Welcome to the MAKES SENSE podcast, where we apply the science, art and philosophy of sense making to the things that make you go Hmmm? Those most pressing thoughts and discussions going on in our minds today. The Makes Sense Podcast is an expense free service with the intention of helping you execute on the concept of changing the way you look at things, so that the things you look at begin to change.
Today we’ll MAKE SENSE of THE PROGRAM- That way you think, feel and act? It’s not your fault, its your program.
Contact - Dr. JC Doornick - https://zez.am/makessense
SHOW NOTES:
As we move further into this new Makes Sense podcast, it's important that I continue to provide you with the base constructs, concepts and language that we will be using in later episodes. This podcast is about you transforming into a more conscious version of yourself so you can begin to see the previously unseen. My intention in this episode is to expose something to your conscious mind. What makes this challenging is that this thing I want to show you is invisible to you. In fact it often cloaks itself as you. No it's not your ego. In fact, your ego works for it.
“I woke up to realize that my perception of reality was not my own but one I assumed, as a result of the information I had been consuming.” - Dragon
Stop for a moment and ask yourself this question. Is your interpretation of reality, including the way you look at and respond to things, your own? Or can you acknowledge the outside forces that have played a role in it? Before you say no, can you prove that it's not possible? That the way you perceive, believe and respond are a manifestation of what you have been taught and continue to reinforce everyday with the things you consume with regularity? Welcome to the program.
An excerpt from my new book MAKES SENSE, Solving the mystery of why shit happens.
After a life of misfortune and suffering, French artist, Paul Gauguin painted a masterpiece in his dying days while living in exile in Tahiti. Viewed from right to left, it demonstrates the circle of life from birth to death. This powerful piece unveils the deepest mysteries of the human race and is appropriately named. Where do we come from? Where are we? And where are we going?
These questions are the premises upon which we all roam this planet in search of answers as sense-making machines. When we seek the answers to unanswerable questions, we are forced to do our best to fill in the gaps and make sense of things.. In other words, we make shit up. In fact, this is the birthplace of religion, psychology, theories, and science. All representing man's attempt to make sense of things.
Think about that for a second. Whatever it is that represents your foundation for your reality. What’s good or bad. Right or Wrong? Just or injust? Did you come up with that? Well if you came up with it, you are pretty special as most humans are born into this world without knowing these things until they are taught to them.
Why is this important? To recognize that our sense making machines have been programmed and that program is the backbone software that is controlling your hardware and virtual reality suit? Well, for starters, what if it's not accurate? I know you’ve been sold into the idea that it was. But what if it is not? Here you are doing your best to make the right decisions in life, choose the right path as well as stay on track and follow through with your physical, mental and financial goals. And now we are for the first time noticing a red, check engine light that’s been on yet had black tape over it for years. That light, now illuminated, is suggesting that we take a look under the hood at an engine that was built by others with their own intentions for you. Perhaps different than the ones that are actually FOR YOU.
It’s important here to shift into a curious state of possibility thinking. Why? If you can’t justify a reason to rethink or re-evaluate something due to the mere possibility that there may be another truth or better way? The idea of making changes to your regularly scheduled program will seem nonsensical. So in order to experience growth we must be willing to challenge this programming that we have received and become open to a better way. Otherwise, you will find yourself hell bent on protecting and justifying your position on things and that is the life of the herd. The majority. The popular masses that are ok with trying to get into town in a rocking chair. Because they believe in that rocking chair and that rocking chair is part of their core values etc.. This of-course gives rise to the definition of insanity.
To add some color to this, it's interesting to look at the characteristics and strategies of scientists. There is no group of humans more open and curious than scientists. Why? Scientists seek the truth and seek facts. The idea of coming across something that improves or debunks their own theories excites them. Because it is the truth they seek and will let nothing deter them from acquiring it. Not even their own theories. So a nice role playing exercise to play in life is that of a scientist. Checking facts and remaining open and curious to better ones.
The Operating System
“We seldom realize, for example, that our most private thoughts and emotions are not actually our own. For we think in terms of languages and images which we did not invent, but which were given to us by our society.”
― Alan Watts
If you look into a baby's eyes, you'll see they have little self-awareness. The person one grows into is a mask worn over their consciousness. You’ll be surprised to learn that this mask is given to them from the outside in.
Once a human becomes awakened, their consciousness begins to penetrate and shine through the mask to see what it sees. Not what it's been trained to see. We come into this world as biologically conditioned structures without a self-image. However, there is much debate over the idea that we are all born prematurely. This is because a newborn baby’s brain is not fully developed at birth. In a perfect world, we’d further our stay in our mother's womb for 15 months. Not a good thing at all for the mom, I know. However, the theory makes sense and unveils our susceptibility to not only learning and absorbing from the outside in. But reminds us that our brains can become permanently wired to accept all that we consume at this early phase as reality. Simply, the way things are.
As we grow through life, we face the challenge of increased responsibility for ourselves. Over the next several years, I began experiencing a series of awakenings that unveiled an inefficient operating system that was not moving me forward.
I became aware that I was running a program inside that was unconsciously calling the shots. This program decided what was good or bad, and what I should or should not do. What is interesting about this program is that I was unaware that it was running. I always assumed that I was voluntarily making decisions. Not the case. There was an automatic operating system that would activate in different ways in response to certain happenings, people, and scenarios. The side effects and symptoms of this programmed response system began showing up. For example, I'd find myself overeating, and saying things I didn't intend to friends and family. There was something inside me calling the shots without consulting me.
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M.F.T.P.S.E. (The Programmers)
This brings up a unique challenge. See, once a program has been absorbed, we have a fail-safe defense mechanism to protect it from anything otherwise. Its your number one employee and right hand man. Your ego.
A fun analogy to use is one I call The Bouncer: A bouncer stands outside his nightclub with a detailed guest list, checking every ID. The nightclub represents your life and your bouncer controls who and what gets in and who doesn’t. That’s your trained ego safeguarding and preserving your programmed thoughts, feelings, and concepts labeling and judging everything it perceives. Your bouncer works closely with your VR Suit and decides who and what gets into the nightclub, and it’s not open to new ways of perceiving the world. Remember, the bouncer works for you and is just doing its job.
In order to consider reprogramming our intel processor and VR Suit, we must take control of the bouncer. It’s like the write-protected switch on an SD card. Your bouncer, or ego, is committed and not open to new ideas. If it is protected, it cannot receive new data.
I became intensely curious to identify where I received this inefficient operating system?
Think about it. Whenever we buy a new car or technology, it malfunctions or breaks down. Who do we blame? Yes, the manufacturers. I was already blaming my parents for all my problems, and now I know why. They played a role in programming my operating system by teaching me to adopt theirs. They taught me the good and bad of what they were taught. I bought into it all, as most kids do, and unknowingly started viewing the world through their eyes. But I knew there was more. I couldn’t blame or credit them solely for it all. I wasn’t consuming and absorbing information from them alone.
Who else is involved in my programming? Like a detective, I began unpacking the files of my past and evaluating where I picked up the thoughts, perceptions and concepts that controlled my mind and VR suit?
My mother. My father. Oh, wait, my teachers and preachers too! Making these observations into my 30’s, I recognized that I had spent over 20 years in the box of the education system. Consuming with regularity, the lessons shared by my teachers. We weren’t religious, but I sure had preachers in my life. They were represented by those that spoke from a place of being right about things. People that shared concepts over and over again with my vulnerable, neuroplastic mind. Friends, family, and authority figures. I was in school, in and out of synagogues and churches throughout my life as well. Consuming and assuming their uploads were valid. All well-intentioned, I'm sure. But unconscious to the ramifications of me buying into their program. The very nature of mothers, fathers, teachers, and preachers is to nurture, guide, and protect. Some useful, some harmful, but all are well-intentioned. Nobody’s perfect, right? So, I couldn't blame them as that would imply that they were at fault. In fact, I've learned through parenting my own children and mentoring others throughout my career, my goal is not to indoctrinate people to believe what I do. Or look at the world the way I do? Mothers, Fathers, Teachers and Preachers often unconsciously push their own concepts of reality onto others to simply validate themselves. If someone buys into what I think, it only validates what I think. Not them. Make sense?
Traveling further into my evidence room, and placing all things on my evidence board aka my CRAZY WALL. I discovered other elements at play that were responsible for my own operating system.
Now referring to our programmers as our M.F.T.P.S.E. There’s the mother, father, teacher, preacher, society and evolution. The last two being the silent killers. Silent meaning we are often unaware of their influence because we don’t consider these things. Remember, that which you consume with regularity, programs your mind and VR suit to assume with regularity. It’s hard to register, but society and evolution represent other components of our programming. We are exposed to society daily through interactions, social media and the idiot box. That’s what my grandfather called the TV. Throw in the passing on and forward paying of all things our predecessors and ancestors learned through the evolution of man dating back to the days of the caveman. Even though there are no more sabertooth tigers and T Rexes trying to kill us, our stress response systems have been wired to fight or flight in the face of anything that remotely resembles anything from the past. That's right, you’ve been programmed and continue to unconsciously consume and, over time, assume its programming. Now, it's become your operating system.
What's interesting to note is that you’ve constructed a customized surrounding and strategic perception of society that validates and supports your program. This is known as confirmation bias, where we seek out and favor only the information that supports our existing beliefs. Even in the absence of them being factual. Turning our head from anything and everyone that thinks otherwise. This can lead to an illusion of reality and creates a challenge should you decide to change the way you look at things. Think about those things in your life you call your core values and beliefs? Perhaps the non-negotiables? You might even be known as stubborn or hard nosed?
“The confidence people have in their beliefs is not a measure of the quality of evidence, but of the coherence of the story the mind has managed to construct.”
―Daniel Kahneman
Rock climbers refer to that one hard move in their line that poses the biggest challenge. The Crux! The Crux in reclaiming control of our program lies with the bias we’ve developed over time to support that program.
Confirmation and cognitive bias is the simplified processing of all information through a filter that references all past experiences and preferences. We use this filter to process perceptions, make decisions, and determine our reality. This cognitive bias can direct our focus on things that others can’t see. Typically due to the fact that they are not there to be seen. Outside the realm of logic and rationale. Projecting an augmented version of reality that suits our current needs which prompts us to support that reality by focusing only on the things that confirm it and ignoring those that falsify it. In other words, we make shit up to make our story true. Even in the absence of facts. All of this, going on without you even knowing it. Almost makes you feel like a puppet, no? The programming we’ve received thus far becomes justified and protected by our bias, or the ego's opinion. You could even say that the ego is the master of puppets.
Many refer to Descartes's famous quote, “I think; therefore, I am, " as the fall of civilization. It began a movement that prompted people to address reality and form opinions and reactions based on their thoughts. In his defense, I don't think Descartes knew how much we would be thinking about how susceptible we would be to the repetitive suggestions from our programmers. Our influential MFTPSEs.
It's easy to become wired into the suggestions, opinions, and concepts we consume regularly. “Neurons that fire together wire together.” This principle is known as the Hebbian learning rule; when two neurons in the brain are activated at the same time, they become more strongly connected to each other over time. This process is called synaptic plasticity, and it is the basis for learning and memory formation in the brain.
Hebb's theory also proposes that the strength of the connection between two neurons depends on the frequency and timing of their activation. When two neurons are activated at the same time repeatedly, the connection between them becomes stronger. This reminds us of the power of consistency as it leverages these neural connections where memories of the event are formed.
This created a situation where people could be led to believe one thing and be close-minded to the possibility of another. Descartes also said;
"Since our senses cannot put us in contact with external objects themselves, but only with our mental images of such objects, we can have no absolute certainty that anything exists in the external world.”
Descartes postulated what he called the “evil demon argument.” This is where he proposed we all live with an entity, a demon, capable of deceiving us. As a result, we lose our inherent ability to process what we see, without doubting its difference compared to what we think.
Hmmm. Interesting to think about this concept. That there’s an evil demon, or machine, living inside our heads calling shots. As if it is a separate entity, implanted in our brains that controls and coordinates our perceptions and responses? I believe we all inherently feel there is a guest or as i call it, the "little liar,” manipulating us. The concept of the “dark passenger” is widely accepted. We have these preposterous thoughts that cause us to cringe at the very idea of others knowing of them. As Jim Dethmer describes in his drama triangle theory, we place blame on the demon or machine in our head. As if it were placed there by others.
Plato’s Cave
Plato’s allegory of the cave is a symbolic story of how humans learn to interpret reality based on what they see rather than what is. In this story, Plato described a scenario where a bunch of prisoners were constrained by chains side by side in a cave where they were forced to only look at a wall in front of them. With a fire lighting the room behind them, the projected shadows on the wall from people walking behind them, became the only thing the prisoners saw over time. After some time, these shadows became their interpretation of the world and reality.
The allegory looks at our philosophical thoughts of truth and how we come to terms with it and confidently describe it. Not until the prisoners are released can they slowly begin to entertain a new reality. The narrative ponders what would happen once the freed prisoners learned of the new reality outside the cave. First, the assumption was that they would return to the cave and attempt to free the others so they, too, could see the vast new reality. Their following belief was that the prisoners still in the cave would try to kill the messenger threatened by his blasphemy.
Humanity today is not much different from Plato’s narrative. We are what we eat, and that’s not just with food. The “S” in MFTPSE “society” reminds us of our constant daily consumption. Watch the news regularly and see how your perceptions, conversations, and reactions to everyday life shift. Follow politics or the conflict on the Gaza Strip and see how that affects your perceptions and conversations with others? I spent my whole life consuming and shaping my perceptions with a programmed operating system that I received and confirmed from my MFTPSE. My brain (software) and my VR suit (hardware) became hardwired to my unique way of looking at things. My programming was its manifestation, and my perceptions and responses were not actually mine. Not from my conscious mind but my subconscious programmed mind. I learned later that it represented 95% of the operating system. We program and support our subconscious mind with the repetitive consumption of data. Data from your MFTPSE. If you have a concept and belief system, it was created, molded and confirmed by your consumption. Those learned concepts are running on autopilot and in charge of your life. They say what you see is what you get. I agree. However, is what you get what actually is or just a manifestation of what you see.
Another SNAP moment. It was all becoming clear. I began reviewing clips of every event in my life through a new set of lenses. As if I was in a library using the good old news searching system we used to call microfiche. I had been justifying my reality and potential based on something I bought into. Now? I am progressively waking up and disputing everything. All bets are off and that means that I might be wrong about a lot of stuff. Including my potential and the very resource of potential in the world.
When I use the word awakening, I’m referring to the opposite of being asleep. The difference between being instinctively closed, unconscious, and unaware vs. being open and conscious and aware. When you’ve been programmed, your VR suit (your 5 senses) continues to process, consume and confirm your current operating system. You’re unaware of it, and it validates the programming.
This is the same way good and bad habits are created. Practice an activity or consume something for 60-90 days, and you not only become good at it. You become unconsciously competent at it. You don’t even know who you are. That’s a habit. There's something called the rule of 100. It states that an individual that spends 100 hours a year or 18 minutes a day on a discipline will end up being better than 95% of the entire world at that discipline. This awakening helped me tackle things like losing weight and keeping it off for 18 years. Rather than trying to stop the destructive behaviors, I began looking at why they were even there.
We wake up one day to recognize our own inefficient operating system. It happens while running our regularly scheduled program, when some sort of glitch in the matrix pops up that suggests it is not working. We notice the insanity of our behaviors where we expect different outcomes from doing the same old things. If you don’t challenge this and just go with the flow and stay comfortable, the universe has a way of forcing your hand to change. The universe is in full support of your success and fulfillment. Yet if you are sleepwalking through life, it will curb stomp you to grab your attention and make you take a look at things.
Get too comfortable? Fat, lazy, depressed. Move too fast? Divorce, hypertension, anxiety, substance abuse.
I experienced a series of car accidents that forced me to recognize I was moving too fast and to re-access my behaviors, priorities and the underlying reason for their existence. Or when I experienced that SNAP moment, I was forced to see that therapist and learn why I hated my birthdays. I’m sure all humans have these universal offerings that force them to see something and make a powerful distinction. However, if we’re not seeking growth. We may miss or ignore them.
Disclaimer: It is important to acknowledge that I was seeking growth with urgency at this time. We all want the same things in life. We want to be Happy-ER, Healthy-ER, and Wealthy-ER. I refer to humans as “seekers of the ER”. However, only those that seek with urgency will follow through and do the work. If you are learning this stuff and not moving into action, that's ok. Your time will come and it will come when you build urgency around it. I was frustrated with my lack of certainty, confidence, and progress at that time. I wanted more and began to engage in personal growth with a specific interest in neuroscience and the study of the human brain and consciousness. I became open and curious about these observations, even while in full survival mode.
This is a lifelong journey, and you’re welcome to join me. Are you ready to leave your concept cave?
Here’s the good news folks. This programmed mind of yours? Demon included. It's completely re-programmable and we're gonna talk about some strategies to execute on that in upcoming episodes and conversations with guests. However, it starts with the awareness and acknowledgement that our perceptions, thoughts and feelings have been persuaded by an outside stimulus which means they may very well not be of our own choice.
Here are a few simple practices to begin the process of reclaiming control of your goals, dreams and reality. These practices are not effective by simply knowing them and feeling you understand and agree with them. They must be practiced until they begin to show signs of opening up new alternate beliefs that unveil different possibilities and outcomes of your future potential.
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Just say Hmmm?: When you find yourself contemplating yourself in evaluation of your willpower or motivation, just say Hmmm? Not to the thing you are evaluating, but to the very act of generating those concepts of your motivation and belief. Remember the idea of Brain Awareness Perception.
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Focus on your North Star: Very often when we feel “stuck” and begin contemplating our willpower, motivation and, our belief in ourselves, it's a side effect and symptom of forgetting where you were going and why? When you feel lost and confused, simply look up at the North Star and find your way back home to your goals and dreams.
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Practice Patience: A few words missing from most people’s 2024 goal sheet are patience , agility, awareness. Again, a side effect of our programmed mind are things like entitlement, impatience and frustration. They easily trigger a contingency plan to abort and move in a different direction. Once the contingency plan is set forth, our program begins to validate the decision to abort with the excuses that demonstrate the concepts of things like self belief, motivation and willpower being precursors to our following through. Saying Hmmm, and pausing your programmed mind will help you practice patience.
Remember. Truly doing the work can be exhausting at first. Not to mention frustrating as there are not too many wins associated with it at first. Making Sense of these distinctions can easily be washed away by your programmed mind and sense making machine as a waste of time if you are not ready. Perhaps showing up as you are telling yourself something like. “Ah, fuck this. We only live once and I don't want to spend my time struggling to move this mountain ahead of me. I want to enjoy my life etc..” My response to you would be “Hmmm?”
If that is going on in your mind right now or later, it's normal and you can feel better knowing that most people will do the same. But right after you feel better because you’re not the only one. Ask yourself why only a few individuals sit at the top of the mountain at the table of success, fulfillment and happiness? Then look at your statement of “Ah, fuck this” and see why that is?
It’s a game I call “DRIFTING and SHIFTING”. Drifting refers to the act of unconsciously falling back into your regularly scheduled program. The one that isn’t advancing you towards your desired state. Remember, it’s not your fault. You are wired to do this. But if you can learn to simply place a pause on that idea of not following through and retreating to the comfortable place called “known”. By inserting a “Hmmm?” and allow yourself to look at the idea you have from a place of logic and rationale? You’ll catch yourself DRIFTING again. See, Drifting is not the problem. Drifting off-course is a normal human behavior. Life gets sticky when you are unconsciously drifting. So catching yourself drifting is where the win is. As it becomes the fertile ground to you SHIFTING. Not only shifting back on course, but shifting into a more conscious version of yourself, that can remember things like the lesson you just heard on Motivation, Self Belief and Timing, and how they are not factors in your success.
It takes what I call PRACTION. A state of practicing being in action. See, you won’t be good at this at first. You may find yourself drifting more than shifting. But keep at it. It never gets easy. But it does get easiER.
Be well my friends. And remember. If you learned something today? Give it away. That’s the only way it will stay. We hope that you will consider paying forward this podcast to your contact sphere. Strike up conversations with them about the topics and you’ll find that its when we teach that we learn twice.
Contact - Dr. JC Doornick - https://zez.am/makessense
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