A primitive tribe is found in the dense forests of South America.  The tribe has never had contact with modern civilization.  While the tribe is sleeping a battery operated radio with a clear plastic case is set into the middle of the village and is controlled by a researcher via a remote control electronic system.  A satellite is used to monitor the tribes daily activity.  When they awaken the researcher turns on the radio and the tribal members now hear a voice projected through the radio speakers.

Of course they are stunned by the event and have no comprehension of the technology involved.  No matter how they approach the radio there is simply no way to see it connected to anything else.  When looking at the inside via the clear plastic case they see wiring and components that make up a radio but nothing else.  And yet they know that the voice they hear is coming from the radio therefore in terms of their primitive logic (based only on the forest they live in), the owner of the voice must be inside the radio. 

Now substitute the concept of a primitive tribe with a group of modern day neurologists studying the human brain.  They know that as they prod and poke different responses occur and yet they cannot actually find those responses within the brain.  All they ever find is the wiring and components that make up the brain.  The neurologists know that the responses they measure are coming from inside the brain therefore in terms of their primitive logic (base only on modern day civilization), the owner of the responses must be inside the brain.

Are you your brain?  With no other information and using Occam’s Razor the best guess is Yes.  It is the simplest explanation and does not require new assumptions.  Of course it may not be the correct answer, just as it would not be a correct answer for the forest people to conclude that the owner of the voice is inside the radio.  Occam’s razor is useful for keeping things tidy in terms of research but it can also stop you from thinking outside the box.  Its purpose is to avoid accepting illusions as reality….the problem is we don’t always know the limits to reality.

Illusions occur at many levels.  And most of it is simply due to our lack of comprehension regarding the nature of existence.  Now in order to provide some context to ‘illusions’ we need to look at some laws of physics.  Surface laws are almost self evident, such as what goes up must come down (Newtonian physics).  Subsurface laws are not self evident and at times seem to be metaphysical in nature (Quantum physics).  However at both Surface and Subsurface there is what is known as the Observer Effect:: you actually change the outcome of a measurement by observing it.  A simple example of this is measuring voltage.  A certain amount of voltage exists in the line (X).  Now you want to measure X but as soon as you connect to the line, the measurement you get is not what was there before you measured because your measuring instrument adds more load to the system.  You can’t measure that electric current  without changing the outcome.    Of course that is a very simple example of measurement at the surface level.  The simple fact is that the measurement changes many things at the subsurface level.  Such as the interaction between the current and the wire.  You may not see them but things are in a constant state of change.  In a way the outcome is an illusion of the reality of what was there before you measured. 

Now you might say: “well that wouldn’t happen if I were measuring a table.  A tape ruler doesn’t change the measurement of the table.  If it did we could never really measure anything.”  And of course you would be right.   It is true that the measurement itself would not change.  But think about it…when you laid that ruler on the table, residue from the ruler is now a part of the table, including your finger prints.  Something did change, but not enough to make any difference to you.  What is important is to understand that things happen at a subsurface level, that could at some point reach the surface level:  a drop of water that seeps into the grain of the table could eventually produce a crack.

Sometimes the illusions change simply because of how we approach the task of observation.  In a double slit experiment in 1803 Thomas Young demonstrated conclusively that light was a wave.  However, Einstein also proved that light is a particle.  So which is it?  This is where the universe starts looking a bit metaphysical.    In his classic book on Physics “The Dancing Wu Li Masters” Gary Zukav presents the following:

“Since Einstein 'proved' that light is composed of photons, let us go back to Young's double-slit experiment and run it with photons. (This has been done). Suppose that we have a light gun which can fire, in effect, one photon at a time. The experiment is set up as before, except that only one slit is open. Now we fire the photon, it goes through the open slit, and we mark where it hits the wall (using a photographic plate). Because we have done this experiment before, we notice that the photon has landed in an area that would be dark if the second slit were open. That is, if the second slit were open, no photons would be recorded in this area.

To make sure, we do the experiment again, but this time we leave both of the slits open. Just as we thought, there are no photons recorded now in the area where the photons hit in our first experiment. When both slits are open and interference is present, this area is in the middle of a dark band.

The question is, how did the photon in the first experiment know that the second slit was not open? Think about it. If both slits are open, there are always alternating bands of illuminated and dark areas.  This means there are always areas where the photons never go (otherwise there would not be any dark areas).  If one of the slits is closed, there is no interference and the dark bands disappear; the whole wall becomes illuminated, including those areas which previously were dark when both slits were open.

When we fired our photon and it went through the first slit, how did it 'know' that it could go to an area that must be dark if the other slit was open?  In other words, how did the photon know that the other slit was closed?

There is no definite answer to this question. Some physicists, like E. H. Walker, speculate that photons may be conscious!" 

Living organisms emit light (1).  For a fascinating discussion of this read Dan Eden’s article “Are humans really beings of light?”.   And light is a gathering of photons.  Looking at the material presented by Zukav it would not be unreasonable to conclude that the photons in your body are in fact in communication with each other.  Are they also in communication with photons that are not emitted by you?  So now Who Are You?  Well it would appear that at least part of you is a constantly emitting light source that is probably in constant communication with other light sources.  And what kind of information is carried in that communication?  Well one possibility is the information projected through that great switching devise called “a brain”.  Given the information regarding subsurface physics I would say No we are not our brain. The conceptualization of photons is sort of the edge between physical and non physical reality. Deepak Chopra thinks we are beings of light. That is as limiting as is the concept that we are our brain. I suspect the 'we' or 'I' is a consciousness which plays with photons. Photons are to the consciousness similar to what paint is to an artist.

(1) Popp FA, et al. ‘Biophoton emission’ multi-author review. Experientia. 1988;44:543–600

Note: Surface= Macro level, Subsurface= Micro level.