I am a student of Hypnosis. I admit that the subject has always fascinated me from a fairly young age, and as a result I have studied it quite extensively. I have also studied Fantasy, both in terms of a consumer (enjoyment) and from an amateur academic perspective. One of the papers I wrote in college about Tolkien talks of "Suspension of Disbelief" which I do not take as literally as the originator of the theory. I have, nevertheless, observed a palpable phenomena that it does work.
Simple experiment: Go to a play. Don't watch the play. Watch the audience. The audience is enraptured by the experience. They emotionally connect with the cast members and the situations. Very often this is accomplished with no set or props or costumes to speak of whatsoever. To be sure, if the acting is bad, or there are sufficient distractions 'the magic' does not happen but I argue this ability to adjust one's thinking to one's environment is biologically hardwired into human beings.
Now, certain people, those with Asberger's syndrome or other disorders can't feel this effect. In fact it is one of the things that frustrates them in their ability to function entirely within the rest of society. In addition to their problems understanding facial or body gestures or the like, they very often lack the ability to 'adjust' to the reality around them. Those with Autism are even more effected by this ability. They don't 'adjust' to reality at all, but only care about the most objective of all reality and often take umbrage with items that are highly symbolic or intangible.
Like the idea that the value of our economy is based on the fact that "Because We Said So" instead of something solid like say...Gold. Now am I saying that Gold People are automatically inclined toward Autism? No, not at all, especially since that would directly contradict the point I'm going to continue making below. I am merely stating that I see a marked similarity in behaviors and attitudes on this particular subject.
A LARP is a live action role playing game. It is essentially like Improve Theater with more formal rules that govern the participants with a slight dash of method acting. If you have never tried a LARP, I urge you to do so, especially if you want to try to see the suspension of disbelief in greater effect. Tension in a temporary LARP world is just as real at the moment if you are in your role as a character.
Its almost like a different reality.
A real life example of this is the infamous Standford Prison Guard experiment in which the guards began to take their roles truly seriously and engage in serious abuses of authority. It showed how subjective the mind can truly be. 1984 shows this effect in fiction form, the Stanford Prison Experiment shows that it is a reality.
When I was 18 years old I first observed this effect when I went to a Star Fleet (Star Trek Fan Club) meeting. It disturbed me a little because of how much it felt like my church meetings back when I was still a member of the Mormon church. This is no slight against either Star Trek or the Mormon Church except to say that it felt similar. And I argue that the similarity was that of a cultural shift based on the norms and attitudes and rituals expressed around me.
In other words, we do this every day. When you go to work you have one world, and when you go home to your family, you have another. In many cases you bring your religion or your political beliefs with you. They are a preset series of behaviors, emotional templates and thought patterns that make up your identity, produced to you either by choice, nature or nurture.
Its basic human civilization.
Hypnosis is about altered states of consciousness through hyperfocus. Essentially, it takes advantage of this effect but on a smaller scale of 2 (you and the hypnotist) since even when there are many people being hypnotized, the subject of hypnosis focuses on the hypnotist and establishes rapport with them. The hypnotist is the Narrator who dictates the terms of the story and the parameters of acceptable behavior for that world in which you temporarily agree to abide.
This is one reason why stories are so important to us. Stories hold great power. DARPA has recently begun to pay serious money for scientists to study this effect in human beings so they can help craft narratives to build a nation against insurgents. There is a quiet arms race right now going on that you are more than likely totally unaware of to discover and exploit the power of narrative.
Its one reason I volunteer for the Mythic Imagination Institute.
Are there greater spiritual truths to the universe? I think so, but I don't know what they are. I try to keep an open mind. So I am by no means saying that spiritual experiences are simply an effect of a deranged mind or a LARP. BUT, I will posit that having played a LARP and been in a religion with a highly unorthodox set of beliefs, there are similarities.
Except there are only some similarities. Because a Religion is more of a meta narrative. It affects all of the other narratives by which you view things. When I was Mormon I truly believed. It affected everything I did, thought and said. Again, I'm only saying this so you understand that the phenomena is real, and that I have experienced. Mormons are still among the most honorable, charitable and kind people I know. Several of my family members are Mormons and I do not doubt for a minute that they have had a number of very powerful and very real spiritual experiences. We disagree on the Religion itself, but I will never dismiss or look down on them because they are part of it.
But if a temporary narrative can be crafted in a LARP or the Stanford Prison experiment, and if meta narratives in the form of Religion, Culture or Politics exist, is it truly that unrealistic to belief that a Meta Narrative can be crafted for purposes of politics?
And if the Meta Narrative is sufficiently deviant from objective reality that is only observable, then the people who share that reality with you are going to matter more to you and be trusted by you more than people who aren't. And if Scientists say something that is contrary to the meta narrative, then you're going to have a problem with scientists, or at least Those Particular Scientists.
Members of the Right Reality don't like Economists. At least Economists that don't subscribe to the Austrian School of Economics.
And yes, there, I've said it. The Right Reality is a crafted reality. And I place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Koch Brothers who formed the Ludvig von Mises Institute. A while ago, I thought a story I read about the Koch Brothers and the University of Florida where they made a donation to the economics department, but only if they could control who sat on it. Well it turns out that this is not the first time they've done something like this because the Koch brothers essentially took total control of the Ludwig von Mises institute. A university with several neoconferate ties. A university which has issues with the civil rights movement, not 'because they were black' but because 'it was statist.' An institute that is responsible for the meme comparing liberalism to National Socialism. Its all there. Every last word of it.
It all comes back to the Koch Brothers. Rich, Alabama billionares who are upset at the treatment of the confederacy, and determined to rewrite reality itself to justify their beliefs.
Think I'm being to harsh?
The Austrian school of thought considers itself superior to the scientific method. That by definition makes the Austrian school of thought a Pseudo science.
That by definition makes anyone who FOLLOWS the Austrian school of thought a believer in Psuedo Science and therefore a disbeliever in objective reality in favor of their own. Which means how much easier is it to accept other psuedo scientific explanations and arguments such as....a disbelief in Anthrogenic Global Climate Change.
And with sufficient money, one can hire as many experts as you want to legitimize your claim. It worked for the tobacco companies for years.
But it has been done on a larger scale before. The Communist Reality. Previously, communist thought cared more about communist ideology than reality. Trofim Lysenko killed millions of Russians and was responsible in large part for the Soviet Union because of his insistence on his theories being right rather than what was true being right. It was this thinking that later led the Soviets to refuse to get out of Afghanistan even though the knew they were losing.
There is nothing new under the sun. And I posit that the Koch brothers looked at the Communist Reality and, in order to justify their beliefs of the Confederate south, created their own Right Reality using the same methodology.
It is a Reality that transcends and easily blends with Religions and other meta narratives of any conservative bent, and allows them to reinforce each other. It is why Evangelicals are suddenly saying that life begins at conception because they're allied with Catholics even though they did not believe this before. It is why Mormons, who have no doctrinal reason to deny Anthrogenic Climate Change are (at least in the state of Utah) just as skeptical of science in this matter as any Republican.
Because they believe the narration told to them.
As dictated by the Koch Brothers and Roger Ailes of Fox News.
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