Squeers

Your post leads me to consider just how much our personalities are mere constructions of chemicals and electricity. And how malleable the brain is. Which in turn leads to the claim of "there is no such thing as self".

Look at how a person can turn from Jekyll to Hyde after a single drink of alcohol and not be aware their personality has radically altered.

I posit that we can be many selves, particularly when under stress.

I do believe that meditation can assist with 'steadying' the state of balance in the mind - uniting the fragmented mind.

Good point, Severin.

I'm also interested in our experience of time when we are sleeping - and what happens to our experience of self in the dream state. does the ego get thrown out the window? Why does our dream "mind" allow us to accomplish feats that would not be accepted by a conscious mind?
We've all experienced the feeling of being asleep for a few minutes, yet (in that short space of time) had a dream that seemed to have endured for hours of days. Why does time seem to be warped between the two experiences, yet both of these emanate from the same mind at he same "time"?

we do have time..to smell/the roses...so saying..i follow/the lead..away from/topic;..time...and return to..'space'..[knowing/it will come-back..and/...bite me

squeers/quote..<<..he has/the running/in the..popular mind->>is such a strange..turn/of phrase..[to me..'he'..is the unity of mind/..god/pop-u-liar?

so;saying..read;..the context/of..<<-we drool..(uneasily)..over his mastery..(that is/his..self-assertiveness)..of the topic..s/he reinvents!>>>it seems/every truth..needs a lie/..bal-lance

i guess..im reascting/in the abstract.to the...<<.. his mastery..(that/is..his self-assertiveness>>..[ok..i know its not/what squeers meant..but post/more..in reacting..as if he did it..in full mind..not by accident/nor 2b/popular

it is men..who use such concepts/such as assertivness/master/popular...
god as such...cannot be comprehended..in terms of master/popular/assert/etc...but more..in the way of the servant..[or in the mother...as in mothering..not smothering

unlike science..[hopefully..in context/quote..<<Science and analytics..don the robes/of..the prophet,..but all they have/..is join the dots/or plagiarised data.>>.that some-how became....


Severin,..quote..<<Squeers/..Your post/leads me to consider..just how much..our personalities/are mere constructions..of chemicals and electricity...And how malleable/..the brain is...Which in turn leads to the claim of.."there is no-such/thing..as self".>>

so i will expand..on the chemical/electicity...bit/..by saying...our minds are of concious...and un-concious..though/that is a falicy[emoting and passion/..is closer...but would far/exceed my brief]

<<Look at how/a person can turn..from Jekyll>Hyde..after a single drink of alcohol..and not be aware/..their personality has radically altered.>>as swedenberg describes...as well as/my previous links

that mind/we claim..is a reciever/emmitor..of emotions...where//'like attracts like'...

see when we feel love...we attract to us/lovers...when we feel lust..we attract lusters...murder attracts murder'ers..etc etc..our mind/body/../the spirit/dis-embodied

drink/lowers..our inhibitions...it is knowable..that drink..subverts the concious..allowing..the half mind of pasion to rule..over our mindfull/concious..[in the next realms...it is this mind/of pasion/emoting..that rules..

anything we do/attracts..like passion..to us...our thoughts/are like food/energy..for the dead..[our anger/attracts..the angry..who fed/..get/gain..energy ofF..our vile/but matching/their/vile thoughts...

so much so..they can gain control/OVER..our bodies/via..'our'/minds..to do their vile/here/in the flesh...

its so/true<<that we can be/many selves,..particularly/when under stress.>>or other high-emoting/feeling..[or worse..non-feeling..which allows/the mindless..to assert/their will..over us/ours

I do NOT..believe/that/meditation../mindlessness..can assist..with.'steadying'..the state of balance..in the mind...FOR THOSE REASONS..^!

far from,<<uniting/the fragmented mind.>>>they subvert our lives...into full-filling..their[others]spirits..very mindfull..vile

remaining in control...
is a very important...act/of..our conciousness/mind

[if your not..'in charge...
using your life/gift/person/body..others will...

i thought..it was/important/for you..to know of this...at this time

Severin:
<Your post leads me to consider just how much our personalities are mere constructions of chemicals and electricity. And how malleable the brain is. Which in turn leads to the claim of "there is no such thing as self".>
Nevertheless, I reject reductionist explanations such as biological determinism, though of course I accept that we are influenced by these. I prefer to see the self as subjected to and contingent upon myriad biological/materialist influences, and steeped in cultural discourses; yet equally I reject cultural-constructivist notions of the self (or that the self is merely epiphenomenal. I don't see the self as 'real' in any measurable or essential sense, but I do see its spontaneity, or persistent unpredictability, in all the circumstances, as self-determining at base.
Thus I'm equivocal about Rabelais's 'carnivalesque'; Whitman's "I contain multitudes"; Bakhtin's 'heteroglossia' and Kristeva's 'intertextuality'. I acknowledge all this discursiveness and that there is no real kernel within; yet the self is original: the universe has produced meaning with time and space.

OUG,
You can use God as the transcendental signifier if you want to, but for me that's necessarily derivative or contrived, as the case may be.

Poirot,
in my experience of the 'self in the dream state', it can take various forms, indeed I'm rarely if ever the body I see in a mirror. Yet whatever I metamorphose into, there's an abiding sense of 'me'; which, however, somehow is not divested of corporeality, yet is divested of time: dreamstate seems weirdly spacial, yet atemporal. Curious..

Poirot, Squeers, Oliver

Do any of you have lucid dreams? Where the 'self' has more input than in normal dreaming.

In my 'normal' dream state my 'self' could not possibly have been the 'me' I am familiar with, given the action in which I was involved.

Simply put, as we are here in this point of space and time, are we not greater than the sums of our parts?

UOG

I do not intentionally ignore you - however, your 'self' does not exist anywhere close enough to my 'self' for a mutually satisfying discourse.

Severin,

I once had a dream, where I knew I was dreamming, and, where I debated with another person in the dream, about which one of us was a confabulation and would not exist in the morning. With this dream, as with others, there was a sense of self and sense of other.

In the waking world some sense of subject and predicate is necessary for us to function. But said realisation is unnecesary for a blade of grass.

Hegel's dialectic (Squeers) requires the arrangement of that and another. Likewise,separation is required so actions can act elsewhere from the Self. SEld allows engagement with the environment