Why do we need narratives?

[Windwalker]

It seems to me as we take away all our thoughts about things and just simple be in the moment, you wonder why we seem obsessed with having to have way to talk about it? The simple answer is to communicate it to others, but I think too it's more about us to hold on to that moment as a "truth" for us to come back to.

But more truth and more information can be known in a mere moment's silence, than the volumes of texts we run through our minds constantly processing thoughts about what is simply standing outside, alongside even those thoughts. We stick our faces into our minds probing to see what we can extract, and missing that voice which is the entire world in a moment's silence. Why are we so head-crazy? What is it with our species? As my partner likes to say, we are just monkeys with over-sized brains. Perhaps. We're a neurotic species and we spend each day inflicting suffering on ourselves for no reason.

 

[Brickjectivity]

But more truth and more information can be known in a mere moment's silence, than the volumes of texts we run through our minds constantly processing thoughts about what is simply standing outside, alongside even those thoughts. We stick our faces into our minds probing to see what we can extract, and missing that voice which is the entire world in a moment's silence. Why are we so head-crazy? What is it with our species? As my partner likes to say, we are just monkeys with over-sized brains. Perhaps. We're a neurotic species and we spend each day inflicting suffering on ourselves for no reason.

Most of our suffering is due to our drive to conserve our bodily energy levels. To think requires energy, thus we avoid thinking. We can, however, be stimulated by learning, through accomplishments and some other means such as brain foods. That extra stimulation can generate extra energy as well as pleasure to counteract the pain that opposes exertion. Just as the runner can enjoy their painful running, the thinker can enjoy their energetic thinking.

It seems to me as we take away all our thoughts about things and just simple be in the moment, you wonder why we seem obsessed with having to have way to talk about it? The simple answer is to communicate it to others, but I think too it's more about us to hold on to that moment as a "truth" for us to come back to.

It is hard to rest the verbal part of the brain. It is so well traveled and is such a low energy, low resistance path; but just try thinking to yourself in a new language. You won't find that so simple. Resting the mind and exerting it take about the same amount of effort probably.

Sorry I guess that doesn't explain why we need narratives. I can use narratives to ponder things and imagine things. I can understand myself better with them.

 

[crossfire]

I would say we create narratives in an effort to bring something unconscious into consciousness. Some things are just too complicated to bring entirely into consciousness, and we can paralyze ourselves with the Centipede Syndrome (ironically, a metaphorical narrative) in such cases.

 

[beenherebeforeagain]

At some point, we became storytellers, to explain and re-experience our experiences, to learn from them, and to remove the terror of them.

 

[Orbit]

It seems to me as we take away all our thoughts about things and just simple be in the moment, you wonder why we seem obsessed with having to have way to talk about it? The simple answer is to communicate it to others, but I think too it's more about us to hold on to that moment as a "truth" for us to come back to.

But more truth and more information can be known in a mere moment's silence, than the volumes of texts we run through our minds constantly processing thoughts about what is simply standing outside, alongside even those thoughts. We stick our faces into our minds probing to see what we can extract, and missing that voice which is the entire world in a moment's silence. Why are we so head-crazy? What is it with our species? As my partner likes to say, we are just monkeys with over-sized brains. Perhaps. We're a neurotic species and we spend each day inflicting suffering on ourselves for no reason.

We are meaning-making creatures. Narratives provide meaning. It's what our brains do. Silence is nice, too but it takes some meditation to get there, I think. My monkey brain interprets silence as boredom, because we naturally crave stimuli. Your partner is right; we're trapped inside our evolved biological apparatus.

 

[Windwalker]

We are meaning-making creatures. Narratives provide meaning. It's what our brains do. Silence is nice, too but it takes some meditation to get there, I think. My monkey brain interprets silence as boredom, because we naturally crave stimuli. Your partner is right; we're trapped inside our evolved biological apparatus.

Hah! I feel for you! I does take a certain 'shift' to where it really opens up. Then it's nonstop entertainment! After that then comes a certain resting of mind, where it's not that all thoughts stop, but they're more like single drops of rain where the entire meaning of the universe is held in each thought, like a single thought: Love. To me, that is the Silence, even while the bubbling streams of thought go by. There's lots of ways we can open to that, without having to necessarily sit on a cushion a couple hours a day. Meditative living. That should be a thing.

 

[Shadow Link]

"Why do we need narratives?"

"To conquer unstructured data"