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10. Mind Games

What we call 'our Mind' is not ours at all. We, as Spirits, do not have a Mind because we simply don't need one. We are, as spirits, aware of our immaterial, indestructible immortality and we don't have to worry about surviving. We are overseeing the actions of a mammal, which we are using for our own purposes and the mammal is governed by its Mind. The situation is very much like owning and riding a horse.

The Homo Sapiens Mind (THSM for short) has the job of protecting the survival of what my trusty dictionary calls "...the bipedal primate mammal (Homo sapiens)...". THSM is, naturally enough, concerned with promulgation, protection, care and feeding of the mammal. Typical directives given by THSM are eat, rest, exercise, etc. If THSM perceives no danger at all, then it probably sends no signals and the mammal simply rests. A quiet cat would be my example of this.

The directives given by THSM when it perceives danger can be a major problem for us because they come with feelings of uneasiness, wariness and downright fright and the Body more or less automatically responds to them. Immediate danger signals resulting in recoiling, widening of the eyes, tightening of the muscles, etc., can also be a problem.

Our earthly problems largely stem from our over-identification with the horses we are riding. I think most, if not all, of our spiritual difficulties stem from not understanding this over-identification situation because we are monitoring all these THSM directives all the time.

THSM's advice, to understate it, can become somewhat troublesome. Unless we continually recognize, monitor and sometimes override this advice, it can drastically reduce our happiness. And we, most certainly and most logically, are supposed to be happy.

Each Mind is original, survival equipment for every animal. It is also part of that species' group-Mind as in schools of fish, swarms of bees, etc. Also note that every group primarily protects the survival of the group and not the individual. Your Body, here on Earth, is a group-animal with THSM directing it. And all of the directives come with down-tone feelings! That's the problem: the down-tone emotional content. The fantastic good news is that simple awareness of the Mind-Body-connection dissipates the Mind-Body-problem. You don't have to DO anything about the problem; you just have to(a) be aware of what is happening(b) understand why it is happening.

A typical problem occurs just before the average family's suppertime. The kids are nervous and picking fights, Mom is really strained and Dad, when he arrives, isn't terrific either. The problem is hunger/fatigue and soon to be solved (logically) by the sitting meal but the mind sees this hunger/fatigue condition as life threatening and the family winds up not just hungry but angry too. If the family is eating dinner at Grandma's she, being wise to this problem from many years of hungry family experience, uses her time-honored solution and gives peanuts to the kids and (hopefully) an adult beverage to Mom and Dad. This grandma-ploy usually cools everybody down until suppertime.

The same thing happens when you cut the lawn and become thirsty and tired. THSM kicks in with its directives and you will be depressed and grumpy until you drink some lemonade and take a nap unless you can overcome the down-tone feelings that accompany being thirsty and tired.

What's happening is THSM is giving directives to our bodies and Spirits (correctly honoring and appreciating all of TSB) tend to give undue weight and substance to all of the Mind's advice including the down-tone feelings.

Being told by THSM what to do and what not to do is OK if you understand that THSM is just doing its body-protecting job (and is, of course, part of TSB too.) For it is logically correct that our bodies should survive to continue our experiencing role(s) and therefore this protection advice is necessary and proper.

It helps me a great deal to understand that THSM is not "evil", "base" or "disgusting" but is just protecting our bodies, which we need for our earthly fun and games. On Earth we cannot yet communicate Spirit-to-Spirit, (but it's coming, it's coming) and certainly with no logical assurance that its working. If you want to talk with me, in our current stage of earthly development, you have to communicate with me via our Bodies, which again, are being directed by THSM.

Let's say you want your Body, if it's like mine, to be a little less porky. So you decide to eat less and what happens? What happens is that THSM regards less food as dangerous and then you absolutely experience the power of THSM directives! You have to override, again and again, THSM's directives to keep eating. You have to override not only the hunger pangs, which are bad enough, but also the grouchy uneasiness, that accompanies them.

It's difficult enough for the sexes to communicate. When adding dieting or quitting smoking to the mix it can be downright life threatening!

Another example of the unrecognized (ergo unmonitored) advice of the THSM is the perennial problem of sex. Yes Virginia, sex is a good thing and I like it quite a bit and so does the average human. It is the THSM directing the Body to keep the species going and we all logically agree with this advice. Sex also can help you bond intimately and emotionally with another Spirit, and we all agree with that. But no sane person agrees with pursuing promiscuity or the continual pursuit of sensation. Those practices quickly result in being, as we have noticed with AIDS and other profound social ills, counter-productive to one's happiness.

But my friends, isn't that pursuit exactly what THSM is recommending? These unrecognized THSM directives can be individually lethal but THSM is much more concerned with the survival of the species than the individual. It is using the survival-through-abundance technique, which as a rule works quite well throughout the animal world.

G. S. Pransky describes this dual- advice situation by distinguishing our feelings into "Feelings" and "Deeper Feelings". "Feelings" are from the THSM and, "Deeper Feelings" are, surprise, surprise, from the Spirit. In his book, "The Renaissance of Psychology", he goes further and says that "Thoughts can be dismissed" and I, of course, agree with that.

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