[Neurons] 2015 "Neurons" Meta Reflections #18

Sun Apr 19 16:57:03 EDT 2015

From: L. Michael Hall

Meta Reflections #18

April 20, 2015

OXYMORONS: 

DEADENDS OR DOORWAYS TO CREATIVITY?

Oxymornon?  Yes, the dictionary defines an oxymoron as "a figure of speech
in which apparently contradictory terms are combined to produce an
epigrammatic effect, i.e., 'cruel only to be kind.'" Of course, when you
take these two experiences or states and put them together, you have a
meta-state structure.  Hence, you could create either the meta-state of
being cruelly kind or kindly cruel.  Here the syntax makes a lot of
difference.  In previous posts I have illustrated this with the states of
being serious and playful. Combining these so that one state is above and
about the other state gives us seriously play or playfully serious.

In these constructs the first word describes the higher level state and as
such, it sets the frame for the first level state.  In practice you would
first access the primary state, and then texture it with the higher state.
You access the state of being serious, that is in earnest, committed, and
concerned, and then you texture that with the higher state of playfulness.
Then if we ask, "What is the quality of your seriousness?" the answer would
be, "It is playful."  The state or attitude of playfulness-fun, delightful,
joy, etc. qualifies the first state.  This, by the way, is an excellent
state for so many experiences-learning, working, leading, etc.

As a result, the gestalt experience of being playfully serious entails
beliefs, values, identity, understandings, decisions, permissions,
intentions, and all of the other higher level "logical levels."  In
Meta-States we understand this as a hologram.  We think about it in terms of
a holarchy rather than a hierarchy. That is, simultaneously the gestalt
state is a belief, a value, an identity, an understanding, etc.  In
Meta-States training (which is called APG, Accessing Personal Genius) we
recognize this systems distinction about the so-called "logical levels" as
what makes our self-reflexive consciousness as so rich, complex, and
dynamic.  Consequently, this makes all the difference in the world in terms
of modeling human experiences, especially experiences and skills of experts.
In fact, if you only use the NLP distinctions for modeling-you will miss
this!

Recently when I used the example of being seriously playful, several people
asked me to give them some additional examples.  When I did, someone
recognized that the two additional examples were oxymorons.  So they asked
for me to see if all of these would be oxymorons.  So I Used the dichotomous
states of perfection and fallibility, hence perfectly fallible and fallibly
perfect.  "Give another one!" they said, still not satisified.  Okay,
consider the human response of kindness and its opposite, rudeness.  Now we
have bluntly kind or kindly blunt.  

Finally they stopped, but I could have gone on and on. 

           sweet sorrow, sorrowful sweetness

           civil war, battled civility

           skillful incompetence

           reasonably irrational

           a perfect mistake

           unthinking reflection

           exquisite suffering

           deafening silence

           forgetting to remember; remembering to forget

           fun boredom

           healthy selfishness; hedonistic altruism

           maturely childlike; childishly mature

           passionately excited; excited passivity

           chaotic order; orderly chaos

           notoriously unknown

           ambiguously clear; clearly ambiguous

           stringent standards

           conflicting perceptions

           constant variables

           open secrets

           abstract images

           plastic glass

           Relaxed concentration

What's the point?  Some oxymorons (but not all) reveal the shortsightedness
of our tendency to dichotomize. We so often revert to the more childish
cognitive frame of either-or thinking and positing things as polar
opposites, when that often is a very limited perspective.  In other words,
what we dichotomize may actually create all kinds of unnecessary problems.
This reminds me of Abraham Maslow's quotation about this:

"Dichotomizing pathologizes and pathology dichotomizes."

Consider the dichotomizing question that one participant asked during a
conversation recently when I was presenting Unleashing Leadership.  He said
he asked because it didn't know which he was.  "Am I a leader or a
follower?"  The question frames the answer in terms of polar opposites: This
or That?  Yet every leader is also a follower.  There is no person who is a
leader in everything, in every area.  And many of the very best leaders are
following-leaders-they hear the voice of their people and lead them
accordingly.  And what about leader-followers?  These are people who are
either being groomed for leadership or who are  the support team of the
leader.

The oxymoron isn't a dead-end, it is actually an invitation to think further
ahead. Or perhaps better, to think upward!  That's become oxymorons
playfully invite you to rise up in your mind to consider how one side of a
polarity could possibly texture and qualify the other side.  To do this you
have to step out of the dichotomized box of oppositional thinking to
creatively consider possibilities that were never even available to you
before.  Interested in creativity?  Here then is a doorway if you are bold
enough and flexible enough to enter.

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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