A STORY TO BE TOLD

There is a story about a man who, as he was passing some elephants, suddenly stopped, confused by the fact that these huge creatures were being held by only a small rope tied to their front leg. No chains, no cages. It was obvious that the elephants could, at anytime, break away from their bonds but for some reason, they did not.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away. “Well,” the trainer said, “when they are very young and much smaller we use the same size rope to tie them and, at that age, it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they are conditioned to believe they cannot break away. They believe the rope can still hold them, so they never try to break free.”

The man was amazed. These animals could at any time break free from their bonds but because they believed they couldn’t, they were stuck right where they were.

A LIFETIME of STORIES

You’ve been told a story. In fact, you’re being told a story right now. This story is made up of several stories that may or may not have anything to do with each other until you give each little story its meaning and purpose within the greater story.

This story is influencing every aspect of your life. At your most vulnerable and naive moments, you accepted the story because you had no frame of reference. And now, you reference these moments to add context to every new story that you are being told.

This story is convincing. Chemical reactions unintentionally change the fibers of your being. In your greatest moments of uncertainty you have come to believe those things spoken over you.  What you didn’t know before has been told to you by those you trusted. And they wouldn’t lie to you? Would they?  

But this story isn’t being told by mere words. It’s spoken through the constant flow of information your senses consume every second of every day. This information questions your beliefs. It challenges your reality. And sometimes the safest thing to do is go back to the words that were spoken over you in spite of the damage they may have caused. The familiar narrative of this story makes you feel less alone in your uncertainty. 

But now you know that there is something you didn’t know before and still don’t know, but you are too afraid to move on from your story because it is comfortable. You’re not just stuck. You’ve been hypnotized.

PARADIGM

Our PERCEPTION of reality SHAPES our reality. By way of our senses we obtain material which our mind uses to create mental movies. As we meditate on those images they virtually hypnotize us and create beliefs which manifest in words and in actions. 

UPLOAD

THE OPERATING SYSTEM

“It is sad but true that most of our understanding of the mind would remain as valid and useful if, for all we knew, the cranium were stuffed with cotton wadding.” – R.W. Gerard, writing in Scientific Monthly in June, 1946. 

Scientific discovery has come a long way since that article. In his book Psycho-Cybernetics, Dr. Maxwell Maltz describes scientist’s first look into how the brain operates. Attempting to develop an electronic brain, they found that there were certain principles which seemed to apply to how the human brain worked. 

Until that point, the common belief was that the brain and mind were in fact the same thing. They viewed it as a physical servo-mechanism with predisposed systems designed to take in information and process that information for the sole purpose of satisfying fleshly desires associated with survival of self and species. But as they studied the brain they discovered that the brain and the person are not the same.

But even with such great discoveries so many of us live with the idea that we have no control over the input, processing and output of our operating system. We are like the elephant chained to the stake. But neither the information from our past, nor our brain, defines who we are. Both are tools we have been given charge over. 

Maltz refers to the brain as a goal-striving mechanism. Its job is to operate in accordance with the information that is uploaded through the senses and determine what of that information is valuable in achieving the goal. Though the brain helps determine what we do, it is not who we are. It signals to the central nervous system to speak and act according to the images in the mind. 

Similar to the act of typing instructions into a computer with a certain expectation, we get to control the input with the idea that we may expect certain reactions. The first step is to realize that we have the power to determine what data is entered into our operating system so we won’t be tossed back and forth by the lust of our flesh, like animals.Choice (280): 

“Animals cannot select their goals. Their goals (self-preservation and procreation) are pre-set, so to speak. And their success mechanism is limited to these built-in goal-images, which we call ‘instincts’.

Man, on the other hand, has something animals haven’t–Creative Imagination. Thus man of all creatures is more than a creature, he is also a creator. With his imagination he can formulate a variety of goals. Man alone can direct his Success mechanism by the use of imagination or imaging ability.” (Maltz, 1960)

The difference between us and animals is our ability to select our goal through creative imagination. Dugold Stewart, a famous Scottish philosopher once said, “The faculty of imagination is the great spring of human activity, and the principal source of human improvement…Destroy this faculty, and the condition of man will become as stationary as that of the brutes.” The more we accept someone else’s INTERPRETATION of reality without as our own (visual media), the weaker our imagination becomes. 

Our imagination is like a muscle that needs exercising. It is fueled by emotions we have built up in response to the things that have happened to us in the past. We seek to manage our emotions, whether it is in pursuit of pleasure derived from the experience or to vanquish the pain heaped upon us by an event, we create habits in order to cope. 

Strangely enough, If something good happens we usually don’t remember how to repeat it.  We try different things until we succeed or give up (like many of us with our golf game). 

On the other hand, if something bad happens, we detach, avoid and disconnect from the pain in hopes that we can forget. But our heart and mind have memory and eventually draw us back. Even if the pleasure is more painful than the pain. 

As we continually  scan our environment both consciously and subconsciously for clues to what will happen next, the information we consume through our senses gets filed into our system. It is only through introspection and observation that we can identify what is hidden inside of us. Observation is easy with long term pain. Introspection is difficult with long term rewards.  The disconnect between words and actions is usually a symptom of belief. But we must not focus on changing the output, we start to change our beliefs by changing the input.

Through imagination we can change our belief. We can learn to forget our mistakes and remember our successes. We can be intentional in our preparation for inevitable challenge. And we can improve our recovery from our daily setbacks. We can learn to imagine and re-imagine a different outcome for our future. Which will cause us to respond to life’s challenges differently. We can learn to focus our imagination. 

The limiting factor to focus is distraction. The constant lust of the eye kills the imagination. It leaves us enslaved to circumstance, tethered to our perceptions, hypnotized by information. We relegate our gift of imagination to a simple input/output system that robs us of our critical thinking skills. Our central nervous system becomes a habitual REACTOR to our circumstances rather than an intentionally designed CREATION programmed to achieve.Being (280): 

“There is no man who is not, at each moment, what he has been and what he will be.” Oscar Wilde

Abraham Maslow, in his development of the hierarchy of needs, proposed that if our physiological needs are met, we become concerned with personal safety; if we achieve a sense of security, we then seek to love, to be loved, and to love ourselves. Having achieved self-esteem, we ultimately seek self-actualization, the process of fulfilling our potential. (Myers, 1998)

Moslow took a radically different approach to human motivation than those before him. Rather than studying the unhealthy and what they needed to do to be satisfied, he studied healthy people with healthy self-esteem. People like Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson, and Eleanor Roosevelt. He found that these people shared similar characteristics. “They reported they were self-aware and self accepting, open and spontaneous, loving and caring, and not paralyzed by others’ opinions. Secure in their sense of who they were. They were problem-centered rather than self-centered. Often people like this focus their energies on a particular task, which they regard as their mission in life. Most enjoyed a few deep relationships rather than many superficial ones. Many had been moved by spiritual or personal peak experiences that surpassed ordinary consciousness.” (Myers, 1998)

In a hypnotized state, we might identify these characteristics as fortune or luck. We would fail to understand that we are all endowed by our creator with a sense and ability to create these things within us. But we all have imaginations designed for creation. The problem is that most of us are not in control of our imagination and thus our imagination controls us. 

It creates fearful pictures within our mind that cause us to run from challenge over risking certainty. We become fearful beings hiding behind semblance of virtue. We develop morals with no respect for truth or even a source from which morality flows. In our insecurities we pit ourselves against others who don’t seem as fearful as we feel and we condemn them for not being as responsible as we are. We demean those who choose to accept risk and live life. While we refuse to meet our own need for self-actualization. We relinquish the happiness of others to a lie. While we harness our fear as our individual truth.

But we are more than what we can see. we are spiritual beings desiring to achieve. We are fully capable of creating good habits in pursuit of optimum arousal. But in our pride we choose unhealthy ways of satisfying are desires as we become influenced by the things we see and feel. These influences begin to shape what others might observe as our personality, the way we think and feel and act. People then speak their evaluation of themselves over us and we acquiesce to a life chained to the stake.

We’ve been hypnotized to act like we are chained to the stake and we talk like we are chained to the stake. Then we get mad when people tell us we are chained to a stake. We cope until we can no longer decipher who we really are. 

Our actions don’t match what we say we want out of life. And until we learn to take back control of our imaginations our decisions will continue to blow in the winds of change.INTROSPECTION 

1. Have you ever stopped to think about those things you say or do on autopilot? 
2. Do you analyze your words and actions to find out if they are congruent with who you say you want to be? 
3. Is there a gap between your words and your actions?

Susceptible

adjective

admitting or capable of some specified treatment: susceptible of a high polish; susceptible to various interpretations.

accessible or especially liable or subject to some influence, mood, agency, etc.: susceptible to colds; susceptible to flattery.

capable of being affected emotionally; impressionable.

The American Psychological Association defines Hypnosis as a therapeutic technique in which clinicians make suggestions to individuals who have undergone a procedure designed to relax them and focus their minds.

Although hypnosis has been controversial, most clinicians now agree it can be a powerful, effective therapeutic technique for a wide range of conditions, including pain, anxiety and mood disorders. Hypnosis can also help people change their habits, such as quitting smoking (I would add Social Media to the list of habits).

If we can become hypnotized by information, we can choose to focus on proper information and in so doing free ourselves through use of our imagination. 

Maltz said, “imagination is the goal ‘picture’ which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of ‘will,’ as is so commonly believed, but because of imagination. A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about himself and his environment.”

hypnotized 

verb (used with object), hyp·no·tized, hyp·no·tiz·ing.

to put in the hypnotic state.

to influence, control, or direct completely, as by personal charm, words, or domination: The speaker hypnotized the audience with his powerful personality.

to frighten or startle so that movement is impossible: The headlights hypnotized the deer and it just stood staring at the oncoming car.

“Your nervous system reacts appropriately to what ‘you’ think or imagine to be true.” (Maltz, 1960) 

As human beings we are capable of directing our attention toward anything we want. We might infer that if we posses this ability:

1. we will have to adjust our focus quite often based on priority and season
2. due to our fallen nature, we must be proficient at redirecting our attention away from distracting. 

We all want the best for ourselves and those we love, but sadly, we get distracted by what we think is better than what we have. We become more focused on the lives of people we assume are living their dream. Rather than directing our mental energy towards our own vision.

As we absorb external content, whether it be good or bad, we become emotionally connected to it and that connection draws us back to that particular well of information for more of the same remedy. That connection to the well, whether positive or negative, becomes a comfort. Until that which has influenced our imagination becomes our mind’s meditation and ultimately the overflow of our heart.

We become easily influenced by what we fear, controlled by what we see and directed by how we feel. Charm seduces us. Words offend us. What we cannot control dominates us. The noise from outside of us startles and frightens us into surrendering our will to act. Be aware of what is coming in. It may have more of your focus than you think.

An article in Psychology Today referred to Hypnosis as a mental state of highly focused concentration, diminished peripheral awareness, and heightened suggestibility. 

New tasks require concentration. Until new neural pathways have had the time to form, we must focus. In order to focus we must direct our attention away from other information. But we never fully block out the other information. While our conscience works on the task in front of us, our subconscious is hard at work managing peripheral information and connecting our emotions to it. As we become more proficient at the new task through repetition, it shifts into the subconscious and mingles with the peripheral information making the automatic indiscernible yet leaving the subconscious more susceptible as we grow more familiar. We begin to make connection with behaviors in a certain atmosphere. In other words we form habits (Every time I am doing x y occurs. Now every time I experience y on I have the urge to do x). 

Lets bring it a little closer to home. Every day you wake up with a chain around your ankle which you’ve dragged in from yesterday. This chain is the story you believe about yourself. When you woke up today, you immediately thought something, said something and did something congruent with that story. Do you know what it is you thought, said or did?

You grab your phone and start scrolling through your feed (automatic habit). Your mind begins bathing your cells in chemical reactions (subconscious reaction). You try to focus your attention on what you need to do (conscious task), but the chain only gets heavier. So, in the attempt to avoid the weight you continue to scroll. You begin to compare your weight to everyone else’s perceived weight. The chain becomes heavier. Soon your will to act on your own dreams is derailed. But rather than facing the strain of getting back on the tracks you’re drawn back to a momentary distraction by the same pain that derailed you. It may seem less painful at the time, but it proves more perilous in the long run. Before you know it the distraction has further solidified the belief you have of yourself. You used to scroll when you were frustrated, now you scroll in order to feel frustrated.

Insert any distraction into this example. The point is that distractions from purpose become stressors. We react to struggle by burying our head in the sand. Then a year has gone by and we have not accomplished what we wanted to. It is through our reaction to stress that our beliefs are solidified. Distractions keep us chained by old beliefs about ourselves. But the chain holding you is of little to no consequence if you figure out that external information is an illusion designed to keep you hypnotized.

Through repetition of thought, action, words, and consumption, we hypnotize ourselves. When the moment of delineation arrives, we try to conjure the courage to express our deepest desires through words and actions. But we cannot. We begin to act contradictory to our words and speak in opposition to our actions. We soon fear that the work we failed to do in the secret places will now be revealed in public. 

Because, when met with opposition, we do not rise to the occasion, we fall to the level of our conditioning. If you continue to pump fear, inadequacy and lack into your operating system, the output will be fear, inadequacy and lack. If you focus your mind on connection, courage and abundance, your central nervous system will act within those parameters. To be hypnotized is to be convinced through repetition of focus.  

In order to de-hypnotize you must create new beliefs through repetition. Which requires intentional focus and continual effort. You must continually be convincing yourself that the information you are being fed may or may not be useful to your goal. It may not even be real at all. Analyze the discrepancy between your words and deeds. And when you realize that the information that defined you in the past is irrelevant, you’ll realize that the chain that held the elephant is no longer capable of holding you.