An Interesting Thought About Thoughts

A couple of posts ago, RxR (Reasonandrhyme) told me I was getting too "wax philosophical", so I will try to provide as much evidence as possible.

Have you ever thought how much of your mind is under your control? It's an interesting question, to think that you are not your own at some times ("you" in this phrase could simply mean your actions or the generation of thoughts). Or are you?

Lets take a few examples were you have almost no control of your actions. Hold your breath. Hold it more. Keep holding it. Now, wait 3 minutes before you breath. Eventually, you will either give up and begin breathing again, or you will pass out and begin breathing again. Either way, your body (or rather, a part of your mind) went against your will to save you from this stupid request. To summarize, your mind was not your own.

If you have some music you like to listen to, play it now. Now, without moving, stop listening to it. Impossible, right? Your will has no control to shut off your ears, or rather, the synaptic reactions in the brain that causes the sensation of hearing. To summarize, your mind was not your own.

For my last example, stare at the wall and do not blink. Count how long you can wait before you either unintentionally blink or the pain is too much for you to keep at it. To expand on the former, your brain usually blinks without you having to think, and you accidentally did not stop it. On the latter, your brain gave you the increasing sensation of pain to break your foolish will. To summarize, your mind was not your own.

So, what is the point of all this? I wanted to demonstrate that we do not have absolute control of what our mind does (which becomes evident with our body actions). I wanted to show that there are parts of the brain that are mechanical and undeniable. I wanted to bring to front that we are not always our own.

Why does this matter? In the context here, it really doesn't; it is good to breath, listen, and blink. It is good that our mind puts these safeguards against our sometimes foolish wills. But the question arises, when are these safeguards actually harmful?

When you didn't do your homework because you didn't feel like it. (Even thought you know the importance of it.)

When you hit your little brother because of the words he said or the things he did. (Even thought you know you are wrong to hit him.)

When you meet a new person, and your mind tells you to run away because they are not cool, or they are strange, or they give you a bad feeling in you gut. (It was this same natural safeguard that caused slavery, segregation, and the Holocaust.)

Always Sincerely,

The Music Man