WEBVTT - The Seven Deadlies: Lust! 0:00:03.800 --> 0:00:06.680 Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind from how Stuff 0:00:06.680 --> 0:00:13.960 Works dot Com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind. 0:00:13.960 --> 0:00:16.400 My name is Robert Lamb and I'm Julie Douglass, and 0:00:16.440 --> 0:00:19.600 we are continuing our journey through the seven Deadly Sins, 0:00:19.600 --> 0:00:22.880 through the sort of the psychology of each sin, the 0:00:23.040 --> 0:00:28.000 science of each sin, and uh, we find ourselves, interestingly enough, 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:31.720 only standing in the second circle of Hell. If we're 0:00:31.800 --> 0:00:35.800 using Dante's Inferno, is the map of human inequity. That's right, 0:00:35.840 --> 0:00:41.360 Today's subject. What you've all been waiting for lust because 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:43.080 I guess why we ended up situating it a little 0:00:43.080 --> 0:00:45.840 farther along in the roll call of sense, because because 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:49.040 like I said, Dante listed rather early, you're walking into 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.200 into hell, the realm of eternal punishment in Dante's epic 0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:54.800 for a Fit of Mine comedy, and the first circle 0:00:54.840 --> 0:00:57.960 you encounter are are basically the noble individuals who just 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:00.720 happened to live before the age of redemption. So you 0:01:00.760 --> 0:01:04.200 have all these philosophers. They are richly adored not only 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:07.080 by Dante but by Western culture of the time. In 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.000 the religious Due to technicality, they're not permitted to rise 0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:11.760 above hell, so they just kind of live on the 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.520 outskirts of Hell, but they have their nice little circle. Yeah, yeah, 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:15.920 it's it's a nice area, like if you had to 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:17.600 live in Hell, like this is the place to be, 0:01:17.760 --> 0:01:19.680 even better than working there, because some of the guys 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:22.480 that work there pretty bad off. But it's like the 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.520 white collar circle right, white collar color crime circle, yes, 0:01:26.680 --> 0:01:30.040 or the academia section of Hell. Right, it's a reasonably 0:01:30.040 --> 0:01:32.320 pleasant place, even though they two were removed from God, 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.640 so they're kind of sad. But the second circles where 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:37.880 we actually start getting a little hellish and then just 0:01:37.920 --> 0:01:40.880 a little because Dante seems to discount, not discount lust, 0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:42.920 but but lust is very much seen as a more 0:01:42.959 --> 0:01:45.880 of a minor and relatable infraction. It's one that that 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:48.520 Dante has a lot of sympathy for. So first you 0:01:48.560 --> 0:01:50.600 have to stroll past this monster that goes by the 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:54.200 name of Minos, that has this long tail, and he'll 0:01:54.360 --> 0:01:57.200 wrap this tail around you, and the number of times 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:00.600 this tail can loop around your body that informs circle 0:02:00.640 --> 0:02:03.400 of Hell you're bound for. Okay, I'm not sure exactly 0:02:03.440 --> 0:02:05.960 how the science of that works, but that's very dramatic. Yeah, 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:08.160 you know, it's not just like ha, go over there. Yeah, 0:02:08.240 --> 0:02:10.000 it's like you can meet all these sort of sad 0:02:10.040 --> 0:02:12.480 but otherwise noble intellectuals, and then the next thing you know, 0:02:12.480 --> 0:02:14.560 there's a monster wrapping up in its tail and then 0:02:14.560 --> 0:02:17.720 flinging you off to some circle of torment. Well, the 0:02:17.760 --> 0:02:19.840 second circle of hell is all about the lust. You 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:22.680 see all these individuals caught in this maelstrom, it's just 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:26.919 wind everywhere blowing them around. The translation that I'm reading here, 0:02:27.080 --> 0:02:30.000 this is from Robert im Durling's translation to Divine Comedy, 0:02:30.040 --> 0:02:31.760 which I highly recommend if you end up wanting to 0:02:31.800 --> 0:02:35.000 dive into the Divine Comedy. The description goes, the infernal whirlwind, 0:02:35.040 --> 0:02:38.920 which never rests, drives the spirits before it's violence, turning 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:42.480 and striking. It tortures them when they come before the landslide. 0:02:42.800 --> 0:02:47.080 There the shrieks, the wailing, the lamenting. There they curse 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:50.440 God's power. I understand that to this torment were damned 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:53.560 the carnal sinners who subject their reason to their lust. 0:02:54.720 --> 0:02:57.119 And that's kind of this kind of Dante's whole take 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:02.800 on it is that it's about reason becoming usurped by desire. 0:03:03.360 --> 0:03:08.119 The desire is expressed as as one's weight or dominant inclination. 0:03:08.639 --> 0:03:11.320 So this is we see the wind in this circle. 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:13.720 It's the wind that drives the soul. It's the force 0:03:14.160 --> 0:03:17.800 of the desire. You see such famous lusty individuals in 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:22.240 this circle as Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Dido, Paris, Tristan Achilles, 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:24.600 and he's by and large pretty sympathetic towards these people. 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:26.360 And then if you if you end up going on 0:03:26.480 --> 0:03:29.240 up to Purgatory, which again is the mountain in the 0:03:29.280 --> 0:03:33.000 divine comedy that connects the earth to the earthly paradise 0:03:33.040 --> 0:03:36.640 and then onto Heaven, the middle ground between hell and Heaven, 0:03:36.720 --> 0:03:38.520 you see all these terraces that want has to climb 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.840 this mountain and purge themselves of a sin. For each level, well, 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:43.720 you have to travel all the way up to a 0:03:43.880 --> 0:03:47.720 terrace seven in Purgatory, which makes sense because this is 0:03:47.760 --> 0:03:51.280 the terrace closest to the terrestrial heaven. So this is 0:03:51.320 --> 0:03:53.440 the last sin you have to get knocked off. They 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:55.600 get some of the big ones first. So in this terrace, 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:58.520 the individuals are purging themselves of lust, are walking around 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:00.800 just immersed in like a world to fire, and it's 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:02.720 sort of burning the lust off of them. You find 0:04:02.800 --> 0:04:06.280 various turning the lust off, Yeah, burning themselves clean of it. 0:04:06.440 --> 0:04:08.640 We've all done and that at some point. I like 0:04:08.760 --> 0:04:11.440 this idea of the Maelstrom and the winds because I 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:14.160 do think of lust like this. It's like the ultimate diversion. 0:04:14.200 --> 0:04:16.320 It's this thing that sort of takes over your mind 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:20.920 and completely scrambles your your cognitive abilities to some degree, 0:04:21.000 --> 0:04:22.880 and you can really go wild with I mean, it's 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:24.599 easy to look at lust and think of it purely 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:27.640 in terms of one's desire for the flesh, one sexual 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:31.440 desires becoming the dominant force. You see lust ascribed to 0:04:31.440 --> 0:04:32.960 any number of things. So, for instance, one of my 0:04:32.960 --> 0:04:34.800 favorite books, The Name of the Rose, is very much 0:04:34.800 --> 0:04:36.920 a book about all the different types of lust they 0:04:36.920 --> 0:04:39.320 can afflict a person. There's the lust for forbidden loves, 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.040 the lust for flesh, the lust for knowledge, the luss 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:46.320 for new things, uh, the lust for truth, the luss 0:04:46.360 --> 0:04:48.919 for adoration, the less for humility, the luss for pain, 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:52.880 which ties in with our podcast about the martyrs and torture. 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:55.640 And then in Buddhism we mentioned the wheel of Stamsara 0:04:55.720 --> 0:04:59.279 and our one of our our previous episodes about sin 0:04:59.400 --> 0:05:01.719 about how uh there are these three forces at the 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:04.760 center of this wheel of suffering. They're summarized by these 0:05:04.760 --> 0:05:07.360 three animals, and one of them is the cock, which 0:05:07.400 --> 0:05:10.320 represents greed. But also tied up in this animal are 0:05:10.360 --> 0:05:12.599 the forces of lust. So if lust is a force 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:15.000 of desire, clearly that's the way Dante sees it, that's 0:05:15.000 --> 0:05:16.680 the way any number of commentators see it. Then it's 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.160 obviously serves as a hindrance to the Buddhist soul. So 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.520 it's also tied in with some of the higher realms 0:05:21.560 --> 0:05:24.320 of reincarnation, such as the ashra of the Deva, and 0:05:24.320 --> 0:05:26.919 of course the human realms, where people become wrapped up 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.760 in these emotions that are becoming the dominant force in 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:33.560 their lives and end up delivering them again into suffering 0:05:33.600 --> 0:05:36.640 and disappointment. Well, and speaking of the cock animals, right, 0:05:36.800 --> 0:05:40.159 the statyer, which is you know something that's a half human, 0:05:40.200 --> 0:05:43.120 half goat, like you think of pan, right, this is 0:05:43.160 --> 0:05:48.000 another really good symbol of lust and ancient Greeks. Ancient Greeks, 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.360 in fact, there's a I don't know if I should 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:53.240 actually describe this, but I'm sure everybody is familiar with this. 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:56.560 She is a really juvenile term, like think how would 0:05:56.560 --> 0:05:59.760 a kindergartener describe? Okay, so not that one should. All right, 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:02.240 So you've seen the Greek pots, right that usually have 0:06:02.400 --> 0:06:04.560 depict certain seams, and we all know that they're kind 0:06:04.560 --> 0:06:07.680 of racy, Okay, using a juvenile term. There is a 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:11.640 picture of a satyr who has his frank and beans exposed, 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:16.000 and his frank is h is actually balancing a wine cup, 0:06:17.040 --> 0:06:19.360 which I think is kind of like the ultimate expression 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:23.760 of not just animal sexuality, but lust and desire, because 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:25.920 I mean, you know, throw a little wine in there. Yeah, 0:06:26.120 --> 0:06:29.960 just total buccanal and nuttery. Yeah, exactly, because what fuels 0:06:30.120 --> 0:06:32.520 less more than than the one of the guts? Right, 0:06:32.600 --> 0:06:34.359 the simple search to make you think about, like what 0:06:34.480 --> 0:06:38.000 exactly is lust? You know, it is a state of nature. 0:06:38.040 --> 0:06:41.600 It's a state of mind, and perhaps that's why it 0:06:41.680 --> 0:06:46.200 doesn't get too bad a rap in terms of the 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.280 circle of hell it's placed in. Right. The Stater is 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.800 interesting because on one hand, like clearly the Greek's love 0:06:52.880 --> 0:06:55.440 the sator, like the statter is this almost kind of 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:58.960 a messcot at times, you know, and the way he's 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:00.920 depicted and even looking at it now, you're like you 0:07:01.000 --> 0:07:02.840 kind of want to be the Stater, like the Staters 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:07.760 having the time of the wine and music, wine, good food, 0:07:07.960 --> 0:07:11.440 love making, um, just totally living in the moment, and 0:07:11.520 --> 0:07:15.520 it's just you know, it's it's the hedonism bot of 0:07:14.840 --> 0:07:17.840 of of ancient increase. But then on this at the 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:22.360 same time, he's monstrous, he has be steel aspects to 0:07:22.520 --> 0:07:24.560 his body. And then I think it's worth noting that 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:27.240 the monster comes from a monetary. The word dates back 0:07:27.280 --> 0:07:30.119 to the idea that it's demonstrating something to illustrate a point. 0:07:30.560 --> 0:07:34.120 In every monster, there's something telling about the society that 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:36.880 creates it, which is why we spend a lot of 0:07:36.880 --> 0:07:39.440 time in each of these sin podcasts talking about the 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:43.000 imagined monsters of hell because they inevitent illustrate how we 0:07:43.160 --> 0:07:45.320 view a particular sin, and the the Sater is a 0:07:45.400 --> 0:07:47.480 great example of it. Yeah, it is the grotesque ory 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:49.200 of human nature. And we talked about this a bit 0:07:49.240 --> 0:07:51.640 and the Discuss podcast when we were talking about how 0:07:51.800 --> 0:07:55.600 part of what fuels our sense of discust can sometimes 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:57.960 relate back to the fact that we don't necessarily want 0:07:58.000 --> 0:08:01.040 to embrace our animal selves. We try to divorce ourselves 0:08:01.080 --> 0:08:03.240 from that, at least most of us doing most of 0:08:03.240 --> 0:08:05.360 the time, and so when you think about the Stater, 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:09.480 are yeah, fun time, but also you know, so so animalistic. 0:08:09.560 --> 0:08:11.960 Couldn't be me, right, But you know when you talk 0:08:12.040 --> 0:08:14.360 about Less, you talk about the Stater, you wonder if 0:08:14.360 --> 0:08:16.960 it's really a sin, if it's essential to our nature, 0:08:17.040 --> 0:08:20.520 because it is part of the evolutionary machinery in terms 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:23.480 of coupling right most of the time. But the way 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:25.760 it works, right is that you have to have something 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:30.360 fueling you to decide to couple with someone, to perhaps 0:08:30.440 --> 0:08:34.000 mate with them for life, and lust is sort of 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:36.640 the glue of that arrangement. Yeah, I mean, it's very 0:08:36.679 --> 0:08:38.720 much a part of the genetic mission. And that's one 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.000 of the things that makes Less so resting because it's 0:08:41.120 --> 0:08:43.640 very difficult to combat. Like lust is this thing that 0:08:43.720 --> 0:08:46.320 makes perfect sense from an evolutionary standpoint and from an 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:50.120 animalistic standpoint, but then as animals we end up reaching 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:53.400 this point where we create this culture around ourselves that 0:08:53.520 --> 0:08:57.400 lust doesn't necessarily jive with. We cannot be the Stater 0:08:58.320 --> 0:09:01.880 in everyday life because we would we would. I mean 0:09:01.880 --> 0:09:04.120 there are people who try God bless them, I guess 0:09:04.160 --> 0:09:06.520 bocus maybe bless them, but it tends to be kind 0:09:06.520 --> 0:09:10.160 of destructive if you just let lust totally dictate every 0:09:10.240 --> 0:09:13.080 choice in your life. And do you know why, because 0:09:13.120 --> 0:09:16.680 it's not necessarily wine that is being balanced by those 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:20.679 by the francopins that's in that cup. It's really a 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:24.640 cup of dopamine. Our friend dopamine showed up on the 0:09:24.679 --> 0:09:28.360 scene and every single one of these sins um but 0:09:29.160 --> 0:09:31.440 we'll talk about this a little bit later, but dopamine 0:09:31.440 --> 0:09:36.679 here is seriously, I guess you could say, manipulating our 0:09:36.720 --> 0:09:40.080 thought processes when it comes to lust. And I kind 0:09:40.080 --> 0:09:44.959 of call this the Yasa effect because it's not just dopamine, 0:09:44.960 --> 0:09:49.400 but you also have nora epinephrine released. And what happens 0:09:49.480 --> 0:09:51.760 is when you begin to lust, you see something that 0:09:51.800 --> 0:09:55.160 excites you as you have all sorts of craziness going 0:09:55.160 --> 0:09:58.480 on with your vital signs. Your heart rate increases, your 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:00.800 reward system is going ding ding in your brain, you're 0:10:00.840 --> 0:10:03.800 sweating a little, your limbic system is going, yeah, I 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:05.280 give need more of that. And in fact, it's it's 0:10:05.280 --> 0:10:08.760 pretty much a full brain event. Plus they didn't have 0:10:08.880 --> 0:10:11.320 some experiments where of course they booked people's brains up 0:10:11.360 --> 0:10:15.559 to monitoring imaging equipment and then they displayed some shall 0:10:15.600 --> 0:10:19.200 we say, erotic material for the individuals whose brains were 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:22.000 being scanned, and they set back and watched what lit up, 0:10:22.440 --> 0:10:25.400 and they saw regions of light up there associated with reward, 0:10:25.559 --> 0:10:30.320 sensory and interpretation, visual processing. So it's lighting up the amigala, 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:35.040 the hippothalamus, which deals with emotional information. It's stimulating reward 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:39.480 processing uh ventful stratum, probably due to the satisfying nature 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:42.959 of the stimuli. It's just really setting everything ablaze, particularly 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.400 with a with a mail you can look at their 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:47.920 brain scan and tell at an m r I brain 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:49.800 scan and tell if they are aroused. It is a 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:54.640 much stronger response in men than women. Lust and this 0:10:54.880 --> 0:10:58.000 reaction to images. Yes, And what I thought was really 0:10:58.000 --> 0:11:00.840 interesting about that is that the dopamine is being released. 0:11:00.880 --> 0:11:03.000 You can see this happening in the brain when someone 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:06.240 sees of image that excites them. And not only that, 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:07.839 you can you see what's happening in the brain and 0:11:07.880 --> 0:11:10.640 can say it's the all event thing going on. But 0:11:11.080 --> 0:11:12.760 you know, you've got parts of your brain that's saying 0:11:12.840 --> 0:11:16.080 let's act on this, let's go, And then milliseconds later, 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:18.800 your frontal cortex, which has to mediate all of this 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:22.600 and bring reason into it. Has just a very small 0:11:22.720 --> 0:11:25.640 window to actually say, you know what, maybe this isn't 0:11:25.679 --> 0:11:27.439 the best idea. Last time we did this, we got 0:11:27.440 --> 0:11:29.000 into a lot of trouble and we acted on this 0:11:29.120 --> 0:11:32.040 lust or whatnot. So that's what I think is fascinating 0:11:32.080 --> 0:11:34.760 about the fMRI I images that you see with men 0:11:35.360 --> 0:11:39.920 considering just these really split second photos, which by the way, 0:11:39.960 --> 0:11:44.000 are interspersed with with control photos like here's a picture 0:11:44.040 --> 0:11:47.560 of a woman's breast in a black lace bra, right, 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:50.240 it's not too crazy, and a dog eating a birthday 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:54.080 cake or something, right, yes, and hopefully that's not something 0:11:54.120 --> 0:11:57.040 that is exciting to them, but snow covered trees or 0:11:57.080 --> 0:11:59.640 something like all these lines because there's the control there, 0:11:59.679 --> 0:12:01.880 so we can really see the brain in action. But 0:12:01.960 --> 0:12:04.880 again it comes down to these split second decisions that 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:08.479 we make. Um And of course this isn't necessarily indicative 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:11.480 of a real world scenario because we're not stuck in 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:15.280 fm r I. Usually when we see images or think 0:12:15.360 --> 0:12:18.240 thoughts that really excite us, but still it gives us 0:12:18.240 --> 0:12:22.240 a clue. Another thing that's fascinating about this is that, again, 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:25.200 we we build this culture up around ourselves and these, uh, 0:12:25.440 --> 0:12:28.560 these various social systems, and our lust doesn't really jive 0:12:28.600 --> 0:12:31.240 with it. So we have to find ways to defeat lust, 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:35.600 because otherwise we would be like tongue hanging out the 0:12:35.679 --> 0:12:39.040 cartoon Kyote more wolf rather with the eyes and the tongue, 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:40.560 which is kind of a cartoon version of the stat 0:12:40.640 --> 0:12:42.520 or to a certain extent. So we have to find 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:44.560 ways to shut it down. Right. You can think of 0:12:44.600 --> 0:12:47.000 it as thinking about baseball, just saying up, we're not 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:48.960 gonna think about this, We're gonna think about this. And 0:12:48.960 --> 0:12:51.560 they've actually studied this as well to see what's happening 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.880 in the brain when someone is shutting down lust, and 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:57.400 they're shutting it out as with a number of other 0:12:57.400 --> 0:12:59.920 powerful impulses in the brain, we attempt to shut it 0:13:00.080 --> 0:13:04.199 down by calling upon the right superior frontal gyrus and 0:13:04.559 --> 0:13:08.360 right anterior cigulate gyrus. And this is according to research 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.880 by Mario you Regard at the University of Montreal. He 0:13:11.880 --> 0:13:15.680 and others proposed these brain areas form a conscious self 0:13:15.960 --> 0:13:19.640 regulatory system. It's a network that provides us with the evolutionary, 0:13:20.120 --> 0:13:23.880 the unprecedented ability to control our own neural processing, which 0:13:24.800 --> 0:13:29.840 is pretty impressive. Another species right, you don't necessarily see 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:32.959 this in other animals. This is very particular to humans. 0:13:33.000 --> 0:13:35.760 And again, this ability to to take that split second 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.600 and way whether or not you should act on it, 0:13:38.720 --> 0:13:40.959 and what the implications are. And we've talked about this before, 0:13:41.040 --> 0:13:43.640 like our brain is really constructed to try to see 0:13:43.640 --> 0:13:45.840 into the future and see ourselves into the future. So 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:49.120 that's not aha moment, but still it's pretty impressive that 0:13:49.160 --> 0:13:51.040 we can do this, And I think it's interesting to 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.760 to sort of take that out outside of the context 0:13:53.760 --> 0:13:56.920 of lust. Two. Um, Like we've talked before about just 0:13:56.960 --> 0:13:59.960 sort of the quagmire of of thinking about your thing 0:14:00.000 --> 0:14:02.600 thinking you know, or or just letting your thoughts run 0:14:02.679 --> 0:14:05.040 wild taking it outside of lust, because you can get 0:14:05.080 --> 0:14:07.480 into some sort of weird, puritanical territory if you're thinking 0:14:07.480 --> 0:14:09.400 about like, oh, I'm going to shut down dirty thoughts 0:14:09.440 --> 0:14:11.800 in my brain. But I think it is a useful 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:14.520 exercise to be able to shut down thinking in your brain, 0:14:14.679 --> 0:14:17.440 especially when it's sort of harmful. Let me drag out 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:20.040 the sad toys in my past kind of thinking. Yeah. 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:22.080 I think it was Art who pointed out that if 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:24.320 you think yourself, I wonder what my next thought will 0:14:24.360 --> 0:14:27.880 be to concentrate on that thought like that that has 0:14:28.120 --> 0:14:30.760 an easy and significant ability to sort of clear out 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:33.760 all the processes. And that's going on whether you're thinking 0:14:33.800 --> 0:14:36.640 about something depressing that happened in your past, or something 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:41.720 intimidating in the future, or something lustful breathing through your brain. Well, 0:14:41.760 --> 0:14:44.440 I mean this is particularly important if you're a sex addic, right, 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:47.080 you have to be able to shut down that thought 0:14:47.080 --> 0:14:49.680 process because that to me seems to be like a 0:14:49.680 --> 0:14:53.960 heightened state of desire, which is, you know, no longer productive, 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:58.040 right from just seeking out is always thinking to come 0:14:58.040 --> 0:15:00.480 out in one and where conceivably like the picture of 0:15:00.480 --> 0:15:02.840 the trees could excite you because you're you're reading something 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:07.440 sexual into everything exactly, like I've seen that tendency in 0:15:07.640 --> 0:15:10.720 some people. Well, um, what I do want to mention too, 0:15:10.800 --> 0:15:13.480 and this is from Discovery Channels, The Science of Lust. 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:19.680 Apparently women are much better at dialing down the lust factor. Yeah, 0:15:19.760 --> 0:15:24.320 because Dante and well you know, I mean women women 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:28.640 just they're as lusty as men. But this is interesting differently, Okay, 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:31.840 they control the process in a different way. According to this, Right, 0:15:32.360 --> 0:15:36.680 there was this really interesting study in which women were 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:39.560 asked to wear the sensors to monitor their heart rates, 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:43.440 their blood pressure and I'm not going to get into 0:15:43.720 --> 0:15:47.720 how this happened, but their blood flow to their genitalium. Okay. 0:15:47.840 --> 0:15:50.960 In addition, the subject has a lever that she controls 0:15:50.960 --> 0:15:53.280 with her hand to indicate when she's aroused by what 0:15:53.400 --> 0:15:56.160 she sees on the screen. Okay, So she's got this 0:15:56.200 --> 0:15:58.360 little device that she just kind of pushes up or 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:02.600 down when she is aroused. So she's shown a nineties 0:16:02.680 --> 0:16:06.320 era promotional video for Russia and apparently this is like 0:16:06.400 --> 0:16:11.120 the most like neutral, non sexual footage that they could get, 0:16:11.560 --> 0:16:13.600 you know, no no offense, Russia, but apparently like your 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:18.400 landscapes aren't all that sexually exciting. And then they show porn. Okay, 0:16:18.720 --> 0:16:20.960 so while watching the porn, the woman's vital signs are 0:16:21.080 --> 0:16:24.920 clearly like going nuts. Her body is actually responding to this. 0:16:25.120 --> 0:16:27.480 But what is really interesting is that she is pulling 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:30.360 the lever down to indicate that she is not at 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:33.520 all aroused. In fact, she's like the negative of aroused. 0:16:34.080 --> 0:16:37.880 So meanwhile, they also do this with men, and they 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:41.160 see the male subject also watching the same videos, and 0:16:41.200 --> 0:16:44.080 then they also have the same response to the videos. 0:16:44.120 --> 0:16:46.280 In terms of their vital signs and the flow of 0:16:46.320 --> 0:16:49.440 blood to their genitalia. The difference is that men report 0:16:49.520 --> 0:16:52.400 that they are mentally aroused. Okay, so they take that 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:55.520 lever and they push it up like full speed. And 0:16:55.600 --> 0:16:59.680 so the idea is that again women can control this. 0:17:00.240 --> 0:17:04.119 Perhaps the disconnect and some of this could be cultural too, right, 0:17:04.160 --> 0:17:06.280 because that really does have a bearing on how you 0:17:06.320 --> 0:17:09.600 perceive things, So you know, there's that aspect to it. 0:17:09.640 --> 0:17:12.160 But the idea is that from an evolutionary point of view, 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.520 women had have to be much more selective because they 0:17:16.720 --> 0:17:18.679 if they were to get into a situation where they 0:17:18.720 --> 0:17:20.840 become pregnant, than they are you know, of course bound 0:17:20.840 --> 0:17:24.240 to raise that child and that's a lot of resources. 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:27.400 So this idea is that women are much more selective 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:29.800 and able to take that part of their brain that 0:17:29.920 --> 0:17:33.199 the reasoning, the frontal cortex and say, you know what, 0:17:33.520 --> 0:17:35.680 I'm not really invested in what I'm seeing. I might 0:17:35.720 --> 0:17:37.560 be around, but I'm not going to act on it. 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:40.000 And again, this is pretty much pointing back to what 0:17:40.080 --> 0:17:42.520 you were talking about with Mario Beauregard of the University 0:17:42.560 --> 0:17:45.760 of Montreal, who was saying that we have this self 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:51.879 regulatory system. The idea again isn't women have more? So, um, 0:17:51.920 --> 0:17:53.840 it would be really interesting to see more studies on 0:17:53.840 --> 0:17:56.199 this and also to take in the cultural context of 0:17:56.240 --> 0:17:59.040 it before saying, oh, women they're just they're awesome at this, 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:01.480 you know, because I think there's a little bit more 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:03.920 to that than just this black and white situation, this 0:18:04.320 --> 0:18:07.119 one experiment in a room. All right, Well, we should 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:09.359 probably take a break at this point. Yeah, yeah, because 0:18:09.400 --> 0:18:12.240 when we get back, we're going to talk about whether 0:18:12.600 --> 0:18:19.440 some people are just born lusted. All right, we're back, 0:18:19.440 --> 0:18:21.280 and before we jump right back into the science, I 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:23.119 thought of point out an interesting point that we're going 0:18:23.200 --> 0:18:26.119 across from a few different critics who pointed out that 0:18:26.119 --> 0:18:29.120 that since left is so ingrained in human nature, when 0:18:29.240 --> 0:18:32.960 organized religion condemns it, it's kind of like a spiritual 0:18:33.119 --> 0:18:35.200 speed trap, you know, like a small town generally in 0:18:35.240 --> 0:18:36.800 the United States, you only think of it like a 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:39.480 small southern town where the speed limit ends up suddenly 0:18:39.520 --> 0:18:42.359 dropping to such a low level that a large number 0:18:42.400 --> 0:18:45.119 of people are going to legally be speeding and therefore 0:18:45.160 --> 0:18:47.520 they caught and then they're you know, brought into the 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.320 system to to pay into the system for their their 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:53.119 traffic ticket. So that if you if you have a 0:18:53.119 --> 0:18:55.520 religious system that calls you out on something that you 0:18:55.960 --> 0:18:59.200 basically cannot help, it's guaranteed to bring you in. Okay, 0:18:59.200 --> 0:19:02.360 So you're saying that you begin to to think more 0:19:02.400 --> 0:19:06.520 about it, to actually subscribe to a little bit more 0:19:06.560 --> 0:19:10.240 on on on the psychological level. Well, it's kind of like, hey, 0:19:10.280 --> 0:19:11.639 do you have a problem with less, Well, we've got 0:19:11.680 --> 0:19:13.240 the religion for you. Well, everybody has a problem with 0:19:13.320 --> 0:19:15.520 lust of you define it in these terms, you know, 0:19:15.680 --> 0:19:18.520 it's just an interesting, interesting way to interesting to me 0:19:18.560 --> 0:19:21.000 anyway way to look at it. You know, like, I'm 0:19:21.040 --> 0:19:22.920 thinking of it very much in terms of the speech trap, 0:19:23.200 --> 0:19:26.160 whereas like murder isn't as much of a speeed trap. 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.399 Now I'm seeing signs like lust ahead, yeah, next thirty 0:19:29.440 --> 0:19:35.440 miles less monitored by less detecting devices, some microdrones, lust 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:40.400 less planes, a hood. So okay, I'm thinking about I'd 0:19:40.440 --> 0:19:42.840 always like to think about the opposite of what we're 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:45.399 talking about, right in terms of the seven deadly since 0:19:45.440 --> 0:19:51.440 so what would be the opposite of lustiness? Unlustiness? Yes, 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:56.960 thinking specifically in humans? A sexuality? Okay, Okay, So the 0:19:56.960 --> 0:19:59.280 reason I'm bringing this up is because in again this 0:19:59.359 --> 0:20:02.760 was from disc Every Channels Science of Lust Um. They 0:20:02.760 --> 0:20:05.200 were saying that one percent of the population will report 0:20:05.280 --> 0:20:09.200 a lifelong lack of sexual attraction for either sex again 0:20:09.280 --> 0:20:12.639 known as their sexuality, and that this seems to be 0:20:12.680 --> 0:20:16.360 something that is hardwired in individuals. So I think it's 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:18.879 so much done in a day. You know, it's possible 0:20:19.000 --> 0:20:20.880 that the people of the interviewed they seem to say, 0:20:20.920 --> 0:20:22.399 you know what, I don't have a problem with this 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:24.360 one way or the other. It's just not something that 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:29.120 is present in me. And the researchers were saying there's 0:20:29.160 --> 0:20:31.560 nothing wrong. I think they just actually even used the 0:20:31.680 --> 0:20:34.280 term plumbing. There's nothing wrong with their plumbing. In other words, 0:20:34.840 --> 0:20:38.560 they are completely healthy individuals to just have a lack 0:20:38.600 --> 0:20:41.119 of lust in kind of life. It's like John McHale 0:20:41.119 --> 0:20:43.920