©2001 Jon Youngblood Unity Through Understanding A Guidebook for the Recently Alive

Part Two: Physics

Chapter Eight: Science of Mind

8.2 Psychology and the Mind (Science of the Soul?)

    "What we need here is a little Semantic Realignment" - Paraphrased from a popular TV program. A fascinating concept and one that points out the importance of language in the Minds ability to express itself to its best advantage. A clever Mind can change the usage of words to better rate in one's appraisal by others.  One way is to "shade" the meaning a word by using other refinement words to slightly modify its intended meaning.  So, for example, "That dress is gauche." (which commits you to an opinion and indicates that you could be thought of as a jerk in return - at least by the one wearing the dress)  might become "In some cultures a dress like that would be though of as gauche you know"  (alleviating you of the unpleasant ramifications of being assessed as a jerk.  While still maintaining your ability to express to the offending wearer of the gauche dress that the dress is (or with the realigned semantics "can be" considered) offensively UGLY.  Changing words altogether can produce similar altercations in semantic alignment.  "That dress is gauche" might realign entirely to "Where did you find that dress!  I've never seen anything like it".  It does not require an extensive understanding of the English language to appreciate how often and quickly individual word usage - and its semantic intent - changes.  Politicians are a perfect example of semantic realignment in action.

Our old and by now familiar friend language is the only way in which we - as long as the semantics are clear between both parties - can escape the cold and frightening isolation of independent Minds and begin to form, however fragile and fleeting, a collective Group Mind.  This Group Mind give us consensus.  It gives us agreement on the rules by which we live.  It constrains us to behave within certain well defined and established norms.   This is the beginning of sociability, and the basis for modern Psychology.  When we conform to these norms, we are "well-adjusted".  When we are not, we are labeled neurotic at the least, and psychotic at the worst.  In between these two are a wide range of ill behaviors with an amazing degree of specificity.  Perhaps the most prevalent expression of bad behavior, at least in the United States, is those behaviors that result in the infliction of emotional or physical pain onto another human being - even to the point of death.  In almost all cases the emotional basis of this expressed uncontrolled "raging" is hate.

The bane of mental health:  Hate

HATE IS LIKE A DISEASE - ITS SPREADS!

This is a theme that I hope to emphasis many times in Faith and Physics. It is, I believe, the first and most essential instruction given to us by all of the greatest of religious figures. Its dissipation is the greatest achievement attainable by the sciences of psychology and mental health. Both sides agree that a mind filled with hate is not a spiritual or a healthy one. Hate can infect those around it and spread like a virus. To a less obvious degree, the other emotions can be ‘passed’ in a similar manner. A very good example of this can be found on almost any of America’s freeways. How many times have we ended up in a foul mood because some asshole on the freeway was late and having a bad day? I don’t think there is a time in the last 5 years when I have not gotten onto the freeway and had to remind myself to be the better, calmer, more patient and understanding person. Otherwise I would probably get myself or someone else hurt. Road Rage is only the most recent expression of this age old problem of, shall we say, viral hate.

You can never make someone love you, but it's easy to make them hate you. In this way, hate is far more powerful than love.  And far easier to incite in others.  All the great teachers know this.  [DEV]

Empathy, and its spiritual and intellectual consequence (with adequate pre-disposition and training) compassion, is not a magical or psychic phenomena. The process whereby we pick up and display the feelings or attributes of others is fairly well understood. Several books have been written on this subject now, and subtle processes have been dubbed MEMEs.  See also:  http://www.memecentral.com/ or http://memex.org/ or http://memes.org/  

One of the greatest advancements achieved through the Scientific Method is the understanding of our minds themselves. Finally, we can begin to know the knower, at least in material terms with some implication for the spiritual.

Perhaps the best way to understand the human mind - and it’s relationship with the physical phenomenon of brain - is to examine what happens when things go wrong. One of the best example of these is the case of Phineas Gage. Phineas Gage was a railway worker in the 1800’s who, while tamping down packets of TNT in preparation for blasting, prematurely set off the dynamite sending the tamping rod shooting through the underside of his jaw and out the top of his head. Not only did he survive and continue to live a relatively long and healthy life, but there appeared to be no damage to him at all! No paralysis or coma ensued the event, so after patching up his wounds, he was sent on his merry way.  But all was not right with dear Phineas.  What was once a true gentleman, a punctual and diligent worker liked and respected by his piers was gone.  Phineas transformed into a lazy foul mouthed slacker who soon quit his job, took up many bad habits and was soon lost in obscurity.

What this shows is how so much of what we think "we" are, is our brain.  Our personality, the way we think and behave, the choices that we make, all can be irrevocably altered by an alteration of the physical structure of the brain.  Now, one could hold that the brain is not the true source of the mind, but simply an imperfect conduit through which it flows, as Descartes did, and yet any traces of any outside influence upon the firing of neurons in the brain or affecting brainwave patterns has never (yet) been found.  So FOR NOW - if we are to face the world as we know it - then given the case of Phineas Gage and so many thousands of others like him (Alzheimer's disease patients included) we must face the possibility that what we are is brain.  For now.  Just brain.  That is not scary or sad.  It should be enough to make us sing and rejoice.  But we want more.  MORE.  MORE I TELL YOU!  GIVE MY CREATION LIIIIIIIIIIIFE!!  (Echo's of Young Frankenstein)

*****

We come to rely on internal representation of the world by our senses.  As I pointed out in 5.5 More Than Meets the Eye the senses are actually a very limited resourse for fathoming the 'normal' reality that greets us every morning.  There are many reasons for this.  One is the fact that the range of sights, sounds, and other sensations that inform us about our environment is but a fraction of those that actually exist.  Another is that internally we depend upon the brain to translate the information coming in from the 'detectors'.  The brain, marvelous as it is, is not a perfect of finished product.  It is prone to error, and is sometimes problematic by its inherent design.  The dual hemispher design creates complications in data processing which we are only now beginning to understand.  Take for example an old but simple parlor trick known as Necker's Cube.

Religion as therapy: Religion has always provided counseling to its followers. The priests, rabbis or what have you, have all played the part of the therapist until modern times. People often turn to religion during times of emotional crisis. Indeed, as we saw in previous chapters it is often when we are in crisis or transitional times in our lives that many of the new age religions find their recruits most vulnerable to suggestion and recruitment (see 4.3 Blind Faith). Religion can be seen, then, as the first science of psychology.

When and how did man become so troubled? How did this trade off of sentience with emotional distress happen? Could it be, that like language, rather than acquiring a whole new system in the brain, sentience was gained at the expense of losing or diminishing another aspect or function of min such as an emotional stabilizing system of some sort? Or is emotional disturbance artificial? An unexpected side effect of language and its ghostly images?

With language we were able to conceptualize things and events that were totally new. Relationships in the physical world could be defined for the first time. Reason and Logic was born. And the knower could know that he knew. With this new mental configuration came a vastly improved ability for man to shape his destiny. But, with this new system design, like a new computer program, there were "bugs". This new level of self-consciousness brought with it a barrage of side effects. This was part of the argument described in the book "Cosmic Consciousness". Newly acquired systems, or traits, could be quirky.

Major schools of psychotherapy: psychodynamic, behavioral, cognitive, systems, and body-oriented. (EMDR pg 10.)

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