Or just life. This can be viewed on so many different levels. I know this is rather vague, but where does this not hold up in any relationship?

Why do you believe free will cannot logically exist? Do you have more to add to it? I feel it's a bleak outlook considering our lives have already been paved. What is the point of existing if we are predetermined to do whatever it is we do? I've tried to make sense of it and fail to string together something I'm comfortable with. Curious to hear more.

I'm aware of NDEs, and have a hard time coming to any conclusion. I'll have to check the video when I have a little more time. Thanks for sharing!

Science is fantastic, but you are right; it isn't a static and will exist to be disproven, questioned, or modified (just like everything else).

I get what you're saying, but eventually you're going to hit a gray area, right?

You may think it's ok to drink alcohol, but other parts of the world do not agree. Which one is right? Why?

Appreciate the question. I'm not sure where I fall in terms of religious or atheist, but I'd like to think I'm somewhere in-between.

Is your perspective not just a collection of what you know and how you react given what you know?

My decisions help me make future decisions. I have foresight based off of what I already know/have seen in the past. I have no direct control over outcomes, but I can accurately assume some outcomes.

I feel like I'll get a slap on the wrist for this one, but how do you justify God? What is God, other than the creator of all? How did God come to be? How can you have a God but no way of creating God? Are there other Gods? Does this make us simply a science experiment? What is our purpose for this God?

This all feeds in to why I also find it hard to believe there is no God, or creator. We are advanced organisms - the most complex that we know of in terms of everything we know. We live on a planet that exists in a universe, both of which we don't truly understand the beginnings of, nor do I think we ever will - how can we?

God seems like a very easy out for the unknown and unexplainable. I don't like that.

This may get twisted, but I have recently taken up the mentality that I am my own God. I feel I have the most control over my life. Obviously there are external factors that I cannot foresee or control, but for the most part, I control my life. Everything I know exists through me. My existence is my reality is my everything. I have no proof or concept of what may come after life. We have thoughts of a heaven, purgatory, greater unknown.. but we have no clear proof of it.

I want to believe there's an afterlife, that there's some hidden mystery that suddenly becomes unlocked, but at the same time, why does it matter? What is the point of existence if we're merely puppets of a God with no true free-will or perspective?

If we truly want to figure out everything in the universe, I think we need to put God in the back seat and look for other explanations.

The more and more I dive into the subconscious self the more confused I get.

We are beings consisting of trillions of microorganisms that work hard to maintain the physical us. There is far greater unknowns going on inside with endless communication and cooperation that "we" have next to no control over. I understand I'm limited in my knowledge through science, but I enjoy trying to learn all I can on the biological side. I find myself going down a lot of funky paths thinking about life in general.

I am probably diving a little too deep with the above, but I can't help but wonder and think if there is more going on than we could ever comprehend with far greater implications on the self.

Anyway, I've had a really pleasurable time digging into why I do a lot of things and I enjoy the discoveries. It's fun to slow down common actions and think about them - why I do it, is there a better way, did I knowingly choose the best way or was it by chance, etc.

If you have anything else you want to dive into please feel free to keep it going.

I believe you are correct.

This makes it quite difficult to make sense of, however.

How did we find our paths?

I put a lot of credit towards the positives I knew of, and how I also knew my norm was bad, but at the same time my sibling is just four years younger and our lives could not be more different post-childhood.

It also makes me wonder how much of human nature can be controlled. I'm not implying people should be controlled, but I wish it were possible to successfully help those on the wrong path at an early age.

I strongly favor living and learning. You cannot educate people on certain things without them experiencing it first-hand.

I believe this ties in with your idea of the rebellious stage - children who are guided through life, even if what is deemed "correct", will/may begin to question these thoughts. Questioning leads to testing which leads to the separation of what they knew second hand which then turns into their own experiences.

In a way, it may make sense to promote rebellion. A wrong path doesn't have to be wrong; it can be educational.

Thanks for the back and forth.

Yes and no.

Yes to always having to find my own path. I lacked authority and was able to identify at a young age what others experienced at home from their parents. I then took what I viewed second-hand and applied it to myself.

I'm having a hard time with the age part.

I understand and agree that many children will have an idea of the world with help from their parents. I get there will be an age at which a child will get curious enough to make sense of what they think they know and either strengthen it or dismiss it. I just do not identify a period where that happened in myself. I also think there are many layers to it, and there may not be a single period of breaking free from the initial self. To add a little more, society also controls some movements in terms of freedom and change in environments.

If anything, my upbringing has taught me lessons that were impossible to better understand until much older. I associate good upbringing from tiny splashes from extended family, friends and friends' families. Bad with every day life.

I'm sorry if I'm not getting it, but I would like a better understanding.

I have trouble fully supporting this one.

I feel it's a blanket statement, which rarely covers all cases. I would not consider myself to be one that fits, but I do think many may fit the mold.

For a little more context, I grew up with no restrictions. A dysfunctional family riddled with addiction and abandonment, topped off with a few forms of abuse.

I remember my childhood fairly vividly, many memories from 3-4 years old and on. I wouldn't consider all of the memories accurate, but there are times and people that really stand out, both good and bad.

In retrospect, these key moments from an early age up through my late teens helped form my sense of me. It wasn't a single rebellion period, simply because there was nothing to rebel against. I was experimenting with the world before I could even process the outcome of my actions.

A lot of the people who were bad influences and heavily involved in my younger years (pre 12) are not fairing so well in life. Neither is my younger sibling who I tried my best to watch after as long as I possibly could, but that's currently on the up I hope.

This subject is difficult to me, because I tend to put periods and experiences throughout life under a microscope. I analyze a lot of what I went through, how it made me feel, and how things could be different. I also know that not everything needs to change or could be changed, but embracing and remembering has done well for me.

That process hasn't stopped. It's become more of how I approach everything. My opinions of the past are not static, they change with every new experience I find relatable. Sometimes they are reinforced, other times I'm given a new way to think about the situation.

The thing is, there are so few constants in life. Life is also so unique, yet similar. We seem to want to find patterns that hold true for all, but lack the formulas for really proving it.

I think constantly having an open mind and making sense of it is essential to growth. I do not know that you're suggesting this, but I do not think there should be a static point. These opinions can be firm, but not firm to the extent they cannot be changed. I am currently an adult, and while I identify with a lot of my past, it is not me. I have learned, I have become better, I have also become worse. The thing is, I am not the current me. I am the future me, with past me as a reference point.

Now I guess tying in to what I take from your comment - I'd argue puberty isn't THE defining point. Maybe it is for some, maybe it's the spark. I personally am just now learning who my parents are, so I do not have much of an identity with either. That said, the very young experiences with extended family were massive.

I recently connected with an aunt that used to watch me sporadically when I was 4-6. Since then I've seen her twice, the most recent being 15 years ago. It was surreal finally getting to know her better - my sense of her was extremely limited. I could tell you everything about her house, her children, what I did there, but I couldn't tell you much of what I remember about her. I know I didn't have negative feelings, but I couldn't put a finger on the positive.

Seeing her after so much time had passed was surreal. She understood a lot of what I had to say, and I saw similarities in things like her reactions and temperament. We identified with one another.

I attribute myself to the experiences like the short few years of being babysit by her. I'm not implying she is the sole reason, I have countless others that stand out in my youth. My time alone was equally beneficial with simply thinking - I grew up with a lot of thinking, it was the only way to justify my existence at times.

Sorry if I went off a bit too much. More than willing to keep this train going, if the opportunity presents itself. This year has been very profound for me, but I'm struggling to find more outlets to be heard and also hear. I appreciate the extra thought!

I think I struggle with this due to having a rough upbringing. At the same time, I attribute a lot of myself to the few external positives, as well as the collection of other close ones who were astray.

Both the good and bad have been solid reflection points for myself throughout my life. I was fortunate enough to soak up a lot at a young age, and being curious has helped me form better feelings besides the second-hand initial knowledge. Going astray throughout life up through now has helped confirm some things, but also helped me create new definitions to others.

Linking back to the video, and I believe what you're also saying - if I were to never give in to the temptations I knew were likely bad, I would have never formed a new opinion, or I may never know with certainty to myself that they are bad.

I agree we need to search within us to find what is right for ourselves. I think self-reflection is extremely important to one's growth.

This one is making my mind go in circles and I'm struggling to summarize my point, so bear with me please.

I understand the cautious note, but at the same time, don't the times astray feed directly into creating critical thinking?

Without a single time astray all you can go off of is other people. At some point you would assume other people may not see a situation the same as you. How do you form that "you" without being fragmented?

And sorry if I misread yours.

I'm not sure where to interject, picking here..

I think it's impossible to have a universally agreed set of standards and needs. We're already proving that individual communities struggle to establish guidelines that are not questioned.

In order to achieve a utopia I believe we'd need to become far too similar, more than anyone else would like.

No matter what, a baseline needs to be established. Everything would have to be agreed on, and that would require an entire planet's worth of agreement. Utopia is easier to exist in a small group, and even then, you're going to have far too many differing opinions.

Is a utopia even desirable?

This is somewhat disturbing to think about, the current you will no longer exist... Anyway, feelings aside:

What do you define as the current? Where do you draw the line of this moment and the following? Do you die thousands of times a second, every 5 seconds? Can you put a duration to the current "you"?

Memories are interesting. Coming from a tech background, I like to think of memories as indexed moments of time. Just as databases exist to be efficient in retrieval and storage, memories tend to work very well when they're also associated with something more than the memory itself.

I don't know if I'm doing a good job explaining anything, so please ask whatever that's needed!..

Anyway, building a little more off the memories as an indexes in a database - would you argue that the dying entities include entities that are working to constantly maintain and index these memories? Do they even get stored, or does the next self simply know all of the previous? Does this same self exist subconsciously with everything the body requires to survive (knowing when to breathe, feeding air to the body, nutrients from food, creating blood, basically every biological)?

Your #2 makes me think of religion. Truths are very difficult to universally back with belief or faith. At the same time, common grounds are tough to find - sometimes more people also believing is just as powerful as the truth.

Also curious to know what makes sense to the person you're responding to.

I find this interesting for many reasons..

We, people/all life as we know it, seems to be pre-programmed for quite a lot. I can elaborate if needed, but I'd rather leave here if possible.

To slightly build up on the previous: Is it possible that we do happen to carry over some knowledge of the previous? Knowing the bare-minimum, essentially running in autopilot, is extremely beneficial for the success of life, especially at birth/conception.

I want to know, what happens if we no longer have a physical realm? It is believed that life on earth will be impossible one day. We have more unknowns than knowns when it comes to the universe, but all science points to the earth no longer being capable of sustaining life. If we are incapable of escaping the death and destruction, do we also cease to exist in any realm?

I also am curious to know, do you consider all known life to also stem from the same entity?

Do you believe that you are control of your typical body functions? Handling of nutrients, the air we breathe, maintaining a balance, and so on..

What do you define as yourself?

I am struggling with this one. Obviously I am not controlling every single cell within my body. I expect my body to continue functioning as it should, given I maintain it.

An emergent entity would offer up the chance that there are others that may be capable of emerging?