Thought Experiment 1 - The Void

Experiment procedure: Lay on your back in a quiet spot and try to block out all of your senses

In this experiment even though I was lying down on my back in a quiet space it was hard, if not impossible, to block out or ignore all of my senses. I noticed that it was possible to pay less attention to certain senses such as smell. However, this was only possible when my attention was diverted from one sense and focused on another. For example, I found it easy to not think about my sense of smell but in doing so I was more sensitive to the grass I was laying on (touch). Because I couldn't ignore my senses entirely, this experiment seems to support the philosopher Hume as he said there is only one form of reality that becomes apparent through your senses. This exercise also denies Descartes theory of metaphysical dualism between mental and physical reality. According to Descartes the physical and mental parts of reality are completely separate. Although, based on this experiment that can't be true because for me is was impossible to reach the state where all I was thinking about were my thoughts.

After about three or four minutes the grass that I was laying on seemed make me feel less itchy than it did at the beginning of the experiment. This is strange because I hadn't moved at all. It appears as though I got used to the sense of touch which would mean that my senses changed. Descartes' attack on the senses is that they are unreliably because they change. This part of the exercise would support Descartes' attack on the senses because my sense of touch was altered and was therefore unreliable.