Your conscience

I consider mine a tool for a good night's sleep. I would think mine was influenced as a young child mainly from the teachings of the Bible: influencing my parents, too. I was taught to do things for conscience' sake.

I do not think society's rights and wrongs influence it. I do not think it has mislead me. I have never given thought to multiple forms.

Some folk act as if they do not have one, or at least hide it or otherwise place it outside their door. I am well-pleased with mine.

 

It's very hard for me to put words to how my conscience works. Part of the problem is I actually largely do not think in language. Because of that I can only describe it by relation; and that can be inaccurate at times. I can start by stating that I do not think in language. I think in images, feelings, concepts, and general ideas. I can think of an entire storage list of information, maybe a paragraph in a book, without "thinking" a single word. When I need to retain a string of numbers, I will not be able to if I try to "think" the numbers in an order, even saying it outloud sometimes will cause me to fail. Instead I half imagine the physical shape of the numbers in my head, and the "feel" of the numbers. It remains in this limbo state in effect, where I am just about to actively "think out" the number sequence. I can see and "feel" the numbers, but not think it. Once I write down the numbers or recall them, they can be lost. However, this "loss" is not permenant in some cases. If I "forget it" for a period of time, my mind can work it out in the back of my mind (my subconscious really, but I digress as that is not the topic of discussion right now), and hours later I could recall it.

This simple example is how I recall, remember, and think in the majority of cases. Much of what I think feel say and do remains in this psudeo-thought state where it is on the border between being verbal, visual, felt, or another unknown mode. The second I drift into one of these and extract it (I need to externalize it into one mode in order to get it out), I can explain it and process it. Sometimes I am not aware that I am doing this. If I pay attention I can "recall" where a thought or idea came from. This act of translation between extracting information from my conscious (and what I assume to be subconcious as well, I could be describing that at the same time) is why I can appear lost in thought or scatter-brained (which is largely a misnomer, although I will say I am at times for ease of others to understand). This is also why I say I am a slow thinker. I think very intensely and deeply about pretty much everything, but there is a high volume of material to go through.

I actually don't have complete control over how I think. To me things often "come to me out of the blue". This is because of the afformentioned way in which my thoughts remain in a limbo state in a sense. The act of recalling and understanding something is fast on an internal level. Things can very quickly fill this room, getting it out of the room is the slow part. That slow part I have control over. However as I in effect did not "choose" to put all the information into that room in the way that I did, I in effect did not actually control how I thought the idea in the first place. This can be frusterating at times as I can sometimes become irratated with myself with the inefficency of this information. More in the act of translating it and describing it. With pratice new information sets work better, and can become translated easier.

This entire post is actually an example of this. I intuitively understood all of this in my head, but it takes time, trial/error, and a lot of effort to get it down. This is also why I started by saying "it's hard to explain". In a way it is ironic to say that it is hard to think about how I think and then further explain it.

*this post was a stream of consciousss. Which was (in hindsight) done on purpose to retain accuracy and authenticity of this.

ETA: I failed to answer the last two questions, sorry.

 

My conscience is like.... a chemical reaction that takes place in my soul. It works like a security system; letting me know if something's good or bad, usually without me having to think about it. If I know I'm doing the wrong thing, or if I'm confronted with an opportunity to do wrong, I get an immediate and strong feeling inside that tells me to stay away. If I'm going against the grain, or acting alternatively to the societal norm, but I know I'm doing the right thing, I might still feel bad or doubtful on an external level, but deep down I have this peace that tells me to wait out the storm and keep on doing good.

I think it's entirely intuitive, because I don't always need a rule book or a quote from the Bible to tell me what's right and what's wrong. I believe that my conscious is from God, and I believe what the Bible has to say, but I won't just trust any Christian's teachings just because I'm a Christian. The Bible's words can be twisted to suit and validate a multitude of different beliefs. I just rely on my conscience, faith and good judgment to make my own descisions.

 

What does it feel like? I typically feel a jerking, sinking or fluttering in my belly. I think there's a good reason why what's typically called our conscience is called a "gut feeling".

How do you conceptualize it? Hmmm, never have. The whole angel on the shoulder bit is probably the closest thing though I recognize how cheesy that is.

Where do you think it came from? Do you think it is heavily influenced by what society considers to be right or wrong? I think C.S. Lewis sums this up BRILLIANTLY in his apologetic masterpiece Mere Christianity. He talks about how the fact that there is a moral compass within all human beings points to the fact that an eternal being designed it and placed it within us. His argument is flawless IMO.

Do you ever think that it is misleading you, or that you have good reason to actually censor your own conscience? No, because if it did it wouldn't be coming from the same source. With that said I have been thoroughly confused in the past about which force was urging me and whether or not I could trust it.

If not, do you think your conscience comes in multiple forms? I think it is prodded into action by other sources but doesn't speak from other sources as that would defy my definition of a conscience. It is a personal moral barometer.

 

My conscience is my common sense in a nut shell. It is always neutral but has the wisdom of knowing what is right and wrong.

I think conscience can be influenced by external forces if you let it. I think those who becomes aware of the societal influences in a negative form start the process of becoming un influenced by these forces; whether it was family, friends, religious affiliations, etc. This process can take years.

My conscience runs on the same channel as my intuition. I usually have two opposing thoughts in my head. I can always tell the conscience because it always requires me to go out of my way to do the right thing. But of course i always have the free will to follow that thought or just simply do the most efficient self serving thing.

 

I ran across the idea of informing one's conscience many years ago and for me this has been important. That is, deciding off of our intuition, yes, but also on the information we may have accumulated that might alter, support, or possibly modify what we might initially have considered. This ties in closely, and on a very practical level, with the idea of conversion, conversion that interacts quite naturally with our everyday circumstances, encounters, choices and decision-making. It also provides a possible means of bypassing an ego-centric approach to conscience, in that it is open to further development, input and growth from the outside. It also assumes a non-rigid, organic view of conscience.