The term "inner self" is frequently heard in these forums. Just what is the inner self?

What is Gender Identity Dysphoria?  How can something that we cannot see (or can we?) cause us to physically alter ourselves and our lives to achieve harmony and congruence between the body and whatever is inside of us?

Is GID a solely physical thing?  Is it a totally spiritual thing?  Is it some of both?  Is it neither?

Please state your opinion in this poll.  I am not an expert at these things so if I have missed a possible response, I would appreciate knowing, and it this whole thing makes no sense, I need to hear that before I feel like the jackass du jour.

Thank you much.

Wing Walker

I don't acknowledge ontological divisions between matter, mind, and spirit. I see them as all aspects of one reality, all so intimately, organically interconnected that they can't be teased apart. If you added a choice that included all of them interwoven together, I'd go with that.

"Man has no Body distinct from his Soul; for that called Body is a portion of Soul discerned by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age."
--William Blake

I Am a Strange Loop.

I basically agree with Hypatia, and about Alyssa.

Matter, spirit, energy are all synonymous imo. There are grosser and subtler forms we see or recognize (mind, body, spirit.) But they are inextricably and intimately one and the same. Of course there is a physical "reason" and that mirrors in the mind and spirit. How could it not, all being aspects of the same thing?

Nikki

I think that the inner self is an epiphenomena, that it is a secondary effect caused by the physical processes of the brain and chemicals and neurons and all that jazz.

epiphenomena

Ohh, good choice.

Quote from: tekla on September 29, 2008, 03:23:53 PM
epiphenomena

Ohh, good choice.

Except for the pluralization. (The Inner Internet Grammar Nazi strikes again!)

But I agree that the self is a direct result of jazz. Especially in the other sense of the word.

Yep, I agree Alyssa, Coltrane and Ellington are responsible for "soul!!"

With a touch of Louis Armstong, Jelly Roll Morton and a whole lot of Rev. Thomas A. Dorsey tossed in.

Ummm. O my soul. What a luxury all them would be with a nice comfy caftan, the right wine and a comfortable divan to recline on while listening.

Nikki

Hi, all, I guess I am guilty of instigating Wing Walker posting this topic and poll together. "Miss Nosy" she calls me.

I do agree with all who have chosen the Oneness proposition. Now I desire to introduce a theory for your own evaluation. All living organisms have spirit energy within one entity, this oneness of souls within  infinity is as an all-encompassing Oneness on all quantum realities.

Since souls have been in this three dimensional reality we call the Universe that has been *as it was in the beginning,* the beginning being the "Big Bang", or birth of the Universe.

For those who believe in reincarnation, how would it be that our souls may have been reborn to life forms in all quantum realities billions of times since the birth of the quantum realities or dimension? How many as female and how many as male? What if a soul is predisposed, let us say to being female or male for instance? A soul does not have a physical sex or gender but what if that soul's characteristic is female or male and has been reincarnated as one or the other through the rebirth into physicality for the past billions of years since the birth of universe?

OK, now I will take out my umbrella and you may precede to throw rotten veggies at me. After everyone leaves I can make a tossed salad.

Cindy

You gottum, cindybc. Wing Walker's question was certainly easier to understand!

Have you ever thought on ten different dimensions at just below the speed of light, and then try to keep up with the typing?  "Hee, hee, hee."  I love tomatoes, I could eat tomatoes with ice cream. But I can keep that bowl of veggies for a science experiment. Maybe I can learn how to grow hair on a billiard ball then be rich and famous and get my name in the National Enquirer.

Cindy

I agree with you, Cindy.  I believe in reincarnation and my soul has always been female, although it has been trapped in a male body from time to time.    I also believe that all livings things have a soul, animal, vegetable, flora and fonna.  And in the Oneness of the Universe.

Hand a large shield to Cindy for added protection.

i want to say all is one...but i believe the soul is god, and god does not have gender. {:D

Hi FindMeHere,  Just another theory. I agree with you that the Oneness which contains all souls and all in creation is within God, God is none gendered. Personally I use the term Great Spirit, or how about Sacred Feminine the hand maiden of God the bearer and keeper of all living things and just how many other intelligent entities that were assigned the position of The Watchers or Caretakers.

It is the spirit which is individual, but yet still connected to all of the essence of soul. Each spirit or thread of the soul that is assigned a living body becomes the living essence or energy of that body. It may be the consciousness of this spiritual energy which is also part of soul which may retain the  characteristics that it feels most comfortable with. female or male, in the none physical sense of course. Or how about the supposed androgynous characteristics of the angels.

Cindy

Hi, All,

I need to approach my own question from the reverse order.

Death occurs when the body can no longer respond to the life-giving qualities of the soul.

The soul is that entity in which the merger between the spirit and the body takes place.

Upon death of the body the soul frees the spirit to return whence it came, IMHOm to the Supreme Being.

That is my reasoning and belief as to the nature of the inner self.

Wing Walker

the term Inner Self is used so broadly, in so many different belief structures, that it is for me, a term i've started to avoid.

i would use the term freely were it not for the fact that many instances in common parlance describe it in metaphysical language, which is precisely what i am trying to get away from.

there are so many cohesive elements in the superficial personality, that it seems to be a separate entity, apart from the much more quiet and elusive inner self.

while it may certainly be true that the inner self is merely a subset of non-cohesive behaviors, it is far easier, for me at least, to work with the inner self as a separate entity, since its usage usually includes modes of thinking and behaviors outside of my normal behavior and thought patterns.

this, of course, introduces the unfortunate notion of dual personalities, and psychological imbalance, versus the more acceptable types of unbelievable and unscientific beliefs within myth, magic and mysticism. so, by attempting to remove all elements of metaphysical language, i feel i am at the threshold of grasping the reality of the inner self, and am now faced with criticisms of insanity!

-ellie

Hi Ell, hon, maybe we can share the same rotten veggies Nichole offered me to make that tossed salad with. I, for one, believe that the more there are different pieces of propositions, theories, and beliefs, that are served at the banquet table makes for a better richer meal. All these different bits and pieces served to us for our inspection are very much an invigorating expansion of knowledge and wisdom in the conscious and subconscious  mind.

Such is my patchwork faith, always flexible and changeable to outside information. It would be impossible, to explain what the inner self is; it isn't anything you can see, touch, calibrate, or measure with a scientific instrument in order to isolate and identify it in physicality. It is only felt, like the little voice, intuition, within the physical mind, which is not a physical process of the mind, but a process of your own thoughts that are *not* formed within your mind, but from a source from outside of your biological mind process. This proposition is subject to change as we discover new behaviors in the environment around us every day.

Cindy

   

Thanks for adding the choice of "Everything all woven together," it allowed me to vote honestly.