Virus of the MindWritten by Tom Horn
VIRUS OF THE MIND You’ve heard of ordinary viruses – those microscopic entities that get inside your body and replicate themselves. They war against your natural resistances and make you feel rotten. And through your coughs and sneezes they jump onto other people and make them feel rotten too. Well, did you know that there are other kinds of tiny ‘organism’ called viruses of mind? What is a mind virus and are they a danger to us? A mind virus is a tiny ‘seed’ of information that somehow lodges itself within our minds. It is a ‘seed’, which, in given individuals, falls on ‘fertile ground’, germinates and then takes on a life of its own. It is as if this ‘germinated seed’ or ‘fascinating idea’ had an unconscious ‘intent’ and that blind urge is to replicate itself. For example, you hear a joke and, before you know it, you find yourself with an almost irresistible urge to spread it around. You hear a catchy tune sung by a show-off and before long you have joined ranks of punters who have bought recording. In this way jokes and tunes spread themselves around world. Recently, in my neck of woods, children have been infected with Pokemon mind virus. In no time at all children up and down country have been gripped by a fanatical urge to purchase and save ‘pocket monster’ cards. It has been a retailer’s dream. I noticed another mind virus when it hopped over pond from America to England. This revealed itself when I saw large numbers of young people wearing same baggy ‘street cred.’ type clothes with baseball caps worn with peak at back. They had all been infected with a mind virus. When you find masses of people thinking, saying or doing some particular thing, you can be sure that a mind virus is at work. This happens when people fall under spell of an ‘….ism’. I’m thinking of socialism, conservatism, communism, monetarism, fanaticism, fundamentalism, Christianity..ism, etc. Mind viruses fill you with proselytizing zeal. You become possessed with a great desire to spread them far and wide and some mistakenly attribute this feeling to God. Some mind viruses appear fairly benign. But what do you do when idea becomes widely accepted amongst ordinary people that it is quite acceptable to create, on a weekly basis, piles of non-biodegradable waste, which has to be tipped into a big hole in ground? What are you to conclude when masses of people think it perfectly reasonable live in a world of plastic, neon, concrete, steel, brick and asphalt. Now these are a couple of dangerous mind viruses. We must remember that mind viruses, like our genes, do not spread because they are any good, but rather because they are good replicators. Now consider your treasured identity - that strange complex of imperfect knowledge, fears, ambitions and masquerades, your public and private ‘faces’, which you call your ego. It could be nothing but a nest of mind viruses that combine to cloud mirror of your awareness, to eventually sap your energy and to reduce your creative intent to that of folly. If you doubt this, just try to stop thinking for a few minutes and discover how difficult this is. You will find that you do not have thoughts at all, but that thoughts have you – in their grip! The inescapable conclusion is that a human being, with his or her genes and mind viruses, is simply a host to successful replicators. Is this not what we are? And, in our ignorance of this one fact, have we not just given in to urge to run amok on this wonderful self-organizing planet?
| | NeedsWritten by Rinatta Paries
(c) Rinatta Paries, 2001. Do you know "what it takes" to attract and sustain your ideal relationship? Relationship Coach Rinatta Paries offers quizzes, classes, advice
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