The Cognitive Liberty Podcast with ChrisPYounce

13. Left and Right Brain Hemispheres

In this episode, I introduce a book I’m reading by Gregg Braden, who introduces a critical question: who are we? As we address this question, we can reflect more deeply on our choices based on free will. But how much free will do we actually have? This question could also be “How conscious are we?” Be it of the choices we make or how much of our lives are self-directed. We rely on the space in between more than we realize.
What I mean by this is that when we cram everything in from one day to the next, we have less and less bandwidth to give ourselves the space to make choices for ourselves. It’s as if the space between those spaces is where the spirit resides in order to give life to our minds and bodies.
Our feelings of separation from our exchanges with our world and the people in our lives are part of this greater question of who we are. How we feel matters. What we bring to the table for ourselves and others matters.
The emptiness is what lends to our free will to create the chemistry of feelings we use to create the stories of our lives. Our emotional intelligence is entangled with our ability to choose, even though emotions can be an involuntary or spontaneous process because they are the primary drivers of our physiology, and thus they tend to dictate how we think and behave.
With that said, it’s all about knowing how to navigate the empty spaces, and thus our free will to think, feel, and behave, wisely. Remember that we are the main characters in our story.  
Thanks again for listening folks! I invite you to follow the Cognitive Liberty Podcast and feel free to DM me and follow me on the social medias with any thoughts or questions you may have regarding the book:
Instagram @harmonic_homesteading
Twitter @Chrispyounceman
LinkedIn @Chris Younce
Also, feel free to get a copy of the book so you can read along
https://pagepublishing.com/books/?book=cognitive-liberty-younce
In support of Indy booksellers, feel free to check out the book’s availability on bookshop.org:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/cognitive-liberty-an-intrapersonal-voyage-of-consciousness-evolution-chris-p-younce/18639926?ean=9781662455438
Cheers Folks!
Chris P.

12. The Mammalian Brain

In this episode, I hop into the significance of our neurological energy as derived from the fungal kingdom. We are animals first, and humans second. So, in order to get in touch with our human nature, we must become familiar with our animal nature, and thus our fungal nature.
Our roots come from the fungal kingdom, which is where animals come from. Neurons and fungal behavior are very similar with regard to their electrical and molecular functionality. Mammals are fungal organisms, believe it or not.
With that said, I take a moment to share Merlin and Cosmo Sheldrake’s piece that captures fungal mycelium in audible. Check it out on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KAnGAtSSgE and see for yourself. Very cool stuff!
I also talk for a bit about my journey as a beekeeper, which has a lot to do with our mammalian nature to connect, proliferate and create. As humans, we have an intuition for the creative dimension of our being that guides our lives based on what we feel is right for us and our fellowships that create sustainable relationships in order to perpetuate our lives into the future.
Our sustainability depends on this side of ourselves that can sense when we’ve gone astray. We are deeply connected to our environment and our ecosystem and we are very lucky to bear witness to it.
Thanks again for listening folks! I invite you to follow the Cognitive Liberty Podcast and feel free to DM me and follow me on the social medias with any thoughts or questions you may have regarding the book:
Instagram @harmonic_homesteading
Twitter @Chrispyounceman
LinkedIn @Chris Younce
Also, feel free to get a copy of the book so you can read along
https://pagepublishing.com/books/?book=cognitive-liberty-younce
In support of Indy booksellers, feel free to check out the book’s availability on bookshop.org:
https://bookshop.org/p/books/cognitive-liberty-an-intrapersonal-voyage-of-consciousness-evolution-chris-p-younce/18639926?ean=9781662455438
Cheers Folks!
Chris P.

11. Chapter 2: Cultural Conditioning

In episode 11, I open the floodgates of chapter 2, Cultural Conditioning, by describing the indisputable fact that we are survival mechanisms at the end of the day. Our energy is based on how we respond to our natural and social environment. Without getting too deep into our unique subjectivity, we mustn’t forget that we are beings subject to our objectivity.
This is how we judge. But we can’t ignore the fact that this is something we can influence as free minds, using whatever bandwidth of free will we have, to determine what thoughts and feelings we want to experience or allow to manipulate our judgments in the first place.
Our inner kundalini becomes programmed based on what we fear and where our comfort zones and their parameters lie.
This chapter (in the segments to come) is loaded with neurocentric examples and neurobiological evidence that our minds are a reflection of our emotional environment. So, what better way to manipulate our mental energy than to get through to what energetic serpent lies within to toy with our emotional strings?
Our responsibility to be human means we need to learn how to be responsible. This means we need to reckon with our ability to respond in the first place and learn to master how we regulate our emotions in this body, here and now. This begins with learning how to self-direct our thoughts, which influence our feelings and emotions.
This is where we will learn to identify where and how we allow culture to guide our thinking and judgments. Because all culture is in the first place is a set of idealistic principles embedded in concepts and beliefs. Nothing more; not right or wrong, nor good or bad.
Until we learn how to break through our cultural paradigms, we will not know how to overcome our own personal program. That being our comfort zones and our autistic ways of individuality. See you in the next episode where we dive into the section of the book about the mammalian brain and its limbic system.  
Thanks for listening folks! I invite you to follow the Cognitive Liberty Podcast and feel free to DM me and follow me on the social medias with any thoughts or questions you may have regarding the book:
Instagram @harmonic_homesteading
Twitter @Chrispyounceman
LinkedIn @Chris Younce
Also, feel free to get a copy of the book so you can read along
https://pagepublishing.com/books/?book=cognitive-liberty-younce
And of course, to support Indy booksellers, feel free to check out the book’s availability on bookshop.org
Cheers Folks!
Chris P.
 
 

10. From Western Psychoanalysis to Eastern Liberation

In this episode, I lead off by acknowledging the death of a dear friend and former supervisor of mine, Valerie LeGrand. Thank you for everything you taught me in the realm of person-centered human services, fiscal responsibility, and much more. My hat is off to you, your work ethic, and the legacy you built. Huge loss for the world. We will always miss you, Val. 
As the episode unfolds, I intended to provide a brief rundown of some key terms for listeners to keep in mind because the book explores these terms from a conventional lens of where we can apply their relevance today. Terms like Tao, Wu Wei, and Zen. Some of which you may have heard before. But I wanted to unpack these terms as a means of broadening the horizon of the Western worldview so as to step outside of our misconception regarding the forces of nature at play when we consider how our mental health is a symptom of deep insecurity.
As beings that participate in a lived-experienced world, we must come to terms with the fact that our insecurities are part of an arcane confusion and a lack of accepting who we are that dates far beyond our documented human history.
By recalling insights from the longtime forgotten Eastern philosophies of the above-mentioned terms, we can begin to heal our psychological pain and simply learn how to perceive ourselves and our world without all the judgment and the attachment to the outcome.
This segment closes out chapter one of the book, Relating to Autism. I look forward to sharing chapter 2 with you guys in our next episode, which explores the neuroscience of cultural conditioning, relationships, and the fear-conditioned response in general.
Thanks for listening folks! I invite you to follow the Cognitive Liberty Podcast and feel free to DM me and follow me on the social medias with any thoughts or questions you may have regarding the book:
Instagram @harmonic_homesteading
Twitter @Chrispyounceman
LinkedIn @Chris Younce
Also, feel free to get a copy of the book so you can read along
https://pagepublishing.com/books/?book=cognitive-liberty-younce
Cheers!
Chris P.

9. My Autistic Self

In this episode, I open up by paying tribute to my family’s recent loss of their dog, our beloved Maisy. As is the fact that we all learn differently – we all grieve differently, too. It is up to each of us on an individual basis to find a deeper capacity within ourselves to work together and love and tolerate one another. In doing so, we can overturn the demons we foster within as we all too often harbor the resentment we have for each other and ourselves.
If we are being honest, we will reckon with the indisputable fact that we all have pain. Our hurt runs so deep that we often deny that it’s signaling a recognition of a need to heal. We owe it to ourselves to step outside our comfort zones and invite additional attunement and perspective for our context as individuals within a web of social dynamics and learning differences.
Our learning differences are what make our neurodiversity a unique thumbprint to our time of extremes as we continue to push the boundary as a collective and challenge the conventionalism of the past.
This next section of the book is where I suck it up and share the journey of my own autistic tendencies and how this has created lots of challenges for my personal development. It’s important to keep in mind that the greater self-awareness we have, the more connected we are to our evolutionary process.
The book references of ASD individuals I wanted to plug here are:
Nate’s Triumph by Nate Trainor; Typed Words Loud Voices (authored by editors); and Ido in Autismland by Ido Kedar.
Thanks again for listening folks! I invite you to follow the Cognitive Liberty Podcast and feel free to DM me and follow me on the social medias with any thoughts or questions you may have regarding the book:
Instagram @harmonic_homesteading
Twitter @Chrispyounceman
LinkedIn @Chris Younce
Also, feel free to get a copy of the book so you can read along
https://pagepublishing.com/books/?book=cognitive-liberty-younce
Cheers!
Chris P.
 

8. The Deception of Comfort Zone Perception

In this episode, I provide a glimpse of how our comfort zones relate to autism spectrum disorder (ASD). It’s important to acknowledge how our comfort zones have pros and cons embedded within their operating systems, which can either leverage our sense of well-being or blind us to the reality that life is a process of changes happening all around us.
We all learn differently as humans with unique preferences, sensory needs, and perceptual boundaries. Likewise, we all respond to fear differently.
Our comfort zones naturally have blind spots to the pitfalls that surround their perspectives. Though our comfort zones can serve us with staying out of danger, the problem often lies in their nature to deceive our ability to perceive things objectively. When we don’t overindulge ourselves within its insulated boundaries, we can admit that they are a helpful crutch for our need to have safety and security. Without them, we have a hard time thriving in a state of growth. On the other hand, too much of them, and we become consumed by their influence and can become stuck in a perpetual state of protection.
Regardless of what comfort zone each and every individual identifies with, it’s important to remember a timeless Taoist principle: that too much of anything produces its opposite.   
As for the corresponding figures from this episode’s section from the book, unfortunately, I am unable to post those in the description here as the technical difficulties seem to persist.                         
Thanks for listening folks! I invite you to follow the podcast and on the social medias and feel free to DM me with any thoughts or questions you may have regarding the book.
Instagram @harmonic_homesteading
Twitter @Chrispyounceman
LinkedIn @Chris Younce
Also, feel free to get a copy of the book so you can read along and check out the corresponding Figures from this segment:
https://pagepublishing.com/books/?book=cognitive-liberty-younce
Cheers!
Chris P.

7. Autism As a Social Continuum

In this episode, I dive into the section in the book that has to do with the diversity of autism characterized by a binary relationship between the intellectual wiring and the emotional wiring of the brain. Using two examples of autistic individuals, I outline that their way of thinking depends on how they relate to their world: one through a sense of needing to feel accepted, and the other through a sense of engaging in personal interests. One is fueled from a place of doing, and the other is fueled from a place of being.
The neurodiversity of society and culture is a collective example of how our personalities and sensibilities can vary in dramatic ways. I encourage everyone to appreciate how our heterogeneity is a profound contribution to our collective resilience, which often comes down to our free will to persevere and transcend our own personal adversity plagued by the comfort zones we identify with.
The Maynard James Keenan quote I meant to mention in the episode is:
“The new era of art is an egoless collaboration. We’re a huge patch of algae, single cells in a larger organism in sync. One person might coordinate it all, but they can’t make it happen unless all the other elements are working together.”
Thanks for listening! I invite you to follow me and feel free to DM me on the social medias with any thoughts or questions you may have regarding the book.
Instagram @harmonic_homesteading
Twitter @Chrispyounceman
LinkedIn @Chris Younce
Also, feel free to get a copy of the book so you can read along
https://pagepublishing.com/books/?book=cognitive-liberty-younce
Cheers!
Chris P.

6. Neurological Conditions of Autism

This episode was recorded shortly after daylight savings time, so I was feeling a bit off due to lack of sleep in trying to adjust to the new morning schedule. I began by introducing a form of augmentative/alternative communication (AAC) known as Facilitated Communication, or FC for short. FC is still a very fringe topic so it’s tricky to talk about it to a broader audience who hasn’t heard of it or to the uninitiated.
One of the reasons FC is a fringe thing is that the speech and language pathology (SLP) community views it as a non-evidence-based practice. However, I would argue that it is, in fact, an evidence-based practice – along with several communication specialists I work with. Best practices of FC include a threefold approach for supporting an individual’s typing: emotional, communicative, and physical.
The emotional component has to do with helping the typer stay connected and regulated to their communication process in being able to cope with some of the challenges and stressors of trying to communicate. The communicative component obviously has to do with helping the individual clarify unclear messages, but not directing where the messages are going or putting words in their mouth, so to speak. And the physical component is where the heart of its controversy lies: it’s a means to provide backward resistance for the typer so they do not strike the keyboard or letters too hard or get caught up in the loop of automatic, echolalic patterns that get in the way of effective or meaningful communication.
Due to the nature of FC as a threefold support strategy for facilitating an individual’s typing rhythm and movement by means of “pointing,” the authenticity of authorship is a questionable anomaly in the eyes of the SLP community. This is primarily because physical support is provided; and to an outside observer, it may seem that the facilitator is influencing or even perhaps controlling what the message being typed out is.
I encourage those who are interested in ASD to explore the world of AAC in depth and to have an open mind. The diversity of our individuality means we need to treat each AAC method on a case-by-case basis where it meets the needs and communication preferences of the individual.
I invite you to follow me and feel free to DM me on the social medias with any thoughts or questions you may have regarding the book.
Instagram @harmonic_homesteading
Twitter @Chrispyounceman
LinkedIn @Chris Younce
Also, feel free to get a copy of the book so you can read along
https://pagepublishing.com/books/?book=cognitive-liberty-younce
Thanks for listening and for all your support! Cheers!
Chris P.
 

What is Autism?

This episode was one of my favorites to record because it covered some of the key points of autism based on what I’ve personally discovered. I was so excited to present this section that I decided to read it first and then debrief the episode by ranting on about it afterward.
Autism operates primarily like an automatic force outside of consciousness or executive functioning. Most of the people who have autism that I have worked with will describe the worst of their disability as a prison. It's like an uncontrollable urge for predictability and sameness, running on a loop as though it has a life of its own. 
Obviously, this paints a pretty daunting image but it goes to show that even our most unique characteristics and abilities are not all hunky-dory. Our autism can consume us to the point where it can override our empowered sense of self and our capacity to think for ourselves. That’s why it’s important to never forget that no matter how automatic our subconscious habits (of thinking, doing, and being) may be, we are the masters of our minds, not the other way around.
I had a lot of fun presenting this section, but let me know your thoughts as I invite you to DM me and follow me on the social medias:
Instagram @harmonic_homesteading
Twitter @Chrispyounceman
LinkedIn @Chris Younce
Also, feel free to get a copy of the book so you can read along:
https://pagepublishing.com/books/?book=cognitive-liberty-younce
Thanks for listening and for all your support!
Cheers!
Chris P.

The Autism Spectrum

This episode is where I open up Part One of the book, The Social Continuum: Autism in Culture and Ego in Subconscious. This becomes the central focus of the first few minutes of the episode, trying to describe what I mean by the opening title. Then I segway into the relevance of why it’s important to relate to autism spectrum disorder (ASD), which happens to be the title of chapter 1 of the book: Relating to Autism.
In terms of being more aware of our human nature, I wanted to reflect on what ASD says about our humanity and, in doing so, dissect the diagnostic criteria for ASD in order to introduce it through a clinical lens. This is where the reading becomes super dry (and I apologize in advance for that), but that’s only because it’s a necessary component to understanding what we know about ASD. But I promise, it gets better.
I don’t want our understanding of ASD to solely hinge on the clinical criteria from the DSM. In order to fully appreciate how far we’ve come regarding our diagnostic tools, we need to recognize that our understanding of mental health and ASD continues to evolve whether we like it or not.
This section is meant to get the basic, conventional definitions of ASD out of the way so we can move on to applying them in real-life scenarios. ASD is not only a continuum or a spectrum – It’s also a pie chart with co-occurring syndromes within it.
In the next episode, I plan to share some key points about autism based on what I’ve personally discovered.
Feel free to comment on what you think and if you have anything to add regarding the exploration of ASD. I understand that if you have a friend or a loved one with ASD, any of their symptoms may or may not be what I discussed in the book.
Feel free to DM me, and follow me on
Instagram @harmonic_homesteading
Twitter @Chrispyounceman
LinkedIn @Chris Younce
Also, feel free to get a copy of the book so you can read along
https://pagepublishing.com/books/?book=cognitive-liberty-younce
Thanks for listening and for all your support!
Chris P.