Originally posted by twhitehead
If you loose your arms and legs in an accident then later have a heart transplant, kidney and lung transplants etc do you cease to be 'you'? Do you loose some of your identity? Do you gain some of the identity of the donors?

I've heard heaps of stories where transplant recipients have gained the identity of their donors.
Or at least a characteristic from the new part.

Originally posted by karoly aczel
I've heard heaps of stories where transplant recipients have gained the identity of their donors.
Or at least a characteristic from the new part.

I've heard stories about UFOs and witchcraft too.

Originally posted by Palynka
I've heard stories about UFOs and witchcraft too.

Yeah. me too.
Actually, I've heard some stories about the indengenous peoples of our land and the sort of s**t they got upto. Seems that was the only way to pass along information.

Originally posted by karoly aczel
I've heard heaps of stories where transplant recipients have gained the identity of their donors.
Or at least a characteristic from the new part.

You are saying that their body parts affected their brains - not quite what I was getting at. I was saying that if your brain remains the same and your organs are switched out, are you the same person or are you the person from whom the body parts came?

As for the stories, I generally do not put much faith in stores which whose subject has no rational explanation - especially when scientific confirmation would have earth shattering consequences, yet no scientific confirmation exists.
Either:
1. People with such experiences have a strong motivation for not wanting the phenomena to be studied scientifically.
2. It has been studied scientifically and no such effect has been found.

Originally posted by twhitehead
You are saying that their body parts affected their brains - not quite what I was getting at. I was saying that if your brain remains the same and your organs are switched out, are you the same person or are you the person from whom the body parts came?

As for the stories, I generally do not put much faith in stores which whose subject has no rational ...[text shortened]... tudied scientifically.
2. It has been studied scientifically and no such effect has been found.

You cant get scientific confirmation because the scientists cant their heads around it.
I'll get back to this in 24hrs with a specific example. I just need to ring someone and get a reference...

With stories, and with all second hand information, cross-referencing, common sense, and other such methods should always be used to decide where to put it.
Often stories have elements of truth in them.

Originally posted by twhitehead
Isn't that what we are trying to do? Or rather we are trying to discover what we mean by it?

Yes! What's your answer?

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
Yes! What's your answer?

My identity is an ever changing blurry edged entity comprising mostly my consciousness which is a complicated pattern of information that arises from my brain.