Understanding Other Minds

[Lilia]

Hi friends.

I have recently started interviewing the people I trust on their minds' content. I have been doing so because I noticed I am prone to generalisation, but wouldn't want to base my understanding of the relative world on false conclusions. So instead of asserting "most people are close-minded" or "most people don't question reality deeply enough", I decided to probe directly, as deeply as I could, to discover direct first-hand accounts that Consciousness that "be-s" other minds gives when it is self-reflecting.

So for example, some of the questions I asked were: 

"What thoughts do you think when you're walking somewhere?"

"What happens in your mind when you are challenged?"

"How often, if ever, do you think about the purpose of life?

"How often, if ever, do you question your own mind?" etc.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on this "project". I would appreciate your answers to those or suchlike questions and also suggestions of other questions along those lines. I realise the mind is prone to self-deception and when it responds, it should be taken into account. Still, I think there is value.

[allislove]

Have you looked into Spiral Dynamics model?

[Lilia]

1 hour ago, allislove said:

Have you looked into Spiral Dynamics model?

Hi allislove. Yes, it has been very helpful. Can I wonder how you think it is connected with my specific inquiry?

[allislove]

22 minutes ago, Lilia said:

Hi allislove. Yes, it has been very helpful. Can I wonder how you think it is connected with my specific inquiry?

Hi, Lilia. Sure. 

You wrote that you are prone to generalization, understanding the Spiral Dynamics model may help to see wider.  At the end any model is just a model.

To understand "other" minds firstly you have to understand yours. I'd direct the inquiry "internally" and wonder "who am I?", "how do I feel?" as often as possible.

[Lilia]

6 minutes ago, allislove said:

Hi, Lilia. Sure. 

You wrote that you are prone to generalization, understanding the Spiral Dynamics model may help to see wider.  At the end any model is just a model.

To understand "other" minds firstly you have to understand yours. I'd direct the inquiry "internally" and wonder "who am I?", "how do I feel?" as often as possible.

Thank you for your reply.

Just as you wrote, the better you understand your own mind, the better you understand "another's". By that, I guess you meant you understand the principles by which the mind runs (rationalisation, denial, generalisation, bypassing, etc.) - please correct me if that's not what you meant. At a certain point, you may grasp the nature of the mind experientially (and from your message, it sounds like you have). But although the nature of the whole thing may be grasped, there seems to be "clusters" of idiosyncratic content, which seem to be - for the lack of a better word - attached to the bodies. Those clusters seem to be "worn" by Consciousness depending on the specific conditioning it has designed for itself.

If you don't mind spending a little bit of time with me, have you ever wondered what thoughts arise in "other minds" that you, Consciousness, dream alongside the one that is engaging in this conversation?

[Lilia]

More details: My research has been prompted by a discrepancy between what I hear Leo saying sometimes (e.g. "Most people do not question reality deeply enough") and the configuration of my own mind (I have always been curious about questioning reality).

So I thought: "Do they not?"

And so my field study started. 

One way to figure out the content of one's mind may be to watch their activity and induce the impulses that bring about such behaviour. Developmental psychology models have succeeded more or less at studying this link, but as @allislove said, they are models. No model equals the experience it represents. I guess my research boils down to me wanting to experientially verify or falsify generalised assertions about "normies" circulating in our culture. 

 

[allislove]

Quote

Those clusters seem to be "worn" by Consciousness depending on the specific conditioning it has designed for itself.

Sounds good to me.

Quote

If you don't mind spending a little bit of time with me, have you ever wondered what thoughts arise in "other minds" that you, Consciousness, dream alongside the one that is engaging in this conversation?

My pleasure. Other & your mind is a thought by itself. The trick is to investigate the nature of thinking ("I"-thought specifically). Once it's investigated the experience of thinking has no difference with sound of birds.

Quote

One way to figure out the content of one's mind may be to watch their activity and induce the impulses that bring about such behaviour.

There is no separate content, the Source is one. Another way to approach it is to look how you feel in every moment. The feelings is a guidance system. 

Quote

I guess my research boils down to me wanting to experientially verify or falsify generalised assertions about "normies" circulating in our culture. 

 

These few amazing videos by Leo may be helpful  

[Lilia]

@allislove Thank you for your reply.

[kinesin]

3 hours ago, Lilia said:

More details: My research has been prompted by a discrepancy between what I hear Leo saying sometimes (e.g. "Most people do not question reality deeply enough") and the configuration of my own mind (I have always been curious about questioning reality).

It's just his ego speaking.  When he says that, he's demonstrating his own belief that other people don't question things deeply enough, despite the fact that he doesn't actually know what other people are thinking.  I tend to believe the opposite, from my own personal experience, that most people think far *more* deeply about things than someone might otherwise assume.

[Lilia]

1 hour ago, kinesin said:

It's just his ego speaking.  When he says that, he's demonstrating his own belief that other people don't question things deeply enough, despite the fact that he doesn't actually know what other people are thinking.  I tend to believe the opposite, from my own personal experience, that most people think far *more* deeply about things than someone might otherwise assume.

Thank you for sharing your view on that, kinesin. I wonder if Leo's assertions "what others think" could simply be a figure of speech, employed for emphatic effect. I bet he is conscious of the assumptions that his mind operates on. Perhaps some people get motivated best when being criticised. Others learn best from respect. But you cannot cater for everybody, you know.

Yes, it is true there are no apparent others. At the absolute level, there is only one nothing. However, I do not think that should prevent us from exploring how consciousness "births itself out" in a way that we may conceptualise of as a variety of minds on a relative level. Relative truths are no less interesting than the absolute.

Edited June 15, 2021 by Lilia
Spelling&Grammar