:35.591,0:07:38.054
that we get this sense of self.

0:07:38.054,0:07:41.696
The term I use in the book,[br]I call it the ego trick.

0:07:43.410,0:07:46.493
It's like a mechanical trick.

0:07:46.969,0:07:49.352
It's not that we don't exist,

0:07:49.352,0:07:52.490
it's just that the trick is[br]to make us feel that inside of us

0:07:52.490,0:07:55.623
is something more unified[br]than is really there.

0:07:55.623,0:07:58.860
Now you might think[br]this is a worrying idea.

0:07:58.860,0:08:01.404
You might think that if it's true,

0:08:01.404,0:08:05.381
that for each one of us[br]there is no abiding core of self,

0:08:05.381,0:08:07.229
no permanent essence,

0:08:07.229,0:08:11.149
does that mean that really,[br]the self is an illusion?

0:08:11.149,0:08:13.420
Does it mean that we really don't exist?

0:08:13.420,0:08:15.321
There is no real you.

0:08:15.321,0:08:19.196
Well, a lot of people actually[br]do use this talk of illusion and so forth.

0:08:19.196,0:08:22.586
These are three psychologists,[br]Thomas Metzinger, Bruce Hood,

0:08:22.586,0:08:24.509
Susan Blackmore,

0:08:24.509,0:08:27.675
a lot of these people[br]do talk the language of illusion,

0:08:27.675,0:08:29.999
the self is an illusion, it's a fiction.

0:08:29.999,0:08:32.778
But I don't think this is[br]a very helpful way of looking at it.

0:08:32.778,0:08:34.352
Go back to the watch.

0:08:34.352,0:08:37.825
The watch isn't an illusion,[br]because there is nothing to the watch

0:08:37.825,0:08:40.050
other than a collection of its parts.

0:08:40.050,0:08:42.609
In the same way,[br]we're not illusions either.

0:08:42.609,0:08:47.551
The fact that we are, in some ways,[br]just this very, very complex collection,

0:08:47.551,0:08:49.228
ordered collection of things,

0:08:49.228,0:08:51.254
does not mean we're not real.

0:08:51.254,0:08:54.411
I can give you a very[br]sort of rough metaphor for this.

0:08:54.411,0:08:56.643
Let's take something like a waterfall.

0:08:56.643,0:08:59.404
These are the Iguazu Falls, in Argentina.

0:09:00.516,0:09:02.622
Now if you take something like this,

0:09:02.622,0:09:05.374
you can appreciate the fact[br]that in lots of ways,

0:09:05.374,0:09:07.540
there's nothing permanent about this.

0:09:07.540,0:09:09.401
For one thing, it's always changing.

0:09:09.401,0:09:12.251
The waters are always[br]carving new channels.

0:09:12.251,0:09:14.463
with changes in tides and the weather,

0:09:14.463,0:09:18.294
some things dry up,[br]new things are created.

0:09:18.984,0:09:22.141
Of course the water[br]that flows through the waterfall

0:09:22.141,0:09:24.582
is different at every single instance.

0:09:24.582,0:09:28.215
But it doesn't mean[br]that the Iguazu Falls are an illusion.

0:09:28.215,0:09:30.298
It doesn't mean it's not real.

0:09:30.298,0:09:32.872
What it means is[br]we have to understand what it is

0:09:32.872,0:09:34.936
as something which has a history,

0:09:34.936,0:09:37.487
has certain things that keep it together,

0:09:37.487,0:09:40.587
but it's a process, it's fluid,[br]it's forever changing.

0:09:40.587,0:09:43.994
Now that, I think, is a model[br]for understanding ourselves,

0:09:43.994,0:09:46.174
and I think it's a liberating model.

0:09:46.174,0:09:49.058
Because if you think that you have[br]this fixed, permanent essence,

0:09:49.058,0:09:51.871
which is always the same,[br]throughout your life, no matter what,

0:09:51.871,0:09:54.391
in a sense you're kind of trapped.

0:09:54.391,0:09:56.983
You're born with an essence,

0:09:56.983,0:09:59.518
that's what you are until you die,

0:09:59.518,0:10:02.668
if you believe in an afterlife,[br]maybe you continue.

0:10:02.668,0:10:05.406
But if you think of yourself[br]as being, in a way,

0:10:05.406,0:10:08.756
not a thing as such,[br]but a kind of a process,

0:10:08.756,0:10:11.004
something that is changing,

0:10:11.004,0:10:13.137
then I think that's quite liberating.

0:10:13.137,0:10:15.481
Because unlike the the waterfalls,

0:10:15.481,0:10:17.828
we actually have the capacity to channel

0:10:17.828,0:10:21.914
the direction of our development[br]for ourselves to a certain degree.

0:10:21.914,0:10:23.944
Now we've got to be careful here, right?

0:10:23.944,0:10:27.149
If you watch the X-Factor too much,[br]you might buy into this idea

0:10:27.149,0:10:29.666
that we can all be whatever we want to be.

0:10:29.666,0:10:31.014
That's not true.

0:10:31.014,0:10:33.506
I've heard some fantastic musicians[br]this morning,

0:10:33.506,0:10:36.989
and I am very confident[br]that I could in no way be as good as them.

0:10:36.989,0:10:39.378
I could practice hard and maybe be good,

0:10:39.378,0:10:42.271
but I don't have[br]that really natural ability.

0:10:42.271,0:10:44.792
There are limits to what we can achieve.

0:10:44.792,0:10:47.353
There are limits to[br]what we can make of ourselves.

0:10:47.353,0:10:49.855
But nevertheless, we do have this capacity

0:10:49.855,0:10:53.502
to, in a sense, shape ourselves.

0:10:54.039,0:10:56.357
The true self, as it were then,

0:10:56.357,0:11:00.119
is not something that is just there[br]for you to discover,

0:11:00.119,0:11:03.698
you don't sort of look into your soul[br]and find your true self.

0:11:03.698,0:11:05.654
What you are partly doing, at least,

0:11:05.654,0:11:08.243
is actually creating your true self.

0:11:08.243,0:11:10.361
And this, I think, is very,[br]very significant,

0:11:10.361,0:11:12.530
particularly[br]at this stage of life you're at.

0:11:12.530,0:11:14.078
You'll be aware of the fact

0:11:14.078,0:11:16.098
how much of you changed over recent years.

0:11:16.098,0:11:19.062
If you have any videos of yourself,[br]three or four years ago,

0:11:19.062,0:11:22.642
you probably feel embarrassed[br]because you don't recognize yourself.

0:11:22.642,0:11:25.839
So I want to get that message over,[br]that what we need to do

0:11:25.839,0:11:28.591
is think about ourselves as things[br]that we can shape,

0:11:28.591,0:11:29.903
and channel and change.

0:11:29.903,0:11:31.441
This is the Buddha, again:

0:11:31.441,0:11:33.257
"Well-makers lead the water,

0:11:33.257,0:11:34.806
fletchers bend the arrow,

0:11:34.806,0:11:36.844
carpenters bend a log of wood,

0:11:36.844,0:11:40.278
wise people fashion themselves."

0:11:40.597,0:11:42.961
And that's the idea[br]I want to leave you with,

0:11:42.961,0:11:48.818
that your true self is not something[br]that you will have to go searching for,

0:11:49.134,0:11:51.903
as a mystery, and maybe never ever find.

0:11:51.903,0:11:54.345
To the extent you have a true self,

0:11:54.345,0:11:56.821
it's something that you in part discover,

0:11:56.821,0:11:59.315
but in part create.

0:11:59.315,0:12:03.446
and that, I think,[br]is a liberating and exciting prospect.

0:12:04.013,0:12:05.575
Thank you very much.

0:12:05.575,0:12:07.572
(Applause)