Default Mode Network

The network of neurons concerned with past/future and self and other.

What is it?

There is a specific neural network that comes online when we are not otherwise occupied, and neuroscientists call it the Default Mode Network.   It is the network of neurons concerned with past/future and self and other. It makes sense that this is our default mode because it is basically what you need to create/perceive a world – a sense of time and space.

The Default Mode Network as Evolutionary Breakthrough

In evolutionary terms, the DMN is a huge breakthrough and highly adaptive. It allows us to plan for events. This is critical because life can be thought of as a race to evolve intelligence. And life is about conserving energy. An animal doesn’t want to grow fur at the first cold day but if it understands that this is season then investing in growing fur is highly adaptive. By projecting the mind into the future, we can imagine ourselves in that place and think oh I will feel cold, I will pack a coat. In so doing, you are outsourcing things to your technology* so that you don’t have to waste biological energy on it.

This development of an “avatar” or mental representation of ourselves in various scenarios allows us to take evolution of the individual from being environmentally driven to something internally driven. Studies of piano players show those who only practiced in their mind grew the same neurons as people who physically practiced the same amount of time per day. There are similar studies with jugglers. (but It doesn’t mean they can juggle. It just means they have created some of the neural pathways needed for juggling).

The Placebo Effect

We have only just begun to put this insight to work for us. There is a nursing organization called the Placebo Effect that works to evoke the Placebo Effect recognizing that it is in fact our most powerful and universal of medications. The placebo effect inducing practices would be a great example of a discovery in psycho-technology. Evolving our psycho-technology is key to evolving. In general pain killers have been having a harder and harder time beating placebo over the past few decades which has been part of the march towards the Opiode crisis. Perhaps this is because our minds are growing stronger.  The Dali Lama has commented though that moderns don’t seem to have to go through the extended concentration training that monks had to. Perhaps this is because the powers of concentration are much more developed by modern schooling than they were for our forebears.

Moving past the default mode

Just as studies show top athletes can use visualization to perfect their game - so Next Level Leaders are able to experience an unusual degree of peace and power through awareness of who they are choosing to be in what arena.  Scientists call this an Existential Mode which involves a co-identifying Agent and Arena.  These two go together in the same way that Doghouse makes no sense without Dog.  And tennis player goes with tennis court.  Scientists tell us we are choosing existential modes unconsciously all the time.   So doing it consciously in every day life is a bigger feat than we might imagine - but you probably already grasped that from the passage above on unconscious framing.  

Change your Umweld

The link to ZIZO

To help you do this, we've defined key distinctions and practices that will help you overcome Frame Bias. But they all center on the main tool of this book: ZIZO. To learn more about ZIZO, click here.