The four concepts mentioned in the diary section comprise two from the morning and two from the aft. They are our human record, associative thinking, conscious ordering and interconnectedness. I’ll discus them in that order, which is also the order of occurrence.
Four Closing Concepts.
1. Our human record.
Our purpose as humans today is to learn to respect our different identities. Building on this respect we need to learn to cooperate and value each other’s contributions. This is the followed by the development towards a common helve human identity in which we all have a share and commitment, like we now have often for a nation.
I see this kind of development as a necessary one for our humankind so continue to give positive result and thrive, developing our potential.
We have only 60kY behind us and have come a long way, we are now at the stage to consciously evolve instead of blindly as we did up to the present.
To be sure, there are the black pages of blind ignorance, red pages of untold suffering, but also the white pages of insight and higher values with the coloured pages of the various identities and accomplishments.
Through intent we can add to the coloured pages and decrease the darker ones relatively, if we so intend.
Tragedy is that we humans discover the darkness only later, after having intended the good. That is why we have recorded ethic and moral rules, so as not to make that mistake again.
It is in our intent lies our redemption, the gift of forgiveness and the empowerment of hope and endurance to reach for the goal ‘as if we might attain it’, as Saint Paul puts it so human like.
2. Associative thinking.
I have written on this process of idea formation some time ago. This is clearer description I hope.
Psychologist agree that our human brain is wired for associative thinking and we can learn from TV and other ads, that the marketing people rely on this. Each experience results in a memory of which a certain emotional charge is linked. Most of this is ‘forgotten, put away, repressed if very unpleasant and some retained in memory and recall.
The what is not in memory finds a place according to the rule ‘birds of a feather, flock together’. Memories of the mother, sister, aunt, wife are held in the cluster ‘female’ as it were.
But, memories and their emotive charge float around when no proper place is found. If we get too many implacable experience - think of a house break in or worse an attack - then the quite of held patterns gets disturbed. In that newly energised state combinations of associations form easily and at time unexpectedly.
Each such new combination releases a certain amount of energy, like water varpour molecule that condense into the fluid state. Heat of condensation this is called. In the psyche cum mind and emotions free memories that form a pattern - or symbol- of association also release energy, which brings the pattern up to the level conscious awareness. ‘I’ve just got a new idea’, we may say.
Then comes the time of judgement. That is do I allow this new idea or do I disapprove of it. This is where our taught and learned standards play a role. Not everybody has the same set, so there are bound to be disagreements. In the society in which we live we will accept most rules, but not all and nor do all people. So, today we have police and a justice system to remind us of these limits. In the past state religions have played this role in holding societies together, but not without problems and certainly not forever.
3. Conscious ordering.
Our human body is finite and has its limits, one of which is the size of the brain that the body can support. Since the brain is limited, what we can be conscious of at any one time is also limited. Suppose our limit is one hundred recallable of unrelated related events. If one more new event occurs, one old one has to be dropped. Too many events and we end up confused, which can be quite dangerous, when crossing a complicated intersection in a foreign city.
If we can discover a rule that would order thirty of the one hundred items and make them predictable, we could learn more about the world we live in. This is the process that take humans from the simple state of affairs 60kYa to our present complex society I some cases. Not all are at the same stage and this cause friction and violence for us all to see.
This ability to function in our modern complex society is learned and starts at baby-hood. The ability to adapt is significantly reduced after the age of twelve (12) as examples of ’wolf-children’ has shown and is on record. So, when we have societies that are far apart in complexity we need to exercise patience and apply consideration, instead of insisting that our ‘advanced rules‘ be adopted within a single generation. It is here also that ethics and morals apply, not just ours but all current operative ones.
This human ability to create order and build on that is necessary, since we humans no longer rely on instincts of the mammals to rule our conduct. The neo-cortex and the amygdala interact in our brain, which makes us capable of modifying, delaying or avoiding our emotionally prompted action, most of the time. This has to be taught and learned, once on your own and is also governed by society, tribal, state or otherwise.
This ability to regulate our emotive motivated conduct has enabled humankind to build our societies in the past and as we know them today. Religious traditions with their rules, laws and authority laid the foundations for what is now our modern society. Today we have to make a conscious attempt to do some thing like this for our planet wide community, which some people find difficult to do. Sharing is the only way, because from our past we can learn that dominance without compromise is not a long term functional solution, not ethical for that matter.
4. Interconnectedness.
There is an interconnectedness in existence that can at times be discerned in your own live experience, but you need to look for it, have an accumulation of life experiences and be prepared to make unusual connections and interpretations. I put it this way, because from my early schoolings I and all young people are taught that rationality is the only proper way to explain life’s events. As I grew older I started to question this, because I read about verified alternative interpretations that allowed for a larger range of explanations. Or to put in terms of point 3 above, were more efficient in explaining a richer experience model.
I discovered alternative explanations for the working of horoscopic predictions, some of which came ‘true’. I have come to discern a development trend in my own life and that of humankind. I have discovered research and proof of extra sensory action, but no explanation of the mechanism. And I have also become convinced that you cam discover some of this interconnectedness in your own life if you put in the effort. In addition it is also clear to me that many people are more interested in the experience of life as lived. To them the ‘philosophising’ is a waste of time compared to the experience, so we all live for our own maximum experience with respect to our goal.
Can we achieve a higher degree of interconnectedness? I would say if you have talent? Yes. It is like the musical talent that some people have, you can develop it, but it takes a lot of discipline. So it is with extra sensory perception, some have talents, but that can lead to confusion between this physical experience and the indirect one, if such talents are not developed with discipline.
I see our human conscious awareness as a work in progress. Compared to our start as hunters we have learned and discovered much, but I think we can discover more and one such ability is to discover a sense of awareness of previous life experience. This I will develop further under the category Eschatology subsection titled Personal continuity.
<8:29pm and more edit later.8:39~
