Brain Tip

Echo from Lifehacker

Solve Tough Problems with a Brain Reboot
I'm not big into the fancy mantra’s and religious overtones often associated with meditation. Instead I like to focus on practical meditation to focus your thoughts and cut out distractions. (Article)

Counter Program

The psychology of banner ads
The research concludes that repeated exposure to a product via banner ads generates a positive feeling towards that product. (Article)

It's not just that one has to DEProgram, but with the ubiquity of one needs to actually continuously counter program. Knowing that THEIR ads make a positive subliminal impression, one has to actively develop a program to undo the input.
"What's the harm of a little positive feeling toaward THEIR product?"
It's not you making the decision is what.
Advertisements do a few things that we take for granted today, but are absolute bullshit if you think about them:

• Ads lie to you about THEIR product - Regardless of the quality of product, they will tell you theirs is the best. Even when their product is sub par and THEY know it, they will dress it with colors and catch phrases to convince you otherwise.
  
Decide based on your own experience.

• Ads lie to you about reality - Imagine your perception of the world outside of your home. Imagine success and happiness. Imagine a happy family. Does it resemble an ad? Now think of your life. Does it compare? The reality is that no one lives like they do. The reality is that we all are a little less clean, a little less smiley, a little less pure. Embrace it.
  We're all in this together.
• Ads demoralize you - THEY do not want you happy. THEY convince you that you're unhappy. But they have the solution. Buy their fabric softener and your kids will have white teeth, your body odor will smell like flowers, your spouse will be nondescriptly attractive, and every weekend you will get away with guys hunting and fishing or gals in the spa after a fantastically fun day of shopping.
  Who lives like that?!?
  
• Ads invade your mind constantly, without your consent - On the side of a bus. The top of a web page. In the background TV. Subliminal programming works best when the subject is unaware of the message. When you think you're not subject to the message, that is when you are most vulnerable. No one is immune.
  
Admit and be aware of THEIR ability to crawl into your headspace; this is the foundation of your psychic self-defense.

We wait for the signs of mind control that we've learned from the movies, but the reality is that programming is more pedestrian in nature. Image impression isn't like Alex strapped in a chair with his eyes pried open. Nor is the chemical reinforcement some super-compound concoction dreamed up at Edgewood.
No, THEY don't need to focus so intently on you. THEY can be patient. THEY can hit you when you're first looking around as an infant, seeing colors, making associations. THEY can use the chemistry of desire...fats, sugars, caffeine, phenylethylamine (PEA)...to reinforce THEIR message.
THEY tell you that "You deserve a break today" because nobody "understands" you but THEM. THEY know what you've been through and do THEY have the pick me up for you. And it's only 99 cents on the value menu. THEIR signs are all bedecked in the Reds, Yellows, and Oranges designed to stimulate the impulse reaction in the optical regions of the neural cortex. THAT familiar clown that was your friend as a child and beckons you back to that safe time and promises comfort because you're having a tough time.
And when you do the right thing...

Ron English

When you make that decision to reward your toil and troubles...
When you act as THEY knew you would...
You consume. You give over the little tickets known as money that represent life energy spent acquiring the little tickets.
Yes.
Very good.
Very good indeed.
And to make sure the cycle is completed, the chemicals are ingested. Those chemicals that stimulate the endorphins. Those chemicals that satiate the fundamental cravings for high energy food. Sure, THEIR stuff will kill you in the long run, but that doesn't matter as long as you have the brief illusion of happiness through THEIR product now. THEIR stuff doesn't actually provide long lasting energy and why should it. THEY want you back as soon as possible to consume again.
And again.
And again.
More.
Faster.
And when all is said and done...you get to consume Big Pharma's meds. Nothing that will cure, just keep you going until the next refill.

No, THEY don't have to inject you. THEY don't have to kidnap you and hook you up to machines. THEY don't have to look like aliens or men-in-black.

All THEY have to do is quietly get into your head and make you feel just a little...
bit...
unhappy...
:(

Links

• Propaganda: The Art and Crimes of Ron English
• Virtual Hypnotist - Write your own scripts to rewrite your internal software
• Download your own subliminal software to take the edge off

Self sufficiency

Self sufficiency is a concept that's learned, the skills follow. Thinking more about Penn Jillette's thought that "living within your means offers an immense amount of power" and Mr. Jalopy's "if you can't open it, you don't own it" I realized that this applies to my own self. I went back to exercising (my body) this morning and it dawned on me that lifting weights and cardio is a form of hacking. It's a form of ownership. With all the crap food and the ubiquitous enticements out there destined to kill you early, one way to get back at "the man" (of whom I refer to often as THEY or THEM) is to take control of your body's health. This thinking ties in nicely with mind/body connection of the RE/DEProgramming I did on myself to quit smoking of which I'll recount my method another time.
Some thoughts I won't elaborate on. Just spitballing...

• Fast food is a form of chemical warfare. It uses carefully designed chemistry to keep you desiring the fats, sugars, and salts. Fast food is unhealthy and at the rate the average American consumes it, shortens their lifespan.
• Fast food advertisement is psyops (mil jargon for Psychological Operation). It is designed to appeal to one's conscience, sub-conscience, emotional, and psycho-chemical systems.

One drawback to quitting smoking, of which I did for 2/3's of my life is that the weight hit me pretty good. I went from about 215lbs to 245lbs. It's coming off on its own slowly, but getting back into my routine should put me back at my fighting weight of 205-210 in a couple of months.

With that, I highly recommend (and am no way affiliated with) ExRx.net - "ExRx.net (Exercise Prescription on the Net) is a free resource for the exercise professional, coach, or fitness enthusiast." ExRx.net consists of nearly 2000 pages, most of which are found in the Exercise and Muscle Directory. The content of this web site is available on CD-ROM."

On the topic of self sufficiency, I turn to termites. Now I had a guy come out and quote me $1200-$1500 to spray for the little buggers then come back every now and again to check and see how they're doing. Screw that.
Through a little research here's what I've found:
Boric Acid - I've know about this very low-tox shit for a long time as a way to kill roaches. Turns out it's effective on termites too. But how to deliver it to them???
Propylene Glycol - Low-Tox anti-freeze of which I use in the Fairlane in case it ever pukes from overheating. Animals, particularly dogs, like the sweet taste of coolant, but the regular stuff will kill them.
Heat one to two pounds of Boric Acid into one gallon of Propylene Glycol below boiling. When ready for use mix another gallon of water and spray on wood. Second treatment if needed. The wood will wick the shit right up and when the termites come for dinner, they die. Keep away from plants though.
Total cost: An afternoon and $25 for 5lbs of Boric Acid and $8 for the coolant.
Added bonus, the mix also prevents dry rot.

Skills

I'm not a survivalist per se. I don't think there is an army of blue helmeted U.N. troops under the Rockies waiting to spring and take over the country. What I do believe is that there are skills that everyone should know to keep in touch with the earth, and therefore, reality. One thing that I truly appreciate from my time in service were the various Rangers and Special Forces that I had the privilege to work with. I learned a lot. After a several years in, I had considered going into Special Forces myself an Ops/Intel Sergeant, but I just couldn't commit to the amount of time it takes to train.

With that, here's a nifty link:

Rick F. Tscherne's Ranger Digest
From the website:
A Site Dedicated To Teaching Soldiers, Campers, Hikers, & Other Outdoor Enthusiasts "How to Survive & Thrive in the Outdoors."

As a former US Army Ranger, Drill Instructor, and an advisor/trainer to the Bosnia & Herzegovina Army (1996-97) under the US State Department approved "Train & Equip Program." I have always enjoyed sharing with soldiers my personal experiences and tips on how to survive in a military outdoor environment through field expedient know-how.

Articles, survival manuals written by Tscherne (complete with a pre-order warning about course language), and gear.

I reject your reality and substitute my own - Icons

All things are in essence symbolic. The quantum waveforms collapse into "recognizable things" when we observe those things. They are more than the "things" which we recognize...a blue pen being the sum of many parts which are the sum of many more, smaller parts ad infinitum. And the blue is all the visible color that the pen didn't absorb, not to mention all the radiation that we don't perceive from reflected ultraviolet and infrared to the minute, radioactive radiance from the weak force. For convenience, we round off and use symbols. It would take altogether too long to write out Pi every time we had to describe a circle being the number is probably infinite. Or we just say cat rather than describing the animal's physio-psycho-social nature with a full relevant history.

With that, there are a several metaphors for higher ideas that have a significant impact on what is seen by observers as Blank Snag, or whatever label of convenience I or someone else assigns this entity, an image which is a metaphor for some composite of experience of direct and indirect history and a confluence of time lines and decisions that bring us all to this point...oops...this point...wait...this point...damn...wait...now!

Reality is what you can get away with. - RAW
I know this quote in my bones. My head doesn't always agree, but at the core I know reality is malleable. It's just the who decides to mold it part that's at issue? You or some advertising jerk in marketing land, pimping death in a burger promising comfort and salvation at the hands of their friendly but homicidal clown?
I keep icons that represent who I am, who I want to be, and what I stand for before me to keep me from getting sucked into complete mediocrity. If you look on the lower right of this blog, you will see an incomplete list of the characters that populate my imagination and support the amalgamation of experience known as Blank Snag. I've also been known as other labels to other people in other relationships as well.

What are the fictional icons that have contributed to Blank Snag? Again, I keep a list on the side to remind me of those things I use to communicate with myself and others. I keep metaphors before me, not as a substitute for any specific aspect of being, but as a summarization for convenient discourse. Icons are also an exchange between the external and the internal, educating us on one hand as a representation of an external idea and reminding us of important lessons on the other as we shape those icons to fit our identity. It's a busy world and sometimes we get caught up worshiping false icons; the icon of not being late for work, the icon of that asshole who took your parking place, the icon of the jerk who bumped you on the subway.
Icons can be a powerful tool for meditation and focus, yet can be abused and be the source of restricting and limiting one's knowledge of the world. The question is, do you absorb the icon or does the icon absorb you?
We all group and categorize information into systems that we understand whether we're conscious of it or not. Some folks compartmentalize in sections that they might not have names for while others hold information like spreadsheets with clearly defined row and column headers. Short term memory tend to be more compartmentalized than long term. Symbolic association helps remind one of important facts and features.

I'll stop there for now. Discussion of symbols continues deep into tangents that I'd like to address at a later time in more detail. I want to touch on the use of icon for control (Mohamed, Jesus, "Bob") and the use of icon for understanding, communication of ideas, and focus (Mohamed, Jesus, "Bob"). Also Quantum Sorcery, Chaos Magic, and other magic systems uses the idea of icon or "sigil" as a tool for influencing events through will. Icon's in marketing and social control, from Britney Spears, to Mickey Mouse. Also, icon's in semantics and the use of semantics in systems of control.

The nice thing about having a robust pantheon of archetypes, it's a lot easier to detect other people's bullshit when they throw up their own totems of control. Small penis, talk about guns. Xenophobic, talk about welfare mothers and terrorists. Uncertain about moral/ethical values, talk about heathens, infidels, and criminals.

Icon's in more or less tangible forms than I use, shape us all. What we remember about our past is selective. We choose to remember, consciously or subconsciously that which we want to remember and shape our understanding of reality based on those memories. It is an impossibility to remember all things, so we remember select things. We create images of who our parents were, who our influential teachers were, what movie characters we like, and so on. The truth is, the value of things in our past is largely based on the value we assign it.

Like a remote TV control, take the unit out of Their hands and take charge of the icons in your own life.

"I reject your reality and substitute my own." - Adam Savage (MythBusters)

Just remember when using icons..."the map is not the territory." (A. Korzybski)

Links

Hacked...
On my never ending journey to becoming an overall hacker here's some links I've come across.

The "largest underground hacking event in the world."
I couldn't be called an electronics hacker necessarily, but if taken at its conceptual meaning, then I could be a hacker of the mind, body, combustion engines, vintage automotive sheetmetal, and so on.

"We are not a "cracking" site, we are hackers. Our inquisitive nature leads us to find ways of making technology work for us."

Mind Hacks
I've been reading this book in bits and pieces lately as it's neatly partitioned and broken down in a few page description of specific functions. From the title, I guess I expected more direct action applications, but I found it to be more of a description of many different process in the mind rather than modifications to actually make. Mind Hacks is good for core knowledge and understanding of mental mechanics and systems, from which an operator can then go and find applications for.
There's also an accompanying blog.





WARNING! You have been exposed to marketing! While the source of the previous advertisements in no way means to condition your behavior, your previous experiences with ubiquitous marketing may have made you susceptible to participating in the consumer culture not entirely of free will. As with all marketing, take a moment and think about your exposure levels before proceeding.

Minority Report

Tapping Brains for Future Crimes
A team of neuroscientists announced a scientific breakthrough last week in the use of brain scans to discover what's on someone's mind. (more at Wired magazine...)

Tipped by Disinformation

As the author points out, often results are over dramatized by breathless reporters, but there will come a day...

23

I've been reluctant to discuss 23 recently as it seems there's a big production movie coming out called The Number 23 about the "enigma" and I was hoping the band wagon would pass by without enticing me. It was not to be. Below, there is a link discussing the flick at Disinformation.
For those unfamiliar with the Discordian "23 enigma" or Robert Anton Wilson's Reality Tunnel 23 it's like this...Once you are aware of the 23 enigma then you will start noticing 23 in more an more places. Very unlikely places. It's presence will surprise you. You'll see it in historic context or marketing or political, etc.
What's the mechanics behind this? Magical? Supernatural? Some mathematical truth like Pi or Phi? The Law of Fives?
All I can say personally is Maybe.
The point is once you open up to it you see it. This is an important lesson about life. If you open up to anything, use any totem or focus device, you are more receptive to its existence. As Wilson says "Reality is what you can get away with." Man, that's fucking profound.
"The more you drive, the less intelligent you are." - Miller (Repo Man)
Here's my favorite example of the effect. Think of your car (this works well in the US because it's been decreed by sacred/secret law that every man, woman, and child have a car). Think of the color and make of your car. Now when you first got the, did you notice how many other people had the same car? What about before you owned the car, did you notice that make and model in particular?
Ok...now can this effect be applied to something that hasn't yet been realized? Can you image a thing to where once the thing is present, you notice it. Wilson has a little trick with quarters. You wanna see quarters, spend a some time thinking about quarters. The shape, the sound hitting the floor, the weight, and so on. Man, before you know it...fucking quarters everywhere. This effect lasts as long as you apply regular energy to thinking about quarters. But of course the bills are due, your late for work, that mother fucker just stepped on your toe...Who's got time to shape their own reality, the world's too busy shaping it for us.

Miller: A lot o' people don't realize what's really going on. They view life as a bunch o' unconnected incidents 'n things. They don't realize that there's this, like, lattice o' coincidence that lays on top o' everything. Give you an example; show you what I mean: suppose you're thinkin' about a plate o' shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate o' shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconciousness.
Otto: You eat a lot of acid, Miller, back in the hippie days?
Miller: I'll give you another instance: you know how everybody's into weirdness right now?...
-Repo Man

Here's a list of links for further (required?) reading (maybe save fUSION Anomoly for last...you can get lost in there)

• 23 - fUSION Anomoly
• 23 (numerology) - Wikipedia
• The 23 Enigma Goes Mainstream - Disinformation

and lastly...Maybe. A good introduction to Wilson's work on keeping your eyes open.

tDCS

transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is the application of very weak electrical currents (1-2 mA) to modulate the activity of neurons in the brain. (Wikipedia)

I was right!!!
I at least suspected it. Well, I just liked the idea of doing something where I got to hide in my basement and put electrodes on my head. I'm not crazy, but I like the thought of it. I mean have you seen all the "normal" fuckers out there? With their pent up neurosis, their constant chasing the elusive image of the American Dream® (and I use image quite deliberately), all bundled up in a warm, fuzzy blanket of false security brought to you by the folks at Haliburton.
But I digress. This is great...the idea of sending electricity through your head isn't necessarily bad for you, in fact it might even be good for you.
I'm just pissed I got beat on the story.

Brain-O-Matic
By PAGAN KENNEDY
February 7, 2007
Can a jolt from a nine-volt battery make you smarter? Happier? Medical researchers revive a discarded technology and set the stage for the ‘brain pod’. (More...)

Here's some discussion at Make about tDCS with a link to a podcast.

More screwing around with your own head
Along these lines, one device I've tried and I like is the Brainwave Generator which operates aurally. I had a headache for a couple of days. Not a rager, but it was incessant. I downloaded the software, put on the head phones, and set it to Headache treatment (circular). Ten minutes, the headache was gone.
The concept behind it is entrainment or brainwave entrainment, which is to put it simply, the natural tendency for frequencies to want to agree. Now certain overall states of the brain produce a certain overall frequency, which many of us have heard of as Alpha, Beta, Delta, or Theta wave states.
Now should you be in a state that you don't like, such as Alpha when you're trying to get to sleep (the deepest sleep state being Theta), you place your headphones on, select the preset you want (Sleep) and let the program walk your brainwaves down to lower frequencies with not unpleasant tones.
This process is essentially what one does using other techniques such a meditation or biofeedback, except that one doesn't have to spend a lot of time practicing until one learns who to adjust themselves. With the software, one frequency or the other has a tendency to want to give. The programs aren't responsive, which leaves your brain as the one to have to adjust.
It all made a lot of sense to me. I've used it on and off for a couple of years now and found the effects top be subtle but noticeable. Nothing was as profound as the headache treatment, but I particularly like to use the relaxation or meditation settings as I run. I figure that exercise is meant to calm and relax and if I associate those qualities with the activity it'll make the activity all the more desirable. I usually adjust the volume settings on the program so I can play it under music or a podcast as I workout.
The program is free, but after a month you'll get a ten second nag. Paying for it also unlocks forums where people discuss their experiences and discoveries as they try different settings. There are also other programs/devices out there which I haven't tried, but look promising. Search around a bit.
The point is that there are more ways than just the digestive system (eg. caffeine) to hack your brain.

• Brainwave Generator