Dr. Ethan Kross

Here's something that I hope listeners and viewers will find exceptionally liberating as I have found liberating from just knowing the science. So actually I talk about these intrusive thoughts in shift. Yeah. They are incredibly normative. And so there's research which looks at like, how frequently have you experienced an intrusive thought over the past week or month or two months?

Here's something that I hope listeners and viewers will find exceptionally liberating as I have found liberating from just knowing the science. So actually I talk about these intrusive thoughts in shift. Yeah. They are incredibly normative. And so there's research which looks at like, how frequently have you experienced an intrusive thought over the past week or month or two months?

The proportion of people who experience these dark thoughts is exceptionally high. I don't remember the exact percentage, but it is in my book and it is like near ceiling. I will do an exercise with my classes, my undergraduate classes, where I will ask them to anonymously... whether they've experienced like a dark thought over the past week. Almost all of them are capable of generating them.

The proportion of people who experience these dark thoughts is exceptionally high. I don't remember the exact percentage, but it is in my book and it is like near ceiling. I will do an exercise with my classes, my undergraduate classes, where I will ask them to anonymously... whether they've experienced like a dark thought over the past week. Almost all of them are capable of generating them.

The proportion of people who experience these dark thoughts is exceptionally high. I don't remember the exact percentage, but it is in my book and it is like near ceiling. I will do an exercise with my classes, my undergraduate classes, where I will ask them to anonymously... whether they've experienced like a dark thought over the past week. Almost all of them are capable of generating them.

And some of these thoughts are really, really dark. I will often experience a very dark intrusive thought when I'm exercising at the gym. You're looking at me with curiosity and a bit of concern right now.

And some of these thoughts are really, really dark. I will often experience a very dark intrusive thought when I'm exercising at the gym. You're looking at me with curiosity and a bit of concern right now.

And some of these thoughts are really, really dark. I will often experience a very dark intrusive thought when I'm exercising at the gym. You're looking at me with curiosity and a bit of concern right now.

So if I'm carrying like a heavy dumbbell from a bench to a rack, I will sometimes have a thought of dropping it on the face of of another person on a mat. It's terribly dark. It's a terrible, terrible thought. So why am I experiencing that? It is most likely the brain's simulating worst case scenarios to prevent me from doing it. Of course, I don't wanna drop a dumbbell on someone I never have.

So if I'm carrying like a heavy dumbbell from a bench to a rack, I will sometimes have a thought of dropping it on the face of of another person on a mat. It's terribly dark. It's a terrible, terrible thought. So why am I experiencing that? It is most likely the brain's simulating worst case scenarios to prevent me from doing it. Of course, I don't wanna drop a dumbbell on someone I never have.

So if I'm carrying like a heavy dumbbell from a bench to a rack, I will sometimes have a thought of dropping it on the face of of another person on a mat. It's terribly dark. It's a terrible, terrible thought. So why am I experiencing that? It is most likely the brain's simulating worst case scenarios to prevent me from doing it. Of course, I don't wanna drop a dumbbell on someone I never have.

And so that's one explanation for why this is so normative. It's your brain's way of constantly, there's a theory that we're constantly simulating all sorts of possibilities for what could happen. And most of these simulations, the probability of them coming to fruition are exceptionally low, infinitesimally small. But on occasion, some of the wacky ones do escape into awareness.

And so that's one explanation for why this is so normative. It's your brain's way of constantly, there's a theory that we're constantly simulating all sorts of possibilities for what could happen. And most of these simulations, the probability of them coming to fruition are exceptionally low, infinitesimally small. But on occasion, some of the wacky ones do escape into awareness.

And so that's one explanation for why this is so normative. It's your brain's way of constantly, there's a theory that we're constantly simulating all sorts of possibilities for what could happen. And most of these simulations, the probability of them coming to fruition are exceptionally low, infinitesimally small. But on occasion, some of the wacky ones do escape into awareness.

And that's when we get the dark thought about harming someone or doing something illegal in a pretty aggressive, egregious way, or in my case, dropping the dumbbell on the person stretching on their face. And so here's what I find liberating. Me understanding that this is just how my brain works. Well, that doesn't mean now that I'm something wrong with me as a human being, right?

And that's when we get the dark thought about harming someone or doing something illegal in a pretty aggressive, egregious way, or in my case, dropping the dumbbell on the person stretching on their face. And so here's what I find liberating. Me understanding that this is just how my brain works. Well, that doesn't mean now that I'm something wrong with me as a human being, right?

And that's when we get the dark thought about harming someone or doing something illegal in a pretty aggressive, egregious way, or in my case, dropping the dumbbell on the person stretching on their face. And so here's what I find liberating. Me understanding that this is just how my brain works. Well, that doesn't mean now that I'm something wrong with me as a human being, right?

That I'm morally corrupt in any way. My brain's going to sometimes produce these kinds of dark thoughts. I'm not going to act on them. And as long as I'm not acting on them, it's all good. It's almost like when people learn about the physiological response to anxiety, they're before they know what is happening, that can often be an incredibly distressing experience.

That I'm morally corrupt in any way. My brain's going to sometimes produce these kinds of dark thoughts. I'm not going to act on them. And as long as I'm not acting on them, it's all good. It's almost like when people learn about the physiological response to anxiety, they're before they know what is happening, that can often be an incredibly distressing experience.

That I'm morally corrupt in any way. My brain's going to sometimes produce these kinds of dark thoughts. I'm not going to act on them. And as long as I'm not acting on them, it's all good. It's almost like when people learn about the physiological response to anxiety, they're before they know what is happening, that can often be an incredibly distressing experience.