I think one major reason why people don’t tend to get hijacked by imagined adversaries is that you can’t simulate someone who is smarter than you, and therefore you can defend against anything you can simulate in your mind.
This is not a perfect arugment since I can imagine someone that has power over me in the real world, and for example imagine how angry they would be at me if I did something they did not like. But then their power over me comes from their power in the real world, not their ability to outsmart me inside my own mind.
Not to disagree hugely, but I have heard one religious conversion (an enlightenment type experience) described in a way that fits with “takeover without holding power over someone”. Specifically this person described enlightenment in terms close to “I was ready to pack my things and leave. But the poison was already in me. My self died soon after that.”
It’s possible to get the general flow of the arguments another person would make, spontaneously produce those arguments later, and be convinced by them (or at least influenced).
I think one major reason why people don’t tend to get hijacked by imagined adversaries is that you can’t simulate someone who is smarter than you, and therefore you can defend against anything you can simulate in your mind.
This is not a perfect arugment since I can imagine someone that has power over me in the real world, and for example imagine how angry they would be at me if I did something they did not like. But then their power over me comes from their power in the real world, not their ability to outsmart me inside my own mind.
Not to disagree hugely, but I have heard one religious conversion (an enlightenment type experience) described in a way that fits with “takeover without holding power over someone”. Specifically this person described enlightenment in terms close to “I was ready to pack my things and leave. But the poison was already in me. My self died soon after that.”
It’s possible to get the general flow of the arguments another person would make, spontaneously produce those arguments later, and be convinced by them (or at least influenced).