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Am I the body?

Maninthemiddle

Maninthemiddle

Active Member
an anarchist said:
Am "I" the mortal body that people recognize as "me". Or am "I" instead possessing a sack of flesh and bone, which is separate from "me" ?

If you never had an out of body experience(s), then perhaps this question seems silly. But even if you have not had out of body experiences, I reckon you can wrap your head around the question anyways... you guys are smart.

I have had out of body experiences over the years. Used to chase them. Gonna pick up the chase again one day, but I've taken a couple years off to recover presently.

My point is, I know (imo) that I am not the body. Do I have physicality truly, or is it an illusion? I am not sure, but I do know that I (and others) have the capacity to overcome and exceed our physical nature and still be "I".

What am "I"? I suspect many have intuitively felt or experienced that they are not the body, hence the prevalence of a belief in a "soul" in most religions.

Well... what say you? What are you? What defines "you" and "me" as "you" and "me"?
Click to expand...
Your no more your body then my Mazda is me, I just use it temporarily to get around.
 
Ben Dhyan

Ben Dhyan

Veteran Member
an anarchist said:
Am "I" the mortal body that people recognize as "me". Or am "I" instead possessing a sack of flesh and bone, which is separate from "me" ?

If you never had an out of body experience(s), then perhaps this question seems silly. But even if you have not had out of body experiences, I reckon you can wrap your head around the question anyways... you guys are smart.

I have had out of body experiences over the years. Used to chase them. Gonna pick up the chase again one day, but I've taken a couple years off to recover presently.

My point is, I know (imo) that I am not the body. Do I have physicality truly, or is it an illusion? I am not sure, but I do know that I (and others) have the capacity to overcome and exceed our physical nature and still be "I".

What am "I"? I suspect many have intuitively felt or experienced that they are not the body, hence the prevalence of a belief in a "soul" in most religions.

Well... what say you? What are you? What defines "you" and "me" as "you" and "me"?
Click to expand...
Yes, you are the mortal body that people recognize as "me". However, your spiritual soul, which is expressing through the mortal body, is transcendent to the mortal body. It is important to make the distinction between self-identification with the body, the mortal I, and the immortal spiritual incarnate soul.
 
Ben Dhyan

Ben Dhyan

Veteran Member
If when in dreams, and sometimes awake, there is a transcendent event like out of body experience, clearly it is not the body moving, so it is not the 'I' that is leaving the body, it is a transcendent soul experience. This transcendent soul experience, when finished and the body self-consciousness awakens/returns, the body 'I' has access to the memory and claims the experience for itself, such as "I left my body". It is not possible for the body to leave the body, so it must be a soul experience, and should be respected as such and not claimed to have been experienced by the body self, even though it has access to the detailed memory of the oob experience.

The same thing for dreams, the body never leaves the bed, the dream is an oob experience. Awake thinking state create Beta brain waves, Dream and other oob experiences are associated with Theta brain waves.
 
SalixIncendium

SalixIncendium

अहं ब्रह्मास्मि
Staff member
Premium Member
Maninthemiddle said:
Let’s say a man dies, if he has a soul he did not die.
His body passed its used by date, wether it be off the Heaven or reincarnation it’s off to another body.
So the body was simply a temporary vehicle better suited to connect to the physical world than the soul.
Click to expand...
No need to preach to the choir, friend. You’re not the first to use the car analogy. ;)

atheism and fear of death

Because i believe in God and in the afterlife i have less fear of death Those of you who don't believe in God or an afterlife, how do you deal with the fear of death?
www.religiousforums.com
 
Ben Dhyan

Ben Dhyan

Veteran Member
Maninthemiddle said:
Do you drive home or does your car drive home.
Click to expand...
How does that question relate to my statement "I type this comment, my soul is not my body"?

I mean you should be able to infer that if I do the typing, then I do the driving should you not? Am I missing something?
 
Ben Dhyan

Ben Dhyan

Veteran Member
Maninthemiddle said:
Let’s say a man dies, if he has a soul he did not die.
His body passed its used by date, wether it be off the Heaven or reincarnation it’s off to another body.
So the body was simply a temporary vehicle better suited to connect to the physical world than the soul.
Click to expand...
So if a man dies, because of his soul, he does not die. That is an error of understanding imho.
That would only be the case if he, the body consciousness, was the soul, and according to my understanding the soul is not he, the physical body, it is a spiritual entity that is not him or her, only incarnates to create him or her. When him or her die, they die permanently, the spiritual soul does not die.
 
loverofhumanity

loverofhumanity

We are all the leaves of one tree
Premium Member
an anarchist said:
Am "I" the mortal body that people recognize as "me". Or am "I" instead possessing a sack of flesh and bone, which is separate from "me" ?

If you never had an out of body experience(s), then perhaps this question seems silly. But even if you have not had out of body experiences, I reckon you can wrap your head around the question anyways... you guys are smart.

I have had out of body experiences over the years. Used to chase them. Gonna pick up the chase again one day, but I've taken a couple years off to recover presently.

My point is, I know (imo) that I am not the body. Do I have physicality truly, or is it an illusion? I am not sure, but I do know that I (and others) have the capacity to overcome and exceed our physical nature and still be "I".

What am "I"? I suspect many have intuitively felt or experienced that they are not the body, hence the prevalence of a belief in a "soul" in most religions.

Well... what say you? What are you? What defines "you" and "me" as "you" and "me"?
Click to expand...
My understanding is that the ‘you’ is a connection with your body but not a part of it and when the connection is severed you still exist.
 
Twilight Hue

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Soandso said:
Will you continue to be you if you have a stroke or a traumatic brain injury that fundamentally changes who you are as a person to the point where you would be unrecognizable?

Would retaining one's memories or not after such an event contribute to whether or not you were the same person?
Click to expand...
It's understandable when we are completely comprised of other organisms that when the lines of communication gets cut, so does information to the point of starting all over again occurs.

I never think of our personality and identity as a single self contained entity as clearly it can be lost and changed over time and circumstance.
 
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