Am I my brain?

possibly but what if one day you find that your brain is everything and that you could know everything. this is possible but an "enlightenment" is required. what if everything you ever wanted to know was already there but you had no access to it. overall your brain is the most important organ while here on earth however the energy that powers it does not stop after the brain itself stops functioning.

Originally posted by rudeboyrave
So this question has been on my mind for the last few weeks and I cannot stop thinking about it... Am I my brain?

I know that I cannot be one of my human parts because we could lob off a leg, or two... a few arms and other parts and we can all gree that those are not me... because i still exist without them. So that leaves me with my heart and my brain that would possibly be me? I know about heart transplants and that doesnt put one person into another so why would the brain? So am i my brain? what about brain transplants when they become possible? what happens then? Someone please help me with this!

Ryan



a comic relating to this.

edit on 4-6-2011 by rudeboyrave because: added comic

Karl Jung proposed that there was a "collective unconscious" that connected everyone's thoughts. This was why scientific discoveries often appear at the same time even though there is often no direct link for any possible shared information. It is also why some symbols are almost universally understood.

I propose that our brains are both bio-computers and also linked to some sort of spiritual over-mind like a telepathic link to all other minds and also to; for the want of a better analogy, a gentle link to the mind of the universe (the mind of God).

Our "telepathic" and "spiritual" links arrive and affect our consciousness at a level below neural. Essentially they are received and transmitted at several points within each neural cell and act as a an external bias to the operation of the cells. In this way the signalling is both subtle (it cannot be detected experientially) and hard to quantify experimentally.

Some people are (i believe) also resistant against this mechanism and some are very open to it, which explains why some are psychically sensitive and some aren't.

Our brains and nervous systems colour our personalities but I also believe that the "we" that we are is agnostic to the substrate upon which it is processed.

Consider this imaginary scenario: Albert Einstein's brain structure and individual neuronal performance is stored as a set of look-up tables in a giant "book".

If you apply particular stimuli (input data) to any particular nerve cell, you can trace through the look-up tables to see what sort of response that particular neuron would have made to the stimuli. Also due to the "connections" this in turn generates input for other neurons and so on and so on.

Despite the slowness and clumsiness of this approach, you could say that any particular input would be processed exactly as Albert Einstein's brain would have done it. Therefore, we could say that Einstein, in this case, exists not in a brain, but in a book and we could validly ask the question "is Einstein a book?"

It becomes obvious that it is not the "processing thing" that is the person, but the software & memory that we would identify as the "real" person.

It also leads to the possibility that, by choice, we will one day be able to transfer the "human program" to a more physically robust brain and extend our "selves" almost indefinitely.

No, you are not the neck-top bio-computer that runs the bodily functions required for the body to remain viable. Neither are you any other part of the body, as you understand already.

Your body is only the contact patch with the physical construction we experience Here.. it is the vehicle you use to have experiences Here.

You on the other hand are so much more than that. You are massive. You are immensely powerful. You entered this body by reaching into the dense construction called "Reality" by those who know nothing other than what they have been Indoctrinated to Believe.. or Learned to Believe. This "reaching in" is like sending a small portion of Yourself into the body in order to drive it around the physical until it reaches the end of its viability.

Enjoy it while it lasts.

Originally posted by ChaoticOrder
reply to post by rudeboyrave

 

Haha...interesting thread I guess. Of course you are your brain. Your brain is a generator of consciousness, it is the central processing unit of the biological machine known as your body. All thoughts and feelings are generated by your brain...billions of electrical impulses firing every second. The inside of your head is completely dark, even the light that enters your eyes is actually converted into electrical signals and sent to your brain. Do you see what I'm saying?

Depends on how the self is defined. There is stimuli going into something and that something creates a reaction, it is that which hears, sees, smells, feels and experiences, it is a place where all senses converge. But there is not only single atom in the body which is an independent standalone "something" which experiences all information going through the brain.

I would argue the brain should be seen as a lump of smaller organs working together to create the idea of a self, it is not 1 organ similar to the idea of 1 individual. So if I am my brain, I would have to be the memory parts which sustain the memory of me. Afterall, if reality is "present" (everything external) and there is "realtime" then what I see of reality is something already happened, there is always a delay even if just a few yotaseconds. Which might appear insignificant but considering the image of the world the brain is able to recreate in which "I" exist is not in the same "timezone" it has to create this own timeline forever out of sync with the "true" timeline of which what I experience is only a memory, it already happened and so did I, afterall what I perceive as my reactions must have also already happened. In reality my brain fools me into thinking it all happens "realtime", without any delays and just doesn't let me know of all the billions of calculations it made while I never realize how complicated it all is.

So this leads me to the idea of a self, existing completely alone in it's own universe or dimension, seperated forever from this 'true' shared world but somehow brought into this world to believe we do actually interact with eachother directly, while in fact it's all indirect at best, just memories. In this regard it is not strange people report lucid dreaming of OOBE's, if the brain can recreate the real world around it, why can't it recreate a completely imagined world?

reply to post by rudeboyrave


If you want to know what you are go here;

click on vid The Dragon Mind of Zen 3 and 4

www.youtube.com.../u/30/PWk-XFDV-8Y

www.youtube.com.../u/29/s2NM1Oe2IM8 (DMZ no 4)


A zen student to a zen mystic named Tozen, published his works in youtube form with a tts engine (female voice).

The vids are very calming, soothing and instructive. Perhaps one of the DMZ:s (DMZ no 2,3 and 4 are my favourites) will answer your question.

reply to post by rudeboyrave


Answer this question and it will help you with the original question: As we speak here in ATS, you know I exist, but:

who am I? Am I the computer? Or Am I the person behind the computer?
who are you? Are you the computer you are using? Or the person behind the computer?

The same question can be asked regarding our own reality, our own consciousness. Simply put, where is this consciousness derived from?

I am quite far from being a religious person, but during a four days coma I did have that so called "out-of-body experience". I saw myself in bed, connected to all the wires and gizmos, my family in the hospital room and after I woke up I told them with precision where they were located and even what they were wearing, and details of the whole hospital floor, furniture, rooms, people in them and architecture of the hallways. I've never been in that hospital, before or after. I remember very clearly I didn't care at all about the physical "me" who was below, in the hospital bed. I do not remember having a human shape, or any other. As a matter of fact, I wasn't concerned with this issue For some weird reason, I was very interested in a blue oxygen tube sitting somewhere in a corner. And walls seemed to be transparent when I became interesed in the neighbouring rooms, and I just went and had a look around at the other pacients. Walls were there, and very real when I was looking at them as part of the building, but when I was interested in what was inside the building they weren't there anymore. Quite difficult to explain better than that. The experience is still vivid and clear in my mind, although it is over 25 years old. And yes, at the end it felt like I have been pulled back forcibly into that body. I didn't like it at all. I was never religious and I am not now. And I still believe that when I die, I'll become nothing more that rotten food for some happy worms. And it was something more about this whole experience, but I'll rather not talk about it. Please do not ask, it's personal and it better stays with me. Thank you. Anyway, no God, no light, no voices, no angels, no dead relatives, blah-blah-blah… Just something weird happened to me, which I myself cannot explain either.

My cat once told me "all people are the same; the only thing that differs is the errors and failures, which scars from your personalities are constructed - as to remind you not to repeat!"...

But I don't believe him, I say we're the space that we occupy -and will be what we will!

reply to post by Nomad451


I love those einstein quotes... he had a way with pointing out how impotent man really is.

The most important aspects of life are the most simple.

We are Soul. We do not have a Soul, we are Soul. Thus we use the the brain, use the mind, use the body and control all of the above. We are here to know this. Once we do, we can do what we will as long as we do not encroach on other persons or their property. Period.

People call Soul: consciousness, higher self etc. etc. IMO that simply makes things more complicated than they are. Soul is light, love a spark of God, yet not God. We are all one and separate at the same time. When we, Soul, leaves the body for the last time, (die), we move on to other than physical reality to rest, to grow, regroup and go to the place we have earned for more experiences. May be back to Earth or not. We can earn the choice of where we go by spiritual growth, (awareness), while we have this body.

I suspect many of you who are reading this chose to come back at this time just to help out, to see what may possibly be done to alleviate some of the suffering other Souls are going through. It is a delicate matter "helping" others, for we all have earned each and every experience, so one must be careful in that regard. Yet, if one asks for guidance and help and is open to hear, you and I can show what we have learned and it is not necessary for others to make the same "mis - takes" that we have.

It is simply dropping down the latter for others as we gain more awareness. It is why we are here..

We are not our thoughts. Sit and watch your thoughts. Who is watching? You, Soul

Do as you want, and do no harm.

Do you want to know who you are?Here is your answer:
1.
2. www.merlinworld.com...
3. The Power of Your Subconscious Mind .- book by Joseph Murphy, read it

You have just discovered meaning of life and of yourself.

No, you are not your brain, you are your soul. The brain is the source of physical consciousness but the soul is the witness to the consciousness.

Our body is nothing more than an extension required for our brain to live. And I guess we are the battered cream naturally formed in the addition of those both elements.

Originally posted by rudeboyrave
Why does it feel like i am inside of this person?

Because your physical body houses your spirit and soul....the condition of your spirit and soul is who you really are.

reply to post by caladonea


Sorry for interrupting if I am, I have to disagree with you regarding the Soul being inside your body, which by the way is a common myth.

As I wrote earlier in this Thread, The Brain also plays the part of an “Interface” between LIFE (some refer to as Spirit) and the Experience.

Having a little knowledge myself, regarding the Soul;

The Soul does NOT reside in the Flesh, but rather the Species is a manifestation inside the Soul. The LIFE Resides in The Soul and NOT the Species.

An interesting verse from a writing known as “The Gospel of Thomas” verse 56 Quote;

56. Jesus said,

“Whoever has come to understand the World
has found only a corpse,

and whoever has found a corpse,
is superior to the World.”

Here is a Drawing which is 100% True and Accurate of The “Partition Map” of The Soul involving The Processing System of The Soul and is found in most of the main religions of the world.


No its NOT a Mandala...

Such Geometry is fond as décor, especially mosaic floors, Ceilings, and Window decorations all over the World, in "Government Buildings", "Public Buildings", "Palaces", "churches", "Mosques", "synagogues", "Cathedrals", "Monasteries", "Buddhist Temples", "Arcades" etc. even in "floor coverings" many buy from shops.

reply to post by The Matrix Traveller



Our soul and spirit is who we really are...this I know......I appreciate your input....

you are an experience and you would not have that experience if it was not for the world around you. ot becomes hard to seperate things...

for centuries we have excepted---

"i think, therefore i am"

which is ludicrous! you are aware of your existence as "i am" before any thinking process occurs.

what is probably happening is you are beginning to wake up from the illusion of your personal identification. this is great! it can also be a bit disconcerting. and there is no going back. and anything that preoccupies your mind will hold you back, so like the poster on page 1 said, pursue a line of self enquiry.

who am i??

its the only thought the mind cant answer and ultimately it shuts down and pure conscious existence remains. "ramana maharshi's" books and "nisagadatta's" "i am that" answer many many questions for those with a discriminative mind.

Originally posted by orangutang
"i think, therefore i am"

which is ludicrous! you are aware of your existence as "i am" before any thinking process occurs.

No, that is ludicrous. Awareness itself is a thinking process. You can't be aware without a brain.

Self consciousness truly is a fascinating philosophical subject by itself without having to make up these ridiculous and imaginary theories to explain it. Check out some philosophy books and leave the snake oil alone.

Originally posted by Epiphron
No, that is ludicrous. Awareness itself is a thinking process. You can't be aware without a brain.

Self consciousness truly is a fascinating philosophical subject by itself without having to make up these ridiculous and imaginary theories to explain it. Check out some philosophy books and leave the snake oil alone.

Sorry to say this is not correct either, although you may not accept my reasoning for saying so....

Part of my work is with the dead... not many people like that idea. And that is too bad as I have seen the dead since I was a boy and learned how to work with them to get them where they need to be/go.

They are self-aware even though they no longer have a body with a brain. Hence my reasoning.

And when they get to where they are supposed to be/go, they wake-up from their dream of life in the world. It is an amazing thing to observe personally because they begin to shine from within and light up as their HUMAN BELEIFS fall away into insignificance in the face of a greater reality.

Hope I haven't offended you saying this.

Forget Philosophy books.. you learn nothing about your Self from them. Better then to seek direct experience of your "greater self" than waste years reading other people's theories.