Endangered species
I find it compelling that over the many eons humans have been on earth, they have experienced incredible struggles and sufferings. We know today that coping skills are created through awareness. The primitive responses we call instinct were attributable to physical needs.
The ability to override such instincts of fight or flight, though miraculous, must have been developed through a conscious awakening of self. I wonder if justification was a psychological fluke, stumbled upon to cope when simple logic of reasoning why or how survival was achieved, when circumstance shouted NO WAY!. Explaining to fellow humans how ones behaviors overcame circumstances, leading to illogical outcomes, must have been entertaining and confusing then, as it is now. Exercising the mind to accept the possibilities, that challenged logic so defiantly, were truly triumphs of ” mind over matter.” Such fantastic tales must have been met with wonder, fear and suspicion towards the strange survivors.They were likely viewed as “different,” or possibly dangerous to other humans. They might have even been thought of as gods or protected by gods.
The more bizarre the explanation, the more believable the justification for, well… justifying.
Such non-physical adaptations were just as necessary for psychological survival as physical adaptations were and still are, apparently, for survival. Dual survival consciousness may have driven the need to attach good/bad, right/wrong concepts to justification or judgments, to better convince the ever suspicious human mind.
So, when someone lies, we ought to view such behavior as the miraculous triumph of the human mind, a break through for imagination that physical adaptation alone could not have sparked, plus the constant fear of critics may have helped inspire … or not!
Does it seem like there is a lot of psychological energy being generated, consumed, compared, utilized, tangled up, “wasted”, piled up, managed, dissipated, lost, transformed, etc., etc., ad infinitum?
Among the more energetic psychological energies is frustration – the psychological sensation that arises when we don’t achieve what we consciously intend. It seems to me to be one of, if not THE, major motivator for creation (at least in me).
I notice that most of my dreams contain some element of frustration – for example, I might go into slo-mo when dreaming of trying to outrun a bear. There are dreams that extend their reach into the “real” world, too – like when I dream I’ve won the lottery just to discover upon awakening that I haven’t won a thing – very frustrating.
Frustration. I hear it a lot and often – in my head – in my heart. I think maybe I get so used to my sometimes constant companion, that I fail to notice it anymore – I just accept it as “the norm.”
I’m left wondering, “why” – not just “why me” because I have come to appreciate the pervasiveness of that emotion – rather just “why” frustration? Why not sadness or anger or happiness or joy – why is frustration so ubiquitous?
Is frustration the proverbial food of the gods? (gods as in alien beings, that is)
Frustration could be a major source for an emotional feed to something attracted to it. When we excrete or release waste or unusable substances from our bodies, feeders are attracted it . When we obsess on negative emotions, we create a kind of byproduct, that also attracts some kind of feeders. It’s an unfortunate fact, that there are feeders for everything including things attracted to the emotional pain, struggle and suffering of other life forms. Everything living must feed to survive in this world, if there are creatures, in other parallel dimensions needing to feed on negative energy found in our own dimension, we might experience this feed as feeling drained, feeling not ourselves, do things we may believe later we didn’t do or didn’t mean to do. Perhaps there is more of an exchange going on between dimensions of thought than just a one-way feed.
Frustration, the hindering of potential, binds ignorance to anxiety, by pitting reason against insanity. Over time, humans developed a system of communication based on a need to be right and an absolute aversion to being wrong. Justifying was and still is THE way of protecting the emotional/logical aspects of thought. It was and still is a system intended to enroll and convince self as well as others to how the world works, more especially, how the human mind works. This system included body signals and chemical responses to judgments. It is intended they be adhered to by all humans. The minds/hearts and bodies are, in many respect, hardwired over time to automatic responses to judgment. The implementation of these tools is to have control. Interestingly, despite the evolution of body language, humans, overall, rarely are able to accurately read these signals. It may be, that because humans do not fully understand their own minds and hearts that these symbols are still ambiguous .One thing humans are capable of is convincing themselves that they do understand the thoughts and emotions of other humans. If all that “tuning up ” done over the eons of time, wasn’t really intended to help humanity connect psychologically, then what or who is benefiting from our failure to connect? Based on results, if humans aren’t benefiting from emotional /logical judgments that usually lead to frustration, perhaps the intentions is not coming from something or someone else.
Frustration can last a lifetime – an undercurrent, or pervasive base belief – becoming a person’s “truth”. As such, the energy required to sustain it might become monumental in time, sucking away the vital life-force over many years.
Like a slow growing cancer that requires more and more of the person’s vital energy to support until it finally consumes them.
As an external feed, I question the value of frustration because it seems to me it requires too much of the person’s vital energy to support – and that necessary support energy would tend to grow over the years, leaving the person bereft of necessary energy – ending in death.
Just wondering how the energy feed might work in that case – seems counter productive to me.
Although it is true that we can be consumed by frustration, suicide, homicide, or the intentional harm to life and property do not resolve the internal conflict. Ignorance of how to effectively resolve frustration, unfortunately have not been part of the intention for humans, based on our perceived lack of choice in that area. An energy feed drains our will and motivation for change. Instead, we may spend a lifetime in struggle and denial, seeking someone or something to blame as an explanation for our stuck state.
Ignorance is a deficit of understanding that usually leads to frustration.
Our struggles, however, are not counter productive to feeders since that is the point. Our frustration is the goal and isn’t struggle what is happening on a massive scale at every period throughout history? To me, a process that takes months and even years to create and maintain, such as the conception, development, and lifetime of a human,programmed in the DNA, seems to be an obvious investment by nature to support. It’s the cutting short a life, of that investment, that seems counter productive to me.
Yes, so it doesn’t make sense to me, either, to cut a life short when keeping it going is so much more productive. It appears to me to fly in the face of a feeding theory. Maybe I’m missing some piece of evidence… or misunderstanding the point… or…?
YES! That is the point. If nature intended longevity and a chance to experience all the stages of growth held within the DNA blueprint, what is thwarting this process? There is so much life that is ended before it has had a chance to complete its program and processes, why is that? Such counter productive behavior, based on the overwhelming evidence of frustration being the dominant thought/emotional barrier to human growth for all of mankind, it seems that frustration must be a successful intention and feed source for something or someone that frustration energy was specifically designed for.
Good question! Why is it that 95+% of all creatures do not live long enough to reproduce – MOST food on the planet consists of babies – teenagers I could understand, but babies? 😉
I don’t know how long predation has existed on Earth, but my guess would be “quite a while.”
I wonder what life would be like if there were no predation – if ALL lifeforms received their sustenance directly from the sun or fed off geothermal energy or survived on chemical reactions with the environment. I think most creatures do that now – but those who do are limited to single cell existence – it seems that multi-cell creatures require more.
I recall reading that the “breakthrough” from single to multi-cell animal life came about a half-billion years ago with the advent of collagen, a connective protein found only in animals – apparently plants use a different mechanism for connecting cells. Collagen requires protein supplementation to survive. The most efficient way to add protein to the diet is through predation – directly consuming other protein-rich bodies. Vegetarian animals (cows, horses, etc.) must use extraordinary methods to digest and make crucial proteins available to keep their bodies alive – whereas those who prey on them have much more efficient digestion factories (and perhaps live longer as a result?).
Yes, it’s natural NOW, but how did it all START! WHEN did the first animal eat another one – and WHY? Perhaps there was a transition period in which part-animal part-plant species existed – but questions remain: when did one species begin feeding on another and why did they do it?
Was predation a natural progression from some other form of ingestion or was it “planted” here?
“Everybody feeds down here…” – the question is: WHY?
Please read my next post called “Feeding the Environment” to continue replies.
re: justification as an adaptation
It seems justifiable that we’d use our big brains for something more than instinct.
It also occurs to me that the “skill” of justification has evolved over time. Perhaps originally – hundreds of thousands of years ago – justification was pretty primitive. For example, if an early human made a “mistake”, it was unlikely he/she would live long enough to need a justification, so justifications probably went along the lines of, “I’m bigger and badder, so I’m justified.” Funny, I hear that one even today.
Judgment, on the other hand, is probably FAR more ancient than justification. We absolutely NEED to make judgments in order to survive. We must quickly learn to differentiate between survival (good) and death (bad) – between benefit and threat – psychological judgment is merely an adaptation based on use of our magnificent human brains.
I don’t know when along humanity’s evolution judgment married justification, but it sure looks to me like they are happy together still today.
I like the way you put that! Judgment married to justification… apropos!
Not only can the mind modify and edit an experience, it can literally change cell memory to accommodate justification’s requirements for absolution.
Amazing, isn’t it? What can’t my mind do (aside from just about anything, that is)? Dontcha just love confusing ambiguity?
Let’s hear it for ambiguity! Whether innocently stated or intentional, someone inevitably gets hurt. Getting back to your comments about justification possibly following judgment, I think they have always gone hand in hand to make one OK with self and the world. Judgments of safety and jealousy, may, from a psychological perspective be the same. A psychological threat goes. Ex; The snake is poisonous and if it bites me I could die, or the boss thinks I’m a loser and may fire me. Both states have influence on the effects psychologically, for pain, suffering and the fear of death. If this is the case, that humans have difficulty distinguishing between physical and psychological threats, the results could be a continuation of misunderstandings in self identity, the intentions of others, the natural consequences of our poor choices, over use of the imagination and so forth. Plus, we are more likely to react the same to both perceived threats. Those who have mastered their mind enough to think and feel beyond a perceived threat before action is taken, pain, struggle and potential for death could be avoided altogether.