When did the idea of not believing your brain first appear?
I am not the originator of the idea to not believe your brain. I have written books about it such as “No BS Coaching,” “How to Train Your Mind,” “Your Brain is Brilliant – But Its’ Not Always Your Friend,” and others since 2003. Long before I called (and trademarked), my brain as,”The Acorn Brain ™,” and the “Little Fucker,” Greek philosphers and no doubt many others realized that what their brain suggested as a thought, was not to be believed, but first questioned. Some thoughts, are not facts, and if action was taken at the urging of the “little hooligan,” as Rainer Maria Rilke called his brain, the results are typically not healthy. If we take actions that do not serve our best interests when the brain suggests “lashing out,” when we feel angry or any negative emotion, we continue to cede to past programming, however, it does serve a positive purpose. The brain is urging us to take control. First we have to begin to observe what and who triggers that little fucker, and begin the journey of “re-minding,” ourselves as Joe Dispenza calls it, we begin reprogramming the mind to serve us. Just noticing, instead of “re-acting,” opens the door to other possibilities.
What follows is some of the history as to the origin of learning to separate ourselves from the many thoughts that do not serve our higher self.
The idea of not believing your brain, or more accurately, being skeptical of one’s senses and perceptions, has a long history in philosophy, with its origins dating back to ancient Greece. The core idea is that the world we perceive may not be the true reality.
Ancient Greek skepticism
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (c. 375 BCE): The most famous early example of this concept comes from Plato’s Republic. In the allegory, prisoners are chained in a cave, seeing only shadows of objects and believing these shadows are the full reality. One prisoner escapes and discovers that the shadows are just projections of a higher reality. For Plato, the shadows represent the limited information we get from our senses, while true knowledge comes from reason.
Pyrrhonian skepticism (c. 3rd century BCE): Philosopher Pyrrho and his followers took skepticism further by arguing that nothing could be known with certainty. They advocated for the suspension of judgment (epoché) to achieve a state of mental tranquility, or ataraxia, in the face of what they saw as the ultimate ambiguity of truth.
Stoics and Epicureans: Both of these ancient schools of thought also engaged in extensive debates about the reliability of perception, with the Skeptics challenging their proposals on the criteria for what constitutes a true impression.
Early modern philosophy
René Descartes (17th century): The most significant development of the idea came with Descartes, who famously articulated his “method of doubt” to rebuild knowledge on a foundation of absolute certainty.
The Unreliable Senses: Descartes argued that since his senses had deceived him in the past (e.g., optical illusions), it was not prudent to trust them completely.
The Dream Argument: He extended this doubt by pointing out that there is no way to know for sure if one is awake or dreaming. Since dreams can feel completely real, a person can never be certain that their current sensory experience is not an elaborate dream.
The Evil Demon: Taking his skepticism to its most extreme point, Descartes proposed the hypothetical possibility of an “evil demon,” an all-powerful being whose sole purpose is to deceive him about everything, including his own body and the existence of the external world. This was his most radical expression of not being able to believe what your mind tells you.
Modern-day interpretations
Today, the idea of not “believing your brain” is frequently used in psychology and neuroscience. Concepts like cognitive biases and optical illusions show that our brains systematically process and interpret information in ways that can be predictably wrong. This modern scientific understanding, while distinct from philosophical skepticism, reinforces the ancient notion that perception is not always a direct or reliable representation of reality.
If you don’t question your thinking, who will?
Let’s do good.
For more information about this topic, reach out to steve@stevelentini.com.
Gratefully yours,
Steve
