This post is probably way more theoretical than practical.
One of the things I always find my self doing in social settings is trying to read my friends. Trying to figure out exactly what they are thinking, but really it's so impossible. No matter what I think they are thinking, they are thinking differently, processing differently, understanding completely different points of view.
If I could have one super power, it would be the ability to read minds. Now at the same time, this is that one super power I would fear the most, If I did have it, I would probably not ever use it, simply out of respect and also out of fear.
The mind is mans last fortress. When all else fails him or her, the mind is where we retreat, where we sort things out, where we try to metaphorically get back on our feet. To invade this final stand must be the absolute rudest thing that any one can do to another human being, I'd rather be stabbed in the private than have my mind invaded. I'm sure this feeling is very much mutual amongst most of my peers.
Our mind, our own thoughts, they are like our very best friend, you know that friend that you share absolutely every thing with? I don't know if it's just me, but occasionally I feel like my mind is a separate entity from my body, that they are bonded through a sort of friendship. I'm guessing this might be related to the entire yoga concept with "body and mind" or what ever :S
I think reading someone else's mind would be too intense. It would be everything that person is. Such a vast network of thoughts and bodily processes. I know for a fact, that if I tried reading someone else's mind, I would get completely lost in it. I'd forget who I am, probably become so much more like them and that's assuming I could escape. I guess that person would probably feel a bit awkward with me staring at them for a few days straight =D
But on the other hand, there are few things that fascinate me more than the mind. How we internally think is amazing. We take all these emotions, put our words to them and then there's more to it. I don't know how we think about things that don't have specific emotions attached to them. As an example, a hard thinking math question. There is a portion of that question that our memory answers, which in it self is a miracle. Then there's an entire other part that our mind sort of improvises, what guidelines are set here? What causes us to think, what is our mind doing?
Through life, one becomes so accustomed to their own minds, which goes hand in hand with the saying that no one knows you better than yourself. But every one is so different, I'd like to imagine what someone who is deaf and has never heard or learnt any spoken language thinks. How do they think about complicated math equations, in pictures? how? What is this???
And even in less extreme comparisons, no one else thinks like me. Everyone has a completely different way of thinking, I would love to hear the voices that my friends hear in their heads, their thought processes. Alas, I can only guess.
It's so easy for us to hide what goes on inside our heads. It's so easy for us to put up a facade, pretend nothing is wrong when obviously we're killing ourselves inside. It's so easy for us to just lie. Imagine what the soldiers who fought alongside Hitler in World War I thought of him? Did they ever specifically think he was going to grow and become what he did? I very much doubt it.
A friend could be an absolute best friend to you. Just when you think you have them sorted out and know's what irks them and so on. You're talking, all happy faced but you have no idea what's going on in their minds do you? Chances are they could be thinking of your head dangling from a pike somewhere on K2.
But at the same time, people you least expect to can really and truly surprise you with goodness of heart. It's like you never really know any body.
Some times it feels like there is no world outside our own minds. The mind is the beauty of the individual, there is so much to every person. Of course, this very fact often ends up being our own downfall. Because of this, we are all so involved with what there is to us ourselves, that we never really notice, or never really care, about the lives of others. There is an extent to which we care, to which we show them we care, but in the end what is it to us really? I suppose this is how life survives, each individual for them selves.
Was this entire post a bit cliche? sorry =|
