This Technology Shapes Your Life — And You Don't See It | What to Believe Ep.8

Language is our most powerful technology — and we've given it to machines before we've even understood its power for ourselves. This episode isn't all about AI, though. It's about being human, and about the one technology you use every second without ever recognising it as one. I’ve spent two decades learning, practicing and teaching a powerful method of using language as a technology. It’s a field called linguistic ontology, it’s what lies behind modern coaching, and I’ve refined into a method I’ve named Effective Inquiry. In this video, I show you the landscape—one you can build on. You'll discover that human beings live in a sea of language, one we haven’t begun to recognise. You’ll see how some language doesn't just describe reality; it creates it. It IS the reality. For example, if I say, “I thank you,” the thanking, the words spoken—the language—is the thing. Knowing how and why this matters will give you a view into the nature of human existence that you never had before. It’s that simple, that clear – and that powerful. This is a lens, not a belief. It doesn’t replace the tools you already use — Stoicism, CBT, mindfulness, positive psychology — it sharpens them. It will give you a lens on reality that can transform your experience of life. It’s the start of a journey you won’t want to end. There’s a practice at the end that you can take away, and a written companion on Substack under my name. If it landed, share it. Ways to work with Neil are in the links below. #WhatToBelieve #EffectiveInquiry #OntologicalCoaching #Language #AI #Mindfulness #stoicism --------------------------------- CHAPTER MARKERS 01:24 – The origins of this work 02:00 – Why language is a technology 03:31 – Seeing it for yourself 05:05 – The sea of language 07:33 – The power of language 10:29 – The conditions for language to work 11:19 – Making declarations personal 12:51 – How this approach augments Stoicism, CBT, mindfulness 16:12 – Distinctions in language 18:09 – This approach versus The Secret 20:09 – Dealing with the language overload 22:21 – Why “large language model" should have warned us 23:08 – Something you can do this week ---------------------------------- DONATE Support me to continue this work. https://paypal.me/whattobelieve SUBSCRIBE https://substack.com/@neilbierbaum    / @neilbierbaum     / neilbierbaum   ================================== © Neil Bierbaum This video is not to be reproduced without prior authorization. The original YouTube video may be distributed & embedded, if required.