[Neurons] 2018 Neurons #53 KORZYBSKI AND "THINKING"

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2018 Neurons #53

December 10, 2018

Executive Thinking and Korzybski (#2) 

 

ALFRED KORZYBSKI 

AND THINKING

 

In consideration of "critical thinking," Korzybski began by writing about
thinking itself.  That sent him to neurology and how the nerves in our
bodies work to bring data into itself and transform it so that it becomes
"thought."  It also sent him to engineering and mathematics to find a
language that would assist in modeling how the nerves, the nerve centers,
the nerve sense receptors, the nervous systems, the lower and higher nerve
centers of the brain, etc. does this incredibly complex activity that we
call thinking.

 

A key discovery: The process of "thinking" is a part of the mechanism of
"abstracting."  This term refers to taking some input (data) and summarizing
it as you select certain parts and as you put into a form or code what you
take from the input.  At first this occurs far, far below what we call
"thinking," as your body, in the form of nerve endings and sensory receptors
(eyes, ears, skin, etc.), abstracts from the energy manifestations of the
electromagnetic spectrum "out there" which impacts you.  The neurological
form of your sense receptors have developed to be able to pick up certain
vibrations and to then translate them into a form (a code of some sort) that
you use physiologically.  That first level is far, far below awareness,
consciousness, and thinking.

 

Eventually the information constructed from the impulses become an
activation in your nervous system and code by the lower levels of the brain
as sensations and feelings.  Later those abstractions are translated into
what we call our "senses" -sight, sound, sensation, smell, taste, etc.
Sometime after that, the nervous systems abstract again so that you become
aware of your senses.  And that begins consciousness-you become a sentient
being with awareness and begin to "think."  From there the abstracting
process gives us language so that we develop a meta-representation system
for thinking, first sensory-based words, then more abstract words.

 

While it is all very complex and even today we do not know how all of it
works, we have known a couple key facts for a long time.  

One, thinking arises from the abstracting process, first in neurology, then
in language.

Two, thinking follows the abstracting levels and so has an order or
sequence, from lower to higher.  That makes thinking multi-ordinal; we think
at various levels and layer thoughts upon thoughts.

Three, our thinking is therefore self-reflexive; we can think about our
thinking.

Four, the thinking process is similar to the mapping process-it works best
when we start with the elements and events of the territory and map it so
that the structure of our thinking corresponds as best as possible to the
structure beyond our nervous system.  "The map is not the territory."

Five, thinking can be sane so we make a good adjustment to the world, unsane
in that we do not make a good adjustment, but suffer from dis-orientations
and problems involving the nervous energy in our system, or completely
insane so that we cannot adjust ourselves at all to the reality that we're
living in.

 

Now for Korzybski the basic problem that we all learn in childhood is to
treat words as real and to identify them as the same as the referent that
the word as a symbol stands for.  He called this identification and it seems
to be built into the way the lower nerve centers of the brain work.  How
does it show up in life?  Associations.  Our nervous system and brain
associates one thing with another.  For the infant, the cry magically
produces the milk.  Soon the word "hungry" brings about food.  For small
children, this introduces the stage of magical thinking, the word "is" the
referent (the map is the territory).  We equate.  What I say something "is,"
that is what it is.

 

With that, the unsanity begins.  In this way we create semantic disturbances
and semantic reactions.  A semantic reaction, unlike a physiological
reaction (blow air onto the eye, tap the knee), is a reaction based on a
meaning- "His tone is insulting."  "Her huffing is disrespect."  "His
strained and harsh voice is scary and makes me afraid."  By equating a
stimulus with a response, we invent "complex equivalences" (NLP) so that "A
= B" or cause-effect structures, "A causes or makes -> B."  This disturbs
us.  We get upset, irritated, fearful, anxious, etc.- a semantic
disturbance.

 

Now our thinking is not very clear or accurate.  In fact, with semantic
structures like that in one's head, it is hard to think when a given
stimulus occurs: sitting for a test, asking for a raise, thinking about the
discipline in going to the gym, inviting someone out on a date, etc.  Now a
person can't think, or thinks in such distorted and wrong-headed ways, the
person cannot succeed in reaching goals or even understanding how the world
works. 

 

The solution?  Stop identifying.  Stop using a map (even a single-word map)
to explain, understand, and interpret things, and open your eyes and ears to
freshly experience the data.  Then you can learn to build up more useful
maps for navigating life.  This means delaying the semantic reaction, taking
a moment to be silent, and program into your neurology that whatever you say
about anything, those are words and not the thing.  "Whatever you say it is,
it is not."

 

In our newest Neuro-Semantic Training on Executive Thinking, Cognitive
Make-Over, this is the process of unlearning.  This refers to the fact that
oftentimes in order to learn something new and more effective, you first
have to unlearn an old habit of thinking, feeling, speaking, and acting.
You may have to unplug some of your semantic buttons.  You may have to
release old "learnings" that have become redundant and irrelevant.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

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


    cid:261CED33-4408-4124-862B-B9A4B37A367A

    

 

Dr. L. Michael Hall writes a post on "Neurons" each Monday.  For a free
subscription, sign up on www.neurosemantics.com.   On that website you can
click on Meta-Coaching for detailed information and training schedule.   To
find a Meta-Coach see  <http://www.metacoachfoundation.org>
www.metacoachfoundation.org.   For Neuro-Semantic Publications --- click
"Products," there is also a catalog of books that you can download.   

 

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