MetaBrain Chatbot with Lie-Detection Wearable
At MetaBrain, we subscribe to the belief that human behavior is intricately linked to our learned experiences, often operating beneath the surface of our conscious awareness. Drawing upon insights from neuroscience, it becomes clear that our actions, thoughts, and emotions are not consciously chosen but instead triggered by external situations.
Fundamentally, our behavior is steered by deeply ingrained reactive patterns, which we refer to as mindsets residing in our unconscious as succinct, ready-to-execute instructions. These can be as primal as “run,” “fight,” “flight,” or “freeze, which produces a quick reaction (for safety).” A similar mechanism governs our responses to various situations, whether they are perceived as threatening or benign. The crux of the MetaBrain solution revolves around the transformation of these mindsets to alter our automatic reactions.
This is where the MetaBrain Chatbot plays a pivotal role, meticulously designed to discern the foundational mindset behind undesired thoughts, emotions, or behaviors and facilitate the transition to a personally selected one. Our approach involves the utilization of a lie-detection wearable to validate the correlation between a specific thought, feeling, or behavior and the mindset underpinning it. This process of validation empowers precise adjustments, effectively ushering in a shift from one mindset to another.
To illustrate this process, consider the example of shifting from an old mindset of “I worry all the time” to a new mindset of “I worry very little.” Even a slight adjustment like this, achieved through understanding the underlying reasons, can have a profound impact. These reasons often trace back to past experiences, such as observing a family member’s chronic worrying or receiving messages like “Be cautious, something bad might happen,” leading to incessant worry. This learned behavior can become debilitating as days are consumed by ruminating over potential dangers that may or may not materialize. However, by making a small shift in mindset, this behavior can be effectively halted. This is the essence of what MetaBrain strives for – empowering individuals to *purposefully modify their mindsets in alignment with their desired outcomes, transcending the limitations they may have inherited.
Furthermore, it is imperative to delve beneath the surface of behavioral reactions to uncover the core reasons behind them. This is where the MetaBrain Chatbot process, guided by its wearable device that measures brainwaves, excels. It acts as a personal lie detector, aiding individuals in navigating the brain’s natural defenses that protect these deeply rooted mindsets.
Revisiting the example of incessant worrying, this behavior typically stems from underlying beliefs such as “I’ll get caught,” “I’m a fraud,” or “I’m the problem.” Through the MetaBrain process, these beliefs can be unlearned and replaced, transforming a mindset from, “I’m a fraud” into “I am genuine.”
While this process may sound straightforward, it is not. The brain is naturally wired to resist change, primarily as a safety mechanism. This innate resistance often keeps people stuck in unhelpful patterns, preventing them from embracing change. Only by introducing a new, more appealing alternative that the brain deems as advantageous will it relinquish its grip on deeply ingrained mindsets.
The MetaBrain approach recognizes that the brain has a propensity to conceal its inner workings, owing to our inability to consciously engage our unconscious mind. This innate cognitive resistance raises the question of whether we should indeed modify our automatic reactive thought patterns and responses. Our unequivocal answer is “yes.” We firmly believe that not only do we have the right to do so, but we also bear the responsibility to take control of our automated reactions. This perspective is rooted in the notion that we are constantly bombarded with messaging that shapes our reactions, often without our conscious consent.
For instance, we absorb fear and anxiety from news reports of mass shootings, which compel us to exercise caution in public places. Simultaneously, social media exposes our children to comparisons that make them feel “not good enough.” While it’s important to acknowledge that education and positive new experiences can contribute significantly to the process of unlearning and relearning mindsets, our primary focus is on shifting counter-productive mindsets to empowering ones.
In this context, having the ability to manage and modify mindsets that trigger our automated reactions becomes essential for leading fulfilling lives, evolving into better individuals, and making positive contributions to society. Many highly successful individuals attribute their achievements to their empowering mindsets, and now, this opportunity is available for everyone to cultivate such mindsets.
We encourage you to explore the MetaBrain model of mindset shifting. You will be amazed by the transformative potential that lies within your own mindsets, waiting for your conscious choice to unlock them.
*The process is found in CBT and is known as Cognitive Restructuring
Alexandrea Day
Alexandrea Day, Author, Neurotech Innovator, Founder MetaBrain Labs & Mindset Restructuring
Alexandrea Day is the driving force behind innovation at MetaBrain Labs, drawing upon her extensive experience as a therapist spanning 18 years and another 18 years dedicated to software development. Her mission revolves around transforming her highly effective mindset restructuring process into an accessible app and platform, further enhanced by Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology, making it universally available. This innovation enables individuals to identify and reverse self-limiting mindsets in just two weeks.
Her life’s work has culminated in this groundbreaking invention, representing her legacy to empower individuals to pursue their dreams, achieve their objectives, and become the best versions of themselves.
The era where achievement is limited to those with means, resources, and access is fading. This transformative process is now accessible to all individuals who seek to break free from the constraints of old programming influenced by familial or societal norms. To adapt to the changing landscape, we must all remove the barriers that hinder our progress.
In an age where AI-driven machines are becoming increasingly influential, the ability to become faster learners and take control of our own destinies is paramount.
We extend an invitation to everyone to join our cohorts and clinics, where you can learn this empowering process and then embark on your journey independently. We believe in your potential and empower you to seize control of the path toward your goals and dreams.
Adaptive Theory Perspective of the Unconscious Mind
The MetaBrain Chatbot, based upon Adaptive Theory, helps people mindset restructuring that helps people align their beliefs with their goals, to achieve them with a lot less effort and/or stress. A discussion about the unconscious is important to realize that this process fits within and adds to existing theories underlying the function and role of the unconscious mind.
There is disagreement between theorists across the natural sciences about the function and role of the unconscious mind. Some view it as a “shadow” of the conscious mind and yet others view it as unsophisticated and with minimal impact in life. In contrast with the latter, the cognitive psychology tradition, others view that the unconscious mind as being pervasive, and having powerful influence (Bargh, 2006). Adaptive theory subscribes to the idea that the unconscious mind is not only pervasive and powerful, but also the driver of behavior based upon directives stored in it. These directives are triggered, and behavior executed when similar external stimuli is sensed that matches previously experienced situations that are reinforced each time they are re-experienced.
Adaptive theory also ascribes to the views found in phylogeny and ontogeny where actions of the unconscious mind precede awareness of it to the conscious mind—that action precedes reflection. This is important and the basis upon which the Adaptive Theory process is founded. Humans are highly automated, unconsciously reacting to stimuli as they navigate their world.
We don’t want to believe this is true, that we aren’t actually deciding our actions, thoughts or feelings but instead these are foisted upon us, being at the mercy of our unconscious directives. Why do they exist? To follow primitive instinct, these exist to protect. To think through consciously we are slow and will probably choose wrong and hence the unconscious overrides and circumvents conscious choosing. It instead directs all decisions, actions, feelings, and thoughts.
Most agree that conscious thought, for how people historically have thought about the mind, includes these qualities: they are intentional, controllable, serial, and accessible to awareness.
No such consensus exists yet for the unconscious, however.
The term unconscious was originally based on one’s unintentional actions. And this view of the unconscious with unintentional is how unconscious phenomena have been conceptualized and studied within social psychology. (Nisbett and Wilson’s, 1977) seminal article posed the question, “To what extent are people aware of and able to report on the true causes of their behavior?” The answer was “not very well.” If these processes weren’t accessible to awareness, then perhaps they weren’t consciously intended, and if they weren’t consciously intended, then how in fact are they accomplished?
This latter question motivated social psychologists to investigate the ways in which the higher mental processes such as judgment and social behavior could be triggered and then operate in the absence of conscious intent and guidance. Consequently, this research operationally defined unconscious influences in terms of a lack of awareness of a triggering stimulus (Bargh, 1992). If one shifts the unconscious definition to the processor of stimuli that informs action, suddenly the true power and scope of the unconscious in daily life becomes apparent.
This expanded and enhanced view of the unconscious is also more compatible with theory and evidence in the field of evolutionary biology, than is the view of cognitive psychology. As did Darwin and Freud, evolutionary biologists also think of the unconscious much more in terms of unintentional actions rather than unawareness of stimuli.
Consonant with these basic assumptions in natural science, social cognition research over the past 25 years has produced a stream of surprising findings regarding complex judgmental and behavioral phenomena that operate outside of awareness. Because the findings did not make sense given the “dumb unconscious” perspective of psychological science, we have to look outside of psychology to understand them and their implications for the human mind. Happily, when placed in the broader context of the natural sciences, especially evolutionary biology, the widespread discoveries of sophisticated unconscious behavior guidance systems not only make sense, but they also turn out to have been predicted on a priori grounds (Dawkins, 1976; Dennett, 1991, 1995).
Our evolved design has caused us to be highly sensitive and reactive to the present context of our lives. Just as evolution has given us general “good tricks” (Dennett, 1995) for survival and reproduction, culture and early learning have fine-tuned our adaptive unconscious which we were born into offering contextual priming to more precisely adjust to events and people in present time (Higgins & Bargh, 1987).
Evolved, priming effects are present soon after birth, underpinning the infant’s imitative abilities (see Meltzoff, 2002). Such priming effects depend on the existence of a close, automatic connection between perception (our mindset) and behavior.
This tight connection has been discovered in cognitive neuroscience by observing mirror neurons in the premotor cortex that become active when one perceives a given type of action as well as when one engages in that action oneself (Frith & Wolpert, 2004).
Under the present argument that the unconscious evolved as a behavioral guidance system and as a source of adaptive and appropriate actional impulses, these unconsciously activated preferences should be found to be directly connected to behavioral mechanisms.
The idea that action precedes reflection is not new. Several theorists have postulated that the conscious mind is not the source or origin of our behavior; instead, they theorize that impulses to act are unconsciously activated and that the role of consciousness is as gatekeeper and sense maker after the fact (Gazzaniga, 1985; James, 1890; Libet, 1986; Wegner, 2002). In this model, conscious processes kick in after a behavioral impulse has occurred in the brain—that is, the impulse is first generated unconsciously, and then consciousness claims (and experiences) it as its own. Yet, to date, there has been little said about where, exactly, those impulses come from.
Given the evidence reviewed above there are a multitude of behavioral impulses generated at any given time derived from our evolved motives and preferences, cultural norms and values, past experiences in similar situations. These impulses have afforded us operating motives, preferences and associated approach and avoidance behavioral tendencies, as well as mimicry and other behavior priming effects triggered within our unconscious based upon interpreted stimulus triggering a response based upon mere perception. There certainly seems to be no shortage of suggestions from our unconscious as to what to do in any given situation.
In Adaptive theory (Day, 2022) we believe that unconscious impulses trigger a response and generate behavior based upon its interpretation of sensed stimuli. The unconscious mind pushes related thoughts and feelings to consciousness, in unison with behavior. The precise behavioral response and the thoughts, feelings tagged to it, is based upon the perception directive, previously encoded, most closely associated to the sensed, interpreted stimulus. It is these directives, when personally-decided are maladaptive, are restructured by reinforcing its reversal over a 2-week period, changing behavior permanently.
REFERENCES
- Bargh JA. Why subliminality does not matter to social psychology: Awareness of the stimulus versus awareness of its effects. In: Bornstein R, Pittman T, editors. Perception without awareness: Cognitive, clinical, and social perspectives.Guilford; New York: 1992. pp. 236–255.
- Bargh JA, editor. Social psychology and the unconscious: The automaticity of higher mental processes.Psychology Press; Philadelphia: 2006.
- Dawkins R. The selfish gene.Oxford University Press; New York: 1976.
- Day, A. Meta-Brain, Reprogramming the Unconscious for Self-Directed Living; Made for Success; Seattle: 2022.
- Dennett DC. Darwin’s dangerous idea: Evolution and the meanings of life.Simon & Schuster; New York: 1995.
- Frith C, Wolpert D, editors. The neuroscience of social interaction.Oxford University Press; New York: 2003.
- Gazzaniga M. The social brain.Basic Books; New York: 1985.
- Higgins ET, Bargh JA. Social perception and social cognition. Annual Review of Psychology. 1987;38:369–425.
- James W. Principles of psychology. 2. Holt; New York: 1890.
- Libet B. Unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action. Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 1986;8:529–566.
- Meltzoff AN, Meltzoff AN, Prinz W. The imitative mind: Development, evolution, and brain bases.Cambridge University Press; New York: 2002. Elements of a developmental theory of imitation; pp. 19–41.
- Nisbett RE, Wilson TD. Telling more than we can know: Verbal reports on mental processes. Psychological Review. 1977; 84:231–259.
- Wegner DM. The illusion of conscious will.MIT Press; Cambridge, MA: 2002.
Our Ethics Statement
GenoEmote, LLC, DBA MetaBrain Labs, is dedicated to pursuing ethical innovation within Brain-Computer Interface Technology. We place paramount importance on user privacy and confidentiality. Our commitment is to provide a secure experience that includes informed consent and transparency. The product is founded upon guiding principles of Adaptive Theory, enabling users to identify and transform any obstructive mindsets hindering the attainment of their personal goals. Our chatbot, using an EEG-enabled headset, facilitates self-directed mindset restructuring, consistently upholding the user’s autonomy and dignity. As we proceed to integrate AI into certain aspects of the platform to improve the user experience, our plan is to require the user to opt-in before using it and re-opt-in each time an AI update occurs.
Transforming Minds to Help Humanity Needs Data
We believe in cognitive liberty where you choose if, when and how your brain activity is shared. While the MetaBrain Chatbot guides users to perform mindset restructuring, the use of the process beyond user’s use, not shared without your permission.
We need data to search for patterns that can help humanity reduce suffering.
We also believe we can help each person individually by culling data from many. Hence, it takes data from all to help one, and it takes data from one to help many.
However, personal use of mental, mind, unconscious data is owned by you. What we ask is permission to use your data to help others. We will ask you to confirm that we can use your data, with your permission, to help others. You can opt-in before your data is used. Regardless, your data is anonymized. This means your identity will not be attached to the shared data.
Our goal, promise, is to do no harm. In the process we expect to do some good as well.
Please contact us with any questions.