What are you?

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4Horsemen said:
I know an ex-atheist who had an OOB experience in her early twenties when she felf lost and that there was nothing to live for. She said she was sitting on the couch when she lost any desire or will to live. Suddenly, she found herself in a particular corner of the ceiling looking down at her body slumped on the couch with eyes closed. She wondered if she could get back with her body and had the will to live. All at once, she was back somehow connected with her body. She said she still didn’t believe in God, as yet at the time, but developed a greater appreciation of life.
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I had a similar experience when I was twenty. My younger brother found himself out of his depth and shouted for help. I swam towards him, touched his shoulder and gave him the confidence to head back towards the beach. But the tide was going out and the waves were so choppy I swallowed a lot of water and went under several times. I remember looking down from above thinking how sad my mother would be when she heard I had drowned. That thought gave me the strength to overcome my panic although I was still so terrified I didn’t have the courage to turn over and I used the back stroke all the way to the shore…
 
tonyrey said:
I had a similar experience when I was twenty. My younger brother found himself out of his depth and shouted for help. I swam towards him, touched his shoulder and gave him the confidence to head back towards the beach. But the tide was going out and the waves were so choppy I swallowed a lot of water and went under several times. I remember looking down from above thinking how sad my mother would be when she heard I had drowned. That thought gave me the strength to overcome my panic although I was still so terrified I didn’t have the courage to turn over and I used the back stroke all the way to the shore…
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I had read about other drowning victims who have had an OOB experience. I do believe that some kind of “death” or separation of body and soul occured, but that we were able to will ourselves back into a unit, again, of body and soul, allowing for the will of God that we had more work to do. What I mean to say is that it was God’s will that we return and not, primarily, our own. Then, too, maybe our Guardian Angel was instructed to pull us back into earthy reality. :angel1:
 
tonyrey said:
Then who are the actors? :confused: 🙂
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We are the actors … along with all the other beings (in their own way of being) … but unlike the other material beings, we can watch ourselves acting … we’re both Oedipus and the Greek chorus …

We are the “stage” because we are the “there” of being (Heidgger) - and we are the “audience” because we are the “dative of manifestation” - beings and Being show themselves to us - but there’s always concealment - that’s why Faith is necessary.
 
4Horsemen said:
I had read about other drowning victims who have had an OOB experience. I do believe that some kind of “death” or separation of body and soul occured, but that we were able to will ourselves back into a unit, again, of body and soul, allowing for the will of God that we had more work to do. What I mean to say is that it was God’s will that we return and not, primarily, our own. Then, too, maybe our Guardian Angel was instructed to pull us back into earthy reality. :angel1:
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I’ve had so many narrow escapes from death. :eek: (I can remember at least a dozen). I’m amazed I’m still here…
 
levinas12 said:
We are the actors … along with all the other beings (in their own way of being) … but unlike the other material beings, we can watch ourselves acting … we’re both Oedipus and the Greek chorus …

We are the “stage” because we are the “there” of being (Heidegger) - and we are the “audience” because we are the “dative of manifestation” - beings and Being show themselves to us - but there’s always concealment - that’s why Faith is necessary.
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Now that is a very fine existential summary! 👍
 
tonyrey said:
Perhaps many of the fair sex have gone too far!
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Yes, and so have their male counterparts who, also, like certain females make little demi-gods of themselves saying “No” to the one, true God. These people have no idea who they are, why they are here, and where they are going. They would have a difficult time trying to answer the question of the OP.
 
tonyrey said:
An entity or a collection of particles?
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The question, like all philosophical questions, is a linguistic one.

''You" is the second person pronoun, and therefore what/who “you” refers to in any context must be is “the entity refered to by the second person pronoun.” Thus ‘you’ are necessarily an entity. But to say something/someone is an entity is to say almost nothing.

On the other hand, what is a "particle’’? The simplest answer seems to be a piece of something. In this sense, all things are collections of particles, i.e. all wholes are (by definition) collections of parts. “X is the collection/conglomeration of the parts (particles) of X.” But to say that X is a collection of the parts of X is, similarmente, to say nothing, perhaps less than nothing.

We could also consider the “You” as the recipient of any discourse. YOU (whoever you are) are the person/entity/collection of part(icle)s who is (or is not) reading this sentence. In this sense, the “you” is a function of language, the recipient, the necessary (even if fictive) cui of meaning or its absence.
 
4Horsemen said:
Yes, and so have their male counterparts who, also, like certain females make little demi-gods of themselves saying “No” to the one, true God. These people have no idea who they are, why they are here, and where they are going. They would have a difficult time trying to answer the question of the OP.
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It was very naughty of me… That’s why I asked it! 🙂

I wanted to ask “What are you?” but couldn’t… 😦
 
Qoeleth said:
The question, like all philosophical questions, is a linguistic one.

''You" is the second person pronoun, and therefore what/who “you” refers to in any context must be is “the entity referred to by the second person pronoun.” Thus ‘you’ are necessarily an entity. But to say something/someone is an entity is to say almost nothing.
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Some materialists on this forum have stated that we are apes, i.e. simply physical entities.
 
tonyrey said:
It was very naughty of me… That’s why I asked it! 🙂

I wanted to ask “What are you?” but couldn’t… 😦
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Ah. . . back to Square 1, the OP. What am I, or shall we say, who am I?
The “what” can be defined scientifically. The “who” can be defined philosophically and theologically.

Specifically, I am a lump of clay, a collection of parts, a human being, a person, a child of God, a wife, a mom, a pro-lifer and all things good because God made me. 🙂
 
4Horsemen said:
Ah. . . back to Square 1, the OP. What am I, or shall we say, who am I?
The “what” can be defined scientifically. The “who” can be defined philosophically and theologically.

Specifically, I am a lump of clay, a collection of parts, a human being, a person, a child of God, a wife, a mom, a pro-lifer and all things good because God made me. 🙂
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What more could I ask? 🤷 👍 (What a combination!)
 
tonyrey said:
You traitor! 😉 All of us? :tsktsk: Et tu Brute… 🙂
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:rotfl:

Well of course it is a huge generalization.

There are those members of the not so fair sex that are all too easy to understand, but I won’t go into that! 😃
 
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