Homunculus, the idea of a little person observing and experiencing, can be seen as a silly idea. And it would be, today, if we take it as real and “out there” in the world.

But it can also be a source of great insights and interesting explorations, if it is taken as real in terms of our experience and images of the world.

What do I find if I look for the “doer” in my experience, here and now? Do I find an image of a doer? (This may be easier, at first, with eyes closed.) An image of “me” as a human in the world doing things? And an image of a “doer” pulling the strings and making this “me” do things? Can I find it outside of these images? Is the image of a doer different from any other images? Is it different from any other content of experience?

What do I find when I look for the “observer” in immediacy? Do I find an image of an observer? An image of someone, an object, observing and experiencing? Where is it located? Is it “anchored” on certain sensations? Does it shift location as attention is brought to it? Can I find it outside of these images?

Also, what happens when the image of the doer or observer is noticed? What happens if identification with the doer or observer is softened, or even released? What happens when either is identified with?

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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?

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