CIVILISATION'S HABITUAL RUTS

Traditional Ruts : Skills and Beliefs

In traditional times humans were materially insecure, often cold and hungry – but we had a bigger brain than other animals; an intellect which put ideas together.

We made tools, developed skills, clothes, and shelters for a home with a fire. We cooked meat and then celebrated with hunting tales. We looked at the stars, questioned deeper meanings, used our imagination, and developed an understanding of life.

To think, learn, remember, and then repeat all our skills and beliefs, we had to focus. All of our social and practical skills, knowledge, and beliefs, are based on our focusing abilities. And focusing gets things done.

Our civilisation is happening as a result of what we have learnt by focusing.

Beliefs were always central to human identity. We lived and died for our beliefs.

Traditionally we worshipped together, openly. We had a vivid consciousness of a common spiritual essence, and doing things for the common good.

But since the 1,600s with the questioning of traditional beliefs, came the development of individual freedom of thought and a multiplicity of modern beliefs. Slowly, our sense of psychological safety and collective purpose in life, has become a matter of individual choice.

And with that, we've lost our unquestioned and often adored common belief with its obvious subsequent goals and clear focal points in life. We've lost the safety of an automatic mutually and culturally confirmed idea of knowing who and why we are.

Then for abstract ideas to feel real they require confirmation from other humans who can witness and understand the ideas. And these days, there are so many choices and simply not enough mutual confirmation to go around... and there never can be.

We have no idea what's really happening or why (we blame politics and each other), we accept it as inevitable and normal... and it is normal because everyone else accepts it as well.

We are now facing a form of collective psychological insecurity, which no species or any previous culture has ever experienced or even imagined. 

Even if we could all develop Gandhi's and Mandela's sense of empathy and respect for others – it could never replace the security of the mutual, united and unquestioned confirmation of all the members of an entire local social group.

And our cultural insecurity has become its own cause, always generating more of itself. It's exponential.

In the 1900s the horse vanished from the streets, and an entire 4,000-year-old global balance and established structure of specialised social identities vanished.

We could look after animals with empathy, carts with common sense, but cars and the industrial world needed technical and abstract skills.

Our early education became a very specific form of focused attention using a serious, rational, and logical way to use abstract words and images. And we are continually required to adapt quicker to the all new stimuli which we create, so human ingenuity has now given us Artificial Intelligence.

The incredible momentum of modern civilisation leaves us in a ridiculous situation, where like Alice's Red Queen, there simply isnt any time left to slow down because there is so much more to keep repeating.

If we continue to experience life exclusively from a focused perspective, our thinking and our beliefs will inevitably become even more diverse and fragmented, and there will be more social fracturing.

The Panaral World

With panaral sensing we experience a sense of safety and wholeness, with nothing to do except be directly aware, alert and ready – there are other ways to do this, but none are so direct, natural or easy.

Panaral sensing evolved in order to notice the first sign of danger.

With pre-emptive listening we can instantly neutralise all our repetitious thought patterns.

When we are thinking we don't notice sounds till a split second after they happen. Any fox would spring on the opportunity, any duck would be dead.

And panavision is the most direct form of awareness possible. It is inherently here and now, instantly aware of any movement, any sign of life in the entire environment.

By focusing on any specific point, animals would miss everything else happening. They have to be aware of everything (or as much as possible) to be sure they're as safe as possible.

Pana-sensing is simply the most direct way to tune our sensory receivers so that they instantly recognise any stimuli. You can't do it in a focused way, because focusing always specialises. So animals simply over-ride their focused perception and land smack bang in the middle of it all.

And pana-sensing is a selfless state of being, it has to be in order to be fully aware and concentrated on what is happening all around.

Animals main motivation for this state is fear. And i think it's almost a side effect, that – for humans and when there is no actual fear of hawks or cats – this state of selfless, direct connectedness with the environment, leads to feelings of oneness and wholeness.

There are other ways to stop thinking, and experience a sense of oneness and wholeness, but again, none are so effective, natural, or easy to learn.

But with panaring, there's no question about cause and effect. It's a different form of logic. The only thing of importance are the changes, and by being aware of the first sign of any changes in the panara, then there's a chance of survival.

It has totally different needs and priorities, and throughout evolution animals have relied on being able to tune their senses panarally in order to survive.

Panaral awareness makes activity successful among predators, but that's another story. Among vulnerable animals panaral awareness makes focused activity safe.

Panaring and focusing are like two good friends walking along together. Focusing does all the talking and decides which way to go. Panaring walks in front to check the way is clear. Without panaring, focusing would talk to itself and get lost.

Humans have lost the animal sense of belonging in our immediate social and cultural group; and simultaneously we've lost a background feeling for the wholeness of life.

Panaral awareness gives us what we're missing. It's a feeling of the underlying wholeness of life; it's an in-depth feeling of belonging in our environment.

Please continue with Displacement Behaviour in Humans

Back to Chapter Three : Civilisation's Habitual Ruts
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