In praise of subjectivity

My long standing point of view takes unconscious-thought (UT) as a given. I was thus somewhat discombobulated to discover that it is only a hypothesis and that the evidence in support of it is not robust.

The following list of six principles distinguishing UT from Conscious-thought (CT) is based on the Wikipedia article: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscious_thought_theory )

1. There are two kinds of thought – CT and UT
2.  UT is not confined to 7+/-2 items at a time
3.  UT uses a “bottom-up” style of processing that avoids schemas, and integrates information efficiently
4. UT is better than CT at appropriately weighting the relative importance of choice objects’ attributes
5. CT employs rule-based thinking whereas UT engages in associative processing
6. CT is focused and “convergent,” while UT is more “divergent,”

CT supremacy is linked to the European Enlightenment and to the growth of science in the modern era. Anything other than rational, empirical and reductionist thought was deemed unscientific and therefore not of much worth. Note that Sigmund Freud popularised the questionable notion that the unconscious was a seething hotbed of emotional unrest.

I trained as a scientist and this included some electives in psychology. In my youthful enthusiasm I absorbed a hard line in terms of the scientific method. Some of my lyrics from that period suggest that I perhaps overdid things: “He rationalised his thought about everything he sought and so he annihilated pleasure”.

I have a long standing awareness of and interest in the mindbrains of my self and others. This can be approached from several directions. There is

1.      Science: the secular investigation of the white coated scientist trying to figure how much is from nature and or from nurture. Note: this area has recently exploded thanks to the wide ranging interests of neuroscientists and psychologists (especially evolutionary ones).

2.      Politics: a political tangent in terms of cultural hegemony maintained by elegant power. This involves attending to the structure and function of advertising, propaganda and spin.

3.      Economics: the irrational manner of making economic choices – it has much more to do with UC than with CT.

4.      Education: an educational component in terms of enculturation and brainwashing v enlightenment and liberation.

5.      History: a story stretching across the far reaches of space and time. Big bang till the present with thoughts about the possible future.

6.      Philosophy: in particular phenomenology, existentialism and post-modernism.

7.      Theology and myth: a comparative review of stories (hypotheses) about creation

8.      Creativity: the non-egoic creative outpourings in poetry, tunes, songs, photographs, doodles and stories.

9.     Mindfulness: ongoing periods of peaceful, just-sitting and the experience of mindfulness

Now don’t get me wrong. I reckon that science is enormously cool and powerful but, within, it is still under the influence of middle aged, middle class white men. I have done my time in servitude to classic, old-fashioned, silo science. 

My present concern is to make better use of UC.

The new thing for a while was holistic, systems theory. This involved scientists from different disciplines working together - even with non scientists. This gave rise to the much maligned Socio-Biology which has recently been reborn as consilience. (Ref E O Wilson).

Latterly I worked on third world participatory development planning. The bottom line (profit) had been reborn as the triple bottom line (environment, society, economy). I was inspired to follow the holistic line with an eight point bottom line – STEEPLES (social, technical, environmental, economic, political, legal, ethical, spiritual). (ref https://sites.google.com/site/steeplessrds/ )

The last S (= spiritual) was added because it is at the root of all the other topics. It is the basis of the value systems that drive nations forward. BUT – I could sense the need of a methodology that did not involve magic. Guidelines for facilitating Multi-stakeholder processes (MSP) already existed but I sensed a shortfall in terms of practical activities that would help with changing minds - and thus of encouraging reconciliation between those with different points of view.

And the answer lay with mindfulness. I have still to sort out in my head the various lines of discussion that the topic generates. There is:

1. the ability to be non-attached to views – no need to kill or die for them.
2. non-egoic, creative operation in flow where the unconscious is left to use its highly developed decision making and prioritization abilities.
3. neuroscientific experimentation showing that the mindbrain has considerable reserves of neural plasticity. It is never too late to change your mind.
4. behavioural and economic psychology that are developing detailed understanding of cause and effect pathways used for fast reactions and for slower responses. There is also a wide range of cognitive and emotional biases affecting intuitions
5. growing acceptance of the modular and interconnected nature of the mindbrain and the origins of that nature being with the ancestors in the African savanna
6. the mindbrain in a constant state of churn such that present time sensations can be related to more or less effective memories of similar sensations in past times

SO – I withdraw from busy-ness and spend time calmly witnessing the thoughts, feelings and moods that pass through the attention centre. And I write about some of the stuff that comes to my senses and thus to my mind. Subjective anecdotes. Anecdotal evidence with potentially turning words. I may be a unique human being but there will be many commonalities with other people and, high in the rankings is a belief in unconscious thought theory (UTT).

With mind in mind

If you make time to sit quietly doing nothing you will soon notice that your up-front mind has a background mind of its own. You can think of this as the conscious mindbrain being controlled by the unconscious mindbrain. (Ref Jung and Wilber for thoughts about the shadow.)

Subjectively you will recognize that (a) thoughts, feelings and moods appear in the attention centre, and that (b) they emerge from the unconscious which thinks, feels and acts in ways that are not always willed by the conscious mindbrain.

Most people suppose that there is an ‘I’ or ‘ego’ which is the self conscious, up-front, supposedly rational and strategic aspect of the mindbrain. But that is an illusion.

It is now widely accepted that non-egoic (aka unconscious) states of mind are in many ways more intelligent and creative than what passes for normal amongst most people. 

Athletes are in the zone; musicians are in the groove; authors act as conduits for their muse; business leaders and managers are in flow; and housekeepers wash the dishes in a state of grace. These mind states exemplify the Zen concept of “No self, no problem”. (Ref Martin Seligman and the positive psychology concept of ‘flourishing’; and Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and the concept of ‘flow’.) (Ref: Unconscious thought theory (UTT))

The corollary would be “All self, many problems”. The unexamined self runs on an autopilot which will have been conditioned and encultured by its nature, nurture and chance. The autopilot will be predictable, and prone to having the attention centre filled to overflowing with intuitions and biases This will not be a problem so long as the environment remains static but it will be problematic when change becomes necessary. There will be cognitive dissonance leading to anxiety, depression, stress and panic. Note that these mental dis-eases can be adaptive in that they make it easier to give up a point of view and to adopt another.

The ancient wise people advised you to “know yourself’ because “the unexamined life is not worth living”. So how is this to be done? The answer is easy to label and describe but it can be hard to put it into practice.

Imagine that ‘you’ can take the viewpoint of a calm and non-judgmental witness who notices what happens in the attention centre. Stuff arrives, hangs around for a short while, and then disappears. In time the witness is able to appreciate that the thoughts, feelings and moods are just passing mind-made stuff which is rooted in the hard wiring that we inherited from our ancestors and in the rules and regulations governing our home culture. This kind of knowing makes it easier to remain un-attached to the thoughts, feelings and moods that occupy the attention centre. It is then also easier to think slow and carefully as a considered response rather than fast and intuitively as an impetuous reaction. (Ref Daniel Kahneman and the idea of thinking fast and slow.)

Note that there are at least two versions of the cool dude witness depending on how the coolness was developed.

When the point of view is that of the relatively ancient Asian Enlightenment it is non-egoic, and does not therefore consider that there is an abiding self. The ‘witness’ mentioned above is an ‘as if’ creation suited to those who are just beginning on the path.

When the point of view is that of the relatively recent European Enlightenment it is egoic, and considers it’s conscious self to be material, rational and empirical.

Walter Truett Anderson (1996) noted that “... we have not one Enlightenment project but three:

• an Eastern one based on seeing through the illusion of the Self
• a Western one based on rational thought, and
• a Postmodern one based on the concept of socially constructed reality.

And despite their many differences, they share the common goal of liberation.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau made the famous revolutionary pronouncement that: "Men are born free, and everywhere are in chains." A couple of centuries later that still holds truth for us, but now we see that the strongest chains are symbolic ones, mind forged manacles."

I have no difficulty recognising the mind forged manacles gradually closing off opportunities to interact with and learn from ‘them’ - and they for ‘us’. By the time I had worked my way through infancy, childhood and 13 years of formal schooling it was hard to see fault with the status quo.

I still feel inclined to believe that (a) the good and great who are my elders and betters are wise and just people (but mainly middle aged white men) (b) ‘experts’ (especially scientists) will solve our problems), (c) the devil finds work for idle hands, (d) the Lord helps those that help themselves, (e) anybody can get a university degree if they put their mind to it (d) some topics are taboo for discussion in polite company eg sex, politics, religion, and personal wealth.

AHA – BUT …     ..ooOoo..

Unconscious thought theory (UTT) was first presented by Ap Dijksterhuis^[1] and Loran Nordgren^[2] in 2004.

UTT posits that the unconscious mind is capable of performing tasks outside of one’s awareness, and that unconscious thought (UT) is better at solving complex tasks, where many variables are considered, than conscious thought (CT), but is outperformed by conscious thought in tasks with fewer variables.

This is a countercurrent position, as most research on UT since the early 1980s has led to its being characterized as simple and incapable of complex operations.^[3] …

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unconscious_thought_theory

http://www.unconsciouslab.com/index.php?page=People&subpage=Ap%20Dijksterhuis

There will be more on this.

Vulnerables on the bus

The other day I caught the bus to Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARI) for my annual meeting with the Parkinson’s Disease consultant. The 35 bus stops outside my front door and outside the entrance to the ARI. Being over 65 I have my free bus pass. The trip one wintry way in a warm bus takes just over two hours. Neat.

The passengers on the bus were mainly Old Age Pensioners like myself and a variety of younger folk who were on physical and mental disability concessions. So – not many passengers paying the full fare. But the Scottish government looks after its more vulnerable citizens.

Two questions popped into my attention centre - What types of vulnerability are recognized, and how many people are vulnerable?

Off the top of my head I imagine that the vulnerable include those who are too young or too old to look after themselves, those who are physically or mentally disabled, and those who are affected by various types of natural disasters.

I invented that typology. Social Scientists have a more nuanced system that includes groups and institutions. (eg

“It is important to note at the outset that ‘vulnerability’ is an imposed category that some ‘vulnerable’ groups would challenge. While this needs to be acknowledged, vulnerability is generally held to refer to those individuals or groups who, due to age, ill-health, infirmity, minority status or their otherwise disempowered position in society may be open to exploitation (whether physical, emotional or psychological). http://www.lancaster.ac.uk/researchethics/4-1-intro.html

So how many people are vulnerable? It depends on how the term is defined and on the reliability of the methods used to collect data. I could set criteria and make guestimates but why bother? Let there be anecdotes.

As a young lad in the village I knew Feel Dave who was officially the Church Hall keeper but it was his Dad who did the work. As a student I had a summer job in the secure ward of the local mental hospital; several of the ab-normal patients burned their take on humanity indelibly into my brain – they set new parameters for what it meant to be normal. Nowadays the hospital has been converted to an up market housing estate and those who would have been patients are now subject to care in the community. Some of them were on the bus the other day.

The state provides. Once hospital accommodation then care in the community – notably not care by the community. How many are looked after in the family home? Vulnerability.

And there is care for the elderly. What goes first body or mind? How long can they stay in their own home. When is the right time to move to a nursing home – or to live with the kids who are now sixty something and have empty nests?

Many of my African colleagues had been to the UK as students. Most of them were appalled to see how we shunted our seniors into old folk’s homes – the lack of respect. Vulnerability.

I am grateful for having been born of sound mind and body and for having received a quality education to university level in Zoology.

I am grateful for having committed to zero population growth while a student and thus having the freedom to live and work in six different countries where I experienced several different ways to be human.

I am grateful for the bus pass, the 35 bus and the exposure to vulnerable people.

I am grateful that my Parkinson’s is advancing very slowly so there is no need to increase the medication. And my next visit to the consultant is scheduled for 18 months rather than 12.

Lest we forget – “The poor will be with us always”

wilber wanes

Ken Wilber

I was fundamentally transformed through reading some of Ken Wilber’s earlier work – especially “No Boundaries”.

In his more mature years he gathered a gaggle of talented disciples and became an industry (Integral Institute) that creates and sells ideas relating to what he now calls the supermind.

His wife died very young and he put his considerable intellectual talent in the reclusive service of making the world a better place by helping individuals to use their mindbrains more effectively.

As a young freelancer he studied all the major world religions and philosophical systems and saw patterns in them. It makes for mind boggling reading.

Here are some useful websites. The rise and fall article is nicely balanced.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Wilber
http://www.kenwilber.com/home/landing/index.html
http://markmanson.net/ken-wilber - The Rise And Fall of Ken Wilber
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_Institute

I have written about him several times through the years. Put ‘Wilber’ in the search box on my two blogs:
http://www.naesaebad.blogspot.com   7 times
http://dodclark.blogspot.co.uk/  4 times

Retired for a change

Yesterday an accountant asked what I do with myself now that I am retired. I did not have a snappy answer. So I have been thinking about it.

In essence I am a ‘writer’. I write about the impact of cutting edge thinking on the process of changing minds. This fascinating topic leads in many directions. It formed the basis of most of my erstwhile professional work in education and in grass roots development.

As I make my way in the world I change my own mind and that of others (one at a time or in groups) and those others change my mind and the minds of even others. The pattern of influencing is different as we move as individuals from womb to tomb, and as empires from rise to fall. (see http://naesaebad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/changing-and-changed.html )

The process happens more or less formally and at both the smaller and larger scale. At the smaller scale there is you with your friends and family; at the larger scale there are the institutions of education, apprenticeship and work, and also the hegemonic, political, power systems that drive the advertising and propaganda machines through the media.

I have recently been approaching the topic from three main directions – neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, and mindfulness.

Neuroscience has made gigantic advances since I graduated in Zoology in 1971. In essence the mindbrain is modular with ever active connections between the modules. Some modules are inherited from our primate, mammalian, and reptilian ancestors. The uniquely human modules tend to be in the cortex which is the third and most recent of the three-part (triune) brain. Wikipedia explains the structure as follows:

“… the triune model of the mammalian brain remains one of very few approximations of the truth we have to work with:

• the "neocortex" represents that cluster of brain structures involved in advanced cognition, including planning, modeling and simulation;
• the "limbic brain" refers to those brain structures, wherever located, associated with social and nurturing behaviors, mutual reciprocity, and other behaviors and affects that arose during the age of the mammals; and
• the "reptilian brain" refers to those brain structures related to territoriality, ritual behavior and other "reptile" behaviors.”

Sensory signals enter the sense organs and are churned up with memories by way of figuring how to react quickly and to respond more slowly to what is happening in the external world.

The structure of the mindbrain is not set in stone. A remarkable amount of neural plasticity is possible. If a part of the brain is damaged in an accident then another part can take over the functions that have been lost.

Over 99% of the activity in the mindbrain is in the unconscious. The human ability for self conscious reason and rationality is considerably less than has been supposed since the European enlightenment in the west. Most normal people behave according to the instincts and intuitions of their autopilot most of the time. But the potentially good news is that, by taking thought this way rather than that (see below), an element of free-will can be exercised.

Wikipedia offers a list of 21 major branches of neuroscience. This demonstrates the wide influence that the discipline is having on various fields of cutting edge thinking. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuroscience#Major_branches

Evolutionary Psychology (EP) is focused on how past adaptations have shaped the mind and brain to behave this way rather than that. EP recognises that both nature (hard wiring) and nurture (learning) are responsible for an individual’s world view and associated points of view.

Arguably there still exist some bits of stone age hard wiring that are no longer functional in the modern world – (eg the fight or flight adrenalin response being constantly triggered in urban environments). But these anomalies can be noticed and thus have their sting removed. Mind over matter with free will is therefore possible. It might be something of an uphill struggle but at least there is a framework that allows us to conceptualize a way of changing minds so as to build a better world.

The five principles of EP are listed in Leda Cosmides & John Tooby (1997) “Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer”. http://www.cep.ucsb.edu/primer.html

• Principle 1. The brain is a physical system. It functions as a computer. Its circuits are designed to generate behavior that is appropriate to your environmental circumstances.
• Principle 2. Our neural circuits were designed by natural selection to solve problems that our ancestors faced during our species' evolutionary history.
• Principle 3. Consciousness is just the tip of the iceberg; most of what goes on in your mind is hidden from you. As a result, your conscious experience can mislead you into thinking that our circuitry is simpler that it really is. Most problems that you experience as easy to solve are very difficult to solve -- they require very complicated neural circuitry
• Principle 4. Different neural circuits are specialized for solving different adaptive problems
• Principle 5. Our modern skulls house a stone age mind

When the findings of neuroscience and EP are shared a whole new world view opens up. Amongst other things it becomes obvious that a child is not a blank slate and the amount of the slate left over for self consciousness is in fact rather small. There is also a large amount of instinct blindness (see Principle 3) but, by taking thought in a particular way (see below), at least some of the underlying complexity can be appreciated.

Mindfulness as a conscious mental process is 2500 years old. Historically it is associated with Eastern world views (especially Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism and Zen). But when the Eastern exotica are stripped away we are left with a robust psychology of perception which is now at the cutting edges of several patterns of Western thought eg MBSR and MBCT.

The practice of mindfulness is easily stated but not so easily done. In essence it involves calmly noticing the thoughts, feelings and moods that arise from the unconscious and occupy the attention centre for a while before being replaced.

When you are operating on autopilot the thoughts, feelings and moods take over the whole of the attention centre – ‘you’ are not in control; you are instead a puppet driven by the stuff that swells up from the unconscious.

The alternative is to notice calmly and non judgementally what is going on as if you were a witness to what passes through the attention centre.

The autopilot gets 100% angry. The witness notices that anger has arisen to the 50% level.

Jon Kabat-Zinn explains that “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally.” (Google him for many inspirational video presentations)

The mind is like a horse, elephant or Olympic athlete. Taming and training can be tough in the beginning but with persistence all manner of wonderful things develop.

Amongst these wonderful things is non-attachment to a world view and assorted points of view. The disciplined mind knows that the ‘truth’ is contingent. It is said that “the reality that can be described is not the real reality”.

To train your mind you can sit quietly paying detailed attention to your breathing. But the attention will wander. Notice this calmly and put attention back on the breath – time and time again – practice makes perfect.

In time the feverish workings of the autopilot are replaced by the peaceful musing of the witness. The thoughts, feelings and moods that arise are seen to be mind-made; and the mind from which they come is a biological and cultural product with its roots in the serendipitous churn which is your particular nature and nurture.

Recommended for digging deeper:

• Jon Kabat-Zinn – various texts, and audio and video presentations since the 1970s
• Mark Williams and Danny Penman (2011) “Mindfulness – a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world.”
• Henepola Gunaratana (1991) “Mindfulness in plain English”

Various themed compilations of my fairly recent short articles on most of the above mentioned themes are freely available at  http://toonloon.bizland.com/compilations/the-compilations/

SO although I have retired from the institutions I still account for myself as a writer. And, whilst I recognise the Taoist notion that “those who speak do not know” I still get my jollies from stringing words together.

Changing and changed

The following matrix shows four ways of thinking about the changing of minds. It can be either self or other who does the changing and who is changed.

1 - Self changes self

You can notice your own thoughts and feelings and therefore become objective about them. This leads to unattachment from the prevalent world view and allows for a relatively easy time in reconciliation. It is as if there is a you on automatic pilot but also another you as witness. The task is to accentuate the latter and diminish the former. Notice what you think and feel. Transcend. Self actualise. Know yourself. Know there is no self.

2.- Other changes self

This is the essence of enculturation and education. The process begins in the womb and keeps evolving till tomb time. It begins with family and friends and gradually spreads out. The worlds of work and play also shape you. There will be cultural propaganda and advertising of fads and fashions. There can be more or less severe brainwashing.

3 - Self changes other

The self can be entrepreneurial and creative. It can think different and seek to spread its ideas. They are the shakers and movers. OR  - the self can be parent to the child, teacher to the student, shepherd to the sheep. The idea is to be conservative and to maintain the traditional ways.

4 – Other changes other

Most people have a limited interaction with other cultures. But they appreciate that they are dynamic.  Modern Western people find it hard to get their heads around the grooming of suicide bombers.

--ooOoo--

Changing minds means changing the thoughts, feelings and moods that lead to activity. The mindbrain is continually churning and changing its configuration as a reaction or response to inputs from the sense organs. Neuro-psychology experiments show that most of the sensing/feeling/thinking/acting process is fast, intuitive, complex and most of it happens in the unconscious. How long is a thought moment? He who hesitates is lunch.

titmus and world view

Christopher Titmus

The concept of 'world view' (weltanschauung) is catching on. Buddhist scholar and activist Christopher Titmus extols the value of being able to treat your world view as contingent and thus to hold it lightly.

"What do we do with our fear and anger and frustration? We do absolutely nothing with it. To do something with it would run the risk of adding to the fear and rage that are already in the world.

Terror, fear, anxiety, worry, desire for retaliation—the "full catastrophe" of internal turmoil has to be treated as a completely false, distorted, and absolutely unhelpful mind state, an unhealthy and useless way of relating to life. We've got to reflect on that again and again so that the simple truth of it enters the place inside where all the reactivity is coming from...

In our conflict resolution groups, we stress that to meet each other clearly and openly, we have to hold our labels—our identities—lightly. When we go beyond labels and connect with each other as human beings, everything's possible.

In the Middle East, I don't refer to Buddhism per se. But the teachings on emptiness of ego, nonclinging, non-self, the power of metta and compassion, the wisdom of interconnectedness, being here now and not projecting into the future, inform every meeting we have.

The dharma teachings of liberation and freedom enable us to have a much bigger worldview because we learn what it is not to cling to a position or opinion or religion.

Finding skillful ways and means within different religious and political structures is something we as Buddhists can offer. The separations that arise from different beliefs are defense mechanisms, conditioned states of minds; we can point to something deeper that unifies us. In that respect, the dharma serves as a profound tool for change. We frequently forget the power of the dharma to engage in revolutionary acts."

Christopher Titmuss - http://www.tricycle.com/practice/rising-challenge-step-toward-peace