Power of Suggestion

Society Religion & Philosophy
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***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 whatsoever. They are merely suggestions passed on to us in childhood and they become a part of us and who we are and how we evolve.

Similarly later in life when one can exercise free will one can still be influenced by mere power of suggestion.

So are we merely puppets in the hands of those who exercise the power to suggest ?

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Re: Power of Suggestion

Excellent!

Those who constantly question the influence of these suggestions are better in many ways (not always) than those who do not.

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Re: Power of Suggestion

No and yes ... we are not puppets, but we each face differing situations. For those people who can discern will do, the ones who when given ideas just have to make up more ground if their disposition was disadvantaged, i.e. that those ideas are further from the facts

It is an iterative process.

We should be able to get closer to truth through a systematic process of trial and error, testing and hypothesising. The limiting factors for each individual will be:

a) Capability
b) The ideas initially fed (Inertia)
c) Opportunity to do so

Is this just another idea and not the truth? I don't know, I guess it needs to be tested.

In the Qur'an we are told that we are in disadvantage and this may be one of the reasons. Beliefs are more important than facts anyway.

Also we can conclude that those who exercise power of suggestion on others can be aware of when it is done so on themselves. I think brother diwana has stated a truth ...

Putting it another way:

To be released from the external powers of suggestion, we need to practice the internal powers of question.

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Peace Psyah!

Yes, and without questioning the outside influences we really become puppets.

Scenario 1: At the conscious level.

When we are young, we are asked to accept many things in life by our elders (parents, relatives, media and teachers) but there is always some degree of doubt in the minds which does and should become stronger as we age and go through the experiences of lives, interactions with others and observations of surroundings.

Scenario2: At the subconscious level

There will always be some degree of mental acceptance however to what is learned during our early days.

It is interesting to note that those who question and perhaps criticize their parents or elders in young age do unconsciously start acting the similar ways when they get to the same age.

I remember reading a novel/story a while ago where this boy did not like his father and his father had the habit of biting nails and when he became older, he wore similar glasses, parted his hair the same way, assuming similar posture while sitting at the table and started biting nails subconsciously while thinking deeply. He became like his father weather or not he liked him while he was young.

*What we really are, is perhaps some combination of both scenarios.
*

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Perhaps we begin like seeds, in whose nature a certain inclination to grow is instilled; that we should become whichever plant our initial gardeners hoped us to be.

I firmly believe that we can defy this and grow to be something else... it's just a matter of taking a long, objective look at our own fundamental biases and gauging the origins and rationale of even the most trite of our beliefs. We have to decide for ourselves- consulting not the standards we've been trained to judge by, but what our souls themselves incline to- what direction we want to head, and prune our ideas accordingly. Sometimes that does require unlearning what we've been taught in our most impressionable moments; to unsuggest to our minds many of the ideas that have been introduced there... but given the right amount of self-awareness, this is entirely possible.

One of the most beautiful aspects of this existence is the degree of free will God has given us... Subhan'Allah, it makes all the difference.

In the end, we shouldn't ever be anyone else's puppets... we should be our own puppeteers! :)

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This is your first post.
Welcome to this forum if you are new. :-)
I can be wrong but it seems I may know you by your writing. :-)

The first sentence/paragraph did not make sense and was not needed, and you corrected it in your second bold sentence. I really liked your second paragraph.

The last sentence is also good.

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I’ve been lurking for a while but yeah, this was my first time posting…

Thanks for the critique. =) You have an insightful way of dissecting things.

Really, you might know me? Yipes… Please elaborate. :salute:

Punjabi Thread
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Re: Power of Suggestion

This, indeed, is a good question though with a signature of confusion, and of course most, if not all, of us are confused about one thing or the other pertaining to human nature, specific personality traits and above all freedom to exercise proverbial freedom.

With the first spark of neural activity our brain collects information, accumulate knowledge to infer from. We learn from the environment we live in, from the behavior of people close to us, we register dichotomies in ideals, hypocrisy in behavior, anomalies and irrelevance of generally accepted truth and manipulative strength of lies. We get inspired by people who know what we don’t and try to bring many into our circle of inspiration. All those who get inspiration from us are considered our subjects, a manifestation of social or intellectual power, a sense of satisfaction for a Pharaoh that lives in us. At the same time a Moses is wide awake in us, ready to rumble, ready to knock down any Pharaoh other than one that we harbor deep inside us.

We see existence of many gods, gods that we create, gods we bow down to; mortal gods ephemeral just like the desires that create them. We are born as angles in the world full of devils and die as a devil. We stand accountable for the personality traits ingrained into us, a test of self cure and resilience that man chose for him. Indeed man is at loss.

We are what we are, from the pigments that dictate the color of our skin to the genetic geometry that we inherit from a couple; helpless to decide the inception, we dare to control the extinction; we question the integrity of the integral when question of next breath is questionable. W e cry to exercise freedom for ourselves and with the same breath want an exclusive denial of the same freedom for other people, we want a share of fortunes in the pockets of other people but don’t allow a share of our own pie of good fortune.

We are what we are and we are what we ought not to be<!--Session data-->

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Thanks. It’s your writing only which made me think I may know you. But like I said I might be wrong. :slight_smile:

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