Chapter 3---Tom nichols

One thing that i learned was of dual processing of our minds. Dual processing is the principle that infromation is often simultaneously processed on separate conscious and unconscious tracks. Meaning, we actually know more than we know. Most of our usual thinking, feeling, and acting happen ourside of our conscious awareness. The bookd gave us an example of a woman who was blinded and was still able to place an encelope in a narrow mail-space without seeing it. This shows that our minds can see things our eyes cannot. Its effects me because i never thought how much our mind keeps track of. It knows when a curn is coming even when we are busy talking on the phone, and makes sure we wont run into anything most of the time.

The pare on hypnosis really is a part that i found really surprising, I never knew that hypnosis could alleviat pain, has therapeutic benefits, and can force people to do just about anything, depending on how hyponotized they are. Last year, my school hired a hypnotist, a rather good one, to come to our school . It was really funny to see my friends up there basically looking half asleep or whatever. I learned from that there were different degrees of hypnosis, and that it varies on the person and the command of the hypnotist how hypnotized an individual is.

It also surprised me to learn of how importan sleep actually was. I never know that there were four different stages of sleep, and that if you are interrupted to much, or cant sleep deep enough you will developed sleep disorders such as sleep apnea. It made me change my views on how much sleep i should get, and i am excited to see what our sleep/dream activity will hold.

I agree with the books view on addictive substances. This can be supported because I have an uncle who likes the drink too much. As time went on, he neede more alcohol to feed his addiction to get to the happy place. When he finally decided to quit, I watched him go through the hard difficult phases of withdrawal. Everything form headaches to being angry for no reason. Thankfully, he never was violent because I like him very much. Something I disagree about is how the book thinks some addictions are influenced by biological traits or hereditary. I strongly disagree with that because I don't think there is a gene that makes you an alcoholic or a drug addicit. It is mostly about bad experiences the person has had that they want to forget about, and what encironment they frew up in that makes them more likely to be and addict. Peer pressure is also a way choldren become addicts early on.

Its important for children to have proper environments to grow up in. It is also direly important that they are all well informed of the consequences in engaging in these said activities. Its really sad to see how many people do drugs, and why people love alcohol so much.