Levels of Behavior
Explained in terms of the degree of freedom of thoughts.
When a child is born, his degree of freedom of thought is pretty high. Given a stimulus, his thoughts flow freely and he exhibits fluid behavior. This fluidity of behavior is so high that he can cry at once instance while suddenly laugh at another instance.
As subconscious fears get accumulated, a person’s ability to have a free flow of thoughts diminishes. In the above diagram, it depicts the band closer to the baseline.
“At this level, a person needs to use a part of his energy to not let thoughts flow freely.”
“His behavior too would be conformist and would not go against the general norm.”
The only good thing about being at this level is that even if the person faces a negative situation then he will still be able to exhibit conformist behavior.
Example: Sara and Radha are sisters. Sara has a higher degree of freedom of thought while Radha basically belongs to the band closer to the baseline. One day their father expired due to a heart attack. It did hurt both of them equally but Sara did not give heed to what others will say and cried profusely in a loud voice. Radha on the other hand did not exhibit disorganized behavior and simply sobbed in private.
As far as emotional healing is concerned Sara would be able to come to terms with her loss in a better manner as she expressed her shock and grief in a better manner while Radha would have unhealed emotions buried in her subconscious mind. This unhealed emotion would further restrict her free flow of thoughts and she would come to a band even closer to the baseline.
Analyzing deeper
“The subconscious mind is the storehouse of various impressions from our life. If there are a lot of impressions that are associated with fear then any stimulus can take the flow of thoughts to those impressions and the person might become uncomfortable.”
This uncomfortable feeling would not allow the person to function in his daily life. The mechanism that the mind brings in is to use a part of our energy to create a shell within which the person operates. He will not allow his flow of thoughts to go freely in all directions, especially to the stored unpleasant impressions. Thus, the person operates from the band closer to the baseline having a lesser degree of freedom of thoughts and mainly exhibiting conformist behaviors.
Example: Ram grew up in a conservative society where he was ridiculed and berated for holding sexual feelings. His subconscious mind was filled with fearful impressions corresponding to various incidents from his childhood days. Thus, his mind created a mechanism of not allowing his thoughts to flow freely and created a shell under which he operates. Given any stimulus such as watching a sensual scene in the movie would automatically create a mechanism of stopping his free flow of thoughts and he would either close his eyes or forcefully think about different things. This mechanism would not let him get in touch with his earlier unpleasant impression stored in his subconscious mind. His behavior would be more conformist in nature.
The higher degree of freedom of thought would enable a person to either exhibit fluid behavior or completely disorganized behavior as he doesn’t have a shell within which he operates. There is no energy that would guard him against becoming disorganized. If the situation is unpleasant then he risks going out of control and his behaviors may be termed disorganized. This is the price one has to pay for having a higher degree of freedom of thought.
Achieving a higher degree of freedom of thoughts
By carefully removing the unpleasant impressions stored in the subconscious mind, a person can create an internal state where any stimulus can generate a flow of thoughts that would not take him to unpleasant impressions. This would cause the person to let his thoughts flow freely and move up from the baseline and either exhibit fluid behavior or completely disorganized behavior. But the level of happiness and creativity of the person will be higher in this state it is what everyone should aim for achieving in life.
The process used to remove unpleasant impressions from the subconscious mind is to use the technique of catharsis and refinement of the inner child. Both these techniques will ensure that our past is modified to the extent that it no longer has an effect on our current behavior.
Conclusion
A higher degree of freedom of thought implies better creativity and a level of happiness. It has its own cost of making the person have either a fluid behavior or even a disorganized behavior. This happens because the person does not use extra energy to remain in an artificially created shell and simply allows his thoughts to flow freely in all directions. Catharsis and refinement of the inner child are the techniques one can use to gradually move up from the baseline where he has a higher degree of freedom of thought. Working on past unpleasant impressions through these means goes a long way in bringing the person closer to his natural self and who knows when a peaceful internal state is created then maybe the spiritual awakening can take place making the person achieve the purpose of life.
