Hibbit, Addict, Immoderant, Obliviate

Oblivious:

Not aware of, or not concerned about what is happening around about; forgetful; unmindful.

Oblivion:

The state of being unaware or unconscious of what is happening.

 

The Hibbit

There is a dotted line in the sands of our consciousness beyond which we have a sense that control – whatever that may be for us – goes walkabout without us. It is where hibition sets in.

Now hibition is worth mentioning here because, although the word is not in the dictionary – it IS in the urban dictionary.

When we are inhibited, there is an extra level of conscious control we are bringing to our thoughts, our behaviour, our awareness – and we use inhibition as a cloak to hide our persona, our personality, behind. It is all about our reserve, the private and unshared Me, the considered and thoughtful person we want the world to see that we are. When the world - the world we inhabit – the world our persona and behaviour collides with – sees any degree of hibition from us, the perception of our Me within that world changes.

Also, the perception of our Me that we witness in that world changes as well.
You could say, "The Me that I see that I am" - also changes.

Now hold, if you would, onto that notion, that sentence, that sentience for as long as it is necessary to consider whatever may be your addiction.

The Addict

We are all addicts. Yes ,we all have addictions. The vicar, the train guard, the minister, the lollipop lady, the shy man, the shaman, the salesman and the rest of us; we all have addictions.

Oh indeed yes, in society’s labelling system addiction has taken on a judgemental meaning surrounding some destructive area of human frailty. The ones high up the scale of perniciousness are drugs, drink, gambling – and why is that do you think? Consider what lies behind them all for clues.

There are other things certain of us become addicted to – sex, power, fame, for instance. We call these addictions Lust, yet they are still addictions. The bankers are addicted, the politicians are addicted; the religious zealot is addicted, the bully is addicted.

The athlete and the explorer are addicted. The Saturday night hedonists are addicted, the prim and proper Prudences are addicted and the workaholics are addicted. Addiction is part of all of us.

And we love our addictions, we love indulging ourselves, we greet these loves as regular as clockwork, as familiar friends. “I just can’t do without my X,” whatever X that may be.

Now hold, if you will the sense of that idea, for as long as it is necessary to consider what lies behind moderation.

The Immoderant

Is moderation about not indulging or not over-indulging?

When I wrote about “The Quality of Pleasure” http://pjwhypno.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/quality-of-pleasure-and-your-hurt.html I talked about certain words that have been twisted out of shape in our modern world. Moderation is one of these words. There’s this notion in the world that moderation means diluting pleasure. However, my argument is that moderation is about diluting the quantity of one particular pleasure. If we have a Menu of pleasures then we can be indulgent in a qualitative way over a number of pleasures rather than indulgent in a quantitative way over one pleasure. The key is to enhance our Menu!

But I digress –
So which is it ... Immoderate or I’m moderate?

Which are you? How do you rate your modes of being, of behaving? Do you ration yourself in some of your modes so that they become mode-ration?

In truth, any excess we pursue is an acknowledgement of our addictive condition. And any pursuing of any pleasure, to excess, eventually destroys the pursuer.

“Come on, Pete – I love gardening. How will that destroy me?”
“Well, how far are you prepared to take that ‘love’, for I suspect you love doing gardening but you are not yet addicted to it. It remains, for the present, a pleasure.”

We need to find a way of balancing our pleasures and addictions with a moderation based on quality.

Now hold, if you would, onto that notion, that sentence, that sentience for as long as it is necessary to consider whatever may have been your sense of oblivion.

The Obliviate

If it is that oblivion, for you, means being unaware or unconscious of what is happening, then ask yourself why would you seek to be oblivious? What purposeful gain would accrue from such an experience?

I was recently in a conversation with a young acquaintance who was wary of hypnotherapy, which we can also refer to as "a therapeutic process facilitated by hypnosis". He was concerned at what would – or might - happen to him while in trance.
“I’d lose control,” he said. “That worries me, because I wouldn’t be in charge of Me. The idea of it spooks me.” This was indeed fascinating language – his personal representation that “I” always controls “Me” and that “Me” is worried, nay spooked, when “Me” had a felt sense that “I” wasn’t in control.

I raised the subject of oblivion, of being oblivious, and he said, “That’s it – like that in a nutshell. I’d feel I’d be under someone else’s control, and not my own.”

“So, tell me what you did last Saturday evening,” I invited. He then proceeded to relate his meeting up with some mates for a drink, going on to a club etc. Now this is all a very common pattern for quite a swathe of society, as we know it.
“For what purpose; what do you get out of this?” I asked.
He seemed amazed that I’d asked such a naive question, smiled, and then elaborated when I gestured him to go on.
“To have a good time, have a load of drinks, have a great laugh, get rat-arsed, just generally enjoy myself in great company, etc.”
“Tell me about rat-arsed,” I said, and he did.
“And after rat-arsed, tell me about what happened next.” And he did, and the detail was graphic until he reached the point where, due to alcoholic influence, he couldn’t remember what had happened in the next part of his night out.
“So, would that be something like oblivion?” I asked. “Would you say you were oblivious as to what happened next?”
He looked at me a bit ‘sideways’ and then nodded.
“So, when you are obliviously rat-arsed, where is control? Who has control?” I asked.
He shrugged his shoulders as his eyes fell from looking at me.
“And does THAT experience spook you? And when you’re like that - who is in charge of You? Who is running the show then?”



Considerant

While there is a link between Obliviates, Immoderates, Addicts, and Hibbits, it is not a progressive path. There is also a need to consider the matter of the chosen vehicle of delivery.

My young friend’s chosen vehicle is alcohol; Mr Creosote (from the Monty Python film The Meaning of Life) had food as his vehicle of choice; Lord Byron’s was opium, and so on.

Addicts and Immoderates have a very strong link, and, given we are all addicted to something, we all tend to have no moderation around that thing. Of the four, Hibbits are the most natural, and it is a disposition, a way of being in the world, that permits authentic expression. Those of us blessed with or who gain natural hibition – not one brought about by a chosen vehicle of delivery - are able to live a less complicated life.

Hibbits tend not to seek oblivion either. They also have a clearer perspective of pleasures and moderation. They can ration their modes well, build a wide-ranging menu of pleasures and vehicles of delivery, they are comfortable with their inner and outer words and worlds. Because of their wide-ranging menu of pleasures, Hibbits are less prone to being addicted to harmful and pernicious things.

In theory, we would get the most out of life by being a Hibbit, not an Addict, an Immoderant or an Obliviate.

Of course we could all carry on blissfully unaware of any or all of this! We could continue to be oblivious to such notions, theories or arguments. And as the sands of our consciousness become blown into dunes and shapes, we might never wonder why we seem to live our lives governed by those dunes and shapes instead of knowing that WE control what makes them the dunes and shapes they really are, or – at least – seem to be.

Audio version available!