Ran into this article while looking for something else. Interesting, as most articles I run across about emotions are "how to get in touch with your feelings" claptrap. This seems a refreshing change.

How to Become Emotionless

from wikiHow - The How to Manual That You Can Edit

Becoming emotionless can be a very useful tactic to deal with problems that might be better handled with less heart and more brain. The following is a list of steps to take in order to remove the heart from the situation, and start using your head.

Steps

Meditate. This is one of the better tools to become emotionless. There are several different types of meditation, including Vipassana and Huna, that you can investigate to see which one is right for you. Even the most basic form: closing your eyes and breathing deep, is sometimes enough to loose your emotions.
Dissociate yourself from the situation. You can do this by seeing yourself as an observer of the situation and not an active participant.
Think logically, not emotionally. If you can't dissociate yourself from the situation, then take a more logical approach (i.e. facts/figures) rather than an approach of anger, hatred, fear, etc. Think of the reasons behind the actions and look at things from all sides before making any sort of judgment.
Think of something else. When dealing with a situation that requires the lack of emotion, think of something rudimentary that occupies your mind. A few examples of things to try are: Long division, listing the full names of your entire family, listing all 50 states, naming as many mammals as you can, etc. The key to doing this correctly is to occupy your mind with boringness while remaining aware of the situation and taking it all in.
Realize that you may be wrong. Emotions can cloud our judgment, and there’s always a possibility that you are simply wrong. If you realize this, let it go. Pride will only muck up the situation.
Isolate. This can take a varying amount of time - what matters is that one must be away from society until they no longer feel a longing for a social life.
Deliberate. Think about your past life and what you have done. Reflect on the choices you have made and what drove you to make these choices. Consider whether, in your mind, they were good or bad decisions.
Read. Reading will occupy your mind and keep you from reconsidering your newly chosen lifestyle. Recommended are the works of Nietzsche (Knee-Chuh.)
Create your own morals. After reading the works of Nietzsche, you will have learned that distancing yourself from the herd is your first concern. Common morals in place in our society are based on what is good for the herd, not good for you. Contemplate your choices and decide on a set of morals you believe apply to you. Be aware - creating these morals for yourself means you are, in effect, creating the set of morals you believe everyone else must follow.

Tips

Breathe. Deep breaths will keep you from reacting.
Look them in the eye. Don't look away.
If you need a moment, take a time-out. This will help you center yourself and give you a pause to think about things from a position other than your own.
Keep an open mind.
Whenever confronted with emotion take a second and breath in and out and try to clear your thoughts.
When chosing a place to isolate yourself, first consider to what extent you want to give up emotion. Should you want to become a stone-cold, emotionless automaton, choose an area you niether hate nor love, an area that does not seem beautiful for you, nor ugly. The median area, the gray area, is the best area. You do not care. To you, there is no black or white.
If you still want to feel happy (either this is your choice, or you are too weak to become truly emotionless), choose an area you feel connection to.

Warnings

Be careful! Suppressing emotion is only a tool to be used in specific situations. Do not become so reliant on emotionlessness that you are unable to appropriately deal with emotional situations or so accustomed to emotionlessness that you cannot mentally access or understand your own heart.
Don't forget to keep with the program! If you are fighting with your spouse, and are using these techniques to keep calm, it is imperative that you don't ignore them while you're mentally listing off the number of times you've had to throw out a pen because you used every drop of ink.
It takes an incredibly strong person to become truly emotionless. Guage yourself honestly and figure out if you can make the sacrifices to reach true freedom from emotion.

Related wikiHows

Sources and Citations

http://www.huna.com for Huna meditation

Article provided by wikiHow, a collaborative writing project to build the world's largest, highest quality how-to manual. Please edit this article and find author credits at the original wikiHow article on How to Become Emotionless. All content on wikiHow can be shared under a Creative Commons license.

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Saturday, February 23, 2008