Don’t take consciousness for granted. It’s the thing keeping you from realizing your dreams
Let’s talk about consciousness. I know some of you are thinking, what does Dr. Wes know about consciousness? But just ask yourself who knows a thing better, he who has always been immersed in it, has never lacked for it and takes it for granted? Or, he who has spent his life ogling at it drunkenly from across the street?
I’m actually a big fan of consciousness. And it’s not true that I’m never, ever, awake.
I’m awake now.
Aside from comas I’ve been awake every day of my life. In fact I’ve been conscious at least one hour a day every day since before the Kennedy administration.
I’m always striving to know more about consciousness and trying to understand what possible good it might have.
Unlike most people, I don’t just assume true what everyone says is true. I make observations and write little notes on scraps of paper lying around. Then at the end of a week or two I look at my pile of notes and I think up something I assume no one else has ever heard of.
I also read. I don’t often read books, but last week, Anitra, conscious of my interest in consciousness, brought me a book from the library that says right in the title that it’s going to explain the subject to me. It’s a big book; I hope I can get the time to read it between naps and before beer.
One of the things I’ve already learned about consciousness, even before reading the book or crossing the street, is that you can do a lot with just a little. You may think you need cosmic consciousness to get from A to B, but nine times out of 10 it suffices to be able to stand, to open your eyes and to alternately shuffle your feet.
Another thing I’ve learned about consciousness is an outgrowth of my study of the uses of stupidity.
Namely, you can leverage your unawareness into awareness. Just by the fact of catching yourself at being unconscious, and doing nothing more, you are paradoxically more conscious than you could be if you weren’t ever to catch yourself unconscious.
Think about it.
It turns out, amazingly, that you can only be conscious of what you were once unconscious of. So in order to be the most conscious, you have to have the most unconsciousness working for you, handing unconscious goodies to you that you can be conscious about.
If that isn’t clear at the moment, sleep on it.
Speaking of consciousness, for me it’s Friday last week, so I have no consciousness whatsoever of what is going on with regard to Syria as you read this. I’m just a voice from the past.
How’s that going for you?
As I write this the United States is saying it’s giving up on trying to bring the United Nations along on attacking the Assad government for using chemical weapons.
This is because Russia promises a Security Council veto.
But the UN inspection team could soon finish its analysis of the evidence of the chemical attack in Damascus. Would it hurt to wait for that?
I know it isn’t every day we get a chance to shoot off cruise missiles and rockets and rain holy destruction on governments we don’t like, but wouldn’t it be best to have the very clearest idea of what actually happened?
I don’t know much about sarin. I’ve heard the sarin that was used in the Tokyo subway by Aum Shinrikyo 18 years ago was impure.
That makes me think it’s not the easiest stuff in the world to make. On the other hand, I’ve heard that Iraqi insurgents were able to come by it in the Iraq war, so it was either lying around, leftover from Saddam, or, what? They got it from Iran?
The evidence against the Assad government is an intercepted angry phone call after the sarin attack happened? Really?
I’ve had clearer dreams than this.