Robot Mind, Human Mind

In my book "Gateways to The Zone" is a chapter called Robot Mind, Human Mind.
For many of us, any and indeed most aspects of our performance - and that's all performance - is predicated on the notion of perfection, of repetitive smoothness, something beyond critical judgement. We are enticed, from quite an early age, into believing that "only the best is good enough"and we carry and place that frame of being a paragon - without really understanding what makes us human.

Robot Mind, Human Mind

What sets us apart?

Well we know what sets us apart from the animals in terms of brain structure, and that is the pre-frontal cortex.

To quote Wikipaedia:
This brain region has been implicated in planning complex cognitive behaviour, personality expression, decision making, and moderating social behaviour. The basic activity of this brain region is considered to be orchestration of thoughts and actions in accordance with internal goals.
We still have primitive areas of the brain, wired to function in the way we were, countless millennia in our past.
We call this the animal brain or lizard brain.

These and many other areas of the brain are, in effect, how we are wired. We are, all the time with neuroscience, gaining a better understanding about the wiring, and about how the brain functions.

And then...there’s the Mind!

Now, one of the by-products of the industrial age, and then the electronic age, has been Man’s pursuit of creating a series of devices in his own image; devices that can perform - to a level of repetitive and consistent perfection - a whole variety of tasks previously undertaken either by humans alone, or by humans using animals in that performing partnership. It started with simple machines and eventually evolved into robotics and cybernetics.

Now, in terms of The Zone, and the Gateways into it, the overriding consideration is about the Mind – because everything about The Zone is played out within the infinite confines of the Mind.

We might now all agree that our view of the nature of consistency is about the quality of repetitiveness. And in our modern understanding, the extensive and predictable instance of high quality replication is by drawing a parallel with robots, or the “robotic” approach.

So, I’d invite you to explore here some of the similarities and differences between Robot Mind and Human Mind.

Robot Mind is linear, is digital, it is creatively simple yet functionally complex and repetitive. It is not programmed to think, but to gather and analyse data, act upon it and present conclusions. Robots are, therefore, process oriented and not goal oriented. Process orientation yields outcomes – while goal orientation brings rewards. In Robot Mind there is no comprehension of rewards. An advanced robot will have Frames of Robot Mind (or modes of action or function). Robots do not have States of Mind, because they do not have emotion or the power of thought.
Robot Mind is activated by an on/off switch.

Human Mind is vast, infinite you might say. It is analogue, diverse and multi-functional. Though it too can gather and analyse data and present conclusions, it is creatively complex. Part of that creative complexity is to recognise patterns and perceive connections well beyond the capabilities of Robot Mind. Human Mind comprehends both process outcomes that yield conclusions AND goal driven outcomes which yield rewards. Human Mind has Frames of Mind. And it has States of Mind as well. It has States of Mind because humans have emotions and the power of Thought. States of Mind are not straight-lined, they fluctuate between levels; and these fluctuations are taking place all the time.
Human Mind is activated by consciousness.

There is often some confusion in Human Mind between conclusions and rewards. In Robot Mind there are only conclusions. What possible rewards might there be for Robot Mind? Certainly not “Well done Robbie! Here’s a shot of extra special lubricating oil! Or maybe a zap of some supercharged electrical impulse!” Or maybe, “You’ve just earned yourself a promotion! That will mean new components and therefore a new Identity!”

In a contest between two Robot Minds there is no emotion and there is no reward. In the outcome of one Robot Mind overcoming the other, the only reason is superiority of attributes and faculties. There is no “I am” in Robot Mind

Intangible human qualities

At a BBC Promenade Concert in 1988 there was a performance of the Grieg Piano Concerto. The soloist was a piano roll made by Percy Grainger in 1921.

Now interesting as it was to ‘hear’ Grainger playing ‘live’ well after his death, and remarkable as was the conducting of Sir Andrew Davis in stitching together the fabric of the real orchestra in the Albert Hall to the fingerless keyboard activity – what was MISSING that evening, for the audience?

Of course, it was the HUMAN element of a live soloist. We experienced the amazing robotics of the machinery that linked the piano roll to the grand piano. We enjoyed the mechanical performance committed some time in 1921, when Grainger was in his ‘prime’ you might say – but the performance was, to put it bluntly, just mechanical. Percy Grainger wasn’t there. It wasn’t even a sound or video recording of Percy Grainger playing the piece live. In 1921, Grainger was in a studio, with an orchestra no doubt, and the key strokes were ‘captured’ within the Duo-Art piano roll recording system, and then – probably – edited into the final, saleable product.

In every human performance there needs to be the “human element”; that intangible element that elevates everything aesthetically meaningful in the performance in human terms; lifting it away from the mechanical, and away from the robotic.

Within the Robotic Mind there is no such place as The Zone. It is an essentially Human experience played out in the infinite confines of the Human Mind.

The interesting reflection on the piano roll performance is that if there was to be a repeat performance today, then the piano roll would sound the same – exactly the same as back in 1988 or 1921 – and yet the orchestra would be and sound different.

Because of Human Mind, no two human performances are ever the same – as exemplified by the famous quote by Heraclitus of Ephesus ~

“No man ever steps into the same river twice. For it is never the same man and it is never the same river.”

("Gateways to the Zone is available in paperback from Amazon, Lulu Marketplace, or indeed your local bookstore. It is also available in eKindle format from Amazon.) 

When The Flaw Comes Up To Meet Us

The Obsession with Perfection

There is a classic quote by Homer Simpson that is the very antithesis of that pillar of NLP “There is no failure only feedback”.

 

Now, Homer’s philosophy is built upon his worldview that mankind’s innate desire is to “do nothing” – or as little as possible - except self-indulgence. However, in another of his legendary quotes he states:
“If at first you don’t succeed – Give Up!”

This one rather pre-supposes that there is at least going to be an attempt – and of course we know the inevitable outcome to this attempt, this try - is failure!

“It’ll never work.” – “We’re all doomed.” – “I can’t do this.”

Now let’s imagine that Thomas Edison, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, Steve Jobs or the Wright Brothers, had a more Simpsonian view of their work than the uniquely individual ones they did have. Their lives, and indeed our lives, would have been utterly different. Yet their very maverick nature also acknowledges the fact that there is no such thing as Perfection.

Everyone is flawed in some way or other – and everything created, invented and fashioned by us is also flawed in some way, shape or form. Everything progresses along a pathway of mastery and refinement which we know to be true. The ultimate machines and the ‘new improved formulas’ of just ten years ago have been superceded by the next generation of “betters” – and the ideas and functional devices from even earlier are chuckled at as being primitive by comparison.

And therein lies the kernel of our individual and collective obsession with perfection.

Comparison

For when we indulge in comparison – like that – then we make the profound assumption that we are standing right now at the very zenith of perfection.

“Now is best.”

“This way is best.”
“I know what best is.”

And when we compare those certainties with that thing, person, idea that is being judged, then anything short of BEST is not good enough, inadequate.

There is something very pointless about inadequate in the world of the perfect, and the perfectionist.

“A waste of time.”
“A waste of space.”

"A waste of effort."
“A waste of money or resources.”

These are all possessions of the judge – his time, his space, his effort, his money or resources – and only his things count, or have any worth. And we need to remember that in his particular view of the world, the thing with THE most value is his opinion!

How Did You get to be So Good?

A tourist in New York asked a bystander: “Say, Buddy – can you tell me the way to get to Carnegie Hall?”
“Practice,” was the rather droll, yet profound reply.

Of course the background to this is that only performers at a certain level of excellence get to play at Carnegie Hall anyway, and there’s an irrefutable correlation between practice and excellence.

As a coach I’ve encountered oodles of self-judges and perfectionists over the years and there’s always one question I ask that stops them all in their tracks, no matter what age they are.

“How did you get to be as good as you are right now?
A year or two ago you weren’t as good, so how did you give yourself the chance to get better?”

Out of the silent sound of pennies falling in their mind, comes a realisation – both for them and indeed for me, their coach.

Models and Structures

There is structure to obsession which we grow and get better at. This is obvious, for I’ve yet to see the evidence showing that we are born with obsessions.
Yet obsessive behaviour and thought patterns are just one of the many models and structures we build into our lives.

Another very common pattern is described as the “Tote Model” – where TOTE is the acronym for Test-Operate-Test-Exit. It is a structural pattern for modifying and improving a particular action. The action takes place (Test) and – out of evaluation or perhaps curiosity – an adaptation takes place (Operate). The action (Test) is run again and re-evaluated and adapted until a satisfactory outcome ensues. This is the point of Exit from the structure. In actual fact the structure takes more of a form of TOTOTOTE, let’s say – but when shortened to TOTE we can all understand how the structure is defined.

Now, as a structure for action learning, TOTE is very functional and it is quite objective. So, if we are unemotional and objective learners, then this pattern will always work a treat.

However, we are humans – and humans are subjective and emotional creatures, albeit on a wide spectrum of intensity.

There’s another pattern that starts with a piece of action (Test) – that then invites the subjective and emotional Mind into the evaluate part of the structure. This time, instead of an objective question such as: “How is this piece of action functioning?” there is something rather different that probably sounds like this:

“How am I doing?”

Oh dear, the EGO has crept into the process! And when the question is asked in that way then the answer is framed from the same perspective, with language the EGO will recognise more readily. So instead of just a behavioural Action-Evaluate-Adapt-reAction-Evaluate-Adapt-reAction-Conclude structural pattern there is this one lying on top:

Act-Monitor-Judge-ReAct-Monitor-Judge-ReAct

The pattern lying on top is a thought pattern, given more sense and meaning by using particular language. Like all thought patterns it doesn’t stop when the behaviour stops at Conclude. It runs on – boosting or undermining the EGO as it goes. All the way through the Behavioural process (the Action), the EGO is paying less attention to that process and more attention to the Thought process.

Consider that well known performer “The Confidence Player”. He’s got thought processes going on before the game. “I HOPE I have a good game today – not like last time.”

Then the contest begins and Action is taking place. All the way through the Action our confidence player is running the Act-Monitor-Judge-ReAct-Monitor-Judge-ReAct loop on top of playing the behavioural process of taking game-related Action. That loop is in the foreground of his attention, and gets in the way of where his attention and collective state of mind should really be.

Our Confidence Player can only play this way. He can’t help himself. He believes this is the way he is meant to play. He was born to play this way. This is part of the way he is. And that cannot be changed. On “good” days his is a most fabulous world of experience. On “bad” days it sucks, he sucks, everything sucks. If he doesn’t like it then that’s tough; he is stuck with it – or so he believes.

These are mountainous peaks and troughs for someone supposedly playing at something he loves doing!

Plus, in terms of developing and graduating, it is a short step from being a Confidence Player to being an Obsessive Perfectionist.

Dashing Away With a Smoothing Iron

The remedy for both the Student (Confidence Player) and the Master (Obsessive Perfectionist) starts with the simplest of Understandings – that humans are imperfect; that we are all flawed in some way. 

Our flaws are like creases in a garment, and we can work on ironing out some of those flaws.

The ironing starts with recognising the relationship between Thought and Action – between our Thinking and our Behaviour. Then we need to get ourselves a really good ironing board and cover, plus a hot iron with a good plate and a steam facility.

We need to notice when the Monitor-Judge-Monitor-Judge loop is running, whether in practice or in action. We need to recognise when the pre-match hopes and fears are running, and how they are running. We FEEL excitement and anticipation, we THINK hopes and fears – and we need to Understand the difference.

Often, when ironing, we’ll deal with one crease only to create another. We need to deploy the board and the iron in such a way that we fully engage with each crease just one at a time.

How can I turn these Monitor-Judge thought processes to my advantage? Can I manage my absorbed attention in a better way? How much do all of these thoughts MATTER to me?

The thing about our flaws is this – the more we notice them, the worse they seem to get. “Yes, but I don’t want people to see them,” I was told once. “Don’t worry,” I replied. “Everyone else is so busy trying to hide their flaws, they’ll never notice yours!” I got a smile as a response, which made me get a sense that all those flaws that seemed to matter had suddenly fallen away.

When we’re so busy watching where we are putting our feet in life, then we miss loads of all the stuff going on around us that makes life so much more interesting. And - quite often - the floor we’re studying so closely comes up to meet us.

Loosening Our Grip

(this article accompanies ‘Horses for Courses’ – though is also a stand-alone article in its own right)

Security and Protection

When we want to move on, and yet struggle to make any progress because we cannot let go of something, then we hold that ‘something’ in place for the purposes of security. We are using it to protect us from the unfamiliar, the unknown, that which we perceive as threatening, or is a perceived danger to our well-being.

Of course an actual danger to our well-being, in the moment, would, as a rule, be whisked out of the domain of our thinking and be dealt with by our ‘fight or flight’ response. It is a response in that pre-evolved ‘lizard’ part of our brain that facilitates our instinct for survival.

In my article “Throw Caution to the Wind” http://pjwhypno.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/throw-caution-to-wind.html
I look at the whole area of caution, being cautious, having a cautious mindset, and running many things in our lives from that perspective.

Now a lot of our present day ‘security and protection’ facility operates at the level of the perceived threat, or the unknown or even the unfamiliar – rather than an actual threat. We will think about the threat, and then respond to our thinking rather than the threat itself. We will run through a whole load of “what if” scenarios and play out the nature of the threat, and calibrate our subjective response to our imagined scenarios.

Making mistakes

Some of us have issues with making mistakes. 

This is the home-town domain of the perfectionist personalities, who place particular demands upon themselves within an atmosphere of zero tolerance of anything less than 100% successful outcomes. Others, mere mortals, are excused having to operate within such strictures – yet for the self is reserved much wailing and gnashing of teeth, and varying degrees of beating up. Most of the drama is played out at a verbal level, yet sometimes objects close by take the wrath. At the extreme end of the scale there is even self abuse of a physical nature.

People who fall off the wagon in terms of dieting or other forms of abstinence will binge eat, or go on benders. Sports persons will hit out, kick out and smash equipment - bats, rackets and clubs are easy targets. Whilst this is frustration played out at the level of behaviour, the aftermath is often guilt or remorse followed by cautious protection.

When I was younger I would be very wary of attempting anything new, because – as person who didn’t like to be seen to make a mistake – I would protect myself from the threat of being imperfect. The greater irony was that the person I was trying to hide the possible making of a mistake from was - Myself the Judge.

Judgmentally, perfectionists over-ride curiosity, maybes and possibilities with “if I make a mistake then I can’t do it. If I can’t do it then I am no good - and not just no good at IT, but no good at ANYTHING.”
So we don’t go there. We protect ourselves. 

In my case, if it was something I really wanted to do, I would sneak away and try to practise in private so that I gained a level of competence that exceeded the threshold of judged perfection.

It sounds crazy – yet all of this strategy is designed to protect us from feeling threatened.

Symptoms and Help

“Have you got any tips, or strategies Pete, to help when this happens for me?” This is a question I get asked regularly and, of course, it is about alleviating the symptoms that accompany the perceived threats. These are real and tangible symptoms, felt in some way shape or form in the body.

Of course there are a whole range of tips and strategies available to all of us, and often we just come up with ideas and go off and use or build our own.
The perfectionists build theirs, for some others there’s the ‘chemical’ route, there’s the avoidance route I’ve already mentioned, some grit their teeth and brace themselves against ‘a bumpy ride’,  and there’s the ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ route.
The list is long, and is about as long as we can be ingenious in our protective strategy building.  

We rarely ask for help as a first resort, unless we happen to know someone who might help. If a particular strategy isn’t working then we’ll come up with another. Or we might share our problems with a friend, who will then share what they know and tell us “I know a friend of a friend who did THIS when they had something like THAT affecting their lives.”

The thing with symptoms is that they sit, like guards, at the gate, door or entrance to the places where the real issues are. “If you plan to go in there, then you’ll have to get past us first,” they seem to say.

The other thing with tips how to deal with symptoms is that the answer usually lies in the symptoms themselves, which can often give a really good clue to dealing with those ‘guards.’

Where, Way, Shape or Form

Earlier in this article I wrote this line:
“These are real and tangible symptoms, felt in some way  shape or form in the body.” And, for me at least, the clues are - where in the body are the symptoms, and what way, shape or form do they take?

For some, describing where (usually in the torso) is straightforward, plus they often can also identify the way, shape or form the feelings are taking as well. The symptoms may have some colour, or direction or type of motion. They may also have a particular shape, density or temperature.

For some, however, they may describe that they feel the symptoms in their head or, more specifically, in their thoughts (which are in the mind and hence, needless to say, are in the head.) Now, though they are in the mind, they may actually still carry way, shape or form attributes – but often these are not always identified straightaway and need investigating to ascertain any ‘identity’.

And it is this investigating that we rarely undertake for ourselves – mainly because those ‘guarding’ symptoms are just SO strong that we cannot deal with anything else whilst they are raging.

Alleviation

This brings me to the very real issues of the client I mentioned in the article Horses for Courses – the client with the over-analytical mind (sic).

It was in our first meeting where her ‘guarding’ symptoms actually rose to the surface whilst she was talking to me about them. They certainly were powerful and my client was somewhat distressed to say the least.

One of the things about guarding symptoms, like that, is that they raise the frequency of brainwave activity and narrow our mental focus. At the extreme end of the symptomatic spectrum I can best describe it as being like a mental panic attack. 

I have a personal recollection of more than twenty years of intermittent and unpleasant experiences of this nature and so am quite familiar with both how it appears on the outside and, more to the point, how it feels on the inside.

I asked her to rest her hands near her lap, to open the fingers out and let them interlock but not touch each other. If they did touch then it didn’t matter and she was to just let them move away from the accidental touch. I invited her to notice the spaces between her fingers and to let her focus drift to a point way beyond.

Although clearly upset she complied and held her hands thus open fingered as I talked to her gently about the distant focus and noticing the fingers, and the spaces, for just under a minute. 

I then invited her to relax her hands and notice how her breathing pattern had changed and, when she was ready, to tell me how she now felt and what was different from how she had felt prior to the brief fingers and spaces exercise.

She was quite astonished at how quickly she had been able to get from such a distressed state into such a well grounded one, and I assured her that she could use this whenever she chose or felt it was necessary. Plus, the more familiar she got with it, the more accomplished she would become.

I also explained to her what it was, what had happened, and how it had enabled her to release that particularly non-resourceful state of mind that she had previously struggled to let go of.

Focus

For me, one of the most significant pieces of my recent learning and discovery has been in the area of mental focus which began when an esteemed friend and colleague recommended the book “The Open Focus Brain” by Les Fehmi and Jim Robbins.

From within the concepts and exercises outlined within this book, I have developed both an open-eyed and a close-eyed hypnotic induction that I would describe as being equally brief in content and rapid in effect. 

I use each of them quite regularly now with clients and also myself. They can be either stepping stones, gateways to therapeutic changework or positive transformation etc., or a brief stand-alone means of alleviating agitated or ‘perturbed’ states of mind. I have found them beneficial in alleviating physical pain, as well as being useful as a short yet effective demonstration of how closely linked our physical and mental focus can be, and how we can quickly become calm and grounded whilst still maintaining a good state of alertness.

It might be described as a part of distraction technique, or as a pattern interrupt, and to an extent I would agree. Yet, there are some really beneficial effects also going on here which don’t just emanate from interrupting a pattern or distracting a train of thought or perception. 
The key elements are focus and the engagement of sensual language.

We engage with the material (fingers) and the immaterial (the spaces) and we notice the relationship between them. We draw our focus from the material in close and narrow focus to the immaterial in wider or broader focus. We are engaged with sensual language and drawn away from inner dialogue. We are invited to notice, yet to avoid, touch. And in the midst of all this, our agitated or perturbed state, and the associated high frequency of brainwave activity associated with it, dampens down, levels and settles into something much more grounded. 

My client, clearly enabled by this little routine, was now much better placed to investigate beyond the guards at the gate of her underlying issues. And thus it was that she moved on, and what happened next for her is described in the adjacent article “Horses for Courses.”

Horses for Courses

The digital and the analogue

I encountered a client who described herself as having “an over-analytical mind.” Of course there are many of us that fall into such a category as well I know, and for a large chunk of my own life I too was a regular communicant visitor to this particular altar-rail.

Now having an analytical mind is the domain of the thinker, the thoughtful, the ordered and the logical. These are elements in our hard-wiredness that can serve both us and the world very well in the right context. Yet context for folk with such digital attributes is crucial, and what can be crucially constructive in one area can be crucially destructive in another.

Emotion, on the other hand, we might consider as not being the home town of the thinker, the thoughtful, the ordered and the logical. It is decidedly analogue in nature. And, like the over-analytical ones, there are the over-emotional folk for whom, in a perceptive sense, both constructive and destructive contexts emerge as a result of their hard-wired attributes.

For most of us, striving to achieve equilibrium within the mixture, the synthesis, of the digital and the analogue in our nature, this maps out how we are being – or how we are showing up – in the world.

Now, when, in the mind, the digital and the analogue in us share the same context, we begin to encounter dilemmas.

The particular dilemma for my client was that the Course she wanted to take was to:
Lose weight, be fit and healthy, sleep well, be less anxious and overcome her depressive moments, increase her confidence and become happy.

And she was endeavouring to ride that course with a Horse that had:
An over-analytical mind, a perfectionist nature, was her own harshest critic.

When, in her mind, the cold and logical meets the warm and emotional, the outcome is that­­ she gets “thrown”. 

And – here’s the thing – for as long as she intends to ride this course with this horse she will continue to get thrown.

Now, my client has a sharp intellect and an analytical mind.
She KNOWS this.
What will happen if I do this again?
What won’t happen if I do this again?
What will happen if I don’t do this again?
What won’t happen if I don’t do this again?

The Four Cartesian Questions provide her with everything she needs to start to make things change.

Changes

Now, when we encounter such things we know the changes can take many forms – yet, they come down to a few straightforward and conclusive pathways:

We can change the Course or
We can change the Horse or
We can change both the Course AND the Horse.

The easiest yet ultimately the most compromising choice is that we will change the Course.
We’ll put up with carrying a bit more weight, with not being as fit as we’d like. OK we know it’ll make us feel less confident than we want to be plus we’ll continue to be anxious and get depressed from time to time. We’ll tolerate that by assembling an array of excuses to moderate our disappointment and we may even throw in the delusion that we’ve made some changes – albeit these are only to the Course we originally wanted to take!

The hardest and most single-minded choice is that we will change the Horse.
We know this is the only way we can achieve what we really want for good and forever.
We tell ourselves that we are firmly resolved to change the Horse – even if we don’t yet know how we are going to do that.

There’s a simple, yet pivotal and intriguing story of five seagulls perched on the railings of a pier. One decides to fly away. How many are left?
Of course the answer is still five, because one has only decided to fly away. It is firmly resolved to fly away, even if it doesn’t know when or how. Yet, until it actually takes off there will still be five seagulls perched on the pier.

So, after the hardest choice of deciding to change the Horse, we might think the next hardest decision is to take some action. We can plan as much as we like about the how, when and what to do and where - yet that planning will count for nothing until there’s some action.

My client knew this so she took some action, and sought out some help.

So we talked about these metaphors, the course, the horse and the seagulls – and she admitted to being anxious.
“But what if I can’t fly?” she said.

Unlike the seagull, she had an analytical mind – worse still, an over-analytical mind – from whence came the postulate “but what if?”

The railings on the pier provide a secure base for the seagulls that wish to stand.
The perspective of “but what if” merely provides us with railings, like that.
Yet these are only a temporary security – the metaphorical railings buy us time, for we feel we need courage before we can let go and take flight.

She wants Confidence. It is on the Course she has chosen. She knows the only way to run that Course is to change the Horse. Yet to make her “but what if” questions get answered and go away she needs Courage – and for her Courage equates to Confidence.

The crucial thing for my client was to realise that the Horse will only be truly changed when she no longer asks the “but what if” questions.

Holding on or letting go.

I then showed her this picture and asked her to study it as I talked through a series of short statements.

The hand touched the rock.
The man’s hand felt the rock.
The climber’s hand gripped the rock.
The climber’s hand firmly gripped the rock as he reached up.
The climber used his hand’s firm grip on the rock to help lever his other hand and his feet into a position so to control his weight and balance allowing the climber to pull himself up onto the rock.
The climber’s hand let go of the rock and he stood up.

Alternatively

The hand touched the rock.
The man’s hand felt the rock.
The climber’s hand gripped the rock.
The climber’s hand firmly gripped the rock as he reached down.
The climber used his hand’s firm grip on the rock to help lever his other hand and his feet into a position so to control his weight and balance allowing the climber to lower himself onto the rock below.
The climber’s hand let go of the rock and he stood up.

She looked up and our eyes met for one of those infinite moments of suspended time. Then, as she handed me back the picture I said, 

“Keep it and study it every day. Keep it until the moment you know you are ready to let go and change the Horse.”