from the outside people’s minds seem
like pretty straightforward places what
we hear people saying suggests a certain
logic order and coherence but inside the
mind it’s a very different effort here
things are infinitely more complex
fractured and multi-layered and
confusing amidst the shadowy tangled
darkness one can imagine a single
brightly lit zone like a spotlight in a
cave the area that normally goes by the
term consciousness this is where we do
our rational thinking where ideas are
clarified where plans are put on a
systemic footing where we order and
clean up our thoughts but the key thing
about the way we work is that unless we
take very special measures most of what
is inside the mind will remain far
outside the spotlight of consciousness
in what we can call the unconscious
zones these unconscious zones contain
recesses and grottoes filled with
unknown disavowed thoughts and feeling
feelings is had without properly
experiencing emotions we felt without
properly registering here we find a
record of pretty much everything we’ve
ever seen where we’ve been to who we’ve
met and how we felt most of the time the
images are dormant and submerged then
occasionally but what can feel like
quite random points an image will
suddenly come back to us clear as day
suddenly we’ll see Uncle Ernie or the
pier in Brighton or the train taking us
up the Matterhorn when we were nine a
lot of what lies in the unconscious are
warring things with frightened might
happen which we push out of
consciousness
we keep them at bay but the effort
creates a hum and Static of background
anxiety in the unconscious a desires
that can’t find a place in our more
ordered sensible day-to-day lives there
are ideas we haven’t some time to sort
out
and angry hurt feelings we haven’t
digested the sadness we haven’t dared to
feel when we speak of getting to know
ourselves but increasing self-knowledge
really what we mean is the task of
getting more active with the spotlight
of consciousness moving it around more
regularly in our minds more
systematically shining its beams into
unfamiliar corners so that we’re less
surprised than frightened by some of
what we have in our mind our founding
belief is that the more of the mind we
can light up with consciousness the more
peaceful coherent and focus we can be
this is what it means to lead an
examined life to try to become less of a
stranger to oneself by illuminating our minds with a spotlight of consciousness
like pretty straightforward places what
we hear people saying suggests a certain
logic order and coherence but inside the
mind it’s a very different effort here
things are infinitely more complex
fractured and multi-layered and
confusing amidst the shadowy tangled
darkness one can imagine a single
brightly lit zone like a spotlight in a
cave the area that normally goes by the
term consciousness this is where we do
our rational thinking where ideas are
clarified where plans are put on a
systemic footing where we order and
clean up our thoughts but the key thing
about the way we work is that unless we
take very special measures most of what
is inside the mind will remain far
outside the spotlight of consciousness
in what we can call the unconscious
zones these unconscious zones contain
recesses and grottoes filled with
unknown disavowed thoughts and feeling
feelings is had without properly
experiencing emotions we felt without
properly registering here we find a
record of pretty much everything we’ve
ever seen where we’ve been to who we’ve
met and how we felt most of the time the
images are dormant and submerged then
occasionally but what can feel like
quite random points an image will
suddenly come back to us clear as day
suddenly we’ll see Uncle Ernie or the
pier in Brighton or the train taking us
up the Matterhorn when we were nine a
lot of what lies in the unconscious are
warring things with frightened might
happen which we push out of
consciousness
we keep them at bay but the effort
creates a hum and Static of background
anxiety in the unconscious a desires
that can’t find a place in our more
ordered sensible day-to-day lives there
are ideas we haven’t some time to sort
out
and angry hurt feelings we haven’t
digested the sadness we haven’t dared to
feel when we speak of getting to know
ourselves but increasing self-knowledge
really what we mean is the task of
getting more active with the spotlight
of consciousness moving it around more
regularly in our minds more
systematically shining its beams into
unfamiliar corners so that we’re less
surprised than frightened by some of
what we have in our mind our founding
belief is that the more of the mind we
can light up with consciousness the more
peaceful coherent and focus we can be
this is what it means to lead an
examined life to try to become less of a
stranger to oneself by illuminating our minds with a spotlight of consciousness
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