I Am. So are you.

Policarpo Castillo: I am what or who and why?

Policarpo Castillo: I am a free thinker, or at least you think that i think im not.

deuce916: I used to think about that sensation. One day I realised it was from when I was in my mother's womb. Then I didn't think about it anymore.

lori100: I know you are but what am I?

harlett anathema: You are another who i am not..

Intolerance: I have constructed the belief that I indeed exist, but further evaluation can be a strange beast. I start with the facts, I have a body made cells grouped together into organs, These act in unison (I hope) to support the neuralnetwork that compromises the mind and thoughts, the memories, emotions, and 5 senses, which through these I act upon the world.
I thought it was self evident that the self would then be the body, since it holds the collection of all these things, but obviously our mind is limited, because the -lower- definition of self (-form-) is hard to pin down;; I could say its the collection of all these things together, like organs-cells-body-mind-sense-feelings make a self, but then logically I could reasonably define a group of dogs makes a self, as together the processes of the body, and worse, the mind are constantly in flux, changing from moment to moment, as if I am not the same self from a few years ago, I know I'm not the same, but I say I am.

One argument is that belief in the idea of self is enough to equate to self(I think therefore I am), but that also is subject to changes, that person could develop demensia and never remember the had that Idea in the first place, or more logically events in life make you change your beliefs over time, or at least this is not dependant upon the physical form whatsoever, but the mind.

But when observing any feelings or thoughts, they do not constitute a self in so far as ,say, anger is not the definitive self, nor happiness, nor the stream of emotions and thoughts combined together (like the dog analagy), each one is temporally witnessed by concousness before changing into something else with time, or being ignored. So the next step is to say awarness itself, but then someone can be totally unaware of something and we still call that person by a name. And Awarness also has conditions for its arisal and eventual fading away (sleep/death etc).

So finally I come to the last bastion of self, the place were the feelings and mental thoughts arise from, they come from something, some say external stimuli, but even if someone makes you angry, something arises from within, that arising of thought is either conditionally created by body, but nueroscience shows that energy for and emotion or thought or action of the form of body, comes from tiny amounts of energy and builds with a fraction of a second to make the body move, as it the wish to move comes before actual action. so this area Christians believed was a soul, that the thing which creates the arising of a feeling, watches it, and watches it fade away into a new feeling or whatever.

But! Then some say it is universal for all people because we all have similar conditions for the arising of similar emotions, like a great over soul, or that it comes from nothing at all! Like Science and Buddhist believe.

So in effect We have an obvious self, but it seems to be a collections of different ever changing elements that conditionally are created, and conditionally destroyed, and is no different from something that has no "self" like a bunch of bubbles, or lighting, and that it is rather a desperation of this circumstance that creates the habits that makes us desire things to feel real (mental; fame statues, or more tangeble; money, shelter), and that those habits cause us trouble so we develop an Ego-sense to defend ourselves from unpleasent things, and that when we work with others most people develop a group-ego to normalise interpersonal realationships (the negative voice in the back of your head that say "people think your fat" ), and that these are also subject to creation conditionally and destined for elimination.

So which one is self? The body, organs and cells and atoms so on? The mind with emotions and senses and stuff? And is it as a collection of these things? And then at which moment? And if at all moments are you a god? If because you say you are self, which part said that, Which part of the mind? is it the collection of the brain and mind and so on? Then at which moment does this collection believe this? Birth, or 2 minutes ago 2013? If any moment this collection believes in a self at a certian date did you have the same definitive view now as you did as a child, will you in the future? If you only believe this now, did you not exist before? Do you not exist whenever you don't think about this? And what are the limits of the self? does the self constantly change or stay the same? etc etc.

Policarpo Castillo: I am the topic of bored minds.

Policarpo Castillo: I am whatever u were told I am. I am good to the one that receives and evil to the one that doesnt. I am god to the man in the mirror. Demon to the one who is a mirror.

Policarpo Castillo: I am the unity of all I was.

Policarpo Castillo: I was once not who I am.

Policarpo Castillo: Religion is the sandpaper that smooths out the surface of ego.