Title: Mindscape Designer

Gender: Male

Age: Ageless

Sun Sign: Leo

Chinese Sign: Metal Horse

Location: Naperville, IL

I value introspection, practicality, and logic. Adhering to a belief is unreasonable unless it doesn't have sold evidence, and people have an erroneous tendency to uptake unwarranted beliefs just because they need something to believe in: this is merely the ego (which needs beliefs to assert its own existence) disguising itself in spirituality. This doesn't mean that we shouldn't believe in anything; it simply means we should be wary of our beliefs and ascertain their validity.

My own beliefs are based upon my experiences with an anxiety disorder and its subsequent elimination. Fundamentally, I believe the mind and body protect the consciousness. Through some error in its makeup (sin?), the mind overreacts to external threats, is traumatized, and constructs fear, which is the orgin of all suffering. By becoming aware of our thoughts, we can root out and eventually destroy fear. Meditation is the core of this process.

Anyway, there is obviously more to this philosophy, but I cannot impart all of it here lest I bore you to death. I hope to publish a book eventually, though this will probably not occur for at least a decade. Ideally, it will help people with anxiety disorders (nearly one out of every five American adults) along with mentally healthy people who would simply like to increase their happiness.

As you might be able to tell, I've been heavily influenced by Buddhism and at one point considered myself Buddhist, but, since I am uncertain about reincarnation or karma, I find that “Buddhism,” in the way that it is used today, does not accurately encapsulate my beliefs.

I'd rather discuss than debate. I'd rather cooperate with other ponderers to find the most probable truth rather than instigate my own beliefs. The obstinate attachment to beliefs only triggers ignorance, hostility, and violence.

I am also concerned about poverty. These two sites are free ways to liberate the impoverished. People should not suffer because of their birthplace!









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About the Book

As I do not want to copy and paste my current work, what is here is only a fraction; it may lack some bits of logic, evidence, or detail. I trust that the people on this network have the decency to abstain from plagiarism, and I thank you for a place where I can safely share my ideas. If you have any questions, suggestions, compliments, stories, etc., message me.

Our minds and bodies are protective structures; their anatomies both suggest a mutual defensive function; hence the skeletal structure, reflexes, the senses, etc. The body protects the mind. The mind protects the body. Both protect themselves, and both protect the consciousness, or soul.

The consciousness is the state of awareness that transcends thinking and mental processes. It may be created by the brain. In this sense, it can be considered as part of the “mind,” as “mind” is traditionally defined. This is but a semantical issue. For the purposes of this work, the two will be seperated for clarity.

The consciousness has no personality nor thoughts. It is merely awareness. It can “see” thoughts, beliefs, and perceptions, but it cannot directly control these; it can only be aware of them, and the awareness automatically influences them–so, in this case, the observer affects the observed.

To momentarily return to my first point, the mind is a defensive mechanism. It is meant to protect the consciousness. The five senses are defensive mechanisms, as the gather data regarding the environment and thus can detect danger. It also controls the body for the same reason. Apprehension and emotional are all natural defensive mechanisms.

Naturally, things should be function properly. But there is something wrong with the mind. For an unknown reason–perhaps “sin”–it is too adept at its function; it constructs fear to protect the consciousness.

In the way that they are used herein, “caution” is productive, because it protects the body from probable external threats without contaminating emotion, while “fear” is obstructive; the fearful mind irrationally perceives nonexistent or highly improbable threats and influences emotions negatively.

The construction of fear is called “trauma,” which is a response to a combination of external conditions that the mind perceives to be severely threatening to survival, even if it consciously understands that such conditions cannot harm it–this is the triggering event.

What does fear do to behavior?
1. It will cause repulsion in certain subjects related (clearly or vaguely) to the trigger event. This is usually tolerably obstructive (i.e. fear of snakes), unless the realm of association expands to an highly unreasonable degree (associating snakes with rope, thread, etc).
2. Rationally or irrationally predicting that the triggering event will reoccur or that it is likely to reoccur, it will initiate desensitization devices. This is the heart of fear and manifests through mental imagery, which may be connected to thought patterns/trends. What the mind is actually doing is convincing itself that it is actually part of its own imagined scenarios–according to brain scans, the mind treats sight and imagination similarly. Using the desensitizing method of exposure, it tries to “expose” itself to the triggering event again in grossly exaggerated scenarios.

In this, however, it fails. Imagination is ineffective as a desensitization device. Therefore, the mind, trapped within instinctual protection strategies, is throwing itself into a sufferable, hypothetical situation uselessly and continuously. Thus, it imprisons itself in a perpetual state of unnecessary agony.

So how do we regain the minds that we stole from ourselves? Metacognition–awareness of the thoughts–must be established. The deleterious perception that we are our thoughts must be abolished; we must learn to control the mind, not the converse.

As the sun nurtures all life, so too must we shine the radiance of our souls upon our otherwise tenebrous minds and nourish the compassion and intellect that dwells within.

I'd love to hear from anybody. : )

Member Since: Monday, February 19 2007

Last Visit: 180 days ago.

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