Broadcast Identity Paradigm

Consider the human body a s a television set.

You a r e the image d i s p l a y e d on the screen.

But y o u r i d e n t i t y did not o r i g i n a t e from inside the t e l e v i s i o n

i t s e l f .

You a r e an environmental broadcast s i g n a l t h a t was received via the

TV's a n t e n n a .

One day you t u r n on t h e s e t and t h e p i c t u r e t u b e h a s b u r n e d out.

Your fi r s t reaction might be "Oh shit! This tu's dead."

But did the broadcasted image disappear along with the failed

r e c e i v e r ?

To answer that, you simply get a new television, plug it in, and tune

to t h e same s t a t i o n you were w a t c h i n g b e f o r e t h e p i c t u r e t u b e blew.

This demonstrates that while the original receiver expired, the

broadcast identity signal continues emanating from the environment

u n p e r t u r b e d .

In t h i s analogy, the physical television r e p r e s e n t s the c e l l u l a r

vehicle. The a n t e n n a downloading the b r o a d c a s t is a n a l o g o u s to o u r

f u l l complement o f biological sensory receptors. And the broadcast

itself symbolizes the environmental information stream we receive

and transduce into perceived identity and reality.

Due to our ingrained m a t e r i a l i s t i c biases, we might assume a t fi r s t

that the cell's protein receptors themselves constitute the "self."

But that's a k i n to believing the TV antenna is the source o f the

b r o a d c a s t .

The r e c e p t o r s a r e n o t the s o u r c e o f i d e n t i t y, but simply

the vehicle through which s e l f manifests by tuning into the

relevant environmental signals.