May 25, 2026
EP 053 The Manifestation Trap | Why Mindset Coaching Alone Breaks Brains
Manifestation culture promises brain-hacking shortcuts, but neuroscience shows it's sabotaging your mindset coaching and authentic success habits. In EP 053, Tracy exposes why wishful thinking replaces productivity habits—and reveals the science-backed framework that actually works. Learn how to rewire your brain for real results, not Instagram affirmations. https://YourSuccessDNA.com Tracy exposes the hidden psychiatric dangers of popular manifestation practices, revealing how "ignore the 3D" advice can trigger genuine depersonalization and derealization disorders. Through the story of Marcus, a successful software developer who lost his grip on reality through obsessive Law of Assumption practice, this episode breaks down the neuroscience behind manifestation-induced dissociation and provides a framework for healthy assumption-shifting that keeps you grounded in reality while pursuing your goals.
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You're sitting at your
desk, your body is there.
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Heck, your hands are even on the keyboard.
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But somewhere between your third
affirmation of the day and your fifth
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visualization session, you stop feeling
like you are in your body at all.
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You know the feeling I'm talking about.
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It's like you're watching yourself type
from two feet behind your own eyes.
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Psychologists have a name for this,
depersonalization and derealization.
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And the worst part, everyone
online is telling you this is
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exactly what you're supposed to do.
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Your Success DNA Podcast
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So let's get stuck right in.
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The law of assumption.
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This is the idea that your inner state
becomes your outer reality, that what you
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believe internally manifests externally.
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This has become a near religious
doctrine across all the personal
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development spaces out there, and
trust me, I've been in the personal
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development game either as a customer
or someone who proposes all the great
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techniques inside there since the '80s.
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You know what I'm talking about,
manifestation culture, reality
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shifting, Neville Goddard's
teaching that's been repackaged for
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TikTok, and it's all talking about
ignore the 3D, live in the end.
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Assume you are already
what you want to become.
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The logic is seductive.
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If your internal assumptions create
your external world, then reality
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isn't something that happens to
you, it's something you generate.
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Like the Matrix, right?
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Control the assumption, means
you can control everything.
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But here's where it's gonna get a little
bit clinical, ladies and gentlemen.
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When you take that framework too
literally, when you push the cognitive
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pattern too far, something breaks.
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Not metaphorically, neurologically.
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You start experiencing what's
technically called depersonalization
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and derealization, a dissociative state
where you feel emotionally detached
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from your body and the environment.
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Your hands don't feel like
they belong to you anymore.
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Your voice sounds like it's
coming from someone else's mouth.
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You're present but absent.
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Conscious, but somehow observing your
own consciousness from the outside.
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You're not crazy.
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You're experiencing a measurable
psychiatric symptom triggered
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by a specific cognitive pattern,
and this is the gap that no one
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seems to want to talk about.
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The mechanism is surprisingly
straightforward once you understand it.
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Cognitive psychology has long
established that attention
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does in fact shape perception.
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What you attend to becomes your reality,
not metaphorically, but literally
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in the terms of what your brain
constructs as the world around you.
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Neville Goddard's framework
weaponized this very principle.
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He taught that you must not attend
to the current circumstances.
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Yeah, ignore the 3D.
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Don't look at your bank account.
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Don't acknowledge the problem.
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Instead, mentally assume the end state.
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Feel as if it's already
real, already happening.
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Wear that assumption like clothing.
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But what if the king is naked?
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Goddard's specific technique
for this is what he called SATS,
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S-A-T-S, the state akin to sleep.
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It involves entering this hypogenic
state just before sleep and mentally
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inhabiting your desired reality as
if it was already done, it already
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existed, you already got there.
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It's one of the most practiced and most
discussed techniques in the Neville
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Goddard community, and it's also, for
reasons we're about to get into, one
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of the most neurologically- potent.
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The problem emerges when sustained
intense attention away from your physical
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body and present reality starts to
dysregulate your nervous system's ability
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to anchor inside the here and now.
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Your brain has sensory integration
systems, the interoceptive network.
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It's centered specifically in the insular
cortex and, and the anterior insula.
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Okay?
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All of that is there to literally
keep you grounded in your body.
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This system works partly through
what's called the somatic marker.
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This is a concept developed by
neuroscientist Antonio Damasio.
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It, it's a, a constant low-level awareness
of your physical state that creates this
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felt sense of being embodied, right?
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Of just knowing, "I'm-- Here's where I
am." But when you habitually redirect
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your attention inward towards internal
assumptions and towards internal
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visualizations and away from that
external sensation and the real present
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reality, you're essentially training
your nervous system to disembody itself.
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Look, don't get me wrong here.
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It's not that the law of
assumption is inherently harmful.
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The cognitive shift towards positive
expectation has measurable benefits.
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It, it can reduce anxiety, it can
improve motivation, and yes, it can
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influence behavior patterns that
statistically improve your outcomes.
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That part is 100% real.
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I own it.
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I don't wanna say it doesn't work.
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But there's a dose responsive
curve that personal development
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culture seems to completely ignore,
especially the really motivated ones.
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You, you, you know who I'm
talking about, those, those folks.
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A moderate amount of assumption
shifting is adaptive.
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It creates a psychological flexibility.
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It helps you break old patterns.
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But sustained obsessive practice, it's
like anything else when you overdo
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it, especially when you combine that
with the explicit instruction to not
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acknowledge current reality, that,
my friends, can tip way over into
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maladaptive territory because you're
literally training your brain to
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disassociate from the present moment.
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And for some people, particularly
those with some existing trauma,
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some anxiety sensit-sensitivity, or
latent disassociative vulnerability,
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that practice can trigger a
genuine depersonalization disorder.
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Whoa, wait a minute.
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Yeah.
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Here's the clinical detail I
don't think anybody mentions.
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Depersonalization has a feedback
loop Here's what I mean.
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You start experiencing unreality,
your body feels distant, so you
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get anxious about the unreality.
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What's wrong with me?
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Am I losing my mind, right?
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That anxiety is a distress signal.
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Your brain responds by
deepening the disassociation.
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That's a protective mechanism.
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It's a neurological circuit breaker.
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You get more detached.
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You get more panicked.
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So what do you do?
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You assume harder.
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You tell yourself, "I'm just not believing
hard enough. I... The 3D is trying to
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trick me. I need to believe harder."
You intensify the very practice that's
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causing the problem in the first place.
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And because you're embedded within a
community that frames any perception
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of present reality as focusing on the
negative or not being in the end, you
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can't even name the problem without
being told that you're vibrating lower
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or you're blocking your blessings.
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Yeah, that's what psychologists
call spiritual bypassing.
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It-- That is a, a term coined by
psychologist John Welwood to describe
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the use of spiritual ideas and practices
to sidestep unresolved psychological
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wounds into developmental needs.
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The community becomes a container
for a psychiatric symptom.
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The, the ideology makes
the symptom invisible.
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It's, "I'm not here. Don't pay attention
to me." A 23-year-old sw- software
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developer named Marcus... I don't wanna
use his real name 'cause I didn't get his
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permission, but his pattern is textbook.
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He started exploring the
law of assumption in 2022.
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He was successful by c- all the
conventional metrics out there:
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six-figure salary, startup equity,
a trajectory that anybody out there
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would envy, but he felt hollow.
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So he pivoted into manifestation work.
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Every morning, 45 minutes of affirmations,
visualization of his ideal self as
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wealthy and confident and in control.
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Three meditation sessions where
he practiced feeling in the
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state, he says with air quotes.
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He got into SATS practice specifically,
spending 30 minutes every night
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in the threshold state between
waking and sleep, feeling his ideal
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reality as if it were already real.
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For six months, it felt powerful.
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He felt more motivated.
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He made career moves that all paid off.
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The correlation then, of
course, reinforced the belief.
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But something shifted.
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Around month seven, he started
noticing his hands during meetings.
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It was like they belonged to someone else.
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Maybe like y- if you've played
a video game, you're controlling
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the hands, and you know y-you
are, but disconnected from them.
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But when he spoke, his
voice sounded distant.
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He'd be in a high-stakes call with
investors, and suddenly he felt like
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he was watching a recording of himself
rather than actually being his self.
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The anxiety spiked.
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So what'd he do?
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He doubled down on the practice.
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He read Neville Goddard's
work even more intensively.
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He joined an online community dedicated
to ad- to advanced assumption techniques.
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They told him he was going
through an ascension.
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This is actually common language in
those spaces, so bear with me here.
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They started reframing disassociative
symptoms as spiritual progression.
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It made sense to him in that
moment, but then it got worse.
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He started avoiding his body
intentionally, not eating as much because,
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well, you know, the body is an illusion,
not moving as much because physical
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sensation felt too real and threatened
his carefully maintained inner state.
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He'd go days where he felt like a ghost
watching someone else live out his life.
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The panic attacks became almost constant.
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He finally went to a therapist
who identified it immediately:
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depersonalization-derealization
disorder, classified in the DSM-5
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as the dissociative disorder
diagnostic code F48.1, triggered
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by sustained dissociative practice.
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The treatment wasn't more visualization.
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Nope, it was the opposite:
deliberate, grounded reconnection
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in the present moment.
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Grounding techniques, sensory
awareness, walking barefoot, eating
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food while actually taking the time
to taste it, feeling his heartbeat,
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anxiety exposure to his own body.
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I know some of you are laughing.
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I know when I first started diving into
this, I giggled a little bit, little bit
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by myself, not because I think it's funny
that people are going through this, but
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I think it's funny that we take something
so far to the edge That we hurt ourselves.
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His recovery took nine months, eight
months of slowly convincing his nervous
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system that being in his body was
safe, that the 3D, the physical reality
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he had been trained to ignore, was
actually where his life was to be lived.
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Look, don't get me wrong here.
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This isn't a, a story about the law of
assumption being evil, because it's not.
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But there is a cost structure that
I think gets completely hidden
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or kept away in a dark corner.
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The personal development space thrives
on the narration of transformation, and
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what you're doing today is laying the
groundwork for your ideal self tomorrow.
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That, right, that present moment
reality is essentially irrelevant.
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Go ahead, you can ignore the 3D, but your
nervous system does not ignore the 3D.
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It literally is designed to keep
you embedded in the 3D, and so
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your survival depends on it.
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Your sense of self depends on it.
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There's a concept in neuroscience
called predictive processing.
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It's a framework developed by
neuroscientist Karl Friston, sometimes
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called the free energy principle.
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And we're not talking about
driving your cars here.
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Your brain is constantly generating
predictions about what it's about to
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experience, and it does this based on
old patterns and current context and
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a number of internal models, which are
a little bit different for each of us
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because we go through different lives.
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Perception is the process of matching
these predictions against sensory
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reality and then updating the model.
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So when you actively train yourself to
ignore sensory input and focus instead
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on the internal visualizations, you
are essentially telling your brain,
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"Look, dude, g- check this. Your
predictions are more real than the
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actual sensory data that's out there."
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Right?
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You feel me?
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For a while, that feels like empowerment.
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You're no longer passive to
reality, you're kinda generating it.
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But sustained mismatch between prediction
and reality is, is in fact a predictive
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error that keeps happening, and you're
training yourself not to acknowledge it.
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That generates neurological
dysregulation, right?
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It shows up as depersonalization,
derealization, disassociation.
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You're telling your brain, "Dude, I
know you said that was gonna happen,
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and it happened, but don't pay
attention to that. Here's what I want
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you to focus on." You're disconnecting
from what's actually happening.
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The educational piece here, which I
think is the, the thing worth really
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sharing, is understanding the difference
between healthy assumption shifting
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and pathological disassociation.
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Healthy manifestation practice is
something you do with awareness of your
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present reality, not instead of it.
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Hear me out on that, right?
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You set an intention, you visualize, and
then you come back into the here and now.
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You notice your body.
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You act in alignment with your goal
from a grounded place in the now.
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The assumption then becomes
a lens, not a prison.
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You're not ignoring reality.
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You're actively choosing where to place
your attention while staying present.
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But when the framework becomes ignore the
3D, live in the end, don't acknowledge
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your current circumstances, when
it becomes a binary choice between
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imagination and reality, not an
integration of both, that's when the trap
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begins to close and hold you inside it.
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And h- here's the dangerous part.
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You can't unspell this
with more meditation.
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You can't positive affirm your
way out of depersonalization.
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What you need is re-embodiment.
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00:13:02,664 --> 00:13:06,073
You need to practice the
deliberate, sometimes unforgettable
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work of just being here.
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I know sometimes it's not comfortable.
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Sometimes y- the here is shit Uh, right?
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There's probably other words I
could use, but you, you feel me.
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Now, it-- right where you are right
now, in the body that feels real, even
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if it does not feel good, there it is.
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The darkest place of this
isn't the symptom itself.
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It's the community structure around
the manifestation culture that
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00:13:28,645 --> 00:13:33,114
makes it almost impossible to reach
out from inside it, to say, "I'm
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experiencing some depersonalization
from this practice," right?
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Something feels wonky here.
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Now, that is to admit that you
weren't vibrating high enough.
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You weren't being good enough.
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That's failure.
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It means you weren't disciplined enough.
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You weren't believing enough.
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You weren't evolving enough.
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00:13:49,758 --> 00:13:50,749
You weren't enough.
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00:13:50,914 --> 00:13:55,253
This is John Welwood's spiritual
bypassing in its acute form, using the
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00:13:55,253 --> 00:13:59,593
language of spiritual progress to avoid
confronting a real psychological crisis.
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So people, what do they do?
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00:14:01,462 --> 00:14:02,262
They suffer in silence.
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They intensify the very practice
that's harming them in the first place
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because the ideology tells them the
solution is in deeper surrender, not
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00:14:10,532 --> 00:14:13,662
stepping back and looking around and
gauging what the hell's going on.
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They become isolated by the framework
designed to free them, to liberate them.
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Let that one sink in, to get
isolated by the very framework
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they're using to free themselves.
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Huh?
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00:14:24,306 --> 00:14:28,271
Look, maybe you came to this video for
some clarity, and the clarity isn't
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that the law of assumption doesn't work,
because let's be honest, it does in
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specific contexts, in specific doses.
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The clarity I wanna make sure you
come away with is that your nervous
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00:14:38,323 --> 00:14:39,923
system, it has a breaking point.
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00:14:40,149 --> 00:14:43,532
Your body has a voice, and when
the cost of your internal state
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00:14:43,766 --> 00:14:48,027
becomes disassociation from your
physical state, when the price of
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00:14:48,027 --> 00:14:52,514
your beliefs is unreality, then the
assumption is no longer serving you.
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It's consuming you.
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Yeah, eating you alive.
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The question isn't whether you should
believe or whether you should not believe.
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00:14:58,949 --> 00:15:01,149
The question should be: what is the cost?
287
00:15:01,184 --> 00:15:04,732
What are you willing to lose in the
pursuit of a version of yourself
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that exists only in your imagination?
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00:15:07,358 --> 00:15:10,819
Because the gap between the self
you're assuming and the self you're
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00:15:10,845 --> 00:15:14,471
actually living as, that's the
gap... where the pathology lives.
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The trap was never the belief.
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00:15:16,732 --> 00:15:19,906
It was the belief that the
belief alone was enough.
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00:15:20,123 --> 00:15:23,123
Look, if this episode is hitting a little
different, if you recognize yourself maybe
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00:15:23,123 --> 00:15:26,975
a little bit in Marcus's story, or you
felt a little uncomfortable recognition
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00:15:27,097 --> 00:15:30,897
as I was describing watching yourself
from outside your own body, then perhaps
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00:15:30,897 --> 00:15:32,610
you need to get on my newsletter list.
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00:15:32,827 --> 00:15:37,271
The Unleash Your Success DNA newsletter
is a weekly reality check for my
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00:15:37,271 --> 00:15:40,819
aspiring entrepreneurs and nine-to-five
escapees and anyone out there who
299
00:15:40,853 --> 00:15:44,158
is tired of spiritual bypassing
and ready for a dose of truth.
300
00:15:44,349 --> 00:15:47,862
Each issue delivers more mindset
shifts and habit upgrades, all again
301
00:15:47,862 --> 00:15:50,479
with a little dose of rebellion, all
designed to help you break through
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00:15:50,479 --> 00:15:54,758
convention so that you can build a life
aligned with your version of success.
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00:15:55,045 --> 00:15:56,827
So wh- who cares, Tracy?
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00:15:56,827 --> 00:15:57,819
What, what does this mean?
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00:15:57,949 --> 00:16:00,906
Here's what really I
think it comes down to.
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00:16:01,027 --> 00:16:04,375
We're living through the largest
uncontrolled psychological
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00:16:04,375 --> 00:16:06,071
experiment in human history.
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00:16:06,253 --> 00:16:10,940
I, I also do a conspiratory podcast,
and I dive way deep into this even more.
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00:16:11,184 --> 00:16:14,462
But let, let's, let's not go sp-
conspiratorial here because millions
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00:16:14,462 --> 00:16:18,497
of people are practicing disassociative
techniques without understanding
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00:16:18,775 --> 00:16:20,314
the neurological consequences.
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00:16:20,471 --> 00:16:24,479
The personal development industry has
weaponized ancient spiritual practices,
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00:16:24,566 --> 00:16:27,819
stripped them of the safeguards,
and packaged them up all neat and
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00:16:27,819 --> 00:16:29,862
nice with a bow as quick fixes.
315
00:16:30,027 --> 00:16:31,723
This isn't about manifestation.
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00:16:32,036 --> 00:16:35,419
This is about a culture that's
lost touch with the value of being
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00:16:35,514 --> 00:16:37,619
present in the now with yourself.
318
00:16:37,906 --> 00:16:40,584
We've confused spiritual practice
with spiritual bypassing.
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00:16:40,853 --> 00:16:45,027
Real transformation doesn't happen
by escaping your current reality.
320
00:16:45,210 --> 00:16:49,610
It happens by fully inhabiting it and
then consciously choosing to change it.
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00:16:49,914 --> 00:16:51,271
The trap was never the belief.
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00:16:51,375 --> 00:16:54,140
It was the belief that the
belief alone is enough.
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00:16:54,297 --> 00:16:57,323
So here's your whispered wisdom
for this week and your action step.
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00:16:57,653 --> 00:17:02,102
For the next seven days, practice what
I'm gonna call reality anchoring Three
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00:17:02,102 --> 00:17:05,754
times a day, in the morning, afternoon,
and before you go to bed, spend two
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00:17:05,754 --> 00:17:08,093
minutes feeling your feet on the ground.
327
00:17:08,311 --> 00:17:11,224
Heck, go a little crazy, kick
off your shoes and socks and
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00:17:11,224 --> 00:17:12,789
go step out onto the grass.
329
00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:14,667
Or if you don't have grass, onto the dirt.
330
00:17:14,728 --> 00:17:16,728
Notice the temperature
of the air on your skin.
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00:17:16,954 --> 00:17:18,737
Listen to the sounds around you.
332
00:17:18,972 --> 00:17:21,624
Put your hand on your chest
and feel your heartbeat.
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00:17:21,885 --> 00:17:26,772
And then say out loud, "I'm here. This
is now. This is real." No visualization,
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00:17:26,833 --> 00:17:29,293
no affirmations, just presence.
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00:17:29,467 --> 00:17:32,676
Because you cannot build a business,
a relationship, or a life of any
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00:17:32,676 --> 00:17:34,546
kind from a disassociative state.
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00:17:34,859 --> 00:17:39,467
I know this episode might have shattered a
few of your beliefs or made you go, "What
338
00:17:39,467 --> 00:17:42,615
the hell is this guy talking about?" And
maybe you've held on a little too tight.
339
00:17:42,763 --> 00:17:44,493
And if they have, good.
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00:17:44,546 --> 00:17:46,746
Even if you don't agree
with me, that's okay.
341
00:17:46,946 --> 00:17:47,963
Hit me in the DMs.
342
00:17:48,172 --> 00:17:49,206
Hit me in the comments.
343
00:17:49,380 --> 00:17:50,511
Tell me why you disagree.
344
00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:52,824
Let's engage in a little
bit of discourse, right?
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00:17:53,172 --> 00:17:54,415
That's what we do here.
346
00:17:54,659 --> 00:17:56,885
We tell the truth even
if it's uncomfortable.
347
00:17:57,111 --> 00:17:59,728
Your freedom is not gonna be
found by escaping reality.
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00:17:59,946 --> 00:18:02,563
It's found in the
mastering of your reality.
349
00:18:03,093 --> 00:18:06,850
The world doesn't need yet another
person lost in their damn imagination.
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00:18:07,050 --> 00:18:07,650
It needs you.
351
00:18:08,059 --> 00:18:11,519
It needs you present and grounded
and ready to build something real
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00:18:11,711 --> 00:18:13,459
from where you are right now.
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00:18:13,780 --> 00:18:15,728
Think successfully and take action.
00:00:00,194 --> 00:00:02,168
You're sitting at your
desk, your body is there.
2
00:00:02,525 --> 00:00:04,351
Heck, your hands are even on the keyboard.
3
00:00:04,403 --> 00:00:07,673
But somewhere between your third
affirmation of the day and your fifth
4
00:00:07,829 --> 00:00:11,725
visualization session, you stop feeling
like you are in your body at all.
5
00:00:11,829 --> 00:00:12,873
You know the feeling I'm talking about.
6
00:00:13,116 --> 00:00:17,116
It's like you're watching yourself type
from two feet behind your own eyes.
7
00:00:17,255 --> 00:00:21,507
Psychologists have a name for this,
depersonalization and derealization.
8
00:00:21,951 --> 00:00:24,768
And the worst part, everyone
online is telling you this is
9
00:00:24,768 --> 00:00:26,794
exactly what you're supposed to do.
10
00:00:28,038 --> 00:00:29,577
Your Success DNA Podcast
11
00:00:32,038 --> 00:00:33,786
So let's get stuck right in.
12
00:00:33,977 --> 00:00:34,960
The law of assumption.
13
00:00:35,186 --> 00:00:39,464
This is the idea that your inner state
becomes your outer reality, that what you
14
00:00:39,464 --> 00:00:42,177
believe internally manifests externally.
15
00:00:42,420 --> 00:00:45,855
This has become a near religious
doctrine across all the personal
16
00:00:45,855 --> 00:00:48,507
development spaces out there, and
trust me, I've been in the personal
17
00:00:48,507 --> 00:00:52,951
development game either as a customer
or someone who proposes all the great
18
00:00:52,994 --> 00:00:55,264
techniques inside there since the '80s.
19
00:00:55,290 --> 00:00:57,933
You know what I'm talking about,
manifestation culture, reality
20
00:00:57,933 --> 00:01:01,438
shifting, Neville Goddard's
teaching that's been repackaged for
21
00:01:01,438 --> 00:01:05,803
TikTok, and it's all talking about
ignore the 3D, live in the end.
22
00:01:05,925 --> 00:01:08,916
Assume you are already
what you want to become.
23
00:01:09,012 --> 00:01:10,673
The logic is seductive.
24
00:01:10,812 --> 00:01:15,142
If your internal assumptions create
your external world, then reality
25
00:01:15,142 --> 00:01:18,473
isn't something that happens to
you, it's something you generate.
26
00:01:18,473 --> 00:01:19,429
Like the Matrix, right?
27
00:01:19,638 --> 00:01:22,446
Control the assumption, means
you can control everything.
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00:01:22,725 --> 00:01:25,116
But here's where it's gonna get a little
bit clinical, ladies and gentlemen.
29
00:01:25,782 --> 00:01:30,165
When you take that framework too
literally, when you push the cognitive
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00:01:30,165 --> 00:01:32,495
pattern too far, something breaks.
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00:01:32,634 --> 00:01:34,773
Not metaphorically, neurologically.
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00:01:34,860 --> 00:01:38,643
You start experiencing what's
technically called depersonalization
33
00:01:38,834 --> 00:01:43,791
and derealization, a dissociative state
where you feel emotionally detached
34
00:01:43,791 --> 00:01:45,565
from your body and the environment.
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00:01:45,808 --> 00:01:47,695
Your hands don't feel like
they belong to you anymore.
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00:01:47,947 --> 00:01:50,617
Your voice sounds like it's
coming from someone else's mouth.
37
00:01:50,782 --> 00:01:52,765
You're present but absent.
38
00:01:52,800 --> 00:01:57,643
Conscious, but somehow observing your
own consciousness from the outside.
39
00:01:57,860 --> 00:01:58,869
You're not crazy.
40
00:01:59,052 --> 00:02:02,826
You're experiencing a measurable
psychiatric symptom triggered
41
00:02:02,826 --> 00:02:06,652
by a specific cognitive pattern,
and this is the gap that no one
42
00:02:06,652 --> 00:02:07,852
seems to want to talk about.
43
00:02:08,295 --> 00:02:11,139
The mechanism is surprisingly
straightforward once you understand it.
44
00:02:11,426 --> 00:02:14,765
Cognitive psychology has long
established that attention
45
00:02:14,904 --> 00:02:16,565
does in fact shape perception.
46
00:02:16,704 --> 00:02:21,460
What you attend to becomes your reality,
not metaphorically, but literally
47
00:02:21,652 --> 00:02:25,834
in the terms of what your brain
constructs as the world around you.
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00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:29,113
Neville Goddard's framework
weaponized this very principle.
49
00:02:29,382 --> 00:02:33,060
He taught that you must not attend
to the current circumstances.
50
00:02:33,217 --> 00:02:34,582
Yeah, ignore the 3D.
51
00:02:34,930 --> 00:02:36,034
Don't look at your bank account.
52
00:02:36,269 --> 00:02:37,686
Don't acknowledge the problem.
53
00:02:37,773 --> 00:02:40,573
Instead, mentally assume the end state.
54
00:02:40,834 --> 00:02:44,313
Feel as if it's already
real, already happening.
55
00:02:44,521 --> 00:02:46,878
Wear that assumption like clothing.
56
00:02:46,878 --> 00:02:48,217
But what if the king is naked?
57
00:02:48,504 --> 00:02:52,104
Goddard's specific technique
for this is what he called SATS,
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00:02:52,165 --> 00:02:55,165
S-A-T-S, the state akin to sleep.
59
00:02:55,426 --> 00:03:00,660
It involves entering this hypogenic
state just before sleep and mentally
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00:03:00,660 --> 00:03:04,669
inhabiting your desired reality as
if it was already done, it already
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00:03:04,669 --> 00:03:06,121
existed, you already got there.
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00:03:06,330 --> 00:03:10,443
It's one of the most practiced and most
discussed techniques in the Neville
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00:03:10,443 --> 00:03:14,234
Goddard community, and it's also, for
reasons we're about to get into, one
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00:03:14,426 --> 00:03:16,535
of the most neurologically- potent.
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00:03:16,648 --> 00:03:22,205
The problem emerges when sustained
intense attention away from your physical
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00:03:22,205 --> 00:03:27,144
body and present reality starts to
dysregulate your nervous system's ability
67
00:03:27,144 --> 00:03:29,926
to anchor inside the here and now.
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00:03:30,074 --> 00:03:34,422
Your brain has sensory integration
systems, the interoceptive network.
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00:03:34,622 --> 00:03:39,692
It's centered specifically in the insular
cortex and, and the anterior insula.
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00:03:39,866 --> 00:03:40,118
Okay?
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00:03:40,448 --> 00:03:44,857
All of that is there to literally
keep you grounded in your body.
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This system works partly through
what's called the somatic marker.
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This is a concept developed by
neuroscientist Antonio Damasio.
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00:03:52,553 --> 00:03:58,031
It, it's a, a constant low-level awareness
of your physical state that creates this
75
00:03:58,161 --> 00:04:01,005
felt sense of being embodied, right?
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00:04:01,005 --> 00:04:05,135
Of just knowing, "I'm-- Here's where I
am." But when you habitually redirect
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00:04:05,422 --> 00:04:09,796
your attention inward towards internal
assumptions and towards internal
78
00:04:09,796 --> 00:04:14,526
visualizations and away from that
external sensation and the real present
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00:04:14,579 --> 00:04:19,605
reality, you're essentially training
your nervous system to disembody itself.
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00:04:19,666 --> 00:04:20,718
Look, don't get me wrong here.
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00:04:20,909 --> 00:04:23,848
It's not that the law of
assumption is inherently harmful.
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00:04:24,092 --> 00:04:28,231
The cognitive shift towards positive
expectation has measurable benefits.
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00:04:28,266 --> 00:04:32,005
It, it can reduce anxiety, it can
improve motivation, and yes, it can
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00:04:32,231 --> 00:04:36,970
influence behavior patterns that
statistically improve your outcomes.
85
00:04:37,074 --> 00:04:39,170
That part is 100% real.
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00:04:39,387 --> 00:04:39,970
I own it.
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00:04:40,118 --> 00:04:41,500
I don't wanna say it doesn't work.
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00:04:41,692 --> 00:04:45,483
But there's a dose responsive
curve that personal development
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00:04:45,483 --> 00:04:50,422
culture seems to completely ignore,
especially the really motivated ones.
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You, you, you know who I'm
talking about, those, those folks.
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00:04:53,266 --> 00:04:56,457
A moderate amount of assumption
shifting is adaptive.
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00:04:56,596 --> 00:04:58,831
It creates a psychological flexibility.
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00:04:59,074 --> 00:05:00,553
It helps you break old patterns.
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00:05:00,700 --> 00:05:04,944
But sustained obsessive practice, it's
like anything else when you overdo
95
00:05:04,944 --> 00:05:09,326
it, especially when you combine that
with the explicit instruction to not
96
00:05:09,492 --> 00:05:13,900
acknowledge current reality, that,
my friends, can tip way over into
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00:05:14,005 --> 00:05:18,213
maladaptive territory because you're
literally training your brain to
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00:05:18,213 --> 00:05:20,448
disassociate from the present moment.
99
00:05:20,622 --> 00:05:23,883
And for some people, particularly
those with some existing trauma,
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00:05:24,083 --> 00:05:29,526
some anxiety sensit-sensitivity, or
latent disassociative vulnerability,
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that practice can trigger a
genuine depersonalization disorder.
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00:05:34,979 --> 00:05:35,892
Whoa, wait a minute.
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00:05:35,926 --> 00:05:36,231
Yeah.
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Here's the clinical detail I
don't think anybody mentions.
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00:05:39,396 --> 00:05:42,653
Depersonalization has a feedback
loop Here's what I mean.
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00:05:42,766 --> 00:05:47,506
You start experiencing unreality,
your body feels distant, so you
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00:05:47,506 --> 00:05:49,453
get anxious about the unreality.
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What's wrong with me?
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Am I losing my mind, right?
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That anxiety is a distress signal.
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Your brain responds by
deepening the disassociation.
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That's a protective mechanism.
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It's a neurological circuit breaker.
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You get more detached.
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You get more panicked.
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So what do you do?
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You assume harder.
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You tell yourself, "I'm just not believing
hard enough. I... The 3D is trying to
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trick me. I need to believe harder."
You intensify the very practice that's
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causing the problem in the first place.
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And because you're embedded within a
community that frames any perception
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of present reality as focusing on the
negative or not being in the end, you
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can't even name the problem without
being told that you're vibrating lower
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or you're blocking your blessings.
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Yeah, that's what psychologists
call spiritual bypassing.
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It-- That is a, a term coined by
psychologist John Welwood to describe
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the use of spiritual ideas and practices
to sidestep unresolved psychological
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wounds into developmental needs.
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The community becomes a container
for a psychiatric symptom.
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The, the ideology makes
the symptom invisible.
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It's, "I'm not here. Don't pay attention
to me." A 23-year-old sw- software
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developer named Marcus... I don't wanna
use his real name 'cause I didn't get his
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permission, but his pattern is textbook.
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He started exploring the
law of assumption in 2022.
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He was successful by c- all the
conventional metrics out there:
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six-figure salary, startup equity,
a trajectory that anybody out there
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would envy, but he felt hollow.
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So he pivoted into manifestation work.
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Every morning, 45 minutes of affirmations,
visualization of his ideal self as
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wealthy and confident and in control.
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Three meditation sessions where
he practiced feeling in the
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state, he says with air quotes.
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He got into SATS practice specifically,
spending 30 minutes every night
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in the threshold state between
waking and sleep, feeling his ideal
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reality as if it were already real.
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For six months, it felt powerful.
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He felt more motivated.
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He made career moves that all paid off.
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The correlation then, of
course, reinforced the belief.
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But something shifted.
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Around month seven, he started
noticing his hands during meetings.
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It was like they belonged to someone else.
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Maybe like y- if you've played
a video game, you're controlling
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00:08:01,874 --> 00:08:04,570
the hands, and you know y-you
are, but disconnected from them.
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00:08:04,839 --> 00:08:07,561
But when he spoke, his
voice sounded distant.
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00:08:07,596 --> 00:08:11,561
He'd be in a high-stakes call with
investors, and suddenly he felt like
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he was watching a recording of himself
rather than actually being his self.
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The anxiety spiked.
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00:08:17,344 --> 00:08:18,048
So what'd he do?
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He doubled down on the practice.
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00:08:19,431 --> 00:08:21,961
He read Neville Goddard's
work even more intensively.
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He joined an online community dedicated
to ad- to advanced assumption techniques.
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They told him he was going
through an ascension.
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This is actually common language in
those spaces, so bear with me here.
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They started reframing disassociative
symptoms as spiritual progression.
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It made sense to him in that
moment, but then it got worse.
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00:08:41,446 --> 00:08:45,133
He started avoiding his body
intentionally, not eating as much because,
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well, you know, the body is an illusion,
not moving as much because physical
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00:08:48,959 --> 00:08:53,203
sensation felt too real and threatened
his carefully maintained inner state.
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00:08:53,446 --> 00:08:58,516
He'd go days where he felt like a ghost
watching someone else live out his life.
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The panic attacks became almost constant.
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00:09:01,464 --> 00:09:04,212
He finally went to a therapist
who identified it immediately:
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00:09:04,333 --> 00:09:09,655
depersonalization-derealization
disorder, classified in the DSM-5
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00:09:09,890 --> 00:09:14,881
as the dissociative disorder
diagnostic code F48.1, triggered
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by sustained dissociative practice.
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00:09:17,499 --> 00:09:19,325
The treatment wasn't more visualization.
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Nope, it was the opposite:
deliberate, grounded reconnection
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in the present moment.
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00:09:24,829 --> 00:09:28,733
Grounding techniques, sensory
awareness, walking barefoot, eating
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00:09:28,760 --> 00:09:33,307
food while actually taking the time
to taste it, feeling his heartbeat,
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00:09:33,516 --> 00:09:35,873
anxiety exposure to his own body.
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00:09:36,655 --> 00:09:37,742
I know some of you are laughing.
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00:09:37,742 --> 00:09:41,055
I know when I first started diving into
this, I giggled a little bit, little bit
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by myself, not because I think it's funny
that people are going through this, but
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I think it's funny that we take something
so far to the edge That we hurt ourselves.
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00:09:50,118 --> 00:09:54,361
His recovery took nine months, eight
months of slowly convincing his nervous
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00:09:54,361 --> 00:09:59,683
system that being in his body was
safe, that the 3D, the physical reality
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00:09:59,683 --> 00:10:03,596
he had been trained to ignore, was
actually where his life was to be lived.
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00:10:03,822 --> 00:10:05,109
Look, don't get me wrong here.
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This isn't a, a story about the law of
assumption being evil, because it's not.
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But there is a cost structure that
I think gets completely hidden
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or kept away in a dark corner.
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00:10:16,248 --> 00:10:20,726
The personal development space thrives
on the narration of transformation, and
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what you're doing today is laying the
groundwork for your ideal self tomorrow.
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00:10:24,222 --> 00:10:27,587
That, right, that present moment
reality is essentially irrelevant.
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00:10:27,787 --> 00:10:32,309
Go ahead, you can ignore the 3D, but your
nervous system does not ignore the 3D.
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00:10:32,379 --> 00:10:36,657
It literally is designed to keep
you embedded in the 3D, and so
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00:10:36,657 --> 00:10:38,492
your survival depends on it.
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00:10:38,735 --> 00:10:40,683
Your sense of self depends on it.
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00:10:40,944 --> 00:10:44,048
There's a concept in neuroscience
called predictive processing.
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00:10:44,344 --> 00:10:47,196
It's a framework developed by
neuroscientist Karl Friston, sometimes
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00:10:47,196 --> 00:10:49,066
called the free energy principle.
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00:10:49,066 --> 00:10:50,579
And we're not talking about
driving your cars here.
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00:10:50,674 --> 00:10:55,222
Your brain is constantly generating
predictions about what it's about to
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00:10:55,222 --> 00:10:59,526
experience, and it does this based on
old patterns and current context and
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00:10:59,526 --> 00:11:02,657
a number of internal models, which are
a little bit different for each of us
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because we go through different lives.
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00:11:04,483 --> 00:11:08,918
Perception is the process of matching
these predictions against sensory
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00:11:08,918 --> 00:11:10,692
reality and then updating the model.
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00:11:10,926 --> 00:11:15,605
So when you actively train yourself to
ignore sensory input and focus instead
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00:11:15,605 --> 00:11:19,431
on the internal visualizations, you
are essentially telling your brain,
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00:11:19,431 --> 00:11:23,553
"Look, dude, g- check this. Your
predictions are more real than the
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00:11:23,553 --> 00:11:24,909
actual sensory data that's out there."
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00:11:25,170 --> 00:11:25,387
Right?
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00:11:25,648 --> 00:11:26,048
You feel me?
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00:11:26,292 --> 00:11:28,605
For a while, that feels like empowerment.
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00:11:28,874 --> 00:11:31,840
You're no longer passive to
reality, you're kinda generating it.
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00:11:32,066 --> 00:11:36,266
But sustained mismatch between prediction
and reality is, is in fact a predictive
219
00:11:36,266 --> 00:11:40,196
error that keeps happening, and you're
training yourself not to acknowledge it.
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00:11:40,283 --> 00:11:43,987
That generates neurological
dysregulation, right?
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00:11:44,083 --> 00:11:48,335
It shows up as depersonalization,
derealization, disassociation.
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00:11:48,692 --> 00:11:51,726
You're telling your brain, "Dude, I
know you said that was gonna happen,
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00:11:51,840 --> 00:11:54,257
and it happened, but don't pay
attention to that. Here's what I want
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00:11:54,257 --> 00:11:57,813
you to focus on." You're disconnecting
from what's actually happening.
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00:11:58,057 --> 00:12:01,135
The educational piece here, which I
think is the, the thing worth really
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00:12:01,135 --> 00:12:05,170
sharing, is understanding the difference
between healthy assumption shifting
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00:12:05,396 --> 00:12:06,987
and pathological disassociation.
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00:12:07,318 --> 00:12:12,057
Healthy manifestation practice is
something you do with awareness of your
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present reality, not instead of it.
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Hear me out on that, right?
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00:12:15,448 --> 00:12:20,013
You set an intention, you visualize, and
then you come back into the here and now.
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You notice your body.
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00:12:21,420 --> 00:12:25,612
You act in alignment with your goal
from a grounded place in the now.
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00:12:25,925 --> 00:12:29,290
The assumption then becomes
a lens, not a prison.
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00:12:29,620 --> 00:12:30,916
You're not ignoring reality.
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00:12:31,168 --> 00:12:35,255
You're actively choosing where to place
your attention while staying present.
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00:12:35,394 --> 00:12:40,351
But when the framework becomes ignore the
3D, live in the end, don't acknowledge
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00:12:40,351 --> 00:12:43,968
your current circumstances, when
it becomes a binary choice between
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00:12:44,212 --> 00:12:48,716
imagination and reality, not an
integration of both, that's when the trap
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begins to close and hold you inside it.
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00:12:51,325 --> 00:12:52,942
And h- here's the dangerous part.
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You can't unspell this
with more meditation.
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00:12:56,577 --> 00:12:59,820
You can't positive affirm your
way out of depersonalization.
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00:13:00,142 --> 00:13:02,333
What you need is re-embodiment.
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00:13:02,664 --> 00:13:06,073
You need to practice the
deliberate, sometimes unforgettable
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00:13:06,073 --> 00:13:08,299
work of just being here.
247
00:13:08,464 --> 00:13:09,768
I know sometimes it's not comfortable.
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00:13:09,916 --> 00:13:13,940
Sometimes y- the here is shit Uh, right?
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00:13:13,940 --> 00:13:15,966
There's probably other words I
could use, but you, you feel me.
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00:13:16,140 --> 00:13:20,271
Now, it-- right where you are right
now, in the body that feels real, even
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00:13:20,271 --> 00:13:22,045
if it does not feel good, there it is.
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00:13:22,236 --> 00:13:25,193
The darkest place of this
isn't the symptom itself.
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00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:28,645
It's the community structure around
the manifestation culture that
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00:13:28,645 --> 00:13:33,114
makes it almost impossible to reach
out from inside it, to say, "I'm
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00:13:33,114 --> 00:13:36,366
experiencing some depersonalization
from this practice," right?
256
00:13:36,366 --> 00:13:37,940
Something feels wonky here.
257
00:13:38,358 --> 00:13:41,801
Now, that is to admit that you
weren't vibrating high enough.
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00:13:42,036 --> 00:13:43,740
You weren't being good enough.
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00:13:43,975 --> 00:13:44,558
That's failure.
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00:13:44,714 --> 00:13:46,453
It means you weren't disciplined enough.
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00:13:46,662 --> 00:13:47,888
You weren't believing enough.
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00:13:48,062 --> 00:13:49,549
You weren't evolving enough.
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00:13:49,758 --> 00:13:50,749
You weren't enough.
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00:13:50,914 --> 00:13:55,253
This is John Welwood's spiritual
bypassing in its acute form, using the
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00:13:55,253 --> 00:13:59,593
language of spiritual progress to avoid
confronting a real psychological crisis.
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00:13:59,758 --> 00:14:01,210
So people, what do they do?
267
00:14:01,462 --> 00:14:02,262
They suffer in silence.
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00:14:02,636 --> 00:14:05,593
They intensify the very practice
that's harming them in the first place
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00:14:05,888 --> 00:14:10,532
because the ideology tells them the
solution is in deeper surrender, not
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00:14:10,532 --> 00:14:13,662
stepping back and looking around and
gauging what the hell's going on.
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00:14:13,932 --> 00:14:18,584
They become isolated by the framework
designed to free them, to liberate them.
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00:14:18,662 --> 00:14:22,019
Let that one sink in, to get
isolated by the very framework
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00:14:22,175 --> 00:14:23,653
they're using to free themselves.
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00:14:23,862 --> 00:14:24,019
Huh?
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00:14:24,306 --> 00:14:28,271
Look, maybe you came to this video for
some clarity, and the clarity isn't
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00:14:28,271 --> 00:14:32,245
that the law of assumption doesn't work,
because let's be honest, it does in
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00:14:32,245 --> 00:14:34,958
specific contexts, in specific doses.
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00:14:35,393 --> 00:14:38,323
The clarity I wanna make sure you
come away with is that your nervous
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00:14:38,323 --> 00:14:39,923
system, it has a breaking point.
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00:14:40,149 --> 00:14:43,532
Your body has a voice, and when
the cost of your internal state
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00:14:43,766 --> 00:14:48,027
becomes disassociation from your
physical state, when the price of
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00:14:48,027 --> 00:14:52,514
your beliefs is unreality, then the
assumption is no longer serving you.
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00:14:52,697 --> 00:14:53,723
It's consuming you.
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Yeah, eating you alive.
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00:14:55,262 --> 00:14:58,697
The question isn't whether you should
believe or whether you should not believe.
286
00:14:58,949 --> 00:15:01,149
The question should be: what is the cost?
287
00:15:01,184 --> 00:15:04,732
What are you willing to lose in the
pursuit of a version of yourself
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00:15:04,975 --> 00:15:07,132
that exists only in your imagination?
289
00:15:07,358 --> 00:15:10,819
Because the gap between the self
you're assuming and the self you're
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00:15:10,845 --> 00:15:14,471
actually living as, that's the
gap... where the pathology lives.
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00:15:14,627 --> 00:15:16,636
The trap was never the belief.
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00:15:16,732 --> 00:15:19,906
It was the belief that the
belief alone was enough.
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00:15:20,123 --> 00:15:23,123
Look, if this episode is hitting a little
different, if you recognize yourself maybe
294
00:15:23,123 --> 00:15:26,975
a little bit in Marcus's story, or you
felt a little uncomfortable recognition
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00:15:27,097 --> 00:15:30,897
as I was describing watching yourself
from outside your own body, then perhaps
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00:15:30,897 --> 00:15:32,610
you need to get on my newsletter list.
297
00:15:32,827 --> 00:15:37,271
The Unleash Your Success DNA newsletter
is a weekly reality check for my
298
00:15:37,271 --> 00:15:40,819
aspiring entrepreneurs and nine-to-five
escapees and anyone out there who
299
00:15:40,853 --> 00:15:44,158
is tired of spiritual bypassing
and ready for a dose of truth.
300
00:15:44,349 --> 00:15:47,862
Each issue delivers more mindset
shifts and habit upgrades, all again
301
00:15:47,862 --> 00:15:50,479
with a little dose of rebellion, all
designed to help you break through
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00:15:50,479 --> 00:15:54,758
convention so that you can build a life
aligned with your version of success.
303
00:15:55,045 --> 00:15:56,827
So wh- who cares, Tracy?
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00:15:56,827 --> 00:15:57,819
What, what does this mean?
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00:15:57,949 --> 00:16:00,906
Here's what really I
think it comes down to.
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00:16:01,027 --> 00:16:04,375
We're living through the largest
uncontrolled psychological
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00:16:04,375 --> 00:16:06,071
experiment in human history.
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00:16:06,253 --> 00:16:10,940
I, I also do a conspiratory podcast,
and I dive way deep into this even more.
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00:16:11,184 --> 00:16:14,462
But let, let's, let's not go sp-
conspiratorial here because millions
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00:16:14,462 --> 00:16:18,497
of people are practicing disassociative
techniques without understanding
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00:16:18,775 --> 00:16:20,314
the neurological consequences.
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00:16:20,471 --> 00:16:24,479
The personal development industry has
weaponized ancient spiritual practices,
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00:16:24,566 --> 00:16:27,819
stripped them of the safeguards,
and packaged them up all neat and
314
00:16:27,819 --> 00:16:29,862
nice with a bow as quick fixes.
315
00:16:30,027 --> 00:16:31,723
This isn't about manifestation.
316
00:16:32,036 --> 00:16:35,419
This is about a culture that's
lost touch with the value of being
317
00:16:35,514 --> 00:16:37,619
present in the now with yourself.
318
00:16:37,906 --> 00:16:40,584
We've confused spiritual practice
with spiritual bypassing.
319
00:16:40,853 --> 00:16:45,027
Real transformation doesn't happen
by escaping your current reality.
320
00:16:45,210 --> 00:16:49,610
It happens by fully inhabiting it and
then consciously choosing to change it.
321
00:16:49,914 --> 00:16:51,271
The trap was never the belief.
322
00:16:51,375 --> 00:16:54,140
It was the belief that the
belief alone is enough.
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00:16:54,297 --> 00:16:57,323
So here's your whispered wisdom
for this week and your action step.
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00:16:57,653 --> 00:17:02,102
For the next seven days, practice what
I'm gonna call reality anchoring Three
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00:17:02,102 --> 00:17:05,754
times a day, in the morning, afternoon,
and before you go to bed, spend two
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00:17:05,754 --> 00:17:08,093
minutes feeling your feet on the ground.
327
00:17:08,311 --> 00:17:11,224
Heck, go a little crazy, kick
off your shoes and socks and
328
00:17:11,224 --> 00:17:12,789
go step out onto the grass.
329
00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:14,667
Or if you don't have grass, onto the dirt.
330
00:17:14,728 --> 00:17:16,728
Notice the temperature
of the air on your skin.
331
00:17:16,954 --> 00:17:18,737
Listen to the sounds around you.
332
00:17:18,972 --> 00:17:21,624
Put your hand on your chest
and feel your heartbeat.
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00:17:21,885 --> 00:17:26,772
And then say out loud, "I'm here. This
is now. This is real." No visualization,
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00:17:26,833 --> 00:17:29,293
no affirmations, just presence.
335
00:17:29,467 --> 00:17:32,676
Because you cannot build a business,
a relationship, or a life of any
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00:17:32,676 --> 00:17:34,546
kind from a disassociative state.
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00:17:34,859 --> 00:17:39,467
I know this episode might have shattered a
few of your beliefs or made you go, "What
338
00:17:39,467 --> 00:17:42,615
the hell is this guy talking about?" And
maybe you've held on a little too tight.
339
00:17:42,763 --> 00:17:44,493
And if they have, good.
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00:17:44,546 --> 00:17:46,746
Even if you don't agree
with me, that's okay.
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00:17:46,946 --> 00:17:47,963
Hit me in the DMs.
342
00:17:48,172 --> 00:17:49,206
Hit me in the comments.
343
00:17:49,380 --> 00:17:50,511
Tell me why you disagree.
344
00:17:50,720 --> 00:17:52,824
Let's engage in a little
bit of discourse, right?
345
00:17:53,172 --> 00:17:54,415
That's what we do here.
346
00:17:54,659 --> 00:17:56,885
We tell the truth even
if it's uncomfortable.
347
00:17:57,111 --> 00:17:59,728
Your freedom is not gonna be
found by escaping reality.
348
00:17:59,946 --> 00:18:02,563
It's found in the
mastering of your reality.
349
00:18:03,093 --> 00:18:06,850
The world doesn't need yet another
person lost in their damn imagination.
350
00:18:07,050 --> 00:18:07,650
It needs you.
351
00:18:08,059 --> 00:18:11,519
It needs you present and grounded
and ready to build something real
352
00:18:11,711 --> 00:18:13,459
from where you are right now.
353
00:18:13,780 --> 00:18:15,728
Think successfully and take action.
