What Would You Do?

ThailandTom

What would you do if you woke up one day and your facial complexion and body was of a totally different appearance to what it normally would look like? I mean as if you woke up physically looking like a different person, your sense of self totally smashed to bits. Apart from going to a doctor very quickly how would you react to the situation?

how

That's one big assumption that ones sense of self is dependent on external appearances!

ThailandTom

how said:

That's one big assumption that ones sense of self is dependent on external appearances!

I didn't mean the entire network that results in the sense of self, inanimate objects essential can be given a 'self' by the mind, I just meant the physical self.

Cory

After I got over the fact that I looked like a different person, I would analyze the situation. Following that, I would embrace it because there would be nothing I could do.

how

I guess you could ask if you prefered the changed appearance or not, how tied you were to being recognaised as the former appearance, not to mention a possible gender or species change.
Need a few more parameters.

ThailandTom

how said:

I guess you could ask if you prefered the changed appearance or not, how tied you were to being recognaised as the former appearance, not to mention a possible gender or species change.
Need a few more parameters.

Lets say the total opposite aside from age, so for example if you are a female in her mid 30s, a little underweight then you would change into a male same age, a little overweight and of course simply a new face that would fit the new appearance.

how

Man, you had me worried before you kept it "in species".
I am just twisted enough to think it could be a real hoot. Here I've been spouting off for years about the irrelevence of gender to a practise and I'd guess I'd find out.

JohnG

Several issues would be a concern to me. 1) Who am I now? :eek2: 2) Where am I now? :skeptic: 3) And am I neferious for some reason or other? :wow: Then, I'd worry what happened. :coffee:

Dakini

how said:

That's one big assumption that ones sense of self is dependent on external appearances!

Exactly. My sense of self has nothing to do with my appearance. I can't relate to this question.

lobster

Be grateful we do not live in Multiverse Kafka . . . or maybe some of a wayward Tibetan persuasion are awaiting that fate . . .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Metamorphosis

JohnG

Wakeing up a cockroach is not my way of a great morning. :coffee:

ThailandTom

An ex-girlfriend of mine suggested a book to read about a man who becomes an insect, I think it is an ant or maybe a cockroach, I cannot remember. But it is meant to be quite a good read.

JohnG

Metamorphosis by Kaflka; an intersting story of a young man who wakes up transformed into a six foot cockroach; and has no problem with it. :coffee:

JohnG

how said:

Man, you had me worried before you kept it "in species".
I am just twisted enough to think it could be a real hoot. Here I've been spouting off for years about the irrelevence of gender to a practise and I'd guess I'd find out.

Interesting Freudian refrence there. But, what if waking up female, and in labor? :coffee:

ThailandTom

JohnG said:

how said:

Man, you had me worried before you kept it "in species".
I am just twisted enough to think it could be a real hoot. Here I've been spouting off for years about the irrelevence of gender to a practise and I'd guess I'd find out.

Interesting Freudian refrence there. But, what if waking up female, and in labor? :coffee:

That would be interesting to say the least. For once a male could experience the pain of giving birth to life and also the joy of it.

sharonsaw

i would think "cool!.. how the hell did that happen..." then i'd go and see my spiritual teacher, Tsem Rinpoche, to ask him what happened... on the whole, i wouldn't be too worried... i'd be more fascinated. I think i wouldn't be worried because i know Tsem Rinpoche would know the answer!

BhikkhuJayasara

I would think about all the cool devious things I can do now as a person who looks different from me then hope its like one of those hollywood movies where I look like myself in the end and get away with all of it ! :P

Jeffrey

I know what I'd do if I were female haha! j/k

Nirvana

@JohnG, after I read TomofT's first post, I immediately thought of Kafka's Gregor Samsa, if I recall his name aright. That is the most awe-inspiring story, which I recommend to anyone working with the profoundly disabled in nursing homes and the like. (Most people just don't get the connection, which is simple: being trapped in an unfamiliar and/or unwanted body for an unknown time and with fear and trepidation...etc.)

What Would I Do? (WWID)
I'd have NO CHOICE but to retire very deeply into myself and would resent any intrusion upon my space that was not totally sympathetic or empathetic. (Hence my recommendation of this METAMORPHOSIS story to all working with the profoundly or even totally disabled.)

Yaskan

I would worry that I've body-swapped with someone else. Say I swapped with a 21yr old guy, that guy has a 21yr history I don't know about and 21yrs worth of relationships I don't know about. It also means he's in my body not knowing my history nor my relationships. What about dietary habits? Oh man, his body might be diabetic and I wouldn't know! :eek: I gotta find this guy!

If I later find out that no, it's just my body that's changed, then I wouldn't be bothered much at all, to be honest. I pretty much avoid mirrors as it is, so that's not an issue. I suppose it's possible that becoming male could mean an increase in aggression and sexuality, which would bother me immensely, but at least that's something I could work on, I suppose.

What about the people around you though? Are we taking them into account? I imagine my mother would be pretty bothered if I showed up at her door an overweight man saying "Hey mum, it's me! I swear!"

Answer: If we're talking about a situation in isolation from the rest of the world, I wouldn't care much at all (after the initial shock factor at least).

Nirvana

Yaskan said:

[essence of my] Answer: If we're talking about a situation in isolation from the rest of the world, I wouldn't care much at all (after the initial shock factor at least).

Yea, but if you're in complete isolation from the rest of the world, you cease to be anything; for without belonging to a greater whole, any metamorphosis would be impossible. That is because changing in form would have no meaning and even a mirror would reflect a different reality when directed away from self (in such circumstance).

Any redemptive work we do HAS TO be done in the world, or it will have nowhere to leave its footprints.

Yaskan

Nirvana said:

Yaskan said:

[essence of my] Answer: If we're talking about a situation in isolation from the rest of the world, I wouldn't care much at all (after the initial shock factor at least).

Yea, but if you're in complete isolation from the rest of the world, you cease to be anything; for without belonging to a greater whole, any metamorphosis would be impossible. That is because changing in form would have no meaning and even a mirror would reflect a different reality when directed away from self (in such circumstance).

Any redemptive work we do HAS TO be done in the world, or it will have nowhere to leave its footprints.

I agree, hence the rest of my answer.

I was trying to say, I am not so attached to my physical being that I would care if it changed, but I don't exist alone, so the reactions of others have the potential to make me care about the change (given that it could mean a loss of my closest relationships).

shadowleaver

Pinch myself.