As human beings,we harbour an innate desire to find an explanation for everything,so that the world around us could make sense.Besides our sincere efforts, the world still remains incomprehensible.Considering the complexity and vastness of universe,it seems obvious. However,I am often surprised at the realization of how little we understand ourselves. I have never been able to understand why purple light mesmerizes me. I also harbor some strange attraction for all things purple. On looking at purple flowers I can sense some forgotten memory getting stimulated,though I can never actually perceive what I remember-
deja vu!
I also can never understand why memory plays naughty tricks to me. While I often have to curse myself for not being able to remember significant things,sometimes at totally unexpected moments,when my thought process is following something quite irrelevant,some forgotten memory flashes in my mind-memory of some event,some person,some object or even of some forgotten smell. I don't know if such reverse
deja vu happens to everyone.
Coming to
deja vu,I remember being told as a child that we actually are able to perceive few future events in our sleep,though we don't remember them after waking up. And when these events Actually take place,we experience
deja vu. My rational mind never allowed me to believe it after I grew up,but sometimes after encountering the stranger hidden in me,such concepts do fascinate me.
The things we unconsciously gather in our memories must be playing a significant role in shaping our personality as a whole. Though I say unconsciously,I wonder if this process is totally involuntary. In childhood,obviously circumstances play most important role. By circumstance,I mean everything including parents,their lifestyle,culture,friends and other people-playing a role of mentors,knowingly or unknowingly. Perhaps the rate of building up of this unconscious memory is maximum in the childhood. but with developing rationality of mind one can be selective to some extent. Selective,though not in the sense of what we
remember,but at least in the matter of what we present to our memory to remember. I can't help remembering Gandhiji's three monkeys here. I absolutely don't mean to shut off doors to new experiences,but only being
selective to filter off unwanted exposure to few
drastic experiences,including few movies,games or for that matter few sources of such monstrosity in writing. I have seen people praising a movie or a book,for the impact it produced.Though the overall experience was unpleasant,such a work is rated on a higher scale just for the impact.Whereas what it actually means is some unnecessary and unpleasant input that is going to get registered in our unconscious memory and is somehow going to affect our future responses.
I remember a similar thing being mentioned in Rand's
Atlas Shrugged. All evil things have a power to affect us very deeply. So it's better not to think of the evil things even a moment longer than is necessary to fight them.
Bypassing our perceptive awareness,these demons gain entry to the subtle realm of mind and make it a carrier for future maladies in days when it's weakened by adverse circumstances.
Unfortunately,more sensitive a mind is,it tends to have more thirst for enigmatic experiences,increasing its exposure to these deadly demons. Though most often,when it is a matter of circumstances,it is not possible to avoid them,one can at least try to be consciously aware of such an exposure and prevent having a profound influence on mind. The
'All Is Well' funda most certainly works.
Let alone the concepts of past life dramatized by film industry,our
genetic makeup somehow carries the life of our several past generations
in us. Life,in its very basic sense can be viewed as series of
input-outputs and resulting consequences. Circumstances provide the
input of experiences that we receive and our actions-basically the
product of our mind-constitute the output. This in a way makes us select
the next level of input,i.e,new circumstances,and determines the
direction of our life's journey. Since the output we provide is a
product of our mind,which in turn is shaped depending on previous inputs
that we have received,the process is sometimes a vicious cycle. One's
genetic makeup is affected by this input-output circuits and strangely
thus,continues affecting future generations.
I have recently been
reading a book by David Bohm, in which the concept of creative metaphor
is beautifully explained.The creative play of mind somehow works by
building up metaphors. For
understanding something new,our mind
compares it with something we already know. Even the perception of
vision involves a similar play. As the author says,the overall
disposition of the mind to apprehend objects in particular ways plays an
important role in helping to select and give form to what is
seen,i.e,to integrate a meaningless jumble of visual impressions into
true seeing. Thus it can be said that unnecessary accumulation of
negative data certainly affects the overall disposition of mind and the responses it generates.
One
can argue here that it is not practical to avoid exposures to such
negative experiences as they prepare,or say,toughen us for future
adverse events. However,future always seems to be a step ahead of what
we are prepared for. And even if someone consciously subjects himself to
such exposures,for say,better knowledge of the world and the self,no
human being is capable of being constantly aware of what is gaining
entry into
subconscious and affecting his self.
Considering all this,it is often necessary to cheat yourself with
all is well sense,and
irrespective of one's individual beliefs,the concept of god and
divinity makes it easier to achieve such a sense. This perhaps is the
reason for god being an inspiration for most of the works of arts for
centuries...
Circumstances is something beyond our control but to some extent we can achieve a balance of these
positive and
negative exposures to protect the
self. To quote Nietzsche, "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not
become a monster himself. For if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss
will gaze back into you.”
