The Hacking of the American Mind

1:30:20, 1.53 PM

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By Dr. Robert Lusting

There is a crisis in culture. It comes down to a mistake in interpreting pleasure and happiness. Many believe these things are the same, but they are totally different.

Pleasure is short lived, happiness is long lived

Pleasure is visceral, happienss is ether-real

pelasure is taking, happiness is giving

pleasure is substances, happiness doesn't need substances

pleasure is alone, happiness is with people

Extream pleasure creates addiction, you can never be too happy

Pleasure is dopamine, happiess is seratonine

These give us a framework of understanding about what we're up against.

Pleasure with dopamine desires you to take bigger and bigger hits until eventually the biggest hit you take brings you no feeling. That is what we call tolerance

Seratonine produces contempment. Zenning out. A feeling of oneness with the world.

The only thing that reduces seradoin is dopamine. Happiness is reduced in the pursuit of pleasure.

los vegas, Wall street, Silicoln valley, Washington DC have confused and conflated happiness with pleasure. So you can buy happiness and buy their stuff. It's created the biggest economy in the world. We are driven by pleasure not by happiness.

So what's hacked? The brain doesn't get hacked with computer code but false information.

The sugar indsutry in the 70s conspired with reguators and universties to push processesd food diets and sugar. It's now come to forition as america is the most overweight and unhealthy country in the world.

Tobacco industry as well said that nicotine and addiction is not real. They lied blatently to push their own narrative

Socially, pleasure is a feeling that tells you it **feels** good and you want more. Happiness is contentment. You don't need to keep playing the game's at the casino, happiness doesn't need to hit the slots over and over agian.

You can't buy happiness, but you can buy pleasure.

The Keys to happiness

1. Connect - eye to eye connection actives empathy, and lights up different parts of the brain that creates contemepment. Relgiion dervives from this. Interpersonal connection is critical.
1. non personal connection - like facebook - creates the opposite. Dopamine rises and variable rewards cause you to increase your actions to access more likes and attention.
2. Contribute - contributing to society and life around you and not within yourself
3. Cope - To reduce stress we need to focus.
1. Sleep has been distorted by the phones.
2. Mindfullness - the practice of meditation and find out that 2.5% of the population can multitask. Be mindful.
3. Exercise - This tamps down dopamine
4. Cook - For yourself. You don't know what you're eating if you don't cook it. Triptafane is the rarest but most important part of creating saratonine. Fish is heavy in it. Sugar is the biggest addition in eating out. Avoid it. Fast food you're eating alone, you don't know what it is, and there's added sugar.

So how did pleasure and happiness get confused in the first place? How did we end up living in such a confusing backwards way?

Dr. Robert Lusting says the declocartion of independence is what set it up. Life. Liberty. And the pursuit of happiness.

Life expentincy has been dropping in america

Liberty is based on where you're born and how much money you have

And the pursuit of happiness was distorted to be based on the things you buy and not the experiences you have with people you care about.

Until we address the problem of diet, pleasure, and happiness we will not see a improvement in health in our own lives and the countries well being.

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