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Currently, I am working on revising, editing, and
updating Chapter Nine of Finding God On The
Train - The Book. Chapter Nine is the first of
three chapters of Part Three focusing on the
control of consciousness, primarily approaches
and techniques for accomplishing mind control.
Based on the pioneering research work of Dr. Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi, who in his book Flow theorizes
that our minds, left unattended, descend into
Psychic Entropy as a fall-back state, leaving most
of us living in a condition of mental chaos, if left
uncontrolled.
To further support this premise, and the impact
of mind control on our happiness and well-being,
I have added the 2010 research of Dr. Daniel T.
Gilbert and Dr. Matthew A. Killingsworth, both
from Harvard, on what they term "mind
wandering," - supported by their Journal of
Science article outlining the results of this
research titled, A Wandering Mind Is An
Unhappy Mind. (Science 12, November
2010:932).
Along with this, I have included Killingsworth's
2011 TED talk discussing these findings titled,
To Be Happier; Stay In The Moment, featuring
his creation of the iPhone app used to randomly
survey over 2250 study participants.
Below, from Chapter Nine, the section featuring
this discussion on the interplay of Psychic
Entropy and Mind Wandering on the effective
control of consciousness.
NAVIGATING OUR OWN THOUGHTS
35 Hard it is to train the mind, which goes
where it likes, and does what it wants. But
a trained mind brings health and happiness.
36 The wise can direct their thoughts, subtle
and elusive, wherever they choose: a trained
mind brings health and happiness.
The Dhammapada Sayings Of The Buddha
Translated By Eknath Easwaran
As reinforced by Buddha’s quote above, control of consciousness is not easily accomplished, if it were, we would have a world of peace and plenty. Instead, it takes effort to navigate through our own thoughts, filtering them and learning to listen to the constructive, rather than the destructive guidance. To fully understand the complexity of this mind control endeavor, we need to address the central underlying component of consciousness - “Psychic Entropy.”
The truth is that our thinking, our consciousness, is not ordered and logical, but when left on its own, it quickly becomes chaotic and negative. To help us understand the normal state of our minds, I will introduce the term “Entropy,” which Webster defines as “a process of degeneration marked variously by increasing degrees of uncertainty, disorder, fragmentation, and chaos.” Dr. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi in his book Flow theorizes that “Entropy is the normal state of consciousness – a condition that is neither useful or enjoyable… the normal state of the mind is chaos."
For the most part, we all avoid much of this “Psychic Entropy,” or mental confusion, because of our culturally defined roles, which structure our work and home life activities and thinking - clearly defining our thoughts. So for the majority of our day we are simply, and luckily, living on automatic pilot. It is when the day is done, and we are left alone without any demands, the basic disorder of the mind reveals itself.
With nothing to do, it begins to follow random
patterns, usually stopping at something painful
or disturbing. Unless a person knows how to
give order to his or her thoughts, attention
will be attracted to whatever is problematic
at the moment.
Dr. Csikszentmihalyi, goes on to suggest, that people are eager to avoid this condition, filling their heads with whatever information is readily available; for many, television is the main source of stimulation that easily structures their attention and avoids this Psychic Entropy, but adds little to their enjoyment and development. Let’s take a moment to review some related research, which expands on this perspective of Psychic Entropy provided by Dr. Csikszentmihalyi, examining its impact on our happiness and well-being. This current research defines,our tendency to entertain this mental entropy, as "mind-wandering."
A human mind is a wandering mind, and a
wandering mind is an unhappy mind. The
ability to think about what is not happening
is a cognitive achievement that comes at an
emotional cost.
The quote above is offered by two Harvard University research psychologists, Dr. Daniel T. Gilbert - Edgar Pierce Professor Of Psychology, and his doctoral student at the time, Matthew A. Killingsworth, based on their 2010 research published in the Journal Of Science titled, A Wandering Mind Is An Unhappy Mind (Science 12, November 2010:932). As described by Csikszentmihalyi’s Psychic Entropy concept, this research also confirms that Humans, unlike other animals, spend a lot of time thinking about what isn’t going on around them: contemplating events that happened in the past, might happen in the future, or may never happen at all. This mind-wandering appears to be the human brain’s default mode of operation.
The premise for the mind-wandering study, as this book has also contended, was that many philosophical and religious traditions teach that happiness is to be found by living in the moment, and practitioners are trained to resist mind wandering and to “be here now.” These traditions suggest a wandering mind is an unhappy mind. This new line of research, the authors say, seems to suggest that these traditional approaches are right.
So to test this premise, Gilbert and Killingsworth studied subjects ranging in age from 18 to 88, representing a wide range of backgrounds, by developing an iPhone app that contacted 2,250 volunteers at random intervals to ask how happy they were, what they were currently doing, and whether they were thinking about there current activity, or about something else that was pleasant, neutral, or unpleasant. Subjects could choose from 22 general activities, such as walking, eating, shopping, and watching television.
Respondents reported that their minds were wandering 46.9 percent of the time, no less than 30 percent of the time, during every activity except making love. The results showed the following:
- Mind-wandering appears ubiquitous across all activities. The study shows that our mental lives are pervaded, to a remarkable degree, by the nonpresent.
- Mind-wandering is an excellent predictor of people’s happiness. How often our minds leave the present, and where they tend to go, is a better predictor of our happiness than the activities in which we are engaged.
- Time-lag analyses conducted by the researchers suggested that their subjects’ mind-wandering was generally the cause, not the consequence, of their unhappiness.
With this study, Gilbert and Killingsworth established that mind-wandering is actually our preferred fall back position, when we are not fully engaged by our clearly defined roles and pursuits, and it turns out, at least 30 percent of the time, our minds are wandering during these activities. The catch, or better said, snafu, is that waiting for us when we start mind-wandering is our own Psychic Entropy, ready to take us on the fast lane to a world of mental chaos, painful recollections, and negative thoughts. It is easy to understand why mind control is so essential, if we are to focus our minds and proceed on our spiritual path.
I strongly encourage all who want to explore this study in more depth to view Matthew Killingsworth’s, Ted Talk titled Want To Be Happier? Stay In The Moment, filmed in 2011 and inserted below. Like Csikszentmihalyi’s research, Gilbert’s and Killingsworth’s research stresses the negative impact of our human brain’s default to mind-wandering/Psychic Entropy, when not fully mentally engaged.
Please Stay Engaged
With Love, G.
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