Consciousness or chemicals...

[Megan.]

The big change in my libido resulting from my HRT has really made me reflect on how much of my behaviour is just driven by hormones. Am I just some fleshy machine simply responding to different inputs,  is my perception of myself as a conscious individual with free thought just an illusion? Has anyone else had this thought?

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[Devlyn]

We tend to forget we're animals. Instincts and the drive to reproduce are strong factors, and it's difficult to swim against that current.

Hugs, Devlyn

[RobynD]

This is one i think about a lot, like really a lot and I believe we are a lot more about chemicals than we recognize. Even the need for romantic love that many of us have, is a need for the chemical that those activities produce.

[zamber74]

The big change in my libido resulting from my HRT has really made me reflect on how much of my behaviour is just driven by hormones. Am I just some fleshy machine simply responding to different inputs,  is my perception of myself as a conscious individual with free thought just an illusion? Has anyone else had this thought?

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I've often wondered how an illusion could possibly fool itself.  If there is nothing to fool in the first place, then what would there be to be fooled? 

I think of the soul as the thing that receives all of the stimuli.  Happiness, sadness, cold, heat, everything, it all registers to this one part of you, and we are drawn to what appeals most to us.  I don't know if the soul is some natural phenomena or if it is supernatural, I don't know if it persists after death, but when meditating I can strip a lot of these things away, and am left with a simple awareness, and that awareness is me.

We are effected by a multitude of things, past experiences, our environment, genetics, chemicals, and so on, but underneath all of that, the awareness always remains the same, it is the one unchanging thing in my life that I have never been without.