“When our own goals and beliefs and perceptions and behaviors are functionally integrated such that there is little conflict or contradiction between them that is when we experience this this sense of meaning in life”
We have developed behaviours that help us pursue goals (biological, pre-programmed goals: finding a mate, keeping a mate, parenting etc, in a sort of hierarchy)
Sometimes these goals can conflict with each other.
When there are internal conflicts, it causes anxiety (i.e. how should I behave now in the face of conflicting goals and the multitude of outcomes that can occur)
We seek an Integration of those goals now and over time (since the anxiety also comes from the uncertainty in the future as well)
So: How to react in a given situation so that everything is integrated into a whole (all goals being met)
This is a very complicated problem for a biological nervous system to handle / compute (complexity!).
But we need to resolve that. How do we know when we’ve achieved that?
“the flow state has felt as deeply meaningful and it is a process of becoming more integrated this process of integration”. That this feeling is not coincidental or palliative but a pragmatic biological function to indicate “meaningful experience”
An ‘instinct of meaning’ – in fact at the top of in the hierarchy of instincts and goals, that it is possibly the highest instant – a meta instinct, a meta-goal
As Terrence McKenna puts it: “So, culture is not your friend, ideology is not your friend… Who’s your friend? Well, to my mind, the felt presence of immediate experience is the surest dimension, the surest guide that you can possibly have. The felt presence of immediate experience. Feeling is primary. Everything beyond that is conjecture and supposition. … So everything is this act of embracing the present moment, the felt presence of experience and then moving on to the next felt moment of experience. It’s literally psychological nomadism is what it is. That’s what we’re evolved to do and that’s what we’re happiest doing.”
An integration of goals, beliefs, perception (our surroundings) – meaningfulness. A feeling of: “I matter I have purpose and I am congruent with the environment – whole”
Much of this has been upended by a situation that denies the ‘meaningful instinct’ – what we at Ripplty call the “inverse just cause”. The inverse just cause comes from ideology, ulterior agendas, cultures. But the meaningful experience is the instinct that guides.