Wednesday 10 August 2011

Independent Thinking - the Skeleton Key to Knowledge (Part 3)


This third part has been a few weeks coming. The reason being is that I have been sick... or have I been sick? Yes, I have.

And I have also been hard working on ironing out the last few details before releasing my novel - The Last King of Shambhala - out very soon so I hope you have been saving your pocket money... or have I been working on my book? Again, yes, I have been.

Why do I keep questioning myself? Dammit, I did it again! That's three times I have questioned myself. (Is it three times?) Well, maybe it is because it's time to write the last in my independent thinking articles.

And while I'm letting you on what's been happening with me, I'd also like to mention that I have been to and just returned from the beautiful country of Canada...

A country where everybody plays a practical joke on all new arrivals and puts on dodgy US accents everywhere you go. They are SOOOO fake, they don't even sound that 'US-inese'.

Oh, and everyone drives on the wrong side of the road. The right side of the road being the wrong side of the road, and the left side of the road being the right side of the road.

Those Canadians are so crazy. But loveable.

And if you are a conspiracy theorist, check this out. When I arrived back in my home city, I was questioned (read: interrogated) by four different airport officials and watched much too closely until I left the airport. I'm not saying that it is because I've written a couple of articles on how to think differently and escape the mediocre manipulable mind (a.k.a. m.m.m. or mmm) ... but you can draw your own logical conclusions.

Actually the real reason "I'm not saying" is because of the Reptillian people monitoring my blog posts and farming human beings as 9-5 slaves.

No, I don't really believe in that rubbish... just clarifying there for the M.I.B., Desert Donkey Men and Aghartha Nazis monitoring my blog posts.

Anyway, back to the topic of the day. To start off this entry, I thought I'd share with you some very old ads. The 'facts', 'studies' and 'common knowledge' in these ads seem quite screwy in the lense of today's minds, but they make for a good laugh... Not to mention make you wonder how outdated our society's beliefs will be in a mere generation or two.













Hmmm... so, I guess a little has changed over the last 100 years then. And these photos neatly dovetail into my first topic of the day...

Society believes it (or doesn't), should you?

Peer pressure is an interesting thing. The obvious example is when we do something because everybody wants us to do it. But the less obvious example is adopting beliefs, often subconsciously, by following the pack. I think it's a safety in numbers thing, but it's not always a good thing. Just ask the ghosts of plankton.

One great experiment that looked at the conformity of human beings was conducted by Solomon Asch back in the 1950s. In the experiment people were shown lines and asked which lines were the same length.

The answer was very obvious, with two lines the exact length and the other two lines either much longer or much shorter. However, 76% of people got it wrong.

The reason being is that five people were sat in a row and asked by the examiner one after the other. The first four people were told (on the sly) to say the exact same answer - an obvious wrong answer - and then the final person was asked their answer and had no idea the others were all purposely choosing the same wrong answer. And the fifth person, despite their better judgement, went with the crowd.

You see, we have been trained to conform. It may be part of our prehistoric instinct, but society around us pushes us into manageable squares too.

(Again, there'll be people who tell you it is because of lizard people or a ruling body who want us dumbed down so we are more easily controlled ... but I'm not going to say that because I'm afraid of Desert Donkey Men.)

In the experiment, some of the participants answered incorrectly because they questioned their judgement, some feared the disapproval of the others in the group, and some didn't want to stand out even though they knew they were right.

Bottom line, they were pressured into the wrong answer. So do not - I'm speaking to YOU - do not blindly accept what everybody else believes. Be an independent thinker and blindly accept what I believe.

Do This Test - You can believe anything!

Look up on Google a topic you don't have much opinion about, but are interested in. Look up articles and videos created by people with two opposing opinions. Chances are both sides will make compelling cases. And the interesting thing is...

The more you delve into the topic, the more convincing facts, data and research you'll find for both sides.

Or listen to two great debaters battle it out. Often your opinion will swing to support whoever spoke last.

The truth is you can convince yourself of almost anything! You can convince yourself to believe anything. And therefore, you can actually CHOOSE your beliefs.

Beliefs are in fact just a thought that has been considered so much and 'proven' so many times in our heads that it becomes our truth.

If you decided you wanted to believe in fairies for example, just look up videos on YouTube supporting their existance, read accounts of good honest people who have seen them, and read articles explaining the scientific and historical research into fairies. Emerse yourself in all things that support the existence or at least possible existence of fairies.

Eventually you will believe in them - no matter how much resistance you have to the belief right now. And remember, according to the Peter Pan books, every time a child says "I don't believe in fairies", they kill a fairy.

So along with being a blog entry on independent thinking, this is also a public service announcement for fairies. I never thought I'd get to write those words!

My thoughts? Use your beliefs to your advantage!

I'm not going to tell you what you should believe, or what you shouldn't believe. I'm waiting until I take over the world before I do that.

But here's an idea. Choose beliefs that benefit you.

There have been some quantum physicists, motivational speakers, religious mystics and spiritualists alike who have said that our thoughts can directly affect and morph our world.

You may not believe that, but I am sure you can see when you look into it, you'll quickly see that changing your beliefs can be very powerful, and can GREATLY benefit you or hinder you in life.

Take physical pain for example.

With mere suggestion of healing, and the belief of followers, a Faith Healer can make someone who cannot walk because of the incredible pain in their legs, jump up and down and not feel a thing. This may not last when they get home - I don't know, but the belief they can get better can relieve them of the most terrible of pains.

When people are set up with suggestions like "this might hurt", or "as I do this you can probably feel your joints becoming more and more relaxed and flexible", the brain tells the body how to respond. And when you feel increasing relief, or increasing pain, created by the brain, your belief strengthens that the physical pain is changing. As your belief changes, the intensity of the pain or relief increases more and more.

If your belief can't relieve pain and illness, then what's a placebo?  (If your arse is smart you may answer that it is an alternative rock band from London.)

Earlier in this blog article I said I was sick just recently, and I had a physical example of this phenomena (sort of).

I was in such pain I could not do anything. I could not fall asleep, or even lie down. So I decided to distract myself with a very interesting documentary. As soon as my mind became completely focused on the documentary, the pain went completely... until the documentary finished and my brain again realised I was supposed to be in pain.

The pain was reliant on my focus on it. If you can focus wholly on something else, the pain cannot live... because the pain is all in your mind.

Another example of choosing your beliefs wisely - take the subject of confidence and self-worth perception

If you were confident (i.e. positively believed) you were a fantastic mate, you might stroll into a party, talk to every attractive potential mate in the room, and get at least one date at the end of the night. You would think of those who rejected you as "crazy", and achieved your goal of getting a date.

If you were not confident in your self worth, you would most likely talk to no attractive potential mates. And if you did, and were rejected, even if it was the first person you spoke to and they didn't really reject you - you would not try again.

BOTTOM LINE? Write down what you'd like, and write down what beliefs you need to achieve that goal. Then start fostering that belief.

So what can you know for sure?

There is only one thing you can know for sure. And that is that you are conscious in this very moment.

- You cannot know anything in this physical world is real. For those, like me, who have had a real lucid dream, your dream can feel to more real than your life. It can satisfy every sense vividly. So there is nothing to tell you you aren't hallucinating all of this.

- You cannot know that other people are real, unless you could enter their mind. They could be figments of your imagination or robots. I am both P.S.

- You cannot know your past is real, even a moment ago. You've probably had the experience where you remembered something to be so, been absolutely stuck on it, only to see a video of that moment and been wrong.

But more than that, you could have woken up in this world in this exact moment with all your memory having been created by scientists or by CIA agents... I'm just saying, it could happen. The past is only a memory.

- You cannot even know whether you can make choices. Our choices are the result of our preferences that are formed over events and genetics and maybe spiritual/personality make-up. If someone could create the exact make-up that is you, then that person would make the same choice.

So then, it is possible destiny or god or whatever has made you up to make a certain choice. Something people call destiny. And without knowing it, all your choices could have been made for you before you make them.

- Oh, but what if I go back in time and tell myself to choose another choice. Destiny or god or whatever probably made you want to go back in time so that you could choose another choice they wanted you to choose. You cannot escape it.

So only your awareness in this very moment is solid and real.

Okay, usual programming returns next blog entry. I hope you enjoyed this very different and long blog series.

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