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Spirits unite against Laws of Physics

A placard I saw in a dream of a protest

A fun conversation I saw on an online learning platform is on researching fantasy. I noticed a comment that mentioned that the commentator is an academic writer and wonders about researching fantasy, ostensibly to assist her in writing fantasy novels. A while ago, I wrote a short story, on the fly, with almost no editing, as is my style. It was about visiting the spirit world. It never occurred to me that I might do any research before I wrote that.

It is easy to assume that one is fey or in some way connected or directly associated with some kind of spirituality, even having a direct link with a supreme being. It is not for me to make any argument as to whether anyone does have a link or is fey. I recognise that when we are alone in the dark and things rustle in hedges we might not be rational and momentarily think that it is a spirit or ghost or something. We might assume it is a rabbit or badger or rats. But, it is not rational to assume. Making assumptions is really using heuristics as adults, summing up blocks of acquired information to make a decision; which I suppose, is why the younger that children are, the more nightmares they have; they don't have enough experience to have built enough mental tools to allay confusion and fear.

It crosses my mind that as adults we might never see fairies and only see faeries. Good luck is much harder to discern than bad luck. While some of us might arrive at work early and cognisant that all the traffic lights were green, most of us, I believe, will only recognise that all the lights were green because we arrived early. If we are running late, and before we arrive somewhere, we tend to notice every red traffic light in real-time. My point is that we notice bad things more readily than good things. Finding a one pound coin or a dollar, is less impactful than losing one and not having enough to pay for our shopping. But, the thinkers among us will notice that there are other factors involved. In economics, the missing pound may have more value than an extra pound (its 'utility' is different). Not only that, green traffic lights have no impact on our driving, we just keep going, whereas red traffic lights have a consequential pattern of action that needs to be performed at every single one of them. Being early to work has little impact on our lives, but being late means having to catch up, or explain ourselves to someone (which means weakening our position).

Fantasy stories, I concluded from the safe discussion elsewhere, still abide by the Laws of Physics we are all aware of. When Superman punches a super-villain, the punch connects with a body of mass and force is definitely obvious as the mass hits a solid building; bits fall off the building. Flying without wings, however, means that there is either no mass or very little mass. When something with very little mass punches something else Newton's Third Law of Motion, which states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction, tells us that the body of low mass should move away from whatever it has punched. Superman does not move away; so, the Laws of Physics are suspended. 

The spirit world, I suggest, is nothing like what we assume it to be. Even if we don't know, or have never heard of Newton's Third Law of Motion, we all know that there will always be consequences for everything we do, or don't do, and these go right down to every decision we make. In marketing, I came across a paper that stated that we make a decision about half a second before we realise we have, and we actually tell ourselves that a decision has been made. It is somewhere in one of my laptops and since I am not trying to convince anyone of anything, I am not going to hunt for it in order for me to cite it or reference it appropriately. However, a very quick online search gave me a paper in which the abstract matches my statement. I have set the link so it opens in a new page:

https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10001129/1/Wiliam2006Half-second71.pdf

Telling ourselves we have made a decision half a second after we have made a decision would fit into a fantasy story. A whole half a second to interrupt the message is a really long time to act. (Such is my wont to not edit, I am leaving the tautology of having a whole half right there). But interruption isn't outside of the realm of possibility in today's technological world; perhaps eye movement gives clues as to the decision-making process. In a fantasy story however, telepathy might be used to prevent a purchase being successfully conducted. 'No decision has been made!'

In Contract Law, there is an offer and acceptance. If the offer is made there is still half a second before the person selling something realises they have made a decision to accept the offer. If we sum the transaction up in terms of available time for thought interference, a nefarious entity would have a whole second to play with, to prevent the transaction being finalised. 

       'Hmmm, I don't know' while standing before a display of clothes in a clothes shop doesn't necessarily mean you haven't made a decision; it means you haven't told yourself that you have made a decision. If you are delaying in making purchases for too long (is there 'too long' in retail therapy?) you might want to look around for someone staring at you; but then you might not see something with no mass. It might only be a disappointed wisp that fell from someone who lost some money, who passed you by earlier. Their decision to buy, thwarted by the physical inability to complete a purchase.

From psychology: cognitive dissonance is the feeling we experience when we have bought something and are, quite soon after, disappointed by its use or aesthetic value, its utility. It is less valuable to us then we first thought it to be. 

Not being able to buy something because we thought we had enough money and then discovering we do not (disappointment), mirrors cognitive dissonance in that, from economics, the assumed utility (value to us) of the contents of our purse or pocket is less then it really is (we are disappointed by the utility of our available money). Because money is money, a single unit of currency can buy a number of things, so its utility does not change. It is when it cannot buy what we desire that its utility is considered to be inadequate. £10 (ten GB pounds) buys less than £9 (nine GB pounds), so it is the sum of the money and its utility that changes and not the individual unit of currency.

The indecision to buy something comes from experience of being disappointed and we use heuristics to help us decide what to do; in this case, empiricism. A young child sees something and buys it because they like it without knowing that they could be disappointed. How many parents notice that their children played with something for an hour and then never again? Young children, I suggest, find disappointment and cognitive dissonance difficult to process, so they make decisions to buy quite readily. 

Initially, I thought that the academic people who professed a desire to research fantasy [stories] were on a fools errand, but now I am not so sure. I can't decide.

Continuing the theme of how I answered a level 3 Certificate in Mental Health at Work and Mental Health Advocacy. I passed, and I had the most fun testing the course material in its negative form; in Social Science this is called the null hypothesis. The intent is to prove the positive hypothesis. This particular subject is somewhat nebulous and the tutor remarked that she had to revise her own understanding of mental ill-health. The paragraph headings are the declarative statements in the course material. The rest are my answers.

Next will be: What is meant by the mental health continuum?

What can be a factor in mental ill-health?

Any condition that disrupts an individual's everyday life.

What can we make of this? A 'condition' can be a physical aspect of someone's life; it can be a necessity to work when everyday life includes survival; or weekends spent with one's family; or variants that might exist between these not unexpected scenarios. A condition of life might well be making long journeys to procure resources that are required for survival. How about a well is built close to the settlement, conurbation, or hut, or a change in the local climate that provides new opportunities for provision of individual and societal welfare? That would significantly disrupt the condition of the thirsty person who walks long distances for water.

Can we say that a condition of retirement from work must bring about a diminishment of mental health because everyday life for that person no longer consists of a work condition that exacerbates an existing health condition?

We might need to understand the difference between a disruption and an innovation to provide a coherent view on whether any condition that disrupts an individual's everyday life should be a factor that necessarily diminishes someone's mental stasis. A ‘Black Swan’ event is a disruption. A pandemic is a ‘Black Swan’ event. Consider this: All swans are white. This is an inherent belief because we keep seeing white swans - until we see a black swan swimming on the lake. Nobody expects to see a black swan. In this case, seeing a black swan permanently changes our belief that only white swans exist.

A disruption can be permanent when it presents itself in the form of an amputation of a limb. A disruption can also be a temporary change to what is locally considered to be normal, such as a electric power-cut. The invention of motorised vehicles is a disruption to the horse-trading industry and businesses associated with horses, such as saddlery and blacksmithing. An innovation is usually considered to be an improvement. Production of cars on a production line is innovative to cars being hand-built one at a time.

Kodak used to be the largest camera producer. They failed to see the innovation of digital photography as an improvement to how taking and storing photographs can be accomplished. For them, the outbreak of the discovery of digital cameras was a Black Swan event – a disruption. To the home photographer and industries using photographs it was a tremendous improvement – an innovation. Adding a camera to a mobile phone was an innovation. Both mobile phones and digital photography are innovations with mobile phones being a disruption to the home phone industries. People then wanted to take better pictures with their mobile phones.

The key point here is, that there is an intent by modern businesses to create a desire for an innovation that is not necessarily a positive direction for aspiration to travel in; it is merely a desire that might be temporally assuaged. In other words individuals have a condition in which they are delighted by an innovation and then want something better. This makes some innovations be be only disruptions, permanent disruptions – Delight rises and plateaus into acceptance which falls into disappointment – cognitive dissonance.

Artificial intelligence now provides solutions to the disappointment that the once highly valued ‘selfie’ is not good enough – it still has that ‘Best Friend Forever’ person in the photo, when we have now fallen out’. AI can crop the photo of its despised elements.

If a change is permanent it is a finalisation of a prior condition, spiritually, physically, or mentally.

We might ask whether someone in the 1950s would be as disrupted in their normal societal, work, and environmental scope of existence in our world of the 2020s, as would someone from the 2020s be disrupted when they are to live in the 1950s. Ultimately, the question is: with modern experience and shaped perception would we be happier in a different environment? If this might be possible then measurements can be made; then we can begin to measure mental ill-health by, how accessible is information about our environment and what comparison might we make to an alternative environment.

How happy are we now, compared to how happy would we be if we had married our first love? Would a change in partners necessarily be a disruption that would make someone unhappy. Of course, the rejected person might feel diminished in their societal acceptance. Now, we must ask whether mental wellness can be considered to be evident when someone is happy despite their societal position, if they even care about it or the environmental conditions they live in.

On this, finally, a change of conditions may bring about a perceived improvement, and for others on the other end of the scale that has just re-balanced, disaster, or ill-health.

We cannot safely state that a change of circumstances is a good guide to understanding mental health or ill-health.