For centuries now scientists have been searching for a theory of everything. A theory that can account for all of the fundamental forces in science. While science has gotten fairly good at modeling physical reality and creating new technologies, it has failed miserably when it comes to describing consciousness, life, and the fundamental question of what it means to be a human being.

Philosophers have also addressed this question time and time again, taking the rational mind to its outer most limits and back again, realizing the inherit limitations of mind when it comes to addressing its own Source.

Taking into consideration that this is what I have dedicated my life to, I have decided to document here what my current model of reality is. This is my theory of everything, so to speak. It is derived from my personal experiences throughout life, and to a lesser degree, reliable third party evidence.

What is presented here is simply a description of the theory of everything. It is as short and as simple as possible without interfering with the understanding process. It is presented as a serious of claims, or truths as I see them, followed by explanation and guidance on how to find evidence for said claims.

While I don’t provide direct, hard evidence in this article to back up my claims, I do provide general guidance for you on how you can find third party or personal evidence for said claims. It is in my experience that even if I do provide direct evidence, it is still dismissed and denied by the skeptics anyway, regardless of how good it is. So instead, I encourage you to explore the evidence for yourself and come to your own conclusions.

Presented here is the theory of everything, the meaning of physical life, proof of the existence of God, and clarification of what it really means to be a human being.

Enjoy.

Brain and Mind

The brain and mind exist independently of one another. The brain, being made of physical matter, is not really alive. Just like the physical body, it serves no intrinsic purpose or function apart from what the mind gives it.

While the brain and mind are independent entities, so long as the mind inhabits the body, they are intrinsically connected. The mind can be thought of as being plugged into the brain, so to speak.

The mind reads the brain, in such a manner that it picks up on the stimuli from physical senses, sight, hearing, touch, as well as bodily urges such as hunger, etc. In this manner, it can be said that the brain receives the messages from the physical world and then transmits these messages to the mind. This is similar to how a TV receives messages and then displays them on screen.

The mind also energizes and has control over the brain. You can think of this as the output channel from the mind, and into the brain. In this manner, you can act, speak, and move around in the physical world.

The relationship between mind and brain is akin to a puppet master and a puppet. The mind is the origination of energy and action. Without the mind, the brain is not alive. Without the mind, the brain is like a rock. Or more accurately, like a machine without an operator. If you’re familiar with quantum mechanics, this relationship is similar to quantum entanglement. As the mind moves, so does the brain. And as the brain moves, so does the mind.

Such is the nature of brain and mind. The evidence for this is best exemplified during out of body experiences and near death experiences, where the mind becomes untangled, or disconnected, from the brain.

This is also evidenced by various studies of Psychic Mediums, who can somehow channel accurate information about someone who is no longer physically alive, as well as individuals with past life recall, who somehow know intimate details about the life of a deceased person, a.k.a. their past life.

If you are interested in looking for personal proof of this claim, you can also try inducing your own out of body experiences, or performing a past life regression.

Awareness and Perceptual Filters

When you are awake, dreaming, etc, you are aware of a variety of different stimuli. All of these physical stimuli are created or interpreted by your brain before they are passed on to your mind. This includes your sense of hearing, touch, sight, and less commonly known stimuli, such as how you know which way is down, and the perception of time.

As these stimuli are passed through to your mind, they are actively monitored and filtered by your brain. Thus, how you perceive reality is actually highly dependent upon what filters are in place. Things like attitude, beliefs, and cherished positions actually serve to determine what you experience throughout life.

This is evidenced by the common saying of “he sees the world through rose colored glasses” as well as a variety of mental illusion tricks where the brain ever so conveniently fills in the missing pieces, even if they don’t exist in reality, before passing the image, sound, etc onto your brain.

What the common person often fails to grasp is the degree and significance of this phenomenon. At every moment, during every day, all external stimuli are being filtered and interpreted for your mind. Some of this filtering is fairly drastic and obvious, and some of it is not so drastic, or obvious.

Spiritual Frequency Levels

Everyone has a spiritual frequency level that they are predominately operating on. This hidden frequency colors almost everything that they do. From what kind of thoughts they have, to what kind of perceptual filters, to what kind of beliefs they accept as true.

Most people do not notice this because your baseline frequency doesn’t change very much during an ordinary day, or lifetime, for that matter. Experienced meditators, lucid dreamers, and people who can astral project, however, can generally recognize what frequency level their consciousness is currently on.

When you are dreaming, for example, everything may seem hazy and dream like. In your dream you are generally on a low frequency level, mucking around in your subconscious, or lower mind. You are operating on a lower frequency than ordinary life.

When you are meditating, ideally your frequency level will rise to a higher level, and then you will be floating around in your super conscious, or higher mind. You are now operating at a higher frequency level, and ordinary concerns and other things from the lower frequency levels won’t effect you as much.

So what evidence do we have for these frequency levels?

Well, my personal evidence for this is from lucid dreaming and astral projecting. While lucid dreaming, if you raise your frequency level above the subconscious state, then you will slowly find yourself aware again of your physical surroundings. You are suddenly in the frequency level of ordinary living.

In a similar manner, during astral projection, or an out of body experience, if you suddenly become afraid then your frequency level drops unexpectedly, and you find yourself “sucked” back into your body, lying on the bed.

If you haven’t experienced such things yourself, it may be easier to understand spiritual frequency levels based on their effects. For example, one of the effects of operating at a different frequency level is that you have different kinds of brain activity, which can be picked up on an EEG.

Another effect is generally your current emotional state. Have you ever heard the common phrase of going on an emotional roller coaster? This is true in more ways than one. Your emotions go up and down on a vertical line, which correlates roughly with your spiritual frequency level.

If you work in the field of psychology, you may have noticed this vertical emotional line. At the bottom of the frequency level, you have depression, apathy, shame, guilt, and suicidal tendencies. Moving up the line, you have fear, desire, anger, and pride. Then courage, acceptance, reason, love, etc.

For example, if someone hovered in between anger and pride, they may be prideful most of the time, and then get angry when someone damages their pride. Or if they hovered between desire and anger, they may want a lot of things, and then get angry when they don’t get what they want.

Your emotions and your brain activity are only two of the many effects of being on a certain frequency level. There are several others, including your general happiness level, your attitude toward life, and even how you view God.

Psi and Paranormal Phenomenon

As people progress and grow, their spiritual frequency level tends to go up throughout life. At a certain point they may begin to notice things that don’t really fit inside of the materialistic model of the world. These things are labeled as ‘Psi’ or ‘Paranormal’ by the vast majority of society.

Contrary to what parapsychologists may believe, these things do not come about as a result of a weak signal in the brain. They come about when you are operating on a certain spiritual frequency level. Blocking out external and internal stimuli does not cause psychic experiences. Instead, it is the transitioning to a higher frequency level that causes these experiences.

Take psychic mediums, for example. This phenomenon is exemplified greatly here. The process of connecting with a deceased spirit is universally described as the medium increasing their own frequency, while the guide or spirits decrease their frequency, and they meet in the middle in order to facilitate an exchange of information.

All psychic activity operates in a similar manner. It is completely natural, and comes about as the result of being on a certain frequency level.

The Taboo of Psi

There is a general taboo surrounding psi and the paranormal. Most of the academic and scientific world have a tendency to just cast off such things as absurd, because they don’t fit into their cherished belief systems.

The skeptic tries his best to explain away such things and attribute them to chance or poor scientific protocols. Many skeptics go so far as to say that, simply because psychic phenomenon go against scientific beliefs, they must not be true. In reality, this is how every hardcore skeptic thinks. It isn’t true because I don’t believe it’s true, and I don’t believe it’s true because it isn’t true.

However, the reasoning man must ask himself. Does it really make sense that all of this is just fake? Could an entire community, with their own practices and descriptions of such things, be living in self denial? Is there a conspiracy going on here that transcends time and location?

When a psychic medium comes through with intimately detailed information about your father, which only you knew, is it possible that he got it by some other means? Is it possible that it is just chance? Perhaps.

But when he does it for someone else? And someone else? And he does this 100 times in a day, and 100,000 times in his lifetime? How about when a half dozen psychic mediums are put under the spot light and tested using scientific methods and protocols, and they still come through, a dozen times, and all of the information is validated. Chance?

No, I don’t think so. There is something going on here. Even if the evidence doesn’t convince you, take a look at the two sides of the argument.

On the one hand, you have the skeptics. They are angry, upset, and trying to deny and explain away everything paranormal. On the other hand you have the true psychics, who, in 95% of the cases have dedicated their lives to helping humanity. Who are loving, friendly, open, and intelligent. Instead of being out to prove something, they are out to help someone.

Who would you rather be stranded on an island with?

The Nonlinear Domain and Potentialities

Psychics and mystics often refer to a 4^th dimension. A dimension that exists before, or behind, the physical universe of space and time. It exists in eternity. A concept which itself is difficult to grasp and even harder to explain, as there isn’t much here that we can compare it to.

This is the silent realm. It is where things are created and come into being. Energy exists in the nonlinear domain as a form of potentiality, when the potentiality becomes actuality this energy gets graphed onto the physical universe as different events taking place at different times and perhaps different places. Yet they all have a higher order to them.

It is kind of like, in the nonlinear domain an energy construct would exist as events ABCD. In the world of space and time, however, they are perceived as A then B then C and finally, D. While they were originally created as a whole, they are perceived by us to be four separate events.

This is how many things that occur here can appear random and unpredictable, yet still have a higher order behind them.

There are two primary forms of evidence that exist for the nonlinear domain that I will present. There is a lot more evidence, but these are the two that are easiest for most people to relate to.

If you’re familiar with quantum mechanics, then you’re probably familiar with the infamous double split experiment. If not, I refer you to my good friend Wikipedia, which has an excellent article on the double slit experiment.

The double slit experiment, and it’s derivatives, imply a variety of different things about reality. In the double slit experiment, individual photons are fired at the double slit, and still create an interference pattern. Some people argue that the photon somehow interferes with itself, or that it creates multiple parallel universes, etc.

In reality, after the photon is fired it exists only as a potentiality in the nonlinear domain. In other words, it exists only as an energy construct. It does not exist as a particle. It exists as a potential that conforms to the double slit energy construct. In quantum mechanics this is referred to as the probability of an observable. It does not have an observable yet, only the potential to have an observable. This is how the photon can create an interference pattern, even though the photons are being fired one at a time. The photons are conforming to the nonlinear energy construct, the blueprint of how they should behave when given two splits.

When the photon is detected by consciousness, in any way shape or form, the photon comes out of the nonlinear domain and comes back into the physical domain as a particle, or observable. This is evidenced by putting a detector at one slit and not the other, as well as the double slit eraser experiment. If you are unfamiliar with such experiments, I refer you to my good friend Wikipedia.

The second kind of evidence for the nonlinear domain is not really derived from science. Instead, it is derived from introspection and observing your own thoughts system. Your mind is proof of the nonlinear domain.

If you meditate on your thoughts, watch them arise, take form, and then fall away, you will realize that they originally only exist as energy. They first exist as a potentiality, and then your brain takes control and creates the complete thought form.

For example, first you may have the energy form of “the dog ate my homework” all together. Then your mind will begin creating the sentence in you head of “the dog ate my homework.” Originally, this exists as an entire energy construct, an entire thought form. Then it gets split up by the mind and superimposed onto a time track, and it becomes “the dog at my homework” as a sentence. If you stop your mind after the word “dog”, you still know what the rest of the sentence you were going to think was going to be, even though you haven’t technically thought it yet.

God and Spirituality

God is not an invisible man who judges people based on how well they follow 10 rules. God is not subject to human limitations and frailties, such as anger, revenge, wrath, the desire to control, and acting irrationally. God does not require classes in anger management or logic.

At best, this is a highly inaccurate view of God. At worst, it’s a dangerous thing to believe as it requires surrender to a fear based thought system and dropping of your spiritual frequency level.

Human beings, in our arrogance, have created a variety of religions based on a false concept of God. Not only do these religions promote division and separation, but many of them promote ignorance, fear, and guilt as well. A pure religion is necessary if we want to rid ourselves of this mess.

A pure religion promotes unity over separation, seeing no one unlike themselves. A pure religion encompasses all sentient beings and includes them as part of the group. A pure religion does not have a monopoly on truth or heaven. A pure religion does not throw stones at ‘outsiders’.

This ‘religion’ exists today, and it is called spirituality. It has no churches, takes no donations, has no physical possessions, and yet it’s members still help more people become closer to God every year than any modern religion does. Spirituality is the rock upon which every major religion was founded upon.

This is what I know about God, or Source. God is the source and essence of what we call life. God exists in the nonlinear domain. All of space and time, the entire 3 dimensional universe as we experience it, exists inside of God. Thus, God is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent.

Being in the nonlinear domain, God is eternal and not subject to death, as He exists behind the construct of time. God was never born, and God will never die. God is the source and essence of love. God is love.

You may have noticed by now that I always present evidence, in one form or another, for the claims that I make. And you may be wondering what evidence I will present for God.

Well, I would say that the best evidence for God is your own life. Your ability to experience, to be aware, and to live and breathe. Think about it. If the universe were all material, comprised only of atoms, molecules, and other inert matter, where did life come from? Where does subjective experience come from? The existence of life just doesn’t fit into the model of the material world. Thus the model must be wrong, or life must not exist. And if you’re reading this right now, it would be completely irrational to conclude that life does not exist. Thus, the material model of reality must be wrong.

The second best evidence for God in the physical domain is the effects of God. Things like love, life, goodness, peace, and beauty. These things are like small reflections of God, letting us know that He is there. Showing us that He still exists, no matter how much we try to block Him out.

The Split in Consciousness

So if God exists, why can’t we just go say hi? You know, how’s it going God, care for a game of golf? Of course, if God lost a game of golf to you, what would you say? Sorry God, maybe next time? I guess if you were Tiger Woods, God would understand.

Seriously though, why aren’t we aware of God? All we see here are the effects of God. Where is God? If you accept that God is real, and you accept that you aren’t aware of God, then something fishy must be going on here, right?

There must be something between our awareness and God. This is what is referred to as the split in consciousness, or the fall of man. Basically, what happened was, the son of God decided that he wanted to be separate from God. However, since God is the source of life, this is a wish that cannot be completely fulfilled. But the son of God has unlimited free will, since he was created in the image of his Father. So the Son of God created an illusion of separation instead, so that he can live in a an imaginary world where he is separate from God.

The thicker this illusion of separation is, the farther someone is from God and his fellow man. The thinner it is, the closer they are to God and humanity.

My personal evidence for the split in consciousness is derived from my NDE. There is also testimony from a variety of mystics throughout history, as well as various spiritual texts that refer to the split in consciousness. If you’re interested in personal evidence, do a Google search on non-duality and enlightenment.

Ego and Spiritual Development

In the spiritual development world, this split is referred to as ego, suffering, or illusion. You can have your pick, as they all mean the same thing. The ego is basically everything that makes up the illusion of separation. Exploring the ego is like trying to find your way through a house of mirrors. The entire illusion is very obscure and deliberately hidden from you. Indeed, it’s strength lies in its ability to hide and obscure things.

If you’re familiar with computer terminology, I would compare the ego to a self installed root kit. It deliberately obscures your ability to see reality the way it is. And you put it there, to separate yourself from God.

The goal of spiritual development is to slowly disassemble the ego, and surrender the individual pieces to God. It is a process that naturally takes place during the course of one’s life. Actively pursuing spiritual development is just a way to speed it up, so to speak.

To have your ’sins’ washed away is a literal term that doesn’t involve being dunked into freezing water. Instead, it involves surrendering the energy barriers that you have created to promote separation, and accepting your absolute dependence upon God as the source of your life.

As Jesus said, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.” In other words, unless you recognize your complete dependence upon God as the source of life, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Meaning of Physical Life

If there is to be a higher meaning to physical life, it must be to live, and to experience, and to grow from these experiences so that you can become closer to God. Of course, you can assign your own meaning or purpose to your life as you see fit, but if there is a higher meaning, I am convinced that this must be it.

After all, what other meaning do you think life would have? Do you really think God would put us all on this planet for his own amusement? Do you think God has 10 rules and derives pleasure from throwing people into some imaginary hell? Do you think that the material world is all there is, and this whole life and consciousness thing just doesn’t exist?

It would be irrational to believe these things. Life is a school, and you are a student. So go out, have fun, help your neighbor, don’t take things too seriously, and smile every now and then.

Discussion

This is my current working theory of the nature of reality. I have done my best to provide the primary evidence that I have seen in my life that supports every claim. So if you find this unbelievable for some reason or another, I greatly encourage you to go exploring the evidence for yourself.

The only mistake you can really make in life is to stay where you’re at and not do anything at all. This is akin to just waiting for death. Something which far too many people choose to do with their lives already.

Some people wonder, why should you explore such a thing anyway? What use is this knowledge, even if it is all true? It seems a little too ‘deep’ for me.

It is true that this is not a practical guide on how to live life. This is not the instruction manual. It is just a working theory as to the nature of reality, based upon my life experiences so far. Some of this may not mean anything to you now, but someday you may experience something and look back and think. I once read about this, a long time ago, in an article on the Internet somewhere.

On a more personal note, throughout my life I have always found great relief upon discovering new things, or upon discovering that my previous beliefs about God and life were dead wrong. As I have progressively let go of old beliefs I have always found that life becomes more pleasant, more benign, and easier. It is as though old burdens get slowly washed away in the sand.

And so I write this with the same wish for you. That wherever you are at in life, that I can help you come to a place where you can let go of your burdens, and watch them wash away in the sand.

Virtually all true paths of inquiry into the meaning or purpose of life will eventually lead to the basic question of “who am I?” Without the answer to this question you don’t have a very good foundation to base any other assumptions or knowledge about life upon.

This is not a simple question, nor is it a question that should be taken lightly. By searching for the answer to this question you are also searching for the very essence and meaning of life itself. Such is the nature of the question “who am I”.

This article is written for the people who have taken the red pill, so to speak. It isn’t the kind of article that you find out of sheer coincidence. It is an article that was written just for you. It begins at the top of the rabbit hole and just goes down from there. So if the beginning is too basic for you don’t worry. It gets deeper as you go along.

Self Concept

If you asked someone on the street this question, this is the answer that they would give you. They would give you their self concept. They would give you the concept of themselves that they hold in their mind. Here is an example of how a stranger may answer this question:

“My name is Bill. I work as a police officer. I have a wife, two kids, and a dog. I live at 3587 Beach Avenue. I enjoy fishing and coaching basketball in my spare time. I’m six feet tall, weigh 190 lbs, and I get along great with children.”

This description includes most of the primary things in Bill’s self concept. It includes his name, what he does for a living, his personal information, what he enjoys doing in his free time, and his best characteristic. All of these things collectively make up Bill’s self concept.

This description changes on a daily basis. He may move to a new house, and so he no longer lives at 3587 Beach Avenue. Now his self concept has changed. He may lose some weight and now he weighs 170 lbs. So his self concept just changed again.

These kinds of external changes are constantly changing throughout Bill’s life. Every year he gets a little older, collects new possessions, finds new hobbies, and so his description of himself is always changing.

Some of the most popular things that people use in their self concept include a description of their body, their possessions, and their unique characteristics. One thing to note about all of these descriptions is that they are all possessive. Bill has a name. Bill has a job. Bill has a wife, two kids, and a dog. Bill has a house. Bill has hobbies. Bill’s body is six feet tall and weighs 190 lbs.

Whenever Bill loses a part of his self concept he sees it as losing part of himself. Bill loses his house and he loses a part of himself. Bill gets upset. Not because he lost the house, but because he lost his house. If Bill’s neighbor lost his house, Bill wouldn’t be upset unless his neighbor was also part of his self concept. For example, if Bill’s neighbor was a good friend as well as a neighbor.

This is the way that a large majority of the population answers this question. This is the self identity for a lot of people, and is the general social norm for answering the question of “who am I”. But this is definitely not the only way to answer this question. There are several other ways.

Advanced Self Concepts

Some people have a self concept that is a little more advanced than the above. This is especially true for people of a religious or spiritual background. They have actually thought about this question, at least a little bit. And so they see themselves as an eternal spirit, a soul, or a child of God. And this works for them.

But upon further investigations it is realized that these are still just concepts shaped from external sources. How did you learn that you are a spirit, or a child of God? Did you not read this from a book somewhere? Did someone not tell you this?

Or did God Himself come down and tell you that you are his child? No, of course not. You read it in a book somewhere or someone told you this. If it weren’t for someone else, you wouldn’t believe this to be true.

While most religious people eventually grow up and accept that they may not know everything, the traditional response when confronted with this is one of anger, upset, and denial. This is unfortunate, and actually pretty ironic considering that these are the same people who preach about love, forgiveness, and being open minded all the time.

The other popular response to this is to have faith. Have faith that you are what I tell you that you are. Or have faith in the good book. This is a pretty sad argument when used in this context. You having faith that you are a spirit, soul, or child of God is no different than me having faith that I am a frog. They are both equally valid because neither of us have any evidence to support our belief.

As people mature they slowly begin to realize how external factors have shaped their internal self concept and beliefs. With this realization also comes another one. Why am I listening to everyone else about who I am? If other people can decide who I am, why can’t I decide who I am?

Thus you have the emergence of affirmations and positive thinking. If I believe that I am rich and famous, then I will become rich and famous because I believe it. If I believe that I am happy, I will become happy. I will become what I believe that I am.

While this is a great place to be at in life, there is still something missing here. If I create my own identity, then who am I? How can I create myself?

Obviously, you cannot be your identity because you have created that. There are two separate concepts here. There is you, and then there is your identity that you have created. You cannot be your identity, because you have created your identity. How can a son give birth to his own father? This is not possible.

So now you are left in a state of confusion. Back to the fundamental question I guess.

Who Am I, Really?

This is a stage of confusion for most people. Ultimately, you have to admit that you really don’t know who you are anymore. Admitting this is utterly unacceptable for some people, and so they wind up reinserting themselves into some made up identity and forgetting about their little journey to the real world.

This is a shame though. If you think about it, you have just let go of a whole lot of mental trash and garbage.

Take the fear of death, for example. Everyone is afraid of death and worried about dying. But if you don’t know who you are, how can you logically be afraid of death? I mean, you don’t even know what it is that would be dying!

And if you can’t logically be afraid of death anymore, how can you logically be afraid of anything else in this world? So many fears and worries are based on the fear of death. And they are all wiped out just by accepting that you don’t actually know who ‘you’ are anymore.

But of course there is still that nagging question. Who am I, really? Is there some objective way to figure out who or what I am that isn’t defined by me?

And so, the search begins…

Am I My Body?

Perhaps I am my physical body. This seems like a logical explanation. It is, after all, what science tells us that we are, right? I am a bunch of atoms and molecules arranged in such a way as to create tissue and organs which make up the human body.

Thus, my existence is completely dependent upon the survival of the human body. When it dies I die, and life itself ceases to exist. Perhaps death is like going to sleep and just never waking back up. Such would be the case if I were my physical body.

Let’s forget for a second the sad implications of this assumption and just explore the validity of it. Am I my body? How do you even go about answering that question?

In order for me to be my body they must both be the same thing. I must be equivalent to my body. If you actually look at this sentence you can see that I am not my body. If I were my body, then wouldn’t my body be me? Why would there be two separate things in this sentence? Shouldn’t it just be me, which is my body?

So at least the concept of ‘I’ is different from my body. If they were the same, I wouldn’t refer to the body as my body. I would instead refer to my body as me. So the concept of ‘I’ and my body are not the same thing, because my body is something that I possess, not something that I am.

In addition, my body does not move itself. My hands, arms, and feet usually do not just move on their own accord. Instead, I have to move them. Thus, I am in control of my body. Which means, of course, that I cannot be my body. Because the body is something that I control.

However, this still doesn’t rule out the possibility that my existence is dependent upon my body in some fashion. It’s pretty apparent that certain drugs, foods, and drinks have an affect upon my experience of reality. Thus, it wouldn’t be a far stretch to state that my existence is also dependent upon the existence of my body. So if my body dies, I die.

So while I can conclude with certainty that I am not my body, I cannot conclude with 100% certainty that my existence is not dependent upon the existence of my body in some fashion. But this doesn’t answer our original question of who am I, does it?

So who am I really, if I am not my body?

Am I My Mind?

While I can clearly see that I am not the concept of myself that I have in my mind, what if I am the mind itself? As opposed to the body and the physical world, mental stimuli seem to be more energetic than solid matter. It is as though the mental realm is completely different from the physical realm. So let’s explore this question some. Am I my Mind?

First let’s explore what mind really means. What is mind? The mind itself has a broad variety of different functions and capabilities. Just off the top of my head it has the capacity to think, dream, imagine, create, analyze, recognize complex patterns, and experience a wide variety of emotions. These are all things that come into mental existence, stay for a short while, and then vanish again.

The mind is a non-physical thing, and these are just a few of its mechanisms. It seems to have many different parts to it. So the question is, which one of these parts of the mind would you consider to be ‘you’? Taking into consideration that these are all things that come and go, how can you really consider them to be what you really are?

Take your linguistic thoughts for example. If you stop thinking, do you still exist? If you pause for a moment to admire a beautiful sunset, do you still exist? Sure you do. The mental thinking stimuli are gone, but you are still aware of your existence. You can still sit and watch the sunset, even if you’re not thinking about the sunset. In fact, it’s usually better that way.

So even if you are not thinking, you still exist. You still have the experience of existence and awareness. You are still experiencing the sunset.

So you must be a different aspect of your mind. Instead of being these various mental stimuli, you must be something else. So what are you?

Let’s think about life for a moment. You come here and you experience a tremendous amount of different things. You experience love, fear, thoughts, 20/20 vision (hopefully!), getting married, watching sunsets, having sex, and going to the movies. Then you experience old age and death.

What is the one thing in common here? While your thoughts and position in life are always changing, while your self concept is always changing, while your body is always changing, what is the one thing about you that is always the same?

You are always aware of life. You are always experiencing life. This is always the same. Whether you are just waking up in the morning, or having a lucid dream. Whether you are at a ball game, or at the movies. You are always the one experiencing life.

So instead of being your self concept, instead of being your body, instead of being your thoughts, beliefs, and feelings, you are simply the one experiencing all of these things. You are experience itself. Thus, it would be fairly difficult to ‘hurt’ the real you.

But what happens if this experience disappears? Is there anything that gives rise to the one that experiences life?

Source

Perhaps I am not what I believe that I am, but I am simply that which believes. Perhaps I am not the body that perceives, but am that which perceives the body. Perhaps I am that which experiences life. Perhaps I am the experience of a self.

But what gives rise to this experience of self? Many religions and spiritual teachers actually say that this experience of a separate self is illusionary. It doesn’t exist. They teach that, as this illusionary separate self is let go of it is eventually replaced by your true Self, which is beyond time, space, and even death.

While I don’t know about all of that, I can say this. The sense of having a self, which is separate from everyone else, still arises out of awareness. Thus, it still cannot be the real you because it arises from something else. Before there is a self, there is awareness. There is life.

Thus, if you are alive then the real you must not be a separate, personal self. If you are alive, then the core and essence of who you are must also be the core and essence of what life is. Which is, of course, the core and essence of who we all are. To perceive yourself as being separate from everyone else, then, would just be delusional.

So in conclusion, because you and I are both alive, we must be ultimately the same. So to answer the original question of who you are, you must be me. So I must’ve written this article for myself.

Discussion

While talking about such things can be an interesting intellectual exercise, many people wonder how useful this knowledge can be during their everyday life. How can it help pay for the bills? How can it pay the mortgage, or car payments?

While this knowledge certainly isn’t going to make you rich in a material sense, or pay for the food on your table, in my experience these kinds of realizations about life have always led to a kind of richness to life that can’t be brought about by any amount of money or personal gain.

The process of self discovery has always been the one path that has always felt true to me. The more I walk, the easier and more joyful life becomes. It is so much different from walking the traditional life path. The further I walk, the more joyful and delightful life becomes. The more peaceful things become. It is almost like the world is slowly becoming perfect, day by day.

And somehow God seems to be closer to everything, although I cannot explain how…