Photo by Greg Willson on Unsplash

I am not someone who does too well with warm weather, and being summer in Australia at the moment, the last few months have been quite challenging for me.

As with any challenge, it has also given me an opportunity to reflect upon the sequence of thoughts my mind follows under such conditions, and also examine this particular nuance of thought-conception within myself; this subjective, experiential-tolerance under certain situations and circumstances.

When it’s hot, it feels like the heat envelops me. It seeps into every crevice and emanates back out from within, creating my very own self-perpetuating furnace. I feel immensely uncomfortable; the heat in the air surrounds and suffocates me, my skin is moist, perspiration dripping and soaking through my garments, which then cling on like an infant to their mother, having to peel myself from any surface I make contact with.

I’m not one that is easily rattled, but fascinatingly, I experience a curious (and reflexive) shift in my mental state, and find that my sense of poise and authority over my own rationality rapidly spirals out of my control.

I am desperate to find relief from this torture, to find any room which has air-conditioning blasting at full strength, to return my body (or is it my mind?) to a state internal stasis. I find myself thinking things like, “man, air-conditioning is a life saver," and “I simply could not survive without air-conditioning!”

But, obviously, these statements I make to myself, as I am relieved from the torment of the heat, are irrational in themselves. I remind myself that some people are not so fortunate to have ready-access to air-conditioning, we've managed to live without it just fine before it's invention, and furthermore, it is highly unlikely that my mortality is seriously under any threat.

A Dr. Jekyll / Mr. Hyde-esque transformation, seemingly at the flick of a switch, my disposition would change; this prompted me to inquire a little further to better understand this sequence of mental events.

Some thoughts came to mind: firstly, that I was a spoilt human being who is extremely blessed to live the life of comfort I am fortunate enough to live; Secondly, the level of subjectivity I have in this particular circumstance (I'm certain that not everyone responds to heat the same way I do!), and subsequently, the presumable subjective mental pattern(s) all individuals could have towards any situation in life, whether it be weather conditions or anything else.

The Spectrum of Experience

In every circumstance we face in life, we each have our own unique experiential perception associated. We decide what is the ideal experience we could have from this situation, what the least-favourable experience would be, and everything else in-between; we hold in our minds a ‘Spectrum of Experience’ for any particular situation.

I want to make the point clear that the Spectrum of Experience is not a definitive measure of any particular experience, but rather, a subjective measure held by an individual; i.e. my spectrum will be different to yours.

Using the weather example for illustrative purposes;

On the Spectrum of Experience, we would also define our own tolerance threshold, and identify a point along the spectrum where we’re able to endure before we begin to be psychologically affected and our sense of mental control is challenged:

Keep in mind that in the above scenario, we have experienced the miraculous cooling effects of air-conditioning, so it can be seen as our self-defined, best-case scenario.

If we now imagine ourselves in a time before the invention of air-conditioning; where the mere concept, let alone the experience of enjoying it, is completely foreign to us.

Of course, our perception of how we feel and what we can tolerate will only be defined by what we've been able to experience, thus the spectrum would match our known experiences at a particular point in time.

Now if we overlay the two examples, there is an interesting factor to note. As we are exposed to new experiences in life, we have the opportunity to subjectively-categorise each new experience as ‘good’ or ‘better’ (or conversely, 'bad' or 'worse') than what we’ve previously been exposed to.

As a result, our Spectrum of Experience expands, but not only in the direction of positive experience.

As a greater experience prompts us to re-baseline our Spectrum of Experience, so too, must we consider a scenario where we are unable to experience this ideal outcome.

Thus, for any improved conception of an ideal experience, there must be an equally-negative experience at the other end of the spectrum.

Interestingly though, our level of tolerance does not simply extend along with the spectrum, but rather, as we acclimatise to our newly-upgraded perception of an experience over time, our tolerance threshold likely shifts, creating our own newly-defined ‘subjective norm’.

Tolerance & Addiction

I want to take a moment to discuss this from an angle which may seem slightly left-of-field. Generally speaking, when we hear the terms ‘addict’ or ‘addiction’, we usually associate them with drug addicts, substance abuse, etc. However, I would argue that subjective (in)tolerance to any experience, especially when there is some level of psychological impact associated, has traits that can resemble addiction, obviously to a differing lower degree of intensity and severity.

Let me start by saying that in no way am I downplaying the seriousness and complexity of drug addiction, nor am I implying that the examples I am presenting are in any way comparable.

This point of discussion is made in reference to the origins of the term, derived from the Latin word 'addictus', meaning “to devote, sacrifice, sell-out, betray or abandon.”

Addiction can be perceived as being a vehicle for escape (or abandonment) from an unfavourable situation or experience. In the case of someone who is drug-dependent, a drugless reality is the place to escape, the substance the driver, and the state of substance-induced euphoria is the desired destination.

There is a desire to escape because, to the addict, their drugless reality is an intolerable state; the more one seeks this escape, the more accustomed they become to the sensations felt in the experience of escape, thus, the less tolerable their drugless reality will become.

We could surmise that our scope of tolerance, the coverage of our tolerance threshold on any Spectrum of Experience, can play a significant role in determining our psychological state and stability.

"The meaning of all addictions could be defined as endeavours at controlling our life experiences with the help of external remedies... Unfortunately, all external means of improving our life experiences are double-edged swords: they are always good and bad. No external remedy improves our condition without, at the same time, making it worse." - Thomas Hora, M.D. 'Beyond the Dream: Awakening to Reality'

We can use the old expression “the bigger they are, the harder they fall” to illustrate this psychological activity and perception within the Spectrum of Experience.

Think about the device which is in your hand right now, the one you’re using to read these words. The smartphone revolution gained momentum in the early 2000’s and it became the norm when the first iPhone became available in 2007 – just over 11 years ago.

Now, I could almost guarantee that, if asked to swap their smartphone for an early model Motorola from the nineties (which can only make and receive phone calls), it would be unfathomable for the majority of people; that their lives are on these devices and they couldn’t live without them.

I’m not saying that I would be one of the minority who could confidently accept this hypothetical situation without batting an eyelid, but simply want to highlight this pattern of behaviour.

I believe this example represents this point well, as only twenty years ago, hardly anyone had a personal mobile phone (let alone a smartphone), and now a situation without them would be perceived as utterly unthinkable!

In the end, the point I'm trying to make is this: our tolerance, toward any circumstance, plays a major role in our psychological (and subsequently, biological, social, physiological, and so on) state and stability, thus determining how well we are able to experience life; life simply being a sequence of our experiences.

To summarise, some words to ponder: