Subject: Serenity – The fact that you talk in your head doesn't mean that you think – but only that you speak
Dear Noam -
I have read you are getting heaps of email every day, so I'll *try* to be brief.
I experience 'a state of mind' that I call 'Serenität' (serenity) in German, my first language.
Basically every adult person I know experiences that they have an inner entity they call ego or self, mind or reason. They believe that this inner self is the true and better and logic and sane and most important part of their existence and that the job of this inner entity is to control the way that their brain works.
I have come to the conclusion that their inner entity is a feedback loop in the communication interface of their brain, driven by language and the wish to improve or the demand to control their behavior. They consider this process a need to adapt to society and improve their personality. I consider that their brains have been washed thoroughly.
I don't believe that there are areas of the human brain that need to communicate with other areas of the same human brain in German, English or Japanese. What could possibly be the point of that?
I read that schizophrenic people often hear mysterious voices that no one else can hear. Unsurprisingly, these voices obviously never manage to speak perfectly in a existing foreign language that the affected schizophrenic person doesn't understand. I have never heard of a Bavarian peasant haunted by a voice that threatens him in Mandarine.
Germans should know best what happens if a weird moral in their brain is taking over.
Their 'mind' is merely an inner narrative that comes into existence because they practice self-talk and self-questioning. They believe this process is a crucial intelligence improving technology, or a means to control their behavior. So they feel they can not live without.
An intelligence improving technology it ain't, but it implements control over individuals that oligarchies and religions learned how to use.
If I ask my fellow humans: 'Do you actively control and influence the operation of your brain?', they answer 'Yes, of course' and I know that often their narrative in response tells them that I ask rather weird questions – some of them were honest enough to tell me ;)
They believe that they have to control the way that their brain thinks and that is indeed weird in my opinion.
Vital organs are autonomous. They don't need deliberate control from a mysterious 'inner entity' in the body that includes them. I don't even need to know that I have a liver, in order that the liver does its job.
Interestingly the most important organ of all allegedly needs to be controlled by a 'mind', which is merely an interesting phenomenon that I observe.
My fellow humans are even getting afraid if they think or talk with me about stopping this process temporarily or permanently, even if they often generously apply drugs to get rid of it for a part of their life-time, despite all the risks.
If you spend every day of your life with controlled thinking, unless you are fast asleep or drunk or unconscious for some other reason, why not take a break when you are sober? Grab a cup of nice tea, sit down in a save place, relax and stop thinking – at least for five short minutes.
Some pretend they can. But they say they don't have the time or need to stop the mind-brain marathon, because life is so demanding. Others openly admit: Because I can't.
So they practice 'Denken' – controlled thinking in German – but they can't stop controlled thinking, because they obviously can't control their controlled thinking...
'I can control my brain, but I can't stop controlling my brain, because I can't.'
If this isn't a formidable delusion, then I'm delusional.
I'm convinced that some people have to try to stop them from the delusion that they have to control how their brain works. I'm convinced that human society could be a better place, if my fellow humans would stop talking with and listening to their inner voice. Which is their mysterious mind controlling technology of alleged self-improvement. I'm trying my best to spread this meme, but it is hard.
These days I'm naming this phenomenon 'The cassandra complex' because I know that the bigger part of their brain knows the truth, but it is more comfortable for a smaller part of their brain to deny it. Denial is the most powerful way for their self to deal with the guilt and shame of admitting how foolish they have been since they started the self-talk as kids. But denial doesn't change a thing for the better. Like Cassandra warning the Trojans about the danger of the trojan horse, they are doomed.
Unfortunately, their inner voice(s) have the final word on everything and the truth looks very dangerous and uncomfortable for them. It is hard to get them out of their self-lies. There are external ways to stop that, though:
New Scientist: Zap your brain into the zone. Fast track to pure focus
The Week: How electrical brain stimulation can change the way we think
But I don't have the means to put such a 'this cap stops the inner narrative in your brain, so you can experience how beautiful life can be without your delusional idea of self-control' on the heads of my fellow humans. And I still believe in the power of words. For example, if people raise their voice that have authority in the eyes of those that rather listen to real or fictional authorities than have their brain think for themselves.
Sometimes I'd like to call them patients, but I'm not a doctor ;)
I will publish this text as a open letter on my web site.
In case I'll get no response because you are too busy reading/answering weird emails, not the whole effort of writing this email is lost.
Cheers,
Elektra Wagenrad
Berlin, Germoney
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My mind has never been so clear, since it disappeared ;)