phil K wrote: I have titled this subtopic classic conditioning. Classic conditioning means literally the things we respond to incorrectly just as Pavlovs dog salivates over a bell which is an incorrect response to the stimulus of a bell.

Dear Phil,

I am sorry if I am messing up the trend of discussion here on classic conditioning. The human mind does behave like Pavlov's dog all the time as can be seen in the way we are fooled by magic tricks.

The magician fans out four cards with his hands and shows you four queens. He closes his four card deck, turns it over, and fans it out again showing you the same four cards which are now blanks. This never fails to amaze the audience. I bought the magic trick for four dollars because I had to know how the magician made the queens disappear. I drive people nuts with the trick every time. The trick was simple and I discovered what a fool the mind can be by jumping to conclusions. Pavlov's dog jumped to similar conclusions on hearing the bell. It was the conclusion about the bell-food connection that cause the salivating.

Phil, if you understand Pavlov's conditioning, you can use it to be a big time crook fleecing people out of everything they own. This is how a con works in everyday life.

Regards,

Sree

phil K wrote: So I, also, agree that the susceptibility to being hurt in the face of either to be a sign of emotional disorder and that is why I call them both conditionings.

Dear Phil,

While conditioning might be a good thing, emotional disorder is not.

A regular schedule conditions my body, and it readily adjusts to a cyclic routine. Mentally, conditioning enables faster task performance and I can do things with rapidity and accuracy without "thinking".

Emotional disorder is rather dark and scary. Getting upset over a discussion about nothing is quite mad. Don't you agree?

It seems that each of us is connected to a common reservoir of emotional rage much like the way volcanos are connected to the earth's immense thermal core. While all of us do get hurt to some degree when subjected to deliberate insults, others go ballistic even when told objectively in the kindest way that they are messing things up.

Regards,

Sree

phil K wrote: An example that you ask for is criticism or being insulted. I came to the realization that during my learning process, I was conditioned to believe there was such a thing; consequently, I would react emotionally when I perceived somethng as being an insult or criticism. That has completely dropped away.

Dear Phil,

I think it is important to differentiate between insult and criticism. Both can cause hurt; but while an insult is meant to hurt, criticism isn't. It is curious why you lump the two together as though they are one and the same thing.

I study the performing arts at NYU (New York University). The critique sessions can be brutal, especially when the teacher has a way of being direct and never pulls his punches in telling me that my performance sucks. That's the way it is, and if I let hurt gets in the way, I won't survive.

Don't you consider the susceptibility to hurt in the face of criticism or even insults is a sign of emotional disorder?

Regards,

Sree

phil K wrote: I will be a little revealing here and say that along with some friends with whom I have talked for years and no matter what...I's..self images...egos or whatever, quite a few condtionings have dropped away in all of us; thereby, creating much better and freer lives.

Dear Phil,

Please allow me to join your discussion.

Can you give me an example of a conditioning that you have dropped that led to a freer life?

There is a difference between giving up a habit or lifestyle, that results in the removal of a constraint or mental roadblock, and the ending of a belief that brings about a change that fundamentally alters one's identity. An example of this would be the story of the Ugly Duckling that was freed from the oppressive belief that it was a duck.

Regards,

Sree