The Power of Mental Scripts

Our minds are continually using language  to report our beliefs of the way the world is to ourselves.  By taking control of this language, you can harness the power of mental scripts.  You are probably aware of several of these mental scripts as they make their way from your subconscious to your daily conversations, but there are many more scripts that are running through your head that you may not be aware of but still have a profound affect on your life.  The more a script is repeated, the more it is believed to be reality, and the more your body manifests itself according to that script.  For example, the person who has the mental script of "I'm really funny", has that meme running through his head throughout the day either consciously or subconsciously.  Because he or she believes they are funny, they act in a way to manifest that belief by telling jokes and laughing frequently, thereby becoming someone who is funny.  This belief and mental script may even make its way into the individuals daily conversation in the way of a story starting with, "I did the funniest thing today...".  This concept holds true for nearly every aspect of your life.  It is important to understand what your personal mental scripts are and make sure that they are what you want them to be. 

The common ones are likely easy to identify and come up in daily conversations with those close to you.  For example the mental script, "I'm doing well" is a common theme that usually holds true unless you reply with something like, "I'm feeling under the weather".  While there are many positive scripts there are many negative ones as well.  It is important to identify the negative scripts and modify them to achieve a positive outcome.  Some common negative daily scripts include, "I'm fat", "I hate my job", "I hate X political party", "I wish I were rich", "I like fast food (I'm lovin' it)", etc.  By having these mental scripts or ones similar, they manifest themselves in reality.  Instead of thinking to yourself, "I'm fat"(even if you are), It would be better to think, "I have weight to lose, and I'm on my way to losing it", or "I enjoy eating vegetables more than sugar".  By changing the script to something positive, your belief changes and your body begins to manifest its new belief.  While the common scripts are typically easy to identify by looking at what complaints come up in conversation, there are many more scripts which are buried deeper and harder to identify.  For example, people often hold themselves back unnecesarily with scripts like "I don't deserve to be rich", or "I'm not a people person".   By digging deep with some self reflection, one can dredge up hidden mental scripts that are holding you back and change them to positive ones which will lead to real benefits. 

It is also important to understand where your mental scripts come from and begin to regulate those influences on your beliefs.  Advertising is a very powerful force to building mental scripts.  McDonald's, as I alluded to previously, has the theme, "I'm loving it".  When you hear this over and over while staring at a cheeseburger, you begin to believe this to be the case as your mental script changes and accepts it as fact.  Eliminating advertising to prevent this is an option, though incredibly difficult in today's world, but you could also work on changing the script that is being thrown at you.  For example, you could develop a script that "I do not trust McDonald's", or "McDonald's is unhealthy and distastful" thereby effectively blocking their influence on your mental scripts.  Advertising isn't the only source of mental scripts however.  Politicians, coworkers, friends, family, church, etc. all play a role in building your mental scripts and they have been since your birth.  Once you begin to limit the influences of others on your scripts you can then begin to create your own scripts.  Creating your own scripts free of the influence of others is incredibly difficult to do, but by doing so you will open doors to creating a life a freedom and greatness.

The Thing About Desire

Desire is a powerful motivator, but it is important that you are aware of how your desires are established.  Desires can  be derived from either that which you dislike or that which you like.  Negative or positive emotions.  Most desires are derived from that which you do not like.  We go to work because we do not want to be poor, we buy a house because we are afraid of being homeless, we buy the newest iPhone because we do not like social rejection, we want taxes to end because we don't like our money taken from us, and we eat food because we are afraid of being hungry.  The list continues and the examples of desire derived from positive emotions are difficult to come by.  While most of these examples can be framed in a positive manner (I eat food because I like to be full) the underlying motivation for the desire and the behavior is a response to that which we do not like.  It is a rare individual who can create a desire from sheer will of that which they want to achieve.  To base your desires on that which you like sets you apart from the masses which base their desires on that which they do not like.  It is the ability to create based on foresight and will that creates nobility.  It is the noble who change the world and find fulfillment in their lives.  It is the noble who have direction and purpose.  It is the noble who master their will and transcend fear  to achieve greatness.

Take this moment to examine where your desires come from, and eliminate the desires that come from negative emotions because by transforming your goals into that which you truly will to happen, allows you to achieve the greatness that sits dormant inside of you.

Rhinestone Eyes by Gorillaz

I've liked the song Rhinestone Eyes by the Gorillaz ever since it came out.  When I was researching the lyrics I came across an analysis of the lyrics and to my astoundment, many people completely mis-interpret this song.  While I can't claim to have it exactly right, I think my interpretation is largely supported by the artistic context of the album and video.  My analysis of the lyrics is as follows:

“I'm a scary gargoyle on a tower
that you made with plastic power”

I interpret this this to be an icon of leadership, a stone figure scary on a tower/pedistal, put there by the power of modern industry.  Plastic has brought much power in the form of technology, industry and economy.

“Your rhinestone eyes are like factories far away”

Rhinestone represents fake value, and greed.  Also imagery of hollow expressionless eyes, distant and unfamiliar like factories.  We know they exist, but never actually see them.

“Where the paralytic dream that we all seem to keep
Drive on engines till they sleep with future pixels in factories far away”

Our dreams of wealth and success fueled by greed, consume us and we can think of nothing else to the point where we are paralyzed to do anything else except play the game, enter the rat race, and pursue them.  Those dreams drive the engine of society until they integrate with people, making them insignificant pixels. 

“So call the mainland from the beach
All parties now washed up in bleach”

Regular people who are just trying to enjoy themselves (party on the beach) on a daily basis can no longer do so because the world has become so polluted that enjoying nature has become corrosive.  We've fallen from Eden and can no longer enjoy that lifestyle.  They need to call the mainland (or support or government, to notify them) and call for help?

“The waves are rising for this time of year
And nobody knows what to do with the heat”

This is a clear reference to rising ocean levels, and the particular choice of words seems to say, “that’s strange, the water’s high” as if it happened gradually.  It has a sense of unease and uncertainty.  The heat refers to global warming and the controversies surrounding it.  Nobody knows how to solve that problem.

“Under sunshine pylons we'll meet
While rain is falling like rhinestones from the sky”

Despite the corrosive beaches, and global warming, people pretend like nothing bad is happening when in reality trouble is in front of them.  The trouble seems fake like rhinestones.  They meet under bright sunny skies and ignore the problem calling it fake, pretending things are great. 

“I can't see you now my heart is frozen
all the bowses and the growses
have been abstinated in my soul”

A frozen heart implies death, and he can no longer see because of that.  The problems were ignored until they were detrimental and the consequences have been suffered.  The “shivers” and “pulls” are no longer in him.  Life has left.  Alternatively, this could be an emotional death and a turning away from the problems signifying loss of hope.

“I prayed on the immoveable yet clinging to the atoms of rocks
seasons the adjustments signs of change”

He prayed to the heavens, but remains stuck on earth and helpless.  The seasons are adjusting due to our actions as a whole and severe change is coming to the world despite itself.

“I can't see now she said taxi
Now red light is all I can take”

This continues on the death theme.  Nature (“she”) took a taxi and left.  Red light refers to the rhinestone eyes, implying that all that’s left and acceptable is the artificial plastic world, seen in the red hues of artificial desires.

“This dawn brings strange loyalties and skies”

Now that Nature has left, new alliances are formed, not necessarily desired ones.  This happens under strange skies implying an erieness to it as well as an altered climate.

I'm a scary gargoyle on a tower
that you made with plastic power
Your rhinestone eyes are like factories far awayAgain, the gargoyle is an over-seer of the world, risen to power by the industrial machine.  Again, an image of hollow, lifeless eyes that work in the factories.

“Here we go again
That's electric
That's electric”

Referencing the continual pattern, and the concept of energy that drives it all. 

“Helicopters fly over the beach
Same time every day same routine
Clear target in the summer when skies are blue
It's part of the noise when winter comes
It reverberates in my lungs
Natures corrupted in factories far away”

This verse implies war and a military state resulting from the destruction/corruption of nature, and a development of the strange alliances.  A result of calling the mainland for help?  Another reference to the seasons no longer being what they were, redefined now by war (targets, noise,).  This takes a toll on the body through pollution and lifestyle as the noise of war enters the lungs.  It has become a part of daily life.  Factories continue to churn as nature continues to be destroyed.

“Here we go again
That's electric
Your loves like rhinestones falling from the sky
That's electric
We are future pixels in factories far away
Here we go again
That's electric
Your loves like rhinestones falling from the sky
That's electric
Where future pixels in factories far away
Here we go again”

Now, even love has become fake and hollow like a rhinestone, meaningless and insignificant like a pixel.

Let me know your interpretation or add any comments below.

Theory of Hypnosis

Dennet offers a perspective of consciousness in "Consciousness Explained"  that humans are a self-reporting being and we use language to do this.  This mental dialog and self report equates to our conscious awareness.  Our brains evolved from one that needed to report on itself.  Heat, pain, balance, all needed to be regulated and so your body sends signals to its central processor.  Over time, the central processor started to report on itself.  All of a sudden there was a language.  A thought.  Maybe the first being to discover this heard a voice for the first time.   Maybe they thought that voice was god.  Who knows.  But they had the first language as it was needed to self report.  Eventually people started using that voice to communicate with other people.  Language and consciousness go hand in hand because language is needed to have a thought and thus awareness.  Luckily we also have the voice box necessary to conduct the noises for the thoughts in our heads.  And we can use this to communicate to others the state of things.  We then learn to use these sounds to self-report, and the self report changes from an abstract language to the language with which we are familiar.  The idea one has is captured in the language.  We have these memes that show up in groups and cultures which in a sense form a sort of group consciousness. 

Considering this notion of consciousness, one can then interpret hypnosis under this paradigm.  Hypnosis quiets these memes for a brief moment which leaves a blank slate for the hypnotist to insert memes that are beneficial to the client.  These memes have direct acess to your operating system to then be continually processed and looped within the individual.  A meme that is constantly repeated and not rejected is taken to be reality by the individual. Thus the suggestions take and the individual responds to them because the reporting system is continuously being looped.  That idea having come from the hypnotist makes it valuable because it takes an art of an individual to pose the correct language. Concepts are contagious and hypnosis is the best method to transfer those concepts.

3-8 Hertz

I recently came across a paper I wrote in college discussing the neuroscience behind shamanistic practices.  One interesting thing I found when reviewing this paper is that in order to enter a trance to the spirit world, shamans would often employ rhythmic drumming, chanting, and/or dancing.  When this phenomenon was studied it became apparent that this drumming impacts the frequency of brain waves.  More specifically, Vaitl, et. al, discussed past research done by Neher, demonstrating that drum beats in the frequency of 3-8 hertz synchronize brain waves to the same frequency (also konwn as auditory driving).  There has been further research into auditory driving, indicating that different frequencies produce synchronizing effects on brain waves in various scenarios.  Curious of this phenomenon, and wondering what if meant to have brain waves synchronized, I tried to find a sampling of a 3-8 Hz drum beat.  I was unsuccessful at finding a pure sample, but I did discover binaural beats.  When listening to this with headphones for only a short while, I definitely noticed a change in cognition.  Not sure what the effect would be, I cut my listening session short, and considered myself informed. 

This is a very interesting phenomenon, and I wonder what the implications are, knowing that our brain waves can be changed into a specific patern by rhythmic beats.  How is this phenomenon used in the daily world?  What is the evolutionary advantage?  Is this embedded into advertising and marketing?  If so, what impact or consequences result?  It would appear to be a form of hypnosis, causing one to enter a relaxed state, though I do not know if it changes a person's suggestability.  Where in your daily life do you notice rhythmic beats, and at what hertz?  Please leave a comment.