Monday, July 30, 2018

Collision Analysis: Manifesting Loneliness...



 *a tangential extension of the post “When Theories Collide...”*
It's the face always behind you that you never see...
=== originally published July 15, 2014 ===

Author's note:  heard an interesting tidbit today (11/21/15) of serious significance to this thought... the doctors are now considering 38 to 40 weeks a full term infant these days.  Hmmmm.... that does all kinds of interesting things to the bell curve.

===   ===   ===

Sometimes I really miss my chiropractor, most usually when I've given myself a stiff neck from  shaking my head for entirely to long.  I don’t mean to, but I do do it to myself from time to time.  The longer I look at the world I find myself living in the more it seems to happen.  Now, chiropractor’s are getting to be kind of scarce, tend to be seen as obsolete, and maybe they are.  But there are several groups of folks who are stepping up to take the same job, offer the same skills, you know, massage therapists and the like.  The hands on healers.  Noble work, and for folks like me who shake their head just way to much it really is a godsend having them around, they earn every penny of their fees. 

Ok, I’m sure you correctly suspect I’m not writing a blog post to plug my favorite masseuse, even though she  does deserve one, she deserves a lot more praise for that gentle strength of hers than what she gets most of the time.  Before I’m done dealing with this post I may have to give her a call and while she’s untying the knots for me make it a point to tell her just that, put as warm and gentle a touch on her heart as she’s using on my neck.  She does deserve one.

Among the most neck oscillating things I've encountered here in the last few years is an idea so toxic it could have escaped someone’s psychiatric institution like a virus from a broken test tube and proved out to be a fully contagious form of insanity... the idea that perception -is - reality, the idea that what an individual perceives creates the external reality rather than perception echoing what exists externally into an image held internally.  From this beginning it then jumps to presenting the idea that since reality is created  by perception reality is then open to being manipulated by what ultimately resolves as nothing more than someone’s imagination devoid of any other active mechanism.  Such a manipulation of reality is referred to as  “manifesting” and it would seem there are few if any limits placed on the thought.

There is a working theory from the realms of sociology that plays in this picture, a theory called “socially constructed reality” dealing with the binding force of the paradigms a “society” prescribes as a proof of membership, a proof of loyalty.  I’m pegging it to the corkboard to come into play later, but it is not the same thought, not really.  That theory (to my understanding) is a fine discernment of the defense mechanisms a, any, collective entity might employ to maintain its’ host base, but doesn't address the reasons and rationales for installing any given paradigm.  I’m mentioning it now just to make it clear that I’m aware of it, and no, that’s not what I’m trying to reinvent. Anyhow, onwards and inwards...

When you troubleshoot a sophisticated system displaying a superficially random range of symptoms any point in common (between the various sub-systems showing instability) becomes of instant interest.  The belief in a “compliant reality,” to coin a name, is just such a point in that most subtle system which is the human condition, a system that by anyone’s standards is currently running ragged as a Monday morning hangover.   It’s time to fire up the diagnostic simulation routines (think Scotty, Jordy, Star Trek) and put a most critical eye on this idea to try to discern just how, and how wide a frequency range, of things might be being set unstable by such a thought.  

What made this oddity of interest to me in the first place is the demographic of those who've presented this thought to me.  Without exception they've all been people diverged from the standard templates, folks from the alternative lifestyles, those confused and conflicted about damn near to anything under the sun from the ethical content of groceries to identifying their own gender, people whose lives are immersed in  any number of superstitions, people who think you should only share sex with no less than a baker’s dozen of your closest friends, people who think a cat o’ nine tails is a primitive sex toy.  The diversity of how they structure their leisure time if not their lives pretty well covers the full spectrum of reasons for someone being called alternative in the first place.  As a matter of fact the idea currently in focus is one of only a very few thing they commonly seem to share in common beyond the fact that they also seem, taken as a group, to be of above average intelligence and sensitivity. 

I say such folks are diverged (from the standard orbits of humanity) just for a descriptive and politically neutral handle, and to stay in that analogy it must follow that to be called diverged, now, then at some point they had to have been part of the mainstream.   Since people, like the planets in their orbits, tend to stay in those orbits unless acted on by some force it would seem to me a good first step to search for when that force might have first impacted on their lives, which is where this post crosses up with the ideas presented in “When Theories Collide...” 

Since anyone who’s ever dead-stick docked a jump buggy at Miss Mollies Palace of Orbiting Delights knows the earlier in the trajectory some thrust occurs the less thrust is needed I propose to set the way back machine a long way back indeed, all the way back to the dawn of someone’s ability to mount an abstract thought set into memory.  Contemplate an infant just passing out of the format and configure stage of development.  The bond and channel to Momma is still there, still active, but not needed nearly so often.  In many ways the little one is doing great, some facets almost full month ahead of schedule (and when you’re all of six weeks dry that is saying a lot ).  A little tummy runs empty, squeezes down, waaah.  Hungry.  Again.  But this time, perhaps for the first time, it is more than just the physical sensation and an instinctive response, this time there is a true thought associated, a memory brought back by the will set as an image, a desire.  Hungry. Breast. Now.  Of course instinct knows this as well, but instinct is still in loop with Momma via the formatting channel, instinct is just the physical, it doesn’t write to memory.  It’s that advanced status that has prematurely created (and set into deepest memory) a conscious thought reinforcing the instinctive call riding the channel to Momma.  Momma is a good momma, very sensitive to her child, and the sudden increase in volume makes her jump a little on the inside, her jump rides back to be felt by her baby as she makes haste to make the situation right, and since it happened so quickly the thought hasn’t faded yet, and her response gets written to memory as well.   

Do you see the potentials?  The little one’s first recorded imagining was a demand on the universe, and the universe complied.  Of course Momma would have brought food anyway, and probably just as quickly, but without that first imagining (such a... strange  thing to the baby, brand new, never known before) and the response (equally brand new and even stranger ) that arrived via the channel with Momma it would have been just one more event identical to a thousand such events and of no note whatsoever.  But... that isn’t how it went down, and our rather precocious little one remembers the... strangeness.  When I... imagine it... and I feel... strangeness... then what I imagine comes to pass. 

Now, I’m not saying this is, in and of itself, of any stupendous great significance.  IF there is any truth to the theory of Momma and Baby cohabitating in some form of telepathic bond for the first few weeks so Momma can help bring a brand new brain properly on line then most likely something similar happens a lot, and never really makes much impact at all.  Soon enough there’s plenty of examples in the little one’s memory of when imagining something didn’t make it happen, the bond fades and the little one is off to the races just like everyone else.  Again, that IF, and then Ok, so what?  That’s how it’s been for a very long time now.  So what?

The so what of the whole affair is what if there is equally some truth to the idea that the modern world is, in one way or another, driving an expansion, an extension, of the mechanisms that provides that initial linkage with Momma?  From straight up and down numerical logic the longer that bond endures beyond its’ legitimate functions the more evidence will accrue in the little one’s memory of imagining something that then comes to pass.  After all, the little one has the advantage in this, Momma is host and home to so very many emotional  things the little one might be manipulating totally without intent, indeed, in total ignorance.  Emotions such as those are years into the future, totally beyond the little one’s understanding.  But the results of manipulating them are not, the results are seen very quickly, and quickly is how the little folk learn.  Let such memories be created across the threshold of recollection by the adult and what you’ll have is someone who genuinely does have reason to fully believe they can manipulate reality simply by imagination.  How long is entirely to long?  Not a clue.  But such a boundary must exist.

Of course they didn't really manipulate reality, what they influenced was Momma into changing reality for them.  It was Momma, not their imagination, that made it happen.  But should that fact never be set as counterbalance opposite the other equally valid facts of the matter?  Then to the little one’s perspective there’s no clue available as to the truth of the matter.  With no clue available the evidence they do have becomes an influence on their ongoing emotional evolution, that bit of asymmetrical thrust that given twenty years to work can make such a major difference in the ultimate form of their adult personality.  Perhaps they can foggily remember the evidence, or perhaps not, but in any case they still believe, and that believing becomes such a potent factor.

For the vast majority their influence will fade (probably as often as not to the arrival of a younger sibling) into impotence.  But between when it fades and when the child quits trying to use that influence many, many attitudes are formed.  It is those attitudes which do as much as anything to maintain superstition in the modern world, and equally, define those who from earliest childhood would be prone to join the ranks of the alternative lifestyles.  Put yourself in the position to hear the internal dialog of such an individual’s inner child as that inner child gains access to adult concepts and the reasons for the alternative lifestyles become painfully obvious. 

...it used to work, I know it did... what went wrong that it no longer works?  Did I eat the wrong thing?  ...it used to work... is all my thinking just entirely all wrong? ...is it this whole growing up business that is wrong and that’s why it doesn't work anymore? ...phooey on growing up, I want it to work again ...it used to work, I know it did, did daddy and mommy do something wrong making me and that’s why it doesn't work anymore? ...it used to work, maybe if I do it right then it will work again... but I can’t do it like mommy and daddy did when they made me because the way they made me is when they did it wrong and that’s why it doesn't work anymore...

You get the picture, and a sad picture it is. Endless doubt, endless searching for a reason, the real reason so hard to accept because accepting the truth would mean denying and discrediting the deepest foundation memories of the self that in point of fact were created as part and parcel of a mother’s love.  Not a good situation, in point of fact a terribly conflicted situation induced by just a little bit of an asymmetry in their earliest development, an asymmetry that in time might well prove out to have been a most subtle form of child abuse inflicted not by any one human but rather by the sum of humanities impact on the environment.

Ok, it’s all based in theory.  It’s all just a “what if” run down a line of causal reasoning that collapses if there’s no truth to the foundation theory.  You don’t need to remind me of that, I’m well aware of it.  But as I think on those who presented the whole idea of “manifesting” something into reality I’m ever more ready to think this theory needs, really needs, a full scientific study, because if there is any truth to the collision of the two theories (momma/child telepathic bond AND an incipient mutation in the human genome enhancing telepathy as a function even no further than into early childhood just beyond infancy) then this represents a function that really, really needs understood for the sake of the survival of society itself. 


Why? Because of that work of sociology mentioned in the beginning of this post, the whole “socially constructed reality” idea that really does make sense in many regards.  Let the consequences of the mechanism described above become ingrained into the mainstream of humanity rather than seem limited to the prescribed reality of the alternative lifestyles as it is now and what you have is... superstition as a socially prescribed factor of reality and a bloody fucking mess, most literally.  And that’s before you even take into a account what happens starting from that mechanism if there is no extinguishment of that mechanism for some individuals, those who grow up to discover they can manipulate anyone with any degree of sensitivity just like they used to manipulate Momma.  That throws you solidly back into the Bible and the whole bit about “...suffer not a witch to live among you...” that’s already caused so much blood and misery across the scope of history.  This one really needs to get checked out to the nth degree for everyone’s sake.

7 comments:

  1. Hmmm...Lots of potential there, Cyranos. But (and this is a quick "but"; I don't have time right now to develop the thought fully) it may well be true that for such folks, their perceptions become *their* reality to the exclusion of actual reality--until actual reality walks up and bites them in their buttocks. My thought is that truly well-adjusted, open-minded folks keep in mind two concepts: first, that our perceptions are indeed filtered by our own thought patterns, and, second, that there's a big universe out there that our perceptions can't alter.

    And (I address this to those folks who think our perceptions create reality) what happens when, say, my reality conflicts with your reality? Do we have a universal paradox? I think the universe is big enough to handle a few paradoxes without coming apart. Evidence? We're still exchanging ideas. That counts for something.

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    1. Yup... sadly there are those who will let reality chew them right in half rather than challenge the true source of the problem. Seen that happen more than once here of late.

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  2. you may be complicating things, 'nos. we've evolved to have imaginations, so we could learn to predict the reactions of others, [the potential future], i think. plus, as children we have pretend games, and first develop our wishful thinking, which i hesitate to mention, may give some people a susceptibility to 'charlatanistic', let's say, forms of religious belief, but not all, i quickly say.

    the people who come at this from a more 'logical', [but actually illogical], way of looking at general perceived reality, may be considering that each of us sees any occurrence in a slightly different way - and reverse engineering it to conclude that the individual perceptions are all real, which would mean ,[of course, kind of], that each reality was self created, [which each and every 'perceived' reality actually is. voila'! well. at least the altered parts.

    also, there was a book a few years ago, "The Secret", where one could, through positive expectations, bring good fortune into one's life. Oprah, i believe, was embarrassed when she realized what a piece of crap she had recommended in her book club.

    then, there are the various mega-churches, especially one in Boulder CO, that spread the false gospel that God rewards generous believers with more riches themselves, because as good Christians they deserve it... and the poor are poor, because they are not righteous enough. i'd make a note here that one of the reasons i'm not a believer is because of such visible, and obvious, hypocrisy. however, if one is a good and true believer, which i think each of you gentlemen are, i respect that.

    not only does 'nos go off on the occasional 'tangent', living in sunny Oklahoma, i would expect he IS a 'tan gent'...

    ;) pip [on a tangent too]

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    1. Just a farmer’s tan Pip, just a farmer’s tan. Other than that I’m white man from hell.

      The whole bit about the poor are poor because they’re not righteous enough* is kind of contradicted by the Bible itself... I don’t recall as any of the disciples were particularly wealthy men... Peter as a fisherman certainly wasn’t. That idea is one of the perversions that crept in during the reformation years, was in the process of being rejected in Europe but survived the voyage to the new world to take root here in America. I don’t recall his handle but there was one fellow in the post-Alex chatroom days who defended the European Puritan’s on that point, spoke most passionately on how that idea was one of the break lines between those who migrated to the new world and those who stayed in Europe. I’m thinking it might have been Sunwing under a different knick, but that’s just a hunch.

      *that was one of my mom’s expressed in every manner under the sun... one of the reasons my path took me to the edge of atheism in my youth before reversing to where you find me now... I can so totally relate to rejecting religion (as a social manipulator) based on that*

      Each person certainly maintains an inner reality (the first reality) which includes an image of the outer or second reality, the first augmented by stored imaginings and memory, it’s no great stretch to understand how the more accurately they “index” the content of the first as to the original “source” of a memory will impact their performance in the outer second reality shared with everyone else. The whole line of reasoning behind how the idea of “manifesting” something might come into being is based on an individual (infant) being to immature to differentiate causality and locking an error into that “indexing” function that does ever greater damage the longer it persists into a life.

      Of course the unscrupulous will take advantage of such an error, probably don’t understand it, probably are victims in their own right, and certainly won’t hesitate to use it to their own advantage.

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  3. Having read a lot and evolved a bit in the intervening 16 months
    since this was originally 'theorized upon', 'nos:

    Reality, as perceived by others, is cynically and habitually
    manipulated by advertising, [such and such is a 'great' movie];
    by Fox and Limbaugh, [repeat lies until they become generally
    accepted as truth, a more general manifestation of the Stockholm
    Syndrome]; and of course by hierarchies of various religions,
    mainstream and not, [use the need to believe in something larger,
    actually the fear of permanent death, to control an individual's
    life and property].

    Your general theory as written may be the source of various
    psychopathologies and other narcissistic behaviors in persons
    such as my oldest late brother's. This thought perhaps supported
    by the generally higher IQs in people such as he and many CEOs
    and other 'leader types', [their awarenesses may have been
    both earlier and more strongly self-focused]. Or, maybe not.

    In a thread on dA I recently wrote something like this: After
    reading "The Evolution of God" by Robert Wright, it seems
    apparent to me, that along with the general belief by groups
    of people in the god or gods 'of the period', comes the
    seemingly 'actual reality' of the belief in question. Group-
    think creates a, yes still false, but 'tangible' manifestation
    that is considered real, real enough for many to kill over.

    As well, we believe in our communities, our teams, our nations,
    our races, our whatever to the point of being totally manipulable
    to the goals of those aforementioned sociopaths.

    For both you and Jochanaan - some very interesting discussions:
    - Having read a lot and evolved a bit in the intervening 16 months
    since this was originally 'theorized upon', 'nos:

    Reality, as perceived by others, is cynically and habitually
    manipulated by advertising, [such and such is a 'great' movie];
    by Fox and Limbaugh, [repeat lies until they become generally
    accepted as truth, a more general manifestation of the Stockholm
    Syndrome]; and of course by hierarchies of various religions,
    mainstream and not, [use the need to believe in something larger,
    actually the fear of permanent death, to control an individual's
    life and property].

    Your general theory as written may be the source of various
    psychopathologies and other narcissistic behaviors in persons
    such as my oldest late brother's. This thought perhaps supported
    by the generally higher IQs in people such as he and many CEOs
    and other 'leader types', [their awarenesses may have been
    both earlier and more strongly self-focused]. Or, maybe not.

    In a thread on dA I recently wrote something like this: After
    reading "The Evolution of God" by Robert Wright, it seems
    apparent to me, that along with the general belief by groups
    of people in the god or gods 'of the period', comes the
    seemingly 'actual reality' of the belief in question. Group-
    think creates a, yes still false, but 'tangible' manifestation
    that is considered real, real enough for many to kill over.

    As well, we believe in our communities, or teams, our nations,
    our races, our whatever to the point of being totally manipulable
    to the goals of those aforementioned sociopaths.

    There's a bit more, but something about switching back and
    forth between different sites is making me fear that I may lose
    all of the above, so - :) pip

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    1. I'd have to say the linkage between what I'm speculating and the whole "God" thing would occur later, when the little one is old enough to ingest/internalize what his elders might say that would seem to fit with what is so vaguely but so poignantly remembered. How many ways does the whole Garden of Eden story fit to such a thought? I'm still counting...

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  4. This comment has been removed by the author.

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