Power of Suggestion
I stumbled upon an article on the power of suggestion that I found really interesting. I’ll share some excerpts:
People are not aware that they act almost entirely under suggestion. From our birth we are surrounded by those who suggest certain ideas to us as being true, and we follow these suggested ideas. There is very little original thought anywhere, and particularly is this true in those lines to which the public pays the most attention — that is, politics, religion, science. Whatever system of thought is presented to us, that we adopt. We follow the suggestion given, with no attempt to reach to the basis of that which is suggested. The foundation upon which the suggestion rests is taken for granted, even in the most important things in life.
How scary is that? I find it disturbingly easy to relate to as well. I’d say 99.9% of the things I’ve believed at any point in my life were not original thoughts of mine but rather the thoughts of others who either suggested I believe them as well (example: religion from parents or liberal-leaning beliefs when I got to college) or were from someone I admired and therefore chose to mimic their beliefs in hopes that I too would become a person admired by others (the examples of this are countless).
Those who are born into any particular sect ought to know this. With our first sense of understanding, ideas are presented to us, instilled into our minds as absolute facts. We proceed from that basis, and however long it is followed, no true understanding or conclusion can be reached. What do we know of the truth or falsity of these ideas when presented to us in childhood? Nothing whatever. What do our parents and teachers know of them? Nothing whatever. They have merely passed on to us the suggestions which they received in childhood and which have operated in them cumulatively ever since.
One reason I’m really thankful for having poker in my life is that it taught me the necessity of thinking for yourself. When I first starting playing, I can honestly say that I had absolutely zero original thoughts. All of my poker-based (and for that matter, life-based) decisions came from following someone else’s suggestions, in this case, the poker strategy articles on PokerTips.org. At some point along my poker playing career, I learned to have the courage to have thoughts of my own and risk money based on those thoughts. I think this training carried over to non-poker facets of life very well. This is why I hold the opinion that highly successful poker players, although “only” card players, are probably some of the brightest people in society. They have to be bright, thinking individuals otherwise they would have never gotten to where they are in the poker pyramid.
As we look the field over, we find that we are all prey to the power of suggestion in every direction.
This power of suggestion must still be used, whatever line may be pointed out to us. If Truth exists and is possible to us — the Truth in religion, science and philosophy — it must first come to us by suggestion from Those who know. If it were not possible for this to be done, were not possible for us to avail ourselves of it, then there would be no use talking of these things. But when the true is suggested to us, there is always a means presented by which we may see and verify it. That means is not in anyone’s authority or endorsement, but in the fact that we can perceive it and test it for ourselves. The final authority is the man himself.
The very power of Divinity — the power of choice — is in each one of us. When we begin to understand that, we get the first clue to our own immortality. So we may see that That which lives and thinks in man is the Eternal Pilgrim. If you prefer to to use the term God, you may say, “So many men on earth, so many Gods in heaven.”
Power of suggestion is not just a trick used by hypnotists during magic shows, it’s literally the driving force behind almost everything that everyone thinks and believes!
Related links: Pondering the Power of Suggestion: An Experiment
Update on this: just saw a pretty great example of the power of suggestion. In the movie Funny People, very good by the way, rent it, Adam Sandler’s character has a scene at the piano where he sings to the audience that when he dies he will not miss them. He proceeds to call them co**suckers and tells them not to visit his grave. What does the audience do? Laugh and applaud. There’s two different suggestions being made in this scene that enabled the audience to applaud while being verbally open-palm bitch slapped by a comedian. One, he was using a funny tone when he said it. Amazing what you can get away saying as long as the tone in which you say it is acceptable. Two, it was a celebrity doing the talking. The audience was basically in a state of trance where they were willing to go along with anything he said, up to and including applauding him for outwardly insulting them to their faces.
Granted, this was just a scene in a movie, but as I watched it, it easily made sense to me that such a situation could occur in real life under the right circumstances.
Anyway, I just thought that was one of the more powerful examples of the power of suggestion I’ve seen in a while and think it makes a nice amendment to this post.
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Aren’t you just following the suggestion of the article writer at newsvine?
Of course. But I believe him to be right. I mean, that’s pretty much all life is, right? We hear something and decide whether or not we feel/believe it for ourselves to be true. And occasionally, in rare moments, we come up with an original thought that others get to decide if they want to believe.