Meaning Making Through the Interpretation of Feelings

Photo by Dino Reichmuth on Unsplash

Deep within each of us lies hidden from direct view the feelings that drive our actions. These internal sensations arise spontaneously, reaching out to our conscious minds for attention. It is only when rudimentary feelings meet attention that a thought is formed to rationalize these mysterious internal vibrations. At this point the feelings become legitimized as a Feeling and are assigned a weighting (valency) based on accordance or discordance with memory, leading to more thought about the meaning of the feeling and the conditions leading to its arising. Often these feelings, which precede thought, cause a secondary feeling that finds a seat in the body. Thus, at the deepest levels we have feelings at the level of the gut, chest and head. The mind broadly interprets these as instinctual feelings of fear and anticipation (gut), emotional feelings of love and anxiety (chest), and intellectualized feelings of lightness or swooning (head). By these broad swaths does the mind categorize feelings. However, we never, or rarely know the proximal cause for these feelings, we only know minds interpretation. These causes are the hidden variables; the shadowy specters that govern most of our actions. Unless we shine the light of awareness on these shadows, we’ll never truly know the causes of our actions and reactions to the external world seemingly affecting our agency.

In the cognitive sciences these feelings are termed interoception. The body relies on interoceptive signals to maintain life in a world that is constantly in flux and demanding adaptation to control the inevitability of entropy, lest the body succumb to dissipative forces. Adaptation is a moving target that varies minute by minute, hour by hour. The basal signals of thirst and hunger arise to forewarn of dire consequences due to dehydration or starvation. These are hardwired into our physiology, as are the situationally-provoked instincts of fight, flight or flee. To obey these instincts is the fundamental dictate of the mind-body. To ignore these is to invite peril.

These are the materialistic interpretations of physiology which very well explain the actions of cybernetic machines capable of self-regulation. But there is something hollow in this interpretation if one has more than an inkling that there is more to Life than surviving day-to-day. That there is a higher calling to be human. An ineffable energetic connectedness within the Universe. We are the vehicles by which our Creator, Spirit, Cosmic Consciousness (etc) manifests the unmanifest. We create a world through the intention of our individual attention. We animate the Eternal and Infinite by objectifying; drawing boundaries and manifesting the things that populate the world. Each creating their own world, reflecting the shadowy recesses of the unconscious. In so doing the pure light of awareness projects through the film of mind to create a world of things in accordance with our inner, limited awareness.

This is powerful magic. These creations are beautifully and faithfully constructed and possess forcefields to deflect those images (including ethereal beliefs as well as manifest physical objects) that are discordant. Thus, we create our own worlds, attracting and attracted by others sharing sufficiently similar projections of worlds. Repelling and vilifying those whose worlds are a threat to our personhood in the form of our place and agency within our worlds. Thus, we build our tribes and fortifications. But, to those who are attempting to transcend these limiting personal beliefs, these artifices are unsatisfactory prisons that veil the true meaning of living and being.

Science, firmly established in the cold-hard dogma of materialism, has no place for a greater power that is fundamental to our existence. That power is intuition. Through our connectedness with Universe we receive transmissions, signals, gently insisting that there is something requiring our attention. These transmissions are sensed through physiological systems and interpreted as feelings in the body- in the head, heart and gut. These vibrations, interpreted as feelings, arise to the level awareness when there is discordance with our beliefs. When we’re out of harmony with the universe. It’s that nagging feeling that something is not copacetic. We feel angst and we search within the body-mind for the root cause. Without awareness of inner workings, we project these feelings to the external world and the things that are discordant with our personal worlds. Thus, the world becomes one of malicious intent, with overlords and warlords attempting to breach our fortifications and attack us and our tribe. Our sympathetic nervous system responds accordingly, adding more fuel to the fire of feelings; thus, increasing the valency of attendant emotion. It is easy to see how we can get stuck in these redundant loops through confirmation bias, creating endless fuel through accordances with beliefs, while rejecting those views that are out of accord. These echo chambers keep us locked in these beliefs. There are many recent discoveries about how this works for feeding the despair fueling severe depression. There are many similarities with the current hysteria surrounding the forces at work behind the scenes who are robbing us of our free rights and privileges.

There are certainly dark forces in the world at work to gain for themselves at the expense of others. However, the question is of scale. Is there really a world-wide cabal behind the scenes pulling the strings of society to create the dance of the populace? Meanwhile raping and pillaging with impunity? Maybe. In some worlds this reality is created. Maybe every knock on the window or bump in the night,is a sinister beast of the otherworld intent on promoting a waking nightmare. That is a choice, as valid as a choice to see the overall good in the world. To believe that love rules and the power controlling All-That-Is is love, permeating the soul and, by extension, the world.

There is a persuasive sense that major changes are coming. That a new age is dawning. That the old order will be overthrown and a new order of enlightenment will reign. The Devine Feminine will be rightfully reinstalled on her gilded throne to oversee a world based on love and mutual respect. A world of consensus building and equality for all, not just for those with daring and bravado. A world where we listen, truly listen to what’s said, rather than inserting our own narrative between the lines to drive confirmation of our own personal truths.

Maybe it’s intuition that is speaking gently to us about this change and the need to make peace with our devils so that we are not subservient to them. Maybe we are being told to ascend to our higher selves in preparation for a new world order so that we might easily integrate with a kindler and gentler universe. Maybe, through our focus on the external, we are misinterpreting these gentle whispers in our soul’s ear as signals originating from out there. And ,thus, we miss the opportunity to promote profound change. The most profound change possible. Our own self transformation by remembering our true nature as one with Source. As an interconnected node within the vast web of the universe.

The songs of the sirens are calling. We are being lured to our fate. That fate is death of the ego and self-imposed separation. The realization that this dream has come to an end and it is time to wake up to reality. To see clearly as the veil of Maya is withdrawn. The final act in the play. Take your final bow, open your eyes, exit the stage and rejoin the flow of life. No longer to battle against the current flowing as the river of life. Rather, floating and reveling in the delight of being. No longer intent on becoming. Just allowing, fully, with open heart and beginner’s mind. Or not. The choice is always yours for you are a perfect reflection of Spirit who resides in you and you and you. There is no difference. In the end the self is just a refraction of the light of consciousness. In the end of ends, you, we, they will all be return to Source and, with it, clarity will be.