Panacea Video & Dr. Marc Schoen, Author of “Your Survival Instinct is Killing You”, Discuss Innovating to Conquer Fear and Better Manage Discomfort
Dr. Marc Schoen recently joined Panacea Live as the 3rd guest in the Expert Series, to discuss his 30+ years of professional expertise in the area of “discomfort training” focused on building resilience and rewiring the fear region of the brain. One example is managing the well known ‘fight or flight’ instinct. Dr. Schoen’s research is extremely relevant to the Panacea platform for many reasons, and as Panacea begins to spread across the globe, his very innovative and highly neglected approach for improving our minds and interpersonal interactions shall hopefully be spread with it.
At the beginning of the video, Founder Dan O’Connor explains to Dr. Schoen that “A big part of what our platform aims to do is bring people together, to sort through their conflicts, that viewers can watch. This sort of platform is very helpful to the people engaged in the video discussion but it is also helpful to viewers as we hope to inspire people watching, around the world, to learn from the stories on our site and tackle their own problems in a similar way.”
Real life stories that include genuine, un-staged back and forth interaction between well-known people is an extremely powerful way to teach and influence large audiences — hence the great potential power of Panacea Video to influence cultures, and humanity at large. Many people who want to effect change do so by writing or speaking about a particular issue that they care about, but it is the power of real life stories which are indeed the most effective way to influence the minds of others.
Moreover, everyday people can all relate to videos and stories of other everyday people, in interpersonal conflicts. This is a major part of the reason why Panacea has been built and why people like Dr. Marc Schoen can help and inspire people across the world to better tackle their own problems.
Dr. Schoen may or may not join Panacea Live in the future to help moderate and counsel people — but either way, his approach to solving problems can be invaluable to viewers and future guests of Panacea Live.
When asking Dr. Schoen if he had any advice for people considering attending, he explains that “Coming online like what you’re wanting these people to do is actually very therapeutic, because we’re having them confront being uncomfortable. And see, and feel, that nothing bad will happen. And when they overcome that fear of being uncomfortable and being exposed in a large way and nothing bad happening (or certainly not as much threat as they had anticipated) that creates a positive change in the brain and the body.”(18:00) Of course one of the key aspects of Panacea Live is the fact that participants do speak from different locations, so there are no physical threats.
In addition, Dr. Schoen explains that in his work with patients over the years, he trains the mind (through discomfort training) to gradually become better at dealing with uncomfortable situations. This is indeed an acquired skill and advantage that anyone can develop. If everyone around the world can learn from this method, we would see much fewer conflicts, thus furthering Panacea’s main objective of realizing A World More Civilized.
In his book “Your Survival Instinct is Killing You”, Dr. Schoen digs deep into the primitive origins of the human mind and its evolution. When asked about the growing phenomenon of public shaming through news and viral videos, he explains that this does indeed relate to our more primitive origins:
“Early primitive humans learned that there was survival value in being able to feel a connection, and empathy, with other fellow humans (and) ultimately learned that they had a greater chance of survival (strength in numbers). So (we) became wired to really care about what people think about us. And if we are rejected, and people don’t like us, or turn their backs on us, our primitive wiring essentially tells us that we’re being ostracized, and need to fend for ourselves. So humility, rejection, or shame pushes that old button of survival.”
We can certainly acknowledge many of the concepts that Dr. Schoen discusses when referencing Panacea’s first Panacea Live episode between Trump rally adversaries John McGraw and Rakeem Jones. After seen on video and broadcast across the country, they were not entirely happy with the way this video was perceived by ‘The Court of Public Opinion”. At first, they were reluctant to join Panacea Live but after they ultimately agreed to attend, they were both very satisfied with the outcome and were much more at peace, as a result.
Conclusion
One of the most important lessons that Marc Schoen teaches is that many of our primitive survival instincts are not only inhibiting and counterproductive in our everyday lives but these instincts have only gotten more severe in recent history — ideally, they should be fading. This is largely because many of the every day discomforts that we face are mistakenly perceived as threats (to our survival). Even though many of these every day discomforts are actually not threatening, or harmful at all.
Human progress is being held back as we are still hindered by vestigial instincts that served a purpose tens of thousands of years ago, but no longer do. Dr. Marc Schoen has done tremendous work in this field over the past 30+ years and more people should be aware of it. Panacea will help to bring his very important findings and techniques to billions of people around the world as we aim to conquer many of the world’s problems. One important addition to our list of goals is: Innovating to help people conquer our primordial instincts such as fear and unnecessary discomfort.
