Study Measures Intuition, Shows It Can Boost Accuracy of Decision-Making

a reply to: geezlouise

Read the article I linked. There's quite a few people in this world who are oblivious to a lot of their actions, but I don't think it's the majority, and certainly not the case for myself.

The article makes it very clear, and yet the person bizarrely keeps to the ridiculous assumption that is not at all evidenced except in very specific examples.

I expect this out of drug addicts, and people of below average intellect. It was really freaky to be in the drug courses with addicts and see just how unaware of their actions they were, and how readily they came up with nonsensical stories to rationalize their actions. That's the bottom of the barrel, it's not the majority, or at least not as I witness it in my local area.... but as I've mentioned on the threads at least a few times, I live in an upper middle-class area where the average IQ is probably a good 10-15 points over the national average. I may be biased because of this. If I were to live in an area of below average IQ surrounding me, I might be thinking along these lines. Who knows.

a reply to: pl3bscheese

I do think that there is some room to take control and manipulate the environment and your own body to go into the direction that you want to go into... after you've become aware of things you were previously unaware of.

Becoming aware is key.

But that just might be part of the program, too.

A fat person, for example. A fat person who wants to lose weight can change their environment via diet, exercise, and people they surround themselves with... to go into the direction that they want to go into.

Prior to that a fat person may wonder and complain about how they just keep gaining weight... until they are presented with the information that soda, tea, milk, and etc. are all full of sugar that turns into fat unless your body uses that energy, so just maybe if they want to lose weight, they should start with quitting all sugary drinks and only drink water. This could be the first step that they could focus on solely for three months at least, instead of changing their entire diet all at once (because that might be overload). During this time they may be presented with other information regarding carbs, and how our bodies work, and etc. Baby steps, folk. One inch at a time.

Now, if you are aware that previously conceived notions and experience may determine your decisions- you may be able to break loose from old paradigms(old programs) and start something new. So there is something to awareness leading to breaking that connection- but this requires that you step into foreign territory and you might "lose" yourself... by letting go of everything you thought you knew... and going against everything you thought you knew. This is terrifying. In fact, someone once told me this is what selling your soul to the devil really means... to go against your rational self, and do something outside of the program.

Because otherwise, you're just being led by already preconceived notions... which will determine if the fatty is going to "trust" the information that they are given.

If they don't trust in the information that they have received then they will never change. They care more about immediate satisfactions due to the way the brain lights up whenever they eat to comfort themselves.

But if they trust the information that they receive, which may mean they are able to break lose from old paradigms, they will change their behavior and begin to manipulate their own environment (via diet and exercise, and also in who they surround themselves with because that's important too once again) in order to go into the direction that they want to go into. This is an extremely lonely path... and requires a sh-t ton of taking responsibility for your own actions and life, which involves boatloads of personal work... and all of that may just be extremely off-putting. It's easier to sit around and complain about things than to actually break free and get to work on your own. And if you don't have a real reason to break, then why should you change?

I think it's very rare for this breaking free from past selves and foundations to happen. Most people seem trapped to me. Even when we break free, a part of us is still trapped, always. And I do understand that the breaking free... for me personally, was like a last effort kind of deal. Out of desperation... and I didn't really choose to be in that place. It was just a "try everything before you give up" last straw kind of thing. Which is also guided by survival instinct. So even that ability to break free and take personal responsibility? Even that is part of the program, lol.

I'm about halfway into the article. I stopped around the parts when they're talking about how people who don't believe in free will have poor work ethics and etc. I think those people don't trust in their social realities... like they don't trust in the information they have been given. For a reason. So it's not really about free will there to me, it's more about trusting in your environment and giving permission to information in order to program yourself. Permission is a recurring theme in my life lately, and I was inspired to write.

I'll come back later after this lol it's a lot to take in.

a reply to: pl3bscheese


It sounds like you are relating to the Unconscious from A Freudian model with respect to Personality Theory.

Personally I really like Carl Jung's works and also focus upon Community Psychology. These models are from the 80'd and while I do respect them there is way much more to assess since then.

Bedlam has a point that is relevant to this conversation wherein to role of the unconscious is presented beyond that of a "child trying to get out".

This is related to my own way of seing the free will question- I do believe we have a measure of free will, but I think it is a sort of progressive thing- we are constantly programming ourselves, whether we know it or not, for our future decisions.
We don't have free will in the moment, because our actions and choices are pre-programmed... but by our own self.

By our past decisions about how we judge and feel about things.

This is one of the important things I bring up when people get into that thinking that you need to somehow ignore emotional states in themselves, in an attempt at being objective. We would do better to understand those emotions do not go away or cease to exist because we ignore them. They may be repressed, but they are influencing our perception and our judgement. Which means we are never truly objective- even when we think we are.

The closest we can come to being objective is in the acknowledgement of our innate subjectivity.

a reply to: Kashai

I have no idea how you got that out of my posts. I don't care much for Freud and always dug Carl Jung. To be clear, current science and psychology does not back up the notion that free will doesn't exist, in fact many in the fields of science and specifically psychology point towards the exact opposite. It's only a fringe, vocal minority who are reaching out with this bizarre belief, and I think it has to do with a dumbing down of the pool in atheism. It's almost a trendy thing right now.

Hey, if you guys choose to believe in no free will, go for it but you only limit yourself of a more fulfilling life. You'll be less creative, less happy, less filled with a sense of meaning in life, and inevitably have less fun and opportunity in life. If that's not an indication of free-will in action, then perhaps you are in need of reassessing your concept of free-will, because it's not being realistic.

If I were to discount free will because I have instincts that activate at times, or because there are unconscious thought patterns in us all that influence our actions, I would be acting on an illogical and incomplete thought process. I don't discount having either of these, I just am fully aware of my capacity as a human being to live a life that includes and transcends these underlying currents. If people would like to believe they are slaves to their unconscious and instincts, then that will be their reality, but it is of their own choice.

a reply to: pl3bscheese


I do not discount free will at all.

As for me the lines used to describe the workings of the mind and the implications of separateness as often related to in the norm really does not really exist.

Like the issue of Archetypes in Jung's personality theory how we respond to physical attraction in example. Relates to many unconscious motivations as the inherent desire to reproduce which is inherent and related to survival.