Monday, February 04, 2008

BEHAVIOURAL

Within my own model of consciousness, the third level (of four) is the illusion of identity that is so crucial to a person's well-being - that being the gap between what we believe it is we want and what we would truly find fulfilling when we found it; now, if we look inwards (rather than outwards) to comprehend it then it likely becomes a pit of despair.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

William, are you suggesting we would despair at the dreadful acts we wish to commit, or the impossibility of satiating our desires?

Perhaps it is no coincidence that our best interests are served by never fulfilling our desires.

William Bennett said...

Andrew, my suggestion here is that the two very real sides of the chasm are much more effectively reconciled through extrospection; either way, the desires that you refer to one would likely more be found in the fourth level of this model of consciousness

Unknown said...

You seem to be advocating experience without preconceptions or agenda. This is counter to our survival instincts, which dictate we must assess a situation before engaging with it.

Do you think our desires are completely informed by experience, or does genetic inheritance play a role? Do you reject introspection, or simply favour extrospection?

William Bennett said...

I'm really not advocating such a thing - the problem is that I have posted this out of the full context of this 4 level model of consciousness, there will be further posts however

my stated suggestion would only be considered useful at the stated 3rd level

Unknown said...

I’m sorry for being impetuous.

I look forward to further posts.

Brian Conniffe said...

the void of despair (the essence of which is the emotion of loneliness in a general scene and therefore entirely related to a dissociation from external reality) is linked to that which one thinks one wants.

introversion, in other levels of consciousness that - depending on ones point of view - both transcend the fickleness of the ego and are contained in the deep structure beyond / below / behind the conscious mind, can be extremely helpful and important. however, within this level of the "illusion of identity" - you as phrase it - introspection is effectively dictated by the conflicting and often illogical whims of the ego.

it would seem to be place where people make their gods and demons, in a dogmatic rather than a spiritual sense. i have very little time with the overstated pomposities of freudian theory, but i do think there is an interesting and agreeable way to view the notion of "repression". that those things that one chooses to ignore - despite their undoubted existance - to the extent of refusing to speak about it; those things take on a monstrous power over the individual due to being forced out of the primary linguistic considerations.

the overcoming of this gulf / abyss / void / pit is that moment of finding pleasure in what one has right now. depending on what frame an individual is placing on their perception of the reality of the moment in which they exist, anything can be found in anything. and this appreciation is fed with the resources such as imagination applied in engagement with the world around them, within their own perception of time.

which reminds me somewhat of that pesky zen master who's gonna hit the student with that damn stick of his regardless of how "right" or "wrong" they might think something is.

Brian Conniffe said...

also, the whole "snapping someone back to reality" in order to overcome the despair of indulgent introspection reminds me of milton erickson shocking a stifled couple into fertility by utter the word "fuck" in a direct and particular way, and likewise frank farrelly curing a woman of catatonia by plucking out hairs ever higher on her leg...

Luke McElroy said...

I really think looking outwards, learning by experience and having a taste of something to see if you like it, is essential to discover what isn't as great as you expected and what could be more fulfilling, because we obviously don't know everything. This post makes me think of a friend and their Catholic attitudes to love, sex and (obviously) marriage. That's not to say they'll be unfulfilled, but it's just one of many influences that suppress looking outwards in a pure way.