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Recommended: Psychology p 1
There are many unanswered questions in this world. While it seems upsetting that we, as human beings, can not answer all the mysteries of the world, it is actually these mysteries that keep us happy. People are not meant to be able to explain every aspect of life; if we could then we would be a painfully jaded species. Ambiguity is what keeps the world spinning. Without unanswered questions there would be no research. What is NASA without obscurity? When conundrums puzzle us we turn to our imagination. The mind is the gateway to a world with only answers, or anything an individual chooses. People may be in control of their imaginations, but not their brains. Daniel Gilbert, in “Immune to Reality”, explains his theory of the brain’s psychological immune system. This, basically, is a person’s defense system against the dreadful things in life. When something goes wrong the brain automatically starts searching for positive views of the situation, “and as we’ve seen the human brain is one smart shopper” (Gilbert 216). Instead of staying unhappy the brain allows a person to rationalize a situation and move on with their lives. Similarly, the brain permits people who are ill-fated to make the best out of their condition. Sacks’ memoirists, in his essay “The Mind’s Eye: What the Blind See”, find ways to meet their full potential in life, even after being blinded. They use their imagination in such a way that they do not feel as if they are different than anyone else. Jenkins’ essay, “Why Heather Can Write: Media Literacy and the Harry Potter Wars”, exemplifies how people use mystery in literature to create a pleasing hobby, which is fan fiction. Fan fiction writing gives children and adults the opportunity to put answers to all the enigm...
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...tead of hours, and we would solve every remarkable mystery in the universe. The brain routinely softens every situation for an individual so that they can move on with their lives to other circumstances. The imagination is the part of the brain that each individual controls. They use this imagination to create a world that satisfies them. When someone encounters an obscurity they mechanically search for an explanation. If an explanation can not be found a person will use their imagination to make-up an answer, even if it is not the right one. Though we think an explanation will make us happy, it is the mystery and the search for an answer that keeps us in high spirits. In short, people have no idea what they need. Sacks and Jenkins demonstrate how the mind’s eye helps people through life, but Gilbert shows that it is mystery and imagination that keeps people happy.
The human mind is one of the most complex structures the gods had created. It is difficult to understand each brain process as every human being possesses his or her own distinguished thought patterns with different levels of complexities. A person’s mind greatly influences his behavior, which eventually transforms into his habit by becoming embedded into his character. Today, the world of psychology tries to understand everything that a mind can create. However, even before the field of Psychology was introduced and brought into practice, some American writers threw a spotlight on the mechanism of the human brain in their works. On top of this list is an American writer, Edgar Allan
The mind is a very powerful tool when it is exploited to think about situations out of the ordinary. Describing in vivid detail the conditions of one after his, her, or its death associates the mind to a world that is filled with horrific elements of a dark nature.
My life, although not without surprises and unusual events, is dictated by predictable and ordinary elements. However, through fiction I am transported into a world of boundless imagination and extraordinary themes. One such example is evident in my response to Mary Shelley’s gothic novel Frankenstein. Through fiction, Shelley invites the reader to accept the extraordinary. Firstly, we are led to believe that Victor Frankenstein is able to create life by shocking it with electricity, and to this I responded with an imaginative curiosity. But it was the consequences of the creation provoked a stronger response from me. The element of horror Victor experiences and his reaction to the ‘god like’ qualities bestowed upon him as creator is truly extraordinary. Victor, like no other man, experiences the feeling of immense power and responsibility as creator of man, and this provoked a sympathetic response from me. Finally I also accepted and responded to the extraordinary concept of the monster, who, unlike to the majority of humanity, is created without a sense of cultural identity. Additionally, what is extraordinary to me as a reader is the humanity and intelligence the monster displays, despite the disadvantageous of his creation. This made me have sympathy for monster and served to blotch the credibility of Victor. Throughout the novel I was inclined to accept Shelley’s invitation and to explore a deeper view of humanity.
4. "Why Intelligent People Tend To Be Unhappy." Scribd. N.p., n.d. Web. 5 Dec. 2013. .
At the beginning of life, humans are exposed to the outside world with an open and blank mind. A newborn has no knowledge, no concerns or worries and it only seeks to fulfill its main necessities. Surrounded by the outside world one lives through many experiences where knowledge is accepted. Encountering other human beings reflects upon one's perception and brings about ones self decisions. Mary Shelley’s novel, Frankenstein, written in 1816, demonstrates through characters that an obsessive desire for more knowledge may ruin ones life.
Human mind is still a mystery to us all. It is hard to conclude on what
Just as it is human nature to feel desire, it is also human nature to long for an understanding of Earth’s unanswerable questions. Prior to scientific discoveries, humans developed their own means of understanding- religion. Although religion originally served as a means to explain natural phenomenona as well as spiritual ones, as science began to answer those kinds of questions, religion evolved to explain what science could not. Questions about the meaning of life and the mortality of man were answered in various formats. Unfortunately, as it is human nature to desire knowledge, it is also human nature to physically see manifestations of this knowledge. By creating immutable answers to mutable questions, mankind accidentally created a paradox. In order to achieve the answers that men desired, they must have faith in them. Since faith and doubt go hand in hand, it is impossible to have one without the other. For some, doubt wins over and they refuse to be associated with anything spiritual. Yet others are willing to take a leap of faith and believe in the unknown, their rational minds clinging to the idea that this knowledge will perhaps grant them immortality. After all, it is only human nature to desire survival. Nevertheless, doubt often worms itself into their minds, often in times of intense emotional time periods, often brought on by the grief over losing a loved one. Since art is often a reflection of the human mind, many works of art mirror the artist’s most intense emotional experiences. An example of such a work is Sir Alfred Tennyson’s series of poems, entitled In Memoriam A.H.H. These poems follow Tennyson throughout a three year mourning period after the sudden death of his close friend, Arthur Henry H...
Imagination encourages the diversity of religious beliefs, but may lead to the conflicts between people with different religious beliefs. The conflicts may be diminished if knowledge and imagination are integrated.
I like to think a lot, no matter what, I like to get to the bottom of everything. How does a computer work? Why a particular Politian would support an act or theory. This is just who I am. In most of the mystery films, you will get the chance to guess the director leading us to or sometimes tricking us to. With everyone’s own experiences, we can come up with different ending or results from the facts and hints in the film.
Imagination is one of the most powerful attributes a character can possess, and one of the most undervalued. In this day and age, materials seem to be desired by the majority of the people in our generation, whether it’d be elaborate clothing, advanced gadgets, or luxurious cars. We value the accessories that allow us to feel extravagant, rather than appreciating the remarkable abilities gifted to us by human nature. Because of this, the potency of imagination is neglected. However, what happens when we take those material goods away? What happens when we are left with nothing, only ourselves and our minds? This isolation from the material world gives us a chance to explore the possibilities that we disregard while we are blinded by it. With
The idea of people playing pretend and using their imagination may sound silly, but it is in fact not. Imagination has the potential to be used as a utensil. It can used to create multiple universes with diverse outcomes and possibilities. These are what we call counterfactuals. These thoughts are the woulda-coulda-shouldas. “What if I did…?” “I wonder what my life would have been like if…” The list goes on and on. You can use counterfactual thinking to think ahead in the future to plan out your next actions, look into your past to see what you could have done differently or to even watch your present self. In this essay, I argue that imagination and counterfactual thinking can be used as a means to problem solving because counterfactual thinking
As children we are born with a natural curiosity that pulls us out into the world. Going out and experiencing new things, seeing different environments; like the first time you see the ocean or snow or the Grand Canyon, it adds to the world that we know and changes our perspective on it with each new thing. But if we reflect upon it and ask what is the ocean? Or what is it that gives us life and makes us so different from a rock. These are questions which cannot be easily answ...
Books have always held a sense of security for me because they offer an instant escape from reality. My own troubles stop for the few hours, minutes, or even seconds that words pull me into another world. When I worry, I read something light and humorous. When there’s nothing but monotony in my life, I escape to far off lands where anything is possible. With enough imagination, the stories not only come alive, but I become part of them. This sensation is so strong that the feelings I experienced reading follow me long after I close the books. Books also let me live different lives. I
As the world turns around and around, our knowledge increases. Everyday that passes by is one lost to the overflow of information in our unending world. Soon, all that we will have left will be an innumerous amount of useless information. We might be understanding how our world works, but does it cost us? As we focus on the way our world works, we lose contact with the things that matter the most. We start focusing on how to survive in our world that we forget to live it. In literary works, The Rememberer and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, both authors demonstrate the consequences of losing focus on what truly matters in life. Each main character follows a simply devolution, where they lose focus in life and become an unintelligent creature; leading society to wonder is there a cure for our over thinking.
Imagination, also known as the faculty of imagining, is the act of forming new ideas or images and concepts that are not present to our senses. Imagined images can only be seen in the “mind’s eye” (Blakslee, 1993)however, attempts at revealing imaginations can sometimes be made through narratives and works of art in a bid to share with other independent minds. Knowledge on the other hand is the facts, information and skills acquired by person through experience or education. Since knowledge is mainly facts and information it can be shared and mutually understood by a society. Knowledge is easier to comprehend as compared to other people’s imaginations where one’s own mind might drive them to a different comprehension while trying to understand other people’s imaginations.