A very interesting article by Slatestar codex about LSD bringing back lost sense of smell due to CoVID and the possible explanations for it. While that is quite interesting in itself, what stayed with me was the concept of a trapped prior/a prior state which leads to all sorts of problems. Like you get sea sick because you are not used to it, but the sea sickness stays even after you have got on land. Chronic pain is supposed to be similar- you have been in a state of pain for so long that even after the original reason for the pain has healed, your brain is still receiving pain signals because your nerves are expecting it to be there anyway. Its fascinating.
This can surely be extrapolated into the non-physical bits of life too. Say you have worked in a place that you consider uncreative, full of politics and not your type and you get on a certain lazy routine of coasting along helped by caffeine and funny websites. You get a job in a different place with different people but you cant seem to get out of your funk. Or in many cases a boss may have been a certain way- lets say he gets the feedback and changes his style . But you continue to act as if he was the old asshole.
The phrase trapped prior is beautiful because its just so appropriate. Full disclaimer- I havent read the article on trapped prior yet so am not sure if he means only this as trapped priors.
Is knowing you are in a trapped prior enough to get you out of one? The brain is way too complex for such simplistic answers
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