Think I got it

For a good portion of my college career, I was drawn to and read a good amount of existential philosophy, all the while understanding very little of it in a meaningful way. But there was some element that kept drawing me and I think I have captured that. This is exciting for me because the substance of this thought isn't very complicated and has been on the "tip of my tongue" for quite some time. I think I've only now been able to articulate this solely because of the growing separation between me and the matter being intensely involved, time for the smoke to clear so to speak. What I loved was the suggestion that there are a great deal of bodies walking around and acting per value sets that are completely detached from and never corroborated by their own experience. And the suggestion might even go on to say that these aren't even humans, but just acting beings, never making an actual choice. In an unrelated topic (for now), I once took a class that discussed the nature of salvation and who all would be able to partake in this. As we surveyed several theories, there was one that involved an explanation of those are who not saved as not actually people, but automatons. So as the Cartesian saying goes "I think, therefore I am", this conversation could be adapted "I choose, therefore I am."