JAN’S FRESH REAL NEWS
                         © 2001: Jan Cox
                                         *********************************************
 

September 3, 2001.
 
 
 

The only words literally worthwhile are those which help men survive;
the only other ones men find worthy enough to actively pursue are those that
generate exciting new mental images,
and cause them to have neural experiences that they otherwise would not have had.
This is why people will so readily & enthusiastically adopt almost any new rules that give them something new to think about, independent of tangible results:
(new diets which they know will lead nowhere;
elaborate plans to get rich which they assume will ultimately fail;
self-help programs involving new forms of attempted, self mesmerism
which they know they will soon abandon).
Men say they want mental freedom, but what the brain really calls for is
mental excitement  --  a difficult critter to deliver.
Under civilized conditions (which prevail when men talk more than they do)
the talking part of the brain is but spasmodically called on to assist directly in
survival threatening situations
(it is doing so constantly in a totally mechanical fashion every time, for instance,
that it reads & translates the symbols on a road sign while you are driving,
but such activities as this does not require consciousness’ willful, active attention,
and is now as automatic as the beating of the heart).
No, except under dire physical conditions, life presents the conscious, talking part of man’s brain with little to excite or challenge it..................which sort of,
suits most people, okay.
No one wants to be under constant physical siege just so their mind will have something stimulating to think about:
the body’s health is damaged by such prolonged conditions,
so most people’s brains find a compromise;
they engage in mental activities requiring enough attention to
keep them from literally falling asleep,
but not so demanding as to actually make any mental demands.
The mind needs stimulation as surely as does the body food,
and too great a deprivation thereof will occasion severe distress to
the entire physique (as known to all torturers),
but on a scale of one-to-ten, the quality of mental stimulus necessary to keep
most people minimally healthy would be a one;
this is not because men are stupid or unenlightened –
this is simply how it is (a flea’s nutritional requirements are not the same as an elephant's and any comparison between the two is meaningless).
The entire second reality that comes solely from man’s mind
and which is such an ever present part of his existence
consists totally of “things” whose purpose is but to give mental stimulation to the conscious part of the brain during off times
when it is not engaged in first reality, survival problems;
this includes any-&-everything that men can think & talk about
but cannot put a wrench to.
People go to movies for mental stimulation; to concerts;
to museums; sporting events; religious services; political gatherings, patriotic rallies,
and they read books, attend classes and talk to one another –
all to receive at least a minimal dose of mental stimulation that they find
unavailable otherwise.
There is a glaring omission in the above list  --   day dreaming:
the constant, automatic running of movies & commentary inside people’s own heads;
but most men find it insufficient and when in fact they find themselves temporarily with naught but that to mentally entertain them,
will commonly declare that they are, “bored” and have,  “nothing-to-do” --
and will conclude that a movie, CD, magazine or telephone call is in order.
It takes little novel to satisfy the stimulation needs of most of the minds
alive on this planet at any given time  --   but there are always a few exceptions;
people whose mental existence seems always starved;
they find not even minimal satisfaction in what everyone else around them finds exhilarating --  even, “thought-provoking":
(remind yourself:  it is not a case of six billion people being
dolts and only you & the few having “meaningful” mental needs;
it is merely how the table is laid).
The ancestors of these still-appearing neural anomalies
were the origins of all ideas that picture man as being asleep,
and living largely in a dream,
(which is one way of saying that men’s [some men’s] minds
are so starved for substantial stimulation
that its everyday activity resembles the body of one who has been so deprived of physical nourishment that he has lapsed into a semi coma.
Although the terminology strikes the majority as hyperbole:
“'Man-is-asleep-even-when-his-eyes-are-open’ --  what balderdash!”  say most,
but it is based on observable fact  --  but one of interest to only a few.
Whether knowingly or not, and no matter the name they give their aim --
what they seek is mental stimulation via words
that is so far beyond-&-outside of that which is normally available
that they initially & understandably tend to label it as, “supernatural” or mystical --
but such notions are ultimately worse than useless,
for the stimulus that will satisfy this unique mental hunger
is most natural & non mysterious in that it must come as surely from your own
neural connection to life as does your body’s.
Such singularly ravished people look predictably at first to the world outside of them for satisfaction, same as the body is programmed to seek physical nourishment
from without  --   which is the only place it exists;
(the body cannot consume itself to survive),
but the comparison is limited, and without the exceptionally mentally hungry man does himself in by the infinite attempt to dine and grow on empty
word-food extrinsic to himself  (which all such ultimately is);
he must realize for himself the absolute need to redirect his search for nourishment.
The brain/mind is the only physical entity that can sanely eat of itself;
no other organ can cannibalize itself & survive --  much less grow,
but it does not come with much of a built-in knowledge of
how to go about executing this irrational feat.
It is all, all too easy for the starving minds of the few to latch on to
the words/ideas that are the most outrageous,
since they are the type most immediately stimulating,
but mere mental stimulation via verbal pictures of physically impossible goals,
(you must surely recognize, when placed right in front of you in plain words),
is futile  --  is a fool’s game;
only the achievable is achievable,
and only the physically possible is possible;
everyone’s stomach knows this, as does everyone’s brain,
(and left to that basic level: ordinary men have a more rational view of so-called “extra normal states of consciousness” than do most of its would-be practioners).
The operational reality & achievability of another,
distinctly experienced, ”state-of-consciousness”
IS a reality only to those who realize it and achieve it;
to everyone else, the idea is meaningless or foolish;
they do not require such as long as their cell phone works, and tv is still broadcasting.
The idiocy of the few is the prolonged search for the, “secret” mental stimulation,
(called by those who don’t know, “knowledge”),
via their own versions of cells phones, sit coms and mystical tomes.
Even among the few, few seem able to push their own cars out of the pit
and get them running on the track:
this is no censure --  but an observable note of how it goes.
If these daily writings serve any purpose to you
it will be to spark within you the ability to jump start your own vehicle.
What is most profitable in the time before you seem to have your own hands
on the wheel and your search for increased understanding under your own direction
is to ignore --  abandon the normally extant mental stimulants --
your brain already knows they provide nothing – it just won’t give them up by itself --  --  you must force it to
by constantly pulling your attention back into your own head,
and on to the matter of your attention.
Pay no more to outside verbal stimuli --
devote your mental attention solely to your own mental attention.
You can become an ever increasingly insightful recluse while yet amidst
the routine world;
within one part of your own brain/mind   --   you become a cloistered monk;
based on your own greater understanding of what is going on,
you simply cut the meaningful part of your mental life off from
all vacuous would-be stimuli, which --
for those who finally discover what these words are about  --
                          opens up to you, an inner, private feast that
                                                                has no end.

                                                        J