[Neurons] Meta Reflection #47

[meta]

L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections #47

October 22, 2007 

Unlearning Series #1




THE POWER OF UNLEARNING



It is one thing to know how to learn, to be highly effective at learning-discovering new awarenesses and insights, incorporating principles and concepts as elegant maps for navigating life, for accelerating one's learning processes in order to stay on the cutting-edge of discovery and experience. It is an entirely different thing to be an effective un-learner. That is, to be able to unlearn old ideas, beliefs, decisions, identities, etc. and to create space for new learnings.

I say it is an entirely different thing because in the first case learning is pretty simple and straight-forward, we simply construct our mental-emotional maps about something and that map then becomes our understanding. It becomes our perceptual reality. It becomes what we believe and the self-fulfilling prophesy that we put forth. But things are not so simple in the second case. In the second case, we have something in the way of our new learnings. We cannot just map it out and put it in our heads-and-bodies. It's not that simple.

No. First we have to unlearn. We have to open up some space to let the new ideas in. The problem in the second case is that we already know something! We already have a map about something and that map as a set of beliefs, understandings, principles, and identities determines what and how we see, how we experience ourselves, our skills, our emotions; it determines our entire response pattern!

This is precisely where unlearning comes in. In order to adopt the new updated maps about something and change from a limiting belief to a new enhancing and empowering belief, we have to clear some space. We have to reverse the learning that we've already made and unlearn. But who teaches the unlearning strategy? Who directly offers training and coaching in unlearning? And if they do, what is the strategy of unlearning? How does that work?

Actually, as a adult with a head-full of ideas, beliefs, understandings, identities, etc. left over from childhood, young adulthood, and the cultures we've grown up in (family, school, religious, national, etc.) being a good un-learner is undoubtedly far more important than having the skills of effective and accelerated learning.

Why? Because while you can keep learning all kinds of things, if it is blocked by previous learnings, it won't go in. This may be part of the problem that most people experience in attempting to close the knowing-doing gap. You learn something new, get excited about a new understanding, insight, or principle and you easily and quickly add it to your "mental" repertoire of great ideas, but then you find that you do not live it, you do not experience it. It does not actually govern or influence the way you live your life. What's wrong? What's in the way? What's blocking or interfering with the practicing of this great new idea?

What's in the way and blocking the integration of the new idea is an old idea. An old mental-emotional map about something is in the way and needs to be removed. But how do we remove the old meaning construct? And especially how do we rip it out of our mind-body if it has been in there for a decade, or two decades, or five decades? How do we get it out of our neurology, as the well-worn grooves in our neuro-pathways? How do we unlearn?

Now it is true that sometimes, and perhaps even a lot of the time, when we learn something new that is so much better than the old idea, the old idea just pops out and is easily and quickly replaced by the new. This is especially true if you have a frame that encourages ongoing learning and updating of your understandings. But sometimes we have to run a belief-change pattern to consciously and intentionally reject and refuse the old belief. We have to dis-confirm it and de-commission it so that we put a stop-order on it. Then we can confirm and commission te new belief. This is what the Meta-Yes Belief Change pattern in Neuro-Semantics is all about (see articles on website, or Sub-Modalities Going Meta, 2004). Or, as we do in APG on Day 2 as we "clear the pathway" by meta-stating concepts and dancing with our dragons.

Now the learning of anything is a construction of meaning. We may call that construct a belief, a decision, an understanding, an identity, or any of the 80 other meta-terms (the meta-questions). Yet, in the end, it is a construction of meaning. It is something "held in the mind" that gives us content information about the world, others, ourselves, etc. And meaning, when it gets inside our mind-body-emotion system becomes neurological. It becomes the way we use our neuro-pathways, nervous systems, etc. and so ultimately we feel our meanings as "emotions." [We cover this in the Ultimate Self-Actualization Workshop.]

So how can we undo the meaning constructions within our neurology? Is there any way to change the very functioning and operating of our neurology? Ah, yes, the Crucible! The Crucible is a change machine for the unlearning of old meanings, especially old meanings that have become "habits," i.e., habitual ways of thinking, feeling, perceiving, speaking, and acting.

So, do you have any old meanings (beliefs, decisions, understandings, identities, etc.) that is interfering with your current learnings? If so, the Crucible is the recommended change process for that. In this space that we call the human crucible you can bring those old learnings that now feel so firm and which interferes with your ongoing development and you can allow them to melt down into what they are-thoughts, images, pictures, sounds, words, etc. - the processes of mental mapping. You can then let the dross of cognitive distortions to burn off so that you can reform them into something new, something relevant, something empowering, something that will enable your full self-actualization! The crucible is now available in the Self-Actualization Workshop and you can even read a chapter about it in Unleashed: A Guide to Your Ultimate Self-Actualization (2007).

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The Ultimate Self-Actualization Workshop: Unleashing Potentials for Peak Performance is the newest Neuro-Semantic Training . We launched it in Portland Oregon with Rich Aanrich and Cat Wilson of Apositiva and the second training of it has just finished in Gold Coast Australia with Martin Urban of Inspired Focus, then to South Africa, Mexico, Switzerland, etc.

2007 Schedule 

8) Nov. 20-22, Lisbon, Portugal. EvoluiTech Formacao e consultoria. Amalia Duarte, aduarte at evoluitech.pt 

9) Nov. 23-24, London, England, NLP Conference. Jo Hogg, Director, jo at nlpconference.co.uk. Three hour workshop: Actualizing Your Highest and Best.

10) Nov. 30 - Dec. 3, 2007. Avignon, France sponsored by Formation Evolution et Synergie and Gilles Roy, Neuro-Semantic and NLP Trainer. gilles.roy2 at orange.fr www.coaching-pnl.com 33 (0) 4 90 16 04 16. 

11) Dec. 7, 8, and 9, 2007. Italy, Bologna. Sponsored by an Institute of Neuro-Semantics and Lucia Guiovannini and Nicola Riva. lucia at blessyouitalia.eu nicola at blessyouitalia.eu www.blessyouitalia.eu +39 348 229 2562.



If you or your organization would like to sponsor the Ultimate Self-Actualization Workshop, contact me. I'm looking to present it as far and wide as possible.

2008

1) April 4-7, Portland OR. sponsored by Apositiva, Rich Aanrich and Cat Wilson (www.apositivechange.com rich at apositivechange.com). (503) 525-0595. 

2) May 17-19. ID Com. International, Montreal Canada. Isabell David. Phone: 450-224-5398 / 514-815-5457. idcom at cgocable.ca / idcom at idcominter.com

Web: www.idcominter.com 

This training will be delivered in English and simultaneously translated to French. 80% of the participants in 2007 spoke both English and French; with 20% speaking only French and 10% speaking only English. Come and enjoy a taste and feel of Europe in Montreal as you self-actualize.









L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.
Neuro-Semantics Ltd., Executive Director
ISNS - International Society of Neuro-Semantics
P.O. Box 8
Clifton, Colorado, 81520 USA
www.neurosemantics.com 
www.meta-coaching.org
www.self-actualizing.org 

Email: meta @onlinecol.com @acsol.net @mindfocus.co.za
(970) 523-7877
(970) 523-5790 FAX
(877) 686-2867 toll free in the USA only
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