My sleep patterns have gone to pot since starting this process with you, I'm responding much earlier than I guessed, basically in the middle of the night!
"By Direct Experience we mean whatever can be directly perceived, which basically falls into the category of anything that appears through the 5 senses, and also thoughts.
This is as opposed to stories, interpretations, theories, speculation, ie being carried along in thought."
"No great reason that I can recall, other than to place a stress on the basic nature of the definition (there ya go, I did it again), and in doing so the basic nature of Direct Experience. If you are a non-native English speaker then you may have identified such a convention of grammar as, well, unconventional."
Good that I asked as I had made a wrong assumption.
"I did it another 5 times and became aware of 2 sides of my personality! If you had asked me to choose from 4 pens, or 10 pens, I dread to think what would have happened!! :) When I chose the red pen I was aware of being motivated by pleasure and desire, it looks elegant and I enjoy holding and writing with it. When I chose the orange pen that I don't much like the look of I chose it because I felt a bit sorry for it and didn't want it to feel left out!! But somehow I have a feeling that I haven't got a point your were seeking to elicit."
Is this a Direct Experience of a "chooser" or is there some interpretation going on?
Something like;
1. Thoughts about choosing a particular pen ("this looks elegant" or "this looks lonely" etc)
2. Pen is picked up.
3. Thoughts assuming a link between 1 and 2
I keep on needing to remind myself of what 'Direct Experience' is refering to. Definitely there is some interpretation going on and projection going on. Either I have remarkable powers of empathy with inanimate objects or I'm making up stories!! :) (Or maybe both are true!!) This is true for the 'lonely' pen but I can not say that with regard to the red pen that it was a
"thought" of elegance, it was more the nature of an immediate response to visual beauty, a mild form of fascination. But I'm playing the 3,2,1 game again just with picking up the pens...this time I seem to have a different experience, beneath, below or before theories and interpretations, there was just picking up of a pen, with no dramas.
If you had 10 pens and experienced a "tyranny of choice", where would the drama take place?
Would this actually have anything to do with the pen that was picked up in the end?
Well, I don't think any of the 10 pens would get into a tizz!! :)) The drama takes place in the mind through thoughts and emotions. Every pen is innocent :) Thank you for not asking me to do the excerice with 10 pens, that's merciful of you :)
"I picked an orange and a red pen, and did the exercise 13 times, strangely I couldn't identify an exact point when choosing happened."
Is there any point at which choosing can be said to happen?
Ok, I'll try again and tell you what I find....how very strange, I picked up a pen maybe 10-12 times and couldn't find a point when choosing happened! Isn't that weird?
