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Thinking Small

Thinking Small

by Joseph Riggio · Mar 16, 2018

“I bury the bone so deep that the dogs have to scratch for it.”*

I admit it, I’ve always had a hard time thinking small. Some folks are great at it though. They use small words and a just a few of them to express magnificent and expansive ideas. Not me.

I tend to be wordy. My sentences run on … and, sometimes on. And, if there’s not a big word to express what I’m thinking and trying to say, I just make one up on the fly. I’m like that. I think that “free speech” means what it says, and I should be free to speak even that which hasn’t existed before I spake it.

In fact that’s the heart of the matter. As fish swim in water, we, i.e.: humans, homo sapiens sapiens, swim in language. Words. And, more words. Life is filled with wordiness for humans.

All that so far is okay. It’s okay to think small. It’s okay to be wordy. It’s okay that humans swim in language.

It’s the “belief” thing that gets us every time though. The idea that the words we read, and the words we hear, and the words we write, and the words we speak are “true” … or, represent what’s “real” … when in fact words are words and nothing more.

The words aren’t the thing they point to at all. The word “love” isn’t “love” any more than it’s a fish. But, that doesn’t mean that words aren’t powerful, they are indeed. Words bring worlds into being.

G. Spencer Brown, in his book, ”Laws of Form” speaks of universes coming into being when “… a space is severed or taken apart.”

The theme of this book is that a universe comes into being when a space is severed or taken apart. The skin of a living organism cuts off an outside from an inside. So does the circumference of a circle in a plane. By tracing the way we represent such a severance, we can begin to reconstruct, with an accuracy and coverage that appear almost uncanny, the basic forms underlying linguistic, mathematical, physical, and biological science, and can begin to see how the familiar laws of our own experience follow inexorably from the original act of severance. The act is itself already remembered, even if unconsciously, as our first attempt to distinguish different things in a world where, in the first place, the boundaries can be drawn anywhere we please. (page v)

Now, imagine if you will, that language severs the wholeform of reality by imagining it’s “parts” as independent and distinguishable by virtue of the idea that they can be labeled, i.e.: named, bringing into being a new universe each time a new word, specifically a noun, is uttered or written, contained within the universe that remains unnamed and residing next to all the universes that have been named, including all those things named, and labeled by the names given them, which don’t exist.

Which brings us to the point of my rambling.

For many years I’ve striven to present what I do as simply and naively as possible. Alas, as I’ve said though, I am not a man of small thinking, or for that matter small words.

I believe my fault lies in thinking in wholeform, i.e.: I have trouble perceiving the boundaries that sever spaces into separate universes. This leads to expansiveness in all ways, including the wordiness of which I am at fault. For what it’s worth I think the British polymath I’ve quoted above, G. Spencer Brown got this idea stuck in his head (or at least his writing) too, despite his writing about the opposite.

”In this sense, in respect to its own information, the universe must expand to escape the telescopes through which we, who are it, are trying to capture it, which is us.” – G. Spencer Brown, Laws of Form

Stay just a little bit longer

(Musical Interlude)

Oh, won’t you stay just a little bit longer

Please, please, please, say you will

Say you will

(Jackson Browne – “The Load Out – Stay” from the album Running on Empty)

Okay, back to the main point or as Professor Rodríguez from my first doctoral program was found of saying, “Keep the main thing, the main thing!”

As simply put as I can put it, what I do is lead people back to a wholeform consideration of the universe to help them get their heads right.

Literally for years I’ve been trying to simplify what I do, in terms of form, i.e.: how I do what I do … or the pragmatics of it. This led me down many paths and alleys.

As a result of this journeying I’ve developed many programs, and mini-programs, and models, and techniques … all in the service of this one thing, looking for the holy grail of transformational change, the philosopher’s stone or alchemist’s prima materia of the Change Artist.

(AUTHOR’S NOTE: For what it’s worth I think I may have stumbled upon it, but as Lao-Tau says in the Tao Te Ching,

Tao (The Way) that can be spoken of is not the Constant Tao’ The name that can be named is not a Constant Name.

Nameless, is the origin of Heaven and Earth;

The named is the Mother of all things.

Thus, the constant void enables one to observe the true essence. The constant being enables one to see the outward manifestations.

These two come paired from the same origin. But when the essence is manifested, It has a different name.

This same origin is called “The Profound Mystery.”

As profound the mystery as It can be, It is the Gate to the essence of all life.

http://www.with.org/tao_te_ching_en.pdf)

However, as a result, I’ve become as the ouroboros, swallowing whole the circle of infinity, and realizing in the process neither an end or a beginning. And, so I come back to the start of all things.

The beginning and the end are the wholeform, from which all separate universes are cleaved, but despite the severing remain whole nonetheless.

This was always the essence of the MythoSelf Process model and work.

BUT … to do this, as the sacred work I perceive it to be, i.e. leading a person back to themselves uncorrupted and complete, requires losing all other intentions or distortions along the way.

There can be no intention beyond arriving at the wholeform, having removed all the distinctions that create separate universes, and in turn separating ourselves from ourself.

So, “mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa” I got both distracted and became disingenuous about the nature of the work at hand.

The MythoSelf Process work was never “about” something other than itself, i.e.: encountering the wholeform that is the *all and everything.

So my apologies for any suggesting otherwise. In other words that I may have misled you to think this was “about” something, e.g.: being happy, or getting wealthy, or having great relationships, or any other damn thing beyond the main thing, which of course is everything.

But, for whatever it’s worth, I’m back at the core of the work, but with a vengeance, having spent far to much time searching in vain for what it was not.

I guess I said it long ago, but had not the ears to hear myself …

“This is NOT that!”

With a few folks who have stuck around and become trainers and master trainers of the work, as well as some folks who are otherwise masterful in their own ways within the scope of the work, I will be offering both “MythoSelf Experience” 3-day programs and a full year-long MythoSelf Professional Training presented over three four-day modules in a few places in the upcoming months.

If you’d like to get on my list about these opportunities either drop me a note in the comments below, send me an email at joseph-AT-josephriggio.com, or PM me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/josephriggio) if you prefer.

I’d love to read your comments about where you are with my unfortunate wordiness below …

Best,

Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
Architect & Designer of the MythoSelf Process and SomaSemantics

P.S. – In the meantime if you’d like to experience the MythoSelf work with me directly in a small group setting I’m offering a “Foolish Wisdom” workshop this month in Lambertville, NJ, you can find the information here:

Foolish Wisdom in Lambertville, NJ – MARCH 2018

 

 

Filed Under: Blog, Coaching, General, Life, Mentoring, Mythology, Transformational Change & Performance, Uncategorized, Upcoming Events, Workshops

Which Brain Are You Using?

Which Brain Are You Using?

by Joseph Riggio · Mar 29, 2016

Silent Brain Learning

brain01 125NOTE: Read this article and watch the video first …

[The Enormous Power of the Unconscious Brain]

It’s a great article, but the journalist has it all wrong IMO. In fact he completely contradicts himself …

Silence is Golden

In the video you see the comparison between the journalist’s brain and the world-champ’s brain (that’s right the 10 year old is a world champion cup stacker … what have you done lately???).

In that video the journalist’s brain is lit up like a Christmas tree .. whle the champ’s brain is virtually silent. Yet the journalist claims he’s wired in the programming to his cortical processing to run the patterns he’s running without processing them.

That’s fundamentally absurd!!! (Go ahead, read the paragraph above again.)

The argument I’m making is that what the champ did was to get his brain out of the way (okay, not his whole brain, but the part we “think” with normally … or at least consciously … the cortical brain (the neocortex).

His brain is silent because it’s not working … and even the little blips we see have little to nothing to do with what his hands are doing.

That’s not about training the cortical processing, or learning to submerge the conscious processing function.

The champ used his neocortex to train his cerebellum to take over … i.e.: his Silent Brain!

 

Why Performance Mastery Is “Silent”

Performance is a function of the ability to act in response and relation to the stream of data flowing in the system that you’re operating in to create your intended outcome.

The more accurately you perceive and interpret the data present in the system, the more accurately you can adumbrate what’s coming next … and, make adjustment to your responses.

Ultimately, your performance is a function of behavior, i.e.: the actions you take and don’t take in response to the way you percieve and interpret the data in the system. The more closely your actions align with the simplest, most direct path with the least resistence between where you are in the present moment and what you intend as your outcome, the more elgant, efficient and effective your performance will be … let’s call this the “Path of Perfection.”

When you can act consistently and reliably along the Path of Perfection, you will gained mastery in that behavioral performance … whether that’s mastery in sports, communication, business … or some other domain of action.

This kind of performance, i.e.: mastery, is a function of processing done beyond the reach of cortical processing … or at least solely by cortical processing.

The primary driver of mastery at the behavioral level of performance is processed in the cerebellum.

This is the seat of the silent processing we see in the video of the champ’s brain …

He’s not showing activity in the neocortex, because he’s off-loaded the processing to the cerebellum and gotten his cortical processing out of the way of his faster, more elegant cerebellar processing.
 

Blind But Not Dumb

The cerebellum may be blind, but it’s not dumb.

Cerebellar processing operates differently from cortical processing because it’s non-representational.
We see this when the champ puts on the blindfold and still runs the behavioral performance as well as when he’s not blindfolded. Although he’s not getting any visual input his motor facilities still function as accurately in the task he’s trained them to do.

He’s using a combination of kinesthetic input and spatial mapping to function at that level of performance. This is the magic of training the vestibular and proprioceptive systems to take over for the more common sensory system processing task, e.g.: looking at the cups, his hands and what he’s doing with them.

The silence of the cerebellum is it’s trick. The cerebellar processing pathways are more efficient because they are closer to the direct sensory data. The cortex almost immediately transforms direct sensory data into representations, abstractions and intellectualizations … at least one step removed from the actual data itself.

One of the most obvious examples, especially if you have yet to master something at the level of the world cup stacking champion (5 seconds for that whole routine, again and again, even blindfolded) … is the transformation of direct emotional experience into an intellectualization. Anger, joy, grief, ecstacy … all have an actual body experience, a felt sense … but the way the average person experiences their emotions has as much or more to do with the associations they make with the way they label their experience.

 

Cerebellar Training & Learning

The basis of virtually all the work I do is framed in relation to moving unnecessary cortical processing out of the way of performance.
This is not saying there is no place for corical processing, of course our neocortex is one of our most amazing evolutionary gifts … but, all things at the right time and in the right place … preferencing cortical processing over all other kinds of “thinking” or kinds of neurological processing.

The real “trick” is knowing how to get the cortex out of the way, freeing it to do what it does best … i.e.: make connections in time and space that don’t yet exist … creating future memories.

To do that the behavioral part of performance must be off-loaded whenever possible to the more efficient cerebellum.

When the cerebellum is in charge of responding there is a direct line to taking action, that cortical processing must run through multiple channels to get to first, creating a slower, more cumbersome response.

For some people (especially those who remain untrained) in getting through the levels and complexity of cortial processing they run out of steam before they get to action, i.e.: they find themselves unable to take action or constantly hesitating and procrastinating when immediate action would have served them (and, possibly others) best.

Knowing how to organize yourself to take action is the key to mastery.

In otherwords, if you want to attain mastery you must develop the ability to train and learn at the cerebellar level of response.

When you’re ready give me a call …

(You’ll find my contact details here: Joseph Riggio DotCom)
Joseph Riggio, Ph.D.
New Hope, PA

PS – The most effective way “cerebellar training” I’ve ever put together is my “Foolish Wisdom” group coaching program. I’m running a program in New Hope, PA in a couple of weeks on Saturday & Sunday, 16/17 April 2016.

Check out the Foolish Wisdom Workshop details here:
https://www.amiando.com/HSNIUBF.html

Filed Under: Blog, Business Performance, Coaching, Cognitive Science, Elite Performance, Transformational Change & Performance, Uncategorized, Upcoming Events

MythoMania 2015 – 25 Jan

MythoMania 2015 – 25 Jan

by Joseph Riggio · Jan 3, 2015

Join Joseph & the MythoMania™ Team…
for a full day of excitement, exploration, information, transformation  and fun.

Logo_WisdomWerks_LOGO ORANGE

Presented By:
WisdomWerks℠ Center for Transformational Performance
31 N. Sugan Rd. ▪︎ New Hope ▪︎ PA ▪︎ 18938

Filed Under: Upcoming Events

Foolish Wisdom – UK 16/17 Jan

Foolish Wisdom – UK 16/17 Jan

by Joseph Riggio · Jan 3, 2015

Join Joseph and a small group of select, like-minded participants in exploring how you get yourself stuck, getting yourself unstuck and moving towards mastery.

London_Bridge_Hotel_-_Tower_Bridge_Hotels_-_The_Tower“Foolish wisdom is about dealing with the world in ways you have not before … treating life as less of a problem and more of a puzzle.“ – Joseph Riggio

This day is all about you, the agenda is utterly simple … “What do you want?”

Filed Under: Upcoming Events

Foolish Wisdom – PA 30/31 Jan

Foolish Wisdom – PA 30/31 Jan

by Joseph Riggio · Jan 3, 2015

Join Joseph and a small group of select, like-minded participants in exploring how you get yourself stuck, getting yourself unstuck and moving towards mastery.

Luxury_Hotel_Rooms_-_London_Hotel_Rooms_-_The_Tower_Hotel“Foolish wisdom is about dealing with the world in ways you have not before … treating life as less of a problem and more of a puzzle.“ – Joseph Riggio

This day is all about you, the agenda is utterly simple … “What do you want?”

Filed Under: Upcoming Events

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