Psychology Articles

Movement is the use of the body to express the character’s story. It is the ability to project inner thoughts, emotions, needs, and wants using the body in motion. It can also reveal something about the character’s life and background. Movement is motivated from the viewpoint of the character, not the actor playing him. It’s justified in the mind of the character and the following are the most prevalent reasons.

Movement Motivations

To get what I want or need

To express my feelings

To relate to another character or object

To convey my thoughts

To establish a relationship

To do a particular task

To handle an object

To enter or exit a particular space

To move to a comfort zone

To face or avoid confrontation

To gain a better viewing position

Other Aspects Affecting Movement

Age: Child, adolescents, adult, middle age, elderly

Relative Status: Leader, subservient, equal

Profession: Laborer, secretary, manager, executive

Relationship: Lover, friend, associate, stranger, enemy

Upbringing: Pose, manners, posture, education

Self-image: Confident, uncertain, vulnerable

Mental & Physical Agility: Slow, quick, restricted

Impairments: Physical handicaps, illness, substance abuse

The environment: The physical setting, climate, culture

Clothes: Free flowing, inhibiting, stylish, conservative

Making choices about movement is not easy. Our dramatic training focuses heavily on the verbal part of acting. Dialogue is much easier to explain and communicate. The non-verbal, however, demands a conscientious study of life and human behavior, identifying, isolating, and clarifying its messages.

Movement is complex, as there are so many facets to consider. In addition, the study of movement has varying interpretations. However, if we break movement down into categories, then we could select those choices that best suit our character and the story situations. This would simplify the selection process and establish areas for life-study development (people watching). The choices given are examples and do not cover the entire range of selections.

TYPE MOVEMENT

Total Body:

Walking, running, crawling, sitting down, standing up, aerobics, etc.

Isolated: Partial body movements

Giving, throwing, handing

Receiving, catching, taking

Lifting, holding Pulling, dragging Pushing, sliding

Hitting, punching, tapping

How Performed:

Open: Flowing out, free, unrestricted

Closed: Almost withheld, restricted

Weight: Both physical and/or emotional, heavy to light

Intensity: Inner strength behind movement, powerful, weak

Dimensional Aspects: Wide & broad, narrow & small

Tempo: Fast, slow, consistent, changing

Directional Aspects: Straight, meandering, curved, changing

In the following example, the character’s main intention, desire, conflicts with her self-doubts. As a rule, it is difficult to express opposing statements at the same time using only body language. To convey them with clarity, one must first state one, then the other so the audience will perceive the conflict through contrasting body language. It is, however, possible to contrast simultaneously conflicting dialogue against movement. Usually movement will represent the predominate truth.

Alone in her living room, Sheila waits for her blind date to arrive. A timid and shy woman of 37, now divorced 5 months, she grows increasingly anxious with the thought of dating again. Their talk on the phone has raised both expectations and misgivings and now she faces the uncertainties. What movements would you use to show the situation and her feelings as waits for her date and then as the door bell rings?

The main consideration would be the conflict between desire for companionship and her fear of the unknown, her self-doubts. In addition, the obstacles of being timid and shy would increase her apprehension. The conflict would be realized through two sets of movements, one desire driven and the other, that of fear. As she waits, her emotions and intentions would shift back and forth.

I’d begin with her prepping for the date, putting her coat and purse on a chair, checking her watch, and moving to the window to see if her date was arriving. She then turns away from the window, as self-doubts surface. Meandering about, she stops in front of a mirror and looks at herself, seeing Sheila as he might see her. Uncertainty slowly turns into confidence and she stands taller.

Now gaining control, she decides to sit and wait. However, her eyes move about as new apprehensions enter. Then adjusting her dress, she recalls a pleasant moment. Tension returns as her hands intertwine and she notes the diamond wedding ring she still wears. Holding it closer, it brings back loving thoughts of a courtship long ago.

Then, suddenly, the doorbell rings. She gasps for air and remains in that middle ground between flight and fight. She overcomes the urge to run and slowly stands, taking a deep breath to restore her courage. She walks to the door as if being pushed. Once there, she hesitates touching the latch. Then forcing a smile, she opens the door.

Note how the above example uses a variety of movements as well as a range of intensities. This creates a more engaging character, one with depth.

With both movement and gestures, it’s best to do less and make those actions you use stand out and be clearly readable. In addition, they should be in line with the story and consistent with the character and his or her relationships. Remember that external physical actions express our inner experiences. It is our bodies, our movements and gestures, which best reveal to others our moods, desires, feelings, intentions, and ambitions. Movement should be such that even a deaf man could comprehend what’s happening.

People watching and studying award-winning performances are the best ways to assimilate the techniques outlined here. In your research, note the efficient use of movement and gestures, and how using only what complements the dialogue and the telling of the story results in believable performances. Duplicate your findings in short exercises so that they become an instinctive part of your repertoire.

Erik Sean McGiven has taught acting workshops as well as done private coaching and over the years developed a systematic approach to acting as presented in his book “The Rudimentary Elements of the Dramatic Performance.” Articles relating to this approach are posted online and for a complete list go to http://www.erikseanmcgiven.com/writings/acting/. Erik works in the entertainment industry in a variety of positions that include Producer, Writer, Director, Production Designer, Art Director, Script Supervisor, and Reader.

Teenage pregnancy is a global problem with U.S.A., UK and Australia leading in rates of teenage pregnancies in the developed world

At a time when more money and time is being spent on education than ever before students’ drop out due to pregnancy becomes an issue of great concern to the nation. When a girl drops out of secondary school, the cost is often higher than when she drops out in primary school due to the cumulative expenditure over the years. The situation is worsened by the fact that the student leaves without a certificate unless she returns to complete school after delivery.

Despite the existence of the re-entry policy in many countries, most student-mothers still find it difficult to fit back into the school system after delivery. However, some resume but they face numerous challenges as they try to fit back into the schooling environment.

A girl has to work ten times harder to put her life back on the rails after becoming a mother before the recommended time. She has to fight stigma from her community and if she goes back to school, she faces even more discrimination from peers who have survived student pregnancy. They face rejection and are forced to abandon school. Life becomes a virtual struggle and putting up with the hostile environment at school is an uphill battle.

Student-mothers are normally not fully settled while at school and this adversely affects their social and academic life. They lack a great level of concentration in their academic work due to lack of ability to adequately manage parenting and schooling successfully at the same time.

The society also contributes to the woes of student mothers. It does not appreciate teenage pregnancy and children born out of wedlock. Considering that these student mothers are already in that state, most of them are worried over their future life for they are not sure about their fate in marriage.

Since the student mothers had become mothers while young and still in school they are stigmatized and so they tend to have low self esteem. Low self-esteem make them feel out of place especially when other students feel that they are not fit to be within the school system.

Lastly, student-mothers experience stigma from various sources. They are teased by fellow students, some parents and some teachers. Fellow students often verbally abuse these girls, making their participation in class to seem unwelcome. Teenage mothers are sometimes ridiculed in front of classmates by both teachers and other students whenever they do not satisfy the class requirements making them suffer from low self-esteem, fear and loneliness at school.

The return to school policy is a noble idea to help girls who would have otherwise dropped out of school because of pregnancy get a second chance to education. These girls need adequate support if they are to complete their secondary education and get access to higher education.

This is a three-part article where I first examine the similarities in nature and in humans to determine where it is humans fail to understand depression and its function as a vital component to survival. Then I discuss the dangers in misunderstanding depression’s role as a warning system to alert humans it is time to rest and to forgive. Last, I add commentary and make some suggestions as to what can be done to save depression from reaching the chronic stage.

Part one:

What is the Matter with Humans?

It is sufficient to say that most people appear driven by some unseen force or (“natural law”) that causes them to hurry to get to where they are going fast, and we always seek the most convenient mode of transportation (path of least resistance) to get us there with the least amount of stress as possible. When humans meet up with difficulty, we immediately stress about it, and when stress reaches critical mass, the weak, or (“hyper sensitive”) become depressed and as a result sometimes because of lateral damage they die. What drives nature is another “unseen force” that we call natural law, and similar to convenience in humans, nature always takes the “path of least resistance”. When nature, again similar to humans, meets up with difficulty, stress becomes evident, and once again like humans, when the stress level reaches critical mass, the weak (under nourished) succumb to depression (energy loss) and eventually dies. In light of the above paragraph, we can say that it is the “weak” that fall behind because of stress introduced to an otherwise easy way around things, and it appears to make no difference whether it is humans or nature trying to get from one point to another.

The consistency of point is; some are equipped with something that permits them to continue regardless of difficulty, and that stress is the precursor for depression. We will deal with nature next, but now, and where in humans depression is vital to survival in the way that it is the body’s way of dealing with excessive stress, and how this becomes evident by the fact that humans are natural beings, and the human body, like nature, consistently seeks equilibrium. The point of consistency now changes to something not found in nature, but is prevalent and pervasive in humans and it is the serving the seven deadly sins or “desire”. What does serving desire have to do with stress and depression? This is just too easy a question to answer and so I will not answer it but to say that it is obvious. How do we eliminate desire from our daily diet? By holding within, the intent to “satisfy” our basic needs and recognize them as first, and foremost, important, and to be content with the simpler that things life has to offer. Doing this, while appreciating that we have the life saving warning signs and symptoms associated with depression to alert us that we are in need of rest or forgiveness, which forgiveness is type or a form of equilibrium.

Part two:

Dangers of Misunderstanding Depression

Nature always takes the path of least resistance while the modern day human does not always follow this natural law or rule of survival. At present, in diagnosing a person experiencing excessive stress that leads to depressive moods and anxiety, in many cases it is reported to the patient that his/her body is “shutting down”. Upon hearing this diagnosis, and given the prognosis of possibly having to live with and accept that one has a “mental illness” which could lead to a life of medication and therapy, the patient now must deal with imagined fears. All of this dire news does exacerbate the primary cause and adds concern. When imagined fear enters into the mind of a person recently diagnosed with chronic depression and severe anxiety, all future events have the extra burden that such a dreadful diagnosis and prognosis will supply, and, the subsequent treatment becomes adjacent to the primary cause only serving the patient with even more unnatural stress to the systems. As the patient must now struggle with more demands placed upon them that they must remember to follow through and consistently take medications, monitor activity, and deal with the “stigma” of mental illness.

Part three:

What can we do to protect ourselves from reaching the chronic stages of depression?

Equilibrium comes in many forms, and, it is in nature, including humans. All organisms seek to establish and sustain balance, or (“homeostasis”), and balance is “demanded” by the bodies of all living organisms in order to continue living with consistency. The main point here is living with consistency, and it is simply that through consciously seeking balance, equilibrium is established and homeostasis is the result. The question remains and it is, “how does one achieve this apparently difficult task? The answer, by seeking to understand the true meaning, intent, and definition of forgiveness as that which is observable in nature, as nature does provide us with many clues as to how we humans should conduct even our personal and social affairs.

http://www.editnse.org/

http://knowdepression.ucoz.com/forum

Abstract:

I wonder in and out of existence – drifting through life unnoticed by the world – yet I am! People acknowledge me yet do not see me – they say hello but as if the person in front of them is but a fleeting image, I do not call attention to myself but will respond to, if called upon to do so. It is as if I am not really there – if I disappeared altogether would anyone remember me? If someone did think of me would be as a, “what ever happened to what’s-her-name?” Sometimes I wonder, what is the point of me – why not just cease to exist – after all I am just the, “Invisible Girl”. In this article we will look at the therapeutic intervention to help the teenager who feels so desperate they would rather be dead than invisible.

Introduction:

In the history of psychotherapy this phenomenon is hardly noticed or mentioned – the fact of psychological invisibility. Only Eric Berne (1960’s) recognized in his work with Transactional Analysis, that such a state exists. Yet many young teenagers would tell you they recognize the abstract passage above very well. They know the meaning of being invisible to their parents, teachers and those few friends they manage to make. How do you become “invisible” to others, not noticed, not counted, not considered – yet there you are?

Everyone might recognize this state of being as despair – that feeling we get when life seems pointless and there are no sources of satisfaction or purpose to our lives. For many teenagers particularly girls not being noticed can have serious psychological repercussions to our self-esteem and general well-being.

How does the teenager get to this point? For some it is being average! Those times when you get a school report card that constantly tells you – that you are below or just above average. What does that message mean to the teenager – I am nothing special, just one of the crowd, not an achiever but not a failure either. I am just average – just part of the masses that inhabit this planet and struggle through life. I am going to grow up and do those meaningless jobs that only the average can get and survive with another average person to make a life. Not a very inspiring message and in a society where we are constantly being told through the media that being special, being someone is what it is all about. The cult of celebrity has left many averages thinking well if only you get that special break, that once in a lifetime opportunity even an average person can be someone. Talents shows, fame shows, contests, blogging scandal can all get you noticed. For example in China a mother desperate for fame for herself filmed her young teenage daughter showering and dressing and placed it on the net – the next thing they are celebrities, on talk shows, hosts and in the limelight. The price they paid was being actually hated by the public – but what did that matter now. Miss Below-Average was a somebody – even if as Andy Warhol says for fifteen minutes of fame!

So how does the young person become invisible in the first place? Her parents are nice people, they say hello to her, but carry on with their own things, the girl comes home from school and drifts into her bedroom to switch on the computer and chat to imaginary friends who she has never met all of it on line. On line people promise to meet but rarely do and probably for a teenage girl to dangerous to meet the many men trawling the net for easy prey. However even a perverts attention for a while is better than nothing at all. At school she sits in the class, Miss Average, and listens between daydreaming, she does just enough to get by, answers the questions the teacher asks but never puts her hand up to volunteer anything useful. Other students know she is there but do not think about her, she is just her, others in the class maybe more interesting, the Mr. Disturber, the Mr. Look-At-Me, the Miss Show-off, the Mr. Fool, all of who are more interesting. So she observes but does not join in. Outside the class she is in a group, not a leader or a follower but just part of the scenery. Someone else is making the decisions and she goes along.

Once a teenager finds themselves in this position of invisibility it is very hard to move out of that state. If she suddenly became the centre of attention her first instinct is to hide. Deflect the attention to someone else more deserving than her. Discount any comments that might mean she is pretty, desirable or bright. This cannot be her as know one has ever seen her that way and she has never seen herself that way. She feels she is average looking, average build and of average interest.

Psychologically the invisible girl feels emotional less in many situations. That first try at kissing a boy has no impact in her. It is ok, a little pleasurable but not anything that wonderful. She wonders why her friends get all excited about boys but she feels very little except some vague interest.

Things happen to the invisible girl rather than her being active in her world. Parents make decisions and inform her, friends decide where to go and tell her, others expect her to just go-along with things. She has no control over her life. She is like all teenagers dependent on parents for money, permissions and direction. When asked what you want in life – she has a notion about something but nothing concrete as she feels she does not have permission to think.

How does the invisible girl end up in the counselor’s office? One day the invisible teenager decides that life is pointless, no one sees them and therefore what is the point. They have reached the position of futility. At this point they attempt to take their own life. A suicide attempt is one way of becoming noticed at last. In the girls mind the idea forms of punishing those who do not see my by my death. Then they will regret they did not see me. They will wonder what happened to their little sweet average girl.

Therapeutic Intervention

Insight therapy of any kind here is a useful tool to help the teenager reconnect to the world and see that they have a sense of purpose and that while they feel invisible they are in fact have learned to hide. To be invisible protects your from hurt, rejection, achieving or failing and taking a risk of living. For these reasons and others the therapist needs to establish an attentive stance with the client. Make sure as a therapist you never shift your attention from the client to other aspects, such as glancing at the time (client thinks oh they want me to go) or writing without eye contact (I am just a case study and not a person) they need your full attention until they have the confidence to understand that they can give themselves what they need.

In Transactional Analysis this starts with a discussion about permissions. Giving the client permission to be visible and to explore the repercussions of that action of being seen. Many of the problems with the invisible girl can be seen in the parental style of growing up with all sorts of injunctions that say the word, don’t, a lot. For example: don’t be you – messages from parents (and others) that tell you to behave, sit up straight, be polite, be this, be that. It is as if what you are is not important but what others think you are is. Don’t be a child – grow up – a common comment from parents. Yet when are we allowed to be the age we are – to play – to be foolish – to be free. Instead we are to be controlled and told how to feel and how to think. Don’t make it – this message comes from when we achieve something and people tell us to be modest, not to shout about it, that we are showing off, it is as if our achievement is an embarrassment to others. This is close to the next one, Don’t be Important, we hear the message as; who do you think you are? Don’t be Close, you are not supposed to be emotional, stop crying, buck up, be brave, be strong, we do not hug or kiss here. We do not talk about love. Don’t Think – we will think for you, you do not have to worry it is all taken care of – why do you want to know? Finally there is just, Don’t – do not take risks in life, keep your head down, be one of the crowd and be safe. Mediocrity is the message we end up with and so become as our parents wish, we are no trouble, we are average, we are controlled, we are behaved, and we are – invisible.

Permissions in therapy are the counter to these injunctions. You can be alive, you can be yourself, you can have fun, you can be your age, you can make it b e successful, you can have needs and ask for what you want, you can stay around and belong in the way that suits you, you can be physically and emotionally close to others, you can be healthy and accept compliments from others, you can think for yourself and make your own decisions, you can take risks and survive emotionally. Finally you can be visible and safe.

It takes at least ten sessions or more to work through the injunctions the teenager has learned and the permissions they can accept as workable. Remember to involve some parental training here. Parents who do not understand the teenagers need to feel some control over their lives with not support the permissions but in fact strengthen the injunctions and put in place even more control particularly after a suicide attempt. The parents become hype vigilant and sensitive the every nuance of the teenager’s behavior.

Summery:

The invisible girl is drifting through life thinking no-one can save her from this desperate plight into obscurity. It often manifests as depression and is treated with drugs – but the real cure for the invisible girl is to be noticed. To be shown and re-parented in a new way. To be given permission to be someone different. To be visible to be loved and most of all to know she can be more than just average if she chooses to be. Although I have talked about mainly a girl here of course many boys can have similar experiences. All this can happen in the wonderful world of a therapeutic genuine relationship.

Words = 1812

Dr. Stephen Myler is from Leicester in England, an industrial town in the Midlands of the United Kingdom. He holds a B.Sc (Honours) in Psychology from the UK’s Open University the largest in the UK; he also has an M.Sc and Ph.D in Psychology from Knightsbridge University in Denmark. In addition to this Stephen holds many diplomas and awards in a variety of academic areas including journalism, finance, teaching and advanced therapy for mental health. Stephen has as a Professor of Psychology many years teaching experience in colleges and universities in England and China to post 16 young adults, instructing in psychology, sociology, English, marketing and business. He has been fortunate to travel extensively from Australia to Africa to the United Sates, South America, Borneo, most of Europe and Russia. Stephen’s favourite hobby is the study of primates and likes to play badminton. He believes that students who enjoy classes with humour and enthusiasm from the teacher always come back eager to learn more.

Niccolo Machiavelli studied human relations and interactions during the time of the Borgias. This led to the creation of his masterpiece the Prince which is the fundamental treatise in modern politics. He uncovered that politics is not only about systems of influence and structures of power it was also about in-depth knowledge of human behavior and tendencies. He proposed that a person who aspires to wield power must be able to mold the views, actions and even inclinations of others to meet his own ends. This referred to extensive manipulation of individuals through various and often illicit means. He set aside the concerns of ethics and morality and contended that the ultimate good or righteousness of an act lie not in the means for it but the end result.

Much of Machiavelli’s principles of politics were about human manipulation. This as proposed by him can be undertaken through many means most of which are not apparent to those subjected to it. In short, a master manipulator must be able to shape the views and direct the conduct of others with them not even knowing that they are mere pawns in the political game of the mastermind. He also contended that essential for a capable political leader to govern well is the possession of information about the political climate he is in.

With the development of social engineering as the set of approaches and methodologies which implicitly allow information to be extracted from individuals. There is an extensive application of duplicity, manipulation and the shaping of human actions for the purposes of another. This modern mechanism for the procurement of knowledge takes advantage of human inclinations, psyche and nature. This makes it an updated application of the precepts set forth by Machiavelli. Among the core concepts that he came up with was to use human nature and take advantage of it. This extends to the extraction of information.

Machiavelli held the view that to be at an advantage, even the realm of information gathering, one must be an ambiguity to those that is sought out for the said information. The political benefits of being able to know without alerting others of the same are incalculable. With social engineering and the methods, it proposes Machiavellianism is made manifest even in modern times. The system of manipulating individuals so as to access the knowledge they possess is at the very core of what he wrote all those years ago.

Social engineering may be a modern innovation, but it is one, which is imbued by wisdom, which dates back to the time of Machiavelli. It is a more up to date application of his concepts. The idea that to harvest information means must be employed that took advantage of the weaknesses of the human mind, and persona is essentially Machiavellian. To prey on these frailties and conceal the former as espoused in social engineering is a practical application of his philosophy in human relations. This in turn ensures that in the modern age, the ideas of Niccolo Machiavelli survive and find new expression.

Whenever we enter a human space we consciously and unconsciously tune into and are influenced by the emotions of others around us both positively and negatively. This inborn tendency to be emotionally “in synch” with the other humans around us is what psychological researchers call emotional contagion.

We respond instinctively to the emotional tone of those around us and all normal human beings are susceptible to emotional contagion to some degree.

Emotional contagion and Empathy
Emotional contagion in its most positive form is the basis of the human virtue of empathy. We need to be emotionally in tune with others in order to understand them, get along with them and to function effectively in the human social world.

Highly sensitive people’s finely detailed observational abilities make them more responsive than most to the nuances of other people’s feelings. This sometimes leads them to shy away from crowds since the mass of emotional messages is just too confusing. But even one-on-one relating can be emotionally challenging to a person who reads and responds strongly other’s subtle emotional cues.

Since HSP’s own emotional responses are intense, quick to arise and hard to shake off, they often find themselves getting caught up uncomfortably in other people’s feelings. Being attuned to the rawness of other people’s emotions and even taking them on through emotional contagion can be an unpleasant and aversive experience.

Danger of Co-dependency
Since vicariously experiencing other’s unhappiness, rage or despair are so painful for a highly sensitive individual, it is easy to understand why it would be tempting for them to collude or manage social situations so as to keep others on an emotionally even keel. When the need to ensure that those around them are never angry or upset becomes a preoccupation there is a danger of developing co-dependant relationships.

Psychologist Fatima Nabi describes co-dependant behavior:
“Co-dependents feel responsible for others. They feel anxious when they hear of others experiencing difficulty, and will do whatever it takes to alleviate their burdens. Co-dependents’ obsession with worrying about others affects their personal lives.. It is easy for co-dependents to allow others to take advantage of them; however, this leads to feelings of resentment.”

Staying ahead of the other’s emotional curve.
Because a sensitive person is so able to empathically intuit what others are feeling, and because they are often quite skilled at recognizing and naming feelings, they sometimes find themselves in the peculiar position of having a better idea of what their family member or partner is feeling than that person may themselves.

This foresight often leads to a temptation to manage situations pre-emptively.

Sometimes this is simple kindness and tact.
A sensitive conversational partner will gently turn the conversation away when the subject begins to approach an area that the other might find painful, for example, one might not talk about babies with a woman who has just had a miscarriage.

Unfortunately, reluctance to deal with a painful subject may not always be in the sensitive person’s best interest.
A highly sensitive person’s unwillingness to risk arousing strong emotions in others may mean that they collude with their partners or loved ones, or remain silent when potentially emotionally arousing subjects need to be discussed.

It might be that the woman who had a miscarriage needs to speak about it to feel better, even at the risk of bursting into tears or raging against fate.
A partner who feels shame about a drinking problem may be easily provoked to anger when it is mentioned but needs help to stop their self-destructive behavior.
An adult child who does not look for work and continues to live at home may need to be confronted with their irresponsible and immature behavior in order to grow up.

In a co-dependant scenario a highly sensitive person may tolerate bad or destructive behavior from partners, family members or friends just to avoid
“a scene”. The sensitive person’s normal and reasonable personal needs or projects may be eternally sidelined to avoid conflict in a relationship.

“Forewarned is fore-armed”…. or “This is going to hurt me as much as it hurts you…(really)!”
Willingness to engage in direct and candid discussion of painful subjects is an important interpersonal skill and worth cultivating as a value and discipline.

Understanding that some of the anxiety that you feel may be emotional contagion and originating in the other rather than in yourself makes it easier to tolerate.
Expecting the arousal and providing yourself with strategies to calm yourself after the difficult encounter such as listening to favorite music or taking a brisk walk, may help to reduce the overall impact of the arousing encounter

Even though exposure to another person’s raw emotions is difficult and even literally painful for a sensitive person, this pain can be faced with courage and determination when the gain is recognized as being worth the effort.

Susan Meindl, MA, is a licensed psychologist in private practice in Montreal Canada. She has a special interest in Highly Sensitive People and practices a Jungian approach to psychodynamic psychotherapy

http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/59983

Over the years I’ve heard the quote; “he’s filled with delusions of grandeur.” In fact, as a younger man I was quite self-confident due to my sports ability. In track, I was so confident, and perhaps cocky, that I used to line up at the starting line and explain to all the other runners that I was going to win, and I hoped they could keep up to at least give me some competition so I wouldn’t get bored. During that period in my life I posted four consecutive years with no defeats. So were those delusions of grandeur, or was that just an honest assessment of my ability. Okay so, now that my overbearing ego has your attention might I discuss this with you for a moment?

Certainly at some point President Obama during his earlier years must have told his fellow classmates that he was going to be president. Of course a young man in elementary school or junior high saying something like that would be considered “delusions of grandeur.” And yet he did grow up to be President of the United States didn’t he? Do you see my point yet? Maybe we should be careful whose dreams we try to shatter, and whose bubble we try to burst. Maybe some of these people who suffer from delusions of grandeur may actually use that positive self talk to actually do something great in their lives.

Indeed, I would submit to you that those that have low self-esteem, low self confidence, and lack of self respect or strength of character might be the first to charge someone with delusions of grandeur falsely. You see because they believe they cannot do something, and they think that they are either typical, or the same as everyone else, they automatically think that other people can’t achieve that certain goal either. I’ve heard this quote many times told to my face, and I’ve heard people say it about others. In fact I’ve heard them say that about people I know to be highly achieved, and some of them almost the best in the world at what they do.

Now then, I have a question; are false charges of delusion of grandeur as common as the actual psychological condition itself? I would submit to you, and I suspect that the answer to that question is; yes. And I judge that from my personal observations and experiences over the last 40 years. Now then, I ask that you please consider all this, and continue to dream big, work your goals, and do something great in the world.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net

Abstract:

In an ever changing world we are asking young people to think out of the box to be able to think about problems from a different perspective. We call this critical thinking – how to disseminate information and re-evaluate it into a new form. However from a psychological point of view people are stuck with what it termed – fixation – that once you have accepted something as the truth, as a fact – it cannot be changed. This article challenges that thinking in a philosophical argument to help people who are fixated – to think outside the box, with the theory of 5!

Introduction:

In history there are many examples of men, scientists that have discovered new truths and challenged conventional thinking about the world often against bitter opposition from insiders and the Church. However over time the new truths become self evident and a change takes place – we call this a paradigm.

In 1500’s the Church believed the Earth to be the centre of the Universe and that all the planets known including the Sun circled the Earth as created by God. However in 1543 Copernicus published a book challenging this view and clearly making the Earth rotate around the Sun and so challenging Church and Bible doctrine. (Heliocentric model) Copernicus died before the book was published and so missed the wrath of the Church and its inquisition. However that was left to another great figure, Galileo.

Galileo went on the champion Copernicus and add his own contributions to science and is in fact often referred to as the father of modern astronomy and physics. Unlike Copernicus, Galileo published in his lifetime and suffered heavily at the hands of the Church for his contradictions of Biblical script. The Church and all the followers there-of believed in the idea of the Earth as the centre of a God made universe and that what both Galileo and Copernicus advocated was heresy and therefore against God. Galileo in the end was forced to save his life by recanting his beliefs and science. When the masses believe something as a fact, even when wrong, the masses will win over the voice in the wilderness. Today of course we know of Galileo as responsible for the birth of modern science.

What both if these men did was, think, about the World and its beliefs and through careful observation challenged the fixed thinking of the masses. They thought – outside the box. However as usual the masses were not accepting of this new thinking and persecuted the messenger of new ideas which were a confrontation to the existing status quo.

Later in the 1900’s Sigmund Freud saw the human mind as something more than its biology and published the Interpretation of Dreams, in which he challenged the medical model of mental illness with a more humane approach that gave rise to the, “talking cure” in which Freud helped troubled patients with insight therapy. However as Galileo before him the establishment of the medical profession refused to accept his new hypothesis and so condemned him to being outside the profession.

So today in this new era are we any more open to new ideas than our predecessors in order to find this out we would need a new concept – one that challenged our present fixed thinking about the World and its order. Suppose I told you that in fact the centre of the Sun is hollow and cold? Also with especially protected spacecraft we could penetrate the Sun’s surface and enter a new world. That we could in fact live in the centre of the Sun where there is ample water and food. Most people’s first reaction to this shift in paradigm would be aghast. How could someone believe something so stupid, so improbable, and so bizarre? This is the same reaction Copernicus, Galileo and Freud all must have felt. People with a fixed notion of the way things are – can never accept a change to their fixation of the World.

The Theory of 5

So how can we as modern thinkers show the youth of today how to be critical thinkers, to think outside the box, to be open to new ideas no matter how improbable. Being open is not equivalent to being stupid and accepting every idea as probable. It means being open to the idea that even though at first something may seem to fly in the face of our acquired knowledge it does not mean we should just dismiss it but allow our minds to weigh the information and ideas constructively in the light of our existing knowledge but be prepared to be confounded and changed. That is the essence of a paradigm shift.

In order to challenge your thinking we need to look at something improbable but possible. When asked about colour we can easily talk about the natural colours of our experience, yellow, red, blue, are colours we readily accept as being agreed upon. However shade and hues define different types of colour that from one person to another may not be agreed upon. What one person sees as a shade of blue another person sees as a shade of purple. There are two reasons for this, one the human eye is unique in each person and will perceive colours slightly differently from each other. The other reason is learning, we only know what a colour is because our parents introduced the colour to us in our early childhood. When playing with colour bricks our parents said, this one is blue, this one is red, the one is round, and this one is square. From this early learning our parents pass on to us the idea of colour and shape. However this is very much a cultural passing on of believed learning. In some cultures (New Guinea) they have no name for the colour black – it simply is.

In the Theory of 5 we will see a simple example of challenged thinking. We will see how an accepted concept can be challenged.

1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 4
1 + 2 +1 = 4
1 + 3 = 4
2 + 2 = 5

When asking University students to look at the above equations at first they sit quite silent wondering about that last answer. Has the lecturer got it wrong or is there some trick here that they cannot see? Finally one will stick their hand up and say, Professor that last one should be 4.

At this point the Professor simply says, actually it is right, 2 + 2 does in fact equal 5. Would anyone like to tell me why this is true and possible?

We have been led to believe though learning that the answer should always be 4 and that it is impossible for the answer to be anything else but 4. In this challenge students are asked to come up with hypothesis that suggest the final answer is in fact the correct one and that the original answer of 4 is in fact a mistake. Most students find this incredibly difficult to answer. Yet the answer is quite simple. If 2 + 2 = 5 then all our mathematical knowledge to date is also incorrect and therefore a new paradigm must exist to explain this anomaly in our thinking. Of course the task of throwing out a lifetime of belief on the word of one man is incredible to imagine. How can this new thinking be accepted, who will figure out that 2 + 2 = 5 and make it a new truth?

Just as Copernicus flew in the face of existing belief it took Galileo’s efforts to show the new paradigm to be a fact that today we accept without thinking. This means that if a great enough mind could apply itself to the idea of the theory of 5 and find it a fact this would change the masses to accept the new idea. However the theory of 5 is not for proving – it is for example of just how rigid our thinking can be.

New Challenges

Teachers complain bitterly that students often cannot think critically and in fact follow existing ideas and thought to readily. If it is in a book – it must be so – that once written it becomes sacred and unmovable. When I was a psychology student I read many text books, often covering the same knowledge, yet each author put their own interpretation onto the material – so that in the end you could look at the same knowledge and see many different ways of using and thinking about the content. The lesson I learned from this was – read, understand – and then rethink about it for yourself. Critical thinking is not accepting something at face value but in fact taking it apart then adding to your findings your own perspective – that is no more right or wrong than the text book or the views of the teacher. Just because an authority says something is true and beyond dispute it is the time to relook at the statement and find out where you can pull it apart. By thinking about the theory of 5, you can challenge yourself to not accept that the current paradigm in any scenario is the correct one even though all my learning and instincts tell me to believe.

Conclusion:

Once the masses thought the Earth was flat, that if you sailed too far you would simply fall off the edge into oblivion. Today we know the Earth is round and that gravity holds us to the surface. Yet a flat earth society exists even today challenging that thinking. After all how do you personally know the earth is round? You saw it on TV, in documentaries, you saw pictures in books, and you can see the Moon is round. In fact most people just accept this as a universal truth without any personal evidence at all. We accept what we are told as fact – and as it is the common belief it must be true. Then you have to accept the theory of 5 as possible in order to remind yourself that things change, paradigms shift and that the knowledge we are so certain of today is the not the truth of tomorrow.

Note: The Theory of 5 was developed by Professor Stephen F. Myler to assist students in challenging paradigms and to help in the process of critical thinking. It is copy-write to Dr. Myler as original thinking.

Dr. Stephen Myler is from Leicester in England, an industrial town in the Midlands of the United Kingdom. He holds a B.Sc (Honours) in Psychology from the UK’s Open University the largest in the UK; he also has an M.Sc and Ph.D in Psychology from Knightsbridge University in Denmark. In addition to this Stephen holds many diplomas and awards in a variety of academic areas including journalism, finance, teaching and advanced therapy for mental health. Stephen has as a Professor of Psychology many years teaching experience in colleges and universities in England and China to post 16 young adults, instructing in psychology, sociology, English, marketing and business. He has been fortunate to travel extensively from Australia to Africa to the United Sates, South America, Borneo, most of Europe and Russia. Stephen’s favourite hobby is the study of primates and likes to play badminton. He believes that students who enjoy classes with humour and enthusiasm from the teacher always come back eager to learn more.

One thing the human mind is very good at is recognizing patterns. Consider if you will how easy it is for you to recognize someone’s face, and the fact you probably know 10,000 faces, just as you probably know 10,000 verses in 10,000 different songs. That’s a rather remarkable accomplishment for the human brain, and evolution has obviously served the human species quite well in this regard. Human beings can recognize patterns and anomalies using sight, sound, smell, touch, and taste. It’s quite amazing if you think about it.

Now then, let’s talk a little bit about pattern recognition and the ability to sniff out anomalies. Would you say that emotions are helpful or hindering in pattern recognition? This is probably not a topic that you thought of, but it’s one that perhaps is of interest. You see, emotions release chemicals in the brain, and they help with the imprinting process of encoding neurons with information. Strong emotions will help people in pattern recognition. Maybe this is why faces and songs are so easily distinguished by the human mind.

It takes a lot of computer processing power to do the same thing. Yes, there are systems that can synthesize odors, identify sound waves, and of course there are systems designed for speech and facial recognition, but it is truly amazing how well the mind does this. Computers seem to have people beat on iris and finger print recognition, but who knows maybe the human mind could do that too if someone practiced it, after all many folks can tell the artist merely by a digital rendering of their work. Also if you threw in an emotional tie, I bet the human brain could do quite impressively in those challenges too.

Are there some cases where emotions hinder this process? Sure, after all they say; “love is blind” and often folks keep getting into the same damaging type relationships over and over again, or don’t see the obvious even when their friends warn them of such. Love is an extremely heavy emotion, like fear. Sometimes fear helps, sometimes it stresses the person out so much they end up making a mistake in recognition.

Now then, there is obviously a lot more to all this, and maybe we might tap into it to aid in the process of learning, teaching, and education as well? Indeed, I hope you will consider this a concept worth doing a little personal study on to help your curiosity answer these questions put forth, so please think on it.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on Future Concepts. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net

How many of us identify with the roles we play in life? Do we ever take time out to consider how much of our life force is invested in roles that are part of an ingrained pattern of consciousness imposed from aeons of traditional programming?

These are imprints built into the collective consciousness that we willingly undertake to adopt in order to learn, balance out or demonstrate for the benefit of others learning, the purpose of human evolution. This is the conscious agreement we undertake prior to incarnation. On an unconscious level we are equally subjected to all the personal and collective shadow that humanity en-masse has so far failed to heal. The shadow being all the personal and collective denial, issues we refuse to address or acknowledge. It is this latter patterning that causes the endless pain, conflict and misery that sometimes seems to underpin human evolution. In addition to this we have been given certain “Archetypal” energies that act as catalysts to enable us to evolve. However Archetypal energy can be a double edged sword when we fail to appreciate that working voluntarily from a particular archetype, such as hero, victim or martyr is only necessary for the length of time needed to develop balance. Becoming immersed into and totally identifying with the roles we are playing then becomes the actual chains with which we voluntarily imprison ourselves.

By the state of the play at present most of us are operating from a complete lack of knowledge and awareness that life on Earth is for the Soul’s evolution. As such some form of structure is necessary in order to implement the education that is needed for that soul’s evolution.

This is fine as far as it goes but it appears that human progress has begun to devolve instead of evolve due to the majority willingly imprisoning themselves far beyond the term of their sentence. When one decides to spend time intelligently considering whether or not war is a normal and acceptable tool to demonstrate peace, we are told the reasons for going to war is to bring peace, the clear mind will draw the conclusion that recent needless wars is an act of paranoid delusion.

Furthermore when some 2.8 billion people live below the poverty line whilst rich countries citizens are dying prematurely from obesity issues as reported by the New Economics Foundation, quote

“That nearly half of the world’s population should live in the 21st Century in such poverty that up to one third of their children die before they reach the age of five at a time of unprecedented wealth among the world’s rich can only be described as a moral outrage.”

Then is seems we need to urgently create a more enlightened archetype.

These facts of course do nothing on their own to alleviate collective suffering. It is only when we commit to consciously evolve, grow, heal and balance that we can really consider ourselves more than prisoners in a self-made prison. The inevitable part of this journey will see us regarding our fellow human as a partner in arms against the soul destroying and mind crushing negativity that has this planet in thrall to forces that are deeply hidden in the collective psyche. The need to make conscious choices about the way we live our lives has never been more urgent. For our own peace of mind and the future peace of the planet and its inhabitants we can only commit to wholeness and healing. There really is no other option for the person who regards him or herself truly human.

“We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of bad people

but for the appalling silence of the good people.”

~ Martin Luther King ~©

Many Articles on Experienced Spirituality, Multidimensional Reality and Personal Growth can be found on http://www.multidimensionalreality.com including free E-Book upon Request