“But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. And a harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.”James 3:17-18
Exacerbating Feedback
The world has a knack for feeding fears, and even at the heights of civilization, the world still devolves to meet our fear mechanism. As the world positions, engineers, and ensnares in an assault on our sympathetic response, it configures and inputs a type of ordered chaos and outputs an unstable feedback loop. And one small disturbance in our internal or external environment- exacerbates. One seemingly ineffectual but exacerbating feedback building upon another if the internal system does not value a steady state.
Balancing feedback
Without a competitive balancing feedback– without a system that is extremely sensitive to counteract each and every rudimentarily deployed fear tactic; without a neutralizing, stabilizing, negating effect in response to this overstimulated world which knows it has found its technological sweet spot; without an active program for peace in our internal environment which extends outward- we are outmaneuvered into an onslaught of misleading fear.
“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
“Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory;” 1 Corinthians 2:6-7
Remembering
Before you were born, you were inspired, breathed, and known by God. Every bit of information that is your intricate genetic makeup is known and stored within you by God. You are of a reverberating lineage; one that is vibrant and resounding in space and time. Who still remembers?
Innatism suggests that the mind is born with knowledge, ideas, and beliefs. Memory that transcends our experiences. Could there be memories encoded before birth? An intangible faculty of memory stored prior to all mind body experience.
Although the mind is not a blank slate at birth, we need our senses and experiences as keys to unlocking what is stored knowledge and intellect, and even remembrance. Things that are innate to you are things that you naturally identify with through sensation, reflection, and memory.
Memory is your brain’s capacity and function to encode, store, retain, and recall information from sensory experiences. The collection of our experiences since birth and our innate sensibilities. Every experience and memory shapes us in purposeful ways. And although specific memories may be forgotten, those memories that truly shape us are never completely gone.
“Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” II Corinthians 4:16-18
Visual Perception
Imagine for a moment, that what your eyes see, which is based on knowledge of visual perception and optics; knowledge which has been formulated through centuries of study, empirical data, and true to form scientific evidence; imagine for a moment that the science on which our interpretation of the visual world is based, has a determined gap or opening for persistent illusion; and that this gap for illusion, can forcefully mislead your senses and your reality in a duplicitous way.
Your eyesight is how you visually see the world. Your eyes collect visual information from light in the environment, and your brain processes and interprets this light. This is your visual perception. Your visual perception, along with all other information from sensory inputs from the environment, make up your perception of the world.
Visual System
Looking at the world through your eyes is an instantaneous process. Visible light in your environment reflects off the objects in your field of view and enters your eye. The reflected light rays enter the eye through the cornea. The cornea refracts (bends) the light rays, the light rays then passes through to the lens which focuses the light into an image onto the retina. The retina converts the light photons of the image into electrical signals which are carried by the optic nerve to the visual cortex of the brain where it is processed. All in an instant.
What we see is essentially light reflection and refraction. It’s all about light. Light informs what our eyes see in the visual world. It is the basis for our reality of the visual world.
Illusion
Now, visual perception can be tricky. The scientific study of optics shows us that important details of how light behaves and how light properties interact with matter is still a mystery. Sensory stimuli from light in the environment has a premise of being openly available for tricking the brain. We see this with illusions. Illusion can easily interplay with reality. An illusion is a confusion of the senses and a distortion of how our brains normally interpret sensory stimuli. Illusions distort our general perception of what we know to be reality or true.
So, if perception is how we understand the world through sensory information; is perception everything in understanding our reality? Can you trust your senses? Can you trust what your eyes see to be true?
What is True
In philosophy there are several schools of thought regarding knowledge of truth. There is empiricism, which states that knowledge comes only from sensory experience such as observation. Rationalism states that reason and applying logic is the primary source and test of knowledge. And there is innatism, which suggests that not all knowledge is gained from sensory experience but rather that the mind is born with knowledge not learned.
So, we have two ideas: 1) No knowledge enters the mind except through the senses, 2) There are eternal unchanging truths which are known by the mind not by the senses.
Science is wholly committed to one; the other says the senses can mislead you.
So, do we wholly accept our interpretation of sensory information presented by the environment? Or are our brains primed to be misled? Is it prudent to rely solely on our senses to inform our reality, knowing we can be misled by illusion and optics?…
Or is there a divine or innate knowing which we can believe, embrace, and rely on, despite what we see?
“For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth)” Ephesians 5:8-9
Lighting a candle or building a small fire is a peaceful thing. It calms. It evokes a sentimentality. Could it be that it reminds us of a simpler life? That we connect to memories of small quite gatherings lit by the warmth of a fire- A time before the modern unnatural- at home with the quiet flicker of candles or a wood fire. A time of comfort in communion or in solitude.
Putting flame to dance for a moment, in the quiet of our presence, as it lights up the darkness, is akin to revelation. When we are revealed, we are actively in concert with lighting up the darkness in our immediate presence. This active belief is like our basic survival instinct, and it connects to what brings us peace. Without that which brings us peace, we are self-destructive.
Distant affixed memories of what brings us peace automatically resonate with us. Therefore, relax into that which brings peace and concurrently connect back to that light which brings us life.
“The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the LORD. All the ways of a man are pure in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the spirit. Commit your work to the LORD, and your plans will be established.” Proverbs 16: 1-3
The search for knowledge in a wild or aggressive way is rooted in materialism. It is related to the physical therefore beyond man’s ravenous ambition for transcendence through knowledge. The wild search for knowledge is built of ego. And although the ego, in concept is metaphysical, it is bound by the soul and earthly in nature. Attempts at piercing the veil never was. The search for secret knowledge is ages old. A search for knowledge beyond the veil, out of one’s mind. It is the ego’s attempt to be more than special, more than gifted, more than graced, more than loved, more than…
Knowledge, however, is not a power grab. It is not to be usurped. Knowledge is given as wisdom and insight. It is graced and gifted through specific and special experience. It is given in love and should be received with patience.
The search for knowledge in a wild or aggressive way is forever carnal. Forever rabid for divine supremacy. Knowledge tempting to offer sovereignty beyond your wildest dreams. Gnosis. As foreboding as Icarus in flight. This wild knowledge calls from the abyss (outside the bounds). What then when you stare into the abyss, and the abyss stares into you?
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” Romans 8:5”
Broken Belief
Our belief system is irrational and broken. We were born that way. We are continuously trying to sustain ourselves to keep ourselves from dying of emotional pain and fear. Irrational. This is separate from our basic survival instinct. We have learned memories of cravings and pleasure that are misinformed. We are continuously looking for external sensory stimuli and connect to the wrong things. Our reward motivated behavior can be in a maddening cycle.
Correcting Belief
There may be a conflict in the brain’s chemical processes that relate to craving, pleasure, reward. Our brain pathways are recycling memories of cravings and pleasure that don’t satisfy the craving. It’s irrational and broken. The correct belief system has to be active in our minds for us to be free. Our connection to God can alter, correct, rewire, our brain structure, turning on different pathways, and changing the brains chemical response to one that offers peaceful physiological and psychological responses.
