Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by this author are their own and do not represent the official position of the Barbados TODAY Inc.
by Dick Stoute
You are in a hurry, so I should keep this short. Or is it a mistake to think this way? We are facing complicated issues and if we zoom through them, we miss opportunities. So slow down. We are on pause and you have time to take an amazing journey into your own imagination.
To fix prejudices we have to pay attention to what goes on inside our heads. All our problems, and their solutions are there; inside our consciousness, but we must realise this to fix them. To get started you must shock yourself: soften your convictions, so you can accept new ideas. Start by accepting that all the colours, sounds, tastes, feelings, emotions, ideas, beliefs… everything you are conscious of, is created by your brain. This is scientific fact. Search “The neuroscience of perception” on YouTube and absorb the details.
Be amazed to realise you have a deeply held prejudice against this science. You feel that colours, smells, sounds etc. are out there, a part of the environment, and you don’t believe they are created by your brain. Recognise this is a strong prejudice, the product of your team of emotions; your e-team.
When you look around, your eyes create neural signals and send them to your brain. Go slow, so this sinks in. Our brains use signals from our eyes to shape its colours so they represent what you are looking at.
All the colours you are conscious of are inside your head, created by your brain, but your e-team is not comfortable with this idea. If you pay attention, you can identify the “feels wrong” feeling it generates.
Try it. Look around and tell yourself, “my brain is creating all I am conscious of”. At the same time pay attention to the discomfort this idea creates. It may be difficult to isolate, but persist, it is there.
Your e-team strongly believes grass is green and the sky is blue, and insist the science is wrong. They don’t listen to reason; they rely on generating feelings. Learn to recognise the “feels wrong” feeling they create; it’s what creates prejudices. Let’s go through it again, slowly.
Everything that appears in your consciousness; the colours, sounds, smells, touches, tastes, ideas, feelings beliefs, emotions…every last thing you can be conscious of must be created by your brain; there is no other way for you to be conscious of these things.
Be wonderstruck by your brain’s ability to create the vast cathedral of conscious shapes, smells, tastes, feels, moods, feelings, ideas beliefs… Know that if your brain does not create these, you cannot be conscious of them.
Reason says this is logically irrefutable, but your e-team won’t have it and like an orchestrated team of lawyers, they try to convince you reason is wrong. If you just fly by, you will not grasp the immensity of this counter intuitive fact. It is bigger than the Grand Canyon and the Rift Valley combined, more powerful than the Niagara Falls, more beautiful than the East Coast viewed from Cherry Tree Hill.
Sit in your mental space and dwell on the idea, test it, play with it, cuddle it, welcome it, get your e-team to accept it. Realise your e-team is a part of you and under your control.
The warmth you feel in good company, the love you feel for your spouse, the taste of your meal, the sensuous touch of water on your skin, the peaceful feeling when you take a deep breath.
All these feelings and emotions are brain creations. Your entire conscious world is a brain creation and you need to know how to bring reason and your e-team together.
Your e-team does not listen to reason; they only pay attention to what they experience, so you have to give them experiences. Reason says this letter you are reading is in your imagination; it has to be for you to be conscious of it, but your e-team is sure the letter is in the newspaper you are reading.
Accept that, but also gently nudge the team into accepting the newspaper is different from the image of the newspaper you are conscious of.
Take off your glasses and the image blurs, close your eyes and the image disappears, but the paper is still there. So, the image you are conscious of must be different from the paper. Experiences like this can gradually convince your e-team to accept what reason says. Work on them.
Some emotions in the e-team can get strong and dominant without being noticed. Pay particular attention to fear, it can grow into a Satan very quickly. Before you can blink you are possessed. Don’t fight with him, he grows stronger in a fight. Fighting him is like punching Brer Tar Baby.
Let him calm down. When he turns back into concern, or worry, recognise him as an essential part of your e-team. Thank him for protecting you, but, realise that he is like a little child and can be excited and violent.
The Biblical “Satan” is fear when he is highly excited: a trouble maker who causes stress, fighting and suffering. When you feel him getting stronger, take a deep breath and watch him calm down. He is there to protect you, but can overdo it. We are living through a fear-demic and need to understand how to humor him.
Your e-team needs your leadership and will willingly follow when you take control. When you make friends with your Satan, he becomes an exciting companion and advisor, enjoyment soars, prejudices deflate and Barbados becomes an even better place to live, love and learn.
Dick Stoute is a social commentator.
