What is the value of asking, "who am I?"?

My immediate response is “Bah, humbug!”. But upon reflection I must admit that I have found some benefit in more clearly recognizing and understanding my own communication/working style and getting insight into my coworkers’ styles, as well. It has improved my ability to manage my staff, and helped me to evaluate the root source of communication failures with my partner.

The value of discovering who you really are is inestimable. It is worth more than all the gold in the world, worth more than the wisdom of all the Buddhas and sages the world will ever produce.

Once you know who you really are, philosophy becomes meaningless; mathematics becomes obvious; physics is a byproduct.

Good luck getting there!

I thought I knew myself after spending years in thought and self-analysis. It wasn’t until I started a regular meditation practice that I discovered I know practically nothing. It was intimidating and exciting to know that I am at the very beginning stages of understanding myself and my relationship with the world.

I sure hope to know myself some day.

The only good instance of that question is this one.

It is less about asking and more about simply knowing.

As we mature as humans we come to know ourselves better, our likes, dislikes, faults and flaws, strengths and weaknesses, and, a sense of knowing, on a deep intrinsic level that we are expressions of universal consciousness.

Relatively healthy and well integrated psyches have a realistic self view and a healthy self acceptance of what they can change and what they cannot. They are neither grandiose nor self denigrating, and perhaps, most importantly, they do not seek nor identify their ‘self’ or self worth in the external world of form.

They are content to be, relaxed in their beingness without attachment to any circumstance to prop up a false sense of self.

So that we may know ourselves better in order to control how we operate in the world. Through introspection, we may notice biases within ourselves that can prove harmful if allowed to go unchecked.

I know there will be many answers to this question, however I can only answer this for myself. I didn’t really have an identity until I found out who and what God said I was.

It reminds me a bit of Gideon of the Bible. He was living in a time when his homeland had been invaded by the Midianites, a fierce and destructive people. One day he was hiding inside a great wine press, threshing out grain which he had secretly raised away from the eyes of his captors.

An angel suddenly appeared and said, “Greetings, thou mighty man of valor!”

Gideon basically said, “Who, me?”

In the same way, God looked at me and said, “This is one of my beloved, a person of great value.” Then he proved it by healing me of a great many wounds.

How can anyone not know about themselves??? Honestly?!? Have you not been with yourself your entire life? If you don’t know who the fuck you are by now, it’s probably time to see a doctor.

@cheebdragon: “How can anyone not know about themselves??? Honestly?!? Have you not been with yourself your entire life?”

Everyone claims to know who they are. They may even believe it. Much of what they assign as an attribute that defines them is often wishful thinking or pure delusion. Who’s really done the tough work of really finding out who they are?

@cheebdragon: “If you don’t know who the fuck you are by now, it’s probably time to see a doctor.”

Besides you, who has been enlightened since birth, do you feel that most people really know who they are? I’m not talking about whether or not they like Doritos or lean Republican – I mean really know who they are? C’mon. We’re a nation of zombies.

@koanhead “Once you know who you really are, philosophy becomes meaningless”

Is that really your philosophy on the subject?

@snowberry “God looked at me and said, “This is one of my beloved, a person of great value.””

Fine fine. That’s who God made you fine and good. Who have you made yourself?

If it’s a matter of trying to flesh out one’s self-concept, adding more and more detail to how one sees oneself, there’s not much value to that. It’s healthy to have a good awareness of one’s tendencies, strengths and weaknesses, and habitual behavior patterns. That kind of awareness can keep you out of trouble. But that’s different from the kind of self-involved mirror-gazing that commonly passes for self-knowledge.

The greater value of asking “who am I?” has nothing to do with getting more familiar with your personality or revamping your self-image. That greater value will only be realized if you pursue the question beyond the particulars of personality, or any of the other constituents of self-image. Asking this question uncompromisingly has the effect of systematically dismantling the self-image, challenging it at every turn, until it’s gone. What’s left is who you are.

@cheebdragon
Well, then, tell us. Who are you?

How does one improve upon something they know nothing about, and understand even less?

I am the culmination of every thought which has proceeded from my mind, regardless if I know it or not. The value of knowing who I am is to more clearly define who I wish to become.

@thorninmud The question asked, “What is the value of asking who am I?... there are other methods of learning about yourself—with readings of various kinds…” My reading came from the Bible.

It’s not about me. It’s about who I serve. I could brag on about the stuff I’ve done, but that’s not the point. In a real sense, I could not have accomplished anything of value in my life without his presence in it, and in another sense, I can say “God did it, not me.” The value to me is that I have a true sense of my self worth. I’m not afraid of the future, and the demons of my past are dead, and the peace is tangible.

Is God a puppet master @snowberry? Can an atheist “accomplished anything of value” without God in their life?

@ragingloli another good example :P

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Is God a puppet master @snowberry? Can an atheist “accomplished anything of value” without God in their life?

As I said, I only answered the question for myself. I am not an atheist, and you sound upset. If you are an atheist, you’ll have to answer that question for yourself. .

You may know yourself, but do you know yourself? Harvard has this test that assesses your implicit thoughts- the answers might surprise you.

When we thing about the question “Who am I?”, it forces us to examine what it is that makes us tick, and what might be influencing you (e.g. experiences, people, environment, pop culture, media, entertainment, Coca-Cola/McDonalds). It helps us to see different perspectives outside of our limited umwelt.

Most people never truly know who they are, and don’t realize the absence of any knowledge because it isn’t part of their reality. It takes a lot of bravery to admit one isn’t in control of things, but it’s an important step to evolve as a person.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies According to the culmination of hundreds of years of research (see link below), we are learning more and more about the role of the subconscious. When the conscious mind is not interfering with the subconscious, we are capable of amazing things. Great communication, mathematical understanding, amazing athletics, and even walking, to name a few. This new research is showing that most things are done as automatically as breathing, and our conscious mind (or CEO) takes all the credit for the complex machinery of the subconscious (the specialized workers).

“There’s someone in my head but it’s not me”- Pink Floyd
Even Socrates heard voices. This could be explained as God, Higher Conscious, Nature, The Universe, etc. If you don’t believe in a higher power, I at least hope you understand that there are hidden layers to our reality.

1. David Eaglemen, Incognito
2. rOs, rOs’s mind

What makes you think I’m upset @snowberry? These are reasonable questions. Will you become the Accuser to avoid answering them? I’m not an atheist by any measure.

You know who you are to God @snowberry because of what he’s made you. I want to know how you’ve made yourself, or even if that’s possible. And if not, then God must be a puppet master.

@rOs “When the conscious mind is not interfering with the subconscious, we are capable of amazing things.”

It takes a conscious mind to make that claim.

Who’s accusing you, @RealEyesRealizeRealLies?

You accused me of seeming upset.

No, I made an observation. You SEEMED upset. If you’re not, fine….

backing away slowly

Did you make that observation, or did God? And what did I say to give you cause to think I “seemed” upset?

And can an atheist do anything of value without God?

Are you King Mob?
Know you Cagliostro?
Dig Hermes Trismegistus?

None of these are anyone. Each could be you if you can work it.

Koanhead is me…ish.

Science is difficult but understandable to those who will put in the work.
You needn’t be smart to do science; you need only be skeptical and observant and take copious notes.

Magic is difficult (for me at least) as it requires facility with redirecting the attention of others. Also advance preparation helps.

Magick is even more difficult. It may even be impossible so far as I can know. However,

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies Yes I thought that was implied- there is a difference between speaking automatically and taking time to compose a paragraph. The conscious mind is the slow, deliberate, logical part of me that just wrote this sentence. If I was being timed my comments would be a little different- maybe a little more emotionally charged. What I’m saying is that the subconscious basically runs the show while the conscious modulates actions based on the situation- when necessary.

For example, a soccer goalie wouldn’t want to consciously deliberate every possible option- it takes far more time than simply reacting, and it would trip you up. Haven’t you ever heard of the famous saying- Just do it?

Some things are better left up to your instincts, and some things require patient, conscious thought.

How can I “just do it” if I don’t even know what it is that I’m doing?

@rOs ”...to consciously deliberate every possible option- it takes far more time than simply reacting…”

There is a vast chasm between cause/reaction and thought/action.

Your last comment @koanhead… Is that what you mean by meaningless philosophy?

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies We teach ourselves how to do tasks through many ways, namely trial and error. I never said you can just “know” how to do something you’ve never practiced or even encountered- but that doesn’t make it impossible. I can’t explain “how” we accomplish extraordinary acts for the same reason you couldn’t explain the color ‘purple’ to a blind person. You must experience something before it exists. See again umwelt…

Experience is one thing. Existence requires description.

In the beginning was the word. And the word became flesh.

When I was a teenager, I thought that I was supposed to trying to “find” myself, and perhaps I did some work about that, but I don’t think my heart was in it. I’ve always known who I was, I think. So why did I need to find myself?

For whatever reason, I’ve always know what I liked and didn’t like. I knew what I thought. I had opinions about just about anything. There was no question, really, about which I didn’t have something to say, even if it was that I knew nothing about it.

I always knew what I thought was right and wrong. My notions weren’t necessarily socially acceptable ones, but I knew what I thought and why I thought it.

The first time I remember thinking about the why of things was when I was maybe 12 or so. My family together with my grandparents were driving past a cemetery. I looked at all that open space and I remembered some conversations we’d had about how the earth was running out of space for people. So I asked my parents if we needed space so much, why did we have cemeteries.

My parents couldn’t answer the question. They fumbled around, coming up with some bullshit reason.

Later on, I figured out that the purpose of cemeteries is to help people remember. It is memory space. The gravestones are memory objects. This was so simple. Why didn’t my father tell me this?

I was (and am) always trying to figure out how things work, including how I work. How does my body work? How do I think? Why do I think what I think? But these are all meta-thoughts. The basic question of who I am seems sort of obvious to me. I do stuff. I think stuff. This is who I am.

So I could take a test that tells me things about my personality, but does it really tell me anything useful? I’ve never found it useful. I’ve found sociological information useful. I’ve found psychological information useful. I have found asking other people about their experiences to be useful. But I’ve never found it useful to have someone else tell me who I am. It’s useful for them to tell me how they see me, but not for them to tell who I am.

I wonder how people can not know who they are. I feel like they are not looking if they don’t know. They are somehow dissociated from themselves. You know who you are. You’re the only one who knows who you are. You’re the only one with any consciousness of who you are from the inside.

So I feel like this search for who you are or who I am is kind of a cheat. It’s like looking for the church key (back in the days when churches were never locked). The who you find if you look is a false who. It is the looked-for who. But the real who you are is the one you have always been. The one you instinctively know. They one you would comfortably be if it weren’t for well meaning people asking you who you are.

A couple of years ago, I experienced my thinking being changed due to some medication I was taking. It changed me so dramatically that I wondered how I could be the same person as the one I was before I took the meds. Which me is me, I wondered. I actually asked that question here, once. Harp told me that both were.

The problem was that I had been trying to disavow one part of me. I was treating it as if it were an aberration, instead of a part of me and in trying to push it away, I was hurting myself.

I am who I am. All of who I am. Fighting myself or picking and choosing bits of myself to represent me in the world doesn’t really work. I might keep things secret, but inside, I must admit to all of me.

But all that is instinctual, it seems to me. If I let it be, I know who I am. It’s when shame gets in the way that I stop knowing who I am, and then I need a therapist to help me sort it out. But I know. I always knew. And I don’t need someone else trying to tell me who I am because they always mix me up.

So when other people ask the question, it makes me feel like the same thing is happening. They are getting misdirected. The answer is right inside. They already know it. But they are being tricked into believing it lies elsewhere. It’s like a grand deception.

I find myself thinking, ‘I am who I am,’ all the time. I hesitate to write that in answers because it sounds kind of meaningless and tautological, but really all I mean is to redirect my attention from the pretty, but false ideas back to the simple one: who am I? The me I know when I don’t try to pretend I’m someone else.

@wundayatta As I said before, I think you might be a rare exception to the rule. You seem have an innate ability to assess your self. Not everybody does.

In my experience, maybe 15–20% of the people I meet appear to have a real grasp on reality. True self-awareness (your position in the universe) is rare because so many people are lost inside the cultural continuum. I mentioned the umwelt, which basically says that people can be convinced of any reality (remember The Truman Show?). If from dawn to daybreak we are constantly subject to outside forces (busy, overwhelming, excessive American Culture), there isn’t much room for introspection- it certainly wasn’t encouraged at my public school. Many people go their whole lives without realizing their human potential- instead they become part of someone else’s plan.

I think it’s too general to say that asking “Who am I?” is a cheat. Maybe for some it would just confuse the issue, but for some it might be thought-provoking enough to spark a meaningful change.

I haven’t read the other answers yet, so I don’t know if anyone else has said this.
I Think that there is a certain point in most teenagers lives, when these sorts of things really help. I remember when my daughter was obsessed, with Meyers Briggs and other personality tests, trying to figure herself out and wonder why she felt the way she did or acted the way she acted. These sorts of tests made her feel “normal” and validated in who she was.

“I am who I am. All of who I am”.

This is a good way to put it. I remember coming to the realization that it isn’t a matter of knowing, it’s a matter of being. Knowing circumscribes, delimits, establishes oppositions. Being is alive, ineffable, self-evident, and unbounded. Understanding who we are requires letting go of the notion of knowing who we are and instead just being who we are.

I’m not who I was,I’m who I am now and I will not be the same person on my death bed.;)

From a koan perspective “Tell me who you are” is very powerful.
After answering that question repeatedly for a couple hours you will get past the fluff.
[male/female, this tall, this weight, lives here, does that.. blah blah]
Keep at it and there is potential for a direct experience of your existence.

@RealEyesRealizeRealLies I can’t relate much to your question, “Who have you made yourself?” I believe that who I am is not what I do. Our society is obsessed with this, and when people meet for the first time, one will ask, “What do you do?” and the other will answer, “I’m a chemist.” or “I’m a teacher.” But at the core, that’s not what makes up a person. People change careers all the time. Last time I heard, a person changes careers an average of 6 times in their lifetime.

If you want to know “who I have made myself” click on my profile.

I’m much more inspired with all the cool stuff going on in my life. I see people getting healed where there was disaster. I see folks forgiving and learning to love where there was hatred..I see folks finding peace and joy when they used to be depressed. I am inspired.

Yes I read your profile @snowberry, and your last comment is a valuable and intentional supplement to that. My point in all of this is that You have made yourself into someone beyond “who and what God said” you were initially.

It is your God given right and duty to continually create yourself anew. Anything less would be throwing away the gift of “who and what God said” you were initially.

I can’t say I’m inspired by your comment but have a nice day anyway.

What one has done since birth Is important, but it is different from who you are (or whom you have become).

Some say truth is that which is unchanging.
All that stuff we do comes and goes with the tides. The results of those actions are piled on top of the results of the actions before them.

Who you are now is the same as who you were at the beginning you.
That’s the who you can count on to be there tomorrow.

Not to say all that other stuff isn’t important, but it’s all just charning sand castle feats in perspective. A reality show that is different every next moment.

Odd question. Nobody knows better than yourself.. Everybody else is just guessing.

I’ve read everyone’s comments and there are things I agree and disagree with—but for me, the value of asking who am I is to move along the journey to figure our who I really am, not what others say I am or should be.
A lot of us are pigeonholed into roles when we are kids—our lives become a duty in meeting expectations, not authentic reflections of who we are, and I think some people go through life believing that they have to live the expectations to be good people, but the expectations come from outside, not inside. The ‘who I am’ question is a constant reminder for me to work at manifesting who I really am, versus what I’ve been ‘trained’ or am expected to be.

Unless you know who you are, you can consider yourself as dead…
when you realise that you are dead indeed then you begin to Live

It is impossible for Life to be without knowledge of itself…
And Life begins with knowledge and that Knowledge is itself

and without which no man can even claim to even be alive..

The question of “who am I” is really just the end-result of the ‘political process’ between many competing (and sometimes overlapping) brain processes. In other words: I am the sum of all of my thoughts; My actions can be modulated with self-control.

Dr. Eagleman, Incognito

I’m not really asking who you are. I want to know why you care to answer the question of who you are.

When you try to answer this question it seems to me like you tie yourself up in knots. There are so many ways to approach the question and yet none get at it, really. Sometimes people use tests, I guess to determine what someones talents or interests are. But at best you have a momentary clue about talents and interests. And I wonder if that is even relevant to making a hiring decision.

Who am I? Depends on why you’re asking and in any case, I don’t care to answer. If you can’t see who I am, you aren’t paying attention.

Knowing who I am helps me make intelligent decisions towards directing my life to who I wish to become.

but i said that already… sorry