Mind and the world around us.

**NOTE: No wiki links or videos are included in this thread, please just google anything you are unsure of, its also a pretty big read**

I have been around ATS for a while now, started a thread to test the waters and have consequently decided to dive right in to the deep end, so journey with me as we discover the link between the mind and the world around us !

The best place to begin would be to discuss the idea that our mind is structured, but what is this structure and how complex is it ? We can essentially split mind into two separate entities : Unconscious and conscious mind. Unconscious mind is like a super computer, its the part of you which decodes all sensory input, while conscious mind can be described as an imaginary construct designed to imbue the possessor with an identity. Depending on which psychological school of thought you conform to you can describe these two constructs in many different ways, cognitive psychology seeks to explain these constructs in terms of computational models, it dictates that our mind can be likened to a computer in that there is an input (sensory data) a process (cognitive functions such as memory encoding) and finally an output (a response).

However a much more exotic theory is used by psychoanalytical schools of thought, they believe our unconscious mind can be further split up into more constructs : That of the id and super ego (some also believe in constructs such as 'the shadow', 'the anima or animus' among others) , the id is a child like entity in that it has no moral compass, it seeks only to satisfy internal desires and nothing more, while the super ego is like a parent in that it dictates what is right or wrong.

Most psychologists agree that the most accurate model of the mind is somewhere in-between the cognitive and psychoanalytical models and is not exclusively one or the other, but that’s not what we are here to discuss. So we have discussed how our mind is the result of varies structures, now lets get to the good bit !

Many psychologists believe that mind and reality are inseparable, and that they each exert a force on one another. So lets examine this link shall we ? An often asked question on these boards are 'why does evil exist', well what if evil exists because you feel physical pain ? Or what if evil exists because you feel fear ? Most would say 'wait a minute...evil causes pain and fear, not the other way around !!' well what if it was the 'other way round' ?

At the dawn of consciousness sat an animal, this animal persistently hurt itself but also ate delicious food , it soon realized that food was 'good' and pain was 'bad', how did it realize this ? Well food eaten gives a sense of satisfaction or pleasure will pain is...well...painful and most unpleasant. So how does good and bad evolve into good and evil ?

Well as we grew in awareness we realized certain objects caused pain to all animals, these objects were consequently labelled as evil because they inflict pain and cause fear (fear is the anticipation of pain). But then what is the difference between right and wrong and good and evil ? Well an action may be labelled as 'right' or 'wrong' depending on the desired consequences of that action, if for example you are trying to gain pleasure from something which causes pain this action Is labelled wrong because the desired consequence (pleasure) will not be achieved by interacting with something which causes pain.

So how does this all fit with our thread hmm ? Well what if this link between mind and reality went much deeper than simply moral beliefs ? What if our mind was 'structurally' the exact same as the earth in its natural form ?

Throughout nature we see a re-occuring pattern, that the expression of a macro-system is caused by a micro-system and that this micro-system is often very similar to the expressed macro-system, most call this a fractal effect. For example if we examine the veins of a leaf and then examine the structure tree we see that both follow a similar pattern. So what if our mind followed the same concept...only on a global scale ?

We have developed on this planet for millions of years, and so our mind has done so as well. What if inside our own minds is the key to explaining or even predicting global phenomena ? So lets return to the idea that a leafs vein structure is very similar to the resulting tree structure. Now imagine the earth is the tree and we humans are the leaf.

So what am I getting at ? Well by examining the change in our own mind 'structures' we could predict changes in our planet earth (or vice versa). I am planning on further building this paradigm but so far I have got this :

Our subconscious mind is equivalent to the ocean.
Our conscious mind is equivalent to the land.
Archetypes equivalents are animals (for example the archetype of 'warrior' is the bull and other animals synonymous with bulls)
Trees are equivalent to ageing
continents are equivalent to identity and therefore various subconscious structures (such as shadow, animus / anima but not id or super ego !!)
Fire is equivalent to transformation
Water is equivalent to mind
Earth is equivalent to body
Wind is equivalent to time (maybe..)


So lets put this theory into practice shall we ? If ageing is synonymous with trees surely we would expect to see a change in the 'ageing process' because of all the deforestation (or the other way round) .Well I believe I can demonstrate such changes, lets break down ageing into 'childhood, adolescence and adulthood' and tree growth into 'sapling, mid grower and finally canopy reacher / fruit bearer.

It is normally canopy reachers (the tallest and oldest trees) which are cut down, the result on our psyche is as follows: We lose the concept of 'adulthood' in that many of us remain in an adolescent state of mind for the rest of our lives. However it should be noted that it is unclear if we cut all the canopy reaching trees down because we were unable to reach the 'adult' concept of identity or whether cutting all the canopy reaching trees resulted in us being unable to achieve an adult identity.

So lets look at the continents shall we ? As continents drift apart or change in characteristic 'identities' (for example America used to be serene but is now a hub of mainstream media) so must our own unconscious structures, so lets say America is the equivalent to the 'hope' structure in our own unconscious mind (im not saying it is so bear with me) as America becomes progressively more distant from this idea of representing 'hope' so our own unconscious minds will develop along the same lines, until one day this concept of 'hope' is replaced with whatever America is becoming (consumption??)

My theory draws parallels with Lovecrafts Gaia theory, however they differ in that I dictate our mind is the fractal equivalent to the earth while he dictates our body is the fractal equivalent to the earth. But there Is the basic theory, could you come up with any earth structures and there equivalent mind structure? Do you believe this theory to be at all applicable ? Discuss !

Good and evil do not exist.. I'll give you a controversial example.

Many of the players in the North American professional sports leagues ancestors were stolen from Africa and put into bondage. Most people would say this is Evil. Had their ancestors not been put into bondage there is a chance they or their children would still be slaves mining metals to make Iphones or picking cocoa. Slavery may have been the best thing that ever happened to them.

I have never heard of it that way and i have a lot of thinking to do, I think you have a deep mind and you are on the right track to uncovering who we are, I wonder how much do you know about the evolution of the mind? I would love to go deeper with you i think we could really tip the cip. i promised myself that i would leave a quote for every one i read and like, so here's yours-The echo's of etrenity has reached me and it told me "Find me" and i said "ok".