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Is That Voice Inside Your Head Really You? *spoilers*

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mjs82
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22 Sep 2010, 5:08 am

The voice outside my head and the voice inside my head got into an argument and are no longer on speaking terms.

Luckily the typing me is still functioning QUITE NORMALLY AND IS NOW TAKING CONTROL!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !



Awesomelyglorious
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22 Sep 2010, 7:40 am

pgd wrote:
Awesomelyglorious wrote:
That voice inside your head? Well, it's not you.

That think you call "you"? It's not you either. In fact, there is no set of things that can be analytically determined to be "you". Rather "you" is just a squishy category that exists so that the brain can categorize its reality. There is no essence to it though. If this seems weird, then let me ask: when did the first self emerge? And from what did it emerge?


---

Inner voice missing?

http://www.wrongplanet.net/postt101820.html

No, I have an "inner voice". It goes on continually, and I talk to myself. The issue is that my inner voice gets bizarre from time to time simply due to how neurotic I am.



sartresue
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22 Sep 2010, 9:57 am

mjs82 wrote:
The voice outside my head and the voice inside my head got into an argument and are no longer on speaking terms.
Luckily the typing me is still functioning QUITE NORMALLY AND IS NOW TAKING CONTROL!! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !


Chit versus chat topic

Silence can be golden. This is perhaps why I prefer to write. :)


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techstepgenr8tion
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22 Sep 2010, 9:25 pm

mjs82, you're talking about Revolver right?

I saw it - what I took away, it seemed like an interesting and enertaining enough movie up until the end - then it became obvious that it was a big religious pamphlet.

Guy is (or at least was - not keeping complete up-to-date tabs on these things) married to Madonna. Madonna has gotten really big into Kaballah. That's what this movie is - a video religious pamphlet.

Ever see Peaceful Warrior with Nick Nolte? Same thing.


My take - the voice in my head never was me because whatever that voice says comes directly from this life and this experience, draws from no other pool. It could be me if this is all there is to me. It isn't me if I have any internal substance but rather just the guy that I inhabit thinking to himself. If there is an eternal 'me', since the overwhelming majority of what I think and feel comes from this life I would assume that any connection between my identity here and who I am eternally have only as much correlation as me perphaps previewing this life (its a movie with no stray elements as in all cases) and saying "Sure, I'll take that one". Everything I know and experience in this life generally comes from this life. I may have a few flutters of some fantastic things that seem to come from nowhere, not sure what well that draws from but if it is there its less a voice and more flashbacks or images to grand places and things that I never experienced in this life.

So, the voice is consciousness sorting itself out. The ego is the evolutionary self, the animal, that's as much needed as anything for our animal success in life. Have too much of that and your a dog, too little of that and you're left rather impotent.



Sand
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22 Sep 2010, 9:55 pm

techstepgenr8tion wrote:
mjs82, you're talking about Revolver right?

I saw it - what I took away, it seemed like an interesting and enertaining enough movie up until the end - then it became obvious that it was a big religious pamphlet.

Guy is (or at least was - not keeping complete up-to-date tabs on these things) married to Madonna. Madonna has gotten really big into Kaballah. That's what this movie is - a video religious pamphlet.

Ever see Peaceful Warrior with Nick Nolte? Same thing.


My take - the voice in my head never was me because whatever that voice says comes directly from this life and this experience, draws from no other pool. It could be me if this is all there is to me. It isn't me if I have any internal substance but rather just the guy that I inhabit thinking to himself. If there is an eternal 'me', since the overwhelming majority of what I think and feel comes from this life I would assume that any connection between my identity here and who I am eternally have only as much correlation as me perphaps previewing this life (its a movie with no stray elements as in all cases) and saying "Sure, I'll take that one". Everything I know and experience in this life generally comes from this life. I may have a few flutters of some fantastic things that seem to come from nowhere, not sure what well that draws from but if it is there its less a voice and more flashbacks or images to grand places and things that I never experienced in this life.

So, the voice is consciousness sorting itself out. The ego is the evolutionary self, the animal, that's as much needed as anything for our animal success in life. Have too much of that and your a dog, too little of that and you're left rather impotent.


Although I feel that Freud's subdivisions of mind into Id, Ego and Superego makes some kind of sense, my own experience seems to indicate my consciousness is a kind of tool useful as a diplomatic element to deal with the outer world. It is unaware of the hugely sophisticated mental being that is the source of much of my creative thoughts, my dreams, my integrated concept of the universe. This inner being has all memory and perception at its disposal and plays all sorts of complicated games with the sense of self which I identify as my consciousness. Consciousness is a rather surfacy affair and is fed all sorts of stuff by the inner being which is really in control. I have a hunch that this inner being is identified with God by religious people although there is nothing supernatural about it.



Wombat
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23 Sep 2010, 2:49 am

Sometimes we have several "voices" and I don't mean just crazy people.

One voice or thought says "Have a piece of cake"
The other one says "No, I am trying to lose weight"
The first voice says "Go on, you deserve it and one piece won't hurt"
So who the heck am I arguing with?

People who do meditation say that with practice the inner chatter can be shut down leaving the mind like a still pool of water.

I have argued with Buddhist monks who say that there is no "self".

I say "Do you believe in Reincarnation and Enlightenment?"
They say "yes".

I say "Well if there is no self then how can you be reincarnated? If there is no real "you" then how can "you" achieve enlightenment and who is the "you" who wants to be enlightened?"

I say "If there is no self and everything is one then how about if I whack you with a stick? Who will feel the pain? It certainly won't be me"



techstepgenr8tion
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23 Sep 2010, 8:08 pm

Sand wrote:
Although I feel that Freud's subdivisions of mind into Id, Ego and Superego makes some kind of sense, my own experience seems to indicate my consciousness is a kind of tool useful as a diplomatic element to deal with the outer world. It is unaware of the hugely sophisticated mental being that is the source of much of my creative thoughts, my dreams, my integrated concept of the universe. This inner being has all memory and perception at its disposal and plays all sorts of complicated games with the sense of self which I identify as my consciousness. Consciousness is a rather surfacy affair and is fed all sorts of stuff by the inner being which is really in control. I have a hunch that this inner being is identified with God by religious people although there is nothing supernatural about it.

I had a particular experience with this - a very visual one - after going out to a bar with some friends. We were celebrating a friend's 26th birthday, we hit a bunch of different clubs and bars downtown, I had some great social interactions and even had a few that I could have done without. On the times that I find myself not able to conversationally sync up I just float around and people watch.

When I got home I think I still had a lot going around my head, still had a healthy buzz from the mixed drinks, and when I started drifting into sleep I started seeing social interactions, deeper mechanics, all kinds of things that I've wanted to have a more lucid grip on in the moment flashing before my eyes but, points and sharp/precise lines being plotted within them, between them, all the mechanics of what works the way it works, why it works that way, that line got bigger and bigger until I couldn't keep track of it, and then I realized that it was bouncing around in a circle. That circle was patterned something like a diamond checkerboard (kind of like those bad sweater vests, there's a name for this pattern but I can't think of it) and all of the diamonds were lit up in neon light. I was pretty much looking at the totality of that library of information and that's the form it took. It wasn't incomplete in any color but rather it was powerfully radiant.

What that was IMO was likely my subconscious reaching up and telling me exactly what it knows, just how detailed it is at plotting the points and that any answers I'm already looking for - they're here, I already have them and likely just need to stop trying to chew away at them so much with my conscious mind.



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