5 - The Discovery: SW+A+T=D

Toye Oyelese

Hello again, and welcome to Navigating Blind. I’m Dr. Toye Oyelese, and today, well, I suppose I’ll be confessing one of my more, uh, mischievous scientific moments. See, back when I was thirteen—still living in Nigeria and endlessly curious about the mind—I stumbled onto something both odd and powerful. How a mouthy teenager like me accidentally hypnotized... unwilling classmates. That was not, let me just say, on anyone’s curriculum.

Toye Oyelese

Now, funny thing is, they’d sit there, stubborn arms crossed, declaring over and over, “You can’t hypnotize me! Nope! Can’t do it!” I’d just give the usual instructions: sit, close your eyes, breathe. They’d protest with every word, almost like it was a dare. But, every single time, those same words—“You can’t hypnotize me”—ended up helping me out. I didn’t get it at first. But looking back, I stumbled on the principle I now call SW+A+T equals D, or, Spoken Word plus Action plus Thought equals Direction.

Toye Oyelese

What was really happening? They were resisting with their thoughts—actively skeptical, defiant—but their words and their actions, those were lining up in my direction. Spoken word: “hypnotize.” Actions: sitting, listening, closing their eyes. Thoughts were fighting, but once two out of three factors start aligning, the hold gets stronger. Eventually—critical mass. Their thinking had nowhere left to run.

Toye Oyelese

And it wouldn’t be the last time I saw this pattern. Years later, when I began practicing medicine in rural British Columbia—ah, you know, being this quiet Nigerian doctor in logging towns where patients sometimes sized you up before you opened your mouth—I found myself piecing together the same lesson again. If I tried to convince with speech but ignored people’s readiness for action, or brushed aside their deep-seated thoughts, well, I’d get nowhere. So I learned to listen for their direction first, then reflect it back. Sometimes, folks programmed their own beliefs without realizing, just like my stubborn classmates. Change sneaks up when the conditions line up—never just by force.

Toye Oyelese

Let’s get into how this all lines up with, uh, the states of matter. I love a grounded metaphor—must be the science background, right? Imagine the environment around you as plasma—it’s there, shaping things, but it isn’t part of the core equation. Spoken word, that’s like liquid. It flows out with ease. You don’t have to believe it, you just pour it out, and it starts moving things. Actions, on the other hand, those are solid—they take work to mold, change, break, or build. And thoughts? Thoughts are like gas—always slipping through your fingers the harder you grab for ’em. It’s almost impossible to hold ’em still.

Toye Oyelese

Let me give you an example from the clinic. I had a patient struggling with anxiety affirmations. She would say, “I will not be afraid,” over and over. If you look at what’s really in there—it’s that “afraid” piece. The brain skips the “not.” By activating the word “afraid,” you nudge yourself toward that very fear. Now if she’d said, “I will be brave,” she’d be aiming toward courage instead. The action word is like a compass. Negation doesn’t really shield you—sometimes it drags you straight in the direction you most want to avoid. I see this all the time, even outside the clinic—folks saying, “I don’t want to fail,” instead of, “I will succeed.” It’s subtle, but it adds up.

Toye Oyelese

There’s another bit—why does talking out loud have such an effect? Even quietly, just a whisper, can set things in motion. It beats silent thinking every time. It’s something about activating the pathway, not just staying inside your head. The act of physical articulation counts as both word and action. Your skeptical thoughts might kick and scream, but with enough repetition—spoken, acted—eventually you reach that tipping point, and even the most stubborn mind starts drifting in the new direction. You know, I can’t prove the neurology behind it, not precisely, but after years, you just see that it works differently.

Toye Oyelese

So, don’t worry about volume—a whisper counts. What matters is, does the statement resonate at all, or does your mind reject it outright? If it feels like utter nonsense, soften it, tweak it, point it just gently enough in the direction you want until it stops triggering that big “no you’re not!” from inside your head.

Toye Oyelese

Now, here’s where things get really interesting—the loophole I stumbled on, and I gotta say, it’s saved my bacon more times than I can count. Especially during those tough years fresh off the plane in Canada, feeling like an imposter in a starched white coat. See, present-tense affirmations—“I am confident”—they almost always triggered that voice inside: “No you’re not, mate.” But the future tense—“I will be confident”—somehow, my brain would let it through. No argument, no resistance, just… possibility. I call it the “WILL” loophole, at least in English. I haven’t found an exact match in other languages yet—maybe it’s there, maybe it isn’t. It’s one of those things I keep chewing on.

Toye Oyelese

Here’s the math part—each time you say something, you’re moving one unit toward that outcome. If you say, “I don’t want to be afraid” twice, but “I will be brave” six times, you’ve moved toward brave six times and toward afraid twice. Net movement? Four steps braver. It’s all about ratios. Negatives won’t kill you, but you’ve gotta outnumber them.

Toye Oyelese

I wonder, sometimes, about the limits of this model. I mean, can you take “WILL” loophole into Mandarin or Yoruba or French and get the same effect? Honestly, I’m not sure. There might be language quirks, cultural twists I don’t see. What I know is what I’ve seen in my own life, and in the lives of my patients from all over the world. There are always exceptions, always adjustments. But the principle—spoken word, matched with action, repeated past resistance—finds a way to shape direction, critical mass and all.

Toye Oyelese

So, that’s the big reveal. SW plus A plus T gives you D—direction. Whether you like it or not, whether you believe it or not. And we’re all testing it, every day. I’ll leave you with this: next time, we’ll look at the flip side—how this same mechanism can be turned against you. Hacked, manipulated. And, more importantly, how you can protect yourself. Till then: survive first, then thrive. Take care.