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Today the Independent Media Alliance (IMA) brings you a panel focusing on the effects of propaganda/conditioning in the context of stress and emotional reactivity, how this drives continued submission, and how it has been historically utilized by power structures to keep you, as an individual, but also society as a whole, stuck in a perpetual state of fight or flight. This not only causes one to act reactively and emotionally but also suspends your body’s most important functions while in this state — such as the immune system. We discuss the current 24/7 news cycle and how this plays a major role in maintaining a state in which emotion often circumvents logic. We also discuss why it is so important that each of us work consciously to act, feel, and think deliberately, as opposed to allowing the momentum (political or otherwise) to guide our direction. Most importantly, we discuss ways to steel yourself against such manipulations, as well as practices that can help guide you back to daylight if you find yourself lost in a never-ending cycle of sadness, paranoia, and fear.
Source Links:
- The Rise of Authoritarianism: From Parasite Stress Theory to Lockstep
- Multiple Studies Predicted Governments Become Authoritarian in Response to Pandemics
- Pathogens and Politics: Further Evidence That Parasite Prevalence Predicts Authoritarianism – PMC
- The Parasite-Stress Theory of Values and Sociality: Infectious Disease, History and Human Values Worldwide | SpringerLink
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- Masks Lead To Bacterial Pneumonia, Oral Thrush, Systemic Inflammation & May Be The Cause Of “Long-Haul” COVID
- Welcome to 2030: I Own Land, Live Among Like Minded People, and Life Has Never Been Better
- (24) The Last American Vagabond on X: “Another peer reviewed study just found that “Long COVID” is largely psychosomatic, not real. The newest study finds that Long COVID is “associated with factors other than SARS-CoV-2 infection, including psychosocial factors”. #QuestionEverything #LongCOVID https://t.co/NQGfMg8x53 https://t.co/t8g3HrlTQN” / X
- Prevalence and Characteristics Associated With Post–COVID-19 Condition Among Nonhospitalized Adolescents and Young Adults | Infectious Diseases | JAMA Network Open | JAMA Network
- Association of Self-reported COVID-19 Infection and SARS-CoV-2 Serology Test Results With Persistent Physical Symptoms Among French Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic | Infectious Diseases | JAMA Internal Medicine | JAMA Network
- Rare link between coronavirus vaccines and Long Covid–like illness starts to gain acceptance | Science | AAAS
- Psychological vs. Psychosocial — What’s the Difference?
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- (1) Simon Sinek: Why Leaders Eat Last – YouTube
- edso brain chemicals – Brave Search
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- (100) Fear Is (Literally) the Mind Killer – Pleasure to Burn
- Screen Shot 2025-07-31 at 1.56.16 PM.png (1398×1202)
- More than a quarter of U.S. adults say they’re so stressed they can’t function
- Rates of Anxiety, Depression Rising Among Americans, Especially the Young
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- Chronic Stress Weakens Connectivity in the Prefrontal Cortex: Architectural and Molecular Changes – PMC
- Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function – PubMed
- Stress effects on working memory, explicit memory, and implicit memory for neutral and emotional stimuli in healthy men – PubMed
- Chronic Stress Weakens Connectivity in the Prefrontal Cortex: Architectural and Molecular Changes – PMC
- Chronic and Acute Stress Promote Overexploitation in Serial Decision Making – PubMed
- Stress-Induced Functional Alterations in Amygdala: Implications for Neuropsychiatric Diseases – PMC
- The effects of stress exposure on prefrontal cortex: Translating basic research into successful treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder – ScienceDirect
- Americans Sleeping Less, More Stressed
- Economy, Election Spur Rising Anxiety Among Americans in 2024
- The Project Gutenberg eBook of Crystallizing Public Opinion, by Edward L. Bernays.
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- Hardwiring Happiness – Rick Hanson, PhD
- Book Review: Addiction by Design – The Solari Library
- JACKET Pro Faraday CORDURA® Vertical Phone Bag – Magnetic Closure (4.5″ X 8″) | Solari Report
- it’s 2030 never been happier – Brave Search
- (6) Ken Klippenstein on X: “Senator Slotkin says of the CIA: “These are good, corn-fed people who just want to help their country.” https://t.co/ApFhXE4E3J” / X
- IMA Archives – The Last American Vagabond
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A missing, potentially helpful piece of this conversation is the multiple decades work of Peter Levine on completing former incomplete trauma responses., described in his classic Waking the Tiger. Fight, Flight and Freeze are stored in the body. Combat vets who have PTSD tend to have had unresolved childhood traumas. Levine’s work is about being present with the involunatry nervous system, to allow the body/brain to complete those responses in present time. Presence in the body (focus on sensory) needs to be balanced with the “what if” patrol of the left brain. The left brain is not connected to the body directly. The right brain has a much more robust sensory/emotional connection. Trauma diminshes the important connection bewteen Left and Right brain. So we can be intellectually adept, good at meditation (a form of dissociaion from the body) and relaxation, good at yoga (utilizing vountary manipulation of breath), and improve our lives–without fully changing trauma patterns. You can watch people being introduced by a podcast host, and about to speak themselves, and they can look very calm to the average person. However, a little closer look, and their chest is rising more rapidly, their breath has sped up and they are unaware of that early imprint in their autonomic system. We are designed to be more fully present, embodied in this life–in a balance with our intellect. Wild animals do not walk away from fight/flight/freeze before they fully discharge the hyperarousal state of arenalin, cortisol, F/F energy, etc. Humans walk away from trauma and stay dissociated from the sensory awareness af the autonomic system. To Levine, war is related to the acitng out of earlier trauma, which can come in many forms we don’t necessarily recognize. He also believes when we come into the embodiment we’re designed for, we automatically come into “the good.”
A missing, potentially helpful piece of this conversation is the multiple decades work of Peter Levine on completing former incomplete trauma responses., described in his classic Waking the Tiger. Fight, Flight and Freeze are stored in the body. Combat vets who have PTSD tend to have had unresolved childhood traumas. Levine’s work is about being present with the involunatry nervous system, to allow the body/brain to complete those responses in present time. Presence in the body (focus on sensory) needs to be balanced with the “what if” patrol of the left brain. The left brain is not connected to the body directly. The right brain has a much more robust sensory/emotional connection. Trauma diminshes the important connection bewteen Left and Right brain. So we can be intellectually adept, good at meditation (a form of dissociaion from the body) and relaxation, good at yoga (utilizing vountary manipulation of breath), and improve our lives–without fully changing trauma patterns. You can watch people being introduced by a podcast host, and about to speak themselves, and they can look very calm to the average person. However, a little closer look, and their chest is rising more rapidly, their breath has sped up and they are unaware of that early imprint in their autonomic system. We are designed to be more fully present, embodied in this life–in a balance with our intellect. Wild animals do not walk away from fight/flight/freeze before they fully discharge the hyperarousal state of arenalin, cortisol, F/F energy, etc. Humans walk away from trauma and stay dissociated from the sensory awareness af the autonomic system. To Levine, war is related to the acitng out of earlier trauma, which can come in many forms we don’t necessarily recognize. He also believes when we come into the embodiment we’re designed for, we automatically come into “the good.” Allowing the autonomic system to move from freeze, back through fight/flight is not about “changing” or “responding with positive thoughts,” it’s about embracing those uncomfortable sensations, and allowing the intelligence of our bodies to finish the defensive and orienting responses that have been frozen into long-term patterns.
Really enjoyed this episode from IMA. Very uplifting, and good to get all the different viewpoints and suggestions.
I enjoy all of the IMA discussions. So glad you folk put this together.
And I know I’m an old foggie for saying this, but I am so glad, and relieved, that there are no “F” bombs in these discussions. I find it so disspiriting that the word is now part of the written and spoken vernacular.
I look forward to more. Thank you.