IamA researcher, author, leading expert on the subconscious brain and creator of the first Unified Brain Model. I’m Jacob Korthuis/ Ask Me Anything!

It's been said that homeopathy is what happened when snake oil salesmen discovered that water is cheaper than snake oil. Have you found that selling electrons (ebooks) is more profitable than selling water?
It wasn't apparent on your site, since you claim to be a scientist, what peer reviews publications do you have?

I understand your question but its not about me. It's about the model that I developed. Many of my ebooks are free along with a lot of free information, videos and blogs etc that I offer to people who are truly seeking answers and are open minded. We are not in the business of proving these insights to people that are not open to it. We would rather spend our energy helping those who are open and willing. If you are balanced person you don't have to rely on titles and scientific proof. The only thing you need is the ability to think and feel. Once you understand how the brain works, you will automatically know how you can benefit from that insight. That said we do have studies that were actually sponsored by the Dutch and available on all our websites.

Thanks for doing this AMA!

What is your educational background in and what drove you to research the subconscious brain?

Thanks for your question! You can see my full bio and background on www.JacobKorthuis.com. My interest started by wanting to know what controls human behavior because often, it seemed so irrational to me. I also wanted to know how our brain controls our health and how it creates psychosomatic disease. I was also interested in explaining the placebo effect which, as it turns out, is the most powerful cure on the planet.

I may have missed it, but do you have a degree in any of your research areas? I see that you have one reference who is a psychologist, is your work used by psychologists, or mostly at your own institutes?

It is not about me or my degrees but about the brain model and the Progressive Mental Alignment technique. So far, I trained doctors, psychologists, business coaches and personal coaches but also people, without a medical background, that are really interested in helping others

Has the brain model that you've created and the technique been empirically tested? If so what was it tested against?

I ask as i'm currently in a psychology doctorate program and if this has been proven to be efficacious i'd love to know why it's not being used.

There have been studies done in the Netherlands, specifically in the school system as it relates to helping victims of bullying and the bullies themselves. There is also a study about the effects of Progressive Mental Alignment in dealing with aggression inside the school system.

It IS used but so far, just in the Netherlands. That is simply because never made it known outside of the Netherlands. We have just started that process. As long as it is not known, it can not be used.

Which brain fact has surprised you the most?

There are 2 aspects that really impressed me. First, is the innate protection mechanism that leads us away from pain whenever it can within the boundaries of the language rules of the subconscious. In Progressive Mental Alignment, we call this the Friend Mechanism. The second is how miraculously exact the brain processes, codes and stores sensory information and how this is used as subconscious comparison materiel- controlling our entire thinking, belief systems, decisions, behavior and even our health .

What's the best life advice you have received?

To always be open minded and look for proof.

Can one truly control their dreams? (Lucid dreaming)

We all dream every night- that's a scientific fact. Dreams are a part of processing information we absorbed. The day before, we received triggers through our senses that activate previously stored experiences. If these triggers activate past experiences with a high emotional level, they will show up in our dreams, regardless of how old these memories are. In most cases, a collage of pieces from different memories will appear in one dream. Lucid dreams are usually related pieces of memory with very high emotion, usually containing unresolved issues. There is no reason at all to control dreams. Just use them to solve, unresolved issues from your past.

Given your research, how often are you approached by scientists/mgmt. from artificial intelligence-focused companies about your work?

I haven't been approached yet but YES there would be interesting information about the brain in how to create artificial intelligence BUT that would be a whole different topic!! So far, I've only published in the Netherlands and am just now reaching a larger audience with this- so these inquiries are soon to come. I'll say this, it is VERY possible.

About a month ago I went through a break in at my apartment. Two men busted down my door and came in screaming for drugs. I am not a drug dealer, nor do I have any in my apartment. It was while I was in bed and one got on top of me and held me down screaming at me, and then my mind goes blank until I remember them grabbing my backpack and leaving. Now they took a number of other things which were lying around my apartment but I don't remember seeing them take anything other than my backpack. It was a very traumatic experience and my brain seems to be blocking the memory. To me, it felt like 45 seconds but I feel like it would have been longer (they took a lot of things). It bothers me because I haven't been able to provide the police with a whole lot of detail about the men because my brain doesn't remember it really... is there anything you would recommend to access those memories that I could do on my own? I've been reading a lot about the subconscious and its links to our conscious brain through dreams and imagination etc. Just wondering if you have an expert opinion on my dilemma. Thanks.

Actually, yes I do. The easiest and most direct way it to allow me to demonstrate how you can do that. On the following page you'll find 3 videos that demonstrate how to retrieve hidden memories. One is about depression and one is about intestinal problems but the one you need is titled "PMA & PTSD". These videos are free and available 24/7.

http://pmaminded.com/pma-experience-videos/

Hi Jacob, thanks in advance for all of your time and hard work!

Question: I feel like there is a disconnect between my thoughts and what actually comes out of my mouth. As if I cannot express what I am thinking verbally. I also often forget words, or forget entirely what I was talking about and forget important details that a normal person would not miss. Does this ring a bell? If so, do you have any advice? I am a healthy 31 year old male if that helps. Thanks!

Yes! It rings a lot of bells and I think you're a member of a large club! People who always express verbally what they were actually thinking, usually think very structurally. You can learn how to think this way by focusing on a specific thought. Utter it verbally and then go on to the next thought. But what you describe is actually very common. It happens if people are very very busy in their heads and are already thinking something new while they begin to verbalize their previous thought. This is because what we actually say is rooted in subconscious comparison material with the highest emotional value. This emotional value can push details of your previous thoughts aside or bring up different words. This explains why you might phrase it incorrectly or totally forget. To solve the problem you describe you need to understand how the subconscious creates those patterns. Once you do, there will be a lot more balance, structure and connection between your thoughts and your words.

Wow Jacob thank you for responding! I am glad to know that I am not the only one. It makes sense too because my mind is constantly racing. Any ideas on how I might get this process started? Books? Videos? Anything in general? Thanks again!

Of course! We offer many free resources which you can find by googling Progressive Mental Alignment or by going to PMAMinded.com, PMAworldwide.com, PMAinstitute.com where you can find free webinars, ebooks, and information. We also offer books, homestudy kits and training to learn how to apply Progressive Mental Alignment professionally and personally.

Wow, what a cool project. So is the Unified Brain Model an actual model of cognition, or just a body of accepted knowledge about the brain? From the way you describe it, it sounds like the latter. In your study of the brain, have you used any Artificial Intelligence research? Thanks for doing the AMA and best of luck.

Hi there! It's neither. It originated from my own questions about human behavior and health-separate from accepted or non-accepted scientific dogmas. It was about looking around me and looking WITHIN to understand how the brain's functions and processes. Once the model took shape, THEN I started to compare it to scientifically proven facts to see if I could find any fact that disproved the model that I developed. So far, I have not found any facts that DON'T fit inside this model. I called it the Unified Brain Model because it contains answers and insights abut how all kinds of different approaches and techniques in relation to behavior and health work.

I am not focused on artificial intelligence. What really drives me is how to understand and help other people.

Where can one see mathematical representation of your model? How complete it is and what are some possible practical uses?

There is no mathematical equation for human behavior. It's all about feelings. Yes, you can benefit from these insights to create better health and relationships in your life. Feel free to look up Progressive Mental Alignment online for more information.

I could be wrong and I apologize in advance if so, but, a model incorporates facts and knowledge and algorithms, therefore admitting that you actually don't have a model and can't quantify how certain inputs produce some outputs, means you have a theory of no use, that can't be verified or used for predictions or anything. I would like to be proven wrong and that you have a usable working model, please follow up with equations, simulation or anything that can verify that.

I understand your theories and questions. Apparently you and I speak from two different worlds. You are interested in algorithms and technical models. I am interested in a technique that effectively helps people. There are many theories and many are proven totally worthless. Progressive Mental Alignment is a technique that helps and already HAS helped thousands of people. So it is a usable, working model, proven by the practice and the effects. Progressive Mental Alignment is not for theoreticians but for practical people who are open and willing to try something that is really effective in solving their problems.

What are the implications of your research for behavioral-cognitive therapy?

Progressive Mental Alignment is a technique that allows you to reach the remaining 75% you cannot reach with behavioral-cognitive therapy. It dramatically extends the success of behavioral-cognitive therapy.

What are the implications of your research for education, in terms of helping people to overcome cognitive biases and other obstacles to understanding?

Progressive Mental Alignment is 100% successful in the areas of which you speak for people that are 100% committed, willing and open to look for answers inside of themselves.

How exactly does the subconscious impact our physical health??

The subconscious controls our entire physiology. A small part of that is a genetic program that creates homeostasis (Optimal balance). The majority of our physiology is controlled by the so called relative value codes. These code are physiological commands that our subconscious assigns to every single detail that enters the brain through our five senses. These codes are mostly derived from existing codes that are connected to subconscious comparison material. If this comparison material is processed correctly (stored in so called clusters) it will never make us sick. If these sensory details are stored in bad clusters and are activated by incoming sensory data, then it will have an extreme negative effect on our physiology. If the triggering of these bad cluster fragments stay active for a longer time it will make us sick. Please Google Progressive Mental Alignment for more info or you watch this free webinar:
http://pmaminded.com/solutions-and-tools/

Pertaining to the past and what your subconscious holds, how false can memories be? Is it possible to hear something so much that your brain believes every detail to be true? so you "remember" something that never happened, just like you cant remember something that actually happened? If so how can one strip it all down to the raw true form of that information/memory stored in your subconscious?

In Progressive Mental Alignment it is totally unimportant whether a memory is true or not true. The only thing that is important is the memory fragments you have in your subconscious that are loaded with an extreme negative physiology. We call these memories bad clusters and as long as they are not properly processed by the conscious brain (Which they never were) they will have disastrous physiological effects on the body. By revealing their content to the conscious brain this negative physiological load will melt away because it's now correctly processed and coded. This is what Progressive Mental Alignment is about. It is to achieve the removal of the negative physiological code regardless of whether the content is true or not. It is the physiology that hurts, not the validity of the information. Remember- whether it's true or not- the images that pop up, are a part of your subconscious data base and will be used as comparison material to identify present observations. Keep in mind, the subconscious is processing a million times more data than you're conscious brain will ever become aware of.

How can one strip down these "memories" or dreams that have a traumatic affect to overcome them properly? Is that in those ptsd videos you put a link to ? Also roughly how much does treatment cost?

The process works the same as overcoming ANY traumatic event (bad clusters). In case of negative dreams/nightmares, you would just go from the most dominant (scariest/most painful) moments in the dream and then follow the same procedure as shown in the PTSD video.

The cost of treatments can vary greatly. Some of the students I trained are Doctors or Coaches and they usually charge somewhere between $75 to $150 per hour. Others, who do not have a medical background and are mainly focused on helping other people, charge a lot less. A Progressive Mental Alignment session is usually 2 hours. The Progressive Mental Alignment organization is an educational institute and we do not have coaches on our payroll- they can be found online. We have a small selection of names and addresses on our website. We also have a program (The PMA Homestudy Kit) that can teach you how to apply Progressive Mental Alignment in the proper way. Many people buy the Homestudy kit together and then treat each other for free! We also have a great number of free resources available on our website that will help you get the ball rolling!

where do you stand on the belief of having past lives and that you can access those memories through your subconscious?

I treated many people with a strong belief that they've had past life experiences. So far, all these so-called past life experiences could all be traced back to something traumatic that happened during THIS life. However, if past life experiences are hidden in our brain, I am totally open to discovering it!

What do you think about meditation? Have you done any studies on how it affects the brain.

Any tips in dealing with feelings of inferiority thats firmly lodged in my subconsciousness.

There are different types of meditation and each one of them can benefit you in specific areas however meditation never allows you to reveal the content of what we call bad clusters which is the root source of all psychosomatic disease and irrational behavior.

We are not born with feelings of inferiority. They are created by negative life experiences. If we cannot remember when these feelings were created than they are rooted in so-called bad clusters. You cannot just spontaneously remember the content of a bad cluster but their emotional (Physiological) load controls our feelings and behavior. Please look up what you can find about Progressive Mental Alignment and what you can do get rid of these negative feelings.

Since men and women obviously react and behave differently - to the same kind of situations in general ... How can you relate that - to your model of the brain ?

It's no secret the hormonal make up of men and women are different. Hormones are a major part of our physiology. It's like playing the same music on a violin and on a piano. Same music sounds different. There are lots of other reasons but to answer that I would have to write many many pages!

The potential for humans to understand the human brain and how to make the best use of it is the key to the future of humanity's survival.

For any person's mind to be properly 'progressively aligned' requires others to also be 'progressively aligned' otherwise an individual can never achieve their fullest potential.

If you were truly interested in improving humanity you would not be charging for this and you would make this available to all.

If your technique(s) were fully effective you would realize this.

Don't you think?

Someone who spends his entire life researching how to help others also has a home, needs to eat and drive a car. So somehow that person has to make an income too. That said we have spent a lot of time developing a large variety of resources that are totally free to the public. Our website is filled with information about our free resources. Also, there are thousands of people that would disagree with you because of the positive effects they have experienced in their own life, which in turn has a positive effect on people in their surrounding. Again I would say that I am not here to prove anything only to offer information that reaches the people that need it and clearly see the benefits.

Someone that is as enlightened as yourself should have plenty of other resources to make that money for living.

And, if they truly believed what they were talking about they would also notice that by increasing the mental abilities/health the rest of the population would increase the abilities of the population as a whole to the point we would have better schools, less crime, less war, no poverty, and less need for so many people to have to work, just for starters!

That you do not see this makes me question just how much your program can help people if you don't truly believe in it enough to see this and/or if you, yourself, haven't even improved enough so that you don't have to depend on something so beneficial for mankind as a means of making money to live.

If we're human we have room to grow- and that's a great thing! I know Progressive Mental Alignment is a technique that facilitates growth in the most effective way possible - the thousands of people that have experienced it, know it too. We start changing the world (and the systems you speak of) only when we change ourselves, setting an example for others in a way that has a ripple effect on a larger scale. But it begins with openness and willingness to understand more. This means putting down the defenses we're so used to having up. I understand your questions- but they are the type of questions that you would have to be willing to put aside to really benefit from Progressive Mental Alignment. If you can't, it's not for you and that's totally ok.

But I have a proposal for you: There is so much work left to do with what I do, why do we not bundle our money and time and give back to society for free. What is it that you do for a living and what part of my workload can I assign to you so that we are able to give more for free? Please let me know how to reach you and what your expertise is so that I can make a work schedule. You can send you name and email to [email protected]

Why is it so hard to get fear out off your subconscious mind if it has been programmed to be activated in non threatening situations?

Subconscious fear does not exist. Fear is always conscious. However, we do store fearful experiences in our subconscious and assign a specific code to it that controls our physiology. Once these fearful memories are triggered, the connected physiological code is executed in the subconscious. The result of that, we feel consciously.

If the fearful memory was within a range that we can handle emotionally, it is easy to remember and after a while it will lose a lot of its negative physiology. If the experience is so frightening that we even lose control, these experiences will be stored in a way in which the extremely negative physiology stays attached to it. As a result, a simple thing like a facial expression, a color, a smell or any other sensory signal can activate these incorrectly processed experiences. This means that the same extreme physiology of the past will become active again. This can happen in any situation - even in a happy event- and is, for instance, the main cause of mood swings. We call these wrongly processed experiences, bad clusters. It needs a specific approach to reveal them and render them harmless.

Having understod your 9/11 conclusion that - "Away from pain" is the main driving force ... Observed - people work them selves - beyond the limit of burn out - or even to death ... As I see it - it's no money - no survival ... !! Do you agree ... ??

The main driving force is indeed away from pain. However, what each of us experiences as 'pain' highly depends on our individually unique comparison material about pain. This is why some people kept trying to run in spite of their burns and why others jumped out of the building. It all depends on what type of future they pictured for themselves in those moments- and that picture is totally dependent upon their comparison materiel.

Functionally speaking, is there a relation between long term memory and the subconscious mind?

Hi! Thanks for the question. Everything we ever learned and experienced, is stored in our subconscious data base so YES there is 100% connection between our memories and the subconscious.

So from a scientific standpoint, does that mean that the subconscious resides in the prefrontal cortex and/or hippocampus?

Is there a proven model of how both short and long term memories are stored/retrieved in relation to the subconscious as well?

Part A: The direct answer is no. The prefrontal lobe is normally believed to be the part of the brain where the conscious resides. The hippocampus is normally believed to be the most important part of the short term memory. However, our subconscious data base is spread out all over the cortex and each sense (what we see, hear, smell, touch and taste) has it's own specific area. Within these same areas we also receive, process, store and retrieve data/memories.

Part B: If you seek a proven model on a biochemical level, the answer is no. If you seek an empirically proven model that always shows the same outcome, the answer is yes. Compare it to a computer. You can try to understand the computer by studying the hardware or you can become a specialist in understanding the computer by using the keyboard and the screen.

Hi how much does your subconscious mind influence in a major decision?

All of our decisions are based on previously stored comparison material in our subconscious. This means, that our subconscious is ALWAYS involved in making decisions.

In this respect, one could argue that 'Free Will' is certainly never free, as it is influenced by our subconscious. Would you go further and argue that there is even no will involved, and our decisions are entirely based on this comparison material in our subconscious?

We definitely have a free will, it is just not as “free” as we would like to believe. To explain the free will and its limits is not something for a Reddit discussion. I would need at least a whole day to explain what is involved!!

What is your take on synaesthesia?

When we are born, the different sensory areas in our brain are usually connected. These connections disappear after we are born. If the brain has to deal with extreme fear and/or pain these connections can stay intact. This causes some people to smell or taste a color or see sounds, etc. If we lose control during a traumatic events, we will always try to regain that control. The way we do this is through extreme focus on just a small detail in our surrounding. If this focal point contains a specific color but at the same time we also focus on specific sounds or words, these connections may stay in tact. This can only happen during a so called bad cluster event.

Hi! I am a first year undergrad student in the Midwest (sort of), and I'm feeling a little unsure of my future. One option I am considering, however, is research! Sociological research, specifically. I'm considering a second major in computer science to learn about systems and data analysis. As a researcher, how feasible does this option sound to you? What does the research field look like today? Do you know anything about sociology in particular to help guide my decision, maybe into a different field of research? Thank you so much!

Thank you for your question. It is not so much about what I know of the research field. It is all about what your subconscious comparison material reveals about what you like the most and what is best for you. So ask yourself: How do you picture yourself in each of those fields and then ask people who work in those fields. If your picture is aligned with reality, I'm pretty sure you will receive your answer from that.

Note: In Progressive Mental Alignment we never give advise or directions about what someone has to do. The reason for that? The correct (or most beneficial) answers are already in your subconscious. The only thing we do is help you find them!

is everything we've ever experienced and learned still stored in our subconscious? and if so what can we actively do to try and remember things

Everything detail of everything we experience that we learn and experience, always receives 3 different codes.

1. The cohesive code: Determines which activated brain cells wire together to store a specific detail of a memory

2. The absolute value code: This code is derived from activated comparison material that identifies what you hear, smell, see, touch and taste.

3. The relative value code: Consists out of physiological commands that determine the importance of each of the details that we perceive through our senses- in other words, how do you feel about it.

Everything we ever learned and experienced is stored but the relative value code determines how important it is. The more important it is, the easier it is to remember. If it has a very low relative value code, it becomes very difficult to remember BUT it is still there. You can basically remember ANYTHING that felt important to you in your past. You just need to understand how to approach the subconscious brain. How to do that, is what I explain in my book Desirable Power. It's difficult to explain just a few words.

i have a vivid memory of the most random moment in 3rd grade. it was simply of the teacher mishearing another student's example of 'name of a lake' while playing madlibs. i have no apparent emotional connection to it. just curious, how do you explain these?

If you didn't have an emotional (physiological) connection to that event you would not remember it. The fact that you do, and that it apparently stands out in comparison with other memories, proves that it has a higher relative (physiological) value than other content. However, you might look at it the wrong way. It does not have to be the whole memory. It can be a few, or only one, specific detail of that event. Ask yourself: “What in that memory stands out the most, what is the most important part of that event?“ Now focus on that moment. Now ask yourself: “What detail in that moment is the most important?” Even then, it is still possible that you do not feel anything, although not likely. But in the case you still do not become aware of physiological changes in your body, then this could be a signal that you are categorically blocking your feelings. To be sure about that I would need to talk to you in person. There is however no doubt that a dominant memory can only be dominant based on a high relative (physiological/emotional) value code. To understand a little bit more about the concept of how we remember you can watch the free webinar at: http://pmaminded.com/general/how-your-brain-works/pma-webinar/

What do you think of Donald Trump ?

I've never met him so it's difficult to say who the man REALLY is.