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Post by Elliot Kane on Nov 27, 2006 15:24:47 GMT
Anyone not familiar with my Reality guide please note:
Subjective Reality is what is held to be true by any given person, and is thus unique to each of us.
This guide also carries references to the Origin of Sentience guide and the Decision Making guide, but nothing that should not be self explanatory.
Like all my other theories, this is not truly a standalone piece but works with all the others to create a whole.
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Post by Elliot Kane on Nov 27, 2006 15:25:11 GMT
Identity
Who we are is very much a matter of perception. Your idea of who I am is very different to my idea of who I am, and were we to ask someone else, they would give yet another - and probably very different - opinion. No two people will ever have quite the same idea of who anyone else is.
This is because identity is the ultimate creation of human sentience - a detailed webwork of Subjective and Objective Reality around which we base everything we believe to be true.
Just on the most basic level, you 'know' your name - yet what is a name? Is it truly any more than a label placed upon you by others? Most of us have more than one, yet we do not think that being 'Joe Bloggs' is any different to being 'Joseph Bloggs'. 'Joe' is simply a shortened form, and we tell ourselves it is the same name... But why? Why do we need this label in order to even begin to see ourselves? And why is it that shortened forms or nicknames are somehow not as real as our given name?
From the first days of our lives, we begin to see ourselves by the connections we have with others. We draw security and the beginnings of our identity from identifying 'Mother' and 'Father'. Not in any rational sense, but in the way that those two adults will be the first other people with whom we have regular contact, and thus the first from whom we begin to learn how to view not just the world, but also ourselves.
As we begin to learn words, so we begin to learn how to think (For humans think in words, and without them we are lost). And one of the first words we learn will be our own name. This secures our place in the world, not just in how we see ourselves, but in how we see our relationship to those around us.
"I am Joseph Bloggs, the son of Peter Bloggs and Mary Bloggs. By our shared last name, I know I am one with my parents; that we 'belong'. That we are family."
Language is the ultimate tool for thought created by humanity; and the ultimate and most important lie - that noises have meaning beyond what we give them. We name everything so that we can explain it even if we cannot yet understand it - and ultimately so that we can identify it to each other. This is why we name ourselves and each other, and also why we place such importance in names.
We identify everything by its name. Thus, without a name, we cannot truly begin to identify ourselves.
As 'Joe' grows up, he starts to learn and experience things. He will filter those experiences through his perceptions according to a whole list of factors:
* how well his intelligence allows him to understand the experience * how accurately his senses allow him to perceive the experience * how he feels about the experience * how past experiences have taught him to react to this new experience * how much knowledge he has about what is happening * how important the experience is to him
Thus, 'Joe' will place every new experience in his mind according to the importance he places upon it, and it will add to his sense of the world.
From our experiences, our thoughts, our feelings - and most importantly how we perceive all of those things and react to them - we begin to understand who we are, and ultimately our place within the world. Or at the least, we believe we do, which is the same thing for most of us. Thus to experience is also, in many ways, to become - as we build the habits and patterns of thought (Also likely habitual) that will determine who we are for the rest of our lives.
We live, after all, in a 'Reality' that is not wholly of one part. Our own Subjective Reality is often more important to us than anything else, as it is the primary filter through which we view the world.
In later life, if 'Joe' were to visit a psychologist, his 'mental problems' - unless they are the result of some physical ailment - will be 'cured' simply by causing a shift in his Subjective Reality. Nothing will really change by talking to a psychologist except the way that he sees things. He won't truly be a new person; he will just see himself as one.
Because when it comes to identity, perception is everything.
We are not who we think we are: we are who we are in the habit of believing ourselves to be.
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Post by cleglaw on Nov 27, 2006 17:13:17 GMT
Our true self is the soul--not the mind or body. As long as our concept of who we are is founded on the body or our mind we will never truly know ourselves.
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Post by tempest1944 on May 16, 2008 18:47:47 GMT
That was....very well done, EK...I can't say I've ever thought of any of that, really. Sometimes I think you should be sitting on a mountain top, teaching wisdom to us lesser beings...
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Post by Elliot Kane on May 16, 2008 19:05:07 GMT
Thanks, Tempest! Some days, I think that's what I DO do! ;D
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Post by Glance A'Lot on May 18, 2008 8:21:54 GMT
Thanks, Tempest! Some days, I think that's what I DO do! In which case you have a peculiar perception of mountain...
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Post by Elliot Kane on May 18, 2008 11:25:04 GMT
Mountain, forum... "All things are one within Samsara!" ;D Which is technically true, you know
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