The Anatomy of Consciousness
The manner and degree to which emotional display is considered appropriate varies from one culture to another. In Sparta, Japan, and England it was considered weakness to display emotion; in Italy and South America, it was considered dishonest to repress emotion. And in all cultures at all times, there are certain norms about when and how emotions can be communicated to others.
To master our emotions, or at least control their expression, it is important to understand how consciousness works. It is the result of various biological and cognitive processes that can be observed to have specific rules, some of which can be changed through education and conditioning.
Consciousness is, at its most basic, an awareness of conditions within the body and in the external environment. In involves how these stimuli are interpreted, and how we choose to react to them. (EN: This is slopping together a few different steps in the cognitive process, but I'll go with the author's terms rather than attempt to untangle them.)
We recognize that certain species of animal can be programmed to respond in different ways. We can teach a dog to respond to commands or calm a horse. We also recognize that human beings can program themselves - to feel excited by something rather than afraid of it, to sooth our sadness merely by thinking things over and taking a different perspective. And we recognize that the success or failure of people often depends on how they have programmed themselves to react.
He also recognizes that consciousness has for a very long time been poorly understood, and that a number of frauds and quacks have played upon this notion - such that the very notion of self-programming is regarded with contempt by legitimate psychologists. But because it is critical to a healthy mind, it merits reconsideration from a more reasonable perspective.
Unfortunately, various fields have attempted to describe it: neurology, anatomy, cognitive science, and other fields have all looked at consciousness from different perspectives, and each describes it in their own way. None seem to have a complete conception.
He mentions the eastern fakirs, who perform "miracles" - many of which are illusions, but some of which are not, particularly those in which a person conditions themselves to refrain from responding to painful stimuli. And in the more modern western world, we see athletes who seem to have developed super-human powers by means of training and practice, which is not so different.
In this sense, these powers are merely talents that a person develops by learning to perceive things in a certain way, and to manage the way in which they act and react in certain situations. What a doctor, mechanic, or carpenter does seems almost magical to the person who has not been trained to do it - but we recognize that with time and training, anyone can.
MC's definition of consciousness is therefore more practical: consciousness is the manner of which we are aware of events and choose to interpret them. This is critical to the idiosyncratic manner in which a person perceives reality and makes choices to take action.
Awareness is necessary to being conscious, but awareness alone is not sufficient. At any given moment, we are aware of many things in our external and internal environments, but the data we have at any given moment is a shapeless jumble of sensory stimulation and ideas. It is the manner in which we interpret this information that forms our consciousness - deciding what things mean and where to focus our attention and effort.
To avoid living in a constant state of overwhelmed confusion, we must ignore most of what comes to us through perception and focus attention only on that which is personally relevant.
He takes the example of hunger, which is itself a bit of data about the sense of emptiness in our stomach, and maybe the level of glucose in our bloodstream. We generally do not monitor these things directly, but merely feel the sensation of "hunger." And we know that relieving this sensation requires us to eat, but we often choose not to do so: we are not "hungry enough" to need to eat, or there is something else we'd rather be doing at the moment, or we deny our urge to eat so that we may lose weight, save money, or observe a religious rite.
It's worth noting that we can starve ourselves to death, even when food is present. That ability demonstrates the degree to which our higher mind has overcome the animalistic instinct even when it comes to basic survival needs.
The Limits of Consciousness
While our sensory and somatic perception capture enormous amounts of data, there is a limit to the amount that can be processed. A person standing in front of a dozen television sets can see and hear everything they transmit, but attention cannot be paid to all at once.
General wisdom is that we are able to manage about seven pieces of information (differentiated sounds, visual stimuli, bodily sensations, and thoughts) at any moment. And while we can shift attention to one thing or another, there is a switching time that requires us to spend about 1/18 of a second in focusing on something different. But even that amount of information isn't captured.
The full capacity of the mind is immeasurable, so any estimate may be optimistic or pessimistic - but even the most pessimistic of estimates depicts the human brain as a very powerful and sophisticated device for receiving, filtering, and analyzing information.
Most of our activities do not fully engage the brain. There are many routine tasks performed daily - eating, bathing, getting dressed, and so on - that are almost automatic. And we spend a great deal of time doing nothing, waiting for something to happen.
And moreover, we waste a lot of time on activates that require very little intelligence. Watching television, playing sports or games, reading unchallenging material, browsing the Internet. While each of these activities exposes us to stimuli, it is very low grade and the brain lies almost dormant in a consumptive state. In essence, this is a junk food diet for the brain, which requires little effort and provides little intellectual nourishment.
Attention as Psychic Energy
It any given moment, we are attentive to only certain things, generally because we have identified them as relevant to our present activity - but this also means that we are unaware of anything else until it intrudes upon our consciousness.
Take the example of driving on a highway: the other cars are noticeable as objects on the road, but we give them no particular attention and they do not register in our memory. But if we come up behind a vehicle that is moving slowly and erratically, swerving to impede our path around it, we become attentive to it. It interferes with the achievement of our goal, and causes us to come out of an inattentive state. At the end of our journey we have forgotten about hundreds or thousands of other vehicles we encountered, but that one sticks in our minds.
In this way, the mind ignores most of the sensory data it receives. It is not that we fail to notice things, but we merely choose not to give them any attention. "Attention" is a faculty that selects bits of information from a deluge of sensory activity and assigns to them some level of importance - and it is generally given when we have the expectation that we must change our behavior to account for them.
Attention is referred to as a "precious resource" because it consumes our mental energy. If we give attention to the proper things, we can achieve an efficient and effective outcome. If we fail to give attention to the proper things, the outcome will be diminished - and we may in fact have remained focused on a less productive course of action.
In some instance, our attention responds to our instinctual programming. If something poses a danger to our health and well-being, or is even suspected to have the potential to do so, we cannot help paying attention to it. A large object moving quickly in our direction commands attention - and we cannot refrain from being distracted by it.
In other instances, attention is selective: we choose what we give attention - though it does not often require deliberation to do so as we become accustomed to giving attention to things that meet certain criteria that were previously defined by our logical process.
In the latter case, we have the ability to choose to give attention, whether through a deliberate act or merely through the formation of habit. A person who has attuned themselves to the "right" things will see opportunities that others overlook.
CS gives the example of two people, one of whom has trained themselves to give attention to the proper things, the other of whom has not. Naturally, the first accomplishes more and with less effort than the second. (EN: I'm omitting the details as the example is rather stilted and contrived, but the point is well made.)
Another analogy: attention is invested, much like capital. A person who chooses the right investments will generate great wealth, and a person who chooses the wrong ones will become bankrupt. The greater and more accurate the focus, the better the chances of choosing the right investments - of capital and of attention.
The way in which we focus attention is based on internal factors, loosely described as personality. At a gathering of people, some will seek out interactions with others, whether for the pleasure of their company or as a means of professional networking, whereas others will avoid interactions with others, unable to identify friend from foe, whereas others will interact with anyone chance pushes in their direction.
Skill and habit are also mentioned as being derivatives of attention. A musician is more likely to be aware of a subtle change in sounds than a person who has no training or experience. It is not because he is capable of hearing things others do not, but that his mind is trained to give attention to sounds that others hear and disregard as unimportant. Or in a more practical sense, an engineer on a ship will notice that the engine is making an odd sound, which the passengers on the ship will not take notice of.
Attention deals with the perception of sensory data - but it also has a much greater impact than that: thoughts, emotions, memories, and urges are triggered by this sensory data. But before we can recognize what something signifies or choose to act based on what we have perceived, we must be attentive to it.
So attention is the act that sets an entire chain of mental activities in motion. If we do not take notice of something, then nothing else happens in our mind as a consequence.
Enter the Self
In one sense, the "self" is merely one source of information in the environment, though it is the one that is most consistently present and foremost in our consciousness. However, the self is more than just an object of which we are aware, but the one for which we have the greatest concern.
People will deny or accept their own self-centeredness as a matter of culture - whether it is fashionable to make one's self a primary concern or subordinate it to others - but the self is the vehicle through which everything is experienced and we are most acutely aware of its needs and desires.
Psychologically, the self is always the center of all things. Even when a person acts to benefit others, it is because the self wishes those others to be benefitted. That is not to say that the self is always the focus of a person's attention, as to be "self-conscious" is often unusual and uncomfortable, and a person's attention is often shifted to the external world.
He then shifts to an anecdote about a young man with an unfocused sensed of self: he wanted the things others typically wanted, did the things others typically did, and had no goals for life. But then, he had gone diving on a vacation and became fascinated with the undersea world he experienced. His interest drove him to improve his skills as a diver, to study biology and ecology, and eventually to become a marine scientist.
This story is not unusual: many people are adrift in life until they experience something that leads to a sense of wonder and fascination, and a desire to be immersed in it to the point that it becomes their vocation, their life's calling. Their attention may be focused on the external world, but what is significant is that this is a personal interest - the interest of the self - to become absorbed in certain things and indifferent to others.
Here, a misinterpretation must be clarified and avoided: one might argue that a person's life is shaped by external events - and in the example, it's certainly true that if the man had not gone on the diving excursion he would never have discovered his life's passion. But it is not the external event itself that caused him to have passion - as many people who go on an afternoon's excursion do not develop a similar passion - most have a nice time and move on to other things. It is something internal to the person that causes them to react to the experience in such a way. It is the self that chooses to make the event meaningful.
Disorder in Consciousness: Psychic Entropy
CS defines disorder in consciousness as information that enters our awareness that distracts or prevents us from acting on our intentions.
He gives the example of a factory line-worker whose productivity is less than typical because he's distracted by a problem with his vehicle - he's aware of it, but cannot afford the repair, and so is patching it up so it can limp along, but each day the problem's getting worse and it's very much on his mind.
In this example, it's observed that the problem is not obstructing him from doing his task - once he's arrived at work the condition of his vehicle is moot - but his worry about the problem is such that he cannot focus on other tasks.
He provides another example of a teen who suffered problems at school and attempted suicide over his parents' impending divorce. The source of the problem, viewed rationally, was a rather trivial inconvenience in his life, but it unsettled him to the point where he was no longer able to focus his attention on other matters.
Logically, we can see how problems such as these are trivial matters with practical solutions and negligible consequences. But to the people who have such distractions in their lives, they become a source of much greater disorder than they would seem to warrant.
Order in Consciousness: Flow
"Flow" is the opposite of entropy. It represents a state in which the information that is in consciousness is congruent with goals, making thought and action seem effortless.
He returns again to the assembly-line example, but this time he mentions a worker who remains focused on his job, performing the same task, the same way, with the utmost competence. This type of work may seem tedious to an observer, but to a person engaged in it, acting with precision and regularity, time passes unnoticed as their focus remains fixed on the task at hand.
Flow is not merely for repetitive physical activities. In a second example, he mentions a junior attorney doing legal research, chasing down references and outlining courses of argumentation that can be employed. This job can also be mentally stimulating, provided the individual feels a sense of competence and their action is leading them closer to their goal.
A third example involves a rock climber, whose progress up a cliff face is grueling, but the hours pass like minutes. Part of the time, it is simply following routines they have practiced; other times, they are overcoming obstacles or reasoning their way around problems the encounter. But at all times, they are focused on the task and remain in a state of flow.
When people do tasks at which they are efficient, they enter into a state of flow in which they are not distracted by anything but the task they are performing, during which time they are highly efficient and highly effective. To enter into this state, all that is required is a basic competence at a task and a mind free of distractions.
Integration and Growth of the Self
In a state of flow, the individual's consciousness becomes merged with the task they are performing: the self does not disappear, but merely becomes merged into the environment.
Flow also effects a set of accomplishment and growth - the worker who has been assembling pieces, the attorney who has been doing research, and the climber who has been scaling a rock face are aware of performing tasks, but only when the period of flow has ended do they look back at what they have accomplished, and are quite often astounded.
CS mentions complexity, which is usually thought to have a negative meaning - but a complex machine has many parts that are all working together toward the same goal. When the system is running properly, the complexity fades away, and the performance of the machine makes the motion of each part seem perfectly sensible and understandable.
In the human being, flow creates this sense of harmony. There is the sense that body and mind are perfectly attuned to accomplishing a given task and, like the complex machine, each thought and action seems natural and understandable.
Thus, in the process of flow, the self becomes complex, and in conquering complexity creates the ability to take on more complex challenges. Flow is enjoyable in the moment because a person receivers positive feedback of accomplishment of their present goal, and after the fact it develops the self-confidence and skills to take on more challenging goals.