The Lesson of Evil
28 March 2024The Cost of Failure
4 April 2024The concept of a lie usually requires at least two people: a transmitter of the lie and a receiver.
First one transmits false information to deceive and benefit from it. Second, receives it, analyzes it, and decides how to perceive it - as a true or false statement. Once information passes our internal filter - we are ready to receive more.
But - if it doesn't, our perception of this source changes, the source becomes compromised and we flag it. Marking it "non-reliable source" will create an avoidance pattern for our future behavior. We usually label these transmitters as "liars" and try to avoid them in our lives.
If you look at this from a different perspective, it is enough to have only one person for this concept to work. And here, the concept of self-deceiving practices enters the room.
Sometimes, we may be under the impression there are two or more personalities within us. These sub-personalities play a crucial role in our self-perception. They may be unseen in everyday life, but arise and may become visible in a high-stress environment.
Within centuries, humans learned not only how to lie to others, but how to deceive ourselves for good. With this in mind, we developed tricks and techniques of self-deception, known as NLP.
Neuro-linguistic programming became popular in the 1970s and 1980s. A psychology student and linguistics professor worked together, connecting Gestalt therapy and hypnotherapy. Richard Bandler and John Grinder created NLP as a tool for changing thoughts, language, and behavior, thus changing who we are. NLP helped achieve an extraordinary result by applying behavior and thought patterns in daily life. It turned out that there are ways to convince yourself that any hypothetical information is true. The person starts perceiving this information as a fact and as a result, changes behavior and outcomes.
"Pygmalion in the Classroom" study in 1968 provided some evidence on expectations and how they shape reality. In this study, teachers received an insight into some of the students in the classroom. Based on certain tests, teachers were told that these students are "intellectual bloomers". As a result, these students showed significant academic improvements. The study attributed it to the teachers' altered expectations and behavior.
Applicable examples could be found in the history of intelligence agencies during the Cold War in the famous era of espionage. For a good spy to be successful in their deceiving practices and not get caught, they need to believe in their fictional story. Spies of the Cold War era were often living their own lives fully immersed in society, actually living their legends.
So how can we use those known self-deceiving practices to be better? How can we reprogram our brains? How to make it capable of those things we could have never believed or imagined before?
