Psychological Programming
How often do we take responsibility for this?
How often do we program ourselves?
How often are we are aware we are programing ourselves?
How often do we blame outside forces for our current software?
Living and working with programmers while currently reading Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson has me often comparing the human condition to that of a machine. Given that, I have been observing that folks are existing in “App Mode”.
For these current purposes, “App Mode” is just as it sounds. Just as an iPhone has an App for cartographic images, humans seem to be running Apps for emotions carefully chosen for each circumstance. And these Apps are emulated from what the human is most likely seeing during the course of the day in their media and social interactions. So, just as a Wonderkiller (a delightful euphemism for the smart phone), brings us directly to the nearest Wholefoods, our emotional Apps are efficiently providing reactions such as: concern, sadness, anger, and worst of all- love.
Let’s stick with the map metaphor for a moment. Prior to an influx of knowledge, it could take longer to find the said Wholefoods. Perhaps strangers would be asked, wrong turns taken, and the brain may have had to use mild visual clues to lead the body to said market. An authentic experience may have been created, leaving the person with a wealth of memories in sounds, smells, and feelings. In this scenario “living” would have occurred.
Now, lets re-enter our current predicament. You want to find a Wholefoods- it is typed in and you have the exact right answer. No guesses, no adventure.
No Journey.
My current mind babblings are thus: I feel as if we have taken that same mentality and applied it to our emotional life.
We’ve seen other people sad, so we act like their sad.
We’ve seen other people’s anger, so we recreate that anger.
We’ve seen other people’s love, and we chase after it.
I am not convinced that the majority of humans are taking part in an authentic emotional journey. Based the current archetypes parading around our paper and screens, I think people may be using an App map, rather then journeying out on their own.
I would like conclude with the following: psychological programming is a wonderful thing. According to Joseph Campbell, shamans have been programming humans with mythology and the language of archetypes since we figured out fire.
Priests and Rabbi’s have been do it. Hindus and Buddhists as well.
Worst of all, artists figured it out- artists that were not bound to anyone sect.
With that in mind, I want to ponder a final-ish question: What would happen if we rewrote the emotional App mapp into something that inspired authentic experience? Note that I am not saying to get rid of the App- psychology has taught me that there will always be a map- but it never finitely says what map to use.
So this one day 