This is a mirror site of archive pages: The ideas are updated and far clearer in https://AnimalSense.online

IINTRODUCTION TO CHAPTER TWO

This is a draft version - June 12th - and i'm open to discussion on any of this chapter, - please think it through with me.

Knowing the Enemy
This is an idea for extinction rebellion and fridays4future ... anyone who wants to change the world ...

The point is : not to use the same approach / methods /attitude as whatever you're fighting against. It seems sometimes to work (e.g. Michael Collins), but a peaceful revolution would be preferable.

I'm suggesting the evolutionary problems we have on planet earth at present, are caused by a one-sided training and development of our abstract focused thinking, understanding, and even creative abilities.

This emphasis on focusing starts at an increasingly early age and neglects almost all the other ways of using the senses. And we have to focus on climate change and the 'greed' which causes it, but only, exclusively focusing is an unbalanced use of our sensory faculties.

We have lost ways of sensing and feeling life which have been at the foundation of every other animals survival and self awareness. We are missing out on the direct way of using our neglected ways of sensing to re-establish the balance in life.

Structure of Chapter Two
In this chapter i describe all the ways we have developed our focusing abilities, and the consequent development of beliefs, which gave traditional cultures and individuals their security.

Then, how our modern lack of mutual confirmation leads to a background insecurity, (regardless our 19th century material security), and this leads to the overfocusing, 'greed', - and 'greed' for ideas, opinions, and beliefs, i.e. the closed mindedness and stupidity at the root of our present survival problems.

This was all explained very beautifully(!) in only 6 paragraphs under The Human Survival Strategy in Survival Strategies.

If you already sympathise with the ideas in Survival Strategies, then the place you want to get to next is Displacement Activity.

In Displacement Activity i discuss the illness animals suffer when they feel insecure, and how they compensate with habitual but inappropriate, sometimes self-destructive activities.

Empathy with Animals
Then i develop how empathy with animals would bring our lives back into balance.

With our early education in focused abstract thought, we have neglected TWO aspects of our basic animal abilities. An awareness of how our body feels from the inside, and our panoramic sense of the world. Both are part of our animal heritage and part of a feeling for life which has been at the foundation of how every animal has survived.

My primary aim has been to describe what i know about panoramic sensing. I find this easy to put into words, and it seems to be a largely untouched subject.

Our sub-cultures are already rich in basic body awareness exercises, some involve feeling inside the body with the sense of touch, and especially breathing meditations. But an animals sense of their world is experienced and understood by smelling, tasting, listening, and seeing. And i believe their inner body sense is also largely understood in terms of these senses.

I suggest that both our panoramic sense of the world, and an awareness of how it feels to see, hear, smell, and taste the body from the inside, are both important ways of knowing ourselves, of feeling real and feeling 'I exist' and 'I am'. They both add reality, balance, and depth to our sense of self-identity. They both reduce our need for the social confirmation of our self-image. Consequently they both directly reduce the insecurity which leads to the displacement activity. And then, together with focusing, they could establish a realistic working relationship between the world inside and the world outside.

If you need them, six beautiful paragraphs in Survival Strategies.
Otherwise please continue with Displacement Activity

Back to Chapter Two : Cultural Effects