You have a body, and the body thinks one way. It gives you visions to see, tastes to sample, emotions to react to. It does a great job of doing all of these things, and it prefers to avoid change. It cannot conceive of difference. This is why we have to learn these differences from our parents; the socially acknowledged differences, those adaptions that support the development of the social animal, things like social body image, social self-image, ideas like class standing or our sense of relative “success.” How is this anything other than animal thought? Is anything creative going on here?
Awareness is rising above what our body knows? Actually, evolution, according to a controversial model, has always arisen not from elimination but integration. Organisms integrated the mineral in sea water and thus were able to venture out onto dry land, things like that.
We differ from other animals in being in control of our own evolution. Our physical environmental factors are all decided upon by us. So how much conscious decision making have we done there, or have we just fallen into optimizing the primitive conditions that our body alone favors?
Have we made conscious societal choices, or confined ourselves to changes because we were uncomfortable? Worried our appetites would stop being satisfied to our liking?
Well, we have gone beyond building simple shelters up to cathedrals incorporating symbols and ideas. Yes, social affirmation. Signaling makes the herd animal feel more comfortable, satisfies the survival of the group instinct. Is this enough? Are we genuinely happy?
What if we integrate the dynamics behind society into our own consciousness? Defined our own memetic content. Deliberate social engineering not of our groups but of our own inner animal? Adopting symbolism and stories to serve our purposes as individuals, and allowing society to arise not as an exclusive paradigm, but a collaborative one? Rather than serving as a force for normative enforcement, instead serve as a forum for the evolution of our entire species? There are those who are heavily invested in a single point of view winning out.
Do you think that’s what is happening now? I unfortunately do not, at least not in a conscious and deliberately guided way. The sleepers are sleep arguing with each other. I once literally did that with my younger brother. My mother came in, thinking that we’re staying awake and just arguing with each other, only to discover we were sound asleep.
With everyone connected more than ever, it seems that the baser instincts still rule people.
There’s nothing like stepping outside of the box to increase your awareness of the box.
There’s a phenomenon called blindsight. Some scientists are using it to support their argument that our behavior is really not our choice, and that we need society to manage for us and assure our survival as individuals and a species.
There’s a new center at my university devoted to imagining a better future. They are working with scientists and sci-fi writers to put ideas out there in hopes they will be happen. It’s an intriguing effort, and hopefully one that will spread and not just be silenced, but I offer you this. Even if our sense of this dimension of awareness is only still vestigial, underdeveloped, like the case study in question, we can still brave it. Try to use it.
The example in question was a man who was clinically blind. He could actively see literally nothing, but they discovered he could recognize and react to peoples facial expressions. It turns out we are wired to do that on a very primal level. So though his brain couldn’t produce a picture for him, couldn’t process anything his eyes saw, other parts of his brain were still receiving and using information from his still healthy eyes. It was just his visual center that was destroyed. They took it further, and though at first he was resistant, he cooperated anyway. To his understanding, he needed a cane or guide to find his way around, but they asked him to try and navigate an obstacle course with nothing, no help at all. He was able to do it, and normally, just like we would.
Perhaps it was an energetic output? Oh, certainly. They have also found that people who are blind from early childhood, even from birth, still produce pictures in their brains. The person has never seen a table, but when under FMRI, they still have a picture of a table. They can still “imagine” a table. It just doesn’t have strictly visual details.
We have an urge to virtualize, and rather than give in to these various authorities, these pontiffs of “knowledge”, either political, religious, or scientific, we do have another option.
I can’t help but wonder if that is related to parallel lives or past lives, if these are true. Excellent connection. I would say, yes it is.
Reminds me of Socrates talking about the ideal table that exists only in our minds. Great example.
Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.
Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~