[Neurons] 2014 "Neurons" -- Meta Reflections #21

[L. Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections 2014 #21

May 26, 2014

 

THE NEUROLOGY OF META-STATES

 

While presenting APG recently, one NLP Trainer intensely struggled to get
his head around the idea of meta-states.  Having been trained exclusively
within "the Bandler camp of NLP," he had been explicitly taught that the
Meta-States Model was simply wrong and inadequate. Yet here he was at a
Meta-States Training for Accessing Personal Genius (APG)!   Isn't that great
as an example of being open-minded?  At the breaks, he inudated me with some
excellent questions that got me thinking.  It was obviously he was
experiencing brain strain as he struggled to figure it out.  So absolutely
fascinated at his experience and wondering what ideas were preventing him
from gaining clarity, I asked him as many questions as he asked me. 

 

Quoting Bandler and Michael Breen, he argued that there is only one
neurology and that therefore we can only have one state.  "Whatever state a
person is experiencing is a single state within a single neurology.  You
cannot have a state about a state."  On the surface, that sounds reasonable,
right?  He asked, "There's only one neurology, you can't have two
neurologies in the same body, can you?"  Now while I had never thought about
things in that way, I answered in the affirmative.  "Yes, you can."  "How?"
he asked.

 

The answer to how lies in brain and nervous system anatomy.  First of all,
we do not have a single nervous system.  We have many nervous systems: the
autonomic nervous system, the immune system, the digestive system, the
sympathetic nervous system (fight-flight response), the parasympathetic
nervous system (relaxation response), the circulatory system, the endocrine
system, etc.  Our brain also has layers of distinct functional parts wherein
our nerve impulses processes information level upon level.  We generally
identify the anatomy of the brain as having three parts or brains: the
reptilian, mammalian, and higher or human level brain.  This makes our brain
and nervous system complex and layered.

 

The higher level brain: 

Governs: Learning, language, problem solving, deciding, creativity.

Involves: Cerebral cortex, the parietal, temporal, and occipital lobes; the
prefrontal lobes (have an array of inhibitory neurons capable of stopping
the directives the amygdala sends) and the left frontal lobe.

 

The mammalian brain: 

Governs: Emotion, coordination of movement, the general adaptation syndrome
(fight- flight- freeze response)

Involves: The limbic system, amygdala (the brains alarm), thalamus.

Reticular activation system (RAS): located at the beginning in the upper
brain stem, continues into the lower reaches of the cerebral cortex.  When
emotionally charged, RAS shuts down the cerebral cortex.

 

The reptilian brain: 

Governs: Respiration, digestion, circulation, reproduction.

 

Nerve impulses are processed at different levels.  The body is first
activated by the senses which experiences a stimulus in terms of sights,
sounds, sensations, smells, etc.  This "information" then enters the human
body as the nerve impulses move through the nerve cells (neurons) which are
connected to each other through the dendrite and axon structures.  Along the
way neuro-transmitters as chemicals are secreted at the synapse which in
turn affect the formation, maintenance, activity, and longevity of synapses
and neurons. 

 

As the nerve impulses move from sense-receptor away from the outside and
into the body, it goes first to the lower levels of the brain (thalamus and
hypothalamus) where we "process" that information.  Then, the nerve impulses
are sent to the higher brain levels to be processed there (the frontal
cortex).  Korzybski noted that if we "use our nervous system the way animals
use theirs" then we process the "information" only at the lower levels and
do not take the time to reflect on the information and so use the higher
processing levels.  To use our neurology as a human nervous system with its
full potential, we need to take a moment to stop and reflect.  This will
send nerve impulses upwards to be processed further by the higher levels. 

 

In writing about this in Science and Sanity, Korzbyski (1933/ 1994)
described the order or syntax of the nervous system and its levels: 

"The structure of our nervous system was established with 'senses' first,
and 'mind' next.  In neurological terms, the nervous impulses should be
received first in the lower centres and pass on through the sub-cortical
layers to the cortex, be influenced there and be transformed in the cortex
by the effect of past experiences. ...   We know that the reversed order in
semantic manifestation- namely, the projection into 'senses' of memory
traces or doctrinal impulses- is against the survival structure..." (176)

 

In writing about our neurology, Korzybski spoke about "the nervous system
works as-a-whole" and the anatomical homology of the parts of different
nervous systems (177).  He also frequently spoke about the structural
complexity and differentiation of the nervous system (183).

"Since the cortex has a profound influence upon the other parts of the
brain, the insufficient use of the cortex must reflect detrimentally upon
the functioning of the other parts of the brain. ...   Processes should pass
the entire cycle.  If not, there must be something wrong with the system."
(178)

"What part in the 'seeing' is due to 'senses', and what to 'mind'?  The
answer is, that, structurally, the 'seeing' is the result of a cyclic
interdependent process, which can be split only verbally. ...  The human
nervous system represents, structurally, a mutually interdependent cyclic
chain, where each partial function is in the functional chain, together with
enforcing and 'inhibiting,', and other mechanisms."  (180)

 

The cycle that he here speaks about is the circuit of information coming
into the nervous system, being processed at various levels, and then
returning to activate one to respond in an appropriate way.  Later in
Science and Sanity he provided some diagrams of the flow and direction of
the nerve impulses.                                 

"Figure 1 shows how the normal impulse should travel.  It should pass the
thalamus, pass the sub-cortical layers, reach the cortex, and return.  That
the impulse is altered in passing this complicated chain is indicated in the
diagram. (193)

 

Processing of "information" at different levels in the human nervous system
creates different kinds of thinking.  Here he speaks about thalamic thinking
versus higher level thinking which shows up in us as being reactive versus
responsive (thinking and choosing our responses).  The lower levels of brain
functioning and processing involves comparative unconditionality whereas the
higher levels involve increasing more conditionality.  This led Korzybski to
talk about the lower levels to be more animal-like as it involves "the
confusion of orders of abstraction" (36,37, 42).  That is, people here
"think" in terms of things being determined.

"... the 'thalamic thinking' in humans; those individuals who overwork their
thalamus and use their cortex too little are 'emotional' and stupid. ...
when these shifting, dynamic, affective, thalamic-region, lower order
abstractions are abstracted again by the higher centres, these new
abstractions are further removed from the outside world and must be somehow
different." (291)

 

"The more elaborate a nervous system becomes, the further some parts of the
brain are removed from immediate experience.  Nerve currents, having finite
velocity, eventually have longer and more numerous paths to travel;
different possibilities and complications arise, resulting in 'delayed
action'.  It is known that the thalamus (roughly) appears connected with
affective and 'emotional' life, and that the cortex, farther removed and
isolated from the external world, has the effect of inducing this 'delay in
action'.  In unbalanced and 'emotional' 'thinking', which is so prevalent,
the thalamus seems overworked, the cortex seems not worked enough. ... it
appears at the silence on objective levels' introduces this 'delayed
action', unloading the thalamic material on the cortex." (422)

 

"... one of the most fundamental functional differences between animal and
man consists in the fact that no matter in how many orders the animal may
abstract, its abstractions stop on some level beyond which the animal cannot
proceed. Not so with man.  Structurally and potentially, man can abstract in
indefinitely many orders ..." (439)

 

There are multiple functional parts at work in both our nervous systems and
our brain.  These levels of processing explains how we can have multiple
states simultaneously.  A further mechanism that contributes to this is our
self-reflexivity.  This is the mechanism within us by which we can think,
then think-about-our-thinking, feel-about-our-feeling, etc.  This explains
how we can have one state and create another state-about-it.  If they are
aligned, then we can create congruent states like joyful learning,
respectful anger, mindful fear, appreciative sadness, etc.  If they are not,
then we can create meta-states that work to our detriment as they put us at
odds with ourselves: fearful anger, guilty fear, anger-at-ourselves for our
sadness, fear of our fear, etc.

            

So the levels of brain and nervous system anatomy and the self-reflexivity
mechanism explains how within our single body we can have multiple states.
Now add one more factor.  Add to this the time element of our nervous
system.  After all there is a definite and finite speed of the nerve
impulses and that causes there to be a length of time required for the
processing of information. So, can we have multiple states (neurological
states) within our body simultaneously?  Yes of course.  You know it; you
have experienced it as have all of us!

 

 

 

NEURO-SEMANTICS NEWS

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L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

                Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

                Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

                1 970-523-7877 

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