Mindstructures

Development of Perception

The way we perceive the world is totally different from the way a young child perceives the world. I always understood that was the case, but I could never really imagine how that child would perceive the world. Or how that would develop into how we, as adults, view the world. David Bohm describes that [...]

One of the most interesting, but at the same time hard to grasp, subjects that David Bohm wrote about, is inner conflict. I talked about that in some earlier posts. The first one was a post called When the Mind is Trying to Escape the Awareness of Conflict, where it became clear that, according to [...]

A few days ago I followed the live stream of TEDx Amsterdam. I really like the concept of TED and have watched many videos of their previous talks. Those that have my special interest are the ones about the relation between the individual and society. That is why I was especially fascinated by the presentation [...]

Some time ago I watched the video ‘The divided brain and the making of the western world’ from Iain McGilchrist. The talk was really very interesting, so I started reading his book, ‘The Master and his Emissary’ that does a very good job in looking at research on the difference between the left and right [...]

In the book ‘The Essential David Bohm’ is a chapter called Soma-significance and the Activity of Meaning, which was very interesting in how he thinks that mind and matter interact. Well, actually he says that interacting is not the way it works. And therefore the word ‘Psycho-somatic’ is not right, for explaining what he meant [...]

Recently I came across a very interesting woman, Paula Scher. I saw a Tedtalk from a few years ago where she talked about design, play and being serious. In that talk she differentiates between being solemn and being serious. Differentiating between those words is not natural for me, because I have a general feeling of [...]

Thumbnail image for Understanding the Meaning of Concepts

We bring up our children with too much conceptual abstractions, that they have to memorize. They have to learn concepts without realizing the underlying reality. Learn concepts without understanding the meaning. They have to learn what others think is important. And slowly along the way, they lose the ability to think creative. It is like [...]

Thumbnail image for An Aesthetic Experience

Ken Robinson on Aesthetics and An-Aesthetics: An aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak. When you are present in the current moment. When you are resonating with the excitement of this thing that you are experiencing. When you are fully alive. An an-aesthetic is when you shut your senses [...]

Thumbnail image for The Artist and the Scientist in Dialogue with the World

David Bohm on Art, Science and Dialogue: Artists are not just ‘expressing themself’, not just ‘pushing outward what is already formed inside of them’. The first thing the artist does is only similar in certain ways to what they have in mind. As in a conversation between two people, they see the similarity and difference, [...]

Thumbnail image for Art and the Context of Society

Living in a certain place and time, we tend to think within a certain set of values and act upon them as if they are universal. And we use our critical skills to judge ‘everything’. It is a set of values that is a sum of the whole society, and living by its rules is [...]

If the definition of art has developed over time, and if it is defined as ‘a product or process of deliberately arranging symbolic elements in a way that influences and affects the senses, emotions and intellect’ and also says that the word art was traditionally used for skill or mastery, but later as an intention [...]

Thumbnail image for More Power Needs More Coherence

David Bohm on Power and Incoherence: We cannot grasp the totality but we can have a feeling for the whole. We can have the attitude of not restricting ourselves to parts, but to allowing our consciousness to be based on the whole of whatever we can experience. Turn to the whole of reality as far [...]

Thumbnail image for Thought Thinks the Problem is Out There

David Bohm on Thought: Thought has developed traditionally in a way that claims not to be affecting anything but just telling you the way things are. Therefore people can not see that they are creating a problem and then apparently trying to solve it. The ecology has not in itself a problem, it works perfectly [...]

Thumbnail image for A Coherent Approach to Reality

David Bohm on Coherence and Consciousness: If we can have a coherent approach to reality, then reality will respond coherently to us. But nature has been tremendously affected by our way of thinking. There is very little left on earth, that isn’t affected by how we were thinking. The major source of unhappiness is that [...]

Thumbnail image for Creativity to Prevent External Pressure and Internal Decay

David Bohm on Creativity: Creativity is essential, not only for science but for the whole of life. If you get stuck in a mechanical, repetitious order, then it will degenerate. One of the problems is, that every civilization got stuck in a certain repetition. The creative energy gradually died away and that is why the [...]

Thumbnail image for Creating Something New Together

David Bohm on Dialogue: If the meaning of communication is to convey information or knowledge from one person to another, then the essence of communication is ‘to make something common’. Dialogue as a special kind of communication, is ‘to make something IN common’. Or creating something new together. But in most cases there is a [...]

Thumbnail image for Time and the Meaning of Life

The first part of the meaning of life, is to build a personality with strong values. Values that are worth defending. Use them to choose a direction, stick with it and make it a succes. Challenge the cultural background and make decisions on personal experience. Keep what works and improve it. Defend your decisions if [...]

Thumbnail image for Creativity Grows on Insight and Understanding

Creativity has an inherent order that grows on insight and understanding. It has to develop according to that. It might need rules and boundaries to keep growing in a certain direction. It might need ideas from others to grow even further … but … only after a certain amount of independent growth. Without interference from [...]

Thumbnail image for Integrity needs Honesty

There can be honesty without integrity, but no integrity without honesty. Although integrity needs honesty, it does not mean you always have to be absolutely honest to others. It just means you have to be absolutely honest to your self. Being honest to others is many times just giving a personal opinion. And that opinion [...]

Recently I listened to an interview with the very intriguing title: Is Consciousness Energy? The title made me really curious, as I have been wondering about that for a long time now. It is an interview of Dean Radin with Christian de Quincey, whose final conclusion is that consciousness is not the same as energy. [...]

Going through some online tapes of David Bohm, I found a recording where he says something very interesting. Well, actually I find almost everything he ever said very interesting. But the recording made me realise something else. Last week I found an article online that said that his ‘complete lack of ego completely disguised the enormity [...]

Finally I started reading the book On Dialogue by David Bohm. I was not sure at first that I wanted to buy the book, as there is so much to find online. Like this Proposal for Dialogue. But although I am fine with reading bits and pieces online, or borrow a book at the library, [...]

Coherence is a word that David Bohm used a lot. I noticed it in the video that I wrote about in my previous post. It is a word with a meaning that is rather general. A word that you read without really noticing. But the more I became aware of the word, the more I [...]

Recently I found a real treasure! At least that is what I considered the video that I found of David Bohm. It is a video where he talked about his life, recorded about two years before his death. There is a part of this video on Youtube that is called David Bohm on perception which [...]

Last week I found some really interesting sites. The first one was Quora. I found a blogpost that highlighted some good reasons to get involved there. I clicked through and was indeed immediately hooked. It is a question and answer site, where anyone can ask and answer all kinds of questions. But apart from that, you [...]

← Previous Entries

Mindstructures

Development of Perception

The Difference between a Problem and a Paradox

The Paradox of Civilization and the Shadow Carried by All

The Map and the Territory

How Matter is Influenced by Meaning

Serious about Creativity

Understanding the Meaning of Concepts

An Aesthetic Experience

The Artist and the Scientist in Dialogue with the World

Art and the Context of Society

What is Art?

More Power Needs More Coherence

Thought Thinks the Problem is Out There

A Coherent Approach to Reality

Creativity to Prevent External Pressure and Internal Decay

Creating Something New Together

Time and the Meaning of Life

Creativity Grows on Insight and Understanding

Integrity needs Honesty

Mechanism vs Meaning

How we Expect Answers from Limited Theories

Dialogue as Creating Something New Together

Our Incoherent View of the Whole

The Difference between Thinking and Thought

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