HOW TO WASTE YOUR YOUTH

HOW TO WASTE YOUR YOUTH
(or not)

The effort to wise up
while we're still young enough
to enjoy it.

"That children do not know the reason of their desires,
all the learned teachers and instructors agree.
But that gownups too
stumble like children on this earth,
not knowing whence they come or whither they go,
acting as little according to true purposes,
being ruled by cakes and birch rods, no one likes to believe;
yet to me it seems quite obvious."
- Johannes von Goethe

"It is one of the capital tragedies of youth -
and youth is the time of tragedy -
that the youth are thrown mainly with adults
they do not quite respect."
- H. L. Mencken

Thought Experiment:

Step 1:
   Some of us, maybe even many of us, when we're getting up in years . . . look back on our lives ( . . . or at least, our youth), reflect thoughtfully and say . . .

"I blew it."
( . . . or, "What could I have done better?" or, like "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation," that kind of thing.

Step 2:
   Say, this is the realization of a parent, or an old grandmother, who has kids or grandkids she really cares about.

   Then, too often, she goes to her grandkids and says, "Hey, don't do what I did. Don't make the same mistakes I made. This is something I know, from experience."

Step 3:
   Grandkid says, "What do you know? You're just an old codger! And who are you to impose your morality on me? That (whatever you're talking about) doesn't sound like any fun.

   I'm different, special, completely unique, smarter, immortal, the rules don't apply to me, by nature I an inherently immune to any kind of whatever you're talking about. But thanks anyway."

Step 4:
   Grandkid repeats the same mistakes as Grandmother.

Step 5:
  Sixty or so years pass.

  Grandkid now assumes the same position as Grandmother.

Return to Step 1.


Such is life.

"Youth is a wonderful thing.
What a crime to waste it on children."
- George Bernard Shaw

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What is NLP?

What is NLP?

      NLP provides the ‘How To’ for exceptional results.
There have been times when you were superb, you found the very best in yourself. With NLP you can discover how to have more of these.

      NLP is the study of exceptional talent - how outstanding individuals and organisations get their results. These methods can be taught to others so they too can get the same results. This process is called modeling.
With it you can make your highest standards into your normal achievements.

      NLP is both the study of excellence and the practical tools and methods that are generated through modeling. NLP models the beliefs, values, thinking strategies and behaviour that lead to effective action. These tools are used internationally in business, training, sales, sports, education and law. NLP is practical, it gives skills as well as theories.

      NLP began in the mid nineteen seventies in America from the work of the linguist John Grinder, and Richard Bandler, a psychologist. They began by modeling excellent communicators, building models of communication skills. Since then NLP has continued to develop and grow and is taught all over the world.

      In order to model, NLP studies how we structure our subjective experience - how we think about our values and beliefs and how we create our emotional states - how we construct our internal world from our experience and give it meaning. NLP is not about finding the right map, but broadening and enriching the one we have. This map of the world is not an intellectual construct but literally a way of being, of moving, breathing, speaking and feeling.

      The name 'Neuro-Linguistic Programming' comes from the three areas it brings together.

N for Neurology - The mind and how we think.

L for Linguistics - How we use language and how we are affected by it.

P for Programming - What we do: our sequence of actions and thinking patterns to achieve our goals.

NLP is more than just a collection of techniques. It is also a way of thinking, a frame of mind based on curiosity, exploration and fun. NLP starts with you - learning how you guide yourself and influence others.

Now try this NLP Thought Experiment -

      This takes but a few moments, and it will give you an immediate experience of the power of NLP.

      Think of a pleasant experience, one you enjoyed. Make a picture of it in your mind. Notice whether you are looking out through your own eyes, as if it were happening, or whether you are seeing yourself in the picture, like on a film or television.
Come out of that experience.

      Now experience the memory in a different way.
If you were inside it, as if it were happening again, looking out through your own eyes, then change the way you view it. See yourself in the picture having the experience.
If you were already seeing yourself having the experience, then step into it, and be inside it, see it again through your own eyes.

Come out of the experience.
Did you notice the difference in your feelings?

      When you are inside an experience seeing it through your own eyes you get the feelings of the experience again. When you are outside the experience seeing yourself inside it, you automatically reduce those feelings.

Is it useful to choose how you think of your experiences? Do cows eat grass?
      - you can experience the good feelings again and have your good memories as resources to call on for the rest of your life.
      - and you can distance yourself from bad experiences, diminish their power and learn from them more easily.

This is one of the most useful ways of managing your memories and feelings.

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The Principles of NLP

The principles of NLP are often called presuppositions because you pre-suppose them to be true and then act. They are not claimed to be true, or universal, but they do make a difference if you act as if they are true.

1. People respond to their map of reality and not to reality itself. 
      We operate and communicate from those maps. NLP is the art of changing these maps, not reality. We cannot know reality directly in our usual state of consciousness, because we perceive the world through our senses, and they take in only a tiny fraction of all the possibilities. 'Reality', as John Lennon once said, 'leaves a lot to the imagination.'

2. Human behaviour is purposeful.
      We do not always know what that purpose is consciously. A purpose opens a gap between where we are and where we want to be. That gap gives us a reason and the energy to act.

3. Every behaviour has a positive intention. 
      It is trying to achieve something valuable for us. A person is more than their behaviour. NLP separates the intention or purpose behind an action from the action itself. All behaviour makes sense to the person who does it at some level, however bizarre it appears on the outside. Another way of expressing this is that people always make the best choice available to them in their model of the world. Give them a better choice from their point of view and they will take it.

4. The unconscious mind is not malevolent. It contains great resources
      The unconscious mind balances the conscious, it is everything that we are not aware of in the present moment, from the feeling in our toes to the processes that keep our heart beating. It is not inherently malevolent. What appear as monsters from one point of view may be angels from another, (And vice versa).

5. Having a choice is better than not having a choice. 
      Set your goals to create the richest choices available in harmony with your values. Act always to increase choice. The person with the most number of choices, that is, the greatest flexibility of thought and behaviour, will have the greatest influence in any interaction.

6. People work perfectly. 
      No one is wrong or broken. What is important is how we achieve our aims. If it is cumbersome, complicated or unpleasant, it can be changed for something more useful and desirable. Some people are travelling in the equivalent of a psychological chariot. They might like the option of a private jet if they knew about it. However, the chariot they have is a perfectly good chariot, not a bad private jet.

7. The meaning of the communication is the response you get.
      This may be different to the one you intended. There are no failures in communication, only responses and feedback. Every experience can be utilised. If you are not getting the result you want, do something different.

8. We already have all the resources we need, or we can create them.
      There are no unresourceful people, only unresourceful states.

9. Mind and body are one system
      They interact and mutually influence each other. Change one and the other must change too.

10. Modeling successful performance leads to excellence. 
      If one person can do something it is possible to model it and teach it to others. Excellence can be duplicated. It does not mean anything is possible for anybody in exactly the same way.

11. If you want to understand - Act
      We create our world and our perceptions by what we do.

 

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NLP Resources

Want to find out (almost) everything about NLP and Systems Thinking?Visit www.lambent.com  Take a look at the books that I have written about Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).
You can taste and try before you buy.

What is NLP? Principles of NLP The Glossary Net Resources   The Bibliography Modeling Library Training/Consultancy NLP Software

A short rap- fits on the back of a  post stamp. A list of the principles or presuppositions. A comprehensive list of NLP vocabulary. The most useful links to find other NLP information on the net. An organized list of NLP books with short commentary, and a full list of books by Joseph O'Connor, with excerpts available from each . NLP models excellence. The library is a resource so the models of NLP are available to all. Read and contribute. NLP courses, seminars and consultancy offered by Lambent Training. NLP software available.

NLP and Spirituality

NLP and Spirituality

 Studying the sedative

http://kovy.freeweb.hu/Ak/VeerZoli/lambent/

     Spirituality for me is about finding our deepest essence as human beings, the same essence we share with every person; it connects us to everyone else. So spirit is where we become most truly ourselves, by discovering and becoming most deeply connected with others. We find ourselves in our connections with others. One metaphor occurs constantly in spiritual literature is spirituality as a journey or search, sometimes on the outside, always within.

     How does NLP connect with the quest for spirit, the inner journey? I think there is some good news and some bad news about NLP in this context. Bad news first.

NLP has three elements woven into its title in a rich mixture:

Neuro- our neurology and our consciousness.
Linguistics- our language.
Thirdly our ability to go for outcomes: the programming part.

     I would like to examine each of these three in turn. Consciousness can be a barrier if spirituality is thought of (consciously) as something to be attained, and if consciousness is assumed to be identical to self-consciousness. Consciousness is only a small part of our being, it cannot grasp the complete picture. Also something you consciously search for is different from you, the seeker.

     In 1934 a man named J.W. Dunne wrote an interesting book called The Serial Universe.(see footnote 1). Dunne tells of a certain artist who had escaped from the lunatic asylum, where he had been confined, perhaps by mistake. This artist bought some materials: paint and easel, and set out to make a complete picture of the universe. He was not crazy enough to think he could paint the whole world, but he was determined to do the best possible job on a small section: the beautiful countryside in which he found himself.

     He started by painting a small picture of the surrounding countryside in the middle of his huge canvas. He drew a wonderful picture. He was extremely pleased until he noticed that something was missing. He was part of this universe and he was not in the picture.  How could he add a representation of himself? The man may have been crazy but he was not mad enough to think he could paint himself standing on the ground that he had already painted as lying in front of him. So he moved his easel a little way back, asked a passing farmer to be a model and drew a picture of himself drawing the original picture.

     However, he was still not satisfied. My first picture, he thought to himself, is a picture that a man would paint who is unaware of his own existence. My second picture rectifies that. But I, the real artist am conscious and aware of my own existence, so my second picture is still incomplete. So saying, he shifted his easel................

If there could be a picture of the real world, who would be painting it?

     Now language. NLP has done great work here building on the insights of Korzybski who gets credit for the famous phrase 'the map is not the territory'. The word is not the thing. As Bateson pointed out, thinking that the word is the same as the thing it describes (whatever it might be) is like going into a restaurant and eating the menu.

Chuang Tzu, the Chinese master of the fourth century AD wrote:
'The fish trap exists because of the fish. Once you have gotten the fish you can forget the trap. The rabbit snare exists because of the rabbit; once you have gotten the rabbit you can forget the snare. Words exist because of meaning. Once you have gotten the meaning you can forget the words. Where can I find a man who has forgotten words, so I can have a word with him?'
(See footnote 2)

     Language divides the world and divides us from the world on a profound level. Language creates dualities; black or white, day or night, good and bad. Qualities are defined by their opposite. We know the good the bad and the ugly by contrasting them with the better the worse and the beautiful. So to define something like spirit using words and attributing qualities to it is paradoxically to limit it by saying it is not something else. Secondly, when we do describe something we make a distinction between us and the thing described and so immediately dissociate from it. All spiritual writings describe spirituality in metaphor. If pressed for a more direct description it is always in terms of what it is Not : 'not this, not that', (in the Upanishads) and in the Tao Te Ching: 'The Tao that can be spoken in words is not the true Tao'.

     If man is basically asleep to the spiritual realm as many mystics say, then language and normal waking conscious thought are the strong and principal soporifics that not only keep him asleep, but also fool him in thinking that he is really awake. So is NLP a study of the sleeping draught?

     Chuang Tzu has another story: strolling along the banks of the Hao river with his friend Hui Tzu, he says, 'See how the minnows come out and dart round as they please! That's what fish really enjoy!'
Hui Tzu replies, 'You're not a fish - how do you know what fish enjoy?'

     Chuang Tzu has a retort however, 'You're not I, so how do you know I don't know what fish enjoy?'
Hui Tzu comes back again, 'I'm not you, so I certainly don't know what you know. On the other hand you're certainly not a fish - so that still proves you don't know what fish enjoy!'
Chuang Tzu has the last word, 'Let's go back to the original question please. You asked me how I know what fish enjoy- so you already knew I knew it when you asked the question. I know it by standing here beside the Hao.'
(See footnote 2)

     Now the programming part of NLP - the ways we act with purpose to achieve outcomes. Outcomes are a very important part of NLP, they are the starting point for any NLP intervention. A basic NLP presupposition is that everything we do has a purpose. Conscious minds set outcomes. We set them and make sure they are expressed in the positive, are specified appropriately, within our influence, and appropriately sized. We make sure we have an evidence procedure for knowing when we have arrived, and attempt to make them ecological, although how our unaided conscious mind is supposed to do this, is hard to know. If outcomes are ends, things to be attained, the 'how to', the means are not specified, and yet how we go about achieving the outcome will affect what we get and the consequences. It's the 'how' that counts.

     The books of the American Anthropologist Carlos Casteneda, are unacknowledged influences on NLP. Casteneda writes in his book Journey to Ixtlan, (see footnote 3), or rather reports his mentor Don Juan, talking about the spirit of the warrior. The warrior is impeccable. The warrior sets outcomes knowing full well they may be totally trivial, but commits to them totally as if they were to be his or her last act on earth. The warrior is totally aligned and totally him or herself, so the resulting action has a purity and a focus that does not come from the outcome, but from the process of acting. It's interesting that the root of the word impeccable means 'unable to sin'. Casteneda is asking us to act 'As If' the quality of what we do is the most important thing in the world - regardless of what we are trying to achieve. As our lives are so complex and systemically intertwined the idea of outcomes as isolated occurrences are an illusion anyway. The quality of the journey is the important thing. Outcomes 'come out' of how we act to achieve what we want.

     The road to Hell is paved with good intentions. This usually means wonderful outcomes and appalling means. The greater, the more refined and spiritual the outcome the more mayhem and havoc can be wreaked in trying to achieve it, once you accept that the end justifies the means. With an end outcome defined for the good of all, people have felt totally justified in committing atrocities trying to achieve it.

     There is a character called Shigalov in Dostoevsky's novel The Possessed. (see Footnote 4).Shigalov has founded a Utopian system that will redeem present society. He warns his co-conspirators that even the shortest explanation of his system will take ten evening sessions to explain. And the system is not yet complete. He goes on: 'I am perplexed by my own data, and my conclusion is in direct contradiction to the original idea from which I started. Starting from unlimited freedom, I arrived at unlimited tyranny. I will add, however, that there is no other solution of the social formula than mine.' Here his friends started to laugh at him, which was probably the most sensible thing they could have done.

     It is possible to argue the only humane definition of peace is actually a negative one: the absence of violence, because every positive definition will lead to violence in trying to attain it. This does not fit well with NLP well-formedness outcome conditions.
Although good intentions pave the road to Hell, one of the important contributions of NLP is to separate behaviour from intention. So while marching towards the underworld we can at least acknowledge that this is not exactly where we want to go. In fact we want to go in the opposite direction, only the signposts got a little confused. By explicitly recognising the intention behind the behaviour we have a choice of moving logical levels. There is another NLP presupposition: everyone makes the best choice they can given their model of the world, but this does not excuse or explain that some terrible things are done in the world, NLP has to recognise this. Recognition, does not mean justification.

     Intentions are positive in the sense of being directed at some outcome as opposed to positive as being 'good' in some way. I do see a interesting clash between the focus on outcomes from NLP and spirituality as the quality of the journey. Perhaps setting process outcomes is one answer. End outcomes are what you get at the end, (eg. in sport winning the race), process outcomes are about how you are going to act in order to achieve it. Perhaps NLP could address the issue of well formedness conditions for process outcomes. How could you begin to think about setting an outcome to act impeccably?

     That's the bad news. The good news is that precisely because NLP concerns itself so closely with linguistics, outcomes and consciousness, we have a fine way of exploring these issues. In another age old metaphor, if you perceive yourself in a prison, a good place to start your escape plan is to study the walls, bars, and habits of the guards in detail. Only by knowing intimately what constrains you can you hope to escape it.

     NLP studies maps with the insistence that they are to be separated from the territory they represent. NLP's contribution to spirituality can be to carefully map the areas in its title. Spirituality itself will always begin just beyond the edge of the map. I believe Spirituality is territorial. NLP also insists on sensory based descriptions and the importance of sensory experience. This is congruent with spirituality which is about experience. Mystics through out the ages tell the same metaphors about spiritual experience, regardless of historical period, or the organised belief systems they subscribe to. They insist on the importance of the experience. Words fall short of the experience like stones thrown at the stars. We throw a lot of stones, some may be well aimed, but they still bring us no closer, nor do they help you appreciate their beauty.

A final story from  Chuang Tzu, talking to his friend Hui Tzu.  Hui Tzu said to Chuang Tzu, 'Your words are useless!'
Chuang Tzu said, 'A man has to understand the useless before you can talk to him about the useful. The earth is certainly vast and broad, though a man uses no more of it than the area he puts his feet on. If however, you were to dig away all the earth from around his feet until you reached the Yellow Springs (The Underworld) then would the man still be able to make use of it?'
'No, it would be useless,' said Hui Tzu.
'It is obvious then,' said Chuang Tzu, 'that the useless has its uses.'

Footnote 1
J.W. Dunne, The Serial Universe (Faber 1934)

Footnote 2
Chuang Tzu - Basic Writings Translated by Burton Watson (Columbia University press 1964)

Footnote 3
Carlos Casteneda, Journey to Ixtlan (Simon and Schuster 1972)

Footnote 4
Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Possessed (various editions)

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Intergalactic Origins of Life

Zeroing in on the Intergalactic Origins of Life

Recent discoveries using The Paranal Observatory located in the Atacama Desert in the northern part of Chile have led astrophysicists believe that carbon-based molecules that once floated in interstellar space  were present in the cloud of dust and gas from which our solar system formed, providing the raw materials for life on Earth. These molecules have been observed throughout our galaxy, which is one reason why many believe conditions may also be ripe for life in other parts of the Milky Way, and in billions of galaxies beyond.

By seeking out dusty galaxies – where organic molecules may form in greater abundance – galaxies similar to our own, but at an earlier stage of their evolution, astronomers hope to work out how long these molecules have been abundant in the universe, and therefore how long the conditions suitable for life as we know it have prevailed.

New evidence appears to support the theory that organic molecules are common elsewhere in the universe. A team led by Sara Ellison of the University of Victoria, Canada, has found another galaxy about 2 billion light years away with telltale diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs) by focusing on dusty-looking galaxies, using the Very Large Telescope in Chile.  "Our theory group does simulations on how galaxy structure evolves over time, and my observations can test those theories," she says

The chemical signature of a class of organic compounds called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons can be seen in the way they absorb light from distant stars. The molecules are thought to leave a complex pattern of dark bands in these spectra called diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs).

Finding such organic bands in other galaxies could help pin down when organic molecules -the ingredients for life -first become abundant in galactic evolution.

Nobody has worked out what exactly which molecules contribute to the signature of the interstellar bands, so there is some uncertainty over the composition of the material. By observing the bands in many different galaxies, it may be possible to pin down the exact molecule or molecules.

Other research has shown that Dwarf galaxies which are much smaller than ordinary galaxies like our Milky Way and have weaker gravitational fields, are the most common type of galaxy in the universe and makes them a key to understanding how the universe was seeded with various elements billions of years ago.

Only about thirty of the naturally occurring elements are widespread on Earth, and barely half a dozen are of central importance to life. Oxygen, of course, is the most common, accounting for 50 percent of the Earth's crust, followed by silicon. Many of the more obscure elements are more common that the better known: cerinium trumps copper, ditto for lanthanum over nitrogen. Tin is leapfrogged into the top fifty by dysprosium and samarium. Neither is abundance an indicator of criticality to life: carbon is only the fifteenth most common element, but life as we know it would be impossible without it. Of every 200 atoms in your body, only 19 are carbon. Other elements are key to sustaining life if not creating it: iron is a sina qua non for the manufacture of hemoglobin; cobalt for vitamin B12; potassium is critically important for your nerves.

In 1869, Dimitri Mendeleyev published his Periodic Table of the Elements. Scientists before and after Mendeleyev have proposed a spiral galaxy showing the stars link to the elements and to express the astronomical reach of the elements to evoke wonder at the order underlying the universe.

As we advance in our exploration of the Universe and the search for life, we'll most likely discover that one planet's cherished elements are another planet's poison, preferring their lakes of methane or shiny seas of mercury, to our blue seas of oxygen and hydrogen.

Posted by Casey Kazan.

Related Galaxy posts:

Giant Magellan Telescope to Open a New Window on the Universe
Chile's Atacama Desert -World's Observatory Mecca
Eyes on the Cosmos -European Space Agency's Hawk 1 & Hubble's Successor
Harvard-Smithsonian Scientists Zero In On Key Sign of Habitable Worlds
"The Great Silence" -A Galaxy Insight
New Technologies & the Search for  Extraterrestrial Life-A Galaxy Insight
Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos Revisited -NASA's Phoenix Probe & the Search for
Cruising the Goldilocks Zone -The Search for "Super-Earths"
The Milky Way Enigma -How Galactic Forces May Control Life on Earth

Story links:   http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn12911-new-evidence-for-extragalactic-lifeforming-matter.html
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/1060/

The Little Things

The Little Things

As you might know, the head of a company survived 9/11 because…his son started kindergarten.

Another man was alive because…it was his turn to bring donuts.

One woman was late because…her alarm clock didn’t go off in time.

One was late because of being stuck on the NJ Turnpike because…of an auto accident.

One of them…missed his bus.

One spilled food on her clothes and had to take…time to change.

One person’s…car wouldn’t start.

One went back to…answer the telephone.

One ha a…child that dawdled and didn’t get ready as soon as he should have.

One couldn’t…get a taxi.

     The one that struck me was the man who put on a new pair of shoes that morning, took the various means to get to work but before he got there, he developed a blister on his foot. He stopped at a drugstore to buy a Band-Aid! That is why he is alive today.

     Now when I am…stuck in traffic…miss an elevator…turn back to answer a ringing telephone…all the little things that annoy me. I think to myself, this is exactly where God wants me to be at this very moment.

     Next time your morning seems to be going wrong…the children are slow getting dressed…you can’t seem to find the car keys…you hit every traffic light…don’t get mad or frustrated; God is at work watching over you!

May The Almighty continue to bless you will all those annoying little things and may you remember their possible purpose.