[Neurons] 2010 Meta Reflections #10

[L. Michael Hall]

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Meta Reflections 2011 - #10

Feb. 28, 2011

                                                

EFFECTIVE SEMANTICS

Alfred Korzybski Series #6

 

 

If you and I are a semantic class of life (series #5), then how do we learn
to effectively handle our semantic nature so that we become less reactive
semantically and avoid creating semantic disturbances in our neurology?
Korzybski addresses these questions directly and NLP similarly addresses
them, although more indirectly.

 

Korzybski addressed both semantic reactions and semantic disturbances
directly.  For him, when you and I semantically react we are "using our
nervous systems in an animalistic way."  That is, we are confusing
map-and-territory and identifying something "out there" with our labels and
evaluations of it.  What then is the solution?  Simple.  

Stop identifying, distinguish your map from the territory, take a moment to
be silent and notice that on the "unspeakable level" of your neurological
abstracting that whatever you are experiencing that's being triggered by the
outside world is your abstraction of it, not it.

NLP speaks about this same process by saying: come into sensory awareness,
move from evaluating to describing, adopt a know-nothing state, recognize
that your map is not the territory.  

 

One there is a semantic disturbance, the solution is to recognize that our
mental-emotional, physical-and-relational disturbance is semantically based.
The problem is not the world.  The problem is not the other person.  The
problem is not "out there."  The problem is our frame.  It is the map that
we are using, the mental model we are operating from, and the way we have
come to understand, represent, and evaluate the triggering event.  We have
falsely meta-stated it with mapping that disturbs us.  The good news is that
we are the source of the disturbance- you are disturbing you.  And that's
good news because if you are doing the disturbing, you can stop that process
and begin a better process!

 

Now all of this establishes the foundation for how the NLP Meta-Model of
language works as well as how reframing shifts meanings and so our
responses.  So whenever a person has strong feelings in response to
something that is not immediately present, they are in a semantic state-a
state conditioned by their meanings.  This then leads to them experiencing a
semantic reaction in their body.  It's their words that convey their
meanings that begin effecting their nervous system.  It's not the actual
external stimuli that actually fires off the nervous responses, but the
meanings the person creates about those stimuli.  The nervous disturbance
comes from the meanings being experienced and lived in.

Korzybski's point: Your semantics effect your nervous systems.   Because you
think in words and language forms, your sensory systems for processing
information and creating internal representations make-up your nervous
system.  Then this effects the rest of your nervous system- your body and
physiology as your mind-body state.  It is this new factor of our semantics
in our nervous system, which isn't true for animals, that makes us
distinctively human.

 

So as a semantic class of life we are semantically conditioned beings.
Since we don't merely use words as signals (the way animals do), but as
full-fledged symbols, our symbols enable us to process information at
meta-levels.  That's why we can always generate words to say about whatever
we experience, and then we can say more words about those words.

 

What results from this?  Ah, the unique human experiencing of being able to
live in meta-land!  We can and do live at meta-levels of abstraction.  And
unless we are careful, we can confuse levels of abstraction and live in
delusional worlds.  Our symbols powerfully effect us since they create one
of the most significant aspects of our "environment."  They can also induce
us into various psycho-physiological states that relate to, and accord to,
our internal representations rather than to external representations.

 

Now as long as our semantic reactions are just that-reactions, they are
automatic, immediate, and unconscious.  This endows them with the quality of
operating as our human "programming" driving us and leaving us without
choices.  The solution?  To become conscious of abstracting so that we can
develop semantic responses that we choose.  That is, we can consciously
alter our meanings and generate the responses that we want to make.

 

No wonder Korzybski invented the phrases neuro-linguistic and neuro-semantic
to describe these processes.  Operating as our linguistic and semantic
environments, they operate without us being aware of our linguistic habits
(our internal dialogue, representations, evaluations) and structurally the
exert an influence upon us and create all kinds of semantic maladjustments.

 

This explains why language uniquely represents one of our highest
neurological functions.  Korzybski specifically asserted that language is a
fundamental psycho-physiological function (p. 18).  And because all language
has structure, all language automatically involves interconnected semantic
reactions (p. 33).  Do you know that?  How well do you understand that?  And
do you know what to do with that understanding?

 

Now regarding human achievements, they all rest upon our use of symbols and
our ability to communicate clearly and accurately.

"Animals have no 'doctrines' in our meaning of the term; thus, doctrines are
no part of their environment...  We have them, however, and, since they are
the most vital environmental semantic conditions relating to our lives, if
they are fallacious, they make our lives unadjusted and so, ultimately, lead
to non-survival" (pp. 239-40)

 

Wrapping Up 

As a semantic class of life you map out your world by your words and
phrases.  Recognizing that whatever you say about anything is not that
thing, but that you are at the verbal level liberates you from semantically
reacting.  Now the "world" you map for yourself to live in can enhance your
functioning and experiencing rather than create self-imposed limitations.

 

 

 

Trainings in Colorado

After the International Conference of Neuro-Semantics (July 1-3) --- we are
planning to host Coaching Mastery which is Module III of Meta-Coaching.  If
you are interested, there are details on both www.neurosemantics.com and
www.meta-coaching.org.  You can also register or get more detailed
information about it from Michael . write  meta at acsol.net  .  

 

 

 

 

L.  Michael Hall, Ph.D.

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

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO.  81520 USA                             ----
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org

1 970-523-7877                                               ----
<http://www.meta-coaching.org/> www.meta-coaching.org

 

     

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Reflection articles by Dr. Hall are sent out every Monday (Colorado time).
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Wednesdays.   Contact Dr. Hall at  meta at acsol.net  

 

 

 

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