“How to over-ride your Source Controllers”


All our behaviour is controlled...very rarely by us.
This is a story about how to regain choices for your life.


You want to eat = controlled. You eat what you want=controlled. You want to meet someone=controlled. You have an idea=controlled. You decide you want a family=controlled. It is the source of the control that varies – the who and what that is controlling you. Your Source Controllers are four. You have an over-ride button, but you have to know how to use it, to know how to make it work for the real you.

Four Sources of our Behaviour:
1. Instinct: (note - very very few behaviours are instinctual – it is suggested there are only two – any guesses? [discussion here]).
2. Internal – you are a host to billions of organisms that need to influence your behaviour if they are to survive. Some act individually, some collectively.
3. Our 'parts' - our organs are separate, each depending upon each other.
4. External – your own, your family, friends, community, nation and humanity all depend on what you do and how you do it – culture and values.

Evidence shows already - and it is increasing - that Source 2 is dominant. It is so vital to our 'passengers' that we survive, that we are slaves to their needs. Some passengers have a symbiotic relationship such as the flora and fauna of the stomach that require our warmth and we depend on their ability to break down our food ready for digestion, storage and/or use. For virtually the whole animal kingdom, the answer to questions such as 'Why are we violent?', 'Why are we selfish?' and 'Why are we determined to survive?' is not about us but about our passengers who need us to survive and thus will survive themselves. Geneticists are looking in the wrong place! Survival of the species only applies to passengers who need a specific species as host.

For the whole story of the origins of behaviour, our choices and how we can over-ride 'the sources', download this one page easy to use summary .pdf now: “How to over-ride your Source Controllers”
Your choices, intentions, wants and wishes are usually down to them.

Survival has evolved from basic needs to complex needs and the artificial conduit / access of money has been invented and exploited. What your drivers require can be gained if money is gained. Pavlov's dog...conditioning is alive and dribbling.

A little science...Dribbling was caused by neutral direct-connections [stimulous>response] - the rattling of a dog-bowl>dribble>food, the cry of your child>family needs help>get up, proximity of partner>relationship needs reassurance>show of affection. Whilst these are shown in sets of threes, they may be extended into many through 'extended conditioning' – e.g., cry of your child>family needs help>get up>get money>take money to child – even if in another country with all that this involves – tickets, visas, packing, travel. All are linked conditioned responses.

This is related to known and easily understood stimuli. The main point being made here is that the activators, the controllers of our behaviours, are many and merely include the known – and expected – stimuli of self, family and otherwise-linked others. These are not even the most powerful. The most powerful are being found to be our symbiotic passengers – yeasts, bichrobes, viruses, and the organs in which they live.

The stomach is the storer of food, the mouth/taste = the tester of food, the digestive system the accessor/converter of food, the liver and fatty-tissue the storer of food, the brain = the planner of food/warmth/affection, the skeletal body the action.

Whilst we have a great 'pattern-system' which clumps thoughts, actions and stimuli allowing us to think less and act faster [spiders, snakes, aggressive behaviours are grouped stimuli with linked responses which vary between individuals] creating sets of habitual behaviours which are often hard to overcome.

An override button exists:
Survival of the species demands evolution for survival. Our over-riding of old and unwanted behaviours allows us to move on both individually and as a species. New learning demands un-learning the old and learning new. The ability to over-ride the source controllers is the answer. The route -or process- to be followed...

First we need to know what we want. Then we need to want it badly enough to over-ride existing behaviours/actions/habits, then we need the right new habits, then we need to learn to act, which requires empowerment and this is the crux of individual and humanity's future.

Now to empower it..the words that count = passion, intention, determination, stamina, self-leadership, values, integrity, vision, energy

If you want to move to great personal action where 'Choose, Change, Be!' is the essence of your future, we have a small booklet which will help you within an hour: “The Essence of Choice – Leading Your Way to a Beautiful Life”

Ian Lewis FRSA FInstLM 2012