CC BY
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Вестник Челябинского государственного университета. 2019. № 5 (427). Философские науки. Вып. 52. С. 19—22.
УДК 165.24 DOI 10.24411/1994-2796-2019-10503
ББК 87.52
OUR CONDITIONED CONSCIOUSNESS: WHY AM I ALWAYS PICKING ON MYSELF?
T. Webster-Doyle
Atrium BioCognetic Learning Center Education, the Brave New Child Peace Museum.
Paonia, Colorado, USA. [email protected]
Understanding is key to peace. Conflict is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be observed. Self-understanding is understanding the whole human race, for we are the world and the world is us. What is of upmost importance is to see that conflict created by prejudicial conditioned thinking emanating from the primitive biological brain is the same in all human beings. In other words: conflict is conflict.
Keywords: consciousness, violence, conflict, bully, brain, negative and positive conditioning, education.
Bullying started a long time ago — many, many years before we were born. Bullying means to get something you want by force either physically or mentally or both. Bullying has continued on for all these years because people didn't really know how to deal with it in a way that worked. The way they did try to deal with it was through punishing people who bullied and rewarding people who didn't. But this didn't help people understand what caused bullying. That's what we are going to do in this program — help you understand what causes bullying, in yourself and in the world because bullying on the playground is the same as bullying on the battlefield [3—7].
Most everyone has been bullied at some time their lives. It usually starts on the playground at school but it can also be at home, and in your community. Some people get bullied worse than others. Some people suffer from it worse than others. Some people are so terribly bullied that they become bullies themselves and turn around and hurt others. And sometimes these people kill others as we have seen in schools where some kids who were bullied have out of rage shot the ones that bullied them. There are also kids who turn that hurt, hate and rage in at themselves and take their own lives because that self-hate and rage that gets stored up in them has no outlet. That's because most people, especially adults, don't know how to prevent bullying from happening; many adults and young people just pretend it's not happening and don't do anything to help the kids who have been bullied to let out that hurt, rage and hate in a safe and constructive way.
Now that you are taking this course on bullying, on resolving conflict peacefully, you are tak-
ing a big step towards helping yourself and others to understand the causes of bullying, the causes of conflict. It all starts in the way you have been "conditioned" to think and act. The word conditioning is very important in understanding why people bully. "Conditioning" means to do something automatically, like a computer program. A computer program is information that has been put into the computer and will act automatically when we push a certain button. Your brain, everyone's brain, is something like a computer. There is programmed into it certain information that helps us survive, like knowing where you live, calling 911, knowing what foods to eat and even how to protect yourself from harm.
Have you noticed when you are riding in a car that when the drives sees a red light that he or she automatically puts their foot on the brake. This is "positive conditioning" because it helps you survive. It is an automatic reaction that happens because it has been "programmed" into the brain of the driver. It is a habit. There is also "negative conditioning" that gets programmed into our brains that causes conflict and is harming our chances for survival. This "negative conditioning" can also be called "prejudice" and acts the same way "positive conditioning" does. "Negative conditioning" creates conflict because it puts into our brain information that, like a computer, acts automatically without understanding why it does this or what the effects it may have on yourself and other people [1].
Both "positive conditioning" and negative conditioning" is information or knowledge that gets programmed into the brain. The information is the disk and the brain is the system that operates the disk. Can
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you see just by this simple example that information (a "disk") creates who we are? In other words, we are what we think. And what we think is also what we feel because thinking and feeling are connected in the brain by a bundle of nerves. And then what we are programmed to think and then feel creates they way we act. And this in turn triggers our hardwired, built-in "fight or flight" system that reacts, based on the message of fear sent to it so we can feel that the threat is very real when it may only be an image, a frightening conditioned thought, that was programmed into our brains at one time in our lives, a prejudgment that, when activated later on, reacts like a "knee-jerk" reflex. It just happens because it is a part of the programmed system of thought that we were conditioned into. So it is very important not only to see how this all works in the brain but to also see the information being put into the brain on the "disk." so we can see what it is doing to us and others, especially when the "disk" contains a "virus" of "negative information" that can corrupt the system and cause a breakdown of it's function.
The malfunctioning of the computer (the brain as the "system") can cause a malfunction in our relationships. Prejudice, or "negative conditioning" is just that. It is information that has been programmed into our brain without us knowing it that causes conflict in relationship. If you study history you will see how prejudice ("negative conditioning") has caused tremendous suffering and conflict as when a dictator like Adolph Hitler created his view of the perfect race and how he killed millions that did not fit this "program" or view. This "negative conditioning" has been programmed into us for thousands of years; old prejudices that have been carried over from past bullying experiences and have now programmed new generations with old tribal hates and revenges.
What I am trying to say and what I want to do with this contribution is to help you understand that we have been conditioned or programmed with hurtful and hateful information (and feelings) that keep the hurt and hate going on for years and years. The good news is that you can do something about this — for yourself and for others. And all it takes is a willingness to understand how we have all been programmed. And this means that you will have to understand the 3Es. The 3Es stand for how you learn. The first "E" stands for "Explanation" like what I am doing here telling you about negative conditioned thinking. It is merely a definition, a description. It describes the problem but does not resolve it. The second "E" stands for "Example" like when you say "Oh, I have done that. I remember when my nega-
tive conditioned thinking (prejudice) created conflict between that new kid at school, when I thought he was weird, and myself, just because he came from another country." You went from just the general explanation or definition of negative conditioned thinking to seeing how it actually created conflict in your life sometime in the past. This is called "hindsight" which means remembering something that happened to you before. Both of the above "Es" are memory and therefore in the past. In order to understand what I am saying here about negative conditioned thinking you will have to have some knowledge of it. The same is true of the personal Example in your life of negative conditioned thinking (and feeling).
It is the last "E" of Experience, not the "past experience" but Experiencing the information that has been programmed into the brain as it reoccurs or rehappens in the moment that is the process that can free you from it. This is called "insight" and it is this insight that sees the conditioned thinking/feeling as it is happening and in that awareness of it the conditioned thinking/feeling doesn't operate like it did in the past. Whereas before you didn't see the negative conditioning and it just automatically operated and caused conflict, now you are aware of the "programmed disk" and don't act out of it. This is where the conditioned thoughts/feelings end because they are seen for what they are — destructive negative information that was programmed (the "disk") into us (the "system" or brain). It's like turning on a light where in the past it was dark. Then you "see" the conditioning and you, in that moment, are free of it. And if you keep up this awareness, this "Experiencing" the program on the disk will eventually die out from lack of use. And this means that you have the opportunity not to take this "virus" of "negative conditioning" into your adult life where it can cause greater and greater conflict such as war. But remember, the word is NOT thing; the "thing" (conditioned thinking and feeling) has to be seen, observed for it to stop. The Explanation or the Example are only words and therefore cannot change your behavior, cannot stop the negative conditioned thinking that causes conflict.
So where do we start and what do we need to understand in order begin to prevent this bullying, these conflicts, from spreading like a computer virus? Where did this information come from and how did it get programmed into our brains? In this course we will cover the six areas of bullying starting with what causes us to bully. From there we will go into how we beat ourselves up inside our head. This is called Why Am I Always Picking On Myself? The other areas are called Why Is Everybody Always Picking On
Наше обусловленное сознание: почему я всегда выбираю себя?
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Me?, which is bullying on the playground and then Why Do We Always Let the Bullies Pick on Them? / The Bystander, and then we go to Why Is Everybody Picking On Us?, which is group prejudice and the final area is called Why Are We Always Picking On Each Other? which is concerned with bullying on the battlefield or what we call war. So we start with the structure of the causes of bullying and the inner bully inside your head, and move from there to the schoolyard bully, then on to group prejudice and the bystander, and then finally on to the battlefield bully. Please remember that all this bullying starts in the brain and if left unchecked it will go on to create bullying at school, in the community and the world. And remember too that all this bullying has the same mechanical structure, like a computer, and therefore if you understand the basic program in your brain that starts off the bullying then you will be able to understand all of it — you will then see that bullying creates conflict, from the playground to the battlefield, is not "my problem" or "your problem" — it is the problem in the way the human brain has been conditioned to conflict, and like a virus, has infected the whole of the human race. Like anything new you may have some difficulty with what is being said here in this course. Remember to look at this simply like it is a mechanical devise, like a computer and you will see how really simple it is to understand negative conditioned thinking that causes bullying at it's basic foundation. Indeed, understanding is key to peace. Peace is trial and test for human [2].
Understanding human conflict is conventionally addressed in a remedial, reactive way at the secondary level of "resolution" through therapeutic or moralistic means, as in the case of individual conflict, or through diplomatic or political intervention, as in the case of social conflict — or it is addressed at the tertiary level of managing conflict through judicial or military intervention. These remedial, reactive approaches do not address conflict at the primary prevention level in understanding and avoiding the fundamental psychological factors that create conflict in the conditioned way we think and act and are therefore essentially ineffective because they do not prevent conflict from happening in the first place.
What is the foundation and process of this program?
Step 1: Create a rationale for a consistent empirical framework to comprehend conditioned prejudicial thinking as a whole.
Step 2: Expand awareness of the nature, structure and implications of conditioned prejudicial thinking that leads to human conflict at all levels.
Step 3: Develop awareness of conditioned thinking beyond its psychological make-up to include a holistic insight into the involuntary, automatic, three-stage, reactive configuration of conditioning in the mechanical disorganization of the human brain that produces an internal environment of discord.
Step 4: Realize a significant justification to bring this urgent issue to the forefront of education as an essential subject matter in teaching young people to understand and peacefully resolve conflict created by conditioned, prejudicial thinking.
Step 5: Create appropriate educational resources and training for teachers to teach about the cause and effect of conditioned thinking in Youth Peace Literacy
Whether with an individual or within a group, conflict begins identically with conditioned pre-judg-ments. An unexamined thought initiates a domino effect of fearful emotions, which in turn trigger the biological fight-or-flight system. Although this may be necessary when there is real danger, it is inappropriate when prompted by an unverified, imagined threat. This cognitive, emotive, bio-reactive coupling produces a powerful psychosomatic reaction of conflict internally and externally. In BioCognetics this situation is called a "CEB" or a "Cognitive — Emotive — Bio-reactive."
Thus, conflict is not a problem to be solved but a reality to be observed. Self-understanding is understanding the whole human race, for we are the world and the world is us.
As someone once said, "The unexamined life is not worth living." I wish you well on this incredible journey in self-understanding, the greatest journey of all!
References
1. Bohm D. Wholeness and the Implicate Order. New York, London, Routledge Publ., 1980. 284 p.
2. Ionesov V.I. Test by Peace, or, Can Peacemaking be a Peace maker? Peace Review, 2018, vol. 30, no. 4, pp. 527—536.
3. Sloss R. R. Lives in the Shadow with J. Krishnamurti. London, Bloomsbury, 1991. 372 p.
4. Webster-Doyle, T. Peace — the Enemy of Freedom. The Myth ofNonviolence. New York, Weatherhill, 1991. 128 p.
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5. Webster-Doyle, T. Are we born hardwired for war? Is war in our DNA? A Special Curriculum for Young People to Help Them Understand Their War-Like Feelings. New York, Atrium Society Publications, 2011. 230 p.
6. Webster-Doyle, T. Why is Everybody Picking on Us: Understanding the Roots of Prejudice (Education for Peace Series). New York, Weatherhill, 2001. 160 p.
7. Webster-Doyle, T. Dr. Webster-Doyle's Martial Arts Guide for Parents: Helping Your Children Resolve Conflict Peacefully. New York, Weatherhill, 1999. 128 p.
Сведения об авторе
Уэбстер-Дойл Терренс — директор Центра биокогнитивного образования «Атриум» и музея мира для детей, Паония, Колорадо, США. [email protected]
Bulletin of Chelyabinsk State University. 2019. No. 5 (427). Philosophy Sciences. Iss. 52. Pp. 19—22.
НАШЕ ОБУСЛОВЛЕННОЕ СОЗНАНИЕ: ПОЧЕМУ Я ВСЕГДА ВЫБИРАЮ СЕБЯ?
Т. Уэбстер-Дойл
Центр биокогнитивного образования «Атриум», музей мира для детей,
Паония, Колорадо, США
Понимание есть ключ к миру. Конфликт не является проблемой для решения, а является реальностью, которую нужно соблюдать, понимать и управлять. Самопознание — это основа понимания всей человеческой природы, потому что мы — мир, а мир — это мы. Здесь самое важное осознать, что конфликт и вражда порождаются обусловленным мышлением, свойственным всем людям в силу их ментально-антропологической спецификации. Другими словами, конфликт есть конфликт, и, чтобы его понять, нужно разобраться в том, откуда что проистекает.
Ключевые слова: сознание, насилие, конфликт, посягательство, мозг, негативная и позитивная обусловленность, образовавние.
