Becoming Aware Of

In the book "Drive Yourself Sane: Using the Uncommon Sense of General Semantics" by Susan Presby Kodish and Bruce I. Kodish, there is a part discussing how people learn from their experiences. There are four basic steps:

1. Becoming aware of
2. Questioning
3. Testing
4. Revising their assumptions

The problem many people encounter is that they often do not get past Step 1. They simply "become aware of" and that ends the learning experience. This is also called "belief" or "faith". 

A belief may or may not be true or real (or both), and does have a place in attempting to create a model of understanding of the unknown.

As examples, a person who is raised Christian reads The Bible and thus "becomes aware of" that interpretation of reality as fact, while on the other side of the world someone reads the Koran and accepts that model of reality. For the established belief nothing more is necessary. This is why religion tends to suppress steps 2, 3, and 4, because often times questioning, testing, and revising conflict with what is taught fundamentally.

This phenomenon of awareness/acceptance/surrender/repression/belief (lack of higher consciousness) is not isolated to religion (although many people do use religion as a tool towards higher consciousness, many become stuck in the particular dogmas). We also see it in politics, classism/racism/sexism/elitism/etc, social ideology, and within human relations (and even in science).

The average stumbling primate is fully unaware that they have ended their potential for expansion. They think they "know". When this knowing is established (blindly and without question) it becomes solid and unmalable. The rigidity of the knowledge shuts down more information trying to enter the brain, or adapts the information to fit the initial belief (i.e. dinosaurs and humans living together as to not conflict with the creationist model of the age of the Earth). If one were to inquire beyond the belief one would find common denominators among beliefs and ideas, and the lines of separation would begin to blur. 

Extreme and chronic lack of inquiry leads to polarization of ideas, lack of cooperation in the world, division, and fundamentalism which keeps the world from progressing and evolving. With fluid, permeable boundaries mankind can exchange tools and ideas and function more productively and cohesively.

A way to break this pattern of "becoming aware of" is to realize the patterns and abandon beliefs when new information arises. We must allow our beliefs to bend in the wind. This is done by questioning, testing, and revising our assumptions (beliefs).

To allow the mystery is against our human conditioning, but advancement and beauty are found in the potentials of mystery.

Here's a short example in scenario form:

(BECOMING AWARE OF)
Wife: Honey, I heard a noise in the living room. I think a burglar is in the house.
(QUESTIONING)
Hubby: ok, I will check it out.
(TESTING)
Hubby: Hey!!! Who's there??? I've got a gun!
(REVISING THE ASSUMPTION)
Grandma: It's your mother! Don't shoot! I was just bring the grandchildren some cookies!
Hubby: At 11 o'clock at night? You scared the hell out of us!!!

Some people would have shot grandma first and asked questions later!

To learn more about how we perceive the world and get stuck in our own mud, please read "Drive Yourself Sane".