07 Sep '08 01:18>4 edits
Raymond Smullyan, in his book The Tao is Silent pondered on the possibility that certain religious beliefs could be held in a manner similar to hypnotic suggestion. My recollection is that he was referring to childhood conditioning that could act as a kind of cumulative hypnotic effect, embedding certain beliefs as post-hypnotic suggestions. [Akin to the old: “Give us your children till they're twelve and they will be Catholics—Mormons, Baptists, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, whatever—for life.”]
But I also think that certain “spiritual experiences”, even in adulthood, during which the reasoning mind might be temporarily short-circuited, so to speak, could have a similar result. (This may be why Zen masters refer to such things as spiritual visions or sensations of another presence as makkyo, “bedeviling illusions”, and counsel ignoring them.)
Now, such things need not apply to just religion, of course—but this is the Spirituality Forum... 🙂
I have argued before that neither the force of a particular experience, nor its particular content, can themselves be relied upon to confirm the veracity of that content—or else no one would ever really be deceived by a mirage.
If one is subject to a post-hypnotic suggestion of some sort, one might resort to all kinds of justifications for the thoughts or behavior that are triggered by the suggestion. (“Why did you take your coat off when I touched my thumb?” “I was hot.” “Why did you put it back on when I stopped touching my thumb?” “I wasn’t hot anymore.” Never knowing that touching the thumb was the trigger for the suggested behavior. Someone under hypnosis might offer up any number of justifications for their thoughts/behavior, simply because they are in no way aware that they have been hypnotized.)
That is a very simplistic example, but if one’s post-hypnotic suggestion is triggered and reinforced by continued exposure to reading and communicating with people who are similarly under hypnotic suggestion...? In the right social context, such hypnosis might lead to expansive complexes of thought and behavior based upon some complex of suggestions; there might be whole interlocking chains of such suggestions...? This might be akin to what Dr. Scribbles once called “emergent insanity” in certain social systems.
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If one (or many) is subject to such post-hypnotic suggestion, how might it be uncovered and rectified? What strategies and tests might one employ? What resistances might one expect to be there (in oneself or others)?
Can the continued, dedicated application of reason in the context of natural empiricism possibly root out and erase such suggestions?
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Okay, that’s just to outline roughly what I have in mind. Feel free to expand upon it—either the general notion as I have presented it, or the attendant questions—as you see fit. Thoughts by those with experience or scholarship in psychology, psychotherapy or hypnotism are especially welcome.
But I also think that certain “spiritual experiences”, even in adulthood, during which the reasoning mind might be temporarily short-circuited, so to speak, could have a similar result. (This may be why Zen masters refer to such things as spiritual visions or sensations of another presence as makkyo, “bedeviling illusions”, and counsel ignoring them.)
Now, such things need not apply to just religion, of course—but this is the Spirituality Forum... 🙂
I have argued before that neither the force of a particular experience, nor its particular content, can themselves be relied upon to confirm the veracity of that content—or else no one would ever really be deceived by a mirage.
If one is subject to a post-hypnotic suggestion of some sort, one might resort to all kinds of justifications for the thoughts or behavior that are triggered by the suggestion. (“Why did you take your coat off when I touched my thumb?” “I was hot.” “Why did you put it back on when I stopped touching my thumb?” “I wasn’t hot anymore.” Never knowing that touching the thumb was the trigger for the suggested behavior. Someone under hypnosis might offer up any number of justifications for their thoughts/behavior, simply because they are in no way aware that they have been hypnotized.)
That is a very simplistic example, but if one’s post-hypnotic suggestion is triggered and reinforced by continued exposure to reading and communicating with people who are similarly under hypnotic suggestion...? In the right social context, such hypnosis might lead to expansive complexes of thought and behavior based upon some complex of suggestions; there might be whole interlocking chains of such suggestions...? This might be akin to what Dr. Scribbles once called “emergent insanity” in certain social systems.
_________________________________________________
If one (or many) is subject to such post-hypnotic suggestion, how might it be uncovered and rectified? What strategies and tests might one employ? What resistances might one expect to be there (in oneself or others)?
Can the continued, dedicated application of reason in the context of natural empiricism possibly root out and erase such suggestions?
________________________________________________
Okay, that’s just to outline roughly what I have in mind. Feel free to expand upon it—either the general notion as I have presented it, or the attendant questions—as you see fit. Thoughts by those with experience or scholarship in psychology, psychotherapy or hypnotism are especially welcome.