Why the Question ‘What Am I?’ is Important and Magical
The other story of the eagle in the chicken coop
The question ‘Who am I?’ is about what kind of person I am among all people. The question ‘What am I?’ goes deeper. It is about what it means to be a human, what the full potential of a human is. It’s not just questioning myself, but the whole of humankind. The following story illustrates what I mean.
One day, an eagle laid an egg in a chicken coop. The young eagle hatched and learned from the other birds how to live like a chicken. Life was fine – except for a longing that made the young eagle seek. But nothing it had learned to find could satisfy the longing.
Would it help if someone told the eagle that it wasn't a chicken, but an eagle? No, that would not help. The eagle couldn't believe it, because it has learned to be a chicken; it carries a chicken program that tells it how to behave under which circumstances. This gives the eagle security and, therefore, it feels comfortable being a chicken. The only thing that bothers is the unfulfilled longing.
Would it help if the eagle attended an eagle seminar to learn how to act like an eagle? No, that wouldn't help either. This would create an eagle program that would superimpose the chicken program. The eagle would then be an eagle who thinks it is a chicken who has learned to act like an eagle. That would be much more confusing than continuing to live as a chicken.
For the eagle to be what it really is, it must free itself from the chicken program.
But why did the mother eagle lay her egg in the chicken coop? Because she also lives in the chicken coop and believes she is a chicken. And in fact, ALL the birds in the chicken coop are eagles who believe they are chickens – and this has been so for tens of thousands of years.
This story is a metaphor for humankind. We live like the eagles in the chicken coop. We also copy our parents’ way of life. We carry a human chicken program within us that tells us how to behave in which situation. This gives us security. And so, we too lead a limited life and only develop a fraction of our true potential.
This is not about judging eagles against chickens. Eagles are not better than chickens. They are different. It’s about the fact that we end up in the wrong life because we grow up among those who have also ended up in the wrong life in the same way. And it’s about how we can find our true nature.
What is our true nature? Let’s look at those who are closest to the true nature of humans: children. Children constantly ask ‘Why?’ and ‘Why not?’ with all their senses and search for answers in countless ways. They grow physically and mentally at an enormous pace – and enjoy life to the fullest. There is nothing more beautiful than watching a child explore the world. Children are role models for a truly fulfilling life – provided their biological needs such as food, water, warmth, etc are met.
"Our nature as humans is the curious exploration of the world."
The fulfilling life we had as children ended when we grew up. It ended because we copied our parents’ way of life. We live our parents’ lives – with a few changes. Our parents live (or lived) their parents’ lives – with a few changes. And so on. This goes back to the beginning of humankind.
What happened back then? Biologically, we are apes. But we are more than apes, otherwise we would still be living in forests and climbing trees. Our specifically human tool is that we can behave in ways other than following our behavioral programs. Very early humans began to behave a little differently from apes. Each new generation copied the behavior of the previous one and behaved a little differently again. So, generation after generation, we moved away from ape life. After thousands and thousands of years, the way of life we live today emerged.
You could argue that there are many ways of life on this planet. A Japanese person lives differently from a US-American. You live differently from your neighbor. But these differences are superficial. What all human lifestyles have in common is an idea of what a human being is and what potential they have. Cultural, religious, national, regional, family, and individual characteristics complement this idea. Together, they form the human chicken program that traps a person mentally.
Exploring the question ‘What am I?’ is the only way to find your true potential. The simple formula is this: If you remove what you are not, what remains is what you are.
I started doing this in 2011. I talk about the beginnings of my explorations my article “Why I Socially Isolated Myself for 3.5 Years – and What Came Out of It.” In my experience, magic happens when you choose this path from the bottom of your heart, just as Goethe put it:
"The moment one finally commits oneself to a task, providence also moves. Many things that would otherwise never have happened happen to help you. A whole stream of events is set in motion by your decision, and it provides numerous unforeseen coincidences, encounters, and material help in your favor that no one could ever have dreamed of before. Whatever you can do, do it. Boldness carries genius, power, and magic. Begin now."
(Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
To find out what you truly are, you must really want to know. Then start observing and listening – and let the magic of what happens carry you.
Here are three exercises to help you get started:
Exercise 1: Think about your childhood – before you started kindergarten or school. How did you spend a typical day? What was your favorite thing to do? What changed when you started kindergarten or school? Make a list of the plans and dreams you had as a child.
Exercise 2: Look at your life now. Compare it with your parents’ lives. What is the same, what is similar, what is different? Which of your plans and dreams as a child have come true? Make a list of the plans and dreams you have today.
Exercise 3: Take the two lists from the previous exercises: your plans and dreams as a child and your plans and dreams today. Compare them. Think about how you can realize each item.
You can find a wealth of further exercises in my book “Being Free – Get Out of the Box.”
Further reading:
Article “Why I Socially Isolated Myself for 3.5 Years – and What Came Out of It”
Book “Being Free – Get Out of the Box”
Article “How to Become What You Truly Are in 7 Steps”
Wonderful post. Powerful message. I've heard Goethe's ideas expressed many times over the past ten years but never from the man himself. Is it possible that you're Deutsch, Bernhard? I lived in SW, near the beautiful Pfälzer Wald, for about 26 years.
For a start, we can begin with, Who Am I