Identity
WHAT OR WHO AM I?
There are many factors which combined make up our IDENTITY, some of which are: Our genetic heritage, our social surrounding, the culture in which we live, the experiences we have had, our education, the way we understand Cosmos and so on. I would like to focus on three areas.
OUR PHYSICAL BODY
If we look at ourselves in a purely materialistic paradigm we are intelligent robots. In that paradigm our experiences, actions, thoughts and feelings are chemical and electrical reactions of matter in the robotic system we call our body.
The expression "my body" is interesting. What is the "me" that has or occupies the body? When I have posed a question about this to high school or college students I have asked:
"What is Man? We are about 67% water (hydrogen and oxygen) and some other elements. You could almost say that we are a walking puddle of water."
Some years ago an average of 70 % of the students I asked in this secular society of Sweden have expressed that they think we are something more than that, more than an intelligent robot.
Talking about the material our bodies are made of a young girl once said: "That´s not ME. That is what I am made of!" What an intriguing remark!
I see the process of creating physical bodies in our own likeness is very remarkable, whether it be human beings or animals. I think we all can agree that our bodies are fantastic machines.
The function of most of the genes that determine the building and functions of our bodies have not yet been explained, and regarded as "junk DNA" or more humbly determined as "genes we do not yet know the function of". Lately there is found indications to that some of those "junk DNA" has a function of storing information and of communication.
We have learned that the atoms, small particles, are the building blocks of our bodies and all forms of matter around us. We have also been tought that most of what the atoms consist of is "empty space". In recent years subatomic particles as quarks and others have added to the picture. Another theory now developping is that the atoms not are particles but vibrating strings of energy of different frequences to which the Higgs Boson can give mass. The discoveries continue and the scientific models develop and change, models which we can choose to believe in or not believe in.
On page 7 in his E-book "The Science Delusion" Dr Rupert Sheldrake states that there is a scientific creed which he boils down to ten dogmas which many scientists believe in and take for granted. He argues that it is a belief system not scientifically tested. The FIRST TWO of these are that everything is essentially mechanical and that matter is unconscious.
EXPERIENCES OF ANOTHER REALITY
Since the 1960-ties when the possibility to revive persons with cardiac arrest, reports started to come from persons who had experienced a reality without the function of their brain. Often these experiences begun with the person finding him- or herself somewhere under the ceiling looking down at the body and often also hearing and seeing what was going on with the body on the bed, people coming and going and conversing. Many books have been written on this subject and research is continuing.
A SPIRIT BODY
What if it in reality is so that we are more than an intelligent robot, or what I sometimes has called a human being, a walking bag of water. What if that there is a deeper layer of identity in a spirit body or a soul? If it is so, where does this spirit body originate? Does it also have a beginning as our physical body has? This is spoken of in many religions and traditions around the world. The LDS explanation from 1995 of the origin of our spirit body is appealing to me. It states that each human being, male and female, is a beloved spirit son or daughter to heavenly parents.
This spirit body appears to be of another kind of matter which I call "spiritual matter" with other qualities than the matter of which our mortal body is made of which I call "temporal matter". It appears so far that spiritual matter cannot be detected with the instruments used today. In modern revelatory text it is explained in this manner:
"...There is no such thing as immaterial matter. All spirit is matter, but it is more fine or pure, and can only be discerned by purer eyes;..." (Doctrine and Covenants, 131:7)
CONSCIOUSNESS OR ETERNAL INTELLIGENS
What I have found in the modern revelations indicates that our identity has a third component which is called "Intelligens".
What I have found there indicates that our identity has a third component which is called "Intelligens". It was explained in 1833 to be an always existing and non- destructible entity and defined as:
"...Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not created or made, neither indeed can be..." (Doctrine and Covenants, 93:29)
I understand this part of our identity is an always existing original ME. Some more parameters of this eternal ME are given in the following explanation:
"...All truth is independent in that sphere in which God has placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also; otherwise there is no existence..." (Doctrine and Covenants, 93:30)
For many years I have had difficulty to understand the part of this passage which says that "...otherwise there is no existence...", but when I heard Dr Amit Gaswami explain the ideas of Awareness in Quantum Physics it made the picture more clear to me. He explained that there are three main factors which are the basis of existence: 1) Consciousness 2) The infinite number of possibilities and 3) The choice that consciousness makes to form a specific reality.
This also brings forward the concept of agency, the power for all Awarenesses or Intelligences to choose from a number of possibilities as a fundamental principle of existence, and as I assume also development, in Cosmos.
CONCLUSION
Over more than half a century the following picture of our Identity has emerged and I have come to the following conclusion:
We are beings with at present three parts:
1. Eternal, always existing Intelligences or Awarenesses
2. Clothed with a body of spiritual, non-destructible, matter born as children to Heavenly Parents, our Heavenly Father and our Heavenly Mother.
3. At present clothed with a body of temporal, mortal, matter born as children to our earthly parents, which conclusively are our spiritual brothers and sisters in the greater perspective.
I have also found that all forms of life, even the planet on which we live, have some degree of Intelligence with the difference that they are not "... the offspring of God,..." as we human beings are. (New Testament, Acts, 17:29)
THE VALUE OF AN INDIVIDUAL
When I was in northern California some years ago we visited the Redwood Forests in that part of the state. The seed to those huge and beautiful trees living there are so small that I can have some on the tip of my finger. In these small seeds was the potential to become those huge trees, the largest and oldest living organisms on our planet.
In the light green light under those trees my thoughts went to us as human beings. Like those seeds and the trees in that awesome forest we human beings have in us the potential to become as our divine parents. We are their offspring.
In modern revelation from 1829, the great value of each individual is phrased in the following words:
"...Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God; ..."- Doctrine and Covenants, Section 18:10
A statement from 1995 I regard as Holy Scripture. It clarifies the value of each individual in the words:
"...All human beings—male and female—are created in the image of God. Each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of heavenly parents, and, as such, each has a divine nature and destiny...." - The Family: A Proclamation to the World
These things lead naturally to more questions and further development into the concepts of Perspective and Meaning.
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