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BrownPaperDad's avatar

It continues to be curious to me that *seeing* often leads to madness. And that much of human society, functionality, and productivity seem to rely on certain things remaining hidden, unacknowledged, or being suppressed.

But then I think, fundamentally, we are a species that understands and can imagine that death and catastrophe can happen at any moment. There are no guarantees. Everything we give our lives to can come crashing down, and sometimes does. And yet we keep going.

Why?

For me, evolutionary psychology holds a lot of clues. The trickery of our minds is not by accident; it's fundamental to our survival, thrival, planning, dreaming, and coordination with each other. It's built-in to the platform. To be a species that can scheme and implement grand plans and ventures that take years of work and a dedicated community of many members, and not completely go berzerk when all our work gets wiped out in a storm or a war. *It's as if we evolved to front-load or bake-in the madness* as it enables us to collectively and cooperatively do amazing things.

The magic trickery of mind is built-in to the platform. And when tears appear in the fabric of the mind magic that are the "realities" we are all subconsciously agreeing on and acting from, the risk of madness or "dark night" seems to be a well-established pattern.

I'm currently enamored with Daniel Ingram's theory that these are natural and normal stages of human attentional development. My prayer is that we become much more able to hold each other through these awakenings, and less apt to pathologize the common symptoms of seeing and realization.

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