TRANSFORMING THE WHOLE OF IT
APPLYING BRAIN RESEARCH
Written 2004.
Latest Update April 2014.
Resonant Links:
Healing Artistry, Gene
Expression and Gene Modulation
This Site is about adapting and
applying the latest understandings from the brain sciences for enabling
self-help and mutual-help for changing and transforming behaviour of people and
groups. This raises potential for changing and transforming flowing the other
way - within the brain and nervous system. It also is one entry point for
understanding how Laceweb healing Ways transform communities and people towards
wellness.
Re: the expression ‘changing and
transforming flowing.’ Using strings of two, three or more verbs is rarely done
in the Western world where the world is divided up into little bits and process
is reduced to thing – verbs reduced to nouns. The above expression is recognising
and engaging with the whole-of-it complexity in entangled systems of systems
with pervasive inter-connecting inter-relating inter-depending dynamic
processes.
The processes discussed do not
entail using psychoactive drugs and there is no use of social engineering.
The content draws upon
collaborative post-doctoral action research linking with mutual-help
experiential learning action research among at-risk indigenous and oppressed
minority grassroots folk through the East Asia Oceania Australasia Region.
Some sample macro applications of the Action Research:
o Letting go the aftermath of
disasters
o Peacehealing
o Relational mediating
o Stopping domestic violence
o Reconciling Communities
o Softening drug abuse
o Preventing crime
o Preventing war
o All round psycho-social emotional
wellness with the consequent links to health
o Evolving Thriving communities
where the wellness of people and earth are the supreme law
Eleven Real Life
Examples of Applying Brain Research in Problematic Contexts
Each of the following scenarios
from life has been written up as a story in the Laceweb book titled ‘Coming to
Ones Senses – By the Way. The stories embrace the processes used to support
whole-of-system transforming.
Example One:
A 73 year old has had a set of complex
integrated habitual brain patterns sustaining the following for 54 years:
1. No feeling or movement in left
side of face
2. Poor speech motor production
3. Stutter
4. Upbeat nystagmus of left eye
5. Saliva running out of mouth
6. Frozen with head tilted way to
left and left shoulder raised
After Laceweb processes 1 to 5
above returned to normal in 10 minutes
3 days later after further
Laceweb processes for one hour the 6th pattern returns to normal in
30 minutes
When seen seven months later
there had been no return of any of the above. Facial nerve function, speech,
head movement and head, neck, shoulder, and arm integration are all normal.
Example Two
A 23 year old male is
experiencing drug withdrawal among 120 people at a weeklong gathering at a
Therapeutic community inland from Cairns. This fellow had run away to the
nearest town and had a cocktail of heavy illegal drugs. He’s highly aroused,
irrational, and has Tourette’s type movements and is shouting obscenities. He
also has tremors and shakes. Seven minutes after experiencing Laceweb Ways he’s
calm, caring, and relaxed, and after a further three minutes successfully
serves tea and coffee to 120 people at a conference gathering. There’s no
return of the dysfunctional behaviours during the next 2 weeks.
Example Three:
An 18 yr old female out on bail
on grievous bodily harm charges from being
depressed, angry, hostile, rejecting others, drug and alcohol addicted
and dangerously compulsive. After experience Laceweb Way dhe returns to normal
in seven minutes, ceases taking drugs and alcohol, transforms to being loving,
caring, and nurturing, enters loving relationship and happily marries in 12
months. She is only seen the once for the 15 minutes
Example Four
A young man goes berserk and
threatens with a meat cleaver. After sudden interrupt using Laceweb Way he puts
down the meat cleaver and becomes relaxed in 30 seconds; offers to play tennis
with person he threatened, and this tennis game happens 90 minutes later.
Example Five
A man goes berserk and threatens
with a knife. . After sudden interrupt using Laceweb Way he becomes relaxed in
a few seconds and discloses doing a serious operation on himself and accepts
support from the person he threatened.
Example Six
An 18 year old with an 11 year
history of continual property damage goes berserk, breaking louvre windows and
furniture and assaulting with a deadly weapon causing harm. After experiencing
Laceweb Way for 10 minutes he becomes cooperative; after one hour becomes remorseful,
with low sympathetic charge and crying. Six weeks later there has been no
recurrence of going berserk or property damage, he becomes an excellent example
and mentor to other youth, and has taken on a massive array for vocational
skills
Example Seven
A man attempts rape. After sudden
interrupt using Laceweb Way he becomes confused in 1 second, and 15 seconds
later walks alone around corner, enters a shop and orders a Kebab. He’s still
waiting for his Kebab when police arrive five minutes later.
Example Eight
A man assaults a woman. The woman
speaks and instantly the man becomes confused and follows the woman’s
suggestion of where and how to leave scene and have a sleep down in the park.
Example Nine
Woman experiencing every ‘side
effect’ of the prescription drug Serapax withdrawal for seven days including
uncontrollable shakes, a pervasive sense of hopelessness, difficulty breathing,
massive body tension and the like, goes to the front door and returns to normal
functioning within fifteen seconds of experiencing Laceweb Way.
Example Ten
Twelve young women captive in a
torture interrogation rape centre use Laceweb Way each night for five days.
Each night after being left alone they cradle and rock each other, regain their
balance and relaxed breathing, nurture togetherness and emotional calm, and
make up a humming tune and dance to it, and upon their release and being back
with their female friends, they invite all of their friends to dance with them
and experience what they have been doing together for the past five days to
emerge well.
A Bougainville man has had 25
years of devastating emotional flooding whenever anything reminds him of a time
when he was a young boy forced to watch his father being tortured. In engaging
in Laceweb Way he discovers things about being more flexible in how he uses his visual system. He then
uses some Laceweb ways to change the way he remembers those war experiences
such that the habitual link to awful feelings ceases. Next day he finds that he
can adapt the same process to a potentially difficult interpersonal emotional
context and discovers that he can maintain poise, inner calmness and dignity
that also enabled the other person to live well with the difficult context.
The Processes
The processes used in the above
eleven scenarios all involve engaging with the whole-of-it for disintegrating dysfunctional habit pattern, and
transforming to new ways of being without the use of any external drugs.
Using the term ‘whole-of-it’ is referring to engaging
simultaneously with every aspect of
the person or persons involved including and not limited to (this time using a
string of nouns) the interaction, integration, interconnectedness, and
inter-dependence of systems of systems within and between them, their
phenomenal personal and inter-subjective experiencing of moving, sensing,
feeling and thinking, including how they are recalling the past and imagining
possible futures.
Example Ten involves a group engaging the whole-of-it for
group-transforming action.
Extensive action research has
documented transforming problematic behaviours in large groups (of up to 180
people).
East Asian experience of whole
village use of transforming ways for returning to wellness has also been
documented.
Each example involves people who
are living with behaviours involving much or most of their brain.
Each example also involves very fast state changes from problematic
states that had persisted through time – in one case for 54 years.
In living well with the
complexity of life we always (through time) have system capacity for both:
a)
Habit (always), and
b)
Flexibility (all ways)
Through
time, however flexibility has somewhat
‘dropped off the radar’ for most people on planet Earth. It is long overdue for
flexibility to make a return.
Habitual behaviour in differing
forms can either support wellness, or be dysfunctional and highly problematic.
Refer Flexibility and Habit.
To reiterate, we have duel
systems namely,
a)
habit
b)
choice
We have them in all aspects of experience, including:
Moving sensing feeling and thinking
The same is happening electro-chemically
in networked neural synapses
o Integrated Flow (flexible)
o Always using the same Integrated Flow (habit)
Note that both the above are
integrated.
All aspects of being are
massively integrated within and between
o moving
o sensing
o feeling
o thinking
We have capacity for:
o
functioning with little or no awareness
or
o
using either general or specific awareness
or
o
using awareness of awareness of being (subjective)
or
o
awareness of awareness of being in the world with others (intersubjective)
Seeing as
Whole-of-brain Integration
Visual Cortex: visual processing
Temporal Lobe: visual consciousness of what (link systems)
o high-level visual processing of:
o complex stimuli such as faces
(fusiform gyrus)
o and scenes, especially memory of scenes
(parahippocampal gyrus)
o anterior temporal lobe involved
in object perception and recognition
o hippocampus - involved in forming
explicit long-term memory modulated by
the amygdala
o amygdala:
o
attention
o
responses
o
→ to thalamus –emotional and sensory crossover
o →to locus coeruleus, a nucleus in the pons (part of the brainstem) – releasing noradrenaline – fight or flight – modulating
stress responses
o → to sympathetic nervous system – arousal for short term wellbeing
Parietal Lobe visual processing of where and how - especially orientation
in space (often potent visual submodalities).
Integrating all of the above, plus verbalising visual experience →
Temporal Lobe Wernicke's area →to Broca's area : verbal comprehension of
visual, naming of visual, → to speech motor production relating to
visual, verbal memory of visual (parahippocampal gyrus with emotional shading
and crossover etc
When we are seeing, all of the above massive integrated processing are
happening simultaneously.
Seeing is Massively
Integrated
Examples:
All of the sensory submodalities: size, distance, form, direction, colour,
motion, shape, focus/periphery, foreground/ background, 3D/2D, etc.
We typically experience
amalgamation of all of the above as an integrated whole while we can switch
what sensory submodalities we attend to.
Integration &
Disintegration
In the following we are not talking about whole-of-system
disintegrating into dysfunction mess and say, psychosis. Rather, we are hinting
at momentary micro interrupts that may flip a person into momentary confusion
with consequent functional state-change in context. Beyond this, processes are
available for dis-integrating dysfunctional habits as evidenced in the ten
scenarios.
Fragments of experience entail a blending of moving, sensing, feeling,
and thinking.
Example 1: Holding, seeing, and
smelling violets, and having pleasant memories
Example 2: Seeing, recalling,
compressing spine and feeling depressed and sad
Example 3: Hearing, tensing jaw,
fist, and belly, and being angry
This blending is massively
integrated.
The fragment is an integrated
pattern – the cohesion of the whole.
The following is a very
significant quote from Feldenkrais’ writing:
A fundamental change
in moving within any single integration pattern will
break up the cohesion of the whole and thereby leave thought and feeling without anchorage in the patterns of their established
routines (our italics) (Feldenkrais, 1972 Awareness Through Movement : Health Exercises for Personal Growth.
New York, New York : Penguin Books).
That is, change any
aspect of a pattern and it may be disintegrated, especially if the change is a
sudden interrupt.
Put another way, if a change is suddenly introduced to any of the four aspects – sensing, moving, feeling, and thinking,
it may interrupt and collapse the flow that a person finds themselves immersed
in (refer hints of this in the previous ten examples).
o
We may change a
state.
o
We may transform the
tendency to enter a state; that is, break a habit.
o
We may transform a person
All of this entails
possibilities for rapidly returning people exposed to past trauma into feeling
well again and getting on with life as in scenario ten above.
For example, many
people affected by past trauma have an instantaneous
emotional flood of awful feeling every time they have a visual recall of the
trauma context. It happens instantly and they can’t stop it happening.
This is called a Visual-Emotional synaesthesia. If V then instantly E.
There’s a process
that severs the VE link. The memory
may be recalled without the emotional flood. Even the form of the memory may be changed. An example is scenario eleven
above.
This is not
suppressing memory or suppressing emotion.
System Entry Points
for Transforming
We have many Neurotransmitters. A Neurotransmitter can have many functions
and multiple effects.
For Example:
One neurotransmitter (dopamine) having all of the following functions:
1. controlling the exchange of
information from one brain area to another
2. attention
3. working memory
4. behaviour
5. cognition
6. voluntary movement
7. emotional response
8. ability to experience pleasure
and pain
9. motivation
10. punishment and reward
11. inhibition of prolactin
production (involved in lactation and sexual gratification)
12. sleep
13. dreaming
14.
mood
15. Addiction to behaviours – source
of release of a transmitter
16. reward driven learning
17. possibly transmits reward
prediction error
18. feelings of satisfaction (loses
one's ability to reason in order to achieve satisfaction)
If we attempt to block or enhance the neuro-transmitter’s effect on
function 14 (mood), it’s very likely
that we also effect some or all of the other 17 functions.
These 17 other effects are not side
effects. They are effects of dopamine blocking or enhancing. It’s an integrated
system have 18 or more interactions with other networked interactions that can
ripple through all over the place.
Neurotransmitter
Action:
There are eight different system processes for moment-to-moment state change and potential within our
nervous systems:
1. Electrical to chemical
transduction, and vice versa
2. Neurochemical Release Sequence
3. Flow
4. Bind (to receptor)
5. Block
6. Re-uptake
7. Disperse
8. Disintegrate
9. Reuptake Inhibitors
Refer Flexibility and habit.
The above 9 nervous system
processes enable flexibility. Murderous rage can be switched off in an instant
- in 20 milliseconds (that’s 20 thousands of a second! Chemical switching can
be very fast indeed. Our nervous system and our bodyminds are evolved for flexibility as much as habit!
To Repeat:
A fundamental change
in moving within any single integration pattern will break up the cohesion of the
whole and thereby leave thought and feeling without anchorage in the patterns
of their established routines.
That is, the pattern
can dis-integrate.
Put another way:
If a change is
suddenly introduced to any of the
four aspects – sensing, moving, feeling, and thinking, it may interrupt and
collapse the flow that a person finds themselves immersed in.
We may change a state.
We may transform the tendency to enter a state;
that is, break a habit.
All of this entails
possibilities for interrupting and letting go of the aftermath of disaster.
What may be described
as an ongoing ‘disorder’ is also an integrated
system habit that may be dis-integrated.
After the 2009 Victorian Fire
Storm
There
was a widespread set of integrated habitual responding among affected people:
o
Hyper-aroused
o
Under aroused
o
Sleep-wake cycle askew
o
Attention scattered or obsessed
o
Memory – preoccupied - scattered
o
Emotional upheaval
o
Emotional pain
o
Behavioural rigidity
o
Behavioural inhibitions or lack
of inhibitions
o
Massive stress (psychological)
o
Depression
o
Lateral asymmetry (one side of the
body differing from the other) – twisted cringe
- with affect on rigid ribs and disturbed breathing
o
Panic
o
Anxiety
o
Posture and balance askew.
News from the Brain
Sciences - A Lay-persons Version
Locus Coeruleus (LC)
The
Pons area in Brain Stem is the principal site for brain synthesis of
noradrenalin which is involved in:
o
Neuroplasticity (change)
o
Arousal
o
Sleep-wake cycle
o
Attention
o
Memory
o
Emotions
o
Behavioural flexibility
o
Behavioural inhibition and stress
(psychological)
o
Posture and balance.
The
locus coeruleus may also figure in clinical depression, panic disorder, and
anxiety - every one of the above fire
storm list of symptoms!
The
projections of the locus coeruleus reach far and wide. For example, they
innervate:
o
Spinal cord
o
Brain stem
o
Cerebellum
o
Hypothalamus
o
Thalamic relay nuclei
o
Amygdala
o
Basal telencephalon, and
o
Cortex.
Again
it is a massively integrated interconnecting and interdependent system of
systems. The noradrenalin from the locus coeruleus has an excitatory effect on most
of the brain, mediating arousal and priming the brain’s neurons to be activated
by stimuli.
Medical model Response:
A
typical medical model response is to impose external Reuptake Inhibitors! Some medications including noradrenaline reuptake inhibitors
(reboxetine, atomoxetine), serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors
(venlafaxine, duloxetine), and norepinephrine-dopamine reuptake inhibitors
(bupropion); these are believed to show efficacy by acting upon neurons in this
locus coeruleus area.
However,
our body has its own Reuptake
Inhibitors. Our bodies are forming thousands of chemicals every day. What is
useful is to have processes that functionally
activate and use our own reuptake inhibitors and blockers. Where are our natural
endogenous chemical disintegrators? And how do we mobilise them to return to
calm naturally, without ‘side effects’ of artificial Reuptake Inhibitors and
Blockers?
TWO
EXAMPLES FROM ‘COMING TO ONE’S SENSES - BY THE WAY’
This next section provides some answers to the foregoing questions.
Process descriptions relating to the other eight examples are available.
Example One -
Returning to Functioning Well After 54 Years
Brief Summary of process:
o Using our understandings of
neurotransmitter function and system integrating and disintegrating potentials
o Natural accessing of the nervous
system’s nine processes for flexibility
o Matching the other person in many
ways – then after a time, leading
o Watching for micro behaviours; e.g.
hand on front of head (thumping headache) hand rotating above gut (churning in
gut)
o Using these as guides to action
o Using Milton Erickson’s Language
Patterns in everyday life states (not trance)
o Very other-guided engaging – the
context tells us what to do
o Interrupting for disintegrating
dysfunctional habit
This example relates to a change
in one member of a healing group within a Maximum Security Jail; they (group
members) felt awful all of the time and had requested support in being able to
feel okay.
One of the group, 73 year old
Fred, has had the following for 54 years:
o No feeling or movement in the
left side of his face
o Poor speech motor production – he
can’t move his tongue and lips to speak clearly
o Stuttering
o Upbeat nystagmus of left eye (uncontrollable
frequent random turning flick of one eyeball up at 45 degrees)
o Saliva running out of mouth
o Frozen with head tilted way to
left and left shoulder raised
Transcript of process (with ten in the Group). You may notice that this
involves non-ordinary language. It is filled with suggestions and commands that
are all woven into the flow of words. It is very hypnotic, though people do not
go into trance. They do go into enhanced states of being and sensing with
associated feeling.
Transcript of Process
……and we have been
talking about being able to feel good....and you’ve all indicated you want to be able to do
that.......so perhaps we can begin now.......so settling down...and getting
more comfortable......... and you may want to……….make any small movements now
to become more comfortable……and just wait with curiosity…...as to what memory
of good times in the past …….…that may….….be very useful for you……. may….come
to mind now…..a memory that is very appropriate….. may…come to mind
now….......and there are other parts of you that can….....find a
memory…....…that’s a safe experience …..having the experience…involving care
and respect for yourself and others ….. just waiting…to find out…what comes to
mind now…and give a nod when you have that.....a time when you are feeling very
good......sometime in the past....perhaps a long time ago..... so just waiting
now for....that to come more clearly to mind.........and giving me a head nod
when you have that.....(long pause)...
When some do not nod they
are tracked into an imaginary feel-good scenario of their own making, where all
involved in that scenario have wellness.
and if you’ve had no
time when you’ve felt good that you can recall at the moment….some things may
be said now that may help you …….create such a time in your
imagination…..and those of you that have found a really good memory you can
continue to relive that again as if it is all happening again...and you’ll find
you’ll be able to do that......
And once I have a
head nod from everyone indicating they have their memory or imagined context, I
use Ericksonian language to have them progressively moving all of their awareness into inner experience of the memory,
initially using their most used sense, and then adding in their lesser and least
used senses.
…...and this
experience may last say…around eight minutes ….though it may feel longer…..and
during this experience you may be able to……feel really good ….and….discover how
you can …….have that feeling whenever you want to……
and to help you learn
how to…….change ….to …….feeling good....whenever you want to...
The pattern is then
to draw the group’s attention progressively to the differing aspects of their
experience of being in the past.....tracking awareness to include more of their
senses till all of their sensing and
feeling is immersed in seeing hearing
and feeling linked to the past
memory......experienced in the present....as if it is happening again now......
And being back their
now......having a look around and see all the people or things that you
can see now...getting a sense of the time of day or
night.....noticing the different things you can see now........and now listening
for the different sounds that are
happening........and sensing what is
making those sounds........being aware
of their distance and direction.........just to notice all of
these things.....taking your time to......do all of that...
And perhaps
now.........noticing more the things that you are connecting with...where your body is...and where it is moving as your
breathing now....what you are in contact with....noticing all of that....more
clearly now....the touch........the feel....and how you are in your body
now....moving...or still....just to notice....and perhaps
you can.....see if you
can.....tell .....how you feel....right now.....as all of this is
happening.......
This pattern is
continued for around nine minutes. They typically have time distortion so it
feels much longer. Then I give them the suggestion to say their farewells.
So perhaps you can
really notice how you are feeling right now...being where you are
now......having good times.....and …and knowing now how...you can….access that
memory again in the future…and re-access how...you’ve been moving.....those
feelings that....you are having now….and you can……..take all the time you need
to….say your farewells now….all the time you need to……do that now…..and
knowing......you can.........return to this memory whenever it is
appropriate……...so perhaps you can.....say farewell for the moment to the people
and all that has been happening..... and....keeping all of the good
feelings......take the time now to re-orient to the present...and perhaps your
awareness can...find your fingers...and commence wriggling those now....as
you......come back to your body sitting here in the chair....now in the
group.........you can……keep all of these feelings……and sensations in your
body and mind now........as you begin to….leave that memory now returning
to your body now in the Group…….and…..begin sensing sitting in your chair
in the Group now….finding your fingers now….and beginning to wriggle
these…..coming back into your body now…….and when you are ready…having a big
stretch without hitting the person next to you now……..and .....you can…....do
another check….of how.......you are in your body now… ....noticing….…your
posture…...and how……you feel when you move…
After a time I say…
Once they’re all
reoriented with their eyes open and fully mentally present in the Group
context, I suggest that they select someone that they feel comfortable with,
and select who goes first.
.....and after this
experience you may want to……pick a partner that you feel comfortable with…..and
take turns in telling your story….and afterwards you may like to take turns in
telling your story to the whole Group ….
……….and you can....share your experience……and how you are feeling right now….share how it makes you feel now as you ……relive all this…..as you….tell it to your partner…….
As there were uneven
numbers on the night - one inmate was unwell - I heard one person’s story.
After I time I
suggest that the first story sharers come to a close and swap roles. I then
keep attending to my partner.
After a time:
…….and winding up soon and when you have both finished …….have a brief chat with your respective partners about how you feel……
After that’s happening for a time I draw that sharing to a
close, and ask for a volunteer who would like to go first in standing up the
front and sharing their story with the whole Group.
I’m very surprised
along with all the other Inmates when Fred starts talking very clearly.
Remember that Fred’s speech had been virtually incomprehensible - and Fred says
very clearl:
Don’t stop me, I am
on a roll!
The 73 year old Fred
begins with great youthful relish and
dashing confidence to tell how a
wealthy maiden Aunt of his had taken him, when he was sixteen on a grand tour
of New Zealand. Fred is acting like he is
sixteen again. .
And as Fred is
talking the left-hand side of his face is functioning normally in his
symmetrical smiling and his eyes are excited, and there’s no hint of
involuntary movement (nystagmus), and no saliva is running down his chin.
And while Fred is
standing he is shifting his ‘speaking body’ appropriate to the storytelling,
and using appropriate gestures like a talented and engaging storyteller
detailing his travels through both the North and South Islands of New Zealand.
So, what to make of all this?
The prior scenario
for Fred was:
o No feeling or movement in left
side of face
o Poor speech motor production
o Stutter
o Upbeat nystagmus of left eye
o Saliva running out of mouth
o Frozen with head tilted way to
left and left shoulder raised
This is consistent with frozen
extreme cringe in horror in realising that he had killed someone he loved
when he was 18.
One way of accounting for the
massive state change is that this horror had become integrated as a habitual set of bodymind behaviours.
Upon creating a profound interrupt – the
immersion in all senses in living a wonderful experience that happens nearly three years before the killing and his
system re-integrates to that early
mode of healthy functioning.
The state changes
involve:
o
Upper brain stem between pons and medulla - facial nerves
o
Visual system, including Substantia Nigra (eye movement)
o
Visual system via Temporal visual areas through Amygdala to
Parahippocampal Gyrus (good visual memory) with links to good emotions in
sensory crossover areas in the Hippocampal Limbic Region
o
Visual based language via Wernicke’s area in Temporal Lobe to
o
Brocas area and then to
o
Speech motor production in motor cortex
o With disintegrating of links (of
postural cringe associated with the integrated system shut down) to locus
coeruleus, a nucleus in the pons (part of the brainstem)
that ceases releasing noradrenaline,
the chemical modulating fight or flight
and other stress responses
o
With massive implications for sense of self and wellbeing
The symptoms and the sudden
reversion to normal function are consistent with what is termed ‘conversion
disorder’.
This man was seen more than six
months later, out of jail on life parole and he had had not return of his prior
symptoms that had persisted for 54 years!
Example Two - Detox and Afternoon Tea
Summary:
A 23 year old male is experiencing drug withdrawal from cocktail of heavy illegal drugs. He is highly aroused, irrational, shouting obscenities, and having Tourette’s type movements. He also is having tremors and shaking uncontrollably.
Seven minutes later after experiencing Laceweb processes he is calm, caring, relaxed, and after a further three minutes successfully acts as host and serves tea and coffee to 120 people at a conference. There is no return of presenting behaviours during the next 2 weeks.
An
at-risk young man with drug addiction who was out on bail on drug related
charges came to stay for a Gathering at a Rural Therapeutic Community. A few days before the Gathering this young
man went with the local youth to see a rodeo; the young man out on bail
absconded and was picked up by the police three days later wearing a T shirt
with the Centre Logo that all the boys wore to compete at the rodeo. He was
having severe drug withdrawals from taking more than one type of drug that he
had obtained in the town near where the rodeo was being held. The police
respect the Therapeutic Community’s work and returned this young man to the
Community.
Some
youth worker professionals who were also attending the Gathering said that
their standard practice was to send drug-affected youth to Detox for days
before accepting them into their programs.
Dr
Neville Yeomans said that this was not an option for this youth as the nearest
Detox was hours away and everyone wanted to stay and take in the experience of
the Gathering.
All
the attendees of the Gathering and the youth of the Therapeutic Community were
sitting and standing around waiting for tea and coffee and scones to be served
at an afternoon tea break.
This
drug affected youth was severely disturbed and also creating a lot of
disturbance.
Then
Neville suddenly said to me very loudly so everyone could hear:
Work
with Max (the disturbed youth).
And
bring him back to serve tea and coffee in ten minutes.
Neville
turned and said to Max:
Max, go with this man!
Inside now!
Be back in ten minutes!
Be ready to serve everyone tea and coffee!
Max
was quivering and shaking, in no fit state to do anything, let alone be handing
out tea or coffee to over 120 people.
He
was stumbling and incoherent.
Within
eight minutes he walked out again, and in ten minutes he served tea and coffee
to everyone without spilling a drop.
So
what happened inside?
When
inside I say to Max with considerable speed, jerkiness, volume and passion
(matching his energy state):
You
have ten minutes to.....settle down now…....sit down….and what’s it like inside
you…..eh…..come on…..what’s it like in there…where is it the strongest….in
here…(pointing to his head)….in here..(pointing to his belly)….in
here….(pointing to his chest.....then his throat)….in here…(pointing to his
heart)…..come on…you know....….it’s your body….....what’s happening …you can
feel it…..what’s it like in here…(pointing to his head again)....
I’m
matching his general energy, behaviour and his state and closely monitoring for
any state change towards anger and berserk, and he stays highly charged though
very confused and scattered.
I
keep up a constant overloading barrage of questions asking him to tell me what
is happening inside of him, and his brain has to try to make sense of my words.
And then I refer to his breathing:
And
your breathing.....how are you breathing now…..what’s that like…….what’s
breathing like?
He
takes a deep breath.
.....yes......you
just changed…
....and
you’ve been changing ever since you sat down....
...your
heart rate is slowing....
....you’re
shaking less....
My
speed is slowing and my volume lowering.
.....you’re
breathing more slowly now....
……..and
you’re more steady….
.....you’re
quieter now…
….notice
this……..how you are changing now…
…..slowing
down…
…..all
of that is getting quieter now…
….and
what’s happening up here now…(pointing to his head)...
……..different
to before….
……and
here…....(pointing to his belly)....
….different
to before…
….….and
here (pointing to his chest, then throat)…
.....notice
how it’s all changing now…
....and
what’s happening…come on…what’s happening...eh?
Finally,
he says:
I’m slowing down....
Yes! And what else?
I am not shaking so much....
Feels better?
Yeh....getting better.....
And
what’s ya head like inside?
Head aches...
Where?
Everywhere (points to his
forehead).
What’s
happening in the front of ya head (pointing to his forehead)?
It aches.
What
about round the back (pointing to the back of his head).
Na,
just the front.
And really notice that now…….what’s
happening now....
It
was dull ache. Now it’s thumping.
So
it is still changing in there.........and how fast is it thumping?
He does a fist gesture indicating rhythm.
Notice what happens to the speed of
the thumping.
It’s getting slower......
And
what happens to the sensation in your forehead …….when…….it’s getting slower
now?
It’s not so bad....
And
what’s happening in ya belly?
I feel crook.....
What’s that feel like?
He
does a hand gesture of his belly churning in a clockwise direction at a certain
speed. I mirror this gesture back to him as I say....
And
notice how that goes round and round inside ya belly…what’s happening to that
now?
It’s
slowing down now.
Feels better as it’s slowing down now?
Yeh.
Feeling better.
This
last part about the turning sensation in Max’s belly is discussed by Bandler, and
by the Andreas’ in their books on sensory submodalities (Bandler 1985; Andreas,
S. & Andreas, C., 1987).
Notice
that Max is non-consciously giving me signals as to what’s happening inside of
him, .and I’m being guided by and using these signals as clues as to what to
say and do from moment to moment.
Examples
are underlined in the following:
Head aches
Where?
Everywhere (points to his
forehead).
What’s
happening in the front of ya head (pointing to his forehead)?
It aches.
What
about round the back (pointing to the back of his head).
Na,
just the front.
And really notice that now…….what’s
happening now....
It was dull ache. Now it’s thumping.
So
it is still changing in there...and how fast is it thumping......
He does a fist gesture indicating rhythm.
And
notice what happens to the speed of the thumping.
It’s getting slower.
And
what happens to the sensation in ya forehead when
it’s
getting slower now...
It’s not so bad.
And what’s happening in ya belly....
I feel crook.
And what’s that feel like...
He does a hand gesture of his belly churning in a clockwise
direction at a certain speed.
And
notice how that goes round and round inside ya belly…what’s happening to that
now...
I
do a gesture that mirrors what he’s doing with his hands. It is highly unlikely
that Max is aware that he is giving me these signals with his hands. Max is
unconsciously informing me about what to do next. I use these unconscious
signals to guide me in guiding him as to what to be aware of in his changing
experience. This pattern of drawing Max’s awareness to his inner experience is
by definition for him an altered state. Initially my interaction paced his manic quality. I was fast and
jerky. I jumped his awareness around very fast. Once he started to change, I
lead him in my speech and actions as he changes to become more slow and steady.
And I am drawing his awareness to his changes.
And
each of these short specific literal observation speech acts statements draws
Max’s attention to changes that are already
happening, and in this process, contribute to further system changes.
Max
is in drug withdrawal, and awareness of change is further disintegrating and dissolving
his state (Feldenkrais, 1972). He is now also overloaded with all of what had
been happening outside with him suddenly being the focus of everyone’s
attention including over 90 Aboriginal Elders attending the Gathering. Once
inside I am using sequential stacked interrupt – that’s collapsing habitual
states.
Inside
I had grabbed his attention and focused his awareness on jumping it
quickly round, noticing how he feels
in differing parts of his body. This
by definition is an altered state!
As
feeling is his most present sense, I use his feeling to reach his awareness of
moving.
Initially
he is confused. Given this, I insist on him doing this by constant requests for
him to notice. .
Before
I started, Max’s system was activated in habitual responding and firing off
awful feelings associated with disintegrated functioning typical of drug
withdrawal. When we first went inside, the drug cocktail was looping through
Max’s synapses and back into storage to go around again and again - the drug
discharge, release, interaction with receptors, and re-storage.
As
soon as we were inside, I place an alternate demand on his perception - one
that is collapsing his brain-addled state
and has him entering an altered state of
being aware of his awareness, and then slowly beginning to notice
differences as his body changes – as it invariably does when you begin noticing
it. This further interrupts the drug state.
I
then add suggestions for further change. I sense this activates natural
interrupt changes in neuro-chemical cycling at Max’s synapses. I am activating
Blockers, Reuptake Blockers, Dispersers and Disintegrators.
The
awareness-of-awareness processor state that I set up for Max entails shifts in
the sense of moving that interrupts and disintegrates the habitual
patterns of the drugs he had used while they are in decline in his system.
To reiterate
Feldenkrais’ statement again (1972, p. 39):
A fundamental change in the motor (moving) basis within any
single integration pattern will break up the cohesion of the whole and thereby
leave thought and feeling without anchorage in the patterns of their
established routines.
This
interrupt increases the action of very
natural system properties. Drugs in the synaptic cleft are dispersed
through the synapse wall before interacting with receptors (dispersal); receptors
are blocked (receptor blockers); Re-uptake of the drugs into storage is blocked
(reuptake blockers); and drugs that have been stopped by reuptake blockers are
disintegrated and move off in Max’s body fluid transfer system including the
blood stream to be filtered out of his body through the kidneys and bladder
(Rossi, 1985; Rossi & Cheek, 1986).
To
restate the above, neuro-chemical systems at the synapses have a lot of control
points - whether or not the neurotransmitters are released from storage,
whether the neuro-chemicals enter the synaptic cleft (gap), whether they
interact with receptors, whether they are either reabsorbed by the presynaptic
cell, and then repackaged and placed into storage for future release, or else
broken down metabolically (dis-integrated) and discharged from the body.
Perhaps
the interrupt processes I used quickly cleared out, or simplified the mix of
internally and externally produced ‘chemical soup’ within his synapses. Within
five minutes he is almost ready to serve drinks.
I
get Norma to bring a mug and a jug of cold water and Max has a long drink and
then he goes and urinates – getting rid of drugs from his system – natural
detoxing!
The
remaining few minutes is used in clearing away the ‘cobwebs’ so he is not only
steady in his body and confident he can serve, he is going to be the pleasant
sociable character that he is very capable of being.
As
well, I future-pace Max. With my
support he is imagining experiencing having calm poise when he goes outside and
imagining serving afternoon tea while being a very good host. This has him
accessing integrating patterns associated with those behaviours and hence
entering into those modes of functioning before
he actually goes outside
When
he does go outside he is accessing those behavioural repertoires.
He
is the very good host.
This
is resonant with scenario ten - the women in the torture centre - future pacing
being with their girlfriends on next Friday night and imagining their joy of
dancing with them as a way of regaining integrity before settling down for a
good night’s sleep ready to face the next day.
Max
has no re-occurrence of any drug withdrawal symptoms that afternoon, or during
the following week.
While
inside, Max was simultaneously being engaged in many ways simultaneously; his
non-conscious gestures and behaviour were used as guides for triggering changes
in his awareness of awareness of moving, sensing and feeling. Simultaneously,
my speech act processes blending with Max’s processes are engaging and
involving and transforming goings on in Max’s nervous system, especially at the
synapses. And he is present having his awareness drawn to noticing the changes
as they are happening. He is staying present aware as his states are changing,
and liking the changes.
Now
to get some further sense of the richness of all this. Max as a young man in
his twenties has in his brain somewhere around 100 billion neurons (nerve
cells) and between100-500 trillion synapses! Given that you can arrange 10
things in a row over 3.5 million ways, and 11 things nearly 40 million ways,
the number of different pathway connections when you have billions of neurons
and trillions of synapses beggars belief. The number of networking combinations
in all of this immensity is astronomical! So Max has extraordinary potential.
My trillions of networks linked to his trillions...and the old saying
goes...life is filled with possibilities......trillions of them......
The
discussion about simplifying the mix of internally and externally produced
‘chemical soup’ within his synapses is resonant with scenario Nine - the story
of the woman jogging on the spot at the front door. The residual chemicals of
that anti-anxiety drug was possibly broken down metabolically and discharged
from the body. It took a few repeats, as some of the chemicals were perhaps
reabsorbed by the pre-synaptic cell, and then repackaged and placed into
storage and then released again into the system. The repeated process ‘washed’
the chemicals out of the body just as the state of ‘getting on with my life’
replaced the collapsed the state of ‘anxiety’ out of the woman at the front
door....
To
repeat again Feldenkrais’ insight:
A fundamental change
in moving within any single integration pattern will break up the cohesion of the
whole and thereby leave thought and feeling without anchorage in the patterns
of their established routines (Feldenkrais, 1972. Awareness Through
Movement - Health Exercises for Personal Growth. New York, New York :
Penguin Books).
In the above exchange with Max I
am continually doing pattern interrupt
that disintegrates Max’s habitual
drug patterns. I am especially disintegrating neuro-chemicals and other
exogenous chemicals and these are being filtered out and they go down the
toilet when he urinates before returning outside to serve afternoon tea – fast
system detox
Now for a few moments some
thoughts on the language patterns used; we have the system capacity to generalise, delete, and distort our subjective and
inter-subjective experience.
We can help another to:
o specify generalisations
o recover delete, and
o challenge distortions
Notice that in the above exchange
with Max I am intentionally use generalisations,
deletions and distortions for transforming possibilities.
Some Possible State
changes:
o Lowered sympathetic charge
o Arousal flexibility
o Reacting appropriate to context
o Sense of personal safety and
danger that alarms in context
o Capacity to readily change states
appropriate to context
Consider the Effect
of the Above on:
o Softening drug abuse
o Stopping domestic violence
o Preventing crime
o Preventing war
o Letting go the aftermath of
disasters
o Peacehealing
o All round wellness
The following segment explores the first theme above – softening drug
abuse:
Theme: Drug,
Alcohol and Gambling Addictions
Some Brain correlates of Drug, Alcohol and Gambling Addiction
Substantia Nigra – plays important roles in:
o Reward
o Reward-seeking
o Addiction
o Eye movement
o Motor planning
o Learning
o Working memory,
o Aversive, novel, unexpected or
intense stimuli
o Initialising and selecting action
o Motivational and emotional
informing
o Movement - contributes to decision-making,
planning and modulation of movement (sensory-motor)
o Substantia Nigra produces
Dopamine - some of the functions of Dopamine:
§ Addiction to behaviours – source
of release of a transmitter
§ reward driven learning
§ emotional response
§ ability to experience pleasure
and pain
§ motivation
§ punishment and reward
§ feelings of satisfaction (loses
one's ability to reason in order to achieve satisfaction)
§ possibly transmits reward
prediction error
Substantia Nigra is a part of Basal Ganglia.
The main other components of the basal ganglia are:
o striatum (caudate nucleus and
putamen)
o globus pallidus
o subthalamic nucleus.
The largest component, the striatum, receives input from many
brain areas but sends output only to other components of the basal ganglia.
The pallidum receives input from the striatum, and sends inhibitory
output to a number of motor-related areas.
The substantia nigra is the source of the striatal input of the
neurotransmitter dopamine, which plays an important role in basal ganglia
function.
The Subthalamic Nucleus receives
input mainly from the striatum and cerebral cortex, and projects to the globus
pallidus. Each of these areas has a complex internal anatomical and neurochemical
organization.
Processes for Applying Brain Research in Functional Use of Habits and
Flexibility
Linking:
o Awareness of awareness of
moment-to-moment sub-conscious and conscious behaviours and being guided by
them
o Being guided by the moment-to-moment
changing context
o Looking for the free energy in
the systems
o Guided by understanding of
neuro-chemical pathways and presenting phenomenal contexts that are changing
from moment-to-moment
o Using Ericksonian language and
metamodel to set up social ecological pattern interrupt
o
Engaging with the emerging state changes
o
Linking understanding in this Paper with balance levels in the
Ergotropic and Trophotropic systems; refer Healing the MindBody.
The Brain and nervous system
correlates and causates of the behaviours being explored in this paper is a two
way interactive process. So in the examples, brain function, experience, and
behaviour are all being changed.
What are other aspects that can be changed?
o Brain Cancer?
o Brain plasticity?
o Neuroplasticity?
o Interpersonal Relational Gene
Modulation?
Accounts of the context, process used, and outcomes for each of the
other nine scenarios are available.
Resonant Links:
o
Healing Artistry, Gene
Expression and Gene Modulation