.:. WitNit .:.: 6. How the Mind Works

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April 13, 2005

6. How the Mind Works

ou can jump to Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9

Lock On / Lock Out

By now you should be getting a fairly clear picture of how the Reticular Activating System (RAS) works. Its job is to:

Help you focus by locking out what's not important at the moment.
Let in what you value and believe is important.
Keep you sane by locking out what contradicts your self-image and your picture of the world.
Let in what confirms your self-image and picture of the world.

If you think about it for a minute, you might recognize that people who know that a population has an RAS can take advantage of it. Let's start with a benign example:

You have been given a $1 million marketing budget for a refrigerator store. Your team has two proposals on how to spend the money.

1) One team suggests spending it over a 6-month period keeping a constant supply of mid- to low-priced ads in the newspapers and on television and radio.

2) The other team suggests a million dollar blowout weekend of high exposure that saturates the media market.

You know about the RAS. Which plan do you go for?

(Jeopardy theme)

Okay. Which did you choose? If you went with the first team, you probably did the right thing. Think about it. When was the last time you saw a refrigerator ad in newspaper? You probably don't remember, unless you were in need of one.

And that is the point. No matter how big a media splash you make over one weekend, you will only get through to those who have real need for a refrigerator. If you have a steady stream of ads over six months, you are more likely to attract more customers, because more customers will have refrigerators go bad. And suddenly refrigerator ads become valuable to them.

You are more likely to get through to them with your ads.

Now let's look at a less benign example.

I know that you have an RAS. I know that if I can get you to lock on to a particular "truth," that you will then lock out any evidence or reasonable argument that contradicts that "truth." So all I have to do is to program the truth in you that I want you to retain.

I know that emotional energy is a powerful way to lock in such a truth, so I will make sure I use your emotional buttons to open you to the programming. I also know that for the most part you do not respond to arguments as much as you respond to authorities. And if I can get enough authorities to say the same thing over and over again for a long enough period, your subconscious is likely to take the impression, the thought-form, and store it as the truth.

My political opponent is very effective at what he does. He is sincere and tends to use reasonable arguments to get his way. People listen to him. I arrange to have my supporters and contacts get some dirt on him, no matter if it is minor. We can create the picture that he is a bad man who is not sincere.

We will have our politicians call him "The Prince of Darkness." Our politicians will give press conferences that are loud and angry, emotionally charged, and filled with charged language. We will get our media supporters to slant stories to the negative (never a hard thing to do), and build that authoritative drumbeat of demagoguery in multiple outlets.

And politicians on all sides will call this "politics."

On a personal level, I can control your imagination by helping to shape your self-image in such a way that you will depend on me. I will convince you that you are a victim, whether of birth, race, or something in the past that never had anything to do with you but as long as I can conjure that image into the present, it will have its effect.

So you are a victim and I am on your side. The other guy is not only not on your side, he is the one who is oppressing you. You need me to protect you from him. You need me to make laws that "level the playing field," that take from those who have historically taken from you so that it can be given to you. And of course part of that will go to my team because we are just here to help you.

And how can you doubt my sincerity? I arrange for you to get things that you don't have to work for. Because those things are owed to you.

Victims need people like me.

And you can always recognize me. I speak of inequality and unfairness and the need to help the helpless. I speak of fear and emotion. I don't need logic or critical thinking when fear and emotion are strong.

And as long as there are people like me, I will need people like you. So I will make sure that the definitions of victims multiply. For example, as issues of racism are addressed and the scales balance, I will make sure that more "subtle" forms of racism are defined and discovered.

I will program your image of you and your group and our group. I will lock it in to you emotionally. You will accept that image as "truth." And once it is locked in, it doesn't matter what the other side says logically or presents evidentially.

You will not see it. Your programmed mind will lock it out, like the F's. You will not even realize that something very real contradicted the unreal image I helped plant in your subconscious.

Aren't I a good fellow?

More to come in 7. How the Mind Works.

*** How could there ever be any conflict between my private interests and the public good. Ashleigh Brilliant

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Posted by witnit at April 13, 2005 6:45 AM