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The key question
[Arnold Schwarzenegger - Total Recall]
Imagine an organ as complex as the brain, that is both empty and receptive, and that is being flooded with information from outside of itself. Imagine the brain in a jar, connected to senses, some working and supplying information, some senses not yet active. What happens within an empty brain, which is being supplied with a constant flow of information - information it cannot yet act upon?
At best, we could speculate, that there is an abundance of information, especially from the senses of first hearing, then touch, that is constantly causing synapses within the brain to fire, uncontrollably. A chaotic torrent of information, that swirls and tumbles like white water, rushing through the brain, unstoppable. This would sound like complete madness to most of us. Yet how would, and how could this newly born organ, the brain, react to such onslaught?
Perhaps, just perhaps, the result is the formation of the mind? Yet the mind alone is no defence against this barrage of information. Thoughts may arise from the creation of this mind, yet these thoughts would be uncontrollable, ultimate chaos. An electrical mayhem of firing synapses, and flashes of energies, as the information crosses the brain, crosses the mind? For us to imagine this loss of control within our own minds would be horrendous, the acceptance of madness itself, of pandemonium.
Yet for the innocent mind, that does not yet "know" of anything, or any thing; this is pure experience without judgment, without reason, without logic, without meaning. For want of a better term, this mind is pure, it is perfect, in it’s innocence. This experience, we can now imagine, is less like pandemonium, and more like heaven, ecstasy? Like the achievement of Nirvana itself?
Indeed, if we were to spend the rest of our days just exactly at this point of development, would we need to be anything more? For this, now, would seem not like chaos, but more like pure contentment, the joy of innocent awareness; of pure experience without knowledge or need for judgment or reason? Some may even say, that the most important goal in life would be to seek to achieve this state of innocence, or freedom of the mind. To seek to find exactly what we may have already perceived from our very beginnings as unborn children?
Yet, alas, these are only the beginnings of development. For we must venture out of the safety of the womb, and into the world of reality, the world of things, the world of dangers. And how could we possibly cope or survive in a world such as this, where just the act of breathing the air holds potential hazards and circumstance.
So it may be no accident, that the pure mind, the innocent mind, which is filled with the flow of sensory information, and unhindered thoughts, requires order. The mind’s thoughts need to be fettered, controlled, rationalised, and ordered. Even for the unborn child within the womb, these thoughts may need to be challenged; may need to be clarified, and analysed, and be held for the instant it takes to comprehend them, and understand them? and how exactly would a newly formed mind achieve this? how could an innocent mind begin to rationalise this abundance of information?
It could be possible, that the apparition of the self is the need for the creation of order within the mind? That the self may appear, or be created, as a necessity to rationalise and order the mind, and it’s thoughts. Perhaps it appears as another stage in development within the mind, as the brain and senses develop further. Certainly, there can be no "real thoughts" unless there is some comprehension and understanding of subject, [the self], and object, [thoughts and information]. This is dualism, and the dual nature of the observer and the observation. Thus the self has been created to permit understanding and control of thoughts, and even dreams, whilst still in an unborn stage. That the self is the focal viewpoint of thoughts, which are created out of the need for order, the fixed point of reference for comparison of all events and things.
In other words, the mind cannot reason cause & effect, past & present without a point of reference? Thus the creation of the self?
Off course, this is but pure speculation, but it does offer a practicable explanation for the creation, and reason for the self. Although a purely objective opinion, it is not beyond reason or possibility.
[...]
The above hypothesis for the creation of the self could prove reasonable. It is logical that the self-awareness should develop before birth, and not at the point of birth. It is also logical to reason that the development of the mind is the forerunner to the creation of self. And without the development of the brain and senses, and the flow of sensory information to the mind, what use would there be for the self in the first instance? Although, we must not rule out even this possibility either, that the self may be the prime mover for the development of life.
So what about further development?
We have speculated that the development of the brain, and the senses define awareness of events and phenomena which gives rise to the development of the mind inside the womb. The child separates events and sounds external to the mind and develops the self. And starts to dream?
And dreams may be where thoughts actually begin? Without experience, and without prior knowledge or memory of any kind, how would the mind comprehend, for example, the sound of the mother’s heartbeat? How would the self clarify or organise these sounds and feelings?
it is believed that in this prenatal development, the child experiences familiarity and security with the sounds and feelings within the womb. It follows that the child would associate these sounds with some kind of normality, or acceptance of its condition. It may not dream the same as you or I, for it has no prior knowledge of the world, or of "things", yet it may experience some form of illusion or imagination? It may form some association or mental imagery, which the mind substitutes for the lack of other senses such as vision. In other words, it may substitute mental pictures for the external sounds and feelings it experiences?
These could be simply flashes of colours or light, or even more complex images, who knows? It is not important to speculate what the unborn mind may dream about, only that there is the possibility that it is forming dreams and thoughts about it’s surroundings and experience. The key word is "experience", for these are the beginnings of self. The more the experiences, the greater the establishment of the self, and development of character, and personality.
The greatest challenge to this development is from the moment of birth. For it is here that we all "open our eyes" to the external world, and the awareness of subject and objects, of self and "non-self" is never greater. The mind has entered the world, and the motivation for awareness, for learning, for survival, is the unremitting separation of the self from "non-self". Now, it is the constant flow of sensory information that necessitates comprehension and understanding by the mind; this information is analysed, organised and categorised by the self; and the experiences are further allocated to memory for future reference.
Like the computer created in man’s image, where the CPU controls and directs the purpose and priority of the information it receives, thus the self controls the information and learns from experiences, and allocates these lessons to memory. All the while, the self is learning and evolving through experience and events. Destiny shapes the self, and the self exerts some limited control of its circumstance, through its understanding of the world of consequences, events and "things".
Through feedback and reflection, the character, the persona, and identity of an individual is formed. The self may further consolidate or strengthen it’s position through it’s need for survival and security, by forming patterns of behaviour, from it’s own experiences. It forms familiar patterns of thoughts and actions to deal with the world around it, in the best and only way it knows how. Thus the individual is governed by it’s own knowledge and experience. And all the while, the self is evolving to greater and greater awareness, and wisdom.
This prescription for character and wisdom may all sound very "cold" and objective, yet it is precisely these conclusions the ancient Greeks, such as Socrates and Plato had already contemplated. The nature of ethics; whereupon a man’s character, his actions and his thoughts, are defined by his experience and his knowledge. As Plato would have it, a man acts blindly in his ignorance, his sins are but the consequence of his lack of knowledge and experience; his lack of knowing any better?
Off course, we know that an individual can still act recklessly, or irrationally, even with prior knowledge of what is "right and wrong". It is his own freewill that would determine these actions. Yet the point here, is that it is the evolution of the self, which leads to the development of the character and the ego, which is, in turn, shaped by the experiences of the individual, and thus by his fate.
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