[Neurons] 2021 Neurons #30 META SOURCES & TRUTHS

[Michael Hall]

From: L. Michael Hall

2021 Neurons #30

May 31, 2021

A Meta Series #2

 

META SOURCES AND TRUTHS

 

After writing about the mechanisms and myths of meta (Neurons #28), several questions arose.  One was about the source of the term.  The word meta primarily goes to Gregory Bateson and his anthropological studies and then to his communication / psychological studies, especially those dealing with schizophrenia.  Bateson analyzed the communication/ thinking dilemma of the schizophrenia as being unable to meta-comment about a conflicting situation.  While Bateson was not the first to use the term, he certainly introduced and popularized the term in those fields as well as in the field of systems thinking.  And given that it was Bateson who was the professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz who taught all of the developers and leaders in NLP— they learned it from him and incorporated it into NLP.

 

Another question asked “What exactly does meta mean?”  For that we have to go back to the Greek language.  There the word carries a range of meanings— above, about, beyond, after, change.  It is used in the Greek New Testament many, many times and in numerous words.  An example that strikes most people as very strange is that it is the word for “repentance.”  In the original, the word is μετανὁεϖ, transliterated, metanoia.  Noro (νοʹεϖ) refers to the mind, so to repent is to think again, think about, think above what you previously thought or did and change your mind to something different.  The Analytical Greek Lexicon defines it as “to undergo a change in frame of mind and feel, to repent.”  When you do that, you “repent.” 

 

Now that’s not the typical meaning of repentance today.  That’s because during the dark ages it got contaminated with ideas of pain and suffering.  You do “penitence” for your misdeed.  But that is not what the word meant when Jesus (Matthew 4:17) or Peter (Acts 2:38) used it.  Much, much more simply it means to change your mind, metanoia.

 

Another New Testament word that involves meta is “transformation.”  The Greek word here, μεταμορφοϖ is literally transliterated (not translated) as metamorphὁo.  The passage that says “be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is good, acceptable and perfect ...”  (Romans 12:2), the word transform is literally metamorphosis.  Morphὁo  is form and meta is above, beyond, about.  When you go above your current form, when you transcend it, you transform. 

 

Linguistically, the term meta is simply a prefix for a great many words.  In itself it is neutral.  It is not a psychological term, a new age term, emotional term, etc.   It just means above, about, beyond and so used to modify other words.

 

Another question came from someone who recently read Thinking Metaphorically.  He wanted to know more about the metaphor within the term meta.  Interesting, the prepositions “above” and “about” imply a height metaphor and so with meta we inevitably think about things going up and transcending.  We think about levels — this level being above that level.  So with the layering of thoughts and feeling, we now have more precise language for talking about a thought about a thought, a feeling about a feeling, etc., hence meta-states, meta-communication, meta-analysis, and on and on.

 

“So you mean meta never means dissociation?”  No, that was not the point of the previous Neurons.  The point was that “dissociation” is only one of many, many states that meta can induce.  Using “going meta” does not have anything inherently to do with “dissociation.”  In the Meta-States training manual (APG) we have a list of 16 interfaces that typically result when you apply one state to another state.  Of those 16, only one reers to “dissociation.”  Anyone who thinks “going meta” inevitably creates “dissociation” or the lack of emotion clearly does not understand the process of going meta.

 

“Why do you think Grinder has been so critical of meta and Meta-States?”  I don’t know.  My guess is it’s because he didn’t invent it.  He seems to have that syndrome, not only for me, but for Dilts and others.  While he used meta abundantly in all of the early NLP books and even in Turtles, once Robert Dilts and myself started using it to develop meta-level systems, he began avoiding meta, and after that, he actually made himself an opponent of meta(!). 

 

The bottom line is that the term meta has been around as long as the Greek language has been around— over two thousand years.  And it is a marvelous word that enables us to conceptualize higher level functions and processes.  And given that your brain has higher level (meta) functions, the executive functions, meta enables a more precise language for talking about consciousness.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

 

Books can be purchased at www.neurosemantics.com 

Many other PDF books can be purchased at "The Shop" on www.neurosemantics.com 

 

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