meaninglessness meaning save the world causes, effects, what is it like? Experience of nothing a state where nothing has meaning What is the experience like? excerpt from journal: or the poem feelings. or bartleby Causes: experience aloneness, a distinct feeling of separateness required. explain this separateness and how it occurs, the people cannot meet my needs, what I do with them is irrelevant, I want to talk about these sorts of questions, I am not content to remain ever superficial, or superficial even for a moment. so then separateness. questions: tear yourself apart Effects: resolution, depression or slow death from book the Experience of Nothingness, Michael Novak, 1970 in the nothingness one has at last an opportunity to shape one's own identity, to create oneself. The courage to accept despair becomes the courage to be. p60 william james' 10 year experience of nothingness resolution: p60 Images of nothingness, insanity, dread, and insecurity come together. His experience arose from a sudden glimpse "beneath the surface of life." What seems real is not real. The pragmatic, reasonable certainties are symbols by which we keep away the feeling of darkness and keep ourselves occupied and "sane." -- creating one's self and the experience of meaning Staying Vital biological structure I feel I am hippocritical, here, how I could be: chem spanish, and too little time still working in this institution I am working on creating a certain environment with what I have to work with I cannot reject society, I have been alone enough, and regardless, I am a part of it- even if I go off into the woods by myself until I die I work on creating this environment where the kinds of experience I need are possible, for example loving, and what is the best way of the experience where the kinds of experience that kill me and others are no longer there: the sexual tension is one the difference in how feel for someone and what they know of how I feel I do what I do to avoid what I call "death" experiences: understanding, peak experience, itself, a peak experience- The Experience of meaning Choosing to experience meaning this is more difficult. I have chosen, yet I am aware these are the structures I follow: bio and a perception of the progress of humanity, and an attempt to understand ontogenic needs this all comes from a need to create meaning, where there is none apparent, the universal and most true meaning, yet, check this bio brain what is it that we think that we percieve, and the idea of self, invalid? myself in my place; the others in theirs possible perception openness and unself consciousness, effort for understanding. choosing to experience meaning understanding of those experiences we value and why what about living do we enjoy? what makes people love being alive. Concentration, control, mountains sure, some surprises, work do you want to hear about theories on this? peak, plateau experience, serentity. you can either follow the idea all action based on filling of need, and most meaningful (peak) interaction is that which most fills needs. or follow kinds of stimulation: all activity we like is stimulating us in a way that gives us pleasure (a biol phenomenon), most pleasureful is when we are stimulated in all the right ways. meaninglessnes: general feeling of everything as meaningless, or frantic search for something inherently meaningful, "protean" personal lack of control, high separate self awareness. meaningfulness: peak and plateau concentration on aspect of environ, intense self awareness goes to zero because of concentration, no lack of control; no inspiring of fear, like mountains; the ability to overcome challenges. yes needs more def pretty much everything you do which you enjoy doing has some aspect of peak or plateau expeirence. The most powerful are those expeirences which have most of these characteristic stimuli whatever they are. Certainly television is attractive to many people- generally it is real life interactions. plateau vs peak. a peak is generally a shorter instance, I would liken to a roller coaster, it happens, we are excited, we love it (for whatever reason) then it ends and we are left with the memory. The plateau is very different. It is a sustained level of appropriate stimulation. Much of the work done in this area is in eastern cultures, indian and asian, focusing on expeirenceing and understainding aspects of consciousness. Here you find it in different ways, generally with people who are in environements where they are recieveing right kinds of stimulation, feeling in control. An example I can think of is one of my friends, who is good at the system of school and focuses on the challenge of "getting the high score," and does. She rocks and she knows it- she is perhaps (I should probably do a more detailed analysis to make sure this is actually what is going on) on that generally higher level. After some messing around, it appears that people generally start to focus on the plateau expeirence. It is a more stable, secure, and control is a great factor, instead of in the peak, where it generally is a more unplanned occurence of the right stimuli, like for example: (at stop light) It would seem, we get these glimpses of what really excite us, then we are able to understand what causes them, and create or interact with our environ to make those characteristics. we don't get the intense Highs and lows, it is the sustained high, this is the serene, holy, whatever exaggerated adj you'd like to use. this is the religious expierence, the mystical expeirence , etc, etc, the expereince of any one intensly involved, concentrated perhaps. There is more detailing to be done. I am not of the school that we should learn to love exhaust fumes, as everything else and so be always happy. There is legit reason to be unhappy, and this could be, we are not getting fresh air; and action is taken to fix the situation. There should not exist unhappiness or disturbances of this sort, indignations, but until we have it down, they are necessary to cause the change. SAVIG THE WORLD Everyone knows what it means to save the world, well, the religious people do; and in fact, if we continue Maslow's metaphor that peak expeirences and plateau experience throughout the years have been related in (shared) and codified in religion- we see that to save the world is to make it possible for everyone to attain plateau or peak experience. Why should we ask these questions? Who can avoid doing it. I assume you think what you do might be worthwhile. the work of some philosophers and psychologists is no less worthwhile. You have adream, but what is the attainment of that dream, is it true, is it good. is what you do worthwhile? to make it possible for each person to be able to attain these expeirences. Saving the world: -make it possible for each person to attain these states of expeirence -requires it is not hard at all in fact, you are all doing it. the world we try to save is our own, sometimes we try to save it from being destroyed by meaninglessness, or to protect it from that. So what is your world, what does saving it mean? this is where the problems come in. Saving the world is not difficult if we act in concert in ways that do not oppress others or ourselves. that is the only question you have to ask. all change comes through the individual, and the indiv's environ changes occuring now. We all do this some way, I think, we know what hell we have lived through, we know perhaps that parts of our lives have been pretty sad, and not at all enjoyable to live. If we're lucky we're not in that situation now, and we see what was wrong like Robert working for math ed reform if we're lucky; if we're true and vital I think, not lucky, people will see what we do as good and support us. perhaps a few people see nothing wrong with the way things are; no change is necessary; the world is as saved as it can get. I don't know a person like this; especially a person who has awareness of morethan their a small culture or community. So what is the direction of your world? you determine. Its all you have, and you won't have it for so long. In Conclusion, meaninglessness: an acute awareness of the perception of the self as eternally separate, 100% self awareness of self as self and awareness of that self as having no control; no purpose causes effects characteristics meaning: concentration; self awareness goes to zero because of this; and one is able to control; or one suddenly experiences control, purpose unity where there was none before. this is what we live for Saving the world; enabling everyone to have meaning enabling everyone to have control, purpose, universality, individuality That's it; thank you any questions?