This month, we are covering a seemingly simple concept that has powerful, revelatory, and wide ranging applications: Right-Right vs Right-Wrong...Right WHAT-Right HOW/WHY vs. Right WHAT-Wrong (or NO) HOW/WHY.
The overview for the rest of this Series is that God wants our brain to have Profitable Thought Processes. The enemy and our flesh wants our brain to have Unprofitable Thought Processes.
In the previous post, we covered the role of understanding:
We have seen that Spiritual Warfare involves faith.
Faith is based on experience and understanding.
So, Spiritual Warfare is based on the experience and understanding supporting the WORDS and SENTENCES that we state.
Imagination concerns understanding!
Your ability to be successful at Spiritual Warfare depends on whether your imagination serves you or you serve your imagination.
An animal imagines as an effect...in response. Something happens (stimulus) and the animal's brain projects what will immediately happen...from the animal's unaware brain. The same is true for us. However, we can imagine as a cause.
We can hinder our ability to imagine Profitably by not completing The Second Feedback Loop or associating guilt with our connecting facts. We can also intentionally choose to begin The First Feedback Loop, especially if it is used to repair either by meditating or rehearsing.
This means our imagination can serve us or hinder us. Our imagination can help us be Profitable or Unprofitable. Our imagination is responsible for the other half of our Thought Process.
This week, we will look at specifically how strongholds are formed. Today, we will look at the amygdala...
FORMING STRONGHOLDS: AMYGDALA
The most obvious place that strongholds are formed is in the amygdala.
Recall, The First Feedback Loop results in a full thought. The Second Feedback Loop takes this full thought through the amygdala...the site that holds every emotional perspective we've ever had.
The amygdala makes up a part of the "unaware brain". If the amygdala is upset, it can fog the "aware brain" (cortex) and initiate physical actions that the individual is unaware of and may not even be remembered!
This sounds like the very definition of a "stronghold". A source of resources and ammunition for the enemy within the individual. Notice, the enemy or flesh just needs to upset the amygdala...and the rest of the damage is done by the individual with the individual's energy.
How are strongholds formed in the amygdala?
Step One: The individual needs to have a destructive experience that is highly emotional. The individual's amygdala files this very strong emotion with specific characteristics associated with the event.
For instance, I know a man who was molested as a child by a friend of the family who would take him fishing. The very strong emotion was filed away along with the associated characteristics of the molester and the surroundings.
Step Two: The individual needs to NOT face and NOT process the event. They need to leave the event dormant in their amygdala. Facing the event and understanding the causes results in the event being disassociated from the circumstances.
Now we have a stronghold...a source of ammunition from within the individual that works against the individual once the circumstances are re-experienced.
Going back to the above example, the man had an "amygdala moment" when he walked into a sporting goods store near a man with fishing equipment that smelled of smoke and a specific cologne. The man who molested him was a smoker who wore the same cologne. The fishing equipment, cologne, and smell of cigarettes all worked together to upset his amygdala.
This is the direct way to form strongholds in the amygdala. There is also an indirect way that strongholds are formed in the amygdala. In order to understand this, we need to briefly review the "unaware brain"...
The unaware brain performs many functions. However, two of them are key: identifying patterns and detecting contradictions.
Notice, there are four God-given principles that guide progress: contrastive thinking, non-contradiction, causality, and growth. God created our brains to naturally do two of these causes (non-contradiction and causality) AND do the OPPOSITE of two of the causes (comparative thinking and pursuit of comfort). The individual needs to actively pursue growth and contrastive thinking in order to have all four God-given principles working in their life.
However, the individual does NOT have to make an effort to detect contradictions. Our unaware brain does this naturally. Also, the individual does NOT have to make an effort to detect patterns, which is the result of identifying causality. Notice, even a very young child can tell you when you contradict yourself AND they are always asking WHY (causality). We are made to naturally do these two God-given principles. We have seen the amygdala does this without ANY effort.
So, in order to form strongholds, an individual would have to intentionally choose to do the opposite of these two God-given principles.
The individual would have to intentionally choose to live with contradictions. We have seen that medical tests have shown that people are able to rewire their brain to the point that they don't look for contradictions AND reward themselves as if they had!
Also, in order to form strongholds, an individual would have to intentionally choose to operate apart from causality...they would have to believe in randomness. They would have to believe that we can't know or aren't supposed to know.
Isn't this post-modernism and traditional thinking? Are people who attend these types of churches ACTUALLY forming strongholds?
EVERY time someone tries to convince you that contradictions exist or that we can't know the causes, THEY are trying to help you form strongholds in your amygdala!
EVERY time you actively try to live with a contradiction or believe in randomness, YOU are trying to form strongholds.
SUMMARY
The most well-known location for strongholds is in the amygdala.
Strongholds are formed in the amygdala by a destructive experience that is highly emotional. The individual's amygdala files this very strong emotion with specific characteristics associated with the event. Then the individual needs to NOT face and NOT process the event. They need to leave the event dormant in their amygdala...waiting for the specific characteristics to upset the amygdala.
Strongholds are also formed in the amygdala by trying to live with contradictions or believing in randomness.
People trying to convince you that contradictions exist or that you can't know (or aren't supposed to know) the causes are actually attempting to form strongholds in your amygdala.
Tomorrow, we will look at the first of two ways that strongholds are formed in the cortex...
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