I think most of us remember high school psychology lessons about conditioned reflexes and conditioning. I don’t want to dive into too much detail about the research of the skilled Russian psychologist, physiologist, and physician Ivan Pavlov. If you want to refresh your memory, you can look him up on Wikipedia.
Let’s say Pavlov studied both innate and learned reflexes. The most fascinating discovery came when he observed these reflexes in dogs.
The Experiment
The experiment went like this: Pavlov had a group of dogs. After ringing a bell, he fed them. He repeated this long enough (ring the bell – feed the dogs, ring the bell – feed the dogs) until the sound of the bell alone made the dogs salivate and expect food. In simple terms, the dogs developed a conditioned reflex preparing them for food as soon as the bell rang. When Pavlov didn’t feed them after ringing the bell, the dogs even showed frustration, as if blaming the bell.
How does this relate to us—and why are we dogs?
Because humans function in the same way. Conditioning could be defined like this: when an external stimulus happens before or during an event or while experiencing certain feelings, that stimulus becomes linked with the event or emotions.
A simple human example
Let’s say a man named Peter lost his father. He was deeply affected. At the funeral, when friends expressed their condolences, many of them placed a hand on Peter’s shoulder. Later, when time had passed and life returned to normal, Peter was having fun with friends. Everything was fine—until someone, for no reason, patted him on the shoulder. Suddenly, he felt deep sadness and all joy disappeared. He might not even know why he felt so down. Sometimes people are aware of what’s happening inside—seeing images, hearing voices, as if reliving the event. But often it slips past the conscious mind and happens only in the subconscious.
See? There’s nothing magical or illogical about it. The real magic comes when we want to collapse these triggers. I’ve already explained in another article how to get rid of such triggers by collapsing anchors.
Let’s realize something important: from early childhood we are conditioned to feel bad, to not try, to settle for less. Conditioned into poverty, fear, mistrust, and limitation. We are, in many ways, just like Pavlov’s dogs.
Don’t like me saying you’re a dog? Then change it. You already have the tools—the work is up to you. If you don’t want to do it alone, ask me or any FasterEFT practitioner for help. Not someday, but now. The future will always be the future—and it may stay there forever. Allow me to help you, or come to a FasterEFT seminar where you can learn all the important techniques yourself.