Videos: How to Build Mental Immunity
The Principles of Mental Immune System Care
This page is a video-oriented version of this page, which includes images and text for each section.
We’re ALL susceptible to mind-infections, and neither intelligence nor education can make you immune. The good news? We can all take steps to reduce our susceptibility. The trick is to keep your mind’s immune system functioning well. This means thinking about your thinking.
The body’s immune system is activated, of course, by germs; the mind’s counterpart is activated by information that conflicts with existing beliefs. Healthy mental immune systems manage such conflict in a particular way: a calm, reflective way that promotes learning, adaptability, and growth. They listen to doubts, consider reasons, seek objective touchstones, and adjust beliefs accordingly.
Digital connectivity made our computers vulnerable to distant hackers. It also networked our minds, exposing them to mind-bugs for which we lack immunity. The following principles will help you care for your mind’s immune system. Put them to work and they’ll protect you from infectious and manipulative information…
- The Principles of Mental Immune System Care
- Principle 1: Take Responsibility
- Principle 2: Monitor Your Motives
- Principle 3: Mind Your Emotions
- Principle 4: Examine Your Reasons
- Principle 5: Explore Why You Might Be Wrong
- Principle 6: Think in Shades of Gray
- Principle 7: Embrace Subtractive Learning
- Principle 8: Seek Immune Balance
- Principle 9: Don’t Cling to Your Beliefs
- Principle 10: Play for Team Truth
- Conclusion
All of these videos are also available on our YouTube Channel in this playlist
Principle 1: Take Responsibility
Principle 2: Monitor Your Motives
Principle 3: Mind Your Emotions
Principle 4: Examine Your Reasons
Principle 5: Explore Why You Might Be Wrong
Principle 6: Think in Shades of Gray
Principle 7: Embrace Subtractive Learning
Principle 8: Seek Immune Balance
Principle 9: Don’t Cling to Your Beliefs
Principle 10: Play for Team Truth
All of these videos are also available on our YouTube Channel in this playlist
Conclusion
So there you have it: ten principles for building mental immunity. Make them second nature and your thinking will improve. But don’t stop there! Imagine a world where everyone is taught these things: a world where constructive dialogue is so thoroughly normalized that outbreaks of unreason are rare. Imagine a world where divisive ideologies are routinely dissolved before they can poison the well of mutual trust.
The science of immunology allowed us to do something once thought unthinkable: wipe out smallpox. With the science of mental immunity to guide us, there’s no telling what we’ll accomplish!