Psychic Hygiene - How the Content You Consume Changes You

[A Jay]

Psychic hygiene is a topic that the C's have mentioned on several occasions as being important. However, this recommendation to be careful of and vigilant about what we consume has taken on a new meaning for me after listening to this YouTuber break down all the ways in which fiction can lead to changes in opinion, beliefs, personality, cognitive abilities, and even our perception of reality.

A while ago the YouTube algorithm recommended the channel The Second Story to me, specifically this video on how using AI has a detrimental effect on our ability to think and be creative. I highly recommend it as she articulates all the ways in which handing over any thinking over to AI leads to a corresponding decrease in cognitive function.

She's certainly not the first person to point out the dangers of letting machines take over our lives. I recently read The Glass Cage and while the book is 12 years old and the focus was on automation more broadly, it nevertheless covered a lot of similar ground as The Second Story's video in that the more we let machines do things for us the less we're able to do for ourselves. Setting aside that she's not the first person to point out the dangers of AI, I found her perspective to be a fresh and thought provoking one.

Bringing it back to the point of this thread, she made another video recently that I thought was even more worth sharing because while we can all notice the way consistently using AI makes us more dependent on AI, it's not so obvious how the media (books, tv shows, movies, and even news) we consume can effect our opinions, beliefs, and so on.

It's probably the best primer/explanation for why psychic hygiene is important I've yet to come across and as I said at the beginning the term has taken on a broadened and deepened definition for me thanks to this video. Wanted to share it with others in case anyone else wanted a less esoteric and more practical understanding of what psychic hygiene actually is and why it's important.

The thumbnail for the video states, "You are what you read." It's worse than that and she goes into great detail how and why this is the case, but that's the essence of it.

Anyways, here it is:

 

[Alejo]

Bringing it back to the point of this thread, she made another video recently that I thought was even more worth sharing because while we can all notice the way consistently using AI makes us more dependent on AI, it's not so obvious how the media (books, tv shows, movies, and even news) we consume can effect our opinions, beliefs, and so on.

It's probably the best primer/explanation for why psychic hygiene is important I've yet to come across and as I said at the beginning the term has taken on a broadened and deepened definition for me thanks to this video. Wanted to share it with others in case anyone else wanted a less esoteric and more practical understanding of what psychic hygiene actually is and why it's important.

That's very interesting,

Thanks for sharing, I will give it a watch as it's a bit longer. But the first ten minutes were rather interesting, specially when she speaks about fiction in video games, and it's the fact of knowing you're experiencing fiction that makes it non detrimental in the same way believing a that what you're watching is real would.

I have come to think lately that given the amount of trash content being pushed out daily by AI, people will eventually loose a taste for it, and some of their creative capacity, and the void created by it will mean that we are going to have to write our own stories.

AI promises clean cut and perfect lighting, perfect pitch and dictation, properly structured sentences and paragraphs, but I think people will actually begin to prefer the imperfect because it will remind them of their own humanity.

 

[3DStudent]

That was interesting. I was thinking that I need some positive dissociation recently, maybe just a movie or short series. I was always visually sensitive as a kid and then was desensitized by games and movies. These days I still am and flinch when a character gets hit or shot. And it was really hard to view some recently posted body modifications.

She was basically promoting networking in recommending discussing fiction so that you know whether some behaviors are acceptable or not. So I guess book clubs and the like are a good thing for that.

I feel like I didn't remember new vocabulary words well in school or even now, as if I had hit a sort of limit. Or sometimes I find I was using a word wrong the whole time and had my own subjective meaning for it.

Maybe I'll check out the AI video, to see if I'm abusing it as of now (don't really think so). I noticed stress can really affect your cognitive abilities. And I noticed that Mind+ plasmalogens helps a lot in that regard, as I recently stopped taking it after some months and am significantly but not catastrophically forgetful.

 

[Ollie]

Psychic hygiene is a topic that the C's have mentioned on several occasions as being important. However, this recommendation to be careful of and vigilant about what we consume has taken on a new meaning for me after listening to this YouTuber break down all the ways in which fiction can lead to changes in opinion, beliefs, personality, cognitive abilities, and even our perception of reality.

A while ago the YouTube algorithm recommended the channel The Second Story to me, specifically this video on how using AI has a detrimental effect on our ability to think and be creative. I highly recommend it as she articulates all the ways in which handing over any thinking over to AI leads to a corresponding decrease in cognitive function.

She's certainly not the first person to point out the dangers of letting machines take over our lives. I recently read The Glass Cage and while the book is 12 years old and the focus was on automation more broadly, it nevertheless covered a lot of similar ground as The Second Story's video in that the more we let machines do things for us the less we're able to do for ourselves. Setting aside that she's not the first person to point out the dangers of AI, I found her perspective to be a fresh and thought provoking one.

Bringing it back to the point of this thread, she made another video recently that I thought was even more worth sharing because while we can all notice the way consistently using AI makes us more dependent on AI, it's not so obvious how the media (books, tv shows, movies, and even news) we consume can effect our opinions, beliefs, and so on.

It's probably the best primer/explanation for why psychic hygiene is important I've yet to come across and as I said at the beginning the term has taken on a broadened and deepened definition for me thanks to this video. Wanted to share it with others in case anyone else wanted a less esoteric and more practical understanding of what psychic hygiene actually is and why it's important.

The thumbnail for the video states, "You are what you read." It's worse than that and she goes into great detail how and why this is the case, but that's the essence of it.

Anyways, here it is:

In my opinion, it is not so much what you read, rather it is what, or how, you interpret what you read, and from that, how you make it your own understanding, and from there, putting it into your own words, rather than using the words that were first read. So, for me, 'you are your own understanding of what you read'. In that way you have made it your own.

That was interesting. I was thinking that I need some positive dissociation recently, maybe just a movie or short series. I was always visually sensitive as a kid and then was desensitized by games and movies. These days I still am and flinch when a character gets hit or shot. And it was really hard to view some recently posted body modifications.

She was basically promoting networking in recommending discussing fiction so that you know whether some behaviors are acceptable or not. So I guess book clubs and the like are a good thing for that.

I feel like I didn't remember new vocabulary words well in school or even now, as if I had hit a sort of limit. Or sometimes I find I was using a word wrong the whole time and had my own subjective meaning for it.

Maybe I'll check out the AI video, to see if I'm abusing it as of now (don't really think so). I noticed stress can really affect your cognitive abilities. And I noticed that Mind+ plasmalogens helps a lot in that regard, as I recently stopped taking it after some months and am significantly but not catastrophically forgetful.

As for knowing what behaviors are acceptable or not, remember to avoid your own cognative biases getting in the way.

Stress certainly does affect your cognative abilities. Personally, I have always had a bad memory. A rolfer that I used a few years back, suggested to a colleague that she thought that I may have experienced some trauma in my early life (of which I have a no conscious memory): the trauma is buried deep inside, and expresses itself in my body fascia, how I hold myself, and how I interact with others.

 

[Bluegazer]

After watching the entire video, I think I can say that I strongly agree with everything she’s said. However, I’d like to add something from a more ontological perspective. The point is: which IDEA do you align with? We already know that there are root ideas (archetypes/divine names) that are STO or STS. Or rather, the thought centers.

This makes me think that, depending on what you align yourself with most—and based on your own inner nature—you channel or manifest that idea. That’s why what you read is what you become. So it’s no longer just about what you consume, but what you CHOOSE. What you choose to let into your life—and what you don’t. And here we see that people in general, when passively consuming fiction, do not use their free will to choose because they have not developed it, or their discernment has been degraded.

What does this have to do with psychic hygiene? Depending on our inner nature and natural inclinations, if the ideas we consume are completely at odds with who we are, it is, on some level, a sin against our own soul. I would say that psychic hygiene is the maintenance and repair of the soul....​

 

[Wandering Star]

Bringing it back to the point of this thread, she made another video recently that I thought was even more worth sharing because while we can all notice the way consistently using AI makes us more dependent on AI, it's not so obvious how the media (books, tv shows, movies, and even news) we consume can effect our opinions, beliefs, and so on.

That is exactly its function.

Programming people in their ideas and beliefs which create reality.

Those of us who are of a certain age and have lived many years without mobile phones (even less so smart ones) have an advantage when it comes to using technology.

When I tell someone that I don't have my mobile phone data enabled, that I only use it to receive calls, they look at me like I'm a weirdo.