[Neurons] 2012 Meta Reflections #58

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2012  #58

December 3, 2012

Empowerment Series #38

 

 

MODELING ENERGY

(Part II Mysterious Fuzzy Energy)

 

 

Wow!  After last week's Neurons Meta Reflection on "Mysterious Fuzzy Energy"
I received so many emails!  I think I received more than for any single
article that I have posted on Neurons during the past 5 years.  And within
those emails were numerous stories, examples, ideas, and questions.  So to
answer some of the questions as well as some of the non-questions (questions
that were implied but not stated), I have formatted the following Q & A.
None of the questions or statements (or accusations!) were stated exactly as
I have written them below, yet what follows does catch the essence of the
inquiries. 

 

Isn't NLP about "anything that works," and so if an energy therapy gets
results or works and gives people a release on life from something blocking
them, isn't that NLP?

No, definitely not!  Alone that does not make it NLP!  NLP is not just about
anything that works.  Plumbing works; aspirin works; traffic lights work; a
clean water processing station works; and so do a hundred-thousand other
things.  The mere criteria of "something that works" does not make the grade
for including within the field of NLP.

 

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is a communication model.  It is about
the operating, functioning, and "programming" of human habits (regular and
systemic processing) of subjective experiences within the
neurology-and-linguistic systems of a human being.  There's lots of things
that work that have nothing to do with the field of NLP.  Many things lie
outside and beyond the ken of this field.  Sure, where there are human
beings, we can ask about their beliefs, states of mind and body, emotions,
responses, etc.  That is, we can model what they do and how they do it.  But
that would be an application of the models that we call NLP, not NLP as
such.

 

NLP is about modeling the subjective structure of experience so that we can
create a process for how it works.  If we model gambling or playing the
lottery and find a dependable pattern for successful wins, then that does
not make NLP about "winning the lottery."  NLP is a communication model that
developed from Transformational Grammar, General Semantics, Family Systems,
Bateson's anthropology and systems work, Gestalt, etc. that is a
cognitive-behavioral, constructivist model for modeling.

 

Why do you only accept things that you can prove empirically and not things
that cannot be proved empirically?

For me it is not about "proving."  It is rather about modeling the structure
of something.  Most things cannot be "proved," and the scientific attitude
in research is not about proving as much as finding evidence, checking the
validity of the evidence, formulating questions and hypothesis that can be
tested so that one can note to what extent there is evidence for and against
something.

 

Regarding the field of NLP, my concern is about calling something "NLP" when
it is not NLP and does not fit the focus and constraints about NLP as
modeling the structure of subjective experience.  I really don't care if
people do Reiki, shakral energy, work with chi (qi), or anything else as a
process.  Each person has his and her right to do that.  What I have spoken
about is the inappropriateness of calling it "NLP," trying to cram it
together with NLP, all of which then mis-represents NLP.  That's what I care
about.

 

Why do you have such disdain for people who are involved in energy work
and/or for the models of energy therapies?

Well, first of all, I do not have disdain for people at all.  I respect that
each and every person can believe whatever they want and decide on the
mental maps that they want to use as they move through life.  Now for the
so-called "models of energy therapies," most are not models anyway.  Most
are belief systems and the great majority have no hypothesis to test and no
way to test its premises.  Most have no way for it to be falsified, that is,
they cannot think of a way that it could be tested and showed that it does
not work.  And in that case, it is a belief system, not a model.

 

As a person who takes a scientific approach to things, I care about if a
process is valid, how we go about establishing that validity, and if the
process is replicable and not because someone is a "believer."  With regard
to someone who believes in some "energy" process, I just want them to
describe it specifically with some precision as a process that can be
replicated.  That's all.

 

So you are not into the energy dimension, you just dismiss it and don't have
any interest in it, right?

No, that is not right!  Actually, in Neuro-Semantics we talk a lot about
energy.  Right now I'm here in Hong Kong and have just completed the first
part of our Self-Actualization Psychology Training where we spent two days
on Unleashing Vitality.  We looked in depth at the driving needs within our
bodies and nervous systems that create the physical energy that is required
for focused activity, passion, and contribution.  We focused on the energy
of a person's metabolism, one's mental and emotional energy of one's state,
and the sense of inspiration that arises from great meanings.  Next we
focused on the energy that's involved in Unleashing Potentials and moving to
live "in the zone," in the flow zone of the genius state.

 

So yes indeed we focus on "energy," but we don't go after the so-called
exotic and mysterious energies, but those that are more closely at hand and
that we all recognize and can do something about!  And as Erl
Morrell-Stinson wrote:

"For the most part, the ambiguity of so called 'energy work' is unnecessary
when you can get rationally explainable results more precisely, elegantly,
and quickly with NS/NLP."

 

Erl also asked the question: So why go fooling around with supposed and
undocumented "energies" when there are dozens and dozens of very well-known
things you can do to increase your energy, vitality, passion, health,
well-being, etc. with Neuro-Semantics?  

 

So is there nothing unknown or mysterious yet to be discovered?  Is there no
possibility of other 'energies' out there that you (or we) don't know about?

Yes, of course there is!  Of course there are a million things I (we) don't
know and yet to be discovered and yes, there could be additional "energies"
from those that we know about that could be out there yet to be discovered.
The mere fact that there are mysterious in human healing- "spontaneous
remissions" and such like- that we don't know what's happening or how
whatever is happening is occurring says that there are processes yet to be
discovered.

 

Now one of the funny or weird or sad things that I've noticed about many of
the people promoting "energy" therapies is that they themselves do not have
that much energy.  Many of them are not fit and slim and many seem to lack
cardio-vascular energy for energetic exercise.  The person I had the
original conversation with needed to go take naps during the day of the
Conference.  I thought that strange especially since he had been in the UK
for a couple of weeks and I just arrived in London and immediately spent the
day in the NLP Leader Summit and was alert and full of energy all day.  So I
would think that anyone into "energy" ought to be a living example of
mental, emotional, physical, interpersonal, etc. energy!  Maybe that's my
thing about the importance of congruence and walking your talk.

 

Finally one last thing to note that also needs to be addressed and
confronted- something that makes me cautious and suspicious of all of the
"energy" therapies and works.  I cannot express it any better than Erl did
when he wrote this to me in an email: 

" Most (99%) of all the energy stuffy out there is hype, bogus, ego-driven,
and a bunch of smoke and mirrors.  Most energy practitioners don't have a
clue as to what the hell they are doing, and are too embarrassed to admit
it.  They work very well on clients that are to desperate to admit that it
doesn't work, who then create their own healing as an sort of
"psycho-emotional cover", and attribute it to the workings of some
mysterious energy."

 

 

                                                            

Neuro-Semantic News

.         We have just completed the very first Seeking the Peak training in
Hong Kong for the Self-Actualization Psychology Diploma . You may have seen
many of the pictures and videos on Facebook about the training.   By our
criteria of success--- it was a big success.  Report on it will be
forthcoming.  In 2013 more than 20 Neuro-Semantic Trainers will be
conducting many, many of the Self-Actualization workshops.


.        We are now taking reservations for the Second International
Neuro-Semantic Conference.

For the Brochure --- write to me at meta at acsol.net 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

                Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

                Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

                1 970-523-7877 

                Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net


     

    

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