I was working with a young film maker the other day who told me he ‘didn’t want to learn too much’, just in case he became troubled about the world through this potential new-found knowledge. Well, I guess I can understand that. I used to feel the same. When you open your eyes and look past the automatic thoughts that adults, society, government, TV, the internet offer you it’s difficult sometimes to see past the ‘noise’ of intellectual chatter – that goes double for bad boy posturing and girly gossip (or vice versa).
The thing I’ve found over the years is that you will inevitably get caught in cognitive traps – believing what other people tell you when you know through either experience, knowledge or insight that the belief in question is either just plain wrong or a little bit fuzzy round the middle. And you will stress about things whatever your level of intellect. So here’s my best advice to cope with the fear of overload:
Test yourself. Put yourself in a situation that scares you, regularly. That way you’ll raise the stakes on what you call stress and cope with overload more easily. Say ‘fuck it’ regularly. Find something you think is really important and just shout out ‘Fuck it!’ Go on try it you’ll feel better for it. Now do that for the rest of the day. Sometimes you just need to cut yourself a break and let go. This western mantra is simply the Buddhist principle of ‘letting go’ if that makes you feel any better. It doesn’t? Well fuck it anyway! Disrupt patterns. If you always catch the bus to school, walk it for a change. Then take a different route every day. If you only ever wear assassin black, try something pink. Go on be bold. It’s been shown that insight comes from allowing multiple pathways for understanding to be built in the brain. The most adaptive types of people (successful types if you’re into self-help) use multiple maps of the territory in order to be most effective. Try this: if you’re an atheist go to church for a month. If you’re religious go without god and be a moral being without a handy checklist for a month. If you always argue, let the other person win for a whole day. If you’re always serious learn a cheesy joke every day and then tell it to someone! Watch what happens. It’s true because… If someone tells you something and it just doesn’t ring true, say a politician with a new stat, a new medical break through, some well-worn piece of economics dogma, a, conspiracy theory, whatever. Then go and find out for yourself what is true. I tried this first with a a secretive group of people called the Bilderbergers who, depending on who you read were either the secret rulers of the world or a piece of disinformation invented by the CIA. Neither were true, but they do exist and wield a lot of power. But this little gem will work for you with any part of life. Sometimes you’ll find out that nobody knows the answer but by asking questions you may, and that then makes you the expert.
In summary: find things out for yourself, disrupt patterns, say ‘Fuck it’ and let go, test yourself and know your abilities.
In my ongoing microexpressions and Forensic Emotional Awareness training, as per the hit show Lie to Me, I came across this fleeting microexpression from Tony Blair during the Leveson Enquiry in the first second of this video (hint: you can click the image for a bigger size).
00.01 I didn't concede on policy at all
This one-sided smile is a clear sign of contempt mixed with pleasure. Contempt can, after all, be pleasurable. But is Mr Blair lying here? Difficult to say as we can’t say for certain what he is expressing contempt for, long-forgotten battles, the question, himself or the interrogator perhaps?
What is certain is that many politicians, at all levels, are adept at manipulating the truth, often for political reasons, sometimes because of hidden motives and sometimes just to hide their expenses. So, over the next few weeks I’m going to up my game and dissect the Leveson enquiry and participants, many of whom are adept manipulators of public opinion.
That’s a writer’s way of saying professional liars. Do forgive me.
Tony Blair, for example is a well polished performer. His famously stilting speech patterns, which were a form of controlling what gets processed by the listener’s brain, are curiously absent here. I’ll cover how that speech pattern works in another post. But, just watch the next two minutes of video below and you’ll see a range of mixed emotions, and then we find this little gem after the protestor breaks in to make his claims.
Mr Blair tries to defend himself. First, he says: “I’ve never had a discussion with them (JP Morgan) about that (the bribery accusations).”
Then just after 02.20 we see the following unconscious smile start as he says: “Or any relationship between them and Irag…” And by the time he’s finished this sentence, he’s turned away to hide the smile and what appears to be a momentary cheek flush. Here it is in four frames grabbed in quick succession.
02.21 No smile baseline
02.22-3 Smile begins
02.23-4-The turn away
02.24 back in control post blush
So, is Mr Blair lying here? Again context is everything, he could just be embarrassed at feeling he needs to answer a protestor’s accusations, or he could be hiding something after all.
Then just before Leveson says, “You’re entitled to say what you want,” there’s this little flash of anger:
02.28 You're entitled to say what you want
Note the rolled in lips, a tell-tale sign of anger, and what Dr Paul Ekman calls a very “reliable muscle” as it’s hard to do consciously. But anger at what? Initially my politician-sceptical bias made me think it was Blair reacting to Leveson’s interruption and taking offence. But is that my bias, what was really happening, or something else? I’ll be taking a masterclass on this later in the year with Ekman International and hopefully after that I’ll have a clear structure for getting to the heart of it.
There’s also a possible mix of surprise in this last frame, note the raised brows and the jaw drop (mouth closed).
You can watch the full video below or check out the press release from the original YouTube video-poster on Blair’s relationship with JP Morgan.
In 24 hours, our leaders may wave through a terrifying Merkel/Sarkozy plan that would abolish our right to choose sane economic policies. But, together, we can stop our leaders trashing our democracy and our jobs. Panicked by big banks, Europe’s governments want to change our constitutions and the EU treaty to permanently ban vital public spending. This is nuts: in the 1930s such spending was precisely what allowed Europe and the US to escape the Great Depression. Europe needs to toughen up and regulate the banks, not tie our governments’ hands to make them happy. We live in a democracy — so Europe’s leaders should not be able agree to this plan themselves — they need to come up with solutions that have the approval of the people or our Parliament. We only have 24 hours to save our democracies from this attack — our massive call today can force leaders to respect democracy, regulate the banks, reject austerity, and invest in our future. Our demands will be delivered to the leaders and media outside tomorrow’s meeting. Sign and send to everyone you know before the meeting!
They want to stop borrowing in an economic system that requires it for any country to remain solvent. Unless you zero all unrepayable debt, it’s meaningless.
Want to do something about it? click here for the Avaaz petition.
And remember the Bilderbergers, an unelected business and political elite make up the Presidium of the EU Parliament – the steering committee that guides the whole thing. Look up the Bilderberg attendance lists and then cross reference with the Presidium membership. An unelected bunch of suits telling another unelected bunch of suits what to think and do. And they come up with…debt slavery. Either at a low rate of return or a high one.
An update to my previous post as I still get asked questions about this all the time. These are some of the pictures taken at Bilderberg 2004 (a long time ago now), mainly names and faces of those attending this secretive meeting. Just click any image below to go to the gallery and the reference pages for the attendees.
You can also find out more about their history and future meetings on the following three links: 1 | 2 | 3
This is the piece that sparked a new direction in my life. I was working with AC Milan in Italy and heard the a real life conspiracy theory was going on just up the road in Stresa, so I headed out with my camera and notepad for three days to find out if there was any basis in reality for the theories on the web: secret world government, ruling cabal, or benign private business meeting?
Call it what you like, but it exists in a high security environment where the heads of business meet with the movers and shakers of the political world. The story ended up in the Sunday papers in Europe and the photos all over the web and in various US publications.
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Writer, Entrepreneur, Speaker, Father.
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