Salus Forum: May 2025

We are trying to rewire the brain, if you will, whether it’s psychological talk therapy, whether it’s electrical, magnetic therapy. This is the bottom line—rewiring the brain. Though we know so little about how the human brain works. But we’ve made significant advances and the modalities that I mentioned, transcranial electrical, magnetic, and ultrasonic energy are the surgical approach. You know, if that eye has a mode in it, pluck it out. And that’s the surgical approach to mental health issues. I am just offering comments from a structural viewpoint regarding what we’re talking about.

Bill B

Well, somewhere in between where you work, Joe, and where Gay and I work, there are essentially the patterns, the neural structures that operate. So, part of what we can say about a narrative that resonates (echoes) is that a process of assimilation occurs. That is, the narrative ends up linking in some way with our own experiences. The existing narratives trigger the acceptance of new narratives. So, someone who has a brain injury as a New England Patriot, and then goes mad, is what people can understand about a dysfunctional brain that is driving someone mad. There are times when all of us feel like we’re going mad. That is how we can understand the story in some ways. I think we’re pulled to mental illness because we can see a bit of it in ourselves. There have been studies done about monsters. And what’s interesting is that Dracula is scarier to people than Frankenstein, because Dracula seems more like a real person. We can find Dracula in us more easily than Frankenstein.

So, Jeremy and Bill G., the false facts we’re talking about are accepted because they relate to a narrative we already have: “By God, I know the government’s been doing these fake things for years. And these uppity professors in Pennsylvania have been screwing us over for years. So, anything that comes along that aligns with that, I can pick right up right way.” This orientation to new information is what’s called “assimilation.” When we get to diffusion of innovation, the problem concerns how we change people’s framework? How do we get people to accept new facts? This requires an orientation to new information called “accommodation.”

Jeremy

Well, Bill B, I think part of what you’re mentioning is that simple narratives can resonate with the person’s personal experiences, meaning the language probably needs to be relatively resonant. For example, there is currently a powerful narrative around anti-elitism. And yet, who defines what elitism really means? Does elitism refer to the universities? Some people seem to feel that way right now. Just look at what’s happening with our universities and their grant funding. It’s just unbelievable what has happened.

That’s one example of elitism. Often this is being carried out by people who graduated from those schools. So, I find that even more perplexing when the strongest voices of anti-elitism come from people who graduated from Yale Law School. I’m a little perplexed given that they’re themselves elite. Apparently, you’re able to project elitism onto other people. So, anti-elitism seems to be flourishing. And there’s history. We shook off King George. That was against the elitist British who didn’t listen to us.

So, it’s interesting when a person can create a resonant narrative by using fairly simple language. Everyone has had a person in their life who was elitist. Or they had an abusive elitist experience where they didn’t get picked for the basketball team. We’ve all had those experiences. So, I find that’s part of how narrative power or compelling narrative has begun to overtake scientific method and influence. And maybe it always has. I may just be waking up to it now. I don’t know.