Science, Art, Litt, Science based Art & Science Communication

How conditioning of mind affects science comprehension and how to overcome it

Q: Dr. Krishna, You mentioned about conditioning of mind several times. Can you explain what it means and how it affects our thinking? Does it impede science comprehension?

Krishna: I am glad you asked me this Q.

Conditioning is a behavioural process whereby a response becomes more frequent or more predictable in a given environment as a result of reinforcement, with reinforcement typically being a stimulus or reward for a desired response. Conditioning is a form of learning in which either (1) a given stimulus (or signal) becomes increasingly effective in evoking a response or (2) a response occurs with increasing regularity in a well-specified and stable environment. The type of reinforcement used will determine the outcome.

Conditioning, in simple terms, is 'learning through association' (with something) .

All of us are subject to the psychological forces at play when it comes to choosing between facts and beliefs when they do not mesh. In the long run, it is better to understand the way the world really is (scientific way) rather than how we would like it to be (other ways).
The path of evolutionary enlightenment is one of ego-transcendence that is a means to a higher end, to open up some space within the self – space for evolution to occur. Facts to take root. Being inspired by the idea of conscious evolution is one thing, while actually engaging in the process of evolution is something else altogether. But within themselves people are not free. They are trapped in psychological hang-ups and attachments, with little or no space for that which is 'new'. Their minds are not liberated, and their choices and actions are still being shaped by unconscious adherence to values and perspectives that have nothing to do with being a liberated vessel for the evolution of consciousness and culture. Merely being inspired by the potential for conscious revolution does not automatically give us access to the fearless inner freedom to actualize that potential. In order to find that freedom, to open up that space for new, it is essential that you liberate yourself to a significant degree from your personal fears and desires and your culturally conditioned values. This inner freedom is not different from the goal of traditional enlightenment where freedom is an end itself. Ideally, freedom becomes the foundation from which to engage in conscious evolution. You must disentangle yourself, free yourself from your deeds, your history, culture that is entangled in beliefs and personal ego.
That empty space or a clean slate will become the ultimate source and wellspring of new awakening thoughts, their evolution which finally leads to enlightenment (1).

Science brings us new knowledge. Everyday. In order to comprehend and assimilate that new knowledge without any biases and distortions, our minds must be free and clean.

However, we have noticed, peoples' minds are not free. They have been conditioned since their childhood. Conditioning could be due to religious, cultural, emotional, ideological, political, societal, social, familial, environmental and several other factors. Human responses can be conditioned through objects and events too.

Now let me explain how some of these condition your mind and how this in turn affects your thinking.

Let me start with an example similar to Russell's TeaPot.

If I tell you there is a mango (which obviously is too small to be seen by telescopes or detect from Earth) revolving around the Sun in a circular orbit somewhere in space between the Earth and Mars?

You would think that I am lying. How can a mango get into an orbit around the Sun? How can it stay for so long without getting destroyed?

You ask me so many things and then when you don't get satisfactory evidence based answers, you would think I am talking nonsense and reject my story.

If, however, the existence of such a mango were affirmed in ancient religious books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday/Saturday, and instilled into the minds of children at school and people in temples, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.

Questioning its existence could even be treated as sacrilege.

Am I right?

Some of my cousins and friends think Gangajal ( water of the river Ganges) is so pious that it can never get polluted. When I showed them evidence that the water in river Ganga is now very polluted, they just refused to accept it. "God created Ganga very sacred. God cleans it. It can never get polluted", they say!

Here the religious beliefs are conditioning the minds of people and therefore, they are refusing to question things, consider evidence, and accept the facts.

Culture is a composite of different aspects: rituals, habits, skills, art and way of life. When originated in ancient times, it denoted primitive thinking. This can be good, but they can also include elements of evil.

'Culture' is also base for evils like Sati, child marriages, genital mutilation, superstitions, and several other things. How can we respect such evils(2)?

But when brought up in a primitive thinking culture, you would glorify Sati, support child marriages, follow superstitions and think they are all good. You won't see anything evil in them.

Here the culture is conditioning your mind and you refuse to see the truth.

I know a few professors and scientists who follow an ideology and a political party based on it. One of them did something wrong two years back. I criticized this gentleman very severely. A newspaper published my criticism. Then some of the professors who read my criticism called me and told me I am arrogant to criticize an eminent scientist in this way! 'Why can't you just look the other way and keep quiet? ", they asked me!

Hmmm! "Why should I?", I asked them. "Just because he is your colleague and an eminent person, his wrong doesn't become right. I will say what I want to say, even if you think I am arrogant", I told them.

So the ideology these people followed and the social bonding they maintained conditioned their minds in such a way that they thought all that their friend did was right! They also think all that their opposition party does is wrong!

How can that be? Anybody can do right and anybody can go the wrong way. You have to judge things based on issues and not based on ideologies and political leanings.

Likewise, if you are emotionally attached to your family, profession/field, you start supporting them blindly, irrespective of the shortcomings they have.

Your environment conditions your thinking too. That is what 'trends', 'viral news and videos', and fashion are all about!

If you are attached to a belief, ideology, party, emotion, or whatever, you get conditioned by it out of love, hope, respect, inertia, expectation of rewards and fear.

These things impede your comprehension of not only science, but also even your life's issues.

Conditioning of mind affects your thinking, your deeds and makes you stay in an imaginative and artificial world forever. You will never be able to see reality as it is.

Now how do you overcome this and decondition your conditioned mind?

Not in a religious way, though. Because even religion conditions your mind.

1. The reason why I refuse to get attached to anything is to stay away from any type of conditioning. You should be like a water drop on a lotus leaf. Yes, you would be born into some religion, or culture, or family, or ideology, but when the situation demands it, you should be able to drop off from them and think and act neutrally.

2. Get a clean and free mind.

3. Try to counter-think. Reject Your Old Self. Most people allow beliefs, opinions, likes, and dislikes to pop up by default. Thinking should be present -centric, not a relic of the (conditioned) past.

An impression is like a microchip that sends out the same message over and over. It makes us respond the same way over and over also, which is the opposite of actually being real and present.

When you shut anyone out, you are censoring reality. Great decision-makers appear from the outside to be very decisive and single-minded. But this disguises how they actually arrive at a decision, which involves a period of searching. While searching, they open their minds to all kinds of information, spreading the net as wide as possible. In other words, great decision-makers do the opposite of censoring reality.Try listening to people who you’ve been shutting out, whatever your reason was originally. We can all tell when we're being shut out, and we all have the same reaction. We resent it, and we have no motivation to help that person. See yourself as a kind of human inbox, allowing as many viewpoints as you can to enter your mental landscape. A rigid mindset is soon melted this way.

4. Come out of fear , stress and emotional dependency on someone or something.

5. Critical Thinking helps you in this process.

6. By following scientific method: Now don't you get conditioned by science too? Yes, you should ask this Q! Science welcomes it.

I want to stress here once again, of all the ways available to us to arrive at truth or fact, science is the best. Because it is evidence based, accepts challenges and falsification ( a sort of deconditioning of a conditioned mind) and improves and progresses by overcoming all human frailties (using scientific method, again a deconditioning mechanism). Science acquires new knowledge by discarding the old one very often (deconditioning again). Science is what this universe is based and runs on and following it is following the eternal truth and reality.

Footnotes:

1. https://kkartlab.in/group/some-science/forum/topics/science-and-spi...

2. https://kkartlab.in/group/general-topics/forum/topics/general-qs-an...

A Person sent me this message after reading this article of mine: "Dr. Krishna, love for science is good. But you should also love our culture and tradition too".

And this is my reply to him: Who says I don't like our culture and traditions? I loved this song and dance so much that I watched it several times:

Now say that I don't love our culture and traditions :)