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Even if "you" (who/what is "you" by the way?) do understand the principle "you" have mentioned, the mind will experience cognitive dissonance. It can't be avoi
by armitron 10y ago
Even if "you" (who/what is "you" by the way?) do understand the principle "you" have mentioned, the mind will experience cognitive dissonance. It can't be avoided as it happens on a layer below conscious perception.
"You" seem to think that beliefs exist on a conscious self-aware layer of thought, thus "you" should be aware of them but if "you" have done any serious psychonautics or experienced traumatic events in childhood, "you" will realize that is not the case. It takes a lot more than simple affirmation to rid "yourself" of such demons. Reading books about ceremonial magick and the techniques that had to be invented over the years to deal with such problems can be very enlightening, if not fascinating.
So, when the mind experiences cognitive dissonance, the effects propagate to the upper layers and "you" may become aware of them. I guess my point (through experience) is that as long as there is a "you" there to begin with, cognitive dissonance and dissociation will be problems that "you" will have to deal with :-)
As to your original question, it has long been my view that "most people" are not self-aware enough for such matters to even register. Even those who do have the curiosity and inclination, don't really like spending a lot of time in that UNCOMFORTABLE space, and quickly reach for the nearest distraction or escape (living in a make-believe dream world) to help them cope with daily life. When the luster starts to fade, a new dream bubble (new goals and aspirations) is quickly conjured and entered.
I highly recommend Celia Green's "The Human Evasion" [1] to you, something tells me you will enjoy it very much.
[1] http://deoxy.org/evasion/ http://deoxy.org/evasion/
- hathawsh 10y agoI agree. My words fail to express how horrifying and depressing it was for me to see the uncertainty of everything, but I worked through it and now my experience of everything is both "real" and "not real" at the same time. I feel as if I'm in a state of perpetual cognitive dissonance. However, I've decided that state is beautiful, enjoyable, and the only state of mind I can actually understand well.
- armitron 10y agoThere are people living with full blown ego-loss, no "I" there at all. It can be quite hard to get to grips with, like being part of a 2D canvas (the perception of depth-space and also time is extremely warped). It is fascinating to contemplate that dissociation may be the next stage in human evolution (leading up to ego-death and an emergent hive mind?) and that it may happen on a mass-scale, not through mysticism or magick or psychonautics but technology that has become so ubiquitous nobody can really escape from.
- hathawsh 10y agoFascinating indeed! That never occurred to me before. I bet there's a sci-fi novel that explores it.
- rjeli 10y agoApologies if this is getting too paranormal for HN, but you might want to read up on the online cult of Kek (watch "Esoteric Kekism" on YouTube). It's founded on the idea that consciousness forms reality, and that the internet has connected/aligned our minds tighter than ever before. Thus, internet memes, propagated among the collective consciousness, are said to have the ability to alter reality itself. Of course it's kookery (which I'm forced to say to avoid mockery), but it's quite relevant. See also the nam-shub of Enki from Snow Crash.