Abhijit Naskar's Blog - Posts Tagged "evolutionary-psychology"
Real Education versus Educational Fundamentalism
What is Education?
Can you think of an accurate answer to this question?
Does the modern civilized society have any idea on the true meaning of the term?
Has the society ever been able to understand the true psychological underpinnings of education?
Or has it only constructed a sophisticated and hectic structure and stuck the label “education” on it just to gain authentication?
Education means nourishing the mind and make it develop in order to see beyond the limitations of current social perception. It means breaking the barriers of the rugged sociological system that impede in the progress of human civilization. It means trying new things out for the first time in human history and succeeding in a few while failing in some. That’s how a species grows and becomes more and more advanced.
Yet, somehow the craving for security has conditioned the society to perceive education not as an endeavor of the mind, rather as a preprogrammed task created by some sophisticated, illusory structure known as the “system of education”. Education means breaking free from the manacles of limitations put forward by primitive ignorance. Yet today’s fake education is gloriously founded upon the primordial element of “limitation”. And the authorities of this so-called education often take pride it in their ship shape structure where they manufacture dumb manikins.
Psychologically speaking, a system is indeed necessary, for any kind of human endeavor. However, the moment the mind becomes dependent on the system and starts trusting the system more than internal faculties of the mind, the very element of education fades away from the system. And that’s exactly what has become of the modern system of education. There is a system alright, but the actual element of education has long gone.
A carefully constructed structure of education is supposed to smoothen the pursuit of knowledge, instead of restricting the flow of knowledge. The ultimate goal of humanity is knowledge, yet modern society has made knowledge secondary and the pompous pride of the system primary. The flow of knowledge towards the mind should be moderated by the faculties of the mind itself, based on the acceptability of nothing but the mind.
Mind is the Alpha – Mind is the Omega. There is nothing else in the pursuit of knowledge. And more importantly, there is nothing else in education. All systems of the society are meant to serve the mind, not the mind to serve the systems.
Today’s system of education in most countries is based on rigorous indoctrination. This is what I call “Educational Fundamentalism”, which is quite similar to religious fundamentalism. The only difference between these two types of fundamentalism is that the later torments the entire human society, while the former tyrannizes the flourishing and vulnerable minds of the young society.
Quite like religious fundamentalism, educational fundamentalism is based upon bookish creeds created by the self-proclaimed authority figures of the system. And this very fundamentalism is the cause of all the growing conflicts between the student-body of the education society and the teachers running that society. And these conflicts further become tools of exploitation in the hands of a handful of war-mongering, authoritarian, blood-sucking, politicians.
In short, today’s modern human society, perceives educational fundamentalism as true education, while the reality is, it is totally opposite of education. Real education opens up the mind to the vast world of possibilities and potentials. It enables the mind to come up with its own unique answers to questions that have been never answered before. Real education creates a complex mesh of neural network in the brain, solely concerned with delicate processing of knowledge, that allows the being known as human, to see something that nobody else can.
A properly constructed system can aid in this process of the growth of mind and smoothen the course of learning. However, the reality is something quite pathetic and of utter concern for us scientists and other thinkers in the field of philosophy. We are concerned because, the modern pedagogy of the system in most countries does not allow the flourishing minds of the young generation to grow at its natural pace, rather it overloads their brain with preprogrammed stream of life-less information and expects them to regurgitate that information in an exact order. Those who succeed in standing up to that ruthless expectation earns the ticket to the next level of the system and eventually they emerge as heartless robots. And those who don’t are quite cold-bloodedly labeled as “failed” and are expected to go through the whole process of regurgitation year after year, until they either succeed or meet their doom.
This is not Education. It is a process of manufacturing computation devices that look like Homo sapiens, and thereby falsely and quite mistakenly labeled as “Education”. This “False Education” or “Educational Fundamentalism” is dangerous for the society, and moreover it is a threat to the entire species, because it takes away the basic cognitive capacities of the mind, which are quintessential for the advancement of the species.
The need of a safe and stable structure is ingrained in the mind as a primitive psychological characteristic. It is a basic instinctual necessity of the cavemen with us. Hence, it is quite easy for the society to fall prey to this innate instinctual need. And slowly it outweighs the urge for growth. It is plain biological evolution. As my dearly beloved Lizi often says to me in order to win an argument, “when Evolution speaks, even the Gods are silent”. And it is indeed accurate. Evolution drives all kinds of lifeforms as well as mindforms. And it is Mother Nature that drives the whole process of biological evolution. Here I’d take a step further and say, when Mother Nature speaks, even the Gods hold silence.
Instincts, drives and urges, all are evolutionary, and as such they serve their distinct purposes in the path of survival. However, these antique elements of the primitive human psyche are kept in check by the modern part of the brain, i.e. the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex of the brain is responsible for the modern rational thinking of the human mind, while the limbic system holds all the emotional elements of the mind, including the primordial ones.
Now the point is, primordial instinctual elements come more naturally to the human mind, than rational thinking. This is because all the basic instincts and drives of the mind have been there since the reptilian days, whereas rational and analytical thinking has evolved in the human brain far too recently. Naturally, it takes a lot of practice and efforts to become a rational free thinker, compared to the ignorant minds incessantly driven by the lizard within.
And that’s exactly what has become of this so-called civilized and modern human society and its system of education. Most of the human society as well as its system of education is driven by the lizards of the limbic brain. Hence, it’s not the fault of the system. Rather if anyone to blame it is Mother Nature. She is a wicked old lady, who always has it her way.
However, if you have sufficient insight into the whole process of evolution and can take into account all its correlated ups and downs, you will no longer be able to blame Mother Nature. Because, even though we have been living in the wilderness and surviving with our limbic instincts and drives for millions of years, we also have received from Mother Nature the gift of a complicated and advanced cerebral cortex, which enables us to carefully modulate the wild responses of the limbic system in this civilized world. We truly are an advanced species that has gained the brain capacity look beyond the basic needs of survival. We have learnt to take significant steps in the path of development.
And the most necessary tool in that path of advancement is Education. And here, by education, I refer to the real education of the mind, that endows the human psyche with vigor and expands its intellectual perception of the world. And in this whole process of progress, there is no place for the fake education of modern society that does nothing but condition the young human minds to become hypnotized hominid elitists.
To quote from my book Love, God & Neurons
“indoctrination is not just demeaning to the human conscience, it is lethal for the flourishing psychology of the hungry, young mind.
The purpose of education should ultimately be the advancement of the species. And for this to actually happen, the world needs the kind of education by means of which character is formed, strength of the mind is increased and the human intellect is expanded beyond its own limits.”
First the world needs teachers – teachers who have broken their own shackles of indoctrination – teachers who can go beyond the narrow-mindedness of the society. A handful of these young, brave and zealous teachers in every nation, shall be enough to rekindle the spark of pure knowledge in the entire species.
Further Reading
Abhijit Naskar, 2016, What is Mind?
Abhijit Naskar, 2016, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost
Can you think of an accurate answer to this question?
Does the modern civilized society have any idea on the true meaning of the term?
Has the society ever been able to understand the true psychological underpinnings of education?
Or has it only constructed a sophisticated and hectic structure and stuck the label “education” on it just to gain authentication?
Education means nourishing the mind and make it develop in order to see beyond the limitations of current social perception. It means breaking the barriers of the rugged sociological system that impede in the progress of human civilization. It means trying new things out for the first time in human history and succeeding in a few while failing in some. That’s how a species grows and becomes more and more advanced.
Yet, somehow the craving for security has conditioned the society to perceive education not as an endeavor of the mind, rather as a preprogrammed task created by some sophisticated, illusory structure known as the “system of education”. Education means breaking free from the manacles of limitations put forward by primitive ignorance. Yet today’s fake education is gloriously founded upon the primordial element of “limitation”. And the authorities of this so-called education often take pride it in their ship shape structure where they manufacture dumb manikins.
Psychologically speaking, a system is indeed necessary, for any kind of human endeavor. However, the moment the mind becomes dependent on the system and starts trusting the system more than internal faculties of the mind, the very element of education fades away from the system. And that’s exactly what has become of the modern system of education. There is a system alright, but the actual element of education has long gone.
A carefully constructed structure of education is supposed to smoothen the pursuit of knowledge, instead of restricting the flow of knowledge. The ultimate goal of humanity is knowledge, yet modern society has made knowledge secondary and the pompous pride of the system primary. The flow of knowledge towards the mind should be moderated by the faculties of the mind itself, based on the acceptability of nothing but the mind.
Mind is the Alpha – Mind is the Omega. There is nothing else in the pursuit of knowledge. And more importantly, there is nothing else in education. All systems of the society are meant to serve the mind, not the mind to serve the systems.
Today’s system of education in most countries is based on rigorous indoctrination. This is what I call “Educational Fundamentalism”, which is quite similar to religious fundamentalism. The only difference between these two types of fundamentalism is that the later torments the entire human society, while the former tyrannizes the flourishing and vulnerable minds of the young society.
Quite like religious fundamentalism, educational fundamentalism is based upon bookish creeds created by the self-proclaimed authority figures of the system. And this very fundamentalism is the cause of all the growing conflicts between the student-body of the education society and the teachers running that society. And these conflicts further become tools of exploitation in the hands of a handful of war-mongering, authoritarian, blood-sucking, politicians.
In short, today’s modern human society, perceives educational fundamentalism as true education, while the reality is, it is totally opposite of education. Real education opens up the mind to the vast world of possibilities and potentials. It enables the mind to come up with its own unique answers to questions that have been never answered before. Real education creates a complex mesh of neural network in the brain, solely concerned with delicate processing of knowledge, that allows the being known as human, to see something that nobody else can.
A properly constructed system can aid in this process of the growth of mind and smoothen the course of learning. However, the reality is something quite pathetic and of utter concern for us scientists and other thinkers in the field of philosophy. We are concerned because, the modern pedagogy of the system in most countries does not allow the flourishing minds of the young generation to grow at its natural pace, rather it overloads their brain with preprogrammed stream of life-less information and expects them to regurgitate that information in an exact order. Those who succeed in standing up to that ruthless expectation earns the ticket to the next level of the system and eventually they emerge as heartless robots. And those who don’t are quite cold-bloodedly labeled as “failed” and are expected to go through the whole process of regurgitation year after year, until they either succeed or meet their doom.
This is not Education. It is a process of manufacturing computation devices that look like Homo sapiens, and thereby falsely and quite mistakenly labeled as “Education”. This “False Education” or “Educational Fundamentalism” is dangerous for the society, and moreover it is a threat to the entire species, because it takes away the basic cognitive capacities of the mind, which are quintessential for the advancement of the species.
The need of a safe and stable structure is ingrained in the mind as a primitive psychological characteristic. It is a basic instinctual necessity of the cavemen with us. Hence, it is quite easy for the society to fall prey to this innate instinctual need. And slowly it outweighs the urge for growth. It is plain biological evolution. As my dearly beloved Lizi often says to me in order to win an argument, “when Evolution speaks, even the Gods are silent”. And it is indeed accurate. Evolution drives all kinds of lifeforms as well as mindforms. And it is Mother Nature that drives the whole process of biological evolution. Here I’d take a step further and say, when Mother Nature speaks, even the Gods hold silence.
Instincts, drives and urges, all are evolutionary, and as such they serve their distinct purposes in the path of survival. However, these antique elements of the primitive human psyche are kept in check by the modern part of the brain, i.e. the cerebral cortex. The cerebral cortex of the brain is responsible for the modern rational thinking of the human mind, while the limbic system holds all the emotional elements of the mind, including the primordial ones.
Now the point is, primordial instinctual elements come more naturally to the human mind, than rational thinking. This is because all the basic instincts and drives of the mind have been there since the reptilian days, whereas rational and analytical thinking has evolved in the human brain far too recently. Naturally, it takes a lot of practice and efforts to become a rational free thinker, compared to the ignorant minds incessantly driven by the lizard within.
And that’s exactly what has become of this so-called civilized and modern human society and its system of education. Most of the human society as well as its system of education is driven by the lizards of the limbic brain. Hence, it’s not the fault of the system. Rather if anyone to blame it is Mother Nature. She is a wicked old lady, who always has it her way.
However, if you have sufficient insight into the whole process of evolution and can take into account all its correlated ups and downs, you will no longer be able to blame Mother Nature. Because, even though we have been living in the wilderness and surviving with our limbic instincts and drives for millions of years, we also have received from Mother Nature the gift of a complicated and advanced cerebral cortex, which enables us to carefully modulate the wild responses of the limbic system in this civilized world. We truly are an advanced species that has gained the brain capacity look beyond the basic needs of survival. We have learnt to take significant steps in the path of development.
And the most necessary tool in that path of advancement is Education. And here, by education, I refer to the real education of the mind, that endows the human psyche with vigor and expands its intellectual perception of the world. And in this whole process of progress, there is no place for the fake education of modern society that does nothing but condition the young human minds to become hypnotized hominid elitists.
To quote from my book Love, God & Neurons
“indoctrination is not just demeaning to the human conscience, it is lethal for the flourishing psychology of the hungry, young mind.
The purpose of education should ultimately be the advancement of the species. And for this to actually happen, the world needs the kind of education by means of which character is formed, strength of the mind is increased and the human intellect is expanded beyond its own limits.”
First the world needs teachers – teachers who have broken their own shackles of indoctrination – teachers who can go beyond the narrow-mindedness of the society. A handful of these young, brave and zealous teachers in every nation, shall be enough to rekindle the spark of pure knowledge in the entire species.
Further Reading
Abhijit Naskar, 2016, What is Mind?
Abhijit Naskar, 2016, Love, God & Neurons: Memoir of a scientist who found himself by getting lost
Man's Invention of God
The mystics of modern world who thrive on humanity's primitive knack for mysticism often proclaim with utter glory that spirituality is what distinguishes us humans from the animals. But the biological reality of life is, the element of spirituality does not distinguish us from the animal kingdom. Rather it is the extraordinarily unique blend of emotions, creativity and intellect, that sets us apart from the rest of the animal society. This fusion of vivid and varied elements of mental features makes us humans. It makes us a species unlike any other.
There is nothing extraordinary about the mental trait of spirituality. It evolved as a counter-mechanism for the fear of the unknown while we were living in the wild. If we look closely, we can discover the existence of this apparently supernatural element in various species other than humans, such as dogs. Dogs are spiritual in their own instinctive knack for sensing life in even inanimate objects. And in this aspect, the humans are not much different.
However, due to the extraordinary advancement of our brain circuits, unlike any other species, the humans quite unconsciously learnt to incorporate spirituality in their daily lives beyond the wildest instincts of all the lifeforms in the world.
Now let's go back in time. Think about the distant past, when our primitive ancestors were surrounded by the permeating darkness of absolute ignorance. In every walk of life, they encountered something incomprehensible. But irony of Mother Nature was that they had no modern means to satisfy their curious yet childishly immature mind in the face of those enigmatic natural phenomena. Thunderstorm, Earthquake, Volcanoes - all these events sparked nothing but fear in their instinctively driven mind. They were the slaves of Mother Nature, and as such they were tormented in every walk of life by the surrounding harsh environment.
Unlike now, instinct used to get the best of them, back in those days of incessant hardship for survival. Instincts drove their scared mind to forge explanations of paranormal nature our of their fear, anxiety and ignorance. Their mind was immersed in the sea of ignorance, where there was neither a single shred of data available to them, nor they had the brain capacity to comprehend such data. All they could sense with their instinctive mind was the overwhelming abundance of power-play by some sort of force, stronger than them.
Hence, they felt the growing urge to appease that supposed supernatural force with rituals of worship. And they began worshiping all the natural elements of nature, such as stones, hills, trees, lakes, animals and many more, driven by their craving for a sense of security. As such practice grew more prevalent, the brain circuits for such mental trait, began evolving. And slowly their worship of natural elements acquired stronger roots of spirit origin in their mind. Thus they learnt to impose the primordially concocted idea of spirits on various elements of nature. Thus in the mind of early humans, a whole new world of nature spirits was born. In this world, the lakes were home for lake spirits, the trees were home for tree spirits, the rivers were home for river spirits and so on.
Thus evolved the early neurological ground for spirituality, which would later pave the way for the arrival of the modern structure of religion in the human mind. Since then the human brain has evolved a lot, especially in the intellectual domain. However, despite the intellectual development, the early instinctively spiritual sense of a Supernatural Force driving the universe, still prevails in the psyche of the general population. This primitive idea got even more reinforced when a few individuals in the history of humanity proclaimed their mental union with their preconceived notion of that Almighty Force or Entity. Thus, through misinterpretation of individual experiences of the mental state of transcendence, the primitive sense of spirituality got psychologically molded into the modern humanized conception of God and Gods.
There is nothing extraordinary about the mental trait of spirituality. It evolved as a counter-mechanism for the fear of the unknown while we were living in the wild. If we look closely, we can discover the existence of this apparently supernatural element in various species other than humans, such as dogs. Dogs are spiritual in their own instinctive knack for sensing life in even inanimate objects. And in this aspect, the humans are not much different.
However, due to the extraordinary advancement of our brain circuits, unlike any other species, the humans quite unconsciously learnt to incorporate spirituality in their daily lives beyond the wildest instincts of all the lifeforms in the world.
Now let's go back in time. Think about the distant past, when our primitive ancestors were surrounded by the permeating darkness of absolute ignorance. In every walk of life, they encountered something incomprehensible. But irony of Mother Nature was that they had no modern means to satisfy their curious yet childishly immature mind in the face of those enigmatic natural phenomena. Thunderstorm, Earthquake, Volcanoes - all these events sparked nothing but fear in their instinctively driven mind. They were the slaves of Mother Nature, and as such they were tormented in every walk of life by the surrounding harsh environment.
Unlike now, instinct used to get the best of them, back in those days of incessant hardship for survival. Instincts drove their scared mind to forge explanations of paranormal nature our of their fear, anxiety and ignorance. Their mind was immersed in the sea of ignorance, where there was neither a single shred of data available to them, nor they had the brain capacity to comprehend such data. All they could sense with their instinctive mind was the overwhelming abundance of power-play by some sort of force, stronger than them.
Hence, they felt the growing urge to appease that supposed supernatural force with rituals of worship. And they began worshiping all the natural elements of nature, such as stones, hills, trees, lakes, animals and many more, driven by their craving for a sense of security. As such practice grew more prevalent, the brain circuits for such mental trait, began evolving. And slowly their worship of natural elements acquired stronger roots of spirit origin in their mind. Thus they learnt to impose the primordially concocted idea of spirits on various elements of nature. Thus in the mind of early humans, a whole new world of nature spirits was born. In this world, the lakes were home for lake spirits, the trees were home for tree spirits, the rivers were home for river spirits and so on.
Thus evolved the early neurological ground for spirituality, which would later pave the way for the arrival of the modern structure of religion in the human mind. Since then the human brain has evolved a lot, especially in the intellectual domain. However, despite the intellectual development, the early instinctively spiritual sense of a Supernatural Force driving the universe, still prevails in the psyche of the general population. This primitive idea got even more reinforced when a few individuals in the history of humanity proclaimed their mental union with their preconceived notion of that Almighty Force or Entity. Thus, through misinterpretation of individual experiences of the mental state of transcendence, the primitive sense of spirituality got psychologically molded into the modern humanized conception of God and Gods.
Surgery on Society
How can we treat a nation? How can we solve its issues? This article is for every single person who wants to do something for his or her nation - who hails himself or herself as a patriot. In this article I am going to show you the biological procedure of treating the issues that torment a nation's soul.
The first step towards treating a nation, is that you must accept that you can't treat a nation, because it is not the nation that requires treatment. Rather it is the people. It is you, the modern human being of the civilized world who needs to work on treating your own conscience and perception. Perhaps I am sounding a bit complicated. So let me simplify.
The world consists of nations. A nation consists of people. A people consists of human beings. A human consists of fascinating psychological elements, collectively called the mind. And a mind is a product of a hundred billion nerve cells working relentlessly in proper harmony. Thus, a little change at the very rudimentary level of the neural network inside one human brain, has the potential to essentially influence a whole nation, and even a whole world. We have countless examples of such individual human minds inspiring the entire planet. Tolstoy, Gandhi, Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, Mandela, Subhas Chandra Bose, Vasil Levsky and so on. These are individual human beings who first worked on their own minds, and then embarked on an unforgettable journey to put their wisdom into practice.
So, in order to really do something for your nation, you must first stop trying to do something for your nation, and turn your focus on yourself in order to make a better version of that self. Reformed and rejuvenated selves are what we need to reform the conscience of a whole nation.
Changes in the neurochemistry of one human being have the potential to inspire the entire national organism. After all, a nation is nothing without its people. When you start understanding the biology behind every single emotion and behavioral response of that people, including your own, you can learn to program them on your side in a way that will lead to the best possible outcome. And this very self-control is the key to a better nation. Also, such human action is contagious. When you start being a better version of yourself, people around you would start to feel the need to nourish their virtue of self-control as well. Your awakening will initiate the awakening of others. Remember, a nation with a thousand awakened citizens and a corrupt leader, is much more alive than a nation with an awakened leader and a thousand corrupt citizens.
So how can one learn to become in control of his or her emotions and behavioral responses. The first step is to accept yourself, the way you are. You need to accept your biology, as well as the biology of others. For example, a man's biology is designed by Mother Nature in such a way that it is impossible for him to not get turned on when he sees a hot lady with big boobs and butt in front of him. Now, of course, due to social norms, in most cases, men feel ashamed of those sexual impulses, and pretend as much as possible to act as if they are the most decent gentleman on earth. And there lies a crucial element that acts as a stimulant for the common social issue of sexual assaults. I have discussed this matter in minute detail in my book Prescription: Treating India's Soul.
The point is, if you don't learn to accept your basic biological instincts as normal human elements, then you can never be able to make your country a better place for your children. You cannot fight your biology. Things go nuts, when you try to. Your biology makes you who you are. Without biology you don't exist. And accepting your basic biological instincts does not mean letting them get hold of your behavior. With the help of the frontal lobes of your brain, you can learn how to manipulate your basic instincts in a healthy way. And this is what you need to do, to reform a nation.
Understanding and accepting the biology is the first step towards transforming a nation, or rather a nation's conscience. Let me tell you some of those basic neurobiological facts of human life. First, we humans are born selfish. Without the element of selfishness we would have never survived this long. And this biological element of selfishness makes each one of us corrupt at a genetic level. So, yes, corruption is biological, it cannot be avoided, but only manipulated.
Second, men think about sex way more than women. And a hot figure of a lady always turns them on, whether they are in a relationship or not. Hence, either consciously or subconsciously they end up having an innate desire to have sex with her. That's the reality of the male psychology. Accept it. Because all men from the civilized world may pretend that they are decent and that they only think about sex with their romantic partner, but the neurological reality is that there is a beast inside all of them, who subconsciously wants to mate with every single woman it encounters. However, sexual repression itself is not the cause of sexual assaults in various nations, especially the developing ones, but it does play a crucial role in the society's ability to deal with such issues. We see this mostly in developing countries like India. How can the Indians expect to solve the issue of women's safety when they are not even mature enough to talk about sex. To quote from Prescription: Treating India's Soul
"Stop talking about “rape” and start talking about “sex”, and within a few decades India will attain the true mindset to prevent sexual assaults."
Another crucial biological reality is, religion is a neurological phenomenon. It is born in the human brain and dies with it. It does not come from any Supreme Entity, up in the sky. It has nothing to do with any Lord Almighty running the universe. It all comes from the human mind, including the very notion of God. God is a human creation, and so is religion.
Hence, nobody is qualified enough to teach you how to be spiritual or religious. Get rid of all those religious preachers from your society. Nourish the neurological phenomenon of divinity within your own mind. Do not let this natural human element to be the tool of exploitation in the hands of countless bloodsucking preachers and religious fanatics.
These are only a few among the rudimentary biological elements that influence the true progress of a nation. And as I have said in Prescription, "It is you who needs to transform into a modern human being of the 21st century, not your nation. Your nation shall be defined by the character of each one of you. So, be the change you want to see in your nation. But the change has to come through the methods of Science for an actual ever-lasting impact."
The general human mind has a common affection for philosophy. But philosophy is useless if it is not directed by science. Science and philosophy are the two wheels of development of a nation. If either one fails, the development of a nation gets stuck. And this has been the problem with many nations throughout the ages. Useless philosophy has overwhelmed the vulnerable minds of many nations. Their heads have become filled with metaphysical garbage which does not have any practical application whatsoever in this modern age. To have an actual impact on the development of a nation, you must incorporate the methods of Science in daily life, only then you will become truly civilized, not before that.
Be aware of the science of the human mind. Be aware of yourself. Be aware of your weakness and your strength. Weakness and darkness are common elements of life on planet earth. You cannot avoid them. They are essential part of our evolutionary history. Fear, weakness, rage, lust all are basic features of every biological lifeform, and they serve only one purpose, that is survival of the species. But for obvious reasons we hate these elements and love the good ones, like happiness, peace, strength and love. And there is the biggest psychological impediment in the progress of human civilization. Every time humans try to fight the elements they don't like, their biology reinforces those elements even more and leads the humans to misery. Misery rises in human life, when a human doesn't accept his or her true biological self.
I urge to you in the name of human progress, embrace your biology. Be brave and upright. And have the courage to face your inner self, and emerge as a civilized and liberated being. Liberate yourself from the tyranny of your hatred against your own biological reality, and you shall automatically liberate your nation from all its misery.
Further Reading
Neurosutra: The Abhijit Naskar Collection
Prescription: Treating India's Soul
What is Mind?
The Krishna Cancer
The first step towards treating a nation, is that you must accept that you can't treat a nation, because it is not the nation that requires treatment. Rather it is the people. It is you, the modern human being of the civilized world who needs to work on treating your own conscience and perception. Perhaps I am sounding a bit complicated. So let me simplify.
The world consists of nations. A nation consists of people. A people consists of human beings. A human consists of fascinating psychological elements, collectively called the mind. And a mind is a product of a hundred billion nerve cells working relentlessly in proper harmony. Thus, a little change at the very rudimentary level of the neural network inside one human brain, has the potential to essentially influence a whole nation, and even a whole world. We have countless examples of such individual human minds inspiring the entire planet. Tolstoy, Gandhi, Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr, Mandela, Subhas Chandra Bose, Vasil Levsky and so on. These are individual human beings who first worked on their own minds, and then embarked on an unforgettable journey to put their wisdom into practice.
So, in order to really do something for your nation, you must first stop trying to do something for your nation, and turn your focus on yourself in order to make a better version of that self. Reformed and rejuvenated selves are what we need to reform the conscience of a whole nation.
Changes in the neurochemistry of one human being have the potential to inspire the entire national organism. After all, a nation is nothing without its people. When you start understanding the biology behind every single emotion and behavioral response of that people, including your own, you can learn to program them on your side in a way that will lead to the best possible outcome. And this very self-control is the key to a better nation. Also, such human action is contagious. When you start being a better version of yourself, people around you would start to feel the need to nourish their virtue of self-control as well. Your awakening will initiate the awakening of others. Remember, a nation with a thousand awakened citizens and a corrupt leader, is much more alive than a nation with an awakened leader and a thousand corrupt citizens.
So how can one learn to become in control of his or her emotions and behavioral responses. The first step is to accept yourself, the way you are. You need to accept your biology, as well as the biology of others. For example, a man's biology is designed by Mother Nature in such a way that it is impossible for him to not get turned on when he sees a hot lady with big boobs and butt in front of him. Now, of course, due to social norms, in most cases, men feel ashamed of those sexual impulses, and pretend as much as possible to act as if they are the most decent gentleman on earth. And there lies a crucial element that acts as a stimulant for the common social issue of sexual assaults. I have discussed this matter in minute detail in my book Prescription: Treating India's Soul.
The point is, if you don't learn to accept your basic biological instincts as normal human elements, then you can never be able to make your country a better place for your children. You cannot fight your biology. Things go nuts, when you try to. Your biology makes you who you are. Without biology you don't exist. And accepting your basic biological instincts does not mean letting them get hold of your behavior. With the help of the frontal lobes of your brain, you can learn how to manipulate your basic instincts in a healthy way. And this is what you need to do, to reform a nation.
Understanding and accepting the biology is the first step towards transforming a nation, or rather a nation's conscience. Let me tell you some of those basic neurobiological facts of human life. First, we humans are born selfish. Without the element of selfishness we would have never survived this long. And this biological element of selfishness makes each one of us corrupt at a genetic level. So, yes, corruption is biological, it cannot be avoided, but only manipulated.
Second, men think about sex way more than women. And a hot figure of a lady always turns them on, whether they are in a relationship or not. Hence, either consciously or subconsciously they end up having an innate desire to have sex with her. That's the reality of the male psychology. Accept it. Because all men from the civilized world may pretend that they are decent and that they only think about sex with their romantic partner, but the neurological reality is that there is a beast inside all of them, who subconsciously wants to mate with every single woman it encounters. However, sexual repression itself is not the cause of sexual assaults in various nations, especially the developing ones, but it does play a crucial role in the society's ability to deal with such issues. We see this mostly in developing countries like India. How can the Indians expect to solve the issue of women's safety when they are not even mature enough to talk about sex. To quote from Prescription: Treating India's Soul
"Stop talking about “rape” and start talking about “sex”, and within a few decades India will attain the true mindset to prevent sexual assaults."
Another crucial biological reality is, religion is a neurological phenomenon. It is born in the human brain and dies with it. It does not come from any Supreme Entity, up in the sky. It has nothing to do with any Lord Almighty running the universe. It all comes from the human mind, including the very notion of God. God is a human creation, and so is religion.
Hence, nobody is qualified enough to teach you how to be spiritual or religious. Get rid of all those religious preachers from your society. Nourish the neurological phenomenon of divinity within your own mind. Do not let this natural human element to be the tool of exploitation in the hands of countless bloodsucking preachers and religious fanatics.
These are only a few among the rudimentary biological elements that influence the true progress of a nation. And as I have said in Prescription, "It is you who needs to transform into a modern human being of the 21st century, not your nation. Your nation shall be defined by the character of each one of you. So, be the change you want to see in your nation. But the change has to come through the methods of Science for an actual ever-lasting impact."
The general human mind has a common affection for philosophy. But philosophy is useless if it is not directed by science. Science and philosophy are the two wheels of development of a nation. If either one fails, the development of a nation gets stuck. And this has been the problem with many nations throughout the ages. Useless philosophy has overwhelmed the vulnerable minds of many nations. Their heads have become filled with metaphysical garbage which does not have any practical application whatsoever in this modern age. To have an actual impact on the development of a nation, you must incorporate the methods of Science in daily life, only then you will become truly civilized, not before that.
Be aware of the science of the human mind. Be aware of yourself. Be aware of your weakness and your strength. Weakness and darkness are common elements of life on planet earth. You cannot avoid them. They are essential part of our evolutionary history. Fear, weakness, rage, lust all are basic features of every biological lifeform, and they serve only one purpose, that is survival of the species. But for obvious reasons we hate these elements and love the good ones, like happiness, peace, strength and love. And there is the biggest psychological impediment in the progress of human civilization. Every time humans try to fight the elements they don't like, their biology reinforces those elements even more and leads the humans to misery. Misery rises in human life, when a human doesn't accept his or her true biological self.
I urge to you in the name of human progress, embrace your biology. Be brave and upright. And have the courage to face your inner self, and emerge as a civilized and liberated being. Liberate yourself from the tyranny of your hatred against your own biological reality, and you shall automatically liberate your nation from all its misery.
Further Reading
Neurosutra: The Abhijit Naskar Collection
Prescription: Treating India's Soul
What is Mind?
The Krishna Cancer
Islam - Religion of Peace or Violence
Islam - is it a religion of peace or of violence? This is a question that torments the entire human society. But just because it is correlated with over-exaggerated discussions and debates, does not mean that the question itself is a genuine one. Let me put it this way - Islam is a religion of course, but neither of peace nor of violence. It is a religion like any other religion, that provides a psychological bedrock of baseline cultural identity and individuality to its people. But it is the actions of these people that should be accounted for to define whether the religion "Islam" is a religion of peace or of violence, instead of judging it based on the scripture Quran. Books are no measure for judgement in the society of thinking humanity. It is the actions of the people that counts, nothing else.
Here you must remember, the so-called Jihadis who are in reality, mentally unstable individuals run by Quranic fundamentalists, do not represent the whole Muslim population of the world. Muslims are just as peace-loving as the Christians, Hindus, Jews or Buddhists. Terrorism has nothing to do with religion, Islam or otherwise. Terrorism is born of fundamentalism not of religion.
Peace and Violence are both biological traits of humans as well as the entire animal kingdom. And since humans are the only species capable of creating literatures, it should not be surprising that these literatures would have the same blend of peace and violence, or simply, good and evil, that the human character possesses. And these literatures include all the scriptures in the world. As such, they are not immune to the innate evil of the human psyche. In fact, since these scriptures are the product of a time when ignorance and barbarianism ran rampant in the human society, it is more reason, for evil traits to appear on their pages alongside the goodness that they teach.
Like all human literatures the Islamic literature, the Quran and the Hadith, were also human creation. No Allah or God had anything to with them. They arose from the minds of the humans. The Quranic messages were born from the mind of supposedly the man named Mohammed in a state of transcendence. This state of mind is an extraordinary one, with such unique elements that often leave the smartest individuals baffled. And Mohammed was no smart man, like say, Albert Einstein or James Watson. He was an ordinary man of his time, who attained the state of transcendence during his daily prayers in a mountain cave. And in that state of transcendence his mind gave rise to all the revelations, both good and bad, that later collectively became known as the Holy Quran. Hence, it is the reader who must distinguish the good from the bad, if he or she is to remain a genuine part of the civilized society.
Let me bring up an excerpt from my book The Islamophobic Civilization: Voyage of Acceptance" to shed further light on this matter.
"Think of the bloodshed there has been in consequence of some of the Quranic doctrines that literally command to kill the infidels if they do not become Muslims! Think of the textual creeds that teach, a man who does not believe all the teachings of Quran should be killed and it is a mercy to kill him! The one ultimate rule of the Quranic fundamentalists is “there is one God and Mohammed is his prophet”. Everything beyond that not only is bad, but must be destroyed forthwith. At moment’s notice, every man or woman, who does not exactly believe in that, must be killed. Everything that does not belong to this set of ideals must be killed."
And because of such barbarian actions of the Quranic fundamentalists, many atheists, including my dear friends and colleagues Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris quite naively want to turn every single religious person on earth into an atheist, which by the way, is a great and progressive notion, but I am afraid, it biologically, or to be more specific neurologically, is an impractical idea. Religion itself is a neurological phenomenon which evolved in the human mind to act as an aid in daily life. Which means, Mother Nature selected it as a neuropsychological feature for the humans in the path of survival. Hence, no individual has the power to take such natural trait away from the human mind, unless Natural Selection gives consent. Therefore, it is more practical to make people transform their mindset about religion and religiousness and walk in the path of creed-less religious harmony, than to convert the entire religious population on earth into atheists.
All we need to do, is to turn human actions into a measure of judgement for religions, instead of some old books. Once we successfully do this, eventually we will be able to build a world where the human self shall be the Alpha and the Omega of the society, not a God self of some old books. In fact, the God self depicted in those books, was nothing but the transcendental manifestation of the human self. Which means, the God of humanity is, in actuality, human, or to be more accurate, man himself. Men in different times went into transcendence and quite unintentionally, due to neurological reasons (refer to Autobiography of God: Biopsy of A Cognitive Reality), mistook the messages rising from their own mind as revelations coming from an external divine realm. Thus, all revelations of all scriptures are the creations of the human mind, not of God.
Now tell me, do you still hail those texts as irrefutable? Do you still think that you are ought to follow every single word of those scriptures with a blind eye? Don't you think that it is the existential responsibility of a civilized human being to measure those texts, as they have such a blinding impact upon the society, with your own rational mind?
Progress of the human society is predicated upon the proper functioning of a key element of the human mind, that is reasoning. Without this mental element we would no longer be a civilized species. And when reasoning runs pure in the heart of the humans, no book has the power to compel them to fight among each other in the name of religion or paradise. Remember, reasoning is the cure for superstitions and bigotry. Once reasoning reigns, love and acceptance become the religion, and hatred and dogmatism become a matter of ancient history.
Further Reading
Abhijit Naskar, 2016, Biopsy of Religions: Neuroanalysis towards Universal Tolerance
Abhijit Naskar, 2016, In Search of Divinity: Journey to The Kingdom of Conscience
Abhijit Naskar, 2017, The Islamophobic Civilization: Voyage of Acceptance
Here you must remember, the so-called Jihadis who are in reality, mentally unstable individuals run by Quranic fundamentalists, do not represent the whole Muslim population of the world. Muslims are just as peace-loving as the Christians, Hindus, Jews or Buddhists. Terrorism has nothing to do with religion, Islam or otherwise. Terrorism is born of fundamentalism not of religion.
Peace and Violence are both biological traits of humans as well as the entire animal kingdom. And since humans are the only species capable of creating literatures, it should not be surprising that these literatures would have the same blend of peace and violence, or simply, good and evil, that the human character possesses. And these literatures include all the scriptures in the world. As such, they are not immune to the innate evil of the human psyche. In fact, since these scriptures are the product of a time when ignorance and barbarianism ran rampant in the human society, it is more reason, for evil traits to appear on their pages alongside the goodness that they teach.
Like all human literatures the Islamic literature, the Quran and the Hadith, were also human creation. No Allah or God had anything to with them. They arose from the minds of the humans. The Quranic messages were born from the mind of supposedly the man named Mohammed in a state of transcendence. This state of mind is an extraordinary one, with such unique elements that often leave the smartest individuals baffled. And Mohammed was no smart man, like say, Albert Einstein or James Watson. He was an ordinary man of his time, who attained the state of transcendence during his daily prayers in a mountain cave. And in that state of transcendence his mind gave rise to all the revelations, both good and bad, that later collectively became known as the Holy Quran. Hence, it is the reader who must distinguish the good from the bad, if he or she is to remain a genuine part of the civilized society.
Let me bring up an excerpt from my book The Islamophobic Civilization: Voyage of Acceptance" to shed further light on this matter.
"Think of the bloodshed there has been in consequence of some of the Quranic doctrines that literally command to kill the infidels if they do not become Muslims! Think of the textual creeds that teach, a man who does not believe all the teachings of Quran should be killed and it is a mercy to kill him! The one ultimate rule of the Quranic fundamentalists is “there is one God and Mohammed is his prophet”. Everything beyond that not only is bad, but must be destroyed forthwith. At moment’s notice, every man or woman, who does not exactly believe in that, must be killed. Everything that does not belong to this set of ideals must be killed."
And because of such barbarian actions of the Quranic fundamentalists, many atheists, including my dear friends and colleagues Richard Dawkins and Sam Harris quite naively want to turn every single religious person on earth into an atheist, which by the way, is a great and progressive notion, but I am afraid, it biologically, or to be more specific neurologically, is an impractical idea. Religion itself is a neurological phenomenon which evolved in the human mind to act as an aid in daily life. Which means, Mother Nature selected it as a neuropsychological feature for the humans in the path of survival. Hence, no individual has the power to take such natural trait away from the human mind, unless Natural Selection gives consent. Therefore, it is more practical to make people transform their mindset about religion and religiousness and walk in the path of creed-less religious harmony, than to convert the entire religious population on earth into atheists.
All we need to do, is to turn human actions into a measure of judgement for religions, instead of some old books. Once we successfully do this, eventually we will be able to build a world where the human self shall be the Alpha and the Omega of the society, not a God self of some old books. In fact, the God self depicted in those books, was nothing but the transcendental manifestation of the human self. Which means, the God of humanity is, in actuality, human, or to be more accurate, man himself. Men in different times went into transcendence and quite unintentionally, due to neurological reasons (refer to Autobiography of God: Biopsy of A Cognitive Reality), mistook the messages rising from their own mind as revelations coming from an external divine realm. Thus, all revelations of all scriptures are the creations of the human mind, not of God.
Now tell me, do you still hail those texts as irrefutable? Do you still think that you are ought to follow every single word of those scriptures with a blind eye? Don't you think that it is the existential responsibility of a civilized human being to measure those texts, as they have such a blinding impact upon the society, with your own rational mind?
Progress of the human society is predicated upon the proper functioning of a key element of the human mind, that is reasoning. Without this mental element we would no longer be a civilized species. And when reasoning runs pure in the heart of the humans, no book has the power to compel them to fight among each other in the name of religion or paradise. Remember, reasoning is the cure for superstitions and bigotry. Once reasoning reigns, love and acceptance become the religion, and hatred and dogmatism become a matter of ancient history.
Further Reading
Abhijit Naskar, 2016, Biopsy of Religions: Neuroanalysis towards Universal Tolerance
Abhijit Naskar, 2016, In Search of Divinity: Journey to The Kingdom of Conscience
Abhijit Naskar, 2017, The Islamophobic Civilization: Voyage of Acceptance
Put God first, but don’t boast it
Belief in God – that is what we will naively discuss in this piece. And the focus is of course on being naive, because it is the first criterion to understand a phenomenon truly with its real fundamentals. One cannot understand something, if one is already filled with predominant conditioned beliefs, opinions and ideas. So, let’s look at the belief in an Almighty Concerned Entity or Force, with literally, not theoretically, naive eyes. If you have read my works, you’d know that one statement is pretty prevalent in most of them. It is “belief is a self-preservation mechanism of the mind.” Here, the belief I mentioned is not necessarily of religious type. The belief in this statement refers to all sorts of belief, not just religious. However, in this piece, we are interested specifically, in the belief in a supernatural entity.
But why? Why am I talking about it exactly now? Because, I was scrolling through my youtube feed, and came across a video of some actor, shouting out “put God first”. The very first casual response that mind spat out was – even the stupidest and barbarian opinions of celebrities can appear to the masses as greatly inspirational and glorious statements – what a shame! As I said, this was the first response that my mind produced upon watching the thumbnail. So, now, let’s get over this casual response and dissect the situation – to be specific, the statement – “put God first”. It basically says, never lose faith in God, and you’ll achieve everything. I won’t say whether it is civilized or not. But I would say this. Belief in a supernatural entity having control of and concern for, your life, is basically, not a sign of glory, rather a sign of weakness.
Weakness is a fact – not bad or good. Like it or not, we all feel weak at times – I accept, that I do. And specifically in these times of excruciating agony, the mind kicks into a defense mode – where it naturally tends to put its faith and control upon a higher illusory entity. It’s not good – it’s not bad – it is what it is. And we cannot change this situation, just yet, because though we have developed extraordinary brain capacities, inside, we still remain cave-people, with a highly sensitive amygdala, that reacts quite effectively to every single fear and stress stimulus. And to quote from my book The Krishna Cancer – “Mother Nature created God as a neurological anti-depressant sentiment.”
Belief in an imaginary entity or force, is a sign of weakness. And, weakness is a part of biological existence. So, glorifying that weakness, does not make a person any more religious, spiritual or wise, than beating one’s wife does for not sleeping with him. Yes, we have developed through the process of natural selection, the capacity for limitless good and glory, but that does not mean, our innate brutal nature has vanished from our psyche for good. We have the capacity for courage and conscience, but you must remember, we also bear the seeds of weakness and brutality within us. These seeds served us well for millions of years. They have been the most crucial elements in our survival in the wild. Let me give you an example.
Imagine a man is sitting with his wife on the couch, while watching TV. Suddenly, a woman on TV starts stripping. What kind of changes do you think, would take place in the man’s pants! Now here is the real question, the man gets erect by watching the stripping lady on TV, say it’s my good friend and popular pornstar Olivia Austin – does this mean, he actually wants to do her? Does this mean, he does not love his wife? These questions are all non-sense. Of course he loves his wife. And consciously, he does not desire to mate with Olivia, but his subconscious mind does – and that’s not a theory, but a fact. Because that’s how the man’s brain has been surviving in the wild. His penis had to be prepare within seconds, the moment he had an opportunity to spread his genes – there was no consent involved. Because the competition was high. And that libidinal programming still remains active within the man’s neurobiology. That’s why erection upon the sight of a hot lady, is quite normal and in fact, healthy, but that does not necessarily mean, it is a sign of intentional desire for intercourse with that lady. A man may be married happily, and still his penis would get erect, the moment his mind visualizes a glimmer of opportunity for spreading his genes. Similar is the process of belief in an imaginary entity, named God.
The mind has various mechanisms to maintain its internal order and well being. And belief in something higher than the petty little human existence, is one of those self-preservation mechanisms. A person may be the most rational being on earth when everything is almost fine in his or her life. But the moment, clouds of excruciating agonies begin to cover the sky of his or her psyche, all rationality will go out of the window, and what will remain, is pure, savage, survival instinct. During these moments of utter disaster, a healthy human mind is more likely to give in to supernaturalism, than to bring out a notebook and do logical analysis. Eventually when those clouds start to disperse, the mind would slowly gain its natural rational capacities. Then he or she would again start talking most boastfully about reasoning and free thinking. This is not hypocrisy – this is human life – or to be more accurate, this is biological life.
Another such mechanism comes to my mind in this context. This mechanism kicks in when somebody faces a life-threatening trauma, and gives rise to the mesmerizing experience of afterlife, in which apparently the trauma-struck individual has an encounter with supernatural entities, prophets, or diseased relatives. And this experience manifests as more real than actual reality. The purpose of it is to put your mind in a preconceived domain of comfort, while your body is under tremendous stress. And before when medical science was not developed, people died with this last conscious experience of entering into a higher dimension. We did not have the means to save a dying person. Now we do. So, even though they go close to the doorstep of death and start experiencing the conscious hallucinatory domain of afterlife, we are capable of bringing the person back to life. And when they finally wake up, they can excite all others around them with their supposed experience of the afterlife, unlike our ancestors who did not have the means to come back from the doorstep of death.
The mind is who you are. You are your mind. And as such, you are not even aware of most of its features – because you are not supposed to, biologically speaking. Underneath the surface of conscious awareness, lies a whole territory of subconscious traits and processes. Some of these processes become active on a daily basis, others, when truly necessary. But they are there, nevertheless. They are there for a reason – the reason of survival – the reason of maintaining well being when every other modern means fails. They don’t follow modern norms of rationality. They only follow Mother Nature’s law of survival. And they are definitely not glorious in nature, rather, they are simply the mind’s way of preserving itself. It is not something to be proud of, or critical of. It just is, what it is – an unavoidable part of human mental existence.
Recommended Reading
Autobiography of God: Biopsy of A Cognitive Reality
But why? Why am I talking about it exactly now? Because, I was scrolling through my youtube feed, and came across a video of some actor, shouting out “put God first”. The very first casual response that mind spat out was – even the stupidest and barbarian opinions of celebrities can appear to the masses as greatly inspirational and glorious statements – what a shame! As I said, this was the first response that my mind produced upon watching the thumbnail. So, now, let’s get over this casual response and dissect the situation – to be specific, the statement – “put God first”. It basically says, never lose faith in God, and you’ll achieve everything. I won’t say whether it is civilized or not. But I would say this. Belief in a supernatural entity having control of and concern for, your life, is basically, not a sign of glory, rather a sign of weakness.
Weakness is a fact – not bad or good. Like it or not, we all feel weak at times – I accept, that I do. And specifically in these times of excruciating agony, the mind kicks into a defense mode – where it naturally tends to put its faith and control upon a higher illusory entity. It’s not good – it’s not bad – it is what it is. And we cannot change this situation, just yet, because though we have developed extraordinary brain capacities, inside, we still remain cave-people, with a highly sensitive amygdala, that reacts quite effectively to every single fear and stress stimulus. And to quote from my book The Krishna Cancer – “Mother Nature created God as a neurological anti-depressant sentiment.”
Belief in an imaginary entity or force, is a sign of weakness. And, weakness is a part of biological existence. So, glorifying that weakness, does not make a person any more religious, spiritual or wise, than beating one’s wife does for not sleeping with him. Yes, we have developed through the process of natural selection, the capacity for limitless good and glory, but that does not mean, our innate brutal nature has vanished from our psyche for good. We have the capacity for courage and conscience, but you must remember, we also bear the seeds of weakness and brutality within us. These seeds served us well for millions of years. They have been the most crucial elements in our survival in the wild. Let me give you an example.
Imagine a man is sitting with his wife on the couch, while watching TV. Suddenly, a woman on TV starts stripping. What kind of changes do you think, would take place in the man’s pants! Now here is the real question, the man gets erect by watching the stripping lady on TV, say it’s my good friend and popular pornstar Olivia Austin – does this mean, he actually wants to do her? Does this mean, he does not love his wife? These questions are all non-sense. Of course he loves his wife. And consciously, he does not desire to mate with Olivia, but his subconscious mind does – and that’s not a theory, but a fact. Because that’s how the man’s brain has been surviving in the wild. His penis had to be prepare within seconds, the moment he had an opportunity to spread his genes – there was no consent involved. Because the competition was high. And that libidinal programming still remains active within the man’s neurobiology. That’s why erection upon the sight of a hot lady, is quite normal and in fact, healthy, but that does not necessarily mean, it is a sign of intentional desire for intercourse with that lady. A man may be married happily, and still his penis would get erect, the moment his mind visualizes a glimmer of opportunity for spreading his genes. Similar is the process of belief in an imaginary entity, named God.
The mind has various mechanisms to maintain its internal order and well being. And belief in something higher than the petty little human existence, is one of those self-preservation mechanisms. A person may be the most rational being on earth when everything is almost fine in his or her life. But the moment, clouds of excruciating agonies begin to cover the sky of his or her psyche, all rationality will go out of the window, and what will remain, is pure, savage, survival instinct. During these moments of utter disaster, a healthy human mind is more likely to give in to supernaturalism, than to bring out a notebook and do logical analysis. Eventually when those clouds start to disperse, the mind would slowly gain its natural rational capacities. Then he or she would again start talking most boastfully about reasoning and free thinking. This is not hypocrisy – this is human life – or to be more accurate, this is biological life.
Another such mechanism comes to my mind in this context. This mechanism kicks in when somebody faces a life-threatening trauma, and gives rise to the mesmerizing experience of afterlife, in which apparently the trauma-struck individual has an encounter with supernatural entities, prophets, or diseased relatives. And this experience manifests as more real than actual reality. The purpose of it is to put your mind in a preconceived domain of comfort, while your body is under tremendous stress. And before when medical science was not developed, people died with this last conscious experience of entering into a higher dimension. We did not have the means to save a dying person. Now we do. So, even though they go close to the doorstep of death and start experiencing the conscious hallucinatory domain of afterlife, we are capable of bringing the person back to life. And when they finally wake up, they can excite all others around them with their supposed experience of the afterlife, unlike our ancestors who did not have the means to come back from the doorstep of death.
The mind is who you are. You are your mind. And as such, you are not even aware of most of its features – because you are not supposed to, biologically speaking. Underneath the surface of conscious awareness, lies a whole territory of subconscious traits and processes. Some of these processes become active on a daily basis, others, when truly necessary. But they are there, nevertheless. They are there for a reason – the reason of survival – the reason of maintaining well being when every other modern means fails. They don’t follow modern norms of rationality. They only follow Mother Nature’s law of survival. And they are definitely not glorious in nature, rather, they are simply the mind’s way of preserving itself. It is not something to be proud of, or critical of. It just is, what it is – an unavoidable part of human mental existence.
Recommended Reading
Autobiography of God: Biopsy of A Cognitive Reality
Why Entertainers are More Appealing to the Masses than Scholars
Stop making stupid people famous. Such goes the saying. Everybody has heard of it. Everybody knows what it implies, yet, that very everybody, or at least, almost everybody, never thinks twice before “making stupid people famous”. Hence, I have said in my book “Mission Reality” – “Stupid people make stupid people famous”. But why? Is there a deeper reason behind such a primitive act? Is there something more than mere stupidity? Is this stupidity really that stupid or does it have some incomprehensible value which can only be discovered if we see past the surface of such behavior!
If we speak empirically, then there is no such thing as stupid or wise in the kingdom of nature, for the kingdom of nature is governed by only one quality, and that is survival potential. If a behavior exists, it does so, because it has some sort of survival potential attached to it. And this is the reason why scholars, such as scientists and philosophers are way less appealing to the masses in comparison to entertainers such as filmstars, singers or sportspersons.
Scholars (including scientists, philosophers, doctors, teachers, innovators and many more, involved in the practice of science, technology and philosophy) make some of the greatest physical contributions in the health, prosperity and progress of the human species, take away the scholars and all progress will come to a standstill, yet most of them spend their life in anonymity outside the tiny circle of their distinct field. On the other hand, entertainers are seen by people from all walks of life as some form of all-knowing prophet – if they say, a certain health drink is good, the masses would most naively embrace that health drink in their life – if they say, a certain watch or perfume or handbag is the symbol of elegance, the masses would most blindly run after it – and if they run for office, the masses would most stupidly vote for them, without actually knowing their psychological capacity to run a people.
Here, I beg you not to think of all entertainers to be stupid, rather what I am pointing out is that, the expertise of an entertainer is in entertaining, so you should give them as much reverence as they deserve, not more than that. They are not expert in medical issues – they are not expert in running a people – they are not expert in anything except their work in entertainment – just like, I am not an expert in Chemistry or Physics or Mathematics – I am a Biologist and that’s where all my attention is placed. So, if you have a question about Quantum Physics, you must not ask me, rather you must ask a Physicist. And the same is true for every other expert in the world – be it an expert of science, mathematics or arts. For example, my favorite actors are Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, and I enjoy their work immensely, but I don’t expect them to have a deep insight into human nature, just because they were and still remain quite famous – that’s my job, just like their job was to hold up a mirror in front of the society through their acting.
Now the big question is, why do people fall prey to the charm of celebrities and confuse their charisma to be the sign of wisdom, in most cases quite subconsciously? This behavior goes back millions of years. When our ancestors lived in the jungle amidst other animals, the chances of survival of the tribe increased in proportion to their blind loyalty to the alpha, a character with leadership characteristics, which mostly consisted of an absurd amount of confidence and charm. And this evolutionary instinct of attraction to confidence and charm still remains rather dominant in the common human psyche, which makes them vulnerable to the spell of charisma, even if that charisma has no content of character or wisdom underneath it.
In everyday life of the common human, reason takes a back seat and emotions dictate all significant behavior. “Erase the emotions and you would erase the most important part of what it’s like to be human” (as said in Mission Reality). In short, no matter what you say, if you can say it with such a confidence that it touches people at an emotional level, then you can make them believe in anything – you can make think anything – you can make them do anything.
In the human society, being famous is not the same as being right. Because people who make individuals famous, do not care about right or wrong – they don’t care about truth and reasoning – they are subconsciously driven by their instinct for survival, towards confidence, charm and charisma, just like moths are drawn towards a burning candle to face their inevitable demise.
I’m afraid, if the humans do not learn to make conscious and conscientious efforts to place their attention on character and wisdom, instead of on charm and charisma, then the demise of humankind is inevitable. Here, one may wonder, how can an entire society of humans change their behavior overnight! And the reality is, such a transformation or change cannot take place overnight, moreover, it won’t happen all at once. All change begins with the individual. When we change, the world will change.
Recommended Reading:
All For Acceptance
Mission Reality
Citation: Abhijit Naskar. “Why Entertainers are More Appealing to the Masses than Scholars”. EC Psychology and Psychiatry 8.10 (2019): 1083-1084.
If we speak empirically, then there is no such thing as stupid or wise in the kingdom of nature, for the kingdom of nature is governed by only one quality, and that is survival potential. If a behavior exists, it does so, because it has some sort of survival potential attached to it. And this is the reason why scholars, such as scientists and philosophers are way less appealing to the masses in comparison to entertainers such as filmstars, singers or sportspersons.
Scholars (including scientists, philosophers, doctors, teachers, innovators and many more, involved in the practice of science, technology and philosophy) make some of the greatest physical contributions in the health, prosperity and progress of the human species, take away the scholars and all progress will come to a standstill, yet most of them spend their life in anonymity outside the tiny circle of their distinct field. On the other hand, entertainers are seen by people from all walks of life as some form of all-knowing prophet – if they say, a certain health drink is good, the masses would most naively embrace that health drink in their life – if they say, a certain watch or perfume or handbag is the symbol of elegance, the masses would most blindly run after it – and if they run for office, the masses would most stupidly vote for them, without actually knowing their psychological capacity to run a people.
Here, I beg you not to think of all entertainers to be stupid, rather what I am pointing out is that, the expertise of an entertainer is in entertaining, so you should give them as much reverence as they deserve, not more than that. They are not expert in medical issues – they are not expert in running a people – they are not expert in anything except their work in entertainment – just like, I am not an expert in Chemistry or Physics or Mathematics – I am a Biologist and that’s where all my attention is placed. So, if you have a question about Quantum Physics, you must not ask me, rather you must ask a Physicist. And the same is true for every other expert in the world – be it an expert of science, mathematics or arts. For example, my favorite actors are Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, and I enjoy their work immensely, but I don’t expect them to have a deep insight into human nature, just because they were and still remain quite famous – that’s my job, just like their job was to hold up a mirror in front of the society through their acting.
Now the big question is, why do people fall prey to the charm of celebrities and confuse their charisma to be the sign of wisdom, in most cases quite subconsciously? This behavior goes back millions of years. When our ancestors lived in the jungle amidst other animals, the chances of survival of the tribe increased in proportion to their blind loyalty to the alpha, a character with leadership characteristics, which mostly consisted of an absurd amount of confidence and charm. And this evolutionary instinct of attraction to confidence and charm still remains rather dominant in the common human psyche, which makes them vulnerable to the spell of charisma, even if that charisma has no content of character or wisdom underneath it.
In everyday life of the common human, reason takes a back seat and emotions dictate all significant behavior. “Erase the emotions and you would erase the most important part of what it’s like to be human” (as said in Mission Reality). In short, no matter what you say, if you can say it with such a confidence that it touches people at an emotional level, then you can make them believe in anything – you can make think anything – you can make them do anything.
In the human society, being famous is not the same as being right. Because people who make individuals famous, do not care about right or wrong – they don’t care about truth and reasoning – they are subconsciously driven by their instinct for survival, towards confidence, charm and charisma, just like moths are drawn towards a burning candle to face their inevitable demise.
I’m afraid, if the humans do not learn to make conscious and conscientious efforts to place their attention on character and wisdom, instead of on charm and charisma, then the demise of humankind is inevitable. Here, one may wonder, how can an entire society of humans change their behavior overnight! And the reality is, such a transformation or change cannot take place overnight, moreover, it won’t happen all at once. All change begins with the individual. When we change, the world will change.
Recommended Reading:
All For Acceptance
Mission Reality
Citation: Abhijit Naskar. “Why Entertainers are More Appealing to the Masses than Scholars”. EC Psychology and Psychiatry 8.10 (2019): 1083-1084.
Either Aşkistan or Junglistan (A Sonnet)
Ours is either aşkistan,
Land of love founded on amity,
Or it is an archaic junglistan,
Run by contagious self-centricity.
What is civilized is also unselfish,
For selfishness makes the animal,
Across the self there is humanity,
What is unselfish is also accountable.
Technology may bring comfort,
But it doesn't ensure ascension,
When comfort belongs to the privileged,
Such progress is mere descension.
Over 3 billion years have gone in selfishness,
It's time to unself our soul and rise as sapiens.
Land of love founded on amity,
Or it is an archaic junglistan,
Run by contagious self-centricity.
What is civilized is also unselfish,
For selfishness makes the animal,
Across the self there is humanity,
What is unselfish is also accountable.
Technology may bring comfort,
But it doesn't ensure ascension,
When comfort belongs to the privileged,
Such progress is mere descension.
Over 3 billion years have gone in selfishness,
It's time to unself our soul and rise as sapiens.
We Are All Fundamentally Racist | Buldozer on Duty
“We Are All Racist (The Sonnet)
If we are still uncomfortable to face,
The roots of racism, how can we uproot racism!
Unless we recognize our tendency for division,
How can we ever be the cause of universalism!
The fundamental fact of human nature is,
We are a septic tank of prehistoric biases.
Sectarianism comes to us far too easily,
For we are all fundamentally racist.
Cruelty is the mainspring of survival in the wild,
So our brain leans more towards cruelty than kindness.
Millions of years of conditioning won’t vanish overnight,
We must self-regulate with our newly developed conscience.
The end of racism starts with the recognition of racism.
We are civilized only when we recognize our uncivilization.”
If we are still uncomfortable to face,
The roots of racism, how can we uproot racism!
Unless we recognize our tendency for division,
How can we ever be the cause of universalism!
The fundamental fact of human nature is,
We are a septic tank of prehistoric biases.
Sectarianism comes to us far too easily,
For we are all fundamentally racist.
Cruelty is the mainspring of survival in the wild,
So our brain leans more towards cruelty than kindness.
Millions of years of conditioning won’t vanish overnight,
We must self-regulate with our newly developed conscience.
The end of racism starts with the recognition of racism.
We are civilized only when we recognize our uncivilization.”
Sapient or Savage (The Sonnet) | Sermon of Sustainability
To be or not to be,
That is not the question.
To be human or stay animal,
That is the question.
Human and animal,
What is the difference!
To be animal is to be selfish,
To be human is to go beyond the self.
There’s more to life than us and them,
There’s more to life than loss and gain.
There’s more to life than money and fame,
There’s more to life than dogmatic lanes.
To be or not to be, that is not the question.
Be sapient or stay savage, it’s your decision.
That is not the question.
To be human or stay animal,
That is the question.
Human and animal,
What is the difference!
To be animal is to be selfish,
To be human is to go beyond the self.
There’s more to life than us and them,
There’s more to life than loss and gain.
There’s more to life than money and fame,
There’s more to life than dogmatic lanes.
To be or not to be, that is not the question.
Be sapient or stay savage, it’s your decision.
Evolution & Electronics (The Sonnet) | Corazon Calamidad
I know electronic circuitry like the back of my hand,
Yet it’s the human mind that fascinates me most immensely.
Fascination in electronics lies in new design possibility,
Whereas the mind is the breeding ground of all possibility.
Our engineering is puny compared to that of Mother Nature,
Each day a new mystery unfolds in the vast organic kingdom.
Our puny electronics work based on cold ‘n rigid computation,
Evolution of life in nature is predicated on plastic mutation.
That’s why we must never disregard nature blinded by arrogance,
We may have conquered nature’s mercy but we’re still subordinate.
The moment a lifeform starts to vilify the womb whence it came,
With a single blow creator nature can flatten all our obstinance.
Foster humility and wisdom, before going nuts about technology.
Don’t end up yet another fancy stain upon the honor of humanity.
Yet it’s the human mind that fascinates me most immensely.
Fascination in electronics lies in new design possibility,
Whereas the mind is the breeding ground of all possibility.
Our engineering is puny compared to that of Mother Nature,
Each day a new mystery unfolds in the vast organic kingdom.
Our puny electronics work based on cold ‘n rigid computation,
Evolution of life in nature is predicated on plastic mutation.
That’s why we must never disregard nature blinded by arrogance,
We may have conquered nature’s mercy but we’re still subordinate.
The moment a lifeform starts to vilify the womb whence it came,
With a single blow creator nature can flatten all our obstinance.
Foster humility and wisdom, before going nuts about technology.
Don’t end up yet another fancy stain upon the honor of humanity.
