Who are you?

[Dream Weaver]

This is a philosophical exercise I learned. The objective is to strip away all of the titles and lables we use for ourselves and find who we truly are at our core. To find something that cannot be dismissed and is truly and utterly unique to you. So, who are you?

[LionsPride]

My inner me says 'Hi'.

Seriously though, while I share many things on this forum, more things then I share with most people I know, the essence of my being is something I will not release into the outer world in any form. You all see the shadow it casts, like a 3D object expressed in 2D. The people in my day to day life, see only the shadow of its shadow. It's a combination of inability and choice that keeps me from sharing.

It's an excellent exercise. One I have fond most gratifying in the past.

[redbaren]

For some reason I can not reveal my true inner self, may be I am a end less hole? Or I am just as normal as every one on this earth? But no one will know.....

[enWTFp]

I did a test some years ago. Write many words that describe you. Cut them down to 10. Then cut them down to 1. The one that was left was "energetic".

But this is different. My answer is: I am the most difficult of the puzzles that I have to solve in this life.

[Metanoia]

It is one of the most difficult questions in my life, if it is still not the most difficult. Who am I anyway?

I am who I am.

It might be a very ambiguous answer to the question, and also it is not original. Since enWTFp has already given my supposed to be answer.

Disclaimer: No offense to those who believe in the Bible or anything, but I actually took that idea from the attribution of God to himself. I do not claim that I am God. It's just that, it is the only thing that entered my mind that best answers the question without pretentions or anything.


Metanoia added to this post, 0 minutes and 55 seconds later...


I guess that question is also in a way, a reason why we are living. We want to know ourselves more.

Life is a constant search for the essences of things, especially the search for the meaning and significance of ones existence and essence in life.

[xtremegeek]

The johari window:

To view links or images in this forum your post count must be 2 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

[sriv]

"I" is all I know exists.

[Monte314]

I'm a wide-eyed little boy, as happy as I can be with my Father and the life He has for me.

[muguly]

I am a frightened child, balled up in a corner wishing the thunder and lightning would stop and the sun would come out. That or a moron.

[Avid]

You only validate your existance by having others to bounce off of. I perceive myself based on the choices of how I operate my life from opinions of others. If you don't have a mirror you can't see your physical (face, ugly or pretty) so I figure the same thing applies to the mental. Although the concept stem's more from a concept like echo location where I'm in front of myself but in the dark and people are my echoes.

[ssrprotege]

Attempting to know myself, so far, wasn't that successful. It was "an abyss of non-comprehension." I think I need to study myself more to really answer that question.

[Dave C C]

A vessel.

[James]

Strip away titles and lables...well you pretty much have to remove language to do that,
as soon as you come up with something that can not be dimissed it becomes a lable.
I would say we are all things that we lable ourselves with and all things others lable us with.....you know - loving father yep, friend yep, helper yep, jerk yep, spiderman.... ummm well maybe not all things

[True Rune]

It's like trying to grab a handful of liquid with me. I want to truly know myself, but there are always questions. I suppose a confused entity with no sex drive.

[echoi]

a straight balla

[salsipuedes]

Sounds sorta kinda like Aristotle to me.

I don't remember the exact philosophical terms, but if you strip away all the "extra" characteristics, you're supposed to have something left that's the real and immutable characteristic of an entity, the quality that makes the entity what it is really. Like "manness."

Problem is, my qualities are not divisible. They all work together and can't be peeled off me (or any entity) like layers of an onion.

I'm not them. They're me. I'm all of me.

[waves] Hiya!

[SShack]

...

I still don't know yet. Gimme two or three more years. I think I've almost got it figured out.

[Olympics2010]

If I strip away all the labels, definitions, etc., I might become nothing at all. I would just become one with nature, and I would delight in having nothing concrete or specific to point to when it comes to myself. I'd be confused as to what to point at, or to describe as, myself, after all the labels are gone ~

[pure potential]

I am LOVE. :lovestruck:

[blueback]

has this kind of pseudo-intellectual mumbo-jumbo actually helped anyone? You basically just asked us to describe something without describing it. That's like trying to observe something without affecting anything. It's not possible. You need labels just to think about things, let alone talk about them; the same way you have to intercept a photon to see it. You're the only one that can see that photon. Once you've forced it to bounce off of your eye it isn't carrying the same information to another person that it carried to you. When you try to describe what you saw people can only understand your description based on their own experiences with photons.

But, you know, that's just me. Has this "exercise" ever helped anyone?

[ScurvyRose]

Who am I: I am the irrefutable force contained within the enigma, catapulted towards the truth and questions of furthering a sustainable source of the next moment.

[Ijz]

I'm a searchlight, endlessly looking for new and better understanding while juggling my other personality traits to keep my balance.

[Mozzes]

has this kind of pseudo-intellectual mumbo-jumbo actually helped anyone? You basically just asked us to describe something without describing it. That's like trying to observe something without affecting anything. It's not possible. You need labels just to think about things, let alone talk about them; the same way you have to intercept a photon to see it. You're the only one that can see that photon. Once you've forced it to bounce off of your eye it isn't carrying the same information to another person that it carried to you. When you try to describe what you saw people can only understand your description based on their own experiences with photons.

But, you know, that's just me. Has this "exercise" ever helped anyone?

This is what I was thinking when I first read the thread. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around it and figure out if there's anything of substance here. I do have to admit, however, that a line from Ayn Rand's book Anthem came rushing into my consciousness when I read all of this:

"I am. I think. I will."

[Josh]

Me thinks we are bioelectrically driven organisms who can never escape the confines of our mind which itself is simply a storage device for past experience masquerading as self identity.

[Mozzes]

Me thinks we are bioelectrically driven organisms who can never escape the confines of our mind which itself is simply a storage device for past experience masquerading as self identity.

By that very statement you're implying that there's a something that can be identified as a real "self identity" to masquerade. What is the difference between true self identity and what's merely acting under the guise of self identity? In other words, from your post is there any sensible way to distinguish between something and the illusion of something when operating inside the system whose components we're attempting to define?

I think you've assumed a hopelessly narrow purview of the human mind.

[0330]

I am 0330. That was easy. Next question!

[bricklayer]

Who is but the form following the function of what. And what I am is a man...

Ha ha. Life tells us who we are by the decisions we make I guess. I don't really know how to tell you who I am without using any labels.

[Minxz]

If you want me stripped down to the driving force its love of knowledge and curiosity... I guess in one word that would make me:

A Student (ok 2 words)

[Bluesman]

Who are you? Who am I?

To approach this as a purely mental or philosophical exercise is absurd as some have already mentioned. To find one's Being one must be.

So the only way to 'answer' this question is to go beyond the language faculty itself to undifferentiated experience. According to many saints, sages, and monks over the ages, the discovery of who you are in essence is only achieved through contemplative spiritual practices, whereby you first still the bodily sensations, then the mental thoughts, because these are distractions.

There are many spiritual traditions that are highly developed in these practices. I do not claim to know if any of them are efficacious in answering the question.

Buddhist meditation
Hindu yoga
Christian contemplative prayer (Catholic) or hesychasm (Orthodox)
Muslim Sufi practices
Jewish kabbalah

[AliTree]

this is really hard for me...
i really dont know if i can say im anything thats truely unique to me...
*sigh* probably misunderstood would be best, though. not to sound emo or teenager-like, but i am finding out the majority of people really read my wrong (body language, tone of voice, vocabulary, etc.) so i guess misunderstood fits me best.

[AresX9]

No titles? Bah, I was going to put down that I'm a Physicist trapped in a teenager's body.

I am a fully grown man mentally that is trapped in a teenager's body, that has a drive to understand the universe and how it works.

[SM FURY]

I think that we can't know who we are. I think that the complex life experiences that happen to us give us a feeling of who we are, but there will always exist that experience that has yet to happen to us that would show us just how little we really know about ourselves we would like to think we know how we would respond to certain situations because of expectations we put on ourselves. I think what is important is how we deal with the experiences that shake us to the core of who we think we are.

[Aerynna]

Im a girl free and light yet dark and scared .

[LordMaiestas]

Greatness

Dont flame me.

[ScurvyRose]

How about:

Lightning

[muguly]

I am a frightened child, balled up in a corner wishing the thunder and lightning would stop and the sun would come out. That or a moron.

Upon further inspection, I am a moron.

[BlackMita]

I'm leaning toward the "I am nothing/everything else" agreement. "I" as a descriptor would be one understanding of the means to sentience.

[Well Then]

This is a terribly vague question eliciting some rather interesting answers.

I don't think I can define or explain "who I am" given the limitations of the medium we're dealing with.

Isn't this thread an example of the fallacy behind Loki's wager? Being unable to properly define something doesn't mean it doesn't exist or is unknown. It's funny to see what happens when you ask people a question they're unprepared for - one of the first reactions seems to be a sort of nervous feeling that expresses itself by way of descriptions that really fail to say anything at all.

All in good fun, nonetheless. :laugh:

[Skatt]

I am non-linear waves that cannot be translated

[Ligda]

i can't answer this until the end of my life because who i am could change drastically tomorrow.

but, for the time being, i am a student of life. i am hesitant, yet exploratory. i spontaneously seek out new and dynamic stimuli, only to withdraw and analyze myself when faced with these novel concepts. i become bored, irritated and depressed when i can't or won't.

i seek approval and stability, only to disrupt it once i obtain it. i osillate between the extremes to analyze what will happen next. i become depressed and angsty when i'm not busy. i strive for the ideal, for perfection, but realize i can never reach that sublimation in this chaotic world, only to become inwardly angry due to the fact that i can't change that. i wonder why the hell people aren't logical and distance myself from them, both out of choice and out of alienation.

i am seeking who i am and always will be.

[Kisai]

A verb, not a noun.

[Homini Lupus]

I am the alpha and the omega. I am everything since my universe, the only one wich counts to me, begins and ends with me. I can feel pain, joy, anger, toughts and many other things, and all those things are created by myself, not by external world wich causes them but doesn't create them. Everything I see is an impression created by my eyes and evalued by my judgement. This is what makes the question "Who I am" so difficult. It's like an eye trying to see itself without a mirror.

[Sequoia]

I am.

Okay, I'll expand on that. I am a part of the universe, fully connected and contained within, yet separate and distinct.

[zippikay]

I am who I am, the choser of path, the seeker of probability, in the world devoid of greater entity i will be the sole force to define own's existence and purpose thus defining one's own identity. in the world of Godly fate and destiny, this i would pray for the best hand possible. i am what i am...

[ScurvyRose]

Wow! This is a great INTJ mind thread! Seeing everyones responses really makes me appreciate having found like minds!

[SmartOne]

I am not what I portray, I am what I keep hidden.

[lisakki]

You are your mind.

Think about the Matrix. Everything you experience could be an illusion except for the You that is experiencing them. Therefore it's the only thing you could really say exists.

[Ranie9]

I am a fuck-up. And it has nothing to do with sex.

[Antares]

I'd say I'm a tired old coot disguised as a teenager; recent events in my life made me grow so quickly.

[cncracer]

I am one point in a universe of points searching for the answer of WHY we exist, and the where we are going.

[Mozzes]

I am one point in a universe of points searching for the answer of WHY we exist, and the where we are going.

What makes you think you exist? Sheesh, such arrogant assumptions...:p

[Chaos]

I am someone who fully doesn't know who she is. Searching for the perfect answer has been a quest. In the end I just except I am what people perceive me to be; but underneath it all they will never know the real me.

[Little Bo Peep]

I am not certain I exist. Most of the time I feel I am just a reflection of something else but I can't see what. Like a shadow of the movement in the corner of an eye.

[iceberg]

I am burning with ambition and exploding with possibility

[Paradox]

If I knew the answer to this question, there wouldn't be much of a point to living out the rest of my life.

[ScurvyRose]

If I knew the answer to this question, there wouldn't be much of a point to living out the rest of my life.

Hence the Paradox!! LOL! I crack me up!

[Deadgod]

This is a philosophical exercise I learned. The objective is to strip away all of the titles and labels we use for ourselves and find who we truly are at our core. To find something that cannot be dismissed and is truly and utterly unique to you. So, who are you?

This is just another iteration of the Socratic Method. And it isn't ultimately who we are, but who we are becoming, or, even better, what we are changing to. Absolutism plays little to no role in life.
The irony I find in this is that it destroys all ends to simply make an end. But don't the multiple ends make the means? Isn't this where the concept of cause and effect comes in?
I see where the OP goes. It has to do with the whole idea of whether to serve society or to be by and for yourself. By defining yourself, you give yourself a reason to exist. To continually perceive, however, isn't necessarily a psychotic death wish; it's to...well...perceive (as in INTP perceive). MBTI , Keirsey, and Socionics, though subject to inspection and interpretation, give people a reason to live. It defines roles in life. This is more relevant to SJs and SPs (though most of them don't really care) and, to a lesser extent, NTs. The NFs, on the other hand, are looking for this self and are the ones always asking and coming up with things like "who are you REALLY?".

If one is looking to refute Keirsey's ideas, the concept behind the catalytic NFs could be exploited to good ends (or means; same difference). And it could also be said that "SP" is but a poor argument for getting kids out of trouble and off Ritalin and other narcotics.

[Nihilum]

I am just another person out there trying to get a good grip on life, but eventually fated to slip away, fade to black. My personality may be different from that of other people, but the end-state of my life is the same as all others. Nothingess. People musn't disillude themselves with promises of immortality. On the inside, we're all actually quite similar.

It's much easier to define yourself by what you're not. I say that I'm not muddled in my view of reality and how undefinable it is.

[idem]

I am a being that is presently being ultimately confused by the ultimate question.

[Nihilum]

I am a being that is presently being ultimately confused by the ultimate question.

The ultimate question being: What is the ultimate question? With the solution being itself.:smartass:

[volk]

I'm a dancing little devil in heaven, who loves cookies and chocolate.. and a bunch of other things..

[yellow5]

Alone, lazy, and happy that life is not endless; otherwise I'd have no motivation at all.

[Terian]

I am my thoughts. Cogito ergo sum.

[John F Kennedy]

I'm surprised that no one's questioning the legitimacy of "I" in "I am". In my case, there's existence, but there isn't much of a sense of "I".

[pocohauntus]

I guess that question is also in a way, a reason why we are living. We want to know ourselves more.

Life is a constant search for the essences of things, especially the search for the meaning and significance of ones existence and essence in life.
And then we die.

[SimplyOtter]

I am my thoughts. Cogito ergo sum.

Sum ergo cogito. 100% . :)

I am a leaving creature. A female living creature. A lucky female living creature that this time was born in the rich part of the world.
Don't know much more than that....

[mplogue]

I am the walrus.



Goo goo g'joob.........

[altoid]

I'm having trouble finding the essence of me, especially that which is without label or definition, to condense back into a label or definition that others can understand.

This thread reminded me of a quote:

"Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth."

-Alan Watts

[ElstonGunn]

The objective is to strip away all of the titles and lables we use for ourselves and find who we truly are at our core. To find something that cannot be dismissed and is truly and utterly unique to you. So, who are you?

Without titles or labels, any answer to this question would be meaningless, gibberish, or both. Regardless of what you say, you're most likely applying it to yourself as a label in some sense.

Anything that's truly unique to you is most likely inconsequential, at least in the grand scheme of things. In order to have a satisfactory answer to this part of the question, you have to either accept that fact that you're really just another mundane person whose only real meaning is subjective and small-scale ("I'm a good spouse/parent/mid-level manager," etc), or else become a peer of Leonardo or Einstein or someone like that.

[Zombicide]

The god of hatred