That was such a great article. The minds eye is so important to exercise. I use the mind's eye as a backdrop for all of my thinking. E.g. I have a rough mental image of history. It starts about 10,000 years ago when we settle down and became farmers. Then it jumps to 6000 years ago when they developed the first alphabet, 3000 years ago when we had the Venetian alphabet, 700 years ago the Iliad and the Odyssey and then 500 years ago, the ancient Greeks. The amazing great ancient Greeks I should say.
Then I start again with the fall of Rome in 400 A.D., the Middle Ages, Gutenberg's printing press, age of enlightenment, Darwin's publication of the origin of species, and then other special events like Maxwell's equations, Einstein's ideas, early 20s 30s 40s 50s,etc.
Digressing's, sort of, I think the events of the 60s was the critical mass achieved 100 years after Darwin published his work on the origin of species. Our history should be before Darwin and after Darwin, because Darwin changed everything.
The point being, you can sort of see how the human species consciousness ebbed and flowed, it evolved and devolved, over time and it gives you a frame a reference. The most amazing thing in all of this history, for me, is how the ancient Greeks managed to get as smart as they were during the time they did, completely surrounded by absolute pervasive barbarism.
E.g. if one reads the writings of Plato or Socrates or any one of 100 ancient Greeks, you can't find anyone for over 1000 years that can think at that level.
Anyway, I remember reading that Einstein quit that school and went to the school that taught how to imagine things and I can really relate to that.
I have been doing a little writing over the last year, and I started using Dragon instead of typing. What I found happened was that my mind seemed to work a lot better when I could just speak my thoughts rather than having to struggle with both typing and things like spelling. E.g. if I want to talk about people like Nietzsche, or other difficult to spell names, I don't have to slow down. Additionally, what I found getting back to the minds eye is that I can summon an image in my mind and then play it forward like a videotape and simply narrate what I can see.
I would strongly encourage you to get the evolution of consciousness by Robert Ornstein, and if you like that a few of his other books. Because he really goes into all of this stuff in a way that no other author I ever found does. He is completely changed the way I see the mind working.
Very nice to hear from You Again Road Walker. It heartens me to know there are people like you in the world. I am in Las Vegas at the moment and the degree of conspicuous consumption, shallowness and pervasive poverty is very depressing. Your posts are sort of like a beacon of light in the dark void. |
