The Power of Suggestion

Regenerative Culture Spiritual Technology
#1

Don’t know if this should go under “spiritual” but I feel like these things are all related.

Has anyone seen that UK show called “Tricks of the Mind with Darrin Brown”? Or any Darrin Brown stuff? It’s crazy! The power of suggestion has amazing results. Here are a few youtube bits from the show to give you the idea:

Paying with Paper:

How to Take Someones Wallet Just By Asking:

Person Swap Experiment:

You can really get lost watching his clips on youtube. But this is not the point I wanted to talk about. I’m reading “Muses, Madmen and Prophets: Rethinking the History, Science and Meaning of Auditory Hallucination” and there was this crazy bit in there:

[qoute]In a 1996 study a group of subjects was asked to order scrambled sentences that happen to contain words which are commonly associated with old age, such as Florida, wrinkled, gray, and retired. Another group as asked to order scrambled sentences that did not contain such words. Both groups were then timed without their knowledge as they left the experiment and walked down the hall. The subjects that had read sentences containing the old-age words walked significantly slower, as if they were acting out what those words signified. Later questioning revealed that they had no conscious awareness that the sentences they read contained the words in question, let alone that they had reacted to it. They had been moved by forces of which they had no conscious awareness.[/quote]

Years ago I kept a list of positive words on a little shrine in my room. Every morning I would go through the list and focus on each word. This kept me very productive and “on track”. Lately I’ve felt lost and unfocused. After reading the above paragraph, I couldn’t help but wonder about focusing on inspiring words every morning and evening, and their unconscious effect on me throughout the day. So I started doing this again about a week ago and I have to say I have noticed a difference. I’ve been getting shit done and worried much less about the things that I usually worry about (making money!). Don’t know if it’s a coincidence or what but just felt like posting this here. But it’s got me thinking a lot about the power of suggestion. It’s like that whole “The Secret” thing is kind of based on, right? (I know that’s mostly bullshit in terms of real change, but for personal growth, it seems to work pretty well).

Anyone have any similar experiences?

#2

I’m not familiar w/ Darrin Brown, but suggestion has always played a significant part of real magical practices. I’ve often heard the opinion that Teutonic bind-runes & tauvr/talismans operated on a subconscious level via suggestion.

And personal growth can lead to really amazing changes.

It’s one more reason I say that reality feels a lot more like an ongoing negotiation than a set of hard and fast rules. It’s also why I say real magic rarely seems dramatic… cuz it doesn’t need to.

#3

that’s the whole concept behind “magic”, that there are infinite lenses through which to interpret the world. a magician understands how to work with and create the subconscious lenses through which people make sense of their worlds.
i feel like this has everything to do with Daniel Quinns concept of cultural stories as well.
the question is, how can this be applied to how civilization enforces it’s story and how we can break it’s “spell” with the power of our own rewilding magic…

i’m getting that “by the camp fire” feeling already ;D.
i really missed the old forum.

*jhereg, i didn’t read your post before i typed my response. it’s funny you should mention runes and old pagan germanic symbolism, it’s something i’ve recently been getting into a lot actually.

#4

Yay! the campfire feeling! me too!

#5

That reminds me of the placebo effect. Most people have heard of the placebo effect, but there is an opposite effect. I think it’s called the nociebo effect. If a witch puts a curse on you, or a doctor mistakenly tells you that you have terminal cancer you can get sick and die even if you have nothing physically wrong with you.

#6

Woah! Nociebo Effect! Crazy!