THE NEURO-SEMANTICS

BEHIND MASKING

 

Behind every experience, every activity, every event—there are meanings and where there are meanings there are elicitations of neurology.  So now that the governments which forced us to wear masks have ended “the mask mandate,” what have we learned?  What meanings have we discovered?  Do masks work?  Did the masks that we were forced to wear actually prevented the spread of Covid?  The evidence that is now coming in suggests a strong negative answer.  No, they did not actually work to limit the spread.

 

A lot of the confusion was and still is caused by the inept way governments attempted to communicate about covid.  Most governments did an extremely poor job.  For one thing, they over-promised.  “Get the vaccine and you will not get covid.”  That proved false.  “Wear a mask and substantially reduce the spread of covid.”  Again, that proved incorrect.  Further, many governments took a very heavy-handed approach by punishing anyone who did not wear a mask, including firing them or jailing them.  Then there was the man swimming in the ocean under a sunshine sky who was arrested for not wearing a mask—while swimming of all things!

 

What’s ironic here in the US is that the first recommendation from Dr. Fauci was to stop wearing masks.  Remember? 

“When you’re in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little bit better, and it might even block a droplet, but it’s not providing the perfect protection that people think it is.” 

 

That’s what he said in the early days of the epidemic.  Then he explained further:

“Often, there are unintended consequences.  People keep fiddling with the mask, and they keep touching their faces.” (Video of Fauci saying ‘There’s no Reason to be Walking around with a Mask’ Rueters, Oct. 8, 2020).

 

For medical questions like this, a UK-based non-profit organization known as Cochrane has long provided a major source of high quality, reputable meta-analyses.  They have published comprehensive meta-analyses on medical and therapeutic interventions.  The result:

“Our analysis confirms the effectiveness of medical masks and respiratory against SARS.  Disposable, cotton, or paper masks are not recommended.”

“Single-use medical masks are preferable to cloth masks, for which there is no evidence of protection and which might facilitate transmission of pathogens when used repeatedly without adequate sterilization.” 

“Wearing masks in the community probably makes little or no difference to the outcome of laboratory-confirmed influenza/ SARS-CoV2 compared to not wearing masks.”

 

Then there is the issue about how to wear a mask consistently and correctly.  Studies have shown that “if you have properly fitted N95 masks you do have some protection.”  Yet as one doctor said, “Outside of hospital I have never seen a properly fitted mask.  The observation I’m sharing is this, if you can smell wood smoke while wearing your face covering of choice, you’re probably not at all protected from Covid.”

 

Accordingly, taking a mask off to get a drink or eat radically reduces the effectiveness of the mask and does so to such an extent that the mask becomes essentially worthless.  This was what struck me as completely ridiculous on the numerous airlines I have flown in the past year.  “You have to wear a mask, you can take it off when you are eating or drinking.  Then you have to put it back on.”  And this is a context where the air is conditioned and filtered so it is as “clean” as a surgery room!

 

What we have found is that what a mask mostly protects is you from projecting the virus into the area immediately around you if you have Covid.  That means that the only persons who should wear a mask is someone with covid!  If you have the flu, wear a mask.  Then a mask would warn the rest of us who to avoid.  Only in that way would a mask slow the spread.

 

One of the problems with wearing a mask is that it creates a false confidence.  For many people, wearing a mask makes them feel that they are doing something that effectively reduces the chance of getting the flu or covid.  But because that is not really the case, it’s a false confidence.  It may deceive you into thinking you are doing something useful.  But it may be satisfying a person’s paranoia without actually contributing to one’s well-being.

 

              For more: https://www.city-journal.org/the-mask-of-ignorance  

 

https://www.thejournal.ie/what-have-recent-scientific-studies-said-about-masks-and-disease-6026435-Mar2023/

 

 

                                                                                                    

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

ISNS Executive Director

 DISTINGUISHING

EQUALITY AND COMPETENCE

 

Equality is one of the being-values that Abraham Maslow identified.  If
that's true, then the sense of human equality is one of those values which
are wired into us and an essential part of what makes us fully human/ fully
alive.  But what does equality mean?

 

What is obviously does not mean is that we are all equal in intelligence,
talents, abilities, or genetics.  Genetically, we are all different in many
unequal ways.  This lack of equality goes to our DNA which goes back to our
neurological gifts or challenges.  We are also not equal in terms of our
family heritage, our social status, our financial status, the advantages or
disadvantages of our town or country.  In all of these areas, there are lots
of inequalities.

 

In the 18th century a new budding idea was given birth.  In the first
democracies in the late 18th century, the idea was conceived that "all men
are created equal by their creator and endowed with certain inalienable
rights, among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."  At that
time, that was really radical!  For the many millennia of human history,
people had accepted as a given that people are not equal in value and
therefore made no attempt to establish equality in the eyes of the law.
Instead, they had built up caste systems, hierarchies of power, and myths
about royal blood lines.

 

The idea that all people are created equal then lead to an equally radical
concepts, namely, that we can, and should, create political, economic, and
social systems to actualize that idea.  In 1776 that gave birth to the US
Constitution and launched an "experiment" in democracy which sought to
answer the question, "Can free men and women govern themselves?"  Or do we
need those who are innately "superior" (those of the higher classes, the
ruling classes) to govern us?

 

This idea of equality is not an equality created by people being educated,
trained, or manipulated to be the same, to have the same talents, beliefs,
understandings, skills, etc.  That's impossible.  And if it were possible,
it would be a nightmare.  It is rather a belief in all people are to be
equally valued in the eyes of the law.  All are to be treated by the same
rules and applications of the rules.  No one should get preferential
treatment.  Those who make the laws should equally have to obey the same
laws as everyone else.

 

At the same time we are equal before the law, we are also very different.
We differ in our talents, skills, interests, capacities, understandings,
meanings, beliefs, preferences, habits, and on and on.  And this diversity
lies within the concept of equal as persons.  Consequently, what does not
matter any longer is ethnic background, family of origin, birthplace, creed,
skin color, lifestyle, etc.  No person is "better" than another.  No one is
"superior" than another.  We are all human beings-all members of the one and
only "race" on planet earth, the human race.

 

In making distinctions about people, we distinguish competencies of skills,
not their humanity.  In terms of their humanity, we are all one; we are all
equal.  In terms of skills, competencies, what we can do, what we are good
at-we are all very different.  Some are smarter, some are faster, some are
stronger, some have more money, some are more interested in money, some are
more loving, etc.  And because we are all equal in humanity-the differences
do not create a basis for superiority of persons.

 

Now we can look upon someone superiority in a skill, knowledge, competency,
etc. as a human possibility that the rest of us can learn from and model.
Now we can respect and honor every such superiority, knowing that it is a
gift to humanity which can enrich us all.  This explains why it is perfectly
fine to give accurate feedback to children about what they excel in.  If one
is superior in math or music or literature or whatever, that is God's gift
to that person.  It is not that person's "superiority."   To have a contest
and give "prizes to all" so that "all can win" confuses this distinction
between equality and confidence.

 

Let's honor our equality as persons and our equality in value as human
beings while simultaneously embrace our differences.  Let's respect each
person and challenge each one to be the best version of him or herself.

 

 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

 META-EXPERIENCES

IN THE META PLACE

                                                         

Above and beyond your everyday experiences are meta-experiences.  These are
the experiences of your mind.  And when I say "mind," I mean all of the
known and unknown aspects of consciousness itself.  Here are just some of
the higher or meta-experiences in your mind:

           Your memories.  What you "hold in mind" and take with you and
use as your internal reference system-your library of what you've learned
about what things mean, what things there are, what to focus on.

           Your knowledge.  What you "know" or think you know.  The ideas
that you have become aware of in your home, culture, school, life
experiences.  As one aspect of a meta-experience, your knowledge informs you
about lots of things.

           Your beliefs.  All of the things that you "hold real and true."
They may not be real or  true, but you believe them anyway and have all
sorts of experiences both in your mind and in your outside life because of
them.  Why?  Because every belief sets up a self-organizing and
self-fulfilling process.

           Your imaginations.  Your powers of imagining, fantasizing,
pretending, thinking of possibilities, playing around with "what if...?" is
your ability to create all sorts of internal meta-experiences-some very
creative and productive, some that create pathology.

           Your decisions.  You make choices, everyday you make lots of
choices, little ones and big ones and cumulatively, your choices generate
the over-all meta-experience of your life orientation-the direction of your
life.  In your decisions, you forecast how to live, where to go, and a
thousand other inner experiences.

           Your intentions.  Within intentionality are your choices, your
decisions, and also your values-what you care about, what's important to
you.  And this is the source of inside-out motivation, the energy and
vitality to live with vigor and passion-more really important
meta-experiences.

 

Well, you get the idea, do you not?  Inside your mind-your wonderful
consciousness by which your self-reflexivity operates-there are a hundred or
a thousand meta-experiences.  And they are all at your command when you
learn how to use the meta-functions.  In Neuro-Semantics we have been using
the old NLP idea of "going meta" for two and half decades and since 2002 we
have used The Matrix Model to sort out the human system.  And it has worked
pretty well.  We modeled numerous experiences using the Matrix Model
including stuttering.  But now we have something even better.  Something
that takes the Matrix Model further, deeper, and higher- The Meta Place.

 

While the Matrix Model gave us three key dimensions of the Meta Place, that
is just the beginning.  It gave us meaning, intention, and self (identity in
five aspects).  But there is so much more.  And what it provides is a
dynamic structuring of consciousness so that you can follow consciousness in
a conversation and thereby come to understand another person at a much, much
deeper level.  What is meta to our everyday experiences at the primary
level?  If at the primary level of experience we have immediate thoughts and
feelings (a state) as we respond (or react) to some trigger in the outside
world-what is higher than that?  What meta-experience do you first have and
then have, etc.?

 

           You first represent the outside experience.  You create, as it
were, a movie in your mind and use the representational systems-visual,
auditory, kinesthetic, etc.

           You then edit your inner cinema.  With all of the cinematic
features that are available to you, you customize your movie sometimes
making it wonderful, sometimes horrible.

           You then draw conclusions.   You never just represent-you
construct beliefs about things and once you do that, every higher meta-level
is some form or aspect of a belief.  You believe something is important-a
value.  You believe you should do something-a decision.

           You construct your identity.  You invent a self-image that
includes your worth, your skills, your social self, your temporal self, your
roles, etc.

           You learn and remember.  You encode and store learnings into
your memory banks which become your Background Knowledge, which when fully
habituated become your automatic programs.

           You anticipate and predict.  Your mind as a prediction machine
is always trying to figure out "what's next?"  "what's coming?"  It's a
survival mechanism.  This is the foundation for thinking strategically,
thinking consequently, and for hoping.

           You meta-state or set frames all the way up.  By this
self-reflexive function you then layer thoughts upon thoughts to create
complex understanding and belief systems.  You create value hierarchies,
belief hierarchies, decision hierarchies, etc.

           You set multiple intentions.  Now you are creating your life
orientation, your future direction, and the management of your attentions.

 

Your meta-mind is rich!  It is also chaotic and for most people
unstructured.  And because people do not have a sense of structure of their
mind, they don't know how to use it effectively.  To do that, they need to
develop an ability to use the meta-functions.

 

              Want more?  Check out Meta-Therapy and look for the newest
book, The Meta Place.

 L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

ISNS Executive Director

P.O. Box 8

Clifton Colorado 81520 USA

(970) 523-7877

 From: L. Michael Hall

2022 Neurons #32

August 8, 2022

Super-charging Your Attitude #8

 

PICK AN ATTITUDE,

ANY ATTITUDE

 

Knowing that you can choose an attitude, develop it, be coached for it,
super-charge it, etc. what attitudes would you like to plan to add to your
personal repertoire of attitudes which will, in turn, enrich your life? Now
that you know that you can meta-state an attitude into existence, you know
that you are not stuck with or in your attitudes-they are yours, you create
them and you can recreate them.   So what attitudes would you like to
develop and set in your mind (in your meta place)?

 
Courage                            Resilience                Optimism
Playfulness       

                                                    Seeing opportunities
Seizing opportunities     Openness           Humor

                                                    Magnanimity
Forgiveness             Humility        Patience

                                                    Self-reliance
Entrepreneurship  Appreciation         Authenticity

                                                    Bias for action
Uninsultable           Decisive        Disciplined

 

There is the attitude for learning.  It is an attitude of being curious and
playful, of being open and receptive, it is an attitude of wanting to know
and to discover.  While that may sound mundane, that is actually an
incredibly powerful attitude to have. It is the secret ingredient in
successful people and creative people who live on the cutting-edge of new
developments.  If you have a closed attitude, "I have learned enough."  "I
already know that!"  "What else is there to learn?" you cut yourself off
from the human adventure itself.

 

There is the attitude of experimenting.  This is an attitude of trying
things to see what happens, it is an adventurous spirit that keeps you
learning, keeps you young at heart.  It is the epitome of the scientific
attitude itself.  This leads to more tentative attitudes about the
assertions we make and less rigidity about our beliefs.  And that, in turn,
leads to being more reasonable with each other and more humble in our
approach.

 

There is the descriptive attitude.  This attitude drives expert
communicators, researchers, and inventors.  Their attitude is always to seek
to describe precisely and specifically whatever presents itself as it
presents itself to the experiencing observer.  This attitude results in as
much "objectivity" as is possible for us subjective-thinkers and feelers.

 

There is the ecological attitude.  As described in NLP, this attitude is
about being holistic and integrative, about thinking and working
systemically. 

 

There is the empowerment or enrichment attitude. This attitude is governed
by the question and focus, "Is this empowering?  Will this enrich life?
Will this bring you closer?"  It is an attitude that leads to an active
style of responding because one thinks, "I can always do something; I am
never a victim at the mercy of outside forces.  If I can't change the
outside world, I can always adjust my attitude on the inside." Consequently
this enables a more tough-minded attitude about life. 

 

There is the compassionate and caring attitude.  This is an attitude that
sees others first as people, as human being, and only later in terms of
roles, status, position, views, skin color, etc.

It operates from the principle of equality of persons, mutuality, and a
win/win attitude.  It is the attitude of the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as
you want them to do unto you" (Matthew 7:12). 

 

There is, of course, the positive optimistic attitude.  This is the attitude
of looking for the silver lining in things, for solutions, for strengths,
for win/win deals.  This is the attitude of approaching life with a yes
which then enables you to embrace life rather than fight it.

 

There is the attitude of ownership of one's attitude.  Viktor Frankl said
this is "the ultimate freedom," the freedom to choose your own attitude.
"If one cannot change a situation that causes his suffering, he can still
choose his attitude." (Frankl, 1984, p.  148). 

 

There is the paradoxical attitude.   This is a fun one and can be both
shocking and delightfully surprising.  Counter-intuitively your attitude to
is embrace the very thing that your first response is to reject.  Strange
enough, frequently that then becomes the solution.  The very symptom that we
want to get away from only goes away after you embrace it.  This has been
proven true so often that, in therapy, it is called "prescribing the
symptom."  And, as a paradoxical intervention, it emerges from a
meta-stating process.

 

And what else?  There is the attitude of acceptance, of acknowledging what
is.  The attitude of

creative and positive defiance when standing up stubbornly for a value or
belief can make a difference.  There is the attitude of cheerfulness and
appreciation.  There is the philosophical attitude wherein you recognize and
accept the limitations of life.  There is the attitude of good will.  There
are dozens upon dozens of attitudes that you could choose that would upgrade
the very quality of your life and they are there, in your meta place, just
waiting for you!

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

ISNS Executive Director

P.O. Box 8

Clifton Colorado 81520 USA

 From: L. Michael Hall

2022 Neurons #31      

August 1, 2022

Super-charging Your Attitude #7

 

SUPER-CHARGE YOUR ATTITUDE

 

In the last post, we explored the art regarding how to coach a more positive
and self-enhancing attitude.  That's part of the art of mastering your
attitude, but there is more to it than that.  The focus there was on
changing an attitude, here I want to turn attention to super-charging your
attitude so that the attitude you choose to develop becomes something
incredibly powerful in your personality.

 

The amazing thing about an attitude is that it can define your whole
personality and that's because of what an attitude is.  An attitude is a
gestalt state that operates not only as a frame of mind, but one of your
highest frames of mind.  It isn't only two or three levels up, it is usually
near the very top in your meta place.  Because an attitude is a holistic
experience, it defines and orients all of your mind-body-emotion experience.
An attitude includes your mental stance, your emotional stance, your
physical stance, and your physiology.  The following pattern was developed
for the Living Personal Genius (LPG) training program.

 

Jonas said he had an wimpy attitude and wanted a stronger and more
definitive one.  While he said he believed in being proactive and not
passive, yet he often did not take the initiative to make things happen.  He
planned to, he prepared to, but then he hesitated and frequently missed
opportunities.  As we talked, he said that he guessed he needed to do
something to "kick his attitude into high gear."  From that cue, I began
exploring various component of proactivity with him.

"What do you believe about time, doing things ahead of time, acting, taking
risks, yourself as 'a proactive person,' your values regarding proactivity,
etc.?"

 

He said the conversation helped. It refreshed his beliefs and his state.
"But still there's something missing."  "How do you experience your personal
authority for acting?"  He didn't know what I was getting at. 

"I'm talk about your 'locus of control,' that locus or circle.  You could be
standing in the middle of it, or it could be outside of you so you look to
others for approval or information.  Or you could be on the border, partly
in and partly out."  Jonas, do you have permission to be fully inside?" 

 

He did not.  That was the missing resource.  So when we added that to all of
the other frames of mind, that freed him to fully step into proactivity and
own it as his own.

 

The Pattern:

1) Intention: Identify the attitudes that you want to intensify (or juice
up).

Choose the context.  Where, when, and with whom do you want to charge-up
your attitude?  What is your current attitude?  How robust is it?

What attitude would you like which would enhance you as a person?

What one attitude would you like to develop and program into yourself?

 

2) Identify your value hierarchy for the attitude.

Why is that attitude important?  How is it valuable for you?  (Repeat 5
times)

What would it allow you to do or to experience?  How important is it?

 

3) Identify your representations of this super-charged attitude.

How do you represent this attitude on the screen of your mind?  What do you
see and hear?  What do you say to yourself that accesses it?

How do you evaluate it?   What emotions do you associate with it?

 

3) Identify the qualities and properties of this attitude.

What references (images, sounds, memories, imaginations) do you need to
access to access this attitude?  As you do so, amplify it until has
sufficient charge.  Then enjoy feeling the energy of this attitude.

What other qualities or properties would you like to have in this attitude?

How much is the attitude super-charged now?

             

4) State:

As you access this attitude, what state/s are you experiencing?

              How strong and robust is this state?  Does it need to be
stronger?  If so, amplify it.

How compelling and memorable is this for you?

As you now apply this attitude to yourself and notice how it changes things
for you, what do you discover?

 

5) Explore the other dimensions of the matrices (Others, Self, World).

Who else has this attitude?  Who can you model as an exemplar?

Who will you become with this attitude?  How will it affect your identity
and sense of self?

 

6) Appropriate this attitude for all of your tomorrows.

How much would you like to take this attitude with you into your future?

As you anticipate experiencing it in the weeks and months to come, how is
that?

              Are you fully aligned with it?  Does any part of you object to
it?

 

7) Make an executive decision for this new upgraded attitude.

Are you now willing to make an executive decision that this shall be your
attitude in that context?             

 

              Here's to you develop kick-ass attitudes that will turn your
opportunities into actualities!




 

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

From: L. Michael Hall

2019 Neurons #9

February 25, 2019



FAST AND SLOW THINKING



An excellent book on cognitive illusions and biases is Daniel Kahneman's
Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011).  On the surface the book is about economics
and the economic theory that Kahneman, along with Amos Tversky,
created-Prospect Theory.  Yet there is much more in the book than that-
primarily the application of a particular psychology of thinking.  And this
particular psychology of thinking explains why we humans find it difficult
to think statistically and why we over-rely on our associative meanings,
intuitions, and are so susceptible to numerous cognitive illusions and
biases.



Kahneman begins the book by distinguishing two modes of thinking which he
designates as system 1 and system 2.

System 1 -thinking automatically and quickly with little effort.  It is not
under voluntary control.  It's your first thoughts.  It's you at your
primary level of experience.

System 2 -thinking requires conscious attention, is effortful, and is
associated with focus, concentration, choice, agency (responsibility).  It
is your second thoughts.  It's you at your meta level of experience. 



In terms of Executive Thinking and getting your own Cognitive Make-Over, in
system-1 you are not actually "thinking," you are reacting according to your
programs.  You are on automatic.  It is only when you engage system-2 that
you are thinking.  I have diagramed this in the training manual as a
"thinking" continuum which separates these two dimensions- distinguishing
when you are not thinking and when you truly are thinking.



Now fast thinking is your glory and your agony.  It offers so much- a way to
simplify the world, create coherent stories that raise confidence, detect
patterns (even when there is none, p. 115) and get you to naively trust your
intuitions.  It's easy, it's comfortable, it feels good.  No wonder fast
thinking is very seductive and is also the source of flawed understandings,
inadequate decisions, and misunderstandings.  Here is a warning-with its
biases, it is filled with systemic errors.  So beware of your first
thoughts!  Those fast thoughts coming into your mind does not indicate that
you are actually thinking- you are mainly reacting from whatever belief
programs, understanding programs, etc. that you have received.



It's seductive.  You, like me, are easily seduced by the fast thinking of
system-1.  After all, with it you experience a world that is more tidy,
simple, predictable, and coherent than it really is.  This leads you to
feeling over-confident regarding whatever you are used to thinking (what we
call your comfort zone).  This explains why some people are so resistant to
change- they want to live in a tidy little world that demands little mental
effort.  "System-1 understands sentences by trying to make them true..."
(122).  Beware!  What you have thought are products of a younger self with
less experience than you have now and may be thoughts that have outlived
their usefulness.



The slow thinking of system-2 is very different.  In this kind of thinking
you proceed through a sequence of steps very deliberately and that requires
the effort of attention.  However, as Kahnaman constantly warns, we have a
limited budget of attention so expending mental effort in thinking is
costly.  That's why it is easier to not-think.  He notes that "a coherent
train of thinking requires discipline" (p. 40).  Yet system-2 is capable of
a more systematic and careful approach and is the basis of science,
intelligence, discovery, mindfulness, and wisdom.  System-2 can manage the
systemic errors of system-1 so that you do not fall victim to the built-in
biases.  Or, as we say in Neuro-Semantics, you can best manage and govern
your primary levels via your meta-levels.  That's where you set your
understanding and belief frames.



Your system-1 fast thinking sets you up to be gullible and biased to believe
(p. 81) as you are naturally prone to construct the best story possible
about what happens to you (p. 85).  This is the basis of the narrative bias
that we all suffer from- if you can create a coherent story about something,
that will suffice to convince you.  It is not truth or accuracy that
convinces us- it is coherence and a good story.  That should gives us all
pause-given the stories that the media are constantly creating for us, often
as with the Chicago story the last two weeks, jumping to conclusions before
the facts were in.



For this reason system-1 tends to just ignore or eliminate random events
which do not lend themselves to explanation.  They do not fit a tidy
predictable world.  That's why the presence of luck and probability are
difficult concepts for us to fully understand and incorporate into our
thinking and reasoning about things.  It makes statistical thinking
difficult.



In terms of doubting, that's system-2's priority.  "System-1 is not prone to
doubt.  It suppresses ambiguity and spontaneously constructs stories that
are as coherent as possible." (114).  It is system-2 that's in charge of
doubting and un-believing (81).   And "sustaining doubt is harder work than
sliding into certainty." (114).  Yet doubting and questioning lies at the
essence of thinking.  It is the doubting questions of the Meta-Model that
enables you to be more precise in your communications.  It is the
doubting-questions that gives you a chance to have a second thought before
you jump into things, merely reacting.  It is the ability to
doubtfully-question that makes you a great critical thinker so that you can
activate the executive functions in your brain.



Fast or slow thinking- we need them both.  We need them for different
reasons and purposes.  Yet without awareness of this distinction- without a
meta-awareness (a meta-state) about this, you don't even have a choice.  And
choice is one of your highest executive functions.

              For more on this from Neuro-Semantics:

                                           Executive Thinking (2018)       

                            Meta-States (2012)

                            Cognitive Make-Over Training















L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director

Neuro-Semantics

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                            

               1 970-523-7877

               

Self-actualized means fulfilling one's true potential

Scott Barry Kaufman, a psychologist at Barnard College, Columbia University, has revived Maslow's actualised personality. To be self-actualised means fulfilling one's true potential and becoming one's authentic self. In these "times of increasing divides, selfish concerns, and individualistic pursuits of power, he hopes that rediscovering the principles of self-actualisation may be just the tonic that the modern world is crying out for.”

"To this end, he’s used modern statistical methods to create a test of self-actualisation: the 10 characteristics exhibited by self-actualised people." Why only 10 characteristics when Maslow had 17? Using statistical methods, he found that seven of them were redundant or irrelevant and didn't correlate with the others.

"Next, he reworded some of Maslow’s original language and labelling to compile a modern 30-item questionnaire featuring 3 items tapping each of these 10 remaining characteristics: Continued freshness of appreciation; Acceptance; Authenticity; Equanimity; Purpose; Efficient perception of reality; Humanitarianism; Peak Experiences; Good moral intuition; and Creative Spirit."

He gave the test to 500 people and found that it correlated with the main 5 personality traits (higher extraversion, agreeableness, emotional stability, openness and conscientiousness) and self-determination theory ("people with more characteristics of self-actualisation also tended to score higher on curiosity, life-satisfaction, self-acceptance, personal growth and autonomy"). Kaufman writes: "Taken together, this total pattern of data supports Maslow’s contention that self-actualised individuals are more motivated by growth and exploration than by fulfilling deficiencies in basic needs.” 

Contrary to what Maslow believed, Kaufman found that self-actualisation was unrelated to age, gender, and education. However, over 3000 people have now taken the test online and there is a "small, but statistically significant association between older age and having more characteristics of self-actualisation."

Self-actualisation characteristics can be developed deliberately. “A good way to start with that is by first identifying where you stand on those characteristics and assessing your weakest links. Capitalize on your highest characteristics but also don’t forget to intentionally be mindful about what might be blocking your self-actualisation. … Identify your patterns and make a concerted effort to change."

You can take the test yourself on Kaufman's website. 

Warmly to you,

Irena

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Irena O’Brien, PhD, 

Neuroscience: Un-complicated

Founder and Director

The Neuroscience School

http://neuroscienceschool.com