Truth Be Told … Fukushima Lies
The Times, Oct. 6, 2013: Japan admits it needs help to plug radioactive leaks […] Japan’s Prime Minister has asked the international community for help in containing radioactive leaks from the Fukushima nuclear plant, a month after promising the International Olympic Committee that the problem was under control. Shinzo Abe told an international Japanese Government knows exactly what is going on.
TEPCO knows exactly what is going on. Lying has been the information method of choice.
How do you know when you hear or read the truth???
This is a critical question on two levels …
- For your own safety and sanity it is imperative to know when someone is speaking (or writing) truthfully, and when they are being deceptive or deceptively manipulative.
- If you know how you experience “THE TRUTH” then you know something about what it sounds like, looks like and feels like … and you will be able to present yourself and your ideas so others will hear them as truth
N.B. – Before I jump ahead I want to point out something I believe absolutely …
All human beings have built in B.S. meters that tingle or tremble when we encounter deception … AND, we are able to override those signals when our hidden agendas and secondary gains interrupt our natural instincts and intuitions.
Lies, Lies, Lies …
Okay, so we all encounter lying from simple, innocent deception to outright malicious coercion – we must decide BEFORE we encounter the lies we inevitably will how we will address them and handle ourselves as we confront them.
Simple, innocent lies are the white lies that range from the deception we engage in when we want to throw someone a suprise party to when we don’t want to expose our real feelings for fear of the confrontation they would expose us to, e.g.: “No, I’m so sorry, I can’t go to the movie with you tonight I have to take care of my sick grandmother.”
Malicious coercion occurs when others manipulate our experience to gain their outcomes at any cost, e.g.: “I am an expert emergency room physician and would be happy to help you out in the hospital.” (one of many lies told by Frank Abagnale famed deceiver who convinced people he as among other things a pilot, physician, attorney … and along the way cashing over $2.5 million dollars of phony checks in 26 different countries).
Now it might seem outrageous and you might hear yourself asking, “How is it possible someone could get away with this without people realizing what’s going on when they meet someone who lies so outrageously???”
Let me share a comment from the Energy News site on an article about the Fukishima cover-up:
Energy News 99.99999999% of the World Public believe TEPCO statements and their Government’s statements because, lies are easier to mentally process than truth and facts!science conference in Kyoto yesterday that “my country needs your knowledge and expertise” in dealing with the worsening situation at the power station. […]
The information has been out there for months, if not years, and anyone who gave even the slightest care about the truth of Fukushima would have been alerted to the inconsistencies in the Japanese version of “the truth.”
Just as the commentor on Energy News points out, i.e.: ” … lies are easier to mentally process than truth and facts.”
The Art of Deception
This is how we ge caught in deception … the lies of commission and omission that others tell us, and the lies we tell ourselves (to others and ourselves BTW).
The biggest issues include our greed, our laziness, our submission to authority and our desire to avoid unpleasant confrontation.
All “Professional Criminals” know these rules of human nature … and they especially like those who are greedy and lazy, these folks are the perfect marks.
One type of professional criminal is the confidence man (or woman), these folks are also known as “grifters” or as a “con man.” These criminals look for marks who are driven by their greed and laziness to seek out opportunities to make “easy money” … and are therefore perfect stooges for the “con game” that will be run on them, soon separating the fool from his/her money.
Unfortuately, these folks are also playing in more legitimate games like selling where the unscrupulous give the entire profession a bad name and image.
If you don’t want to be a “mark” for either a con man or an unscrupulous sales person you need to learn the rules of deception, and their opposite the rules of honesty.
Influence Rules
One of the most famous studies on influence was done by Dr. Robert Childini and the results were published in his bestselling book, by the same name, “Influence.”
Childini came up with six principals of influence he identified in his study:
- Reciprocity
- Commitment/Consistency
- Social Proof
- Liking
- Authority
- Scarcity
By using these six principals of influence it is possible to both influence with integrity or to manipulate, deceive and coerce people.
The Mind Tools website (www.mindtools.com) calls these principals “The Six Weapons of Influence” and places this warning on their pages listing and explaining these tools:
[Childini’s Six Principals of Influence]
Warning: – Be careful how you use the six principles – it is very easy to use them to mislead or deceive people – for instance, to sell products at unfair prices, or to exert undue influence. When you’re using approaches like this, make sure that you use them honestly – by being completely truthful, and by persuading people to do things that are good for them. If you persuade people to do things that are wrong for them, then this is manipulative, and it’s unethical. And it’s clearly wrong to cheat or lie about these things – in fact, this may be fraudulent. A good reputation takes a long time to build. But, you can lose it in a moment!
Now when many people who have come across Childini’s work before think of both influence and deception they think of these principals.
FWIW the Japanese government and TEPCO have been using these principals to deceive the public and hide the facts for more than two years now. Finally, after lying to the world, and to the International Olympic Committee to get them to award the 2020 games to Japan, they have begun to come clean and share the truth they have known for years.
Think about it … how has the Fukushima story been told in the mainstream press???
As an local tragedy that’s under control? (Yes, absolutely early on and for the most part.)
In terms of a disaster that was affecting the entire region and possibly even remote parts of the world?” (On occassion, and mostly by the alternative press.)
That this was potentially an “extinction level” event, that was out of control and possibly uncontrollable by any means available to us whatsoever?” (Not all all anywhere other than in the fringe blogs that most people perceive as utterly looney or at best promoting unsupported conspiracy theories.)
Now the question you have to ask yourself is, “Who can I/will I believe?” -or- “How can I know when I’m being told the truth?”
Patterns of Persuasion
There is more that occurs beneath the surface of human interaction and communication than occurs above the surface.
Almost all research and training in influence and persuasion, or alternatively training in uncovering deception, is based on some form of a cognitive/peceptual model.
The vast majority of research and training around the topic of human communication focused on influence, persuasion and deception is based in how we make decisions cognitively (i.e.: how we think) based on information available to us perceptually (i.e.: information that we can see and/or hear).
HOWEVER … for years I’ve been working with and developing the pre-conscious, non-verbal skills that we are innately born with to …
- A) communicate with honesty and integrity
and
- B) instinctively and intuitively recognize deception
… and these skills are first and foremost based in our somatic awareness.
As strange as the mixed metaphor maybe some people refer to the somatic awareness they have as a small quiet voice within” or “an internal whispering” – in part because the experience is so subtle as to be virtually undetectable as a feeling in their body.
What I’ve found actually happens is that there is first a somatic response that is in fact body-based and only then, after the fleeting body-based response, they become aware of what they’ve just experienced and processed, often as an internal auditory whisper.
The challenge for many people however is that when this feeling comes up into conscious awareness it’s no longer present in the body.
When there is no check-and-balance system in place, or a way to confirm the inkling about something you just sense, you will rely on conscious, rational/logical processing to make your decisions – and, you don’t have the information that you need to make a high-quality decision in the rational/logical channel of your experience!
In fact, professional liars … including grifters, indecent politicians, malfeasant corporations, unscrupulous sales people, portions of the interconnected media and others … depend on you using your rational, logical mind to make the decisions they want to lead you to making.
Trusting Your Gut
We literally store a “second brain,” i.e.: the label Dr. Michael Gershon, full professor in the department of Pathology and Cell Biology at Columbia University’s Medical Center gave to the enteric nervous system, in our intestines.
The enteric nervous system consists of around one hundred millions neurons. That’s a huge number of neurons for food processing!!! Compare this number, 100,000,000, to the number of neurons in the human spinal cord for example, about thirteen million (13,000,000) or about eight times as many.
While many people are aware of the significance of the spinal cord to the nervous system, human information processing and the motor responses that constitute much of our voluntary and involuntary behavior, they are much less aware or the impact of our “second brain” in how they perceive information and respond to it.
There’s another potent factoid about the enteric nervous system that might make you wake up and realize its potential importance to your decision making …
About 90% of the fibers of the vagus nerve (the primary nerve that connects the brain to the organs of the body, especially the heart … lowering or increasing heart rate/blood pressure and the like) run from the enteric brain to the cranial brain and not the other way around!
Beyond What Can Be Seen Or Heard
One significant aspect of the information processing and the subsequent transfer of that information to the cranial brain is that the enteric brain significantly impacts how we feel about things and our emotional response to events.
We are aware that neurologially the enteric brain and the cerebellum are linked. One way this connection is in place is via the route the the vagus nerve takes through the front portion of the cerebellum joins with the pons, the inferior cellebellar peduncle, where the cerebellum and the medulla oblongata (brain stem) meet.
Ultra simply put the vagus nerve and the cerebellum are capable of stimulating one another and creating an effect that you will experience in the body and that will affect your emotions and emotional responses.
Gaining direct access to the subtle, but profound, signals processed deep in your physiology will create an awareness of what is happening around you that others could only consider as some kind of magical or psychic awareness.
IMO the cerebellum is the portion of our neural system that I’d personally prefer to label our second brain for reasons pointed out by Dr. Steven Novella on his NeuroLogica Blog who is a clinical neurologist at Yale University School of Medicine.
I tend to disagree with Dr. Novella’s characterization of the cerebellum as narrowly focused only on coordinating motor movement … by some recent accounts that view is an old and outdated characterization. For instance another neuroscientist, Masao Ito, gives much more credence to the functions of the cerebellum in his ground breaking book, “The Cerebellum: Brain for an Implicit Self”).
And, Where Do We Go From Here …
Which Is The Way That’s Clear?
In the work I do with clients we bring to the forefront the subtle somatic, or body-based, signals that are typically present below or before conscious recognition, perception and decision making … striving to create awareness and direct access to those signals.
When you become aware of your somatic signals you begin to assume control of your pre-conscious responses in the same way that professional athletes, A-list performers and special forces soliders do. These are the same signals that elite communicators use to manage themselves and their presentations to others.
Developing this level of skill exceeds by far what is possible when you rely only on developing your ordinary cognitive capabilities, including rational and logical thinking.
One of the most powerful things you can do to begin developing this “Sixth Sense of somatic sensitivity and awareness is to train ourselves to become sensitive when we are intentionally using our bodies.
There are what I call the “long road” options to doing this (some of which I have engaged in myself and loved BTW):
- Yoga
- Martial Arts
- Dance
- Chi Kung
You can add to this any movement activity that trains you to use your body and to simultaneously remain conscious of your experience in your body.
There are some shorter routes to learning about somatic sensitivity and awareness like:
- Alexander Technique
- Feldenkrais
- Hanna Somatics
And again there are many more in this category as well when applied for the purposes of learning in the hands of a truly skilled practitioner, e.g.: Rolfing, Cranial Ostepathy …
There is however a caveat I’d apply to these types of interventions, when the intention is physical training or therapeutic the potentional deep somatic learning and sensitivity I’m pointing to is often lost to the primary outcome of performance and/or rehabilitation.
The Clear Path …
My approach, i.e.: the MythoSelf Process and Soma-Semantics are focused on making explicit the very subtle and sublime aspects of somatic awareness, and developing the ability to notice for and control the somatic responses you have.
To my way of thinking this is the direct route, the clear way forward … i.e.: putting your attention directly on what you want to learn about noticing your somatic responses and how to access the powerful information they reveal to you.
For instance the next time you become aware of a strong emotional response your having, positive or negative, notice what you are doing with your body.
At the gross level of awareness you may notice things like clenching your fists, shoulders or jaw, a specific postural change like leaning forward or back, or a big shift in your breathing from very shallow to hyperventilating. In this same category you may even notice things like body tremors or shivering, teeth chattering, feelings a sense of looseness in your bladder and/or bowels, feeling like you cannot get enough air or faint, especially when you are in an extreme situation.
On a more subtle level you may notice less dramatic changes in breathing, your heart beating more quickly, pounding, ringing or swishing in your ears, extreme heat or coolness (especially in the extremities, i.e.: hands, feet and head/nose/ears), blushing, mouth dryness, light perspiration (especially from the palms or on the face/scalp), etc.
If you are extemely sensitive you may notice the precusors of movement and/or response (pre-fight/flight), a slight contraction of the muscles in your torso, arms, legs, hands or feet (especially slight twitches in your scalp, fingers, toes, lips and/or tongue), change in your eye blink rate, change of visual focus (i.e. sharpness, depth of vision, peripheral vision, color awareness), auditory directionality (acute awareness of the location of sounds in the environment).
Any or all of these can be signals that something is happening in the environment that you want to pay closer attention to so you can respond immediately, accurately and usefully.
Updating the System
One of the most powerful ways to enhance this kind of deep somatic learning, shorten the learning curve dramatically and build exquisite acuity (somatic micro-calibration), is with direct facilitation … i.e.: working with a highly trained and skilled facilitator who is capable of provoking specific somatic responses to be explored and updated.
An example of this kind of learning when you want to revisit vis-a-vis alternative responses would be to recall an event vis-a-vis exploring the possibility of alternative responses in situations similar to it.
For example as you think back to your response to the news coming out of Japan about Fukushima what were your responses?
If we were working together I’d ask you to think about what you heard about Fukushima’s nuclear reactors after the tsumami event in Japan in 2011, and I’d watch how you respond.
Then I might ask you if you remember how you heard the news … reading about it, watching a newscast on television, hearing it on the radio or from someone you know … and I’d continue to watch your pre-conscious, non-verbal responses.
I would likely then have some information about how you processed that event and I might begin feeding it back to you indirectly, in my own posture, gestures and movements, or via using hypnotic protocols in communication to direct your attention to your somatic responses.
We might then move onto how you thought about the news coming out (or not coming out) about Fukushima over the past couple of years. All the time I’d be weaving the information you were displaying back into the context conversationally so it became a part of what was happening between us interactionally.
When we’d conversed for a bit, and I’d gathered enough information to form a baseline and a pattern of response from you about this event and your experience of it, I’d move to asking you what you now think that in essence the Japanese government and TEPCO have revealed that the situation is out of control and that they likely lied about it all along.
NOW I’D BE FIXATED ON YOUR RESPONSES!!!
You’d be inadvertently revealing how you respond to being lied to … and we’d have a new pattern to work with that you could be using to notice for in the future in any situation where knowing the truth would be important to you … the pattern that remains “elusively obvious” (to quote the great Moshe Feldenkrais).
- PERSONAL PATTERNS OF PERSUASION PART I: Reading and Calibrating Communication Somatically
When you learned to tap into this response you’d have the first part of the learning you need to become a highly effective communicator … i.e.: reading and calibrating the responses of others somatically.
- PATTERNS OF PERSUASION PART II: Sending Somatic Messages of Trustworthiness and Veracity
The second part of the learning is to know how to shape your own communication so that others receive and perceive what you want them to about your trustworthiness and the veracity of your message.
Best,
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Princeton, NJ
[mark – an un-streetwise person, and easy target or victim, e.g.: “This mark came walking out of the bank yesterday, counting his income tax check he just cashed. I just had to rob him.”]
PS – If you want to work with me on your own Personal Patterns of Persuasion check out the brochure for the Autumn Master Class I’m running with Acuity World in Denmark at the beginning of next month …
Behavioral Communication for Selling
PPS – If you think you want to attend but can’t make the live program work we’ll be running a Live Internet Simulcast of the full Autumn Master Class I’ll be delivering at Acuity World, and there is a special pre-program discount if you only want to order the program recordings so you can view them at your leisure in your own time.
NOTE: We’ll have the registration page for the simulcast and the order forms for the recordings up in the next day or two.
