| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Baseball65 |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 08:36:07
Hello.
Just had to post this.I was in "Sams Club" yesterday looking at new television sets,and something occured to me that I thought was impotant to anybody who suffers from TMS.
As most of you know,I have no physical symptoms and have had a complete recovery.I see many posts where it is presumed that everybody has some left over,nagging little pain...incorrect..I have none.Not bragging,just making a point.
I thought it important to mention that I do NOT watch Television....not as in "I barely watch" or "It's on but I do not pay attention.." as in "Not one frickin' second of broadcast television"
I have a 20" TV that has NO cable hook-up,so I get 2 or 3 channels(fuzzy) and that is enough to get any tornado warnings,information on presidential elections,school closings,etc.
I had the great fortune to read Jerry Manders "In the absence of the Sacred"....in it,he re-caps his ideas from his other famous book "Four reasons for the elimination of television"
Jerry Mander is a turncoat who worked in the Ivory towers of the advertising business for years.He had an "epiphany" and realized what they were doing was evil,and has written extensively on the subject....not elitist rantings about the quality of TV,or the intellectual advantages to not watching TV.
I will not recap the whole book here,but suffice it to say I learned there is NO such thing as Educational TV,important discourse on politics,or religion or anything else for that ,matter.If you watch the news you are NOT informed,and unfortunately we have 260 million people walking around thinking they are.
The problems of TV are actually inherent in the device..the actual box itself.He takes Marshall McLuhans Idea of "the medium IS the massage" and takes you one step further into the underground recesses of your brain that are actually targeted by the people with an interest in changing the way you think and process information.
Images are powerful and are aimed at your UNCONSCIOUS mind where they are processed without your consent.The smartest,most informed person in the world can not stop a bullet aimed at his head.....neither can any TV watcher stop information aimed at the UNCONSCIOUS because it's unconscious.
We can go on for hours in the erroneous messages about HOW a family really is,what really happens in life,etc....
I just thought it important when the Idea of getting a larger Demon for my front room came up....
...uhhh this time there is
peace=war
love=hate
dictatorship=democracy
pre-disposition=freedom
but you will find no
peace
Baseball65 |
| 16 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Logan |
Posted - 02/01/2005 : 14:41:27
Speaking of the Big Mac song, I was just thinking the other day about how singing/songs work so well as a form of mnemonic device. I think I was thinking of it because I'm reading A Brave New World and Aldous Huxley writes a lot about compulsor Community Sings. If you really want to get paranoid about how we're all conditioned to be sheeple, read this book.
Anyways, the reason songs are so effective is that they bypass the conscious mind and seep into the unconscious. I haven't been to a Mormon church with my grandma in over 20 years but I can sing the first verse of the song we kids always sang! "I am a child of God and he has sent me here and given me an earthly home with parents kind and dear." (Except I didn't have a dad, which was problematic in a mormon community but that's a whole other story...)
The good news about the brainwashing power of music is the fact you can use little songs "I am healthy, I am strong, gonna feel back to normal soon, it won't be long," to clean your brain of TMS causing conditioning. I used them quite a lot in the initial stages of my healing.
On the bad news front, another thing to watch out for, is news that presents itself as your friend. The only news I watch is a pseudo-newsy good morning show which is broadcast by my local NBC affiliate. The cast is very folksy and sometimes funny and I usually enjoy about an hour of their antics while drinking my coffee. But since reading your post, I've been looking at the shows content and its subtext with a more critical eye. Basically, it implies that your life (especially if you're a woman) needs constant fixing, cleaning, improving, perfecting and defending against the forces of chaos and destruction.
This morning they had Winona Judd on with her new diet plan; it's been awhile since I heard anyone parrot the old Special K motto "if you can pinch an inch." Screw society, I say! I can pinch a few inches but I'm also stronger and more aerobically fit than I've ever been; I just don't look like I'm 20 and anorexic, because I'm not. I'm in "the best shape of my life" (a phrase I now can't forget because of all those damn Bowflex ads). I am working on accepting me and my life as is, to be as free as possible from the perfection and possession game that American culture has become. |
| Baseball65 |
Posted - 01/31/2005 : 12:02:46
Hi Michele and everybody.
On that last note...TV is OK to watch to wind down,but I would,if I were a TMS doctor,make a few recommendations.
1. Only watch comdies,sports,music..or something motivational
2. Never even glance at a commercial(Tivo is a godsend...too bad I can't afford it)
if TV did what it was invented to do,that is entertain,than it wouldn't be so dangerous.It's when TV pretends to be serious...the news,politics,religion,education,that it is at it's most dangerous.
Advertising is aimed at the heart of your self esteem.Avoid it like the plague.There is so much you can not avoid(billboards,radio,etc.) that we need to become aware of our M.E. as adbusters calls it...our "Mental environment"....talk about it with your kids,your friends,Family.
After my kids see a commercial in which they laugh heartily,I ask them "What was funny about that?"...and than they tell me the "Punchline"....than I ask them: "What did it tell you about their product?" and they always know the answer..."Nothing...they're implying that if you use their product you will have laughs and a good time"
Unfortunately humour is not their only weapon...they use guilt(The old lady in the AT&T commercial whose son hasn't called her) they use false symbols of success(American express,Merrill Lynch) and SEX.
Next time you see a commercial by a poolside with girls in bikinis for say...Beer?...freeze frame the commercial,take out a ruler and measure to the dead center of your screen.....I'll eat my hat if it's not a set of fake boobs on some starlet...the Beer is off in some corner.
My sons know the answer to that one too.."They're telling you that if you drink their beer,you'll have a girl with big boobs by your pool"
AWARENESS is key...unfortunately they bomb you so hard and so fast,it's hard for the conscious mind,even armed with the truth ,to keep up with the barrage.
Now...these are ones they haven't snuck by us....how many have?
I'll bet anybody on this forum over fourty knows the Big Mac song from the 70's ..melody and all: "Two all beef patties,special sauce lettuce chees,pickles onions on a sesame seed bun"....remember???
Now...tell me what life changing events happened to you that year? What grade were you in? who did you have a crush on? Were your parents fighting? Divorced? ......we remember things that don't matter to us...and forget the ones that do.
Obviously their weapons are very effective
TMS recovery depends upon us taking back some control over the mental and emotional aspect of our lives....and every time we watch TV we surrender a little bit back.
sorry for my Iconoclastic rant...I will now get off of my soapbox.
The reverend Baseball65
Church of the OFF switch
and recovered TMS victim
Baseball65 |
| Michele |
Posted - 01/31/2005 : 10:53:51
Excellent post! I am guilty of using TV to "unwind", the premise being that I can lay down and not have to "think" about anything. Apparently my unconscious has been doing alot of thinking! You've convinced me, and I'm going to curb alot of my watching from now on - including the morning news. |
| Baseball65 |
Posted - 01/30/2005 : 17:19:06
....to follow up.
Those womens magazines are Satan incarnate.My wife is absolutely beautiful,but always makes disparaging comments about her weight..I finally told her to shut up....I conditioned her really easy.If she makes a comment about how "fat" she is,I walk out of the room.She's 42 years old,works 60 hours a week,volunteers at school and is....drumroll....10 pounds overweight!!
By The WAy....all you women out there....US guys don't think that boney little anorexic looking nymphs are attractive...we like women....real women....only women seem to be thinking and having anxiety over NOT being Kate Moss(yuccchh).
It's kind of funny....those magazines have made a fortune off of the victims of their own LIES...how many diet products did you buy last year? ....cosmetics to get rid of wrinkles? anti-aging? morelike "anti-reality"
Anyways...if you ever read the antimedia prophets,magazines and other crap periodical like 'people magazine' take their lead from TV....they even try to format the mags like TV...short superfluous stories that are easily read,need no more than a 3rd grade mentality to read and are primarily vehicles for corporate marketing.If people stopped buying them,they'd mail them to you for free....they have to get the LIES out there,or otherwise people won't keep buying things that they don't need which would cripple the Western worlds economy.
The rule of thumb from Manders inside perspective is: The more you see a product advertised,the less you need it.I see tons of doritos commercials,but never any for apples.I see lots of New car commercials,but very few for basic appliances(ovens,blenders,coffee makers)...you DO nOT need a new car every year....unless of course you read people magazine or watch TV....which will remind you how successful it will make you,or how many the opposite sex will be attracted to you,or how safe you'll be from the reality of the world.
.....aaaaahhhh
PS..Neil postman writes that the ONLY time television is safe is when it is merely entertaining (Like a sitcom)...the problem is,even in those,, corporate sponsors are paying to have their products inserted into the background...I know...I worked in the TV business for a decade!! When Seinfeld reaches for his soda,coke and pepsi had a bidding was to PAY to have it be their product.
here is an interesting link from one of my favorite website/periodicals....they always have insights into things that could very well be part of your TMS....angermakers in our culture that are "invisible"
check it out: http://adbusters.org/magazine/57/big%20empty.php
Baseball65 |
| Logan |
Posted - 01/30/2005 : 14:13:28
I think it's not just TV that we should be looking at with a critical eye. I stopped reading women's magazines right around the time I started my TMS recovery because I felt they were poisoning my mind.
Women's magazines - whether it be Redbook or Martha Stewart Living or Shape or Cosmo - put so much pressure on women to be GOOD and PERFECT wives, mothers, girlfriends, bodies etc. that any woman reading them will instantly feel guilty and shameful. Once the publishers have you in that state, you're primed for the pretty promises that their advertisers make: face cream and perfume and designer clothes and new cars and diamond jewelry and french enamel cookware and a Viking subzero fridge will make it all OK, if only you buuuuuy them. NOW.
I do think there are things on TV worth watching but I wouldn't watch TV without keeping a critical eye open for whatever anyone is trying to sell or tell me in an ad, sitcom, movie or a so-called documentary.
I also wouldn't watch TV without tivo. When my husband wanted to get one, I thought, "that's all we need, is to watch more TV." Since we got it though, we actually watch less TV and we only watch what we actively record, stuff we see real merit in. We don't zombie out in front of the box watching whatever comes on.
And now to really sound like a shill for tivo (I'm not, I swear)...the real bonus of tivo, and the reason why advertisers hate it, is that you can skip the commercials. All those commercials for drugs you don't need because you know you have TMS. :) You used to be able to not-record them but the advertisers lobbied congress to make that illegal...
And finally, I don't tivo the "news" because I know it's just another "show" and it's not a good one. I can't rely on it to even report things I know to have happened - take for instance, a few weeks ago a HUGE, HUGE traffic accident occured up the street from me in the middle of the night and I only know this because my dog howled for the 20 minutes it took for all of the siren-blaring emergency vehicles to arrive on the scene. There was no mention of it on my morning news which I tuned in to specifically to find out what happened. Yet, they had footage of a school bus accident in rural W. Virginia...
I have a class with a woman who used to be in the biz and she says they have an algorithm for determining what makes it on the screen - something like (X) deaths "times" (Y) distance = relevant tragedy. If the tsunami had only killed a couple of hundred people, basically, you never would have heard about it... |
| n/a |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 18:04:30
We still have a fair bit of in depth reporting over here in the UK. Heavy political stuff is widely reported in a pretty non-sensational way by some of our main TV channels. We also get good, well-researched programmes that expose things like the exploitation of foreign workers by major corporations.
A recent example was an expose of the SSRI anti-depressant Seroxat (Paxil, I think it is called in the USA) - the manufacturer had failed to warn of very serious side-effects.
While many people watched that one and it got the government to issue new guidelines to doctors about prescribing it, in the main, programmes that make people think and question are a minority interest.
I worry that it may only be a matter of time till Rupert Murdoch (owner of Fox News and Britain's most rabid daily 'newspaper') gets his way and the BBC's yearly licence fee is abolished - all owners of television sets have to pay just over £100 ($180 approx) yearly - whether they watch BBC channels or not. The trouble is - the BBC traditionally leads the way in in-depth reporting and if it falls, or rather gets torn apart by Murdoch bending the ear of best pal Tony Blair, it will most likely be the end of good journalistic television over here as well. It will also be the end of non-advertising channels. It's great to get to watch a good movie with absolutely no interruptions. |
| chris |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 16:20:04
interesting topic. by the way, baseball 65 usually comes up with insights that ring true for me. i've only posted once or twice, am currently battling a bout of tms that has morphed into sciatica. however, i do have all the personality traits, and even ran mt washington,as did dr sopher. point being that i figure i'm in the right place!
to expand on the tv theme, i agree with the gist of this thread...the media is not doing us any favors! I have been working as a carpenter/remodelor for the past 15 years, but was involved in radio broadcasting and publishing for the first few years after college. as a one time insider (who worked with howard stern early in his career, and though i don't need his shtick, i will vouch for his personal honesty), i would like to support your observations. I thought the media was pretty sophisticated in its ability to manipulate its audience when i was involved 25 years ago. since then, there has been plenty of profit to invest in market research and psychology ( to be used against us). i have made it a point not to watch tv news- it simply is not possible to report a complicated political story in 60 seconds. and remember, if there is no video, the story is a lot less attractive to your tv producers! so, just think about how much goes on in the world that is hidden from the cameras. for example, we all know about sweat shops supplying goods to big international corporations. but, do we ever see video of workers being abused? of course not- micheal moore would never get in the door!
anyway, since it's winter, i have been indoors, and channel surfing more than usual...i wonder if there's any connection between that an my tms flare up of the past 3 months? hmmm. |
| Baseball65 |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 13:51:27
Quick note on this topic.
Neil Postman in his : "Amusing ourselves to Death"
actually predicted the outcome of the last 4 or 5 elections...even the florida/TV/problems of the 2000 election(see his chapter "reach out an elect someone")...the publication date was in the early 1980's,but he was spot on.
He also published a list of commandments that TV must follow.
I actually had quit watching TV long before I read these books....I sat around during the first gulf war with a bunch of Vietnam veterans and watched them watch the same bomb hit the same building over and over and over......I wasn't going to ask them to change the channel....I went outside and lifted weights.
I read Ram Dass,formerly Robert Alpert(timothy leary's LSD buddy)...he said he left the country for 6 months to meditate in a mountain monastery with no communication with the outside world.He said he caught up with virtually EVERY important news information piece in a 30 minute perusal of a news magazine.....and all those hours we waste watching the news.
Than....One night I go outside to see if my than girlfriend (now wife) was home yet...she was late.There were police all around my house,and the 7-11 across the street had yellow tape all the way around it.I asked the police if it had been robbed,and they said "Yeah....go back in your house"...
The next day after work,my front doorbell rings and it's a gentleman I recognize from the FOX action news,channel 9(in LA)....he asks if I want to go on camera about the MURDER that had happened on the property line between my neighbor and I's homes.
I was shocked...MURDER?? he told me all about it...a good samaritian had chased a guy who had grabbed a 12pack of beer and ran across the street...the guy turned and shot him dead by my bushes.This was the first I'd heard of it.He asked if I wanted to go on Camera....I declined...He had just told ME..what was I going to say??
He was angry about my refusal,and asked provocatively.."Well,is this the kind of thing that goes on around here??? Do you feel safe knowing a man was shot on your lawn??"
I responded with a quote from "The world accoding to Garp"..I said "Well...actually right now,I probably live in the safest place in the world....the odds of this happening right here ever again are astronomical !!!"
I went across the street to play pinball in 7-11,and I can see the guy stopping everybody in the parking lot trying to get a "story"...I saw him throw a small tantrum,as he was refused over and over again....
POINT: **** happens,but the news is just a show,subject to ratings and commercial sponsors just like any other show....if it's not sensational then it loses ratings....they have to get a story,even when there isn't one.....so,why watch it???
Watching Lord of the rings is safe.You know it's not real.Watching the news is dangerous,because you accidentally might think it is and live in a world of fear and tension that is statistically astronomical in it's unlikelyhood to effect your own life....even when a guy gets murdered on your lawn.
....I did get a bunch of phone calls from friends who saw the piece...."Hey...isn't that your house?"
that's about it.
....
..
.
Baseball65 |
| n/a |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 11:56:42
This is a thought-provoking subject and I'm sure that television has a huge impact on many areas of our lives, including how we look at health related topics. I think that you are spot on with your analysis, Baseball65.
One cosmetics company has been advertising their anti-wrinkle serum with the slogan, 'Let surgery wait.' This really annoyed me - the inference is that cosmetic surgery is something that we will all need in time. I haven't worked out why a cosmetic company would do this, but it sure will be deliberate.
I'm sticking with comedies - the new series of 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' (the best comedy to come out of the US lately, IMO) is showing over here - it's great, I just love it! All TMS sufferers or ex-sufferers can relate to Larry. |
| blg568 |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 11:47:01
Alright, alright, alright. You all have convinced me. I am going to put myself on a TV/radio diet** for 1 week and we'll see what happens. I have actually been thinking alot about this lately anyway. I don't watch much TV, but in the mornings, I am a big news watcher and it seems that most things that are reported on are negative. I don't need that.
**Not to include Sesame Street, Veggie Tales and Clifford the Big Red Dog |
| Albert |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 09:56:16
Baseball65:
After reading your second post, I can see what you mean about TV filling up a person's mind with a bunch of false ideas.
Take for example a lot of current pop music. I don't know how people can stand the stuff. But it's put on TV and kids eat it up. I know a guy who gets into whatever the media happens to be selling. A particular music star, a particular movie, a particular sports star. It doesn't matter what, he'll buy into it.
On the other hand, if you know that life isn't like the Brady Bunch, you're not going to be fooled into believing that it is simply by watching the show. |
| Albert |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 09:45:30
I don't tend to pay attention to commercials, but drug/special bed etc commercials are actually a help now, because they seem like such a joke.
Lately I haven't been watching the news because I have enough of my own issues to deal with. Plus news stations can be pretty bad at addressing the issues honestly and accurately, plus they often focus on ratings getting subjects as opposed to important issues.
I have noticed this. Usually a show isn't interesting enough to keep my mind "filled up." Resultantly I have to look for something else to keep it filled. I'll do a mental game, or an OCD thing, or think about my life, or what's going on in the World, or perhaps make TMS pain.
I can't watch a show like CSI because I don't like shows that I have to pay really close attention to. To me watching that show is like sitting in a class at school.
Actually, TV itself can be a distraction from dealing with emotional issues.
I'm not going to stop watching it, even though I've been watching it less lately so I can focus on my TMS recovery process. I believe it's a matter of what you make of it. If your intention is to become wiser as opposed to the opposite, it shouldn't be that much of a problem.
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| Laura |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 09:33:50
Amen!
Laura
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| Baseball65 |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 09:32:31
Hi 2scoops.
Yes,Mr. Mander tells of his firm hiring psychologists to do tests,to see exactly at which point the subcinscious is most vulnerable.
Also,there are 2 distinct brain interaction states ....If you're reading this post ,you are in The first..the cognitive thinking mode...you're brain must consciously use all the tools it has to decipher and assemble all the little arabic symbols that I am typing with into words,the words into ideas,the ideas into imagery.The brain is ON but it is subject to your will,you have to participate.All ideas must be logically constructed on the foundations of other logical ideas,or the brain no longer "believes" and discards the information.
When you read Sarno,the ideas were all relevant to YOUR imagery,your thoughts,etc.
In receptive mode,your brain is a giant receptor...ideas are poured in and all imagery is done for you...just sit back and relax and we'll control your thoughts and feelings...need too feel good? We'll show you a guy just like you who is the hero,the good guy...need to motivate you to do something? we'll show you a bad guy who is just s lazy as you.
Manders Ideas are all from an insiders perspective.
There is NO brady Bunch or 7th heaven.....your family IS normal.
There is NO friends....your relationships with your co-workers ARE as deep as you'll ever get.
You will NOT win the Lottery,you will NOT win a prize in a game show....you will keep sitting in your chair watching other people do so,and that will be enough to satisfy you emotionally.
The X-files gives you all the adventure you'll ever need....so go back to your assembly line job and live vicariously through Mulder....and eat Doritos....they were shown to you at the most exciting part of the show.You'll be bored and eat Doritios and never even see the giant skinner box we ALL live in.....Me too...I don't live out of it because my ideas are influenced by people who are influenced by TV.....there is no escape but AWARENESS.
Ceasing Television will immediately be followed by a sense of boredom...which will immediately be followed by you making yourself UN-bored...by doing something!!!!!
I used to watch X-files when I was laying around after surgery...a good show! It's dramamtic,exciting and suspenseful......tense????
I'd always get up from the sofa in more pain than when I laid down...the fight and flight mechanisms of our brain operate as if we ,ourselves were in those situations...
scully and mulder and the cripple
Baseball65 |
| 2scoops |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 09:30:21
I believe this to be a really relevant subject in regards to TMS. I believe this has been a big piece missing from the TMS puzzle. Watching television can put things into our minds that we would have never thought of. Just so a company can sell a product for a quick profit. I am a Marketing major and have noticed some things they teach in college and then I see ads in the media and I made a pretty big connection to how these things can affect the TMS mind.
Marketers are very good at Psychology. For example, Sarno says that self-esteem can play a big part in our TMS. Well most cmpanies when presenting their ads, have a beautiful woman or handsome guy telling you, hey you can look like me if you use this product. Women think they have to fit this certain mold to be accepted, men think they have to be these big muscular guys to attract women. I don't know how many ads I receive everyday in my e-mail that states you can increase your "manhood" to make your woman be more ready to sleep with you. I also get the increase your breasts so you can get more men or attract them. If those marketers can get it into your mind that you will be more accepted by society if you look a certain way or have certain possessions then you will lead a happy and joyful life. Than we will accept that and buy their products.
So our self-esteems are lower these days. On top of that these products cost money, by the way, most of these products we do not need. So we work more hours and try to obtain these products, stressing ourselves out. Creating more and more anger in ourselves, becuase we do not have what others have. Now, we don't even have to have the money to purchase these items, we can charge them now, and "worry" about paying these things later. Which leads to more internal conflict.
Since I have read about Sarno, I also notice more and more commercials that claim to treat our TMS pains. The pharmacuetical companies are spending millions of dollars to get you to think you need their drugs. We have aspirins, arthritis creams, acid reduction pills, heat patches for pain relief, depression drugs, Viagra,etc. In my opinion over 90% of these drug commercials treat TMS, and it's probably more like 99%. The reality is that we wouldn't even know about these things unless we saw them on T.V, so they could alter our minds, and create a new desire in us to buy the products.
Baseball65, I'm glad you brought this topic up, because it is very important and something I have been thinking of for about the last five months. T.V seems to want us to have a low-self esteem, live in fear, worry, so they can sell us something that will rid us of all these "problems". |
| 2scoops |
Posted - 01/28/2005 : 09:03:52
I believe this to be a really relevant subject in regards to television. I believe this has been a big piece missing from the TMS puzzle. Watching television can put things into our minds that we would have never thought of. Just so a company can sell a product for a quick profit. I am a Marketing major and have noticed some things they teach in college and then I see ads in the media and I made a pretty big connection to how these things can affect the TMS mind.
Marketers are very good at Psychology. For example, Sarno says that self-esteem can play a big part in our TMS. Well most cmpanies when presenting their ads, have a beautiful woman or handsome guy telling you, hey you can look like me if you use this product. Women |
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