Qualia (The Secret Feeling)

Have you ever tried to explain exactly what the color yellow feels like? You can say it is bright, but you cannot give someone the feeling of yellow inside their own head. That special private feeling you have inside is something no word can ever fully grab. It is your own secret treasure that belongs only to you. Words are like the wrapping paper, but the Qualia is the actual gift inside.

Words are the wrapping paper but the Qualia is the actual gift inside. You have never tasted my red. I have never heard your silence. We use the same word — red, silence — but the experience inside your skull is a locked room that no other human being has ever entered. We are all standing outside each other's doors holding up signs that say the same thing. But the rooms are different. This is the loneliest and most beautiful fact about being human. Loneliest because no one will ever fully know what it is like to be you. Most beautiful because what it is like to be you is a one-time event in the history of the universe that will never be repeated.

Qualia: the explanatory gap in physicalism. No amount of linguistic or neurological data conveys the subjective what-it-is-likeness of experience. What it is like to be you is a one-time event in the history of the universe that will never be repeated.

SOUND: The ring in your ears in a silent room: a sound only you can hear that proves you are the only one inside your head.

SMELL: The specific scent of your own home: a smell no one else experiences the same way.

TASTE: The zing of a lemon that makes your eyes squint: a private reaction no description can replicate.

TOUCH: The shiver you get when someone whispers: the body responding to something language cannot bottle.

SIGHT: The tiny floaters you see against a bright sky: a private cinema playing inside your eyes alone.

BODY: The floaty feeling just before you fall asleep: the self hovering between describable and indescribable.

Music: Hole In My Soul by Aerosmith

Music: Second Chances by Gregory Alan Isakov

Music: Everyday Is a Winding Road by Sheryl Crow

Part of Language & Thought — CONSCIOUSNESS — Education Revelation