Overthinking
This morning, as we often do, we had a podcast on whilst working and occasionally getting up to play some Tai Chi (yes we know that is a triggering phrase, but we’re having fun so it’s time to own it). The podcast featured an expert in human behaviour, particularly the influence and persuasion of other people. This can be used for good to empower people, or for ill as part of a psyop for example. Can’t immediately think of an example of the latter but there must have been something in the last five years ;-)
When talking about the content of the podcast it unlocked a couple of fears within us. One would be that we would never want to inadvertantly become so skilled at manipulation that our effect on another person would be forced and un-organic. And equally we wouldn’t want to float through life never realising the essential human ability to maximise our self-development and pass that on in our interactions. Of course we discussed this largely in the context of Tai Chi Empowerment and our services. It feels important that we shouldn’t drift in to the realms of NLP in order to mitigate any risk of us fooling ourselves or our training partners with the work we do that is largely energetic in nature.
Having talked around the subject for some time we concluded that unless you want to specialise in this subject and perfect its techniques, for your average Joe it is sufficient to hold a general awareness that you would never want to be inappropriately manipulative or allow yourself to be manipulated, and you would want to develop healthy behaviours that promote your success and that of others around you. In fact the desire to better other people’s lives, even if they are in direct competition with you in business for example, seems like a simple and effective safety mechanism to avoid becoming an asshole.
With that dealt with here is something of a tangent to finish on. Having listened to the podcast referenced above the next one to autoplay featured Derren Brown, so very much still in that world of mentalism. Towards the end of the interview he references a book called The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram. We’re not familiar with this book but it is now on the reading list. Derren Brown recalled the opening in which the author is staying in a hut in rural East Asia. The author steps out in the night to find an incredibly vivid dreamscape, a sky so big it surrounded him and it reflected in the flooded paddy field around the hut. Fireflies flew all around him. It was so immersive and all encompassing that he could not tell up from down and it felt like he was falling through space. We have long advocated not for an austere sitting for hours type of meditation but reaching out and obtaining an immersive experience whether this be through props, visualisation or as in this case location. Why sit around stiff and bored in the hope enlightenment makes an appearance years later when eternity is out there for the taking.
In addition to the above there was much talk of self-development and a phrase that the interviewee kept repeating (we paraphrase somewhat here) was improving the self so you can go out in to the world with love. A nice sound bite but a problematic sound bite. We have to give the benefit of the doubt given that the podcast was six years old so maybe the sentiment would be different now, but for us this enters the realm of toxic positivity. This is an ever present danger when it comes to spiritual communities and overlaps with the idea of spiritual bypassing. The world is a strange place currently, every generation says this but you could make a strong argument that it is now more than ever. Some powerful people are doing what powerful people do and practicing the dark arts. This is to be expected but is a huge problem none the less. The major issue we have is with our peers, a huge cohort of which seem no longer to be able to tolerate the presence of anybody with a different opinion let alone have a discussion with that person so that we can all move forward together with empathy and understanding through pragmatic solutions. So sorry Derren, we choose to go out in to the world with caution currently.
A bit of a rambling blog entry this month, maybe we’re becoming a little delirious in this extremely hot weather we are experiencing here in the UK.