Category: Philosophy and Religion

Sensory Processing collects the world around us to give us our place and helps us plan our response to this gathered information. We take having a psychological identity for granted.  The Mind appears to be unified. When we are awake, we think we know who we are. This is a mystery that continues to baffle brilliant neurologists. Mindfulness training helps us question who we think we are. What would we do without mirrors, language and our sensory perceptions?  Would you be you without your surroundings, and other human beings?

Sensory Processing and My Identity Please

Humans need something reflective to hold in their hands so that they can feel real, that they exist, that they matter, that they are uniquely qualified to be alive and relevant.  Imagine yourself alone on a flat empty infinite surface.  Who would you be?

If we have a relationship with an object or another person, we form an identity.  It could be a painting, a child, an architectural accomplishment, a garden, a meal, a God, a job, a car, an act of kindness, or an act of heroic war effort.  Without something to reflect back who we think we are, we fall into the trap of no purpose, no value, no identity, no sense of self in relationship to each other.   The nothingness that exists when we are on an island, or estranged from our society is captured by Tom Hanks in Cast Away.  We simply have to invent our meaning.  It is very difficult to accept our meaninglessness, our emptiness and our profound and beautiful mind, without some attachment and reflective relationship.

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