Cognitive Dissonance and the Heart--final chapter

OK folks—I have finished the book on “cognitive dissonance.” I read in vain for the missing pieces—what do we do to change this… and (most telling) what about the fact that everyone simply is NOT stuck in this mode.

I am also sorry to say I discovered the authors had their own conformation bias. They quote an author who sates that we all know right from wrong because we were children we know what hurt us (which I am convinced is true ) then state categorically that their example—Charles Cranmer and Lynndie England of Abu Ghraib infamy did not know what they were doing was wrong-or evil.

Later in the book they state “but the soul wants to confess.” Which is also true. This is why we say someone has “sold their soul” when they do what they know is wrong. These two statements can’t both be true—but the authors overlook this These authors (and their editors) seem to have fallen prey to their own confirmation bias.

This weekend I have been listening to the “Shift Network” calls on healing and was especially interested by the call about the knowledge of the heart. It did not take many seconds using Goggle to find the articles that exist that substantiate that there is a research on the internet that substantiates that there is a source if intelligence is NOT prone to self justification—the heart. Why did the authors ignore this area of science? I bet you can guess!

They also praise Oprah Winfrey for reversing her support of James Frey (the author of the fraudulent memoir—then ignore (even praise!)the way she proceeded to harass and victimize him on television. (First she was the victim by buying into his story and f defending it—then fowling the Karpman Drama Triangle she becomes the perpetrator. See http://www.karpmandramatriangle.com/ ) But the authors are blind to this.

I guess these problems didn’t cause the authors cognitive dissonance… (even though it made me feel a nasty feeling as I read the book!) Or, of it did they justified it. Why? I have to imagine these are examples of the way experts are prone to ignore evidence that conflicts with their point of view—which they invested in and were very busy writing about. There cant be another theory that is larger and more useful than the brought shiny new one they have hold of. What irony!

Luckily for us humans, there IS a way to avoid the trap of being stuck in what we already believe, or in our own victimhood. It is so rely as much as possible—and become skilled in the art of staying in—our HEART’s knowledge. This is the ‘soul” that wants to confess— and where healing happens.

See, for example http://www.pbs.org/bodyandsoul/203/heartmath.htm

Sorry folks—the world isn’t this simple! Not everyone is stuck in their heads and impervious to truth and compassion… and despite the authors' depressing message, heart based methods of healing are much more powerful then these authors seem to want us to think. We lawyers have been trained to be in our heads and many of us in this movement have been working to connect with our hearts for decades. Let’s continue—it is our only real hope!