Before we can talk about psycho technologies, we must first understand that humans share certain common ways of experiencing and thinking. There are countless individual styles of thinking but the physiological architecture of the brain is more or less common to us all, as is the physical environment from which we draw experience. In particular, we share a physical form – the human body – that provides us with common reference points for sharing our experience of the world with others.

We use those shared reference points to build and share models of reality in our mind. The evidence for this is in our language. When talking about an idea, we will refer to getting or grasping it. When talking about a controversial topic for discussion, we might advise “don’t go there.” To suddenly understand is to “see the light.” Someone attempting an audacious project might be “in over his head.” “I’m touched by your gesture.” “Something smells fishy about that plan.”

Only dedicated neuroscientists have a specific technical language for talking about what is going on in our minds. The rest of us navigate discussions of mind processes by using analogies. So much so that it actually becomes the way we engage with our minds or design how we will think differently in the future. The whole enterprise of enlightenment is devoted to moving up to a new level of thinking i.e. transcendence.