You're Not IN the Body: Why It Matters
A contemplative investigation + two book recommendations to deepen this understanding
For a second, let’s engage in this thought experiment. Let’s imagine you’re in a dream. I’m in it too. In your own dream! Remember that! It’s just you and I taking a walk on the streets of where-ever-the-heck dreams conjure up. We are having an existentialism conversation. I then pose a question to you, “What if you are not in your body, and you’re located somewhere totally different? Perhaps not even located in the dream at all!” You would probably argue with me, pointing out how you could be nowhere else apart from the body which you gesture with one of your hands.
Scenario over! Now, on this physical plain of reference, if I asked the same question, your response may be “Of course, I'm in my body! Where else would I be?”
So in this one, I want to explore with you the possibility that you may, in fact, not be IN the body, contrary to our collective belief. The body exists in awareness. In other words, awareness isn’t trapped or localized in a physical vessel—rather, the entire bodily experience arises within awareness itself. I will attempt to explore and investigate this using inspiration from the work of Greg Goode in his book, The Direct Path: A User Guide. I will then go into why this matters in the grand scheme of things. And that’s the beautiful part of this for me!
Flipping the Subject-Container Assumption
Our default view of ourselves is a subject-in-a-container model: “I” (subject) am inside this body, looking out at the world. This ingrained “container metaphor” conditions us to see ourselves as enclosed entities separate from everything else. But where exactly are you in the body? Upon investigation, we may find we are actually not where we think we are. In Greg Goode’s book he guide’s the reader into this investigation which I will spell out in my own words here(and there’s also a video below to demonstrate this).
The investigation
If you split the body in half, say at the waist, ask yourself if you’re in the upper half or the lower. Chances are you would identify yourself being at the upper half. We then split this top half into two, the head and neck being one half and the rest of the abdomen being the second half. Now, if asked where you are, you would most likely point to the topmost half— the head and neck half.
Now let’s split the face in half horizontally around the nose line. Now, are you above the nose area or below it? If you’re like me, you may start to conclude that you are somewhere on the line of where the eyes are, somewhere behind the eyes— some small location somewhere mid-head behind the eyes.
As you go on this investigation, finding that place that you are, the real question we should now ask is “is that you or are you observing that?” You may see that that feeling or sense of where you are is something YOU are observing. No matter where you find ‘yourself’ you would notice that location is just something that’s arising in awareness. You would ultimately find that, like in a dream, you don’t have any location.
Also, you can consider this other investigation. Close your eyes and notice what’s actually present: perhaps pressure around the face, darkness, mental imagery of your head’s interior. Those sensations and images appear to you, the awareness. They don’t prove that “you” are literally inside the head; they’re simply thoughts/feelings labeled “me in the head.” The mind takes perspectives (like vision originating between the eyes) and weaves a self-location story around them. It’s an ingenious illusion.
But you may still think “Well, I still feel and believe I am inside this body”.
There is yet another analogy we can use that I will call the space-in-a-pot analogy. If you imagine a jar with space in it, would you agree with me that the space within the jar is not different than the space outside the jar? When the jar breaks, it’s obvious that inside and outside were one space all along. Likewise, awareness or consciousness appears “inside” a body, yet it remains the indivisible, all-pervasive reality. Awareness is neither inside nor outside the body, but everywhere —the very notions of “inside” and “outside” simply don’t apply to it the way the space inside of your room is not different than the space outside it and is vastly wider and freer than its occupation. Why then do we define the room by only what we see?
In our belief that we are IN the body, we have unknowingly reversed the truth: identifying as a thing (body) that contains awareness, instead of awareness containing all things (including the body) is like saying the room owns the space in it when in fact, the room appears in space. Once this is clear, it’s easy to see that “You are not in the body, the body is in you… Everything arises in the vast, open, empty space of Consciousness or the Self”. That understanding helps you realize you are non-locale! You are not found in time and space. In that awakened perspective, the body, mind, and world are experienced as contents floating in the expanse of awareness. The subject–container illusion is then seen through, what’s left is awareness or the Self as the true locus of experience.
In reality, awareness has no size, shape, or location—it’s the aware space in which all locations and positions are imagined. As Advaita texts remind us, the Self is space-like: subtle, without parts, and all-pervasive . Location applies to objects, not to the subject which is aware of all objects
Why it matters
Dispelling the illusion of being “in the body” could be mind-blowing literally. First, it undermines fear at the root. If you believe you are a vulnerable entity sealed in a bag of skin, the world appears threatening and “out there.” But when you realize your identity as boundless awareness, the body is understood as an appearance within you, not as your ‘prison’ or even meat suit, as some would express it. This loosens the grip of the fear of death and harm. The body may be subject to injury, sickness and death, but you (awareness) are not in it to be killed. As one contemplative, Dr. Andy Atwood put it, you shift from being in pain to finding pain within you—surrounding it in a vast expanse—and thereby transcend much of its sting. A fearless peace reveals itself when you know yourself as the space in which all experience comes and goes.
It is true that the physical matter of your body is inside the matter of the house, and the matter of the house is inside the matter of the universe. But you are not merely matter or physicality. You are also Consciousness as Such, of which matter is merely the outer skin. The ego adopts the viewpoint of matter, and therefore is constantly trapped by matter—trapped and tortured by the physics of pain. But pain, too, arises in your consciousness, and you can either be in pain, or find pain in you, so that you surround pain, are bigger than pain, transcend pain, as you rest in the vast expanse of pure Emptiness that you deeply and truly are.— Dr. Andy Atwood
Secondly, this flip opens the door to non-separation. No longer seeing others as “out there” separate containers, you recognize that the same awareness that is your essence is equally the essence of all. There are no multiple awarenesses, just one field in which different body-mind patterns arise. This dissolves the hard borders between self and other. Compassion and empathy cease to be effortful moral ideals; they become the natural outcome of literally feeling others as within the same awareness. The Upanishadic vision “All this is Brahman” shifts from concept to lived reality.
Finally, it reshapes your devotional and contemplative life. If awareness is the true temple, then our relationship with the divine transforms. We are no longer tiny supplicants locked in a body, addressing a distant God. Instead, prayer and meditation become an interior communion in the very space of awareness where the divine presence lives. Christian mystics have long intuited this. For example, Paul is recorded to have recounted a Roman poet’s knowing, in God we live and move and have our being, suggesting that we exist within the Divine Life, not outside it. Likewise, he spoke of our life being “hidden with Christ in God.” These statements echo the nondual truth that we are living in God (Awareness), and that is our real home. The bodily sense of separateness gives way to a felt unity with the ground of Being. One realizes one’s consciousness is not a tiny flame inside the body, but a single, vast light in which “body” and “world” appear. In devotional terms, awareness is the sacred meeting place (the “inner sanctuary”) where one is one with God. Every moment of life is then happening within that hallowed space. This is a radical reorientation: life is no longer lived from inside out, but seen as the glorious dance of appearances within the infinite openness of Spirit.
Discovering that you are not in the body but that the body is in you (awareness) uproots a fundamental misperception. It removes the false boundary that made you feel small, vulnerable, and separate from the divine. What remains is an uncontained, fearless, and all-embracing identity in Spirit. “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.” (Ephesians 2:6, NIV). So if you’re sat with Christ in heavenly realms, where else can you be?
Contemplative Inquiry Prompts
To verify and deepen this realization for yourself, here are some direct inquiry exercises in addition to Greg Goode’s Direct Path book. I also could not recommend enough, Brian O’Connor’s book, Awareness Games: Playing With Your Mind To Create Joy. It has exercises and prompts that subtly dissolved my own association with solidity.
These contemplative prompts are meant to guide you to experientially see through the illusion of being “in” the body. One or more of these may resonate deeper than the others:
Point of View Experiment: Close your eyes and notice the sense of being located somewhere in your head. Gently inquire: Where exactly is the observer? Can you find a clear boundary or point inside the skull where “you” reside, or only thoughts, images, and sensations appearing to awareness? If you are still convinced you’re there in the head, how small are you?
Hearing as an All-Directional Field: Listen to sounds around you (a bird, a car passing). Notice the sounds simply arise in awareness without traveling from a place outside to a listener inside. Ask yourself: Is awareness boxed into a head listening, or are sounds occurring in a boundless aware space?
Body Sensations in Awareness: Bring attention to bodily sensations (pressure on the chair, the chest rising and falling). Instead of assuming these sensations mark the edges of “you,” observe them as events within your awareness. Are you inside those sensations, or are they sensations inside your awareness? Do they enclose awareness in any way, or do they come and go in the open space of knowing?
Exploring “Inside” vs “Outside”: Gaze at an object in the room. Where is seeing happening? Is there actually an “inside” self looking out at the object, or is the object, the light, and the entire experience of seeing appearing within consciousness at large? Can you find a line separating an inner viewer from the seen, or is it all one continuum of experience in awareness?
The Waking Dream Check: Recall that in nighttime dreams you also feel located in a body within the dream world—until you wake up and realize it was all in your mind. Now, ponder: In the waking state, could the feeling of “me inside body, looking at world” likewise be an appearance in the mind of God (awareness)? Allow yourself to “wake up” to the possibility that right now, everything — your body, thoughts, and world — is unfolding within the infinite dream of awareness, which is what you are.
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