You Are Not the Body, So who are you? Options

[Simba]

"I am a collection of water, calcium and organic molecules called Carl Sagan. You are a collection of almost identical molecules with a different collective label." -- Carl Sagan, Scientist

There are many people who believe that they, real selves, are in fact their body. However, there have been other people that have suggested that you are actually not your body, but an eternal soul.

An analogy supporting this would be that we are to our bodies as people are to cars. A person drives a car, has to take care of the car, can decorate the car, but is in fact not the car itself.

Sound too supernatural to be for real? Discuss.

[Ington]

I apologize for my vagueness. I meant that I believe we are metaphysical bodies ecased in a physical body. This is somewhat related to the religious sense, but is in many aspects different. For example, I don't believe we go to a mutual heaven, and I don't believe we are all connected through a greater entity.

However, there is part of me that wonders if perspective itself is an elaborate illusion, beyond human comprehension. Though we can argue that our perspectives and spirits exist because we experience them, the fact that we directly think from our perspective doesn't necessarily mean that we're right. It could be the ridiculous assortment of neurons, and assortment so vast and complicated a human wouldn't be able to understand it. Then again, it may be impossible to understand whether or not perspective is real, because in order to you must completely unravel it. However, if our perspective does in fact follows the ultra-scientific view of being the function of our bodies, we may just be bodies, and not spirits. The spirit may be an unimaginable illusion played by our bodies to maximize efficiency.