On Beingness
In a reflective mood, I began to recall the many states of consciousness that I have experienced in my inner life - my mind.
Ways of BEING
Dr. Jordan Peterson wrote a book called Maps of Meaning over a 13-year period of his life - an enormous accomplishment. During that time, I don’t doubt that he experienced all of the WAYS OF BEING that all humans experience in their own unique ways and proportions.
In my ongoing observations of humanity, I try to identify the ways of being that (I suspect) each person is experiencing in the moment. As I come to know individuals over time, their dominant ways of being become evident. Some are controlled almost entirely by their feelings and they live lives of emotional chaos. Evidently, their logical reasoning abilities are too underdeveloped to help them to manage or resolve the chaos. Others are dominated by logic and possess stunted capacities for empathy or consideration of others’ life circumstances.
I suspect that, across humanity, a bell curve would likely represent all of us along a continuum of EMOTIONAL at one extreme and LOGICAL at the other. The majority of us be somewhere in the middle.
Artifacts of Consciousness (articon)
I think of every instance of my life as having been experienced in my mind and generated an artifact of consciousness (”articon”). More than simply a memory, the constellations of articons that have been assembled over 72 years of life are an active “force” in shaping my destiny. They play an integral role in my personal beingness and the expressions of me as a unique human being.
Using the analogy of an archeological dig at which researchers seek to unearth relics from the past, an ARTICON is a relic of mind created at a past instance if consciousness and waiting to be unearthed by in interested investigator.
The Being Tempate
What follows is a simple exercise that I completed to map my own states of being which have inhabited my mind at different stages of life and have guided my choices in the past and the present.
Humans FEEL
Fear
Love
Sensations
Touch
Taste
Smell
Pain
Comfort
Confident
Strength
Courage
Weakness
Envy
Jealousy
Obsession
Anxiety
Humans SEE
Observe
Envision
Create
Ignore
Humans THINK
Analyze
Imagine
Decide
Rationalize
Blame
Forgive
Humans ACT
Consume
Produce
Attack
Defend
Humans REACT
Run
Hide
Avoid
Fight
Console
Pray
Humans FEEL AGAIN
Learn
Acknowledge
Adjust
Deny
Suppress
Humans SLEEP
Dream
Awaken
Humans ENDURE
Poverty
Illness
Injury
Aggression
Harm
Suffering
Humans DIE
Mourn
Remember