Power Of A Vatile Mind Essay

The Power of a Versatile Mind
The human mind is a remarkably versatile machine. Depending on what an individual needs, the mind has the ability to change its own perception in order to fit those needs. Humanitarian authors such as Charles Siebert, Karen Armstrong, and Oliver Sacks each demonstrate just how much people are able to change their perceptions in trying to achieve a higher quality of life. Charles Siebert expresses how humans can change their perception of elephants through his work “An Elephant Crackup?”, while Karen Armstrong wrote “Homo Religiosus” to demonstrate how someone’s beliefs or religion can give them a perception of ekstasis towards life. Similarly, Oliver Sacks exemplifies how someone can control what they visually …show more content…
There is usually no argument, or sense of control, as to whether someone can see something or not, which why many people depend on their sense of sight in order to truly believe something. Even so, we still have some control over sight because we have the ability to develop our minds in order to read the information differently. Similarly, a blind person has a certain extent of control as to what they chose to visualize in their minds. If a blind person chooses to develop their ‘mind’s eye’, they can have the ability to vividly see people, places, and objects. “He [Torey] became able ‘to imagine, to visualize, for example, the inside of a gearbox in action as if from inside its casing. I was able to watch the cogs bite, lock and revolve, disrupting the spin as required’” (Sacks 333). After going blind, Torey had to figure out a new way to live his life, and since he was such a visual person, he did not want to get rid of his sight. Torey decided to develope his mind’s eye until he became so adept that he was able to see what he would not be able to see with this eye sight. Comparatively, even though people do not have much control in what they physically see, they do have control in what they chose to think when they see it. “We find that the things that appear distinct to the rational eye are in some way profoundly connected or that a perfectly commonplace object-a chair, a …show more content…
It all depends on what each individual is willing to do in order to get the life they want; it is an ability we have as humans. Humans can control their actions in order to achieve how they want to live their lives and the type of meaning they want to give themselves. Karen Armstrong contrasted specifically between spiritual people and people who resort to other outlets in order to achieve ekstasis. Armstrong explains how Upanishadic sages were able to control their perception of the world and were able to achieve ekstasis. The Upanishadic sages were a group that practiced higher perception exercises such as yoga in order to feel relaxation, joy, and deeper appreciation towards life. Although, before a yogin was permitted to do yoga, they would first have to go through an “intensive moral program,” where they practiced non-violence, which included actions as small as not being able to killing a mosquito. “A great deal of the aggression, frustration, hostility, and rage that mars our peace of mind is the result of thwarted egotism, but when the aspiring yogin became proficient in this selfless equity, the texts tell us that he would experience ‘indescribable joy’” (Armstrong 15). So, by putting themselves into this strict meditation they became able to control their perception of life and achieve this overall peaceful state of mind. Similar to the