Seeing is Believing – V

What gets registered in the mind is not in our control. Whatever happens to us, around us, impressed us and depressed us, everything gets stored in our mind. Mind is a non discriminating clerk, without bias it accumulates all things – good, bad, ugly.

That is the reason; mind is called by some sages as a garbage-bin. Every house needs a garbage-bin; otherwise, the house will stink in no times. But if we start living in garbage-bin, our life can become miserable.

Eric Berne compares the modern man’s life style with the man in the cesspool, dirt is up to his lower-lip, and ecstatically he is saying, “I am comfortable, just don’t make waves.” This is what happens when we have converted garbage-bin as our living room.

One cannot tackle the problems created by the mind by being in the mind and by associating with mind. One cannot overcome worries, anxieties, fears and frustrations. One must dissociate oneself from the mind, stepping out of the mind is a necessary condition to observe and make the corrective steps. It is here, the fantasy exercises play a vital role.

J.Krishnamurthy talks about the importance of ‘oberserving the observer’. In the sentence ‘I know myself’, ‘Myself’ is the object and ‘I’ is the subject. ‘I’, the subject observes ‘Myself’ the object. Therefore, ‘I’ is the observer, and when that observer is being observed, one is able to dissociate from the mind to some extent. This state of being is called ‘dissociation’. Let’s not get into hair-splitting analysis of further layers of dissociation, it may lead to paralysis. Getting out of oneself and looking the self objectively brings in new dimension of self-knowledge.

Visual Picture - -->      Feelings   ---->      Behavior

The dynamic process of a behavior being caused is rather simple. Mind first sees a picture visually, and it creates the accompanying feelings and in turn it causes the associated behavior.

So if one wants to bring changes in the behavior, the starting point is bringing changes in the visual image his mind produces.

For example, if a person is suffering from public speaking phobia, he invariable sees a frightening visual image as soon as he steps on the stage. One person with this phobia reported that he sees that all audiences are staring at him with wide open eyes; all eyes are popping up and looking at him. Certainly it is a scary situation to be in. This visual creates the feelings of anxiety and nervousness, so his behavior becomes one of running away or fainting.

So if you want to change the behavior, easiest way is to change the visual.