Manipulating the Mind 5/25/2006 10:18:00 AM

Humans are such strange creatures. I mean, humans have the sharpest minds amongst all the creatures that walk the earth. And yet, they’re so easily manipulated.

Check out this picture.

Which line is longer? If you use no other means besides your eyesight to figure out which line is longer, it’s only natural to conclude that the lower line is longer. However, if you get yourself a ruler and measure them, you’ll find out that neither is longer. Both lines are equal in length. It shows just how easily tricked our senses (or rather, our minds) are. It’s not necessarily bad, though. Magicians (nowadays they’re called illusionists, mentalists, or whatever) are masters of manipulation, but nobody ever sue them or anything. We, the audience, enjoy their tricks. We even crave for more of them. The real danger doesn’t come from (somewhat) submitting ourselves to manipulation. Not realizing that we’re being manipulated is

Over the years, science had successfully revealed the physiological process of thinking. Stimuli from external or internal environment are transmitted by electrical current to the central nervous system, which produce certain responses. Human mind is considered as a very advanced CPU, nothing more. The psychological aspect of human mind however, cannot be revealed with such a mechanistic approach. They’re more complex and more difficult to comprehend. Unfortunately, mind manipulation through psychological approach is a more common practice, which makes it more difficult for us to detect and avoid.

Remember nice old Adolf Hitler? This guy was certainly one hell of a great mind manipulator. When I say “mind manipulator”, don’t think about all sorts of weird stuff like brainwashing or anything like that. Hitler was simply very good at reading people. He knew exactly how to mesmerize people with his words. It’s not WHAT he said that’s important, HOW he said it that mattered. I read somewhere that Hitler’s speeches didn’t contain much essence apart of the continuous rhetorical exclamations about how good the Germans (Aryans) were and how inferior everybody else was compared to them. You know; the kind of speech that would make you either die of boredom or snort because of lacking of logic. But thanks to Hitler’s expertise, he managed to convince the people with the supposed-to-be meaningless speeches. Nifty, eh?

Even to this day, mind manipulation is still practiced. Not just for political purposes such as the case in the past, but also for economical benefits of the manipulator.

How many women have been manipulated into buying certain beauty products simply because a celebrity appeared on the commercial? Of course, the celebrity looked good with it, but it didn’t certainly mean that everyone would look as good as her when they used the same product. Marketing experts would say that it’s a part of their “strategic plan”; which was basically just another way of saying “shrewd way of tricking people in to buying our stuff”.

How many people have been allured by the fake reality of so called reality shows? Honestly, mate. Would you be your real self when you’re fully aware that there were dozens of cameras capturing your actions?

Humans have the sharpest minds amongst all the creatures that walk the earth. Then, how come humans are easily manipulated? I don’t know for sure the answer to that question. I do know though, that there’s only one way to save ourselves (or at least minimalize the possibility) from mind manipulation. Constant vigilance!

Author’s Note: Thanks to Yenny for the info. They’re very helpful! :>

First Thing's First 5/18/2006 08:32:00 AM

It was the 2006 FA Cup quarter-final and Manchester United played against Liverpool. Entering the second half of the match, United had already been 1-0 down. As time went by, I was becoming more anxious and more impatient, seeing that United hadn’t managed to produce the equalizing goal. The hope remained, though. And then, BAM!, Alan Smith fell with a very awkward position, dislocated his ankle, and broke his foot. Sounded scary, eh? United ended up losing the match.

The next day, as I was visiting a United discussion forum, I was prepared to see serial moaning from everyone. But apparently, instead of moaning and whining about the loss, people were more concern about Smith’s injury. Lots of people were wishing him good luck and hoping for a speedy recovery for him. It was very impressing, in my opinion.

What was so impressing about it? Because, in a competitive world where end result seem to be the only thing that matters, it’s good to see that football fans still value something other than merely a matter of winning (or losing). Passion, dedication, and determination—things that Smith had showed (for some people, it’s debatable; but I have my faith in him) ever since he moved to United—seem to be more important. The extent of his injury might have something to do with all the sympathy, but I doubt it if people would be just as sympathetic when the one injured was a player who showed less of those characteristics.

Now, what’s with Smithy’s injury and the aftermath, you might ask. Nothing much, except that it showed me that sometimes desperate measures are needed in order to realize what the most valuable, the most important thing is. Desperate measures which are unpleasant, to be exact. It took a badly injured player to appreciate his dedication, it took a war to value life’s worth, it took betrayal to respect loyalty, and so on. In other words, you often don’t know what you’ve got (or rather, how important it is) until it’s gone.

Of course, everyone has different agenda. Something that’s important to me can be entirely meaningless to others. Regardless of our different agenda, we have our conscience to guide us. If doing certain thing makes you uneasy, it’s definitely not important enough to begin with. If you’ve given your energy and dedication fully over something but you still feel there’s something missing, it might not be as important as you think. Some people have lost their conscience though. For these people, identifying what’s important and what’s not would probably be impossible. I could only feel sorry for them.

So, every time you’re going to do something, please consider this. Is it worth all the effort? Is it important enough? Is it going to make you happy with yourself in the long run? Or is it simply just a total waste of time?

Author’s Note: I know that the Smithy thing isn’t really befitting to the topic of “your most important...” (feel free to fill the blank with anything that you think appropriate). But since I love Manchester United Football Club and have wanted to mention something about United, I decided to insert some United-related stuff here. So, just bear with me....

My Personal Public Speaking Guide 5/12/2006 07:52:00 AM

I always consider myself as an expressive speaker. I use not only my words, but also all kinds of gesture and facial expression to emphasize my point. Nevertheless, I never regard myself highly when it comes to public speaking. The problem doesn’t lie on the crowd, it’s just that my personality seems to be more befitting to an intimate kind of talk instead of the public talk type.

There had been times when my attempts at public speaking produce quite satisfying results. On the other hand, there were other times when I completely humiliate myself by blabbing and stuttering; which was the case on Philosophy of Science class, yesterday. Every time I did that, I always made a mental note that next time I’d be calmer, more composed, and certainly wouldn’t make a fool of myself in front of people. Unfortunately, mental note apparently is inadequate, hence yesterday’s incident. So, I decide to write a little something here: My personal guide to public speaking as an attempt to prevent any embarrassing episode in the future.

Step 1:
Understand the topic
It might sound very obvious, but it’s not as simple as that in practice. Speaking in public without proper understanding of the subject being talked is the first step towards total humiliation. If some things remain unclear, please spend some time to do a little bit of research on the subject prior to the occasion. The most important thing, make sure that I get the main point or in more stylish words: catch the essence. Understanding the subject would also make me more prepared for anything, including tricky questions from the audience. Of course, accidents could happen anytime. Out of nowhere, someone could ask me to deliver a material, unprepared. When that happened, just hope and pray that everything wouldn’t be too humiliating.

Step 2:
Make a mind-map
To transfer ideas to others, a mere understanding isn’t enough. Knowing how to transfer those ideas are just as important. Therefore, list all the things I wish to say and figure out how to tell them. For example, if I’m trying to inform people about pathophysiological aspect of bird-flue, should I make a brief intro about timeline of the disease or should I get on with the disease itself? Things like that. I’m not into practice-speaking, which we try to formulate all the things we’re going to say in words. It’s kind of limiting my creativity and flexibility in transferring the ideas. Besides, my successful performances in the past weren’t relied on practice-speaking prior to the presentation. So, I guess practice-speaking isn’t vital anyway. Just make sure that I know what and how.

Step 3:
Don’t get all smarty
Don’t say anything that I don’t exactly understand. For example, don’t use the word “fundamental” if I don’t know what fundamental means; if I’m not really sure how corona virus influence T-cells in SARS patient, don’t mention it. Don’t say things that too far out of the context just so people would be impressed. I don’t like people who show off, so I expect myself to not show off as well—even if I have the chance to. Besides, being all smarty doesn’t bring any good most of the times, it even got me into a worse situation (like being completely dumbfounded by a certain question concerning something that I’m not really know of, something that I confidently mentioned before).

Step 4:
Control the pace
My definition of a successful presentation involves the implementation of step 1-3. But this one, controlling my speaking pace, has always been a problem. I tend to speak very fast that it takes a fast thinking process as well to comprehend what I’m trying to say. In that sense, I make it difficult for people to easily understand my point. On the other hand, talking too fast also makes it difficult for me to synchronize my thought and my speech. The result: stuttering. Really, that makes me look like a total dork. So, please, just slow down a little.

Step 5:
Sweep the whole audience
Look at them all. Don’t focus my view on to certain imaginary point in front of me. It makes me look as if I am intimidated by the crowd; an impression that I certainly don’t want to give out to people. Hostile crowd would see that as a sign of the speaker’s lack of credibility. After that, they would try their very best to finish me off. Of course, I wouldn’t want that.

Hopefully, I will never ever humiliate myself again in front of people after this. Fingers crossed!