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November 2009 
What does personal freedom mean to you?
Posted on Nov 5th, 2009
by 
Ted
Ted
This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for November 05, 2009:
I started out with a reasonably glib answer - that it means having enough trust in myself that I can choose my actions irrespective of the good or bad opinion of others.
Then I really started to think about it.
I think it is always there - it is the ability to choose the context of my life, whatever the circumstance.
Sometimes circumstances happen and there isn't a lot I can do about them, and I always have a choice over the context in which I choose to interpret and respond to the circumstances.
I have the choice of interpretation - and with that I can change everything and nothing.
Having money and resources is nice too - if I want to do anything in reality - which I do.
Access: Public
I enjoyed this read and the clear thinking behind the concept of freedom. It makes total sense that we are free to change everything and nothing within our reality. Love to have choice and you have drawn a picture of that with your words. Thanks.
Great answer, Ted!
I don't know how to answer this question myself and I've been struggling with the disturbing fact that the more I know of the world and myself, the more my choices seem to be predetermined (statistically predictable) or habitual. What is the difference between concious choice of interpretative context and self-delusion? How do I know if my choice wasn't in itself predertermined and habitual (i.e not a choice at all)? If I'm presented with two sets of interpretative schemas and don't have enough information to dismiss one or the other I go with my gut feeling and keep a mental bookmark at the rejected schema in case I get more information later, I guess we all do (?) But then isn't the gut just another subconcious habitual choice machine?
Hi Jenny
How do you know the difference between choice and self delusion - ask your holographic processor the question, and listen carefully to the answer - it will be there, instantaneous to our perception of time.
I think it is a matter of learning our own deepest levels of integrity, and then having the courage to live up to what that integrity demands of us.
I guess all of that sort of equates to “go with the gut feeling” and perhaps there is another layer or two of awareness in there (and perhaps not).
I don't think the “gut” - the “holographic processor” - is a habitual machine. It is very sensitive to context, and if we keep the same context, we will get the same answer, which kinda appears like habit, and in a sense it is, and it is a habit of context, rather than a habit of the machine itself. The distinction is important.
Hmm… *scanning for reference to stored data that match the context of this enquiry, lots of heat produced, fans going off and processor making quirky noises* :-)
Output: On some level I think I understand what you are saying Ted and I thank you for clarifying this. It appears the real problem for me lies in being confident with what you call “our own deepest levels of integrity”. Not being quite sure of what is going on, not seeing the full context or what habitual patterns are activated in a given situation which then leads me to be paranoid about a habitual “meme” mascerading as the “gut” or “holographic processor”. I guess it's a try-and-learn-from-your-misstakes” process…
Hi Jenny
Very much a trial and error thing.
For me one key in understanding it was making a distinction between the two major types of processes going on in the brain.
We are certainly habit forming machines, which aligns very well with the way neural networks work - they definitely form habits.
Then there is the way we store and retrieve information, which has its nearest analog in holograms. This process forms associations, and is nearly instantaneous (sub nanosecond response times). This process is very sensitive to the context held in the mind doing the recall.
So in a sense, yes we have habits of memory, and the habits of memory do not come directly from the recall mechanism, but from the context in which the recall mechanism is activated (which context is typically a habit of one of our neural network based processors - which we have multiple operating simultaneously).
For me, one key is learning to distinguish between the source process of the many intuitions that occur, and then shifting to a meta context, (a context of contexts) and do a little exploration of alternative intuitions/interpretations.
I think some of the extremes to which I have pushed my physical body and thereby my awareness have helped me to be able to move it around and share it between processing centers in my brain. Things like snorkeling to 100ft deep, and holding my breath under water until my vision goes out; or consciously dropping my heart rate below 20 beats per minute - got it down to 9 once, but there wasn't much power left to maintain awareness, it was very simplified - so I never went back to that place - wasn't comfortable and didn't seem very safe.
It really is much easier to understand if you have a some LASERs and holographs in your hands and can play with them for a few hours, and then follow it up with some of the theoretical underpinnings. I'm very much a hands on sort of a guy - I like to learn about things by taking them apart, and, if possible, putting them back together again.
Lotsa love
Ted
I really appreciate you taking the time to explain this, it's a perspective I haven't come across before and it's opening up a lot of new “possibility spaces” for me that were lacking from the spiritual metaphores, however without those as stepping stones I don't think I would have felt the relevance in my life of knowing anything about holograms, or why it is important for me to know a bit about how my brain works :)
I'll try to find a good “hands on” video on youtube explaining this… My knowledge of holographic technology in general is close to zero. From what I understand, it means recording how light from different angles scatters when it hits an object, kind of like the sonars that bats use to get a 3D-picture from sound. I'm still to understand how that is different from the stereo-recording that our eyes do (two 2D pictures from two different angles are put together to give 3D). And then I realize that I can close one eye and still see 3D, even if not as well…oh dear, now I'm confused!
One thing did strike me though, what you say about the holographic and context-dependent nature of memory storage-retrival: For starters, one could direct attention to this by thinking about how a memory-recall differs depending on what mood or context one is retrieving it and how the recall also changes from increased storage-contexts. (For instance, how thinking about a person we see everyday over several years in various contexts differs from thinking about a person we met once). We can all do that without a scientific background! :)
What you say about pushing your physical body to extreme states is the same techniqie used by meditators and drug-induced meditators. I find Stanislav Grofs techniques very interesting (he started off using LSD, then switched to intense breathing). I'm an atheist so I don't think his discoveries of the transpersonal (the perinatal I'm still undecided about, don't know enough about the baby brain) literally, i.e. I don't think we reincarnate or are able to recieve information through mind reading. I am however open to the possibility of information being stored in genes “somehow” that can later be interpreted as memory (simply because I don't know enough about genes or memory retreival to dismiss it). But his framework still “works” and are useful metaphores that actually heal people…as long as they don't get stuck with the metaphores and see them as scientific facts, which would then halt further development. This is where science needs to come in and say: Ok guys, keep using your metaphores, but this is WHY it works…
Oh dear, I do waffle about…
Have a lovely day Ted!
/Ti-Shu