Power of gossiping

Suppose one of your friends Julia returns from a vacation and explains the place that she visited. Julia was telling you about the nature filled with snow covered mountain. The moment she tells you the snow covered mountain, you are picturing that scene in the back of your mind and it feels like you are seeing it; although you are wide wake and having a conversation with Julia. You may even feel the cold in your feet from the show of that mountain or may feel the gentle touch of comfy breeze. Did you wonder why that happens?

A group of British and Belgian scientists used MRI to scan the brain while the woman is asked to see a place; than for another session they asked the woman to image the places. The same areas in the brain lighten up when the she see the place or imagine the place. Brain activity and blood flow in that particular region of the brain which is responsible of certain activity are in fact behaving similarly during the activity of seeing or imagining.

There are conscious thing we do in daily basis, like planning for the days activity. And there are unconscious thing, like heart rate, the sequence of movement of muscle to hold a spoon. Now the unconscious command center is also somewhere in the brain; but completely sealed off from your planning and reasoning circuits. That is why you can not change the heart rate as you wish or change the order of muscle movement to hold the spoon.

Another friend Mike told you a frightening story or a horror experience abuse; all of your senses become sub consciously active such a way that you kind of feel the pain or fear the fear. At this moment you are in the same state as Mike who went through the experience in the first place and feel sympathetic to him. This very moment you will do whatever you can to stop the event or any future recurrence. Because you feel, see, hear, smell the event. Have you ponder why you feel that way? I am sure you have at least one story like that.

Spiritual speakers, eloquent political leaders as well as leader of special interest group use almost the same technique to get their massage deliver. First they tell you a story that somehow relate to you, then they elevate the story to open your heart and touch it. Once your heart is open, they deliver the massage. You are defense less and the chances are at the pick to get the massage through.

There may be debate about this technique and you may question if it is moral or immoral; however if it applies with the conscious mind, with the planning and reasoning circuits of your brain in action; then chances are low that you will be misguided. Moreover, you have to understand the pure motive of the speaker or the story teller.

In this regard, a maxim by philosopher Francis Bacon seems relevant: "The human understanding, when it has once adopted an opinion, draws all things else to support and agree with it. Although there be a greater number or weight of instances on the other side, it either ignores or rejects them."

With the above understanding of scientific and philosophical argument, what should we do when we are exposed to such mind blogging stories? Should we be very careful about spreading rumors and sharing gossips in every aspects of life?

NB: Check out the brain science argument noted here in details at time.com: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1580394,00.html