unconscious musings

These days I spend a lot of time writing. I begin with a blank page and after some time it is filled with words. Most of the ideas come from the unconscious and I am often interested in the causes and conditions for the stories that emerge. The source is presumably a mix of nature (genes), nurture (learning) and serendipity (chance).  Present inputs from the sense organs are blended with memories of thoughts and feelings from the past, and these generate guidelines for future actions.

Musings

the inspirational muse

I sometimes wonder who or what is in charge of the writing process. There is the impression that ‘I’ am not involved. There is no conscious appreciation of a plan or blueprint. Writing is produced so there is presumably a writer but there is no obvious cognitive agent. If I ‘just sit’ then words, phrases, sentences and paragraphs appear.

Mental formations arrive during formal sessions of mindful breathing. In those cases the task is to let them pass. If they are not given attention they soon disappear. However, when writing, the mental formations are most welcome. The task is to record them before they slip away. 

So where do they come from? In ancient times the ‘author’ was thought to be a muse or demon or perhaps even God or the devil herself. The image was of a humanoid agent or controller following a good or evil agenda. These days the image is of a network of mainly unconscious brain modules continuously churning. The network’s task is to monitor the external environment so as to ensure safety and avoid dangers.

My present life is very safe and there are few unavoidable dangers. I am something of a recluse and there are not many external stimuli calling for attention. But the network keeps churning and creating thoughts and feelings with roots in my nature and nurture, and with serendipitous add ons.

Official writing

African Classrooms

My early work experience involved academic writing and the production of lesson plans and teaching notes. The more recent writing has involved editing development policy and plans with associated monitoring and evaluation. I have made extensive use of one-pagers and many of these have been published on the internet.

Several years ago I completed distance learning courses in journalism and in creative writing (fiction).  It became clear that I did not have what it takes to flourish in those areas. My interests and writings have instead followed a natural sequence leading from curriculum development through social development and on to personal development. Those who would sort out other people had best sort themselves out first!

I was involved with curriculum development in the Sudan, Belize and Lesotho. Multistakeholder groups tried to figure what the children should learn in school. I prepared many discussion papers and conference reports especially in Belize which was rethinking the curricula at Primary, Secondary and Tertiary levels.

I wrote about social development while involved with (a) local community action groups mediated through Portsoy and District Ltd and the Banffshire Partnership Ltd and (b) the Caledonia Centrefor Social Development that is based in Inverness but which has national and international outreach.

The official writings dealing with curriculum and social development were not spontaneous rants. Hard facts were gathered and sorted so as to generate an agreed framework that held things together. The contents were objective, rational, and evidence based. The goal was to eliminate emotional obfuscations and thus to be clear, reasonable and accountable.

turning the mind around

Writing for personal development is not the same as the official writings. Concern is not with the details of thoughts and feelings but rather with the process of generating them. Not so much what you think as how you think. Notice what is being noticed and think about what is being thought.

There is the idea of ‘turning the mind around’. Rather than focusing on the outside world by attending to sensory inputs, attention is focused on the inner happenings. There is the idea of the witness. An unattached part of ‘you’ watches the attention centre – what enters, how strong is it, how long does it last, how does it leave. (Note: there is often a gap between the end of one thought train and the beginning of another. Where are ‘you’ then? Where is the witness? Mind the gap.)

‘I’ have not been much involved in preparing this present article. The first half was written yesterday and the second half was written before and after a visit to the Doctor this morning (there are short term memory problems). 

‘I’ felt the urge to engage the writing process but there was no gathering and sorting of facts. ‘I’ sat at the keyboard and ideas appeared. Usually a paragraph at a time. Once the sense of what was being said was appreciated there was some objective editing of words, phrases and sentences. Once it was deemed acceptable the gap opened up and the next paragraph appeared.

If the gap showed no sign of closing there were re-reads of what had gone before. The re-reads were for generalized subjective ambiance rather than logical structure. The unconscious was being serenaded and it’s inter-modular churn generated this thought train rather than that one.

endings

To be objective and rational there could be a reading of the whole article such that (a) it can be given a title and (b) a closing paragraph can be prepared to mirror what was said at the beginning. An easy option is to repeat the first couple of sentences and link to the title.

“These days I spend a lot of time writing. I begin with a blank page and after some time it is filled with words. Most of the ideas come from the unconscious which is a never ending source of musings.”