BLINK

Reading Blink another book about the subconscious, This time sort of scientific(??! anecdotal more like) look at how subconscious mind makes better(?) judgements etc Then second part of the book goes on to explain the pit falls of instantaneous judgements!!

BLINK
Its an interesting book. It kind of reinforces what I have been thinking and feeling all this while. Gist of first few chapters is that, there is a supercomputer inside our heads and importantly its not always telling us its findings. (us = our conscious brains). We  think, we act out of free will,we make our own decisions,  but we probably dont. Its time to trust intuition etc. thin slicing he calls it, pattern recognition.
I agree.
But when he is giving examples I find myself examining myself against the terms explained
(marriage example)
I like the idea of thin slicing a lot,
BLINK is trying to tell me that sometimes like when judging people the thin slicing approach is better than the think slicing (:-) meant to write "thick slicing", but "think" makes as much sense ) . I like that but then I should be ok with judging if a person is ok to get married on not in one shot right? I find that I am not.
When the argument becomes arranged marriage v/s love marriage. arranged marriage  thin slicing isnt it? that irks me, I dont like arranged marriage. no no no :-)
I realise I dont have as much problem with the quickness of the arranged marriage as much as it is made like a business. Actually arranged marriage is not thin slicing and Intuition at all, It is totally logical left brained business decision, that is what I dont like.  I mean it doesnot "happen", its made to happen, that is what irks me. I actually believe in love at first sight! so... I m still good :-)
And then he talked about judging the person by looking at room example - my room is not neat!!! It does not say what I am :-) I found myself getting defensive! I also found myself thinking if my room does not show what I think I m then I m probably repressing something - worth a thought that one.
This book is somehow disturbing me
I agree with it, but I feel restless. I feel I need to improve this skill of mine, I feel like I am lagging or missing out or something like that.. sand in the sieve kinda feeling that.

Next part when he goes on to discuss the pit falls of subconscious thinking..
Try this out, It measures ur gender and race bias. ur unconscious biases.  http://www.understandingprejudice.org/iat/
It says, I have no gender bias :-) but slightly pro White bias.
I wonder if the tests are accurate. especially the gender one, because it uses western names to meassure association. so I m using my conscious mind to determine male/female?? pictures would have been better. I think I do have a moderate gender bias job-male home-female thing, Come on!! our mothers were housewives, I m sure I probably have very strong unconscious bias tho I dont want to.
Again, black/White is not so relevant for us, show terrorist and a bearded guy and see how the biases turn up ;-)
Even tho I agree with the idea of instant biases I didnt like the idea of me having a bias,  even tho I scored fairly evenly on the bias test. While taking it, it was obvious I m biased. yeah yeah philosophy always tells us, we are all alseep, we are governed by patterns. so true. but I m not liking it.
Other is even tho I agree that we are all affected by mental patterns it was difficult to accept that being tall or white male has so much of an advantage in life, I din like to hear it, ITS NOT FAIR! :-) but it may be true

Blink fits in perfectly with all the spiritual gyan ... how automatic gyan can be for good or bad it can be from higher processing power of brain or it can be because of pre concieved patterns. JK and Antony demello are telling us to pay attention and break these very patterns so that we wake up.
law of attraction and all those spritual courses affirmations etc are on the other hand building patterns which are benificial to us.. so that we are positively affected etc.
Blink says that effectiveness of thin slicing and subconscious decision making can be ruined by thinking too much or  by putting things into words or by trying to explain things.
esoteric study also focuses on getting past the conscious mind by avoiding all thoughts or by keeping it busy with mantras or visualisation, so that subconscious mind can get past it.
JK insists on enjoying nature without using words, he says when u see a beautiful sunset try to not put it into words try to just feel the feeling instead of saying wow so lovely! becuase  by saying lovely u limit the experience to what u already know!!

Blink is kind of a scientific reinforcement of all the spiritual things I know, but still its a hard read and hard to accept! strange.

like my life depends on it..

Was watching Nat Geo - Frozen planet, when I was down with cold. Bison herb being chased by wolves. Just 2 wolves. The bison are really big, but they keep running. Wolves try to catch the last one in the herd but that one is too big. so they let it go and chose an younger one. The herd runs on. The young bison is being torn apart by the wolves as it runs. The bison is also  feisty,  It turns around and gores one the wolves, the male runs away. The female keeps at it,(probably has pups to feed). tearing at the bison. Bison throws the wolf up in the air like a rag doll.  Now both are bloody,  both are tired, both are going to die. Both are fighting for life. If she doesnot eat, she will die anyway, so she doesnot care if she is gored half to death. For bison anyway there is no option than to fight. How desperate life is! every moment of their life, it is life or death.
I m sitting here taking off from my work, sniffing.. if I was that wolf, Id starve to death, If I was that bison, I would be torn and eaten.Sick and unwell like this, one day sick means death in the wild. but us? .. its so easy for us...Its not fair. I mean I felt for a second that we are not alive at all! how alive those animals must feel, danger threatening right around the corner every second of  life. I wanted that!! That kind of motivation to work at just being alive!
I recollect the previous day training, I m always the last in running, everyone in my class is fitter than me. so? It does not matter at all.. Its after all a class! but if there were wolves behind us? Would I say these Brits are fitter-more meat,better bones  and just stay at the back? How I would have trained then? would I ever be at the back of the class? Would I ever  lack motivation for exercising then?
To do something in my life, like my life depends on it!? how would it feel? It would feel so invigorating!!!!! no?!