What is Authenticity?

[Himanshu]

As I'm uncovering how deeply programmed I have been and how easily I am being programmed everyday in subtle ways by everything I'm exposed to..

In a span of one year, I have noticed dramatic shifts in how I think, feel and act.. 80% of that, I'd say, is from just changing my environment and the information I consume on a daily basis. 

I'm starting to wonder.. 

What is the authentic self after all? 

If I can model people who are wildly different from the current 'me' and integrate them into myself.. and think, feel and act in ways dramatically different from how I do now.. Will that still be me? 

Is there some indestructible sense of 'me-ness' that will be saved? 

Is there anything to save at all? 

If not, what is authenticity? 

What is Authenticity for you? 

 

 

[Harmony342]

Excellent question. From my experience, everyone has a unique personality that flourishes if one is healthy. You might imitate others that surround you but there is always a part of you you can go back to if need be. It's impossible to put your finger on because you essentially have to get the finger to point at itself which is impossible, ie you're invisible to yourself. You might evolve and adapt but 'you' will always be there, however illusory this 'you' is

[Himanshu]

8 hours ago, Harmony342 said:

you're invisible to yourself.

That's fair.

I am also finding that the more I act, feel, and behave in the ways that are not 'me', the more detached I am from any particular way of being. It's like being an actor in a theatre being able to play a bunch of different characters as and when required. 

This detachment from any particular way of being has also freed me to deeply empathize and take very diverse perspectives without a lot of internal resistance. 

In a way, there is an 'authentic' me but it is getting lighter and lighter, devoid of identifiable traits as such. 

[soos_mite_ah]

I've been thinking about the same thing too because I feel like I have changed so much as a person in recent days. 

I think there is an authentic ego that each person has that is unique to that individual and is according to what is healthy for that person's needs.

But upon further introspection, I feel that authenticity often comes from a place of consciousness rather than just going on autopilot. On one level, there is trying to think for yourself and do what feels right for you personally rather than what society and other people say.

To take that into another level, I think to truly act from that place of consciousness is to deconstruct the ego as a whole. A lot of our personality from childhood especially has to do with conditioning, labels that have been slapped on by other people, coping mechanisms etc. All of these is us reacting not for ourselves but for the environment in a subconscious level to survive. Nothing wrong with that, it helps us get to where we are today. But things like conditioning isn't the absolute truth. For instance, you could have easily had a completely different personality if some parts of your upbringing or surroundings were different.  

To truly be authentic, I feel, is to define oneself and one's personality according to one's values and vision for the world instead of having the world decide who we are. 

Authenticity is about realizing there is no true self and because there are no bounds and nothing holding us back, we can be free to be whomever we choose. We are free to be infinite. 

[nistake]

After a few years of consciousness work, you slowly realize what's important for you, what you value, what kind of personality you have, what interets you and so on. Realizing these may not be enough, taking action is really important. It's basically a long process of trial and error. Also, it's never-ending and you always learn and grow. But in my opinion, you can get to a level where you're more or less stable and you're not operating out of social conditioning, possible childhood traumas and conditioned thought-patterns.

[allislove]

@Himanshu

There is no 'me'. You can be, have, experience whatever you want. 

Authenticity is to live as you truly want, do no resist, be in alignment with yourself, to follow intuition.

Some time ago I was mind-blown how 1 hour of morning meditation practice every day and 5-MeO-DMT experience occasionally may help to rise authenticity. 

[Artsu]

I don't know what it would mean exactly to be authentic, but at a given point in time i can be more or less inhibited.

[Ya know]

Nothing (The Tao, God, Being, Presence, Infinity, Zero)

Authenticity is a return to that of which all has arisen. Acting without thought. 

[Alexop]

raising your consciousness through all the techniques you know and also changing your environment, like getting rid of toxic people will help you be more authentic. Low consciousness and living in "mobs" with lowlife people alters authenticity. You can notice how people copy each others like monkeys just to be accepted by their friends and family, take courage and change those friends instead of pleasing them, be ok with being alone. High consciousness works on day to day life if you have an infrastructure for it, otherwise it will be quite hard. Like you have a Ferrari but you don`t have an asphalt road to drive it on. Anyway, when someone grows, he will naturally get rid of all the bullshit around him.