Decisions, I made in my life were not mine.

    There are few things that you may wonder how did they do things like travelling to America or say, Ramanathapuram, to see the girl they barely know. Or other things like walking on your knees for a kilometer and not knowing why you did it in the first place. I thought those people were crazy but when I did those things, I blame it on the hormones. Maybe, my assumption was right. In addition to that, I found other reason too. It was not my decision to do such things, even though I think that was my decision. Here is the experiment to prove this case.

    Benjamin Libet conducted an experiment by placing the electrodes on the head of the participants to measure their brain activity. Participants can move any part of the body as per their wish. For example, if the participant moved the index finger, they felt the urge to move the index finger before quarter of a second of actually lifting index finger. A second before you felt the urge to lift your index finger, there was a spike in the brain activity telling you to lift your index finger. Therefore, we can assume that your subconscious mind is telling you to do, whatever it wants to do to your conscious mind. Your conscious mind does those things as if it were its own decision. Hence, just sit back in the chair and relax because you are clearly not in the control of your life. 

    But can we really sit back and enjoy like that?  The answer is a clear no. Here is another experiment to know why. Experimenters Ellen Langer and Judith Rodin divided the residents of the nursing home based on the floor on which they are residing. On the floor A, residents were given the control such as when to screen a movie (One movie per week), which plant to grow on the floor. On the floor B, control was not given to the residents. The residents who controlled these small things were happier, more alert and death rate was only half when compared to the other group. So, if you want to be happy, you can perceive that you are the controller of your life, even though you may not. 


Source:

Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain

Book by David Eagleman

The Happiness Hypothesis
Book by Jonathan Haidt

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