There's a version of Dr. Lisle's
Pleasure Trap lecture on youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxf4kj8Rb6YIt's a talk he gave for the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii back in 2005.
There are also some reviews of the lecture and the book on youtube. Just search on "Doug Lisle" and they'll pop up.
Here's my take on Dr. Lisle's
Pleasure Trap material. Basically, he explains that the situation we find ourselves in (overweight and sick) is due to genetic programming that served us well in a world of scarcity where calories were hard to come by, but that does not serve us well at all in a world of plenty where calories are easily available in large quantities.
As an example, he explains how moths are drawn to lights because in the dark night before artificial lights were invented, the moths that flew toward the moon wound up reproducing more (because they got higher and consequently had a better chance of finding a partner to mate with), so their offspring wound up with genetic programming that told them "Fly toward the light -- good things happen for those who fly toward the light."
Artificial lights pulled the rug out from under that genetic programming because the artificial lights DON'T offer the moths an advantage. Rather, they represent a deadly danger for the moth. The moon is so far away, no moth could ever reach it, so flying toward it is safe. But a nearby fire can be reached easily, and when the moth flies into it, they get toasted to a crisp.
Similarly, our genetic programming drives us to eat all the calories we can for the least possible energy expenditure. In a world of scarcity where calories were hard to come by, as they were for thousands (or millions) of years, this worked very well. When calories were available, we ate them. When they weren't, we might not be happy, but we'd be on the look out for the next opportunity to get some more.
Around ten thousand years ago, somebody invented agriculture and calories suddenly (in evolutionary terms, anyway) became MUCH more plentiful. Our genetic programming hasn't changed significantly in the last 10,000 years, so we're still motivated to get all the calories we can for the least expenditure of energy. For most of us, that means potato chips (or pizza or a burger and fries or ...) on the couch in front of the tube.
So that's what one side of the pleasure trap is: our genetic programming is constantly whispering to us, "You need calories or you'll die. There are some -- those potato chips. Eat them now! If you don't eat them now, you will die!" The genetic programming doesn't understand that too many calories can be just as bad as not enough. That was never a problem when the programming was being designed. So there's no cutoff to say, "Okay, you have enough calories for the next day or week or month now. You can forget about eating." It just keeps on forever encouraging us to eat more. It's very persistent and insistent and over time it's hard to resist consistently.
The other side of the pleasure trap is that we acclimate to pleasure over time. The first time you tasted a Dorito, it was SOOO GOOOD!! The second time, it was YUM! The third time it was, "Mm.. I really like these." The fourth time, "Mm... that's nice." After a while, you could down a whole bag while watching TV without even noticing. It was still enjoyable and you'd miss it if you didn't get it, but it was no longer as pleasurable as it was at first. To get the same level of pleasure, you'd have to have more intense flavor and more quantity. And that need for increased doses just keeps escalating because whatever level of pleasure we get to, we acclimate to it and want more. It's exactly the same way drugs behave.
So you've got your genetic programming pushing you from one side to eat everything in sight. On the other hand, the more you eat and more tasty stuff you eat, the more you need to eat to get the level of pleasure you're accustomed to, just like a cocaine addict has to keep increasing his consumption to get the same high.
The trap aspect is that if you try to stop eating at the pleasure level you're accustomed to, it feels AWFUL! It suddenly seems as if life isn't worth living. It's just like an alcoholic or addict trying get off their drug and looking into a bleak future that seems like it's going to be devoid of pleasure or fun ever anymore. So any attempt to reduce the level or intensity of consumption makes you feel like you're being punished. You are -- your genetic programming is punishing you for going against its wishes. It wants you to eat all the calories that are available because it "thinks" your life depends on doing that.
The only way to escape the pleasure trap is to understand its dynamic and tough it out until your tastes and expectations reset. It takes a few weeks, but then you're free.
There's more, of course -- the motivational triad (pain, pleasure, energy conservation), how our food choices affect our relationships (and vice versa), what it takes to overcome the genetic programming and get conscious control of our eating, etc. Dr. Lisle explains it much better than I can and he's a lot more entertaining. Also, he keeps reworking his presentations, adding new information and examples, and framing things in new ways. So if you get one DVD of his and have the chance to get another one another time, go for the second one, too. It won't just repeat the first one. And the book is really good, too. The book was my first exposure to his teaching and I doubt I could have gotten out of the pleasure trap without having read it.
So all the stuff about fat people being lazy and lacking in willpower that so many people seem to believe is really not a helpful way to look at the situation. We're all lazy in the sense that we're genetically programmed to conserve energy. That's why people get such a charge out of getting something for free -- I didn't have to work for it! No energy expenditure at all! That idea lights up the human brain because that's how it's programmed.
And the willpower we can exercise consciously is like a baby next to an 800 pound gorilla compared to the pervasive, unconscious power of our genetic programming. Unless we can get the unconscious portion of ourselves working for us, willpower means nothing. Once we get the unconscious portion working for us, willpower again means nothing. The unconscious is going to run the show. If we can get it going in a positive direction, we win. If not, not. And blame and judgement is pointless. We don't get to make choices about this stuff most of the time.
We can use our willpower to do strategic things like cleaning house and getting rid of all the bad food. If the potato chips are still there when I get hungry and tired, the programming is going to take over and I will eat them.
If you made it this far, congratulations. My fingers got carried away with themselves. I hope at least some of this has been helpful and given you an idea of what the Pleasure Trap is about.