The
output of this processing frequently but not always leads to acting
in some manner. Acting can be either an internal action such as a
judgment or an external action such as behavior or both. As implied
at the end of the paragraph above, not all of the processing that is
being referred to is available to conscious awareness. I'll have more
to say on this topic later.
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Foundations
Over
the years, one conclusion that I have reached is that change agents
such as teachers, therapists, coaches or parents seldom succeed at
producing lasting change in clients, willing or not. In the latter
part of my university career, I became an advocate for what I called a cooperative alliance (see Definitions) as the approach most
likely to enable change agents to effect long-lasting change in their
clients. A cooperative alliance simply means that efforts to bring
about change should be grounded in a cooperative relationship between
the agent and the client. Further, the agent, for ethical reasons,
must rely upon persuasion as his or her principle technique
for effecting change. Ethically speaking, I think this is the only
type of relationship that should exist between a change agent and his
or her client. However, I have come to the conclusion that persuasion
is not an especially powerful tool for change, and too often
frustration over lack of progress leads agents to employ more
intrusive methods. These methods may include drugs, reward,
punishment, coercion and manipulation among others.
I think that the
reason why the use of persuasion by change agents is often
frustrating is pretty much for the same reason that our attempts to
change ourselves is often frustrating. At a deep level, we aren't
listening and responding to either a change agent or ourselves. There
appears to be a pretty good reason for this "deafness." A
number of names could apply to this "message deafness," but
for our purposes let's call it automatic programming (AP),by which I mean biological and
psychological processes that are outside of our conscious awareness
or that we may only be dimly aware of. Below, I will briefly
describe several ways of looking at developmental outcomes that bear
on automatic programming. All of these perspectives are complex but
the essential ideas are provided.
My first
recollection of reading about automatic programming was during my
early years in graduate school. I was not introduced to this
literature by any of my professors but through my own independent
reading. I first encountered this idea through the writings of a
former psychoanalyst, John Lilly, who among other things was known
for his research on communication with dolphins. Following this
research, he turned to looking for more powerful ways to bring about
psychological and behavioral change in people. Lilly wrote a somewhat
obtuse but interesting little book that was first self-published and
later commercially published. The title of his book was Programming
and Meta-Programming in the Human Bio-Computer.
It was Lilly's
contention that we all have automatic programs that control most of
our lives and that many of these programs, and especially the more
general and inclusive programs, have their origins in our childhood.
I'll have more to say about this later. Changing these programs that
run us like robots is a daunting task. We have very limited access to
these programs and thus to the possibility of "rewriting"
them. Lilly used a process similar to meditation to determine the
components in what he called a programming
loop.
Apparently, this was not powerful enough for him and he tried
several other techniques, none of which I recommend to you, including
sensory deprivation in water tanks and the use of LSD. His goal was
to break through the barriers that shield us off from access to
functions operating outside of our consciousness. Once access is
gained, it then becomes possible to more directly and effectively
work on changing our programming and thereby our lives.
I also learned of
the work of George Kelly through a graduate course in personality
theory. Kelly, in my thinking, has not received the attention that he
deserves. Kelly began to formulate his perspective on behavior
through his work delivering itinerant psychological services to
small, isolated schools in rural Kansas. Kelly and his students saw
many problem children who were referred to their mobile clinic (a
refurbished school bus) by their teachers. Over time, Kelly realized
that in many cases he was asking the wrong question about a referred
child. He thought that instead of asking, "What's wrong with
this child?" that he should instead be asking, "What is it
about this child's teacher that makes him or her think this child has
a problem?"
Changing his root
question led Kelly to develop a complex theory of personality that
was published in a two-volume work titled The Psychology of
Personal Constructs. Kelly proposed that our thinking and
behavior are controlled by a hierarchy of cognitive constructs, where
each construct is similar to a bipolar scale. Each construct is
anchored at its poles by positive and negative examples gained from
experience. Kelly proposed that our construct system begins,
structurally speaking, with a core construct at the apex of a
pyramid. Below the core construct are superordinate and subordinate constructs that look something like a military
chain of command or an organizational chart for the leadership of a
large corporation.
We construe
the world through our construct system, or some might say we filter
and interpret the world through our constructs. Kelly thought that
constructs were not necessarily inaccessible but rather their
accessibility depended upon their permeability, which varied
among individuals. Nevertheless, the more basic the construct the
more difficult it would be to access and change. Depending on the
permeability of a construct system, access to and change in the
constructs would be of variable difficulty. Unfortunately, in Kelly's
view, those individuals whose construct system is most problematic
and in need of change will be the ones whose construct system is
least permeable. Two techniques that grew out of attempts to
introduce change into construct systems include scripting and role repertory therapy, which we'll return to later.
A few years out of
graduate school, I encountered another perspective in A Guide to
Rational Living that resonated with me. This book introduced me
to the Rational-Emotive Therapy of Albert Ellis. Ellis frames his
perspective in terms of beliefs (see Definitions). Ellis proposes that our responses, both
emotional and behavioral, are consequences of our beliefs. He
offers a sequential analysis of behavior that in its basic form is
represented by A-B-C, where the notations represent antecedent,belief and consequence. A consequence can be either an
emotional response or an emotional response and a
behavioral response. Thus, the emotional response can serve as the
motivation for behavior but doesn't have to lead to an overt
behavioral response in every instance.
Ellis talks about root beliefs and immediate beliefs. These are similar
to the superordinate and subordinate constructs referred to in the
discussion of Kelly's perspective. Ellis thinks that most of our
beliefs are acquired during childhood through socialization both
within the family as well as in the community through, for example,
churches, schools, social and political organizations, peer groups
and popular media. We process the external world and our experience
in it through the beliefs we have acquired. Dysfunctional beliefs
either prevent us from developing our full potential, or worse, cause
us to behave in counterproductive ways. The first purpose of
intervention then is to challenge and dispute
dysfunctional beliefs and then to replace those beliefs with more
functional ones. Typically, much of this work is done through dialog
and through cognitive rehearsal of alternative beliefs,
followed by homework assignments where alternative beliefs are
applied in role play scenarios and then in a real situation.
The final
perspective on behavior that gained traction with me did not arise
until I was well into my university career. I came across this
approach largely because of a son who was an engineering student and
took an elective in cognitive psychology. In the psychology class, he
was assigned to develop his own personal model for behavior. He chose
to make use of control theory from engineering as the
foundation for his model. Control theory in engineering is the basis
for automatic systems like the thermostat in your home and the cruise
control in your car. In the course of researching this assignment, he
learned that an engineer, William Powers, had already developed such
a model, which was described in his book Behavior:
The Control of Perception. My son's paper on this topic
stimulated me to explore Powers' model.
Powers' perceptual
control theory (PCT)posits that we all
have an organization of goals (a.k.a. values), standards
(for those goals), programs (a repertory of responses for
achieving those goals and meeting their standards), and perceptual
variables (things self-monitored to determine if our programs are
achieving our goals and meeting their standards). Problems can arise
from any of these components in our perceptual control hierarchy. The
top three levels of this hierarchy – goals, standards and programs
– give another way of talking about those learned ways of
interpreting and interacting with the world that are acquired during
development.
The work on client
change that I'm familiar with using PCT has taken place in schools.
The approach taken in schools consists of attempting to get errant
students to voluntarily align their goals, standards and programs
with those of the school. Until such time as the alignment occurs, a
student is not permitted to participate as a member of the general
school population.
In summary, we have
a diverse collection of perspectives on behavior that have arisen at
somewhat different times, from people of various backgrounds who all
seem to be coming to a similar conclusion, albeit using somewhat
different language. What they all seem to have in common are the
following:
-
1. Most of our
daily functioning is governed by automatic programs,
-
2. Automatic
programs largely run in a stealth mode in the background,
-
3. Most but not all
automatic programs are acquired during development,
-
4. Automatic
programs are difficult to access,
-
5. Attempts to
change these programs from the level of conscious awareness using
persuasion (counseling/ therapy) are not particularly effective.
Automatic
Programs
When a newborn
child enters the world it has a lot to learn before it can function
as a self-sustaining adult in a human community. There are many
things that need to be acquired, not the least of which are motor
skills and language. These lay a foundation upon which much other
learning must take place. We can capture most of these other areas
under the umbrella term of culture. Culture includes the
knowledge and beliefs of our family and our family's community. These
can include everything from demonstrable facts to pure flights of
fantasy and everything in between.
Leaving aside the
hard factual material, which for most of us comprises a small portion
of our learned content, what's left might be loosely classified under
the term beliefs. A prominent professor of psychology, Michael
Gazzaniga, has defined humans as “...a
belief creating species.” He thinks the evidence shows that
humans are predisposed to see associations between phenomena and
generate explanations for these associations. Because of our
bias to engage in this type of creative cognition, we frequently
create erroneous explanations or beliefs. Generally speaking, as long
as the balance between functional beliefs and dysfunctional beliefs
is favorable, we manage to muddle through and even thrive in some
instances. The point is that our learning environment, especially our
early learning environment conveys a lot of dysfunctional beliefs to
most of us. The reason that the early learning environment is so
important is that we are most vulnerable to irrational and
dysfunctional beliefs during this period. We are vulnerable because
we have little in the way of critical thinking skills, because their
acquisition is developmentally delayed to facilitate rapid learning.
During most of our
developmental period, our brains function in a mode that allows
rapid, uncritical absorption of all our environment has to teach us.
Patterns of electrical activity determine the mode in which our brain
functions. Each pattern is somewhat like a different sensory
modality. From birth to around age two the dominant activity is delta
wave activity. This period is followed by dominance of theta
wave activity from around age two to around age six. From around age
six to around age 12 the alpha pattern is dominant. After age
12 the adult pattern of dominant beta wave activity is
typical.
Looking backward
through this developmental sequence of brain activity, the patterns
could be thought of as a sequence of decreasing criticality. During
the first twelve years of life, we uncritically ingest a plethora of
information and beliefs in preparation for becoming self-sustaining
adults. Evolutionarily speaking, humans are considered adult when
they achieve reproductive capability, which is about the same time
that the beta pattern in brain activity becomes dominant. Children
learn much more informally than formally through what is described as vicarious or social learning by Albert Bandura in Social Learning Theory.
In
recent times adulthood has been pushed out to the late teens or even
early twenties. Upon reaching adulthood, we have a large set of
automatic programs that have been established and function like an
autopilot. It has been estimated that outside of conscious awareness
as much as four billion bits of information per second are processed.
This information arises from both the internal environment of the
body as well as from the external environment. All of this
information is processed through parallel programs running
simultaneously and may account for as much as 99.99% of all
processing. These programs produce output and send signals to
maintain a wide variety of functions and responses. This is in many
ways a very efficient system because a lot of routine requirements
are handled automatically and don't require any attention.
Psychological
research has shown that we are capable of making emotional
associations, initiate thoughts and make decisions without being
aware that we are doing so. These automatic responses are then, with
a slight delay, transmitted to the body and in some cases into
conscious awareness. The built-in delay is the closest thing we have
to a fail-safe system. The conscious mind has a small window of
opportunity to interrupt, delay, stop or alter the response
originating outside of conscious awareness. Most of the time the
conscious mind is not even aware of the output from these automatic
programs (APs) and even when aware of the output we
usually just look on like a bystander. This is what some call
following the path of least resistance.
Gazzaniga's work
implies that our great capacity for generating explanations allows us
to create post hoc rationalizations to explain what we do even when
it can be demonstrated that we are consciously clueless about why we
have reacted in a particular way in a given situation. In short, we
usually function like zombies who, under the control of APs,
create narrative fictions to explain why we think, feel, say and do
things. These narrative fictions or stories that we spin about our fictive-selves represent our ego identity or self-identity. It
is important to recognize that ego is a fiction and not to become
overly identified with it. It is a tool to help us negotiate the
material world but it is just a tool.
The adult conscious
mind seems to have two basic functions. One function is largely
oriented toward dealing with circumstances that arise for which there
are no APs. The conscious mind is often said to be the source for executive control functions that lead to selective attention,
problem solving and deliberate actions. The conscious mind can
process about two thousand bits of info per second (less than .01% of
all processing) and uses serial processing. The conscious mind is
like an evolutionary afterthought compared to the processing that
occurs outside of conscious awareness. The conscious mind is directed
outward and generally gives little or no attention to the APs running
outside of awareness. Further, the conscious mind is usually critical
of input that contradicts existing programming.
The other function
of the conscious mind and the function that provides the resistance
to contradictory input is creation and maintenance of the ego
or self-identity (a.k.a fictive-self). More will be said about this
below. However, when the conscious mind is not engaged in executive
functions, it seems to be busy embellishing, maintaining rehearsing
and reinforcing its self-identity. The “idle” thoughts (e.g.,
self-talk and memories) you often find yourself occupied with are
usually related to this function.
Pathways
In the beta
dominant mode of brain function, the APs are almost completely sealed
off from the conscious mind. Many psychologists, including those
discussed earlier, recognize that APs are largely responsible of our
problems and our less than optimal functioning. APs often do not
serve us well and in some cases sabotage and undermine our ability to
function successfully. The problem is to find ways to get at these
troublesome APs and to modify, eliminate or replace them. What seems
clear is that what holds the most promise are techniques that can
open a pathway between conscious awareness and APs.
There is, however,
a recent neuroscience finding that is relevant to this problem. What
this research found was that the pattern of connected neurons that
define habitual responses (APs) have relatively rigid connections
between synapses that make them more resistant to change. Apparently,
this is accomplished by reducing the amount of an amino acid
(cysteine). It appears that these connections can be made more
flexible and easier to change by taking a nutritional supplement
(N-Acetyl Cysteine – NAC). Thus, it might be useful to take this
supplement when attempting to modify or eliminate an AP.
Finally, all of the
pathways that will be described in the coming pages will always urge
you to put desired changes into physical
action. This is a critical step and there is a reason
for this that generally escapes our notice. Recent research in
cognitive psychology has opened up a field of study referred to as embodied thought. What this research is discovering is that
thought is not confined to the brain but is intimately connected with
bodily processes and even our experiences. So, when you come up with
an idea about how you would like to change yourself, it is an
incomplete thought until it is completed in your body. It isn't
completed in your body until you start consistently acting on it.
Your ideas can give direction to your behavior and feelings but your
behavior and feelings validate or invalidate your ideas or thoughts.
Some of the
earliest attempts to get past the beta-dominated critical mind
included hypnosis, which held some promise, but got largely
supplanted by psychoanalysis, which had a greater aura of science
about it. The principle tools used by psychoanalysis to get at what
it called the unconscious (i.e., material outside of conscious
awareness) were free association and dream analysis.
Many variations on these processes evolved and are generally captured
under the rubric of dynamic psychotherapy. This approach has had some
success but is not especially effective in bringing about lasting
change.
Many subsequent
approaches that developed such as behavior therapy simply dismissed
the problem and considered so called unconscious influences as
irrelevant at best, and at worse, fantasy. These more direct
approaches had pretty good success in changing specific behaviors and
even constellations of related behaviors. What this approach
encountered difficulty with was getting broad generalization of its
effects. It also could not readily deal with client-identified
problems that did not map well onto its conception of what were
legitimate targets for its change strategies.
So what do we know
about getting past the resistance of the conscious mind and its ego
identity to effect change in automatic programs? There is an
intermediate brain state that is largely dominated by alpha activity.
This state of mind we will call the inner ego (a.k.a.,
the pathway to APs).
Pathway One into
the Inner Ego
A tried and proven
method that has been with us for millennia is meditation.
There are many varieties of meditation, but they usually focus on
sitting quietly and occupying conscious awareness with the focus
of attention on a target such as an object (e.g., candle), sound
(e.g., aum) or process (e.g., breathing). Eyes may be open or closed
unless you have chosen a visual target. This is not a method for
rapid change and requires dedication to the practice over time.
As one sits quietly
and attentively focused on a selected target, cognitions such as
thoughts, feelings, sensations and impulses to action will arise and
enter your awareness. The practice is to simply note these and
refocus attention on the target. There is a tendency in beginners to
shift the focus of attention to the new cognition that has entered
conscious awareness. This typically takes one of two forms. The first
is to follow the cognition wherever it mentally takes one. Think of a
hound dog following a scent trail. The second is to drill down and
reveal the details comprising the cognition. If you are familiar with
compressed computer files, think of extracting a .zip file. If you
find that you have done either, just note the nature of the cognition
and shift the focus of attention back to the target.
Noting the nature
of a cognition can be categorical. Label the cognition from a
classification scheme such as planning, ego narrative,boredom, anger, impulse, fantasy and so on.
Develop any classification and label system that resonates with you.
A very simple system can be pretty inclusive. For example, I have
used a two- category classification that employs the labels ego
chatter and fantasy dancing. The point is to simply
acknowledge in some way the cognition that is intruding into
awareness and then go back to your original target. This is the first
step in a meditation practice. The objective is to simply recognize
that you are the observer of this mental activity
(good, bad and ugly) and not the mental activity itself.
The second step is
specific to mental activity that seems to be arising from a
problematic AP. Meditation will make you much more aware of this
content because it will regularly intrude on your effort to maintain
a singular attentive focus. Why this occurs will be discussed in more
detail later. One way to recognized this type of activity is by a
negative emotional reaction (a.k.a. contraction) such as anxiety,
anger, fear, self-pity, etc. to the activity. A second way is to
recognize an avoidance response such as an effort to suppress the
mental activity or to quickly generate a mental distraction. By
simply sitting with the content believed to be arising from a
problematic AP, one can neutralize negative reactions to the content.
This step in
meditation works much like a desensitization program in behavior
therapy. For example, suppose you have an AP that judges moral worth
by the degree to which a person is involved in what you consider
productive behavior. This AP is activated when you observe someone
being idle for an extended period and an evaluative thought
associated with a negative emotion arises. The evaluative thought
might be summed up with a label such as "lazy" or
"deadbeat". The emotion might be anger or disgust. While in
meditation your unemployed younger brother's name arises in awareness
followed by the evaluative thought (lazy) and an emotional response (anger).
Your goal in the
second step should be to keep the mind as quiet and calm as possible
while the thought and feeling are passing through awareness. Don't
try to get rid of the thought and feeling but try not to allow
yourself to be distracted by and entangled in them. If you simply
note them and shift your attention back to your target, the cognition
and associated emotional reaction will produce less of an impact on
you. You should continue to treat all future occurrences in a similar
manner. Repeated occurrences of an AP that is ignored weakens the AP
until it ceases to be automatic or simply drops out of your
repertoire of programs (a.k.a. extinction).
Another example
might be an impulse that drives a habitual behavior such as cigarette
smoking. The AP for smoking tobacco includes biological, social and
behavioral dimensions. This compound AP is not easy to ignore when it
activates. Its impulses are usually responded to automatically.
However, if you can learn to simply note the impulse and refocus your
attention during meditation, the link between the impulse and acting
on it will be weakened. Thus, you will begin to strengthening your
voluntary control over the AP when it sends you an impulse to act. If
you can take the AP off of automatic during meditation, you can begin
extending this skill to other situations. In short, by neutralizing
the AP, you can learn to be a free agent instead of a zombie.
Meditators often go
through a series of stages during the practice of this pathway. The
stage labels given below are descriptive and you will probably
recognize all of them at some point in a meditation practice:
1. Monkey mind
(thoughts zip around like ricochets in an iron pot) early Step
1
2. Hummingbird
mind (thoughts flit about but with pauses) late Step 1
3. Teflon mind
(cognitions just drift by like clouds in the sky) Step 2
4. Natural mind
(Undisturbed awareness, more on this later) Step 3
Pathway Two into
the Inner Ego
The second pathway,
hypnosis, was most popular in the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries but continues to attract interest today. The focus in this
section will be on autosuggestion
(a.k.a. self-hypnosis). All hypnosis is self-hypnosis because it is
entered into by free choice. Although often referred to as a trance,
hypnosis is not a trance but a method of systematically accessing
content normally outside of conscious awareness. The purpose of
autosuggestion is to explore programs and "rewrite" those
programs through suggestion. Recognizing that all hypnosis is
self-hypnosis, you can effectively dispense with the need for a
hypnotist, especially for working on matters related to personal
development.
Metaphorically
speaking, your mind consists of three portions. The part you are most
familiar with is conscious awareness, which is managed by the outer ego. This
portion of your mind is small and is very specialized and resides
largely in the neocortex or frontal lobe of the brain. Its functions
are characterized primarily by beta wave activity and in exceptional
individuals, who have an extensive history of meditation, by gamma
wave patterns of activity (see Appendix 2). It can process only about
2000 bits of input per second. It processes internal signals sent by
the body indicating pain, pleasure or needs that require conscious
attention. It is also constantly scanning and attending to external
aspects of the environment that are likely to require some
non-habitual response, such as making a judgment about which of
several algorithms would provide the most efficient computational
solution for a problem on an exam. These functions when active in
conscious awareness, I'll refer to as conscious mind, as distinct
from simple conscious awareness. Conscious mind, to use a
computer analogy, largely employs serial processing. The conscious
mind employs what psychologists call an executive control system,
which controls selective attention and employs goals and priorities
to help it manage input. It can also call on memory for stored
information and skills that might be useful.
The conscious mind
makes possible the application of logic and analytic thinking to
problem solving, decision making, planning, expressive communication
through language and deliberate action. Your conscious mind can focus
on a problem and process both incoming information and memory to
arrive at a solution, such as working out the best arrangement for a
load of furniture coming into your house. For example, exploring the
material on this site and developing a plan to use it to improve your
personal functioning is done by the conscious mind. Your conscious
mind is prone to becoming bored when the input is too routine and
turns to fantasy or other mental diversions. The conscious mind is
also prone to distraction when an object or event with high emotional
valence enters the environment being monitored, such as the
appearance of a sexy billboard ad while driving down the highway.
Think of the conscious mind as the eye at the end of a submarine
periscope poking just above the water and scanning the environment
for a target. The lookout peering through and guiding the
periscope is the outer
ego processing what is seen.
The part of the
mind that does the heavy lifting is outside of awareness and not
easily accessible. I'll refer to this as the non-conscious mind,
which I like to think of as managed by the inner ego. This
part of your mind is very large and includes a wide range of
functions. Its functions are characterized primarily by theta and
delta wave patterns of activity. It is estimated that it can process
4,000,000,000 bits of input per second. The non-conscious mind
handles 99.99 percent of your mental processing. It receives input
from every sensory system that you have, whether tuned to internal or
external data. There is even some evidence suggesting that it reads
data from the energy fields that surround everything and especially
living things. There are those who suggest that the non-conscious
mind even has access to collective aspects of humanity's
consciousness (a.k.a. archetypes).
The non-conscious
mind operating outside of conscious awareness, to use a computer
analogy, employs simultaneous, parallel processing. This aspect of
mind employs what might be called an autopilot control system, which
draws on a library of biological programs and learned programs
(a.k.a. APs) whose foundations are root or core beliefs (or
assumptions). These APs help manage default decisions, habitual
behavior, emotional reactions and memories. This aspect of mind makes
possible the application of generative processing and creative
thinking to problem solving, discovery and personal expression. It
monitors and regulates all of your bodily functions such as heart
rate, respiration rate, blood pressure and so on. It also runs
automatic programs to produce habitual responses such as walking,
riding a bicycle or keyboarding.
Some habitual
responses include emotional reactions to various stimuli such as disgusting foods or people that remind you of someone with whom
you've had negative experiences. This processing power and its output
would overwhelm you if all of it were channeled into conscious
awareness. In some cases, such as autonomic physiological processes,
the path into conscious awareness is turned off but can be opened up
through training and practice using certain meditation techniques or
through technological methods such as biofeedback. A lot of the
output however is blocked from conscious awareness by conditioned
filters or psychological constructs that censor most of the output
but allow certain types of information to pass into conscious
awareness. Think of the non-conscious mind as a submarine beneath the
sea that has its periscope poking just above the surface of the water
and the inner
ego as the submarine's captain who commands and directs
the submarine and its crew.
Think of the sub-conscious mind as
just outside of awareness and more easily accessible. It overlaps the
conscious and non-conscious portions of the mind and serves as an
interface. This is where communication between the outer ego and
inner ego can develop. The conscious mind has access to the
sub-conscious when its functions are characterized primarily by alpha
wave activity. Thus, the conscious mind has access to the
sub-conscious when daydreaming, "spaced" out, engaged in a
mindless automatic activity, when prayerful, in meditation or under
hypnosis. Our focus here is autosuggestion,
which is a systematic approach to entering the sub-conscious with the
intent of communication with the inner ego.
Effective
autosuggestion has several requirements. First, one must be motivated
to change and be ready to embrace change. If, on some level, one
truly doesn't want to change, then autosuggestion will not succeed.
Second, one must accept suggestions without analyzing what's being
said. This requires that you generate an alpha dominant brain state
to suspend critical thinking. The alpha state is most easily attained
by a deep state of physical relaxation. Relaxation is greatly aided
by the use of diaphragmatic breathing (see Definitions). You should certainly do this during
autosuggestion sessions but it would be better if you made a
conscious effort to breathe this way all the time until it becomes a
new AP. Third, you must give your undivided attention to the
suggestions being sub-vocally spoken to yourself or being delivered
by means of an audio recording. A state of relaxed but focused
awareness (attentive but not willful) is conducive to implanting new
APs or modifying existing APs through suggestion. Meditation practice
can improve one's ability to enter into a state of relaxed, focused
awareness.
There are reasons
to assume that there is a direct connection between your mind and
your body. For example, if you consistently perceive your environment
as threatening and you are defensive, your body will respond as if
under attack. This will put you in a chronic state of stress. Chronic
stress diminishes the resources available to your immune system as
well as many core organ systems. Eventually, this state of affairs
will lead to tissue damage and organ dysfunction or succumbing to
opportunistic diseases caused by bacteria or viruses that your body
can no longer effectively defend against. Likewise, expectations
consistently held tend to become core beliefs or root assumptions and
unfold through your life experience. This is what is sometimes
referred to as a self-fulfilling prophecy. For example, if you expect
to fail and come to believe that you are a failure, you will fail.
Root or core
beliefs are employed by the non-conscious as the basis for APs that
implement those beliefs. When they are destructive beliefs, things
frequently seem to go against you and leave you puzzled about why you
just can't succeed. If you're fortunate enough to have constructive
beliefs, you may feel like your successes are due to either
exceptional ability or good luck. The longer a belief has been
operating at the non-conscious level the more difficult it is to
alter. Autosuggestion can help you effectively alter dysfunctional
beliefs or establish functional beliefs that you would like to take
the place of dysfunctional beliefs.
To be truly
effective, suggestions must be acted on because there is a natural feedback loop between what we think and what we do. No matter
how often you tell yourself something, it will not become operative
if you never act on it and give it validity. Acting on new beliefs is
not always easy because resistance from older and long established
beliefs have the power of habit behind them. Autosuggestion can help
you insert new beliefs into the sub-conscious where they can be taken
up by the non-conscious. Acting on these new beliefs will help you
to overcome the resistance of habitual thinking and acting. However,
you must muster up the will and courage to act on your new beliefs in
order for them to become reality.
I have provided a
self-induction narrative you can use "as is" or as a
template for constructing your own self-induction narrative for
autosuggestion activities (In Appendix 3). You should add your own
suggestions at the end of the induction narrative. You should always
state suggestions in positive terms and tie them to the outcome that
you wish to achieve. You should always express a suggestion in the
present tense so that it implies that the objective of the suggestion
has already been accomplished. Write down your suggestions and then
analyze them against the above criteria.
Focus on one
objective at a time. Use several repetitions of each suggestion and
varied ways of wording the suggestion. Work with an objective for a
minimum of a week or ten days. If progress is not being made by then,
think carefully about your objective and suggestions and whether or
not they might be improved upon. Continue to apply the autosuggestion
technique. You can either memorize the induction narrative and
suggestions to be spoken sub-vocally or you can use an audio
recording to present the narrative and suggestions.
Some contrasting
examples:
Don't say,
"Cigarettes will damage my health and I must stop smoking."
Say, "It
feels great to be free of cigarettes and to enjoy subtle tastes and
smells."
Don't say, "I
don't have social anxiety and I will be more socially outgoing."
Say, "I
am socially confidant and enjoy interacting with people."
Don't say, "I
will pray for the world to find peace."
Say, "I
treat all living beings with dignity and respect."
Don't say, "I
will meditate every day."
Say, "My
daily meditation is mentally and spiritually refreshing."
Note:
An abbreviation of this approach is the use of handwriting to
move your suggestions past the critical outer ego. Handwriting is an
AP that already resides outside of conscious awareness. You can use
this AP as a backdoor into the sub-conscious. Simply sit down with
your list of suggestions, a pad and pencil at a desk, table or other
writing surface. Choose a site that is quiet and where you can have a
few undisturbed minutes. Take several deep breaths using
diaphragmatic breathing and focus on letting your body relax. Once
relaxed, focus your attention on the writing task before you.
Deliberately write out each variation of the target suggestion on
your paper, giving the meaning of the suggestion your full attention
as you write it. Repeat this several times. Write with the intention
of implementing the suggestion in your daily life and pick one
variation of the suggestion to use as a mental focus for the day. Use
the suggestion like a silent mantra to keep your mind focused at
times during the day when you are not fully occupied. Daily writing
can be used to reinforce an audio-based form of autosuggestion that
you may not be able to implement on a daily basis.
You can also piggyback on other motor skills that are established APs. For example, you
could use your audio recording of suggestions while jogging or use
sub-vocal or vocal recitation of your suggestions said in cadence
with your jogging. The critical idea to keep in mind here is that
perceptual motor skills are by their nature APs and provide you with
an established avenue into the sub-conscious. Once the pathway is
open, you can pair the AP with the material that you want to input
through the sub-conscious and let association with the AP work as the
carrier. Remember that to anchor your suggestions in the
sub-conscious and transform them into APs, you must act on them. The
feedback between cognitive intention and live action is critical to
building or revising an AP.
Pathway
Three into the Inner Ego
Pathway three is contemplation in which the
focus is on cognitive
associations guided by
an intention
to elucidate the elements in a problematic AP. This pathway
has some similarity to Pathway One. Success is more likely with this
method if you've had some experience with meditation, as described
earlier. Your best clue about an AP is a response that you observe in
yourself that repeats. The response might be simply a thought that
carries an evaluative message about some person or situation, an
emotional reaction to a person or situation, a behavior directed at
some person or situation or some combination of these responses. The
response may be negative or positive in character. For example, you
might have an inexplicable negative reaction to a potential client or
employer that interferes with you establishing rapport. Or, you might
have a positive reaction that is objectively unwarranted to a
colleague, friend or family member’s misfortune.
The critical step
in employing this approach is to be an attentive and astute enough
observer of your own functioning to recognize a problematic AP in
operation. Sometimes these APs are so obvious that they are easy to
recognize. However, some of the most insidious and damaging APs are
subtle and not easily recognized. Thus, an effort to take seriously
the old adage “know thyself” has merit. If you are interested in
identifying dysfunctional APs, you should try to live in a reflective
manner not a reactive one. Keeping daily notes reflecting on people
or events each day that seem noteworthy for any reason is a good way
to become more reflective. Read back over your notes from time to
time and watch for any type of pattern that seems to be present. APs
are repetitive and will create recognizable patterns, if you have a
record. Sometimes memory is sufficient to identify a pattern but most
people shouldn't rely on memory alone.
When you've
identified what you have reason to think is a problematic response,
it is time to employ contemplation. Proceed as if you are going to
meditate (review Pathway One, if necessarily). Instead of focusing on
a target such as an object, sound or process, focus your attention on
the problematic response. Keep in mind the idea of a programming loop
that was discussed earlier in the section on John Lilly. There are
four possible types of elements in a programming loop: activating
event, belief (see Definitions) about the event, emotional response
and behavioral response. The end of many loops is an effect
that feeds backs to you. This may be the only element that you are
consciously aware of.
Take
as an example a woman (Angie) who repeatedly forms relationships with
self-centered men, where she is a giver and they are a taker in the
relationship. This “one-way relationship” effect may be the only
element of which she is consciously aware. In this example, Angie
would begin contemplation using “one-way relationship” as the
focus. What Angie should do is allow her mind to free associate on
this focus and watch for other potential elements to arise into
awareness. Often these elements will reveal themselves in the form of
memories. The intent is find possible candidates for the missing
elements of behavioral and emotional consequences, beliefs and
setting events that comprise the loop. Any time a generalization
seems to be available for one of the elements, Angie should
incorporate it into her contemplative focus. Generalization here
refers to some common theme that can be extracted from several
memories that appear to be associated with an element in the loop
(more on generalization below). She should continue the process until
all potential elements in the AP appear to be identified. The next
step is to apply this sequence to each previous instance in her
experience and see if the elements fit the situation and feel “right”
to her. If any element doesn't seem to fit well into the AP loop,
Angie should work some more on that element until she has a good fit.
Suppose that the AP
consists of elements like the following. The characteristics in men
that capture her attention are some of the same characteristics that
she recalls were prominent in her father. Angie's father was a “user”
who was very charming and skillful at manipulating people into
attaching to him so that he could use them to do his bidding. As a
young naive girl, Angie had never understood this about her father.
Basking in his “approval,” she never realized that she was being
manipulated for her father's benefit and adored him. As an adult,
when Angie encounters charming manipulative men (activating event)
they evoke in her the belief that they are adorable like her father.
This belief in turn evokes a very positive emotional response to such
men. Being positively motivated, Angie behaves toward these men in
such a way that they recognize her as easily used and take advantage
of her. Until she employed contemplation and identified the elements
in the AP that had repeatedly drawn her into one-way relationships,
Angie had little hope of escaping from the effects of this
problematic AP.
Now that the AP and
its elements have been identified, Angie is in a position to engage
it as a free agent. The first step is to find an alternative belief
about the meaning of her childhood interactions with her father. She
has recognized her father's behavior as manipulative and
self-centered. She now understands that her father's intentions were
not trustworthy. Thinking through what she has learned about the AP,
she recognizes that she should feel apprehensive about men who act
like her father. She recognizes that if she had such a feeling of
apprehension it would lead to cautious interaction with or even
avoiding such men.
Angie is now ready
to return to the contemplative method to reprogram the AP by working
back through her previous one-way relationships while applying her
alternative belief that their style of interaction suggests
manipulative intent. As she contemplates each of her past
experiences, she imagines her initial encounter with each man,
observes his behavior, feels apprehensive about what she sees and
withdraws. After she has successfully imagined avoiding these prior
problem relationships, Angie moves on to imagining new encounters. In
these new, imagined encounters with men whose behavior reminds her of
her father, she practices ways of cautiously interacting with these
hypothetical men in order to reveal the intent behind their behavior.
If she has willing friends, she might do some role play activities
based on hypothetical encounters as well. The repeated and deliberate
working through the AP imaginatively while in a contemplative state
of mind and engaging in role plays are reprogramming techniques.
Angie wants to turn the problematic AP that had caused her many
difficulties in the past into a self-enhancing AP that will
positively assist her in the future. Once she feels that her
reprogramming efforts have initially established the revised AP, she
must begin to deliberately put it into practice in her life. This
last step is the key to the AP being finalized and becoming
automatic.
Recall
that earlier terms such as root belief and immediate belief as well
as superordinate and subordinate construct were introduced. You can
think of a root belief or superordinate construct as the basis for a generalized AP that
may have multiple immediate beliefs or subordinate constructs. These particular APs are
derivative APs originating from a generalized AP. When a generalized
AP is identified through contemplation and reprogrammed, there is the
potential for a whole host of particular APs being affected by the
reprogramming. It is perfectly fine to target a particular belief
driving an AP for change but it is more efficient to target
generalized beliefs when possible.
Here is a simple
example. An individual has the following particular beliefs: 1) that
he or she must be perceived as an outstanding employee; 2) that he or
she must be viewed as having an ideal spouse; 3) that he or she must
be perceived as an exemplary parent; and 4) that he or she must be
perceived as financially successful. Each AP associated with these
beliefs will manifest emotionally and behaviorally in different ways.
However, there is a fairly obvious theme in the four beliefs. The
theme is simply “I must be perceived as perfect” or some similar
generalization. The individual's belief in perfectionism is the root,
superordinate or generalized belief that can generate an almost
endless sequence of associated immediate, subordinate or particular
beliefs. Identifying and reprogramming this root belief has the
potential to impact a number of beliefs that are simply particular
variations on it. The contemplation method can be used on a
generalized belief following the same process used for a particular
belief.
Pathway Four into
the Inner Ego
Pathway four is scripting, in which the focus is on writing a new personal
narrative for yourself. This pathway has some similarity to
Pathway Three except it is a much broader application. Scripting
should be used for major re-conceptualizations of your
self-definition.
Narrative
psychology suggests that one of the ways that we create meaning in
our lives is through the personal stories that we weave from our
experiences to explain those experiences to ourselves and others.
Your personal narrative is a reflection of what you believe about
yourself and the world you live in. There is evidence to support an
influential role for your beliefs (see Definitions) both in your life
experiences and your mental and physical health. If you just can't
seem to get anywhere with your career, education or personal life, it
is likely that the problem is being influenced by your belief system.
This belief system is implicit in your personal narrative.
Personal reality can be thought of as a narrative
construction. A narrative created by the psychological integration of
selected memories, interpretation of those memories and the
imaginative elaboration of those memories synthesized into a coherent
personal narrative. A personal narrative might also be thought of as
a general description of the foundation for one's meta-programs or
core constructs, which were discussed earlier.
Your narrative is a self-definition. Having a rich narrative is both
a source of meaning and a guide to life. In some sense, the question
of whether your narrative is true or false is the wrong question
since virtually no personal narrative is entirely true in any
objective sense. I like to refer to this personal narrative as the fictive-self. The proper question about the narrative that one
spins about oneself is, does it serve you well and affirm your life
experience? A “yes” answer to that question gives your personal
story functional validity, which is all that is necessary. Truth is
an elusive and overrated notion when it comes to giving meaning to
one’s life.
If one's current life story is a constructed narrative,
then alternative narratives can be constructed. In the end, what
matters is what you believe to be true about yourself. Since you own
your beliefs and create your own narrative, you might as well have a
narrative that lifts you up rather than puts you down. Ask yourself,
what kind of beliefs about your past you think you need to get to
where you want to go from where you are. Once you answer that
question, employ contemplative meditation to review your narrative
and identify where it needs to be changed. You can either put a new
spin on existing elements in the narrative or you can find different
memories to substitute into the narrative for those elements or you
can imagine possible alternative events and substitute virtual
memories for those elements that need to be changed. Keep in mind
that memories are dynamic and constantly changing in both subtle and
gross ways and use this to your advantage.
Think of yourself as an actor playing a role. Your
narrative defines the role you're playing. Some actors get type-cast
and their careers are restricted by that type-casting, unless they
can break the cast and set themselves free. You may have type-cast
yourself or allowed others to type-cast you and are stuck in a role
that is unsatisfying or dysfunctional. Rewrite your role and move
beyond the rut in which you've been stuck.
It is helpful to first get a sense of your current
narrative before trying to modify it. This is the story that you tell
yourself and others to create an identity. Either imagine that you're
writing a short autobiography or use a voice recorder and imagine
that you're giving an oral history about yourself to someone. If it
helps, imagine that you're relating this information to a
psychologist or counselor. Keep your story focused on the major
themes and try to avoid anecdotes, unless they are important to
understanding a theme. Sometimes you have a single word that serves
as the cornerstone or key to your narrative. In a word, you might
describe yourself as “spontaneous.” If you have such a word,
frame your narrative so that it explains how you think you came to be
spontaneous and what the pros and cons of that identity are for you.
Dan McAdams,
in his book The
Stories We Live By: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self,
has many suggestions to help write and understand one's personal
story. The following should be sufficient for most purposes. If you
are having difficulty writing or telling your story, complete the
following three statements as prompts. You should have at least five
variations on each statement.
1. What
I want from other people is....... (for example, respect or fear).
2. What
I want to have in life is...... (for example, creativity or power).
3. I
am...... (for example, spontaneous or shy).
If
you are having difficulty generating responses for a statement, apply
Pathway Three (contemplation) to the statement. Once you have
developed a set of constructs by completing these statements, you
will have a core set of characteristics that are probably central to
your story in some way. Using these statements as guideposts, attempt
to flush out your narrative. If you are having difficulty weaving the
constructs into an integrated narrative, you might try using
contemplation to help you bring the pieces together.
After
you have your narrative, you can begin an analysis of it to get a
better understanding of what your story is saying about you. For
example, most stories will have either an optimistic or a pessimistic perspective.
What perspective characterizes your story?
1. The
two most common optimistic perspectives are:
a. The dynastic
perspective: a good past has led to a good present (charmed life
story).
b. The antithetical perspective: a bad past has led to a good present
(rise from the ashes story).
2. The
two most common pessimistic perspectives are:
a. The compensatory
perspective: a good past has led to a bad present (fall from grace
story).
b. The self-absolution perspective: a bad past has led to a bad
present (never had a chance story).
Stories
also have an image
or main character. For those familiar with computer gaming, you might
think of the image as your avatar. It is not unusual to have more
than one image, for example, one image for your private self and
another for your public self. I recall reading an account by a
speech writer for Richard Nixon when he was President. The speech
writer suggested something to President Nixon and after a moment of
consideration his reply was "No, Nixon would never say that."
Clearly, President Nixon had a public image that he thought of as
"Nixon" and anything being proposed for public use had to
conform to the image that he had for the Nixon avatar. Most of us do
that sort of juggling but usually are not as self-aware of it or as deliberate
about it as President Nixon. An image is an idealized conception of
self. Images are symbols. They may be either good or bad and are
both common and unique. The
basic principles governing images follow:
a. They
express our most cherished desires and goals.
b. They
always enter our stories in specific opening scenes.
c. They
personify our traits and recurrent behaviors.
d. They
give voice to individual and cultural values.
e. They
are often built around significant people in our life.
f. They
may personify a fundamental life conflict.
Common
images can be classified using the two basic themes of Agency
and Communion.
Does your story either explicitly or implicitly use one or more of
these images?
1. Agency
Images:
a. The
Warrior (conflict manager)
b. The
Traveler (explorer)
c. The
Sage (synthesizer of knowledge and experience)
d. The
Maker (craftsman)
2. Communion
Images:
a. The
Lover (seeker of intimacy)
b. The
Care Giver (devoted to others)
c. The
Friend (committed to relationship)
d. The
Ritualist (conserver of tradition)
3. Images
High in Agency and Communion:
a. The
Healer (one who mends)
b. The
Teacher (a guide)
c. The
Counselor (a mentor)
d. The
Humanist (advocate for human welfare, values and dignity)
e. The
Arbiter (a judge or decision maker)
4. Images
Low in Agency and Communion:
a. The
Escapist (one who avoids reality)
b. The
Survivor (one who simply endures)
Once
you have written out your narrative and classified it, which aspects
of the story seem to be related to the issue or issues you're trying
to deal with? When these have been identified, what changes could you
make in the story that would provide an alternate and more
self-enhancing story for the life you want for yourself? Rewrite
those parts of the story that need to be revised to support the
changes that you want to make. A positive and mature story or
narrative will exhibit most, if not all of the following
characteristics:
1. It
has coherence.
The story is self-consistent and makes sense.
2. It
has openness. The story is flexible enough to change and grow.
3. It
has credibility. The story must be plausible given your life
circumstances.
4. It
has differentiation. The story has richness, depth and
complexity in the number of factors, issues and conflicts addressed.
5. It
has reconciliation.
The story brings harmony and resolution to conflicts and
contradictions in one’s experiences.
6. It
has generative
integration.
The story not only provides personal unity but positively connects
one to the lives and myths of others.
While you can edit and rewrite a narrative past that
includes neglect, you cannot edit and rewrite a narrative past that
includes a physical condition such as congenital blindness. You can,
however, edit and rewrite how you've interpreted this condition and
its impact on you. This is not a delusional process as long as you
recognize that you are the author of your life narrative and you can
rewrite it however you wish as long as you don't deviate from what is
possible. As long as you confine yourself to "memories" and
the psychological effects of memories, you are dealing with
cognitively modifiable content. You might as well have memories
and/or interpretations of memories that are self-enhancing as to have
memories and/or interpretations that are self-defeating. In short,
you have permission to be who you need to be. You control your
personal script. You are whomever you believe you are. Others might
not recognize it yet but they will if you begin to live the new
character.
For example, say that your current narrative says that
you were neglected by your parents as a child and you've always felt
like you were an abandoned and unloved child. As a result of this
"mistreatment" you suffer from poor self-esteem and
underachievement to this day. These beliefs give you a handy excuse
for your problems in life and they draw experiences to you that
either are or can be interpreted to validate your beliefs. You don't
have to own that past because it is an interpretation that you've
imposed or allowed others to impose on your experience. Why not spin
this childhood to be one that led you to take responsibility for
yourself at an early age and become independent and self-sufficient?
Look for early memories that either are or can be spun to be examples
of responsibility, independence and self-sufficiency. In short, find
things that can be used as examples of those self-enhancing traits.
Next, weave those memories and variations on them into your narrative
to replace the self-depreciating elements in your current personal
narrative. Finally, start acting the part or the character in your
reconstructed narrative.
You don't have to suddenly change how you act in big
ways. Start with little things and work from there. Think of yourself
as playing a new role in life's drama and you have to ad lib
(improvise) the character's responses in various situations. Think
about the character that you've written for yourself in the new
narrative and ask how would this character respond in this situation.
Try it out and evaluate the results. If you see ways to improve on
responses, incorporate those improvements at the next opportunity.
For example, suppose the old character avoided using spare time for
self-development by spending every evening watching TV or going out
for drinks with people from work. The new character might choose to
let go of the TV and take an online independent study course related
to the future envisioned for the new character or enroll in a
continuing education class at a local school instead of going out
with colleagues. Step-by-step acting out the role of the character in
this new narrative will lead you toward a different future.
You might find it helpful to imaginatively rehearse new
responses to situations that have been problematic in the past. If
you have people willing to help, you might even find it useful to
work out short skits that script your character's responses in
various types of situations in which you need to effect changes. Both
of these strategies can be useful when your new role makes you feel
like a “fake,” a bit uncomfortable or disconnected. These will
all pass, if you persist in actively taking on your new role.
Pathway Five into the Inner Ego
For anyone who would like a fresh narrative rather than
refurbished narrative, you must first be able to let go of your
habitual narrative. I will call this pathway emergence.
This is probably a pathway that should only be embraced by
individuals who are psychologically flexible and comfortable when
facing the unknown. If you are one of those people, just let go of
your identification with your current narrative and let a new
narrative emerge as you adapt to life as it unfolds. No editing
necessary. You must be able to look at everything from a fresh
perspective and try to respond to situations as if they were unique
events, not another occurrence of a recurring event for which you
have an AP response.
I actually stumbled upon this approach when I was
seventeen years old following a very bad auto accident that nearly
killed me and badly disfigured my face. After recovering from the
injuries, I was examining a yearbook photo that had been taken just
prior to the accident with a "before" photo that my plastic
surgeon had taken. While looking at these two photos, I was overcome
with grief and felt tears running down my cheeks. Suddenly, I
understood why I was crying. It was because the person in the
yearbook picture was for all practical purposes “dead.” I knew he
was “dead” because he looked different and because people treated
him differently from how he had been treated by these same people.
Sometimes he was treated worse and sometimes better but nearly always
differently. I realized that who “I” thought I was could change
in a heartbeat.
I felt completely free of the person I had been. I had
an opportunity to start over and create a new narrative or fictive-self. My new life narrative began with that event. I
discarded being an underachieving, angry adolescent who was always in
some kind of trouble and became someone facing the future with a
clean slate – a transformational experience. This base change in
perspective only took minutes. However, in those few minutes, I
gained a valuable insight. If you can simply let go and “turn left
at Thursday,” the “door” to a whole new dimension of your life
can open to you almost instantly. In my case, a traumatic event
stimulated the emergence of the necessary insight. Perhaps you can
come to the same insight vicariously through my experience.
Once you step through the door, it may take years to
populate that dimension and sculpt an alternate reality for yourself,
but change is a process that unfolds through time. Change doesn't
always come easily or quickly and sometimes it will take a form that
wasn't expected. However, if you set upon the path and maintain a
steady effort, it will come. You simply need to find beliefs and a
narrative that will support you while you create a new reality.
To conclude, here are two short quotes worth pondering:
“Mind is the builder.” Edgar Cayce
“Every failure is a step on the path to success.”
Unknown
Note:
If you want to read more about the noetic events in my life read "A
Personal Odyssey" (see Appendix 3)
Pathway Six into the Inner Ego
The
new narrative that began to form from the experience described above
subsequently led to another transformational experience. An attempt
to capture this experience is a poem I wrote titled Outlaw
(see Appendix 5). The second experience arrived like a lightening
bolt and delivered an epiphany. First, that one's fictive-self is
really only a psychological tool and can be set aside most of the
time. To do this one must learn to live from one's true or essential
Self when the fictive-self is not being employed. Second, that the
larger story that one lives within that is spun by society is also a
fiction that is simply a broader and more inclusive story than one's
personal story. Finally, that the personal and social narratives are
entangled, which creates a web in which one can be ensnared for a
lifetime. If you want to free yourself from the narrative web, you
must learn to stop identifying with your narrative and live from the natural mind.
This topic begins with the next section.