Violence: A Writers Guide

[Paragon]

Paragon, regarding your experiment maybe it would be best to start with small things first rather then to make any kind of drastic changes? I don't have the quote with me but I remember reading somewhere in the book 'In Search Of The Miraculous' that Gurdjieff was talking about the importance of having a thorough knowledge of one's machine, first, before making any drastic changes.

In other words, let's say you start to become more confident while doing the experiment. Then it's also very possible that as you make one change for the better then several other things can change for the worse. For example, as you become more confident you might also become more aggressive, or maybe more irritable, or maybe even more angry. Things like that. One thing can change for the better that you are aware of, and then ten things can change for the worse that you are unaware of!

So if you do the experiment maybe do it as a means to just observe the machine with no expectation of drastically changing it? And of course, still always externally considering everyone around you. Along with that it might also be a good idea to read the recommended books on cognitive sciences while doing the experiment. Anyways, just some more thoughts and suggestions on this.

Thanks Kenlee, I've been reading Timothy Wilson's "The Adaptive Unconscious", recently and with good results today. I've been stuck in my head, trying to consciously monitor every single thought and action and feeling for the past 5 months or so. It has benefited me in some ways, as in being able to question everything about my self and the world OSIT, but it also had me not being able to actually do or feel anything properly! So today I just acted against 'it' and against my 'belief' that constant introspection to the point of really bad neurosis really helps myself and anyone else. Basically my inner world was the outer world for me and I could not stop the analysis of everything until I restarted the diet last week and this brought it under much much better control. There was no barrier between the inner and outer and every little thought that I was monitoring, I would project onto every situation as 'out there', when it was really inside my head. Don't know if that makes any sense and sorry, pretty off topic!

Anyway, I've been more 'aware' of how my body language can even affect other peoples mental state. By standing up straight and 'carrying myself' with relaxed composure, some people tend to relax more within themselves and think better in stressful situations ( I'm thinking of work colleagues), where as others will project their inner state with more intensity towards me. OSIT

Back to the book, I will always try to keep in mind the levels of violence when out in the world. Knowing this and how the body reacts to fear will give me a bit more control over a pathological situation perhaps.

Thanks again Gimpy!

 

[kenlee]

Anyway, I've been more 'aware' of how my body language can even affect other peoples mental state. By standing up straight and 'carrying myself' with relaxed composure, some people tend to relax more within themselves and think better in stressful situations ( I'm thinking of work colleagues), where as others will project their inner state with more intensity towards me. OSIT

One rule of thumb is to make sure that your always courteous and respectful to those around you no matter what you do.

Hope I make sense in the following. So here it goes. What I found that's helped me is to reverse things by bringing the best attributes of what's inside myself onto the outside and bringing the best attributes of what's outside of myself into the inside. For example, if I'm angry because, lets say, I'm internally considering the way someone at work is treating me (i.e., rudeness, insults, being mistreated, being bullied, etc. ) then my body language on the outside may show lack of confidence and represent itself as 'niceness' (for fear of offending that person) but inwardly all kinds of inner considering and negativity is going on. So I'll reverse it. On the outside I'll make an effort to be assertive and confident in my movements but still be respectful to the person who (I allowed to) trigger my inner negativity. I'll make my efforts to be confident within myself and my movements while still being outwardly courteous to that person.

Then I'll bring the mechanical 'niceness' that was on the outside into my inner world and not hate or dislike this person. In other words I'm now 'nice,' but this time it's internally, in the sense that I'm not angry at the person anymore since that internal anger within me was directed towards myself into changing my outward behavior (but not directed towards the other person).

At the same time I'm also working to be 'not nice,' externally, in the sense that I'm showing with my body language that I'm confident within myself.

The outward mechanical/automatic 'niceness' was consciously brought into my inside world and transformed into greater understanding. In that sense I guess you could say that that is being internally 'nice.' The understanding is based on my being able to 'see' this person as a machine just as I see myself being a machine by reacting to that person. So now, at least for a moment, I'm seeing more objectively the reality of the situation (that we are both machines interacting with each other) and I can see it a little better because, in this case, my automatic outward mechanical 'niceness' program is not so much in control of my inner processes as before.

 

[Paragon]

Anyway, I've been more 'aware' of how my body language can even affect other peoples mental state. By standing up straight and 'carrying myself' with relaxed composure, some people tend to relax more within themselves and think better in stressful situations ( I'm thinking of work colleagues), where as others will project their inner state with more intensity towards me. OSIT

One rule of thumb is to make sure that your always courteous and respectful to those around you no matter what you do.

Hope I make sense in the following. So here it goes. What I found that's helped me is to reverse things by bringing the best attributes of what's inside myself onto the outside and bringing the best attributes of what's outside of myself into the inside. For example, if I'm angry because, lets say, I'm internally considering the way someone at work is treating me (i.e., rudeness, insults, being mistreated, being bullied, etc. ) then my body language on the outside may show lack of confidence and represent itself as 'niceness' (for fear of offending that person) but inwardly all kinds of inner considering and negativity is going on. So I'll reverse it. On the outside I'll make an effort to be assertive and confident in my movements but still be respectful to the person who (I allowed to) trigger my inner negativity. I'll make my efforts to be confident within myself and my movements while still being outwardly courteous to that person.

Then I'll bring the mechanical 'niceness' that was on the outside into my inner world and not hate or dislike this person. In other words I'm now 'nice,' but this time it's internally, in the sense that I'm not angry at the person anymore since that internal anger within me was directed towards myself into changing my outward behavior (but not directed towards the other person).

At the same time I'm also working to be 'not nice,' externally, in the sense that I'm showing with my body language that I'm confident within myself.

The outward mechanical/automatic 'niceness' was consciously brought into my inside world and transformed into greater understanding. In that sense I guess you could say that that is being internally 'nice.' The understanding is based on my being able to 'see' this person as a machine just as I see myself being a machine by reacting to that person. So now, at least for a moment, I'm seeing more objectively the reality of the situation (that we are both machines interacting with each other) and I can see it a little better because, in this case, my automatic outward mechanical 'niceness' program is not so much in control of my inner processes as before.

Thanks Kenlee,

From what I have interpreted, it seems like this is a good way to 'trick' the machine into working for you, so that one is able to use our machine to ones advantage; i.e more objectivity.

I notice that this exact method is what 'I' really don't want to do. It really fights against this, and I notice that some days where I am just angry and reacting, the LAST thing I want to do is to outwardly be nice to the person who has annoyed me. I may think I am controlling myself, but it probably comes out in the tone of my voice or my posture etc.

Think I shall work on this aspect since it is an issue of great resistance, and I know that doing what 'it' doesn't like is a good signpost on what one should work on.

 

[kenlee]

I notice that this exact method is what 'I' really don't want to do. It really fights against this, and I notice that some days where I am just angry and reacting, the LAST thing I want to do is to outwardly be nice to the person who has annoyed me. I may think I am controlling myself, but it probably comes out in the tone of my voice or my posture etc.

Right, it's about not letting your unconscious reactions rule your machine. This way you can 'be all things to all people' by correct thinking first (proper attitude) based on Work principles and then that attitude is routed towards the emotional brain for proper emotional reaction within the specific context of the situation. Then hormones are triggered for proper (chemical) emotion and action that corresponds to the proper attitude. Then you have the control and are more able to 'be all things to all people' in whatever the situation requires. For example, if you think properly about something and feel angry (such as righteous anger) then you can direct it properly within the specific context of the situation. But now it's you (your objective reasoning) that has the control of the anger and not the other way around.

But still, for this to be possible one must "be able" to do it which requires knowledge and control of one's own machine. This is where proper breathing, diet, and work on oneself become essential.