It has always been now, so at what point did “I” become “ME”?
If “ NOW” has always been, then we must have always been, as well. Before this form, as a separate sperm and egg cell and before that, and so on. At what point along the line did consciousness appear, or was it always there? At what point did that which I call “me” appear?
Comments (19)
As @AntonioP said, this thought shows up when our knowledge developed in high scales. Descartes explained this virtue with his famous phrase Cogito ergo sum.
So, in the moment we are literally aware of our own existence is when appears that feeling of "ME", "I am existing", "I am real" etc...
It was 3.43 am on February 27th 1990.
I do not see how that follows. To be clear: I think we have always existed. But I do not see how this follows from the fact that now is the time at which all things exist.
I take it that things in the past 'did' exist, but no longer do; and that things in the future 'will' exist, but do not yet. So, that I exist means that I exist in the present, for that is where things that exist, exist. But how does it follow from this that I always exist? For it seems consistent with me existing now, that I did not exist in the past, and that I will not exist in the future.
And your question also seems inconsistent with your claim always to have existed. For if you have always existed - and, like I say, I think that is the case though for reasons different from yours - then there was no point at which you came into being.
All physical forms are temporary, even the Sun was born and will die in so many billions of years. Although we did not always exist in our present form, we must have been here in potential, because we are here now. If we identify with our physical form, then we have not always existed, but if we identify with the present moment, then we have always been here, in the now.
If it is true that energy may not be created or destroyed, but simply changes forms, then all that is here now, must have always been here now, only in different forms.
When someone else considered you such.
I agree. So far, the hard problem of consciousness has not been solved and perhaps it never will be. I suppose it is similar to getting into your car, to go look for your car.
I think you have answered your own question. You are a pattern of energy / matter at any given moment ( now ) . It is not a fixed pattern, it evolves over time - something like a tornado, or a whirlpool in a fast flowing stream - a self composed of non self.
You sum it up very nicely here!
I'm glad that you agree. :smile:
That's surely confused. I am not the present moment. I exist in the present moment, but that doesn't mean that myself and the present moment are the same. That's a category error. I am a thing. The present moment is not a thing, but a temporal property. I have now-ness, but I am not now.
You make a very good point. This physical body which we all refer to as “me” is here now and yet it was not always here now in this current form. Go back 150 years and not a single person alive today, was here. Go forward 150 years and the billions of people that are here now, will be gone. Although we identify with our bodies, emotions, memories and thoughts, that bubble of identity will be easily popped by this simple act of dying. So are we really our physical bodies, or perhaps there’s something more to it?
The present moment is the one and only thing in the universe which is permanent, because it doesn’t come and go, it is always here and now. Everything else is temporary and flows through the eternal present.
Around 18 months.
TaySan, what you are saying may very well be true, for theories may not be proven as true or false. The current theory of the Big Bang makes sense to me, but I don’t feel it goes far enough.
I personally feel that the Big Bang was a local event in an infinite universe. The light from the next closest Big Bang, may not even reach earth for another 10 billion years because there are not limits to how far away something may be in the endless expansion of space.