Your Mind Makes It Real

The Placebo Effect.  The Nocebo Effect.  Priming.  Um...  The Matrix.

Your mind has an uncanny ability to make perceived things real.  I used to think this was incredibly impressive.  But I didn't know the half of it.

Check out this experiment:

http://pds15.egloos.com/pds/200910/18/78/Gaining_strength.pdf

If you're like me and are too lazy to read it, here's the gist:

Some researchers in Cleveland wanted to determine if mental practice of an exercise could actually result in physical changes to the targeted areas of the body.  One group of subjects did a regular exercise involving moving their finger sideways.  A second group regularly imagined doing the same exercise but did not actually go through the physical motions.  The control group did nothing.

After 12 weeks, the 'actual physical exercise' group showed a finger strength increase of 53%.  The control group did not show any strength increase.  Now, the fun part: the 'mental exercise' group showed a strength increase of 35%!

That's right: the group that didn't perform any physical exercise increased their physical strength by imagining they were exercising.  "They didn't have to lift a finger in order to convince their brains that they were, in fact, lifting a finger."

When I first read this, I thought it must have been some mistake.  But the same results were obtained by a separate experiment done in Canada in 2007:

http://westallen.typepad.com/brains_on_purpose/files/mind_over_matter_shackell_07.pdf

In this case, the experiment involved hip muscles.  They used the same 3 types of groups.  The 'actual physical exercise' group increased their strength by 28%.  The control group, none.  The 'mental exercise' group... wait for it... 24%!

I don't know about you, but I am blown away by this.  And I'm sure I will continue to be blown away as we uncover more amazing things our minds can do.

It Alters Your Mind

In The Big Short, one of the investors who saw the subprime collapse coming said that one day he realized something:

"We turned off CNBC," said Danny Moses. "It became very frustrating that they weren't in touch with reality anymore. If something negative happened, they'd spin it positive. If something positive happened, they'd blow it out of proportion. It alters your mind. You can't be clouded with stuff like that."

"It alters your mind."

In the November Awake, there is a great article about DNA.  When I was in school, I was taught that 98% of our DNA is "junk," left over from evolutionary dead-ends.  The idea immediately felt wrong to me, for multiple reasons, but I never pursued a better answer.

A single scientist coined the term in his paper So Much 'Junk' DNA in Our Genome.  That single paper repelled other scientists from studying this noncoding DNA.  It turns out, of course, that this DNA is not junk at all, but codes for important regulatory RNA.  But that took much longer to figure out than it should have.

That paper altered the minds of these scientists.

This happens all the time.  We may have a very well-defined and well-supported position on something, but if we hear something to the contrary, it 'clouds' us, as Danny put it.

Maybe this has happened to you, because it's happened to me:

The internet is great in that it is an excellent medium for two-way communication.  Articles and blogs often allow for comments.  Now, at first glance, this seems like a great way to have a discussion and develop the points even further.

But here's what often happens to me.  I read a well-thought-out article on whatever subject.  I think, "Hmm, this makes sense.  The author seems to be an expert on this topic.  His arguments are clearly laid out.  I like it."

But then I read one or two comments.  Invariably, one or more comments disparage the author and his article.  Usually, the commentor presents no valid reasons for his criticisms.  He presents no credentials to establish himself as an authority on the topic.  And he offers no satisfactory counter-proposals.

I understand all of this.  Yet, his comment has already done damage to my view of the article.

It altered my mind.

This is, albeit, a silly example.  But it is one that is easily observable today.  There is so much information readily available, and so many people spouting their opinions, that this kind of mind-altering is ubiquitous.

How do we fight it?  As usual, the first step is identifying the issue.  Only then can we protect our mind from being altered.

Danny had to turn off CNBC.  I have decided to stop reading the comments.