
This is my own Reality Research (RR) analyze of the post “The construction of feelings” with author Mike Smith. For more information, visit his blog.
First, I read the author’s post in detail and in depth. This is a well structured and clear text that includes individual thoughts of the author.
The main idea I extracted from the post is: Feelings are reflexive signals in the brain, when it decides which should be allowed and which inhibited.
I found that if the main idea is true, the following causes and effects must also be true:
- Close cause: Feelings depend only on the environment in which we live.
- Distant causes: The environment has created the feelings we have. Good and bad feeling were with equal evolutionary importance. Every human experience has been predetermined by the environment.
- Close effect: People will never have total control over feeling when they change their environment.
- Distant effects: People will never be happy everywhere. Happiness is something external and you cannot find it in yourself. When people feel depressed and sad, they can change that condition easily when they go to another place, with another people.
Checking out how the scheme “Distant causes – Close cause – Main idea – Close effect – Distant effects” fits in reality and Equilibrium Theory:
- Correlation with reality: I have many thoughts about the idea that everything is predetermined in my post The Laws of Destiny. There I analyze how our actions and thoughts are predetermined. If feelings are the same as thoughts – dilution of neuronal potentials, depending on the environment, so feelings are also predetermined. But is it the nature of life, the nature of reality – no free will and no free feel? It is quite possible. On the other hand, some people who suffer from depression or mania cannot change their feelings as they change the environment. They carry their feeling everywhere they go. It is evidence that in these cases feelings don’t depend on the environment, but something in their brain – for example the amount of dopamine in the brain. Can we talk about reflexive signals here? I doubt that. We also cannot exclude it as an option. Maybe in these cases the brain system which decided which signal should be allowed and which inhibited, is “broken”.
- Correlation with Equilibrium Theory: The evolution of feeling is result of tending to equilibrium with the environment. When something from the environment affects us constructively then we feel good, and when affect us degradingly – feel bad. In this sense, feelings help us to keep our equilibrium with the environment. Thus the mankind has survived.
After my RR analyze, I come to the conclusion that the main idea seems to be incomplete, because it is not fully confirmed by the correlation with reality. It seems that feelings are reflexive signals in the brain, when it decides which should be allowed and which inhibited, but there is something missing.
Joy is not always dependent on the external environment. It is from within . The kingdom of God is within you…
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Yes, i feel that something is missing. Most people will agree that feelings are not determined by the external environment. The kingdom of God? Can be! However, we still have no theory of the universe that does not need anything like God.
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God is just a name for the pure consciousness or the flow of life that is in oneness of being …
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Feelings are not dependent on the environment . The environment and circumstances are a reflection of our states of being or consciousness .
As within , so without …
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I do not deny that we interact with our environment but as we change from within , so everything is change on the outside . Wayne Dyer said in an audiobook called the power of intention : ” when you changs the way you look at things , the things youvlook at change . ”
This is also a matter of perception or prospective verses the reactionary mind … we could respond constructively to all that is. . .
Psradise is not a place but a state of consciousness. Howver , you could travel to new places if you feel like but it is not obligatory to visit new places if you do not feel like it …
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I think you are right. With happiness is the same. It largely depends on our inner Self. Of course, the environment also affects us, but not much.
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Our inner environment or inner knowing determines our joy more than the outside …
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That means we can learn to rule our happiness. I often try it, and sometimes I really can. Of course not every time. Then I try to change my environment. 🙂
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Change what you can but accept , love unconditionally and surrender to what you can not dircetly change or control …
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