What is Self?

” I, if I exist, am not an idea, nor am I the fact that several ideas may exist, one of which remembers the other.

If I exist, I am a living creature to whom ideas are incidents, like aeroplanes in the sky; they pass over, more or less followed by the eye, more or less listened to, recognised, or remembered; but the self slumbers and breathes below, a mysterious natural organism, full of dark yet definite potentialities; so that different events will awake it to quite disproportionate activities.

The self is a fountain of joy, folly, and sorry, a waxing and waning, stupid and dreaming creature, in the midst of a vast natural world, of which it catches but a few transient and odd perspectives.”

(From Scepticism and Animal Faith p.149)

How would Freud answer the question, What is Self?

Or what about Jesus or Marilyn Monroe or Eleanor Roosevelt or the Dali Lama? How would they answer the question?

Check back frequently (or sign up for the RSS feed)…new “answers” from artists, atheists, children, famous people, philosophers, psychologists, scientists, spiritutal teachers, theologians, writers and others will be posted as they are discovered.

Add your favorite What is Self? quotes, videos and art to the mix. Join the conversation.

You can post in comments or send your stuff by email to lanell [at] breatheonelove [dot] com.

Fun!