Does the body rule the mind, or does the mind rule the body? I dunno.
For some people of a certain age, those words will be familiar. It is a line from a song by The Smiths, penned by the master of misery himself, Morrissey. And like Morrissey, I dunno the answer to that question, either. But the mind, and our thoughts, can behave in ways that are strange.
The way our mind often works, reminds me of the two shoulder angels, one good and one bad. Both sitting on our shoulders, waiting for the opportunity to make or break us. Our thoughts can lead us to think about things that make us wonder what is going on, a state where often the only thing we can fall back on is coincidence.
Or it just might be that someone or something else is in control.
And here’s my second tale from the simulation. Nothing complicated about this one, just a series of unlikely events.
It is a story about something that is so common, the word “common” is used to describe it. A few years ago, I caught a cold — a very common cold. There is nothing unusual in that, but it was what happened before I became infected that was strange.
It was early March 2022, and winter had been reasonably mild. Every year as winter approaches, Britain prepares itself for the cold and flu season. While the bug can hit at any time, the cold weather is usually the time when those nasty viruses thrive. But I wasn't that concerned, as for several years, I had been lucky in avoiding catching a cold.
So lucky, that for years it never crossed my mind. Until one sunny March morning when I was out for a walk in the local park—a random thought developed in my mind.
“When was the last time you had a cold?” The bad angel on my shoulder whispered in my ear.
“Oh, just ignore him.” Said the good angel. “You are fit and healthy; chances of catching a cold now, with winter over, are very low.”
Actually, I made that up.
There was no good or bad angel involved at all. It was my mind posing the question. It just popped up, a random thought on a nice sunny day, and I had no answer. I carried on with my walk, wondering why I was even thinking about it.
A couple of days later, I woke up with telltale signs of a cold developing. It started with a tickle in the throat and that general heady feeling. I knew that a virus had found my body as its home.
After several years of avoiding every cold virus going, I was infected.
Nothing unusual, except that from the time you catch a cold, the incubation period usually takes one to three days. That week, I had been mostly at home, away from crowds. Other than an occasional walk in the park, I had not been around anyone. I had spoken to people on the phone, but I hadn’t seen or spoken to anyone in person at that time.
Yet a virus managed to find me — or I found it. A friend joked with me that perhaps I had caught a computer virus.
Maybe, as the simulation is thought to be a computer program.
It was strange. Why did I have that totally random thought about a cold virus, and then a few days later I was infected? I have no idea why the thought entered my mind at that moment. Perhaps the brain knew something and was giving me a clue of what was coming.
Or perhaps it was something else? A simulation could do it.
There again, it could all be a coincidence. It was inevitable that at some point it would happen. And our mind is very powerful when it comes to thoughts about our health.
The mind and the world, simulation or not, can behave in strange ways.
Image by M Richter from Pixabay
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