DrContrarian

  There is meme floating around social media that goes something like this: Think of how dumb the average guy is. Then realise that half the population is dumber than that. Whilst there is a level of smug superiority in that, there is also an element of truth. An IQ of 100 isn’t much intellectual horsepower. Not that great thinking is a prerequisite to all that matters, but by the same token the invention of mathematics, technological advancement and great art was probably not produced by the bottom half of the bell curve. Averages being what they are; gets us cultural norms that are, well, mediocre. And such is life. The people who created Facebook as a technological platform undoubtedly had well above average IQs. The platform has the potential to be and do amazing things, some of which we have experienced. But consider the average (normal) Facebook post and social experience. It’s about screaming goats on the one hand or people gloating about their breakfast o...

Acceptance Enjoyment Enthusiasm Stillness No-thingness

1. Reminiscence 2. Anticipation 3. Hope 4. Fear 5. Judgment 6. Possession

Not approved for use on customers. Apparently approved for interrogation by US government. Yelling at detainee Deception: multiple interrogators Deception: Interrogator is from country with reputation for harsh treatment of detainees; “False Flag” Incentive or removal of incentive Playing on a detainee’s love for a particular group Playing on a detainee’s hate for a particular group Significantly/ or moderately increasing fear level of detainee Reducing fear level of detainee Boosting the ego of detainee Insulting the ego of detainee, not beyond the limits that would apply to a POW Invoking feelings of .... Rest of the list here

I remember when I first noticed the existence of patterns. Everywhere I looked, I discovered patterns. I did not immediately realise it, but I had discovered the concept of chaos theory. Initially, for a number of years, I never bothered to understand its principles, assuming that it was all about chaos – and I had a preconceived notion that the answer cannot lie in chaos, because that would mean randomness rules. That would have meant luck was the Master of the Universe, and I did not want to face that. Fortunately, I could not have been any more wrong. Habits are patterns. Personalities are habituated behavioural patterns. Culture is patterns of behaviour and norms. Mathematics is all about formulae that describe specific patterns or rules. So is Biology. Every imaginable phenomenon that you can see or experience has an underlying rule or formula that determines the phenomenon or behaviour. All psychological ailments are simply defective patterning, and all counselling is an attemp...