'I' am an illusion! Happy Thanksgiving!

what I mean is, my sense of personal identity is an illusion. This 'I' is not tied to this 'body' but is the 'I' of the Universe. There is only one 'I', deluding itself through the constructs of space and time into believing it is multiple 'I's. The 'I' is a mental construct, utterly impersonal, a universal expression; 'I' am 'It'; 'I' am the Universe. Or rather, 'I' am a transient expression of a universal Being.

Happy Thanksgiving!

You exist nowhere except within your body.
You are part of the universe, not the universe.
Multiple I's do exist.

I's only exist within human beings.
When all humans are dead, the universe will continue well without us.

You are entitled to believe otherwise and be at peace with your choice.
Happy Thanksgiving!

“Ex nihilo nihil fit”

nothing comes from nothing

'I' is an illusion when it conveys a sense of transience. Death is an illusion. 'I' exist in everyone who has ever lived and who will ever live. 'I' is eternal and is quite independent of my human body, or any humans for that matter. 'I' am an eternal expression of the Universe.

from Wikipedia:
"Nothing comes from nothing is a philosophical expression often stated in its Latin form: ex nihilo nihil fit. This principle maintains that anything that exists in physical reality has its origins in and is the manifestation of something else. The idea was first expressed as such by Empedocles. Today, the idea is loosely associated with the laws of conservation of mass and energy."

I maintain that since 'I' exist now, 'I' could not have ever not existed. The belief that we do not exist prior to our birth is an illusion born of our memories.

Ex nihilo nihil fit.

Death is an illusion. Transience is an illusion. 'I' cannot be born from nothing. The 'I' is eternal; it is the timeless expression of a universal Being.

Quotes:-

"What is a 'body' afterall?

What is 'I' afterall?

What is a human being? What is an 'I'?"

If you don't know the answer to these questions, there is no point talking about the 'I' as being illusory!

The problem with the arguments quoted from wikipedia is that whilst they apply to a human body, they do not necessarily apply to mental constructs which are formed in a new body (which is created from regenerated material).
Individuals are born. They have no 'I', but make one.
Individuals die. Their 'I' is gone forever. If they are cremated their body is gone forever, else becomes available for recycling.

The point of the questions is to provoke thought. The wikipedia quote about 'nothing coming from nothing' may have general validity and is not necessarily restricted to human bodies. "I" is impersonal, clothed in personability by our memories which gives rise to our illusion of separateness and individuality. All is interconnected; To the extent that our mental eye recognizes ourselves as a timeless expression of a universal Being, thus are we immortal.

Provocation does not always work, but I concede that too many people don't spend enough time thinking philosophically. But then, each to his own I suppose - I spend no time with sport, theatre, and a myriad other things.

I cannot think of any point in continuing our chat since you don't believe what you are saying.

I am certainly an individual, separate from everything I don't touch physically or mentally. I would feel this sorely if i were to be cast upon some unknown-to-anybody, faraway island as the single occupant!
No-one would know or miss me when I died. I am, however a part of the universe!

if there was an "I" and you could know it, what difference would it make? (Sincere question)

Hello Hey Hey,

It would make a difference to my knowledge.

It does make a difference to my knowledge.

I know that I am separate from all others except that my physical components come from previous physical components and my thoughts are peculiar to myself. We also know that some information which becomes part of our knowledge is from the past too.

I really do wish that I had the knowledge of the intentions of anyone within a distance of me which would allow them to severely or adversely affect my being. Then I would believe in a universal consciousness (albeit limited to few hundred yards - any more would probably require too much parallel computation to be of any use anyway).

It makes a significant difference to the believer (for it cannot be known) whether it is the truth or not.

I am interested in and seek the probable truth.
You probably do the same.
As I said earlier, it is for each to choose and cope with whatever they believe.
Neither do I have any desire to 'convert' others to my believe - each must choose for themselves (same as with religion).

I prefer experiencing truth. My goal here is to share with others, and point them in the direction of truth.

Admirablo!!

What's the name of the icon next to 'brainmeta.com' at the top of some of the pages in this website. It looks to me like it is a 2-D interpretation of what a 3-D projection of a 4-D cube's shadow would look like

or a tesserac, which is a cube within a cube, or hypercube, as someone pointed out

I'm afraid not. There's some points without connections in the graphic given. It's something else. I don't even see one complete cube.

It'll freeze out and die. So It needs us in order to be inmortal. To pass on Its legacy. Who knows how many billions of times It has already tried and failed! Maybe we are Its last chance. How many billions of coincidence and close calls did it take us, I wonder, to get to where we are at the present point in space and time?

You make it sound like we are some kind of a miracle. and miracles don't exist.

You are implying that Universes reproduce. Paralell Universes is only a quantum physics possibility. A possibility (but only that) . You are bordering on wishful thinking.

Note that the diagram leaves out the empty set, and has the singetons (a, b, c, OR d) represented as a single node, instead of being separate nodes.

I also see rectangles. I don't think it is any of the objects mentioned so far.

It's actually more than one object. When you go to the 'reply' page, a different object appears than if you stay on the 'recent posts' page and just click on 'refresh' at least three times.