Who are you really?

[letric]

Our life experiences are organised to create an incredible sense of unity.
But this strong sense of unity tricks us into thinking that there is one single
thing having all the experiences. That said, what exactly is it that makes us
the same person, from cradle to grave? There is no clear answer, yet we
routinely talk of our school days or plan for our retirements, as though we
are the same person at different times in our lives.

[Falcon]

infinitely different individuals, competing for a finite number of dreams.

the sameness is an illusion

[letric]

Look back at your childhood self, for instance, and you may find it hard to identify with him/her,
but you will recognise a lot of the same personality traits and interests. People can change and
do change over a lifetime, but a remarkable amount does stay the same. Realised this recently
when I met up with some old friends, we all shared the same digs together. In some ways I was,
a different person. But it was also obvious that just in as many other ways, we were still
the same person, sharing the same kind of jokes, each playing the same role in the group. That
sense of responsibility for who we are is both exhilarating and frightening. We never simply
exists, we are always in the process of making ourselves into the people we want to be. It is
not enough just to go with the flow, we are the flow, and its direction depends in the part on
how we control it.

[Falcon]

but why do some similarities in traits and aspirations make us the same person?

isn't it simply because we are influenced by a mainstream of media and culture?

[vaio]

I yam what i yam

[letric]

Eighteenth-century Scottish philosopher David Hume famously tried to find self through introspection,
and admitted that all he discovered were particular sensations, thoughts, perceptions. By a different
route he had come to the same conclusion as the Buddha - there is no pearl at the heart of self.
There is no 'me' that has thoughts, feelings and perceptions, rather I am just a 'bundle' of these
thoughts, feelings and perceptions. The soul is simply the hum of parts. There is no 'me spot' in
your skull. Rather, the sense of self is created by parts of the brain working in unison. But if there
is no 'pearl of self', does not that mean that in a sense is is all an illusion? The great myth of the self,
the mirror image of the first. The idea that without a fixed me, there is no real me at all.
It sounds extreme, but you see this reflected in ideas that we can completely reinvent ourselves, that
our potential is unlimited, that we can be whoever we want to be.

[letric]

An interesting thought recently crossed my mind, paranoia stalking our cities and our lives.
We dare not let our children play outside and we are suspicious of strangers. Security
cameras everywhere, terrorist, child abductors, muggers, delinquent teenagers, malicious
colleagues, who wouldn't be worried? But is this paranoia a modernly phenomenon? What
can we do to combat it? Recent research shows that paranoia is astonishing common and
likely to grow in the coming years. Who wouldn't be worried?

[letric]

Myself ...

[letric]

I am still numbered among the living
for which I am eternally grateful.

[letric]

Are you still the same person you were five years ago?

[sylvestter]

i'm a fat boy with pimples

[letric]

i'm a fat boy with pimples

Eat less.

[sylvestter]

Eat less.

great advice. i can be the change that i want to see!

[vaio]

i'm a fat boy with pimples

where?

[letric]

where?

Interesting question ...

[letric]

Myself ...

A human being...

[letric]

infinitely different individuals, competing for a finite number of dreams.

the sameness is an illusion

How strange are dreams! I dreamed the other night a dream
that made me tremble, not with fear, but with a strange kind
of reality, my dinner, though late, consisted of no cheese.

[letric]

Who are you? Well, look under the surface - I'm the person of my PAST
experiences, that make me whom I am today! Without a PAST, we all
have no future.

[letric]

Who are you? Well, look under the surface - I'm the person of my PAST
experiences, that make me whom I am today! Without a PAST, we all
have no future.

I am MAN ...