The Mind
The Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines MIND as: 1 the faculty of consciousness and thought. 2 a persons intellect or memory. 3 a person identified with their intellectual faculties. 4 a persons attention or will.
The Compact Oxford English Dictionary defines CONSCIOUSNESS as: noun 1 the state of being conscious. 2 ones awareness or perception of something.
These definitions essentially define consciousness, mind, thought, memory, and intellect, in terms of each other. The definitions, as we shall see, are appropriately circular.
The reasoning attribute of consciousness has been referred to as the intellect. Memory is also generally referred to as an attribute of mind, the capability of consciousness to store and remember its experiences. Thought is usually defined as coming from mind or consciousness. All of these are qualities or characteristics of consciousness.
There is much confusion about these concepts on planet earth because of the belief in the biological basis for consciousness. However, cognitive scientists cannot agree on what mind is, or even where it exists. Most would probably say that the seat of consciousness, and the mind, is in the brain. There is agreement on this because we can measure and experiment with the brain and show its effects on consciousness.
Philosophers throughout history have debated these questions. Bishop Berkeley provided a purely spiritual definition, saying that the material world is merely a concept in the mind of God, and that the mind is a manifestation of the soul or spirit. Huxley began the demolishing of these ideas, and modern studies have shown that altering brain chemistry has a profound effect on consciousness. However, Karl Pribham has shown that a specific memeory can not be pinned down to a particular part of the brain. Indeed, Pribram's holonomic model, developed in collaboration with quantum physicist David Bohm, theorizes that memory/information is stored not in cells, but rather, like a hologram, in wave interference patterns.
In the Spirit/Mind/Body framework, we say that the origin of consciousness is nonphysical, and associates itself, while incarnated, with a human body. In other words, we say that nonphysical (spiritual) conscious personalities exist independently of the body, and will exhibit the same qualities of mind, memory, intellect and selfawareness as when incarnated into a physical body. It is impossible to prove this by experimentation, of course, because there is no way to physically measure or detect a nonphysical consciousness. Nevertheless, there is no reason to dismiss such claims, even though these assertions are terribly inconvenient. Although a conscious personality while incarnated into a human body demonstrates the characteristics associated with mind, intellect and self awareness, it is an error in logic to say that consciousness is therefore dependent upon the body for these properties. Such reasoning merely dismisses the spiritual origin of consciousness/mind out of hand, because no physical evidence for it has been discovered! I do not believe that a precise location for consciousness, or the mind, or the intellect, will never be found in the brain.
Furthermore, let us admit that because physical structure cannot be created out of nothing, the physical universe cannot have originated in a singularity, or in some quantum excitation. The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. Therefore, all of the matter and energy in the universe must have existed, without reduction or increase, since the beginning of the universe at time t = 0. Scientifically speaking, this idea is absurd, for matter cannot create matter. Therefore the idea that consciousness originates in matter is equally absurd. A creative principle is necessary in order to get the universe started!
However, lets also admit that physically messing around inside the brain can cause undesirable effects, and begin our discussion of mind by starting with the assumption of a healthy human being who is not drugged, electric shocked, or lobotomized!
What is the Mind?
Mind is the collection of experiences of consciousness. Often (especially in therapy) the mind is assigned a causative effect over consciousness. It is said that a person suffers psychological trauma after a horrifying or unpleasant experience, as if a mental (or cellular) recording from a past incident can adversely affect a person in the present.
We will try to show that consciousness has, at all times, the ability to lessen and erase psychological trauma at any time. This idea, if true, would be enormously important in the reduction of trauma, and in daily life as well. In accordance with the principles espoused on this website, we place consciousness always at cause over its own thinking process, and its own emotions.
We will define mind as having two aspects: a collection of imprints of events, and the associated negative emotion that accompanies these events. Psychological trauma is often considered to be stored energy, either in the cells of the body, or somewhere in the mind.
The Imprint
An imprint we will define as: that non-resisted recallable memory, including full sensory perception, of an experience. An imprint is an impression made within consciousness itself, defined as the spiritual component of the spirit/mind/body collection that makes up a human being. In other words, the impression is recorded within the human energy field, and has no physical / electromagnetic component. A conscious being, in this conception, whether in a physical body or outside of it, is able to accurately recall everything that has ever happened to it, without distortion, and with full sensory perception.
In its interaction with the physical universe, whether in a body or outside it, anything consciousness perceives is impressed vibrationally upon it. In other words, consciousness samples the universe at the unimaginable frequency of thought, providing an accurate recording of exactly what was experienced. Let's go into this a little.
In signal processing, a bandwidth limited signal of N cycles per second can be reconstructed without error from samples taken uniformly at a rate which is greater than 2 * N cycles per second. In other words, if the frequency of sampling occurs at not less than twice the highest frequency in the sampled waveform, a Fourier analysis of the signal can perfectly reconstruct the original signal with all of its components. We can eliminate the bandwidth limited requirement (real world signals are almost never so) if we assume that the sampling frequency of consciousness (here considered as a subtle energy of unimaginably high vibration) is far above that of anything that exists in the physical universe. We have been making that assumption throughout these essays, stating that consciousness and thought are, in comparison with the matter and energy of the physical universe, pure potential, or virtual. We have stated that consciousness and its product, thought, are subtle energy phenomena, unmeasurable by the instruments of science, and are the basic vibrational quanta of matter and energy.
An imprint is like a sampled waveform in signal processing, only it is accomplished effortlessly by a purely spiritual component, consciousness itself, which acts like an infinitely sensitive photographic plate. If one accepts the idea of the Human Energy Field, one might say that a conscious personality is a spherical/toroidal holographic recorder. Science presently has the capability to record thousands of impressions upon a single, 2 dimensional surface, but has not figured out how to record on or within the surface of a sphere. If such a thing is possible, it may be possible to record a quantity of information orders of magnitude greater than is presently possible with present technology.
Were a little off the subject, but suffice it to say that an imprint is simply an accurate recording, in the finest detail, of an event or an experience.
Experiential Resistance and Trauma
Psychological trauma, or any uncomfortable emotion, is selfcreated resistance to an experience.
In other words, the actual data of the event, the sights, sounds, and perceptions, are faithfully recorded in the imprint, but there may be negative emotion associated with the event. These negative emotions are the person's resistance to the actual occurrence. This resistance manifests itself as electromagnetic energy stored either within the cells of the body, or holographically, in wave interference patterns. Resistance is the physical source of trauma.
Lets look at an example:
Case 1: You are walking along in the woods on a sunny day with the breeze in your face and you feel wonderful. In the distance you see a bear, drinking from a stream. This experience is perceived without resistance of any kind. Recalling this experience brings back the perception of it, in a positive way, for you are accessing the imprint, whch is at the pure, positivefeeling frequency of consciousness itself.
Case 2: You are walking along in the woods on the same sunny day and you see the bear. The bear invokes in you a fear of being attacked, and you spend the next few minutes getting as far away from it as possible. This experience includes the grosser vibrations of fear (and possibly other negative emotions) that are too coarse to be stored in the imprint, and reside in cellular memory as electromagnetic energy, or wave interference patterns. Because any vibration, if not continually activated, will die away, any uncomfortable or distressing emotion or trauma must be selfcreated, in the present moment. In other words, in a physically healthy person, all trauma or negative emotion is created, in the now, by a resistance to an experience. Because all events are imprinted, there is a positive and a negative aspect to any memory: the positive aspect is the imprint, the negative aspect is the negative emotion. The good news is that the imprint is permanent, but the trauma is temporar, for it is being continuously re-created in the now. This phenomenon can easily be seen (and experienced) in therapy. When the trauma is resolved or released, one remembers the experience purely.
In the reduction of traumatic incidents (using a procedure known as Traumatic Incident Reduction, developed by Dr. Frank Gerbode), it becomes clear that when an uncomfortable experience is 'reduced', that is, when all the resistance has been removed from the event, the trauma vanishes and only the imprint remains. When this happens, physical recovery is often greatly accelerated. The imprint is non-erasable, it being an attribute of consciousness itself.
If you have ever seen the movie "The Secret," you have probably seen the remarkable interview with Dr. Joe Dispenza who, after an accident that rendered him paralyzed, reached a state of consciousness whereby he was able to mentally repair the damage to his spine. This sort of thing works only when one fully confronts and resolves the resistance to the experience, and allows the body to regain its natural state of health.
With physical trauma, one can say that the cells of the body are physically damaged, but that is not the case with purely psychological trauma. In trauma that is psychological, there is no physical source. (We can say that psychological trauma is stored in the mind or in the psyche, but no one knows how to precisely define these entities, or even where they are! )
In our model, psychological trauma can only exist because it is continually created. It is the continued attention and resistance to the event which constantly recreates the uncomfortable emotion. In TIR used successfully in treating PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder we find, every time, that successful reduction of psychological trauma is dependent upon the clients complete willingness to face up to the actual event. When the client is able to completely inspect the event as it actually occurred, the trauma vanishes. We are saying, in effect, that all psychological trauma is a phantom. We ARENT saying it isnt real, for anyone who has experienced trauma knows how debilitating it can be. We ARE saying that psychological trauma can always be transcended, because it's origin is under the conscious direction of the client.
You might say that no one would deliberately sabotage themselves, and to suggest that the cause of trauma is selfinflicted is a little nutty. However, it becomes understandable when we examine humanitys approach to solving problems. We are taught to fight anything we dont like, to dig in and wrestle with it until we have overcome our fear of it, which just activates the vibration of it more and more. Our fear creates monsters of the id, and we lose control over ourselves in the process. A good example is provided in the HBO series, Six Feet Under. Davids van is hijacked and he is subjected to physical and emotional trauma. After he physically recovers, he still struggles with the event and his reactions to it for weeks and weeks afterward.
It turns out that all psychological trauma can be successfully erased, IF the client is willing to carefully relive the event in his or her mind. When this occurs, the resistance to the event is eliminated and the psychological trauma disappears. TIR is a wonderful therapy, and it works because it operates on the basis that a conscious being is always at sourcepoint. This idea is in full agreement with the laws of the universe as weve been describing them in the essays.
Trauma and the vibrational model
In our vibrational model of the universe (and consciousness) a vibration only is noticeable when it is activated. The quiescent tuning fork makes no sound until it is struck. All vibrations eventually die away IF they are no longer triggered. In an analysis of psychological trauma, it will be found that the greater the trauma, the more attention is on it. This is reasonable, for a suffering person is suffering because he or she is stuck in something! But again, we look at the situation wrongwayto. We say, Of course the clients attention is on the trauma, because its biting his head off! No, the trauma exists because the client's attention is on it continually, which keeps the vibration of it activated, through fear, worry, anxiety, etc., until it has become overwhelming. The traumatic event(s) become the equivalent of an 800 pound mental gorilla!
Normally, the vibrational solution to something unwanted is to take attention off of the unwanted thing and to place ones focus on something wanted. This deactivates the vibration of the unwanted thing and strengthens the vibration of the wanted thing. With severe psychological trauma, however, this is not possible, for the clients attention is fixed on the traumatic event. In this case, the client must be made to fully confront his participation in the event. When this occurs, the client understands that he or she has been creating the trauma all along. If youve ever experienced this procedure, youll know exactly what Im talking about.
The main idea in the reduction of all uncomfortable experience is the realization that it is continually self-created.
If the client, after successful erasure of the psychological trauma, engages in the same pattern of resistant thought, then there will be a gradual re-creation of it. But once the client gets the idea that he or she is causing it, and has complete control over it, it is unlike;ly that he or she will want to revisit the experience.
When our woods walker looks carefully at what happened, he realizes that his fear of bears was selfcreated. He realizes his discomfort stemmed from a TV show about predatory animals; during which he made a decision that hiking anywhere could be dangerous. Fear, anxiety, or any uncomfortable emotion is simply resistance to an experience. That cause of that resistance is always your conscious decision. It's a destructive, learned pattern that can be replaced by a more positive one.
In order to avoid the uncomfortable feelings that are associated with some events, we often go into denial about what really happened: I wasn't afraid of that bear. I was tired so I turned back. Now we've created a story about the event, which just perpetuates the discomfort. In all cases, it is conscious resistance to an event that causes uncomfortable emotions.
Creating Resistance for Profit
Advetisers use this phenomenon to sell products. First, create resistance within the mind of the viewer, then offer the "solution." That solution is often a drug. Since the drug only gives symptomatic relief, the user must continue to buy more. The drug is merely lowering the resistance that was created by the advertisement in the first place! Clever advertisers thoroughly understand the Law of Vibration and the Law of Attraction: once resistance is established, the tendency is for more matching thought. Soon the user of the drug becomes dependent, and creates a story around it which justifies his or her continual use of it.
The imprint is the experience we would have had, had we simply allowed it. It is always a pleasurable, since the imprint is at the pure, positive, vibrational frequency of consciousness itself.
The mind is essentially a collection of imprints, with uncomfortable emotion superimposed.
The mind is essentially a collection of bad habits! In our lives we have learned a pattern of resistance, which we continuously apply in the present. If we previously had a bad experience at the dentist, it is easy to dislike all dentists. There is no reason for such an approach to life, however; in fact, it is irrational. What one experiences in the present is created newly, in every moment. We just have such an addiction to telling the truth about past events, that we continuously carry forward and thus recreate our discomfort in the present!
However, it turns out that Truth with a capital T is not the event, but the consciousness that experienced the event, and so the solution to the reduction of mental trauma is always an exercise of the creative will. This can be proven by the process of 'reducing' a painful incident, in therapies like TIR. By carefully inspecting the event from a causative orientation (according to defined protocol) it is possible to eliminate all of the discomfort associated with it. Traumatic Incident Reduction has been used successfully with Vietnam veterans and other traumatized individuals, placing them at causepoint over their past experiences.
Of course, one cannot experience in a painful fashion unless one is already vibrationally set up to do so. Manifestations do not occur randomly, or by accident! In all cases, the content of your thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes (your state of being) determine the events of your life and how you perceive them. Once you have focused upon something uncomfortable long enough to receive a manifestation, the vibrational tendency is to continue to do so. This is the main cause of psychological trauma after an experience has already occurred.
We know that if this tendency is continued, the Law of Vibration and the Law of Attraction will match you up with another selfsimilar experience in the future, so it is a good idea to clean up ones vibration regarding the experience as soon as possible!
Elimination of the resistance toward an experience restores a true perception of the incident, eliminating the cluttering thought forms that block and distort a true perception of the imprinted data, deactivating the gross, unwanted vibrations, and restoring mental balance.
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