More than a memory
stoneange
Posts: 27
I was talking with my dear friend Robert about memory and the past and what that phrase, “the past” really means.
Why is understanding this uniquely human concept so important? Because I believe all of our psychological “issues” are founded and defined by “the past”.
See the awful, wonderful, amazing truth is: The “Past” does not exist.
I know sometimes it “feels” like it does, but it simply does NOT.
As humans we want to quantify and embody. Nowhere is this more evident than in our concepts of “emotions” and “the past”.
Emotions aren’t actual “things”. The word is a description of psychological and physiological reactions to stimuli.
There is no actual thing called “hate”. There is a firing of chemicals in your brain, connecting synapses and adrenaline shooting through your body, but hate is not an actual “thing”.
This “emotion” is simply a description of reactions. You tense up, you mentally access prior occasions/patterns where a similar set of stimuli resulted in an unacceptable outcome, and you project possible future outcomes that are also unacceptable.
You are comparing the pattern of the current situation to the pattern of similar situations and determining that it is a damaging situation or could possibly result in a future-damaging situation.
But commonly, emotions are thought of as actual things. We embody. We think that “love”, “joy”, “passion”, “contempt”, “anger”, and on and on and on - actually exists as separate entities. But ALL of these are simply descriptions of mental and physical reactions to stimuli.
Ok – what does that have to do with the dangerous and destructive concept of a “living past”?
Because we as humans attempt to embody the past with the same “existence” as we do emotions.
“The past” is not still happening.
“The past” is NOT still happening.
“The past” is NOT still happening.
It is not waiting behind us as if we could take a step back and it would be waiting.
THE ONLY REALITY IS THIS VERY SECOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Period. End of story. That’s it.
The horrible day you had ten years ago is not still going on somewhere back there.
THAT DAY AND ALL “MEMORY” IS NOTHING BUT A RECORDED PATTERN OF STIMULI IN YOUR BRAIN CELLS. IT IS NOT REAL. IT NO LONGER EXISTS IN SOME BOX YOU MIGHT SOMEDAY BE FORCED TO VISIT. IT CANNOT HURT YOU.
Now, of COURSE we learn from patterns. Patterns and sensory input that produce pleasure – we enjoy and hope to repeat. Puppy’s breath – that’s a good one. When my baby girl smiles at me like I’m a superhero – that one’s pretty incredible. But they are simply records of my sensory reaction to stimuli. They NO LONGER EXIST. ALL that exists is this very moment.
WHY is understanding that the “past” is just a sensory record so vital?
Because so many people live in a cage of their own making.
The bully (or relative) that beat the shit out of you in third grade is not back there waiting. The lover that crushed your soul years ago does not stand still in that time and place and continue crushing for eternity. Once a moment has “past” – it disintegrates in the mighty cheese grater of time.
Once things happen in a particular moment – that moment is GONE forever.
All that remains is your sensory record.
So fortunately, the choice is up to you. If you choose to “re-experience” that moment by RECREATING your physiological and psychological reaction, you can. Your body/brain is so amazing that you can embody the sensory record of some set of circumstances with the same set of reactions.
But like a Broadway Play – YOU are the director mentally recreating YOUR REACTIONS to that event that occurred but NO LONGER EXISTS.
And most fortunately, you also have the ability to examine a pattern or set of events that happened WITHOUT experiencing the same set of reactions. You CAN look at situation coldly, dispassionately – when you genuinely understand that it is NO LONGER HAPPENING.
For example, have you ever looked back on a particular situation/ set of circumstances and felt much differently about it than you did back when it was actually occurring? NOTHING about the actual situation changed, only your mental and physical reactions.
THAT is how we forgive.
If you stab me, at the moment I’m really pissed. But eventually I might mentally convert my reaction from aggression to sympathy. Maybe I discover that you were mentally unstable for some reason at the time you decided to stab -
and that changes my FEAR that you will stab me again. In fact – MOST of the time we have a negative reaction to our mentally recorded events, it is because we somehow fear that the pattern will somehow repeat.
So what can we do with this information?
Use it to diffuse the “power” the “past’ has in our lives.
Nothing that ever happened to you exists any more. It evaporated the very instant after it occurred. ALL that can ever HAPPEN is this absolute “present” moment.
“TIME” is NOT a thing!!!!!!!!! It is simply a measurement of change. Period.
So – LET IT ALL FUCKING GO! Please.
This of course doesn’t mean we can’t learn from situations that have occurred. We learn from the “pattern” of that situation. If you stab me – and I receive no additional data that leads me to conclude you have stopped your fucked up stabbing ways – then I will AVOID you in the future, so that I will not receive that stabbing again.
But just because I recognize you as a stabber, that DOES NOT MEAN I am required to re-live that initial stabbing over and over. I can recognize the event without giving it life.
I can recognize an event without giving it life.
I can recognize an event without giving it life.
The only way the “past” comes back to “life” is if I re-engineer my sensory reaction to the event. Even then it is not real – I am just re-experiencing a set of reactions.
It’s just a set of info store in my data banks. It’s no longer happening.
Why is understanding this uniquely human concept so important? Because I believe all of our psychological “issues” are founded and defined by “the past”.
See the awful, wonderful, amazing truth is: The “Past” does not exist.
I know sometimes it “feels” like it does, but it simply does NOT.
As humans we want to quantify and embody. Nowhere is this more evident than in our concepts of “emotions” and “the past”.
Emotions aren’t actual “things”. The word is a description of psychological and physiological reactions to stimuli.
There is no actual thing called “hate”. There is a firing of chemicals in your brain, connecting synapses and adrenaline shooting through your body, but hate is not an actual “thing”.
This “emotion” is simply a description of reactions. You tense up, you mentally access prior occasions/patterns where a similar set of stimuli resulted in an unacceptable outcome, and you project possible future outcomes that are also unacceptable.
You are comparing the pattern of the current situation to the pattern of similar situations and determining that it is a damaging situation or could possibly result in a future-damaging situation.
But commonly, emotions are thought of as actual things. We embody. We think that “love”, “joy”, “passion”, “contempt”, “anger”, and on and on and on - actually exists as separate entities. But ALL of these are simply descriptions of mental and physical reactions to stimuli.
Ok – what does that have to do with the dangerous and destructive concept of a “living past”?
Because we as humans attempt to embody the past with the same “existence” as we do emotions.
“The past” is not still happening.
“The past” is NOT still happening.
“The past” is NOT still happening.
It is not waiting behind us as if we could take a step back and it would be waiting.
THE ONLY REALITY IS THIS VERY SECOND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Period. End of story. That’s it.
The horrible day you had ten years ago is not still going on somewhere back there.
THAT DAY AND ALL “MEMORY” IS NOTHING BUT A RECORDED PATTERN OF STIMULI IN YOUR BRAIN CELLS. IT IS NOT REAL. IT NO LONGER EXISTS IN SOME BOX YOU MIGHT SOMEDAY BE FORCED TO VISIT. IT CANNOT HURT YOU.
Now, of COURSE we learn from patterns. Patterns and sensory input that produce pleasure – we enjoy and hope to repeat. Puppy’s breath – that’s a good one. When my baby girl smiles at me like I’m a superhero – that one’s pretty incredible. But they are simply records of my sensory reaction to stimuli. They NO LONGER EXIST. ALL that exists is this very moment.
WHY is understanding that the “past” is just a sensory record so vital?
Because so many people live in a cage of their own making.
The bully (or relative) that beat the shit out of you in third grade is not back there waiting. The lover that crushed your soul years ago does not stand still in that time and place and continue crushing for eternity. Once a moment has “past” – it disintegrates in the mighty cheese grater of time.
Once things happen in a particular moment – that moment is GONE forever.
All that remains is your sensory record.
So fortunately, the choice is up to you. If you choose to “re-experience” that moment by RECREATING your physiological and psychological reaction, you can. Your body/brain is so amazing that you can embody the sensory record of some set of circumstances with the same set of reactions.
But like a Broadway Play – YOU are the director mentally recreating YOUR REACTIONS to that event that occurred but NO LONGER EXISTS.
And most fortunately, you also have the ability to examine a pattern or set of events that happened WITHOUT experiencing the same set of reactions. You CAN look at situation coldly, dispassionately – when you genuinely understand that it is NO LONGER HAPPENING.
For example, have you ever looked back on a particular situation/ set of circumstances and felt much differently about it than you did back when it was actually occurring? NOTHING about the actual situation changed, only your mental and physical reactions.
THAT is how we forgive.
If you stab me, at the moment I’m really pissed. But eventually I might mentally convert my reaction from aggression to sympathy. Maybe I discover that you were mentally unstable for some reason at the time you decided to stab -
and that changes my FEAR that you will stab me again. In fact – MOST of the time we have a negative reaction to our mentally recorded events, it is because we somehow fear that the pattern will somehow repeat.
So what can we do with this information?
Use it to diffuse the “power” the “past’ has in our lives.
Nothing that ever happened to you exists any more. It evaporated the very instant after it occurred. ALL that can ever HAPPEN is this absolute “present” moment.
“TIME” is NOT a thing!!!!!!!!! It is simply a measurement of change. Period.
So – LET IT ALL FUCKING GO! Please.
This of course doesn’t mean we can’t learn from situations that have occurred. We learn from the “pattern” of that situation. If you stab me – and I receive no additional data that leads me to conclude you have stopped your fucked up stabbing ways – then I will AVOID you in the future, so that I will not receive that stabbing again.
But just because I recognize you as a stabber, that DOES NOT MEAN I am required to re-live that initial stabbing over and over. I can recognize the event without giving it life.
I can recognize an event without giving it life.
I can recognize an event without giving it life.
The only way the “past” comes back to “life” is if I re-engineer my sensory reaction to the event. Even then it is not real – I am just re-experiencing a set of reactions.
It’s just a set of info store in my data banks. It’s no longer happening.
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Comments
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
- the great Sir Leo Harrison
"Forgive every being,
the bad feelings
it's just me"