#predictive processing

read The Way Out by Alan Gordon & Alon Ziv, there is a lot of research that went into this. I don't trust anything of this sort unless it's backed by studies and evidence. Additionally, they managed to capture the pain on fMRIs, more specifically in the part of the brain associated with learning and memory. That is huge. If you were ever told that your pain isn't real, they have it on a scan.

The success rate is: 98% of patients improved and 66% of patients were pain-free or nearly pain-free* at the end of treatment. The results held up when checked a year later.

*their definition of pain-free/nearly pain-free being 0-1/10 pain level

If you know anything about chronic pain treatment statistics, you likely see this is groundbreaking. Certainly better than the usual "no cure".

I'm aware that unless you've looked into this, it probably sounds like some kind of woo woo. I initially thought it was BS and closed my tabs on it (like I've said, I've been in pain for 7 years. If there were something, I would've known by now, right?). Read the book, my curiosity wouldn't let me not to (truthfully, thanks to the science and references involved) because the other option was to give up. Read the book.

Don't underestimate your chance. If you commit to it, you can do this yourself. I'm not saying it will be easy but your chances of recovery might be high and would you pass on that? I am doing it myself (I'm already quite familiar with how to do intenional neural rewiring sucessfully thanks to a different instance in my life), I have gone through extensive testing (therefore I know for certain I have no structural damage) and I do fit the majority of the criteria for neuroplastic pain, which is why I believe PRT is the perfect fit for me personally. If you want a practitioner, there are options, but this treatment is incredibly accessible if you think you have what it takes and choose to do it on your own. There are numerous cases who have made a full recovery on their own.

Some of the many interviews I found helpful after reading the book: **int1 <- is my favourite and a good introduction to the topic int2, int3, int4, int5,

+ **Howard Schubiner, MD also has this new book on the topic that you can preorder

int6 (an interview in which the book listed above is mentioned in more depth)

Have you ever had someone say exactly what you needed to hear… a little too perfectly?

And then you wonder: Have we worked together long enough that they know me? Am I that transparent?

Or maybe the hypnotist is simply using their best tool—language—to show you that they don’t need to be a mentalist.

Even if there’s some level of “cold control,” what’s really happening is a strange mix: what they know, and what they pick up from you in real time.

So what do you do as a subject, when it feels like you’ve just shown your hand without even trying?

You play the hand you’ve been given. And you understand something simple:

There are things the brain likes to hear.

It’s not your fault. It’s how we’re built.

And this is where mentalism, cold control, and the Barnum effect come in.

When you use concepts that people already understand—things they can relate to—you create the feeling of mind reading. But it’s not really reading minds.

It’s understanding minds.

I won’t deny there’s a darker side to this. But today, we stay on the light side.

✦ ᛉ ᚨ ᚷ ᛟ ✦

(Issue 46 — Part I of III)

Brain Kludge: How machine learning hacked backwards into an almost-fundamental mechanic of general and human cognition, or:

Flowing Chunks: How AI token generation is just like the human phenomena we call chunking and predictive processing by

I think it's probably implemented implicitly, as some neuron firings (which would generate one prediction) being suppressed by the firings of other neurons (which are part of another sufficiently more likely prediction that the brain is making simultaneously).

Remember that the brain is a prediction machine. See "predictive coding/processing", which is very well justified by modern neuroscience evidence: the brain constantly runs an entire model of the world around you, predicting what will happen.

(Issue 47 — Part II of III)