The external world consists of physical structures, rules, and regularities. In addition, various events and things consisting of different factors occur in the external world. In hypercubism, the external world is described by a third dimension, that of information and interaction.
The external world can be measured and verified mathematically and geometrically, as well as according to the laws of physics. We are able to break down our reality from visible surface forms and structures into tiny parts, atoms, to a great extent. In addition, we can explain various phenomena, such as why something moves in a certain way or why water behaves the way it does. We are able to describe the properties and uses of matter, but also to create different compounds ourselves using elements. The same elements that make up our entire structural reality, as it appears to us with its structures.
And that’s not even the best part. These elements don’t just show up in one or two different forms, they’re everywhere. Humans have the same elements as, say, a chair, and a chair has the same elements as, say, an apple. Yet humans, chairs, and apples are completely different things. They are composed of elements that have formed into different molecular structures. These molecular structures, in turn, form tissue or crystals. However, how they decide to form one or the other is a bit of a mystery. Do the elements themselves really decide what to form, or could there be a slightly more intelligent arrangement behind it?
In any case, we are able to explain the structures of our reality and the properties and purpose of these structures fairly accurately.
When we look at ourselves as human beings, we are also a physical form and structure. We are like a biomechanical suit in which our mind and consciousness reside. The saying, ”the body is like a temple,” no longer sounds so strange in this context.
Our body originates from an event even smaller than a microscope can see: fertilization.
The third dimension: information and interaction
The third dimension is the reality we collectively experience with its physical rules and limitations. Mathematically, the third dimension means that a point marked on a line can move in three different directions in space. For example, forward and backward, left and right, up and down. Reality is constructed from three-dimensional structures, but also from the information contained in events and things. We interact in physical reality as individuals through our senses, receiving information by seeing, hearing, and feeling.
When we speak, information is conveyed through words and the message formed by sound. When we speak, information consists of words and the meanings of words. Individual words can create information on their own, but when words are used in sentences and possibly narratives, the information can be more multidimensional. Narratives and stories can contain not only the information conveyed by words, but also a lesson or even an idea formed from the whole, in which case the information is a whole composed of smaller elements. In this case, information is a thought structure composed of basic elements that influences the mind and thought, in the fourth dimension…
…Both interaction through speech and interaction through images and symbols are based on pre-learned meanings and intentions. A child cannot speak or draw immediately after birth. These things are either learned from somewhere or taught. The same applies to humanity in general, regardless of age. Everyone has been a child at some point, and everyone has also received information from somewhere about how to speak, behave, or produce information as a human being. In the third dimension, the individual is integrated into information, as if living in information, in a space where everything is interaction. Lights, shadows, the sound of a piano, a passing car, a doorbell, a cold breeze, the sun on your skin. All of this is information. All information exists in the present moment, regardless of whether you take it into account or not.
Interaction, on the other hand, depends on the individual’s personal way of thinking. How you receive and react to information is very important. Do you allow information to automatically integrate into your mind and thoughts, or do you question and critically examine it? Information can shape an individual’s mind and thoughts, making them more practical and consistent, but also impractical and inconsistent. (Miettinen, 2024)
Geometry
Geometry deals with the shape of individual objects and the spatial relationships between different objects, but also with properties in the surrounding space. For practical purposes, such as land surveying, it is one of the oldest branches of mathematics. Geometry is not limited to the study of flat surfaces (plane geometry) or three-dimensional objects (spatial geometry), but can also be used to represent more abstract ideas and images in geometric terms (Encyclopedia Britannica, n.d.).
Elements
In the universe, everything from grains of sand to stars is matter. All matter in nature consists of one or more of the 92 basic substances, or elements. Elements cannot normally be created by chemical means, which is why an element is a pure substance. The body can assemble compounds essential for life from elements, but it cannot produce elements. In nature, elements rarely occur alone: they combine to form compounds (Oregon State University, n.d.).
Atoms
The smallest amount of an element is an atom, which retains the properties of that element. Atoms are so small that it is difficult to comprehend them. Atoms consist of even smaller particles: protons, neutrons, and electrons. An atom gets its mass from positively charged protons and uncharged neutrons (Oregon State University, n.d.).
Minerals
Minerals are made up of atoms, and minerals are formed as a result of chemical reactions. These reactions are determined by the arrangement and rearrangement of electrons in atoms. In minerals, atoms are bound together by chemical bonds formed by electrons (CUNY Pressbooks, n.d.).
Biology
Atoms form molecules, and molecules are chemical structures with at least two atoms held together by one or more chemical bonds. Many biologically important molecules are macromolecules. Macromolecules can form structures within cells that are surrounded by membranes. These are called organelles. They are small structures within cells. All living things are made up of cells, and cells are the smallest structural and functional units of living organisms. In larger organisms, cells combine to form tissues, which are groups of similar cells that perform similar or related tasks. Complexes consisting of tissues are called organs, which have a common function. A higher level of organization, the organ system, consists of organs that are functionally related to each other. Mammals have several of these, such as the circulatory system. Organisms are individual living entities (LibreTexts, n.d.).
Life
Life is in the shape of a circle
Life is like a circle. The circle of life begins with an event, followed by the need to observe and examine what has happened. It is possible to make choices, select and make a decision that moves you forward or a decision from which you can learn.
There are no failures. There are events from which it is possible to learn and develop, and which inevitably lead to success. After making decisions, it is possible to analyze and make observations about events that lead to insights. Insights about life and events are building blocks for a larger whole. The same circle is repeated in all areas of life (Miettinen, 2019a).
The beginning and development of a human being starts when a man’s sperm fertilizes a woman’s egg. During the first six weeks, the embryo’s physiological systems and organs form. At just three weeks old, it is possible to detect the heartbeat. Fluctuations in alertness and vital functions stabilize from 24 weeks of age. The efficiency of movements and the development of muscle tone occur between 32 and 36 weeks of age. Facial expressions and thumb sucking appear. Through growth, maturation, and learning, a child’s motor skills develop. As the child grows, various abilities for new movements develop as a result of maturation and through practice. The child begins to walk when they have matured to the stage of walking and when they notice that others are walking. Children become aware of their bodies when interacting with their environment, and this awareness of their own bodies forms the basis of their individuality . By the age of two, children have usually already noticed that girls and boys, men and women have different body structures. At the age of two, these observations do not yet mean much, but at the age of three, children begin to take an interest in gender issues. Gender differences and their observation force children to understand that they too belong to one gender or the other. (Himberg et al., 1995, pp. 11, 32, 33, 34, 37, 69)
Life is determined by the following factors: an individual’s genetic makeup, environmental factors, and the individual’s own orientation. Genetic makeup determines maturation, guides physical growth, and influences the direction and possibilities of psychological development. Environmental factors include the physical environment as well as cultural and social factors. An individual’s orientation is related to setting goals and achieving them. Personal self-perception and worldview influence these. The development of human cells and biochemical processes are guided by the genetic code contained in the genome ( ). Examples of this include physical characteristics such as hair and eye color. (Himberg et al., 1995, p. 15)
An individual’s perceptions, goal setting, and pursuit of those goals are guided by their self-concept and worldview. Personal orientation can influence whether or not an individual utilizes the opportunities provided by their genetic makeup and environment (Himberg et al., 1995, p. 17). Worldview refers to an individual’s knowledge and beliefs about themselves, other people, and the surrounding world. A worldview therefore includes an understanding of how events and things in the world are in general. A worldview is thus an individual’s own description of reality (Peltola et al., 2003, p. 53).
Perception
Humans receive information from the outside world through their senses, including sight, hearing, touch, smell, and taste. Through these senses, information from outside the individual is transmitted to the individual themselves. By seeing, individuals are able to locate and identify structures or objects. These structures and objects act as stimuli on the retina, which in turn are converted into information via nerve impulses. These form a representation that corresponds very closely to the outside world. Information about observable reality is thus transmitted along small pathways and assembled in the brain, where it is interpreted. This process gives rise to the perception of these structures or objects. In philosophy, there have been arguments for and against whether the outside world exists at all without an observer. The outside world is real, but everyone interprets it through their sensory abilities, which also determines how it appears. However, perception cannot be explained solely through the senses. The senses merely initiate a series of events, but interpretation also involves memory information stored in the brain, which, when activated, provides an interpretation of the perception. The interpretation contained in the perception is determined on the basis of anticipations created by previous perceptions. The information activated by previous situations and observations through memory therefore plays an important role in the formation of perception (Näätänen et al., 2003, pp. 41, 42, 44).
Nervous system
Current knowledge in psychology can explain the functioning of our minds in simplified terms, for example, that thinking and perception arise from electrochemical impulses in nerve cells, neurons, and neural networks. However, a single nerve cell does not think. Impulses traveling through the nerves convert received information, such as sound or taste, into electrical impulses. The electrochemical stimulus is then transmitted through the nervous system to nerve cells specialized in these functions. The basis of cell function is their specialization for their intended tasks. Brain cells are particularly specialized. The functioning of the mind and our ability to process information are due to the cooperation of nerve cells. There is extensive information on psychological phenomena and their connection to brain function, but psychology is still unable to explain the experience resulting from the stimulation of nerve cells or the construction of activity as a result of impulse flows in neural networks. The nervous system has the ability to learn, and it is not fully developed, especially in newborn children. In a sense, the brain could be imagined as a developing computer, whose development is based on activity. At the same time, it is capable of observing and evaluating itself, as well as programming itself. (Lyytinen et al., 2003, pp. 17, 18, 20).
We can examine this issue from the perspective of dimensions. In hypercubism, the third dimension of information and interaction is one in which the electrochemical phenomena that pass through the human body via perception are transformed into interpretation in the mind and thought. This can be verified by neuroscientific experiments. But what is this factor that experiences this interpretation? In hypercubism, it is the state of the fifth dimension, consciousness. If we think of the brain as a computer, this idea is not such a far-fetched comparison. The brain processes the electrochemical ”data” of perception, information, into something, such as the perception of an apple as an apple. The brain contains the concept of an apple, to which this data is linked. Even if we had this perception and interpretation, i.e., the computer had already done this analysis and drawn this conclusion, who is the examiner of this conclusion? It cannot be the machine itself, because how could we consider the interpretation developed by the machine to be valid if the evaluator were the machine itself?
Today, we can compare this to the use of artificial intelligence, for example. I have sometimes let an AI application analyze my texts or search for information for me on the internet. Although the AI’s answers may look or sound good, they often contain errors and their own ways of applying information to different contexts. Artificial intelligence has developed its own terms for my texts or taken them in directions that were not intended in the first place. However, today’s artificial intelligence can be considered relatively effective and even ”intelligent.”
I believe that without an external observer and questioner of information, this machine, the brain, would function in exactly the same way. It might keep things roughly the same, but it would contain a great deal of errors in its interpretations or structures.
Although studies suggest that animals have some level of consciousness, depending on the animal, the difference between them and humans is still enormous. Animals act according to primitive needs and primitive ways of thinking. Animals react immediately to feelings of fear, while humans are able to pause and examine the validity of their feelings. This could be attributed to the fact that humans are able to rise above their emotions due to their consciousness and intelligence, unlike animals, which react to emotions in a primitive way.
Humans can develop their ”computers” because they also have a factor that ”programs” the computer. Humans can construct stories and scenarios based on concepts and information, and develop their programming code, adding or removing factors, whereas animals cannot. Because animals are equal to their own minds and thoughts, they live according to their minds and thoughts, which are primitive from the outset. Hypercubism also believes that humans are like this until life and self-examination through various events and experiences make life more intelligent.
The structure of the nervous system
What is life?
Life is a reality that an individual creates by observing their environment and the things that affect them, but also the things around them. An individual’s reaction to things depends on how they relate to them and how they personally think about them. In fact, it is ultimately the individual’s personal attitude and thinking that interact with things.
An individual’s actions are also based on the need to act. An individual acts because they feel the need to act. If there were no need to act, the individual would not act.
When talking about an individual’s personal change, it is clear that the change must take place within the individual themselves, not outside of them. More specifically, it must take place in the individual’s ways of thinking and attitudes. The world is what it is, people are what they are , life is what it is, and the individual is what they are. The only thing that can be changed is one’s own ways of thinking, attitudes, and actions.
Every action taken by an individual is related to a need for something.
For example:
Eating is a need created by hunger, hunger is a need created by the body to obtain nutrition, and nutrition must be obtained for the body to survive. Survival is a primal need for human beings. Most human actions are based on the need for survival.
When you find the need for your actions, it is possible to question the need for action. You might think that of all the things you do, there may not be a real need for them. One may have thought that one needed things that one does not really need. After all, humans only need food, rest, and shelter to live.
How people react to information depends on their personal ways of thinking and attitudes.
These things, needs, and other information received by the individual make up a person’s life. One might think that there are two main areas in a person’s life:
- Needs
- Interaction with information
Needs could also be thought of as twofold
- Primitive need, and
- Acting according to intelligence
Information is again individual:
- Information received, and
- Information sent
However, these two main areas are connected by the individual’s personal ways of thinking, relating to, and understanding different things. If one understands the need and the information, it is possible to influence how these two factors affect the individual themselves. So, should one really act according to an imagined need, or react to existing or incoming information?
Human reality and action consist of these two things. Therefore, when making changes, we must consider what the need for action is and why, as well as how we encounter information and why. By examining these two areas in sufficient depth, we can find answers to questions about human existence, individuals’ personal problems, and solutions to issues in their own lives (Miettinen, 2019c).
The brain and spinal cord form the central nervous system. The brain is responsible for mental functions, while the spinal cord is responsible for reflexes. The brain consists of the cerebrum, cerebellum, and brain stem. The cerebral cortex is located on the surface of the cerebrum, where small gray brain cells are involved in thinking and other consciously demanding intellectual activities. Without the cerebral cortex, voluntary conscious activity would not be possible in the form in which it occurs in humans. We can talk about the visual and auditory cortex, whose sensory perceptions are processed by the cerebral cortex. The motor cortex regulates and controls movement. However, the cerebral cortex is not entirely specialized in this way: when many forms of information processing are combined, it becomes active, participating in many different activities simultaneously. These areas are called association areas and they connect neural networks in different parts of the brain. Damage to these areas affects, for example, planning, speech, and thinking. The more intelligent an animal is, the greater the relative proportion of the cerebral cortex occupied by association areas. The importance of these areas for demanding information processing is therefore obvious. The cerebral cortex can usually be divided into four lobes: the occipital lobe contains areas related to vision, the parietal lobe contains areas related to processing information from the body and higher functions, and the temporal lobe processes what is seen and heard, but also includes functions related to motivation and emotions. The frontal lobe contains functional areas related to planning and fine motor control, but also memory. However, the cerebral cortex is not solely responsible for intellectual activity; connections to the cerebellum are also essential. Important structures in the cerebrum include the basal ganglia, which play a particularly important role in controlling movement, and the limbic system, which specializes in processing emotions. The hypothalamus, hippocampus, and amygdala are the most important parts of the limbic system. The diencephalon is located below the cerebrum, and the hypothalamus, part of the limbic system, belongs to the diencephalon. The thalamus is considered another important part of the diencephalon: its tasks include processing sensory information and directing it to the correct neural networks. The brain stem is located in the deep, ancient parts of the brain and consists of clusters of nerve cells that are separate from each other. Its functions include regulating basic life functions and alertness. The cerebellum is also located below the cerebrum: its functions are related to intellectual activities and movement control. The peripheral nervous system is two-part: the somatic nervous system acts as a messenger between itself and the central nervous system. It transmits sensory information to the central nervous system and commands from the central nervous system to the body. The autonomic nervous system takes care of functions that are independent of the body’s will, such as heart rate and blood pressure. The autonomic nervous system includes the sympathetic nervous system, which stimulates functions, and the parasympathetic nervous system, which inhibits functions. In addition to the nervous system, hormones regulated by the endocrine system are also involved in mental functions. Certain glands secrete these chemical substances, hormones, into the bloodstream. The best-known hormones are adrenaline and noradrenaline: fight or flight responses are functions influenced by them. These chemical hormones are considered to be related to neurotransmitters, and some researchers believe that the system based on hormones and the bloodstream represents an older system in the evolution of species than the nervous system. While neurotransmitters act very precisely in certain synapses, hormones are carried throughout the body via the bloodstream (Lyytinen et al., 2003, pp. 29–33, 35).
The engine of survival
The most primitive engine, which is repeated in the existence of every living being, is survival. The fuel for survival is the fear of everything ending, of death. Could it be that the question of the meaning of life could be answered with a theory that life has no meaning, but is ultimately guided by a mysterious force? Not a meaning at the end, but a guiding force at the beginning of everything. Fear.
Fear gives rise to feelings and reactions. Fear makes people act naturally and in a way that is characteristic of humans. Reason is left out of the equation, and what remains is a natural and primitive way of acting. A quick, adrenaline-fueled reaction and action. Fight or flight, or even both…
… Accepting mortality and the end helps us let go of the constant struggle against life. The gift of intelligence given to humans gives us the freedom to choose. Intelligence is the counterforce to primitivism, just as acceptance and trust in life are the counterforces to fear. It is the key to a life without the power of fear. Intelligence and the ability to think allow us to live with fear, respecting it as a friend that sustains life. (Miettinen, 2019a)
According to psychology, the function of the oldest and deepest parts of the human brain has been to take care of factors related to survival, such as mobility, heartbeat, and breathing. New parts with new tasks have gradually developed on top of the older parts. The development of emotional systems has been beneficial for the survival of species: when mammalian offspring are born into this world, they are dependent on the care of their parents. In simpler animals, life is mainly controlled by genetic programming, without learning or change. With the newer parts of the brain, humans have the opportunity to learn and shape their lives. The conflict between the old brain and the new brain has sometimes been used to explain human contradictions and irrational behavior. In terms of survival, some emotional mechanisms have been essential for survival, even though they are not as necessary in the everyday life of modern humans. The amygdala, which is part of the limbic system, sometimes overrides the rational cerebral cortex. An example of this is the observation of a stick, which may be mistaken for a snake and cause fear. (Lyytinen et al., 2003, p. 57)
Hypercubism combines self-examination and its view of life, but also dimensions that connect the very significant opposing forces of primitivism and intelligence. Life is circular – the first pages of the book Six Steps to Self-Examination (2019) state:
There are only two things that struggle in human life:
primitiveness and intelligence.
Primitiveness makes you do things,
intelligence makes you refrain from doing (Miettinen, 2019a).
A primitive human being, with a body and brain in the third dimension, perceives things that it interprets through the mind and thoughts of the fourth dimension. If humans had only these two factors, they would not differ much from animals. The human mind, without language and development, or a human without awareness of their consciousness, is as primitive as that of an animal. The story of the Indian girls, Amala and Kamala, serves as a good example.
In India, two girls were found in a wolf’s den in 1929. One of them was a year and a half old, Amala, and the other was Kamala, already eight years old. They ate only raw meat, walked on all fours, and were hostile towards humans. They tried to bite and scratch anyone who tried to touch them. They were also able to detect living beings in the dark. Amala died a year after they were found, but Kamala lived for another nine years. Kamala cried when Amala died. Kamala also learned to laugh and smile, even to speak short sentences and walk upright. He also learned to seek out human company and to fear the dark. ( Peltola et al., 2003 , p. 16)
Humans clearly need their parents and environment to become aware of their consciousness, but also to learn language and various models, which we call thought structures in hypercubism. But even though the girls in the story are primitive, humans are primitive, and if there is no possibility of development, humans also automatically seem to choose primitivism and survival. When we look at it this way, it is very clear that these two opposing forces, primitivism and intelligence, really do influence human life and create conflicts. And even if we are aware of this, our pleasure-seeking society today ensures that our reptilian brains are fed.
Emotions
Signposts and guides
People experience a wide range of emotions and feelings throughout the day. Emotions are triggered by various events, things, and other people. People may find themselves in many different situations where they encounter a wide range of emotions. Emotions can also arise before the events or things themselves, and this is what happens. People feel emotions constantly, even when they are alone. Emotions are not always dependent on a separate event or thing, but they can also just be and come.
Emotions are a very big part of human life. Through their emotions, people learn to recognize dangerous situations, but also to notice what feels good to them and to steer themselves toward those things. Emotions also provide guidance about an individual’s own mental well-being and whether something might be wrong. Emotions can convey joy and happiness, satisfaction and gratitude. Emotions can also be sadness and longing, loneliness and anxiety. People often divide these emotions into good and bad, even though such a distinction does not exist. There are no good or bad feelings. There are only feelings, some of which may be more pleasant for a person than others. In other words, there are more pleasant feelings and more unpleasant feelings.
In many ways, human emotions guide us through life. For example, fear has been a very important emotion for the survival of the human species since the dawn of human history.
If humans had not been afraid, would they have survived at all?
Fear is an interesting emotion in that it has both life-sustaining and destructive powers. Fear keeps us alive, but fear can also kill us. Ultimately, fear is driven by the survival instinct, which could be considered one of the most primitive sources of humanity. However, fear itself should not be feared, but rather examined. Just like our own affairs and existence, fear should also be examined and observed. It is good to ask yourself:
”Where does my fear come from? Why? What things are associated with my fear? How can I accept my fear?”
Other emotions also guide us in life, but in many ways they are more merciful and gentle than fear. Gratitude, mercy, happiness, and love are emotions that soften and forgive. When a person feels gratitude, they feel good and safe, and they are content. Gratitude and happiness are very similar emotions, but gratitude is more about understanding and having a positive attitude toward how things are at the moment. Things can be related to the individual themselves, family members, or even a pet. Actually, anything. Happiness, on the other hand, is complete satisfaction with life and being, with things being gentle.
Mercy and love are both important in human life because, when viewed through them, everyone deserves to be and to receive forgiveness, both oneself and others. Mercy and love emphasize understanding and acceptance of both the individual and the rest of the world. Loving thinking and attitudes are forgiving, positive, and constructive. Love is, in its simplicity, an accepting way of thinking.
There are feelings, such as guilt and shame, that are also very important, especially in a person’s personal growth and development. Without guilt and shame, and the nagging and tormenting voice of conscience, would anyone ever change anything? Guilt and shame are not necessarily the only drivers of change, but they certainly serve as a good impetus for it. Guilt guides people to question their existence and examine their actions, habits, and ways of thinking. People often feel shame and guilt about situations that they know are wrong but have nevertheless done. Of course, shame can be felt in other ways, but it is usually associated with other beliefs and mental blocks. For example, an action that one performs and believes to be wrong, even if it is very commonplace and necessary.
You have to be careful with your feelings. Feelings are indeed guides in life and they also add color to life, but feelings can also be very deceptive. It is good to think about and examine your feelings from many different angles.
Is the feeling real, or is it just a reaction to some unnecessary way of thinking or attitude?
Very often, you may fear something happening for no reason. In this case, the fear may be a real feeling without any real basis. It is good to think about each feeling and try to get to the bottom of it.
Where does the feeling come from and why? Is the feeling justified or not?
Love is also a good example of this. When meeting someone new, it is easy to think, ”Now I am in love.” One experiences a great deal of pleasure, and the new person may seem very close and suitable. Many months can pass in this state of euphoria, and people swear their love.
But what happens when the euphoria wears off? Is there no love left?
The person they fell for seems to be unsuitable, and their interests do not match. It even seems strange that they have been involved with such a person or even planned a future together. Such a situation has nothing to do with love. It was only a matter of the pleasure you experienced. These are two completely different things. It is true that there is also pleasure in love, but for the most part it is about attitude and accepting ways of thinking. Thinking about the world through understanding and acceptance.
This is important in self-examination as well as in life, in terms of emotions. It is important to be careful about emotions and whether they are real or not, and what is the real factor behind these emotions, or whether there is a real factor at all. Very often, emotions are based on imagination, illusions, and unnecessary beliefs, which it would be good to get rid of. For this reason, self-examination and reflection are very important in getting to know yourself and your own feelings.
Getting to know your feelings is also important because most human reactions are based on feelings. If a person is guided by their feelings, they react based on those feelings, not reason. In such cases, reactions can be very primitive. It is therefore important to note the contrast between intelligence and primitivism.
For example, if a person is driven into a situation where they feel their life is threatened, very primitive instincts and behaviors emerge. The person begins to feel fear, and their reaction is to try to survive the situation. Survival may mean defending oneself mentally or even physically. If reason were stronger than emotion in this situation, there would be no need to survive. Instead of emotion, reason could bring out gentler and more constructive alternatives.
People have also learned to manipulate their emotions, even though the right solution would be to face and accept them. Today, people have many different ways of changing their emotional states and their being, so longer and more painful self-examination is not necessarily the first option. However, self-examination and the understanding gained from it have more lasting and truly beneficial effects than systematically escaping from oneself. Shaping one’s emotions is a form of escape, and it is important to identify all the ways in which one does this in one’s own life. Emotions are the guiding force in human life. All emotions are necessary, and there is always a reason for them. Searching for and examining this reason always leads to the source, i.e., where one should be striving to go in life.
It is also important to understand that the purest source of all emotions is primal instinct. Emotional intelligence is truly necessary, because it allows us to understand our emotions and their impact on our existence. Being aware of emotions and the reactions they cause helps us to rise above our emotions, i.e., above our primal nature. In this case, we use our intelligence more than our primal nature (Miettinen, 2019a).
In hypercubism, emotions are placed in the third dimension, while their interpretation is placed in the fourth dimension. The primitive needs of the third dimension, through pleasure, originate from the individual’s physical body. Some philosophers believe that intelligence distinguishes humans from animals ( Lyytinen et al., 2003 , p. 79). Hypercubism fully agrees with this view.
Compared to animals, humans’ conscious and rational thinking has developed considerably further. Philosophers have concluded in their reflections that emotions are more closely associated with animals than with humans. Attacking, mating, hunting, and fleeing are consequences of the instincts and emotions that guide animals . Emotions also enable and ensure the survival of mammals through the care of their offspring. Whereas animals’ emotions are reflexive and instinct-based, the examination of human emotions involves conscious thinking. Nevertheless, emotions are just as important and necessary for humans as thinking. In psychology, the positive meaning is described by the word ”emotion,” which comes from the Latin verb emovere, ”to move.” The word is related to the word motivation, and the meaning of a driving force is common to both. Emotions also cause physical reactions, such as an increase in heart rate or sweating. (Lyytinen et al., 2003, pp. 79, 81.)
Happiness is not a commodity
What if there were nothing else in the world but human beings themselves? No clothes, no possessions, no praise, no adulation, no intoxicants or other forms of entertainment. No people to interact with.
Would it be possible for a person to be happy? Would it be possible to be happy without someone other than oneself providing that happiness?
Many people think that you cannot be happy unless you have ”something” or that you are only happy when you have ”something.” There is also a lot of talk about how once you have reached certain milestones in life, such as a career or marriage, you have earned the right to be happy.
But what if that is not the case? What if happiness is not waiting on the other side of the fence? What if the image of a happy life in the future is just a fleeting dream?
Happiness is not a commodity. You can’t just think that buying something new will make you happy. Is it really happiness that comes with a new possession? A new piece of material?
Or in relationships, for example. If he makes you happy, you stay with him. But what if they don’t? Is the other person just a source of happiness? Does anyone have the right to demand that another person make them happy? Shouldn’t everyone take care of their own happiness? Of course, it’s nice if another person makes you even happier.
Happiness is not the same thing as pleasure. Buying something new gives you pleasure, meeting someone new gives you pleasure, and eating ice cream gives you pleasure.
You can say:
”I am happy when I have this ice cream.”
But what about when the ice cream is finished? You need new ice cream. So can life be just about eating ice cream? Or, when a new thing is no longer new, do you buy a new thing?
”I am happy with this person,” or is it perhaps just pleasure? At their best, relationships offer a great deal of pleasure, acceptance, and a boost to self-esteem. But is that real happiness?
Happiness should not depend on anything, it should just be. The only path to true happiness is self-knowledge and the attitude towards life and the things that happen in it that comes with it. You have to strip yourself bare and give up everything. You have to let go of your loved ones and material possessions, as well as all thoughts and ideas that something else will make you happy. The best thing would be to just be alone, let go of everything and think that you are alone in the universe. Stop running away, stop and find true happiness in this moment, in emptiness and understanding. When you are already happy, you don’t need to try to build it from somewhere else. Not from people, not from ice cream, not from things.
Self-examination is about exploring and examining yourself. It’s about figuring out who you are and where you’re coming from. Through it, you can also figure out where you are going. If you don’t think about yourself or stop to think, nothing will change. The theme of life becomes: ”I am happy,” but still so empty and sad. However, the false illusion of ”happiness” produced by pleasure does not last forever.
All that remains is wonder:
”Maybe he or she wasn’t right for me after all, I’ll find someone new or different.”
or
”I wasn’t happy with him or her, I’ll find someone better.”
Is that a solution or just consumption?
When you are already happy, you no longer need to look for it elsewhere. Your relationship with things changes, and your attitude towards everything changes. In the end, everything is just a nice addition to your existing contentment.
Happiness is simply contentment and gratitude for things and life as they are right now. Without needing to change them in any way. Happiness is a way of thinking and relating. Happiness is not happiness if it is dependent on something. When you are dependent on something, you are simply dependent. Happiness cannot be bought either; it is found and obtained.
That is why it is good to ask yourself:
”Am I really happy? (Miettinen, 2019a.)
According to psychology, people can examine and influence their actions and thoughts surprisingly easily. On the other hand, consciously controlling emotions is not so simple. For example, love or anger cannot be created or destroyed by a conscious decision. You can incite yourself to anger or allow yourself to love. This is influenced by the functioning of the autonomic nervous system. Although the brain regulates the autonomic nervous system and its reactions, they are not regulated by the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for consciousness, or the limbic system, which plays an important role in regulating emotions. Transcendental meditation has been used to regulate the autonomic nervous system, and this is also possible by regulating one’s environment and stimuli. (Lyytinen et al., 2003, p. 82)
In hypercubism, emotions are approached through primal instincts, but also through thought structures. It is possible to live with emotions, and when properly harnessed and understood, they are part of the individual as a whole. For example, fear that arises through thought structures is a real emotion, even if the thought structure has no concrete basis. In this case, the thought structure is inconsistent and unnecessary, requiring dismantling and reconstruction. When harmful thought structures become visible and have been made consistent, emotions cease to exist.
Philosopher and psychology pioneer William James has proposed a theory of emotion that explains emotional experience as arising from bodily reactions. Whereas one might think that nervous sweating or trembling hands are caused by fear, for example, James argues that the opposite is true. When we notice these physical reactions, we become afraid. Sadness, for example, arises from crying, and joy from laughing. (Psychology 4, p. 82) It is possible to feel sadness without physical reactions, just as it is possible to feel joy. Personal thoughts alone can cause fear or create feelings of fear. Emotions are physical, and sometimes they manifest themselves through the body before they can be recognized as such, but they do not manifest themselves solely through the body.
Another perspective is that if consciousness cannot effectively influence emotions such as love and hate, this further increases the difference between the interaction between the body, mind, and consciousness. If consciousness were a factor that was completely ”in control” of the human being as a whole and had complete decision-making power, then it would also have to have the power to influence every bodily function equally. Instead, this reinforces the idea that consciousness is only a factor that observes, albeit also questions and updates, the processes contained within the body and mind, i.e., human ”programming.” Of course, consciousness is in control if it is aware of its ability to be in control.
Fear
It is claimed that people place their beds so that the foot of the bed faces the door. This is a remnant from the days when people lived in caves and wanted to avoid surprises. They positioned themselves so that they could see the cave entrance in case of possible intruders.
Similarly, people at that time were afraid of the dark, because wild animals could be lurking in the darkness. Probably fear, and the measures it prompted, were life-sustaining and necessary for survival, as they are today. Not many people like to climb high because the thought of falling and possibly dying causes fear. One could therefore think that fear protects life in such a way that it is healthy to be afraid.
Of course, there is also a flip side to fear. In addition to fears that could be something concrete, such as heights or wild animals, there are also fears that are invisible. Fears related to the way people think and behave. Fears that can even affect people in such a way that they are not aware that they are afraid.
For example, there may be a fear of changing something because of a fear of being exposed to something unknown. Or a fear of embarking on something new because you don’t know what this new thing will bring.
In this case, a person may be afraid without knowing it, but it still affects their life. Such fears are harmful to the progress of life.
Fear is a very strong emotion. At its worst, fear causes a person to lose all rational thinking and drives them into a state where their only thought is to survive, by any means necessary. The emotion then overrides all rational thinking, and the person acts as if they were in real danger. They react strongly and without thinking, or they freeze and are unable to take any action. Fear is a very primitive and powerful emotion. The only solution is to try to master the situation. Even though the emotion is very powerful, fear is ultimately just an emotion. Instead of trying to get rid of fear or trying not to be afraid, face it and welcome it. Learn to live with fear. Despite the emotion, try to take control of the situation and find out what is really going on.
Ask yourself:
How have you behaved when you were afraid, and what have you failed to do because of it? What are you willing to do to stop being afraid?
Fear is an emotion, and everything has a reason. So there is also a reason why you are afraid. If something scares you, it is worth examining why. There may be many reasons, but at best, once things are clarified, fears can become visible and disappear completely. They are replaced by confidence and the courage to live. The most important thing is to rise above your feelings, face things head on, and be aware of your feelings. As in the case of the caveman’s fear of the dark mentioned earlier, you have to go and see if there is anything to be afraid of in the dark. This applies to all things that cause fear.
Fear is very controlling, but it is possible to accept it and, in some cases, it is necessary and possible to get rid of it. Fear is a destructive force and, at its worst, it can lead to complete ruin. That is why it must be taken seriously, and everyone should think about it in relation to themselves. Facing and dealing with fears are absolutely essential steps in moving forward in life (Miettinen, 2019a).