Let me start this post with a simple psychology experiment that was conducted on monkeys.
5 monkeys were put in a cage. A banana was placed in the center on top of a ladder. Anytime any of the 5 monkeys went for the banana, all 5 monkeys got a cold shower/shock. After a while, anytime any monkey tried grabbing the banana, the remaining 4 pulled it down. The equilibrium state of this experiment became all 5 monkeys realizing there's the shock that they'll be subjected to, hence none of the 5 monkey went for the banana regardless of the temptation.
Now one of the monkeys is replaced with a new monkey. The new monkey has absolutely no idea about the shock so goes for the banana. The old 4 monkeys don't let the new monkey go for the banana regardless of how many times the new monkey tries, even though the new monkey hasn't gotten any shock yet. And a second new monkey is brought in and another old monkey is replaced. And the other monkeys don't let the 2nd monkey go for the banana (Even the 1st new monkey joins the group of the old monkeys). This continues until all 5 monkeys are replaced with 5 new monkeys and none of them go for the banana. Now, imagine the actual shock is removed from the system. The final state is where there is the banana on top, no shock in the system and the 5 monkeys are just walking around in the cage not knowing why they're not going for the banana. If you ask them why they're not going for the banana, they'll probably say "That's just the way things are done over here"
In layman terms, this phenomenon is loosely tagged as societal conditioning. In psychology, this is called learned helplessness and there's a whole theory behind this which we'll not be getting into. Below video give a visual representation of the same.
Learned Helplessness
Case Study: Sati
Let me give you a real life example of this. Sati - the social evil that was in practice years back where widows jump into the fire of their husband's pyre. Let's see how deep rooted impact of conditioning here. There are many theories around how Sati came into practice. One of the popular theories is as follows. Husbands used to go fight in wars and get killed. This led to the rulers/kings taking advantage and raping and killing the widows. That was the logical shock/cold shower equivalent taking the monkeys experiment analogy.
The equilibrium situation was widows found it more honorable to die in the fire of their husband's pyre than waiting for getting raped and killed. Gradually the rulers went away (shock was taken out of the system) But the practice became so deep rooted in society over so long that just like the 5 new monkeys, people accepted that "That's just how things are done around here" This simple example shows how powerful the negative impact of conditioning can be.
Conditioning Affects Everybody
I personally believe that the universe releases us from our mother's womb with a super pure state of mind with access to infinite potential. I also believe that the universe loads the same program onto the minds children when their program. What I mean by that is their fundamental thinking style is similar. Can I prove this to you. Well. Not accurately. But for the sake of discussion, observe very young kids. Their general behavioral pattern is so genuine and pure. Beyond that, I don't have scientific proof. But let's take that as an assumption for the sake of this article.
From the time you're born in the world to the time you die, your mind is adulterated with a ton of societal notions. That is, you are conditioned by society. The extent to which everyone gets conditioned depends on your personal context and experiences, family and friends who condition you etc. This conditioning creates limitation and boundaries in your mind and prevents you from accessing your infinite potential. From a mathematical point of view, the pure universal program everyone was loaded with when they entered the universe gets adulterated by conditioned thoughts changing the fundamental thinking style/program from the naturally designed program. In that sense, if the absolute state of mind is the right way to think, everyone who is conditioned by society is mentally blinded, for the lack of a better word with everyone having their own styles of decision making. This means that I am mentally blinded, you are mentally blinded and everyone around is mentally blinded and we're all living in a world filled with mentally blinded people. Why did the world turn out this way? That's a separate question altogether and let me try to answer that at the end of this article.
If you realize that you're thinking style/operating program is far different from when you were a young genuine kid and want to get back to your old pure unadulterated state, you need to think of a logic. A super-powerful logic, strong enough to cut through and shatter all the illogical conditioning that has affected your mind from the time you were born. Imagine this logic to be like a bridge. This bridge of logic will take you from your current adulterated program back to the universally designed absolute pure state of mind where simple things make you genuinely happy.
For you to think of any logic to travel take you through the bridge of logic, you'll need to think. But for you to think, your operating program is already flawed. So to get out of that, you again need to think which is again a function of your adulterated program running you and this is a vicious negative infinite loop from which there seems to be no escape.
Now assume that I have figured out that powerful logic. I've worked on a theory over the last 10 years for this. Why me? Pure luck. I was just randomly lucky enough to go through a set of experiences that made me think a particular way. Sharing my entire theory is extremely elaborate and people with limited attention spans might have the entire theory fly over their head because it challenges all conventional norms. I'm sharing some parts of the theory here which I find will be relevant for a larger audience.
Go back to the monkey experiment example. If someone was to logically convince the 5 new monkeys that the banana is actually in their reach, they'll have super massive internal resistance to that logic. Likewise, when I tell you this, I don't expect an overnight journey for my audience through the bridge of logic. You'll also have massive internal resistance to reject my thoughts. Take whatever i'm saying with a pinch of salt, analyse it for yourself and make your decision. I'll be covering 5 specific everyday decisions and analyzing how to most optimally make them.
1. How many times should you brush your teeth daily?
2. How many hours should you sleep dailly?
3. Is smoking bad for your life? How many cigarettes can you smoke daily?
4. How do I know whether my partner is the ideal partner for me?
5. How should businesses ideally be run?
This post is already getting long. Hence, people genuinely interested in this, please move on to my next post where I'll be covering the fundamentals of my theory which you can imbibe in your day to day life easily. Click on link below
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