People believe that their bodies and minds are “their own.” That they are their own possessions that they can do with as they please with free will. However, with a little thought, you can realize that neither body nor mind is “your own.”
First, if you look at the body, everything is clear. First of all, you cannot control “involuntary muscles” such as the heart and internal organs on your own. Even if you claim ownership, if you cannot control them as you please, it is not “ownership” in the full sense of the word. Furthermore, we cannot change our body’s reaction to temperature, reactions to various tastes and smells, or even the reaction when suddenly encountering a snake. It is simply “given” by someone as a fixed value.
A psychologist conducted an experiment on whether humans can become accustomed to a suddenly appearing snake, and no matter how many times it was repeated, it was impossible to become accustomed. Even the body’s avoidance response to snakes is so fast that the reaction is ordered from the spinal cord without going through the brain. Also, humans do not fully exercise dominion over their own reproductive organs. Although there are individual differences, it can be seen as about half “involuntary muscles” anyway.
Thanks to not completely possessing dominion over the body in this way, humans are often conversely controlled by the body’s reactions to external environments such as abnormal behavior of internal organs, temperature, humidity, and sexual stimuli. Rather, I have to plan various physical activities while carefully looking at the moods of my internal organs in advance, so it is no exaggeration to say that it is only half ownership.
The situation is no different in the case of the “mind (brain).” We cannot control our minds, as there are sayings such as “There is no reason for being a good person,” and “They are hateful for no reason.” Even if you do so-called “mind control” a hundred times, its limitations are clear. We cannot like what we dislike, and we cannot dislike what we like. No matter how much you shout “I am the master of my mind,” the mind has no intention of listening to the master’s orders.
The psychologist Freud explained this phenomenon as the “action of the unconscious,” and Carl Jung explained it using the concepts of “persona and sub-personality.” After Freud first argued that most of human thought and behavior is controlled by the unconscious rather than the conscious, even ordinary people, not to mention the scientific community, no longer deny the control of the unconscious. Jung’s theory goes one step further and explains that various independent personalities live in the depths of the unconscious, and they compete with each other to rise to the surface and control the being that is “I.” Among those independent personalities of the abyss, there are angels, children, insatiable gluttons, sex machines, thugs, murderers, artists, philosophers, patriots, traitors, those who do not sleep, and those addicted to alcohol. (There are various others.) Because they appear in turn from time to time, the socially acceptable or recommended mask of personality created to cover such capriciousness is the “persona,” and we only know each other’s personas, that is, masked personalities, unless we are very close. (The term persona was first used by Carl Jung.) The content of Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra is also about these various personalities of the abyss.
Thus, we do not fully own or control our own bodies or minds. We are merely under the illusion that we are living our lives while freely controlling our bodies and minds because “they are still controlled to some extent.”
So, what is the problem? In fact, the level of “involuntary muscles” in the body may not be a big problem. If there are no big problems, you can live by appeasing them appropriately. But the problem is the negative personalities such as sex machines, alcoholics, and liars that are coiled in the depths of the unconscious and will inevitably cause accidents if they are unleashed.
The problem lies in the fact that “angels barely peek their heads above the surface with all their efforts, whereas devils raise their heads quickly and jump out of the water with just a moment of carelessness.” If you see so-called personality cultivation as the work of pulling up positive ones to the surface and tying down the devilish ones, you can truly understand why personality cultivation is difficult (whether it is impossible by human power).
I see many people struggling at this point. How long they have to wage an “internal struggle for life and death.” However, immediately winning and killing the devil is not important. It is important to simply not stop the struggle. Because it is a battle whose end you cannot know. It may end in a few years (small battles continue), it can be a struggle of decades, and in the case of the philosopher Nietzsche, there are cases where he went crazy while fighting.
One effective tip is “never kill the angels.” If you often allow the devils to come to the surface, the angels living in the depths of the heart quickly begin to become weak and soon become vegetative. Once that happens, there is almost no chance of winning. Therefore, you must consciously take good care of the inner angels and pull them to the surface as much as possible to give them breathing room. As long as the angel is alive, some resistance to the devils is possible. You will taste failure from time to time, but as long as the resistance continues, there is a chance of winning. Let’s not stop. While doing so, you can study what you want, such as philosophy, psychology, and the Bible.
Also, you must not take your eyes off the devils living in the abyss. If you ignore them because you don’t want to see them, you won’t be able to know which ones are there, who among them is powerful. You must know the enemy to fight. Therefore, you need to practice calmly and objectively looking at the devils living in the depths of your heart. You must recognize and acknowledge that they are there. However, as Nietzsche argued in “Amor Fati” and “Dionysian Affirmation,” you should not try to embrace and merge with those devils. Because Nietzsche went crazy like that, to the point where he could not even answer his own name, and lived in a mental hospital for 12 years before dying.
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