About 18 months ago I had an experience which is perhaps not relevant but it came to mind as I read what you wrote, Glen. As a result of a dream I was in a state of anxiety which persisted for days. One of the symptoms was an irrational fear that I would stop breathing if I didn't consciously supervise the process. My PCP prescribed a tiny dose of Citalopram (10 mg/day). That cured the anxiety and it has not returned.
---- Frank Wimberly www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 Phone (505) 670-9918 On Sun, Jul 8, 2018, 4:09 AM glen <[email protected]> wrote: > I've answered your question so manu times, it doesn't seem worth it to > answer again. But such is life, eh? Doubt is uncertainty. Our bodies > (including our minds) deal with uncertainty by maintaining feedback with > the environment. Such doubting feedback is present even during actions of > which you are as confident as you can be (e.g. stirring coffee or > breathing). For actions of which you are minimally confident, such feedback > will be largely conscious. > > Mindfulness is an attempt to keep some of your feedback conscious even if > it's a deeply ingrained habit. To be mindful is to doubt everything. > > When you experience vertigo, it's because your feedback mechanism is > biased or different. As Marcus points out, you then intervene consciously > to modify or retrain yourself to use the new mechanism. The uncertainty > never completely disappears, just increases and decreases as you and your > environment change. > > In cases where you have zero feedback, you won't even be aware of any > uncertainty because YOU HAVE NO FEEDBACK. > > Now, I will concede that cases exist where you may have enough feedback to > estimate the uncertainty, but not enough feedback for a confident > prediction of the outcome of an action. In such cases, I posit the TWITCH > ... a (quite ordinary) sampling process of tiny actions that serve to > establish more feedback. An actual example I've cited before is the saccade > in vision. > > Even actual paralytics like suxamethonium chloride don't halt ALL feedback > loops. Feedback stops only when you die. And I suspect some feedback > persists for a short time after you die. So I have to reject your > metaphorical 'paralyzing doubt' on all fronts. > > And if "I doubt everything" means to you that I do nothing, then you are > obviously not reading any of my answers to your questions ... which is OK > of course. 8^) > > > On July 7, 2018 5:35:56 PM PDT, Nick Thompson <[email protected]> > wrote: > >We are a having a definitional problem. To a pragmatist (which I seem > >to be) there can be no doubt in the presence of action (and no belief > >in its absence). So when you say, “I doubt everything” that MEANS to > >me that you do nothing. > > > >So, when you put your feet out to the floor in the middle of the night, > >do you doubt that the floor is there? Do you doubt when you open the > >door the bathroom that the bathroom is there? You can entertain doubts > >on such matters, and such entertainment is fun and sometimes > >instructive, but in pragmatist terms, you do not doubt them. > > > >So. How are we to adjust terminology. > > > >Here’s an example. Because of my recent bout of vertigo, I have > >moments of doubting that the world around is stable. Under those > >conditions, I cannot walk. REAL doubt (sensu pragmatico) is a nasty > >business. > > -- > glen > > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
