"Through the eyes of the beholder" describes one's perceptions of anything or anyone, often to differentiate it from how another person may perceive the same.
You are one person in the eyes of one but you could be a different one in the eyes of another; or, you can be the same person to many but you are never one person to all. Nevertheless, you are one person different from the next one.
Dr. Seuss said it best.
What you are to others is one thing. What you are to yourself is another. This takes us to one truly unique ability that allows us to reflect on our thoughts and feelings that, as far as we know, is uniquely human - a highly complex form of self awareness where some animals are only capable of basic self-recognition.
While there are varying degrees of self awareness among certain species, we have the most advanced cognitive abilities to not only have an acute sense of self but also to have developed a conscience as an individual and the collective sense of morality and ethical behavior as a society.
The question is how did all of these come about? How did consciousness develop from a collection of otherwise inanimate mass of tissues, bones, fluids, blood and blood vessels, cells, molecules and atoms? You are self aware, have consciousness but none of any part of your anatomy actually recognizes you. Imagine looking behind your two eye sockets, through the lens, past the cornea and iris, to view the world around you, and you wonder who is this entity that is doing the viewing? Actually, the upright images that you think you see are actually projected to your retina upside down:
Now, you know the brain is the one doing the correction. It interprets it for you. Wait. Where are you in the midst of all of these?
Before we attempt to answer that question, let's first realize that physiologically you are not for the most part the same person that you were ten years ago. You shed your skin every 2-4 weeks. A good part of the dust that you see and clean up in your house is human dead skin. The cells of the lining of your intestines are refurbished every 2-3 days. Your red blood cells last only for about 120 days, so you get new ones every so often. You, if you still have a set of thick hair, get new hair follicles every 3-7 years while your entire skeletal system gets renewed with new bone cells every 10 years, approximately.
You have trillions of cells in your body but what you have today are not exactly the same cells yesterday.
Suffice it to say that the physical you is not the same as the conscious you. The only part of your physiology that remains unchanged, except for maybe 10 % of it, are the neurons in your brain. And you have oodles and oodles of them. So, is that where the real you is then? But each individual cell in your neurons does not know you. So, it must take the entire clump of them that gives you self awareness and consciousness. They make you you. But how?
First this. Physiologically, you are mostly water (hydrogen and oxygen as H2O), carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, about 99 % in all. Individually, down to the atomic level, none of them knows you, yet you are this discrete being different from the next one. Speaking of down to the atomic level, every electron that orbits every proton in an atom is exactly the same electron found in every element in the universe. In other words, every electron is identically the same as the next one, regardless of whether it is in an atom in molecules of water, watermelon seeds, the venom of a black mamba, or what is in granite or high carbon steel, etc.
So, at the electron level, we are all identical - electron by electron as with the entire universe, so to speak.
The thoughts that you currently have while reading this, then glancing away to look at the four walls, or out the window, or trying to take in what you just read, are what make up your consciousness. You just know it is you reading. This prompted 17th century philosopher and thinker Rene Descartes to say, "I think, therefore I am".
Eventually, what you are doing or thinking will end up in your subconscious mind. You are what you think you are and you know that everything around you, including those already set in your memory, and everything you know about people and stuff, and doing things with as little effort to think about how or why become part of your subconscious.
"Neuroscientists say that our subconscious mind is much more powerful than our conscious mind".
Powerful, yet it has no physical attributes that you can physically measure, weigh or touch. It's just that one discrete entity behind those two eye sockets. But, it is you or colloquially, "You are It" .
There must be a lot more to this conscious and subconscious stuff. One of the greatest mysteries of consciousness or some kind of derivative of consciousness are stories about near death experiences. These are about cases of people recalling what they saw or hear while clinically dead and resuscitated afterwards. There are differences and similarities between many of the stories, although the scientific community has doubts and have often come up with explanations rooted in psychology and natural brain activities. There is no scientific proof or verifiable explanation of a single incident that is beyond doubt. To this day, there is no scientific basis that near death experiences (NDEs) constitute proof of life after death.
Then there are cases of out of body experiences associated with NDEs. One exceptional case, among many that had been written about, was that of Pam Reynolds Lower, from Atlanta Georgia. She had a brain aneurysm at the brainstem and that she was not likely to survive if surgery was attempted to remove it. However, one brain surgeon did the surgery by lowering her body temperature to 50 deg F, stopped her heart and breathing and drain the blood from her brain completely to preclude rupture, her eyes taped shut and headphones over her ear that emitted "loud clicks to block auditory input".
"Pam reported witnessing her surgery from above the doctor’s shoulder, describing specific details about surgical tools and conversations that she could not have observed through normal means. Cardiologist Michael Sabom, among other experts, has found her account persuasive, believing it adds to evidence of consciousness persisting beyond clinical death, despite skepticism attributing such experiences to anesthesia awareness".
Pam not only survived the surgery, she lived for many more years after that.
Until such time that NDEs and out of body experiences can be verified by science beyond any doubt, those shall remain in the realm of the unexplained.
After having read all of the above, and having given it some thought, won't you agree that there is no question that you being you is one of the greatest wonders of the world, much of it you don't know how and least of all, why? There's a lot in there inserted between the lines for your inquisitive mind, your conscious thoughts, and the power of your subconscious to explore; not the least of which is this: does your subconscious exist independently of your physical self?
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