Today we are discussing interest. It’s one of the defining characteristics of human awareness. Honestly, it’s on an even footing with a few other things that make us even want to get out of bed in the morning, but people define interest in generally very narrow ways. So I will ask now, how do you define interest?

Something I want to learn everything about.

Something that stimulates me to act.

Both of these are part of the interest dynamic in life. Now consider where you are right now in your physical environment. Is there anything there you are actively not interested in?

There are lots of things in my physical environment I’m not interested in.

What would a person who is interested in everything be like?

They would be a child. Child-like. I miss that, like an artist or scientist.

It would be kind of scattered and unfocused to be actively interested in everything at the same time.

Show me a person who is interested in everything, and I will show you someone who never gets out of bed, never opens their eyes. Interest is not just intellectual. It’s not even just emotional. It’s the switch that shapes human awareness entirely, and total interest is total formlessness.

This reminds me of virtual technology 3D movies and now 4D where they are trying to recreate real life situations and people pay money to be thrilled. Indeed. They have their perception tricked into reacting as if the blow is going to hit them.

The interest is in the illusion. No real danger, but you may feel the thrill. Yes, in fact that is the basis of day to day interest as well, but there is no separation between interest and disinterest.

Disinterest is repressed interest? No. Disinterest is a state of the interest dynamic. We can only allocate meaning to a limited set of things in our lives. For one thing, we only have so much time and energy in the day, and our minds cannot fully embrace contradictory ideas. Things that don’t mesh with our model of experience create a tension that makes us automatically exclude them. They call this reality checking among other things, but reality checking is not infallible, it’s just functional. This is why I say there is no such thing as true reality, just more or less functional realities. Your reality is created by the interest / disinterest dynamic. It’s sort of polarized.

The man who wants to bed every woman is not interested in any women. The woman who wants to care for every child is not interested in any children. Fortunately, most of us are not that extreme.

Interest requires definition. You cannot acquire a definition in experience without also acquiring a set of things the object of interest is not. If you are interested in chocolate, you are also aware of to what degree that chicken isn’t chocolate. Interest is also vision. Ever hear of a prophet or pioneer who wasn’t interested in the potential they perceived?

Interest is by definition investment. Since you have a limited amount of time and energy, you have a limited degree to which you can be invested in anything.

I expect someone who wants to care for every child is more interested in the state of the world then any child. Yes, sort of like that line from one of the songs by Rush. If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. Every time you make a choice you establish both an interest and a disinterest. It’s the only way you can decide.

You have said before that you don’t like it when people say, “Maybe.” It’s better to say, “I don’t know.” This is true, because if you say “I don’t know” you ready yourself to acquire new knowledge and skills. Until you do that, you will contribute to nothing and no one, not even your own interests.

Your thoughts are welcome. Be well friends.

Travis Saunders
Dragon Intuitive
~science,mysticism,spirituality~