The White Flag Hypothesis (2 of 2)

It is only after we have lost everything,
That we are free to do anything.

Underlying every human experience, mine and yours, there is a hidden but ever-present psychological struggle with existence itself. As we all know but seldom discuss, there is no way to win this struggle – we can’t help that our consciousness will cease to be at some point. Maybe sooner, maybe later. Given the futility and stress inherent to this phenomenon, we’ve become quite adept at hiding this primal dilemma of human life. The better we hide it or pretend it doesn’t exist, the better off we will be. Or so we think.

And what human ability helps us hide this struggle away from consciousness? The sense of control. The more we develop a sense of control in our personal lives, the more we perceive greater control over other areas of our lives, including those that are fundamentally uncontrollable, like existence. This is a clear error in judgment - one does not lead to the other. But it’s true that having control over your job, over your education, over your relationships, over the car you drive, over your shoe selection, over your voting rights, over your income, over (seemingly) everything, will make you feel more secure overall. However, this sense of security masks the fragility and unpredictability of our existence. It does help us feel good though, if only in the short-term.

In the previous post, I presented a few "transcendental events." In relation to Control, a transcendental event (TE) is like the older annoying brother. Just when Control thinks he's the tough guy and has everything figured out, TE shows up, slaps him around a few times and puts him in his place. Transcendental events mess with and destabilize our deeply-seated perception of control over our existence and practically everything else. Stress and anxiety are normal responses to these events. Even a barely noticeable threat to our perception of control can rouse us to the peaks of anger, plunge us into the abyss of self-doubt, or spin us around frantically on the wheels of anxiety.

Try it. Tell a devout Evangelical that there is no evidence for God’s existence. Anxiety, anger, or self-doubt will undoubtedly ensue. Whenever an indicator of control in our lives is put into question, to even the slightest degree, we feel stress. We take an assault on our beliefs, whether or not there is rational basis for them, as an attack on our control over our environment and our lives.

Triggers of Control-Loss

All transcendent events induce a complete or nearly-complete loss of control. This is why these fuckers cause a lot of stress and mental strain. The previous post revealed some of them. Severe trauma, old age, drugs / entheogens, religious experiences, and meditation all throw a big fat wrench into the clockwork-like perception of control. This is because no matter how big your bank account is, no matter how big your plasma TV is, no matter how much your husband/wife loves you, no matter how many added features your convertible has, no matter how many children you have put through college, no matter how long your job title is, none of those things will grant any measure of control over the transcendent life experiences. For that reason, those experiences allow us to transcend - that is, to realize that control is simply an illusion. We are "stepping outside" the illusion of control. And, contrary to what we might expect, it's not so bad.

Perhaps you won’t ever experience any of these transcendent events I mentioned. Perhaps you won’t experience meditation. Perhaps you won’t experience psychedelic drugs. You may even be lucky enough never to experience severe trauma, and/or be unlucky enough to never experience old age. But there is one last transcendental event that I didn’t put on the previous chart that we will all experience – death, or the passing of our consciousness. Death is the ultimate loss of control and therefore the ultimate transcendent event. So yeah, this topic applies to pretty much everyone. Except maybe this guy. 

A Fork in the Road

Not everyone who's presented with a transcendent event reaches transcendence. We all get 2 choices - either fight or surrender. Those who fight against the loss of control end up getting burned because it's unwinnable. In fact, fighting is counterproductive - it actually makes it worse. Like a skinny 10-year old boy trying to beat up his 30-year old brother who also happens to be a bodybuilder. It is never a good idea.

Paradoxically, the only way to "win" is to surrender. In surrendering, we reach acceptance. By accepting that we don't have control, we shed the psychological burdens of fear, stress, worry, anxiety, self-doubt, and all other negative emotions raining down from the stormy clouds of helplessness. This realization, and the benefits that come with it, may be among the most worthwhile and remarkable of human experience. Poetry and other greats works of literature, along with films such as The Fountain (when he surrenders at the end), The Matrix (when Neo dies), Fight Club (when he pours acid on his hand) and, more recently, The Tree of Life (the path of grace) all accurately depict this realization - it is possible to transcend the human condition, but the secret to doing so is counterintuitive.

A Note on Meditation and Religious Experiences
These 2 transcendental events are especially powerful, as they provide a peephole into something tremendously larger than ourselves. I wouldn't' attribute the supernatural to either experience, but it's a pity that religious (Christian/Catholic/Muslim/Judaic) contemplatives do. I say "pity" because the lessons of surrendering and acceptance come from realizing our ignorance -- they don't come from adamantly claiming to know, as the pious do. I believe that meditation on the other hand, given its flexibility to be practiced without unsubstantiated supernatural beliefs, provides a perfectly designed gradual exploration into transcendence and the concept of acceptance, among other things. 

The White Flag Hypothesis
The white flag hypothesis explains that we are not in tune with the nature of our existence. We don't think about it, can't realize it, or prefer not to realize it. Distractions in the form of small controllable events are numerous in daily life: career, relationships, work, pursuit of money, education, etc. During the few opportunities to get in tune (via transcendent events), we experience considerable and perhaps even unprecedented levels of stress/anxiety. If we deny, ignore, or suppress (fight) these experiences, they may encumber us psychologically throughout our lives and outside of our awareness. If we choose to accept and surrender to these events, we experience transcendence, resulting in increased well-being, appreciation for life, and peace with the world and with oneself. This realization, I venture to say, exposes the unrealized potential of human beings. We are at our best when freed from encumbrance. And, to round it all off, this seems to be where wisdom comes from too :)

Wave that flag.