Notes on Jan Cox Talk 3187 by cfish
/Jan Cox Talk 3187 16 August 2004
Copyright Jan Cox, Jan’s Legacy 2017
Notes by cfish December 2017
Suggested Title: The Raconteur (Consciousness)
(Note: Raconteur is defined as: person who tells anecdotes in a skillful and amusing way)
Begin: Surely, the hardest thing in the universe is consciousness trying to study itself. Consciousness, by its nature is a “raconteur.” That’s the reason it is extremely difficult for consciousness to study itself.
Consciousness is a story teller. It weaves tales about the material objects on the planet, and how and by what arrangement the material objects could be. (ex. science, technology )
When consciousness is not doing that, it is weaving tales about how “people” could be. (ex. religion, philosophy) When consciousness tries to study itself, it can not stay focused enough, long enough, for it to actually be a study.
When consciousness remembers its aim, remembers to study itself, when it catches itself running automatically, it looks at the last thought that was going thru it, and it begins to tell a story about the last thought.
05:00 Maybe the last thought was about Uncle Charlie, and remembering the time Uncle Charlie did something. Consciousness is a story teller. It explains everything consciousness does. It covers science, tech and, in a sense, the rise of civilization itself.
10:00 Consciousness imagines certain aspects of material life, the physical environment, and how they could be, and that is the origin of scientific discoveries. And what does consciousness do when it is not creating and inventing?
Not being offensive, thinking only a handful of folks invent and create. Maybe a few of you folks are programmers. But what does consciousness do when it’s not creating and inventing aspects of physical life?
When consciousness is not telling stories about the physical aspects of life (ex. the planets, the wind the rain, animals and plants) it is telling stories/weaving tales about things intangible. (ex. soul essence, spirit)
15:00 Consciousness by nature is a story teller. When not weaving tales about the physical world (ex. even rearranging the furniture) its weaving tales about the intangible worlds. (ex. psychology, religion, politics)
20:00 Maybe it is a story about the fall of ancient civilizations. (ex. Athens) It is interesting, it appears scientific or academic, and the story does no damage, But it is just story telling. Religious or atheist, it does not matter.
You get “caught up” and it is not a weakness on you part. It is the nature of consciousness (raconteur) and it makes no distinction between the physical world and entertainment. Gossip or TV, it does not matter, consciousness loves stories.
25:00 You folks that have been around me know I am not anti religious. I am not anti anything. The beauty of God, etc. and consciousness gets “caught up” and simply forgets its the same thing as telling kids about Hansel and Gretel.
I am encouraging you folks to continue to look. You folks have a treat, it will make you laugh out loud, but not sarcastically, when you just realize that all consciousness is, is a story teller. I did not see it this way originally.
If consciousness is not telling stories about what physical objects could be, and which make life more survivable, it is weaving stories about religion, history, psychology, political commentary, observations regarding morality, etc.
30:00 Stories are all ordinary consciousness wants to hear. Ordinary consciousness does not want to hear “that all it is, is a story teller.” There is nothing you need to do other than getting consciousness to study itself. And that is assuming that consciousness, in a good moment, can study itself.
But just try telling someone else. What’s there to study? It’s the last thing I remember. I remember the aim, I go from automatic running of consciousness to remembering to study consciousness. (study mode)
For example the last thing I was thinking, I was mad about being cut off in traffic. Then consciousness starts story telling about how it was not as bad as the guy who cut me off yesterday.
Everybody who got a good hearty laugh damn near got it. Those with the aim, those remembering the aim, those remembering to study consciousness, those remembering the study mode, its a big deal to remember to do it.
And in a sense its the main thing. Once consciousness remembers the study mode, consciousness takes a step to get right on it, and steps right back into it. That’s how strong the nature of consciousness’s story telling is.
End 34:17
