Short idea (105): In some ways, Heisenberg's ideas can be applied to consciousness: when we try to "observe" our own conscious experiences, the act of trying to observe them changes them or even destroys them. The reason this happens is different from why, according to Heisenberg, our attempts to observe sub-atomic particles change them. Speaking metaphorically, we are embedded in our conscious experiences, absorbed in them. In order to inspect them, we have to pull out of them, and this pulling out, this distancing ourselves from them, is part of what changes or destroys them.
Short idea (136): The eyes and ears are extra-sensitive parts of the skin and sights and sounds can be thought of as feelings received through touch. At the same time, the less specialized areas of the skin can be thought of as relatively insensitive eyes and ears that receive sights and sounds through touch. — If this isn't true, it is a useful mental exercise in introspection.
Short idea (152): An introspective exercise I did made me think that thinking is a branch of the imagination and that reason is a branch of thinking. However, it is just as possible that thinking and fantasy are offspring of the same parent (maybe the need to grasp the future). Or that they both come from the same root or need. Or that they are two forms of the same thing.
Introspection
If you shut your eyes and notice things going on in your head, chest, and other parts of your body, you are introspecting. Some people are very good at this and will immediately understand exactly what I mean by it. Others won't understand, either because they don't like to introspect for one reason or another or because they don't understand the idea. Perhaps it isn't their nature to turn inward. For some, Introspection is natural, and, for others, it feels difficult or even unnatural.
Psychological Exercise 5: Ways of looking at eyes, ears, and skin
Picture the eyes and ears as extra-sensitive parts of the skin and sights and sounds as feelings received through touch. At the same time, picture the less specialized areas of the skin as relatively insensitive eyes and ears that receive sights and sounds through touch.
Short idea (184): For those interested in experience, there are at least two variables to consider. First is the variety of experience, and this is achieved by living fully. The second is the nature of any individual experience, and this is understood through introspection and meditation.