[MD] Just coincidence?

[Peter Corteen]

Joseph, thanks for your reply.

Your statement  'mind is of the individual and has no possibility of
effecting anyone but the thinker' clears the way so that we can agree. Of
course it is not quite as cut and dried as that statement implies (similarly
with Nietzsche's famous line). Your proposition of 'collective mind'
conjured images of  individual minds being directly connected, which I would
reject, but I can see that you don't mean that now.

In a way I would say there is no mind; like space and time it is a
convention. Perhaps 'mind' is, or is part of,  the 'nothingness'  that Ham
Priday pushes elsewhere on moqtalk.  When people use the word 'I' they are
referring to a momentary impression of mind; it is the most intimate part of
me, more 'me' that my hand. And yet it is illusory. I can use the word 'I'
now, but when I use it later on today I will be referring to a different
'I'; my situation will be different and I will be operating under a
different set of beliefs later on. Mind appears to have continuity in the
shape of 'I', but it is really not so.

We think mind is something private to the individual 'with no possibility of
affecting anyone but the individual'; yes and no. Our intentions always
affect the larger body (we are psycho-physical organisms), especially when
we think of doing; even if we try to merely think of doing something, such
as raising an arm, then the arm responds to that intention however
minimally. If we think of mathematics then the brow creases and the neck
often becomes tense. We give off signals which can be seen by others.

Perhaps mind is Pirsig's Dynamic Quality and the brain is the main sight of
static intellectual quality. Nothingness, which is the mind, differentiates
possible futures and chooses one future that appears to offer a more
complete continuity than the others. In this sense I think we are creators,
along with all the other animals except that we have more choice, but we are
not, and there is not, an all powerful creator. I am rambling now.

Peter