Black and white thinking and my old "gamer-self"

[go2]

I make a distinction between black and white thinking and black or white thinking for the purpose of understanding the expression---black and white thinking. People ordinarily mean either/or thinking when they say---black and white thinking. The formatory or mechanical part of the thinking mind works in black or white, yes or no, true or false. It is a binary switchboard which operates automatically in the thinking center. It is thinking in opposites. The formatory black or white thinking apparatus is installed by education with our complicity. Identification with black or white keeps me from realizing my nothingness. It saves me from fear of nothingness by the violence of identification with one of the opposites. It has been a useful practice for me to take the opposite position, when I remember my aim is to escape the comfortable prison of----black and white thinking.

Black and white thinking can be literally read as thinking which considers and incorporates the black point of view and the white point of view and reconciles these separate perspectives in an entirely new creation as shown in the ancient esoteric ying/yang symbol of the Tao. The new creation is the harmony or union of opposites where a thing or event is simultaneously black and white, true and false, yes and no etc. The Tao describes the universe and the Tao describes a conscious man, neither black nor white, but a mingling of black and white depending on context. A man who is conscious in black and conscious in white and conscious in the various shades of their mingling and identified with none is a man who can do, a new man.

Mr. Gurdjieff brings up an interesting idea of mentation by form and mentation by thinking. What is mentation by form? It is forms which can incorporate and reconcile the binary world of logic and reason. The symbol of the Tao leads to understanding how black and white is part of a unified whole. We do not understand how a thing can be black and white with the thinking mind. It requires a level of being that is not identified with black or white. This is why metaphor, image and symbol are so important in establishing communication between what is ordinarily called are (waking) consciousness and our subconscious. We are trying to make the subconscious—conscious. The subconscious does not speak English or Spanish; it speaks the language of forms, expressed by metaphor, image, symbol, parable, and myth. The ying/yang symbol has helped me understand---black and white thinking.

 

[sludgeco]

definately brings to mind the tabboo against knowing who you are, by alan watts
decent read for anyone who hasn't read it, its from the 70s though and you will probably know all of this anyway
_http://www.seekeraftertruth.com/alan-watts-the-game-of-black-and-white/?mobile=1

 

[Psalehesost]

Psalehesost have you had a chance to read Thinking, Fast and Slow?

Yes, working my way through it and the other recent books, and I see the point that black and white thinking is a general tendency, part of how System 1 works. I had in mind conditioning resulting in and/or reinforcing it apart from/beyond such general tendencies.

I think the conditioning of black and white thinking is much more extensive than gaming. The vast majority of movies, novels, and down to children stories, fairy tales are geared to black and white thinking. There are always good guys who can do no wrong and bad guys who are obviously bad.

Going even further, think of the explanations that adults give to children in response to their questions. If it is about choices, it's almost always about a GOOD choice vs some BAD choices with no gray in between. It can be said that from a very small age, most people are immersed in a black and white thinking environment with no alternative models. It's no wonder that it is the default mode of thinking for most people.

It definitely does saturate culture globally - I think you're right that it's passed on along with so many other memes. As for games, I do think they can drive it (and other programming) particularly deeply into our minds, because it's a case of conditioning - reward and frustration shaping one's responses while engaging in the process - over and over, hour after hour, for years in the case of avid gamers.

Can you give an actual example of how it plays out in your life? One thing that comes to mind is that perhaps it's possible to use this tendency to your advantage, with a slight 'redirect'? Kind of like how Gurdjieff said to become an altruist by first being a complete egoist (using everything around you for the sole purpose of self-development). But I think some concrete examples might help.

On the smaller scale, I was considering the alternatives in every tiny choice (for instance, whether to read and focus on book X for a while, to sit down with my laptop and work on Y, or some other alternative Z, etc.) with undue importance as if it permanently affected my "state" in life. In effect stalling and looking for the "one true" choice to make in even trivial decisions.

On the larger scale - choices of life direction - indecision and wasting of time has resulted. Here, too, as herondancer said to me, "It really does seem as if you are waiting for the stars to align and show you the one true path, when there really isn't one." That particular choice was finally made and committed to.

The new psychology material helps - it is less of a practical obstacle, no longer making me stall and miss opportunities as much. Still it sometimes makes me waste time in indecision (until I catch myself) - or useless activity following a (bad) choice (until I figure out what I'm doing); because these considerations often do not lead to the same choices as thinking for real with System 2 - where the latter does make me more a "conscious egoist".

Instead, it's as if considering imaginary effects upon the "state" of myself or my life, with the same inner flavor as if considering the "stats" or future opportunities of a video game character. This also leads to fake "spiritual" concerns whenever spiritual principles enter such considerations.

Another way gaming has affected my psyche is by encouraging cognitive closure. Cognitive closure basically means that your mind had settled a loose end or issue, and can continue with other things. In well-designed games, everything is a certain way for a reason. If you see a locked door in a dungeon, dollars to donuts there is a key lying around somewhere that will open it, or vice versa. People with a high need for cognitive closure (which send to be encouraged by games to solve their puzzles) often are less creative than those who have less need for cognitive closure, because that everything must be settled and processed, and never left open-ended, tends to prematurely solve or pretend to solve situations. Life ain't so simple, and the universe is more open than that

An anecdote: I remember in childhood playing a game (typical J-RPG) with puzzles - I didn't yet know English, but I had not yet been conditioned to follow these set, expected patterns either - back then I experimented when playing games, often spending a lot of time just seeing what happened if I did this or that - and so, I found my way even not understanding the hints and dialogue.

Years later, I played the same game - and got stuck. After finally figuring out what to do after a long, long time, I remembered having solved it in the past almost instantly - by experimenting without anticipation.

Such free experimentation had been conditioned out of me. I'd become black-and-white and performance-fixated in my thinking, and "wasting" resources in the game to experiment just wasn't an option in my mind. And I'd "gained" fixed expectations of how things worked and didn't see the solution coming.

Does gaming lead to black and white thinking, or do black and white thinkers tend to like gaming?

See response just above.



To conclude, gaming has left another very distinct mark on my mind - endless audiovisual themes, stories, events, associations. Half of the time old game music is playing in my head. I used to think of it as having acquired a peculiar cultural material. But it's almost all complete and utter garbage. And my "mentation by form" has been strongly shaped by it all.

Finally, whitecoast - if you're still gaming, I suggest asking yourself, as I asked myself some time after finding this site - "wait, what am I doing?"

 

[Approaching Infinity]

On the smaller scale, I was considering the alternatives in every tiny choice (for instance, whether to read and focus on book X for a while, to sit down with my laptop and work on Y, or some other alternative Z, etc.) with undue importance as if it permanently affected my "state" in life. In effect stalling and looking for the "one true" choice to make in even trivial decisions.

If that's the case, maybe you can try simply scheduling out your tasks? Take all the things you think are important (reading, working, writing, etc.), then allot them each a time to work on them. Think about it in Gurdjieff terms: the particular task you're doing isn't what's important, it's DOing it. So break up your time, and when the time to do one thing comes, focus on it. The 'one true choice' is just to get moving. And if you find yourself spending too much time on one thing and not enough on another, rearrange your schedule.

 

[Buddy]

...it would be interesting to hear others' take on the same issue, those who've been gamers and have been comparing (or will give it a go) the patterns of automatic or spontaneous mental activity (and its 'flavor') with the 'gaming mindsets' they remember, seeing what they can see in common and whether something of it has rooted in them or not, and if so what influence it has in which situations in life.

Considering all the neuro-science research I've done, I understand that there are some people whose brains need interludes with highly stimulating environments - even if virtual. If the alternative for them involves drugging themselves into lower states of awareness, I'd buy them a new video game.

As for myself, I've never been a 'gamer' and I don't play games now. I would be constantly thinking about code in the CPU, the pre-fetch cache, where the stack pointer might be, what's likely going on in the accumulator and registers, what flags are being set, how the bus speed affects the flow within the video buffer, etc., etc.

Similar with movies. I cannot get absorbed enough into many of them so that I can not-notice themes, thematic color, music score continuity of scene transitions and dust settling around me, etc. Might sound crazy to some people, but that's how it is, so I probably don't have much to offer here.

But I was wondering, should we all make a conscious, overall Aim in life? If so, should we hold it close to us? If not, maybe some part of our overall "system", continually compelled to keep making choices without a larger framework to reference (Aim), can only spin in self-referencing circles?

What do you want to do?

 

[3DStudent]

I played games a lot too, and I seem to have the, "Must do it the best way" mindset. I don't know if it is from games, or just an obsession. And then I tend to get stuck on all of the internal considerations, without even actually doing the action.

Regarding cognitive closure, I think that's where a lack of the third force comes in. Games are simplistic and don't allow for much creativity. Perhaps this mindset keeps us trying to get dungeon keys and whatnot, when things are more complex in life.

On a related note, there was an article posted on sott talking about a few of the psychological effects of games: 5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted.

 

[whitecoast]

[quote author=Psalehost]An anecdote: I remember in childhood playing a game (typical J-RPG) with puzzles - I didn't yet know English, but I had not yet been conditioned to follow these set, expected patterns either - back then I experimented when playing games, often spending a lot of time just seeing what happened if I did this or that - and so, I found my way even not understanding the hints and dialogue.

Years later, I played the same game - and got stuck. After finally figuring out what to do after a long, long time, I remembered having solved it in the past almost instantly - by experimenting without anticipation.

Such free experimentation had been conditioned out of me. I'd become black-and-white and performance-fixated in my thinking, and "wasting" resources in the game to experiment just wasn't an option in my mind. And I'd "gained" fixed expectations of how things worked and didn't see the solution coming.

{snip}

Finally, whitecoast - if you're still gaming, I suggest asking yourself, as I asked myself some time after finding this site - "wait, what am I doing?"[/quote]

I know what you mean. I did ask myself "wait, what am I doing?" And when I did self-remembering while gaming, I realized that I was completely out of my mind, and all my actions and responses were entirely coordinated in my moving center. :( In order to actually think and problem-solve, I had to willfully activate system 2 and find a way out of this or that predicament, if it wasn't in my repertoire of pre-coordinated actions.

 

[Psalehesost]

This response has been a long time in coming.

On the smaller scale, I was considering the alternatives in every tiny choice (for instance, whether to read and focus on book X for a while, to sit down with my laptop and work on Y, or some other alternative Z, etc.) with undue importance as if it permanently affected my "state" in life. In effect stalling and looking for the "one true" choice to make in even trivial decisions.

If that's the case, maybe you can try simply scheduling out your tasks? Take all the things you think are important (reading, working, writing, etc.), then allot them each a time to work on them. Think about it in Gurdjieff terms: the particular task you're doing isn't what's important, it's DOing it. So break up your time, and when the time to do one thing comes, focus on it. The 'one true choice' is just to get moving. And if you find yourself spending too much time on one thing and not enough on another, rearrange your schedule.

Thanks for the plain advice. I learn as I go along, slowly taking each step forwards.

Some "I" at first hated the idea of scheduling - even more than even the idea of working on the least "liked" task possible - and another "I" also didn't want to reply before beginning to succeed in some measure. Now I can bring myself to post.

I'm gaining some discipline - and now exercising my mind studying math also helps me think more clearly and snap out of the old patterns in general. In addition, I've found taking cold showers is great for putting me in a state where I can more effectively choose to do something requiring focus - I do it every morning, but ought to try it whenever it might help, I think.


I've divided main/persistent things into priorities/categories:

#0 is miscellaneous things to do immediately, but only according to need: Activities for optimal care of physical needs; reading recommended books when there's time to spare; journaling/"redirecting"; etc. It is in part timed and in part spontaneous.
#1 is "exterior" things critical to work on in my life: Studying and a few other things goes here. Some discipline is needed to begin and then keep it going.
#2 is interaction with the network. Needs to be made more efficient, ie. contributing more in less time, without sacrificing staying up to date.

New/temporary things are simply dynamically handled. A number of things and concerns are relegated to the future, as they are simply not important enough at present.

Stricter scheduling would be properly dividing up parts of the day into blocks reserved strictly for #1 and/or #2. The choices are now simpler, though, and there is already an improvement - will see by experience how to proceed - feedback also welcome.

 

[Alcarohtare]

I've divided main/persistent things into priorities/categories:

#0 is miscellaneous things to do immediately, but only according to need: Activities for optimal care of physical needs; reading recommended books when there's time to spare; journaling/"redirecting"; etc. It is in part timed and in part spontaneous.
#1 is "exterior" things critical to work on in my life: Studying and a few other things goes here. Some discipline is needed to begin and then keep it going.
#2 is interaction with the network. Needs to be made more efficient, ie. contributing more in less time, without sacrificing staying up to date.

This categorized plan seems to be good ground regarding discipline and focusing on your aim.
Fine tips to follow for me too.