Thread: What Are You?

Nice topic. I don't know what I am physically, and maybe nothing of the body is really me; I'm perhaps just floating energy with thoughts controlling a human body. But I think I am the brain (note: I think, I do not know).

Our mind is ultimately independant of our body. That becomes rather obvious after enough thought and realisation on the matter. Consciousness doesn't have a physical state.

Since I was very young I have felt a disassociation with my body at times. I can remember being 7 and pondering if everything around me was alive, and if I were in some way a part of it. The memory of that feeling is no match for the reality at the time.

It gets foggy when you get older and are bombarded by the great "science hammer" and social "standards" that shut you out and seem to crush all your dreams. Still, I spend nearly all my time pondering these questions, and with my own experiences as a guide, I see how science has merely helped me to see deeper into how the "self" is likely to not be a product of the human brain; though the side effects of consciousness can be detected. Physical counterparts.

In the end I don't know, but I go by what I feel more than what I am told.

We 'are' all just our brain. I think there is a certain 'ghost' place in our head that we feel as to be 'the thinking space'. 'Ghost' as in people that have their leg amputeed but still feel it. Only then a fake sense of 'ego' (there being a part of your body) being where some People think the 3rd eye is.

But that is just the place we feel that represents your conscious, I don't know where it actually is.

I'm just a brain process....I'm not my body, nor is it me. It's a tool I use, to get around in the world, yes. But it isn't who I am.

Originally Posted by Neruo

We 'are' all just our brain. I think there is a certain 'ghost' place in our head that we feel as to be 'the thinking space'. 'Ghost' as in people that have their leg amputeed but still feel it. Only then a fake sense of 'ego' (there being a part of your body) being where some People think the 3rd eye is.

But that is just the place we feel that represents your conscious, I don't know where it actually is.
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There was an interesting article (or articles) in the Time magazine recently (I think 2 or 3 weeks back) about this very topic. I didn't particularly agree with all of it, it did say that we are only illusions of consciousness or something like that, I can't quite remember. The basic idea was that we don't exist anywhere, we are just electronic signals.

But it had a section on "ghost" limbs, research showing that people with amputated limbs "feel" them or have "itches" when doing certain things, and the research showed that the brain changes it's sections to adapt to whatever needs to be done or is missing (bear with me, I'm nearly there it'll make sense now I promise) in that when a limb is amputated, that part of the brain is no longer in use. That part is then assigned to something else, like the genitalia (I used that specifically, because according to the study people with missing legs feel them when having sex) or face (face, because it was found that armless people felt itches in their fingers, and when they scratched their noses the itches in their fingers would be scratched).

I thought that was pretty cool. Anyway the part that interested me the most (I'm not sure how it relates to the topic, but I have said my bit) was that they did a study where they measured the brain frequencies of 2 groups of people, 1 group who practised playing a bit on the piano every day for a like 20 days, and 1 group who thought about practising piano every day for 20 days, and they both showed similar increases in synapses or whatever regarding the use of creativity in the brain and finger movement, even though 1 group never moved their fingers at all.

I found it interesting because maybe the basic idea here could relate to LDing, where you could practice something in LDs and it has a real affect in waking life, due to the altering adaptations of the brain areas.

my penis

Originally Posted by ataraxis

my penis
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Are you being big headed?

Originally Posted by 13redfan

There was an interesting article (or articles) in the Time magazine recently (I think 2 or 3 weeks back) about this very topic. I didn't particularly agree with all of it, it did say that we are only illusions of consciousness or something like that, I can't quite remember. The basic idea was that we don't exist anywhere, we are just electronic signals.[/b]

Well, we don't exist anywhere in the sense that our entire perception is inside our brain, our conscious.

But it had a section on "ghost" limbs, research showing that people with amputated limbs "feel" them or have "itches" when doing certain things, and the research showed that the brain changes it's sections to adapt to whatever needs to be done or is missing (bear with me, I'm nearly there it'll make sense now I promise) in that when a limb is amputated, that part of the brain is no longer in use. That part is then assigned to something else, like the genitalia (I used that specifically, because according to the study people with missing legs feel them when having sex) or face (face, because it was found that armless people felt itches in their fingers, and when they scratched their noses the itches in their fingers would be scratched).[/b]

Ha, that is pretty interesting. The piece of brain that is 'free' because of the limb that is gone, can it change all the time, or does it takes a certain area of your body and sticks with it?

I thought that was pretty cool. Anyway the part that interested me the most (I'm not sure how it relates to the topic, but I have said my bit) was that they did a study where they measured the brain frequencies of 2 groups of people, 1 group who practised playing a bit on the piano every day for a like 20 days, and 1 group who thought about practising piano every day for 20 days, and they both showed similar increases in synapses or whatever regarding the use of creativity in the brain and finger movement, even though 1 group never moved their fingers at all.[/b]

Yeah I read about that some while back. I forgot about it... but I guess it still is really interesting. It made me think about when I somethings Think about playing guitar, I really mentally go over each fret. I guess that when I am doing that, I am learning in a way too

However, maybe people can learn to do others things too. Maybe if you just think of getting lucid a few minutes a day, you will actually get better at attaining lucidy...

I found it interesting because maybe the basic idea here could relate to LDing, where you could practice something in LDs and it has a real affect in waking life, due to the altering adaptations of the brain areas.
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Yeah. Until now the theory was 'your motoric functions are switched off, so you can't learn'. However, I wonder or those people that Thought about playing piano used their motoric-functions-part of their brain.

Originally Posted by Neruo

Ha, that is pretty interesting. The piece of brain that is 'free' because of the limb that is gone, can it change all the time, or does it takes a certain area of your body and sticks with it?
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I think ur brain reassigns it "permanently" in that that section is now used by the face instead of the hands. But it would make sense to me that if you lost part of your face, then that section as well as the face section would be free for "re-assignment". So yes, and no!

Originally Posted by Neruo

Yeah I read about that some while back. I forgot about it... but I guess it still is really interesting. It made me think about when I somethings Think about playing guitar, I really mentally go over each fret. I guess that when I am doing that, I am learning in a way too

However, maybe people can learn to do others things too. Maybe if you just think of getting lucid a few minutes a day, you will actually get better at attaining lucidy...
Yeah. Until now the theory was 'your motoric functions are switched off, so you can't learn'. However, I wonder or those people that Thought about playing piano used their motoric-functions-part of their brain.
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I think so, although I'm not quite sure, I think playing piano re-connects or connects new pathways between neurons in the brain, increasing memory, creativity, hand-eye co-ordination etc. etc. so thinking about it must have some effect on motor-functions

I just am.
Without any false illusions, preconditioned labels of myself, an awareness of consciousness's free reign. no attachment to past or future, purely in the now!

Shit.....I wish
Wouldn't that be a great place to be?

I Just am. Liberated. Free form human conditioning.

I believe that Im a part of some bigger thing..like the whole.. Im definitely, not the one you can touch or smell..

I am a collection of atoms. When I die, those atoms will go off to do something else. Not sure what spurred them into being me, but that's what I am. A collection of atoms with a delusion of grandeur. All this philosophy and consciousness, what a joke!

(Yes, I know atoms aren't the smallest particle ever. Once upon a time pocket lint was the smallest thing ever, so shut up).

You have a body.
You are a soul.

~C.S.Lewis

Well, sorry I have been busy for the past 3 days so I haven't had a chance to reply.

They are some interesting answers, here is part 2:

When you look at the computer, the light travels from the screen into your eyes.
At the optic nerve it is transformed into electrical energy, which in turn is passed through to your brain.
Your brain interprets this signal, thus forming the 'image'.

Now where does the chemical/electrical signal end and you start?

Damm, the brain is complex...

Originally Posted by person

Well, sorry I have been busy for the past 3 days so I haven't had a chance to reply.

They are some interesting answers, here is part 2:

When you look at the computer, the light travels from the screen into your eyes.
At the optic nerve it is transformed into electrical energy, which in turn is passed through to your brain.
Your brain interprets this signal, thus forming the 'image'.

Now where does the chemical/electrical signal end and you start?

Damm, the brain is complex...
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We are consciousness...

So is the entire universe.

>>>Spiritual articles

We are nothing and everything.

I suppose in the long run, it doesn't really matter.

In the mean time, anyone heard of setting fire to a tree just by thinking about it?

I am what i make myself. My will colours my life and i bring to myself whatever reality i wish to take part in. I'm not my brain, i'm not my spirit, nor am i my emotions, not unless i want to be. I may experience these things, but perhaps in the same way i experience the sun or the moon. Nobody and nothing else can give me any answers so i shall make my own. And so i am everything. If i am experiencing this existance, what else can i be?