TODAY'S CONSIDERATIONS
Specific "reasons" cause persons
• to be obsessive and compulsive
• and render them unable to relax
• and lead them to be driven to go and do and zoom (whether that involves religion; spirituality; employment; "personal relationships"; politicking; reforming; rescuing; seeking love; seeking mass approval and applause and admiration; trying to escape responsibilities; accumulating; finding caretakers; or controlling).
• We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest
• and what must happen in order to be freed from their influence.
We are looking at what causes "the reasons" to manifest
and
what must happen in order to be freed from their influence.
So, to continue:
Persons obsess, act compulsively, are unable to relax, are fanatical, are driven by subconscious motives, and do whatever authority figures tell them to do - unquestioningly - because of reason #55: humankind is attached to its "Monkey-See, Monkey-Do" tendencies.
The causes behind reason #55?
ACCULTURATION, HIDDEN PERSONALITY AGENDAS (ESPECIALLY INCLUDING THOSE OF PERSONALITY TYPES 2, 3, 6, AND 7) AND INSANITY
Research by Darren Mays revealed this:
"The longer parents smoke, the more likely their kids will, too. Our analysis showed that the longer adolescents are exposed to a parent's smoking when the parent is addicted to nicotine, the more likely they are to begin smoking and to become regular smokers in the future."
That happens even though in the U.S. and in scores of other countries, the packages which contain the cigarettes being smoked by both parents and their children have written upon them such warnings as:
"Smoking can kill"
"Smoking seriously harms you and others around you"
"Smokers die younger"
"Smoking blocks the arteries and causes heart attacks and cerebral hemorrhaging"
"Smoking causes lung cancer"
"Smoking during pregnancy harms your baby"
and others.
Insane? Yes.
Moreover, many programs designed to treat alcohol and drug addiction ignore the nicotine addiction of its clients, and some even encourage their clients to continue to use nicotine products. Insane? (Their rationale: "You don't want to tackle too many addictions all at once," ignoring the fact that if they effectively treated the personality disorders and the insanity which drive all addictive thinking and behavior, then all of their clients' former "self-destructive" thinking and behavior during the relative existence might end.)
Yet mirroring may exert a considerable influence over humans' thoughts and words and actions, as with the children who mirror their parents' smoking habits or other addictive behaviors.
Mirroring is defined as "the sometimes subconscious, sometimes conscious imitation of the gestures, speech patterns, attitudes, beliefs, behaviors, etc. of other humans and / or animals."
A British newspaper reported that a team of research psychologists found that humans even "subconsciously mimic other accents," reporting that "people who interact with a person with a different accent subconsciously mimic their twang because they want to 'empathise' with their conversation partner." (My "southern" accent is a product of such mirroring.)
I've always felt that accents might just be a part of humankind's tendency to mirror or mimic, but whatever the case, I was often chastised during the days when I was married to a German woman when I unconsciously mirrored the strong Germanic accent of her relatives while listening to them and talking with them.
Consider one example when that happened:
Most of those former in-laws were all amazingly miserly, tight-fisted, and penny-pinching. One of them might receive a $75 gift and in return I would receive a fifty cent penknife. That happened over and over and it was tolerated. Insane on my part to go along with that? Most, except for those in-laws, would likely agree with that assessment.
On one occasion, the one considered to be "the patriarch" of that family - whose near-blind wife cut his hair with what I guessed must surely have been an electric egg beater - noted that I had recently gotten a haircut.
The last 25 years or more, I too have cut my own hair, sometimes with no better results than the patriarch's wife provided to him, yet that has likely saved me more than $6,000.00. Just prior to the visit to the patrriarch's house, however, I had indeed paid for a pro cut.
The last 25 years or more, I too have cut my own hair, sometimes with no better results than the patriarch's wife provided to him, yet that has likely saved me more than $6,000.00. Just prior to the visit to the patrriarch's house, however, I had indeed paid for a pro cut.
In those days, I was still paying a barber / stylist to groom my hair and was paying a very high price for the service which was further evidence of insanity, but the penny-pinching patriarch who had not paid for a haircut in fifty years asked in his strong German accent, "Vell, et looks lack yo got yo self a damn har cut, eh?"
I replied, "Yes. Sir. I. Did.", speaking very slowly so as not to offend him or the other in-laws by mirroring his accent and having them thinking I was mocking him, a charge which had drawn rebuke on many prior occasions when I had lapsed into a mirroring mode when communicating with those in-laws as I unconsciously used the same Teutonic accents coming out of their mouths.
The old man said, "Soooo, vat are doze damn sumbitches gittin' now for a damn har cut? Probly four bits or so, eh?"
Suddenly, I froze. So busy was I with converting the term "bits" into its modern-day equivalency (twenty-five cents); and with multiplying that to calculate his estimated cost of fifty cents for a haircut from a professional stylist; and then with realizing that if he heard me admit that the haircut, with gratuity, cost forty times more than his guess;
and then with picturing how disgusting it would be to have to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the old fart if I told him the real cost which would, in turn, cause him to faint, fall, and hit his head on the hardwood floor;
and then - with focusing on knowing I had already delayed too long in providing an answer - the result was that my usual focus (of avoiding the mirroring of his accent) became lost;
thus, I replied unconsciously with a harsh, guttural, Germanic inflection (which was subconsciously intended to reflect the same degree of anger and the same level of disdain that he was showing for professional barbers) and said,
"Yah, sir, ah tink da har cut probly vas uh-round four bits."
To that he replied, "Damn robbers!" and walked out of the room. Meanwhile, I looked around to see dozens of pairs of eyes staring at me with hatred for having seemingly mocked the old man . . . and, seemingly, them as well.
With that, I said, "Yep. Damn robbers they are alright" and then turned and walked outdoors to escape the hatred being visually telegraphed to me inside. Whew! I thought. Thank goodness they no longer bring to their gatherings the Karabiner 98k "Mausers" they used during their former years back in the Fatherland!
So sometimes humans practice mirroring consciously (dressing like movie stars or famous singers or other well-known performers) and sometime humans practice mirroring subconsciously (as I did on that, and many other occasions, during those years I tried to deal with that family of Huns).
As for the subject matter of this series, consider how mirroring traps persons on endless paths and endless journeys:
How many are on a religious or ideological or philosophical or cult-like path and are deeply involved in the activities of a church or synagogue or temple or mosque or some compound because, as adults, they studied the religions of the world and made a conscious choice about which religion they were going to dedicate themselves to only after a thorough and independent and objective investigation
as opposed to
how many are on a religious or ideological or philosophical or cult-like path and are deeply involved in the activities of a church or synagogue or temple or mosque or some compound because, as children, they were taken to that church or synagogue or temple or mosque or compound by their parents and were set on the path they are now on without any ability to question or decide for themselves what they wanted to do, or not do, in terms of following a path, often now in a fanatical manner . . . a path which they were placed on but never consciously chose to follow?
And how many are absorbed in some spiritual or treatment program because they studied all of the programs and institutions and other options offering treatment for what ails them and studied the "success rates" as calculated by independent researchers and then made a conscious choice about which program or treatment method they were going to dedicate themselves to only after a thorough and independent and objective investigation
as opposed to
how many just blindly staggered into wherever they have ended up, bought into the pitch that was made to them on day one, and have, ever since, been mirroring and parroting how the older members think, what they say, and what they do - or claim to be doing though they are not really doing that at all - while making assertions about the remarkable results which - they claim - have restored them to sanity?
To be continued.
Please enter into the silence of contemplation.
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