Guerrilla Nature

An image for today: This shot was taken on the way back from the trip during which the image for yesterday was taken. The cold temperatures and the relatively short daylight hours of British winter was, as it tends to at this time of year, just beginning to show signs of making way for more temperate and enlightened conditions.

Monday 16^th March 2020

Most academics will realise that Rene Descartes is credited with having first made the statement, “cogito ergo sum”. This Latin phrase translates as, “I think, therefore I am.” After great consideration, most agree that the inverse is the true meaning; I am and therefore I am capable of thought. If we consider thoughts to be the transmission of electrical signals in the brain, this definition covers the measurable processing that relates to all human behaviour; from interpreting the data provided by the stimuli we encounter, to the decisions we make in response.

If we take the previously referred to third option, whereby when someone offers us energy our response is not to resist the offer or take the energy and carry it with us, choosing to accept it and let it go can of course be considered in a purely psychological sense. Someone tries to argue with us, for example. Instead of arguing, we employ a strategy that we know can help to “control” a “natural human tendency” to react defensively. In psychological terms, we are practicing control of the mind to overcome an emotional response that could have detrimental consequences for our wellbeing. We regard this as an instinctive survival response. Is recognising the truth in that suggestion sufficient reason to close off to any possibility that there could be more to each human than the sum of its measurable parts?

Someone who is firmly of the opinion that we are only our body and mind is quite likely to suggest that discussion of “energy transfer” during social and existential interactions is pretentious, or at the very least that it’s not as relevant to such discussions as suggested here. The thing is, if they’re looking to science for answers, they might find that they are hard-pressed to argue against the postulation that everything in the universe is energy and that the quantity of that energy remains constant even as development of the form progresses. If they are prepared to accept that, then how can they realistically suggest that there is no energy transferral during an interaction between two beings? Where does that horrendous feeling come from when an experience leads to a  psychological disturbance? We label that feeling in accordance with our perception so that we can explain to ourselves where it comes from, because we have learned that we need to rationalise emotional fluctuations, so that we can adjust our behaviour, to reduce suffering.

There is another way, which allows us to eliminate the unwanted effects of such sensations immediately and without compromise. If we judge something before we let it go, it becomes more difficult to let it go. That can mean that even if we convince ourselves that the thing has not bothered us, it can leave a residual effect behind. These residues can build up over time, as demonstrated through the increase in use of prescription medications for the “management” of psychological “disorders”. What does it really mean to “let go”? Is it purely psychological?

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This day’s featured creator: Lucy Sheridan

Above: Sunny This Position entry 2020-03-16

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