If you make
time to sit quietly doing nothing you will soon notice that your up-front mind
has a background mind of its own. You can think of this as the conscious
mindbrain being controlled by the unconscious mindbrain. (Ref Jung and Wilber
for thoughts about the shadow.)
Subjectively
you will recognize that (a) thoughts, feelings and moods appear in the
attention centre, and that (b) they emerge from the unconscious which thinks,
feels and acts in ways that are not always willed by the conscious mindbrain.
Most people
suppose that there is an ‘I’ or ‘ego’ which is the self conscious, up-front,
supposedly rational and strategic aspect of the mindbrain. But that is an
illusion.
It is now
widely accepted that non-egoic (aka unconscious) states of mind are in many
ways more intelligent and creative than what passes for normal amongst most
people.
Athletes are in the zone; musicians are in the groove; authors act as
conduits for their muse; business leaders and managers are in flow; and
housekeepers wash the dishes in a state of grace. These mind states exemplify
the Zen concept of “No self, no problem”. (Ref Martin Seligman and the positive
psychology concept of ‘flourishing’; and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and the concept of ‘flow’.) (Ref: Unconscious thought theory (UTT))
The
corollary would be “All self, many problems”. The unexamined self runs on an autopilot
which will have been conditioned and encultured by its nature, nurture and
chance. The autopilot will be predictable, and prone to having the attention
centre filled to overflowing with intuitions and biases This will not be a
problem so long as the environment remains static but it will be problematic
when change becomes necessary. There will be cognitive dissonance leading to
anxiety, depression, stress and panic. Note that these mental dis-eases can be
adaptive in that they make it easier to give up a point of view and to adopt
another.
The ancient
wise people advised you to “know yourself’ because “the unexamined life is not
worth living”. So how is this to be done? The answer is easy to label and
describe but it can be hard to put it into practice.
Imagine
that ‘you’ can take the viewpoint of a calm and non-judgmental witness who
notices what happens in the attention centre. Stuff arrives, hangs around for a
short while, and then disappears. In time the witness is able to appreciate
that the thoughts, feelings and moods are just passing mind-made stuff which is
rooted in the hard wiring that we inherited from our ancestors and in the rules
and regulations governing our home culture. This kind of knowing makes it
easier to remain un-attached to the thoughts, feelings and moods that occupy
the attention centre. It is then also easier to think slow and carefully as a considered
response rather than fast and intuitively as an impetuous reaction. (Ref Daniel
Kahneman and the idea of thinking fast and slow.)
Note that there are at least two versions of the cool dude
witness depending on how the coolness was developed.
When the point of view is that of the relatively ancient
Asian Enlightenment it is non-egoic, and does not therefore consider that there
is an abiding self. The ‘witness’ mentioned above is an ‘as if’ creation suited
to those who are just beginning on the path.
When the point of view is that of the relatively recent European
Enlightenment it is egoic, and considers it’s conscious self to be material,
rational and empirical.
Walter Truett Anderson (1996) noted that “... we have not
one Enlightenment project but three:
- an Eastern one based on seeing through the illusion of the Self
- a Western one based on rational thought, and
- a Postmodern one based on the concept of socially constructed reality.
And despite their many differences, they share the common
goal of liberation.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau made the famous revolutionary
pronouncement that: "Men are born free, and everywhere are in
chains." A couple of centuries later that still holds truth for us, but
now we see that the strongest chains are symbolic ones, mind forged
manacles."
I have no difficulty recognising the mind forged manacles
gradually closing off opportunities to interact with and learn from ‘them’ -
and they for ‘us’. By the time I had worked my way through infancy, childhood
and 13 years of formal schooling it was hard to see fault with the status quo.
I still feel inclined to believe that (a) the good and great
who are my elders and betters are wise and just people (but mainly middle aged
white men) (b) ‘experts’ (especially scientists) will solve our problems), (c)
the devil finds work for idle hands, (d) the Lord helps those that help
themselves, (e) anybody can get a university degree if they put their mind to
it (d) some topics are taboo for discussion in polite company eg sex, politics,
religion, and personal wealth.
AHA – BUT … ..ooOoo..
Unconscious thought theory (UTT) was first
presented by Ap Dijksterhuis[1]
and Loran Nordgren[2]
in 2004.
UTT posits that the unconscious mind is capable of
performing tasks outside of one’s awareness, and that unconscious thought (UT)
is better at solving complex tasks, where many variables are considered, than
conscious thought (CT), but is outperformed by conscious thought in tasks with
fewer variables.
This is a countercurrent position, as most research on UT
since the early 1980s has led to its being characterized as simple and
incapable of complex operations.[3]
…
There will be more on this.
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