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Bill: You mean this gift of wisdom is available only if my limbic system is switched off?
Voice: The limbic system can never be switched off. It is
final switching point for action. It is designed for your protection, to prevent your will from doing anything foolish. Many feelings compete there. But, most powerful feeling rules. Pattern recognition again.
Bill: I don't understand, Lord.
Voice: Will yourself to nudge your neighbour while standing in a crowded lift. Your will failed. Your elbow remained frozen in space. Why? Because it was improper. Opposed to norms of your herd. Your limbic system decided and over ruled your will.
Bill: So, I really don't have a free will! I am just an automaton, driven by my animal memories! This is unfair!
Voice: Cherish love that protects you from harm. We gave you a guardian angel in your limbic system. But, that region is but a safety valve. You still have broad road to wisdom in your pre-frontal regions.
Bill: But, Lord, fear and anger, shame and jealousy still torture us.
Voice: Your emotions give you partisan views of your environment. That is how intuition, algorithm that controls your neural system, works. Intuition identifies a pattern by eliminating every other pattern, which does not fit context. When you are angry, you cannot feel love for your opponent. Emotions blind you.
Bill: How can I control those emotions?
Voice: Wisdom. You have expanded your knowledge across millenniums. Thunder frightens you no more, because you know its true cause and effect. Your civilisation has expanded boundaries of your knowledge and stilled your primitive fears and anxieties.
Bill: But that same civilisation has created new pressures and tensions. We fear earthquakes and typhoons, wars and nuclear bombs. Threatening patterns constantly surround us. Angry bosses and traffic hazards.
Voice: Your limbic system constantly triggers bodily responses to threatening events. Those adrenaline responses make you feel bad. But, you can cope. Just pump your stomach. The released adrenaline will be dissipated in minutes. Remember to pump your stomach, when you feel uneasy about something. Minor irritations will soon fail to bother you.
Bill: I tried that and it works. It makes me feel much calmer. But, Lord, stomach pumping only stills minor emotions. When I am faced with real problems, emotions still torture me. I am going to lose my job and that fills me with dread.
Voice: You can still even those emotions. They occur with distinct physical symptoms, which dramatize emotions. When you become aware of physical symptom of your emotion, you break link. You weaken emotion and destroy its power to dominate. Identify tightness in your chest and dread will fade away. You will see event without painful patina of emotion. The loss of a job will not fill you with dread. You will see it as merely another problem to be solved by your wisdom.
Bill: But, how can I identify physical symptom, when I am filled with dread?
Voice: That is why, across centuries, your sages have praised benefits of prayer and meditation. Become still and aware of workings of your mind. Explore vast territories of your mind even as you explore world. You will then become aware of emotions and their towering effects. You will learn to still them. Go forth and tell this to world. That way lies your freedom from primitive systems you inherited. That way lies peace on earth.
Bill: Peace has been in short supply on earth.
Voice: This Message will bring peace.
Bill: Will anybody listen?
Voice: Probably not.
Bill: Do you mind repeating Message?
Abraham Thomas is the author of The Intuitive Algorithm, a book, which suggests that intuition is a pattern recognition algorithm. The ebook version is available at www.intuition.co.in. The book may be purchased only in India. The website, provides a free movie and a walk through to explain the ideas.
