Author Topic: 2000 light years from home  (Read 5096 times)

ThereIsOnlyOne

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Re: 2000 light years from home
« Reply #15 on: September 20, 2017, 10:49:05 am »
Post It Note #8

General ramblings and nonsense on choices, thoughts and control - refinement and further contemplation needed (word count massively exceeded, sorry).

Choices appear to me as a mental construct with images, narrative and outcomes. They may or may not turn into an action associated with the thought.

I decided today (of my own free will) to choose to take a shower. This initially presented itself as a thought-statement in my mind to the effect of 'I should probably take a shower'. I chose to act on this rather than ignore it.

I went upstairs and got into the shower and start to think about my apparent choice of taking my shower through my own free will. Meanwhile, washing is happening all by itself, unnoticed and without effort. 

Whilst in the shower, the thought 'do I control these thoughts?' appears as a question. If I control these thoughts (and therefore what I think), then I must have the ability to choose the thoughts I have, consciously. If I choose these thoughts then how are they chosen? I don't think 'the next thought I have will be a choice about taking a shower - do you want to continue?' followed by 'Yes, accepted, I think I will take a shower now' or 'no, I don't want to continue, please delete that thought and pretend it didn't happen'. They just arise. I was given a choice (about taking a shower) that I didn't even ask for. I then acted on it.

If I could control my thoughts, what would that even look like? I can see no evidence of any system happening which supports this, in my mind at least. Maybe it's my subconscious then? If it's my subconscious, I'm not directly aware of it so there's certainly no 'visibility' of it so I'm not in control after all.

When did my thinking start? I don't remember when it started. I certainly don't remember consciously initiating thought as a child. Thinking just seemed to have happened. Spontaneously.

If I don't control or choose these thoughts and they just come out of nowhere, then why the hell should I give them any credibility? They're nothing to do with me, I didn't ask for them. If it wasn't really my choice to take that shower, then it's not a choice at all.

What is listening to the thoughts anyway? That seems pretty important.

« Last Edit: September 20, 2017, 12:22:34 pm by ThereIsOnlyOne »