Who Am I? - A Thought Experiment That Changes How You Think About Yourself 

As always, thank you so much for watching. Consider checking out this video's sponsor, Blinkist, at: www.blinkist.com/pursuitofwonder

Strangely the people with extreme long-term memory loss are probably closer to who we really are than anyone with great memory recall capability.

This reminds me of my favorite quote from Dune: "Life is not a mystery to solve, but a reality to experience."

The quote by Emerson hits hard for me. I've made a lot of mistakes in my life, and my own past behaviour puzzled me which later stemmed from undiagnosed complex-PTSD from events I lived through when I was much younger. Thinking back on who I was 20, 10, or even 3 years ago feels like reflecting upon a totally different person who I have to accept was me.

I don't know who I am or what that question means at this point, I'm just living an experience and try to make this experience as good as possible not through hedonism but through self development, through exercise, eating healthy, making RU-vid videos as my creative outlet, etc...

I am just the witness of all that's around me and within me.

I used to be afraid of dying, and that led to a massive fear of his going to sleep, since you're pretty much dying very time you lose consciousness. I got over both once I realized the thing I thought was dying didn't exist to begin with, so there's no loss in either process, since the self is just a process as well. Oh and it's impossible to not be yourself. Even if you're emulating certain characteristics of someone else that's just a desire that you have encouraging you to do so.

But this begs the question: should you be held accountable of past actions? If who you were 10 years ago is completely different than who you are now, and you have a complete contrast of mindset. People only know who you are as a memory. No one will ever understand who you are now, as you will have evolved mentally, ever so slightly. This was a great concept and will have me thinking for months :)

I see myself more as just a story. A tale of events that stretches beyond and before my current existence. I am not my body or mind but my actions and only those actions that are remembered.

I think who we are is the spacetime we occupy. The continuous physical space at a specific times that nobody else can occupy. The time and space we take up in other minds as we exist. The time and space of all the results of everything we’ve ever interacted with. That’s what death really is. We stop occupying anything as a singular concept.

In the last two years of my life, I've lost all sense of purpose and emotion. I've become numb to external factors that affect my life. Lost my family, friends and all ties to the outside world. I wish those who read this to reach out to those they love, as one day you might lose it all

I feel like the only way we can really find true peace is by uncovering who we are, because, in essence, that's exactly what we are. Just a thought.

You never cease to amaze me how well you get to summarize the most complex answers to the most important questions in under 10 minutes! I see the beauty in your philosophy, even more so when I think of the psychological/philosophical concepts that you indirectly refer to (Projection bias, Theseus' ship, Dasein, etc.)

Wake up babe, new existential crisis just dropped.

'To be great is to be misunderstood' Bang on Ralphie boy, I've been misunderstood my whole life and all the time I thought I was the problem. It's only recently in my late 50s and early 60s I've realised I'm fine, it's just everyone else that doesn't get me. Turns out I'm officially a genius. Spent a lot of time blaming myself for just being different and smart. I no longer do that, everyone can just damned well catch up or carry on living their mediocre lives

When I was 7 My brother once told me that if I ask myself who am I over and over you will start feeling weird & will get to this weird point where you won't recognize your own thoughts or voice or self. I can't explain it but it's one of the most scariest and almost like your conscious and sense of self detaches from your body and well it's almost like you enter this realm of absolute awareness. I keep searching for those exact words, repeating who am I, who am I and see if anyone else has experienced/described something similar. I really can't explain this sense of being self aware yet being completely detached from that moment exactly at the same time. Where everything hits you, every thought, realization of the life you have lived, it's to difficult to put into words.

It puts you into a state where nothing matters in a good way. You truly don't give a shit about anything and you're just happy as fuck as a result, because nothing matters. Nothing matters, nothing means anything, there's nothing to do, there's no point, there's no goal but there's also no boredom, there's no negative meanings attached to the meaninglessness, it's just perfectly meaningless and it's awesome. You're basically just like sitting like a cat on a windowsill enjoying whatever experience is before it, just being and it feels amazing. 🦄

Maybe it would be great to mention what Sam Harris is also saying: That the Illusion of the self can be cut through and on the otherside is a boundless centerless consciousness. Freedom from psychological suffering. That’s the real practice of meditation.

I went into a deep depression 4 years ago because I went down a tangent from this thought alone. I ruminated in solitude which probably fuelled it even more. I’m still struggling and it’s taken so much of whatever it is I am. Too scared to actually end it all too. I am not living or existing. Wouldn’t wish this on anyone, it’s a hellish purgatory.

I think that the illusion is not only the self but rather the narrow idea we like to believe in, that anything is constant. A logical mind will always find order in chaos... even if that order is just a straight lie. Damn! This is exactly what i was looking for for 20 years. Even made me a bit teary. I can't find the right words to reflect this video's greatness.

beautiful timing. I wrote this yesterday: Everyday, shit changes. Everyday, I change and I hope everyday, you change. I guess you can call that freedom. If you have the courage to see that way.

Lately I’ve been able to experience others as different versions of the same life, but sometimes the differences are great enough to focus more on the differences than the sameness. It’s a challenging and worthwhile goal to open myself up enough to be able to fit all life in all shapes and sizes within my sense of self. If the self is an illusion/creation, then we might as well make ourselves as wonderful as possible. And we can’t be full of wonder if we block out parts of Life ❤️🙏🏼

Never in my life have I heard a string of words that brought me to tears that wasn’t a part of a song or movie/play. I came to this video wanting to figure out who I am. Now all I want is to experience the best life I possibly can. Thank you.

The eternal question. Likely at the core of philosophy itself

7:35

Being yourself is weird. Who we are is like a product of everything we've experienced. It would be amazing if we can just Being lazy and have what we want all the time, but those uncomfortable times we had to endure are always the best stories and lessons

We are the sum of our experiences... lifes accumulating info or knowledge.. education from anything anyone any situation.... the sculpture and sculptor.. art in motion until we keel over

Who I am and what I am is a very important distinction!!! I surrender to higher self thru meditation and prayer. Be still and know I am God. Is working so beautifully in my life. The serendipity in my life is beyond amazing. That still small voice is getting bigger and clearer all the time

“Is there anything that truly persists through it all?” Yes, I’m forever miserable. I was miserable as a child. I was miserable as a teenager. I’m still miserable as an adult. I’m sure I’ll be even more miserable as an old man.

My brother always says that repetition is understanding and for these topics that are profound, each time I come back to them, I see them in different ways. But your videos always brings a fresh, new perpscetive. The way you narrate and creates the stories is also awesome! Thank you very much for making these videos.

I remember the first night I watched “the perfect amount of awful”. It was during a rather harsh quarantine and my previously “perfect”/proactive live had been cut off. I realized I had nothing and completely lost my sense of self. That video saved me. I love this channel and it’s people and I woke up from that quarantine a completely different person.

This is exactly what has been pressing me over the last few months. The universe consistently surprises me with synchronicities, putting me deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole.

The spiritual answer is that you are consciousness or awareness itself. You could take away someone's memory but what they are does not change. If you take away someone's concept of what they are, it doesn't change what we are, only what happens mentally for them. The sense of self is an illusion and always changing to match our identity. The actual self alone is unbound by any circumstances or experience. What you are is unchanging, pure consciousness but we have the experience of believing our self is a body and an identity. The Self is the only true constant of experience and is the source of all existence.

Beautiful! I've heard somewhere that we are dissipative structures, just as rainbows, tornados, or waterfalls. Ever changing from each nanosecond to the next, and yet appearing to be constantly the same. But ultimately, on an elementary level, this applies to everything there is.

The self is like a landscape. A landscape starts with certain features and is shaped over time by the forces around it, and eventually it becomes unrecognisable, something else. Loved the video, BTW

I have always felt like myself. A self that changes due to experience, but is an essential me that is aware of all the changes.

This just blew my mind 🤯. Also, I don’t know if you wrote it or were quoting something, but the commentary during the closing minute or so was absolutely beautiful and completely transcendent. Pure poetry! Loved this. Thanks 🙏💛

This was worded and presented so beautifully, such an incredible thing it is to be apart of this human experience ❤️

I genuinely appreciate your brilliance, work, and videos. And because you remind me to keep an open mind as I continue to evolve as a man and human being. 🧚🏻‍♂️

It's strangely dystopian that such a thought provoking video needs a sponsor

I remember reading a famous text from the well-known "Bhagavad Gita (2.13)" which states that dehino ’smin yathā dehe kaumāraṁ yauvanaṁ jarā tathā dehāntara-prāptir dhīras tatra na muhyati Translation As the embodied soul continuously passes, in this body, from boyhood to youth to old age, the soul similarly passes into another body at death. A sober person is not bewildered by such a change. Since every living entity is an individual soul, each is changing his body every moment, manifesting sometimes as a child, sometimes as a youth, and sometimes as an old man. Yet the same spirit soul is there and does not undergo any change. This individual soul finally changes the body at death and transmigrates to another body, and it is sure to have another body in the next birth (re-incarnation). Such changes in the body account for varieties of enjoyment or suffering, according to one’s work in life (Karma). Any man who has perfect knowledge of the constitution of the individual soul (the self), the Supersoul (God), and nature - both material and spiritual - is called a dhīra, or the soberest person. Such a person is never deluded by the change of body.

It is uncanny to me, how over the past few months, you have released videos pertaining to concepts I have wondered during the time before the release of said video. This, is one of those videos. It gives me great belief in Carl Jung's collective unconscious. Thank you for your videos man. I truly think they help us push our personal and collective unconsciousness' forward.

The words you painted the ending of this video with will undoubtedly “itself” be quoted by one you’ve inspired on their canvas, their chosen light to inspire one day in the future. This I’m sure. Thanks for all you do and’ve done.

Whoa. Never have one of your videos coincided so perfectly with what I was feeling and needed to hear. Thank you

Welcome to Vedanta my dear friend..! All objects are perceived by the senses. The senses are, in turn, perceived by the mind. The mind, in turn, is a movement that unfolds in Awareness. Awareness is not perceived by any other structure. It is its own perceiving.

Beautiful & thought provoking, a very well worded & thought out video.

Great video, just what I needed. Nothing will identify as the same, that applies to you as well, You change. You are still who you are but a changed version of you. ❤

To be yourself is to be present. Who am I? I am the part of me that knows I exist.... Great video 👏🏽

I've heard this argument parroted frequently by philosophy, yet it holds little in truth with what we really see. This is not merely a supposition, many of the assertions are indeed testable hypothesise. For example, the assertion about the removal of limbs can be tested in amputees and to a lesser extent quadra/paraplegic. Both cohorts report feelings of being less themselves with the loss of a limb. Here the phenomenon of phantom limb syndrome gives us a clue into how much self is placed in our bodies. Another cohort equally worthy of consideration in such a hypothesis are organ transplantees. Here individuals post transplant regularly report feelings of living with someONE else. To the argument of atomic change, this is hardly isolated to humanity. It is equally present in all things living, dead and inanimate across the entirety of the universe. This includes your house, car and the device you're reading this comment on now. Does precession make them no longer yours after a period of time? Moreover if we want to talk in those terms, we leave tiny pieces of ourselves everywhere we go. Similarly we incorporate small parts of everything we ingest. By your argument vegans are better described as plants and unbeknownst to you your cat is really a fish in disguise. That's not even getting into the realities of quarks and electromagnetism. The argument appears illogical. An argument based on cellular regeneration is even less so as cells do not pop into existence from nothing. They are born through division. Cells indeed die, but not before recreating themselves. If I make two identical clones of you, which one is you and how can it be distinguished? Now as a thought experiment imagine that instead of me creating clones of you, before you died as a last act you organically self replicated a younger adult version of yourself before discarding the remaining lifeless husk. Which would be you? Could they be distinguished in any meaningful way? That is how cells do. Ultimately the this entire argument from philosophy can be surmised as an attempt to point to a single indivisible you. But the argument never considers the possibility that self is divisible without degradation. Consider, if we're in a plane crash stranded somewhere remote awaiting rescue. During it's course your friend dies. If I cut off their leg and offer it to you as food would you not shy away as result of your identification of the limb as being a part of your friend? Or to put it in a perhaps less vulgar way, the fresh broccoli you buy in the store has been separated from the plant. Is it still broccoli? How about if I remove the stem, are we still having broccoli for dinner or something else? It would seem to me that we are a transitory sum of our parts, with no part more we than any other. So too with division the parts remain equally us. So to the question "who am I", one might say I am change.

I like to think that I am not “me”, “myself”, “my body” I am everything put together. I would not be who I am or be myself without everything in the cosmos and everyone we are all one. Connected from nature.

“Are they nobody? Perhaps so are you”. I haven’t heard more truthful words in a while.

These videos provide me with so much perspective and help me find what i really want out of life.

I asked myself this while tripping, can't remember details but I've been trying to grow spiritually ever since, going well so far

I love how you put it, Being who you Become, then Being who you Become, etc. Self-Awareness has been both the greatest Gift and Curse at times. I would say that your whole Present-State Awareness (or your ongoing 'Nowness' and all that it contains) would count as your continuous "Self." The trouble seems to lie in how we overcomplicate, or can't accept that present moment and all it brings--forcing expectations and/or fantasies onto it, and then 'transcend' it into a re-presentation/projection of the present moment, instead of remaining in it as it is---as we ARE. It's not something to achieve or reach, it's something to Rest and Move IN, as long as we Live. "Be Water My Friend"

i just discovered this channel yesterday and i absolutely love it. it makes me feel like someone hears me, someone cares and someone is there. but please slow down a bit, you talk kinda fast. thank you!

There is no one thing that is "yourself". Many things go into what makes you, "you". While we have a body, we look at our bodies as "us", of course. When that body is inevitably long gone, becoming part of the endless cycle once again, the body you once inhabited may be gone, but the concept of "you" will always be here. Even if no one alive remembers you, because eventually this will be true for everyone and everything, "you" are still you. You are you and you _always will be_ you. No one else, nothing else, will ever live the same experiences as _you_ did, and that's what you are. Or at least, that's how I've thought about this kinda thing for a while now : )!!

Thank you so much for creating this thought experiment PoW. You've always been a massive inspiration for my own content. My thoughts below: I think when trying to figure out _"Who Am I?",_ we need to embrace the idea that we _have_ the capacity to choose, while fully acknowledging that it may be very difficult to bring forth a chosen vision of oneself to reality. The momentum of our history is an extremely powerful burden to overcome and should not be understated. However, all of those experiences and past weight do not have to be our destiny. In order to enact serious change, we first need to figure out who we _want_ to be. Once we've answered the questions about our future that are important to us, we will have clarified the exact difference between this realistic ideal and our current state. We now have a north star to help guide the way we interpret our own thoughts and decisions. When an aberrant thought or feeling arises, we can then ask if it aligns with this higher conception of ourselves. Is there some rational part of us that is bringing forth a genuine concern to our conscious mind so that a problem can be resolved? Or is this thought a deceptive trojan horse, designed to wreak havoc and revert ourselves back to a state of internal chaos so a prior state of mind can take over again? The actual content of our highest ideal can change, but that connection we have with ourselves should not. I would argue that as long as we are connected with our accrued wisdom, our internal voice of reason, the lens of consciousness that looks upon ourselves with love and optimism, our inner self, we can never truly be astray.

I LOVED this video! Constantly evolving and growing. Can't wait to share! Thank you.

Thankyou I understood. I believe we continually become ourselves in growing in experience . Memories of baby , the 2 year old, the six year old going to school On and on time marches on and on. Change marches with time.

"We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self. A secretion of sensory experience and feeling. Programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody. When in fact everybody is nobody."

At this point I don’t the question “who am I?” matters. I see it more of “what could I be?” I wanna make myself someone new everyday and be more excited to breathe everyday.

You make me cry involuntarily in the best way that's possible.

Yooo I just found out you have a podcast!! I love all your videos and the way they make you think about life. I also find your voice so soothing ngl. I cant wait to listen to your podcast all day during work!

I sustained a TBI when I was 18, I restarted in infancy stage. Forgot mostly everything about my past. I have since then remembered most of my last, but everyone around me tells me I’m a completely different person than I was before. I in absolutely no way feel like a different person at all. I never lost my since of self through that, and in fact denied and couldn’t accept the fact that I injured my brain because if that’s the case then why wouldn’t I remember getting hit by a car? Made no sense to my infancy stage brain.

There’s a weightlessness that leaves our body when we die, as strangely as it comes at birth.. I like to think that awareness is me. These body’s, this planet, and our experiences, thoughts, ideas.. they’re all just vessels, temporary like our moment in time. Like the universe, all we’re doing is learning, what works and what doesn’t. Who we are and who we’re not

This was so well done. Fits in with Joe Dispenza's concept that we have to stop being "ourselves" in order to embrace moving into new ways of being.

I needed this, Thank You, deeply.

That quote from Fernando Pessoa hit me hard. I find it really hard to sum up, articulate and make sense of some of my own thoughts and feelings but that quote resonated as if I'd wrote it myself, for myself 🤯

As a Portuguese person, I was surprised you included a Fernando Pessoa poem 😭 kudos to you man fr you rock! 🙏

love your videos, the portrayal of ideas and the usage of words- are impeccable.

So Much Love!❤️🧡💛💚💙💜

3:34 this part is kind of odd for me, because... well I'm closer to who I was 15 years ago than I am to who I was 2 years ago. When I was young, I wanted nothing more than to make music and play with sound. Even as a child my first sounds were as I understand it the sounds of a trumpet solo I had heard one time. But over time, my mom's oppressive narcissism forced that out of me, and for a long while I was what she wanted me to be: an ordinary generic "science guy". But when I went to college, something clicked inside me. The degree I was taking, that old generic science guy degree, didn't fit. I hated it with every fiber of my being. I found myself drawn to the sounds of music again, and I changed my degree to music technology much to my mom's absolutely hateful protest. After being in that degree for a year and a half, I managed to get connections that helped me move away from my mom. Living on my own then, I am free to pursue music once more. I find myself mimicking instrument solos with my lips for fun again. I'm that happy child again along with being a fully functioning adult. It is very possible to look back at one's past and see a stranger, but it's also possible to look back at someone you knew you were then, and know you are that person now.

Who am I, I Am, I the whole, Am is me. Easy, that simple. The Hermetic teachings already pondered this question and answered it tens of thousands of years ago, "all paradoxes can be resolved" The Kybalion, as taught. The amusement of modern day thinking, paradoxes and questions make me smile, people seeking the answers to questions that already have the answers, all you need do is look and listen, the only thing that is constant is change.

I Needed This . Thank You so much 💚

Thank you for making this simple

The first philosophy book I had for a class, back in 1991 was called, "Wisdom Without Answers", by Kolak and Martin. To this day, I give that book credit for starting me on my philosophical and spiritual journey. It's about 80 pages long. It's well worth it, if you can find a copy. It discusses many of the same concepts as this video.

I feel that our "soul" or "self" is separate from our body. When I had brain surgery, I had to learn to walk and do basic things. It felt like an infant stuck inside a grown man's body. And mentally I knew what I wanted to do, but my body wasn't responding. So it felt like 2 separate people for awhile. So visually we do change in time, but mentally not so much in my opinion.

Beautiful! Know thyself - one great Greek philosopher said. You are not the body, not the mind, but the soul - these are the most difficult things for a human to comprehend.

very interesting video tho i do wanna comment that everyone underestimates the affect the body has in our sense of self. to use the video's example, if you lost all four limbs, you'd still be yourself, of course, but you'd definitely feel a big mental dissonance in your sense of self until you "get used to it" (and many people never get completely used to it) because of the drastic change in the perception you have of yourself. thats also why many people develop dysphoria when they start going through puberty and other changes. this doesn't change the meaning of the video but it is misconception people often have about themselves. the cartesian dualism of body and mind doesn't exist as a clear-cut separation as society has defined it

The urge to just comment cause noone has commented

This is so beautiful and cathartic. Thank you.

being yourself for everyone, at its base, is relishing in human experience. looking at the clouds, feeling your breath, watching the sun rise and set...that's the core of everyone. enjoy the experience, enjoy the change, enjoy the process. that's the only thing that will always be.

Cool, I was in the mood for a fresh existential crisis today!

In the case of people with Alzheimer's don't they become who we think they are. To an extent aren't we all who everyone thinks we are if not in the direct ownership of a societal persona, then in the way that after we're gone nothing that anybody doesn't know about us is forgotten and irrelevant. I think the second part is more shaky because we develop hobbies and interests sometimes independent of any outside influence altogether, but it's interesting.

TREMENDOUS! TREMENDOUS! Amazing, just amazing, thank you for sharing your incredible art

i love your content, this is just what i was looking for! keep it up

It took me a long time to understand the concept of "self" and of consciousness being the strange thing that it is. My feeling before was 'I am my brain', and I didn't understand why that was such a seemingly difficult or deep concept. Once the entire picture of consciousness finally registered in my brain, it became more and more profound an idea, or illusion. One of the things I did to better understand it all was to use the Ship of Theseus allegory and applied it to myself, then finally to my own brain. How many boards can you replace on Theseus' Ship before it is no longer his ship? Even if the pieces are identical down to the wood grain...

I've been asking this question for long time. "Who am I?" The most honest answer I've arrived at is... I don't know... and that's okay.

We are the sum of our experiences. Even things we no longer recall have an impact on who we are in this moment. We are a single point in time, one that has never happened before and never will again. The "me" who finished this video isn't the same "me" who started it.

Incredible. I think this gotta be the best video of yours so far.

this is just buddhism. Anatta & five skandhas.

What a thoughtful & provoking video thank you

Beautiful! Thanks for the video

The narrator's voice gives me anxiety

We are what we re doing and think,like writing our character down,as time goes we erase,rewrite,write,we are a character who can change all the time

Another great vid. Pursuit of Wonder consistently posting quality content.

This person just gives me chills✨

Understood. A good reminder for me. Bad habits are hard to kick. I’ll remember. Thank you.

Very beautifully put together

great advice for people with personality disorders- you have no ego, you hurt people around you, but you don`t have to care!