Guided Thought | William Batten
Mental Tools for Greater Living
Does COVID reduce your sentience?
Isolation is a form of torture.
I don’t say that to say the lockdowns are literally torture. That would be counterproductive and overly theatrical, not to mention untrue.
Even at its worse, you were never fully isolated. You could always video chat and use social media.
And yet, all that does is pull you out of ‘torture’ and into ‘regular, old fashioned loneliness’.
I know I’m not speaking for everyone here. Some folks thrive in that environment. And others managed to keep their social lives… well, alive.
But most folks felt, and maybe keep feeling, at least a little isolated.
And mass emotions like this can be contagious. Imagine if everyone in the world became a little more short-tempered. There’s be a lot more folks yelling at each other, which would make them even angrier, and so forth.
Lonely folks tend to withdraw into themselves, which only makes everyone around them lonelier…
Here’s why I brought up torture:
Extreme isolation reduces a person’s sense of self. The best guess on the role of sentience – why we evolved it in the first place – is to better understand and anticipate other people. Without other people around us, there’s no need for it.
Like everything else in biology and psychology, it works by “use it or lose it” rules.
No sentience equals no sense of self.
Without other people, you begin to lose your grip on reality. Willpower and empathy plummet, while baser instincts thrive.
Now, we’re not seeing that to an extreme degree. It’s not like people are losing their minds, like what can happen to folks who are tortured.
And folks are still smart – we’re seeing a lot of creativity come out of all this.
But in general, people seem a little less disciplined, a whole lot less empathetic and even a little more unhinged than usual.
It’s not going to reverse until one of two things happen:
Either all the lockdown measures end and we start hugging strangers on the street…
Or…
We learn how to keep our minds throughout this.
Put a Buddhist monk in total isolation and they won’t care – they already know how to handle that.
Fortunately, you don’t need to go that far. Becoming a monk would help, but it’s a little overkill.
What you really need is much, much simpler.
As simple as taking ten, maybe 13 minutes to listen to something, whenever you feel yourself slipping away.
Details:
Don’t get slapped by the hand that feeds you
The lockdowns were to protect society’s most vulnerable.
For most folks, the virus is, at worst, like catching the flu. But if you’re already poor, sick or marginalised, then it might be worse than that. These people – the extra vulnerable – are who the virus hits the worst.
I won’t argue that.
But the lockdowns are a weird way to respond to that – like getting slapped by the hand that feeds you.
Because they hurt a lot of people too.
And they disproportionately hurt the… huh, the poor, sick and marginalised.
This is apparently the worst recession since World War 2, with a little extra fear, paranoia and restrictions thrown in.
Recessions always hit the most vulnerable the hardest.
“Better being unemployed than dead!”
Well, yeah, it is. If you want to boil down complex social and political considerations to a false dichotomy, then I won’t stop you. But if you think those are the only two options on the table, you haven’t thought hard enough.
(Besides, unemployment is deadly too. Is it as deadly as the virus? It’s hard to compare one fuzzy number to another, and I don’t know if anyone is really trying to…)
Anyway, I can’t bestow health upon you.
Nor can I top up your bank account, restore your lost opportunities or keep the economy afloat.
But I can help you recover a few things you’ve lost:
Like hope, dignity and a sense of purpose.
The whole situation might have stripped you of those, but you can always recover them.
In fact, if you want to get through this, it’s imperative you read this now:
Who misses the point? Yes, they do
Yesterday I saw a video from the World Health Organisation start with this:
“We are 8 months into the COVID-19 pandemic and we understand that people are tired and yearn to get on with their lives, but no country can just pretend the pandemic is over.”
It then launches into a list of things countries and individuals must do – which, of course, is more lockdown, fear the world, and don’t kill everyone which you’re gonna do because, hey, virus.
And they wonder why folks are pushing back…
“We understand that people are tired” is up there with “I’m sorry that you’re upset”.
There’s no thanking everyone for doing the right thing.
No call to arms, to push on through and fight for the greater good.
No plan beyond “keep suffering, thanks”.
And there’s no sympathy for anyone hurt by their advice.
If you support WHO and their stance on this, you should be horrified. Ignoring the real concerns caused by their advice is why people ignore it.
Whether they mean to or not, they frame it in black-and-white, us-versus-them thinking. The virus is still a thing, therefore your urge to live your life is irrelevant.
And if you happen to think the lockdowns cause more damage than they prevent?
Then this is just insulting.
But, hey, I’m not surprised.
Once more, they call on the world to fight the virus without offering any support, like sending soldiers off to war without boots or bullets.
It turns out that folks fight better, no matter the cause, when you support them through it.
Enter, me.
While the governments keep telling you endure the crisis, let me give you the tools to do so.
Whether you’re happy to wait it out or you’re ready to start living again, these handy resources will help you, starting now:
How lockdowns make you sick
For the past few months, you – no matter how healthy you are – are being treated as though you’re chronically sick.
The lockdowns and restrictions – which were supposed to last two weeks to “flatten the curve” – will last until… when? The virus goes away? We get a vaccine for it? I honestly don’t know what the plan is…
And no one knows when the end is coming.
You’re told to fear everything – crowds, surfaces, door handles…
Everyone is a threat to you and you to them. Yes, everyone – even if they have no symptoms.
Everywhere you look, there’s a reminder that your body is – or at least could be – under attack by violating and dangerous invisible entities. There’s no escaping it.
Businesses are closing. Heck, entire industries are closing – how are cinemas going to survive this? Don’t care about movies? Fine, but do you care about all the people they – and all the other industries – employ?
How long will your paycheque keep coming in with the world like this… assuming you’re lucky enough to have a job?
Socialising is down, exercising is down, many of the best ways of coping with the bullshit of the world have gone. But, hey, at least you still have video games, booze and porn, right?
All of this is true… even if the lockdowns make sense.
Even if the lockdowns save more lives than they cost, save the economy more than they damage it, and are the wisest decision our leaders have ever made…
… at best, that makes them the lesser of two evils. It still did – and continues to do – tremendous damage to you. Not just ‘the economy’ or ‘culture’ or ‘businesses’, but you.
This wasn’t some choice between the bank accounts of fat cats and the public health. This was a lose-lose situation… which means you lost.
But here’s where you are now:
You can keep on losing as the world stays messed up…
Or…
You can begin to rebuild.
The answer has been is front of us all along. My email subscribers have what they need already… but it’s not too late for you.
These free resources, together, reverse a lot of the damage the lockdowns have done.
You can read how to get them and how to use them right here:
Medieval Tibetan Buddhism says to hipsters, “just stop already”
Lojong is some seriously old-school mind training.
It’s survived this long for a reason – it’s good.
How good?
12th Century Tibetan Buddhism good.
There are many aphorisms in its teachings – each short, yet holding a lot of wisdom.
One that I’m thinking of right now:
“Don’t misuse the remedy”.
A basic example – think of someone who travels all the time, who posts #TravelIsLife and #TakeMeBack everywhere. They’ve seen all the airports and Westernised tourist traps on the planet.
Does travel broaden the mind?
Sure – it’s the remedy for a closed mind.
But some folks misuse it, using travel as a form of self-indulgence – a distraction from their real issues.
That’s a trivial example though… unless you’re one of their friends, that is. Especially if you’re the sort who broadens your mind through study instead of tourism.
Here’s a more serious example:
You can use hypnosis to become neurotic, emotionally unstable, toxic and cut off from your own unconscious. I know, because I’ve seen it.
Heck, there are entire schools of NLP built around this practice.
Lojong says it best when it says, don’t do this.
Monster Mind Edukaré – my deliciously thorough and detailed mind training program – has many ‘remedies’, as lojong uses the term. (Not as how Western medicine uses it.)
You can misuse these remedies, as in it’s physically possible to.
But you can’t misuse them, because you’re not allowed to.
At each of the 19 modules, there’s a chance to quit, use it for harm or have it warp you for the worse.
I warn you against these dangers – sometimes subtly, sometimes in strong language.
And I build in safety protocols into the lessons, to help keep you on the path.
All you need to do?
Treat the lessons with respect and they’ll respect you right back.
If you’re ready for some mental reconfiguring like you’ve rarely experienced before, hold onto your hat. Then let go of it and head on over to this link:
Do you bet on chimps or humans?
Here’s a tale that’s sad on multiple levels:
In the early and mid-20th century, people used to wrestle chimps for fun. This would be part of a circus act or travelling carnival – young, burly men could pit themselves against a chimp for sport.
If you’ve ever seen a (non-human) primate in the wild, you’d bet on the ape. They are fast, strong and armed with teeth.
So they’d balance the odds a little.
The humans would be whoever was brave, strong and, let’s be honest, cruel enough to fight a chimp.
The chimp was muzzled, to stop them using their teeth.
And they’d wear gloves, to keep the gouging to a respectable limit.
Also… they’d use a juvenile chimp.
That evens the odds, right?
Not enough, apparently. Even with all these handicaps, you’d still bet on the chimp. They’d dismantle their human opponents in a few moments – sometimes with a single blow.
Oh, well – that’s less sad than humans beating up defenceless animals…
But this story has a wrinkle:
In a chimp versus a human, you bet on the chimp.
But in chimps versus humans, you get on the humans.
Generally, we humans like our furry cousins. Sure, some of us hunt them for sport and some are just jerks. For most folks, though, we agree they add a lot to the world. If they all died out, we’d all be poorer for it.
And yet…
Even with all the good will in the world, they are in danger of dying out. Not because we want to kill them but because our goals don’t align with theirs.
That, my pendos, is power – when you destroy something as an unintended side effect of pursuing your goals, you truly eclipse it.
There’s no mystery of where this power comes from.
Obviously not from our strength or natural weapons.
We’re smarter than them – and that’s all it takes.
The stranger part is where not that much smarter – and, in some cases, like memory, they outperform us.
The genetic differences between us are tiny… yet it’s enough to make us virtually gods compared to them.
What would boosting your intelligence by a couple of percent do?
Why not find out, right?
Because you can become smarter – not through those debunked brain games but through real, dedicated mind training.
Whatever you do that makes you smarter – whether it’s exercise, socialising, writing, meditation or whatever – it’s always time well spent.
Because focusing for longer, thinking more flexibly and engaging your whole brain can transform your abilities.
And those are just some of the benefits of regular hypnosis.
If you want to experience your mind to an entire new depth, follow this link and sign up for a session:
Straddling the science/pseudoscience border
Hypnosis is a strange field.
Some folks think it isn’t real. Honestly, I pity them – partly because they’re missing out on all it can do for them, partly because that level of ignorance must be painful.
I mean, imagine you heard that simple words could do anything from sharpen your mind to improve your health to even influence others in ways that seem impossible. You hear it from dozens of people and you see it in movies all the time. Performers demonstrate this technique on stage in every city and town… on volunteers from the crowd.
I get being sceptical…
But who wouldn’t take ten minutes to look into the science of it?
(And for anyone who has looked into the science and isn’t convinced… well, there’s no helping them.)
I’ve said it many times before – science doubted hypnosis for a long time. The consensus was hypnosis doesn’t do what it claims. Now, scientists don’t ask if hypnosis is real – they ask what it can do and how it works.
It won over scientists in the usual way – through an irresistible, undeniable flood of evidence over decades.
I’m sure you’ve heard the adage: extreme claims demand extreme proof. Hypnosis made extreme claims… then followed through by proving them.
Having said that…
There’s a lot about hypnosis that seems like pseudoscience. It seems ‘impossible’ that simple words can drastically alter someone else’s state of mind – let alone some of the more interesting things, like boost your immune system.
Yes, hypnosis can boost your immune system. Anything that relaxes you does the same, though hypnosis goes even further – it can change your immune system. Studies show it doing everything from removing warts to clearing allergies to even resolving some autoimmune conditions in some people…
But like I say, it looks impossible. And it looks the same as, say, crystal healing. Crystal healing also claims to work by strange, subtle, non-chemical and non-surgical means. It also claims to resolve any problem you face, from money woes to terminal illness. And it also defies conventional Western medicine – something practitioners spin as a positive.
These are superficial similarities, though. The real differences run deep.
For one thing, follow the evidence. Crystal healing doesn’t beat a placebo, where hypnosis routinely trounces it.
Also, we’re starting to unravel the mechanisms behind how hypnosis works. Going back to the immune system stuff – we now know the immune system and nervous system interact. Each strongly influences the other. If you’re interested, check out the field of psychoneuroimmunology.
So, yes, your thoughts can change your immune system, therefore hypnosis can too.
But we have more questions than answers.
And some practitioners fill those gaps in our understanding with their own views.
Some align nicely with conventional Western science.
Some… shall we say, don’t.
At all.
Some hypnotists talk about auras, quantum energy and spirit animals.
Here’s what would be foolish:
It would be foolish to paint all hypnotists with the pseudoscience brush. Most hypnotists don’t think in these terms.
It would be foolish to dismiss hypnosis because no one understands how it works. You can prove something works before you learn how – in fact, try doing it the other way around, I dare you.
This means some folks have wacky theories around it. I’m sure plenty of hypnotists insist it works via your own guardian angels. That’s fine, in a way – you can be wrong about how something works, but right that it works.
Science does that all the time. How many people do you know take antidepressants? There are many theories on how they work, none of which explain everything. That doesn’t stop them from working.
It would be foolish to insist you know a certain theory of hypnosis is wrong or right, unless there’s evidence to back it up. Some folks insist it works using quantum physics and multiple timelines. Maybe it does, maybe not. The evidence isn’t there either way.
And it would be foolish to weigh all theories equally. The spirit animal / guardian angel theory is less likely than the idea that brains are just really, really weird sometimes.
There’s a lot of uncertainty here. We don’t know how it works or why. But we do know that it works. Gravity might still be a mystery but, hey, no one thinks they can flap their wings instead of take the elevator.
Anyway, that’s way too much talking.
Hypnosis may be mysterious and enigmatic, but it’s still reliably powerful. If you want to embrace something you know will work, while the unwise sit around waiting for a complete theoretical model, then follow this link:
Life-changing experiences last how long, exactly?
Imagine someone asked you, “how long do life-changing experiences last?”
What would you say to that?
Surely, by definition, they last a while…
Everyone knows traumatic experiences can lead to two extreme outcomes:
For some people, they have an awful childhood, suffer for years or come close to death. And this breaks them. They become antisocial, miserable, even violent. They point to what happened and say, how could I turn out any other way after that?
For others, the same thing happens to them. Only it galvanises them. They dedicate their lives to being a force for good in the world, being grateful for every moment now.
They point to what happened and ask the same question – how could they turn out any other way?
Extreme experiences lead to extreme changes – for better or worse.
Here’s the strange thing:
‘Extreme’ doesn’t have to involve pain, bliss, death or rebirth.
In fact, it can look rather mundane from the outside.
A conversation with a stranger on the bus can completely change how you see the world… and your place in it.
A simple “I forgive you” can make a hardened criminal break down into tears.
Anyway, you’re expecting me to talk about hypnosis at some point, so here I go:
Folks ask, “how long do post-hypnotic suggestions last for?”
As if they are some chemical the body metabolises after a reliable period…
They’re psychological experiences, which means they can either last less than a minute or for the rest of your life.
How strange would it be if they always needed a top-up at the three-year mark?
So there you have it – it could be any length of time between ‘none’ and ‘forever’.
But one thing biases post-hypnotic suggestions closer towards the lifetime end of the spectrum…
Real hypnotherapy engages your unconscious mind. Hypnosis done for fun – like, say, a stage hypnotist – might give you a simple command. “Your hand is now stuck to the table,” that sort of thing. But few hypnotherapists do the same thing – “you are now free from anxiety”.
They might use that as part of a bigger approach, but that’s not the whole story.
Here’s why:
Your problems lie in your unconscious – say, from unresolved childhood trauma maybe. That means the solution has to come from your unconscious too.
And any time you peel back the veil in your mind and experience something you’ve ignored your whole life…
Well, that’s an extreme moment.
It might look like you’re sitting there with your eyes closed, but you’re going through something intense.
Resolving an issue feels… strange. It’s like releasing a knotted muscle – suddenly you can move your shoulder more freely and you just feel good. Your mind can feel like that, times a hundred.
Or it might be more subtle – barely a warm glow.
Or so intense it leaves you bawling with relief.
Either way, a skilled hypnotist will use this experience as a life-changing moment for you, locking it into the right way of thinking to get the results you want.
A one-minute hypnosis session can embed suggestions that last the rest of your life. It won’t always – there are no guarantees in hypnosis – but it happens every day.
Is today your day?
And instead of one minute of hypnosis, what can 60 of them do?
Sign up for a Neural Reset and see for yourself how more deeply you can relax, sleep and enjoy life:
Trancus interruptus
What happens when something interrupts a trance?
Is it like interrupting a program in the middle of something important? At best, the task ends… at worst, the computer crashes?
Oh, come now. Computer-brain analogies have their time and place, and this isn’t either.
If your brain crashed, glitched and inexplicably broke as easily as a computer, you wouldn’t have lasted this long. I wonder if a computer that’s being constantly used can last a year without crashing dramatically, whereas a brain has to run, more or less smoothly, for over a century.
Consider:
Your brain never does something, because it’s too busy doing everything.
Sure, there are times when you’re so caught up in your work, a conversation or playing video games, you lose all track of the world.
Or do you?
Because no matter how deep you are into something, there are some sure-fire ways to get your attention. Screaming your name, putting an ice cube down the back of your shirt, kicking your chair…
My point is your brain runs everything in parallel. It doesn’t handle one task then another – it makes your heart beat while you daydream about your ideal job.
Or you lose yourself in a task while it monitors your environment.
It gets even fuzzier than this, though.
When do you start thinking your thoughts? When you’re consciously aware of them? Hardly, since most of your decisions don’t even reach your conscious awareness.
And when do they end? When you put them out of your mind? If so, what’s the difference between a thought that keeps resurfacing – like fixating on whoever cut you off in traffic – and one that disappears – like the name of the person you just met?
There are no clear boundaries to a thought. There’s no place that’s definitely not thinking a specific thought, just as there’s no time where you’ve definitely stopped thinking it.
It’s the same with hypnotic trances…
Let’s say you’re deep in trance and something brings you out of it. “Oh no,” you might say, “I was deep in a hypnotic state and now I’m not!”
Firstly… are you sure?
Maybe you’re still in trance, even with your eyes open.
What most folks don’t realise is you’re most hypnotically suggestible in that moment right after you open your eyes. You might think it’s over, but the trance is at its deepest.
Secondly, even if you are sure, that doesn’t mean the trance isn’t still working. If hypnotic suggestions only worked while you were in trance, that wouldn’t be useful. Luckily, they stick around. Your unconscious mind can keep processing long after the trance stopped continuing…
That’s not to say interruptions are fine, though.
It’s a lot like a complex train of thought.
Maybe the interruption doesn’t matter – you simply dive back in to where you were.
Maybe the interruption helps, jolting your train of thought down a different track.
Or maybe it causes you to drop the thread completely.
Either way, the best thing to do is to go back into the trance. Do that and the interruption will help you go deeper into trance, faster.
It’s so useful that I, and many other hypnotists, interrupt the trances on purpose – it’s called fractionation.
So if the dog starts licking you in the middle of your self-hypnosis session, don’t fret. You’re fine, your suggestions can still work, and there’s nothing stopping you going back in.
I like to use deliberate interruptions in my Neural Resets.
Not always, but often enough.
If you want to see how relaxing a deep trance can feel for you, book a session here:
Coyote kindness, human cruelty
Western civilisation has been very kind to the coyote. We drove off their competitors and predators – the wolf and the bear. We encouraged the rodent population to boom.
Coyotes must be living in paradise.
Sometimes I think the coyotes get more out of our civilisation than we do. I’m not about to give up technology or cities, but they come with costs.
Pandemics, pollution, loneliness, crime.
What cost do coyotes pay?
I’m sure they think it’s a great deal.
But the real beneficiary of our works and wonders is the Coyote Spirit.
The Coyote Spirit is a trickster. It confounds, confuses, disrupts and distracts.
Civilisation has been kind to this spirit. We eagerly carry devices of mass distraction in our pockets. Our careers, hobbies and relationships be damned, cos we just gotta check Facebook one more time.
The Coyote Spirit predates social media. Medieval scholars had to wrestle with their own thoughts and keep them in line. With sun outside, mead to drink and wenches to chase, they had to put all that aside and get down to work.
All the while, trickster ghosts nip at their heels.
Tech companies took this distraction, though, and weaponised it against us. I wouldn’t be saying anything original to call social media addictive, so I’ll skip that part.
Being in a state of distraction was always normal. Now, it’s even more so.
I’m not special – I do it too.
But… well, if you think I’m whiling away my hours on Twitter, survey my mighty works. Clearly I know how to write a lot.
And that’s because I use distraction to my advantage.
The Coyote Spirit in your mind can be an ally – a powerful resource.
You just need to learn how to tame it first.
How do you do that?
I cover that in the very first module (out of 19) in my premiere mind training program, available here and now:
Considering hypnosis?
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