Individual

Life, existence, the universe, and our own identity, purpose, and meaning are very complicated things. Nobody has all the answers, but we can still seek to understand things and try to improve them. I have created a paradigm, envisioning our existence as being composed of four elements, in hopes that it will provide wisdom and insight onto how to improve our condition and understand ourselves and the world.

The Human Individual
To introduce you to this paradigm, I’ve made this rough draft of a presentation, applying the four elements to the level of an individual human being. This paradigm holds that a person is made up of four components, each which requires proper inputs and outputs to be fully developed. In order to explain each component, I will start with the most concrete, easily understood part, the body, and explain the other more abstract parts based on how they compare to it.

Body
THE
The physical, material self
The need for self preservation and survival, and the drive for health and physical strength
The base for all experience and actions; the most basic component of an individual
Interacts with the physical environment and world around it

Body
The body needs inputs like food, water, and air in order to survive. They provide nutrients essential to it’s functions.
There are both positive and negative inputs.
Food, water and air can be contaminated with toxic chemicals, viruses, or disease causing bacteria.
Unhealthy food not only substitutes what should be eaten, causing deficiency problems, but can cause diseases.
Clean air, clean water, and nutritious food fuel the functions of the body and provide it with energy.
The practice of protecting the body from negative inputs is hygiene, and the practice of selecting the most positive inputs for the body is nutrition
Inputs

Body
Outputs
The body also needs to output what it takes in as inputs.
It excretes unnecessary waste, using the remaining energy for it’s bodily functions and activity.
The body needs to be active. Without any kind of physical activity, the body atrophies.
Positive outputs includes physical activity like sports, dance, and other forms of exercise. They keep the body functioning properly and smoothly, and enhance its physical capabilities.
Using the body to harm itself or its surroundings is violence, a negative output.
Proper maintenance of the body is called fitness.
Some people think violence is a natural tendency. If so, then the use of positive physical activity to prevent violent outputs is called catharsis.

Body
To become healthy and fit, the body must
Be kept free of toxins and disease infections
Avoid unhealthy inputs lacking in nutrients
Nourish itself with clean, nutritious inputs
Be physically active, performing some form of exercise regularly
Balance out physical input and output with sufficient sleep and rest
Outputs
Inputs

Heart
THE
The social self, the identity
The need for belonging, love, and respect. The desire to procreate, to be understood and to protect one’s kin and species
The part of a person that has a name
Interacts with other people, anything involving other people is considered social

Heart
The heart needs input. If a person grows up in complete isolation from other people, they are forever apathetic an unable to speak or learn. Social interaction is fundamentally important, essential to shaping our identity. Insufficient social input leads to loneliness.
The typical form of social input is conversation, which also includes output. Listening to someone speak, or reading a message are examples of social inputs.
Input is positive as long as it has positive regard towards the person. This could be called love, or respect.
If social input is threatening, degrading, or harming in any way, it is considered negative. Also drama, gossip, and rumors are like social drugs, and can become addicting even though they are negative
There is a sort of “nutritious” value to social in/output like there is for physical inputs. Small talk about things considered unimportant to the people interacting is very unfulfilling, while discussing the things most dear to one’s heart provides great value.
Inputs

Heart
Outputs
The heart needs to give social output much like it needs to receive social input, and typically gives the same kind that it receives.
If someone is mostly treated negatively, they will likely be cold hearted and output negative social behavior, harming the hearts of others, or they may refrain from social output, keeping to themselves.
If a person is shown love, they are likely to give it back to others.
People generally have a desire to communicate to others and to be understood. If unable to do this, one experiences a great loneliness, even if others provide social input to them.
No person interacts with every other person in the exact same way. By having many different and strong relationships, a person discovers different aspects of themselves and enriches their own identity. For each deep relationship, it’s as if a person can only be or experience that specific part of themselves when with that particular person.

Heart
To become fulfilled and joyous, the heart needs
Plenty of relationships where each person has a good, mutual understanding of one another,
Rich social interaction full of love and respect,
To be balanced out with times of solitude.
To both give and receive love.
Outputs
Inputs

Mind
THE
The mental, intellectual, productive self
The curiosity and desire to understand oneself and one’s world, the desire to be productive, and the need to provide value and contribute to ones society
Observes the world and gains knowledge and information

Mind
The mind needs to observe its world and gain knowledge. Without learning and obtaining knowledge, a person would never even be able to provide oneself food and protect itself from harm.
All true information is positive mental input for the mind.
False information is a negative input for the mind, and will lead to problems when applying the information.
A person who does not want to learn or finds it boring could be considered apathetic. Apathy is like starving the mind, has dire consequences and will leave a person empty, feeling little worth and value.
There is also a value to mental input. Too much useless information like sports statistics or celebrity gossip inhibits the productivity of the mind and is not true learning.
Humans are typically curious by nature, and seek to gain an understanding of the things that fascinate them. After learning about something, a person usually sees a connection to another thing, and then continues to learn about their new interests. Normally a person with full appreciation of their mind and knowledge would like to learn as much as they can and are interested by all things.
Inputs

Mind
Outputs
There is little good in learning in one never uses any of the information they had gained. Generally humans must use their minds and apply their knowledge even just to survive.
Humans normally find meaning in being productive and improving their lives and the lives of others.
Solving problems, sharing information with others, creating tools and using them are all examples of mental output. People can even use information they’ve attained to learn more.
Anything beneficial to people or their world is a positive mental output.
Dispersing false information, or trying to apply it are negative outputs, and will usually cause some kind of problems or harm.

Mind
To be knowledgeable and sharp, the mind must
Constantly observe its world and seek to learn
Successfully gather meaningful information
Maintain and abide by the truth
Use its knowledge to be productive and benefit humanity
Balance itself with proper relaxation and down time.
Outputs
Inputs

Soul
THE
The creative, spiritual, emotional, divine self
The desire to be part of something greater than oneself, the appreciation of beauty and aesthetics, the need to express oneself, the belief in a force beyond human understanding which created the physical world
Fiction, the imagination, the spirit, and that which is not existent in the physical world and relatively unexplainable

Soul
All people are drawn to beauty and quality, though such things are difficult to define. Tastes vary, but there is a certain basic underlying objective beauty to which all people appreciate. For instance, a flower will likely seem more beautiful than garbage or feces to nearly everyone. Its this beauty of things which makes life worth living.
Inputs for the soul are anything observed and reflected upon. Hearing a story or a song, seeing a painting or nature are some examples.
Positive inputs are those which carry beauty, quality, and aesthetic appeal, are appreciated by the observer and incite a positive feeling of existence.
Negative inputs are those which are considered ugly, lacking in quality, or “empty”, and make life in this world seem negative. Witnessing poverty, violence and hatred amongst people, or living in ugly and superficial environment can hurt one’s soul.
Disregarding the significance of mood and emotions, art and beauty, the imaginary and the fictional, morality, or the spiritual aspect of things leaves a person devoid of soul and purely materialistic
Inputs

Soul
Outputs
Mood and emotion are of the soul. What makes something art is the expression of this emotion and soul which it carries. Any means of expressing emotion is an output of the soul. In creating, we emulate the possible spiritual force which may have created us.
Giving something spiritual significance and practicing it or using it is also an output. The difference between a mundane ordinary act and a ritual is simply imbuing it with spiritual significance. Such rituals often involve communicating with beings or forces which are spiritual in nature
The soul expresses and understands the way a person believes things should be, and developing personal philosophies, paradigms, wisdom, and morality is using the soul.
Positive output of the soul is that which creates more beauty and quality, and further aligns things with natural law and patterns, bringing things into harmony with all creation
Negative output of the soul is creating something superficial, lacking true quality and emotion, and causing disharmony and misalignment with natural law

Soul
To become complete and divine, a soul needs to
Be surrounded in beauty and quality, observing it, appreciating it and taking it to heart
Express its emotions creatively, providing more beauty and quality
Harmonize itself with all creation, the universe, natural law, morality, and whatever divine or spiritual force may exist
Balance aesthetic input and output with quiet time and meditation
Outputs
Inputs

The more we fulfill and develop these four components of ourselves, the more happy we will be, and the more truly human we are. Though it must never be forgotten that a human is first and foremost a whole, and also that this is simply a creative interpretation, not an objective truth, I truly believe that living according to this paradigm and using it to improve ourselves will create a better humanity, a better Earth, and a better existence for ourselves.

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Individual

by Blase Masserant on Nov 24, 2009

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Individual — Presentation Transcript