So much of the semiotic of safety is about brains, supporting the metaphor and myth that the brain directs thinking. It doesn’t.

Belief that the brain works like a computer is a myth based on 350-year old ideas about body-mind dualism. There are no evidences for such a belief. But it is a convenient belief and easy to project on to humans, just as it is to use the metaphor of ‘machines ‘to project onto humans (behaviourism). None of this is true or real or supported by evidence.

Just do a quick search for belief online, and you get this:

Such is the nature of belief. The most common semiotic for belief is a head/brain image.

Belief is not about rational thinking. Most belief is constructed through: culture, emotions, heritage, experience, language, learned affordances, habits, heuristics and, influences that are unconscious in society. This is why when someone believes something, it is rare that rational argument works to shift belief.

Another false belief is, that belief is about religion. This is only true in 1% of what we talk about when we say we believe in something.

Belief is connected directly to knowledge or, what we think we know. The study of knowing/belief is called ‘Epistemology’ and is a complex philosophy that few in safety would know about or show any interest.

Beliefs can limit or expand the way we live in the world. They also shape how we interpret the world and this is most evident in accident investigations (https://www.humandymensions.com/product/seek-investigations-a-semiotic-method/). If you believe the world and events are linear, you impose that belief and make what you observe fit that paradigm. Similarly, if you believe the world is messy, chaotic or circular, you make that paradigm fit the events you observe.

Belief formation begins at birth and is shaped early in childhood by what society, culture and household one is brought up in. In many ways our beliefs are shaped on ‘a first in best dressed’ basis. It is often when we reach our teenage-years we begin to question the beliefs of our up-bringing.  Beliefs are often constructs of interpretation to explain the world.

Whilst it may be easy to ditch belief in the Easter Bunny and Santa, it’s a tougher move to shift belief in politics, ethics, society and semiosis (meaning). Such is the power of Indoctrination and what is absorbed first. We see this all the time in safety by what is driven by the myths of the safety curriculum.

One of the most profound myths about belief is that it happens in the brain. This is why brain semiotics are used so often when the words ‘thinking’, ‘mind’ and ‘belief’ are used’.

So, it’s a catch 22, you have to dump one’s dis-embodied thinking about belief, before one can learn about the nature of belief. This is because belief is embodied, not in the brain.

However, the human person isn’t driven by the brain. This is not how belief is constructed.

Humans are a composite of many systems: nervous, endocrine, respiratory, integumentary (skin), muscular, digestive, cardiovascular, reproductive, cellular, urinary, feeling/emotional and skeletal systems. All of these systems act independently but also in an Inter-corporeal way and inter-affect was on each other. Beliefs are constructed by all these systems.

All of these systems are NOT driven by the brain but rather act independently and inform the brain of what has already been done. As Claxton states:

The brain doesn’t issue commands, it hosts conversations.

The idea that the brain directs decision making and belief is myth.

We teach this to kids when we explain how the body works (https://kidshealth.org/en/kids/center/htbw-main-page.html ).

Yet, as children grow up, they fall for the indoctrination of the brain as computer metaphor and belief, that is simply NOT true. There is no evidence for is but it is neat, tidy and simple. These kinds of beliefs are the quickest to absorb. If a belief is complex, non-binary and difficult to understand, it is usually de-motivating.

The first step in understanding the nature of belief is to jettison the indoctrination and myth of the brain as director of the body. This is the foundation of embodiment.

Why does this matter?

As a start, we need to understand safety beliefs and why brain-centric training in safety doesn’t work, because that’s not how we learn. That is not how we change belief.

The latest book by Guy Claxton nails the whole issue: https://www.bodiesoflearning.org/

Or, if you want to make a start on understanding embodiment start here:

If you want to research more deeply, a list of books to get started is here: https://safetyrisk.net/essential-readings-neuroscience-and-the-whole-person/

If one shifts belief from dis-embodiment then the whole way you understand psychosocial risk changes: https://safetyrisk.net/essential-readings-neuroscience-and-the-whole-person/

If you shift your beliefs from dis-embodiment, the whole way you understand the imagination changes. You no longer fall for the binary con of work-as-imagined and work-as-done: https://safetyrisk.net/imagination-in-work-and-work-in-imagination-in-risk/

If you shift your beliefs about dis-embodied perception and performance, your whole world of understanding work and safety changes: https://safetyrisk.net/if-you-want-to-wreck-good-performance-measure-it/

If this journey is of interest and you are able to doubt your safety beliefs, perhaps you might like to join us for the free workshops of safety beliefs:

The workshops will be held on 7, 14, 21 and 28 July 9am Canberra time. You can register here: admin@spor.com.au