Shadowing Practice: You're Living Inside a Prediction - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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three facts about your brain that are absolutely not up for debate at all.
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three facts about your brain that are absolutely not up for debate at all.
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Fact number one is your brain is a prediction machine.
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Just about everything that you experience,
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your emotions, your reactions, all of your decisions,
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what you decide to do,
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they're all filtered through whatever your brain expects to happen next.
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So factor two, your sense of identity is not a truth.
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It's a forecast.
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Fact number three that's undeniable,
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the brain does not experience time the way that clocks measure it.
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If you take those three facts,
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prediction, identity forecasting, and time distortion,
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explain why most people's lives stop changing after about the age of 25.
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So it's not because we've run out of potential.
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Our brain has decided, we've seen enough,
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this is who you are now.
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From that moment forward, the nervous system acts like a bouncer.
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It only lets in the thoughts,
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the behaviors, opportunities that match the established me.
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Everything else gets kind of filtered out.
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When researchers study imagination, they see something pretty weird.
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The brain uses identical neural networks to imagine the future that it uses to remember the past.
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It's the exact same neurons that when you remember your 5th grade classroom
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as when you are going to remember the retirement home that you might be in in a couple of decades.
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Neurologically speaking, your future is treated like a memory that you haven't lived yet.
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This is why expectation changes behavior.
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This is why super optimism improves everyone's outcomes.
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This is why a trauma,
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when people go into a psychiatrist with trauma,
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that stuff can reshape our decision landscape.
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The brain's not seeing the future, it's predicting it.
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And then it shapes your behavior to match that prediction.
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So every version of you,
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the super confident one, the one that's burned out,
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the one that's courageous or brave,
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the isolated version of you is already a potential neural pattern.
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So if we look at identity as a forecast and the brain is choosing behaviors based on that forecast,
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then changing our future isn't about motivation,
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it's not about willpower or mantras or post-it notes with smiling faces on them.
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It's about updating the brain's prediction.
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You do not have one future.
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you have thousands, maybe millions of plausible and maybe billions of possible futures.
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Each of one of those is attached to a different version of you that your brain could inhabit right now.
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But this is not happening because anything in the universe changes.
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Nothing in the universe changes.
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It's just your one little brain starting to select different behaviors.
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It's noticing different opportunities.
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And most of all, the most important thing ever,
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it is interpreting events differently.
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If you look at quantum mechanics,
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the future in any quantum mechanics field,
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the future is never fixed.
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The future exists as a spread of all these possibilities.
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A particle doesn't have a predetermined path.
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It has a distribution of potential paths,
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potential trajectories that it could travel.
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And that trajectory becomes real, depends on two things.
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Number one, it's starting conditions,
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and two, the forces that are acting on it.
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So the particle doesn't choose a best path,
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it expresses the path that matches the conditions it's in.
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If you adopt a new identity,
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you're collapsing a spread of futures into a new trajectory.
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And that's not a metaphor, that is behaviorally.
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A different identity selects different actions.
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And if you take different actions, you have different opportunities.
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Different opportunities, different outcomes.
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In behavior science, we call it re-patterning.
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And tonight you're going to experience one, live.
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Visualization is a neurological event with measurable consequences.
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So when you imagine something really vividly,
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Fiction circuits in your brain do not distinguish between what's real and what's vividly simulated.
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They just respond to the patterns.
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So a vivid imagined future can influence your identity more strongly than a vague memory.
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If your nervous system encounters some kind of coherent internal image,
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it updates rapidly, fast.
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It's not like you need to do this for five months.
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This is like five frickin minutes.
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When you've had moments in your life of intense clarity,
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they feel life-altering because they are.
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And it's never the moment.
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Not once has it been the moment.
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The identity collapses future probabilities into a different line.
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So once we encode some image in our brain,
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the system starts acting like it's already lived.
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And in a minute, you're going to experience this.
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I'm going to guide you through this entire thing.
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Let me give you a simple story.
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You could imagine a person standing at a fork in the road.
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Same day, same life, same circumstances, but two different identities.
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In one timeline, they make that familiar choice.
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They make a choice that matches their history.
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In the other timeline, nothing external changes,
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but their internal prediction does.
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They stop assuming they're going to be ignored.
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They stop assuming that conflict means danger.
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They stop assuming that clarity is going to be punished,
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or honesty is going to be punished.
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And the moment the internal forecast changes, everything downstream automatically shifts.
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The email they would have avoided gets sent out.
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The proposal, the conversation they would have postponed, somehow happens.
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The boundary that they used to just like swallow down gets spoken in one clean sentence without being a dick.
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And because of that, all of these new opportunities start appearing.
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And they're ones that didn't even exist in the other version of the day.
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They didn't even exist.
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And it diverges entirely because of the person funding them.
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And that person that was funding them internally was not the same.
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And that's how fast identity works.
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That's how fast timelines can split wide open into two different possibilities.
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But let's explore something together.
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You and me.
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If you just notice, without trying,
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the simple fact that your attention is already doing something different than it was a few minutes ago.
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The mind leans forward when it hears something unfamiliar.
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It leans back when it realizes how much space is inside of that moment.
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And you are not doing anything.
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Your system is starting to make these little adjustments in the way that instruments are telling you what are...
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And while all that is happening,
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you might notice small details that you weren't tracking.
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The weight of your hands,
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the air on your skin,
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the sense that the room softened a little bit around the edges during these past four or five minutes.
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This is the mind preparing to think in a different shape.
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And in quantum mechanics, a system changes state when conditions change, universally.
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There's no effort required.
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It's just reorganization.
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And people aren't different.
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The concepts, the tone, the shift in where your attention sits,
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all of these are conditions.
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And inside you, states begin adjusting all on their own.
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It's nothing dramatic.
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It's nothing stressful.
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You don't even have to think about them as you notice they might be arranging themselves or re-arranging themselves on their own.
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And when you hear something that doesn't fit your usual categories,
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the mind will stop trying to finish your sentences.
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It's going to loosen its grip.
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And when it gets loose,
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that little looseness becomes the doorway.
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is the doorway where your thoughts can stretch.
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Time feels a lot less linear.
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Breathing shifts on its own.
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This is the same state that you enter just before a memory forms or a dream starts.
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And you can picture yourself as a field, not a grassy field.
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And not just a biography of who you are or personality,
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But this glowing cloud of possible pinpointed versions of your future,
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or maybe lines toward your future,
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each with its own density, its own emotional state.
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But they all have one thing in common, the beginning.
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Some are bright, some are faint,
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some are just razor sharp, some might be vague.
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And as you imagine that,
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you can notice how you naturally take the vantage point of the observer.
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You watch from just outside the field.
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And if you just let,
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all by itself, let that field stretch way forward into these thin little threads.
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And each one of those is just a possible feature
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that you could take if a different version of you became the dominant one.
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and I'm not asking you to choose.
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I just want you to sense which one of those pull your attention slightly.
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The way that maybe one of those outcomes is vibrating
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or humming at a frequency that you recognize even if you can't explain why.
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And if the imagery that's in the mind drifts or fades that's absolutely fine.
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That's how the nervous system stores information that it plans to use.
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So now you can sense the part of that field behind you.
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How big is that?
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All the possible yous that haven't been expressed yet.
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You can even let one of them step forward a little bit,
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just coming out like a little silhouette with a different internal physics model.
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More clarity, more composure, more belonging to yourself.
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You don't have to force a face on it.
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It could just be a silhouette.
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It could be the idea of a person.
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You just notice that person's little emotional feel, their emotional signature.
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And as you feel that,
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you might notice that your breath starts lining up with that other version.
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And it's not because you tried to do it.
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Because systems tuned to each other naturally.
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These small little shifts happen all on their own.
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Jaw loosens, chest widens, thoughts get quiet.
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If you can imagine stepping with that version,
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that imaginary person, that silhouette,
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into a space between timelines,
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kind of like an open field that has no paths chosen yet.
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You could imagine a full 360 degree horizon all the way around.
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It's dotted with thin glowing lines all over the place.
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And each line is a different future.
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Some close, some might be far,
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some quiet, maybe some are vibrant.
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And in the center of this space is you.
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Not the predicted you, but the one that chooses predictions.
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Those are two different hues.
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And if you look out at those lines in that field,
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and let your awareness drift from one to the next to the next,
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you can feel the change in emotional temperature as you hover over them or near them.
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Some feel super heavy.
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Some might be natural or neutral.
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And maybe one or two feel like home in a way that makes absolutely no sense,
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but just feels undeniable.
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And you can allow that upgraded version of you to walk slightly ahead of you,
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just kind of guiding your attention toward the timeline that matches the strength that you just felt.
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And you can notice that as you get closer to that line,
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the entire field seems to reorganize.
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The threads start shifting.
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They start softening or brightening or fading or disappearing as the new state
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that you've chosen based on predictions starts to assert itself.
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If you could imagine just reaching a kind of boundary,
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like a membrane, like a stretched out,
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really thin membrane between the old field and this new trajectory,
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this new path, you can step through it, piercing the entire thing.
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Just feel the pressure change in your chest or your face.
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And that's where it feels like when a system chooses an identity decisively.
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And just take a minute to walk along this new timeline.
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Like, zoom forward into the future.
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That it's a little different.
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Maybe it's massively different.
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You can look to your left and right
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and see the versions of the view of that day that come from this identity.
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Conversations, behaviors, these subtle little interactions.
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You can notice how the identity speaks, how it stands.
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And this is just a briefing.
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What this is, what you're experiencing right now,
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is just a briefing from your future self.
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And it's giving it to you in sensation and not words,
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which is the way that we need to receive these things.
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So reach the version of you a few days into this timeline,
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just a couple days into this timeline.
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That's what I want you to reach into right now.
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You can look at how they move differently,
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how they wake up, the choices they make.
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You can let all of that information just flow into you the way
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that warmth starts spreading when you just stand out in the sunlight.
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This is the transfer.
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So now before you return,
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you can walk backwards now.
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Through this future, watching how the choices start rearranging themselves as you move through all of them.
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You can observe how these really tiny changes early on shape these massive outcomes in the future.
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Everything downstream changes and you can let one tiny action from this timeline present itself.
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Nothing dramatic or heroic.
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It's something pretty mundane that still belongs only to this version and just kind of let a small choice float into awareness,
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whatever it is.
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Now if you step back through this membrane into the center of the field again
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and just carry that sensation of that future you and the future itself with you,
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I want you to look around that circle again and watch how instantly the old timelines start fading off,
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turning into smoke or vapor.
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They fade as the new one starts to become more and more stable.
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The field reorganizes itself as all fields do.
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And in a moment we'll kind of come back for anybody that has your eyes closed,
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but I don't want you to return as the same prediction.
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Don't come back as the same prediction.
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The trajectory has already changed,
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the fields are already reorganized,
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the system's selected a new state here.
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The only thing that's left to notice is how this version of you
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starts to steer the next few hours and few days without needing any effort.
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And whenever it feels right,
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you can allow your eyes to open and let that version come back.
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Why practice speaking with this video?
This video titled "You're Living Inside a Prediction" presents an intriguing perspective on how our brains function in terms of prediction and identity. By practicing your speaking skills through the content of this video, you engage with thought-provoking material that challenges your understanding of human behavior. This encourages deeper conversations while enhancing your English speaking practice. Moreover, discussing concepts such as brain functions and predictions not only broadens your vocabulary but also strengthens your ability to articulate complex ideas and emotions in English.
Grammar & Expressions in Context
In this video, several key structures and expressions stand out, helping you align your speaking with advanced English usage. Here are a few examples:
- Your brain is a prediction machine. – This simple present structure effectively states a fact, making it a useful response template for conveying general truths.
- It’s not because we've run out of potential. – This construction exemplifies how to use present perfect tense to discuss past experiences that have a relevance to the present, a great way to enrich your narrative skills.
- When researchers study imagination, they see something pretty weird. – This introductory clause followed by a main clause is a fantastic way to introduce findings or insights, which can be a valuable skill in both writing and speaking contexts.
- If you look at quantum mechanics... – Utilizing conditional clauses creates a sense of logical sequence in your speaking. This can improve your conversational flow and argumentative skills.
Common Pronunciation Traps
As you practice with this video, be mindful of specific words and phrases that might pose challenges for English pronunciation:
- Prediction – The stress typically falls on the second syllable (pre-DIC-tion), which can be a common misstep.
- Identity – This word often causes confusion; focus on the syllable breakdown (i-DEN-tity) to pronounce it correctly.
- Opportunity – The length of this word can make it tricky; saying it in segments (op-por-TUN-i-ty) can help improve clarity.
To enhance your learning and pronunciation skills, join the practice of shadow speech. By repeating these terms after a native speaker in the video, you can immerse yourself in the nuances of English pronunciation. Utilize resources such as a shadowing site to find similar content and further enhance your ability to improve English pronunciation effectively. With consistent practice, these exercises can solidify your speaking confidence as you engage with compelling material like this video.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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