The Bending of the Mind - by Doc Nolan

 Our minds are bent because, in real life, we live in “civilization.” We see things from two perspectives:

(1) platonic shapes, i.e., round, square, triangular, etc., and (2) their uses. Buildings are rectangular objects with a flat floor and a flat or triangular ‘roof.’ In ‘real life,’ the roof keeps the rain off, but in a virtual world, it’s just a cultural holdover since there is no rain. Walls exist in real life because we want to exclude bugs, animals, and humans bent on taking our stuff. In our virtual worlds, we don’t have the worries of bugs and animals, and as for theft, that isn’t a problem. Still, we have walls (not to mention ban lines!) I used to have discussions (that I always lost) about getting rid of easels for signboards. “Why not just hang them in the sky with words on both sides?” The woman thought I was nuts. Maybe I am.

There are cures for ‘civilizational blindness’ in AMV, just as in real life. The classic one is wandering around, slowing down, and focusing on what we see in “nature.” Isn’t this what artists and photographers do? Sitting quietly and patiently trying to recreate an image not as we imagine it to be but as it is, is not easy! Try to draw a picture of a person’s eyeball, and (unless you’re an ophthalmologist) you’ll be shocked when you hold it up to an accurate image of an eye. We fail to live in the actual world but live in a delusional one of preconceptions and oversimplifications. Why? Many questions end up in “what for” -- as if everything had to fit our wants and needs. There’s a place for that, but not everything is about ourselves!

As an experiment, go to a region you’ve never visited, sit your avatar down in a place with no people and few, if any, buildings, and let your eye travel over what’s in front of you. The “pile of rocks” soon becomes a lot of colors, angles, and distinct parts. Then, as you look at one single crevice, you notice that it is not straight but crooked. (It always was twisted, but did you see that before?) And once at this stage, let your mind make up stories about that crevice. (It can be erotic or not; this is only in your mind!) It can involve geologic processes or visions of long amounts of time. The content of your daydreaming isn’t the point. The point is that you (still looking at that same thing) are not focused on purpose or platonic forms. You’re now free of them. This, in Zen Buddhism, is called “quieting the monkey mind.” Even if you don’t plan to get into art or photography, this form of meditation is good. It gives perspective not only on how insignificant our ant-like existences are but also on the richness of reality. Or in the case of AMV, of unreality. And that is a remedy for both anxiety and depression.