"Who Am I?" The LiveReal Quiz
(A quiz each of us is already taking)
"The primary political and philosophical issue of the next century
will be the definition of who we are."
- Ray Kurzweil
article by LiveReal Agent Kevin
Most folks think they know who they are.
But is that only what they've been taught to think?
Who are "You"?
(multiple-choice format)
A) I am a "regular person."
B) I am my name: "John." "Mary." "Sally." "Wallace." "Cletus." "Aunt Fanny." Etc.
Apologies to M. C. Escher.
C) I'm just me. (And who is "me"?)
D) I am a father, mother, husband, wife, son, daughter, second-cousin, eccentric half-uncle (... or maybe that's just a description of relationships?)
E) I am a lawyer, doctor, cook, carpenter, salsa dancer, etc. (...or, that's just a job?)
F) I am the person who did _______. (Or is that just an event that happened in the past?)
G) I am who I think I am.
H) I don't know who I am.
I) I am my physical body, something that was born and will die, also described a bag of skin, a sack of pus, a something that absorbs years of dieting, working out, tanning, and plucking, but will eventually get wrinkled and turn into dust despite all the exercises we do, pills we swallow, calories we burn, raw foods we eat, or nasty health-food shakes we drink.
J) You are your "personality" or "character": the funny guy, the pretty girl, the rebel, the jock, the nerd, the stud, the artist, the outsider, the guy who eats cat food, the girl who puts crayons up her nose, etc . . .
K) You are an object: Your wallet, watch, clothes, appearance, reputation, relationships, role, and what other people think about you.
L) According to evolutionists: An evolved animal with angst.
"Hi there! My name is Sally! I am a duck!"
M) According to nihilists: nothing. Or maybe dust.
N) According to Christianity and Judaism: A fallen creature in a fallen state.
O) According to evolutionary psychology: A puppet of genes.
P) According to the government and politicians: A taxpayer and voter, or a source of money and votes.
Q) According to some corporations: A "consumer."
R) According to some persuasion-types: you are a collection of external and relatively superficial traits, which they try to make internal and central to who you are.
S) According to "the boss": A small cog in a big machine.
T) According to geneticists: A puppet of genes.
U) According to New-Agers: The creator of the universe.
V) You are "something more than all that." i.e. one of the types who does not like to be "typecast" and wants to think of yourself as unique, different, and special.
W) You actually are something unique, different, and special.
X) You are your sexuality.
Y) A spirit and/or soul trapped inside a physical body.
Z) A body with a spirit and/or soul trapped inside you.
AA) A human being who is enslaved in an artificial and illusory world. (See "The Matrix")
BB) What you appear to be to everyone around you.
CC) "Something" inside a bag of skin that you can't quite put your finger on.
DD) What originates your thoughts, feelings, emotions, and sensations.
EE) A "ghost in a machine," or a mind and a body that have somehow been welded together.
FF) A by-product of overheated bodily chemicals.
GG) Freud: You are an ego, trapped between a dark, primal id and a repressive superego.
HH) Maslow: a creature with an assortment of hierarchical needs you are programmed to spend your life satisfying.
II) An "unenlightened" individual with the potential to become enlightened.
JJ) An animal with a stubborn identity crisis.
KK) A human being who has occasional spiritual experiences.
LL) A spiritual being who has occasional human experiences.
MM) God.
NN) Someone who actually isn't God, but mistakenly thinks that he or she is God
OO) Someone who actually is God, but mistakenly thinks that he or she is God, but in an utterly wrong and misleading way...yet in an entirely different way, actually is God.
PP) Hsueh-Feng: "The whole world is nothing but you." Which is to say, you are "the whole world." (pantheism)
QQ) "The Great Paradox: There's nothing that's you and, at the very same time, there's nothing that's not you. What you really want is to have a profound experience of your own true nature..."- Chuck Hillig
RR) "When an individual awakens to the authentic self which is the deeper self or soul that already exists within each and every one of us but lies, for most of us, hidden under the fears and desires of the separate ego they spontaneously become conscious of the evolutionary context that we're all part of. Prior to that awakening, the evolutionary context is merely a cognitive understanding that we intellectually recognize is true but have no emotional relationship to. But when the authentic self awakens to itself, we spontaneously discover an emotional connection to the evolutionary context that we're a part of, and we become aware of the fact that to evolve from a lower level of spiritual and moral development to a higher one is the most important thing.
This discovery completely changes the way we see our own subjective experience, and also the life process itself. Because in this, we discover what could be called a moral imperative in relationship to the need to evolve. It begins to arise very spontaneously from the depths of our own soul I must evolve for the sake of evolution itself; consciousness can only evolve through me, and it won't happen unless I wholeheartedly and unconditionally give myself to that process. And this is really a new thing. Because this is nothing that has been imposed on us from outside ourselves; we have actually awakened to it. This is what's so interesting to me that when the awakening human discovers this moral imperative in relationship to the evolutionary process, then a new spiritual path has been discovered, because one has literally discovered the reason for being a human being. Why am I here? To participate in the evolutionary process, wholeheartedly and unselfconsciously, for the sake of evolution itself. And there is not a more complete or fulfilling experience of what it means to be human to be found, because it answers every question. - Andrew Cohen
SS) Meister Eckhart: "The more deeply we are our true selves, the less self is in us."
TT) St. Augustine: "Let me know myself, Lord, and I shall know Thee."
UU) None of the above
VV) All of the above
WW) Some of the above
XX) Other ______________________________
What's Your Answer? ________________
When you finish your quiz, please pass your papers to the front.
Please note:
This is a quiz that, whether you know it or not,
you're kind of already taking.
You will probably be graded, but may not be.
We aren't sure when or even if you'll ever find out what your grade is,
and we might know who or what will or won't be grading your papers,
- but then again, we may be wrong.
“Knowing others is wisdom;
knowing yourself
is enlightenment”
– Lao-Tzu