Chris Campbell
Euler d
Insight into Daily Life
The last units we have been doing in Andy’s class dealt with the way people interacted with each other generally. Andy broke this unit into listening and touching and the dynamics of both. We first started talking about what a good conversation contains and what was a person general orientation of their conversation and if people are able to get their point across if two orientations of the same collide. As a class we said that in a good conversation one must pay close attention to the speaker in order to get more out of the person and get a great sense of how they feel while they are telling their story, also being able to stay on one topic and not jump back and fourth, making meaningful eye contact, body language and also giving appropriate responses showing the other person how much you care and you are listening to them. Also in a good conversation you are able to identify and express your emotions throughout the intensity of the conversation. The way we diagnose the touching part was by casual, compassionate, violent, therapeutic, and erotic. Each description of touching can determine ones touching orientation as well.
I would say for my own basic orientation while I m in a conversation is trying to get people to like me, laugh/ entertainment, but mostly depending on what the situation or topic is about shifts my orientation. While we practiced our orientation with others in our class, I had a conversation with my classmate Pablo. He told me that as of rite now his basic orientation was his girlfriend, I could tell from his face expression he meant that from the heart and that he cared about her a lot which is cool that I noticed that. Also for that particular conversation with Pablo I noticed that because of the serious level of the conversation I noticed my orientation changed to ask questions to see exactly how he felt and to show him I cared and understand what he was talking about. For that moment I noticed that maybe ones orientation can be altered depending on who the person is or what the conversation is about. I also noticed in many situations that people tend to give others their solution or their advice instead of letting that person find their own solution to their own problem, because maybe what you do might not be as helpful to that person then you think. Maybe if you ask more questions that person will be able to find their own solution. Also I noticed that when u are listening that the feeling becomes both a physical as well as mental connection. A great listener is able to read and show emotion, and at the same time be apart of the other persons life just by showing how much they care, which is much appreciated.
In class we talked about touching, and one important thing that I thought was true the most was when we talked about “taboo”. Taboo stated –giving pleasure with a good excuse. Our culture keeps people starved for touch; as a result all pleasure must come from a sexual partner. People have a deep need so they buy a lot of stuff. People look for social expectable ways for being able to touch yourself. My initial response to this was that it was true to me because people try to do things in which might have or receive pleasure for doing a certain thing. Later on we began to talk about sensual sexual toughing which I thought was basically a person getting touched only for sex, and sensual pleasure could be by anybody but just for pleasure. Sexual touching is by partners, clinical touching is y doctors, and friendly touching is not ok (viewed by society). I think the society makes or changes ones living because they are scared to be themselves because of the way they think the society might view them. We watched a movie in class that was about massages, which only meant pleasurable touching and that sexual touching was wrong. Overall because of our society people believe or choice to believe that there are only two types of touching sexual and sensual, but the movie demonstrates that there is more to touching and feeling then we think there is. The society as manipulated people to live their lives almost the same but different prospective about the way we think.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
explaination of art project
i drew a picture of me with a blind fold on and the background colored black. i also drew a basketball, football, television, computer, an ipod, to symbolize things that might be the main things that are apart of my life. this isnt bad but as beign apart of andy's class i have notice that when people ask me how i feel i really dont have answer because i dont pay attention to it my self. i drew a big picture of the world next to me , and the blind fold basically means that things in my life distract me from myself as if i m in a inner shell. But each object symbolizes other parts of me or can even be a way i do describe myself and what i m, but the things we are doing in andy's class is making me remember that there is more to me than what i do daily.
contribution to others bloggs
1.
Douglas you said " I don’t want to say the way I have been thinking my whole life is wrong, but I will agree to the part that a lot of our thinking is automatic." I agree with this statement because as begin in school and people that play a major part in our lives tend to tell what is right and what is wrong so as we get older we begin to "automatically" think and do things as we were taught. Do you think this is far that we are living our lives by what people are teaching us or should we be living our lives thinking for ourselves?
2.
Bonnie you said "I feel every aspect of pain in my body, and every part that feels fine, I just choose to ignore the parts that are hurting because I am in class and there are other things to be focusing on." i agree with you because in many cases in school we are told to copy something or write an essay but in whih we are ignoring our own body at that because we are being told to do something that is more important that being intouched with our body. do you think it is ok for us to take time for ourselves no matter what we are doing at that time to notice how we are feeling and not get penalized for during so?
3.
crystal you said "I can see us being brain washed with the point that our society educates children to become what they believe is normal. So society teaches us to value what they think is important." i agree with you because as we carried out all of Andy's activities it made us open our eyes about things we have forgotten or even things we dont do anymore etc., this made me realize that because of the society we are in the things we do daily dont valu things like paying attention to ourselves and what made us who we are. Do you think that the society we are living in now is manipulating us from being more connected to oursleves?
Douglas you said " I don’t want to say the way I have been thinking my whole life is wrong, but I will agree to the part that a lot of our thinking is automatic." I agree with this statement because as begin in school and people that play a major part in our lives tend to tell what is right and what is wrong so as we get older we begin to "automatically" think and do things as we were taught. Do you think this is far that we are living our lives by what people are teaching us or should we be living our lives thinking for ourselves?
2.
Bonnie you said "I feel every aspect of pain in my body, and every part that feels fine, I just choose to ignore the parts that are hurting because I am in class and there are other things to be focusing on." i agree with you because in many cases in school we are told to copy something or write an essay but in whih we are ignoring our own body at that because we are being told to do something that is more important that being intouched with our body. do you think it is ok for us to take time for ourselves no matter what we are doing at that time to notice how we are feeling and not get penalized for during so?
3.
crystal you said "I can see us being brain washed with the point that our society educates children to become what they believe is normal. So society teaches us to value what they think is important." i agree with you because as we carried out all of Andy's activities it made us open our eyes about things we have forgotten or even things we dont do anymore etc., this made me realize that because of the society we are in the things we do daily dont valu things like paying attention to ourselves and what made us who we are. Do you think that the society we are living in now is manipulating us from being more connected to oursleves?
final R.D liang Paper
Chris Campbell
Insight into daily life
Euler D
Final Draft
1st Chunk: summary of article
In this article the "normal man", experience determines or completes them. Once the experience is destroyed, our behavior will be destructive. The author R.D. Laing states how the society highly values its normal man. In the ideal man, we act the way we experience things. Our own experience determines our behaviors. What we encounter gives us an outlook on the way we live or should live our lives. In this article the normal is alienated.
In life our purpose is to experience reality, but this is impossible because we only experience part of it. People are only fragments of what they can potentially be. As adults we have forgotten much of our childhood and acknowledge little else of our existence. “Our capacity to think is pitifully limited” and our capacity to acknowledge the senses is also limited. Many people are unaware that we forget being awake similarly to us forgetting dreams, which limits our experience. The people who are considered “normal” or sane are “pretty much the same as every one else”, and people who are outside of the normal alienation are seen as mad. What is considered normal is to be unconscious or unaware. One must be aware to be un alienated. The way that we act is a product of what we experience. If we don’t control or be aware of our behavior we will destroy ourselves. We are the ones who must take the initiative, and become aware of our selves, world, feelings, etc, in order to become un alienated.
Sensory awareness
When I was taking part in the various sensory awareness exercises, my attention was brought to new experiences. In my life I feel that I am physically aware of some things, such as pain, fatigue, and even how a body part might feel at one moment. We as people do not listen to our bodies and we go through life missing everything that should be “normal”. I noticed that only at a given time I would noticed anything is hurting or bothering me only when it hurts, not actually taking time out for myself to see how exactly I feel at every moment in my life. For example, during the exercise in which we had to find our way back to the class blindfolded (upstairs), I noticed how many other senses became stronger when we lost our eyesight. My hearing became one of my main sources of information. I also had to use my memories as a main sense in order to move around since my eyesight was gone. I was more aware of things around me just because I was afraid I might walk into something. I was really trying to do the blind fold and experience it for what its worth. I really thought it was interesting and it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be, to walk up the stairs and get in the class room with out any vision.
2nd Chunk: Personal Reaction
According to the articles reading, we are all zombie-like, barely existing in the world. Personally, I can see how one may think that, but I also believe not all humans are living like that. R.D Laing might have been the only person at the time sensible enough to realize the way we live and the way we are supposed to live. He published this article to try and open others eyes and wake up to see the world. However, I do believe there are ways that the theory proves to be true in our daily lives. We are often focused with simply where we are going and the quickest way to get there. There are always new clothing, new technology, and other things companies are producing that is supposed to make our lives more enjoyable but are simply taking away from our experience. As we walk down the streets we don't notice the way our feet are hitting the ground or the way the air smells, because we are too consumed with drowning out the surrounding world with our iPods and trying our best to be as unnoticeable as possible. This is mainly true for most people living now because there are so many distractions in this world today that distract us from our selves.
In this course with Andy, I have been able to see what exactly being alienated means and I can say I have been alienated for a while in my life. Andy has helped me see that being aware in this world feels good. I can’t say I will remember to always be aware of things in my surroundings but when I do, I know when I’m doing it. I can say only when Andy has asked me to become un alienated in which caring out an exercise, I can see what a “normal man” feels like. I don’t know if I will continue to try to be un alienated because I have been alienated so long in life and I’m use to doing certain routines that I thought have help me, but in reality have affected me.
3rd Chunk: sensory awareness exercise STAND take1/take2
On my first take of the sensory awareness exercise, I was standing in a straight up forward position in which I noticed I was getting tired of standing. My leg muscles took the pressure because all my weight was being held by my legs and feet. I felt very tired and wanted to sit down. I think while I was standing I began to notice how it felt to actually have legs. On the second take while standing I noticed I had a lot of other important things on my mind that was totally distracting. My mind was wondering off into things that matter to me most. I noticed how my legs were shaking while standing but I only noticed it when I thought about it mainly. I wouldn’t realize my legs were shaking unless I took time out to realize and feel it.
4th Chunk: Childhood and what it means
In R.D Laing’s article normal alienation from experience, he states "as adults, we have forgotten most of our childhood, not only its contents, buts its flavour. I think he is saying as we get older we begin to forgot the full content of our own childhood and become alienated from our own selves. In a way I agree because as I look back on my childhood I can’t feel or have the same flavor as it had when I first experienced it. But it is not all true because I can remember things that have mainly impacted my childhood and the important things that have occurred.
When I was six years old on a hot summer day, my father was exterminating a beehive and specifically told me not to go by the beehive. But I was so anxious to see my mother when she came home from work, I ran to her and the swarm of bees attacked me and I was rushed to the hospital, and ever since then I been allergic to bees. This is just one example of my memories of my childhood.
When our class went to observe the children in their own classroom environment, I began to remember my experience as I was young at that very age. I began to compare how the students were acting as we would have acted at that time period. I noticed that the kids had more freedom in their class and were still able to get the required work done. I remember at that age the teachers had more control over students and enforced more rules to follow. Certain activities and smells refreshed my own memory about my childhood. Looking at my childhood I can only remember things only if a certain subject can be connected back to my own life that would refresh all my old experiences.
5th Chunk: Dreams
R.D. Laing thinks that we are alienated from our experience when we are awake as well as we are asleep. I think this is true for me at some points but not all the time. To prove this we decided to keep a dream journal and write in them daily and see if we dream, what we dream about, what our dreams might mean, and most importantly if we can remember our dreams. Throughout the dream unit we discussed many ideas and theories about dreams to help us gain a better understanding. Even though I am not particularly in touch with dreams I think it is still my experience. Dreaming for some people is very easy as well as hard for others. We as people can dream about almost any and every situation.
For me I noticed that what I do daily have a great impact on the dreams I might have at night while resting. I noticed that once I wake up my dream is completely fresh in my brain only when that’s the only thing I think about. There are days when I would have a dream but there would something else on my mind that I would totally forget that I even had a dream. Then when I remember I had a dream that morning it would be too late to visual or remember what exactly my dream was about. It was a little hard for me to catch most of my dreams, but when I did it made me think why I was having this dream, or what influenced me to have this dream. Most of the time my dreams made no sense at all, I wondered why I was having those dreams. I rarely had any dreams in which deal with harm or pain, the majority of dreams were fun, sexual, relaxed, etc. When we practiced did the lucid dreaming there was one time that I actually caught myself dreaming. I felt so relaxing, but as I noticed I was dreaming I realized I couldn’t take full control over my dream, all I could was be in that dream. Connecting back I see that I can be aware of my body and dreaming but only when I want to be.
6th Chunk: thinking
As people living today, you limit your own thinking to your own interest not knowing or caring about other things. You tend to focus or apply yourself to things that you are stronger at and care less about the things that come harder to you. As we grow we are taught certain ways which affect the way we think. As we practiced the thinking strategies in class, two main quotes were stated by my fellow classmates. One said "I was taught to do it this way" and another said " I follow a sequence that I was taught". This is interesting how two different kids have a similar interpretation on how they think. During this class unit we have tested several riddles in which we had to right down our process of how we would find the answer and if we didn’t find the answer how we would demonstrate this. One particular puzzle that interested me the most was the Cocaine Addict Puzzle. In this puzzle we had to try and connect nine dots by only using 4 lines and u cannot retrace the same line twice. First thing I did was think about how I would attack this problem. Then I started trying several steps in which I could carry out this puzzle. Then I started to back track my steps and see if there were other ways to do this. Once I was told the answer to the puzzle, that’s when I realized I was interpreting the problem wrong and was going about it the wrong way.
I do agree with R.D. Laing, because we can get so caught up in our own self interest that it might affect us. I have tried in almost every grade in school to apply myself to become a good academic thinker, but outside of school I try to think as little as possible to relax myself. I feel that my mind only works effectively when I force it. In fact I might be a good academic thinker, those thoughts are in a sense programmed into us, and it is artificial thought rather than intellectual thinking. The only reason that school education is significant for us that people aren’t allowed to be happy in a society where money means everything. Supposedly if we work hard and get into a good college we will get good grades and that is a good life, but there is no enjoyment out of working daily, no body does what they truly want to do. Would doctors rather go into work every day and, making $200,000 dollars a year, or would they rather be a singer, or a musician or an artist where money made no difference. But in living the dream most people would end up poor if they did not receive the proper education needed in which in the ideal world is unacceptable. The fact is that people work only for their own benefit, and not because they enjoy doing it.
"Our Capacity to think is pitifully limited", I think Laing is trying to say that we think like robots. When we think it’s usually an automatic response like a computer and not a real process. We usually go with what is the first thing that comes to mind. I would have to say on this point I agree with Laing. I believe that thinking might be automatic at times just to make time go faster. For example when you do a multiplication problem you do it off memorization and rules of multiplication. Sometimes one forgets the true meaning of multiplication. When Andy gave us the multiplication in class, I did it right off the back no problem because I memorized my multiplication tables. When he asked how do you multiply and what does it mean only a few including me were able to answer. Others were explaining the problem threw memorization and I was explaining it as a picture process. I saw it as if I was adding more groups. For example 2 + 2 = 4 yes I did that off of memorization to save the time but if I felt like there was nothing else to be done I would picture something like 2 pop tarts 's and adding another group of 2 pop tart’s to get 4 pop tart’s. Most people do not think like that no more.
7th chunk: the inner world of feelings
Looking on our feelings why can’t we control our own feelings. I believe that Laing is correct. We do not pay a great amount of attention to our emotions. This unit on feelings was the most interesting to me out of everything we did in "Insight". Each day we started the class by logging what we were feeling at that exact time. I never really had much to write. We also discussed the meanings of the words feelings, mood, and emotional orientation. We defined feelings as some sort of emotional state that you are aware of (sometimes) that tends to last between 0:01 seconds and 0:29 seconds. Moods last between 0:31 seconds to 3:00 hours. A mood is longer and more intense than a feeling, your are often not aware of your mood. Lastly there is your emotional orientation which is your general outlook on life, this can last between six months and a lifetime. I feel like we just do things to make us feel happy every time but we do not look deep into our emotions and see what is it we are feeling. Many people deal with their emotions differently. There are many ways to deal with your feelings you can choose to hide them, ignore them, analysis them. Embrace them, distract yourself from them. In many cases people can experience the same or similar situations, but each person can and normally would take this experience and all deal with their emotions differently. When I am by myself I usually do not like expressing how I feel in front of others, I usually try and deal with all my emotions by myself. If my emotions become to strong or are too painful to experience I tend to notice I try to block them or work around them.
As I practiced each part of the courses exercises, I began to realize what actually insight into daily life – meaning my life. Things we do daily in our life are the key distractions to our own selves in which proves almost every point Laing is trying to make. Music, television, texting, computers, etc are things we do daily in which distract our selves from our own selves. We don’t pay attention to our feelings, our body, they way we think/ why we think that way, our childhood which made us the way we are and other important things that make us who we are. Not all people are alienated, but the majority of people in the United States are, which people do not appreciate the fact that they are living and enjoy the world while we can.
Insight into daily life
Euler D
Final Draft
1st Chunk: summary of article
In this article the "normal man", experience determines or completes them. Once the experience is destroyed, our behavior will be destructive. The author R.D. Laing states how the society highly values its normal man. In the ideal man, we act the way we experience things. Our own experience determines our behaviors. What we encounter gives us an outlook on the way we live or should live our lives. In this article the normal is alienated.
In life our purpose is to experience reality, but this is impossible because we only experience part of it. People are only fragments of what they can potentially be. As adults we have forgotten much of our childhood and acknowledge little else of our existence. “Our capacity to think is pitifully limited” and our capacity to acknowledge the senses is also limited. Many people are unaware that we forget being awake similarly to us forgetting dreams, which limits our experience. The people who are considered “normal” or sane are “pretty much the same as every one else”, and people who are outside of the normal alienation are seen as mad. What is considered normal is to be unconscious or unaware. One must be aware to be un alienated. The way that we act is a product of what we experience. If we don’t control or be aware of our behavior we will destroy ourselves. We are the ones who must take the initiative, and become aware of our selves, world, feelings, etc, in order to become un alienated.
Sensory awareness
When I was taking part in the various sensory awareness exercises, my attention was brought to new experiences. In my life I feel that I am physically aware of some things, such as pain, fatigue, and even how a body part might feel at one moment. We as people do not listen to our bodies and we go through life missing everything that should be “normal”. I noticed that only at a given time I would noticed anything is hurting or bothering me only when it hurts, not actually taking time out for myself to see how exactly I feel at every moment in my life. For example, during the exercise in which we had to find our way back to the class blindfolded (upstairs), I noticed how many other senses became stronger when we lost our eyesight. My hearing became one of my main sources of information. I also had to use my memories as a main sense in order to move around since my eyesight was gone. I was more aware of things around me just because I was afraid I might walk into something. I was really trying to do the blind fold and experience it for what its worth. I really thought it was interesting and it wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be, to walk up the stairs and get in the class room with out any vision.
2nd Chunk: Personal Reaction
According to the articles reading, we are all zombie-like, barely existing in the world. Personally, I can see how one may think that, but I also believe not all humans are living like that. R.D Laing might have been the only person at the time sensible enough to realize the way we live and the way we are supposed to live. He published this article to try and open others eyes and wake up to see the world. However, I do believe there are ways that the theory proves to be true in our daily lives. We are often focused with simply where we are going and the quickest way to get there. There are always new clothing, new technology, and other things companies are producing that is supposed to make our lives more enjoyable but are simply taking away from our experience. As we walk down the streets we don't notice the way our feet are hitting the ground or the way the air smells, because we are too consumed with drowning out the surrounding world with our iPods and trying our best to be as unnoticeable as possible. This is mainly true for most people living now because there are so many distractions in this world today that distract us from our selves.
In this course with Andy, I have been able to see what exactly being alienated means and I can say I have been alienated for a while in my life. Andy has helped me see that being aware in this world feels good. I can’t say I will remember to always be aware of things in my surroundings but when I do, I know when I’m doing it. I can say only when Andy has asked me to become un alienated in which caring out an exercise, I can see what a “normal man” feels like. I don’t know if I will continue to try to be un alienated because I have been alienated so long in life and I’m use to doing certain routines that I thought have help me, but in reality have affected me.
3rd Chunk: sensory awareness exercise STAND take1/take2
On my first take of the sensory awareness exercise, I was standing in a straight up forward position in which I noticed I was getting tired of standing. My leg muscles took the pressure because all my weight was being held by my legs and feet. I felt very tired and wanted to sit down. I think while I was standing I began to notice how it felt to actually have legs. On the second take while standing I noticed I had a lot of other important things on my mind that was totally distracting. My mind was wondering off into things that matter to me most. I noticed how my legs were shaking while standing but I only noticed it when I thought about it mainly. I wouldn’t realize my legs were shaking unless I took time out to realize and feel it.
4th Chunk: Childhood and what it means
In R.D Laing’s article normal alienation from experience, he states "as adults, we have forgotten most of our childhood, not only its contents, buts its flavour. I think he is saying as we get older we begin to forgot the full content of our own childhood and become alienated from our own selves. In a way I agree because as I look back on my childhood I can’t feel or have the same flavor as it had when I first experienced it. But it is not all true because I can remember things that have mainly impacted my childhood and the important things that have occurred.
When I was six years old on a hot summer day, my father was exterminating a beehive and specifically told me not to go by the beehive. But I was so anxious to see my mother when she came home from work, I ran to her and the swarm of bees attacked me and I was rushed to the hospital, and ever since then I been allergic to bees. This is just one example of my memories of my childhood.
When our class went to observe the children in their own classroom environment, I began to remember my experience as I was young at that very age. I began to compare how the students were acting as we would have acted at that time period. I noticed that the kids had more freedom in their class and were still able to get the required work done. I remember at that age the teachers had more control over students and enforced more rules to follow. Certain activities and smells refreshed my own memory about my childhood. Looking at my childhood I can only remember things only if a certain subject can be connected back to my own life that would refresh all my old experiences.
5th Chunk: Dreams
R.D. Laing thinks that we are alienated from our experience when we are awake as well as we are asleep. I think this is true for me at some points but not all the time. To prove this we decided to keep a dream journal and write in them daily and see if we dream, what we dream about, what our dreams might mean, and most importantly if we can remember our dreams. Throughout the dream unit we discussed many ideas and theories about dreams to help us gain a better understanding. Even though I am not particularly in touch with dreams I think it is still my experience. Dreaming for some people is very easy as well as hard for others. We as people can dream about almost any and every situation.
For me I noticed that what I do daily have a great impact on the dreams I might have at night while resting. I noticed that once I wake up my dream is completely fresh in my brain only when that’s the only thing I think about. There are days when I would have a dream but there would something else on my mind that I would totally forget that I even had a dream. Then when I remember I had a dream that morning it would be too late to visual or remember what exactly my dream was about. It was a little hard for me to catch most of my dreams, but when I did it made me think why I was having this dream, or what influenced me to have this dream. Most of the time my dreams made no sense at all, I wondered why I was having those dreams. I rarely had any dreams in which deal with harm or pain, the majority of dreams were fun, sexual, relaxed, etc. When we practiced did the lucid dreaming there was one time that I actually caught myself dreaming. I felt so relaxing, but as I noticed I was dreaming I realized I couldn’t take full control over my dream, all I could was be in that dream. Connecting back I see that I can be aware of my body and dreaming but only when I want to be.
6th Chunk: thinking
As people living today, you limit your own thinking to your own interest not knowing or caring about other things. You tend to focus or apply yourself to things that you are stronger at and care less about the things that come harder to you. As we grow we are taught certain ways which affect the way we think. As we practiced the thinking strategies in class, two main quotes were stated by my fellow classmates. One said "I was taught to do it this way" and another said " I follow a sequence that I was taught". This is interesting how two different kids have a similar interpretation on how they think. During this class unit we have tested several riddles in which we had to right down our process of how we would find the answer and if we didn’t find the answer how we would demonstrate this. One particular puzzle that interested me the most was the Cocaine Addict Puzzle. In this puzzle we had to try and connect nine dots by only using 4 lines and u cannot retrace the same line twice. First thing I did was think about how I would attack this problem. Then I started trying several steps in which I could carry out this puzzle. Then I started to back track my steps and see if there were other ways to do this. Once I was told the answer to the puzzle, that’s when I realized I was interpreting the problem wrong and was going about it the wrong way.
I do agree with R.D. Laing, because we can get so caught up in our own self interest that it might affect us. I have tried in almost every grade in school to apply myself to become a good academic thinker, but outside of school I try to think as little as possible to relax myself. I feel that my mind only works effectively when I force it. In fact I might be a good academic thinker, those thoughts are in a sense programmed into us, and it is artificial thought rather than intellectual thinking. The only reason that school education is significant for us that people aren’t allowed to be happy in a society where money means everything. Supposedly if we work hard and get into a good college we will get good grades and that is a good life, but there is no enjoyment out of working daily, no body does what they truly want to do. Would doctors rather go into work every day and, making $200,000 dollars a year, or would they rather be a singer, or a musician or an artist where money made no difference. But in living the dream most people would end up poor if they did not receive the proper education needed in which in the ideal world is unacceptable. The fact is that people work only for their own benefit, and not because they enjoy doing it.
"Our Capacity to think is pitifully limited", I think Laing is trying to say that we think like robots. When we think it’s usually an automatic response like a computer and not a real process. We usually go with what is the first thing that comes to mind. I would have to say on this point I agree with Laing. I believe that thinking might be automatic at times just to make time go faster. For example when you do a multiplication problem you do it off memorization and rules of multiplication. Sometimes one forgets the true meaning of multiplication. When Andy gave us the multiplication in class, I did it right off the back no problem because I memorized my multiplication tables. When he asked how do you multiply and what does it mean only a few including me were able to answer. Others were explaining the problem threw memorization and I was explaining it as a picture process. I saw it as if I was adding more groups. For example 2 + 2 = 4 yes I did that off of memorization to save the time but if I felt like there was nothing else to be done I would picture something like 2 pop tarts 's and adding another group of 2 pop tart’s to get 4 pop tart’s. Most people do not think like that no more.
7th chunk: the inner world of feelings
Looking on our feelings why can’t we control our own feelings. I believe that Laing is correct. We do not pay a great amount of attention to our emotions. This unit on feelings was the most interesting to me out of everything we did in "Insight". Each day we started the class by logging what we were feeling at that exact time. I never really had much to write. We also discussed the meanings of the words feelings, mood, and emotional orientation. We defined feelings as some sort of emotional state that you are aware of (sometimes) that tends to last between 0:01 seconds and 0:29 seconds. Moods last between 0:31 seconds to 3:00 hours. A mood is longer and more intense than a feeling, your are often not aware of your mood. Lastly there is your emotional orientation which is your general outlook on life, this can last between six months and a lifetime. I feel like we just do things to make us feel happy every time but we do not look deep into our emotions and see what is it we are feeling. Many people deal with their emotions differently. There are many ways to deal with your feelings you can choose to hide them, ignore them, analysis them. Embrace them, distract yourself from them. In many cases people can experience the same or similar situations, but each person can and normally would take this experience and all deal with their emotions differently. When I am by myself I usually do not like expressing how I feel in front of others, I usually try and deal with all my emotions by myself. If my emotions become to strong or are too painful to experience I tend to notice I try to block them or work around them.
As I practiced each part of the courses exercises, I began to realize what actually insight into daily life – meaning my life. Things we do daily in our life are the key distractions to our own selves in which proves almost every point Laing is trying to make. Music, television, texting, computers, etc are things we do daily in which distract our selves from our own selves. We don’t pay attention to our feelings, our body, they way we think/ why we think that way, our childhood which made us the way we are and other important things that make us who we are. Not all people are alienated, but the majority of people in the United States are, which people do not appreciate the fact that they are living and enjoy the world while we can.
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