What is Self?

“Who are we?

We are the life force power of the universe with manual dexterity and two cognitive minds and we have the power to choose, moment by moment, who and how we want to be in the world.

Right here, right now I can step into the consciousness of my right hemisphere. Where we are, I am, the life force power of the universe. I am the life force power of the 50 trillion beautiful molecular geniuses that make up my form – at one with all that is.

Or I can choose to step into the consciousness of my left hemisphere where I become a single individual, a solid – separate from the flow, separate from you. I am Dr. Jill Bolte Tayor, intellectual, neuro-anatomist.

These are the “we” inside of me. Which would you choose? Which do you choose? And when?

I believe that the more time we spend choosing to run the deep inner peace circuitry of our right hemispheres the more peace we will project into the world and the more peaceful our planet will be.”

(From Jill Bolte Taylor TED Video)

“When we consider the kinship of all life on Earth, is it plausible that humans have immortal souls and all other animals do not?

How much are we really in charge of ourselves? And how much of our actual everyday behavior is on automatic pilot?

Each species has a different model of reality mapped into its brain. No model is complete. Every model misses some aspects of the world.

If we imagine that we are purely, or even mainly, rational beings, we will never know ourselves.”

(From Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors )

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!