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This article revises
ideas from an earlier
article where personal names were given to various states of the
mindbrain. (see below for a link). The characters are drawn from my
subjective experience and are therefore idiosyncratic. Nothing stands
still for long. The current theme of nastiness is revisited. Social
living is not always nice.
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Ian – welcome back
William* – my
apologies. For the past few hours 'I' has been Zorba the zombie on
ICT autopilot chasing up on error 1919.
Ian – but we do not
need to know the techy details?
William – No.
Ian – So what were
our various head voices thinking and feeling while Zorba held most of
the attention?
William - Oliver the
omniscient suggested being strategic but was ignored. Ulric the
unconscious and Victor the vital force were energetically churning
out wild stories for Stanley the story man. So there was footering
and jumping from one thing to another. Alfred the awake and aware was
dosing in a corner as was 'I' William the non judgemental witness.
Ian - did the error
1919 problem get solved?
William – only partly
but it is to be assumed that Ulric is working on it and an answer
will eventually pop out.
Ian – So what is
happening now?
William - We are
waiting. Ulric, Victor and Stanley scatter TFMs that are the basis of
Zorba's autopilot in the attention centre. Alfred and Oliver make
themselves available for taking over attention.
Ian – and you are the
cool-dude witness.
Alfred – can I join
this conversation?
Ian and William –
surely
Alfred - I also bear
witness to what goes on in the mindbrain. And I have a special
interest in flow – ie in non-egoic action. What the Taoists call
wu-wei.
Oliver – can I join
in?
All – surely
Oliver - the Taoist's
talk of nature's Way - of yin-yang - and of the impermanence of all
created things.
Alfred – is there not
a danger of group confirmation bias?
Oliver – an ever
present danger.
Ian – we could
arrange a group session where the various aspects of 'I' go head to
head.
William – The
mindbrain is an ongoing process, a policy that is forever a draft.
Dynamic churn.
Oliver – there is no
abiding 'truth'. Nature, nurture and chance are continuously shaping
the world views of individuals and also of cultures. …
[next day]
Ian – where have you
all been?
William - attention was
grabbed by Zorba in a sequence of non-egoic zones. Draw a doodle,
bake a cake, absorb a dharma talk; and a cornucopia of mundane bits
and pieces.
Ian – The urge to
doodle remains strong. Have you figured what it is about?
William – No. Ulric
and Victor are involved but as far as I can see there is no master
plan. The doodles bear witness to Ulric's churn and to Stanley's
story telling.
Oliver – Alfred and
me are also stumped. We might try brainstorming
Ian – what dharma
talk did you absorb?
William – Eagleman on
man's inhumanity to man. Nastiness can be experimented on in
laboratory conditions. The notion is that evil is situational as much
as it is dispositional. People are easily and powerfully influenced
by membership of groups and even of crowds. It is presumably an
adaptive feature from the evolutionary psychology point of view …
Ian – good morning
illusory gentlemen.
All – good afternoon!
Ian – does anyone
have anything worth saying?
William – The TFMs
were mainly peaceful and content. Nobody has taken up the error 1919
challenge but this does not matter as there is no rush to get it
sorted.
Alfred – I spent some
time flat backing and minding the breath.
William – I saw you
but, in doing so, attention was pulled away from the breath.
Oliver – I was aware
of Zorba, Alfred and William winning and losing space in the
attention centre.
Stanley – I was aware
of Ulric and Victor being enormously active and busy. They appreciate
the Taoist notion that “the reality that can be described is not
the real reality”. They evolved long before language. They are not
much concerned with words and sentences. When they have messages that
need to be shared with the more linguistic parts of the mindbrain
they are channeled through my stories.
Oliver – I am
increasingly aware of the enormity of mindbrain workings. They exist
to ensure the survival and evolution of DNA, genes, cells,
individuals, families, groups, the species and the physical
environment.
Ian – Yes. And what
is 'known' to consciousness, contrary to what was thought after the
Enlightenment, is virtually nothing; and it comes ready made from
Ulric as a story told by Stanley.
STOP
Alfred - awake and
aware
Ian – interviewer
Oliver – omniscient
Stanley – the
storyteller
Ulric – the
unconscious
Victor – vital force
William – witness
Zorba – the zombie
*(NB not Walter as he
was called in the last couple of posts.)
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