Are you a body with a mind or a mind with a body? - Maryam Alimardani 

What do you think? Are you a body with a mind or a mind with a body? Also, we hope you noticed the book rec at the end of the vid. You can download an audio version of the book for free at www.audible.com/teded. And for even more book recs from our team, visit ed.ted.com/books.

I came here with a question and now I'm leaving with three.

I've an exam literally 2 hours from now... And I'm here dealing with existential crisis

This made me emotional. There is beauty in humanity trying to understand itself.

"You don't have a soul. You are a soul, you have a body."

oh hello existential crisis nice to see you again

Me: Brain is the best organ.... Wait why am I saying this, Brain : oh, sometimes I become selfish

When I felt more like a body with a mind I used to spend more time indulging on desirable things to please my senses. Now that I feel more like a mind in control of a body I do more things to progress in life. I think perception of this can play a big part in how people choose to live because of what they view, consciously and subconsciously, as being a priority and worth spending time on.

At first, right after watching this video, I was quite terrified because I didn’t get a thing. However, after digging into the topic for a while, I’ve worked out something important. Something I’d like to share with the viewers, as it really comes in handy for understanding the concept. In my view, the idea is that a person is neither a body with a mind nor a mind with a body. A person is a system, where both a mind and a body perform different, but equally significant, functions. Here is why. Imagine a human as a computer. Speaking computer science (hope you are familiar with a computer structure), our brain is a processor and the body is information input / output means. In other words, your mind is undoubtedly in charge of processing information, which is what we do every day and what we live for (in a way). To be precise, by information I mean our sensations, of course, that we gain from our sense organs. That is the point where our physical bodies play their crucial role. We gain knowledge about everything around us (including ourselves, actually) by listening, watching, touching, sniffing and tasting. Therefore, if not for the sense organs, there would be no information for the brain to work on and no outcoming conclusions made and no knowledge gained and no picture of the world created, no perception and no ourselves, as we know it, after all. Concluding, a mind does control a body, but it (a mind) wouldn’t be so almighty, if not for a body.

The music, animation style and the content of this video resulted in me having a massive existential crisis😧

_Processing..._ _Processing..._ *brain.exe has stopped responding*

"If we close our eyes in a silent room, the feeling of having a body isn't something we can just imagine away." It seems like this is quite untrue. You can meditate and let go of the feeling of having a body. You can also daydream/dream the feeling away. Does anybody else have thoughts on this?

The wonderful thing about getting older is that this kind of inquiry makes you feel lighter and more free or at least in my case it does. I'm enjoying my 38 years old self. Thank you TED

*Nods silently*

Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy? Caught in a landslide No escape from reality

if we close our eyes in a silent room long enough, the feeling of having a body can definitely go away once you get out of the habit of imagining and projecting it in your own mind. This is called meditation. It brings your perceptions closer to your actual experience of reality, decluttering your discursive thoughts and imagination.

the vedanta describes the mind as an abstract concept, different from brain which is the physical organ of our body as of 4 levels. 1. buddhi(intellect) 2. manas(memory) 3. ahamkara(identity or the sense of one-ness) 4. chitta(conciousness)

"A circle has no beginning." -Luna Lovegood

I think about this all the time, oh my goodness. Am I a brain with a conscience or a conscience with a brain? Am I a soul with a physical body or a physical body with a soul? Am I a hotel? Trivago.

i've spent half a semester studying this in philosophy and it still fucks me up

You’re a spirit with a mind, living inside a body.

I questioned things like that when I was a kid until now I asked myself like how do I know I'm me? Or what makes me, me? If I wasn't born in this body but in a different body will I be the same or think the same? It's very hard for me to write my questions, it's easier to question them in my brain

*existential crisis intensifies*

Let alone the thought-provoking information or how philosophical this is, the whole video is edited and done so beautifully that it is truly inspiring. The music is accurate and perfectly emotional too. Does the track have a name?

I would say that I am a soul with a mind that lives together in a body to experience all that's around me. (My mind also has ego about the existence of my body that leads me to believe that I'm this body and not anything else)

This video title messed with my mind, I didn't ask for this

But when one is meditating, our body kind of feels like it's not there. It's just our self, our mind travelling, and falling in place. At least, when I meditate deeply I stop feeling my body. And, my mind just calms.

When i was younger, I used to think I was the only person who discovered awareness of being able to perceive other things asidefrom whats offered. I once rode a public vehicle and looked at tge window then wondered if other people thought about me and everyone else the way I do. Bottomline is: the human mind is amazing.

One of the most perplexing yet fascinating problems in science. I’ve personally always believed that we are the brain, and our body is just the machine our brain uses to interact with the world.

Did you know your brain named itself brain?

Too much. Can't process.

2:38 Everything in this world: i am not even here baby I am just an hallucination

That last part, something that we haven't yet dreamt up! We aren't capable of imagining every possibility, since we're limited by what we know or our collective knowledge

Answer: Yes.

Who is the one that hears words in your mind with no sound vibration and who sees images and videos in your head when your eyes are closed and everything is dark? Experiences without senses. What are thoughts?

This exactly the question that pops up in my mind recently so thank you for uploading the video.

The start “look at ur hands” just kindled my existential crisis, wow

A ghost.. driving a meat coated skeleton.

video: you think it’s yours, and flinched when it’s threatened with a knife..! video: *knife sound* me: *gasp*

been questioning this for years. Thank you man

Astonishing, i just felt it yesterday, and got it recommended today.

I'm a thing looking through eyeballs

I can tell this is gonna be the start of an existential crisis

Outrageous question. Both, very obviously, and then some.

Death Becomes Her answers all of our questions about life.

I am personally both and neither

The obvious answer is: "yes"

that`s a beautiful presentation 🙏

I used to have like an existential crisis when I was a kid. I kept thinking about why I'm inside this body, am I real, etc. And then I got scared😂 so I'll try to relax myself and let the thoughts go away.

Are You a Body with a Mind or a Mind with a body? Me: Yes.

The body is a life support system for the brain. We are the brain.

The music is beautiful in this, also a great video

i’m loving this video style

Have to rewatch this high...

The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence -Nikola Tesla

It takes " it's all in the mind" to another level.

I'll watch this two days from now, after I'm done with my exam. An existential crises is the last thing I need right now

Your body is the hardware and your mind is the software. Together both of these make everything happen.

What a great way to distill this idea. ...And all that affects our mind and body and how we can actually decide this and find a way to make that work. I have a chronic and terminal illness. I know, barring extraordinary accident, what will kill me. So things like needing a knee replacement, which might ordinarily be considered important, aren't to me. My body carries *me* around, it isn't me. In the same way that I wouldn't replace a tire on a car when the engine won't start, I'm not worried about the leg. But even doctors can't seem to understand when I try to explain. This simple topic will help I'm sure. Thank you.

Thank you so much. 🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍

Awesome to get the knowledge

Never think of this matters. Until.. RU-vid recommendation show this.

if the GTA characters were so advance that they could think, they would never understand why they live in such a violent world. some would become scientist and figure out they are constructed of tiny ones and zeros - they would never be able to physically see their creator. They wouldn't understand there are many copies of the same universe and they could never cross to another universe - aka another copy of GTA running on another device.

GREAT.Now im obsessed with this

The animation is so clear

We are the combination of mind and body. If you could upload your mind into a computer, the computer would be the body of the mind, and in the end it would be a different being.

When i was super high on lsd (took 2 entire tabs) i started to feel only as a mind, like my body was a completly separated tool that helped me to reach for things, give me plasure, survive in the world, so thats what i think about my body, i think its a tool

These questions pop in my mind everytime I feel sad + the mind Vs heart thing

Very informative.

Whether virtual, yours or not, our minds requires a body. The mind will adapt to that body. That is why the rubber hand trick works.

I love how I have asked myself these exact questions and now I have the answers to these questions ,I love Ted Ed.

I never knew that there were other people asking this.. I was asking people this questions for a long time and suporți g my idea that we are bodies with minds..

Me after reading the title: Got my mind on your body and your body on my mind

are we living in a simulation or real life?

duh, both. While the pessimist and optimist argued about the glass being half empty or half full, the opportunist drank it!

If u think mathematically u understand that it is the same since the relation "to be with" is a equivalence relation which means that it particularlly fullfills the symetric property: A is with B B is with A

I feel like both the body and mind are tools to us! The consciousness!

Neither. We're all in the Matrix. None of you are real.

We are nothing and everything all at once.

The fact that I was thinking about the movie I,robot while trying to understand & in the end they mention I,robot. Literally gave me a sense of accomplishment

Amazing how in time we can replace every part of our body.

This is so beautifully done

we all know this is a demi lovato song quote “ got my mind on your body and your body on my mind “

Really fascinating, would have also liked if you talked about the famous essay by Daniel Dennett "where am I" where his brain is put in a tube which is connected in a way to his body and throughout the essay he puzzle it out on if he is in the tube (as his brain) or outside (as his body)

Fascinating ❤️❤️❤️🌹🌹🙏 Thank you

I am a spirit who dwells in this body and utilizes its mind

"We can't imagine our body just going away" Except when I disassociate

I don't know why My mind finds it beautiful to listen to this video.. like it knows the answer but can't express it..

*This is gold.* I love this topic a lot. There are always arguments for having/not having a soul. Pure philosophy. The sad part, I don't think we will really know the answer. At least, not our generation.

Noticed:The video is so deep/fascinating that people will leave comment section after while.. That's why some interesting/long comments later got no likes.. Edit: Scroll down..you won't see any video which has such long comments from many peoples

This is my favorite Ted Ed. Wonderful. I love this. Our bodies are still mysterious, we may claim that our body is truly ours but I guess our minds creates everything and there are a lot of possibilities

I used to think about this sometime but I came to the answer for myself without watching some video and I’m a mind with a body for the very simple reason of I’m feeling

Best video of Ted ed . My respect to animators and other associated people...

I've got my mind on my money and my money on my mind

Technically this is like addition/multiplication Mind+body = body+mind

Literally this question becomes rather superfluous and more properly understood as banal if you had proper understood Heidegger's Being of Dasein as Being-in-the-world.

Wonderful

Please upload a riddle

Nearly fell out of my chair laughing at the "god moves your hand" part.

Favorite quote of all time: Cogito, ergo sum / I think therefore I am. - Rene Descartes. Love philosophy :)