Who am I?

The answer to that question must depend on who you ask.

Am I a brain or a body? Or a bit of both?

It all depends on how the individual perceives their life.

Is life something more than the sum of the physical parts we are made of, blood, flesh, bones, synapses, sinews... etc?

If we believe that we have a spiritual dimension too then we probably think that the “I” identified in the question “Who am I?” is a combination of physical, intellectual and spiritual qualities.

How these three things combine creates the infinite variety we meet every day in our interactions with other humans, none of whom are exactly us.

We know that we can have a body that is not under our control. An example of this might be cancer only diagnosed at an advanced stage. Our own cells have been mutating without our knowledge, out of our control.

Can we have a brain that has thoughts not under our control? And can that out of control brain instruct our body to do things we haven't chosen to do?

If we believe that is possible then just who is controlling that brain? 

In more God fearing times we were able to say that God was controlling our thoughts if they were good thoughts, and that the Devil had gatecrashed our minds when our thoughts strayed to the dark side.

In her TED talk the writer Elizabeth Gilbert reminds us of the muse, that unknown quantity that guides us to take directions in life we cannot rationally explain. The muse allows us to distance ourselves a little from our own work, offers us the opportunity to give the responsibility for whatever we do to some outside agency.

In Australia they are trying a new intervention with young drug addicts that aims to teach them to work through their stress and “... get the brain under control”

Will the current trend for mindfulness lead to the next generation having more brain control?

Is control of the brain something we need more focus on? 

Can we measure our own capacity to control our brains? 

How many of us monitor our brain regularly as we would blood pressure, weight, or the many other scales we have for physical condition and performance? 

How do you rate your own control over your brain? 
Has it ever had a thought that surprised you?