Tuesday, November 13, 2018
6:45 a.m. For the past several days I have been busily undoing the results of months of careful eating, putting back the pounds at an incredible rate. Why?
Maybe your idea of yourself – your ideal image – is not realistic. Maybe you don’t exist ideally at a slim rate but at a more substantial one. You can see this easily in women who are always dieting, in order to try to reach their “ideal” size, even though others may see nothing wrong with their actual size. You don’t think of it so much with men, but if you once have your eyes opened, suddenly it should be obvious.
So there’s something more serious going on than would appear.
Any aspect of life, carefully examined, will reveal more profound connections than first appear.
Okay, so in this case –.
Why should you expect a given set of causes, unchanged, to produce different results?
That sounds pretty much like chastisement. At least, I can imagine people taking it that way, easily enough.
And that is often people’s experience. But how much good would it do, how accurate would it be, for someone to chastise you for having asthma and saying if you would only breathe differently, you wouldn’t have a problem? There are alternative pitfalls here. On the one side, the fallacy of thinking that effects are always the result of moral failings as cause. On the other side, the fallacy of thinking that physical effects have only physical causes.
I see that, easily enough. We even wrote out little book Imagine Yourself Well to point out the possibilities that arise from seeing and using the connection, but made a point of saying, “This is no panacea.”
Well, the same factors that govern physical health and illness govern physical conditions in other ways.
I’m getting, our fluctuating mental state affects our appearance (looking at weight as an issue of appearance, for the moment) the same as it does our functioning (our health in general).
Is there any reason to think otherwise?
I hadn’t thought of things that way.
Do so now. Mental states habitually fluctuate. Physical states customarily change relatively slowly. Your physical condition in general, not only your physical health, fluctuates accordingly. In some things, minor things, mental fluctuations produce unstable (or labile, depending upon how you want to look at it) conditions. Your mental world fluctuates, your physical expression fluctuates. Expressions on your face, say.
[One dictionary definition of labile is “readily or continually undergoing chemical, physical, or biological change or breakdown”; a second is “readily open to change.”]
This is one of those times when I feel a rush of potential connections, and I can only slow way down (instead of speeding up, which used to be my reflexive response, trying to catch something on the wing) and hope it comes through.
Plus, you see, all at once your wheezing worsens, and your nose fills with mucous. Coincidence?
I would have assumed so, except I wouldn’t have said “coincidence” but “unrelated.”
“Coincidence” says unrelated. That is what it means: two or more things happening at the same time, but unrelated by causality.
Only, in the larger sense there are no “unrelated by causality” happenings, only “unrelated by causality at a 3D level.”
Correct.
And, as soon as you drew my attention to it, the wheezing stopped and my nose cleared. And of course these are fluctuations I have noticed for years, especially the former.
And although you know that everything is connected, you have learned that not every connection may be sniffed out, nor is it necessarily important to do so.
That’s true. It would require an impossible level of vigilance, and for what? So, let’s return to the complex of connections I caught a brief glimpse of just now.
This material won’t be something new to anybody; what is new will be the context it is set in.
As so often.
Sure. You think of yourself sometimes as an explorer, rarely as a scientist. But what is it that scientists do, if not look closely at phenomena and ask themselves how much more they can understand.
Put it that way, you are the scientists. I’m more like your lab assistant, keeping your science notebook for you. or, Watson to your Holmes, recording your adventures.
In any case, let’s look at it, backing up a bit, as usual, to focus the microscope slightly differently.
Your lives in 3D are bounded, deliberately. That is, limited. Physically you can be only in one time, one space. Physically you can be only in the present ever-changing moment. Physically you can experience only separation from others, not overall unity. Physically you experience cause and effect, that is, impetus and consequence, only with a built-in delay, whether long or short. (Even the fastest response is not immediate.) These conditions are necessary and useful components of 3D life. You know all this. And you know that the partial escape from this – the saving grace, you might say – is that your minds (being in non-3D though expressing through the 3D brain) allow you wider latitude, if you let them.
Now, here is a way to think about it. A lot depends upon how you automatically (that is, habitually) define your mind and its scope. If you accept 3D limitations as the end of the story, that’s one thing. If you recognize that the mind transcends 3D limitations, that is another story.
It is in your connection to the non-3D that your limitations are defined and at the same time transcended.
Did I get that right? It doesn’t sound right.
It is right enough, it just needs a word of explanation. Your world is a function of your view of the world.
“Argue for your limitations, and they are yours,” Richard Bach says.
By George, you’d think that man knows a thing or two!
Very funny. And so –?
The thing that started to break open a whole lot of things for you (until you got overwhelmed by the width of the incoming signal, so to speak) is the realization that facial expressions (as one example) are directly and immediately connected to fluctuating mental states.
And therefore so are many other things, shading off into physical interactions. Blood pressure, adrenalin levels, heartbeat, breathing, perspiration – which I suppose means the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems, and ultimately everything.
Of course everything. The universe has no absolute divisions. Well, you can see the usual spectrum of effects, ranging from those that are entirely responsive to mental fluctuations, all the way to things like bone density that are in effect entirely unresponsive to mental fluctuations. It isn’t just health. In fact, “health” as a concept is a lot fuzzier than you usually think. It, itself, is a ratio – as you were told some while ago – and not a thing. You have a given blood pressure or inflammation or tumor or absence of inflammation or tumor, etc., but you do not have a “health.” You might say you experience a “health,” but you are saying your ratio of factors is satisfactory or not, and to what degree and in what particulars.
So next time we could pursue this, if you wish.
Fine with me, always interesting and always a pleasure. Till next time, then.
Funny you mentioned Richard Bach. He’s got a new book he’s finishing now (richardbach.com). I think he published his last couple through Amazon himself because he wanted to.
Good session. More to think about.
To paraphrase Scotty in the 2019 Star Trek (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=js_32tdy2kQ): “I like these ‘guys’ and this blog … it’s exciting!”
Frank, my continued deep appreciation for taking me (us) along on this wild ride!
Jim 🙂
Is it like the physical body is the visible part of an iceberg? And whenever new (or old) parts that I don’t like are exposed, become visible, slapping the name and judgement, closes down the possibility to see what emerges from the non-visible side.
Maybe this is a bit related: I notice in me an automatism that when I find something I like (like glittery gel pens) I instantly start planning to get more. Even though I already have enough and have not used them up. A hoarding-impulse. And I do not have a giant store of gel pens or shoes or whatever. I can see the impulse before it gets pathological. But right now I have one of those low-level virus things in my body, too. It causes tremendous sugar-cravings. That is a similar pattern to the hoarding impulse. The virus needs unlimited sugar to cling to life. If sugar is not available, virus will have to leave. The virus somehow manages to hijack my consciousness so that it starts to hoard sugar. The body does know what is enough and when it is satiated. It just has so quiet voice that the sugar-powered virus megaphone overrides it. And what if this is how the pattern of hoarding gets established in the brain? A circuit that says nothing is ever enough. More food. More money more drugs. You know the rap. There are not many who are capable of genuinely modest life. And living in a cave does not help- if the modesty is only due to external circumstances it is not an achievement. Being able to enjoy to the fullest the things I now have – being satisfied – be it belly fat or gel pens. How can it be so difficult? Or why do I make it so difficult? Haha – a picture comes to mind: fat floats well so when it attaches to some place it makes it come up to the surface – to be seen. And then there are all those threads of ancestors who starved. Maybe they are reveling in the feast of abundance below the conscious level. I need to make this more conscious. Like a prayer before eating so that the food is consciously offered to all my relations.
Sometimes it bugs me that what grows out of me is a very traditional religious life. No matter what the other side is called: god, spirit many gods or something else. Modesty, gratitude, kindness, actively wanting good for all (benevolence might be the word) including also myself. Getting these from outside as in obeying orders does not work anymore.
Many thank-yous to Frank and all other participants wherever they come from.
You write the most intelligent, thought-provoking comments. I hope you’re working some of them together into an essay, or essays.
And that same thought extends to others of you: You should (and probably don’t) know who you are!
You are very kind. My views are strange enough to be burdensome to most folks. Having opportunity to write these comments without being told off is already more than I expected in this life. Developing the texts further eludes me. There is always something more pressing. And what purpose would it have?
What purpose did it serve for me to talk (to myself?) for years, and transcribe those conversations, and finally publish them in one form or another, only to find that some people found comfort, companionship, affirmation, hope, etc. from reading them? We never know who we affect, nor how. Don’t fall into the fallacy of insignificance: You aren’t an accidental tourist here.
OF course, that doesn’t mean that you should or shouldn’t write, only that you shouldn’t let yourself think no one would care and no one would benefit if you did.
Kristiina is absolutely splendid explaining herself in the english/american language indeed and the in-depth-telling.
As I am belonging to the older generation as such – and had a dear grandmother who was half Swedish and half Finn, the strongest lady to have known, my grandmother became 96 years old and a pillar to the whole family, and workin hard all her life. WHY telling this? Yea, because I “can hear” THE NATURE of Finland through what Kristiina is telling here. And now I`m wondering HOW MUCH we are influenced by our Daily surroundings/and the environmental NATURE for GENERATIONS). In Norway the peoples of Finland ALWAYS (for generations) were considered as “something else” than the Norwegian “mentality” BECAUSE of their environment….Living in the deep forrests` and 1000 lakes – working hard and participating as soldiers during the 500 years in union with Sweden. The hunger & starving experienced in Finland lasting hundreds of years…The Finns became “dark-minded” – or counted as it….. I recall when the first TV came about in the 1960s, only ONE TV CHANNEL at first and the whole nation sitting in awe to watch the films whether the movies were termed good nor bad – and all movies in black & white.
Quite often some of the movies on TV back then, by the Theather shown on TV, were the classics from Finland (produced in Finland)…. But after a while among the Norwegian citizens (about the movies shown, made in Finland) became a slogan- or a saying among us such as if someone became depressed or feeling as “a misery” – we (the Norwegians)….”It is impossible to become more depressed than watching a movie made in Finland – or more darkness.”
Kristiina? In my opinion (I do not believe in “opinions” or the “concepts” other than Spirit) There will be IMPOSSIBLE to others if to understand THE MENTALITY of Finland if not living there among you.
But I can see Frank is good at it. Thank you.
BTW: My one grandmother with the ancestors from Finland was A FUNNY lady with a born humorous sense all the way….and a Swedish medium once told me – in my genes, grandmothers`, ancestral genes – ” A Witch became executed in the 17th century.”
The remembrances exists SIMULTANEOUSLY – as genes? Such as starving?
P.S. I have another story about the same by my Dutch friend, Johanna. Both her parents (as children) were taken prisoner by the Japanese in Indonesia during WWII. As ypu know the Dutch Colonies and settlements there – Johannas grandparents were Dutch Missionaires in Indonesia.
The two children survived the camps after starving all the way, but their parents died….And the two youngsters (when back in Holland, the two youbgsters was 15 and 16 years old and kept in touch since) later married. BUT, from the very first time in meeting with Johanna to NOTICE she ALWAYS eating “something”- keeping an apple or bananas or a carrot or a chocholate – and a bottle of water in her hands (not necessary with a bottle of water in Norway)…. even when the two of us driving alone in the car, and she was driving – Johanna was eating “something” – almost without a pause. AND, her husband commenting it all the way too….Johanna was NOT “fat”- she was ” a medium -size and tall.