How you make sense of your world, or, more secrets about life, part 2
by Bill HarrisDecember 19th, 2007
This is the second in a series about cognitive development and the work of Jean Piaget — and the huge benefits of understanding this developmental process. You might also want to read part one, where I described Jean Piaget’s first two levels of cognitive development (sensorimotor and preoperational). In this post, we’ll look at the third stage, concrete operational, the stage of most adults in the Western world.
I know the names of these stages can be confusing at first. And some might see the topic itself as dry and intellectual. Nothing could be further from the truth, however. I think that you’ll find this information to be extremely practical and pertinent to your life. You might even find yourself saying “Ah-HA!” as you have insights that allow you to better understand your life. Understanding how the developmental process works will accelerate your mental, emotional, and spiritual growth. It will expand your awareness of who you are, where you’ve been, and where you’re going (or at least, could be going).
And, it will very likely help you understand some of the reasons why certain areas of your life aren’t working as well as you’d like them to.
Let me begin by reminding you of a little-known (but very important) secret about life…
You are always immersed in something, and because you’re immersed in it, you’re unaware of it. Being unaware of it, you are it. It’s a blind spot. You can’t see it. And, until you see it, you cannot grow past it.
Whether it’s your emotions, your concepts and beliefs, your role in your family or peer group, your idea of who you are, or something else, when you’re immersed in something you have no control over it. It operates on autopilot — and it controls you. This causes things to happen that you did not intend, and consequences you don’t want.
I don’t want to get too philosophical here, but this is the deeper meaning of “shit happens.” This is Willie E. Coyote with the ACME Safe landing on top of him, over and over. This is you continually getting yourself into situations you never wanted to be in.
As you gain awareness of what you’ve been immersed in you gain more control over your life. Once this happens, you “have it” (instead of being it) and you can use it (whatever it is) to create a better life for yourself. In being able to see it, your perspective becomes larger. You see your life from a higher spot on the mountain. And, the times when things “just happen” become fewer and fewer until eventually little if anything happens that you did not intend. And, eventually, instead of life being all about you, it will begin to be all about us–all of us. Instead of working on getting your own life together, you’ll be working on getting the world together.
What’s more, by seeing the map of where you’ve been (those stages you’ve been through), you’ll more easily and more resourcefully use the skills of those stages. By seeing the map of where you’re (hopefully) going (the stages you haven’t been through) you’ll see the future, the possibilities, When you get there, it will be much easier to navigate, and even become a master of, these stages.
In part one I discussed Piaget’s first two stages, sensorimotor and preoperational. Now we’ll look at the next stage, concrete operational. Then, in a couple of other posts, I’ll discuss the levels after that.
I think you’ll find this to be very interesting.
When I talk about the concrete operational stage of development, the term operations refers to cognitive and/or logical tools, operations, or principles used to solve problems or accomplish something in the world. It’s the stuff you learn, through experience, that allows you to tie your shoes, ride a bicycle, use the telephone, operate an automobile, cook a meal, make change, figure out what to buy at the store, or, really, successfully accomplish an endless number of other concrete daily tasks.
In the preoperational stage, which we discussed last time, the child doesn’t quite have enough experience in life to figure out the concrete operations that would allow him to navigate the world successfully. That’s one reason why he often sees things in magical terms as he tries to make sense of what’s going on around him. Though he’s working on it, he hasn’t yet seen how cause and effect works to make things happen in the world. This is why he needs help (from parents or teachers) to get along in the world. Adults at this stage have trouble succeeding in the world, which is the only reason why I keep harping on the fact that magical thinking isn’t a very good way of navigating your life (it isn’t because I’m a sourpuss, or because I have no sparkle in my life).
The child at the concrete operational stage has accomplished quite a bit. He can use symbols to represent things (developed during the late preoperational or magic-mythic stage). What’s more, he can manipulate these symbols and representations in a logical way in order to accomplish many concrete tasks. These manipulations, though, can be used only in the context of concrete situations — “as if” thinking and other types of abstract thinking are not yet possible.
This, then, is the developmental stage where we learn to get around in the world and perform concrete, everyday tasks. This is accomplished through logic, through the ability to create internal representations and symbols for things, and through the ability to create generalizations (doors have handles, you sit in a chair to have your hair cut and pay at the end, someone will come to take your food order in a restaurant, you look for traffic before crossing the street, you can find and buy food at the grocery store, when your hands are dirty you can get them clean by washing them, and on and on — as long as these cognitive tools are applied to concrete situations).
One of these new cognitive tools is decentering, something I mentioned in a previous post. Decentering happens when two or more different aspects, relationships, or ways of classifying objects can be held in the mind, understood, and operated upon at the same time.
Children at the preoperational stage have trouble understanding ideas such as “my brother is your father,” where two kinds of relationships or ways of categorizing (brother, father and, in this case, a third–uncle), exist and must be understood at the same time. The preoperational child has trouble because he centers on one way of categorizing at a time. The conventional operational child, however, can decenter, and therefore deal with more complex combinations of categories.
If the preoperational child is given five black marbles and three white ones, and is asked whether there are more marbles, or more black marbles, he will have trouble simultaneously cognizing “marbles” in general as a class of objects and ”one particular color of marbles” as another class or category, and then, at the same time, comparing them or “operating on them.” As a result, the preop child will say that there are more black marbles (even though this isn’t true), because when he looks at the marbles, the classes black and white are the most obvious to him, and the idea of “all marbles, of whatever color” is difficult to hold in awareness at the same time. The conop (concrete operational) child, however, can hold both types of categories in mind, and easily gives the right answer.
Another example: the conop child easily sees that when liquid is poured from a short, fat container into a tall thin one the amount of liquid remains the same. The preop child believes that the thin container, being taller, holds more, even though it’s the same liquid. Instead of centering on one aspect or category (tallness), the conop child is able to decenter and, in doing so, sees that it’s the same liquid, and that the short, fat container holds the same amount as the tall, thin container.
One more example: if a ball of clay is broken into twenty smaller balls, the preop child (centering on the size of the pieces) thinks that there is now less clay. The conop child, however, isn’t fooled. He can logically see that the amount of clay is conserved, just as the amount of liquid was conserved in the previous situation.
I once saw a mother give an older child two cookies and a younger (obviously preoperational) child one cookie. The younger child cried because he had only one cookie, so the mother broke his cookie in two, saying, “There. Now you also have two.” The child, unable to decenter, was satisfied — he didn’t get that while he had two cookies, they were each half the size!
In addition to mastering categorization and conservation, and being able to see that there are different ways to categorize or conserve, the conop child can also place a group of things in order of size, called seriation. Since arithmatic is basically a combination of categoration and seriation, the conop child can begin to learn basic arithmetic.
I mentioned earlier that the shift from preop to conop also involves moving from “it’s about me” to “it’s about us.” In making this shift, the child exchanges his previous immersion in “me” for the collective security of the group. The group is organized around the group’s idea of what is important, what their truth is (”our myth”) — something we’ll investigate further in a moment.
At this stage there is little or no ambiguity. Life is about this or that, about concrete objects and concrete procedures (hence the name concrete operations). Things are either black or white, this or that, with no shades of gray. What is true is visible. There are no internal, abstract ideas or principles yet, just concrete objects and concrete ways to manipulate them to achieve outcomes.
Along the same lines, a child at this stage will describe his emotions in very concrete and simple terms, with none of the nuance available to later stages, where a larger palet of emotional descriptions becomes available. The child is happy or sad; what happens is good or bad; a person is nice or mean. The finer nuances of happy, sad, good, bad, nice, or mean, come at a later developmental level.
Concrete operational is the stage of collecting things (concrete things) — toy soldiers, marbles, butterflies, coins, dolls, etc. — another aspect of the concreteness of this stage. Adult collectors are either still at this stage or are expressing remnants of it. As I said, the child at this stage learns how to perform concrete, in-the-world tasks, like how to ride the bus, spell, do arithmetic, shine shoes, use a computer, operate the television, ride a bike, make change, make the bed, cook a hotdog, and so on.
Adults who remain in this stage (this stage makes up the largest percentage of adults in Western countries) are capable of mastering incredibly complex concrete operations: flying an airplane, being an expert locksmith, building a house, repairing complex engines or other machines, being an expert woodworker, and on and on.
To move into this stage the child must transcend a merely bodily orientation, where the world is experienced solely through physical actions and bodily feelings (an immersion in the body), and learn to experience the world through the mind as well as through the body. To do this, the child must learn to take the role of other, to shift from an egocentric orientation to a sociocentric (or group-centric) orientation. This is a shift from a bodily identity to a role identity, an identity based upon one’s role in the group.
This new ability to take the perspective of others is more than just knowing that others have a perspective, though. It also includes the ability to mentally reconstruct that perspective, so as to put oneself in the shoes of another. The preoperational child can’t do this; the concrete operational child can. For example, Piaget exposed children to a play set containing three clay mountains, each of a different color, and a toy doll. The doll was on one side of the play area and the children on the other. Piaget then asked the children two questions: what do you see, and what does the doll see?
Preoperational children answered that the doll’s view and their’s were the same. They were not aware that there were two different points of view, their own and the doll’s. Concrete operational children, however, clearly understood that the doll, being on the other side of the room, would see a different scenario.
Because the concrete operational child sees himself as a member of a group, he identifies with his role in the group. He also learns that others have their own roles. What’s more, he can differentiate his role from that of others, and integrate that role into his newly emerging perspective of life. I’ve pointed out several times that we are immersed in something at every stage of development. At this stage the child is immersed in his role, which mean that he is totally identified as his role. He will transcend his role when he moves to the next stage and include it in his developmental tool-kit (moving from being that role to having it — while at the same time becoming immersed in something new). At this stage, however, he is his role.
Because one’s identity is one’s role, pathology at this stage is called script pathology. Script pathology is different than the pathologies we’ve discussed previously. You’ll remember that if one has trouble differentiating the self from the physical world, the result is psychosis. Trouble differentiating the self from the physical body creates either narcissism or borderline disorders, and repression of the body and its impulses creates neurosis.
Trauma involving early roles and scripts (in other words, trauma during the concrete operational stage), though, creates script pathology, where one’s script — one’s idea of one’s role or standing in the group — is dysfunctional (”I’m no good, I’m a bad person, I can’t do anything right, no one loves me, I have to remain as invisible as possible, nothing I do ever works out, I’m a loser,” and so forth). Such dysfunctions aren’t about the body, or the difference between self and environment. Instead, they are negative or unresourceful beliefs and ideas about one’s social standing or one’s self-worth in society.
Therapy involves making the person aware of the dysfunctional myths (scripts), and looking at them in light of more accurate information. Such dysfunctional ideas and beliefs were likely formed during the early concrete operational stage when the person was small and powerless, at an age when the child assumed that the parents’ assessment of them was accurate.
[By the way, someone posted a comment suggesting that I wasn’t taking into account the role of the mother in discussing the sensorimotor and preconventional stages. The mother (and to a lesser degree the father) are of primary importance in human developement, especially in the first few stages.]
You’ll remember that during the preop stage the child learned to use images and symbols (i.e., pictorial and nonpictorial representations) and concepts (ideas representing entire classes of things). Now (in addition to shifting to a role perspective), the conop child learns to work with mental rules, a more cognitively advanced way of accomplishing tasks in the world. These rules generally involve grasping the relationships between things — for instance, relationships between numbers in arithmetic, or the relationship between items or ideas when placing them in hierarchical order. This is the first realization that every thing is simultaneously a whole (with some number of parts) and at the same time also a part (in a larger whole).
This whole/part realization (Ken Wilber uses Arthur Koestler’s term for a whole/part: a holon) creates a fundamental change in the way the child sees the world. The black and white, either/or view (I like it, I don’t like it) common to the preoperational stage changes to an ability to see a continuum of preferences (bad, not so bad, good, better, best). This is a result of the new ability to 1) take different perspectives and 2) relate those perspectives to one another. Remember that, throughout the developmental process, the key to each shift is the ability to take a broader and more inclusive perspective — to see something that one was previously immersed in and therefore unaware of. The new ability to see the relationship between wholes and parts (holons) is a big step in this developmental progression.
Ken Wilber refers to the concrete operational stage as ”rule/role mind,” and notes that it involves a greater transcendence, a greater autonomy, a higher and wider identity, and a greater consciousness. At the same time, as with all of these stages/perspectives, the concrete operational person is still immersed in something — in this case, roles, social rules, myths, and dogmas. (When I spoke of dogmatic religion in a previous post, I was talking about this level of development.) At this level, one becomes a part of the culture, and does so by adopting the prevailing mythology of that culture.
In such a mythic society, then, people are united not by blood or kinship, as in the preoperational (preconventional/magical) stage, but rather by their agreement about a certain idea or myth (as, for instance, when the twelve Tribes of Israel united around a common belief in Yahweh). At this stage the only way to have anything remotely like a ”global culture” is to forcefully impose the group’s mythology or dogma on others. This is called mythic-imperialism, and is seen in the empires of ancient peoples: Greeks, Romans, Aztecs, Persians, etc., and also in some more contemporary societies, such as European Colonial regimes and Nazi Germany.
For a large number of people, development stops at the concrete operational stage. A few, however, develop further, to Piaget’s highest stage, formal operational, and an even smaller number continue to stages beyond that (identified by other researchers), all of which we will visit in upcoming posts. Up through concrete operational, the child has used concepts, symbols, and mental rules to operate on concrete things and events. At formal operational, the child learns to apply his logical abilities to abstract ideas, and we’ll visit what all of that means in the next installment.
Before I let you go, however, I want to add one more nuance to this discussion. In talking about developing from sensorimotor to preoperational to concrete operational, and beyond, we’re talking about vertical development. There is, however, within each stage, another type of development called horizontal development. The greater the degree of horizontal development, the greater the amount of mastery of the skills of that level.
A newborn is at the sensorimotor stage, but so is a child quite a few months older who is just learning to speak. During that period of time, the child has considerably increased his ability to navigate the world using his sensorimotor skills, learning to walk, manipulate objects, and so forth. Once he moves into the preoperational stage, he also goes through a period of learning the skills of that stage, followed by a similar period at the concrete operational stage, where he learns the skills of that level of development. In fact, humans at any stage can reach what could be called genius-level skills — at that level.
A person, then, reaches a given level (vertical development), then develops a set of skills at that level (horizontal development). If circumstances require development to a higher developmental level, the person makes another vertical leap. If not, they stay where they are. Whenever a person reaches a higher level, though, they spend a certain amount of time developing horizontally — mastering, to some degree, the skills of that level. And, again, if their circumstances change and they need to develop to an even higher level in order to navigate life in those changed circumstances, they move vertically once again.
For instance, when a child goes off to school he enters a new and quite different environment, and in order to deal with it, he must develop a new perspective. He has to deal with being part of a group, with learning new things, with a new authority figure that isn’t a parent, with taking turns, with being away from mother, and so forth. Dealing with this new environment requires a new and bigger perspective.
When a child goes off to college, he has to deal with several new things: paying his own bills, managing his time in a new and more independent way, being totally away from his family, and managing many aspects of life that he had help with before college (laundry, meals, transportation, managing money, and so on). To deal with this, he has to develop new skills, and (hopefully) he moves to a new developmental level.
It’s not necessary to become a complete master of any given level in order to develop to the next higher level, but it is necessary to achieve a certain minimum degree of mastery, a certain minimum degree of integration. A baby could develop the minimum degree of sensorimotor mastery before moving on to preconventional operations, or he could become a master of his sensorimotor skills.
Similarly, a child could have a minimum degree of mastery of preconventional skills before moving to concrete operational, or could develop a full mastery of that level before moving on. And, a person could have a minimum mastery of concrete operations–or complete mastery–before moving on to formal operations. And so on. As I mentioned, some people at concrete operational develop incredible skills at that level.
Next, we’ll look at formal operations, Piaget’s highest level, and then move on to what are called post-rational, or trans-rational levels of cognitive development.
Be well.
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December 19th, 2007 at 8:21 pm
Bill,
After using Holosync everyday for little more than a month, I notice a clarity that before now was a dream. As I have been manifesting more happiness in my life by means of serving others, the universe has sent me a few interesting thoughts, ideas, and questions. The funny thing is. . .you are the only one who would have any use for this collage of thoughts. Possibly the universe is responding to you in some way. May there be something in this letter that is of use and value to you on your quest.
I wondered why beta waves were not used in Holosync. Of course the only information I heard about beta waves were that they are the predominant waves for daily mundane existence. So, the other day during a cardio session at the gym, I had a conversation with a gentleman about a plethora of topics including VCR’s and beta. Later that day an idea popped into my head about using beta waves. On page 25 in your book “Thresholds of the Mind,” you explain that beta is in fact the “most prominent,” for the majority of people. And that higher end frequencies (30Hz and higher) correspond to “times of uneasiness, stress, and anxiety.” (Has me wondering about gamma waves) What if we use your example of the runner, and single out the heart. Under normal circumstances the heart functions to pump blood with zero interruptions, until death do us part. When a runner increases the workload on the heart, it beats faster and becomes stronger. This results in a resting heart rate that is considerably slower, and the overall heart rate decreases (even during running), due to it’s ability to pump more blood per contraction. One of the benefits of working the heart more vigorously than normal, doing what it does everyday, is the ability perform its daily activities in a much more efficient manner. Another example is touch training a muscle, i.e. the calves respond better when the hands are touching them during seated calf raises. This Guides the brain to make a stronger connection with the muscles and motor units. We will get results just by training them, however creating/using a stronger healthy signal (via the hands) produces increased benefits. So, what if beta waves were introduced, same as you do the other three, utilizing the beneficial frequencies to induce a healthy pattern of “alertness, arousal, and concentration?” Maybe a low to mid frequency pattern, but stronger than normal to train the brain to function in this manner more often. A penny for your thoughts.
I read somewhere that one can induce alpha waves by rolling the eyes back in a fluttering motion. Anyway, while listening to “Immersion” I rolled my eyes back until it was uncomfortable to see what would happen. Maybe it really did produce alpha waves or maybe it had a placebo effect. Nevertheless, after repeating this process several times I was way more relaxed and accepting of the delta waves. (I usually fidget from resisting them) Whether this was scientifically real or perceived, the effects were real to me. Seems that if you could expose the brain to multiple types of brain waves simultaneously, in this case alpha and delta, the brains ability to accept and respond to the stimulus would greatly increase. Potentially this could enable “super-learning” of the “collective unconscious,” if you will. What if you could induce all four categories at once, what would be the results? How about a state of concentrated alert super learning with enhanced creativity, memory, and healing, leading to a sudden understanding of the collective unconscious. . .a life of total unity and oneness. A pause to picture that. . .Ahhhh. Now then, you stated in the beta section on page 25, “Except for unusual circumstances, we create some combination of all four categories of brain waves at all times.” Are you currently able to expose the brain to multiple categories of waves simultaneously? I imagine not as of yet, but where there’s a will there is always a way.
First I thought of channeling four different waves like a cad-5 cable into the ears, and maybe you already tried that. Then, it hit me. . .what if you used “Virtual Audio” to introduce multiple brain waves simultaneously? Maybe opposite corners with alpha and delta for starters, to continue as closely as possible to the current configuration. NE and SW with one frequency and NW and SE with the other, or something similar in a N/S and E/W direction. What if you could rotate the waves in a circular motion (reminds me of the video game Tempest), or send the certain waves from or to parts of the brain that are weaker in those waves. Maybe run beta in stereo, and run two more opposite one another, or all three in a triangular pattern-stationary or rotating. Obviously you are aware of the different wave origins in the brain and how they work much more than myself. Maybe all of this will eliminate ideas or possibly stimulate a totally new direction for you. Hey, if nothing else, you know that there is someone else who finds this stuff truly fascinating for the betterment of existence.
The benefits of using Holosync, starting nine months ago with the Paraliminals from Learning Strategies, have been nothing short of astonishing for me. The addition of The Awakening Prologue has magnified the effects of my yoga, Qi gong, morning AH meditation, and allowed me to experience a whole, new, me. . . everyday. The Masters of the Secret program you offered through Hay House has been a treat, along with the killer results from using a basic version of the Sedona Method for only a few days. As I know I am here to “radiate my sacred self outward for the collective good of all (Wayne Dyer),” we will meet someday. And for now, to you. . . a simple thanks.
All The Best,
~Chad
December 20th, 2007 at 10:38 am
Hi Bill,
Thanks for this installment. I can hardly wait for the next ones as well. I am working with a family which includes a 2 year old, a 4 year old and a 5 year old. To emphacize your mention of horizontal development, they are in very different places, although, the older two have entered Concrete Operational.
The youngest is the most social and cheerfully declares his love for all who are good to him. He still does get angry if you don’t see what is going wrong for him, such as a wrinkled sock, but you are quickly forgiven once this oversight is rectified. He was frustrated with me yesterday because after I cut in half a piece of chicken, I couldn’t put it back together again.
The four year old and five year old both declared that since their parents were taller than I, they were older than I. They discussed it for a while, and after, “Yes, yes, that is true,” they made their agreed on declaration. They had some good evidence for this. 3rd graders are taller than 2nd graders, etc.. In truth, I am 20 years older than their parents.
Since then, the four year old has been challenging this “truth” with a suggestion from her parents. I added the idea that her grandmother is older than her mother, although shorter. She “knows” that.
Similarly, a few months ago, they seemed sure that an adult could only love one or another of them at a time. They were always in competition and two out of three were miserable at any given moment, unless both parents were present and then only one felt left out. Happily for them, this is changing now.
The four year old has also had a terrible time with her anger and was always getting into trouble because of her screaming, hitting or tantruming. I have introduced the idea that one can feel anger, and make a decision about what to do with it. (For example, using language to explain what is wrong to a loving adult rather than hitting them.)
I have also introduced the idea that one can be in a situation that is immediately frustrating, and change one’s perspective, sometimes allieviating the anger altogether. (For example, waiting for her mother to explain that she had to wait for the special stickers that she was promised, because the contact is going to give her a carton of them rather than a sheet of them. — Her mother loves her and wants more for her rather than less.)
She has also come to realize that she doesn’t always know what she wants which causes her frustration. - For example, she wants to do things on her own, but she also likes to be helped by a loving adult….
Isn’t this a part of what causes us trouble with the Law of Attraction?
I can’t wait for my Holosync to arrive so that I can find clarity in my life!
December 21st, 2007 at 1:20 pm
This is really interesting stuff and–as always– I have a few questions here.
First it seems to me that the eventual goal of our evolution is to become that which is not emurced in anything; to become all that is, with no boundaries of anything–in escence there is no devision between emursion and non-emursion. However with the idea that we are always emurced in “something” this line of thinking doesn’t make much sense. Perhaps once an individual evolves to a level wherein he/she might include this perspective this is more readily understood, but I’m not they’re yet.
My other question has to do with horizontal development in these differing levels. I imagine that as an individual goes (or grows) through these levels he/she has experiences which sort of add to these levels. The experiences we have give us information about our world and, as we pass through different levels, we interpret this information with respect to the level we’re at; once we evolve to the next level we still retain these experiences, however now these experiences take on a whole new light (you’ll know it when you see it for your-self). This idea of horizontal development–at least to me–seems to speak on the fact that the more experience we have at a given level the more mastery of that level we will have. The more you go out and play as a child, the more you learn that you’ll fall down and then get right back up again (and sooner rather than later the fall is forgotten for the child doesn’t even really notice unless someone’s around to let him [or her] know there’s something to be upset about), whereas the child with little to no experience in this regard has a different experience later on in the levels which can translate as pathology etc… But I wonder about horizontal development after we have already “passed through” these levels. In other words, I wonder if it’s possible as an adult to somehow go back and regain mastery of other levels. If I now go out and have experiences of falling down and then getting right back up again, can I somehow use this new–more inclusive–perspective and the forthcoming information to heal my past?
Another question: as we evolve and include these levels, I imagine that we might be at different levels at different times. Some of us as adults act quite childish at times; I’m not one of them, just in the case case you’re curious or something. But as we’re trying to include the levels in our trancendence of them, it would seem to me that some parts of “normal” development at certain levels might be included and other times not. In other words it might be possible to move on past the child-like operation of the pre-operational stage–I’m a bit confused here–but still have pathologies in them which need healing. There was a question here somewhere, almost sure of it; what stage is this?
I hope this helps you and, if not, please write in and tell us about it; you may very well be helping us. Thanks, and be well.
December 21st, 2007 at 2:09 pm
To Bill Harris…you are a great writer with a passion for delivering ideas that support LIFE. I have been reading your pieces since the nine principles…it’s about time I took the moment to send this message of appreciation. Best to you always.
Sincerely,
Ginny G.
December 21st, 2007 at 8:50 pm
Bill, you are a fantastic writer and I am always anxious to wake up and check your website for any new content. I just want to thank you for writing all of these great posts. If you ever have any doubt if you are improving someone’s life, know that you are!
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Sean G
http://www.improvemind.blogspot.com
December 21st, 2007 at 8:56 pm
Bill: I have been using your CD’s for six years now and I keep comming up with the same thought.!!
All we are doing is re-creating our own body. Artereis going to all reches of the earth bringing nutrients, electrical system to all of the extremities and now with microwave ;synapsys.
What do you think?
December 21st, 2007 at 11:59 pm
This partly answers my “religion” question in the previous blog. Mythical. Living in a (new-to-me) Southern society where deeming religion as “mythical” is looked down upon and even punishable, I still don’t know where to go with my children. I make the case (to myself) that religious teachings might help teach values that are desirable. Plus, if it happened to be true, I’d hate to be the one responsible for sending my family to hell. At the same time, I know that I have spent MANY years trying to correct what I was “taught” as a child. (That I am worthless unless being a “good girl.” Good girl being subjective, of course.) I am torn. I want to break free, but I don’t want my children –or myself– to be punished for dissonance.
In essence, how to be part of this social world, while being such an outsider to its culture… and being OKAY with not knowing the answers. That’s probably the toughest part! Just being okay with not knowing it all.
December 22nd, 2007 at 3:34 am
Hi Bill from the UK!!
I’m ever hungry for more knowledge and developing it into wisdom so thanks for your Piaget stuff. I feel myself falling into two camps whilst reading any material on human development.
camp 1/voice 1 says… ”what level(s) have I achieved, they feel pretty high!”
camp 2/voice 2 says… “what level(s) am I stuck at?”
I feel sometimes that there’s bits of me spread all over this spectrum of development…bits have grown, bits are stuck, but can’t quite put my finger on what I need to focus on to grow and develop into a more intergrated being. I read Scott Pecks’ classification of spiritual development in The Road Less Travelled (pt 2)…he categorises 4 stages, (we’re not talking about cognative development here i know) and states that folk with ‘personality disorders’ have bits of themselves spread out over all four stages. I was labeled/diagnosed with a personality disorder about 7 years ago, but no longer identify myself as someone who is ill or self victimised but someone that has done a huge amount of work on myself and is healing from a marred perspective of the world. The old perspective feels like an old comfy armchair but on rotten floorboards, the new perspective feels emotionally lighter, new but was always there anyway and continually growing….anyway…
My question to anyone out there who’s listening is this: are there any practical tests, questionnaires I can do (in a very rational way) to check out my level of cognative (not spiritual)development that we’re addressing in these posts? I did a test with a psychologist a few years ago in my darker years, solving puzzles, looking at inkblot pictures, etc but he never did tell me what the purpose of it was, it went on for 6 hours in 1 hour installments…and the end of it he was like…”yeah, the results show that your disfunctional behaviour will continue”…WELL IT HASN’T CONTINUED!!!…I just wanna check out the residue levels!!!…can anyone help?
I’ve changed bigtime!!!!!
so big love to Bill, Hale Dwolskin, Joe Vitale, Genpo Roshi, Ken Wilber, Mike Brescia, Carl Jung, Guatama, the list is endless…I love y’all!!!
Rodhisattva
Age 32
”be the change you want to see” - Ghandi
December 22nd, 2007 at 10:57 am
I am truly enjoying the developmental series in your blog. I am 58 yrs old. In my teens I became involved with eastern thought via the Martial Arts and started meditating with TM at age 14. After my military service: which made me look at and re-evaluate my values and concepts of life even further, I discovered EST, Scientology, Paramahansa Yogananda and a host of other sources of personal and spiritual development. While they all offered some insight and points of value to my life and how I conduct myself in this world, I have always felt a certain sense of lacking in my life as well. Some of it being my level of happiness, fullfillment, acomplishment, material gain etc. A sense of always expecting more of myself to do or wanting more than I have or to put it another way, what I have personally and materially is somehow not enough.
I realize intellectually that as I take stock of what is in my life so far: excellent health, a great family, a nice home, a good career with still more opportunities on the horizon, a sense of child like wonderment that keeps me looking and exploring for new adventures and opportunities for further accomplishments and a love for the joy that laughter brings, that I am truly blessed.
And yet with all this, I sometimes feel like an outsider looking in or that some how I am not doing enough in terms of maximizng my talents and my potential. I feel as though my talents and gifts have allowed me to skate by on half an effort. I have always felt this was my little secret, my lie, That the face I show or that others see is not the reality of who or what I really am.
I have been fortunate to have had some really good mentors in my life
and ironically have mentored others which I thoroughly enjoy doing. I have also had others seek my counsel from all walks of life including business executives and members of government and have felt humbled and mystified as to why when asked to do so. Part of me is still trying to figure out what I want to be or do when I grow up and i guess the point to all I have said here is that even at my age, with my history. I still have or fel an underlying sense of anxiety about who I am. How I deal with that and probably what creates the image I project is the philosophy that life; good or bad, is the most exciting ride I will ever be on and the price of admission was free.
Your series has me encouraged to go on as I have, being a seeker of meaning and truth for my life and my place in this world. Thank you for your efforts and your contributions to humanity.
December 22nd, 2007 at 11:00 am
As development in human life is one of my favorite subjects (I have studied educational science and have been working with children in any circumstances), I’m enjoying these series.
I wanted to add something concerning the horizontal development.
First let me say that each development, IMHO, is only possible with right experiences in life. (as you name a few; some of these you seem to quote from Piaget’s books? Didn’t read any of his (only Montessori’s who has gotten much further than Piaget - if you really understand what she said!) but had heard about the same examples in college:-)
Well, what I wanted to say is that sometimes it is possible that people have not enough “horizontal development” to really understand others, (I’m aware about the fact that there is no real connection between those skills and compassion) so, these persons, in high developmental stages, lack some kind of compassion.
On the other hand, those who have a great expansion of horizontal “skills” and “experiences” are mostly full of compassion and love.
This is not a general rule, but it is likely to happen.
December 22nd, 2007 at 3:04 pm
Dear Bill Harris,
Thank you for your blog and latest posts I always get so much from your profound insights and print them out to read and re-read many times over as well as your Q&A from the LPIP courses. I have been so thankful for Holosync and everything else you suggest. I was really on the edge before starting your program and have improved so much (even though I know I’m not perfect, I know I’m improving and I’m proud of that) I hope you have a wonderful Holiday Season and I wish you the very best in the New Year! I also look forward to the remaining LPIP courses and further improvement and insights!
December 23rd, 2007 at 1:27 am
Dear Bill,
I am so glad I took the time reading the series about cognitive development and the work of Jean Piaget — and the benefits of understanding the developmental processes.
The example of the tall bottle contents vs large sized one and the 2 cookies
vs. the 2 halves is familiar, but putting this into the right developmental stage is for me exemplary.
I am a retuning resident in The Netherlands after having lived in Israel for nearly 40 years. I volunteered to teach the Dutch Language to the great crowd of refugees that came to live here. Grown-ups that are often analphabet, learn like children that the size of packet does not give you info about the contents and the item that costs 99 cents in one shop does not have to make you run for the other shop that sells the same thing for 1 Euro.
Your Mindchatters are just GREAT!
Thanks,
Corinne JUDAH
December 23rd, 2007 at 3:46 am
Dear Bill Harris,
Thanks for this beautiful article.
I have a question about that part of the article that deals with the ” the little known ” secret about life.
It is said here that you are always immersed in something, and because you’re immersed in it, you’re unaware of it. And when you are unaware of it you have no control over it. It controls you and then shit happens.
In sport psychology there is this theory about ” being in the zone “. You are engaged in the activity whatever it is. Their is no thinking and you are immersed in it, you just do, you let it happen. You just do what you have trained yourself to do. And in my own experience this is great way to achieve great results.
This is on some level contradictionary of what is said above about this secret of life.
Can you please give you opinion about this ?
All the best,
Mark
December 23rd, 2007 at 4:15 am
Bill I was reading on the Internet the other day about Myths and one I had read was about we only use 10% of our brain which they claim that scientific studys show that we use all of our brain, and you also claim that we only use 10% of our brain could you please touch on this.
Thanks,
Curtis
Also Thank you for all you do.
December 23rd, 2007 at 7:25 am
Bill Harris
I just wanted to thank you for your technique of intelligent writing - after using Holosync for 5 months, I am aware of my increased ability to be precise in my thought processes in addition to being more at peace - I guess that you have somehow mastered this process and i suspect that it might have been one of your original desires ( to communicate effectively and precisely), so thanks for that. I am studying Piaget at the moment and I would say that you have brought his ideas back to life - ideas that were important in his time and that remain of great importance in the now. God Bless. Robin.
December 23rd, 2007 at 2:46 pm
Thanks all for sharing, this blog is the best! Warmth in abundance. Thanks Bill for keeping the dream alive.
Does Holosync cause or help bring about the need for further vertical growth after a period of horizontal consolidation even if external conditions don’t?
Excelsior,
Jeff
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:12 pm
Hello Bill and his professional support staff,
I’ve copied a link to a TED talks video, skip to the middle, it is new science related to what Bill is talking about here on this blog, and he absolutely has to watch it. Of course he doesn’t really have to watch, but I think he should be aware of this wonderful parallel work in Brain Science, and then I want to see if/how Bill does an “integral” incorporation this new science into his other mastered subjects.
Please make sure he at least gets the option to see this.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/125
Talks Jeff Hawkins: Brain science is about to fundamentally change computing
Before you click the link I might as well tell why I think it’s interesting and important to this blog.
Hawkins says:
We experience this world in a sequence of patterns, and we store them, and we recall them, and we “match them up against reality” all the time.
To paraphrase some of Bill’s teachings:
We have an internal map of reality which we “apply to reality” made up of modalities (patterns) and strategies (sequences)
Hawkins goes on to describe it, points that I note are:
Real intelligence is a factor or prediction, a process of memorizing and playing back into the old brain what happened last time so you can say I recognize this from last time and I can envision the future.
We are making predictions all the time, using these patterns/modalities, and strategies/sequences.
The witness which is like the pattern recognizing a pattern mark made by the process that makes the patterns evolving growth possible.
You know how to finish this ********* sentence. The brain is making constant predictions about the environment, we even test for intelligence by testing prediction…
Which are fed back into a loop, point of which is the point of interest in the video is that intelligence is a measure of prediction (not behavior as is commonly accepted), we are more intelligent if we predict better.
So in all the patterns which in your course you call modalities, the basis of our strategies, lead to the purpose of prediction, and the supervisor of that process is the I am, or what you call the witness, and all of this, or slightly more correct theory is going to be backed up by biologically accurate & testable data.
Exciting stuff.
December 23rd, 2007 at 11:16 pm
Ok, I made up the part about the witness which is like the pattern recognizing the patterned mark made by the process that makes the pattern’s evolution possible. Hawkins doesn’t go into “I am/ witness” part really. I just added that and then after I submitted it said to myself whoops, that’s not part of this.
December 24th, 2007 at 12:59 pm
I wonder how near death experiences relate to awakening or enlightenment.
December 25th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
I’ve been using holysync for a month now. Today I played golf for the first time in a year and thought it would be a disaster. To my surprise, I hit the ball solid, and was calm, centered, and balanced while putting (traditionally the weakest part of my game), I clearly associated that peaceful feeling with the feeling I get while in deep meditation. We may be onto something here.
December 26th, 2007 at 1:50 am
Wednesday/Morning/261207
Great work Mr. Harris!
I appreciate in particular your analysis of myth. I live in a country where myth and belief enslaved a people between the 20s (Munich Beer Putsch) and the 40s (WWII). Unbelievable.
“Mein Kampf” became a masterplan. Look at what a one time Austrian Corporal, WWI, became through myth and belief.
December 27th, 2007 at 1:15 pm
Bill ,
I really appreciate that you are laying out the pathways of development in a logical and rational manner. It’s easy to see how a myth could be predicated upon a large population based upon an egocentric need to attain “power” separate and impose will. It would be very helpful for people to understand the development of ego and it’s purpose and how that can effect the ability of a persons development through a meditative process. I would however pose to you that there is very real “magic” out there and that it is through connection to both the spiritual source and with one another.
December 30th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Bill, I hope in the follow-up of your series on Piaget you can make a clear connection between his work and yours (Holosync and LPIP). All you have written is most interesting from an overall educational point of view. Of course, if you are a parent, you can monitor the person growth of your kid(s) through the stages defined by Piaget. We can see how we fit into his classification.
On my side, although I have been into Holosync for a few years, I still need to feel that I have made a big step forward and reached a more peaceful state of mind when everything around me seems to fall apart. I won’t give up, though, since the big AHA could be just around the corner!
January 21st, 2008 at 6:31 pm
Bill: I have been using HOLISYNC for 6 years now and it’s been nothing short of amazing. I have a problem that I think is related to human development.I am chief flight instructor at a flight school in Canada. We have recently gotten a lot of students from India along with almost every school across the country. Too get right to the point they just don’t seem to get it and that is what every other school across the country is saying. I think I did here that you are a pilot too,so maybe you will understand.
Our methods seem to work well with our other students. I can uderstand them being a little behind on the book work because of language. As you must know flying takes rote learning,physical skills and abstract thought.
I think our methods have to change in some way,but we don’t know how?
We can have a 16 year old air cadet start on a Monday and go solo on the next friday and have a Private pilots licence in 6 weeks.
I Know they have to be capable of doing this. Could this be related to development as far as concrete and abstract thought?
IE: I had a student yesterday with 30 hours on final for landing with the nose of the aircraft 30 degrees of the runway and it was like he wasn’t aware of any problem.
If this were an isolated problem I would not evan mention it,but this is complace throughout the industry.
If you have any suggestions on how to change our teaching methods it would be greatly appreciated. All of the instructors are so frustrated they are quitting.
Thanks
Mike
February 6th, 2008 at 2:44 am
Hi there,
I just wondering, do I need to pay something for reading Bill Harris blog?
Thank you.
All the best, Solvi
February 12th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I have been on Holosync for 6 weeks and when I close my eyes to focus on the things that I am listening to I can see my aura vibrating a bright gold and that is the purpose of finding out what is inside of you. I have seen this before but it was for a brief second or two and not as bright as it is now and it stays longer. I am so happy that I have this, it is something that we all strive for because this is the higher self trying to communicating with us. I saw this years ago when I was totally engrossed in meditating and wanting to know what the “word” was. After reading many books and trying to get back into this altered state I listened to the demo and knew that it would take me to where I needed to be. Thanks so much Bill, your a genius!
March 14th, 2008 at 3:26 am
Dear Bill, do you have agents who stock and sell HoloSync in South Africa?
Thank you for a wonderfull website and sharing your vast knowledge
Kind regards
Henry
April 8th, 2008 at 4:27 am
Hello Bill, Just a short post by way of saying a very sincere thank you, up to now I have only had your Demo Disk, which I have used constantly since it arrived, just about three days and I must admit that listening to both your voice and the sounds that the Holosync Solution provides are most relaxing, whether or not the programme will help in my quest, remains to be seen, but so far I am very gratefl iof only for he ease which I can now meditate. Many thanks Raymond Leonard Brown
May 4th, 2008 at 11:07 am
The Guided Meditation two weeks ago was awesome, but this one blew me away!
I’m still puzzling through the odd nook and cranny of this view of the universe, however.
For example, it seems to me that the “actor” must carry his/her Internal Map of Reality (IMR) from one “role” to the next, and this IMR would then attract/be attracted to a role with parameters that are a good fit. IT also seems to me that to the degree the actor is “awake”, the less the progression from one role to the next is an automatic and unconscious one. If this were not so, one’ IMR would have to be re-created from scratch while playing each role, and the job of progressing from asleep to awake would have to start all over again each time.
To the extent that mt thinking is muddy or “extra viam”, please clarify.