Rivers and Dams

August 26th, 2007 Fred McVittie Posted in Consciousness, Flow, Liquid, Metaphor, Re-entry |

The river of non-conscious (animal) cognition flows along the path of least resistance. The great trick of consciousness begins with an ability to temporarily arrest this flow and make a choice about whether we really want to follow the urging of the landscape and carry on in that direction, always downwards. We feel these moments of choice occasionally as build-ups of pressure or temptation, almost as if the waters of the river that is carrying us along have been dammed and that water is backing up behind us. This arrested flow causes the water behind the dam to form vortices and eddies, turning over itself and becoming chaotically complex loops of current before the ground offers a route that we agree to. Then we let ourselves go and follow the river downstream. A valley carved out not just by the yes of the river but also by the no of the dam.