Reprogramming the Lankan brain

“The unconscious has many faces: dustbin and reservoir, childish fantasy and wise vision, coward and hero, destroyer and creator.”

- Dina Glouberman, author of the best selling classic You Are What You Imagine.

This is not to lob an intellectual grenade into our culture; but I do believe that if we Sri Lankans are to advance into the future as a nation, we need to understand that all of us are, enmeshed together in the single garment of destiny, caught in an inescapable web of mutual dependence. Unless we attain a state of mutuality of equality and a mutuality of affection, directed and received by each towards the other, co-equally and co-eternally, and learn to judge each other by their character and not the spoken tongue or the cast and condition of birth; we will never go together, but go down together. Yet, to attain this dream state, it is essential to commence with the reprogramming of the Lankan brain: a brain made stupid by listening to political rhetoric.

Our future, as some in politics are wont to make out, is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence, amity and agitation; but it is nonviolence or nonexistence; understanding or nothingness. In fact, our deepening dependence on each other is indeed changing not only the way we think, but also the structure of our brains.

Deal

The prevailing myth is that our society is all about the art of the deal: a belief perpetrated by political practices where empty heads transform into empire builders. However, in reality, most of us who have not chosen the path of the last resort of the scoundrel as our profession, do find, in the deepest recess of our heart, we are no different to the other when we drop the burden of our ego and penetrate the mystery of our soul. Human nature is all about the flow of energy between biologically alike bodies, about each laboring to give birth to the other: that our consciousness is not different in any way from what all other men may find.

The moral panic that always accompanies the arrival of new thought, ideas, and initiatives always triggers, in man, alarm and anxiety; dread and dismay; fear and fright; trepidation and terror. It requires the reprogramming of the brain to make him understand that it is nothing but the panic of the unknown. In truth, it is the unease that many adults feel about the way their modus operandi would change in response to ubiquitous change that triggers the panic.

People fretted about printing, photography, the telephone, and even television. It even bothered Plato - the student of Socrates and the teacher of Aristotle, the triumvirate who laid the foundation for the development of western philosophy - who argued that the technology of writing would destroy the art of remembering. In a sense, it is true.

For instance, before the advent of the mobile phone, we would remember many a telephone numbers by memory. Now, hardly any numbers come to our mind. Despite this, the mobile phone has added, value to many a life; but some people still fret about it due to their fear of its misuse.

Recede

This fear of the unfamiliar is endemic to the human kind and only recede, when the mind of man reprograms the human brain: and it becomes possible only when in the deepest recess of his heart, man finds the burden of his ego dropped and the mystery of his soul unraveled and fathomed.

Our collective memory, way of thinking, habitual practices, of over the past three to four generations have inculcated our minds with the venom of suspicion: a suspicion that grows on mistrust and is the sign of an unrefined mind.

The politicians of this nation, morons mostly interested in self-promotion, have no doubt contributed greatly to this situation, as does our weakened quality of education that has miserably failed to enhance our intelligence.

As a result, we have learnt to look at everything with a jaundiced eye and a mind of a simpleton. We have forgotten that trust and faith bring joy to life and help relationships grow to their maximum potential. We have forgotten the aspects of our traditions and religions that always speak of the interdependence and equality of human beings; and instead, let hatred, exclusion, and suspicion, occupy space in our hearts. Thus, the time to reprogramme our minds has begun.

Modern neuroscience has revealed the “plasticity” of the human brain; that our habitual practices can actually change our thinking; that communications technologies shape and reshape society. Just look at the impact that printing and the broadcast media have had on our world.

The question that we could not answer before now was whether these technologies could also reshape us, our brain.

Different

The brains of illiterate people, for example, are structurally different from those of people who can read. Thus if the technology of printing, and its concomitant requirement to learn to read, could shape the human brains; then surely it is logical to assume that our addiction to technology will do something similar.

We all know that repetition is a key to learning of any kind. By repeatedly listening to suggestions, while in a relaxed state, we can achieve a great variety of results: we can enhance our creativity and intuition; we can improve our learning ability, memory, and concentration. We can improve our physical and mental health.

We can increase our confidence, reduce stress and depression, overcome addictions, program ourselves for healthier eating patterns, etc. All that is required is that we religiously set aside little time, usually 30 minutes, every day to listen to our program, which we can design according to our specific goals. Gradually, as the subconscious begins to accept the suggestions, we experience a gradual shift in feeling and thought about the specific issue we are addressing.

Our self-talk, our internal monologue, becomes influenced by the suggestions and affirmations. This affirmation will automatically begin to run through our conscious mind.

In time, our behavior begins to change. As our behavior changes, so do our results. As we observe our new results, our sense of satisfaction, progress, and accomplishment further reinforces the process of reprogramming our minds. Now, our conscious mind can also participate in the process, because it can no longer refute the new beliefs, attitudes, or effects; and when conscious and subconscious work together in harmony, all sorts of positive results are possible for us to achieve.

The human brain is like any other muscle: if you do not stretch it, it gets both stiff and flabby.

But if you exercise it regularly, and cross-train; your brain will be flexible, quick, strong and versatile. Thus, it is thinking that keeps a brain healthy and keeps it nourished. Hence, the need of the hour is to change the habits of our thinking, which is not the same as changing our brains. Changing the habits of our thinking will reprogram the human brain.

Dreams so often become nightmares. Family can so easily become foes. What’s more, even if you do not believe this, people are always more stupid than you give them credit for. That is why in extraordinary times, the ordinary takes on a glow and wonder all of its own because ordinary people believe only in the possible. To visualize not what is possible or probable, but rather what is impossible; one needs to be extraordinary.

By visualizing the impossible, they begin to see it as possible. Hence, instead of letting our minds to be, altered by the common and customary mediocrity of minds that believe in superstition and falsity; let knowledge, learning, and thinking take its place.

Superstition

After all, superstition requires no tests, no measurements, and no proof: just belief; belief based on false information and stupidity. Knowledge, on the other hand may not be power, but it certainly is a means to power. It can certainly be a force for education and wisdom, and not just for lies, damned lies, and false statistics.

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