"Hacking Your Mind" is a set of four tv programs available on Amazon Prime and on PBS. It is labeled Season 1 but I haven't seen anything about future seasons. The first of the four episodes is titled "Living on Autopilot". The idea of a person's internal autopilot relates to internal intelligence and controls in our bodies.
I am interested in the parts of me that operate well but that I can't easily control or affect with my mind. I have this web page of references that I have read and that inspired and educated me a bit:
https://sites.google.com/site/kirbyvariety/books-about-the-unconscious
As I wrote on that page, the book "Incognito" ($6 for Amazon download)
has been the clearest and most useful source I have used for understanding what goes on in me that happens outside my conscious thinking.
It seems true that the human brain is amazingly powerful and good at both logical and intuitive thinking, at relating feelings and emotions to choices and courses of action. Still, heartbeat, blood pressure, digestion, physical balance and many other aspects of my body work with the brain but outside the conscious mind. The author of Incognito, David Eagleman, likens one's conscious mind to the CEO of a complex organization. Eagleman compares issues and decisions the conscious mind works with to items assistants bring to the boss for a decision. Two words that have been helpful to me in thinking about my mind and my bigger, more powerful brain are feelings and habits.
The first episode of Hacking Your Mind explores typical human feelings, habits and tendencies. They are often anchored in human biology but the habits and procedures that we learn from others affect us, too.
If you are over 60 years old, you already know a great deal about yourself: where you have been, what you tend to like, who and what you tend to avoid. You know which hand you tend to use for delicate work, what foods you like, what books or movies or activities have been fun. There seems to be a certain amount of baloney in the description of "Hacking Your Mind" but recent events have brought to the minds of many some fears of advertising, electronics, bribery and other tools and tricks that might be used to control or partly control many of us.
