LDS psychology of belief

Wednesday, February 18, 2026

Knowledge shared is power multiplied. Follow

for daily inspiration. Repost if this made you think differently. P.S. Your engagement fuels my energy. Literally couldn't do this without you. Thanks!

https://x.com/thecurioustales/status/2023811963785212206?s=20

Here's the full unrolled thread from @thecurioustales (posted Feb 17, 2026):

1/ 🚨 Just learned about a 2300-year-old concept I can't stop thinking about

The Empty Boat Theory

It explains why Elon Musk fights strangers on X at 2 am Why Michael Jordan turned his Hall of Fame speech into a revenge list

Once you understand it, your life will never be same: 🧵

2/ A Chinese sage named Zhuangzi wrote it.

Imagine crossing a river.

Another boat crashes into yours.

You explode in anger. But when you look closely… the boat is empty.

No one to blame.

Your anger suddenly looks foolish.

3/ Zhuangzi’s point was brutal.

We suffer more from the story in our head than from the event itself.

An empty boat still hits you.

The damage is the same. Only your interpretation changes.

Meaning creates the wound.

4/ Now apply this to modern life.

Someone ignores your email. Cuts you in traffic. Unfollows you.

Your brain invents intent.

Disrespect. Rejection. Threat.

But most boats are empty.

People are busy, tired, distracted.

5/ Elon Musk fires tweets at 2am.

Michael Jordan catalogued slights for years.

High performers often assume meaning everywhere.

Every look becomes a signal. Every comment becomes a motive.

It fuels greatness.

It also fuels torment.

6/ Your nervous system hates uncertainty.

So it fills gaps with stories. Usually negative ones.

Because survival once depended on assuming danger.

A rustle in the grass wasn’t “maybe.” It was “tiger.”

We still run that software.

7/ The Empty Boat Theory says:

Most harm isn’t personal. It’s projection.

Two worlds collide.

Each person is fighting battles you can’t see.

Their actions are about their storms.

Not your worth.

8/ Think about your last overreaction.

The anger. The spiral. The silent resentment.

Now ask:

Was the boat truly steered at you?

Or did you assign a captain where none existed?

9/ Ask yourself: What quietly scripts your suffering?

• Ego • Assumption • Projection • Narrative

They turn neutral events into personal attacks.

You relive them for years.

Over boats that were empty from the start.

10/ Zhuangzi wasn’t teaching passivity. He was teaching clarity.

See reality before adding meaning.

Pain is inevitable. Personalization is optional.

That gap is where emotional freedom lives.

11/ The world also sees YOU as a boat.

Your bad mood. Your late reply. Your short tone.

Someone else may be building a villain story about you right now.

12/ We are all accidental boats in each other’s rivers.

Bumping. Drifting. Colliding.

Rarely intending harm. Yet constantly misread.

Human life is a river of misinterpretations.

13/ Imagine how many grudges are built on ghosts.

Friendships lost. Families divided. Partners resented.

All because meaning was assumed.

Not verified. Stories hardened into truth.

14/ The strongest people aren’t the loudest.

They pause before reacting. They question their first interpretation. They ask, “Is this boat empty?”

That question alone can save years of bitterness.

15/ Emotional mastery isn’t control.

It’s awareness.

Catching the story mid-creation.

Before it becomes identity. Before it becomes “this always happens to me.”

16/ When you stop personalizing everything,

Energy returns. Focus sharpens. Peace grows.

You realize most arrows were never aimed at you.

You were just standing in the river.

17/ My Mantra:

• Pause • Observe • Reframe • Release

Simple words. Difficult practice.

But this is how you step out of needless suffering.

One empty boat at a time.

18/ Next time anger rises,

Picture the river. Picture the boat.

Look inside before you react.

You may find no enemy. Only space.

And the chance to stay calm.

19/ 2,300 years later,

This idea still hits home.

Because human psychology hasn’t changed much.

We still confuse impact with intent. And call it truth.

20/ If this thread shifted how you see people,

You’ll love what comes next.

I wrote a guide on how to stop living paycheck to paycheck and finally build real wealth:

Get "The Financial Freedom Blueprint"—the exact system to ~ eliminate money stress ~ multiply your income ~ retire decades early

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21/ Knowledge shared is power multiplied.

Follow @thecurioustales for daily inspiration.

Repost if this made you think differently.

P.S. Your engagement fuels my energy. Literally couldn't do this without you.

Thanks!

Monday, February 16, 2026

planted vs cut flower civilization

Seth Gruber

@sgruber91

22h

Even the slogans of the secular Left — justice, equality, human rights — are cut flowers from Christian soil. They survive for a time, beautiful in form but severed from their roots. Appropriately, Os Guinness calls Western civilization a “cut flower civilization.” You can enjoy its beauty for a while, but cut flowers die. The only way to keep them alive is to replant them in the soil of faith. No small job description. We, the inheritors of Christendom, still breathe the fragrance of a garden planted two thousand years ago. Our laws, liberties, even our language of compassion — all of it blooms from the gospel of Jesus Christ. But when we remove the root, when we deny Christ’s dominion, the petals fall one by one. Western civilization is dying not because it is old but because it is uprooted. The Church’s task is not to admire the vase but to return to the Garden — to water the roots, to guard the soil, and to fight for what remains alive.

Wednesday, February 11, 2026

What makes kids successful

https://x.com/mindsetmachine/status/2021699126577037523?s=20

Here's the transcript from the video in the X post:

"Do you know what the strongest predictor that a child will succeed as an adult is?

A 75-year Harvard study that tracked people from childhood into their 80s found one specific thing predicted a successful life that holds together when the road gets rough.

What they found wasn't on anyone's parenting checklist, it wasn't grades, it wasn't IQ or talent and it wasn't activities. Most parents are doing the exact opposite. We pile on activities sign them up for tutoring and then we lie awake wondering we're not doing enough.

The study found that kids doing chores by preschool were 12 times more likely to be financially stable by their mid-20s.

Chores build executive function, the brain's ability to plan start and finish even when motivation is gone.

Here's why that matters. Achievement teaches kids perform while someone else evaluates them. Contribution teaches them to function when no one is watching. What happened because of them, capability lived in their body not just heads. It builds someone who fixes problems when they see it. Someone can handle hard. Builds agency.

You want kids to see the overflowing trash and take out without being asked.

Create a culture where contribution is norm.

Signal that trash is full or groceries are in the car. State problem but don't assign task and let connect problem with action.

Small acts of ownership practiced daily compound into a lifetime of taking initiative.

And that's the difference between someone who waits to be managed and someone who takes ownership of the world."

Fractionation, social media shorts, and level of suggestibility

Fractionation is a well-established technique in hypnosis used primarily as a powerful way to deepen trance (the relaxed, focused hypnotic state) and increase suggestibility.

Core Definition and How It Works

Fractionation involves repeatedly guiding a person into a hypnotic state (or a state of deep relaxation/focus), then briefly bringing them out of it, and immediately putting them back in again. Each cycle typically makes the subsequent trance:

Deeper
Faster to achieve
More profound

This happens because the brain learns the pattern through repetition—it's a form of conditioning or "rote learning" for entering trance. The contrast between the "up" (alert/waking) and "down" (trance/relaxed) states strengthens the neurological pathway, so the subject drops in more easily and deeply each time.

The simplest classic method:

Induce trance (e.g., via progressive relaxation, eye fixation, or any induction).
Bring the person out (e.g., "Open your eyes, wide awake now").
Immediately re-induce (e.g., "And now close your eyes and go even deeper").
Repeat 3–6+ times, often suggesting "twice as deep" or "deeper than before" each re-entry.

Many hypnotists (like Mike Mandel, Igor Ledochowski, or stage performers) use this as one of the most reliable deepeners because it works quickly and reliably for most people.

Why It Works (Psychological/Neurological Basis)

Contrast and conditioning — The brain notices the shift between states and gets better at making the transition.
Habit formation — Repeated entry/exit trains the nervous system to access trance more efficiently (similar to building a muscle memory).
Increased suggestibility — Deeper trance states generally make a person more open to suggestions, and fractionation amplifies this effect dramatically after just a few cycles.

Modern/Non-Clinical Applications (e.g., Social Media)

In recent discussions (especially around influence and behavioral psychology), people have drawn parallels between classic fractionation and how platforms like TikTok, Instagram Reels, or YouTube Shorts operate:

Content alternates rapidly between emotional "highs" (cute animals, heartwarming stories → dopamine/positive emotion) and "lows" (shocking news, fights, drama, anxiety-provoking clips → stress/cortisol).
This creates an emotional rollercoaster: up → down → up → down.
After several cycles (often 4–5), users enter a heightened state of suggestibility or reduced critical thinking—exactly when ads or sponsored content appear.

This isn't literal clinical hypnosis (no consent, no formal induction), but the emotional fractionation mimics the pattern, making the feed addictive and increasing vulnerability to influence or impulse buys. Experts like Chase Hughes have highlighted this as a reason short-form video can feel "brainwashing"-like or terrifying in its effectiveness.

In summary, fractionation is a straightforward yet extremely potent hypnosis tool for deepening trance through repeated state-shifting. In therapeutic or stage hypnosis, it's used intentionally and ethically. When applied analogously to media consumption, it explains part of why doomscrolling or endless swiping feels so hard to stop.

_____

X post:

My wife has the passcode to unlock whatever it's called—screen time, the iPhone screen. I'm a brainwashing expert and am personally terrified of short-form social media like

https://x.com/TheLizVariant/status/2021415530893291687?s=20

Here's the transcript of the video from the X post. I've compiled it from the extracted subtitles for clarity, maintaining the original spoken words as closely as possible. There are two speakers: the primary one (appearing to be Chase Hughes, based on the context) and occasional interjections from another person (likely the interviewer). I've noted approximate timestamps and distinguished speakers where evident.

[0:00] Primary Speaker: They use a hypnosis technique—not just TikTok, this is everybody—called fractionation, which is where you bring somebody up and... like, so like you'll see one of those videos about grandpa holding his grandbaby, you know, that makes you almost cry. Have you ever cried watching a 60-second Instagram reel?

[0:19] Interviewer: Yeah, I have too, man.

[0:21] Primary Speaker: And I feel stupid, I'm by myself, yeah, watching a 60-second video. But... but like, they'll pull you down into that, then they'll punch you back up. Like two videos later, and you'll start to notice this—two videos later, it will be a riot, someone robbing a store, fist fight, a car going way too fast flipping off the road, an airplane almost crashing. So they get you up and down, and up and down. The more I can do that—this is proven...

[0:56] ...this in the 1960s—that increases your level of suggestibility like tenfold. The more I can get you up and down, up and down. And what happens after you get like four or five cycles of up-and-down? You get an ad.

[1:16] And it's so reliable. And I didn't realize it was happening until my wife said, "Why are you buying stuff off Instagram, like once a week now?" And then stuff that was on Instagram ads... And then I finally set time limits on those apps.

[1:39] Interviewer: You set time limits? Yes, yes.

[1:42] Primary Speaker: My wife has the passcode to unlock whatever it's called—screen time, the iPhone screen. I'm a brainwashing expert and am personally terrified of short-form social media like...

The video ends abruptly there (around 1:59). Note that the subtitles include some text overlays (e.g., "THEY," "GRANDBABY," "RIOT") which emphasize key words but aren't part of the spoken dialogue.

Tuesday, February 10, 2026

Life is unfair—get used to it.

Fathers Diary

@Fathers_Diary

13h

Adulting is realizing; 1. You will die, and most people won’t care after a while. 2. People use you until you’re no longer useful. 3. Most people secretly want you to fail. 4. One day you’ll wish you started today. 5. Most people fake happiness while dying inside. 6. No one is coming to save you. 7. You’ll be judged no matter what you do. 8. Your health is your greatest wealth. 9. Happiness is temporary—discipline is permanent. 10. Success takes longer than you think. 11. No one respects weakness, even if they sympathize. 12. Complaining changes nothing. 13. Not everyone you love will love you back. 14. Money won’t solve all your problems—but it solves most. 15. Social media lies to you every day. 16. You’re replaceable at your job. 17. Life is unfair—get used to it. 18. One day, you’ll run out of days. 19. Regret hurts more than failure. 20. Nobody cares about your excuses. Work harder The earlier you understand this, the better and easier your life gets.