Syzygy Part 6 Self
Channel: OpenYourRealiTTy
Date: 23/12/2012

Do not ask me who I  am and do not expect me to stay the same. — Michel Foucault
Who am I ? Who are you? We've had this conversation before haven' t we? Don' t be si l ly I  don' t know you. The
"I " that is communicating to "you" appears to embodied wi thin a human body, more speci fical ly the
equidistance between the eyes and ears wi thin the skul l . This is ofcourse the location of the  pineal
gland which Descartes bel ieved was "the seat of the soul ". However, the author's experience of being
primari ly located inside the skul l  is just a convenient association generated by the author's learned sensory
response and cul tural  upbringing. I n some cul tures the "I " of the sel f is located in other parts of the body, for
example the heart or abdomen. M ost people experience themselves as being a body or wi thin a body, the
later dichotomy being exacerbated by the use of personal  pronouns. However where does "your" body begin
and where does i t end? For most people i t would seem that i t depends upon what processes they are in a
conscious continuum wi th and in control  of. For example most people have no qualms over moving sal iva
around in thei r mouth, however when they spi t out thei r sal iva the thought of putting i t back in "thei r" mouth
becomes repulsive.
Y ou have hundreds of mi l l ions of tiny organisms l iving wi thin your body that are vi tal  for your survival , are they
part of you? A t what point does the food that you consume and the waste you produce become not part of
you? What about your nai l  cl ippings, fal len hai r fol l icles and other bodi ly deposi ts? What about i f you have a
pacemaker, donated organ or prosthetic l imb? A re they part of you? What about your car or cel lphone is that
part of you? Ofcourse not you might say, but what i f i t is stolen or damaged, does that not affect you
psychological ly because you identi fy i t as "yours". Does your skin mark the boundary of yoursel f ? Y our skin
cel ls contain a semi -permeable membrane that al lows molecules to travel  in and out. The ai r that you are
inhal ing is the ai r exhaled by other organisms and as wel l  as containing a mul ti tude of microbes, are they sti l l
part of yoursel f ? 95% of the  DNA  wi thin the human body is microbial , that i tsel f shows that the human body
is essential ly a co-evolved microbial  communi ty. We are not so much individuals but walking ecosystems.
Nature is not something "out there", i t is al l  "in here", the elements of nature are constantly migrating and
cycl ing through us. A s Watts noted "the prevalent sensation of onesel f as a separate ego enclosed in a bag of
skin is a hal lucination". The World is your body, or rather the World is your soul , your psyche.
Y our eyes will become the sun and your breath the wind. I n your turn you will go to the
sky and the earth and the waters. Y our limbs will become the roots of plants.
-- The Rig Veda
I n mystical  cul tures and in humans who experience  al tered states of consciousness the "I " has no discrete
location and can appear both inside and outside the body. The view of the World as an integrated whole has
been a l iving vision in many indigenous cul tures. Tradi tional   Lakota language lacks a word for "me" or "I "
therefore emphasizing the continual  di rect experience of relationship and connection. I n other cul tures a
tribesman may approach a medicine man to cure his ai l ing wi fe and rather than say "my wi fe is sick" he
would say "my fami ly is sick", i .e. the sickness is as much his own as his wi fe's. The boundaries of identi ty
are more fluid, as such i t would be absurd for such a tribesman to say "I  am heal thy but my fami ly and vi l lage
is sick", just as i t would be absurd for someone to say, "I  am heal thy but my l iver and kidneys are sick".
I ncidently, many  Native A merican languages identi fy objects not by thei r form, which emphasizes
distinctiveness and separation, but by thei r activi ty. This is exactly how Bohm postulated that we should view
the universe, not as discrete things (nouns), but as interrelated processes (verbs). Therefore conventional
Engl ish grammar includes a metaphysics that necessi tates a fragmentary view of real i ty. A s Watts also
demonstrated we falsely think of objects as moving by themselves, a dog for example. However we cannot
say what the dog is doing or understand i ts behaviour unless we examine i ts surroundings. How can the dog
be described as running wi thout a reference to the ground upon which i t stands and di rection in which i t is
running (i .e. towards the bal l ) etc. The dog is running on the ground just as the ground is holding the dog, or
the bal l  is fal l ing through the ai r just as the ai r is dropping the bal l  etc. A l l  existence is interaction. I s your glass
hal f empty or hal f ful l?