Can we escape our pre-conditioning?

Can we escape our pre-conditioning? [+ favourites]

We teach our children things that our parents taught us, that their parents taught them…and so on. Tribal wisdom.

The unconscious things are the trickiest. Thieves in the night that rob us of our freedom and then re-appear to mock us periodically throughout our lives. Little red flags waving at us from a distance, calling out: “is this what you wanted? - Are you happy now?”

Richard Branson’s parents always taught him that nothing was impossible to achieve, and have given him unstinting support throughout his life. I suggest that this type of environment is the pre-conditioning from which all success must follow.

But what of those who have not been born into that nurturing environment, and have been pre- conditioned by unconscious beliefs of struggle and limitation.

Can they overcome this pre-conditioning, and how?

LSD has been known to rewire a one's imprints and conditioning. lol, that might be a little extreme but it is a thought.

"I'm a human being, God Dammit!! My life has value!!!"

Re-conditioning: long term low intensity trauma, or short term high intensity trauma. Just like working your Glut!

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

Sigmund Freud believed that conditioning occurred during early childhood and adolescence. However, since then the main view of social psychology is that conditioning never really stops. Some will dwell on the past and let it hold them down, others will fight it to many extents. Take for example obesity in the US. Some children I know end up like their obese parents. One particular case I know of hates it so much shes practically anorexic. So it works both ways.

"Everything we say is a lie no matter how useful it can be."

If we are saying that our upbringing is the root of our pre conditioning of course that is part of it. It's back to the nature/nurture debate isn't it? Genes versus environment. Well for myself, I believe that it is definately both. Conditioning is basically learning and life experience through every single interaction and sensory input we recieve.

My mother was brought up in a Norwood Jewish orphanage and kicked out at sixteen to go back and live with her mother who was a drunk and a gambler, and OK she may not have been the most affectionate mother however, I feel loved, I remember cuddling up on the sofa after my baths as a child and watching TV. And my kids certainly don't lack in the affection department, so my mother broke her pre conditioned unaffectionate childhood and life did the rest.

""Each child holds the world in an open hand to mould it into any shape they choose.""

Your Mum sound great!

But I was more thinking along the lines of those kind of lurking deeply held beliefs, that one may be unawares of. Like for instance the subconscious belief that 'money is the root of all evil' perhaps, which may have a lot to do with one's having it or not.

Or a subconscious distrust of men or women and therefore of marriage, due to an early long forgotten event that may have had nothing to do with you as such, but nevertheless has a profound influence on what happens to your own relationships with the opposite sex.

So these could be the little things that inform us in hidden ways if left unexamined...

To try and answer your original question: yes people can overcome our unconscious biases and fears. The first thing that comes to mind for me as to how, is an event that is equally or stronger than the antagonist event that would have the opposite/positive effect. That or sheer will and objective self-evaluation, which is something I consider near impossible.

"Everything we say is a lie no matter how useful it can be."

Do you think that the events or occurrences in your life could serve as a mirrors reflection to show you 'yourself' with more objectivity?

I think that some times when we see others doing what we dislike, we can some times realize that we ourselves are guilty of what we point fingers at.

"Everything we say is a lie no matter how useful it can be."

Sure we could re-Condition ourselves. I do it all the time.
See my dads a Athiest. Mom's a christian. I consider my self a philosopher and that is my relegion. Even though I was brought up Christian.

Even today Im always changing my given state of mind.
Isent that in itself a change in my conditioning?

Being brought up Christian does not mean you were conditioned Christian. Unless you fully believed the bible with your heart, you were not "brought up Christian". If you were, then you are correct.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

quote:

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I think that some times when we see others doing what we dislike, we can some times realize that we ourselves are guilty of what we point fingers at.

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That is a belief. If you cannot actually tell whether you believe something, that's your own dillusion. If it's in you, and you believe it, whether you choose to think you don't, you still do. Therefore, that's an argument in semantics: Do they have to know they believe it to believe it? Course not.

Therefore, conditioning creates a belief in a person, which can manifest as fear, or through action, regardless of what they think they are doing or why.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."

ok then.
When i was young I believed in santa clause.
I escaped that.

Use this example for whatever you want. You can escape it.

That wouldn't really be escaping conditioning... specifically because you were forced into it by factual evidence or being made fun of - either way, there wasn't much difficulty of choice in it. So that's not pertinent. In fact, that's a ridiculous example that has no bearing on what "conditioning" means, and very loosely from a literal perspective is applicable (which is of no use to a real discussion). Go read the definition, then use your brain to think about its application in the real world, then bring up more valid points.

"Hating everyone protects me from elitism."