Good Thought, Bad Thought

In keeping with my new found fascination with the ads below the posts I do (over at http://ballistictour.keepconnectedlive.com), I hit one of the links.  It was "free, life changing, bla bla bla" (paraphrasing there, even though it is in quotes).  As it turns out it was a video which was mostly audio.  Just text on the screen which went along with the audio to some degree.

The message was how to influence your subconscious by not letting yourself tell it bad stuff, like how stupid and doomed you are. The premise is that whatever you feed the subconscious, it believes, and when it believes something it influences your body accordingly.  That's why a person under hypnosis might think something cold is hot, and can be used as a scaffolding plank if you are short of wooden ones.  I refer to the typical thing where the hypnotist places the stiffened subject between two chairs then stands on her/and/or him.

The guy narrating has the ever popular English accent, which adds credibility.  Since moving to far south CA, I've noticed that the somewhat British accent is in vogue for various advertisements and such.  Maybe they find it a sound you can trust out here.  I guess I find it reassuring on a one on one basis, causing me to be relieved that the other person is literate and capable of reason.  Certain experiences taught me that this is not always so.  In the end I approach the Limey with that sense of being disarmed by assumed intelligence, and a healthy dose of suspicion.  The two things cancel out.   

What this guy suggests is that most self help confidence building courses and theories are bunk and don't work.  But his system works, of course.  Actually, I know his system probably does work well enough.  Anything that causes one to examine a self generated thought which predicts doom, or suggests the host organism is deficient and vile, is worthwhile.  Shooting down detrimental blanket assertions  before they get a chance to seed in the subconscious, is a productive practice.  Otherwise you constantly experience the bodily reactions of fear, and it makes it hard to think and act.  Exercise probably helps people do that because it requires enough effort that suspends idle thought for a time.  

It does make sense that a sustained belief in positive possibility probably increases the likelihood of bringing such things to fruition in one's life.  For some of us it is constant inner war.  That's because we indulged heavily in self loathing and internal criticism, without critical thinking, for long periods of time. That information became internalized to the point of habit.  Habits do not go away peacefully.   This explains why it was believed you could sail off the edge of the earth for so many centuries.   Despite little clues to the contrary that was the only sane view according to THEM.

I kept wondering, so how is this guy making money off of this?   It seems there are other videos and they will send you emails and all that, so I guess eventually they sell you something, maybe confidence building enlargement pills.  That does not change the validity of the assertion that you can at least guide your thoughts or temper their power.  

Mostly it is a matter of assessing validity, and benefit.  What good does it do to tell yourself you will never lose weight if losing weight is what you want to do?  Believe me, you can lose weight and there are those who actually wish to gain a little bulk.  Some things require a belief in possibility.  Most things have, at least in principle, been done by some other human; people successfully bring ideas to market, lose weight, escape poverty and depression, etc.  Things do happen like that, which adds credibility to the idea that it is possible for you, if you have the desire and few working tools at your disposal.  I keep trying to believe that for myself, anyway.

The main thing to realize is that skepticism is fine, but no one is saying that you can magically improve just by viewing videos or thinking and thinking without actually doing.  The idea is to cast away the thoughts that inhibit the action.  In the end the results come from some sort of effort and action.   When anyone promises shortcut magic which precludes real change or effort, then skepticism is prudent.  What is not prudent is to insist in your mind that any action you can dream up to achieve the presumed better condition you desire is doomed from the start and won't work.  That thought pattern guarantees you won't change anything because you talk yourself out of it before you start.  I hate it when that happens. 

It is very easy for old school American types to be discouraged these days.  We feel like we are in the grips of a giant boa constrictor which applies a little more pressure with every breath, making it harder and harder to breathe easy.  All the rules and controls which seem to do anything but protect our right to free choice, leave us believing directing our own recovery from hard times, and writing our own script for the kind of person we choose to be from now on, is prohibited at gunpoint.  Those who are presently comfortable and more secure often view our angst as unnecessary paranoia or crazy, radical rebellion.

That whole thing is a trap, even though there is plenty of good reason to feel the squeeze.  That does not mean the field can't be navigated and all opportunity is gone.   It may be a bad time to move to Michigan thinking you are going to get a great auto worker job and be secure from now on.  By allowing one's self to feel that one can no longer harbor personal dreams, you are feeding the snake.  Can't let that happen.  That is a slave mentality.  The ability to be the director of your own life, and maintain a personal code, is not yet impossible.  

It is a strange thing, living within the structure of civilization, but the alternative may be equally strange and uncomfortable.  I guess many homeless by choice people can attest to that.  There are some drop outs who are bright and capable but just couldn't hack the system any more.   In my own way, I suppose I am a drop out.  I keep believing I can avoid dropping out altogether, though.  There are too many good people and good things that can be done to buy the lie that the restrictions represent the character of all other humans.  

My goal is to prove by example that one can successfully create a niche which does not feed and/or depend on what I see as a macabre monster; the world of intrusive authority which was once a government based on a few pages designed to limit its power.   Obviously it did not do its job or it would not be possible for people to argue that freedom breeds oppression.  I reject that notion, and I am in the minority.   That stated goal is actually secondary.  The primary object is to push my limits of capability more, hoping to become immersed and enthused in the process of developing whatever project into being, and hopefully become moved to happily find myself in a state of ongoing effort toward well defined purposes, never again to feel like an aimless leaf in the wind.