Choosing which world you live in

by Terry 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

Terry

We have chosen the world we live in......inside our thoughts. The physical location of us is practically (not entirely) irrelevant.
We have selected certain thoughts to regard as....... UNthinkable and ignorable.
We have cherry-picked importance like a salad bar. We leave behind MOST of reality and head to the dinner table. Consume only...a tiny...bit.
We drink coffee to alter our morning state of consciousness.
We sip wine or drink beer or consume pills to alter our moods.
We entertain ourselves with TV or Video games or movies or sports.
We cram our day with this and that and the other. THIS IS OUR WORLD.
There are millions of websites we do NOT ever visit.
There are billions of people we don't know.
There are trillions of facts we've never considered.
Most citizens of this planet don't agree with what we've decided is absolutely true. What THEY think is true......at least, to THEM.
Choosing which world you live in is "automatic".
Our parents submerged us in their myth. We absorbed their prejudice, politics, folk wisdom and bad habits.
After a while we found better flavors and made them our only truths.
Once, most of us, chose Jehovah's world. We thought Watchtower thoughts. We exchanged cult "truth". We would have probably died for it.
We exerted effort in convincing strangers. We pitied them. We condemned them. Their "world" wasn't ours.
Now we have a different world we live in.
Maybe most of the people who read my words right now live in TWO worlds simultaneously!
The after-fantasy leaves a ring in our bathtub of the mind.
A sound echoes in our head....Jehovah...hovah...ovah..vah...ah....
WHAT IS REAL is astounding because reality is beyond OUR determining. We actually do NOT get a say in it.
If it were otherwise?
The world would have been flat. The sky would be a dome. Titans and gods would live on top of mountains. The map would end with dragons.
This WAS "real" and "true".
Where are YOUR myths?
What are YOUR self-lies?
What world do YOU live in and how very very different is it from the actual one?
What you read shapes it. But--you are prejudiced in advance what you CHOOSE to read. Think of what you refuse to read.
Do you simply enforce your own ignorance? Sure you do. Otherwise you'd be changing your mind with updates every five minutes!
The people who you listen to don't challenge your thinking--do they? Mostly they share your carefully selected tidbit of "reality".
The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society issues a map of all the reality that has ever existed which about 7 million people totally accept as real.
Those 7 million people are ignorant---but---they are determined to spread that ignorance like the common cold.
You don't accept the Watchtower map any more. You are less ignorant.
But, what did you replace that map from Society headquarters with?
Something equally "comfortable"? How wrong is it? How will you ever know?
poppers

Nice post, Terry. Something else to consider that relates to your post is this: who is this "you" that weaves the "thought created world" you live in? Is that "you" also part of the imaginary fabric of that world? What happens when you look for the "me" that you believe yourself to be? In other words, am "I" what I think I am? If not, then who/what am I really? What is found to be present when all thoughts of "me and my world" are absent?
jgnat

Agreed, there is an absolute earth and reality, that I see imperfectly due to the filter by which I choose to view the world. There is good evidence that innovation is sparked by new environments. I think you will enjoy this quote,
Iconoclasts’ key insights tend to be triggered by visual images, so the key to seeing like an iconoclast is to look at things that you have never seen before. Sometimes a simple change of environment is enough to jog your perceptual system out of its familiar categories. This may be one reason why restaurants ?gure so prominently as sites of perceptual breakthroughs. New acquaintances can also be a source of new perceptions, because other people frequently lend their opinion of what they see, and these ideas may be enough to destabilize our familiar patterns of perception. In short, by forcing our visual system to see things in different ways, we can increase the odds of new insights. - Gregory Burns on iconoclasts.
Also consider however, that it is now impossible to absorb all information that is available to me, even as the information age now grants me access to what was once held in dusty libraries, hoarded in a professor's lair. The trick for this next generation of information miners is to manage their filters. Since it is impossible to experience all and know all, I choose to expose myself too new vistas and new ideas. I am necessarily shaped by my new views, which increasingly are at odds with those around me. This I bear as the cost of discovery.
I deliberately choose what is subjectively good and best. Frankl makes a good argument for shooting high. My choice, my subjective reality.
clarity

Well, Terry interesting thoughts as always ....hmmm...
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reminds me of my 'rose coloured glasses' days,
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you know... get up in the morning feeling all apprehensive about
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how the day will go and what am I going to do about it.
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So just pop on those glasses and viola'... everything looks kinda rosy.
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No need to really think tooooo deeply about those nagging disquieting thoughts!
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Just carry on!
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You said ----->
"Maybe most of the people who read my words right now live in TWO worlds simultaneously!
The after-fantasy leaves a ring in our bathtub of the mind"
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Well the glasses came off some time ago!
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But you've got me thinking .....
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DO I live in two worlds?
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I'd say partly. But not willingly.
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I'd say the bathtub ring has been pretty much scrubbed away ...........
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but I just haven't turned out the light in the bathroom!!
(the kids are still in there!)
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clarity
cult classic

Enjoyed reading this Terry.
Gives added meaning to Descartes', "I think, therefore I am".
jay88

But, what did you replace that map from Society headquarters with?
I replaced it with inquiry.
Terry

If you ever doubt there is an objective reality just get a toothache or a broken arm!
The pain pops the soap bubble of fantasy.
You stop everything and deal with it.
That is the referee in the ring of life: pain.
Is it any wonder we all find dozens of ways to shape consciousness and alter (perception of) reality with our "remedies"?
There is no IS beyond the real one. Stay in your head all you want--it changes nothing but what YOU describe.
I had an Aunt who was in the same room with the rest of us--but--in her world she was entirely elsewhere talking to other people half the time.
We easily develop knee-jerk responses.
We only catch a glimpse and right away we spin our self-told story with cast and crew.
Ever find yourself declaring what somebody else is thinking?!
I hear it all the time.
Do you think you know what other people's motives are? How could you?
You can't.
You probably don't even know your own.
Start with basics.
Make a list of rock solid everyday words you use and clearly and carefully define them.
What--in your world--are your bogus definitions? Why don't they match the real ones?
Ask a JW what the TRUTH is and stand back and watch em' spin and spin and spin.
A different vocabulary is a strong clue and a red flag you are off in a special fantasy land.....
We are entitled to our own opinions. Like red socks or white.
But, not to our own Facts.
Terry

After I posted the last time I started getting a toothache!
Yow. Talk about the power of suggestion!!
Reality, get the hell out of my life!

Choosing which world you live in

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