weak critical thinking and daydreaming

[Renaissance]

I think I was not looking at the context of Joerg's post and so was interpreting Bo's statement too broadly, kind of like 'you're not mechanical, the issue is you believe you are.' It doesn't help that I was purely substituting 'mechanical' for 'weak critical thinking' either. There are similarities but there are differences which are relevant, namely the identification or attachment of being a 'weak critical thinker'. Since I was already using an expansive definition of mechanicalness I missed the subtleties involved. I notice I spend a lot of time associating similarities, which when done out of context or disregarding someone's specific situation is not externally considerate. Apologies. As has been said, the devil is in the details.

All this made me think of a realization during grade school. I was a pretty average student and thought everyone got either poor, average or high marks because that's who they were and that was their lot. But then there was something that helped me realize that assigning myself as average was really a false barrier and I could choose to get high grades if I worked a little harder. I think this realization made it much easier to learn as well. It was funny to notice the confused honor students reactions when I got into their classes: 'What is he doing here? Isn't he's supposed to be average??' It seemed those notions of 'assigned position' were popular.

 

[Gawan]

Oh well, now I got it what Bo and others meant.

Yesterday, after Laura has been posting this, some pieces came together.

Your problem is not that you are a weak critical thinker, it is the illusion that you think you are.

This sounds like a bit like new age gobbledigook. If someone sees their mechanical thinking, it can be quite helpful and and a step towards reality rather than illusion.

Actually, I think it is quite apropos. Notice that Joerg has written a very "critical thinking" post! He has observed things, drawn inferences, and presented it very logically!

No, this happened and happens not consciously.

As far as I know in my past experiences this occurred a lot times to me, that in my questions I answer my own questions, so to speak. Only after another person mentions it to me, also like here: "Well, you already answered your question yourself!" I'm baffled/astounded and realise, somehow, that I have it already answered.
It is contradictory, but I don't know why this happens. It looks, if sometimes a small -neurone- is missing, what can bring the pieces together. Or maybe these are different I's? Hmm…

It is indeed like Pinkerton mentioned and I also thought about a concentration problem.

By realizing that self destructive thoughts brings you nowhere, you can start with what matters, like working on the issue you have, instead of destroying yourself by self-pity.

I do think that Joerg does have a valid point when he says that critical thinking is a weakness for him. It obviously was not a problem when he wrote his initial post. But the connection he made to daydreaming, or dissociating, is a good one. Maybe Joerg's main problem is related to concentration. When he wrote the first post he had full concentration, so his post was clear and very understandable. Their may be times when he is not focused and this causes him to lose or dampens his critical thinking.

But, I would agree that for him to let this affect him to the point of self-pity would be a waste. If you are aware of your shortcomings, you have a great opportunity to grow and eventually stop doing whatever is causing them. Getting Myth of Sanity and reading it would be a great start in this area.

On the other hand, also SAO is right with the "belief" and "lack of faith" because the: "I cannot think critical", is running now for several months with a creating belief, frustration that I cannot do so.

 

[Tigersoap]

As far as I know in my past experiences this occurred a lot times to me, that in my questions I answer my own questions, so to speak. Only after another person mentions it to me, also like here: "Well, you already answered your question yourself!" I'm baffled/astounded and realise, somehow, that I have it already answered.
It is contradictory, but I don't know why this happens. It looks, if sometimes a small -neurone- is missing, what can bring the pieces together. Or maybe these are different I's? Hmm…

Do you think it could be linked with your with self-confidence ?
you somehow know you are on the right track but your negative introject keeps making you doubt and doubt until the point where it's all confusion ?

 

[Gawan]

Do you think it could be linked with your with self-confidence ?
you somehow know you are on the right track but your negative introject keeps making you doubt and doubt until the point where it's all confusion ?

Half an hour ago, before I began to read the "negative introject", I started to write a response on your questions and wrote:

"Right in this moment I'm feeling confusion/insecurity, more and more thoughts are crossing my mind, like many voices are speaking."


I'm currently on the first response of the mentioned thread and recognised some similarities in myself. There is indeed a negative part in myself, maybe it's "the" one. This part seems to be afraid, to keep on doing the work and sometimes I struggled with it and told me everytime: I like to do something, so I keep on reading, that's my choice. But this only the first impression I got. I also had some thoughts a few months ago if I'm possesed, (cause of this strong negativity) so I started to read: "Hostage to the devil", if there is a "chance" that I am or what the heck it is. But well, this can be far streched assumptions, where I like to keep on reading and observing first.

What is kind of funny, that I'm very critical against myself.

And there is a tendencys of: lack of self-confidence.

 

[ScioAgapeOmnis]

Perhaps looking at details would help. Can you find details where someone analyzed something and saw something that didn't? If so, in such an example, why did you not see it? Were you missing knowledge/data? Or was it just arbitrary like it just didn't occur to you (nobody can think of everything)? Or maybe there's a psychological reason for not considering that aspect of whatever it is?

Also you could analyze your own posts or writing that you consider to not be critical and see why that is, where the problems are, etc. Our minds are funny. Sometimes we see things in others that we can't see in ourselves, like a negative characteristic that our own ego and predator prevented us from seeing in ourselves. But sometimes its the opposite, we observe someone doing something and don't think much of it, but if we imagine ourselves doing the same thing, it seems really wrong.

 

[Beau]

What is kind of funny, that I'm very critical against myself.

And there is a tendencys of: lack of self-confidence.

I've totally been there, and still deal with those things. The loop kinda goes like, you lack confidence so you don't think you can do something right. Then, due to being overly critical, when you actually DO a task, it's not good enough and the negative introject goes on full tilt. Not only are you critical of yourself, you think anyone around feels the same and then self-pity/self-importance kicks in and you are flying around in a thousand different ways. Little I's galore. The best thing I can think of to deal with that is try and picture how an objective outsider would see the situation. Think about how you would feel if what you are going through is happening to someone else. Use that picture to try and get out of the subjective loop.

As far as being possessed, it sounds to me like just a bit of daydreaming.

 

[Gawan]

Perhaps looking at details would help. Can you find details where someone analyzed something and saw something that didn't? If so, in such an example, why did you not see it? Were you missing knowledge/data? Or was it just arbitrary like it just didn't occur to you (nobody can think of everything)? Or maybe there's a psychological reason for not considering that aspect of whatever it is?

It's more like that these "things" don't occur to me. In the "case" with Bo's comment (where I had a doubt), I just did made another answer out of it, like: "I just see, what I want to see" and took the answer in the direction: that I am not and have to work on my machine. What is, I think, similar to what Los wrote like "new age gobbledigook": "I am not what I am".

What happens sometimes, that I have a doubt (like a small thought flash), but don't follow this -doubt flash- too much, I just override it, or confuse it, like what happened with Bo's comment.

Our minds are funny. Sometimes we see things in others that we can't see in ourselves, like a negative characteristic that our own ego and predator prevented us from seeing in ourselves. But sometimes its the opposite, we observe someone doing something and don't think much of it, but if we imagine ourselves doing the same thing, it seems really wrong.

Absolutely. It's similar to what Castaneda wrote in "The Active Side of Infinity": "The predators' mind is baroque, contradictory, morose, filled with the fear of being discovered any minute now.”

 

[Pierre]

"The predators' mind is baroque, contradictory, morose, filled with the fear of being discovered any minute now.”

If our predator is afraid of being discovered any minute now and, in addition, if he knows that there are people in the forum who might be able to see him for what it is then we might have here one more factor explaining all our hesitations and doubts before posting.

So when we hesitate, when we doubt, is it our true self who is genuinely trying to improve self consideration, clarity, meaning of the message ? Is it our predator who is trying to hide, twist, obfuscate data ? Is it a scar from childhood when we said something and our parent said it was stupid ?