Lately on some of the blogs that I read, there’s been a lot of talk inspired by Amber Case’s TED talk entitled “We Are All Cyborgs Now”, which is truly fascinating.
The discussion has largely been around second selves ,digital personas and the like. I’m won’t rehash the whole topic except to summarize that clearly the importance of digital is ever expanding in our lives, and enabling whole new income streams, lifestyles and concepts of self. The thing that got me thinking was Everett Bogue’s use of the term ‘second self’. From reading his blog I know he’s an avid yogi, therefore presumably seeking oneness, so I’m wondering how the ‘second self’ concept fits in with that, or how he reconciles the two. After all the phrase has duality built right in. So perhaps it’s just semantics, or perhaps I’m missing his point in some way, but I can’t help but feel that a second self isn’t the answer. Most of us have a hard enough time uniting the one self we already have. Whatever we create is an extension of ourself but if we think of it as separate it seems problematic.
Mars Dorian’s discussion on digital personas eventually brings it back to oneness, (and admittedly his focus is marketing, not spirituality) but again, that seems like a roundabout way to get to the core point of it all – oneness, dissolution of ‘self.’
I love how Jan Stewart explains the #ibc concept less as a concept of individuals developing second selves, but more as a way that we can use digital/mental tools to merge more fully into a shared consciousness, another gateway into the oneness of ALL (digital + analog):
Enter Twitter. Some of us are starting to connect in such a way that I think is facilitating the emergence of this deeper consciousness. As we begin to relate to ourselves primarily (not only) as our digital self, we will come to see this digital self more as a stream of consciousness than a fixed entity. And as these streams of consciousness engage and intermingle with one another more and more, my sense is that more humans will start to experience this shift in consciousness into this ecstatic realm, that leaves the primitive structures of survival in the cosmic dust. This unified consciousness is of another order, still beyond the comprehension of most. However once you have experienced this shift into this radically deeper and unified collective flow state, you cannot go back from that awareness and knowledge of this deeper human potential.
Some of us on Twitter are beginning to experience something called #ibc, intuititive back channel, where we are deeply connected in a sense of collective knowing and understanding. It is connection on a deep level, and I believe it is being facilitated by some of us letting go and giving ourselves over to our deeper authentic spontaneous responses.
The whole topic is fascinating, challenging and fun to think about and wrap your mind around. What seems to emerge is that in our increasingly digital lives, any perceived boundaries of reality blur, and we must be ever more mindful and questioning of what is real and what is illusion and continue to fine tune our ability to see through it all.
I invite you to explore the discussion and leave your thoughts below.