The seventh and final step in brain mastery is to do something you might think impossible:  take control of someone else’s brain and synchronize it with yours.  The research in this area is in its early stages, but the implications are fascinating.

It turns out that when we communicate with someone else effectively, we do something that has been described colloquially for a few generations:  we get on the same wavelength.  Literally.  Our brain patterns match each other.

Here’s how it works.  If I’m telling you a story, and you’re engaged in it, you match your brain waves to mine.  And in fact, if I’m telling you a story with a familiar structure, your brain actually anticipates what I’m going to say next.  The listener is a nanosecond ahead of the speaker.  And that’s good for both parties.  We want to be in sync with other people.  It’s how we communicate well with others and it’s why good storytelling is so powerful.  That feeling of synchronization is a profoundly satisfying one.  We want to hear stories, especially ones where we can guess what’s going to happen next, a split second before we’re told.

It’s akin to that feeling you get reading a book or watching a movie and knowing what’s about to happen.  Does that reduce your enjoyment of the book or movie?  Not at all.  In fact, it’s satisfying, because you feel clever and get a sense of control from the experience.

Communing with another human being is one of the highest forms of social being for us humans.  At the heart of it is good storytelling.  When communications works, we are literally aligned with one another, down to our very brain patterns.  That’s both inspiring and reassuring to know, because when we communicate successfully, we are actually experiencing the same thing.  We are not alone.