THE POWER OF THE MIND

An idea once planted in the mind only knows to grow. I have said this in one of my earlier posts, and I am saying it again. Why? Cos that is exactly what has happened with this idea too.

A couple of movies seen in quick succession of each other is enough to make me go into the hyperactive overthinking mode. And that is exactly what has happened over the past couple of weeks.

I saw Inception. Then I saw Inception again. And then I saw Shutter Island. And I thought to myself – Man! I am going to write one good article on what these movies talk about. And I thought I will take some time, go on and do a little bit of homework and then come up with a fantastic article, like what my friend did a few days back. (Yeah Neha, I am talking of you.)

But hell. An idea once planted in the mind only knows to grow. So here I am; sitting in Barista, flaunting my new laptop, and typing away to glory, oblivious to the track playing in the background and the people staring at me and probably wondering why my eyes look so puffy, and why is my hair so messy. To complete the image is a half-eaten black forest pastry next to my laptop on the table. Now if only this headache will at least subside a little and let me think so I can pen down just what I am thinking…

*squeezes her temples hard*

Another reason for wanting to do my homework and then write this article – that is of course before the idea of writing this article grew too big to be ignored – is the fact that, this is a rather vast topic that I wish to write upon. And also the reason that more has already been written, by far more learned men than me on this topic, than can be understood in a lifetime. Men have wasted entire births, trying to grasp a fraction of what the human mind is, how it functions and what it is capable of; for there is infinitely more that it IS capable of doing, rather than NOT.

Is it really that hard to let go of an idea you possess? Or rather an idea that has possessed you?

While you are reading this that I have typed, you are thinking of something too, I guess. Every one of us is at almost every waking moment doing at least some amount of parallel thinking. As you are reading these words I have typed out, you are probably going back on a few incidents of your life, something you saw or read or experienced or felt. And if you aren’t, then me mentioning it must have triggered it. Isn’t it?

I will tell you what I am going through.

I am rethinking of an idea that has very deeply planted itself in my head. What it is, I am not going to tell you. At least I don’t plan to at this moment, maybe by the time I am done writing this article I will have let it slip anyway. But that idea is always in my head – not always conspicuous, but persistent. It is the background of my head, the thought on which other thoughts get piled over as the day proceeds, and the thought that remains when I go to bed at the end of the day; like a stage that may host many plays with different settings, but the basic skeleton remains after the play is over. Or like this headache I have right now that is refusing to go away, though it is not affecting my thought process.

Just think – how many times is a thought process ever involved in our beliefs? We hear something, and even before we are conscious of being in the process of making a decision whether to believe or not believe what we have just heard, we have already arrived at the answer. ‘I don’t believe you.’ Or ‘Yes of course! I believe in it/him/her.’ And then all our lives we just keep looking for things, people, places, friends, that reinforce our idea. ‘See, she believes in it too.’ ‘Ya he said the same.’ ‘Oh no, she is just so different, she doesn’t agree. I don’t like her.’

I saw Inception, and I couldn’t sleep after I got back home. An idea had been planted in my head. And I just kept going at it again and again and again.

Is it really possible to incept someone with a thought?

Is any thought ever entirely new to us?

People create worlds and realities that do not exist, based on their thoughts. A woman lives in a mental institution and thinks that all the doctors, the orderlies, other patients in the institution are all just milkmen, postmen, gardner… just imagine how deeply that idea has gripped her mind – so much so that she has created a world based on it, and that is the only truth in her life. Who are you to convince her otherwise?

Sometimes I say things like – ‘I just know it.’ And I have heard other people around me say similar stuff too. How do I know? How do they know? How do you just KNOW something? And is it really possible to just KNOW, without reason or logic?

We are only beginning to speculate certain things, ideas that our forefathers were not only sure of, but have written books about. The mind travelling outside the body; the secret that the herbs of the Himalayas hold; even biology, human anatomy; stars, planets, galaxies; we are only rediscovering knowledge. Stuff like life and death, rebirth.

I think our ancestors were more open and receptive to ideas. They gave every crazy thought or idea or imagination a chance – this could or could not be true. And I think they have gone far beyond what we, with our technology and with Science, can ever manage to even comprehend. They were the Originals; the only people to have ever been truly Incepted with anything at all – we are only trying to base everything on what we know.

They say we use only a fraction of the brain’s true potential or capacity when we are awake. And the rest, remains to be discovered. The subconscious, dreams, hallucinations, paranoia, extra-sensory perceptions, visions – there is so much more literature about the mind when we are not aware it is working than the waking mind. Even if they maybe only speculations – isn’t it fascinating that there are more of these than of things we are sure of? It’s like the selfish DNA – more of junk heterochromatin than can be understood to exist as compared to functional DNA. Is it all really junk? How do we classify useful and junk? The take of Indian philosophy on it is – it is DNA that we don’t put to use. We always hear of impossible feats that our forefathers and the generations of human beings before them could perform – tales that we call Legends. What happened to these abilities that our ancestors had? How did we lose them? Wouldn’t it be nice if we could travel outside our bodies in today’s world? Imagine – no air fare to visit our over-seas relatives! Did we get so absorbed in things we were inventing that we ignored ourselves and how our bodies worked? Got so absorbed in the silly toys we were making that we just forgot all about what else we are capable of achieving.

I close my eyes and try to look at humans today from an unknown creature’s point of view – an alien if you may – and I wonder, what would we be perceived as? A life form that is constantly analysing its surroundings, its environment and all that is around it; that which it can see, hear, smell, taste or touch. So knowledgable. Such understanding of physics, chemistry, of the world even. And what does this life form know about itself? Nothing. Or nothing MUCH.

We are so caught up by science and technology and machines, so wrapped up in basing our world only on the five senses that we are aware of, that we just never let ourselves to be truly incepted. When I think more deeply about this – I think that we would all probably go mad if we gave every crazy concept to ever possess our mind the chance of being true or not being true. But would it be so bad if ALL of us became mad? Not the connotation of mad that we usually associate with the word.

It is like the story of the city where one fine day everybody who drinks the water of a particular well goes mad. They decide to overthrow the King. A rather worried King then seeks advice of the Queen, who comes up with an amazing solution – ‘Let us drink from the well as well. Then we shall be as mad as they are, and all would be good again.’

That is what has happened with us I think – we have all been drinking from the well. And anybody who doesn’t is not normal – is abnormal. But who are truly abnormal, those who drink from the well or those who refuse to? In fact if we take a look at the word ‘abnormal’ it can be split up as ‘ab’ + ‘normal’ = above normal. Isn’t that a fantastic little joke that those we call abnormal are only above normal, above us?

I guess I have made you think about too many things already. And even if I haven’t, I’m running out of time; also feeling like I am going to catch a cold. I must get out of Barista and back home. But I have not said everything I want to. I am still going to do my homework and come with another one.

Hopefully I will be incepted by something while I am doing my research; and probably you have been too, while reading this article.

Amen.