On not being a brain (further commentary on consciousness and identity re the TED book; the Virtual Shadow)

It's sort of cute to read "the brain just needs to be present'.
The substitution of "scientifically correct" terms for the process of life - that is not only present - but Presence is an example of being more concerned with one's presented commentary on life than living it - or should I say - "being Lived' - because it is not by our own power that we live or think or have awareness of existence - and nor, are we a brain or an effect of a meat brain.
If you mess with my computer, I may not be able to type and communicate with you via these means - but my Mac is not the intelligence behind the message.

The focus on forms is the defocus from the relational field of which the awareness of the form is but part of the event.
This - further down the river of its process - becomes a consciousness that has to think or maintain a self referencing activity or it fears it will not exist - or will be confronted with non-existence. This compulsive activity is mental illness and not normal healthy running - even if such a loop is accepted to be the norm and therefore considered to be our nature.
Substitutes for life are the result of searching for a completeness that is believed lost by the act of identifying exclusively with forms and forgetting the relational being in which all experience is expressing.
Therefore people who meditate or enjoy silence or indeed one pointed appreciation and singleness of purpose, are much less inclined to 'scatter' themselves in distraction, or give themselves to what does not actually fulfil.