About This Course:

How what we believe, expect, and assume about an experience can change what our brain, body, and behavior actually do in response.

Two people can experience the same event and walk away with remarkably different outcomes.

Even stranger, sometimes the difference isn't merely how they feel about the experience. Their bodies may actually respond differently.

Researchers have demonstrated that expectations and beliefs can influence pain, hunger hormones, physical performance, stress responses, perception, behavior, and even how other people respond to us. Identical foods can produce different physiological responses depending upon what people believe they are eating. Expectations surrounding medical treatment can reduce symptoms, or make them worse. The way we interpret physical arousal can influence whether pressure improves our performance or causes us to fall apart.

So where does perception end and reality begin?

The Reality Effect explores the fascinating science of mindset, expectation, perception, placebo and nocebo effects, self-fulfilling beliefs, identity, and the brain's constant attempt to predict what happens next.

This is not a positive-thinking seminar, and we won't be pretending that wishing for something makes it happen. Instead, we will examine peer-reviewed psychological, neurological, and physiological research to understand something far more interesting:

The brain doesn't simply receive reality. It interprets it, predicts it, and helps determine how we respond to it.

During this course we will explore questions such as:

• Can believing a meal is indulgent actually change the body's hormonal response to it?
• Can being told something about your genetics affect your physical performance, even when the information is wrong?
• Why can an inactive medication sometimes produce measurable changes in pain and symptoms?
• Can simply expecting a side effect make someone experience it?
• Why can two people experience the same stress while one performs better and the other performs worse?
• How do labels, prices, brands, expectations, and previous experiences change what we actually taste, see, feel, and notice?
• When do beliefs become self-fulfilling?
• How does the identity we carry around in our head influence the choices we make?
• And perhaps most importantly, can we deliberately change our mindset without simply lying to ourselves?

By the end of the course, students will understand how expectation and interpretation interact with the brain and body, where the scientific evidence is strong, where popular claims go beyond the evidence, and how this knowledge can be practically applied to health, performance, relationships, stress, decision-making, and everyday life.

Reality exists. But your experience of it is far less objective than you probably think.

Prerequisites:

This course is part of the Rewiring the Brain series. They can be taken in any order.

Equipment Required:

Pen and Paper for notes. This is a classroom based course.

Notes:

This course is open to ages 16+ with a parent in attendance. This course will cover topics that are very academic and medical based. Younger participants are welcome but the material may be advanced for their understanding.

Price:

$125