How our front and gestalt of consciousnesses works
(we wrote this up, with the graphics, three years ago, and it is still accurate to our perceptions and memories) This is sort of a very rough illustration of the evolution of our self awareness.
It's a very visceral thing for us. We can look at this structure in our psyche and see and feel it as if it is our collective souls' body, so to speak.
That said, looking at the second model, when we switch from one inner eye to another inner eye, the strength of the "illusion" is so strong that it usually just feels like one inner eye has just moved positions. Except that once there we can look across our consciousness and literally see the previous inner eye that was active and fronting before, and we can feel it's autonomy.
We believe this illusion of singularity is caused by shared consciousness. That by partially merging, we perceive each other's awarenesses as if they are our own, up until the point they depart from the collective focus and act independently.
The "front" then must be a set of neurons that is used for giving the greatest conscious awareness to whomever is looking through them. And we say greatest, because we all exhibit conscious awareness when we're not fronting, and we even can access memories of it of times when we weren't fronting. But coming to the front overrides those memories, probably due to the overwhelming strength of the gestalt there.
But, despite all the evidence that we are continually perceiving and analyzing that says our model must be the second graphic, the illusion is so strong that it's super hard not to reflexively think of ourselves as like the first graphic.
[image descriptions: two images
first image: A diagram labeled, "At first, this is how we perceived our system." There is one point labeled "inner eye". From it extend 5 arrows, each labeled "headmate".
second image: A diagram labeled, "Since becoming aware of our plurality, how we perceive it now." There are five arrows that cross in the middle. At the base of each arrow is a separate circle for that arrow, and all the circles are labeled "multiple inner eyes". Each arrow head is labeled "headmate". Where the arrows cross is a label that reads, "the illusion of a single inner eye".]
