August 2021
Inspired by Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (referenced in Happy Is As Happy Thinks), here is an idea for an allegory one might write well into in the 21st century.
It would feature selected modern humans somehow permanently attached to their state-of-the-art, all senses tracking, standalone VR headsets.
The ultimate intuitive, computer-generated, never-ending illusion of reality would maintain these humans in an unreal, life-sized world.
And, like Plato’s cave dwellers, these modern humans would know nothing beyond what they would ‘see’ via their headsets’ field of view.
They would only feel the emotions triggered by that genuinely immersive experience.
Responding to positional tracking, the program would create their ‘world’.
Just as our memories lead us to ‘life as we know it’ and ‘to life as we do it.’
Science tells us that when left unchecked, unprocessed memories of the past drive most of the reactive choices we make on any given day.
When unconscious of their interference, we let them ‘ping’ our psyche.
Serious question: whether blind, as we tend to so often be, to the meaning of our real-life moments or reacting to a life enfolding through highly intuitive headsets, what’s the difference?
Having said that, as free-thinking modern humans who enjoy the freedom of choice, we have the ability to dominate the predictable and mostly toxic monkey chatter that pivots our minds towards pessimism and negativity about ourselves.
Negativity and suspicion about others and their motives, too.
Be they seen or unseen.
Near or far.
Known to us or not.
Dead or alive.
Left unchecked, those thoughts point us towards competition, exclusion and division.
They also point us towards regret.
And towards what we perceive are our limitations.
And towards a ‘poor me’ mindset, as well.
And towards chronic pain and ailments.
And towards anxiety and depression.
And, at times, towards violence to others.
And violence to our selves.
Bottom line: as neutral observers, we accept that whether we feel indifferent – or pricked by our limiting beliefs – or brave and determined – the limitations of our physical body do not always allow us to perceive reality as it is.
That’s because ‘reality’ is what occurs mostly invisibly through and around us – throughout the cosmos and back to the elements of the moment underfoot.
The thing is, this moment will pass as all moments within seconds or minutes.
And, one day, as most of our moments have done by the billions, this moment will vanish beyond consciousness.
Only the painful ones will remain as reinforcing memories of all that ‘naturally’ depletes and limits us.
Reality check #1: the roots we allow unpleasant moments to grow are much stronger than those we allow good, fun and empowering ones.
That’s human nature.
We know it’s true.
Reality check #2: So many ‘alternative’ possibilities remain present but dormant.
So many that it’s not just our minds that are inflamed along with several parts of our human bodies.
It’s also our society.
It’s also our planet.
So, to counteract all of this ‘inflammation’, we can make all that we do as meaningful as possible.
Then, we can reflect on the impact of these meaningful contributions.
We might think many of our daily activities are too mundane to count but, no-no-no, dear Reader.
There are no such things as actions, inactions and responses that are too insignificant to matter.
Of course, it always helps to have clear intentions at our core.
When we accept the need to check in with our selves proactively and regularly, we can bypass failure assessments, a.k.a. ‘Exit Interviews’ – the personal or shared reviews of what went wrong after each failed event.
Over time, we actively train ourselves to replace the default chatter that whirrs as our thoughts throughout every moment of every day.
Once our energy blocks begin to dissipate, we have a much better chance to begin attracting positive energy of the sort that manifests unanticipated ‘lucky breaks’.
Heads up: what begins in our heart never stays only in our heart. 😊
If that makes some sort of sense, dear Reader, then let’s choose to handle this, the moment underfoot, with creative tenacity – and never look back.
Let’s make our thoughts action-based.
Keep reading …
Stay curious …
Ponder and Share 😊
