Adonis Diaries

He was a Great Man: He was convinced he could change “Who he was”

The nurturing process, up to year 5, is the biggest factor in making “who we are”.  The brain functions according to “constructs” or formed models of how we perceive the universe, nature, people, society…It takes a fraction of a second (about 100 milliseconds) to form a good judgement of a total stranger we crossed: the face of the individual, how he dressed, his gestures…place the individual into a particular type.  Even after we get to know the person intimately, it is our original judgement construct that directs our appreciation and inkling toward the new-found friend…

It is very difficult to alter a construct once the brain has structured it in complex networks of neurons…Changing a construct in the brain is far more difficult than altering a paradigm shift in any field of knowledge:  The individual is battling with his own feedback and has no external support system to enhance any change of “who I am”.

I hear people saying with confidence: “The members of my family and friends don’t comprehend that “I am NOT what I was 10 years ago… They see me and treat me as the person I was many years ago…”  I cannot but nod in respect at such kind of statements, knowing that the person valiantly did a lot of sustained efforts to change “who he was”…

Aside from civil respect and compassion, fact is we don’t change in any significant way.  For proof is that members of our family and close friends noticed just the extravagant efforts on our part, but nothing fundamental in our behaviour…  Most probably, our perception that we did change in the last 10, 20, 30 years…is related to our recollection of the real effort we invested in changing “who we are”, we are proud of making the good efforts and we remember them vividly: We are “how we perceive and recollect our valiant efforts for change”.  Actually, the real change in the brain’s constructs didn’t materialize in any visible sense to the outsiders: You are totally biased in your conviction that you changed…

What you are feeling is your “twin-self”, your “effort-self”, not dissociated with the original already hard-wired self. It is the  “twin-self” of labor,  efforts, acquisition of knowledge, skills training, fight for survival, for change…the fresh memories of the struggle after the age of 5 period and beyond…

The “twin-self” memory that make-up the published “memoirs” and diaries…The original self is relegated to neuroscientists to discovering “mankind brain”  structure and  function, and never your own brain…

For example, if you experiment with a subject wearing a 3-D helmet of vision and let the subject see an image of himself (through a well-located rear mirror) and frequently touching him and faking to touch the image simultaneously, then the subject will merge with the image:   The subject thinks he is one with the image.  Remove the mirror and let the subject see a mannequin, even of a different gender, and repeat the experiment with simultaneous touching gestures of the subject and the mannequin, and the subject will feel one with the mannequin: You slap the mannequin and it is the subject feeling the slap; to verbally abuse the mannequin and the subject takes the insults very personally…

The two most potent senses that are behind our brain constructs are the sense of touch and sense of equilibrium. I cannot shake off the impression that the senses of taste and smell constitute the trinity of the factor “touch”, that taste and smell cannot be practically be detached from the main factor of the general term “touch”… The sense of seeing and hearing are mainly contributors to constituting the brain’s “constructs”…The sense of seeing and hearing can play the surrogate tools to the sense of touch in experiments when facing difficulties in conveying the direct stimuli to the subject.

For example, you can make the subject “see” the aromatic plant it smelt, and then approach the plant to the mannequin without letting the subject actually smell the plant later on.  The brain will light up as if the subject did smell the plant. This finding is essentially valid, since the feedback of the senses in general term of touch are directly sensed by the brain and do not need extra processing and transformations for perception…

It is the construct in the brain that is taking over and guiding you:  We are what our initial brain’s  constructs have defined us.

Great Man are great because they did the good efforts to change. Maybe we the great people did the efforts simply because they had no idea that all their efforts could not actually significantly change “who they were”.  If you refuse to believe my contention that it is very unlikely that all your efforts will make any significant dent to “who you are”, the odds are that you might become a great man.

Keep the sustained good efforts to change and reform:  If your efforts do not change you, you are actually transforming “family infrastructure” within the facilities of a civil community to nurture the newborn into a normal kids, with qualities and characteristics to fight the good fight…

Note: You may read https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2011/10/18/i-am-what-i-am-what-that-mean/