Where anarchy gets real

As a thoughtful teenager I was aware of hypocrites in hats on Presbyterian pews. The unca guid exhorted the youth to do as they said and not as they did. It was the roller coaster 60s. Many of the eternal verities were crumbling in urban centres but not so much in rural areas. It was tough trying to figure what to do and how to be. Which reality ruled?

At a technical level there were rules that had to be obeyed eg drive on the left, stop at red lights and pay your taxes. Hard science and engineering were resolutely rational and evidence based wherever possible and, when not, were governed by the best working hypotheses currently available. I was schooled in that hard nosed tradition. Politics, economics, the social sciences, and the humanities were emotional and subjective. I was fascinated by their soft, wet mode of thinking but in my formative years I felt that 'reality' was with the scientists.

As a science teacher in the 1970s in Scotland and Jamaica my bible was the Scottish Education Department Curriculum Paper 7. Despite its liberal and progressive methodology (stage managed heurism) I saw my job as chalk and talk. Get as many kids as possible up to speed about what we have discovered in the hope that some will be fascinated and become lifelong learners sitting on giants' shoulders.

When I became a teacher trainer and curriculum developer I forsook teaching for the promotion of lifelong learning. I saw this involving (a) research into what was happening in many other countries with a view to intelligently choosing from a wide range of options, and (b) sometimes being original. In Belize we developed new curricula for social studies and for home room; and, in Lesotho, there was a lot of stuff about education leadership, management and administration.

BUT – I began to realise that, while formal education is useful for reproducing society ( Ref the “hidden curriculum”) it is not a good tool for transforming it. (Ref Bourdieu and Passeron). Given my awareness of the hegemonic and oppressive establishment, my interest shifted to non-formal, adult education. The goal was to use plain language to inform large chunks of civil society, especially non-government organisations. They could thus more meaningfully participate in masterminding and implementing their development in an increasingly globalised world.

For the ten years or so before retirement I worked with civil society organisations on (a) plain language versions of many Tanzanian poverty reduction texts (Ref hakikazi.org) and (b) various aspects of social development in Scotland (Ref CCSD.co.uk and the Banffshire Partnership Ltd). I also served as advisor and plain language editor for several International Labour Office (ILO) publications.

SO – natal enculturation had me noticing the nae sae guid Presbyterian hypocrites; professional training biased me to hard dry thinking although there was a passing affection for the soft wet variety; life made me realise that in changing minds (ie education) teaching had to be balanced with facilitation of lifelong learning; and both informal and formal education systems need plain language materials.

The formal education system is part of the hegemony that reproduces society. The informal system holds the potential to transform society by giving power back to the people in civil society.

AFTERWORD: there is new thinking due to (a) advances in neurology and evolutionary psychology, (b) the rapid growth of the internet, (c) the effectiveness of bottom up social networks with crowd funding, and (d) the increasing popularity of mindfulness meditation.

And that is where anarchy gets real.

Existential ease

I am existentially most at ease when playing with ideas. Not the gossipy kind but rather the serious stuff for which there is evidence, and the support of knowledgable and respected minds

The stimuli can be external or internal. The external stuff pours in through the sense doors. The internal stuff is drawn from the memory banks with deposits from nature and nurture. The unconscious churns the two sets of stuff and generates stories with an imagined past, present and future.

There are vast amounts of external stuff which can be rooted in (a) the local present or in (b) the wider world with its cosmic time span.

Most of the external, serious stuff is processed by the media, ie text, radio and TV. “News” is delivered as a sequence of fast-paced items that are little more than sound bites. It quickly delivers breaking stories and can be a channel for bias and propaganda. Most of the messages pass over the heads of the people most of the time. “Edutainment” serves the same hegemonic purpose but in longer units of time.

The media flood needs to be filtered. People are free to watch only certain types of TV programme and to read only certain types of newspaper. The ICT revolution also means that people can have their own idiosyncratically programmed playlist. Which is a good thing. But it can mean that people create their own gated communities which is not a good thing.

I could make a list of recommended, hard-nosed books and talks that contribute to the consilience that is emerging at the interface between positive, economic, behavioural, evolutionary, social, and cognitive psychology; evolutionary biology and neurology; and flow and mindfulness.

I searched the blog for “books”

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/hurray-for-happiness.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/why-austerity.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/viral-winds-of-change.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/fast-change-of-mind.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/the-non-egoic-cowherd.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/daniel-goleman.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/good-reads-in-2013.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/the-happiness-question.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/respecting-practice-of-mindfulness.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/goodly-repetition.html

There could be another list of books and talks about the changing face of politics and economics in the light of globalisation and climate change.

I could make a themed list on Amazon

But I can't be bothered (ICBB) – and I am easy about it.

how its made

How its made – an awesome set of documentaries - science begets technology and mechanisation

How It's Made is a documentary television series that premiered on January 6, 2001 on Science in the U.S., and Discovery Channel in Canada. The program is produced in the Canadian province of Quebec by Productions MAJ, Inc. and Productions MAJ 2.[1] In the UK it is broadcast on Discovery Channel, Quest and DMAX.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjHsPBHX1NNbIqTy4eXVTig

Tough reclusion

In setting myself up as a recluse I cut down on social involvements that use time. But it is not easy to “Make the world go away.” There are many calls for attention in modern cultures.

The default mental condition is monkey mind. The mindbrain evolved that way. The traffic from the sense doors has to be monitored to embrace the good, avoid the bad and ignore the neutral. There are two systems, fast reaction and slow response.

Some reactions have to be very fast eg when a snake appears on the path - or when you make an emergency stop while driving. Fractions of a second make the difference between life and death. The unconscious will have reacted before the self-conscious gets to know about it. Biases, intuitions, and rules of thumb shorten reaction times.

When there is no danger the mindbrain has two types of slow responses. It can churn the sensory inputs with memories of past reactions and responses and then create stories of what might happen in the future. Forewarned is forearmed.

When influenced by language the slow response system can create myths and magic. Imagine the beginning of language. There would have been words for a limited number of concepts dealing with aspects of being a forager, a tool maker, and a social animal etc. As the cultures evolved new words were needed to label new 'realities'. Metaphor and analogy facilitated the process. For example there was need to placate (a) the biological father whose purpose was to provide for his children and thus (b) a heavenly father who protects his people even when he works in mysterious ways.

NOTE: We are social animals. We have to live and work together. We are hard wired to fit into a social framework the details of which are provided by enculturation.

In foraging systems the ancestors are with the Gods in the transcendent world. Communicating between worlds is a specialist action reserved for shamen many of whom use psychedelic drugs to enter altered states of consciousness.

As settled agriculture and then city states evolved, the division of labour became more refined. The role of the shaman was taken over by the Priests who claimed a monopoly as the vehicle through which God spoke to his people and vice versa. In time, in the West, this led to such notions as papal infallibility and the Divine Right of Kings.

William James (1842 - 1920) reviewed the varieties of religious experience and famously noted that whether or not God really exists, those who believe he exists behave differently. And, more recently, neurologists have identified a part of the brain that lights up when the patient is thinking religious thoughts. It is contentiously called the God Spot. It seems possible that this is the part of the mindbrain affected by psychedelic drugs, psychotherapy and mindfulness.

For the last 200,000 years we have been hard wired with a framework to learn a language but the particular language that we learn depends on our particular culture. AND

For the last 200,000 years we have been hard wired with a framework to learn a religion but the particular religion that we learn depends on our particular culture. AND

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900) (Philosopher) reckoned that “God is dead” and thus opened the door to alternative ways of thinking

Maurice Bucke (1837 – 1902) (Psychiatrist) wrote “Cosmic Consciousness: A Study in the Evolution of the Human Mind”

Bob Marley (1945 – 1981) (Rastaman) recommended that you “Emancipate yourself from mental slavery.

More recently there have been advances in neurology, in mindfulness, and in positive,

social and experimental psychology; even in economics where there is talk of measuring human happiness.

There are grounds for believing that we are messing up the planet but that (a) there are many people who are able and willing to change their minds using mindfulness techniques and (b) they are acquiring ICT assisted grass root, bottom up, expertise in civil society organisation.

It is never too late to change your mind.

ERROR 1919 unsorted

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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

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/head-voices.html

*(NB not Walter as he was called in the last couple of posts.)

if people were nicer

Ian - Another day and another book being reread.

Walter – yup – this time it's Rick Hanson (2009) Buddha's Brain – the practical neuroscience of happiness, love and wisdom.

Ian – is it any good?

Walter – yup. I am aware of 21 of the people he acknowledges. Many are from the group around Goldstein and Kornfield at the Insight Meditation Society (IMS).

Ian – the worried well – middle class, nicey nicey Massachusetts types?

Walter – many of them lean in that direction. Hanson's approach is that of a neuro-psychologist but, given his client base he has to forge a few sentences to deal with the transcendent.

Ian – how does he do that?

Walter – it involves the presence of an intentional agent which is infinite, eternal and omniscient although 'he' tends to work in mysterious ways.

Ian – but surely he does not take that ancient myth and magic seriously?

Walter - nope - but PR demands that he does not dismiss it entirely.

Ian – is he an easy read?

Walter – yes and he also speaks well. One thing that niggles me, however, is his use of the concept of the 'true self' which is wise and compassionate. This implies the existence of an untrue self which is unwise and lacking in compassion. There are presumably networks in the brain which hold the two opposing modes of thought/feeling and mood.

Ian – God v the Devil, Buddha v Mara

Walter – Jesus changed his mind but so did Hitler. The Buddha changed his mind but so did Pol Pot.

Ian – And human history records many tortures, rapes and genocides with neighbour set against neighbour.

Walter – Aha – I note the feeling and mood related to the worried well, to those who have never had it so good, to those who feel that the world owes them a living.

Ian – the 1% mega rich

Walter – but also the political, economic, military, and religious zealots.

Ian – and the sexists, ageists, racists, wife beaters, alcoholics, drug addicts, paedophiles, and white and blue collar criminals

Walter - a sorry state we are in – the transcendent intentional agent has a lot of work ahead.

Ian – So, what is to be done?

Walter – the grand conclusion – there is neural plasticity – it is never too late to change your mind – mindfulness helps - it would be nice if people were nicer.

much to be said on many sides

Ian - I see that you are rereading Mark Williams and Danny Penman (2011) “Mindfulness – a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world”

Walter – Yes and it is not my first rereading.

Ian – You must rate it quite highly.

Walter – Judging by the number of margin marks it would appear to be so.

Ian – Do you have any niggles about it?

Walter – They have a very rosy view of potential human nature. They note that it is a frantic world but that it is possible to find peace within it. Consider these quotes:

“This is a book about how you can find peace and contentment in such troubled and frantic times as these. Or rather, this is a book about how you can rediscover them; for there are deep well springs of peace and contentment living inside us all, no matter how trapped and distraught we might feel. They're just waiting to be liberated from the cage that our frantic and relentless way of life has crafted for them.” (p2)

“Mindfulness meditation is so beautifully simple that it can be used by the rest of us to reveal our innate joie de vivre.” (p3)

Ian – they reckon “ there are deep well springs of peace and contentment living inside us all” and that we have “innate joie de vivre”.

Walter – as I understand it they have no evidence in support of their views about what is innate and lives inside us all.

Ian – there are now neural correlates of consciousness (NCC).

Walter – yup. There is an NCC for peace and contentment and another for war and discontent. It is a yin/yang thing. Nothing lasts forever. It is like two parliamentarians debating a course of action. The ancient Greeks had the image of a charioteer being drawn by two horses – one white and one black – his task is to reconcile their different natures.

Ian – and some of the native American cultures had the image of two wolves inside them – one black one white. The one you feed is the one that will grow and triumph.

Walter – and there is negativity bias. Better safe than sorry. Those who take the fast, bleak, black view (eg there might a lion behind that bush) will survive and have many children. Those who take the slow, wise, white view (eg being awestruck by the dawn light) will be eaten and have few children.

Ian – It is like optimists and pessimists. They both have their uses.

Walter – Yup – and as it says in that song - “accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative”.

Ian – And Rick Hanson has the image of velcro for the negative and teflon for the positive.

Walter - Yoh – there is much to be said on both sides and, given the amount of activity in the unconscious, there are likely to be more than two sides and, the balance between them will be constantly changing. The only constant thing is change. It is never too late to change your mind.

Practice makes perfect

Ian – Can I interview you?

Walter – Yes. What topic interests you at present?

Ian – I won't know till we get going.

Walter – Might I suggest a review of the 'Walter the witness' concept?

Ian – This is where, of the many aspects of ego that inhabit your mindbrain, a stance is taken with Walter the witness to those thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) that emanate from the unconscious and hang around in the attention centre for a while.

Walter – Yup, that's the one.

Ian – Is the concept still as it was?

Walter – 'The only constant thing is change?'

Ian – 'Where there is doubt there is hope.'

Walter – That is cute. An end to zealotry …

Ian – But we have a problem with closed minds.

Walter – Yup - David Eagleman is a fluent communicator about how the mindbrain really works. He is a neurologist with a deep appreciation of positive, cognitive, social and evolutionary psychology. The brain is an organ that evolved over millions of generations to help ensure survival of the fittest groups. It is one organ amongst many that work together in what initially looks like mysterious ways.

Ian – Mysterious being what is not yet scientifically understood. And over the last 50 years amazing things have become widely appreciated.

Walter – But there is objective, scientific understanding and subjective experiential understanding

Ian – And you, as Walter, bridge the gap. Where there are statements about liking and disliking there is the deeper matter of who is the I that has the TFM and why do they have them.

Walter – And, as yet, the potential that this line of thought has for unshackling the mind from passing stories is not well appreciated.

Ian – How has your unshackling been getting on?

Walter – There has been equanimity for several months although there has been some dis-ease and anxiety these last few days brought on by (a) glitches with the technology and (b) not being able to locate pieces of kit.

Ian – But, as Walter, you should have been able to observe the ennui and let it go.

Walter – Yup but it is one of those 'easier said than done' things.

Ian – So what did you do?

Walter – I got up from the computer and engaged with activities that allow me to be non-egoic and in 'flow'.

Ian – And what kind of activities were these?

Walter – There are many possibilities but recently there has been engagement with doodling, reading, writing, baking and meditation.

Ian – But is that not what you usually get up to?

Walter – Yup. I try to live the practice.

Ian – And practise makes perfect.

Walter – Hmm!

a dangerous truth

The Eagleman programmes about the brain are not easy to find on the BBC and this causes me to wonder if there is a conspiracy.

Why do you wonder about that?

I don't know so I will follow the thought trains as they appear from the unconscious.

Go for it.

Shakespeare's Julius Caesar reckoned that “Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much. Such men are dangerous.”

Ah yes – conspiracy, thinking, danger, threatening authority

When I was a teenager I reckoned that I had 'a sermon that never will bear preaching'. There was also the idea that 'he rationalised his thought about everything he sought and so he annihilated pleasure'.

Ah yes – adolescent angst.

And those ideas were linked to the cultural classics – 'no pain, no gain', and 'the devil finds work for idle hands'. And there is the notion that I should respect the cultural 'good and great' who were my 'elders and betters'.

Ah yes – Scottish Presbyterianism.

But then I was inspired by the thoughts of anarchists while studying psychology, chemistry, botany and zoology.

So what was the gist of the unpreachable sermon?

The merits of thinking in terms of evolution and the scientific method as the 'true' road to 'truth'.

This links to a group of other linguistic bombshells:

The only constant thing is change.

The only certainty is doubt.

God is dead.

There must be better ways to be human.

Make the world a better place.

Progress is possible.

Whose reality counts?

The reality that can be described is not the real reality.

So what does this have to do with Eagleman and the brain?

Neuroscience and evolutionary psychology are causing a paradigm shift. Before Freud, at least in the west, the unconscious was mysterious and under rated. During Freud there was special talk so as to subjectively figure what was happening in the unconscious. After Freud there are neurologists with brain scanners who are objectively mapping the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). Social psychologists are uncovering the many ways that the unconscious is really in control most of the time; and evolutionary psychologists are figuring why and how the various mind/brain interactions came into being.

There is a lot going on!

And I think that the BBC, or parts of it, are trying to bury the Eagleman programmes because of their potential to radicalise people. The truth shall set you free.

But you were suggesting that there is no real reality, no true truth.

Evolution and science don't need 'truth'. They operate in terms of the best working hypotheses given the evidence presently available.

That seems reason-able.

Yes – but - The patronising, hegemonic elite are quite happy to keep the peasants in ignorance as they are then easy to rouse by propaganda and to exterminate in wars.

return to easy feeling

Yesterday there was a mild bout of existential dis-ease. The cause was a computer glitch - or rather a reaction to a computer glitch. The mindset spiralled into negativity with the thought that I would lose all the web sites that I manage. Anxiety and panic.

BUT … 'I' noticed that ego was involved and 'I' thus thought to engage with non-egoic actions so as to return to easy feeling. Recently such non-egoic actions have included:

01 doodling

02 reading non fiction

03 writing blogs

04 meditating – various methods

attending to online audio and video

cruising social networks

housework with grace rather than grudge

lighting the wood burning stove

listening to radio, watching TV

making music on a yamaha keyboard

shopping, cooking, eating, washing up

taking photographs and editing them

No system has yet been designed for logging how much time is used on the various non-egoic actions but, subjectively, there is the impression that the first four are more effective than others.

Doodling is a fail safe. A blank sheet of paper and four thicknesses of felt pen are acted on and a doodle emerges. There is no conscious forward plan. But there must be a host of decisions made concerning the thickness of lines, the size and position of shapes, and the patterns that fill the spaces. The unconscious keeps churning and a never ending host of doodles emerge. This is flow which is by definition non-egoic and unrelated to space and time.

Reading non fiction is also a fail safe. Real books, Kindle books and text from the internet. There is also audio and video from the internet eg on Google, Wikipedia, Youtube. So many “Ideas worth spreading” (ref TED.com). So many talented individuals (often working in teams) have a simple idea and develop it to book length. There are limits on how long attention can be kept on a book. After some time the autopilot switches on and the text is forgotten. OR the mindbrain goes into dose and sleep mode. In such cases the task is to admit defeat and to deliberately engage with another of the non-egoic actions.

For a couple of years the target was a blogpost every other day, but there was often a falling short. There is no longer a target - go with the flow. There is still motivation to write and to break away from the 'research & lesson plan' mode and to adopt a 'titillate the unconscious and let it flow' mode.

Meditation is not always a fail safe. It comes in many forms. There are full time monks who give their life to the practice. On a more modest level there is the ten hours a day for ten days in Goenka's Vipassana, the eight days over eight weeks of the MBSR system, and the one minute quickie that brings a return from busyness to mindfulness.

With practice it gets easier to notice when the mindbrain is on autopilot and thus to put attention on the breathing – take a deep breath and count to ten. Neuroscience has shown that the brains of experienced meditators differ from those of ordinary people, and that even modest amounts of mindfulness can cause noticeable changes in the mindbrain.

When writing blogs there is some slipping in and out of egoic thinking, feeling and moods. When this is noticed, mindfulness methods can be called up (eg just sit, watch the breath, watch the monkey mind without judgement) and, if these fail, there can be a switching to another of the non-egoic activities listed above.

This article is coming to a close. There is a need for the ending to reference the introduction. The theme is 'ease'. The trigger event was the computer glitch. It is still glitching - but it is no longer causing dis-ease. The non-egoic actions, in this case this blogpost, caused a return to an easy feeling. Cool.

doodle parliament

my parliament

There is the conundrum of 'I' …

I want to lose weight

I could go to the gym and join a fitness group

I should stop eating between meals

I could eventually fasten my belt at a closer hole

I want a six pack abdomen

I want to choose organic vegetables in the supermarket

I could want … (many things)

I cannot be bothered (ICBB) with many of the above

So who is the 'I' that 'wants'? How many coulds and shoulds pass through your attention centre in a minute?

Try the following activity - stop reading and, for 60 seconds, pay attention to the thoughts, feelings and moods (TFM) that (a) appear from the unconscious, (b) hang around in consciousness, then (c) disappear back into the unconscious.

You will notice that there are many self conscious 'I's loving, hating and being neutral about different TFMs. Neurologists are getting better at locating modular activity in the brain because of the neural correlates of consciousness (NCC)

eg the prefrontal cortex is home to the high level executive functions which involve being both rational and emotional in the process of responding relatively slowly while setting priorities and making decisions. Note also that the decision making process in the pre-frontal cortex is shaped by integration with many other modules and networks which, amongst other things, trigger physiological and physical responses while preventing the upset of homeostatic control systems.

David Eagleman offers the analogy of the mindbrain being like a parliament. In the self conscious and in the unconscious there are groups of Is - like there are MPs in parliament. There are many agendas and intentionalities clustered in continuously competing modules and networks. Thus 'reality' and the 'I' illusion are an ongoing changeable feast.

During the above activity where I was witnessing - what was going on? Nothing comes from nothing. Why did that I choose those particular TFMs? Answer = because of minor evolutions of nature, nurture and chance 10 minutes ago, from childhood from our ancestors.

I often think of William the Witness MP. He is a cool dude in his 60s but he keeps up with radical and progressive TFM and with consilience between individual and coalitionary MPs. In essence he functions like the speaker in parliament – he encourages the objectification of the process rather than the content of what goes on.

Thich Nhat Hahn, the Vietnamese Zen man, recommends a similar objectification of mind stuff. He recommends sitting still and when a TFM appears to ask of it – What is it? How strong is it? and How long does it last?

I is not as straightforward as we sometimes think. And now the conundrum is politicised. The ancient Chinese knew something when they reckoned that “the reality that can be described is not the real reality”. Easy come, easy go.

I can't be bothered (ICBB)

I can't be bothered (ICBB) – is one of my key acronyms

I could search the archives to see what I have done with it before

but – ICBB. (but see the list at the bottom of this article)

Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

It depends on which 'I' has the upper hand. And there are plenty to choose from.

eg

I should take a shower before going to the meeting this afternoon.

But – ICBB

I should at least wash, shampoo and condition my hair

But – ICBB

Where does the should, could or ought come from?

From a module in the unconscious.

How did it get there?

By nature, nurture or chance.

eg

Sub culturally when I was a child 'Friday night was bath night' – in a tub in front of the fire in the living room. The precious hot water was shared by all the family in turn.

Then came hot and cold running water in the bathroom and in the kitchen.

Then came the power shower in the bathroom

With the new, labour saving technology came new 'shoulds' concerning personal hygiene. Ordinary soap gets replaced by shower-gel and shampoo. Sophisticated people have a shower and a change of clothes, especially underware, at least once a day - whether or not they need it.

I spent most of my working days in the tropics where I sweated a lot and often changed my clothes. I employed home helps to take them to the river for washing. The domestic water supply was very erratic and I became a master at washing all over from a big mug.

Cultural 'oughts' evolve through time and some change faster than others. The division of labour now includes slices for advertisers and propagandists. The goal is to convince customers and clients to consume commodities that display their status in the cultural hierarchy.

Once a week I venture into civilisation's class conscious shops and supermarkets (eg Poundland, LIDL, Tesco, M&S) It amuses me to note which items capture my attention and how, by being mindful of what goes on in my mindbrain, attention avoids being taken prisoner. I could thus make a retrospective non-shopping list - but ICBB.

Earlier blogs that deal with ICBB

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/existential-points-of-view.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/when-is-blog-useful.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/end-of-2014-letter.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/unspeakable-speech.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/the-doodle-focus.html

http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/the-resolution-for-2015.html

“to continue remembering to let go of busy-ness and to revel in the can’t be bothered (CBB) frame of mind and the release it brings from mundanity.” [LINK]

Leadership revisited

In the late 1990s I designed and delivered an up to date course on leadership, management and administration (LMA) for education functionaries in Lesotho. A few years later I tweaked the course and delivered it to a group of community economic development functionaries in Scotland.

Twenty years later much of the traditional thinking about LMA is still around but it has often evolved by incorporating the latest thinking from (a) neuroscience, (b) psychology - positive, cognitive, social and evolutionary, and (c) mindfulness meditation.

Some key points in the new thinking include:-

• There are neural correlates of consciousness (NCC). There are modules in networks in a constant churn which maintain a sense of 'reality' in which 'I' features.
• There is considerable neural plasticity - “What fires together wires together”. “Use it or lose it”. It is never too late to change your mind.
• There is new thinking on the topics of mind v matter; and free-will v determinism.
• Most mind/brain activity is in the Unconscious and Self consciousness is a minor bit player after the event. (So much for the European Enlightenment)
• It is part of the human condition to imagine that there is an abiding self or ego. But it is possible to enter a non-egoic state and to be in 'flow' in the zone.
• There is a growing awareness of the complexity of (a) the three pound brain; (b) of its location on the cosmic zoom; and (c) of the potential of experiencing 'no boundaries'
• The human brain is shaped by nature, nurture and serendipity in astonishing detail)

Multi me

When sitting quietly the 'I' word can be used as a pointer to a mind state that seems to objectively exist. But there is a feeling for something that is my brain – ie I am other than my brain which has a mind of its own. The following dialogues give the flavour:

Statement:“I prefer bangers and mash to fish and chips.”

Question: “Who is the I that prefers and why does the preference exist?”

Statement: “I believe in God the Father almighty.”

Question: “Who is the 'I' that believes and what about God the Mother?

Neurology shows that thoughts, feelings and moods are being continually churned so as to monitor and interpret the incoming sense data in advance of reacting or responding. My 'I' [aka my minds other minds] is changing all the time in mini and maxi ways. The following flow of consciousness gives something of the flavour:

I feel the need to eat less and take more exercise.

I also cannot be bothered.

I make bargains with myself – 2 biscuits now and a ten minute walk later; 12.5 minutes for a chocolate biscuit.

I can bribe myself with home made muffins rather than Coop biscuits

I could grow my own food – or at least make better use of the garden

I cannot be bothered

I could develop a routine for exercising my hands and therefore improving my music and my handwriting.

I could develop a routine for … (many things)

I could leave it to the unconscious to sort thing out.

I try to avoid making a to-do-list – dethrone rationality – be postmodern

I should change my clothes and bed clothes more often

I could do the washing up immediately after every meal.

It was scary when I realised that there are so many cultural and subcultural shoulds and coulds.

I have lived and worked in six different countries.

I could develop indexes for … (various archives).

To be a holistic leader there is need to listen, focus and plan - and some of this can be done in a non-egoic frame of mind.

Of the best leaders,

when they are gone,

the people all say,

we did it ourselves.

(Tao teh Ching)

Evolving expectations

The mood this morning was of a positive and expanding new dawn. Grab hold and make a difference. But there was also a countervailing mood of 'can't be bothered'.

But what would I be bothered about? What matters? What is my, our, the purpose? Is it acceptable that I should be comfortable without answers to those questions? Who decides and on what grounds?

We humans swim in a restless ocean of cultural expectations. They evolved to ensure that we cooperate with others to meet our basic needs and thus be well conditioned for mating and child rearing.

The expectations vary (a) with the five life stages - new born, child, adolescent, mature, elderly, (b) with the culture specific pattern of hierarchy and division of labour, and (c) with the economic system - foraging, settled agriculture, city states, empires.

I am now a retired elder with no wife or children. But I have a pension, a supermarket just along the street, and a gaggle of friends scattered around the planet. In my early mature years I aspired to make the world a better place by, amongst other things, making myself a better person. In my elderly state the expectations look the same but the worldviews have shifted. The words now point to different realities, and they are channeled through three main disciplines – neuroscience, psychology (positive, social, cognitive and evolutionary) and mindfulness meditation.

We are hard wired to absorb and be guided by the worldviews (paradigms) of our natal culture. We use confirmation bias to keep on track. But there is neuroplasticity. It is never too late to change your mind. Being mindful is the key. Earlier 'I' noticed the thought of a new dawn and of feeling that 'I' can't be bothered.

'I''I' – there are evolving expectations for the elderly.