Mind Awareness Research Articles

칸트의 덕 개념과 도덕교육

Discussions about moral education based on Kant’s philosophy generally seem to revolve around the awakening and enlightenment of morality and good will. In such cases, educators face the difficult problem of coercion to exercise freedom. However, Kant’s moral philosophy does not ignore discussions related to the use of virtue and its cultivation, in addition to good will and sense of duty. If discussions about moral education are developed more based on Kant’s concept of virtue than on Kant’s one of morality, new concepts of educational practices may be developed. With this critical awareness in mind, the author seeks to find a more practical and realistic form of moral education that is based on duty ethics by paying attention to the concept of virtue discussed in Kant’s Metaphysics of Morals. For Kant, virtue is acquired as a result of empirically strengthening the power and capacity of good will in response to specific resistance. Therefore, virtue progresses to the self-domination of practical reason, which governs and dominates passions through respect for the law. In this respect, moral education, which is the acquisition of virtue, is more than awareness and enlightenment of good will. This is because virtue includes not only the ‘autonomy’ of practical reason, but also the moral strength of ‘self-dominance’ of practical reason. However, this does not mean that virtue goes beyond good will. It just adds a human and personal realization(achievement) of good will. A virtuous person is the result of education as training and practice.

Narrative-Derived Indices of Metacognition among People with Schizophrenia: Associations with Self-Reported and Performance-Based Social Functioning.

Metacognitive functioning-which broadly encompasses the mental processes involved in thinking about the thinking of one's self and the thinking of others-is often impaired among individuals living with schizophrenia and may contribute to difficulties in social and interpersonal functioning. Although the majority of studies assessing metacognition among individuals with schizophrenia use standardized, laboratory-based measurements, an increasing number of studies have measured metacognitive capacity using natural language produced by individuals living with mental illness. At the same time, less is known about how language-derived indices of metacognitive function relate to key social outcomes among people with schizophrenia. The primary objective of this study was to employ a validated language coding system (the Metacognition Assessment Scale, Abbreviated; MAS-A) to assess metacognitive functioning from the spoken life narratives of individuals with schizophrenia (n = 32) and community controls (n = 15). Among individuals with schizophrenia, we also examined the associations between language-derived metacognition and measures of self-reported and performance-based social functioning. Our results suggest that most aspects of metacognition in our sample were not significantly diminished in people with schizophrenia compared to community controls. Unexpectedly, the MAS-A subscale related to one's ability to master psychological difficulties was rated higher among individuals with schizophrenia. Further, our results suggest that among people with schizophrenia, higher metacognitive functioning in the domain of self-reflectivity was associated with poorer self-reported social functioning, while a greater metacognitive awareness of other individuals' minds was associated with better scores on aspects of performance-based social functioning. Collectively, these results underscore the utility of assessing metacognitive functioning via life-story narratives to understand social outcomes and highlight possible aspects of resiliency among individuals who have experienced a serious mental illness.

ANALISIS ELEMEN-ELEMEN BRAND EQUITY RUMAH SAKIT PKU MUHAMMADIYAH GOMBONG

Increasing competition in hospital, which in the view of many private hospitals are well established in Gombong, PKU Muhammadiyah Gombong hospitals must have a strong brand equity to maintain or retain old customers and interesting new customers. Research is important conducted to determine and analyze ratings and views of customer on the hospital, other than research about brand equity in the hospital still rarely done.
 To know the views of consumers on brand awareness, brand association, perceived quality and brand loyalty PKU Muhammadiyah Gombong Hospitals. The study was quantitative descriptive design. The study was conducted on 25 February - 3 June 2011 in the region Gombong. Population are all community Gombong had ever feel the services PKU Muhammadiyah Gombong Hospital. Number of sample was 100 respondents. Sampling design used was purposive sampling. Analysis of data used descriptive statistics, Cochran's test, the average value, semantic differential scale and importance vs. performance comparison
 PKU Muhammadiyah hospitals as a top of mind awareness Gombong society. Based on calculations by the Cochran test at the brand association, there are 9 associations are closely related. Based on the results of the analysis of perceived quality, there are seven attributes of a good scale range (3.40 to 4.20) and 3 attributes entered enough scale range (2.60 to 3.40). Analysis of brand loyalty found: Switcher buyers equal to 23%, category simply (3.01). Habitual buyers is equal to 55%, both categories (3.44). Satisfied buyer equal to 49%, both categories (3.46). Liking the brand equal 43%, both categories (3.51). Commited buyers by 33% and include enough category (2.79) PKU Muhammadiyah Gombong Hospitals have a strong enough brand equity.

공직선거법 체계정비를 위한 법제 개선 검토

Our country's election law has undergone formal changes over the course of constitutional history, and revisions to the specific content of the law have gone through a process of change that reflects the changes of the times or institutional improvements by election period. There has also been a history of intentional reorganization to conveniently strengthen the regime's governance structure or secure the legitimacy of its power base. However, it can be said that the rough history of election law revision has been focused on efforts to secure freedom and fairness in elections. However, despite this, the current Public Official Election Act is evaluated as a regulation-oriented legislation that prioritizes election fairness over election freedom, and is therefore evaluated as failing to properly reflect the changed election environment. In addition, the current Public Official Election Act shows confusion in the content of election procedural regulations and election campaign regulations. In addition, the complex structure of prohibition and penalty regulations creates a realistic problem in that it cannot function as a code of conduct for criminals. Therefore, improvement work to reorganize the system of the current Public Official Election Act is a legislative task that must be implemented.
 With this awareness in mind, this article examines ways to dualize the current single legal system. In other words, it is a plan to dualize the provisions of the current Public Official Election Act into the Election Procedure Act and the Election Campaign Act. Therefore, among the provisions of the current Public Official Election Act, I would like to classify the provisions related to election management and election procedures as the Election Procedure Act, and the provisions related to election participants under the Election Campaign Act. Next, we considered reorganizing the regulations related to political parties' activities by transferring them to the Political Parties Act and the regulations related to election expenses to the Political Funds Act. At the same time, we proposed a plan to reorganize the components of each prohibition provision to ensure predictability and legal stability by becoming a legal system that functions as a standard for election-related behavior even for the general public, not legal experts.

The Impact of Medical Negligence on LGBTQIA+ Community

ABSTRACT The umbrella phrase ‘medical negligence’ has gained popularity for describing wrongdoings committed by medical personnel while practicing their trade and interacting with patients. In none of the Indian laws that have been passed, the phrase is defined or even mentioned once. This article aims to describe the fundamental aspects of "medical negligence". Additionally, this article is meant to enlighten rather than debate the complex problems raised by the topic. Instead of being an exhaustive list of authorities, this article is informative and the methodology used is descriptive. Outlining some of the medical negligence histories, the general effects of medical negligence are described at the beginning of this article, followed by an outline of the fundamental elements of medical negligence, a description of the obligations of doctors, some examples, and the legal minimum standards of care. The article then discusses the type of information that must be given to the patient for consultation and treatment before coming to a conclusion with a mention of the general advice that the Supreme Court issued for doctors to heed as a precaution and the guidelines it issued to protect doctors from harassment if criminally prosecuted. In the end it suggests that bringing awareness in people's mind will not only help the people of the LGBTQIA+ Community feel safe in the society but also help them be their true self and reduce mental health stressors. Key Words: Medical Negligence, Awareness, Homosexuality, Sexual Orientations, Mental Disorder

Role of Satvavajay and Dhyana as a preventive and therapeutic measure through Ayurveda and Yoga: A Review

Satvavajay is an important Chikitsa to prevent and treat psychological diseases by avoiding unwholesome physical, psychological and verbal acts. Dhyana is a scientific technique of prolonged attention with awareness of mind as per Yoga. Ayurveda is a health science deals with the preventive and therapeutic knowledge to preserve longevity of healthy life. Guidelines in Ayurveda to prevent all type of diseases and to promote health are described at physical, psychological, social, intellectual and spiritual levels. Ayurveda has mentioned Pradnyaparadha as a route cause of all the diseases. Technique to control mind and Indriyas for avoidance of unwholesome practices are helpful to prevent diseases and promote the health status in healthy individual. Raja and Tama are responsible for Pradnyaparadha. Preventive and promotive measures to enhance Satva Guna is one of the objectives of Ayurveda, for mental, emotional health. Susruta has described criteria for Prasanna Manas which is in Satva Guna predominance and all regimens are advised for controlling Rajas and Tamas. Charaka has mentioned Chikitsa for psychological diseases as Jnana (spiritual knowledge), Vidnyana (scriptural knowledge), Dhairya (non-elevation of mind), Smriti (recollection of experienced thoughts) and Samadhi (concentration of a mind into a self by detaching it from senses. Meditation is useful for improving health and to treat diseases in integration. Ancient and modern literature review has been carried out and preventive and therapeutic application of Satvavajay and Dhyana is found helpful.

Compassion as a Skill: A Comparison of Contemplative and Evolution-Based Approaches

AbstractThe editors to this volume posed a series of fascinating questions relating to how seeing compassion as a skill can help us understand its nature, cultivation and effects within secular contexts. This paper addresses these questions by comparing evolutionary with contemplative approaches to compassion. Recent scientific approaches have explored the evolved roots and biopsychosocial manifestations of compassion and their impact on mental states and prosocial behaviour, particularly in regard to both its facilitators and inhibitors. In contrast, we discuss how the contemplative traditions have approached the origins and cultivation of compassion through observing the mind (e.g. meditation), with a focus on gaining insight into self-transcendent experiences, the nature of inter-connectivity and non-separate existence (also referred to as non-duality), through which compassion arises naturally. Both evolutionary and contemplative perspectives have the same focus which is to understand and prevent the causes of suffering, including the suffering we cause ourselves because of our harmful potentials. However, in terms of training the mind in compassion skills, this paper considers how training approaches linked to the evolutionary model often use thinking, empathising, reflecting and guided behaviour change to activate psychophysiological systems linked to caring and compassion. In contrast, the contemplative traditions focus less on thinking and reflecting and more on creating conditions for direct experiencing. A key reason for doing so is to settle the mind so that subtler levels of consciousness can enable the experience of self-transcendent compassion to arise. Thus, both evolutionary and contemplative approaches can focus on developing mind awareness and the importance of practise, but evolutionary approaches such as compassion focused therapy do not pursue transcendent wisdoms or insights.

Does Unconscious Bias Affect Psychological Well-being in Ideological and Political Education? Moderating Effects of Self-regulation and Mind Awareness

Psychological well-being is a necessary element for the success of students in any education system. Because of its relevance, this aspect of students’ life needs researchers’ focus. It have been featured as the main topic of some studies in Africa, and these studies show that the challenges faced by educators in Africa are increasing with their working conditions, thereby affecting their enthusiasm for their jobs. Hence, the present article investigates the impact of the unconscious bias of teachers on the psychological well-being of ideological and political education students in Jordan. The study also examines the moderating impact of self-regulation and mind awareness on the unconscious bias of teachers and the psychological well-being of ideological and political education students in Jordan. The article used survey questionnaires and a primary data collection approach to gather data from a sample of 357 students who were selected through simple random-sampling. The study also used the SPSS-AMOS to test the reliability, validity and correlation among variables. The results indicated that the unconscious bias of teachers has a negative link with the psychological well-being of the ideological and political education students in Jordan. The results also showed that self-regulation and mind awareness significantly moderate the unconscious bias of teachers and the psychological well-being of the ideological and political education students in Jordan. This study, therefore, serves as a guide to policymakers in establishing the regulations related to improving the students' psychological well-being by eliminating teachers' unconscious bias.

Change of Beauty Standards in Indonesian Society Through Beauty Product That Improve Lately

Beauty products that continue to use the words whitening or brightening when selling their products to Indonesians even though most Indonesians have a variety of colors, not just white or bright. This research aims to explore people's views regarding beauty standards which are now starting to change in people's views, reflected in local beauty products promoted by brands that continue to improvise. The method used in the research is a constructive paradigm by interviewing several participants. The results of this research are the opening of the view that beauty cannot be made or set to a standard, especially as many local beauty products make products to suit Indonesian people's skin color. Awareness and openness of people's minds, especially young people, who know that social media is a means to be open to the uniqueness of each individual's beauty.

The Coherence of Buddhism: Relativism, Ethics, and Psychology

ABSTRACTThis essay defends a Buddhist answer to the question of how a skeptical tradition might account for its moral position. Two domains in Buddhist thought and practice are often considered to be dissimilar, perhaps contradictory. On the one hand, there is an aspiration to nirvana and a philosophy that describes everything as “emptiness” and rejects, with apparent universality, “attachment to views.” On the other hand, Buddhist traditions of practice recommend actions based in compassion and loving kindness, and the cultivation of contentment, introspective awareness, and peace of mind. It is argued that these arenas are not in conflict, but are linked through Buddhist psychology, wherein the proven limitations of concepts are quite explicitly leveraged to show that beings hampered by such limits ought to think and act with epistemic humility. The result is not nihilism, but a method for improving our perspectives on ourselves and our society—a method that may serve as a model for humanistic research.

TRANSFORMASI KESADARAN MELALUI YOGA AKSARA

Literal yoga is a mental practice that is carried out through meditation involving the Onkara script. Literary yoga is a way to train the mind and transform consciousness. Ongkara in thought works as a bhija-mantra to build human consciousness at one point. Train the mind to stay focused on one object, and complete the activity of the mind like an ape constantly jumping from one object to another. Helps to release the attachment of mind awareness to its object, both material (all things that can be perceived by the senses) and mental (related to memory, emotion, perception, imagination). When a person is separated from the bondage of his objects, he will realize himself as his Paramasu and is also symbolized as Ongkara. As a result of practice, the script belongs to Siddhi. Siddhi is a manifestation of the transformation of personal consciousness to the Supreme consciousness, Siddhi is also a transformation of buddhi which is rajas-tamas into animal. The transformation of buddhi is more dominant in everyday life or attitudes with noble and wise characters which can later be used as role models and guidelines, guiding humans in living daily lives towards a peaceful, happy, physical and spiritual life, one form of siddhi development is astasiddhi.Keywords: literal yoga, meditation, siddhi

DeepFakes- The Digital Threat in the Real World

Objectives: Understanding and Tackling the alarming surge of Digital Imposters known as the world of DeepFakes. 
 Methods: Using Artificial Intelligence based Deep Machine Learning software; Cyber Forensics; Physical mind awareness and alertness! Deepfakes use Artificial Intelligence and Deep Machine Learning techniques to make fake images, of people and events, which are as attractive/ authentic as the original. Deepfakes is the next big Challenge 
 in Cyber Security, taking the Security mindset to the next high level. Findings: On date we have no Specialized High-Tech support at hand to handle such an extremity. We can’t even imagine that if it was a crisis. The impact might be ruinous; it can be anything. In one of the recent live impersonation cases, A Mayor of Berlin thought he was having an online meeting with former boxing champion and current mayor of Kyiv, Vital Klitschko, but later on turned out to be a conversation with a deepfake, an AI generated fake videotape, looking real and authentic. Previous DeepFake videos had some tell-tale signs that a commodity/ person/ event wasn’t real; edit or odd movements. Not presently. In recent Delhi Elections, the BJP Candidate Mr. Manoj Tiwari fabricated his old speech on “Citizenship Amendment Act” into a political campaign speech to reach different linguistic voter bases, especially Haryanvi voters. Tiwari did not have any knowledge about Haryanvi, but made his political campaign message reach Haryanvi voters through DeepFake Technology. 
 Novelty: Massive Online Videos on Internet!

마음의 철학

This paper pursues to interpret Heidegger’s hermeneutics as Philosophy of Mind through Yogacara Thought. A famous korean professors’ study is referred in order to arrive at the goal of this study. At first, Yogacara thought is a critical hypothesis between Realism of Hinayana Buddhism and Deconstruction of Mahayana Buddhism. According to Yogacara thought, awareness of phenomena is a transformation of awareness of mind, so there is just consciousness only. In other words, there are eight consciousnesses in our mind, but all consciousnesses are derivatives of Alaya consciousness which covers all potentiality in our mind. Therefore, we can say that Yogacara thought is a mind philosophy. Heidegger’s ontology of Dasein can be understood in the point of view with Yogacara thought very well. Forgetness of Being(Seinsvergessenheit) can be understood as forgetness of Mind, and it leads us to understand the meaning of Being-there(Dasein) and it’s ontological structure. That is, the ontological way of Being-there is a transformation of unconscious mind because existential structure of Being-there can be interpreted as unconscious mind of Alaya consciousness. To conclude, Heidegger’s hermeneutics can be interpreted as a mind philosophy because Heidegger’s ontological fact can be understood Alaya’s unconscious fact.

Prevalence of wasting and associated factors among children aged 2–5 years, southern Ethiopia: a community-based cross-sectional study

BackgroundWasting (acute malnutrition) is the most serious form of malnutrition for children in the near term. Malnutrition has a variety of causes, all of which are interconnected and hierarchically related. The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of wasting and its associated determinants among children under the age of five in the Wonago district, Gedeo zone, southern Ethiopia.MethodsCommunity based cross-sectional study was conducted from October 1 to 30, 2021 using a systematic random sampling technique. Data were entered using Epidata manager and STATA v.20 software was used for analysis. Descriptive statistics were reported to describe the study population. To identify associated factors of wasting, bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were fitted. Variables having p-value < 0.05 were declared statistically significant predictors of wasting.ResultsA total of 390 respondents participated with a response rate of 92.6%. The prevalence of wasting among children aged 2–5 years in Wonago district was 36.4% (95% CI: 31.76–41.32). Moderate household food insecurity (AOR = 0.35, 95%CI: 0.14–0.83), history of recurrent illness (AOR = 0.15, 95%CI: 0.26–0.84), and duration of breastfeeding greater than 2 years (AOR = 0.15, 95%CI: 0.26–0.84) were significantly associated with wasting.ConclusionAlmost one-third of the children were wasted. Household food insecurity, breastfeeding, and recurrent illness were significantly associated with wasting among children aged 24–59 months. It is recommended that interventions be designed with food security, disease prevention, and breastfeeding awareness in mind and put the spotlight on food and nutrition policy to insure children’s nutritional status.

Misinformation About COVID-19 Vaccines on Social Media: Rapid Review.

BackgroundThe development of COVID-19 vaccines has been crucial in fighting the pandemic. However, misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines is spread on social media platforms at a rate that has made the World Health Organization coin the phrase infodemic. False claims about adverse vaccine side effects, such as vaccines being the cause of autism, were already considered a threat to global health before the outbreak of COVID-19.ObjectiveWe aimed to synthesize the existing research on misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines spread on social media platforms and its effects. The secondary aim was to gain insight and gather knowledge about whether misinformation about autism and COVID-19 vaccines is being spread on social media platforms.MethodsWe performed a literature search on September 9, 2021, and searched PubMed, PsycINFO, ERIC, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, and the Cochrane COVID-19 Study Register. We included publications in peer-reviewed journals that fulfilled the following criteria: original empirical studies, studies that assessed social media and misinformation, and studies about COVID-19 vaccines. Thematic analysis was used to identify the patterns (themes) of misinformation. Narrative qualitative synthesis was undertaken with the guidance of the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) 2020 Statement and the Synthesis Without Meta-analysis reporting guideline. The risk of bias was assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal tool. Ratings of the certainty of evidence were based on recommendations from the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation Working Group.ResultsThe search yielded 757 records, with 45 articles selected for this review. We identified 3 main themes of misinformation: medical misinformation, vaccine development, and conspiracies. Twitter was the most studied social media platform, followed by Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram. A vast majority of studies were from industrialized Western countries. We identified 19 studies in which the effect of social media misinformation on vaccine hesitancy was measured or discussed. These studies implied that the misinformation spread on social media had a negative effect on vaccine hesitancy and uptake. Only 1 study contained misinformation about autism as a side effect of COVID-19 vaccines.ConclusionsTo prevent these misconceptions from taking hold, health authorities should openly address and discuss these false claims with both cultural and religious awareness in mind. Our review showed that there is a need to examine the effect of social media misinformation on vaccine hesitancy with a more robust experimental design. Furthermore, this review also demonstrated that more studies are needed from the Global South and on social media platforms other than the major platforms such as Twitter and Facebook.Trial RegistrationPROSPERO International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews CRD42021277524; https://www.crd.york.ac.uk/prospero/display_record.php?ID=CRD42021277524International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID)RR2-10.31219/osf.io/tyevj

“I'm prepared for this moment”: The role of mindfulness in the psychosocial health of women of color

AbstractThis study utilized a phenomenological approach to explore how women of color (N = 7) engage in mindfulness practices to improve their psychosocial well‐being, specifically as it relates to identity development and belongingness. Five themes emerged: awareness of mind–body connection, resilience in the face of discrimination, empathic perspective‐taking, awareness of internalized biases, and global sense of belonging. Implications for counselors and future research are discussed.

Knowledge and attitude towards organ donation: a study among medical and nursing students of a medical college

Background: Organ transplantation is one such field of modern medical sciences which has progressed over the years and has given hope for those suffering with end stage organ diseases. There are lot of advancement in technology to preserve and transplant of organs but with this technological advancement also there are still gaps in awareness regarding the subjects. To find the gaps this study was carried out in medical college students.Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted in medical college of Pune. 400 students were included in study with keeping 50% of prevalence about awareness in mind. Tool of data collection was a pre-structured questionnaire. Frequency, percentage, and chi square test Chi-square test for linear trend and was used to find associationResults: The 308 (77%) MBBS students and 92 (23%). Nursing students of all batches were included in the study. The 49.3% were aware about brain death, 68% students had fair knowledge and 10% had good knowledge about organ donation issues. The 82% students were positive, 94.5% students opined positively on policy on promotion of organ donation. The 52% students were ready to donate to anyone, while 30% students preferred to donate their organs to family members, 16% were ready to donate to their friends.Conclusions: Encouraging level of knowledge regarding organ donation, its legislative implications were present in medical and nursing students which was brought in this study.

Xunzi’s Ritual Model and Modern Moral Education

While the early Confucians were largely content to maintain the rituals of ancient kings as the core of moral education in their time, it is not obvious that contemporary humans could, or should, draw from the particulars of such a tradition. Indeed, even if one takes ritual seriously as a tool for cultivation, there remains a question of how to design moral education programs incorporating ritual. This essay examines impediments faced by a ritualized approach to moral education, how they might be overcome, and how a ritual method could be developed in modernity. I contend that a Confucian notion of ritual, particularly as elaborated in the Xunzi, is both compatible with modern moral education and capable of making a distinct contribution to moral education in terms of how rituals can be used to structure and inculcate a shared climate of respect and humaneness both in- and outside the classroom. Specifically, the ritual education method includes emphases on inculcating moral fluency via symbolic practices and distinctions, training and appropriately associating promoral dispositions, enhancing moral imagination, and developing awareness of other minds. The model is thus a multifaceted approach to moral education through (meta)cognitive development.

Neuroscience Intervention for A Better Life: From Molecular, Cellular, To Organ Interventions

Neuroscience is a scientific study of the nervous system through various approaches. This review summarized intervention on molecular, cellular, and organ systems. One example of molecular and cellular interventions is stem cells. Stem cells are cells that can differentiate into other types of cells and can also produce more of the same type of stem cells. Organ system intervention is organ transplantation that medical procedure in which an organ is removed from one body and placed in the body of a recipient to replace a damaged or missing organ. In addition, there are behavioural interventions, such as mindfulness meditation and cognitive behavioural therapy. Mindfulness meditation is the mental practice that involves focusing on your experience currently. Mindfulness meditation can be in the form of breathing exercises, mental imagery, body and mind awareness, and relaxation of muscles and body while cognitive-affective training (CBT) is a particularly promising strategy for enhancing cognitive control over affective processes via modulation of these abnormally functioning neural networks. Neuroscience intervention is the act of intervening, which is usually intended for better life, such as on molecular, cellular, organ system, and behavioural interventions.

About the Origins of the Human Ability to Create Constructs of Reality

The competence of humans to create and apply constructs of reality far exceeds that of any other animal species. Their ability to consciously manipulate such models seems unique, but it remains unknown how these abilities were initially acquired and then developed. Most individuals hold strong, culturally-anchored beliefs that their particular reality is true, a viewpoint challenged by the observation that all such constructs are different. They reflect not reality, but each individual’s life experiences. Collectively they facilitated the development of hominins to unprecedented cultural and cognitive complexity. However, it remains entirely unknown how the human brain manages to create a model of the external world from the signals provided by sensory equipment and proprioceptors. This paper examines the roles of exograms in this development, as they are considered to be the only tangible connection between the brain, the faculties of sentience and the external world. Competency in exogram use became a crucial natural selection factor for humans and even overcame the human brain atrophy of the final Pleistocene and the Holocene. Under favourable conditions, some forms of exograms are capable of surviving from the deep time of human evolution. The paper follows their trail back in time to gain some insights into the developments that gave rise to human awareness, self-consciousness and Theory of Mind as we understand them. Specific archaeological finds and notions about sentient capabilities of hominins are presented in a search for exogram use in the course of human evolution. It results in a model that explains with clarity not only the course of the human journey but also the underlying reasons for the human condition as such: why we are the way we are.