Anyone who's been even peripherally involved in the self-help movement will be familiar with the literature promising solutions. The three steps to this, the pathways to that, the enumerated habits that lead to accomplishment or resolution or bliss. 

Finally

The great Brazilian psychoanalyst and social scientist, Dr. Norberto Keppe, is not of that persuasion. His work is deeply psychological and spiritual and works with each individual, treating specifically the problems of each one. Because while there are general psychopathologies we all exhibit -- like envy, pride, and megalomania -- how those manifest during the individual incidents in our lives is particular. 

So no formulas for Keppe. That being said, there are universal principles of a healthy and productive life that Keppe counsels. And habits based on those principles can truly bring fulfillment. We'll touch on one aspect of this in this episode. 

Self-development Requires Sacrifice, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.

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I'm Richard Lloyd Jones, and this is Thinking with Somebody Else's Head. The debate between talent and hard work is a dynamic one. Is it raw talent that carries the day or practice and dedication that reigns? I remember deciding when I was 11 or so, on hearing my recorded singing voice played back on my cousin's new cassette recorder, that I couldn't sing.

How that marked my life, because I thought, wrongly, that you were born with singing talent or not.

Wish I could redo that decision.

Later in life, I heard about Vladimir Horovitz’s statement late in his life that if he hadn't practiced for one day, he would hear the difference. For two days, his wife would hear the difference. Three days with no practice, and the audience would notice.

A poster child for hard work.

Because becoming good at anything requires both talent and dedication, right? And probably not in equal measure. After all, we get in the way of our own success a lot, don't we?

Performance and Free Will, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.

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Memories of paradise. That's not just a great dream sequence or catchy movie title. That's something that resonates through almost every culture on Earth. 

The Roman poet, Tacitus, wrote in the first century A.D. about how humans lived following the prompting of their own nature, which led to righteous actions.

In India, the story has been passed on of how all humans were saintly.

The Chinese sage, Chuang Tzu, wrote about an age of perfect virtue.

And of course, the Biblical story speaks about Eden, a Garden of harmony and peace and oneness with God.

In Portugal, there is a beautiful word that doesn't really have a translation into English: saudades. It means a state of deep yearning for someone or something that's absent, and "indolent dreaming wistfulness." 

This is what we feel in relation to Paradise. That memory resonates in our hearts and somehow is behind our drives to accomplish and improve.

Paradise as Reality, not Imagination, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.

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Freud believed we were often influenced by memories, traumas and instincts we had repressed, but they influenced our behaviors anyway. He got there by studying hypnosis, analyzing dreams and paying attention to those slips of the tongue that reveal what we try to keep hidden. 

"No mortal can keep a secret," Freud maintained. "If his lips are silent, he chatters with his fingertips. Betrayal oozes out of him at every pore." 

Poetic language that. And the idea has weaved its way into our modern psyche. All of us have used that excuse along the way. "Man, I was completely unconscious. What was I thinking?!"

The great Brazilian psychoanalyst, Norberto Keppe, has advanced Freud significantly with his concept of inconscientization. It's not that we're naturally full of hidden indecent desires and animal instincts. For Keppe, we banish from our consciousness what we don't want to admit. That means, we know what's going on, but we deny what we know. 

And that has serious consequences.

The Perils of Living Unconsciously, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.

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There's an old Chinese phrase that goes, "It's better to be a dog in peaceful times than a man in a time of chaos." 

Wishful thinking, some may call that, for it's difficult to see peaceful times at any moment in human history. Most of us with a bit of life experience hearken back to when times were easier, and end up moralizing to any who will listen that our times back then were superior. And while that may be superficially true, it's not all that helpful. And complaining doesn't make the young fold feel any better.

In fact, your and old may just end up pointing fingers at each other as to who's to blame for the world as it is.

We'd like to dip our feet into those tumultuous waters in this podcast to suggest that all those lamentations and blame apportioning miss the fundamental point: we've been on an inverted path for millennia. We've reached the end of the road in a literal sense.

Can any sense be made of the correct way to go now?

Love, Consciousness and the Troubled World, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.

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I've been in Brazil going on 24 years, using Norberto Keppe's psychotherapeutic methodology in education and communications, and also as a psychoanalyst at Keppe's school. The positive results available to anyone who studies with us and accepts the consciousness that comes through our classes and therapy sessions are noteworthy. From overcoming learning blocks to resolving long-standing or acute personal or professional conflicts to curing from medical conditions, Keppe's on to something.

Where Freud initiated psychoanalysis with the idea that neurosis was caused by cultural and moral values, and Jung wanted to integrate our shadow side into our personality, and Alfred Adler helped clients with their feelings of inferiority, Keppe has reached conclusions about the human problematic with his great discovery of inversion.

The Final Frontier of the human psyche, and the way to finally understanding ourselves and resolving our greatest problems. 

Inversion in Everyday Life, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.

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Sometimes, when I have something important to do, I must confess I feel a little resistance. It's an interesting phenomenon because it's like a general lethargy. Like the energy has drained away and there's nothing left for the job at hand. In those moments, all sorts of other activities suddenly appear infinitely more appealing. 

YouTube's a quick click away, and the algorithms have numerous suggestions that seem interesting and even, if I'm honest, urgent.

And there's research to be done, too. New equipment for the studio or books on Amazon.

And hey, I haven't played my guitar in a while!

Not that any of these things are wrong, of course. It's just that they are far from more important than the project I need to work on.

Procrastination. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only guy plagued with that.

In fact, it's historical. Even St. Paul, prodigious achiever that he was notwithstanding, lamented about that. Let's see if we can get somewhere in looking at this.

Why Do I Do the Things I Don't Want, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.

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Being upside down. Every kid loves that. Being hoisted up by the ankles and hanging there in your father's sure hands with your head where your feet should be.

It's great as a game, but none of us could imagine going through life that way.

But Norberto Keppe's discovery that humankind is inverted shows us how we are actually living life upside down. Not physically, but philosophically, emotionally and even spiritually.

We wage wars to find peace. Science considers apes to be our relatives. We consume billions in pharmaceuticals thinking that'll make us healthy.

And what's more, we accept these inversions as if they're workable approaches to living functioning lives. 

It's not an overstatement, then, to say that the discovery of Inversion is the most important scientific finding of the 20th century. Why it's not more widely known is a phenomenon we're trying to address on our STOP Radio Network with our slogan, "Disinverting the human being and society."

So, let's go at it again. The Science of Inversion, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.

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Maybe, like me when I first moved to Brazil, you have the idea that metaphysics is a kind of woo-woo field of study. That part of the bookstore with titles like Find Your Soulmate through Channelling, or Unlocking Your Invisible Power.

True metaphysics, though, is a branch of philosophy that deals with what's beyond the physical. Those elusive subjects like being and knowing, action and potential. The Greeks knew a thing or two about that, but somewhere along the way, the science of things that transcended the physical got reduced to just the things.

Norberto Keppe, the Brazilian psychoanalyst and independent physics researcher, has worked tirelessly to restore a true study of metaphysics - those universals we got from a Creator. Returning us to a transcendental vision of humanity and putting us in touch with God and Creation.

We'll look at that today. Metaphysics and the Empty Promise of AI, today on Thinking with Somebody Else's Head.

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Today, a conversation with Dr. Claudia Bernhardt Pacheco about living in the spiritual world. I'm Richard Lloyd Jones.

It was the Police back in the early '80s that approached the subject of us being spirits in a material world. A typically spare and rhythm driven track that was catchy and infectious. They were an interesting band.

But, while they were observing the bleak political situation we lived in, it may have been no more than the complaining of youth searching for an answer but with no solutions to offer.

After all, criticism is not change, is it?

I remember back in that time going through my own social protest period, writing anti-nuke radio ads and joining numerous environmental groups in the naive belief that made me part of the solution, not part of the problem.

I'm much more sophisticated about social change today, recognizing that the evil we accuse the system of power of resides in us all. And especially more cognizant that there's a formidable spiritual influence on top of us constantly. And most of us have no idea about that. So let's dive into that spiritual wisdom.

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