Inspired by insights shared by cognitive scientist Dr. John Vervaeke

Change is one of those words we toss around easily but rarely understand.
We talk about “changing habits,” “changing mindset,” “changing behaviour,” or “changing our lives.”

Yet for all our talk, most people still struggle to change, or believe it’s a long, uphill battle requiring effort, discipline, and constant self-monitoring.

But what if that’s not how human change works at all?
What if we’ve misunderstood the mechanism entirely?

Recently, I read a piece by Dr. John Vervaeke, a cognitive scientist known for his work on meaning-making and consciousness. He described something fascinating:

Human brains/minds haven’t changed biologically in thousands of years.
What changed was our software.
And early shamans were the first “programmers,” using rituals to disrupt people’s habitual thought patterns so they could see differently.

It’s a compelling insight — and there’s truth to it.

But I want to take it one step further.
Because beneath the rituals, beneath the “software,” and beneath the frames, there’s something even more fundamental at work.

Something that explains how real, lasting change actually happens.

Let’s start with where Vervaeke is absolutely right.

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We Live Inside Mental Frames We Can’t See

Vervaeke explains that the human brain is a pattern-detecting machine.
Once it identifies a pattern, it becomes incredibly difficult to unsee it.

This is both our power and our prison.

It’s why:

• People get stuck in limiting beliefs,
• organizations stay trapped in old thinking,
• we keep repeating the same emotional loops,
• we can’t solve certain problems even when told “think outside the box.”

The “box,” of course, is our habitual thinking.

Shamans saw this long before cognitive science did.

So they disrupted the patterns through drumming, dancing, solitude, fasting, psychedelics, and sleep deprivation.

Not to create wisdom, but to interrupt the mental frame long enough so an insight could break through.

An insight is a fresh thought — a new way of seeing something that instantly changes your understanding.
It arrives on its own, often when the mind is quiet, and it has a felt quality of truth. An insight doesn’t require effort or analysis; it simply reveals a clearer picture of reality, and once seen, it can’t be unseen.

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Shamans Weren’t Creating Insight — They Were Making Space For It

This is where anthropology meets the deeper truth.

The rituals didn’t cause transformation.
They disrupted the snowglobe of thought, allowing people to fall into a quieter state of mind — where wisdom, clarity, and new perspectives naturally emerge.

What shamans used to access through extreme methods, humans can access every day through the simple settling of thought.

They just didn’t know that’s what was happening. They tied the result to their methods and rituals.

This is where the Three Principles give us a cleaner, clearer explanation.

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The Architecture Beneath All Human Change

Every human experience operates through the same mechanism:

Thought → Consciousness → Experience

We don’t live in the world “as it is.”
We live in the world as we think it is.

Our frames aren’t created by culture alone.
They’re created moment to moment by Thought — the ongoing, fluid, impersonal energy that produces every perception we have.

And here’s the profound part:

Thought is temporary.
It rises.
It falls.
It shifts.
It clears.

When it clears, insight appears.

Not because we work for it.
Not because we strive for it.
Because the system is built for it.

This is how real change happens.

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Change Doesn’t Come From Effort — It Comes From Realization

We’ve been trained to believe change requires:

• new habits
• better routines
• constant vigilance
• mental discipline
• replacing negative thoughts with positive ones

But look back on your own life.
Your biggest shifts didn’t come from effort.
They came from a moment when you saw something new.

One fresh insight can dissolve:

• a lifetime belief
• a deeply ingrained fear
• a chronic pattern
• a self-limiting identity

That’s not behaviour modification.
That’s a shift in consciousness.

The mind reorganizes automatically around new understanding.

A realization is an insight that sinks deeper — from the intellect into the whole of your being.
It’s when a new understanding becomes embodied, felt, and lived. A realization shifts how you show up in the world, not because you try to change, but because you naturally operate from a new and clearer perspective.

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Why This Matters More Than Ever

Vervaeke is right: humans get trapped in mental frames.
Shamans knew this intuitively.
Cognitive science can now explain it.

But the deeper truth is this:

When the mind settles, it returns to clarity.
When clarity returns, new thought appears.
When new thought appears, change is inevitable.

You don’t need a ritual.
You don’t need to induce an altered state.
You don’t need to “break the frame” through intensity.

Insight is the natural state when the noise quiets.

And once you see differently, you are different.

This is how change really happens —
not through force, but through understanding.

Share your experiences with me and others by posting a comment.

If you have questions and want to reach out, just follow the links or email rickruppenthal@gmail.com

Much love,

Here are a couple of videos to enhance the learning:

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