Hi Phedre, I am very much into Emotional Intelligence (Master Thesis Transpersonal Psychology titled "Responsibility of Thought and Feeling"). When I teach at University, this is how I define and differentiate the difference of empathy and sympathy and maybe it will help you. Your example of the "3rd degree burn" is a perfect example of empathy. Empathy is the "understanding" of any emotional state of another through personal direct experience of the same. Easy example is with someone grieving due to death of a family member. An empathetic response is being able to connect with the "loss" another is experiencing because you have felt "loss" in your life. You are not identifying with their specific "loss" because it was not your family member and you did not even know the person that died. With empathy, your "story" or "narrative" is not involved with the process. With sympathy though, the feeling of "loss" is identified but your personal experience (Ego) is overlaid onto the social narrative. So staying with the "grieving" idea-a sympathetic response would be something like "I remember when my Mom died....". You connected to the "loss" another was feeling, but you put yourself into the narrative by adding your own "story" into the mix. We ALL are empathetic since we all experience the same range of emotional expressions. The issue is that it is hard to not involve our Ego and write ourselves into the script of a social narrative or experience. It is not "good" or "bad" but part of the Observer Principle-we directly affect Reality through attention and intention. Part of the "Dance of Life". Another thing that makes what you are exploring difficult is that emotions are "ineffable"- meaning they are beyond linguistic constructs or definition. For example, when I ask a class "Do you love something or someone?", they all respond in the affirmative. When I ask them "What is your definition of love?", there is NEVER agreement on the definition-even though everyone "knows" love and expresses it. The difference lies in the personal relationship or perspective to the experience. In a way, this part of what makes LIFE interesting. I set this up to answer your main question of how you increase your compassion towards others. The simple answer is to increase the "compassion" or love and acceptance of yourself. The simplicity of the answer does not mean the execution is "easy". You cannot "give" to another that which you do not "give" or have for yourself. Simply stated, you cannot LOVE someone MORE than you LOVE yourself. This capacity and capability is cultivated through "unconditional acceptance". Unconditional Acceptance is the perspective where you accept things as they are-this does not mean things are perfect or balanced or that there is not room for improvement. Practicing this allows you to participate in Reality while maintaining a sense of independence or "free will". There can be a fire at your house, but you do not have to "panic" because everyone else is. Without a strong foundation of Unconditional Acceptance, you cannot reach Unconditional Love. Most of our relationships are built on "conditioned" love; "I love you because....", "I love it when...." or "I love the way....". When you identify with conditioned love, agencies outside of yourself are then given control or authority over your internal state. Unconditional Love is LOVE without a fixation or focus. It is empathetic because it just "is". It is the capacity to rest in the space "I LOVE" or "I Feel LOVE" for the sake of LOVE itself. I recommend you look at some of the work from the Heartmath Institute; https://www.heartmath.org/ They are doing some good work about exploring emotional states within scientific protocols. Hope this answer helped you. YOU ARE OK!!!!!! The only way to affect change is to question everything-especially yourself. I prefer operating from an "I don't know" mindset-this allows for change and growth. This allows me to see my Aphantasia as a beneficial tool. I am not distracted from imaginative imagery and have better focus because of this. I have found that psychedelic journeys like with Ayahuasca allow me to experience multi-sensory input and synesthesia. No difference whether my eyes are open or closed. The first time I "saw" music in the air was quite an experience! Have a Great Day!
Hi Steven, Your pondering of Dreaming in relation to Aphantasia is interesting and something I have been working with seriously for over 30 years. I have a Mentor who has me journal my thoughts and feelings every hour to track my own Consciousness. This also includes keeping a Dream Journal along with note taking during waking states. What I discovered is this-I cannot "recall" dreams like you state when it comes to visual memory. I can "remember" the storyline as if reading a book if I record notes. In order to do this though, I have to write the dream right as I am waking-even better details if I am not quite fully awake. I keep a pen and paper next to the bed and write in the dark (took a little practice for this). Once I am "awake" and fully anchored to waking reality, the dream disappears completely. Having the notes though allows me to recall the meaning or gist of the dream though there are not visual clues or memory to guide this. This technique has "opened" access to the altered states of Consciousness found within the experience of dreaming. I have also found that psychedelics are useful in allowing me to "see" with my eyes closed. My experiences with purposeful usage such as with Ayahuasca Ceremonies led me to return to academia and get a Master in Transpersonal Psychology where I wrote about "Unity Consciousness". This is where people in a group have the same vision or insight. If you have never participated in such a thing, I highly recommend it! Have a Great Day!
Hi Bob, We all "hallucinate" all the time-that is how Consciousness operates from a personal perspective. Everything we "perceive" is imagined-even in typing this response to you, I NEVER actually "touch" the individual keys. If I did, there would be small nuclear reactions with the atoms/electrons from my finger interfering with the molecular structure of the keyboard. What I "imagine" or "hallucinate" in regards to touch is really the sensation of the electro-magnetic (EM) fields of my finger responding to the EM field of the keyboard and the repellant force is distorted into the delusion of touching. Where hallucination gets a negative rap is from the collective vs the individual perspective. If a group "agrees" to the same narrative the experience is considered "real". If someone deviates from the collective narrative, that perspective is deemed "hallucinatory" with a negative connotation. I agree wholeheartedly with your statement in that I have never had a hallucination on a trip or journey. What I experience is just information from another bandwidth. With a Journey this week, we all shared our experience afterwards. Even though they were all different, we did not consider the differences as delusional hallucinations. We considered the varying experiences as a result of individual intentions and attentions. Have a Great Day Brother! Journey On!
Hi Heidi, I read your post and understand the frustration you are expressing about narrowing your focus when exploring. I was able to transition this to a more "positive" position when I embraced the idea that "the more I KNOW, the more I realize I do not know". This allows me enjoy the expansion of exploration and keep centered in an "I don't know" mindset. Also, there is NOTHING that supports the notion that "talking hairless apes" have the cognitive capacity to truly understand a multi-faceted reality. We live in a matrix of integrated systems ranging from the sub-atomic to the cosmological. All intertwined with NO set boundaries and constant interaction. That is why your studies keep taking you "off track" and into other fields/topics. The idea of reductionist answers are a fault of modern Scientism and a hard conditioning to break. You are onto something and a personal "AHA Moment" if you embrace the "broad scope" and make it your ally or friend. I understand that I cannot know everything and this is what fuels my wonder and curiosity. Part of what you are up against is the "fear of the unknown". We all work with this and process it differently. This "fear" makes us create religions and fairytales to supply an "answer" even though it is false. Easier to have a delusional position than admit you do not have a fucking clue about the Nature of Reality or the Human Experience. Past few years I have been actively practicing "embracing uncertainty" in order to process the dilemma that you describe. Most people are "asleep" and go through life purposefully avoiding questioning the "game". You are in the small percentage that questions things. Be thankful! It is not the idea that most people do not KNOW anything that is frightening, it is the fact that most do not even SUSPECT. Language is also a barrier and adds to your frustration. We make statements all the time demonstrating this when we declare we "KNOW SOMETHING or ANYTHING". I can make the statement 'I know Heidi" and operate from this false premise. I cannot "know" you. I cannot crawl into your skin and process reality from your unique perspective! The statement should be "I know OF Heidi". The "of" part is the key in cognition and understanding. But we never use this linguistic conveyance correctly-I don't have an answer about this problem with human communication, but I lecture on this when I teach to express the idea that it is a wonder that ANYTHING gets transferred between people in the process. Essentially I want to share with you that you are "OK". Relax and take a few calming breaths and embrace the expansion of consciousness you are experiencing. Realize that this expansion is a "constant" and NOTHING will really be "known'. Best we can do is stay centered on the experiential aspect of Reality and that is enough. Have a Great Day Darius
Hey David, That makes sense, marijuana is classified as a "mild" psychedelic. Personally, I don't get the effect you are describing from weed, but then again you may have a different sensitivity. Smoking does make my dreaming better and sometimes very vivid and occasionally lucid. I have to journal my dreams before I move out of the bed-sometimes at night in the dark (keep a notebook next to the bed for this). If I do not do this, they are "lost" almost instantly because I cannot recall them visually. If you get a chance, a nice Mushroom Journey will allow you to "see" with your Mind's Eye for a few hours. This experience is awe inspiring to me and full of wonder and amazement. Have a Great Day! Darius
Hi Torin, My experiences with Psychedelic, particularly with Ayahuasca for over a decade of regular usage, led me to return to academia and get a Masters in Transpersonal Psychology a few years ago. Altered states of consciousness from entheogens (Plant Teachers) allows me to experience directly visual information whether my eyes are open or closed. I find it fascinating to "see" the energetic and geometric overlays to Reality. No aphantasia during these states! You are on to something with your quest for understanding and exploring dreams! What might help you gain a different perspective is to realize that the "process" of Consciousness is the EXACT SAME THING for waking and sleeping. We make an artificial distinction due to the duration of our "blinking". Fast blinks, you are "awake"-real slow blinks and you are "asleep". All of sensory input is "imagined". When I teach Psychology at University, I challenge the students with the statement; You NEVER hear me, see me, or touch me! All of are sensed based data which is imagined. There is NO direct conduit for information or sensation to enter the brain-pan. Example; If I was actually "touching" these key as I type this there would be small nuclear explosions as the atoms from my fingers interacted with the atoms of the keyboard. Instead, I am registering the repellant energetic fields of both and creating the "illusion" of touch. When you "hear" someone speak, the acoustic waves of their voice has literally travelled THROUGH every molecule of air between you and then uses the tympanic membrane to transfer these waves into the water in the inner ear and these waves vibrate two bones and this vibration is imagined/translated into "sound". But you NEVER hear the person in a true sense-that is why your voice sounds different to you when it is recorded and played back. I share this to allow you to realize that due to the "processing time" of sensed based information-we are NEVER "present" in the moment with regards to waking-time. We operate from the "past" then when we are in waking consciousness. When we "dream" during sleep-this processing time is not required. Our minds can 'imagine" in the "present moment"-or at least closer. This shift in relationship to TIME is critical in understanding dreams better. A fifteen minute nap according to linear clock-time allows you to experience a dream that spanned days during this 15 minutes. When you ask others about their dreaming and they report little or nothing-it is because they are not giving that aspect of consciousness attention like you are. Part of the reason you are attracted to Psychology. I have been mentored on "watching" my mind for 30+ years. For decades I made a note EVERY hour on what I was thinking and feeling (the feeling/emotion part is more important than the cognitive-but psychology focuses on cognitive because it is impossible to quantify or qualify LOVE or FEAR). During this, I also keep a dream journal next to the bed and record them in the dark and before "moving" because aphantasia makes it hard to recall them. This journaling of waking and sleep is used to accept greater responsibility for my thoughts and feelings. To actualize the concept that NOBODY can make you angry or happy-that you CHOOSE the emotional state-is very empowering! If you really want to plumb the depths of your psyche-after you integrate your dream for Jungian meaning-ask yourself the NEXT real question; "Of all the dreams to have, WHY did I create this one?". This will take you down the Rabbit Hole for sure. If you can manage it, look at waking Reality as a "dream" and integrate/process it like you do a dream. After all, the process of "waking" and "dreaming" both follow the same parameters. Sort of like the parable of Lao Tzu wondering if he dreamed he was a butterfly or is he a butterfly dreaming he is a man. You are on the right track-just you are making false or arbitrary distinctions that are muddying the waters. If you care to engage more, let me know. You can email me at; [email protected]
Hi Phedre, I am very much into Emotional Intelligence (Master Thesis Transpersonal Psychology titled "Responsibility of Thought and Feeling"). When I teach at University, this is how I define and differentiate the difference of empathy and sympathy and maybe it will help you. Your example of the "3rd degree burn" is a perfect example of empathy. Empathy is the "understanding" of any emotional state of another through personal direct experience of the same. Easy example is with someone grieving due to death of a family member. An empathetic response is being able to connect with the "loss" another is experiencing because you have felt "loss" in your life. You are not identifying with their specific "loss" because it was not your family member and you did not even know the person that died. With empathy, your "story" or "narrative" is not involved with the process. With sympathy though, the feeling of "loss" is identified but your personal experience (Ego) is overlaid onto the social narrative. So staying with the "grieving" idea-a sympathetic response would be something like "I remember when my Mom died....". You connected to the "loss" another was feeling, but you put yourself into the narrative by adding your own "story" into the mix. We ALL are empathetic since we all experience the same range of emotional expressions. The issue is that it is hard to not involve our Ego and write ourselves into the script of a social narrative or experience. It is not "good" or "bad" but part of the Observer Principle-we directly affect Reality through attention and intention. Part of the "Dance of Life". Another thing that makes what you are exploring difficult is that emotions are "ineffable"- meaning they are beyond linguistic constructs or definition. For example, when I ask a class "Do you love something or someone?", they all respond in the affirmative. When I ask them "What is your definition of love?", there is NEVER agreement on the definition-even though everyone "knows" love and expresses it. The difference lies in the personal relationship or perspective to the experience. In a way, this part of what makes LIFE interesting. I set this up to answer your main question of how you increase your compassion towards others. The simple answer is to increase the "compassion" or love and acceptance of yourself. The simplicity of the answer does not mean the execution is "easy". You cannot "give" to another that which you do not "give" or have for yourself. Simply stated, you cannot LOVE someone MORE than you LOVE yourself. This capacity and capability is cultivated through "unconditional acceptance". Unconditional Acceptance is the perspective where you accept things as they are-this does not mean things are perfect or balanced or that there is not room for improvement. Practicing this allows you to participate in Reality while maintaining a sense of independence or "free will". There can be a fire at your house, but you do not have to "panic" because everyone else is. Without a strong foundation of Unconditional Acceptance, you cannot reach Unconditional Love. Most of our relationships are built on "conditioned" love; "I love you because....", "I love it when...." or "I love the way....". When you identify with conditioned love, agencies outside of yourself are then given control or authority over your internal state. Unconditional Love is LOVE without a fixation or focus. It is empathetic because it just "is". It is the capacity to rest in the space "I LOVE" or "I Feel LOVE" for the sake of LOVE itself. I recommend you look at some of the work from the Heartmath Institute; https://www.heartmath.org/ They are doing some good work about exploring emotional states within scientific protocols. Hope this answer helped you. YOU ARE OK!!!!!! The only way to affect change is to question everything-especially yourself. I prefer operating from an "I don't know" mindset-this allows for change and growth. This allows me to see my Aphantasia as a beneficial tool. I am not distracted from imaginative imagery and have better focus because of this. I have found that psychedelic journeys like with Ayahuasca allow me to experience multi-sensory input and synesthesia. No difference whether my eyes are open or closed. The first time I "saw" music in the air was quite an experience! Have a Great Day!
Hi Steven, Your pondering of Dreaming in relation to Aphantasia is interesting and something I have been working with seriously for over 30 years. I have a Mentor who has me journal my thoughts and feelings every hour to track my own Consciousness. This also includes keeping a Dream Journal along with note taking during waking states. What I discovered is this-I cannot "recall" dreams like you state when it comes to visual memory. I can "remember" the storyline as if reading a book if I record notes. In order to do this though, I have to write the dream right as I am waking-even better details if I am not quite fully awake. I keep a pen and paper next to the bed and write in the dark (took a little practice for this). Once I am "awake" and fully anchored to waking reality, the dream disappears completely. Having the notes though allows me to recall the meaning or gist of the dream though there are not visual clues or memory to guide this. This technique has "opened" access to the altered states of Consciousness found within the experience of dreaming. I have also found that psychedelics are useful in allowing me to "see" with my eyes closed. My experiences with purposeful usage such as with Ayahuasca Ceremonies led me to return to academia and get a Master in Transpersonal Psychology where I wrote about "Unity Consciousness". This is where people in a group have the same vision or insight. If you have never participated in such a thing, I highly recommend it! Have a Great Day!
Hi Bob, We all "hallucinate" all the time-that is how Consciousness operates from a personal perspective. Everything we "perceive" is imagined-even in typing this response to you, I NEVER actually "touch" the individual keys. If I did, there would be small nuclear reactions with the atoms/electrons from my finger interfering with the molecular structure of the keyboard. What I "imagine" or "hallucinate" in regards to touch is really the sensation of the electro-magnetic (EM) fields of my finger responding to the EM field of the keyboard and the repellant force is distorted into the delusion of touching. Where hallucination gets a negative rap is from the collective vs the individual perspective. If a group "agrees" to the same narrative the experience is considered "real". If someone deviates from the collective narrative, that perspective is deemed "hallucinatory" with a negative connotation. I agree wholeheartedly with your statement in that I have never had a hallucination on a trip or journey. What I experience is just information from another bandwidth. With a Journey this week, we all shared our experience afterwards. Even though they were all different, we did not consider the differences as delusional hallucinations. We considered the varying experiences as a result of individual intentions and attentions. Have a Great Day Brother! Journey On!
Hi Heidi, I read your post and understand the frustration you are expressing about narrowing your focus when exploring. I was able to transition this to a more "positive" position when I embraced the idea that "the more I KNOW, the more I realize I do not know". This allows me enjoy the expansion of exploration and keep centered in an "I don't know" mindset. Also, there is NOTHING that supports the notion that "talking hairless apes" have the cognitive capacity to truly understand a multi-faceted reality. We live in a matrix of integrated systems ranging from the sub-atomic to the cosmological. All intertwined with NO set boundaries and constant interaction. That is why your studies keep taking you "off track" and into other fields/topics. The idea of reductionist answers are a fault of modern Scientism and a hard conditioning to break. You are onto something and a personal "AHA Moment" if you embrace the "broad scope" and make it your ally or friend. I understand that I cannot know everything and this is what fuels my wonder and curiosity. Part of what you are up against is the "fear of the unknown". We all work with this and process it differently. This "fear" makes us create religions and fairytales to supply an "answer" even though it is false. Easier to have a delusional position than admit you do not have a fucking clue about the Nature of Reality or the Human Experience. Past few years I have been actively practicing "embracing uncertainty" in order to process the dilemma that you describe. Most people are "asleep" and go through life purposefully avoiding questioning the "game". You are in the small percentage that questions things. Be thankful! It is not the idea that most people do not KNOW anything that is frightening, it is the fact that most do not even SUSPECT. Language is also a barrier and adds to your frustration. We make statements all the time demonstrating this when we declare we "KNOW SOMETHING or ANYTHING". I can make the statement 'I know Heidi" and operate from this false premise. I cannot "know" you. I cannot crawl into your skin and process reality from your unique perspective! The statement should be "I know OF Heidi". The "of" part is the key in cognition and understanding. But we never use this linguistic conveyance correctly-I don't have an answer about this problem with human communication, but I lecture on this when I teach to express the idea that it is a wonder that ANYTHING gets transferred between people in the process. Essentially I want to share with you that you are "OK". Relax and take a few calming breaths and embrace the expansion of consciousness you are experiencing. Realize that this expansion is a "constant" and NOTHING will really be "known'. Best we can do is stay centered on the experiential aspect of Reality and that is enough. Have a Great Day Darius
Hey David, That makes sense, marijuana is classified as a "mild" psychedelic. Personally, I don't get the effect you are describing from weed, but then again you may have a different sensitivity. Smoking does make my dreaming better and sometimes very vivid and occasionally lucid. I have to journal my dreams before I move out of the bed-sometimes at night in the dark (keep a notebook next to the bed for this). If I do not do this, they are "lost" almost instantly because I cannot recall them visually. If you get a chance, a nice Mushroom Journey will allow you to "see" with your Mind's Eye for a few hours. This experience is awe inspiring to me and full of wonder and amazement. Have a Great Day! Darius
Hi Torin, My experiences with Psychedelic, particularly with Ayahuasca for over a decade of regular usage, led me to return to academia and get a Masters in Transpersonal Psychology a few years ago. Altered states of consciousness from entheogens (Plant Teachers) allows me to experience directly visual information whether my eyes are open or closed. I find it fascinating to "see" the energetic and geometric overlays to Reality. No aphantasia during these states! You are on to something with your quest for understanding and exploring dreams! What might help you gain a different perspective is to realize that the "process" of Consciousness is the EXACT SAME THING for waking and sleeping. We make an artificial distinction due to the duration of our "blinking". Fast blinks, you are "awake"-real slow blinks and you are "asleep". All of sensory input is "imagined". When I teach Psychology at University, I challenge the students with the statement; You NEVER hear me, see me, or touch me! All of are sensed based data which is imagined. There is NO direct conduit for information or sensation to enter the brain-pan. Example; If I was actually "touching" these key as I type this there would be small nuclear explosions as the atoms from my fingers interacted with the atoms of the keyboard. Instead, I am registering the repellant energetic fields of both and creating the "illusion" of touch. When you "hear" someone speak, the acoustic waves of their voice has literally travelled THROUGH every molecule of air between you and then uses the tympanic membrane to transfer these waves into the water in the inner ear and these waves vibrate two bones and this vibration is imagined/translated into "sound". But you NEVER hear the person in a true sense-that is why your voice sounds different to you when it is recorded and played back. I share this to allow you to realize that due to the "processing time" of sensed based information-we are NEVER "present" in the moment with regards to waking-time. We operate from the "past" then when we are in waking consciousness. When we "dream" during sleep-this processing time is not required. Our minds can 'imagine" in the "present moment"-or at least closer. This shift in relationship to TIME is critical in understanding dreams better. A fifteen minute nap according to linear clock-time allows you to experience a dream that spanned days during this 15 minutes. When you ask others about their dreaming and they report little or nothing-it is because they are not giving that aspect of consciousness attention like you are. Part of the reason you are attracted to Psychology. I have been mentored on "watching" my mind for 30+ years. For decades I made a note EVERY hour on what I was thinking and feeling (the feeling/emotion part is more important than the cognitive-but psychology focuses on cognitive because it is impossible to quantify or qualify LOVE or FEAR). During this, I also keep a dream journal next to the bed and record them in the dark and before "moving" because aphantasia makes it hard to recall them. This journaling of waking and sleep is used to accept greater responsibility for my thoughts and feelings. To actualize the concept that NOBODY can make you angry or happy-that you CHOOSE the emotional state-is very empowering! If you really want to plumb the depths of your psyche-after you integrate your dream for Jungian meaning-ask yourself the NEXT real question; "Of all the dreams to have, WHY did I create this one?". This will take you down the Rabbit Hole for sure. If you can manage it, look at waking Reality as a "dream" and integrate/process it like you do a dream. After all, the process of "waking" and "dreaming" both follow the same parameters. Sort of like the parable of Lao Tzu wondering if he dreamed he was a butterfly or is he a butterfly dreaming he is a man. You are on the right track-just you are making false or arbitrary distinctions that are muddying the waters. If you care to engage more, let me know. You can email me at; [email protected]