What are you? When you think, exactly who or what is doing the thinking? When you stare into a mirror, who is doing the looking? There’s a story of a young philosophy student who went to see his professor. ‘Please help me,’ he pleaded. ‘There’s a question that’s been eating me alive. I can’t sleep through worrying about it. Tell me, do I exist? ’The professor turned to him with a withering look and replied, ‘Who wants to know? ’The question of what we are and why has always occupied great minds.

Socrates, for instance, advised anyone who would listen to ‘know yourself’. Someone asked, ‘You tell others to know themselves, but do you know your self?’ He replied, ‘No, but I do understand something about this not knowing. ’Nowadays, we know a great deal more than in Socrates’ day. Powerful microscopes reveal the building blocks of our physical form at cellular level. We now understand the brain so well that we know which clusters of tissue house which types of mental activity. We can even predict whether an individual is at risk of certain diseases from their thought patterns and emotional make-up. And yet how many of us can truly say we know ourselves?

A human being is a complex organism made up of a body, a mind and an energising force that brings life to the physical form. This energising force – Spirit – is present in every atom and cell, and when it leaves, we die. That’s why we don’t become spiritual beings – we already are.

46 Are You A Body With A Brain?

One morning I knocked on my son’s bedroom door. ‘Are you up?’ I asked. I heard a groan and then a voice answered. ‘My body’s up, but I’m not!’

Later that day, I turned on the TV. A reporter was interviewing a woman with piercings all over her body. ‘Why did you do it?’ asked the reporter. She replied, ‘It’s my body. I can do what I want with it.’

We use the word ‘my’ for things that belong to us but are not us: my coat, my car, my chair. Expressions like my hair, my face, my body, my brain, my mind, etc. infer that these belong to us but are not us.

47 Brain Cells Die And Are Replaced At Least Every Couple Of Years

A human body starts out as a handful of cells. It grows, matures, ages and dies. Then it decomposes. At the molecular level, it constantly changes. With every breath, we inhale ten thousand billion atoms from the environment – each one modifying our physical make-up to some degree. Moreover, 98% of our atoms are renewed every year; if this were not so, we would die within hours, poisoned by our own waste.

The body is like a building whose bricks are constantly replaced. We grow a new skin and liver every few months and the skeleton, which appears so solid, regenerates every six months. Not one cell remains from the body you occupied two years ago. Even the brain cells, where your personality and memories are stored, die off and are replaced every year or so – yet your sense of self goes on.

48 Your Body And Brain Are Only Part Of What You Are

Your weight fluctuates; everyone’s does. Are you more of a person when you put on weight, or any less of a person when you lose it? What do we mean when we say someone has grown as a person? Are we just referring to their physical size? No. We mean they have grown spiritually. They have become more capable or a more complete personality.

If you lost both arms and legs, would you still be the same person? Of course. Our sense of self can remain intact even if the body suffers horrendous injuries.

Your body is one part of who you are. Important – but only a part. If this is all you think you are, you are like an actress thinking she is the costume. As Walt Whitman wrote, ‘There is more to a man than lies between his hat and his boots.’