Chapter 43 The Evolution of Human Civilization (2) Human Associations
And what I want to talk about is the associative ability of human beings, there is a Chinese idiom: "Once bitten by a snake, three years afraid of the grass rope", the snake and the grass rope are the same in appearance, and human beings in the experience of being bitten by a snake, learn a lesson, know that snakes are dangerous, but if a person needs to remember (access) this experience of being bitten when he sees a snake, and then after thinking (evaluating) the environment at that time, that person may have a reaction to escape, it may be too late.
If it's an animal, based on instinct, it runs away immediately. In this rapidly changing environment, human beings want to survive and avoid danger, that is, to speed up the speed of reaction, so they develop the ability to associate.
After being bitten by a snake once, the painful experience made him run away immediately when he saw the straw rope (i.e., a long strip-like object), that is, he immediately "realized" the danger without thinking, and he may only realize that it was a straw rope without danger when he looked closely.
This example illustrates the misjudgment of "consciousness" due to the "power of association". Why do I say "associative power", which is a well-known fact?
This is because this "associative power" interferes with human "consciousness". The evolution of human beings is influenced not only by instinct (the great subconscious), but also by the subconscious of the individual, and finally by the "consciousness" that comes from thinking about different experiences.
For example, a poor child who has to pick up two large vases to sell in the store on behalf of his mother every day, when the child grows up, he will naturally associate the vase with "very heavy", and he may immediately feel the weight of the "burden".
When the child sees the "vase" many times and thinks of "very heavy", after many repeated associations, he feels "very heavy" as soon as he sees the "vase", and "feeling" is a kind of "consciousness", which is originally the result of thinking (i.e. reasoning ability), it is obvious that this is an example of the "personal subconscious" affecting the "consciousness".
From this example, we can explain the causes of some "weird" sexual behaviors in human beings, such as: fetishes, when someone associates "one pair of feet" with "sexual pleasure" because of their personal experience, that is, the "consciousness" is influenced or disturbed by the "personal subconscious".
By mentioning the above two examples, it is pointed out that the "great subconscious", "personal subconscious" and "consciousness" are the three major elements of human evolution.
To sum up, the "big subconscious" comes from the "stars", that is, our survival instincts that know how to "breathe", "eat", "drink", etc. The "personal subconscious" comes from the interweaving of personal experience and "association"; "Consciousness" is the "conclusion of thinking" obtained by accessing previous experiences and evaluating the situation in front of you.