Amos, Why codwallop? My belief is not that self, creativity, intention and all the rest don't exist, just that there is no need to posit the unprovable to explain it.

Contradiction seem a necessary part of life. Doesn't curiosity grow out of perceived contradictions? How do you resolve those contradictions? Its much easier if you have determined the answer before you ask the question. Freud saddled the world with id-ego-superego, hiding it behind claims of legitimate scientific inquiry.(and using his fame to attack any who disagreed) A nice neat package that explained everything. Except, as we now realize, he creatively edited results to support his pre-determined conclusions. And caused a lot of pain and suffering. His theories wrapped it all up neatly. And precluded the use of drugs to correct chemical imbalances because it was the Mind and its experiences, not the physical structure of the brain that was the problem. The result, for some, was endless years of therapy, trying to fix something that probably doesn't exist. Failure, of course, was the fault of the patient. The various pharmacological solutions to demonstrated chemical imbalances helped a whole lot of people, but a significant number of lay and professionals still look at that as "covering up the problem" or "a crutch". The belief was that the MIND, not the brain that was the problem. After all, if the drugs seem to work, doesn't that suggest that maybe the Mind isn't MIND? At the very least it would seem to indicate that the merely mundane plays a significant role in such things.

Briefly, a comforting belief, the mind as Mind, fixed nothing, helped few and harmed many. (Yeah, greatly oversimplified)

Speaking only for myself, I don't "live the experimental track". Just use as a tool to help make sense of the world. Building a world view is like building a skyscraper. Its much harder if you start on the top floor and work down, no matter how pleasant the view may be from up there.

I seem to have missed something on this, and similar, threads as I have found no one who "have yet to dsicover they are not a what, let alone find the who behind it". Found a lot that don't agree with me, yes. Learned, and hope to learn, more, also yes. Gathered a lot of food for thought. That to. Argued as a skeptic and at least got others considering an alternate way of looking at things, I hope so.

The great danger, when you know the Answer first is that the contradictory evidence is simply ignored. Its also a lot easier that way.

Regards

John