You’re probably like, ‘mind control, what’s this guy talking about?’ Either he’s going to tell us how we need to get in our heads and understand what’s going on, or he’s going to talk about how the algorithm has us under its spell.
It reminds me of this scene from Monsters, Inc:
This week I’m taking about the first thing. Although I’m a huge fan of getting out from under the algorithms, I think that comes about as an artifact of understanding yourself. So there’s no need to do anything specifically to avoid that. Except what I talk about in this episode.
The mind control I’m concerned with is how we understand and relate to our minds. And, first things first, I use the term ‘mind’ to describe the emergent properties of our brains that make us, us. In other words:
Brain + You = Mind
And what makes you, you is up for debate. But I use other words like ‘soul‘, and ‘self, to describe it and you can see what I think about those in the respective Episodes.
A critical first step in any type of personal growth, self reflection, or awareness includes a kind of ‘looking inward’ to see what’s going on. This can be as rote as sitting down and thinking about or journaling about what you like to do for fun, or as complex as writing out your values. Ultimately, though, I think this type of self-reflection becomes a part of you. A habit, maybe.
And I keep coming back to meditation as a model. Not meditation, per se, but the idea that we can incorporate a similar awareness in our daily lives. And this behavior, or habit, or whatever you want to call it becomes a PART of you. I guess that is a habit.
But the road to this, Mind Control thing, becoming a habit can be long and twisted. The combination of Episodes 81-86 lay out the pieces, but the common thread is simply awareness.
What are you doing right now? What ELSE are you doing? What are you THINKING? What’s GOING ON in your head? Who is doing the thinking or talking? Can you ask those voices to quiet down and look even deeper?
One thing I have learned to do is to change my SCOPE. It’s like in the movies where the camera slowly, or in steps, draws back and creates depth. You may be looking at the main character, then the camera sweeps back and now you’re looking at them at work. Then it steps back again and you see the whole town. Then again and you see the whole Earth.
When you can learn to step back, which is an element (whether you realize it or not) that we do in meditation, journaling, even exercising, then you develop one of the muscles that allows us a degree of Mind Control.
And, of course, by Mind Control I simply mean being aware of your thoughts – which allows you the capacity to CHOOSE where to direct your attention.
Hopefully this stuff is starting to make sense – or maybe it already does. But if you keep on practicing these things; awareness, attention, meditation, journaling. . . you WILL build the skills just like you build muscles when lifting weights.
Here’s a link to the podcast audio you can download: https://pdcn.co/e/https://chtbl.com/track/CGDA9D/www.buzzsprout.com/530563/10131046-kew-episode-86-mind-control.mp3?download=true
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