Touchstone

Conceptual impressions surrounding this post have yet to be substantiated, corroborated, confirmed or woven into a larger argument, context or network.

The interpretation that our mind is located solely in our brain is simply invalid. The unique qualities of imprecision, variation, diversity and selection are paramount to the functioning of the mind and fundamental to creative thought. Experiences that first may appear incomprehensible are not always meaningless when we spend time to reflect. There always remains a particular focus, a selective attention and an embedded search for meaning in our subjective interpretation of the world. Experiences are weighed differently throughout life, yet seem to share a common yearning to bring meaning and a value to self. This natural capacity to categorize experiences, both subjectively and objectively, is imprinted in our mind largely for the sake of knowing.

From a subjective point of view, knowledge appears to have been an assemblage of opinions, facts, knowledge and understanding. Through experience, the mind discovers itself as the focal point of knowing. The creations of mind, along with modifications honed from experience, give allegiance to an internal dynamic we perceive as self. Connections and new patterns are added and simultaneously integrated into the mind as long as knowledge is allowed to enrich and nourish the expansion. Mind’s design, i.e. its’ focal point of knowing, is the field in which the "knowing self" plays, develops, learns and grows.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry: "Whether you wish it or not, your meaning is made of others' meanings, and your taste of others' tastes...For you live not by the things, but by the meaning of the things." (In The Wisdom of the Sands. {Citadelle trans. S. Gilbert} New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1948, p. 263).

"You give birth to that on which you fix your mind. For, by defining a thing, you cause it to be born, and then it seeks to nourish, perpetuate and augment itself." (Ibid. p. 269).
Source: C. Anton

The mind instinctually brings together all experiences made to be known and felt ... both seen and unseen. These perceptions are symbolic in origin and character, together actively fashioning what could be considered a fundamental awareness, or collection of awarenesses. These relationships need not be causal or related to an objective world; rather mind’s knowing will always take precedence and remain paramount throughout this subjective journey.

It is the dynamic created by meaning that induces the mind to attach a value to every experience. Simultaneously the mind is predisposed in believing that there must be a purpose in support of the experience. The emotions are so strong that the mind is persuaded into apportioning a purpose to all experiences, even though the mind has the power and capacity to oversee the symbolic aberrations. It is why the mind by nature, seeks out the appropriate belief system/s to objectively rectify its self to itself. Purpose can bring a certain closure to meaning if experiences and the values they contain, can be appropriately confined within the symbolic cloisters of a belief system.

Consciousness

What is of interest when discussing the relevance and importance of design and design thinking is the suggestion that the accumulations of all these “experiences” must in some manner, validate what is perceived as consciousness. Yet consciousness is something we cannot describe directly other than through a limited and subjective framework. Consciousness is something that can be known, observed and realized while still remaining an allusive mystery when trying to describe it.

Noted scholar and Bernard J. Baars, theorizes that both conscious and unconscious events can only be based upon our own experiences and those of others. By design all experiences are symbolically tainted with mental and emotional perspectives, which when processed have the potential to contain a variety of "realities" that stretch from the mundane to the bizarre. Again the self, i.e. the knowing center, the observer, of these events will typically establish the context from which these experiences are interpreted. This knowing center is the source of an inner dialogue, an apparent duality in support of knowing.

Experiences provide information to the observer self in the form of a series of symbolic relationships. In this fashion experiences are designed. These relationships have the potential to reach beyond the constraints of matter, mind and emotions thereby seamlessly entering other realms of awareness.

All mental and emotional contexts appear to be non-conscious in character, yet can be induced and/or provoked by conscious events. Both conscious and non-conscious events are symbolically interwoven through meaning and purpose to create a “stream of consciousness”. In essence, experiences are designed events. Consciousness by nature must be considered a multi-dimensional experience.

The means by which the mind along with its emotional complement, universally communicates and transforms energy and information. Symbols are the vehicles, the language and designs of consciousness. Symbols construct, correct and control the flexibility and individuality of awareness that when placed in harmony, partakes in the creation of consciousness. Symbols can potentially make the connections with a design at is Source. Similarly, symbols are the outpourings from that Source. They are the reflections of a Oneness of consciousness. They represent its designs made manifest, i.e. the elements that perpetually categorize and re-categorize a reality made conscionable through change. Symbols construct inexact memories and abstractions that create the opportunities for both the expansion and creation of consciousness itself.

Edited: 11.28.2013, 01.11.2017, 05.04.2020, 03.25.2023

Find your truth. Know your mind. Follow your heart. Love eternal will not be denied. Discernment is an integral part of self-mastery. You may share this post as long as author, copyright and URL http://designconsciousness.blogspot.com/ is included as the resource and shared on a non-commercial no charge basis. Please note … posts are continually being edited over time. Copyright © 2010 C.G. Garant. All Rights Reserved. Fair Use Notice. AI usage is prohibited.