Our brain exists fundamentally to help us survive and get us what we need and want in life. It is always listening for instructions. Since our inner voice is closest to our command center, the messages and instructions sent by our private voice will likely have the greatest opportunity for impact on the decisions we make. Our inner voice (IV) is analogous to an intravenous (IV) drip directly into the brain.
Advice and instructions are typically sent via words. Words, the meanings they represent, and the frequency of use create a narrative, one that goes from ourselves to ourselves. Every message creates a unique bioelectrical impulse, and repeated messages get the most neurological traction. This happens because a substance called myelin, a fatty sheath that insulates pathways in the brain, coats the most frequently used neural connections so that the electrical impulses can pass more easily and efficiently.
The brain assumes that frequently repeated messages are central to what we really need and want and to our survival, so it doubles down on making sure those messages get through as quickly and seamlessly as possible. If the same message keeps reappearing, the brain assumes it must be important.
So here is the critical question: How do we prevent false, biased, deceptive, contaminated data, and half‐truths, distorted facts, outright lies, and falsehoods of all kinds from getting access to our control center and co‐opting our decision‐making process? In other words, how do we grow and strengthen our gatekeeping skills?
The reason this issue is so important is that once faulty or defective data gains access to our inner core, our ability to make sound judgments and good decisions will likely be compromised, with the result being that Y.O.D.A. cannot be fully trusted. (See Figure 6.1.)
Protecting Y.O.D.A. means controlling the flow of information that gets through to the command center of the person. There are four primary controllable sources of informational input:
The vital fact is that you can exert considerable influence over all of these sources of input. You can consciously control what you say to yourself and the tone in which you say it. You can also control what you say publicly, what you read or watch, and what you listen to.
Humans have the capacity to immediately block some incoming messages, and others are only allowed access after careful scrutiny. The rapid, rigid, automatic blocking of information into our command center is called Stage 1 control, and conscious discernment prior to entry is called Stage 2 control.
It is in Stage 2 that the information can still be analyzed, fact‐checked, and carefully scrutinized before full access is granted or denied. Stage 1 and Stage 2 control are essentially regulated by our inner voice, and the more skillful our inner voice is in opening and closing the gates at the appropriate times, the better prepared Y.O.D.A. can be in making wise and thoughtful decisions.
Television advertisers employ highly ingenious strategies to get viewers to lower their resistance to whatever is being sold. In other words, they aim to erode a person's Stage 2 control. Instinctively fast‐forwarding through a TV commercial is Stage 1 control, and consciously setting aside new incoming information so it can be further analyzed is Stage 2 control. Famous celebrities are paid to endorse a product or service, a relaxing and soothing nature scene is portrayed in the background, inspirational music plays, well‐known actors and actresses exude great joy and happiness—all of this is designed to get you to suspend your skepticism and open the gate to your command center.
All sales programs, no matter their shape or size, employ a specific and targeted strategy to override the inner gatekeeper's capacity to be discerning. The goal is to remove any and all obstacles to completing the sales transaction by gaining access to the inner you. Call it salesmanship, mind control, or subtle coercion, the key is always gaining access to the central core of the person. And since one's inner voice emanates directly from the command center of the person, it is the inner voice itself that holds the keys to the kingdom.
Because our inner voice most closely represents how we really think and feel about someone or something, it's as close to the real person as is humanly possible. Controlling an individual's public speech is but one important step in gaining control of the ultimate prize: our inner speech.
Resistance is the refusal to adopt or accept something as true. Simply because we say something publicly does not mean that we actually believe it to be true. It also may not reflect how we actually feel on the inside. It's much easier to conceal our inner voice than it is our public voice.
When our public and private voices are fully aligned, the result is sincerity and authenticity. However, when our public and private voices are aligned with a potentially tragic decision, the deal is basically done. Our capacity for critical thinking and independent thought in that area is all but lost. To be clear, resistance is waged successfully or unsuccessfully at the level of our inner voice. Protecting our core from faulty data represents one of the most important battles we face as human beings. Connecting to the world in the way it actually exists demands we fight and win the battle for truth every day.
Truth Traps
When we suspect incoming data is biased, deceptive, tainted, or corrupted, we must protect our Y.O.D.A. from being infected at all costs. And the greatest weapon we have in our defense arsenal is conscious awareness. The more we are consciously aware of the methods being used by others to control our thoughts and behavior, the greater resistance we can mobilize within ourselves to contain it.
The more we think a thought, regardless of its grounding in truth, the easier it is to access and the more real it is to us. In other words, it becomes our own personalized objective truth.
Debunking a bogus fact requires considerably more energy than accepting it as true. Conserving energy is a powerful influencer in our fight for fact‐based truth. Mental laziness leads to laziness in interpreting the truth. When we hear others repeatedly embracing a belief, whether faulty or not, we are more inclined to accept it as true. And, unfortunately, when our gut tells us something is true, we're less likely to challenge its veracity. However, research has repeatedly shown that our gut can be completely wrong! Visceral feelings and emotions are intuitively based and do not necessarily represent the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They may represent the reality of how you feel but may not in fact represent the world as it actually exists. Just because a juror instinctively or intuitively feels a defendant is guilty in no way should be considered a measure of that defendant’s guilt.
Here are some additional challenges we all face (including those listed in the introduction):
Human beings are fiction writers. Our brains are superb at concocting stories that allow us to do what we want and not feel badly about ourselves. To reiterate, we are not first and foremost rational creatures but rather emotional creatures who have the capacity to be rational. Our emotions run the show in life, and our capacity for logical thinking serves to moderate the flow of emotion. Every thought produces an emotion within milliseconds. Meaning and purpose in life come from the union of emotion and rational thought. Life without emotion would be colorless and empty. Life without rational thought would leave us completely at the mercy of moment‐to‐moment inner emotions and their accompanying outward‐facing feelings.
Sound and responsible decision‐making requires that Stage 1 and Stage 2 control be activated at all times.