{"id":406,"date":"2014-01-30T02:16:56","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T02:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.dminlgp.com\/?p=406"},"modified":"2014-08-12T23:08:46","modified_gmt":"2014-08-12T23:08:46","slug":"protecting-the-unconsciousness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/protecting-the-unconsciousness\/","title":{"rendered":"Protecting the Unconsciousness"},"content":{"rendered":"

The <\/em>Truman Show<\/em><\/a> stars Jim Carry as an insurance salesman whose life since birth is actually an elaborate TV show watched by millions. NY Times writer David Brooks might have had this movie in mind when he wrote Social Animals<\/em>. He takes the latest developments in psychology, human development, anthropology and neuroscience and weaves them together in the life of fictional characters Harold and Erica in much the same way as Jim carry is both shaped and watched in The Truman Show<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Brooks particularly delves into the area of the unconscious mind\u00a0 (non-cognitive skills, emotions, etc.) and the power it holds over life and its ability to determine thought processes and outcomes. Growing up in a fundamentalist church, I was constantly warned about the power that \u2018secular music\u2019 and \u2018Hollywood movies\u2019 had over my mind. As an impressionable youth wanting to follow Jesus, that meant rejecting much of popular culture.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t watch \u2018R\u2019 movies; in fact, I didn\u2019t think a Christian could watch rated \u2018R\u2019 movies. I tried my best to only listen to Christian music. I remember many burning sessions of \u2018secular music.\u2019 I remember one instance of even throwing my brother\u2019s secular CD\u2019s out the window so he couldn\u2019t listen to them. I thought Christ wanted us to have a child like faith, and since we wouldn\u2019t let a child listen or watch those things than we shouldn\u2019t either. I was doing my best to protect the conscious and unconsciousness aspects of my life, all the while fostering a sense of spiritual arrogance that I couldn\u2019t recognize. Despite my best efforts, my subconscious was negatively affected. In some ways, I became what I despised.<\/p>\n

As typically the case for a fundamentalist who realizes that God isn\u2019t a fundamentalist, I ran to the other side of the spectrum. I didn\u2019t like the categories of \u2018secular\u2019 and \u2018sacred.\u2019 I thought you could listen or watch anything, and it wouldn\u2019t affect one\u2019s soul and\/or unconscious. There was a great sense of \u2018freedom\u2019 for a while, but eventually even that \u2018freedom\u2019 began to have consequences. I\u2019ve found that it\u2019s difficult to contemplate on things of God while watching the latest sexual romp on Game of Thrones.<\/p>\n

As an adult, I now see the error of being to far on either side of the spectrum and that both sides can affect the unconscious self.\u00a0 There is something to be said for not filling one\u2019s mind and subconscious with things that are blatantly anti-Gospel. But, I also don\u2019t think that God\u2019s truth is limited to \u2018Christian things\u201d like worship music or some good theology book. As my kids grow older I imagine that helping them find a balance will be a challenge as well, I don\u2019t want them to swing on the pendulum like I did. At the moment it\u2019s easy because they are 4 and 5 years old. But as they get older I imagine it will be more of a challenge to teach them how to discern what movies to watch and music to listen to.<\/p>\n

Brooks argues, that the unconscious affects our life. I agree with him. So, how do you take care of our unconscious self and not completely shun the world? What principals guide you?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Truman Show stars Jim Carry as an insurance salesman whose life since birth is actually an elaborate TV show watched by millions. NY Times writer David Brooks might have had this movie in mind when he wrote Social Animals. He takes the latest developments in psychology, human development, anthropology and neuroscience and weaves them […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[167,2],"class_list":["post-406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-brooks","tag-dminlgp","cohort-lgp3"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1732,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/406\/revisions\/1732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}