[Neurons] 2013 Meta Reflections #38

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2013  #38

August 26, 2013

Making Self-Actualization Actionable #1

 

 

REAL LIVE, EVERYDAY

SELF-ACTUALIZATION

 

 

After a lifetime of studying and modeling self-actualizing people, Abraham
maslow wrote a chapter about his experiences in a book, Challenges of
Humanistic Psychology that James Bugental edited.  He titled of the chapter,
"Self-Actualizing and Beyond."  What I found wonderful about this chapter is
how he described both his original motivations for the modeling project and
how he then set about to create benchmarks for self-actualization.  So given
that one of our key discoveries in Neuro-Semantics is the "secret history"
of NLP in the work of Maslow and Rogers and that benchmarking is one of our
key contributions to the field of NLP, I thought I would quote extensively
from the chapter and relate it to current work that we are doing in
Neuro-Semantics.

 

Modeling: 1935

Forty years before Bandler and Grinder modeled the three Human Potential
Movement leaders (Bateson, Perls, and Satir), Maslow modeled two people who
showed extraordinary development of human excellence and began the Human
Potential Movement.  What he discovered was that in

"... trying to understand two of my teachers that he loved, adored, and
admired and who were very, very wonderful people ... [I] sought to
understand why these two people were so different from the run-of-the-mill
people in the world.  These two people were Ruth Benedict and Max
Wertheimer." (The Farther Reaches of Human Nature, 1971, Chapter 3, p. 40)

 

Maslow's modeling then began out of astonished amazement at two individuals
who "were most remarkable human beings."  Unlike the NLP modeling of skills,
this model wasn't about what they did, but what they had become- being more
than doing.  Now in terms of doing, they were both famous-Max was the
co-founder of Gestalt Psychology and Ruth the founder of Cultural
Anthropology, the mentor of Margaret Mead, first wife of Gregory Bateson.

"I made descriptions and notes on Max Wertheimer, and I made notes on Ruth
Benedict.  When I tried to understand them, think about them, and write
about them in my journal and notes, I realized in one wonderful moment that
their two patterns could be generalized.  I was talking about a kind of
person, not about two non-comparable individuals.  There was wonderful
excitement in that.  I tried to see whether this pattern could be found
elsewhere, and I did find it elsewhere, in one person after another." (41)

 

This modeling is driven by the scientific attitude of seeking knowledge
about human excellence, something that Maslow spent his entire life
searching this out.  He selected "wonderful people"

"... and then tried to figure them out and fond he was able to describe a
syndrome-the kind of pattern that seemed to fit all of them."

 

Maslow selected people who were visibly successful and who were also
inwardly success becaue he wanted to discover the farther reaches of human
nature:

"When you select out for careful study very find and healthy people, strong
people, creative people, saintly people, sagacious people- then you get a
different view of mankind.  You are asking how tall can people grow, what
can a human being become?"

 

What did he find as he searched for human excellence?  He found that these
self-actualizing people were living for what he defined as the
being-values-the values of being-the values that were valuable in and of
themselves, inherently, innately, and were not valued only for their
instrumental use.  He commented that these B-values are "the meaning of life
for most people."

"Self-actualizing people are, without one single exception, involved in a
cause outside their own skin, in something outside of themselves.  They are
devoted at something ... which is very precious to them ... so that the
work-joy dichotomy in them disappears." (42)

 

Benchmarking Self-Actualization

In his 1967 chapter, Maslow was looking for the actual behaviors that led to
and that indicated self-actualization- the benchmarks.

"What does one do when he self-actualizes?  Does he grit his teeth and
squeeze?  What does self-actualization mean in terms of actual behavior,
actual procedure?" (43)

 

That's when he came up with "eight ways in which one self-actualizes."  I
will be quoting him for each of these eight ways in the next weeks and
adding comments about each.

 

1) Total Absorption

"First, self-actualization means experiencing fully, vividly selflessly,
with full concentration and total absorption.  It means experiencing without
the self-consciousness of the adolescent.  At this moment of experiencing,
the person is wholly and fully human.  This is a self-actualizing moment.
This is a moment when the self is actualizing itself." (44)

 

Maslow wrote that this "can be a very sweet moment" and that's because in
such moments of absorption, one can forget poses, defenses, shyness and "go
at it whole-hog."  Such engagement!  This is the very thing that
Csikszentmihalyi has described in his description of a flow state.  The flow
state is where one becomes so completely engaged in an activity that one
gets lost in it.  One becomes so engaged with something, and the amazing
thing is that it could be just about anything- an athletic event, a puzzle,
rock climbing, reading a book, having a coaching conversation with someone,
writing, cooking, making love, playing with a dog- the list is endless.

 

And it is this kind and quality of total engagement that e call "the genius
state" in Neuro-Semantics.  Building on the foundational work of DeLozier,
Grinder, Dilts, and others, Accessing Personal Genius is all about this- how
to turn on your "genius" or "flow" state so that it is yours- at your
command.  No longer do you have to wait for it, cross your fingers and hope
for it, you can "turn it on" and step fully into the zone of your optimal
state- at will.

Now given that this is one of the benchmarks of self-actualization, in fact,
the first one, and that it is a total absorption and engagement with
something outside of yourself- this again clarifies the old confusion
between self-actualization and selfishness and why we say that
Self-Actualization is not about you, it is through you.

 

Ready for living the self-actualizing life?  Then get ready to move far, far
beyond multi-tracking as you step into total absorption of a meaning and
value that endows your life with a rich and robust meaningfulness. 

 

 

 

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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Self-Actualization: Neuro-Semantics launched the New Human Potential
Movement in 2007, for information about this, see
<http://www.self-actualizing.org/> www.self-actualizing.org  

 

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