Television: Awakening The Reptile Mind
Victoria Hardy
August 22, 2008
Sometimes I´m pretty sure we are de-evolving, regressing in time to the state of our nearest kin, the apes. This, of course, is not a natural evolution, this is designed by man for one reason only - to maintain the power structure. This de-evolution we are undergoing is quite insidious and ingeniously created and sold to the masses. Television, with the addition of mind numbing additions like fluoride, mercury, pharmaceuticals and aspartame, is the tool that brings us down to our baser thinking and the lowest denomination of humanity and we love it. We certainly have a herd mentality or should I say "monkey see, monkey do" and the media does a fine job of keeping us on the path.
We learn a lot from television and movies, political ideas, styles, morals, fashions, "common" knowledge, body image, sexual behavior and diet come through the screen and into our homes and into our minds. We accept this transfer as a normal part of being, but how often do we question what is sneaking into our brains? Into our children´s brains? Most of us watch television and have them in multiple rooms and even our children have televisions in their bedrooms and we believe watching the flashing box is harmless entertainment and in many cases, educational. But what is happening in our brain as we relax and watch the pretty colors?
In 1969 researcher Herbert Krugman decided to understand what happens to the brain while watching television. He found that in as little as thirty seconds of viewing the brain switched from beta waves, indicating alert consciousness, to alpha waves, an unfocused daydreaming state just below consciousness. When Krugman´s patient began reading a magazine, instead of watching television, the beta waves resumed. Further research has shown that the left hemisphere of the brain, the part that processes information logically, tunes out while viewing television and the right hemisphere, emotional and non-critical, steps forward. Dr Krugman concluded that television transmits "information not thought about at the time of exposure."
We learn a lot from television and movies, political ideas, styles, morals, fashions, "common" knowledge, body image, sexual behavior and diet come through the screen and into our homes and into our minds. We accept this transfer as a normal part of being, but how often do we question what is sneaking into our brains? Into our children´s brains? Most of us watch television and have them in multiple rooms and even our children have televisions in their bedrooms and we believe watching the flashing box is harmless entertainment and in many cases, educational. But what is happening in our brain as we relax and watch the pretty colors?
In 1969 researcher Herbert Krugman decided to understand what happens to the brain while watching television. He found that in as little as thirty seconds of viewing the brain switched from beta waves, indicating alert consciousness, to alpha waves, an unfocused daydreaming state just below consciousness. When Krugman´s patient began reading a magazine, instead of watching television, the beta waves resumed. Further research has shown that the left hemisphere of the brain, the part that processes information logically, tunes out while viewing television and the right hemisphere, emotional and non-critical, steps forward. Dr Krugman concluded that television transmits "information not thought about at the time of exposure."
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