Who you really are

[granpa]

Who you really are

Who are you really? You are the human riding the horse. The horse is your animal mind. The animal mind is mainly concerned with bodily functions feelings and urges. The animal mind does whatever it feels like doing whenever it feels like doing it.

You are the observer of the animal mind. You are the human mind. The human mind is the rational mind that objectively observes all things. You observe the external world and your internal world. Externally you observe what is or could happen and internally you observe what things you enjoy and what things you dont. Most importantly you observe the connections between events and whether or not you will enjoy the outcome. You do not "think". You make observations.

The rational mind emerges from the animal mind. But the rational mind cannot emerge from the animal mind as long as it is enslaved to the animal mind. The rational mind is enslaved by the animal mind by the alarm system which is a part of the animal mind. The alarm system is infinitely powerful. (It wouldn't be a very good alarm system if it wasn't). The rational mind is not powerful enough to fight the alarm system but the rational mind can turn the alarms off one by one and thereby free itself. See below to learn how to do that.

Once the rational mind and the animal mind are separate the animal mind can experience pain, or rather fear, while the rational mind knows the danger is only an illusion and that it is safe thus creating the experience of good pain. Good pain has all the thrill and excitement of danger but none of the fear that so greatly interferes with ones ability to enjoy oneself. Good pain is a fundamentally different sensation from bad pain. They are two completely different things. See: Discipline.



Irrational fears

Seeing something that you have an irrational fear of causes alarms to go off inside your head.
The alarms going off inside your head causes you pain.
The pain causes you to have an irrational fear of the thing that caused the alarms which caused the pain.
Its a never ending vicious cycle.

The important thing to note is that it is the alarms that are painful. Not the original stimulus.
Therefore you can break out of that vicious cycle by turning those alarms off.

No alarms = no pain
No pain = no fear
No fear = no alarms

Another way of saying this is that if you believe that it will hurt then it does hurt.
But if you dont believe that it will hurt then it doesnt hurt.
You only need to suspend your disbelief for a few seconds to break out of the cycle

If you can turn the alarms off and thereby stop the pain then why would you not do so?

 

[I.O.U]

Who you really are

Who are you really? You are the human riding the horse. The horse is your animal mind. The animal mind is mainly concerned with bodily functions feelings and urges. The animal mind does whatever it feels like doing whenever it feels like doing it.

You are the observer of the animal mind. You are the human mind. The human mind is the rational mind that objectively observes all things. You observe the external world and your internal world. Externally you observe what is or could happen and internally you observe what things you enjoy and what things you dont. Most importantly you observe the connections between events and whether or not you will enjoy the outcome. You do not "think". You make observations.

The rational mind emerges from the animal mind. But the rational mind cannot emerge from the animal mind as long as it is enslaved to the animal mind. The rational mind is enslaved by the animal mind by the alarm system which is a part of the animal mind. The alarm system is infinitely powerful. (It wouldn't be a very good alarm system if it wasn't). The rational mind is not powerful enough to fight the alarm system but the rational mind can turn the alarms off one by one and thereby free itself. See below to learn how to do that.

Once the rational mind and the animal mind are separate the animal mind can experience pain, or rather fear, while the rational mind knows the danger is only an illusion and that it is safe thus creating the experience of good pain. Good pain has all the thrill and excitement of danger but none of the fear that so greatly interferes with ones ability to enjoy oneself. Good pain is a fundamentally different sensation from bad pain. They are two completely different things. See: Discipline.



Irrational fears

Seeing something that you have an irrational fear of causes alarms to go off inside your head.
The alarms going off inside your head causes you pain.
The pain causes you to have an irrational fear of the thing that caused the alarms which caused the pain.
Its a never ending vicious cycle.

The important thing to note is that it is the alarms that are painful. Not the original stimulus.
Therefore you can break out of that vicious cycle by turning those alarms off.

No alarms = no pain
No pain = no fear
No fear = no alarms

Another way of saying this is that if you believe that it will hurt then it does hurt.
But if you dont believe that it will hurt then it doesnt hurt.
You only need to suspend your disbelief for a few seconds to break out of the cycle

If you can turn the alarms off and thereby stop the pain then why would you not do so?

Because it's just not Biblically sound

 

[granpa]

Why would you say that? Arent you an atheist?

 

[marks]

The rational mind is enslaved by the animal mind by the alarm system which is a part of the animal mind. The alarm system is infinitely powerful. (It wouldn't be a very good alarm system if it wasn't). The rational mind is not powerful enough to fight the alarm system but the rational mind can turn the alarms off one by one and thereby free itself.

Hi granpa,

Very interesting and thought provoking post! It will take me a little while I think to absorb it better. I do have a couple of questions that come to mind.

One is, what is the source of what you term the rational mind, if not the body, and if it is a product of the body, the these would be the higher and lower functions of the same brain, and the same mind? Do you know what I'm saying?

Maybe what I'm thinking . . . Wouldn't this be a closed system? If the "rational mind" gives oversight to the "animal mind", what gives oversight to the "rational mind"? If we can have a mind that leads us the wrong direction, in your example, chasing after captivating alarms, how do we know we aren't going in a wrong direction to turn off those alarms?

One of the biggest alarms is the "fear of death". We consider ourselves mortal, and can't see what waits beyond that mortality, if anything. Should we fear death? Should we not? And how can we know?

Much love!

 

[farouk]

Hi granpa,

Very interesting and thought provoking post! It will take me a little while I think to absorb it better. I do have a couple of questions that come to mind.

One is, what is the source of what you term the rational mind, if not the body, and if it is a product of the body, the these would be the higher and lower functions of the same brain, and the same mind? Do you know what I'm saying?

Maybe what I'm thinking . . . Wouldn't this be a closed system? If the "rational mind" gives oversight to the "animal mind", what gives oversight to the "rational mind"? If we can have a mind that leads us the wrong direction, in your example, chasing after captivating alarms, how do we know we aren't going in a wrong direction to turn off those alarms?

One of the biggest alarms is the "fear of death". We consider ourselves mortal, and can't see what waits beyond that mortality, if anything. Should we fear death? Should we not? And how can we know?

Much love!

@marks Our perspective can be vastly altered if we remember that the Lord Jesus, as revealed in Revelation, is Alpha and Omega, 'the beginning and the ending', 'the first and the last'.

 

[granpa]

One is, what is the source of what you term the rational mind,

how do we know we aren't going in a wrong direction to turn off those alarms?

The rational mind emerges from the animal mind. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence

How do we know anything? By observing. But to do that we must be free to observe objectively and to do that we must turn the alarms off that are preventing us from doing that.

If an alarm is meant to be there then it will quickly reform

 

[GEN2REV]

Age-old, New Age doctrine.

 

[marks]

But to do that we must be free to observe objectively and to do that we must turn the alarms off that are preventing us from doing that

What you propose is using the same mind to diagnose itself. Perhaps if we were able to observe objectively, perhaps we would be able to make truly rational choices, but perhaps not. I don't see how we can get to that point however, in that I assert the "animal mind" and the "rational mind" are both facets of the same mind. I can't use my defective mind to identify defects within my mind, with any confidence at all, I should think.

Much love!

 

[farouk]

What you propose is using the same mind to diagnose itself. Perhaps if we were able to observe objectively, perhaps we would be able to make truly rational choices, but perhaps not. I don't see how we can get to that point however, in that I assert the "animal mind" and the "rational mind" are both facets of the same mind. I can't use my defective mind to identify defects within my mind, with any confidence at all, I should think.

Much love!

@marks I guess the underlying point is that, as per Jeremiah 17, it's the Lord Who searches the heart...

 

[marks]

Age-old, New Age doctrine.

It's a very old idea, that we can improve ourselves by knowing ourselves better, and making better choices. But I posit that we have "corrupt programming", and that you cannot use bad software to diagnose itself. You'll keep getting a wrong result because your diagnostic tools are defective too.

Much love!

 

[granpa]

What you propose is using the same mind to diagnose itself. Perhaps if we were able to observe objectively, perhaps we would be able to make truly rational choices, but perhaps not. I don't see how we can get to that point however, in that I assert the "animal mind" and the "rational mind" are both facets of the same mind. I can't use my defective mind to identify defects within my mind, with any confidence at all, I should think.

Much love!

Not at all. I propose using the rational objective human mind to diagnose the animal mind

 

[marks]

Not at all. I propose using the rational objective human mind to diagnose the animal mind

How is it you have "two minds", and that you have confidence in one that you lack in the other?

Where do each originate?

Much love!

 

[GEN2REV]

It's a very old idea, that we can improve ourselves by knowing ourselves better, and making better choices. But I posit that we have "corrupt programming", and that you cannot use bad software to diagnose itself. You'll keep getting a wrong result because your diagnostic tools are defective too.

And how do we come to know our 'selves' better? By focusing on 'self' and meditating on the 'self.'

This is the General Discussions Forum, and granpa is Agnostic so I have no debate here, but you profess to be a Christian.

Nowhere in scripture does God command/encourage one to focus on the 'self' or meditate upon 'self.' On the contrary, all of scripture supports the concept of focusing on God Almighty, ... meditating on His Ways, etc.

In the late '90s and early 2000s, every shelf in the New Age section of Barnes and Nobles was filled with books, from all Authors, with widely varying titles and topics. All of them taught a very foundationally similar concept.

Ask me how I know.

This idea may be very old, but that doesn't make it accurate ... at all. You could spend multiple lifetimes focusing on 'self' and meditating the decades away and you will come no closer whatsoever to knowing the Truth of things, or mastering your life.

The only path to that destination is through God's Word. Trust me, I studied, preached and taught New Age doctrine for 14 years before God opened my spiritual eyes for the better. The Bible is the only collection of information that answered every life question I have ever had and solved all of the mysteries that I had previously conceded to never solving until I "got to the other side."

The answers we are looking for are not within ourselves. But I can promise you that if you insist on seeking there, you will be guided down endless rabbit holes until all of your time for seeking is expired.

We are mere puppets at the mercy of the spirit realm without friends in high spiritual places. The only way to get in good with those powers we cannot fully imagine, or perceive, is to get in good with a master of that spirit realm. You have only two from which to choose from.

I pray you choose wisely. One of those masters loses definitively in the end ... and takes all those who followed him and his ways along with him.

 

[granpa]

I nowhere said that we can perfect ourselves. I said that we can learn to observe ourselves objectively and that this has certain benefits (good pain)

 

[marks]

Nowhere in scripture does God command/encourage one to focus on the 'self' or meditate upon 'self.'

I don't either. I think you've misread me.

What I said was that our brains aren't working right, so we're not going to get the right answers there.

Much love!

 

[marks]

I nowhere said that we can perfect ourselves. I said that we can learn to observe ourselves objectively and that this has certain benefits

I don't know how any observations you make and conclusions you reach will not be colored by your own self interest.

Much love!

 

[granpa]

I don't know how any observations you make and conclusions you reach will not be colored by your own self interest.

Much love!

By turning the alarms off that are preventing you from seeing things objectively

 

[marks]

By turning the alarms off that are preventing you from seeing things objectively

It's like using colored glasses to see the colors of things.

Much love!

 

[granpa]

It's like using colored glasses to see the colors of things.

Much love!

no it's taking the colored glasses off in order to see the color of things

 

[granpa]

Who you really are

Who are you really? You are the human riding the horse. The horse is your animal mind. The animal mind is mainly concerned with bodily functions feelings and urges. The animal mind does whatever it feels like doing whenever it feels like doing it.

You are the observer of the animal mind. You are the human mind. The human mind is the rational mind that objectively observes all things. You observe the external world and your internal world. Externally you observe what is or could happen and internally you observe what things you enjoy and what things you dont. Most importantly you observe the connections between events and whether or not you will enjoy the outcome. You do not "think". You make observations.

The rational mind emerges from the animal mind. But the rational mind cannot emerge from the animal mind as long as it is enslaved to the animal mind. The rational mind is enslaved by the animal mind by the alarm system which is a part of the animal mind. The alarm system is infinitely powerful. (It wouldn't be a very good alarm system if it wasn't). The rational mind is not powerful enough to fight the alarm system but the rational mind can turn the alarms off one by one and thereby free itself. See below to learn how to do that.

Once the rational mind and the animal mind are separate the animal mind can experience pain, or rather fear, while the rational mind knows the danger is only an illusion and that it is safe thus creating the experience of good pain. Good pain has all the thrill and excitement of danger but none of the fear that so greatly interferes with ones ability to enjoy oneself. Good pain is a fundamentally different sensation from bad pain. They are two completely different things. See: Discipline.



Irrational fears

Seeing something that you have an irrational fear of causes alarms to go off inside your head.
The alarms going off inside your head causes you pain.
The pain causes you to have an irrational fear of the thing that caused the alarms which caused the pain.
Its a never ending vicious cycle.

The important thing to note is that it is the alarms that are painful. Not the original stimulus.
Therefore you can break out of that vicious cycle by turning those alarms off.

No alarms = no pain
No pain = no fear
No fear = no alarms

Another way of saying this is that if you believe that it will hurt then it does hurt.
But if you dont believe that it will hurt then it doesnt hurt.
You only need to suspend your disbelief for a few seconds to break out of the cycle

If you can turn the alarms off and thereby stop the pain then why would you not do so?

Before you do this you might want to strengthen your "dark" muscle (the anti-brotherly-love muscle) which acts as a filter for your eyes (like sunglasses).