Psychology | Consciousness and Culture

WOMEN’S EQUALITY: A HIGH LEVERAGE POINT

Cultures, Economics, Featured, Politics, Psychology, Uncategorized, Women & Gender

You’ve probably watched TV news that shows police car chases, murders, muggings, armed robberies, police shootings, and —well, you name the violent crime. At first glance they may seem quite different, but they have one thing in common: The perpetrators in all those categories are almost all male. In fact, pretty near the only category of violent crime in which women show up at all is those that take place in families or with close acquaintances, and even in those the numbers are far smaller for female than for male perpetrators.

If you raise your eyes from those details of the exciting 24/7 news coverage to look at violence in the broader sweep of history, you immediately see that the initiators and leaders of all of history’s great episodes of violence are male. To name just a few: Gengis Khan, many of the Roman Caesers, the Moghul invaders of India, Napolean, Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin—all men, every last one of them. And the generals of their armies? Again, all men. Most women don’t want to send their kids off to die in wars.

The big time financial whitecollar criminals and the legislators who write laws that give the rich brutal economic control over the poor are also mostly male. Looking at economic injustice, most people tend to fixate on the differences between the wealthy and the non-wealthy and blame the former—or if you’re one of the wealthy you probably blame the “agitators” among the workers and the poor. But there too, the primary architects of the injustices are mostly male.

Even the “sociobiologists” who look at gender differences and conclude that “human beings are inherently aggressive” are themselves mostly male. It took me some time to look carefully enough at their research to see that most such investigators included only males in their research study samples. Ah, so! Suddenly the light shines brightly on a fatal flaw in those research designs that scientists call “sampling error.” If a research study which finds that so-called “people” are inherently aggressive has only men as its subjects, then the only “people” it tells us about are men. Although women sometimes take a forceful or even brutal role, on the average men tend not only to be more aggressive, but also to have a stronger drive to dominate, to “be on top.” (This tells us nothing about any particular man or woman.)

It’s not for nothing that the Native American Iroquois Confederacy in Eastern North America gave women’s councils the final power over any decision about whether a tribe would go to war. It saved the lives of a great many young braves, and of the people in other tribes who might have been their victims.

When we apply all this to an analysis of the grave problems that male dominance creates, the clear implication is that if women and men had equal power in making the policies decisions about war and peace, criminal law, and the allocation and distribution of economic benefits, many things would be better. Less violent crime. Less selfish greed enshrined in law. Less war. Less production of weapons of personal destruction and mass destruction. Less of the environmental destruction and pollution that goes along with building and maintainng a huge military machine.

Requiring a feminine as well as masculine perspective in all major decisions would make far more money and resources availble for a whole spectrum of socially and environmentally beneficial purposes instead of building more and more nuclear missiles and bombers and aircraft carriers and submarines and tanks and. . . and . . . and. . .

Can you see it yet? We are so used to the oppression of a society whose every aspect is built on a blueprint of male dominance that most of us don’t see much of it. It’s like a fish swimming in the water. Ask the fish what “water” is and the answer you’d probably get is, “What are you talking about?” Since I’m male it took quite a long time for me to come around to realizing all that. But it’s obvious in many ways, almost everywhere I look.

Some feminist sci-fi and fantasy writing, like The Handmaid’s Tale and other related works, is meant to dramatize male dominance and oppression so well that it can’t be overlooked. But it can also have the effect of causing the reader to think, “Thank heavens things are so much better than that here,” and overlook the many subtle yet powerful forms of sexism that are embedded in numerous ways throughout society. As a blatant example, that we’re still swimming blindly through the dark waters of patriarchy that have led to so much of the cruelty and suffering of the past three thousand years of civilization, you might note the 2021 Texas Republicans’ legislation that offered people ten thousand dollars to sue someone who has an abortion. The legislators who passed that bill were 59 males and 10 females. That’s the naked hand of masculine oppression right there.

“But,” you might object, “what about the 10 females? There are some women who are anti-abortion, and who support other measures that give men power over women too.”

Indeed. There’s even an identified psychological pattern called variously “Identification with the aggressor” and “identification with the oppressor,” in which someone who is beaten down or oppressed feels a little power by identifying with those in control. And just as there are some men who display qualities we tend to call “feminine,” there are also women who have adopted “masculine” qualities—especially in the business world, where they are strongly encouraged and reinforced.

The sleeping giant of female power is beginning to awake. But slowly. Too slowly to stave off disaster on an apocalyptic scale—probably before the end of this century. Some places have realized that and have taken active steps to equalize male and female power in making the big decisions that govern the structure and process of society. Such as, for instance, in Costa Rica where the Constitution requires that an equal number of male and female candidate be put forward for most kinds of electoral seats. I believe that we need to take parallel steps everywhere, all over the world. Rapidy. Waiting for that to happen through a gradual rise in consciousness is just too slow.

I encourage you to look around with alertness to all the potential ways in which a more equal balance of masculine and feminine consciousness, and male and female power and control in our institutions, can lead to a lighter and brighter reality in your personal life, the lives of those around you, and ultimately our world.

EMERGENCY MEDITATION

Concentrative, Counseling & Psychotherapy, Everyday Awareness, Meditation, Mindfulness, Psychology

If you’d like a 3-minute mini-meditation available to use when you’re distressed, upset, emotionally off balance , here it is. It’s almost as simple as a meditation gets, because that’s about all a person can handle when they’re in an emotional meltdown. When you’re really flustered, a basic railing to grab onto is what you need, because you probably can’t focus on much more than that.

If you’re with someone else who’s freaking out and you want to help, you can talk them through this same process described just below. Speak out loud, almost verbatim as written below, making whatever tweaks fit the situation. Make sure your tone of voice is calm and soothing, It might or might not be appropriate to hold the person’s hand to help ground them. You can check that out by touching their hand lightly and seeing whether they take hold of it. Respect that message.

No frills. So this is for you when you’re upset. Or for you to use to help someone else when they’re upset. If you’re a helping another person at a fire, an accident, a crime scene, or any other crisis situation –or even a situation that’s an emotional crisis even if someone else wouldn’t think the situation itself is a crisis–this can prove useful.

STEP ONE

If you can, sit up straight. If not, sit or lie however you need to.
Notice your breathing. If it’s slow, that’s fine. If its fast and shallow, slow it down. At least a little slower and deeper.

STEP TWO
Now, as you inhale, count the number “1.” Hear it in your ears if you can. If your eyes are closed, try to visualize i|T.
As you exhale, notice everything you’re seeing and hearing in your mind, and let it all flow away on your outgoing breath as completely as you can
Now as you inhale again, count the number “2.” Concentrate on ‘hearing’ or visualizing that number as fully as possible. If you can’t do either, just ‘think it.
As you exhale, again notice what’s filling your mind, and again let it flow and blow away, so that when you’ve exhaled completely your mind is as empty as possible.

STEP THREE
As you inhale again, mentally count the number “3.” When you’ve inhaled completely, take an instant to notice
anywhere your body feels tense and tight.
As you exhale, let yourself release and let go of that tension at the same time that you’re letting go of any ideas that
have formed in your mind.

STEP FOUR
For your next seven breaths, do just as you did with number 3. With each breath, change the number to the next higher one (this helps keep your focus on what you’re doing rather than letting your mind run away to think about whatever was disturbing you). On the incoming breath, silently recite the number and notice whatever else is coming through your mind—or even spinning around in it. Then on the outgoing breath, focus your attention on noticing any physical tension or tightness anywhere in your muscles and letting go of it—while at the same time letting go of whatever other words or sentences or imagery are coming through your mind. You’re letting go of words, letting go of imagery, letting go of muscular tension and tightness. It’s like that old song —all those thoughts and imagery and muscular tensions that are bothering you are singing “Please release me, let me go!” to you.

If you’re guiding another person through this process, verbally walk them through breaths 4 through 10 just as you did with breath 3.

After just these 10 slow breaths you’ll probably find that you feel much better than you did—even though this may take you only 3 or 4 minutes. If you (or the person you’re helping) are still quite upset, then use the process again with the next 10 breaths, using the releasing physical tension process you began with breath 3 in all ten breaths.

The key insight with this process is that the mind-body connection works in both directions. When you’re upset, you tense up your body—automatically. To become less upset, as you relax your body consciously, in turn it relaxes your mind.

You’re welcome to share this with whomever you wish so long as no charge or profit is made from doing so. Inclusion in any electronic or hardcopy post or document for which a charge is made requires consent of the author.

An Introduction to Purposive Behaviorism

Psychology

EDWARD CHACE TOLMAN:

THE THINKING MAN’S RAT, or GETTING TO KNOW YOU, SAYS THE RAT TO THE SITUATION

AN INTRODUCTION TO “PURPOSIVE BEHAVIORISM

I. BIOGRAPHY

Tolman was the third child and second son of an upper-class new England family. His father, the head of a Massachusetts manufacturing company, had been in the first graduating class at MIT. A staunch believer in the puritan ethic of hard work and constant effort, one of his favorite mottos was “tend to business.” The father hoped his sons Richard and Edward would follow him into the family business. Encouraged by his wife, who had been raised a Quaker, he was also interested in social reform. Tolman/s mother was a warm and caring person who tried to instill in her children her Quaker values of plain living and high thinking.

Both sons were good at mathematics and both studied experimental and theoretical chemistry at M.I.T.. Richard avoided going into business by getting a Ph.D. and becoming a distinguished physicist. His career culminated in his work as an associate of Robert Oppenheimer on the atomic bomb project at Los Alamos. Edward later said he had gone to M.I.T. due to family pressure rather than because he wanted to. He read William James and transferred to Harvard. He studied philosophy and psychology and then spent a summer in Germany with the Gestalt psychologist Kurt Koffka.

At Harvard the laboratory specialized in nonsense syllable learning under Hugo Munsterberg. Munsterberg’s laboratory meetings at which students presented and discussed their research opened with a brief lecture which described introspection as the method of psychology; then the students and research assistants would present studies in which introspection was seldom used.

To Tolman, something did not seem quite right, especially since his fellow graduate students showed no inclination to transfer to Cornell where they could be instructed by the master of introspection, Titchener himself. His dissertation (Ph.D. 1915) was a study of retroactive inhibition. But Tolman preferred the course in comparative psychology taught by Robert Yerkes, in which Watson/s book: Behavior: An Introduction to Comparative Psychology was the text. This text dismissed the obligation to use introspection, and Tolman reflected that his memory drum experiments did not depend on introspection.

He started teaching at Northwestern in 1915. With war fervor mounting, he wrote an pacifist essay which resulted in his dismissal in 1918. But U.C. Berkeley offered him an appointment starting that fall, where he remained for the rest of his career. Just before world war II, after participating in an informal seminar with Hilgard and others under the leadership of two San Francisco psychoanalysts, he wrote a small book on motivation called Drives Toward War.

During the war he worked with Henry Murray and others in the offices of Strategic Services in Washington. After the war, in the HUAC days, he joined others and resigned from the Berkeley faculty rather than sign a loyalty oath. Shortly afterward he was reinstated and given special honors by the university. He gained a reputation for selflessness and kindness, and in his frequent debates in support of his beliefs showed a kind of humorous self-deprecation.

II. PRINCIPAL IDEAS

1. PURPOSIVE BEHAVIORISM, he called his approach in Purposive behavior in animals and men (1932). Since then he and others have called it a SIGN-GESTALT theory or an EXPECTANCY theory. In his writings Gestalt ideas play a prominent role.

An “EXPECTANCY” of Tolman’s sort has been called a theory of “what leads to what” –a theory of signs and guideposts. The animal “gets to know” a bit of the environment.

2. It was also a COGNITIVE BEHAVIORISM, in contrast to the S-R theories of Watson, Thorndike, Guthrie, Hull, and Skinner. Sometimes also called SIGN LEARNING.

3. It is a genuine behaviorism; It rigidly rejects introspection as a method. His references to consciousness refers to interpretations of observed behavior. Tolman did not accept verbal report “as a dodge to smuggle consciousness in through the back door.” He writes, “Every behavior act, in so far as its continued going off is contingent upon there proving to be such and such specific features in the environment, must be said…to cognize those features. …Whenever an organism at a given moment of stimulation shifts then and there from being ready to respond in some relatively less differentiated way to being ready to respond in some relatively more differentiated way, there is consciousness.” (Tolman, 1961).

4. His system is a molar rather than molecular behaviorism. Interested in the distinctive properties of an act of behavior, not the muscular, glandular, or neural processes that underlie it. In outlook, an independence from physiology, in sharp contrast to Pavlov.

5.PURPOSIVE means that behavior is regulated in accordance with objectively determinable ends. He rejected Watson/s behaviorism almost as vigorously as he rejected Titchener’s Structuralism, because Watson/s behaviorism was molecular and tended to neglect the problems of goal-seeking behavior. The particular movements involved are less important than the patterning; what the organism is getting at.

6. SIGN-GESTALTS. A concept originated by Tolman. He asserts, “The ‘figure on grounds,’ etc. of Gestalt psychology are always caught up into some larger whole (i.e. sign-gestalts), containing signs, significates, and means-end relations.’

He asserts that “an organism does not even just perceive, rather it always goes still further and “propositionalizes.”

III. BEHAVIOR AS MOLAR

1. GOAL-DIRECTED BEHAVIOR is always a getting-toward something or getting-away from something. Description of any behavior should include:

a) What the organism is doing

b) What it is trying to do

c) Where it is going.

The cat is trying to get out of the box, the carpenter is building a house or earning a living.

2. ENVIRONMENTAL SUPPORTS. Rats and people live in worlds of paths and tools, obstacles, and by-paths. How we use paths and tools marks behavior as cognitive as well as purposive.

3. THE PRINCIPLE OF LEAST EFFORT. There is a selective preference for short or easy means compared to long or difficult ones.

4. MOLAR BEHAVIOR IS FLEXIBLE (“docile”). In other words, it is teachable. If it is mechanical and stereotyped, like a spina! reflex, it belongs at the molecular level.

5. INTERVENING VARIABLES

Instead of an S-R theory, Tolman’s is an S-O-R theory.

a. An act of behavior is initiated by environmental stimuli and physiological states. (S) –(stimulus) the independent variable–

(0) –(for organism) Certain processes intervene the intervening variable–

(R) –(response) and Behavior emerges. The dependent variable.

The problem of psychological analysis at the molar level is to infer the processes which intervene between the initiation of action in the world of physics and physiology and the observable results, again in the world of physics and physiology. All the data are observable, so the system remains a behaviorism.

b. Intervening variables include such processes as cognitions and purposes, but these are inferred from what the organism does.

6. SIGN LEARNING. S-R theories imply that the organism is goaded along a path by internal and external stimuli, learning the correct movement sequences so that they are released under appropriate conditions of drive and environmental stimulation. It learns the “signs” (cues, stimuli) that tell it where it is and where can find reward. Thus it is sometimes called a stimulus-stimulus (SS) theory rather than a stimulus-response theory (SR).

Tolman’s Alternative: That the learner is following signs to a goal, is learning his way about, following a sort of map –in other words, is learning not movements but meanings. The organism learns a behavior route, not a movement pattern. Experiments were devised to compare these two alternatives.

7. REWARD EXPECTANCY. Tinklepaugh’s (1928) study hiding banana under cup. When a lettuce leaf was secretly substituted and the monkey found it, the monkey appeared disturbed, rejected the lettuce, engaged in search behavior as if looking for the banana. Other such studies have replicated the result. (

Also, the PLACE LEARNING experiments show that the learner does not move from start to goal according to a fixed sequence of movements, as Watson and Hull would predict, but can appropriately vary behavior under changed conditions, as though he II knows where the goal is. II

One example was the cross elevated maze. The response learning group always found food at right; place learning group always at same place. Place-learning group learned much faster, and some animals in the response-learning group never learned.

Another study: Tolman & Honzik: 3 paths. When shortest was blocked, the went to second shortest.

In “HYPOTHESES IN RATS” Tolman concluded that in a 4-choice maze the animals adopted systematic modes of solution, the choices somewhat tentative, so that one mode would be rejected for another if the first one didn’t work.

In VICARIOUS TRIAL & ERROR LEARNING, there was vacillation at a choice point before the animal “committed” to a choice. This apparent active comparing of stimuli seems to Tolman to support his view that perceptual and cognitive processes have strong roles in learning

8. THE CELEBRATED “LATENT LEARNING” STUDIES. These showed that learning does not depend on reinforcement, but can go on in its absence and only show up when reinforcement is introduced. Free exploration can be as effective as many previously reinforced trials.

There were SEVERAL KINDS OF LATENT LEARNING EXPERIMENT

1. Unrewarded trials with later introduction of relevant reward. Tolman & Honzik used a 14 unit multiple T-maze. The rat couldn’t return when it had successfully gone into next segment. Rats fed at the end did better than those not fed, but unfed rats had a sharp jump in performance when they started to get fed.

2. Free exploration followed by reward.

3. Location of incentives learned under satiation and tested under relevant drive.

4. Location of incentives learned under strong irrelevant drives. These pointed to the role of attention. If a rat was thirsty, for example, it was not so good at learning the cues that told where food was. We can infer that it was paying attention to cues that told where water was, and that the strong direction of its attention toward finding water interfered with becoming aware of where the food was.

CENTRAL TO TOLMAN’S VIEW: REINFORCEMENT IS NOT ESSENTIAL TO LEARNING Tolman took great pains to protest against reinforcement as essential to learning.

Notice: this is different from saying that it cannot play an important role in learning. Tolman: One role of motivation: It affect which features of the environment you pay attention to, and therefore what is learned. He used the term EMPHASIS rather than attention

9. THE DEBATE OVER EXPECTANCY VS. HABIT. Tolman/s view has been characterized as a “what leads to what” theory, a theory of signs, guideposts, and behavior roots. The theory is that with repeated experiences, the probability is learned that the given behavior will lead to the expected end result. The result is faster running and elimination of going down blind alleys exactly as if a habit were being strengthened by reward. It is not so easy to distinguish between these two views. The latent learning experiments were crucial here.

10. PROBABILITIES AND WEIGHING. In one study the rats were rewarded on one side every time and the other side half the time. Then they preferred the sides about 3-1 for rewarded. But if the partial reward side was “dangerous” on half the trials (shock) –then forget that side. Analogy to daily life: You go into store with a 1 in 10 chance of getting the merchandise you want, but you are less likely to take a flight with a 1 in 10 chance of crash. Discriminated probabilities are weighed in regard to the kind of likely consequences before they emerge in action.

3. CONFIRMATION. If an expectancy is confirmed, its probability value is increases; if not, its probability value is decreased (i.e. it undergoes extinction)

V. TOLMAN’S LATER (1951) MODEL was obviously influenced by Kurt Lewin. Thus we see important influences of Gestalt thought on Tolman throughout his career, and in turn he used them in his own unique ways.

1. The three chief intervening variables are:

(a) The need system. Needs arise through physiological deprivation of psychologically defined drive conditions.

(b) The belief-value matrix This includes learned categorizations and differentiations about environmental objects.

c) The behavior space in which a “locomotion” takes place. is a space of objects in various places as perceived by the actor. or as it is expected to be when perceived at a given moment. These objects have positive or negative valences and the actor is attracted or repelled by them.

REFS: Tolman, Behavior & Psychological Man, 1961 (Univ. of Calif. Press); Hilgard, Ernest R. Theories of Learning, 1948 (Appleton, Century, Crofts).

The Truth Will Set You Free — But First it Will Piss You Off!

Psychology, Spirit

“THE TRUTH WILL SET YOU FREE – BUT FIRST IT WILL PISS YOU OFF.” (full disclosure: I saw the line on a t-shirt.)
Imagine that you have a police detective in your mind who tools around in a patrol car, or rides through your neural circuits on a motorcycle, or even walks around inspecting your mental territory with a magnifying glass like Sherlock Holmes. Upon finding a thought or feeling that’s forbidden, the officer writes out a citation that says, “Forget it.”

Where does that inner surveillance of your beliefs, attitudes and actions come from? You may have learned as a child that if you revealed thoughts that were forbidden, it meant punishment or loss of love from the adults who cared for you. Or that you’d get ridiculed or beat up by the kids down the street, or by the school bully. So your inner police siren jolts your mind into thinking something different. If you’re like most people, you have a whole collection of such mental tactics.
So you make mistakes that cause you trouble. And if enough of the rest of us have ideas and feelings that similarly make us act in ways that harm ourselves or others, we can do major damage to our families, our communities, our country, and even the world.

All that’s part of what counseling, psychotherapy, and some spiritual practices are for. They’re to help people replace old ways of acting they formerly needed to protect themselves or others, but don’t any more.

Here’s a thumbnail summary of reasons we sometimes make avoidable (or even tragic) mistakes.

1. If we were punished in the past when we refused to act or feel as others wished, at some subconscious level we recall the old punishment, feel the old fears, and avoid thinking or acting that way now—even when its exactly what we need to do. A similar pattern can occur when we’re afraid we won’t get something we need or badly want.
2. We deny realities many others can see because of “everybody knows” attitudes held by people around us. These attitudes are passed along to us by others in our “reference group” – that is, everybody with whom we compare ourselves. Most of us want approval.
3. We want to feel like hotshots. We think that if we admit that someone else is right and we’re wrong we must look stupid. Actually, the opposite is usually true. Flexibility of mind leads us to be right more often than wrong.
4. We think that if we admit that we were wrong about something and change our mind about it, we’re defective. This is egocentrism that makes us dumb. When we’re willing to notice what’s actually going on now—inside us, outside us, or both–we become smarter. The effects are usually more positive than when we slide into self-deception.

In some ways we’ve all been brainwashed. The plutocrats and overlords of every culture and country spin myths that help them keep their special privileges. “Half a truth can be a great lie,” noted Benjamin Franklin. We can learn to see through such mental smokescreens.

Many of the lies we tell ourselves (our acts of self-deception) serve the useful end of helping us feel better. We protect or inflate our egos and assuage our insecurities by pretending to be more capable or knowledgeable than we are. We refuse to admit, for instance, that we might be or might have been wrong about something. As a result, often we end up super wrong.

But how, you might wonder, even if you’re sharp enough to notice that you’ve been snared by some dogmatic belief system, can you step outside it and think for yourself?

Truly wanting to do so is a good start. Developing the ability to hear what you’re inwardly telling yourself is a next step.

Of course we all have our pet peeves. One of mine is self-righteousness: “I’m good and righteous and
you’re bad and wrong and maybe even evil and controlled by Satanic forces.” A person who’s feeling or acting self-righteous fancies himself or herself better than others who think or act differently, or who look or sound different. When that includes you, you may not even notice it. You think you’re just in touch with reality. Blaming, finger-pointing, and even insults are often flaming arrows that show that we’re probably projecting—thinking we see in others the things we don’t want to recognize in ourselves.

It’s easier, writes James Hillman, “to discover yourself a victim than admit yourself a perpetrator.”13 After all, we want to think we’re good people who are doing the right things. Recognizing damage we’ve done, are doing, or are thinking of doing is an advanced stage in psycho-spiritual growth.

Can you be that conscious? Are you willing to work to develop your ability to see and hear your own projections? If so, welcome to a better life!

Creating The Enemy

Cultures, Politics, Psychology

“The enemy!” If you passed through the town near my home on a recent weekend you might have seen about two hundred Harleys parked around the local tavern and café. Black leather clad riders lounged among the bikes. You might even have felt your body stiffen as you pegged them as an enemy and your mind told you, “Look at all those dangerous bikers! Who will they attack next? If you felt that way, you probably wouldn’t have stopped to exchange a few friendly words with any of them. You might not have noticed that many had gray or white hair. That’s long past the age at which violence is common. You might never have learned that participants had to pay a fee to join the ride, with proceeds donated to a local charity. And since you saw the picture in your mind instead of the reality behind it, your thoughts and feelings about that gathering probably remained unchanged—and wrong.

That’s one small example of an everyday phenomenon. Many fixed mental, emotional, and body reactions shrink the amount of your mind that is open, receptive, and able to tell what’s going on. Taking advantage of that pattern, a very old manipulative tactic is to create an “enemy” to unite against. An enemy is not just an opponent, since you and a competitor can still be friends. Rather, an enemy is seen as someone irrevocably opposed to you and yours. Your enemy is out to do bad things to you. It’s someone toward whom you feel ill will, animosity, or even hate. Once you’ve classified people as enemies, you can easily be tricked into doing terrible things to them. You may even condone truly evil acts carried out against them by those on “your side.” So for example, presidents, premiers, prime ministers and legislators stir up wars that benefit them or the corporations that line their pockets with campaign contributions. They spend your taxes on weapons and send other people’s children (very seldom their own) to fight and get wounded or die. Several intriguing social psychological studies have shed light on why and how it can be easy to do that.

In the U.S.. the escalated antagonism associated with the most recent presidential election and its aftermath could not please the plutocracy more. As long as black and whites and latinos are hostile to each other, our attention is distracted from the people and tactics in the power elite who are the ones who are really screwing us. We need to step out those old antagonisms and unite to take back the country for the working class and most of the rest of the people. White vs. Black plays right into the hands of the great manipulators. Pretty much the same as political parties. Now we have a president who ran as a “defender of the people” who has turned out to be a defender of he fossil fuel billionaires.

For more information see the experiments by Muzafer and Carolyn Sherif.

VERBAL “DRIVE-BY-SHOOTINGS”

Psychology, Spirit

COMMUNICATION: SIMPLE RESPECT. This is the first new post about everyday communication. Most of these will not be big, deep comments, but small ones that can improve and brighten everyday dialogues.

In a drive-by-shooting someone in a car or on a cycle or scooter passes someone, fires a shot, and vanishes. The person who is shot has no chance to protect himself or herself or to retaliate.

One kind of comment has something in common with this. A person makes a mean, insulting or otherwise hurtful comment to another and then vanishes. Maybe in a car, a crowd, into an elevator or room as the door closes, or anywhere else where there is no chance for a reply. The remark may be right, wrong, or a complete misunderstanding, but the recipient has no chance to explain or correct it.

The recipient may feel feeling demeaned, angry, violent depressed or something else—usually negative. Occasionally he or she feels forgiveness or pity for the small mindedness of the person who made the remark and sped away, but injured feelings are more often the norm,

Why are verbal drive-by-shootings destructive? First, often they cause avoidable pain or suffering for the hearer. Often, of course, the “shooter” doesn’t care. Second, they often trigger a craving for revenge. “I’ll get that S.O.B. back!” If you’re that S.O.B., the reprisal just might come when you least want it. Passive-aggressive intentions to embarrass you terribly or stab you in the back are commonplace. Third, positive feelings that may have existed between the two of you are likely to be shredded or diminished. This can send a relationships downhill fast.

Sometimes such actions are unintentional, A person may not expect their remark to be hurtful. Or they may be in a big hurry to go and just not think to wait for the other’s reply. Such incidents can often be repaired by later conversation and / or apology. But until then at least one of the people is likely to feel bad.

Also, some people in some situations may just think “FY too” and forget it. Or may have enough self esteem that the comment just rolls off like water from a duck’s back.

But many people don’t. In the meantime, this communication tactic, habit, or error is best avoided. Leave space for a reply!

Tarot at a Crossroads: The Unexpected Meeting of Tarot and Psychology

Psychology, Spirit, Tarot & Images

A UNIQUE NEW TAROT AND PSYCHOLOGY BOOK HIGHLIGHTS METHODS OF USING VISUAL IMAGERY TO STIMULATE HEALING IN READINGS, COUNSELING, AND PSYCHOTHERAPY

THIS UNPARALLELED RESOURCE CAN BENEFIT TAROT READERS, PSYCHOTHERAPISTS, COUNSELORS, ART THERAPISTS, LIFE COACHES, SOCIAL WORKERS AND OTHERS
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IF YOU’RE A TAROT READER, you’ll find insights and understandings that are in no other work on the Tarot. The book addresses the relationship between reader and client. It shows how to uncover thoughts, feelings, and sensations that underlie first reactions to a card, It presents ways of working through both outer conflicts and inner dilemmas to help make your readings more effective. Using psychological knowledge it describes ways to read the cards as they uniquely apply to a given person, as well as how to help people create the future they want for themselves. You will also find a number of unique new spreads that can add additional dimensions and depth to your readings for both yourself and others.

IF YOU’RE A HUMAN SERVICES PROFESSIONAL, suddenly you’re no longer limited to words. Much of our thinking occurs as mental pictures and mind-movies. In our “representational” approach you don’t have to know traditional Tarot card interpretations. The meanings are mostly supplied by the clients, who select images to represent their concerns from a face-up deck. The book also details how to work with visual imagery of almost any kind, in addition to or as an alternative to Tarot cards. It describes how to use a collection of visual images as a substitute for psycho-dramatic enactment, empty chair dialogues, sand trays, or artistic media. It describes how to use identification, projective dialogues, and enactive movement with the images your clients select. Finally, it shows how to use images to work through issues or foster creativity in relationships with multiple others, such as family constellations or work groups. It also helps population like children, teenagers, and the very shy to open up and discuss their concerns.

For all readers, Tarot At A Crossroads tells how to do readings or use the cards for therapy in a group, and how to use them for meditation in inner work. Methods of using tarot imagery for couples as well as individuals are included. It integrates traditional tarot interpretations with psychological insights to create meaningful interpretations and useful directions for personal work. The book is useful whether you do readings for yourself, for friends, or professionally — or if you want to explore the value of using a symbolic language in your work. Perhaps you will even enjoy just browsing through the book and reflecting on its 208 wonderful color images and what they evoke in you.

The engaging style draws you right in. GET IT NOW at your favorite bookstore or click below on:

AMAZON

Ostrich Syndrome – Self-Deception or Duplicity?

Environment, Politics, Psychology

When someone studiously avoids noticing what anyone with eyes and ears can see, I call it “The Ostrich Syndrome,” my favorite name for self-deception. Candidate Trump provides examples. An interesting question is whether he actually believes what he says or whether he’ll say anything his audience wants him to hear. Or maybe he’ll say anything and then convince himself he believes it to avoid noticing that he’s lying to both himself and others, and doesn’t want to feel bad about himself due to his dishonesty. Psychologist Leon Festinger dubbed this pattern “cognitive dissonance.” Here are three examples.

This past week he declared that “There is no drought in California.” No matter that my spring that’s been reliable for 45 years dried up and I had to truck water in for a year and a half and then drill a well and put in a new water tank and system, for instance. Or that the ferns on our south-facing hillside were al drying up and dying for the first time ever, and pulled through for now due to this year’s El Nino rains that finally came after many dry years. They usually drop about 2 1/2 times normal rain when they come but this year dropped a blissfully welcome normal rainfall. The previous winter there was ZERO snowpack in the high Sierra where they usually measure multiple feet to estimate what the Spring runoff will be. Trump doesn’t live out here and I guess he just didn’t bother to look at the numbers.

Example Two: The famous proposed U.S.—Mexican Great Wall. For many years now there has been a tunnel for rapid transit beneath San Francisco Bay. Far more ambitious is the tunnel beneath the English Channel between France and England. The Air Force has had an armada of tunnel-boring machine every since it was building ICBM silos. Now it is said to have a remarkable network of underground bases. And not long ago Mexican drug lord “El Chapo’s followers created a mile-long tunnel to break him out of a Mexican jail. The obvious conclusion: Both sides of a Great Wall with Mexico (what a multibillion-dollar windfall for the cement an steel industries!) would resemble colonies of gophers, moles, and prairie dogs with holes popping up everywhere heaven knows how far from the wall. Personally I agree that there is too much immigration too fast to the USA, just judging by the jammed highways and beaches near my home that didn’t used to be that way, but the largest share of it is legal, by-the-rules immigration. A well thought-through national immigration policy that doesn’t put Americans out of work—yes, by all means lets have one—but that proposed Wall is Just Plain Dumb.

Oh, and I hear he wants to give more money to the military, which already spends more than the second-through-eighth highest spending countries in the world. He says the poor old armed forces are badly strapped for cash. I think we’ve heard that before, from Edward Teller (father of the H-bomb) telling Ronald Reagan to dump billions of our tax dollars into outer space (“Star Wars)—which Reagan did. How about spending that money on job-creating environmental restoration projects instead, just as for instance, Franklin D. Roosevelt did?

Pay attention, friends. If something just doesn’t sound right, whoever says it, there’s a good chance that it’s not. It may be a straight-out lie, or a half truth (Benjamin Franklin said, “A half-truth is sometimes a great lie), or self-deception (which Sigmund Freud showed us in detail that most of us do a fair amount of. He even did a some himself, retreating from his observations about child abuse and molestation when his colleagues gave him the cold shoulder about them.) So when you think you’re seeing the Ostrich Syndrome, you probably are.

Two Minute Meditation

Meditation, Psychology, Spirit

TWO-MINUTE MEDITATION. (YES, REALLY!)

This is for you if you’ve heard that meditation can have positive effects but just haven’t brought yourself to spend the 15 or 20 minutes a day required for a minimal regular meditation session.

This mini-meditation is useful when you:
1. . . .feel stressed-out
2. . . .are emotionally upset and want to calm down. Any kind of emotional upset –sad, angry, jealous, aggressive, etc. — choose your state of mind and body.
3. . . .would like to feel just a little more centered and focused before you set out
on your day. . . or go into an important meeting . . . or would like to feel more
focused or present before -whatever.
4. . . . know it would be best to keep your mouth shut but have a hard time stopping yourself from saying something that will cause trouble for you or make someone feel bad.
5. . . . would like a tiny tast of meditation to see whether you’re willing to put a bit more time into it.
6. . . .are waiting for somebody or something and have nothing else to do
7. . . . feel bored but you forgot your smartphone or ipad or it has run out of juice
and you want something — anything– to do.
8. . . . “just feel like it — no special reason.”

Okay, let’s go. Just two minutes. Enjoy!

Whether you’re sitting or standing, begin by centering yourself as completely as you can in relation to gravity. Lean slightly forward, backward, left, and right, and find the place where if you were a pendulum you’d come to a stop, You can do that in about 20 seconds. Already you’ve begun your meditation!

Then inhale deeply through your nose and silently count “1” on your incoming breath as you inhale. Sense your breath coming in through your nose and going down into your lungs. At the same time, hold your hands so that the thumb and first or second finger of each hand are close together — just about an eighth of an inch apart.

Next exhale (preferably through your mouth) and to the best of your ability let everything that was in your mind “flow out” on your exhalation. As you do, continue to sense your breath, going out now, and at the same time scan your body for any muscle tension or tightness and let go of it as much as you can while you are exhaling. Also, as you exhale close that eighth of an inch gap between each of your thumbs and fingers so that each thumb and finger just touch. This is a “moving mudra.” You’ve now seriously begun your two minute medidtation.

Now, simply repeat what is described in the two paragraphs just above, but this time silently count “2” as you inhale. Do everything else just as above.

Then repeat what you just did for eight more breaths. On the third breath count “3” as you inhale, on the fourth breath count “4,” and so on up to 10. After the tenth breath you’re finished. Then look around, listen, and be as present as you can with your more relaxed body and your immediate surroundings and less caught up in your mind. Yep, you can do this in two minutes.

Of course, if you feel like it, you’re likely to deepen your meditation if you do another sequence of ten breaths, and as many more as you like until you’re ready to stop. But not more than ten. If at some point you want to get a little deeper into meditation, look at the other blog posts here. And if you’d like to get into it in a more deeply enriching way, you’ll find this book or e-book just plain amazing. It might even become your lifelong friend. (If you want to check out samples, go online to the address just below.

Learn more: Matrix Meditations

MEDITATION III – Mindfulness or Witness Consciousness

Meditation, Mindfulness, Psychology, Spirit

“Mindfulness” has become a catch-word in some circles in recent years. Some of those who use the term understand it and some don’t. It’s a Buddhist term that is differs very little from the Yogic term “witness consciousness.” Both involve noticing, moment-by-moment, what your mind is doing.

Many who try to meditate with witness consciousness or mindfulness get stuck because they have overlooked the previous step, concentration. Only when you have the ability to notice your mind in action and focus it where you want to does real mindfulness actually become possible. Its essence is the ability to, in a sense, “stand behind” your mind and notice what it is doing. Most of us most of the time are caught up in our thoughts that are darting here and there like clothes that are caught up inside a washing machine, going this way and that as the washer spins or agitates them. In other words, we are identified with our thoughts. As a result, we have little choice about what we think and feel. Our thoughts run in old patterns, like an old fashioned record player’s needle stuck in the same old groove, replaying the same thought pattern over and over again. A problem with this is that we see and think only what we already think we know. When new information comes along, we tend to reject it, in order to be able to think that we were “right” all along. Sometimes it’s an ego thing to protect our self-esteem. Other times it’s just easier for our neural impulses to follow their usual paths (see the blog on Tolman’s cognitive maps.)

By contrast, with witness consciousness or mindfulness, at each moment we notice what our mind is doing (whether it is focused on a thought, feeling, physical sensation, or event outside ourselves, which includes other peoples’ actions, opinions, and attitudes). In a sense, I detail one small part of my mind to watch / listen to / witness / be mindful of / what the rest is doing. (This is called “two-pointed attention” in the Zen tradition.) When I am actually aware of what my mind is doing, I can choose whether to let it keep on doing that in the same way, or examine it and what lies beneath it more deeply, or do something else. This is useful both when I am with myself and in conversations with others. The reason people often sit in a particular position without moving for a period of time while meditating is because that makes it easier to watch the mind. Watching it (or if you prefer, listening to it) opens many windows on the world that I didn’t know were there. It makes it possible to move from being a denier (of everything I didn’t already believe) to being an inquirer (who’s interested in finding out what’s actually going on, inside or outside himself or herself.

So just sit. Balance, then breathe, then release unneeded tension. Then count your breaths or recite your mantra until you feel as centered and focused as you sense that you’re likely to get right then. Then do nothing but observe and listen. You’ll probably want something like a flower or candle flame six feet or more in front of you to bring your attention back to when it drifts off. Notice what you think, feel, and sense. When you notice your body drooping instead of sitting straight up, it’s a signal that you’re no longer witnessing or being mindful. Regain your centered sitting position and bring your gaze back to the physical object in front of you (unless you’re using an eyes-closed meditative practice.) If you do this for more than ten or fifteen minutes, your body may start to feel painful and uncomfortable. That’s good. It makes it hard to think about anything else. Just notice the pain — where and how you experience it. Continue in this way until the end of your session, “just noticing” everything that occurs inside you or outside you. Then again count ten breaths as you did during the starting sequence, moving your eyes to a different object with each breath, as you make the transition back to everyday consciousness.

Once you become quite skilled at this, you may be able to do it in the midst of some of your everyday activities. Also, when you can do it fairly reliably, you will be ready to put your concentration and mindfulness or witness consciousness together and move into a contemplative meditation. (If you try contemplative meditation without having first developed these abilities, your mind is likely to use all kinds of clever avoidance tactics when you feel uncomfortable. Concentration and mindfulness give you a method to notice and release that avoidance.)

And remember two points. First, often it’s at least as more important to notice your emotions and physical sensations as your thoughts. Second, a runner in training will have days when everything seems easy and to go well and days when everything seems difficult. Meditation is the same way. Whether a session seems “good” or “bad” is not important. Each moment of each session is just how it is. It’s all training. It’s all useful.

For much greater depth and detail about all this, our book Matrix Meditations

Matrix Meditations

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