one sunday afternoon some time ago and that struck me with it´s sheer beauty.
It started with the well-known question "What IS the damn meaning of life?"
Quite a difficult and individual one, i know.
But again i was in the mood of looking out for meta-patterns.
So i precised the first question to "What is life?" and of course instantly focusing
on my personal interest "What is human life?" and "What is a human entity?" and "What is an entity?"
i reduced the term "entity" (from which "human" is just a subdivision)
to the most basic abstraction i found: a round sphere -
which kind of represents the "perfect sole entity" to me, being some kind of "multidimensional circle".
And of course you find the sphere-concept everywhere in nature when looking around -
more often than any other shape as far as i experienced (even more often than the spiral,
another interesting shape i´ll have to think about in future).
Though the round sphere seems to me the most featureless, unindividual and "natural"
sole body it still has some important features: i.e. a border that divides the inner universe
from an outer universe. When catching on the term "universe" i suddenly found myself
thinking about planets. A planet too is a round sphere with inner life and an outer universe.
So i wondered - if "human" and "planet" do have some metaphoric connections -
what might happen if i try to perceive a human entity in the way i perceive a planet entity.
Then something said BANG in my head and what i received was a little thinking model
i happened to call "welcome to Planet We". It goes like this:
PHASE ONE: Basic settings
Imagine the human mind being a planet like earth. There are landmasses:
reliable massive slow-moving belief-alike things where something can be build on.
And there is an ocean: impulsive, chaotic, able to shape the continents appearance.
And there is an atmosphere: a kind of catalysator that makes oceans and landmasses
interact in a lot of ways (i.e. rain). So far for the basic setting.
Now let´s have a closer look at the continents.
PHASE TWO: The continents
To make the image work as an analogy i first had to find out which features enable us
to live as humans. i found four basic functions that from my point might completely describe
the human processes: They are "THINKING", "ACTING", "FEELING" and "LEARNING".
(By the way: This is a point where - not only here but especially here - i veryvery much
would love to get some corrections if i left something out...).
Let us pretend those four functions do represent four continents.
We´ll find out that they provide quite lieveable biotopes with their own special
lifeforms and geography.On THINKING the dominating lifeform are "The thoughts".
THINKING is a place i perceive like the himalaya region - with clear cold air around
enormous mountains that reach up to the sky even higher than the clouds.
It can be very exhausting to climb up there but you might have a wonderful
far-looking perspective if you are lucky with the weather.
Let´s put this continent in the Northwest corner of the planet.
In the Southwest, just under THINKING, there is the continent ACTING.
The dominating lifeform here are "The actions". it is a steamy jungle region pulsing with life -
both beautiful and dangerous. And out in the woods there seem to roam huge wild beasts
u´ll hear barking from time to time in a tone of desperate hunger that even might let your
blood freeze. But on the peaceful coastline lots of butterflies fill the air.
Let´s now move over to the Southeast. We´ll soon reach the continent FEELING.
It reveals a warm volcanic landscape where huge amounts of hot lava flow around,
cooling down slowly and by then leaving a rich ground full of minerals essential for seeds.
Of course the dominating lifeform here are "The emotions". But they live quite endangered
and have to be aware not to get burned by the hot unstoppable lava streams all around.
The next stop would be the continent LEARNING up in the Northeast.
What we have here is wide plains, taigas and painted deserts. The landscape seems to be
quite monotone and lifeless, moving through it is a task that is not very comfortable.
But on the way you will surely meet a lot of the dominating lifeforms called "The experiences" if you
look out for them - they use to hide out there under big stones - and some of them are quite poisonous.
So this is a basic scribble of the continents.
Now what about the big ocean that surrounds all the continents?
PHASE THREE: The ocean
Lets pretend the ocean is the representation of any sudden short-term impulses (our animal heritage).
It knows nothing from future or past, it has no time-standing surface where something
can be "inscribed". It always looks basically the same, it reacts due to the circumstances
and is bothlife-taking and life-giving without realizing any consequences that affect anything else
than the present situation.
And of course - when getting whirly and wild it can bite great amounts off the continents.
But if going into the atmosphere as rain it will both provide essentials of life to all the lifeforms around
AND will retreat at the coastlines, thus even enlarging the continents providing space for even more
and new lifeforms.
PHASE FOUR: The atmosphere
The atmosphere is the element that holds everything together to work as a proper ecosphere.
It floats far above the surface as a higher principle and allows all the lifeforms on "Planet We"
(thoughts, actions, emotions, experiences) to stay alive, reach out and develop.
It offers basic mechanisms that use the uncontrollable ocean for good and transport the elements
necessary for life towards the continents.i realized four different sections -
one resting over each continent.
The atmosphere above THINKING i called enlightment,
the continent ACTING is covered by the atmosphere lust,
the continent FEELING is supported by love and of course
on top of LEARNING there is understanding.
So love and lust, (the two in the warm south) as well as
enlightement and understanding (the two in the cold north)
make our continents run as liveable ecospheres. We might even pair them the other way round:
enlightment and lust are the western, outwards-interactional oriented principles while
understanding and love seem to work as the eastern, inwards-intraactional oriented principles.
And what we´ll find now is that there are four polar regions on this planet - not only
the Northpole and Southpole, but even a Westpole and an Eastpole which influence
the continents movements and growth direction. let´s have a closer look at them.
PHASE FIVE: The poles
i imagined the four poles being some kind of force field centers somewhat similar to
the magnetic fields of earth. Therefore the opposite poles build a contrast pair.
Each pole is essentially integrated in the whole picture and therefore has to deal somehow
with the bordering areas & atmospheres. i will show the mechanics behind it later on but for now
let´s just pretend that in an optimal situation the continents tend to grow together
with maximum speed, thus trying to form a single landmass.
If this is the case, the poles might represent some kind of magnetic principle
the bordering areas tend to follow. Let´s try to find out what might be behind it.
Let us start our pole-visits in the North.
This pole is located between the areas of THINKING and LEARNING and as well between
the principles enlightment and understanding. A person who "thinks" in order to become "enlighted"
needs the same tool as a person who "learns" in order to get "understanding"; both need to be
as reflective as possible in order to be as effective as possible - therefore let´s call the North pole
the Pole of Reflection. The more reflective one thinks and learns, the more rewarding it will turn out to be.
Now let us do a great pole jump, landing at the South pole.
What do we have here? The South pole is located between ACTING and FEELING as well as between
lust and love. Therefore let us call the South pole the Pole of Passion. you may use the operational
thought i offered to describe the North pole here as well to check if it might be a fitting label.
The more passionate one acts and feels, the more rewarding will it turn out to be.
We move onward to the West pole.
It is located between THINKING and ACTING and it is where the principles
of enlightment and lust meet. What could it be?
i thought that the most satisfying kind of enlightment would be the one that seem to have
no holes at all, providing some kind of "final answer". And i thought that the most satisfying action
would be the one that is performed without errors, in perfect harmony (imagine the feeling i.e.
playing a difficult songbit on an instrument and finally getting an "errorless" sequence of sounds).
So i found the West pole to be the Pole of Precision.
The more precise you are, the more rewarding will your thoughts and actions be.
Now we will go for the fourth, the East pole.
It is located between LEARNING and FEELING. Now what would that pole inbetween represent?
Right, you guessed it - it is the Pole of Empathy.
And as well this works together with Precision, for Precision goes for absolute values,
while Empathy always takes attention to circumstances and therefore goes for relativity.
And the more empathic one deals with emotions and experiences, the more rewarding
will the outcomes tend to be.
PHASE SIX: equatorial lines
i found that we even have two equatorial lines connecting Reflection and Passion
as well as Precision and Empathy. The equatorial lines build a rectangular cross,
dividing the planets surface into four equal parts. They represent the orientation line
each continent tries to reach by growth to meet there with the continent(s) from the other side.
And for my behalf the connection between Reflection and Passion can be called "Ethics" (i.e. religion)
while the connection between Precision and Empathy represents "Esthetics" (i.e. art).
These are two values that all humans follow and react to.
These are the two values every single human finds some kind of instinctive truth in
(everyone knows by heart what appears "right" or "wrong" to him and everyone knows by heart
what appears "beautiful" or "ugly" to him). One can develop those on his own without the need
of a social field around, so there seems to be something essential in them.
As i just tried to show they might be understood as the results of the interacting pole force fields.
Of course, they are completely individual in their actual realizations, but the basic declaration fits
to every single human entity.So far for it. Now you got the basic pattern of human minds as i see it
and might even draw a map for yourself or take a short toilet break ...
(... ROOM FOR A SHORT BREAK ...)
O.K., you are back. Fine! Now i´m going to describe the consequences that rise from taking on
the analogy of "Planet We".
PHASE SEVEN: Going for growth
i already stated that continents are growing. What does that mean?
Well, i thought about what the continents status might be.
Have they been there all the time? Are they developing?
So i tried to imagine what kind of planet a newborn human mind might be.
See, a baby to me seems to be motivated just by sheer survival instinct.
It longs for food, warmth, air, attention and is driven by the basic instincts
imprinted in his genetic code. So the newborn baby appears to me as a little planet
totally covered by ocean.
When developing the baby starts to learn.
The range of possible actions grows by almost every day.
It´s feelings will develop and spread. And thinking schemes will form.
Shortly spoken: The landmasses slowly begin to emerge from the ocean
as the baby follows it´s development path. And the more use he can make out of his
four behavior areas the faster he will grow mentally, revealing space for even more
of the continents dominant species.
This of course implicits some kind of "the more, the better"-rule, which does not work
in real geography but seems to be a good idea when realized on
thoughts, experiences, actions and feelings. So in an optimal situation the continents grow
as fast as possible, using ethics and esthetics as their guidelines (well, they just can´t help it, actually).
PHASE EIGHT: Longing for unity
If now the continents grow along the highly attractive guidelines of the ethic and esthetic equators
what would happen if two (three, four) of them meet?
i found to feel that it might be the optimal situation if any lifeform of any continent would be able
to reach any point of the surface by foot, without getting drowned in the ocean.
But what would that mean in every-day-life?
Well, it would mean that a highly developed individual with optimal connected continents
would be easy to recognize: his thoughts would support his actions would support his emotions
would support his experiences and-so-on.
This individual would behave in a highly transparent way:
He would think the way he acts, feels and learns.
He would act the way he thinks, feels and learns.
He would feel the way he thinks, learns and acts.
He would learn the way he feels, acts and thinks.
He would not surprise you - if you come to know just his i.e. emotions,
you would easily be able to make reliable hypotheses about his future behaviour in
thinking, learning and acting. This would be a person i call "wise by unity".
And as you might see - for a "wise and united" individual there would be no need of knowing
wether there really is a god or not. He would have no need of impressing or suppressing others.
He would take no one´s resources away because he would knew he already got all he needs.
He would have the deepest respect for any form of life. And he would know that he lives along
ethical and esthetical guidelines that provide him with unity thus filling him with inner patience and
fulfilling satisfaction.
Phew. So far for the first introduction to Planet We.
There are even more questions to answer.
The tendencies of psychological pathologies i.e. can for my behalf be explained by
the missing or underdevelopment of one or more continent areas.
You might see that the missing of special landmasses result in special psychological "defects".
And of course the whole terminus of "talents" is still to be integrated.
But that i might tell you another day about if you´re interested.
For now i think it´s quite a lot to chew.
One last point: If you want to know if Planet You is on a "proper development path",
just imagine yourself standing at the verymost outer edge of one of your continents
with your eyes closed. You are on the right track if you can feel the wind in your hair,
resulting from the speeding-up continents that try to unify.
*** END OF PART 1 ***
