This blog and a few planned for the future have been inspired by a little book called “Mind” by John R Searle.
Fantastic in it’s provocation of ideas even if I don’t entirely agree with all it’s content.
It’s a whistle stop tour of various philosophical ideas of the mind featuring particularly on materialists vs dualists.
It can get a little bit introspective at times and the geek in me enjoys the logical loops; but we”ll leave that to another day. I much prefer to blog how specifically it can give the therapist an insight into how they work with people and the client or potential client an insight into how they can run their own lives.
One of the first things it got me thinking about is the difference between Observer Independent Phenomena and Observer Dependent Phenomena.
The former being anything that would happen without human behaviour or interaction. It’s the whole “If a tree fell down in an empty forest, does it still make a sound?”
The latter being anything that we’ve created in society or in our perceptions.
So what are examples of independent phenomena? Well gravity would happen whether we influence it or not, so would the solar system and photosynthesis.
So, what are observer dependent phenomena? These are essentially our social constructions. Our family, the Government, Money. Things that whilst they exist in most of our lives, would not happen if we didn’t create our perceptions of them either individually or within the small or larger community.
So, all very nice but how is this useful or helpful?
Well, when someone has a problem for instance.; Consider maybe they’re depressed, anxious or just not feeling as confident as they can be? How much of their problem is related to Observer Independent Phenomena and how much on Dependent Phenonema?
In the possible but unlikely event someone is anxious about gravity, or photosynthesis – you have a problem on your hands and that’s for another blog.
But how often do we allow ourselves in life to get hung up on family issues? How often do we place anxiety within our relationship to someone or something? And the biggie, how often do we create a world of difficulties around money?
It doesn’t mean these things can just go away; but it does mean that when you start to consider that they were only observable dependent phenomena in the first place- you have a few more choices.
You could choose not to observe them.
This is the ‘bury your head in the sand’ approach that’s coveted by millions all over the world. It’s a great, economic and clever solution. There’s a problem, though. It rarely works for a long period of time. It’s going to come back, sneak up and bite you some time. Sometimes not quite in the same form, but it will find a way.
A good example is someone who wants to lose weight. If they take the run away approach- sure, they’re not going to notice for a while their ‘problem’ but they’ll certainly notice if they run into health issues or self-esteem issues projected on them by other people in the long run.
So what else is there to do? Well we know they’re observable…so how about changing the way we observe them? We often talk about ‘positive thinking.’ This is one way of observing things differently. Again, though forcing a positive tint to everything can often be a little similar bury the head in the sand/run away approach.
So what’s left? Well we don’t have to positive think (all the time) but we could choose to think differently. If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got – so it’s time to do something different.
If it’s weight loss- maybe it’s to exercise more or change your relationship with food; for anxiety- working on what makes you anxious in the future and what’s worth your energy and time and for depression- sometimes it can be about reassessment of perceptions. Changing how we observe those dependent phenomena.
Isn’t it about time rather then you being dependent on them, they start to depend on you? After all, they only exist in your perception anyhow.
So maybe the real question is ‘If a tree falls in the forest and does or does not make a sound, how much does anyone care?’
And, how much time and effort do we all give to the things in life that are dependent and/or independent of us?
Zack Polanski is a Cognitive Hypnotherapist, Master Prac and New Code NLP Practitoner at 1 Harley St, London.
For more information, call on 07738088632 or e-mail info@zackpolanski.com
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