While reading Brave New World, I was introduced to the phenomena known as hypnopaedia. Hypnopaedia, more commonly known as sleep learning, is the ingenious method that was used to teach children the moral qualities of society in BNW. When you think about it, hypnopaedia was the main reason the society of BNW could function as flawlessly as it did.
Without sleep learning, the epsilons and gammas and betas would have behaved as if they were alphas. They would have tired of their monotonous work in a heartbeat. The artificial conditioning that unconsciously chained the working classes to their jobs would have never developed. A world of free thinking, independent alphas would have evolved. Alphas who were not satisfied with their government or their lives. Alphas who wanted a life of meaning and purpose. Chaos would have ensued.
But instead, the miracle that is hypnopaedia was discovered. Finally, people could be controlled before they ever knew how to think for themselves. The results were astounding; production and effectiveness soared. People were happy and content with their repetitive life cycles. A utopia was founded on the basis of sleep teachings.
Alas, this society only lives within the confines of our imaginations. There is no real life experimentation with hypnopaedia in the modern world of democracy and reason, or is there? After a bit of research on the subject, it turns out the study of hypnopaedia is real, and whats more, various experimentation has wielded favorable results - some as high as a 40% success rate (according to Leshan studies of 1942).
Research on hypnopaedia is not only scarce and outdated, as most of it was conducted in the 1940's and 50's, but it is also widely disputed as an actual learning technique. The science behind hypnopaedia relies on the manipulation of the subconscious (which studies have proven is possible and effective on 95% of the population). The controversy begins when actual experimentation occurs, because the results were never solid enough to prove anything. After the 1950's, the hypnopaedia hype died and most research was left inconclusive. Today, hypnopaedia is commonly regarded as a neurological mystery. There are people and websites which claim they use hypnopaedia to break bad habits or memorize lyrics, but currently, sleep learning is shrouded in doubt.
Any thoughts on this? What if it were a proven and used method today? Could our society eventually be controlled like that of Brave New World?
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6 comments:
I don't know if sleep learning is effective.
I listen to podcasts while going to sleep. When I awake, I remember nothing...
But maybe it's because I don't constantly repeat the same one OVER and OVER and OVER again.
Perhaps it works, I'll keep it on my great list of "THINGS TO GOOGLE". Because my google skills are excellent.
But, I wonder... If Huxley was really trying to get at the idea that repetition will eventually brainwash an infant. It's called indoctrination.
You know, I was actually going to bring this up in a post, but you beat me to it...Because I thought it was such an interesting subject.
Any thoughts on this? What if it were a proven and used method today? Could our society eventually be controlled like that of Brave New World?
I already stated my thoughts.
If it were used today, it would be used today. Our society can't be controlled, because there are always groups of sava-uhhh, people who like to form their own thoughts, and who are highly suspicious...you know, like lawyers.
I'm not quite sure sleep learning could be effective. It seems like it would be more factual knowledge and not being able to put it to use, like they discussed in the book earlier on. Just because we know something doesn't mean we know how to put it to use.
However, if it were proven to be effective it would definately be used in our society today. I'm going to assume most of us would rather learn in our sleep and do something exiciting in the daytime, right? It would also make the time when we don't do much other than dream and sore into an effective time slot ti learn new skills or gain new knowledge.
As for our society being controlled, I'll have to agree with Sergio and say no. There are and always will be those non-conformist and "free spirits." Unless the world does something that would cause mass chaos and generate massive controversy I don't thik controlling the human population of the world, or even the population of the United States would be possible.
I think that hypnopaedia could be used in today's society. But I think it would only work if it is used repeatedly. I haven't tried listening to anything while sleeping so I'm not sure about that. Maybe this method could be used in the future to speed up learning new things. They could use it for students who are in school. Like for studying for a test or learning a lesson while listening to a recording and sleeping at the same time. If this was a proven and used method today, I think it would make it easier for students. They wouldn't have to study for tests while awake or even go to school because they could do a whole day's worth of learning in the amount of time they sleep from listening to the recording. I don't think it's possible for our society to be controlled like the one in Brand New World because we are too smart to give in to something that we don't want to do. Nobody would want a world like that even if there is peace. There would be no point of living in a world like that. It would be too boring to do the same thing every single day.
-Sofia Kaiser
Just to clarify for those who are reading or responding to this post, the study of hypnopaedia only claims to teach by suggestion. For example, you could record a 30 second audio clip of yourself saying encouragements and positive reinforcement in order to feel prepared for a test. The correct way to sleep learn would be to record yourself saying "I feel well prepared and I will not be stressed about Friday's test" and play it about 100 times in your sleep. Most experts seem to agree that this is the most effective way of "rewiring" the brain.
I am certain by sleep teaching is possible. I have research some websites and even found a man who learned a new language while sleeping and the language he learned was french, which is quite complex and lengthy to learn. Maybe this sleep learning is availabe for some lucky strong-minded people, or maybe you have to listen to something over and over every night for couple of weeks or so to start the actual sleep teaching process.
But not everyone can do this sleep-teach method. If it was proven and used today, people would become smarter without even thinking about it, and could recall their unconscious mind and use it in every day life, which would be quite helpful.
Or maybe, sleep-teaching would be dangerous as people are convinced to do horrible things. I have heard that one man was listening to murder and crime talk on the radio all night, and he slept walked and drove to his mother and laws house and killed her.
But anyways sleep-teaching can have positive effects and negative effects depending on subject or topic they hear at night.
I do not think that our society will fall and into the category of BNW because we always have crticis, strong-minded people, and people who always oppose radical things
I read BNWR and it says that hypnopaedia was successful when used for moral training. It also states that it was experimented in the American Army during World War II, and apparently successful. It is said that a person in light sleep is similar to a person in hypnosis and as a result they can memorize certain things, such as “tape recorders for the use of actors in a hurry to learn their parts,” in BNWR chapter on hypnopaedia. It is due to the alpha waves present in light sleep and not present in deep sleep that allows for the brain to accept suggestions, especially on a moral scale. Learning by rote can also be helpful especially with children because it can help them overcome bed wetting and nail biting. Sleep teaching is based off of tedious repetitions and therefore would take a great deal of time. Sleep teaching could not replace school teaching because during sleep teaching the brain is not fully active and thus can’t learn things that humans learn in the day time. It can be used to change people’s ethics and to correct morals for better or worst, especially in young children when they can not differentiate between good and evil. BNW is the perfect example when the children were brainwashed while they still didn’t know anything.
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