Reality, Science, Power and the Mind
Science is a tool that allows us to discover new ways to predict and manipulate the world in which we live, the physical world. It is the world that we all share, live in and are a part of, and it is objectively there.
Reality on the other hand, I believe, should be thought of as personal, as the world our brain constructs. Reality is precisely and entirely what we are experiencing. It is what we call the mind, a person’s individualized reality of the shared objective world. Most commonly we describe the mind as thoughts, emotions, perceptions, memories, ideas, beliefs, etc., the whole palette of mental phenomena. Reality is not the objective world, a dream or a simulation but a construct of the brain which’s content we call the mind.
The mind changes through experiences and our capacity to learn. It follows that reality changes, from person to person and from moment to moment. Reality changes based on where we are in space and time. And so it must be considered as different for every single person.
A persons actions depend entirely on a persons mind. Meaning, when you change someone’s mind you change someone’s actions. Another way of thinking of an action of a person is by asking: What does the mind want or what is the minds purpose? The answer always comes in the form of an action.
An action is everything we do: from seeing to running to shaking someone’s hand to falling in love. And the purpose of the action is the intended outcome of the action. This process is how we do stuff and how we change the physical world which we all share.
Now consider that the biggest danger to humans are other humans. Through their actions humans can destroy other humans and for humans to protect themselves from humans, they can lock each other up or kill each other. But that is old school. What is more efficient is to influence and change others minds. Remember what the mind is: our thoughts, feelings, perceptions, ideas etc. Someone who’s purposefully influencing your thoughts or feelings is ultimately changing your reality and actions.
Power is the capacity to shape other people’s actions and in the world we live in today it primarily happens by shaping people’s minds.
To protect ourselves from power, I believe that it is extremely important to take responsibility for our actions, by thinking about and deciding what we want, by knowing why we want it and ultimately by creating the world we want through our actions. Each of us must make up their own mind.