Tag Archives: Self

What Is Mindfulness?

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Volume 3, Issue 24

In the prior post we made the point that better decision-making and higher performance in the end reduce to two main drivers, Positive Thinking and Mindfulness. Positive Thinking, which we also call Solution Orientation, is easier said than done, and we pointed to our book Mind Magic as a compendium of proven operational techniques for actually achieving and maintaining both of these inner behaviors. We promised to investigate the nature of Mindfulness in this post.

Mindfulness is a form of attention control. Going back at least as far as written language and probably as far back as the cave paintings, the human race has discovered the importance of focusing attention in achieving its aims. The cave paintings are widely believed to be evidence of a method for rehearsing the hunt. Yogic mental/emotional methodologies are the essence of what is recommended in the Vedas, some of the earliest writings on the planet, and these include contemplation, concentration and meditation, all three related to the conscious and willful control of the attention.

The need to be master of one’s own attention has gotten progressively greater over the centuries as a result of information overload and its distractive effects. We have given this condition the name Acceleritis. Our relevant hypothesis is that written language, by making language visual — the dominant sense of not only homo sapiens but of all primates — brought the human race up to Piaget’s Formal Operational level of thinking, the highest known level of thinking until Systems Level thinking was discovered in the twentieth century. This so augmented the ability to invent that in only 3% of the time since the appearance of the species, the human race in the last 6000 years has invented more and more things and ideas each year than in the prior year, and at an increasing rate, driving a vast increase in the amount of information needing to be processed by our brains each day. ADD, ADHD, and a fairly obvious reduction in the general population’s ability to stay focused on one problem long enough to solve it, have been the result. Again, the need for Mindfulness has never been greater.

Concentration is the focus of the mind on a single object. Contemplation is the focus of the mind on a single subject. Meditation is the contemplation of the Self. What then is Mindfulness? We define Mindfulness as the optimal allocation of attention for maximum effectiveness. Now that we’ve defined the term, we’ll stop initial-capping it.

Attention optimally allocates both inwardly and outwardly at the same time. This is in sharp distinction from normative behavior, which is to allocate virtually all attention outwardly whenever the eyes are open. This normative attention strategy virtually eliminates the ability to understand one’s own motivations in the moment, causing actions to be controlled by ego drives that are counterproductive to efficacy. When one is mindful, there is a predictive feedback loop allowing one to suppress actions that are merely self-serving and do not consider the needs and probable responses of others.

Mindfulness also makes one more observant externally, improving what fighter pilots call situational awareness. Our theory of Holosentience postulates a shift into a higher state of consciousness as a result of persistent mindfulness. We call this the Observer state, and it is from this state that the mind-body can launch into Flow state or the Zone, the highest known state of consciousness in which right actions seem to do themselves effortlessly.

It takes “attentional” effort to be mindful and thus to reach the Observer state and the Zone.

Mindfulness and solution orientation (overleaping the focus on the problem once it is defined and going right to the focus on the solution, otherwise known as Positive Thinking) combine to form the core of the Human Effectiveness Institute’s psychotechnology — the recommended set of methodologies to achieve superior decisions, highest effectiveness, and creative innovation in all aspects of one’s life.

Best to all,

Bill 

Follow my regular blog contribution at Jack Myers Media Network: In Terms of ROI. It is in the free section of the website at  Bill Harvey at MediaBizBloggers.com. 

Applying Game Theory to the Largest Questions

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Volume 3, Issue 21

Recently a great friend sent me this link and these questions:

http://nyti.ms/12a3BJz

NY Times: A Quantum of Solace

Is time an illusion? Is there a universe, or multiverse? Finite or infinite? Will we ever know, and does it matter?

All of these are interesting questions. Let’s however focus on the last one — does it matter?

It matters because one’s view of the universe shapes one’s thoughts, feelings and actions.

If one is betting there is a multiverse and that individuals tune into certain branches and experience different lives as universes branch off into variations on themselves, one is always careful to tune one’s mind to the universe one wants to be living in. Such a person probably would have not built a bomb shelter following the Cuban Missile Crisis. Because that degree of concentration on the universe in which the missiles would come could switch one into that branch, which — if multiverse theory is accurate — probably really exists having branched off back in the 60s.

If one is betting there is a single universe that happened by accident, such a person might have built that bomb shelter. If the person is wrong and it’s a multiverse, despite being wrong that person would be lucky enough to be living in this branch in which WWIII did not happen in the 20th century.

We are not saying one is right and the other is wrong — merely that there are reasons why it does matter which view of reality one is betting on. Because our view influences our decisions, implying that all of us should spend at least a little time reaching one’s own position on the largest questions — something that Aristotle advised a long time ago.

If one is truly betting there is a God that is benevolent and likes Good acts, one is more likely to perform those even at self-sacrifice. If one is betting that life is a free-for-all then one is more likely to take care of number one first.

Given the pragmatic importance of a view of reality, it is amazing how little conversation there is about the nature of reality, and how infrequently there are articles like the one in The New York Times that started this post. 

If one has no proof one way or the other about the nature of reality, what are the implications for optimal action and decision making?

Game theory dictates that one should adopt the position offering the greatest chance of success regardless of what reality turns out to be. In other words, if one had an optimizer running in one’s head, there would be a spreadsheet for every contemplated action in which the columns were the alternative possible natures of reality — Benevolent God, Accidental Materialism, One Self Living Many Lives at Once, Two Gods One Good One Evil, We Are All Gods in a Free-for-All, etc. The rows would be the alternative actions one could take in a given situation. Each cell in the table would contain a best guess about how well each action would fare in each type of universe. Calculations done instantaneously on the table would indicate the action with the greatest chances of serving one’s true long-term goals the best regardless of which type of universe we are living in.

This seems pretty far-fetched. Not only have people given up thinking about the largest questions, they have even given up self-observational/critical thinking about their own true long-term goals. This is the nature of the I Have No Time Culture.

Nevertheless it is probable that in the “gut” — the part of the intuition that manifests through the basal ganglia and holds a record of what has worked and not worked for us in the past (see last post) — something very similar to such a table is operating to provide realtime optimal recommendations in the way of gut feel.

Game theory in this case points to not foreclosing on any possible nature of reality. This puts the individual in the strongest position to be able to attune to intuitions, read minds or thought currents, and sense the future, because if one takes the more common assumption of Accidental Materialism (essentially a believed religion like any other), one tends to be shut off from the openness to having these useful experiences.

Now briefly to the other questions my friend posed:

Is time an illusion? I am betting that to the One Consciousness of which we are parts, everything is one instant, and the smaller minds of the slivers (us) have to break the whole down into a sequence in order to delectate it without being overwhelmed. That sequence is time.

Is there a universe, or multiverse? My bet: multiverse — otherwise one is assuming that we are naturally able to sense the entire universe through our instruments and senses — which seems to me to be just one more unwarranted assumption. Any processor capable of launching and sustaining the ornate universe we see is so awesomely powerful in terms of bits per second and other such objective information theory metrics that it is unreasonable to assume limits.

Finite or infinite? I’m with Heinlein on this — whatever is, must be finite, but a very large number so large that it might as well be infinity. Why “must” whatever “is” be “finite”? By definition of the word “is”. My definition is that something “is” if it is perceived by any consciousness. A consciousness alone in its own universe, since it perceives itself, is. A tree that falls in a forest in my view is, because the tree itself is conscious. So is a rock. Being made out of consciousness, everything must have some form of consciousness, no matter how rudimentary. We see evidence of “rudimentary”  or “essential” consciousness in the victims of dementia for example.

Will we ever know?

If your consciousness survives death, there will be a vast increase in your own certainty and knowledge as to which universe descriptions have to be taken off the table. However, those left behind will still be in the dark until they leave this life.

Or is that necessarily the case? Some individuals have unexplainable experiences of contacting the consciousness above, and this convinces them of the existence of an Overconsciousness. Often these are infused with the symbols of a specific religion and as a set these are called “religious experiences”. Others characterize people who have these experiences as having flipped their wigs. This is part of the reason why people don’t talk much about the largest questions any more.

That’s OK with me, I would just hope that people think to themselves about the largest questions some more. Returning to where we began, it matters because one’s view of the universe shapes one’s thoughts, feelings and actions.

Best to all,

Bill 

Follow my regular blog contribution at Jack Myers Media Network: In Terms of ROI. It is in the free section of the website at  Bill Harvey at MediaBizBloggers.com.

If You’re Not Getting Enough Pleasure out of Your Life, You’ve Got to Fix That

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Volume 3, Issue 12

No one else is going to do it for you.

All that exists is the Now, so you can’t be putting off fun to some hoped-for future. If you’re not getting it right now, this very day, you’re not playing to win at the game of life; you’re trapping yourself in illusion and accepting second best.

What’s stopping you from seizing the day and living your dreams, right this very moment? Very likely it’s the deep dark repressed (or expressed) belief that you don’t have the power to change your life into the ideal vision you had for it. Especially now, when so much time has passed, and you’ve got negative momentum leading away from the goal, and everybody sees you one way so how could it ever be even imaginable that the consensus reality could ever change that dramatically?

It’s a deep and true intuition we feel in our gut that when so many minds are tuned to one way, getting all those minds to change very much is literally unthinkable. Yet it is truly miraculous how much those minds can change once you’ve changed your own.

The Ouroboros, the Greek symbol that Carl Jung said was the first symbol used by humanity, is a snake holding its own tail in its mouth, forming a circle. It has many meanings, some “good”, some “bad” — really all of them good but most of them bring you at first through stuff that appears bad. The “bad” interpretation is the fact that when we have a mental block, like believing we cannot live our dream, the belief comes true only because of the belief itself.

The intellect alone cannot get itself out of such traps by understanding them. The whole self working together has to turn the great ship in the water because its momentum is so strong that without unity among all parts of oneself the belief will unfortunately be borne out.

You get to unity inside through the Observer state, in which you meditate on your own Self, observing its machinations in minute detail perhaps for the first time with such sustained energy. This causes a breakthrough in which the Observer state becomes second nature and you find yourself popping in and out of the even higher Flow state — higher in the sense of higher performance, greater effectiveness.

In these higher states you can unravel the Ouroboros and make sure the energy is flowing in the right direction, where its meaning is the consuming of minutiae thoughts and low feelings as they arise, like a rising phoenix burning the dross to reveal the gold of your inner genius.

Best to all,

Bill

PS I am doing a book signing and talk on Thursday, May 16 from 5 to 7 PM at Forest Books, 182 Birch Hill Rd., Locust Valley, New York 11560 in Long Island. Please join me if you are in the area.

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

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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.