On the failure of gods
I kept thinking about triggers.
People are always explaining how they work. Usually in positive terms. Almost mechanically.
You have probably heard it before in hypnosis spaces: “There is no no.” “The unconscious does not process negation.” “Every resistance can be reframed.”
And yet, like gods, triggers fail.
Have you ever wondered why?
I am not trying to explain how to fix that. Only to point at something interesting:
if something is not working, MANY things may be failing at once.
Because if a trigger “doesn’t work,” the possible causes are endless:
• the subject does not find it meaningful • there was not enough repetition • there was too much repetition and it became flat • conscious resistance • anxiety • distraction • insufficient absorption • poor emotional synchrony • not enough expectation • too much expectation • lack of connection • incorrect context • exhaustion • habituation • internal conflict • perhaps they simply do not care
And none of those fit comfortably into a variable reinforcement graph.
The establishment of a trigger is not linear.
Even classical behaviorism was never truly: stimulus enters → behavior appears perfectly.
There were always: • individual differences • resistance • habituation • context • motivation • stress • fatigue • attention • previous learning
And that was in animals.
In humans, it becomes infinitely messier.
Because in hypnosis you also add: • conscious expectation • fantasy • transference • desire to please • erotic play • dissociation • identity • symbolic narrative
At that point, you are no longer modeling only observable behavior.
You are modeling complex subjective experience.
✦ᛉᛋᛇ✦
