Problems of overload
In the main blog titled: The Nature of Existence, I talked of signal-to-noise in relation to interpreting dreams and life experiences. When one begins to interpret, one runs into the problem of overload.
When one's mind opens to the fact that everything in life is interpretable, one is in the same situation as a blind person gaining sight. When someone who has been blind from birth suddenly gains the use of their eyes, they are innundated with visual signals which, at first, they can make no sense of. All they are aware of is a meaningless mass of colours and shapes that keep moving and changing, and which are meaningless to them, and, at first, it seems impossible that they will ever be able to make sense of all this stuff. They are in an overload situation, and it is very frightening.
The correct thing for such a person to do, is to only allow themselves to use their eyes for a limited period of time, at first, and only in one relatively 'simple' environment, such as an almost empty room.
The same advice applies to people who are learning to interpret: take it slowly, and do not be frightened if you do sometimes feel overwhelmed. Your mind can, and will, cope. One just has to endure the discomfort for a while.
There is a second overload danger that one encounters. This is associated with abundance. When you get to grips with the idea of the mind as a collection of abilities, and begin to realise that the consequence of this is that anyone can do anything, then, at a personal level, you suddenly have to deal with an abundance of choice. One has been used to having very limited choices in life, for a number of reasons ---
--- that leads me to an aside: one of the limiting factors has been that we think that things of the external world have innate qualities. So, eg, some things are beautiful and others not, some useful and others not. That fact is that, in the words of the old adage: beauty is in the eye of the beholder! That is, the ability to see beauty in something, or to identify usefulness, or whatever, is a learned human ability. ---
--- to get back, then, to abundance of choice. When one realises that one can do, and learn to like doing, anything, then one faces they same sort of overload as I described above. The advice, therefore, is the same. Take it slowly. Allow yourself to expand slowly from your existing core of preferences. And if you do experience an alarming sense of overabundance, or an inability to make descisions, sleep on it, or go back to some old, familiar places, give yourself a rest, and then start forward again.
When one's mind opens to the fact that everything in life is interpretable, one is in the same situation as a blind person gaining sight. When someone who has been blind from birth suddenly gains the use of their eyes, they are innundated with visual signals which, at first, they can make no sense of. All they are aware of is a meaningless mass of colours and shapes that keep moving and changing, and which are meaningless to them, and, at first, it seems impossible that they will ever be able to make sense of all this stuff. They are in an overload situation, and it is very frightening.
The correct thing for such a person to do, is to only allow themselves to use their eyes for a limited period of time, at first, and only in one relatively 'simple' environment, such as an almost empty room.
The same advice applies to people who are learning to interpret: take it slowly, and do not be frightened if you do sometimes feel overwhelmed. Your mind can, and will, cope. One just has to endure the discomfort for a while.
There is a second overload danger that one encounters. This is associated with abundance. When you get to grips with the idea of the mind as a collection of abilities, and begin to realise that the consequence of this is that anyone can do anything, then, at a personal level, you suddenly have to deal with an abundance of choice. One has been used to having very limited choices in life, for a number of reasons ---
--- that leads me to an aside: one of the limiting factors has been that we think that things of the external world have innate qualities. So, eg, some things are beautiful and others not, some useful and others not. That fact is that, in the words of the old adage: beauty is in the eye of the beholder! That is, the ability to see beauty in something, or to identify usefulness, or whatever, is a learned human ability. ---
--- to get back, then, to abundance of choice. When one realises that one can do, and learn to like doing, anything, then one faces they same sort of overload as I described above. The advice, therefore, is the same. Take it slowly. Allow yourself to expand slowly from your existing core of preferences. And if you do experience an alarming sense of overabundance, or an inability to make descisions, sleep on it, or go back to some old, familiar places, give yourself a rest, and then start forward again.
posted by joan @ 9:38 AM
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