posted
As Nietzsche correctly observed, will power is the overpowering of one emotion by another. Think of 'need process' instead of the term 'emotion' used by Nietzsche, and realize that decision making processes are largely unconscious - the results or steps in the decision process may emerge in consciousness, but the deciding itself is unconscious.
We have no free will - all personality processing is determined - but we have cognitive input into this processing that can reprogram our decision-making (and gives us the illusion of freely deciding).
To cognitively reprogram your unconscious decision making processes, you have to realize this can be done and realize its value. With this realization you are motivated to reprogram, and motivation is the key to decision making and everything else in personality processing and change.
You then must develop a habit of monitoring your need processes by inference from expressions that emerge into consciousness. When you detect an attitude that will be damaging to your long term interests, you must immediately rethink the situation and change the attitude and its output in consciousness.
For instance, self pity gives pleasure in allowing you to feel love and sorrow toward your self for your bad luck, but as long as you engage in self pity, you will not change that bad luck and solve problems. The immediate satisfaction of self love is outweighed by its future failure in meeting your needs - your loss will far exceed your gain over time.
When you monitor your conscious processes and detect self pity as the unconscious origin of a process, you can stop, rethink how you can solve the problems for which you feel sorry for yourself instead of wallowing in sorrow, and then plan for and enact this solution while getting out of your sorrow. This cognitive programming can work if you you resolve (motivate yourself) to monitor and reprogram bad attitudes.
Here is an example:
John is the kind of guy you love to hate. He is always in a good mood and always has something positive to say. When someone would ask him how he was doing, he would reply, "If I were any better, I would be twins!" He was a natural motivator.
If an employee was having a bad day, John was there telling the employee how to look on the positive side of the situation.
Seeing this style really made me curious, so one day I went up and asked him, "I don't get it!
You can't be a positive person all of the time. How do you do it?"
He replied, "Each morning I wake up and say to myself, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or ... you can choose to be in a bad mood. I choose to be in a good mood."
Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or...I can choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it.
Every time someone comes to me complaining, I can choose to accept their complaining or... I can point out the positive side of life. I choose the positive side of life.
"Yeah, right, it's not that easy," I protested.
"Yes, it is," he said. "Life is all about choices. When you cut away all the junk, every situation is a choice. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people affect your mood.
You choose to be in a good mood or bad mood. The bottom line: It's your choice how you live your life."
I reflected on what he said. Soon hereafter, I left the Tower Industry to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life instead of reacting to it.
Several years later, I heard that he was involved in a serious accident, falling some 60 feet from a communications tower.
After 18 hours of surgery and weeks of intensive care, he was released from the hospital with rods placed in his back.
I saw him about six months after the accident.
When I asked him how he was, he replied, "If I were any better, I'd be twins Wanna see my scars?"
I declined to see his wounds, but I did ask him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.
"The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-be born daughter," he replied. "Then, as I lay on the ground, I remembered that I had two choices: I could choose to live or...I could choose to die. I chose to live."
"Weren't you scared? Did you lose consciousness?" I asked.
He continued, "..the paramedics were great.
They kept telling me I was going to be fine.But when they wheeled me into the ER and I saw the expressions on the faces of the doctors and nurses, I got really scared. In their eyes, I read 'he's a dead man'. I knew I needed to take action."
"What did you do?" I asked.
"Well, there was a big burly nurse shouting questions at me," said John. "She asked if I was allergic to anything. 'Yes, I replied.' The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, 'Gravity'."
Over their laughter, I told them, "I am choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead."
He lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude... I learned from him that every day we have the choice to live fully.
Attitude, after all, is everything.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness.
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posted
We "choose" how we are going to feel, because we have, FREE WILL! God doesn't program us, like robots! Otherwise, if He did, we all would be perfect! We definately aren't! Since God doesn't look upon sin, He won't program us to sin! That doesn't mean he doesn't know that we are going to, or not going to, he just knows what "choice" we are going to make! Must make Him really sad, sometimes!
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posted
We are innately programmed to be many things, and some of our many instincts are in conflict with one another.
If we had free will we could choose to not eat, and eat only healthy foods.
Why then are people fat? They constantly try to eat little and eat healthy but constantly fail in exercising "free will". The only people who can do this are those whose eating is innately configured along those lines, or nearly so. These people either don't have to fight to eat healthy or have very little of a fight.
We all have things we struggle to change and most of us are never completeley successful unless we are innately programmed to be close to where we are trying to vchange to be.
Cognitive programming can help enhance your motivation to change. So can religion, as you well know Kate.
But religion often pushes a person to change in directions that are unnatural,and this causes unhappiness. Take a born dancer, with skills and motivations to dance at a peerless level. Say that person is brought up in a religion that says dancing is a sin and is prohibited under any circumstance. Such a person will live a life of misery and conflict as a result of religion. Such a person will not so easily choose to never dance, and may sneak in dancing to music when no one is watching, and then feel terribly guilty later.
We don't have free will, but we have the capacity to build up and cognitively program a motivation to change to reach a goal. When we can build up enough motivation, we can reach this goal, but this isn't automatic and easy, as it would be if we had free will.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness.
IP: Logged |
posted
"Such a person will not so easily choose to never dance, and may sneak in dancing to music when no one is watching, and then feel terribly guilty later."
haha, this makes me think of masturbation as a better example...
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quote:Originally posted by kevin954: Art: "Such a person will not so easily choose to never dance, and may sneak in dancing to music when no one is watching, and then feel terribly guilty later."
kevin: haha, this makes me think of masturbation as a better example...
I know some religions say dancing is a sin. Do they say masturbation is a sin? My church says sex is good in all forms and promiscuity is prized. I enjoyed my church educational experience tremendously!
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness.
IP: Logged |
To cognitively reprogram your unconscious decision making processes, you have to realize this can be done and realize its value. With this realization you are motivated to reprogram, and motivation is the key to decision making and everything else in personality processing and change.
this is the basis for all military indoctrination programs....
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: originally posted by Art...
To cognitively reprogram your unconscious decision making processes, you have to realize this can be done and realize its value. With this realization you are motivated to reprogram, and motivation is the key to decision making and everything else in personality processing and change.
this is the basis for all military indoctrination programs....
This is also the basis of psychotherapy, salesmenship, preaching, arguing to change someone's opinion, as well as will power to change yourself.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness.
IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by kevin954: Yeah, what religion is this by the way?
Church of Perpetual Pleasure, founded by Father Divine.
I met Father Divine in Las Vegas and was immediately attracted to one of the beautiful young girls who followed him wherever he went. In talking with her I got Father Divine's notice and started talking with him.
The divine father took an interest in the salvation of my soul and agreed to let me become a student under his mentorship and tutelage, to earn my doctorate in theology. I agreed to pay him $10,000, and within a few months I earned my degree.
Father divine taught me that in the highest levels of sexual passion we unify with the universe in becoming closer to God. The more such pleasure we can find, whether self-induced or with any other person (no discrimination as to sex, age, or disability was enthusiastically advocated), the holier we become.
It was really tough work. Have you ever been required to experience such pleasure multiple times a day?
It was a hard earned doctorate, so to speak.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness.
IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by kevin954: Yeah, what religion is this by the way?
Church of Perpetual Pleasure, founded by Father Divine.
I met Father Divine in Las Vegas and was immediately attracted to one of the beautiful young girls who followed him wherever he went. In talking with her I got Father Divine's notice and started talking with him.
The divine father took an interest in the salvation of my soul and agreed to let me become a student under his mentorship and tutelage, to earn my doctorate in theology. I agreed to pay him $10,000, and within a few months I earned my degree.
Father divine taught me that in the highest levels of sexual passion we unify with the universe in becoming closer to God. The more such pleasure we can find, whether self-induced or with any other person (no discrimination as to sex, age, or disability was enthusiastically advocated), the holier we become.
It was really tough work. Have you ever been required to experience such pleasure multiple times a day?
It was a hard earned doctorate, so to speak.
I continually strive to fulfill Father Divine's passion.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness.
IP: Logged |
posted
wow! Art that's pretty cheap, only 10K$ for a phd... is the GRE a serology? can i read the thesis or is it just pictures? were the oral exams difficult?
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise.
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: so we can also call you Dr. Love, then?
I can't reveal my secret religious name.
Father Divine has a peace plan which he is developing. He is forming an army consisting primarily of women. He plans to invade an enemy country and force their male armies to utter submission overnight.
His two famous dictims are 'Mary wasn't really a virgin' and 'F*** with others instead of f****** others'.
-------------------- The light of truth is blinding to most.
More comforting to look only at the shadows of falseness.
IP: Logged |
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God doesn't program us, like robots! Otherwise, if He did, we all would be perfect! We definately aren't! Since God doesn't look upon sin, He won't program us to sin! That doesn't mean he doesn't know that we are going to, or not going to, he just knows what "choice" we are going to make! Must make Him really sad, sometimes!
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