The Mind is a Mirror or is it a Cave?
Ask yourself this question: Is your mind a mirror or a cave? In a philosophical way or an allegory of a cave?
If we look at Plato's Allegory of the Cave, within its image, we can see 4 houses of cognitive activity of the spirit of consciousness. Within self and within cosmic connection to the liberator of self-connection to the stars, to nature. Nurturing a community, philosophy, and finding your flow within the ebbs and flows of everyday life. It is a connection to self and place within the oneness and expanse of the universe. Inspiring forward movement within self-development and growth.
Our thoughts and feelings reflect like a mirror on our faces, through our energies, and in the unnoticed tones and voices of our own minds. A reflection pool of our true selves and all the good and dark parts of it. As if becoming a character in a play of reality. The mirror can reflect us as different versions of self or archetypes we fall into, even as characters we play, night and day.
The cave shows us there is a way out of the self's containment of darkness, filled with distractions, and of finding freedom in discomfort, through metaphors of fire, shadows, and puppets of different levels or pieces of the personal hero’s journey. Plato describes those with chains watching shadow puppets and light flickering on a wall in front of them. This makes me think of those who live a more sheltered life of repetition over exploration. How would you escape your chains?
is how you adapt in situations, as well as subconscious conditioning from past experiences, breaking free of cultural conditioning. In modern society, we have ancestral knowledge and generational learned behaviors that we are, at times, unconsciously aware of. These are some things we could dive deep into, creating more suffering by knowing the self in an characterized light. Something that doesn’t reflect our initial character but is deeply ingrained in our DNA. Within a speculative technological future, a call for the liberation of consciousness is necessary for more utopian thinking. The human condition is suffering. (Highlight The Art of Being). Plato theorizes that the sun is the fire within the cave, the deep unconscious of liberating from trauma. The Metaphysical (add quantum entanglement and the creation and power of myth + Plato). The ominous shadows that speak of life, love, and war. 4-dimensional shapes and language to those suffering in confinement. However, some are so deep in darkness that they can only see shadows, this layer of our fractals, splitting, spreading traces and tendrils. The dark traumas within the human psyche, Traumas of life and suffering, to reach higher forms of imagination and connections within the neurological mind map. Spiraling up and down and every which way around, Plato mentions that those confined eventually find a way out of their internal darkness, a war of worlds. Did they go deeper within themselves, create an ego for protection, and become a new light for humanity? Or can we even make it out of the cave, as a new inferno of Anthropocene within our planet, seeing a new. The moon is another form of self-reflection as a mirror to the sun and a light source at night. How do we put this in modern terms?
If we look at nature, nurture, philosophy, and flow within movement, could we find our lost spirits, our ancestral powers that we collect by dancing around fires? To me, it seems that the majority of humanity has lost its internal spirit and is experiencing a loss of soul. What is sucking it away, becoming slaves to a system that doesn’t see them? Probably. When we think about education like this, we initially think of colleges and higher education. In reality, we should look at cartoons, movies, and video games that are now raising our children, especially those raised on social media and YouTube.
According to the media, a high percentage of kids in Gen Y are unable to read. Public Schools, in general, have a shortage of teachers who care and are not paid enough to babysit kids who haven’t learned to respect people. Have we lost education to corporations and the largest donors? The government gives out so many federal loans to students because of the rise in college tuition, but they raised those because the government would pay them, leaving young people in massive amounts of debt that the job market cannot handle paying living wages anymore. It’s the biggest crisis for Millennials and Gen X. Many Gen Z are becoming their own entrepreneurs because of this, and seeing what mistakes previous generations have made and learning from them. So why is there a giant “class” war when it’s a generational one? “ Ok, boomer,” we all say, because we are rejecting traditional values. Which religion has passed down through many different branches and interpretations of the Bible? Maybe we are just looking at it in a completely different way due to rampant evangelical take-over, which is very Freudian in my opinion and destructive to young women and children everywhere.
Well, after reading all those facts of the world, I’ll go back to the philosophical aspect of this, which is whether we are mirrors or caves? I believe the cave is a metaphor for a downward spiral within the mind, unable to find the “sun” … Though I believe, since the sun was described as the fire that kept them warm, it actually is the moon reflecting the sun and becoming the Mirror as the upwards spiral of freedom of exploration and expression within an Earthly Garden. Some get lost in the cave, more tied up within their own experience and trauma that they cannot face due to fear. The mirror is the freedom of emerging from the cave and seeing, hearing, and being wo[men]. For me, it’s finding freedom of expression and being your authentic self. It is a blend of both; some are trapped within their generational and personal traumas. We all have ancestors, and we should connect with them and build them up through ourselves and who we want to be.