Notes on questions that Bryan has on anxiety (as laid out in a voice message)
B: Is anxiety the same as switching on that part of the brain that Jaynes would say was the "God voice"? The part that is heard at the "fork in the road" where a decision needs to be made and a voice is heard making that dections and then that decision is simply obeyed. The God voice had a functional role to problem solve and action followed; we didn't get involved at a meta level, in evaluating the use or efficacy of the solution provided by "god"
I: No, I don't think that's the same thing, or at least I don't think it's the right level of analysis/analogy; intead, anxiety may be the TRIGGER for the decision. Not sure that's what you meant
Anxiety isn't the actual switching into the god mode, it is the feeling that precedes the need for a decision to be made or considered.
But this begs a more fundamental question: Not only what is anxiety, but what are emotions more generally, anxiety being only one of several emotions of course
B: In Buddhism the sati (mindfulness) is a state in which you know what you're doing, it's a mode of thought that you can switch on when necessary. This seems like the same state that Jaynes is talking about when the "God mode" is turned on: you're aware, even vigilant about your actions and you switch into this mode of weighing pros/cons
B: Put differently, but related: Is anxiety a state of high uncertainty during which you're hyper aware of a decison being required? If so, it sounds like the same thing that the Buddhists are talking about when they talk about the technical definition of mindfulness
I: Yes and no. Anxiety is not so much the "knowing what you're doing" but it IS becoming aware that there is threat in your environment. So, yes, anxiety is felt when there are cues you're perceiving need to be attended to, but the state of anxiety is not one of clarity per se (which is what I link to mindfulness); anxiety often clouds judgement in that you are not able to perceive a range of options or feelings or stimuli that's probably relevant to solving a given problem. That's the rub of anxiety: it is meant to focus you on threat, so you often do not process relevant information that is not related to the direct danger
I: Here's the crux: Mindfulness is NOT anxiety. Specifically, B says that the Buddhists consider mindfulness difficult to sustain, it's arduous, painful... It's an "anxiety-ridden process" . YES, that's the point, you don't want to conflate these things. Certain sustained periods of mindfulness may CAUSE one to feel anxiety. It is indeed difficult to remain still during the influx of physiological arousal, sustained attention, and so on. And you may want to cultivate a state of mindfulness to cope with, regulate, work through, or just be present with your state of anxiety. But they are not one and the same.
For example: When you're about to meet a new person, or even an old friend you haven't seen and. you haven't been face-to-face with for a while, you may feel anxiety. There's wondering, ruminating, turning over possible scenarios: that's anxiety. To feel better, or more centred, or calmer, (whatever you want to call the state after meditation in this type of case) you are compelled to meditate. You focus on your breath. You may pay attention to your fleeting thoughts, and you attempt to watch them emerge and then cease, or change, as you regard the with no judgment. This meditation practice CAUSES anxiety to dissipate, decrease, be regulated. But it is not the same state. (I: Does that make sense?)
According to everyone from Freud to basic emotion theorists like Nico Fijda to philosophers like Sartre, and neuroscientists like Pankseep and Demasio: Anxiety is triggered under conditions that are perceived as potentially threatening and that are usually anticipated to come in the future. The other key features of these conditions is they are (a) unpredictable, (b) there's a lack of perceived control, and (c) there's ambiguity in the situation.
(I know you know this but)... Anxiety is biologically wired, triggered in conditions of potential threat, and normative... until it's chronic, which as you know leads to a bunch of problems
Anxiety is freaking unpleasant; we are motivated to collapse it into almost anything else (e.g., people would prefer to get a shock now than to wait later and potentially not get shocked); uncertainty, unpredictability, and lack of control feels terrible