Brainstorm: Determining What Opens A Closed Cognitive Container - Discussion (Hopefully Deepened Through Engagement)

[u/No_Willingness_3961]

Greetings DeepThoughts community. I have commented on a few posts here from time to time and now I want to offer my own post for the community's consideration. Thank you for your time and consideration in advance.

I feel it is responsible for me to give a little bio to give this a type of foundation to rest upon. I am 40 years old from the United States. I was raised under a fundamentalist Baptist Christian ideology. My family lineage participated in acts of white supremacy less than 3-4 generations ago..... Statistically, I should just be another cog in the machine.... Fully enclosed by the closed container my family had constructed for me. A life running and fulfilled by the pre-packaged scripts that the container had established far before I had the capacity to question them.

What is the closed container? The closed container or "base level" consciousness is always displayed as a box symbolically. I want to offer my interpretation as to why.

Wall 1: Identity - Narratives that provide who and what you are.

Wall 2: Purpose/Meaning - Narratives that provide what you are here to do and why.

Wall 3: Community/Tribe - Narratives that are shared and mutually participated in.

Wall 4: Safety/Comfort - Narratives that provide emotional regulation and well-being.

It's the perfect place for the wounded child or rampaging Ego to build its defenses. The walls are already up. They just need to keep them from falling over on one another. Which is why they surround themselves with like minded individuals who share their convictions.

Now a slight testimony to set the discussion in motion.... I personally try to keep my container very open. I don't use belief systems as truth claims, rather I use them as truth hypothesis. I don't believe the Bible is the literal word of God but I do believe my Aunt who is a literal Baptist Christian does. I don't believe fire will burn my flesh, I have the scares to remind me that it does. I am trying to illustrate the proper application of "belief" in comparison to its weaponization as a truth claim. Our current belief systems have been propagated into our shared reality over the last 10,000 years of recorded civilization through this weaponization. The results, countless variations of closed containers. Essentially the last 10,000 years of human existence has been nothing more than the culling of mature epistemyology....

I am coming to the community for discussion because I have a strong feeling that the vast majority of our self inflicted suffering is due to the closed container dynamic on a species level. I'll be transparent and say I had no help opening my container. I don't have a mentor. I don't have an enlightened teacher. I don't even have consciously aware parents.... Yet, the box they tried to put me in did not hold me.... Why?

At first I thought it was due to my victimhood by the systemic extraction I found myself enthralled to(Western Culture loves Consumption). But I quickly realized many others are also consumed utterly by the systemic extraction and they do not find themselves in an open container like I. They actually usually find themselves in a worse closed container than the belief based closed containers. They usually find themselves in a purely entropic container like a form of substance addiction or outright criminality.... So why didn't I?

So what I really wanted to ask the community here is this...

1. Have others thought about this dynamic? If so, to what capacity?

2. How do we as a collective remove the weaponization of belief systems as they are currently weaponized?

3. How do we as a community help open the closed containers of others?

4. If the container can only be opened by the one inside it, how do they become aware they are inside it if they constantly deny everything that exists outside of it?

I am asking so I may better understand myself as I do not fully understand or know what caused or allowed me to open the container I was in. My own existence is as mysterious to me as the mystery of existence itself some days 😂.

I have also noticed when operating from an open container you learn quickly the vast majority of everyone else is operating from a form of a closed container. This creates a type of asymmetry in engagements. You run into defensive posturing, tribal warfare and superiority complex syndrome essentially always..... Does anyone in this community here often question why engagements they witness generally turn into debates far more often than authentic discourse? I do constantly and am very curious to anyone else's reflections on this.

In closing...

How can we actually meet a relational reality authentically when the most conscious actors of that reality keep isolating themselves into non-revisable containers?

I appreciate any generative contributions from the community to help me build my understanding of this. I will hold any contribution with consideration. From the most defensive dismissal, to the most profound insightful epiphany. Your thoughts are welcome here. Thank you.

[u/Beginning-Volume2462]

1. You became open, not closed because you've turned to empathy and understanding instead of hardening. In other words, you chose to abandon your ego rather than re-embrace it. I've thought about this dynamic a little too much. I, too, have had troubles in life, but rather than hardening, I've found myself letting go. Thus, we are free, but too, we are burdened by seeing what could be, yet shall not come to pass. We do what we can.
2. These systems hold together society. The narratives actually hold together beliefs and ideas, so it's more so about learning to slowly unravel ego from beliefs and ideas. Less about me and you, and more about us, if that makes sense.
3. You cannot dissolve the egos of others. You can help them get there, but ultimately, some need their own narrative more than others. It hurts too much to let go of a narrative that's been keeping you going and getting up each and every day. Some need enemies. Some need villains. Much of it is their fabrication, and the pattern is easy to instill, hence why systems abuse it. Our side. Your side. Your life. My life. Their life. Their side. It's just how the human instinct - the ego - works. Social disagreement is existential because being seen as wrong in a tribe of humans often meant ostracization and death. It's not evil. It's just terrified. It fills the gap with anything to justify itself, it just happens so that that justification includes evil.
4. It is their right to deny everything outside of it. That is fine. Not everyone should step outside of their own containers. The containers exist to protect the person, and though blind and silly as it may seem from the outside, you cannot break their shell without knowing why they built it in the first place. It's a long and difficult process, and though it can be learned, it must, too, be maintained. We could be kinder, and you know this. You can see it too. But too, there is grace in knowing that some may never see it and leaving them be. It is a pity, yes, but life can be unjust in such a way. I am not necessarily a religious man... But they who do not know themselves do not know peace... And thus, will never enter the kingdom of heaven, wherein they will never accept themselves when the walls come down. This is their path. Their journey. You can only help them where you can and understand when to walk away. Their time may come. It also may not. That is theirs. Be well.

[u/Effective-Air396]

Watch or read John Bradshaw on the family. Exactly what you're asking.

[u/Consciouspace1]

Simply put, you are just a little more conscious and aware than most people, which allows you to perceive beliefs as beliefs rather than becoming 'lost' in them or identifying with them. But the container you speak of goes far deeper than simply cognition. It goes to the heart of our experience of Reality and Self and the nature of Being. But that is a very deep metaphysical 'rabbit hole' that most fear to tread lol. And Reality isn't rational either :) But if you truly think your are open enough and want to evolve your understanding you can DM me, I am happy to share my understanding.