Writer’s block is a common speed breaker for all kinds of writer. Actually, in any form of creative process, a time comes when overthinking, stress or anxiety leads to a mental block, which halts the process temporarily or in a worst case scenario, altogether. Frankly, I was going through the same blockage before starting this chapter and it’s not the first time, my traffic of idea was jammed due to the red signal of mental block. I’ve taken interest in a lot of activities in my past. Photography, making YouTube videos, playing the keyboard, and few more. But I’ve not been able to keep any of them consistent. I got some kind of block and I just stopped. I figured that all of those activities started to feel like a task or a job, rather than a pastime or a hobby or something that I should enjoy, while making an effort to instill some kind of creative element to it. Even my new thing – writing articles for a potential book, had made me feel somewhere that I’m taking it as a job and not as something enjoyable. Maybe that’s why I wasn’t able to think about any new topic to write. However, I wasn’t planning on giving it up so easily as I gave up my last activities. I had to look for an inspiration. I had to come up with something. So what if it feels like a job. It is a job and I accept it and I enjoy it. Plus, I don’t have anything else to do, because, hello… lockdown is still on.
So what do I do to search for an inspiration? I go to my terrace, turn the recorder app, of my phone, on, and start rambling to myself. I start talking whatever comes to mind. Either it made sense or not, I didn’t care. Before I knew it, an inspiration had started creeping up on me, and within the next few minutes of constant blabbering, I had it. I had an Idea.
Now I could do one of the two things here. Number one, I could just tell you what is it and be done with. Or number two, I could take you for a few page journey of a mind boggling hypothesis and then tell you what the idea exactly is. Since I am the privileged writer and you’re the unfortunate reader, well, you know how the dynamics work. If I have been able to keep you hooked up until now, I don’t see what I should be afraid about. Hence, I have the power to cook anything and serve it to you and you will eat it. Complain all you want, but now you want more, you’re addicted. How do I know? Well, you’re still reading, aren’t you?
Sorry to lead you nowhere for a while. I just wanted to lighten the mood before I drop the heavy dump on your brain. Also, I wanted to know if I can trust you with what I have to say. For those of you who reached up until here, I have to say I trust you. I trust you because you didn’t get offended. What I’m about to say might offend common sense or it might also offend people who are blind followers of the scientific community. Having said that, I’m a man of science and I respect the scientific approach of analyzing data. But with the amount of resource I have, I couldn’t take any approach whatsoever. I just have my smartphone, my mind and my fingers. That’s all. I trust you because you seem genuine, and genuine people are smart enough to distinguish between a hypothesis and a fact. What I’m about to present is merely a hypothesis and without any further ado, here we go.
So, I hope this is a safe assumption to say that we all know a little about genetics and how our lives are literally intertwined with genetics. At the very nucleus of each and every cell of our body, there is a double helical structure called DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid, I’ve done my research), and we’ve got about 92 of them in each nucleus. The ingredient of DNA are called genes, which carries instructions that determines our feature such as, eye colour, height, hair colour etc and some habits that our parents or grandparents used to have. So whatever feature we possess, all of those are passed down to us by our (if not farthest) nearest ancestors. From both of our parents we get 50% of their genetic material. From all of our grandparents we get 25% of their genetic material. From our great grandparents we get 12.5% of their genes. The values gets halved down as we move up the ancestral tree. But I believe we get far more than just characteristics or traits, from our ancestors. We get memories.
Now when I say memories, I mean all the data and information that were accumulated by our ancestors before they conceived their offspring. The offspring in turn started acquiring data since it’s birth and also carrying it’s parents’ data within itself. Upon reaching the time where it can reproduce, the offspring, which is now full grown adult, indulges itself in the process of procreation and voila! Another generation on it’s way with the data and information of it’s predecessors. So by that calculation, we possess an immense amount of data. I can date back to the time of the first cell from which we all came to be. Passing information to the next generation. That means we have about 4 billion years of data, right within us. But of course, those are inaccessible.
The storage in our brain is so vast, that it would take a lot of work to access even a tiny part of it. The reason we don’t remember all of it, is because we can’t access those part. That is quite unfortunate, considering the feats we would’ve been able to achieve with that much data. It takes almost all of our brain capacities to perform the vital tasks for our body, to keep us alive. So yes! I’m not supporting the myth that dictates “Our brain works only 10%, not 100%”. But I’m also not saying that accessing the locked part of those humongous data, is impossible. Sometimes, we do bump into one of those memories, subconsciously. You see while sleeping, our brain activity lowers down for a small amount and it starts to play some memories in the form of images. Some images we recognize, as we have seen or experienced something similar in our life. While there are some other images, about which we have no clue and we tend to forget them as soon as we wake up. Sometimes we remember, but unless we keep a dream journal, we generally forget all about them. This phenomenon is so fascinating, I can’t help but make a connection here with my hypothesis. So in easy words, I’m trying to say that the images that we do not have any clue about their origins, are actually memories passed on to us by our ancestors. Before you say anything, I know it seems far fetched, but all I’m saying is that it is a possibility. A fantastic, mind boggling one at it’s best, I must say, putting my modesty aside. Those series of images that we see at our subconscious state, are raw, overlapped with each other and most of the times doesn’t makes sense. But what if, there were one such series of images, which weren’t as raw, definitely not overlapped, and completely made sense? Wouldn’t that be a great phenomenon? Actually that kind of phenomenon is pretty common.
You see, there comes many a time in our lives where we go through a situation, which we generally try to get out of. It can be any situation, say, you are late for office. Your boss would like to hear a valid reason for your unpunctuality. On the way to the office, you pull out a reason from somewhere and you manage to delay your dismissal. Another example, it’s your anniversary day with your partner. You are not able to decide what to do for them. You’re not even sure what gifts to give. But then it strikes you. You make a plan to surprise them, either by visiting some place they like or by gifting them something that they are fond of; which by the way, are based on the references, your partner had mentioned at some point of your life. They realize you haven’t forgotten what they have said long time back, thus establishing how much you love them. Your plan saved the relationship.
I would like to present another example which is quite personal and recent. I got a mental block. I didn’t know what to write about for the next chapter. After a conversation with myself, I got it. I had an idea. But I already mentioned that in the first page of this chapter. Didn’t I?
What I am trying to convey is that, whatever idea I’ve had or I will have in the future (hopefully), those ideas didn’t just occur. They were right there, scattered, but still there, within us. Thanks to the ocean of data that had been passed down to us by our ancestors, in the form of images, cumulatively called as memories. However, as I said earlier, we can’t access them completely. But whenever we push ourselves to get out of situations, like getting fired from office, or saving a relationship or even getting rid of the mental block, we accidentally pull the nerve (not literally) of survival. To survive, in any condition, it becomes our primal instinct to get out of situations that make us incapable. Our survival instinct, upon simulation, dives into the ocean of memories and brings back some images and puts them together, resulting in the formation of an idea. An idea, which is filtered, clear and that makes sense to an extent.
And, this was my idea.
Correction: This was an idea passed down to me, thanks to my ancestors. Thanks to that cell that divided itself 4 billion years ago. I don’t know why or what made it divide itself, but THAT was a great idea.
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