Being cocooned in the mind of another is as nurturing, as nectar for a bee; the refreshing immersion into still, cold water on a hot day; the first mouthful of water, tingling across the tastebuds of the tongue and trickling down the throat. Being embraced by another’s mind is powerful, energising, motivating, invigorating, enlivening and tantalising. The connection of minds communicates a willingness to understand, maybe even an understanding of the other; possible shared experiences. The void of emptiness more aptly recognised as loneliness starts to dissipate with the acceptance shared through understanding, compassion and kindness.
An ache that reverberates with each heart beat starts to rhythmically re-align with the existence of life within the world, birds chirping, leaves rustling in the wind, waves lapping along the shore line and soft mutterings of conversations. There is an awakening in which colour is pixelated; there is vibrancy, there is depth, there is texture and then there is madness. Madness in which emotions are experienced to an unquantifiable depth; an intensity that resembles unbridled passion….where rational thought and sound judgement are called into question. Reality shatters…reality is questioned….what is reality? What is truth?
Truth is elusive like a thought subtlety shifting from unconscious to conscious — the shadow of the thought is present without defined context and shape. Does the cocooning within another’s mind provide a grounding, a connection to reality and a containment within one’s truth? Postmodernist perspective of truth is that there is no truth. “There is convenience and illusion, but nothing that we can declare as complete truth” (http://changingminds.org/explanations/critical_theory/concepts/postmodernism_truth.htm). Pre-modernist truth was lived experience or trusting another person who declared something to be true. Thus, does reality testing become about lived experience and trust in another’s lived experience that confirms a position of truth? Existing within convenience and illusion is like believing the world is flat and that the earth orbits the moon. Physics has demonstrated that the earth is actually “a bumpy spheroid” and that the moon orbits the earth. And within one shift to madness my mind has sought facts, truth and scientific evidence about my experience of life.
The mind seeks certainty; tangible information that provides containment, boundaries and definition to perception. The question becomes can we trust our own minds when overwhelming feelings can spiral one down the rabbit hole of madness; spinning, falling in a chaotic mess of uncensored thoughts, circumstantial thinking, tangential possibilities to protect oneself from the meaninglessness and emptiness of existence. Anchoring in a shared understanding of truth sounds safe, predictable, and maybe even meaningful. Time is a man made construct. Madness is reality undefined…..
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Post-script: I wrote this piece on Medium at https://medium.com/@dee.bartrum/connection-madness-truth-and-vulnerability-76991a88108d when building the confidence to blog/post online. I plan to continue posting on Steemit, as my preferred blogging site; this piece of writing is one of my favourites.
