“Today, the emotions are so neglected that most people are oblivious to the deep currents that move them, hold them back, and lead them astray.
If I say, “I am grateful”, I could mean one of three things: that I am currently feeling grateful for something, that I am generally grateful for that thing, or that I am a grateful kind of person.
Similarly, if I say, “I am proud”, I could mean that I am currently feeling proud about something, that I am generally proud about that thing, or that I am a proud kind of person.
Let us call the first instance (currently feeling proud about something) an emotional experience, the second instance (being generally proud about that thing) an emotion or sentiment, and the third instance (being a proud kind of person), a trait.
It is very common to confuse or amalgamate these three instances, especially the first and the second. But whereas an emotional experience is brief and episodic, an emotion—which may or may not result from accreted emotional experiences—can endure for many years, and, in that time, predispose to a variety of emotional experiences, as well as thoughts, beliefs, desires, and actions.
For instance, love can give rise not only to amorous feelings, but also to joy, grief, rage, longing, and jealousy, among others.
Similarly, it is very common to confuse emotions and feelings. An emotional experience, by virtue of being a conscious experience, is necessarily a feeling, as are physical sensations such as hunger or pain (although not all conscious experiences are also feelings, not, for example, believing or seeing, presumably because they lack a somatic or bodily dimension).
In contrast, an emotion, being in some sense latent, can only ever be felt, sensu stricto, through the emotional experiences that it gives rise to, even though it might also be discovered through its associated thoughts, beliefs, desires, and actions.
Despite these conscious and unconscious manifestations, emotions need not themselves be conscious, and some emotions, such as hating one’s mother or being in love with one’s best friend, might only be uncovered, let alone admitted, after several years in psychotherapy.
If an emotion remains unconscious, this is often through repression or some other form of self-deception. Of course, self-deception can also take place at the level of an emotional experience if it is not acceptable or tolerable, for example, by misattributing the type or intensity of the emotional experience, or misattributing its object or cause. Thus, envy is often construed as indignation, and Schadenfreude (the pleasure derived from the misfortune of others) as sympathy. Fear of ghosts or ‘the dark’ is almost certainly fear of death, since people who have come to terms with death are hardly frightened of such things.
Beyond this, it could be argued that even the purest of emotions is inherently self-deceptive in that it lends weight in our experience to one thing, or some things, over others. In that much, emotions are not objective or neutral perceptions, but subjective ‘ways of seeing’ that reflect our needs and concerns.”
Like radio waves, spiritual information is constantly being broadcast around us, so it’s really just a matter of learning how to tune in to it. To interpret what spirit is broadcasting, you’ll be using your five senses just like you do in your day-to-day life. And just as you may feel that some of your senses are more reliable than others for making everyday judgments, you have senses, or clairs, that are stronger for connecting with spirit.
The clair senses are types of psychic abilities that correspond with the five senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling.
“Here’s another metaphor for thinking about the ultimate nature of reality:
Imagine, if you will, an infinite chameleon.
Oh, common on! It’s not as ridiculous as it sounds. Put on your thinking-cap and play along.
A regular chameleon is only able change itself in one way: by changing colors. Which equals one degree of freedom. But imagine a creature which is so flexible that it’s able (somehow) to be a chameleon in every way possible. Meaning, it has infinite degrees of freedom. Imagine it could freely morph its size, shape, texture, temperature, smell, bones, cells, molecules, atoms, and even the physical laws which govern its entire being.
How could it do that?
Well… it would have to actually be limitless. As in: without limit. As in: an unlimited, all-powerful chameleon. (Don’t worry, he’s only a danger to pesky flies.)
What would such a creature look it?
Well, not much like a standard chameleon, that’s for sure. It wouldn’t even be right to call it a creature because a “creature” is a label we invented to refer to a set of certain constrains upon infinite degrees of freedom. To be a “creature” precisely means that you’re not free to be something else, like a coffee table. So this thing is not really a creature. But it’s also not a “thing”, because to be a “thing” is also a set of constrains upon infinite degrees of freedom. So this infinite chameleon would most closely resemble no-thing. Why nothing? Because, imagine that every property sort of cancels itself out by its negation, like the positive and negative integers might if you tried to add them all together.
But notice, this would not be your ordinary notion of nothingness, like some kind of black, lifeless void. Instead, imagine this “nothingness chameleon” as having infinite degrees of freedom, allowing “him” to masquerade as everything. He would be bursting at the seams with infinite potential, ready to actualize into something concrete.
So why bother calling it a chameleon then?
Because, the essence of its nature is chameleon-like to the Nth degree. Its very structure exudes illusion and misdirection, for which I think the label “chameleon” is apropos. Plus, everyone knows chameleons are cool.
Could a monster-sized infinite chameleon be hiding right under your nose right this very second?
Impossible! Unscientific! Illogical! Just a silly thought experiment! Mere philosophy! Balderdash!
Maybe. Or maybe… if you stop for a second and consciously look around you, you’ll notice that you’re inside the infinite chameleon right now! After all, where else could you be?
Perhaps you are the infinite chameleon, hiding from itself!
Granted, such a discovery would be rather implausible, outrageous, and embarrassing to admit. After all, how could a chameleon hide himself from himself? But then again, it is a chameleon we’re talking about here. Have you seen how regular chameleons hide in the jungle? They’re pretty good at it. And they’ve only mastered 1 degree of freedom. Imagine what an infinite chameleon could do to hide himself from you.
Maybe you can spot his hoof-prints in the sand 😉
P.S. The nice thing about chasing down infinite chameleons is that there can only be one of him to find 😉
P.P.S. Please don’t poke or worship the infinite chameleon. It makes him cry ;)”
Anger boils up inside of me, seeping out at the seams, a boiling pot of fuming irritations. I am trying to hold myself together before the seams unravel.
When you suppress so much eventually it will come out of you and can come in many forms.
I want to tear it all down and fight. I want to scream. I want to jump out of a window.
Anger can be channeled into change; this means understanding where that anger comes from and then discovering more about yourself. Usually we are angry at ourselves. Fear is the root of anger. What am I scared of? Everything. Fucking damn everything. Nothing has been the same since two and a half years ago, this doesn’t feel like myself.. Who am I anymore?
“When we become emotional, we become unconscious, and thus we easily become victims of the Matrix. An easy rule of thumb is that emotions are reactive and thus unconscious while feelings allow us to think and discern clearly.” – Infiniteshift.wordpress.com
In life we wish we would not feel and that which we can feel, we oblige so in excess, for there can never be enough pleasure and there is always enough pain.
