paulkershaw wrote:Neo, can we assume then that many members of the BKWSU have looked to the organisation for euphoric release of their current stress and/or pain? If so can we also then say that the BKWSU uses people's addictions (or need to release their inner pain ...) to obtain members and then keeps the pain cycle going within the 'system' to keep those same people under 'lock and key' for whatever reasons they do?
I believe we can paulkershaw.
There are many ways for people to find release from negativity and be immersed in preferable states. Some use chocolate and shopping, others use cocaine and self mutilation. All of these are proverbial travel plans for people to reach psychological destinations on the multidimensional life map we have recorded in our brains. Because everyone's map is unique (albeit similar, especially within social groups), we all have different travel plans to preferable states. When our maps have travel plans that are extremely costly to us, we have to find another way to get to our desired destination. A major obstacle to change is the human brain is able to trick itself into believing costs are a lot less then they really are, if the reward is great enough. Have you ever been shocked when you saw your credit card statement at the end of the month? De-nial is not just a river in Egypt.
Raja Yoga, like many spiritual philosophies, offers people not only new or different travel plans to destinations such as peace, love, security, self respect, and bliss, Raja Yoga offers people a whole new map of life. A map which is so fantastic to the believer, that they are transformed dramatically by its application. This is called to die a living death, because our entire map of life is changed. This is great, if we don’t question what is true or not and right or wrong.
For me, as I started to question problems with my version of Raja Yoga’s life map and certain geographic aspects of it, I looked for solutions from outside sources. A lot of my map was very inconveniently changed again. Since, I have constantly tried to stay open to new information that can alter my map in a self empowering way, this constant change in my world view as I acquire new info is how I see my mind and beliefs as perhaps going through a process of evolution, natural selection, or survival of the fittest. It’s also a real pain in the arss.
But maps of what’s real is just that, a map. What is real, is real and will always be real but our interpretation of it will very. The reality of spirituality, I believe, has to be a very gnostic experience. We have to really feel with all our senses what is spirit. Spirituality as a road map may be just a creation of human minds to establish and manage a level of discipline over society, but the experience of our selves is real.
When I look inside and reflect on being able to reflect, or when I stop thinking and just feel what it feels like to be alive, the silent humming experience, for me this is the miracle that we are and a valid reason to search for higher empirical truths.
Here's a model of addiction I have been running around in my head. When a person is stressed enough, their emotional brain can actually crash their cerebral cortex and take over, causing the person to black out or go into a trance state. When people have a strongly engraved habit in their cerebral maps for anastalgic euphoria the emotional brain probably has the intelligence to fire only that neuro pathway like there is no tomorrow in an self preservation attempt to acquire equilibrium and homeostasis in the body-mind.
The results are obsessions and the increasing inability to think of anything other then the dependency. Of course, studies have shown with over use, people’s neuro biology gets accustomed to the foreign chemicals and the person needs the chemical to feel normal or to keep from hurting. The stress perpetuates this cycle.
The solution depends on the severity of the addiction but would involve allowing the body to return to its normal chemistry and also introduce new nero pathways (beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, etc). In extreme cases the person might need a whole new map.