We all exist in our own minds where we construct a world based on our proprioceptive and mental experiences. I have written previously about the accumulation of experiences over time leading to the building of our consciousness [see ‘Is there a real ‘you’ or ‘I’?’ on March 6th 2019]. In Jonathan Coe’s recent novel, ‘The Proof of Innocence’ during a tiff between a young couple on a train travelling along the south coast of France, the girl, who is watching an episode of the TV show ‘Friends’ on her phone, says to the boy, who is admiring the view and admonishing her for not doing the same, ‘You don’t know what’s going on in my head. Because you are not there.’ Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe took advantage of the inaccessibility to others of our minds to create a parallel world of her own in order to free herself from constraints and conditions of imprisonment in Iran. She has described feeling liberated when she realised that no one could take the parallel world away from her. She chose not allow others access to her parallel world; however, we can choose to give some level of access through communicating with others. I am confident that my wife has a pretty good idea of what is going on in my head, or least a much better idea than that of the young couple in Jonathan Coe’s novel, because we have been communicating with each other for about forty years. If you are a regular reader of this blog then you have been on a journey which will have provided glimpses of my mind. Reading allows us to learn about humanity through looking into the inner lives of others [see ‘Reading offline’ on March 19th 2014] who are prepared share, probably in the spirit of reciprocal altruism. There is some risk involved in sharing because the closedness of your inner life appears to be essential to its role as a survival tool; however, understanding others also helps to navigate and thrive in society, which implies that sharing also has an important role.
Sources:
Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, The feeling of freedom, FT Weekend, 7th & 8th December 2024..
Jonathan Coe, The proof of my innocence, Penguin, 2024.
Realize Engineering 
Hi Eann,
I had never heard of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe. Thank you for the introduction. From searching for her story, I found out that two British subjects have been imprisoned in Iran in January this year. I could not read your link because of a paywall. But with searching, I came across the BBC which gave news items freely. I have tuned in at times to BBC radio and now I am registering at BBC.com.
I think it is disturbing, the thought of taking away freedoms of the real and active world and having these replaced by mind games. It is advantageous in the short term when there is hope. For instance Monica Ferris uses it in one of her needlecraft mystery novels. Her shop assistant is jailed on suspicion of murder. He is an avid knitter who cannot have knitting needles in jail, so his boss, Betsy, suggests he knit in his head…imagining the process of knitting. This works while the prisoner is hopeful of release, which is what happens. But it is not a substitute for the real thing in the long term, or forever. Now, I am going to get political. In Australia, areas of recreation are being closed off to the public, and more closures are being mooted. These are mountains and cliff faces. This is demanded by one small group of people and their beliefs. These activities of climbing and scaling have been described as not just for physical fitness but for mental fitness as well. I have read about this, and to me it would be the same as telling me I cannot ride my motorbike when I am physically and mentally capable. Motorbiking has the same effect as climbing : of teaching resilience and self reliance. Mind-over-matter will not replace the denied wilderness experiences and physcial and mental challenges…when there is no hope.
Sorry. I know your blog is not meant to be this serious. I did not want to put this too serious comment on your blog. I hope it is just a private email directly to you. Thank you for your very interesting and thought-provoking blog.
Best regards, Sandra Victoria, Australia
Sandra Worrall-Hart
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