One view of how the mind/brain works imagines something like a little person inside the head looking at screens and pulling levels, as if in a control room or operating a space ship.

It may sound funny, but when I look at it for myself, I see where the idea comes from. It is a mirror of what is going on right here.

There is content of experience, awareness and then someone being aware of content of experience. There is doing, awareness, and a doer. Thinking, awareness, and a thinker. Choosing, awareness, and a chooser.

Something is happening within and as awareness, and then there is a sense of a middle man mediating between the two.

If I explore this from Big Mind, I see that the middle man - obviously - is part of content of awareness. There is no “I” inherent in the middle man, no more than in anything else.

And if I explore it through the sense fields, I get to see the dynamics of it more in detail. I notice how the middle man - the observer, doer, thinker, chooser - is a mental field creation. It comes from a mental field overlay on top of the other sense fields.

There is a thought arising within and as awareness, and then an imagined thinker placed on top of it. An action of this human self in the world - arising within and as awareness - and then a mental field overlay of a doer. (This mental field creation - for me at least - visual. Taking the form of an outline of this human self, center-periphery, and so on.)

So no wonder the control room analogy came up in our minds. It is a direct representation of what is really going on, here now. It reflects direct experience when this experience is filtered through this mental field overlay - and it is not recognized as just a mental field creation.

It is a discredited theory in science. What happens when I explore it for myself, here now? What happens if I take the middle man as real? What happens if I see it as a mental field creation?

Initial draft…

• homunculus
  • many meanings/uses
  • one: man inside the head, pulling levers, looking at screens (Cartesian theater, as if a space ship)
  • mirror something right here, a sense of middle man
• sense of a middle man
  • content of experience - middle man - awareness
  • doing - doer - awareness, choosing - chooser - awareness
• explore
  • headlessness, Big Mind
    • notice that the middle man is part of content of experience, not anything special (apart from being identified with)
  • sense fields
    • notice how the middle man is a gestalt created from sensations + mental field images, and also how is part of content of experience as anything else