About Neurostoicism
Neurostoicism is the practice of Stoicism integrated with neuroscience. Nature includes all of the universe. All existence can be conceptualized as a unified organism. The universe is sacred because it contains all of life. We must live according to the rational thought that was produced by Nature. How did reason emerge? The cognitive ability of Homo sapiens evolved because it was a survival advantage in the environment. Most likely, Homo sapien’s brains developed to navigate increasingly complex social situations with the use of language and thought. This produced higher intelligence and consciousness. This also allowed for greater cooperation between hunting, war parties, and tribal units. Moreover, cognition allowed Homo sapiens to create whole imagined orders such as currencies, organizations, and nations that only have an intersubjective reality as observed by the historian Yuval Havari to give them hegemony over the Earth. Reason is an emergent property developed through natural selection. This is what it means to follow the reason of Nature because cognition is a natural phenomenon. What if I said that your happiness is totally under your control? With the use of Stoicism, it is. The dichotomy of control means that I only concern myself with the things that are under my power, and everything else is nothing. In all of your actions you must have a reserve clause that you are working toward an outcome, Nature willing. All goals must be within the bounds of what is directly under control. Are all the specifics of your goal within your power? If so, then that is appropriate. Are there any parameters that are not within your control? If so, then discard that parameter. Goals must be strictly defined with controllable specifications. Thus, nothing can deter or get in the way. If you are not happy, look inward. We must give ourselves up to fate. Fate is the culmination of our actions and everything external. Fate is just the chain of causes that result in existence. Stoical understanding of fate is the sequence of events in merging our Will with Nature's will. There is nothing mystical about fate. Neuroscience contributes by directing us to clearly define mentally and emotionally what you want. We cannot get what we want if we do not know what it is. Next you must get absolute power over yourself to enact the change. The mathematician Archimedes famously stated that if he had a long enough lever, he could move the world. Likewise, if you have sufficient leverage over yourself, you can change anything. Think about it. If the lives of your loved ones depended on it, you could change. That is the level of leverage you must get over yourself. You are probably going to fail at first. What matters is what you do next. Successful people experience "temporary" failures and continue taking action. So called failure is just another learning experience. When you fall into the old pattern you must use every resource to interfere with it. Do crazy things. Visualize the pattern as a cartoon to destroy it. Be like a DJ and start scratching the record. Do whatever you have to do to erase the behavior. Imagine the worst-case scenario that pattern could lead to. Be creative. You are superior to limiting actions. You must convince yourself that you have control. Conditioning is a neuroscience concept where we repeat a behavior until it is a part of our mental and emotional habits. It has become second nature. Now, create a compelling new pattern as if you were like the artist Michelangelo creating a figure on the Sistine Chapel. What new pattern could you create? Next, drill it in. You must associate pleasure with the new pattern, and pain with the limiting behavior or in not taking the preferred action. Think like a drill sergeant or music teacher. You are an apprentice. You must practice, practice, and practice more. Keep repeating it until you are sure you have got it. If you do this long enough there will be a point when it becomes routine. Condition it until it is an indelible part of you. You no longer need to think about it. Mastery is achieved when action requires no thought. The final stage is to test it against the Stoical virtues of wisdom, courage, justice/love, and self-control. Is it congruent with all your values? Once you have conditioned it enjoy the accomplishment. It is important to celebrate all achievements and to have maximum pleasure associated with them. The conditioning ties into the Stoical idea that philosophy is all about cultivating elevated habits of mind.
A further refinement of Neurostoical conditioning beyond goals is the mental preparation for anything that could occur or has happened historically, or even in the imagination. Negative visualization is an important Stoic tool. It has two aspects. First, individuals must imagine and anticipate every conceivable adversity that may possibly occur to them personally. Second, individuals must add references to enduring the most challenging experiences in human history or fiction. This may be through books, movies, music, or any other material. This may seem counterintuitive. Why should we concentrate on negative experiences? It is because these are priceless tools to increase mental toughness and acuity. The universe is not necessarily friendly. But thinking beings can be our friends, and experiences may be good or “bad.” But whether something is good or bad is nothing but an opinion. All experience is judgement. Reality is generated from your reactions. You can decide that ALL events that happen to you are good. In fact, if we do this we are made mentally and emotionally stronger. What if I considered suffering to be an achievement or an opportunity? This does not mean we should be masochists. You do not need to seek out hardships unless it is some kind of training like physical exercise. There are many learning experiences that require voluntary discomfort. We also normally face plenty of hardships as a natural course of life. Humans can be beacons of light and conscience. Thus, we can say any given situation is nothing compared to worse life experiences. Hershl Sperling, a Treblinka escapee upon being caught and reincarcerated, said “Auschwitz was nothing.” To him the horrors of Treblinka were far worse than Auschwitz. He was perhaps among a half dozen people in history who could honestly make such a statement. But that does not mean that there are always going to be happy endings. Sperling was traumatized by his experience and did not have a happy ending. It means that we must use all events as opportunities for growth. We are not responsible for external events. There are legions of examples of people who were crushed by the boot of fate. You are responsible for how you work to respond to fortune. In addition, people can experience suffering vicariously. I am not limited to my own life experiences. This is the power of books, media, and imagination. Just as the ancient Greeks sought to purge fear and pity through dramas, so to we can learn from tragedy and prepare our minds for all events. This is why it is idiotic to go through life wearing rose colored glasses. Positive affirmations do not work because they are falsely positive. Life is not a joyride. Life is a contact sport. We do not live in a utopia. Embrace the horror. We live in a beautiful but savage garden. You must immunize yourself from every imaginable misfortune both that is possible, and that has occurred to others. The goal is to develop an indomitable survival ability under any scenario. I have never physically stepped onto an Arctic wasteland, but my mind has. I have never stepped into a gulag, but my mind has. I have never faced execution, but my mind has. Your boss just yelled at you-how does that compare to much worse experiences? Traumatic experiences do traumatize. But trauma can be compounded based on our negative reactions to it. We may be making concentric circles of pain around the original pain. You do yourself a disservice to contribute to the trauma. Pain is either bearable or brief. If pain is too extreme, it result in our demise. Otherwise, it is bearable. We should do everything in our power to avoid negative situations. It is a must to use any experience we have for learning. What could I not endure if I could bear the worst that could happen? It is all relative to our frame of mind. What is it like to dance day after day on the precipice of death? The holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl reflected that it is impossible to communicate the devastating effect of living moment to moment with the constant threat of death. You did not clean your bed correctly- you are murdered. You crossed the wrong person-you are murdered. You said the wrong thing-you are murdered. How do you live each day like that? Fankl did it so we know is not impossible. It is fortunate that tears have no smell, otherwise the smell of all death camps would be putrid forever. What does it feel like to slowly starve to death? The distance between an empty and a full stomach is infinite. The goal is to have such expanded references of challenging experiences that any experience is within bounds that make it endurable. That makes most normal experiences trivial to bear. And we may prepare for the worst that fate can bring.
Contemplate the transience of all matter. Individuals must meditate on death and the thought that everything is temporary. Why should you focus on decay and change? Because this is the state of reality. A living philosophy is the preparation for what may happen. It is the understanding that we must live our principles. Also, the view from above at the level of the entire universe gives us perspective. The truth is that all is momentary and in revolution. We are in a river of time that is never the same. We are not immortal. Our loved ones will not live forever. It is always true that the mentally prepared and strong are advantaged. You must visualize every eventuality. This is to psychologically reinforce ourselves against what may occur. We also need to be as grounded as possible. This practice also puts the individual in the best position to be grateful for everything. Think about it. If I have absolutely trained myself for all possible adversities, and worked for the best outcomes, then I appreciate it even more when good things happen. I can also accept adversity. We can be happy in all circumstances. Moreover, once you have conquered the fear of death, you have achieved a key component of self-mastery. No one has power over me when I have power over death. Jehovah’s Witnesses joyfully went to their deaths in German WWII concentration camps. This was possible because they believed in heaven. We may achieve the same result with the understanding that death is just a fading away of the individual, and with Stoical acceptance of a natural process. Death is like a tragic mask that if we examine it, there is nothing to fear. What is a scary mask? Look at it physically. Turn it around. It is possibly some carved wood, paint, or other materials. The most profound thing that will happen to an individual is death. We all must go through this door. Life is an ordered economy where we all are like the leaves of a tree, continuously growing and ceasing. A mock execution is when a prisoner is led to their demise, and then at the very last second is reprieved. This form of terror was used in various tyrannies historically, and particularly in Russia under the Tsars and the Bolsheviks. The writer Fyodor Dostoevsky wrote about the life transformative effect of going in front of a firing squad only to have his sentenced commuted at the last moment. You have the imagination to vicariously experience this. If I totally prepared myself for death, it would be nothing to me. I would free myself from the fear of passing away. This allows me to appreciate life even more. We must continuously keep this in our minds. For every important thing in our lives, we must reflect that it will cease to exist. This is an absolute reality. For everyone we love, we must say to ourselves, “you are mortal” even as we love them. Ironically, this sets up the thinker to be continually happy and directs right action. The Stoical practitioner is prepared for anything. Thus, the goal is to have nothing we are not mentally and emotionally equipped to lose. Again, this allows us to be grateful for all the good things that Nature has loaned us. Individuals must achieve objectives under control and accept what cannot be changed.
The practice of Neurostoicism is to endeavor to become a person to whom, beyond an initial reaction, nothing can disturb. This is a practice. We may approach this level of perfection or not. The philosopher Seneca said that he was not a doctor, but a fellow patient and he could only give guidance to his companions. We do not have control of our instinctual reactions. But we do control how we think about what happens to us. The interpretation of events is something you do have power over. Our perceptions are ours. We control what to assent to. Nothing is beyond the bounds of endurance. Can you imagine being such a person? Take a moment and meditate on what it would be like to lose all you love. What would the extinction of the soul be to experience? What would it be like see everything you love going to destruction? Now, come back to your current surroundings. What do you see? Loved ones, home, pets, material things. What benevolent being would allow this reprieve? If you can practice this mentality, there is nothing that has the power to cause unhappiness. You are able, like the philosopher Anicius Boethius to be happy in a prison cell. He kept asking himself what was still good, and what could be worse. His family was safe. He had achieved a greatness of spirit that sustained him. He could reflect on all the good things that he had enjoyed. He could console himself with all of philosophy. How grateful do you feel? We must refuse to ever consider ourselves victims. Victims of what? Of the divine calculus of the universe? The workings of Nature? This is ridiculous. We are the creators of our perceptions.
One must be careful about material things. Along with mental preparation, we must resist materialism. Every possession you have is like a glass that may be broken at any moment. What was it? Just a glass. So are all your possessions. Because of the dichotomy of control, we must desire and be averse to only that which is under our power. The philosopher Diogenes the Cynic valued his poverty. But he was exasperated when he noticed a boy drinking water by cupping his hands. Grabbing one of his very few possessions, a cup, he bashed it against a wall saying that he clearly did not need it. To the ancient Greeks, no poor man could play a part in a tragedy. Humans must live as simply as possible. The least valuable things in life are the easiest to lose. We must value our loved ones above all and expand this to as many people as possible. Humans must exercise a dichotomy of valuation where we value most ourselves and loved ones, and least those material things that are extraneous: health, wealth, and reputation. These later are preferred indifferents meaning we would like to have them if honorably attainable. Individuals must value all that is in the Will and believe everything outside of the will is nothing. This is what it means to be an unconquerable human spirit.
The goal of Neurostoicism is to live life according to the leading virtues of wisdom, courage, justice through love, and self-control. To maximize positive thoughts and emotions and minimize negative thoughts and emotions. You should work toward the achievement of your greatest potential, while always being happy in your current situation. First, we must make decisions based on our values and virtues, which means directing our focus, determining the meaning of all events, and taking action. Think about it. Imagine you are looking at an image. There may be beautiful parts and ugly parts. If you focus on the beautiful parts only, what is your overall perception of the picture? Any event in your life could either have a positive or negative meaning to you. Why not choose the positive interpretation? This is the meaning of the Stoical term the obstacle is the way. In this interpretation, everything that happens to you is for your growth and advantage. This idea alone can have life transformative consequences. If I interpret everything to be to my advantage what does this do to my scope of actions? How does it make me feel? What could happen to me that I could not put to good use? Obviously, the positive interpretation will only expand the actions you are able to take and your quality of life.
The pain pleasure principle asserts that all organisms seek what gives pleasure and avoid what results in pain. The pain pleasure principle directs human behavior, and thus we can use our neuro-associations to help in our Stoical practice. Individuals must engineer their network of neuro-associations to conform to the virtues and maximize the positive and minimize negative behaviors and feelings. You must make the pain/pleasure paradigm work to your advantage. Fate can be understood as Nature’s will and our Will joining. In all our decisions, we must merge our decisions with Nature’s drive. We must shape our decisions and actions like a sculptor sensitive to what Nature is allowing. You must observe the works of Nature as guides. We must understand the power of decisions and actions, absolutely commit to actions conformable to Nature, make decisions often, and learn from them. This means that we must be flexible to pursue actions that Nature permits to happen. Once we are able to act completely merging our Will with Nature’s will, nothing can deter our happiness. This is deeper than being realistic about goals. It is beyond noticing what is working. It is tuning our mental ears to the universe in decisions and actions consistent with fortune. This is foresight. The ability to foresee the best course of action for the short term and long term. The individual who is in this practice cannot be deterred and is continually happy. Beliefs are important in this process. First, all of our beliefs must conform to the four leading virtues. Second, we must design our beliefs to maximize the positive and minimize the negative emotions and desires conformable with fate. Beliefs have a structure like the legs of a table. References are the legs that reinforce the belief. The more references for a belief the stronger that belief is. A belief that has overwhelming numbers of references becomes a conviction that is an unshakable belief. Doubt is the strongest tool to use against limiting beliefs. Identify a limiting belief, then subject it to a relentless attack of doubt so it is destroyed. Now replace the limiting belief with a positive belief consistent with virtues and Nature. One key part of this is practicing self-denial. This is the understanding that pleasures are good in moderation. Any pleasure taken to excess is counterproductive. We also must practice delayed gratification to maximize long-term gratification. Thus, it is each person’s responsibility to perfect reason, live conformably with Nature, and maintain a happy state of mind. This is not a false happiness. It is one that is based on always interpreting actual experience to be to our advantage. Always focusing on what is good in our lives and considering that things could always be worse. Our views disturb, not things.
In life one needs to set priorities and have an overall objective. Setting priorities is important because no matter who you are you have limited resources such as time. What is most valuable to you, and what do you want to master doing? The ultimate time management method would to be live every day like it was your last. What is the most fulfilling project of your life? In a nutshell, time management is figuring out what are your highest priority tasks, and then spending most of your time refocusing on those actions. The ideal state would be to continually work on the highest priority goals, but there are going be miscellaneous actions that also require your attention. The goal is to maximize actions on high priorities and minimize the time spent on lesser tasks. You need to discover your blessed work uniquely given to you by Nature. This can only be found inside yourself by deep inquiries into what you want to devote yourself to heart and soul. What are your unique skills? Most great masters in history were “nobodies” to start with that felt a higher calling. What is your reason for being? Find the undertaking that will motivate you to wake up early and stay up late. You need to continually refocus on the most important actions. This mission should have personal, professional, leisure, altruistic, and spiritual dimensions. The main idea is that it is a task that truly moves you to act every day. That is the key, to take some action continuously. In the Hindu holy text Bhagavad Gita, Arjuna must follow his “dharma,” which means sacred task as directed by Krishna. Any major goal should also be consistent with the prime virtues of Stoicism. As the philosopher Nietzsche said, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.” Similarly, the central thesis of Frankl is that if a person has a life purpose, that person can survive almost anything. Therefore, a critical life task is to find your unique mission. This means working mostly with your values hierarchy and skills. The practice of Neurostoicism can help you complete this mission. It can help you to endure and renounce.
