Human beings inherently mimic.

We mimic each other whether we want to or not, whether we know it or not. We’re constantly mimicking one another in subtle and not-so-subtle ways.

Through mimicry, Actions gain a life of their own as they move through different human beings.

They travel because mimicry is never perfect. There’s a unique individuality in how one human expresses an action they’re mimicking from another. And because of that, mimicry allows the Action itself, or the Idea the action is born from, to take on a life of its own.

Humans have a textured relationship to our proclivities to mimic.

In its base form, mimicking can be seen as conditioning. No one wants to admit that they’re conditioned. There’s a real resistance to admitting it.

Either you don’t know what conditioning means, and if someone tells you you’re conditioned in certain ways, you shrug your shoulders and ask them what they had for lunch. Or you do know what conditioning means, and there can be a moment of resistance to admitting that you’re acting out of conditioned patterns.

That resistance is resistance to mimicry itself.

Because in the moment you notice your mimicking, you realize that something else spoke through you. Even if only for a split second. Even if only for the utterance of a sentence. Something spoke, but it wasn’t you.

That realization jiggles a deep-seated fear we carry as humans about losing agency. We believe we have agency over our bodies, agency over our lives. And whenever that agency feels threatened, it can bring up deep-seated, existential fears. This is true regardless of how conscious we are of the agency we carry.

Paradoxically enough, the full surrender of that agency is exactly what God asks of us. So in those moments where our agency feels threatened and we’re pushed into existential fear, God is very near. We are, but a step away from open-heartedly embracing Divine Will.

In its most elevated form, mimicry becomes tradition. Here we encounter an interesting contrast. The same human who might feel a moment of terror when they notice their conditioning revealed might puff their chest up with pride when engaging in mimicry that’s been sanctioned as tradition by the collective. Say, in the form of religious ritual. An inherited manner of doing things that others celebrate.

But underneath, it is the same mimicry that’s going on. The same conditioning we resist in one context is celebrated in another, simply because it’s been sanctioned by a group of humans. Specifically, a group of humans we desire to belong to.

We resist awareness of our mimicry when we don’t want to be seen as part of a group we associate the conditioning with. We proudly express our allegiance to another form of mimicry when it is a tradition associated with a group that we want to belong to.

There’s something really juicy going on here.

To look at groups of people and quietly sort them into two categories: the group I want to be seen as belonging to, and the group I don’t want to be seen as belonging to, is a very natural human thing to do.

The mimicry that gets codified inside the in-group becomes tradition. Something we feel proud to carry and introduce others to. And the mimicry that’s codified in the out-group becomes conditioning. Something we try to shed.

A very natural human Action, with varied manifestations across varied humans, allowing it to travel and take on a life of its own.