I am reading the precis I got for free from his website.
I do not think I have a full understanding of what he is saying (to say the least).
His comments on lucid dreaming are interesting though and to some extent ring false to me at the moment.
transparency (invisibility) of the nuts and bolts generating the feeling of self is a requirement of the experience (according to the theory). He then says opaque phenomenom occur - which I think means we see exactly that they are generating the self experience - he cites lucid dreaming as an example. I have problems with this as I am not sure we ever do experience the "nuts and bolts" so to speak - even in lucid dreams.
He also says (perhaps addressing my problem above) that the transparency requirement in lucid dreams is fulfilled by the fact the self is still transparent (invisible ) in these dreams ... So effectively the phenomenal self is always fulfilling this requirement for its own existence - you could argue this under any circumstances it seems a complete tautology to me.
I will persevere though.
I would be interested in reading the dialogue in the "Ego tunnel" appendix with Alan Hobson (I looked at the contents), I read his recent Nature Reviews Neuroscience review on dreaming and it had an interesting reference where they got lucid dreamers to signal via eye movement during the dream to correlate brain activity occurring simultaneously. They proposed the brain is active in an intermediate state neither deep sleep nor waking - I thought this was cool.
No local library copies of the "ego tunnel" I have found yet though.
