Raw: Mind over Matter, but what is the Mind?
What are we? Who are we? These are some of the unanswered questions that could change our perception of the past and undoubtedly change the future, for better or for worse – I hope the former. This series of posts will touch upon the subject of the mind, self learning and everything in between. My goal is to be as raw on this matter as possible.
I don’t claim to have the answers, after all I’m just another grasshopper, a Padawan if you wish. All I can offer is my observation and constructive opinion on the matter, and hopefully in this we will learn something new about ourselves or at least open our minds to other possibilities.
This topic is controversial and may cause some unrest but, before you jump down my throat, remember that everyone has a right to their own opinion and this is simply mine. If you wish to vent your concerns, please do so in a constructive way, or start up your own blog.
I have come to realise that in some aspect I am a highly intelligent learning machine. What lead me to this conclusion was an observation on the freedom of choice that I have over simple things in life, which is theoretically none.
Freedom of Choice
I used to believe that we choose our favourite colour or number. But I have come to believe that this – in my opinion – is not a choice we make freely. The reason why my favourite colour is blue is because of social pressure as well as the association I carry with it.
Let’s take a step back and imagine a person that has never come across the concept of colour and does not have the ability to know of such things. Their choices are limited to zero. Now imagine the same person but they have acquired the knowledge of two colours, red and blue, their choices are now limited to these two options. This person would never have the ability to freely choose green as a favourite colour as they do not have any knowledge of it.
Association
In our current society we are mentally programmed to pick our favourite of a number of things, and from a young age our family, teachers and peers ask us ‘What’s your favourite colour?’. It’s a heavy burden, especially on young minds, to pick something from their bucket of knowledge for the sake of fitting in. But fear not, it’s the very same people (with a lot of help from the media) helping us choose our favourite colour. Do any of these sound familiar to you?
Red = Fire, War and Negativity;
Black = Death and Fear;
White = Hope, Light and Happiness;
Green = Grass, Greed and Money.
These associations are not mutually exclusive to these colours, some colours share associations. The way I see it connections and associations create certain paths that lead to specific choices and contribute to my concept of the ‘Freedom of Choice’.
What’s my favourite colour I hear you ask? Well, my choice of blue was based on the calmness that the ocean and sky exhibited but it wasn’t until my late teens that I finally made this choice and created these associations. Since then, whenever it comes to making a choice with regards to colour I will always favour blue subconsciously.
I hope this leaves you with food for thought, and makes you question our reality a bit… but not to the extent of insanity.
Live long and prosper...