[Neurons] 2012 Meta Reflections #28

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2012  #28

May 28,  2012

Empowerment Series #14

 

 

 

THE POWER OF PLEASURE

 

As I wrote about vitality (Empowerment series #13) I was reminded of another
power- the power of pleasure.  And what a power this is!  Here is another
neurological predisposition of your mind-body system- your body is wired for
a thousand pleasures.  Pleasures of sight, sound, sensation, smell, taste,
movement etc.  And the range of the things that can give us pleasure,
delight us, and induce the sense of the good things in life is incredible.
How many tunes and songs touch you?  How many sights are there of beauty, or
tastes, or smells?

                                                            

And what if you set out to explore the essence of the natural vitality that
we see in little children, how many pleasures- pleasures of the smallest
things- would you find?  They are forever laughing and giggling and enjoying
things.  Is this the way we were born and the way we were made?  And if so,
what happens to so many people that they don't seem to have this simple
power of pleasure any longer?

 

What happened?  They were parented; they went to school; they went to church
or temple or mosque!  That is, they were socialized and in almost everyone's
socialization there is little appreciation and almost no development of this
power.  Yes we develop the power of the mind, of the emotions, of speech,
and behavior.  But when have you ever seen a school curcirrculum for the
development of joy, playfulness, fun, to wit, pleasure?

 

Yet without pleasure people lose motivation, lose energy, lose drive, lose
intention, make excuses, procrastinate, get into states of dread,
discouragement, boredom, ahedonia, etc.  This is an important pleasure.  You
need pleasure; I need pleasure.  It is one of the prerequisites of genius.

 

A prerequisite of genius?  Yes!  People who develop expertise in a given
area, an expertise that requires consistency and persistence and resilience
and perseverence must enjoy what they are doing.  They must derive pleasure
from it.  And to master an area inevitably must require that a person
absolutely fall in love with what they are doing.  So in APG trainings, we
introduce the Pleasure Pattern for this very reason.  We want people to be
able to know how pleasure works, how they can develop their ability to
pleasure themselves in whatever engagement they choose and how to add
massive pleasure.

 

Now what's most fascinating about the development of pleasure is that while
it starts with the sensory pleasures, for us humans it never ends there.  In
fact, this is what gets us not only into the states of excellence and
expertise, but also the negative states of addiction.  That's because with
your wonderful self-reflexive consciousness, once you access pleasure (fun,
excitement, laughter, playfulness, etc.), it is so easy for you to bring
those good feeling of pleasure to your pleasure.  Then you have
meta-pleasures.

 

In the Meta-States Model (derived in part from the General Semantics Model),
this is the multi-ordinality of "pleasure" at work.  That is, because of the
reflexivity of your mind, you create multiple levels of pleasure, pleasures
all the way up.  That's why when we ask, "What is the pleasure of that
pleasure for you?" people will answer and identify their meta-pleasures.
And when we step back from the meta-pleasures, lo and behold, they are the
person's values.  Incredible!

 

People answer by saying such things as, "Well, it is achievement,
connection, relaxation, creativity, de-stressing, and so on."  And when you
ask someone repeatedly, "And what is the pleasure of achievement?"  They
will move up their levels and reveal a whole structure of multi-ordinal
pleasures.  And what gives you the most pleasure?  Experiencing the
realization of your values!

 

Now for the dark side of pleasure.  The sad thing is that people can and do
this about things which they shouldn't give so much power, so much pleasure
to- like smoking, eating, shopping, gambling, drugging, etc.  Why in the
world would people give too much pleasure to things that are
self-destructive?  Well, obviously they don't do it on purpose, consciously,
they just get those things connected with some meta-pleasure and then that
meta-pleasure empowers it too much.  It semantically loads it so that it
means too much for the person.  And what happens then is that the
meta-pleasures can so over-load the primary state experience (like smoking
or eating), that a person pushes through all of the inherent thresholds so
they don't know when to stop.

 

It is for this reason that in APG we also introduce the De-Pleasuring
Pattern so that people can move to choice point and if they recognize they
have created an addition, they can de-pleasure it to a more manageable
place. 

 

Ah, the power of pleasure.  Too little and you lose the inner vitality and
fun and joy of being alive.  Too much on the wrong things and you can create
destructive addictions.  No wonder we say in APG that it's important to take
charge of your pleasures and your pleasure-making powers and use it
mindfully.  

 

 

 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Neuro-Semantics Executive Director  ----   <http://www.neurosemantics.com/>
www.neurosemantics.com

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA                              

1 970-523-7877                                               

     

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Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential Movement in 2007, for
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<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org

 

 

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