Jonathan Rogers

I herewith respectfully submit a datum for your consideration towards advancing our knowledge of human consciousness. It purports to provide an approach to defining “nothing definite”, things that humanity perceives as such: soul, psyche, deities, spirit, essence, all that.
The datum: What we perceive is not us.
Axiomatic. We perceive the material universe and the intangible, that is, something and anything other than ourselves. Applying the datum as a thought experiment and subsequently in practice defines us through contrast to what we are not, thus isolating the entity perceiving. The physical affect in the body of the perceiver experiencing perception, recorded and verified through established technology is a unique identifiable consequence of the datum and as such is a definite. In the realm of “nothing definite”, to have a definite seems remarkably compelling somehow.
The isolation of the perceiver reveals the duality of perceiver and perceived and provides the primary contrast through which perception is achieved. As the perceiver has no evidence of its existence without what it perceives, it could, maybe, possibly, be considered as a singularity as a particle integrated in all.
The datum applied provides a verifiable constant. Application of the datum under controlled conditions will demonstrate a “nothing definite” in scientific actuality - consciousness and the hard evidence.
The datum is easily accessed by anybody, it bridges all differences, translates easily, it is one thing that all of us can potentially agree upon. It is clean, untainted, free of persuasions.
I face an uncertain task here, I have little experience conveying this datum in text. I have presented it informally to small audiences (video available on request) with confirming results, but never under controlled conditions. I have no way of knowing whether or not a reader of this will actually “do” the datum. Please check it out if you will, test it, check the result. Do it again. Do it later. Do it outside. Do it amongst people. Do it anywhere at any time.