Open individualism is a view within thephilosophy of self, according to which there exists only one numericallyidenticalsubject, who is everyone at all times; in the past, present and future.[1] It is a theoretical solution to the question ofpersonal identity, being contrasted withempty individualism, which is the view that one's personal identity corresponds to a fixed pattern that instantaneously disappears with the passage of time, andclosed individualism, the common view that personal identities are particular to subjects and yet survive over time.[1]
The term was coined by Croatian-American philosopherDaniel Kolak,[2] though a similar view has been described at least since the time of theUpanishads, in the lateBronze Age; the Upanishadic phraseTat tvam asi ("You are that") is emblematic.[3] Others who have expressed similar views (in various forms) include the philosophersAverroes,[4]Arthur Schopenhauer (influenced by the Upanishads),[5] andArnold Zuboff (who calls his viewuniversalism),[6]mysticMeher Baba,[7]stand-up comedianBill Hicks,[8] writerAlan Watts (explicitly elaborating on the Upanishads),[9] as well asphysicistsErwin Schrödinger,[10]Freeman Dyson,[11] andFred Hoyle.[12]
Leo Tolstoy's short story "Esarhaddon, King of Assyria" (1903), tells how an old man appears beforeEsarhaddon and takes the king through a process where he experiences, from a first-person perspective, the lives of humans and non-human animals he has tormented. This reveals to him that he is everyone and that by harming others, he is actually harming himself.[13]
In the science fiction novelOctober the First Is Too Late (1966), Fred Hoyle puts forward the "pigeon hole theory" which asserts that "each moment of time can be thought of as a pre-existing pigeon hole" and the pigeon hole currently being examined by your consciousness is thepresent and that the spotlight of consciousness does not have to move in a linear fashion; it could potentially move around in any order.[14] Hoyle considers the possibility that there might be one set of pigeon holes for each person, but only one spotlight, which would mean that the "consciousness could be the same".[12]
One (1988), a novel byRichard Bach, features the author and his wife finding themselves under a spell of quantum physics, existing in different incarnations of themselves in alternate worlds. Eventually, they find out that all incarnations of themselves and others are the same being.[15]
"The Egg" (2009), a short story byAndy Weir, is about a character who finds out that they are every person who has ever existed.[16]
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According to open individualism,physicalism implies experience never dies, because there is no one to die.[1][page needed] There is always a substructure embedded in the sum of all experiential computations which assimilates the past from the inside of its causal structure.[1][page needed] Human intuitions are of hindrance here, because people don't think in this computational, physical way by biological instinct, and they come to stubbornly hold on to linear identities of fundamental characters.[1][page needed]
From this perspective reincarnation in the common sense isn't true, but rather it is that people are already reincarnated as everything because no one is traveling.[1][page needed] This computation that knows "I am here" is the same subject as that computation over there in the future that knows "I am here", and there is no computation which knows "I am not here".[1][page needed]
The answer to thevertiginous question is that all experiences are "live", but the illusion of separateness caused by the physical brain and memories causes it to feel like, from each person's psychological perspective, that their experiences are the only ones live.[1][page needed]
Krista and Tatiana Hogan have a uniquethalamic connection that may provide insight into the philosophical and neurological foundations of consciousness. It has been argued that there's no empirical test that can conclusively establish that for some sensations, the twins share one token experience rather than two exactly matching token experiences. Yet background considerations about the way the brain has specific locations for conscious contents, combined with the evident overlapping pathways in the twins' brains, arguably implies that the twins share some conscious experiences. If this is true, then the twins may offer a proof of concept for how experiences in general could be shared between brains.[17][18][19]
Since open individualism fundamentally challenges a common view of the self, the outcome of the philosophy also suggests a radical change in how society views revenge, punishment, and in general any justification of suffering that is founded in our own alienation from the subject experiencing the suffering.[1][page needed] From autilitarian perspective it could be argued that killing wrongdoers is justified if it lowers the amount of suffering that the wrongdoer will have to experience in total. However sadistic punishment just for the sake of revenge doesn't make sense, according to open individualism, since it just causes more suffering for you to experience.[1][page needed]
Through 16 sub-sections it recounts a conversation in whichUddālaka changes his student son's self-perception, leading him to identify as part of a larger reality that transcends his finite body and mind; the recurring motif 'tat tvam asi'—that orthus thou art—is one of the most globally celebrated lines in the whole 3000 year span of Hindu thought.
In all conscious life there is only one person—I—whose existence depends merely on the presence of a quality that is inherent in all experience—its quality of being mine, the simple immediacy of it for whatever is having experience.
Today, a young man on acid realized that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration. That we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively. There is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we're the imagination of ourselves... Here's Tom with the weather.
For every individual is a unique manifestation of the Whole, as every branch is a particular outreaching of the tree. To manifest individuality, every branch must have a sensitive connection with the tree, just as our independently moving and differentiated fingers must have a sensitive connection with the whole body. The point, which can hardly be repeated too often, is that differentiation is not separation.
The only possible alternative is simply to keep to the immediate experience that consciousness is a singular of which the plural is unknown
I called it Cosmic Unity. Cosmic Unity said: There is only one of us. We are all the same person. I am you and I am Winston Churchill and Hitler and Gandhi and everybody.
Ultimately Bach and his wife learn that there is more unity in the world than diversity: We are all one, our differences deriving only from the different choices we make.
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