Friday, January 23, 2015

Adjusting to the Times We Live In

 
In a recent episode of Downton Abbey, Mrs. Hughes, the housekeeper at the estate, observed that “Downton Abbey is catching up with the times we live in” by bringing a Wireless (radio) in to hear King George V’s speech. Although automobiles existed in England during the early 20th Century, horse-drawn carriages or wagons were also still in use and trains were the primary mode of long-distance public transportation. Telephones were rare, and most of them had multi-party lines, which limited opportunities to have a private conversation. Typewriters existed but there were no computers or Smartphones to send text messages or e-mails. Therefore, the only ways to listen to music or keep up with events going on around you when they happened meant you had to go to a club or attend an event at a town hall.
Needless to say, the butler, Mr. Carson, was not impressed. He was worried about the different ways the new machine and other modern inventions of convenience would destroy the order and way of life he has known throughout his life. He worried that those devices that were being created to make people’s lives easier and more convenient also threatened his livelihood and even identity by making the role of a household servant redundant. Mr. Carson didn’t know how to do any other job other than his roles in a life of service. Where would he and his colleagues go, what would they do, if the Wireless and similar machines took hold and squeezed him out of the only life he knew how to live?
According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute founder John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind, human behavior is based on the subconscious mental scripts that we create during early childhood. From birth until about eight years old, the SCM is accumulating and storing various message units that will ultimately comprise the subconscious life script. Each message is ultimately categorized as a positive (pleasure) or negative (pain) experience. Anything that the subconscious mind does not recognize falls under the category of “pain.” According to Dr. Kappas, the subconscious mind is uncomfortable about and resistant to doing new or different things even when the conscious mind (logic, reason, will-power/free-will and reasoning) says that it’s okay to do so. The SCM likes and wants to stick to what is familiar, comforting and safe: i.e., knowns.
To put this model in the context of the scenario I described above, Mr. Carson likely perceived the opportunity to listen to the King of England give a speech as a threat to his concept of normal social order. As a butler to and not a member of the aristocracy he served, this experience would not ordinarily have been available to him based on his role in society. In addition, he did not understand how the Wireless worked (let alone the mechanisms that enabled it to work), which likely made the idea of this experience that much more frustrating and anxiety-inducing. Meanwhile, several younger members of his employer’s family and younger members of the household staff were more excited about and open to the idea of having a Wireless. Scientific advancement was a “known” for them; it made their lives more exciting, a little easier and more fun. They were accustomed to enjoying modern conveniences that Mr. Carson and many of his peers had only recently, begrudgingly accepted as part of their lives in a modern era.
 
 
 
 
Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy® and to set up an appointment, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.
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