It's not necessarily illogical to believe that you have a body

But it's not logical, either.

We are presented with senses. We are simply sensing the world. We're not actually witnessing it. So, I fundamentally doubt that I have a body.

Some have called this the Dumbest Theory. It hurts my feelings. Because I think there's something magical between the synapses that is what makes you you. They say we run on electrical power. Well...we're running...on electrical power...DUH...it's like, you doubt that what is causing this machine to run is a part of you? That's absurd.

 

I kinda agree with this, except for the "don't have a body" part. I have a body but it isn't what I consider "me." I'm not even neurons or synapses or whatever. I'm actually the electrical and chemical activity that's going on in my skull. So yeah, I kind of agree.

 

I've always thought there's likely much more to the world than what we can perceive because we can only perceive what we can taste, touch, see, hear, smell...but what if there are other things out there that can only be sensed by senses we as humans do not possess?

 

There are. Some creatures can detect magnetic fields but we don't have that sense.

 

Damn I wish we could detect magnetic fields

 

It just doesn't logically follow that because you can sense your body means that you have your body. I'm not aware of any law that dictates that our senses tell us something sensible, rather than something completely not sensible; e.g. that we have a body. Who knows how deep awareness runs. How do you decide that your senses aren't just so overwhelmingly powerful that they create the illusion of a body in the imagination? Things seem solid, but then, why wouldn't they?

We always picture ourselves in rooms on planet Earth, but really we exist in space. Imagine someone who had lived their whole life floating in the vacuum of space. That is what we all truly are.

We exist in a mirror universe. The only difference between this mirror and regular mirrors is that you can enter into the other half.

 

Dogs poop in alignment with Earth's magnetic field, study finds

 

Fortunately, I think this is subject to empirical testing. Go jump off the roof of a tall building and let us know how it turns out. There was a fellow on Hip Forums a few years ago that I told that to. Never heard back from him. Hmmmmmm.

 

Whatever I am would either survive the fall or it wouldn't. My inability to then let you know how it turns out, or my choice not to let you know how it turned out, has nothing to do with whether or not I have a body. So your so-called empirical test is a complete fail. Why don't you go jump off a bridge and let me know how that turns out.

 

You could always carry around like a multimeter. Hell your phone probably has an app lol.

 

The brain is just a sensory input bank, but it's not what is actually experiencing the data. One shouldn't confuse the two. Whatever is sensed about me or anything else could be completely superficial, as thin as a veil. Even if I shot myself through the skull, another person's experience of a completely superficial "body" wouldn't suggest anything about whether the experiential part of me was living or dead. And I think it's obvious that the electical current that keeps this imaginary brain working is just as significant a part of me as the matter itself, if not a more significant part of me. It seems counter-intuitive to suggest otherwise, that what gives me life isn't really "me."

It seems like the part that animates me would be the biggest part of my life. Not this imaginary "body."

When I say I doubt whether I have a body, that it is imaginary, it means I doubt the appearance of this thing I call my body altogether. I doubt all of the senses that cause me to experience it as well as everyone else's senses that cause them to experience it. I don't necessarily believe I have a body in the traditional sense of the word, and obviously jumping off a building can't prove otherwise, despite all appearances.

Not that it matters, but this is the philosophy section, so it's par for the course.

 

kind of hard to interact with this universe without one. might be possible, but not the way we're used to doing so.

having a body doesn't mean being one though. and while memories might not keep well without one, its not inconceivable that awareness might.

and if not continuously, that which is our actual identity, our perspectives, priorities and preferences, might carry our dormant awarenesses,
to be born, live, die and repeat the cycle on random sequences of the billions of worlds scattered among the billions of solar systems in our universe.