I always grab the free New Age newspaper as I wander past the mystic shop. Apart from the money makers of self help seminars, I quite often find a snippet that's worth thinking about.
So taking a small sample from a large article on remembering who we really are before this incarnation. The reason we don't remember who we are before reincarnation, is that our souls are made to drink from Lethe, the river of forgetfulness which prevents us from remembering past lives and the current life purpose. Apparently we are supposed to search for it.
"Modern neuroscience reveals to us that the conscious mind is only able to process about 2000 bits of information per second whereas the total mind - subconscious and unconscious is processing something more like 4 billion.
What this means is that what you perceive reality to be creates your reality. So, the existential philosopher Descartes actually had it wrong I think when he wrote, "Cognito ergo sum" - "I think therefore I am". In fact it should be, " I believe, therefore I am".
By believing reality to be a certain way, your subconscious mind actively filters out anything that doesn't fit. So the 2000 bits of information that your conscious mind gets will neatly reflect your fixed view of the world." (article by A. C. Ping)
I'm not much good at Philosophy or wending my way through a 2000 bit mind but "I believe, therefore I am" seems to fit into our world more than it did in Descartes time. Considering the small educated class at that time, there weren't too many thinkers thinking beyond the next meal. Animals think, therefore they are but do animals believe? Well that's as far as I got when the gin ran out so enlightened commenters, your views are welcome. Which is the correct interpretation?
And my previous incarnation, a Druid Oracle in the far far past, I cheated on drinking the water.
11 comments:
This blog is becoming very scholarly.
I think someone's putting gin in my water.
RH: It is always an education.
JahTeh: I would be more worried if someone was putting water in my gin. I am going to have to go away and think about this post. I think I am leaning towards cognito ergo sum: Any number of things I try hard not to believe in have happened to me.
I rarely think, so does that mean that I am....not?
Am I just a figment of my own imagination?
Oh, wait. That would require thinking......
WV: sylly.
yup, that's me alright.
Oh geez, my brain's fried right now but I think your take on it is a very clever one.
But it begs another question - what is belief? Is belief just accepting that you are alive or it is beyond the basic to the spiritual or is it an experience and a lesson learned, or....
..I believe I'll go and find myself a family-sized block of chocolate...
I must thank you Kath, I managed a wonderful street view of Haigh's in Bourke street.
According to one new age site, we are all living in a giant hologram which is slowly winding down to zero point, at which time we all revert to our spiritual not corporeal selves. This is devastating as the theory does not mention taking chocolate or gin with us.
River, you blog therefore you think. You also eat chocolate which requires much thinking considering the
choices available.
Remember your past incarnations?
EC, so much new age weirdness out there but the one that gets to me is the belief that we choose what will happen in our life before we are born. Crapola, if that was true we'd all be living in Trump Towers with a butler and chocolate on demand, the kind that never puts on weight.
This Hologram program apparently is designed for us ethereals to experience human feelings. So obviously I drew one of the short straws for the being fat experiment.
Lethe ? I'm full of it then. Thanks for clearing that up - hope I remember it tomorrow.
I ain't drinking from no River Lethe, no, no no. I don't want to come back thanks very much. But I think you've got it right with I believe therefore I am. Animals don't need to believe they just IS which would be a whole lot less complicated but instead we must discern and there's an awful lot of discernment needed.
More new age than you can poke a stick at with the 'Stars' for the month over at my place.
Miss O'Dyne, it sounds as if you've been drinking a 'brand' of forgetfulness. My mind is not holding much these days either.
Link, I must visit, I'm a sucker for star reading and I've already done the tarot spread for the day. That seems to be right on target but I'm in love with my Druid Plant Oracle cards.
You lost me at 'gin'....
Gary Zukav: The Dancing Wu Li Masters:
"Reality is what we take to be true. What we take to be true is what we believe. What we believe is based upon our perceptions. What we perceive depends upon what we look for. What we look for depends upon what we think. What we think depends upon what we perceive. What we perceive determines what we believe. What we believe determines what we take to be true. what we take to be true is our reality."
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