Programming and Re-programming Ourselves

I have, in these blogs, suggested ways in which one can counteract the programming and indoctrination we receive unknowingly. We also program ourselves, unwittingly, by what we take into our awareness: the education we pursue; the TV programming we watch; the movies we go to; the books and other written material we read, and the friends we hang out with, among other ways.

I was not aware of how susceptible we are to being, unwittingly, programmed, until I experienced it first hand. I have practiced fasting in the past, and during that period read many books on the subject. Books about fasting do not contain consistent information on the subject. In general, a book on fasting will explain what you can expect to experience physically during a fast. What I experienced was that my body would react to the current fast in the way that the last book I had read said it would, not the way I had experienced in the past.

We are, therefore, programming ourselves at all levels whether we are aware of it or not. During the Chinese Communist Revolution, Mao's Little Red Book played a prominent role. People were required to attend classes and to study the book. Overriding thousands of years of cultural history is not an easy task, but they tried.

You, personally, if you wish to change your current programming and indoctrination, can re-program yourselves in a similar manner through what you read and what you watch. One aspect of this reprogramming is to educate yourself as to alternative histories, sciences, cultural beliefs, religious beliefs, etc., to the ones you currently hold. Many individuals experience cultural shock, when spending time in a different country; their beliefs are being confronted with other ways of experiencing reality. It is why traveling is considered to be a "broadening" experience.

For example, I have stated that "The world is magic, if you believe it is." We have all been exposed to heavy "scientific" programming to the contrary; it started for some young children when the reported having certain experiences, and were told, either that it was just their imagination, or that they were lying, and perhaps punished.

Our Belief Systems are what stop us from acquiring alternative new information, because it will reject anything that challenges, or doesn't fit into the existing system.

In the '60's, my existing world view, (Belief System) was challenged by having an alternative way of dealing with a health problem presented to me. (Currently it is called, "thinking outside the box." The "box" is your Belief System.) That challenge was that it was demonstrated to me that my body could respond to questions presented to me, without my intending it. In the same manner our body will give answers to questions, using a pendulum. It is our unconscious that is responding.

Franz Anton Mesmer (May 23, 1734 – March 5, 1815), a German physician and astrologist, invented what he called "animal magnetism"; it and other spiritual forces have been grouped together as "mesmerism." Mesmer's name is the root of the English verb "mesmerize". (Wikipedia)

While Mesmer himself was defamed and ostracized, (as all others who challenged the, then, young field of "science" have and continue to be) others, with more open minds continued to experiment with his techniques. What was discovered, in those very early days, was when some people who were put into an altered state, that they could perform phenomenal feats.

The evolution of Mesmer's ideas and practices led Scottish surgeon James Braid to develop hypnosis in 1842. (Wikipedia)

Having studied the psychiatric and psychological systems current at that time, I was aware of something called the unconscious/subconscious, but not much else about it. I was aware that Freud had rejected the use of hypnosis in his practice, (primarily because what he had discovered using it frightened him greatly.) Due to Freud's rejection of the practice, hypnotism was relegated to the status of "quackery" and only allowed to be practiced in stage shows. Hypnosis still today, while being allowed in a very limited way by those involved in alternative modalities of healing, still is stigmatized and condemned as quackery by the AMA.

Due to a number of family members having experienced psychic phenomena, I was also aware that it was possible for people to experience seeing ghosts, knowing of events before they happened, etc., etc. Even so, all of that was set off to the side, as they did not fit my scientific/rational Belief System, which I had acquired in the process of I obtaining my "higher" education.

Having had demonstrated to me that I possessed an aspect that could communicate without my involvement, was a shock to my Belief System it never recovered from. The book I had been prescribed being about "self" hypnosis, it also included various experiments in gaining contact with, and using my unconscious to improve my life. These experiments confirmed to me that these things were real, and not "imagination." Since then, I have gained the equivalent of much more than a PhD in the field of psychic phenomena and the unconscious self.

So, I end today's blog.

Shirley Gallup