Tag Archives: Human Effectiveness Institute

Entering Flow State

Leave a reply

Volume 3, Issue 1

An Elegant Bargain

In the prior post we were talking about mindfulness. The Buddha said that a life of true happiness will be led once one has settled into a permanent state of mindfulness and comprehension.

Note that the comprehension part typically requires certain life experiences that expand mindfulness into more corners of life. One might have perfect mindfulness on the basketball court but lack it in the bedroom or boardroom. Life fashions itself to teach us how to be mindful across the spectrum of life. Hinduism and Buddhism indicate that more than one lifetime is normally required to achieve mindfulness and comprehension as a steady state.

Zen masters have, according to Wikipedia, an interesting and apparent contrarian viewpoint on mindfulness:

“Some Zen teachers emphasize the potential dangers of misunderstanding “mindfulness”.

Gudo Wafu Nishijima criticizes the use of the term of mindfulness and idealistic interpretations of the practice from the Zen standpoint:

However recently many so-called Buddhist teachers insist the importance of ‘mindfulness.’ But such a kind of attitudes might be insistence that Buddhism might be a kind of idealistic philosophy. Therefore actually speaking I am much afraid that Buddhism is misunderstood as if it was a kind of idealistic philosophy. However we should never forget that Buddhism is not an idealistic philosophy, and so if someone in Buddhism reveres mindfulness, we should clearly recognize that he or she can never be a Buddhist at all.[25]

Muho Noelke, the abbot of Antaiji, explains the pitfalls of consciously seeking mindfulness.

We should always try to be active coming out of samadhi. For this, we have to forget things like “I should be mindful of this or that”. If you are mindful, you are already creating a separation (“I – am – mindful – of – ….”). Don’t be mindful, please! When you walk, just walk. Let the walk walk. Let the talk talk (Dogen Zenji says: “When we open our mouths, it is filled with Dharma”). Let the eating eat, the sitting sit, the work work. Let sleep sleep.[26]“

This apparent contradiction is resolved when one applies the Human Effectiveness Institute’s theory to it. Mindfulness helps one get from EOP into Observer state. Striving to be mindful, however, blocks movement further into Flow state (zazen).

The “tricks” one uses to maximize one’s own performance are not obvious to most of us and need to be rediscovered. That is the mission of the Human Effectiveness Institute. Subtle modulations of the mind that worked for me for decades are what we share in our books, videos, audios, here and elsewhere.

I propose an elegant bargain. I will uninhibitedly share here what I know — what has worked for me — to help you maximize your own performance. The quid pro quo is that if it works and you see happy progress in certain areas that you attribute in part to these “tricks”, then you will imbibe more of them and share them with as many people as possible, in order that all of us are averaging more time in Observer state instead of EOP for the rest of our lives.

To that end, best to all,

Bill

P.S. February 17, 2013 was the second anniversary of our blog. Thank you all for another great year!

Optimized Mindfulness

3 Replies

Volume 2, Issue 44

The usage of the word “mindfulness” is increasing rapidly, in connection with the benefits of meditation and the cultivation of emotional intelligence. Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson are among those who have popularized this useful word.

There are two basic kinds of meditation: deep relaxation that uses the breath, mantra, japa or rosary beads, a candle flame, etc., to carry the individual into a deep inner state— and the other type focusing on mindfulness, the inner deployment of attention to observe carefully what is going on inside oneself at all levels — by an act of will, bringing on the Observer state or at least seeking to do so.

One widespread form of mindfulness meditation is focused on the garnering of insights about oneself and reality in general, and is sometimes called Insight Meditation.

The Human Effectiveness Institute (THEI) specializes in its own specific form of mindfulness/insight meditation, which might be called “Optimized Mindfulness”. This was a technique that arose instinctively early on and evolved throughout my life. Since it helps me get more frequently into the Flow state and keeps me most of the time in the Observer state, both of which I find useful and enjoyable places to be compared to the alternative (EOP), I am eager to share this technique and thus formed the Institute many years ago as the vehicle to do so.

What distinguishes Optimized Mindfulness is this. The generalized version of mindfulness meditation does not start you out with many insights, nor does it usually guide you to assemble your insights with the specific purpose of achieving the two higher states of consciousness just mentioned, Observer and Flow states. Mostly, mindfulness meditation in the current world is being used to reduce the stress of EOP, by at least for short periods each day getting you out of EOP into the Observer state. The military is now using mindfulness and relaxation meditation to reduce the suicide rate of troops suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). As we recommended to military leaders in speeches and meetings many years ago, they are now finally empirically testing the efficacy of one versus another specific version of meditation to see which works best.

Just as in the infant science of psychology, the modern world starts by focusing on the negative side of the coin, using not only meditation but many forms of applied psychology (we call it psychotechnology) primarily if not totally to relieve negative states. THEI, like Maslow, goes the other way and focuses mostly on the achievement and maintenance of positive states.

To summarize, THEI’s ideas are unique in the general field of mindfulness in the following ways:

  1. Focuses on the achievement and maintenance of two specific positive states of consciousness. Both states can be verified by the individual observer, thus we are talking science not “mere” mysticism (although mysticism is one valuable heuristic lens of mindfulness we will discuss another day). The states also have measurable correlates both in terms of objective performance metrics and in terms of brain conditions.
  1. Provides insights to begin with —ways of looking at things that have been observed to help precipitate the desired states. For example, Mind Magic.
  1. Provides a framework for the accumulation and mining of one’s own insights. By demonstrating that some thoughts and ways of being help reach Observer state (Flow typically coming later), each individual realizes profoundly that paying attention to one’s own insights is unbelievably valuable, among the most important things in life. This changes life from too often a grind into an adventure of discovery, in which challenges are appreciated as the irritants to catalyze creativity and self-growth, turning the tables on negativity.
  1. When negativity does get through the shields, and one spirals down into old- fashioned EOP, Optimized Mindfulness provides ways to get out again as quickly as possible.
  1. In short, Optimized Mindfulness is a Westernized approach in the sense of having set very specific goals and objectives, and not losing track of the focus on those goals, while systematically moving toward and into them, based on accumulated fieldcraft, hard logic and reasoning. At the same time Optimized Mindfulness does not lose sight of the value of the intuition, nor impose reductionist assumptions the way that Western Materialist Religious Scientism does.

We hope you experiment with and enjoy Optimized Mindfulness, adding it to your moment-to-moment life, and that your incremental experiences in Observer and Flow states make your daily life an even more wondrous experience.

Happy Valentine’s Day, 

beating heart

Bill

P.S. From Wikipedia on Mindfulness
__________________________________________________________
Zen criticism
Some Zen teachers emphasize the potential dangers of misunder-
standing “mindfulness”.

Gudo Wafu Nishijima criticizes the use of the term of mindfulness and idealistic interpretations of the practice from the Zen standpoint:

However recently many so-called Buddhist teachers insist the importance of ‘mindfulness.’ But such a kind of attitudes might be insistence that Buddhism might be a kind of idealistic philosophy. Therefore actually speaking I am much afraid that Buddhism is misunderstood as if it was a kind of idealistic philosophy. However we should never forget that Buddhism is not an idealistic philosophy, and so if someone in Buddhism reveres mindfulness, we should clearly recognize that he or she can never be a Buddhist at all.[25]

Muho Noelke, the abbot of Antaiji, explains the pitfalls of consciously seeking mindfulness.

We should always try to be active coming out of samadhi. For this, we have to forget things like “I should be mindful of this or that”. If you are mindful, you are already creating a separation (“I – am – mindful – of – ….”). Don’t be mindful, please! When you walk, just walk. Let the walk walk. Let the talk talk (Dogen Zenji says: “When we open our mouths, it is filled with Dharma”). Let the eating eat, the sitting sit, the work work. Let sleep sleep.[26]
_________________________________________________________________

BH comment
The concept of mindfulness, as a positive thing to be striving for, helps one get from EOP to Observer state, but impedes one getting from Observer state to Flow state. The Zen Masters above are saying the latter but not explaining fully what they mean.

Improve your relationships with our book MIND MAGIC

Each of Us Is Many People, yet There Is Only One of You

1 Reply

Volume 2, Issue 42

Is this oxymoronic? Or if not, then what am I talking about?

In You Are The Universe, which will be out in the Spring, I explain my Theory of the Conscious Universe in simple terms. The theory is not speculation but science, given my definition of science being its verifiability. This theory is just that sort of science. It is verifiable.

Mass verifiability may only be a dream. Yet individual personal verifiability is available and many individuals have achieved it.

If you’ve read enough of these posts you already know a bit about this theory. For other readers here’s a quick summary of what we’ve written about over the past two years:

The real you pre-existed your present body. The real “you” is also the “you” of the entire universe. There is no space, time, matter nor energy, except as “you” created it.

At the same time, on this planet, each of us is many people. Why is that?

Before we get there, take a look inside. Do you ever surprise yourself by doing something completely out of character? When you debate yourself internally, aren’t there voices taking opposing sides? Do you have the potential for extreme tenderness and extreme harshness? Could it be that there is a slight version of schizophrenia in all of us?

The Theory of the Conscious Universe posits that Acceleritis is what causes each of us to contain widely variant behavioral patterns, almost different selves, but not quite.

The Original Self is always there and always accessible. Acceleritis blocks that accessibility.

We become trapped in EOP (Emergency Oversimplification Procedure), and our actions become more predictable, mechanical outcomes of prior memory storage. The vectors combine with their relative accelerations and the outcome vector can be predicted. Creativity is lost, then effectiveness.

We become constantly distracted. Too much sustained infopressure per second on the human brain.

Having identified the problem, I set about finding solutions, which morphed into a book of tricks I had found to overcome Acceleritis and get in touch with the real me, the creative me.*

This is where the multiple inner selves part comes in. In my book MIND MAGIC, I call them senators. Minipersonalities that in moments of inner debate seem to be different people — perhaps specific people who impressed themselves on us and we retain their amanuensis within to help guide our actions.

Phenomenologically, what we experience most dramatically about our different selves is that we feel quite different (a) when we are oppressed into our EOP selves, versus (b) when we are in the coolly detached observer state, versus (c) when we are in the Zone — Flow state. Those three “selves” are the most obvious.

But those “selves” are not what I really mean by each of us being many people. What I mean is that unresolved emotion tagged experiences each create plucks on certain neuronal strings and set up camp as growing associational clusters of neurons, which become power centers. Together this software built from birth becomes the ego self, the self that is prone to fall into EOP.

So the meaning of the title is that:

1.  There is only one virtual point, it is consciousness. The rest is maya.

2.  Observed as if for the first time, one finds multiple points of view conversing within oneself, and maintaining this observer stance is a powerful learning strategy.

3.  Personally verifiable evidence is available to everyone. You can verify this theory yourself, including the truth that one consciousness underlies our apparent separateness from each other. Once in Flow, in inner contemplation, over time, you come to see that this is true. You gather information from other minds and verify that you have done so. You intuit what is about to happen next and it happens. This is verification. Many people have reached the same state of universal consciousness at least briefly, and saints, sages, prophets and gurus (all essentially the same thing in my estimation) have resided permanently in that state once achieved.

Go with your flow,

Bill

*I am happy and excited. Through the miracle of the volunteer team at the Human Effectiveness Institute, the new Sixth Edition of MIND MAGIC, wearing its pretty new cover (over in the right-hand column), is in my hands. And it can be in yours — it’s now available in all bookstores through Ingram. Just text your friend at any bookstore and it will be in the store in a week if it isn’t already.  

The Human Effectiveness Institute: A Personal View

1 Reply

Volume 2, Issue 40

Many people ask me how my books compare with the flood of self-improvement books crowding the psychology/philosophy shelves nowadays. When my first book appeared there was not so much of a glut of such titles and the question rarely came up. Instead people told us they had never seen that kind of book before. Funny how things change. And it’s great that writers and publishers are filling so much bookstore shelf space with books to help people master the art of life — arguably the single most important practical topic imaginable from the standpoint of the pursuit of happiness.

My first book Mind Magic is still unique in the sense that it’s a set of techniques that came out of trial and error in my personal experience. Some of you know that my showbiz parents had me on stage at age 4 and my ensuing early experience of Flow state is what caused my concentration on learning to “control” and/or trigger desirable inner states. Mind Magic is a collection of what worked for me. Originally written just for myself as my “Book of Programs”, friends insisted I publish it because it worked for them too. Over 2000 readers have written that the book changed their lives, which encourages us to go on and add to the body of techniques we make available as widely as we can, in hopes that someday Flow state is a common occurrence, and its lead-in Observer state even more common.

Other books sitting near Mind Magic on the shelves are not so precisely focused on bringing on these two states. More generally, books “like” mine are aimed at making people feel better about themselves, and handling stress in their lives in a more effective and peaceful manner. Some are excellent condensations of latest psychological science or of ancient Eastern psychologies/philosophies, and some blend these together. Ram Dass and Daniel Goleman are two of the best in the world in this genre. Both have written endorsements of Mind Magic. Ram Dass and Dan aren’t just condensers and reporters, they teem with their own brilliant creative insights.

A long time ago Dan, his fellow former Harvard psychobiology professor Dr. Richard Davidson, and I were partners in a pioneering and successful brainwave research venture in the advertising industry. Dan and Richie coined the term “hijack the brain” to describe what happens when the limbic system and the amygdala in particular become energized to produce extreme attachment and cognitive distraction. This is exactly what I write about when describing the fall from Observer/Flow states into what I sensed as a child, EOP for Emergency Oversimplification Procedure, an ineffective involuntary bodily “strategy” for dealing with challenging external situational and/or internal mentation challenges.

Another friend and exceptional brain-trainer-psychiatrist/author/artist is Dr. Phillip Romero, who uses the term “triggering” to describe the brain’s program of switching into a limbic-system-control state. He created Logosoma Brain Training, a consilient algorithm that integrates theories of Buddha, Darwin, and John Bowlby for his patients. Logosoma training helps people master Relationship Stress, the most powerful stress trigger that hijacks our capacity for mindfulness, creativity, connectedness and compassion. Where Phillip is focused on training people to liberate themselves from Hostage Relationships and Reconnect with compassionate creativity, my colleagues and I at the Institute are focused on helping people achieve the exceptionally higher states of consciousness above normal waking consciousness.

Phillip has taken me to task for creating my own language that I find useful in inner space, where I find that I am dealing with parts of myself that respond to metaphor and imagery. As noted above, some 2000 people have reported that the heuristics presented in Mind Magic, even if more symbolic than scientific, are useful to them in attaining more creative and effective states. Phillip is right in that agreement on terminology will be critically important in pulling together the work of many people in order to turn the art of life into more of a science to the degree that is desirable.

My vision is that techniques for increasing personal success in dealing with all of life’s challenges will someday permeate the syllabi of the public education system. The books, audios, videos, television programs and movies that we envision for the future are aimed to be a resource for when the culture becomes even more attuned to this dimension of inner space navigation.

Best to all,

Bill