Last post we discussed the difference between a philosophy and belief systems such as religions. I asked you to do some critical analysis of some of your core beliefs. I also asked you to remove the emotion, question your knee-jerk responses, and think about whether the things you believe are the result of your philosophy, or are meme complexes.
Some of you did that, and some of you did not. Not surprising, since this is one of the most difficult thing a human being can attempt. It takes a tremendous amount of intellectual agility, deep awareness, and rock solid self-confidence to do this. For many people, it’s almost as futile as trying to do mental therapy on yourself.
One of the things I learned a few years back, is that you can’t cure yourself of mental illness. And by this I don’t mean psychopaths and violent personality disorders, although obviously that is true of these things. But you also can’t cure yourself of much less severe disorders such as narcissism, codependency, and enabling behavior.
Suppose you come to realize you are narcissistic. You decide you don’t like this trait in yourself, so you read a Wayne Dyer book and proclaim yourself cured. If only it was this easy…
These kinds of mental illnesses constantly re-invent themselves. You have confirmation bias, and you can’t look at yourself objectively. But you think you can, so the cycle continues. Rare indeed is the individual who wouldn’t greatly benefit from working with a trained mental health professional.
One of the biggest steps you will ever take on the path to growth and development is being able to recognize a meme complex and know when you’ve been programmed.
Attend a hypnosis demonstration sometime. You will see people placed in a trance and told to do things upon awakening from their trance. They have no idea they are programmed and will insist that they do these things out of personal choice.
Example: A man is hypnotized that whenever the person interviewing him touches his tie, the subject should remove his jacket. He is also hypnotized that when the interviewer pulls on his ear lobe, he should put his jacket back on.
In the course of a ten-minute interview, the subject can be made to take his jacket off and on 15 times. Yet the subject will vehemently argue that this is because the temperature in the room is fluctuating so widely. They are unable to self-discern that they are responding to an earlier programming.
So what about you?
How did you do on yesterday’s questions? Did you trot out all of your pre-conceived beliefs to justify, defend and validate your existing viewpoint? Did you recognize some areas you may have been programmed and not even been aware of it until now?
-RG
Prosperity TV
Since you mentioned Wayne Dyer...I heard him say one time (and what I believe you are saying here) is that until one truly deals with something in their life, it will continue to show. Ex. - A person marries an alcoholic and is now in a very abusive situation. They have the courage to "get out" of the relationship and everyone applaudes. Then they promptly marry another alcoholic, etc. Things can also show up in other disguises...for instance a person is a drug addict; they go to rehab, do some work on themselves and viola, they never use drugs again. Suddenly - and usually without explanation they start seriously overeating and gain a ton (I guess pun intended) of weight. It is the same thing, at some level that person cannot deal with the emotional side of their life, so they hide in a bottle, bong,pack of butts, chocolate cake, overspending, gambling, promiscious or even dangerous sex, whatever....
I have often wondered though, is it possible for a person to really get over this kind of deep seated dislike for themselves? Even with therapy? Hmmm.
I often wonder why people do that....get divorced from an drug user and marry another drug user. Yes until a person deals with the core issue, it continues to grow and show in ones life. Taking responsibility for ones life is the key to getting out of bad situations. Sometimes help and counseling is needed, first they need to admit there is a problem.
Okay Randy, I'm up to the challenge today. I re-read through your blogs and there was one item that disturbed me, so I figured it's worth looking at. Regarding Jack Welch, you said "what do a very successful CEO, dishonest accounting and poor financial management have to do with each other? Now my instant reaction was, EVERYTHING! He's at the helm of the ship. He hires people who he trusts to hire others etc. etc. to make maximum profit in an ethical way. I have a belief that the quality of the man or woman at the top reflects all the way down to the bottom of the organisational structure. So, that's my reaction. I'm not supposed to justify, defend and validate, but I notice that that's what I find myself doing. So, that's proof that I've been programmed you say. I'm willing to accept that from you. My question to you is, how do YOU view that scenario?
I would agree with you that leaders create the culture of their organization. But when you have tens of thousands of employees, no matter who you are, you will have a few bad ones. My take is that you have some programming there, but being aware of it is the first step to negating it.
-RG
Thanks Randy.
Thanks for such great Blog Posts Randy!
We all have many layers of programing in all areas of life and in my opinion depending on our upbringing we also have some areas where we have more "not good programing" than other.
That's the reason why some people do very good in business but their relationships not so good, good financial but health not so good etc. -
Self Image needs to be adjusted in all areas of life - this is the reason why a daily dose of Self Development is recommended it should be an ongoing process. We created our Programing our entire life. Reprogramming is not going to happen over night.
Lorena
Something new I learned yesterday: "Memes are things that keeps us in our comfort zone". They are excuses for us not to grow intellectually.
When we acknowledge that we are infected with one, our body and mind fight not to get rid of it. It's up to us to decide if we really want to get rid of it.
Let the fight begin...
Carole
P.S.: What did I learn that I didn't know? We learn something new every day. Our memes decide if it is something we should embrace or flee from. For me, memes are a combination of anchored additions and unwillingfullness (I don't know if this a good word) to get rid of them, because it is something to talk about, over and over and over, and we believe that this gives us the attention we deserve.
It is very scarry when you are sitting with a bunch of people and that they are all talking against someone (that has achieved something) and they are trying to find all kinds of unlawful ways that he has made is money and then, just when you are trying to disappear, they turn to you and ask you what you think?
Memes are tied to our emotions. That's why they are so hard to change. They keep us safe in our minds even though they are damaging us.
I am reading,"The Shadow Effect" by Deepak Chopra,Debbie Ford and Marianne Williamson.
I can my lack programming is tie to shame and guilt.
Also, I have been studying the Ennegram by Eli-Jaxon Bear. In this book, human side of Being has taken over and it is needy,greedy and violent. We have forgotten who we are.
So, Yes, I am challenging my intellectual,emotional, and spiritually programming plus my genetic predisposition.
I am getting lighter and happier everyday when I confront what I have run away from.
My previous post actually contains the analysis you asked for, but I guess it's a matter of perspective.
How programmed are you to consider alternative views a conspiracy? Who or what made you call it that? Have you done your own research? Have you checked any material at all on the subject? Why would the subject perhaps be sensitive? Is the subject of war sensitive? Is there perhaps programming involved in that kind of reaction?
"Rare indeed is the individual who wouldn’t greatly benefit from working with a trained mental health professional." Good point, which is why I refer to expansions.com.
Randy,
I know I am in the right place. I have been seeing a therapist again to help me with thoughts and beliefs that I believe are limiting me. When I feel unworthy I eat. This has all come up as I quit smoking 2 years ago. The reason for this isn't food it's programming. Narcissism was in my family and has definitely affected my sister and I. I thought your post was funny about discovering you were narcissistic and wanted to do something about it. Our parents would never have done something about it.
I know that my next step is to go back to hypnotism. About 20 years ago I was involved with a program where they were programming you to succeed. I was in the hypnotism group and I went right under.
The guy told me to be careful he said I would be someone who could jump around stage like a chicken.
My programming is over and over again. It is not one reading of a book. It is saying those affirmations I am worthy of my success. It is keeping a notepad and evertime some goofy thought comes out of the vapors of my mind, I write it down and combat it with a new thought.
The fact is that my thoughts are what will make me or brake me and no I didn't spell it wrong.
Thanks,
Jim
I find Bob Proctor's teachings quite helpful in establishing a right mind set.. someone once asked at his seminar, I work hard but I'm not getting ahead... and he said, why do you think working hard is the way to get ahead?
Hmm ... this is a tough one! It's like looking at the mirror and seeing the back of my head. Don't who that guys is.
After thinking about it for a while, I think I have a mix of both. I have secured some strong core principles in my personal phylosophy, and at the same time I am in the process of recognize and reprogram some of the memes I have adquired through the years. I can see my daily life results and determine where I need to keep working.
I can look back to my past and see a time when I was acting asleep, like a robot, without knowing I was saying or doing something because of a meme, an adquired belief, and then manifesting it accordingly.
Today I am aware of the process. It's a daily ongoing process, and one that I very much enjoy. It's the process of sculpting my personal phlosophy.
Thanks for being one of the friendly voices I have being fortunate enough to attract to my life to support me understand and take action on said process.
Love you bubba!
Randy,
I have engaged in deep meditation along with extended periods of silence over the past few weeks. It's like my whole personality has been laid bare: self-conscious tendencies scream at me, I see my ego yelling out in narcissistic interludes and my fears concerning success arise again and again as I run into resistance which I feared facing in the past.
After observing, the next step is to change these tendencies. Bit by bit I am able to let feelings arise which I kept buried more years. The more I watch the more I can replace with new feelings and hobbies. The challenge is to let the feelings play out, forgive myself and replace with affirmative belief systems.
Unless you are willing to be quiet for extended periods and deal with the misery of a dying ego it's difficult to to get at these demons.
Thanks for sharing your insight on a difficult topic to discuss with most people.
Ryan Biddulph
This is a tough one for me. I've written and re-written this comment too many times to count over the last 90 minutes. I hope it reads ok.
With the help of your blog and therapy I started taking just a month ago, I'm discovering things that don't sit well with what I thought I actually believe about myself. Since I started reading your blog last August, I've looked inside, and what has been revealed has been amazing for me.
My philosophies used to be very much like yours Randy, but for some reason, over time they changed. I was once of such extreme opinions and so vocal about them (people on welfare are wasters - if you're poor it's your own fault - you live in a dump and drive a piece of crap because you want to) that the only people who could stand to be around me were of a similar ilk.
After a relationship broke up, I tried to make changes in my life so that I'd become more "politically correct" and attractive (in a broad sense) to others. I took a course I felt at the time helped me a lot, but now have begun to believe it may have been quite detrimental. I don't blame the course, because looking back, I think I may have missed the point, took everything too far and while I thought I got what I was after, my actions (and my philosophies to a degree) changed so much that I began living a life so out of congruence with what I think I really believe (or used to believe - see my confusion?), that today I live on the welfare I claimed to hate so much, and feel somewhat powerless to change my situation.
The course I took is hugely popular across the world, and has helped millions of people, but I think I managed to take what I learnt to such an extreme that I changed for the worst. Is it possible that somewhere in there, having "become the new me" I inadvertently allowed memes of some type to take over?
Aside from that, the single belief that I feel has held me back more than any other is the phrase, "Everything is going to be fine". This is something both my parents said regularly when I was a kid. No matter what happened, everything was going to work out in the end.
I can think back to a time when I didn't accept this and generally acted to fix whatever was wrong, but somehow I think that the "new me" may have allowed it to creep up and bite me; and it hasn't let go. Even while my business was failing, I wasn't doing the things I needed to do to keep it on track (I'm not sure you'd call that a meme).
Anyway, just this last week couple of weeks, with the help of this blog, and the therapy I started, I think the realisation is coming through.
Now I guess the real work starts.
Thanks
Tony
Glad you're on the pathway back!
-RG
While people do their morning yoga, sing cumbaya and dream of love, peace and light in la la land, criminally insane leaders plan and create for things like the current oil catastrophy, which is no way near "fixed", regardless of what media says.
Next thing up seems to be war in Iran. Not to mention staged invasions, second coming of a cloned "christ" for a new world religion and whateverthefuck you can imagine. In their world, they need mayhem in order to create.
Have you ever stopped to think what a war in Iran would actually mean, or do you seriously think that soldiers will do "good deeds" there as well as in Iraq and Afghanistan?
The list goes on and intensifies.
Is this the world you want, or is this the world a few people, perhaps not even human, have programmed you to accept?
This planet is the "Iraq of the universe", but of course you can't say that on Opera or whatever feel good junk is out there under the disguise of "personal development".
Most of the personal development arena as well as the new age and conspiracy arena is simply entertainment for the masses. It's there to keep them stuck feeling ok with their misery that they don't even understand the full context and implication of.
World leaders follow "pagan religions" better defined as a mix of satanism and kabbalah. Christianity in all its forms is "for the slaves".
Everything is allowed in God-Mind, but in most other places, people like the ones who rule this planet, is kept under control, not the other way around.
I thought you should know.
Kind time of days road! Mr. Randy Gage, is necessary For me council in one question Why I address to you - because you have achieved already success! And I trust you as the person to the leader, and your word can encourage any if to trust, after all you have become successful and do not fly the third class Write :))) e-mail where I will send you a question privately. Yours faithfully Andrew.
Yes, Randy, after your book, I tried to reveal the meme complexes! I think, that I have defined them not everything, but some have defined. And now often I catch myself on thought when something I do, I speak with someone, I solve something: whether "And I have thought up it or I operate, how the programmed robot?"
I study the bible to reflect my character and man! it's hard!! However, my programming typically comes out like a splinter popping out from under my skin.
My point is that if the choices I'm making are not helping me or I question them, I have the bible to reflect on.
The first step to recognize what I'm programmed with is to just fess up to myself that I don't know all the answers and I never will. For example, one of them was thinking that money was bad and I believe a lot of people in my church think the same thing too as if it's honorable to be poor. However, I studied it in the bible to see what the bible had to say.
What I learned was that money and wealth can either be a curse or a gift from God. (Ephesians 5) When I mediated on this and many, many other scriptures, I personally wanted it to be a gift which changed my philosophy which has changed my behaviors. (Who doesn't want God's favor by-the-way?)
For me, it took deep research, study, discussing it with others and meditation. This philosophy didn't come to me one night like a lightening bolt. You can't be gay, date the opposite sex and then say this other person changed you. It just doesn't work that way.
I had to discover what my philosophy is through a series of study, meditation and taking notes WITH conversations with people who I've respected. Otherwise, I knew I'd be stuck on being programmed on someone else's.
oops! Sorry Randy.. I quoted Ephesians 5 but as I was folding clothes, I realized I gave you the wrong book. It's Ecclesiastes 5 (my favorite book in the bible).
Good discussion. I will contemplate that topic for my blog as well!
Now I am aware of all this stuff sometimes I find I just stop myself talking in mid sentence, thinking 'where did that crap come from?' No need to say it. Lol
Saying less and thinking more gives one room to grow I think.
I guess a philosophy is a set of beliefs that should not contradict each other. I don't know what programming I have since I may not be aware of it but I have been an independant thinker as far as I remember. I've learned through reading these blog posts that you (Randy) have a libertarianistic philosophy which stresses individual freedom and responsibility - and minimal government involvement. I looked at some of the things that have been programmd into me.
1. Socialized Medicine is OK. I live in Canada and we have socialized medicine. I like the fact I can go to the Hospital anytime to get help and it's free. (it's not really free - its in the taxes) I also like the fact that I can be really ill, stay there a long time, and not lose everything due to Hospital Bills or an insurance company trying to weasel it's way out of paying.
2. Government services such as subsidised housing is OK. This prevents slums from happening and minimizes Bad neighbourhooods which is conducive to people's collective safety.
3. Subsidized University Education is OK. When I went to school it was only $1500 per semester ( 1990 dollars ) and a decent summer Job had me set for the whole year. This also gives childen who do not have well-to-do parents an opportunity for higher learning and, hopefully, a decent job.
4. Subsidized work programs are OK. It puts more people out in the workforce and gives them some Job skills. Less unemployment is the result.
I think these things have worked their way into my core value system.
4 1/2 . I think unemployment insurance is a good idea. But we pay it involuntarily.
5. I don't like marginal tax rates. Let everyone pay the same rate! Why do the wealthy have to give a higher percentage of their money away?
6. I do not like paying the high taxes we do. I wish some of these services could be povided by people paying a more reasonable tax rate.
7. I also wish people could voluntarily pay whatever tax that would be ear-marked for which program they wish to participate in. For example, I would gladly give a certain percentage of my income to ensure I would get trouble free Hospitalization throughout my lifetime. But it would be my choice to participate in it or not. I would also give a certain percentage of my income to ensure my children get relatively inexpensive University Education. But it would be my choice to participate in it or not again.
The problem with all the other government programs is that they take it from me and give it to someone else without much consent on my part.
I'm so frickin' meme'd that my goal is just getting through the day - it's like a pin ball bouncing off the programing either from my own history or the onslaught of the people that I interact with!
Starting with awareness as my tool, my weapon - It helps to know that they (memes) are there even if I haven't discovered them all yet. and it's all good.
Randy
For me it's not really about the wealth... it's more the programming for who I am and how I was programmed that OTHERS see me.
I've been blown away that I let in the harsh programming of childhood into fundamental relationships. Even with therapy!!!!
The programming - as you know with me - has been so sutble - I don't notice it, and then suddenly realise a few months later that I'm persecuting myself, and imagining that others think bad of me. Frequently it's not true.
I am always amazed that I've let a negative link back into the chain that's poisoned everything and made it stay together based on falsities I believed in childhood that disempower me...
Thanks dude...
Rand, gostaria de ver seus videos e palestras na versão portugues.
Tenho tentado converter mas não vejo opção. Pode colocar essa opção?
Abraços,
Kley