PROPOSED: I am the same person but in different bodies. My neighbour is as much me as I am.
CLAIM
If I could see with my eyes and my eyes were removed and replaced with somebody else's eyes I would experience no difference. I would feel as if no change took place at all. Consciousness could be switched from body to body all the time and nobody would notice any difference because we are all that one power.
REPLY:
The eye is only something that feeds information to the consciousness. I might see no difference but until a consciousness transfer occurs I will not be able to comment on whether I would notice. And even then the memory might need to be prevented from transferring with it. The memories of the other person would need to be transferred to me.
CLAIM:
You may say that you don't feel like you are the same consciousness as say Barack Obama. You only feel you are not - but feelings are not guides to reality. You can feel it is going to rain and that does not mean it will.
REPLY: So what?
CLAIM:
Here is the proof from the time-warp that all consciousness is one being.
Suppose Rachel enters her house to answer the telephone in her hall. She sits at the phone. Suddenly there is a rip in time. And she comes in the door again. Now we have two Rachels. One enters the hall and the other is sitting at the phone. They are the same person. But Rachel at the door and Rachel at the phone will feel in every sense that they are two separate persons. Philosophers may object that this scenario is impossible. True, but that is not the point. It shows that if I think I am me and not you I am wrong.
REPLY: The point is it is an incoherent scenario so it means it is incoherent not that both are Rachel. Maybe neither are anymore.
CLAIM: The disconnection between people does not prove they are not me for I am disconnected from myself. I lose my memory so I won't feel connected to myself as I was a second ago. Yet I am the same being.
REPLY: Not the same situation. Me cutting my finger off does not mean everybody else does it.
CLAIM:
Space has height. It has length. It has breadth. Yet it is one. It is one in three and three in one. In the same way, we are different manifestations of the one entity. We still experience ourselves as individuals and that must be respected. There can be no room for thinking, "Oh I will let that baby starve on the street. I will make it up to it by enjoying myself better for me and the baby are one and the same anyway." Our joy will be in coming to the assistance of our other selves.
REPLY: Since when was my consciousness the same as space?
CLAIM:
Why would the one consciousness become all those different people? Does it not look like it is playing a game? No. If I went back in time in a time machine and met myself from ten years ago, practically speaking I would have to treat this me as another person with love and respect. The fact that there is two mes would not mean I wouldn't experience genuine love for the other me. We are the one being in many bodies so that we can practice love.
REPLY: True - but until it happens we must assume I am me and you are you - we are not a multi-incarnation. And besides, what kind of love would have you helping John while Stephen is the one needing the help? And why are animals left out of this discussion?