Jump to content

Dual processing


Marethyu

Recommended Posts

Hey guys!^^

I wonder if anyone of you ever read "The Kingkiller Chronicles" by Pat Rothfuss? In the first book a special thinking method is mentioned, called "Alar", or "riding-crop belief". To put it short, it means to believe in something fully. For example, if I'd throw a stone in the air, I would have to believe that the stone will keep floating upwards. I'd have to believe in it as much as I believed that it would fall down. And then something was mentioned, along the lines of: "And now, believe that the stone falls down, and that it floats upwards." Later on we get to know that Kvothe, the protagonist managed to do that. One part of his mind believed that the stone would float, the other part believed that the stone would fall down. Do you guys think it'd be possible to do that? It sounds like one of the perks of having a tupper: the dual processing part. Just without actually having a tupper.

-Maru

Link to comment
Share on other sites

At first, thanks for the answers. Has anyone any idea if doublethinking really works? I didn't find a thing about how to achieve it, so are there tutorials somewhere? Or has anyone here an idea on how to do that?

-Maru

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You might be interested in the novel 1984. Really, I think the novel kinda sucks, but it's where the term "doublethink" comes from, and it has some interesting examples.

 

In my own life, I've seen doublethink most often in my grandparents. They're Christian Scientists -- not scientists that are Christian, but members of a religion called Christian Science. The old joke is that Christian Science is like grapenuts -- it's neither Christian nor science.

 

The basic tenet of Christian Science is that God is perfect, and thus all of God's creations are perfect, and since everything was created by God, that means that everything is perfect. Thus, everything that seems to be imperfect, such as injury, disease, and death, is an illusion.

 

So back when I was a teenager and before I had given up on the debate, my conversations with my grandparents about Christian Science would go something like this:

 

"If injury / disease / death / anything isn't real, why do we experience it?"

"It's an illusion / a dream / we're hypnotized."

"If we're perfect, how can we be deceived like that?"

"Our perfect spiritual minds aren't deceived. Only mortal mind is deceived."

"If God created anything, he must have created mortal mind, and thus mortal mind must be perfect too."

"There is no mortal mind. It's an illusion / a dream / we're hypnotized."

 

And we went in circles like that for years until I read 1984 and realized they were programmed like this, and there was no changing it with logic or rational thought.

 

Mark Twain wrote a humorous piece on Christian Science, because the religion was founded during his lifetime. In the piece, the protagonist suffers a serious injury, and as there are no doctors available, he sends for a Christian Scientist. She makes a house visit in which she explains that there is no such thing as pain:

 

"A thing which is unreal cannot exercise the functions of reality. Pain is unreal; hence, pain cannot hurt."

 

In making a sweeping gesture to indicate the act of shooing the illusion of pain out of the mind, she raked her hand on a pin in her dress, said "Ouch!" and went tranquilly on with her talk.

 

My grandparents do the same thing all the time. Their religion completely turns off when they're discussing the problems with their car, or how much they hate the president, or how cold it is that day -- they never once consider that all of these things are impossible according to their religion.

 


 

So how do you do doublethink? Well, I found some interesting articles here. I don't entirely agree with the author on it, but it's still interesting. I think it's a matter of telling yourself that you believe, and behaving as if you believe, until eventually you forget that you don't.

"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...