Believing is only Believing

November 19

Before, Tristan could begin another lesson, Kathy asked, “Tristan, what you are teaching is very new to my ears, but seems rational. I wish you would explain more of the developmental psychology,
as to why we have the feeling of being present, as something, sometimes with the body and sometimes without the body.”

Tristan replied, “This is a good suggestion and I shall follow up immediately. We have been discussing how each one of you has come to possess a firm conviction that the virtual image generated by his or her brain and back-projected onto the source physicality is valid and reliable. Moreover, we tendered a reasonable suggestion that the psychological consequences of gaining such a conviction are a sister belief that such conviction similarly applies to the full content of our type II reality. So now, I shall elaborate.

“Type II reality arises when the mind-brain begins to associate mental concepts provided during upbring by the immediate family and the reigning cultural milieu into the existing virtual physicality. Such associations occurring unconsciously and automatically as the child brain expands and refines its neurocircuitry.

“The earliest associations arising from the synchronous connection of the infant’s visual image of the mother with other mother-identifying sensory data, e.g., smell, taste, voice, touch, and motor actions. Concurrently, a baby associates, being with the mother with instinctual feelings of well-being, peace, joy, contentment, and safety.

“Similar associations are soon made with other members of the immediate family.

“As baby begins to communicate with the immediate family using gestures and simple words so to express its state of emotional and physical being, it is beginning to develop cognitions and beliefs, as to family and itself. The baby learns that it can generate a seemingly deliberate action upon an object or caretaker; or it can be the recipient of such actions by another. ‘Me’ as author and ‘me’ as recipient. By the time baby is two or three years old, he or she has used language to form socially-derived, cognitive categories so to characterize its interactions with other persons, e.g., some people are nurturing and others are oppressive.

“Moreover, as most of baby’s early learning comes from parents and older siblings interacting physically and emotionally with baby in a proactive way, interactions which can be withheld or lavished, baby comes to understand ‘authority’ at a very basic level. For attention to baby in a pleasing way is rewarding, withholding or being rough with attention is punishing (pleasant versus unpleasant, like versus dislike).

“If baby acts in a way which causes the parent to react negatively, baby learns that baby will be punished in someway; act is a way pleasing to the parent and baby might be rewarded.

“Consequently, many years before reaching adulthood, the child and adolescent will have created a ‘living archetype’ within type II reality comprised by summing up each and every emotional experience associated with authority from it early life until the present. Subsequently, many unfounded, cultural, cognitive beliefs, such as religious systems and prejudices, force-fed into the child’s mind, remain unchallenged within the adults type II reality; primarily, as such are taken as authoritative and superior in power to the child’s self-conceived beliefs.

“Based upon what has been provided to date, clearly, a great majority of the content comprising our type II reality is unreliable, unverified, and misleading. Such illusory reality suggestive of the Maya of Hindu philosophy. The only solution is to deconstruct type II reality by uncovering our unverifiable, inconsistent, and dangerous misbeliefs so they can be consciously corrected. This is why I give new seekers one simple injunction to apply, “Discard ALL belief systems. Discard ALL desire for final surety. Remember, truth is open-ended and never absolutely objective. Meaning and purpose are found from living your life with sound intention, conscious observation and altruistic action.”