Are you really who you think you are? (page 2)

Elsewhere

I'm just one of 42 personalities of a 17th century Belgian lesbian nurse with a multiple personality disorder.

patio34

Excellent points Mindchild! I really enjoyed your points. A lot of it:

what we think of as "who we are" is really nothing more than a illusion or myth. In simple terms, we have a "story teller" function in our brains that assimilate our collected experiences in different circumstances to create a temporary homogenous conceptualization which we describe as “self.” Depending upon our state of awareness, altered or otherwise, this memetic and psychological weltanschauung can vary remarkably

....was similar to some Budhist (sp?) theories about the consciousness and how "you" doesn't really exist as a separate entity. But my small dictionary here does not have the highlighted word. Could you please define it?

Pat

Mindchild

Patio: Webster's Collegiate Dictionary defines weltanschauung as: a comprehensive conception or appreehension of the world esp. from a specific standpoint. It is a German word which is similar to the idea of a worldview.

I find your reference to some Buddhist teachings interesting. I've looked at some of these myself and find some remarkable similarities between what they say and Western scientific discoveries about the mysteries of conciousness. For example, I've never been able to explain the very real neurological puzzle of how your brain makes a decision to do something BEFORE you become aware of it in your conscious mind. Clearly, the exisiting theories of what the true nature of mind is, are someday going to change.

Skipper

Satanus

Mindchild

A very 'thoughtful' post. What i think james thomas is referring to is that for you to realize aspects of your mind, there must be something that is doing the observing, call it the observer. It observes the changes which you undergo, yet does not itself change. What is the observer?

SS

myself

noidea

If I knew who I was suppose to be then I would be who I think I am. Like Karla who is myself..now she knows who she is but I am referring to me not myself. hmmm..I forgot where I was going with this ..never mind.

myself

LMAO @ Paula aka noidea

patio34

Thanks for the definition Mindchild.

More thoughts from Budhism came to me (as I've been up with insomnia) that seem similar to your ideas. I have a book entitled Thoughts Without a Thinker and there is a Budhist saying "A web without a weaver." The gist of it is that we all have thoughts "firing" continuously, but we, as people, are not those thoughts. These thoughts and "web" are without design. They are often, or even mostly, random firings of the brain (i think of it as an electrical storm). We don't have to follow, identify, grapple or agonize over these thoughts, but simply let them go. That's what meditation focuses on too (at the Budhist center I attended). We are not our thoughts.

Anyway, this is all very interesting. Maybe if I meditated I could fall back asleep a bit before the sun comes up.........

Patio

ballistic

Skipper: interesting thoughts.

Here's a question for you: in the journey of our ever changing psychology, can one return to innocence, or is the street always one way?

DanTheMan

Interesting thread, Mindchild.

For me, it is depressing to consider myself from a totally rationalistic, deterministic point of view that regards the concepts of self and consciousness as illusions, though that doesn't mean it's not true.

I find myself vacillating on this topic quite a bit lately. Is there a ghost in the machine that transcends our physical selves, the "observer"? It sure feels like there is.

Are you really who you think you are?

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