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April 3, 2005
5. How the Mind Works
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The story so far: You have a mind. Your mind functions as is complex filter. It stores pictures of yourself and the world. The pictures may not match reality, they may even be outright lies, but they are regarded by the mind as "true."
The mind has a mechanism, the Reticular Activating System (RAS), that creates blindspots to anything that does not match its stored pictures. The good news is the RAS helps you focus. The bad news is the RAS blinds you to anything contradicting your stored pictures, of yourself and of reality. Why? Because its job is to maintain your sanity, meaning your stored pictures.
You don't get what you want in life; you get what you picture.
When you learn to ride a bicycle as a child you learn a simple fact very quickly. If there is a rock in the road, you don't focus on it. If you do, you end of hitting it. It doesn't matter that you want to avoid the rock. The harder you try to avoid the rock, the more you are drawn to it. To avoid the rock, rather than focusing on the rock you focus on the path around the rock.
When you drive a car, you also notice this phenomenon. When you think about changing lanes and check the rearview mirror, you begin to drift into that lane.
I remember watching America's Funniest Home Videos. A buddy was videotaping his friend skiing down the slope. The skier was so focused on his friend holding the video camera that he ended up skiing right into him, even though he obviously was trying to avoid him.
You don't get what you want in life; you get what you picture.
The mind naturally moves toward the picture it holds. This is another aspect of the RAS.
This is why in disaster training, airplane pilots do not practice crashes, they practice recoveries.
This is why fatalistic people who are convinced nothing will go right in their life find that nothing does.
This is why no matter what kind of person you want to be, if you are convinced you are fated to be a particular kind of person, that is who you become.
You don't get what you want in life; you get what you picture. If you are not happy with what you are getting in life, change your picture.
This may not always be easy, but it can be done. Of course, if you don't believe the picture can be changed, you will continue with your current picture. In fact, there are many people out there who want you to believe that your life is fated to be something outside your control. That you must follow the picture they give to you of yourself. And it's no surprise that the picture is often at your expense and their benefit.
Self-Image and Self-Talk
The subconscious mind functions somewhat like a computer. It accepts programming, lines of code, in the form of Self-Talk, what we say to ourselves about ourselves in our own mind. And how much feeling is behind it.
Self-Talk also includes the statements we accept from others and adopt as our own in our own thoughts.
You've probably noticed how much your mind chatters about yourself and the world. For most of us, the mind is talking non-stop. The talk is not just what people say about themselves. It also includes talk from parents and teachers and colleagues and political pundits and advertising and... everyone who we have consciously or unconsciously accepted as authorities.
If you were to monitor your Self-Talk for a day, you would notice that it is mostly negative--angry, sarcastic, self-belittling, limiting, can't-do, and down on yourself.
Your Self-Talk creates your Self-Image, the deep picture that is stored in your subconscious and filters your reality about yourself. Therefore, your Self-Image strongly influences How You Act in the World. And How You Act in the World reinforces your Self-Talk.
This is the Reality Cycle that strongly drives your sense of self and reality.
- Self-Talk creates your Self-Image.
- Self-Image strongly influences How You Act in the World.
- How You Act in the World reinforces your Self-Talk.
This Reality Cycle operates mostly without people being aware of it. But when you are able to acquire enough detachment and begin observing the Reality Cycle within yourself, especially your automatic Self-Talk, you can begin breaking the Reality Cycle and being the driver of it, rather than it driving you.
But this can happen only if you recognize several important things:
- You are not a victim of anyone or anything.
- You can begin recreating yourself and your reality.
- You can continually enlarge your perception of Truth by overcoming your externally implanted and self-created blindspots.
- There are plenty of people and institutions around you that do not want you to recognize any of this.
In a very real way, we are talking about your Imagination, your primary creative picture-making faculty, your ability to create a Vision about you and the world.
Look at your life and relationships. Who and what is it around you that wants you to believe you are a victim? That you should feel guilt or fear? That you cannot help who or what you are? That making your own way in the world is useless and pointless? That you are helpless?
Who and what is it around you wants you to believe that you were born with a negative stamp on you? Whether it is religious guilt, racial deprivation or some other thing that means you started out with a deficit that you cannot help, that you cannot overcome?
Who wants you to believe that you are a victim?
Who is using words and images to program your mind against you believing that you can better yourself despite the way the world is? Who is using guilt and fear and strong emotional energy to "lock-in" negative imagery about you and the world to drive your behavior into thinking and actions that usurp your creative energy for an external cause?
Who wants you to believe that you can't change yourself or the world or what is "true" just by thinking differently about yourself?
By the way, if you have read this far and are actually interested in reading more, please let me know in the Comments.
More to come in 6. How the Mind Works.
*** Well, if you don't like my opinion of you, you can always improve. Ashleigh Brilliant
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Posted by witnit at April 3, 2005 6:08 PM
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Comments
Good work.
The kind that makes you think.
I would be very interested if you could offer more literature regarding these matters.
Thanks
Posted by: Manolis at June 26, 2009 4:41 AM
