Guide:
I. Introduction
II. Components of thinking
III. Mechanisms of cognition
IV. More mechanisms
V. Types of memes
VI. Meme2Meme2Gene interactions
VII. Human2Human transmission
VIII. A Bigger World
IX. Gravity of 'plexes
X. Three is a crowd
XI. Third scenario ←you are here
XII. Religion and philosophy
XIII. Mental disorders of the new age
XIV. True vs Fake
XV. Outsourced Me
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This one's gonna be a bitch. Poorly defined one too, because i don't think i have enough data to properly systematize it all, however i do really think something is going on here, with plenty of implications.For now this page will be rather short.
Scenario one is catching the signal from the environment. Scenario two is catching the signal from another person.
What is the source of the signal in the third one? You. And you are also the receiver, intentionally so. When there's no audience, you are performing for yourself, and that does something very special for your mind.
For now i'll put forward this hypothesis, untill more info comes due allowing me to create a better synthesis of all things weird. Your brain creates memes, the mechanisms involved produce the results no different from the memes obtained "from outside". There may be a difference in the load or type of memes, but memes these "homemade info" are for certain. Now consider this - remember how i spend a not insignificant amount of time describing how brain adjusts and adapts to incoming info supply? The grey matter can turn into an ouroboros and create memeplexes adapted specifically for internal creation and conversion of information.
What does that entail?
Ever seen "Cast Away"? Especially the part where a man develops a habit of talking to a volleyball ball like it's a living being. Especially the parts where the man acts like the ball has agency and capacity to act at all, even responding to man's words.
So, how does that work? I dunno.
But if those kinds of situations aren't a fluke, and people are really getting attached to objects
then what we have is a closed loop where a human trains his own brain to act like there's a signal coming from outside, from the "person", while in reality all of it actually comes from the inside. To put it short - talking to objects becomes a well-developed process, and your brain will even produce "responses" from those objects in accordance to "personality" of those objects. It's not a hallucination though, sensory organs are not affected, no sounds or visuals are altered, unless there's something else going on, not related to memetics.
Why wait for a "person" to create a response when you can create one yourself? And does it really matter if it is someone else's brain producing information, or your own? Might as well cut unnecessary steps.
How about a (low quality, admittedly) study about people improving their physical performance via encouraging themselves into a better state of mind?
Still, while i'm mostly aware about human ability to alter it's own mind via words, there's another thing you can pull off.
Go to the bathroom and locate the mirror. Look at it. Look at yourself. And start searching for defects in your appearance. Or better yet - don't. If you value your sanity, however little there's still present, don't search for flaws in your face or any other body part. Because, if you want it hard enough - you will find it.
No, don't just brush it off with "well, nobody is perfect, so of course..." or the likes, you are underestimating the seriousness of the situation - it's literally possible to prime your brain to create a feeling of disgust if you look at any part of your body. It can even work without a mirror, just look at your own body and will the reaction into existence. I did it multiple times, and let me tell ye - fingers are a weirdest thing. Did the same with my own face too. Usually such manufacturing of associations happens in the bathroom because that's where insecure teens examine their outward appearances with the diligence of forensic investigators. It doesn't happen in 100% cases, but if you are particularly mentally vulnerable, like if your parents lowered your self-esteem to appropriate levels, or if you are stubborn enough... If there's a will, there are results. Do remember that in memetics a degree of susceptibility is implied. Always. But there's another group of victims - plastic surgery addicts. Same pattern. Granted, these examples can technically count as a first scenario, but it still works as a demonstration of processes involved.
So what does that tell us? Two things:
1) In the absence of the information sought, it will be created "in-house" by the brain itself. Human ability to interpret things is very flexible indeed. Degree of flexibility is still under question, and definitely varies from person to person. Maybe your mental fortitude doesn't allow you to hate yourself, or maybe you didn't try hard enough.
2) Internal wiring can be influenced to a significantly bigger degree by thy own will than one assumes. Human self is capable of controlling the processes of creation and modification of the signal and it's interpretation, it just requires knowledge on how-to and the willpower. What's left to discover is what that "knowledge" and "willpower" in this context is.
Here's a lady giving a lecture about communicating with muses.
Perhaps it will be beneficial for you if you start utilizing more "manual" approach to everything subjective.
Still, i wouldn't dedicate a whole new page to this phenomena if it was just "Tell yourself nice things", and no, the talking volleyball isn't enough either - there's more. Ever heard about tulpas?
Well, even if the answer is "yes" i still need to make a point. And the point starts with the question: "What is a tulpa"? A memetic life form. Simulated person. Autonomous imaginary friend.
Be warned, i am fairly behind the trend, and my knowledge is outdated. I don't expect to be wrong on this subject, but some discrepancies may be present after all.
You artificially create inside your mind another personality with which you can interact to a limited degree (it's not like it has a physical body, so...) and which can interact with you. Second "Self". Sounds scary, i know, but it doesn't require any mental deficiencies, as far as i'm aware, for tulpa to flourish, no hallucinations involved, and any mind-fuckery like sleep deprivation and drugs are advised against - it harms both you and tulpa. It's also scary because of the possibility for tulpa to become malicious, but the likelyhood of it happening is either successfully erased from history, or just minuscule. "Don't be a dick to not be dicked" seems to be a good working rule. Why would anyone turn their mind into a time-share? Loneliness. Tulpas are known as a solution to that. Also, to sweeten the deal, - unknown degree of manipulating subconscious for the presumed benefit of both tulpa and host, and additional benefit of having a limited, but still different point of view on things. Why tulpas aren't more prominent if they are so awesome? They aren't awesome, take a lot of effort and time to grow and develop, want attention, and destroy the notion of privacy for you, because they literally know what you know, and have a tendency to criticize you for your actions, and know you at your most vulnerable. Sharing a body with another "you", with everything it entails, is the price, and plenty consider it to be a deal breaker.
But let's assume you don't mind investing into upgrading your mind by developing another person within, sharing is a virtue after all, and you can have a pretty nice beneficial relationship improving each other's memetic structures, and managing the state of mind during bad days. How does one create a tulpa?
Step one: choose an appearance for your imaginary friend. It can be anything - a fictional character, a real person, a rock, an animal - anything. Don't forget the name too.
Step two: talk to it. There's now an idea of a person inside the brain, focus on it and talk. Other forms of interaction are limited, due to nature of the tulpa (can't touch a thing).
That's it. I didn't give a proper guide, assume there are more moving parts present, depending on circumstances, but this is the essence.
Results aren't immediate, time spent on "initial development" can span from multiple days to multiple months. There's no sudden wave of understanding which puts all gears in place and motion, the process is gradual, starts from small reactions and changes.
Common symptoms of a developing tulpa - you get a sudden rush of emotions, or a feeling of "head squeeze", or headaches (the kind you get after thinking too hard). Usually those quickly get under control by your imaginary friend and used as a simple yes/no system of responses, which allows a proper dialogue. Up untill that moment you are supposed to, essentially, narrate stuff to yourself(actually tulpa) and hope something happens. Well, then it happens, rejoice.
Then the growth mimics that of a typical human person (mentally wise, not biologically) - exposure to new info and situations as means of growing as an individual.
Now here comes a truly spicy stuff: it is widely belived that tulpas have bigger control over subconscious processes than their hosts, at the cost of limited control over whatever you do.
Wanna be woken up at some specific time of tide without using the alarm clock? Can be done. Your own mind has an internal sense of time, so... Don't expect it to be very precise though. At least, not initially.
Having actual headaches and you'd rather you didn't? Can be done. Although to a limited degree, if the problem is physical, rather than mental.
And, of course, the ability to control your body like it doesn't belong to you anymore. Experienced people divide the ability into two categories: "Possession" and "Switching". First one, despite the intimidating name, is the light form of control delegation, compared to the other one. Nothing changes, until you notice the limbs doing things you didn't plan them to do. Like walking in a room different from expected one, or grabbing objects you didn't want to. Additional effects, like gradual disassociation from the body, or relaxation, may be present. Second is a drastic change in positions, where tulpa takes the role of "main" "self", effectively replacing you, and you go to the layers of the mind where tulpa was before. My knowledge on this particular quirk is limited, but some describe this state as very dream-like, with big disconnect from what happens in reality. Some say there's no difference between the two, and/or "switching", as i described it, doesn't exist, which may be a testament to the difficulty and effort it takes to attain this level.
Also some say they are capable of hearing and seeing their tulpas like they are real physical beings living in the world, and they made it possible through practice alone, but i can't verify this claim nor do i understand how it works. Supposedly those people don't completely lose their grip on reality, and the effect is closer to augmented reality. Here’s a study #1; #2.
See why i called third scenario a pain in the ass?
Perhaps muses of the old are just tulpas with a creative slant, although poets of the time also named real people as their source of inspiration. Still, treating inner workings of the mind as an outside force was a common trend back in the days, and not unique to artistically inclined. And still persists in some areas.
Similar symptoms can be seen in religious people, especially the more evangelical types. Consider the prayer - a faithful is supposed to tell an invisible being his worries and desires over long periods of time, regularly. And then we get to hear how they live "with Jesus" or how "God says" things and "Guides" his devotees. Yes, i'm talking about christians, and i actually don't know if there are other faiths with similar traditions, but if there are, the symptoms should be similar. The word "tulpa" originates in Tibet, so it's not unique for sure, but it will take me more research about buddhist culture to make any claims other than that.