As an outsider i am surprised by the fact that all along this very good writings nowhere is questioned the cost of change. Getting a totally new belief, one that is not dissonant, needs zero analysis, is costless and easy to integrate. Think children they believe everything they are told right ? Lack of criticism or simply lack of already existing dissonant fragments ? Being grown up, we accumulated a tons of fact, and we grow strong bond with them because we experimented them IRL, intuitively, they work, hard stuff. To question those believe must require a ton of energy, because if it happens this is true, it become a matter of survival, which is very important to each and one of us. But then we also always consider the cost of change. Fact X might be true, but acting might cost twice more, therefore, the body (or the brain if you like) has zero incentive to spend additional energy updating the belief and acting accordingly.

Though, do i believe what i wrote, or was i already hardwired to write this reading that ? mind twisting is a fun activity

that begs the question, do you believe the beliefs you believed you believe ?

great posting, thanks for it.

When I went through the E.D. for a kidney stone, I was admittedly having a huge agonizing wave of abdominal pain and it was visibly uncomfortable, causing me to writhe about and moan. Nonetheless, I was nonplussed when an injection of some sort was administered. Then, the nurse who did it hissed at me: "this is like an NSAID on Crack!" and I was just appalled that a HCP in her professional capacity would just refer to a "dangerous illegal" drug in order to explain how a legal one worked.

The pain went away in short order, likely because the stone itself had passed, and again I was sort of pissed at whatever treatments were being given, because the pain was so transitory, all I really needed was some reassurance that the worst would be over soon.

This has always haunted my conscience in regards to pain-relieving drugs: how to know they worked? how to know it was the drug effect and not a remission of pain itself? how to know when to stop taking them?! YOU CAN'T!!!

Many people seem to be more sensitive to their belief in a drug's properties than in the drug itself. Others trust the doctor, and therefore whatever the doctor prescribes is accepted transitively. I mistrust everything uniformly, and so eventually any medication-based therapy needs to cease, because they all suck!