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Essays, Opinion, & Commentary |
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April 1, 2007
by Frank Martin DiMeglio
The self represents, forms, and experiences a comprehensive approximation of the totality of experience by combining unconscious and conscious experience. Experience then becomes a more direct expression of the self that is increasingly representative of a greater totality of experience as well. This is due to the combined effect of higher feeling with consistent, balanced, and complex emotion; as the more concerning, compelling, and unconscious aspect of higher feeling merges with the more conscious aspect of emotion that is comprehensive (or complex) and balanced (or consistent). This is demonstrated in becoming "one with the music." Indeed, given such a fundamental integration and spreading of the self, the self represents and forms a comprehensive approximation of all experience. Such truly elevated and powerful desire is characterized by relatively unified and comprehensive desire, intention, and concern. Art and great thinking advance and recognize the self as that which is true, serious, compelling, beautiful, and real. Indeed, man is only great and truly concerned to the extent that the totality of experience is understood and felt to be reflective of the self or desire; for this is how the self is fundamentally advanced. The fundamental instinct or desire is to become other than one is; and this involves, includes, and is consistent with, the following: 1. All living things grow. 2. Powerful desire is involved in creating a life that is other than one's own. 3. The cyclical nature of dreams and waking experience, including the fact that dream experience tends to be unique, insofar as it generally does not recur. 4. Both the life and death drives. 5. The heightened passion and desire that are involved in the relatively new (and unique) experiences or creations of genius. Desire consists of both intention and concern. The fullness and richness of our being, thought, experience, and desire (or emotion) is attained when intention and concern become consistent (or balanced) and comprehensive. Ideally, the heightened feeling that the genius experiences at the emotional center of the self results in emotion that is balanced (or consistent) and comprehensive (or complex). Such emotion involves heightened intuition, concentrated and comprehensive desire, and a superior range, consistency, comprehensiveness, and depth of the attendant thought. The mind and desire are sharpened by focusing and concentrating thought and emotion. The increased desire or feeling that further involves the unconscious improves the consistency and comprehensiveness of the self's desire and thought, and attention is improved as well. The ability of thought to describe or reconfigure sense is ultimately dependent upon the extent to which thought is similar to sense. Beethoven's thought, for example, was more comprehensively encompassed and characterized by emotion, which accounts for the range and depth of his expression of desire. The self-encompassing effect of "becoming one with the music" truly elevates desire and advances the self. In the experience of great music, the high feeling and degree of emotional consistency and complexity (or comprehensiveness) are such that thought is, in effect, "outsmarted", and may only describe the musical experience in a relatively incomplete, inconsistent, unsatisfactory, and distant fashion. Whereas in the dream, the expressions and manifestations of desire are more concerning, music involves the representation and expression of desire as increasingly intentional and concerning. An enriched, central, balanced, unified, coherent, expansive, and fundamental basis (or platform) for the overall advancement of the self is thus achieved. Desire is the glue of the self. From dreams and abstract (or general) ideas to the experience of great music itself, the worlds of thought and sense are encompassed by the self as desire. Art and music make experience, desire, and attention sustained and intentional, thereby expanding upon experience and freedom. Consciousness involves the extent to which the experience and expressiveness of the self comprehensively approximate to reality. The dream assists with this, for in this relatively unconscious experience of higher (or emotional) feeling, desire takes the form of increased or amplified concern, and results in a relative reduction in the desirability and intentionality of experience. (The self rests in the dream due to the reduction of the intentionality of experience therein, as there is neither fatigue nor tiredness in the dream.) However, the higher desire (or feeling) of genius merges (or balances) increased intentionality of experience with increased concern in order to gain what is a fundamental extension of being, desire, thought, and experience. Given the relatively advanced consciousness (and desire) of the ideal (or highest) form of genius, experience and the self are extended and balanced at a shared and higher level of feeling, and experience becomes increasingly desirable, intentional, and concerning. Experience becomes more extensive and comprehensive as a reflection of desire, for the self then represents, forms, and experiences a comprehensive and consistent approximation of reality. Language then becomes possible in the different sensory modalities. When experience is increasingly intentional, it necessarily is more concerning. The experience of the body makes this readily apparent. In considering conscious experience, it is critical to identify the common factors or elements therein. The self is understood to still be conscious in the dream due to the experience of language, thought, desire, concern, some intentionality of experience, minor pain, laughter, vision, and a sense of relative familiarity with the experience therein. The dream provides for narrowness or specificity of attention and experience. Inseparable from this is the reduction in the totality of experience during dream experience. Given this relative disintegration and/or fragmentation of conscious thought and experience, attention is more variable and specific. The dream exhibits and develops thoughtful and emotional resiliency in conjunction with the variable depth and range of feeling that is experienced therein. The dream ensures that thought remains specific, flexible, and resilient at what are generally higher and variable levels of feeling. In fact, it is because attention and experience are already so narrow and specific in the dream that experience and attention are variable (or shifting). The dream involves a relatively extreme focusing of attention to the point that the visual experience is relatively disintegrated. This very effect occurs when conscious, if experience is significantly narrowed (or reduced) by staring at something for an extended amount of time. Moreover, this disintegration (or dullness) of visual experience also occurs when an object is close to the eyes. Consistent with this is the fact that visual dream experience occurs at a closer distance than that of waking vision. The dream demonstrates sustained or improved attention in conjunction with the narrowness, specificity, and variability (or shifting) of attention therein. Clearly, an essential connection involving creativity and desire in relation to experience, thinking, and attention is thus established. In turning to the experience of consciousness that involves genius, attention and experience (including thought) become more continuous and extensive. In conjunction therewith, the creative genius also retains the advantages of higher feeling (i.e., as increased desire or energy) that confer increased variability and specificity (or narrowness) of attention, emotion, and experience (including thought). It is noteworthy that there is neither fatigue nor tiredness in the dream. Therefore, the thought(s) and attention of the genius become more sustainable, as they are more continuous (or consistent), extensive, specific, and variable (or shifting). Given the successful combination of conscious and relatively unconscious experience (and attention), a truly greater, more permanent (i.e., less transitory), expansive, and more creatively desirable realm of thought and experience will result. Indeed, the ultimate and legitimate goal of truth, knowledge, and experience in general is the fundamental advancement and improvement of consciousness. Frank Martin DiMeglio lives in Maryland and is currently writing a book about philosophy. He has a Bachelor of Science degree (Honors, 1987) from Towson University in Geography and Environmental Planning.
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Enrich Your Life With a Philosophy Book...
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Human
Being: Self, Desire, &
Consciousness
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