Sometimes I wonder whether I am driving this body I inhabit or whether I am a passenger. When I ride in a car with someone else driving, I look out the window and see things passing me by, and I do not control the car. Little kids have the opportunity to be passengers in some vehicles that they can pretend they are controlling, such as a shopping cart that has a pretend steering wheel in it. The kid behind the wheel might think he is steering the cart, just like I think most of the time I am steering my life and this body.
Experiments have shown that sometimes we seemingly decide to take an action after the brain has already sent the signal to the limbs to be involved in the action. So we have the illusion of being in charge.
Speaking of illusions, this morning, while I was asleep, I dreamt one of my sons was telling me that someone was at the door. Then I heard the doorbell ring and it woke me up. I answered the door and asked how many times they had rang the doorbell because I thought perhaps the dialogue about somebody being at the door was a response to my dreaming self having heard the doorbell. I was told that they had only rang the door bell once. Weird.
