Core Self Definition Unknowns
This article is excerpted and edited from Amazing: Truths About Conscious Awareness
We have one, a core self that is, but we know less about them than we know about the moon, almost a quarter of a million miles away.
A centuries old debate continues over what causes us to intentionally be or, more recently, creates the perception of intentions.
Are we really making decisions that create results or is the muffled carnival we know as reality pre-programmed and running along as it should, no matter what we do or don’t do? Do we have eternal souls? Are we manifestations sprung into physical space out of some sort of Godhead?
Are we hapless, sin and error prone individuals estranged from God by our failures and weaknesses? Or does God love us and provide generously for us? Is our physical life an illusion invented for some reason by an eternal something, a sort of God force or Source? Is our persistent belief that we have free will the result of some cosmic joke? If we don’t have it, why did nature go to the trouble of inventing its illusion?
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No matter where we land on all those questions, what evidence is there that our lives have any intrinsic value? Are we making a meaningful contribution to the universe or are we really living that “tale told by an idiot,” frittering away lives gassed up with drama, Shakespeare wrote about?
Scientists tells us we’re an accident of evolution, deluded about important aspects of our true nature. Our free will is a misconception, tests show, but for some reason, we evolved into believing we have it anyway.
It’s surprising, really, how many people believe they have answers to the most profound question facing us.
An old joke says that only two experts in Washington understand the economy, and – drum roll – they disagree.
Religious philosophy is a lot like that, and wouldn’t it be a relief if we could reduce the number of spiritual know-it-alls to just two?
One possibility is that everyone who claims to know the ultimate truth is talking about the same thing, but grappling with insufficient symbols in a struggle to describe a vaporous ineffable. Toss in the spice of spiritual and religious leaders continuing their traditional seasoning with persuasion or coercion and you might have yourself a soup that can’t be served with any known ladle.
Core Self Enigma
We have to admit as rational beings that it’s possible, maybe even likely, that we will never really discover all the underlying truths that must surround us. An amount we can’t estimate might lie permanently outside our grasp or reason, disappointment though that may be to the “paragon of animals.”
Plenty of what goes on in nature may simply not be of interest, like the goings on in a foreign country that manufactures nothing we want to buy, holds no natural resources we’d like to steal and is stuck with always crappy weather.
What we think of as “reality” is a compromise made at an intersection of matter and energy that we are able observe. It seems to be just what we need to keep our interest and support our actions. Or, maybe, it really is what it seems. It’s possible we will never be smart enough to know for sure, ever.
Mysteries in Core Self Psychology is excerpted and edited from Amazing: Truths About Conscious Awareness
