.ll 72 .fo off .co on .ce ((Editor's comments in double parenthesis - Homer)) .ce Copyright (C) Flemming A. Funch .ce Redistribution rights granted for non commercial purposes Technical Essay # 79 - FAF 23 April 1992 .ce Objective Awareness One branch of clearing deals with objective processes. Presented most simply, objectives are processes that encourage the person to confront the physical universe around him better. They are extroverted processes. The definition becomes considerably more muddy if we look closer. See, the physical universe isn't really as solid as it seems. It is just an illusion that appears solid because it is perceived through sense organs that are part of the same piece of illusion. The inner awarenesses a person has might for that matter be more real. And, the surrounding "physical" universe might actually just be a projection of one's inner state. An agreed-upon illusion constructed from one's considerations. And the idea that the physical universe is "outside" is kind of shakey also. It is outside the body allright, but not really outside the being except by his considerations. That the physical universe exists within the being might be more correct. So, the whole idea of outside/inside, subjective/objective, easily leads to confusing paradoxes. Which, again, points out that life is what it is. No way a couple of slick statements with well-chosen words will suddenly explain everything. But, I wouldn't want to let that hold me back, so let's see how objectives fit in anyway. Objective processes and exercises deal with PERCEPTION. And that is primary, present time perception, not second hand perception from memory or hallucinations. Having to use physical perceptions is not a terribly high state. It is below the ability to know what is behind the physical illusion, the real world beyond the hologram. However, the ability to use physical perceptions well, is above the state of hallucinating about what is there, without realizing that there is an agreed-upon world there. In other words, we have a rough sequence of three case levels here: ¥ Hallucinating about the agreed-upon illusion. ¥ Perceiving the agreed-upon illusion well. ¥ Knowing the world beyond perceived illusions. There are more levels, but this is pretty much the range we have to work with at this time. Objective processes and exercises would tend to get a person out of hallucinating and into contact with the surrounding world through his senses. They might also provide glimpses of the fact that there is something even beyond that which is there to perceive. What we are talking about here is Sensory Acuity, the ability to make precise and minute distinctions in the sensory input, that corresponds well with what is going on outside one's body. And for that matter it should include more precise perceptions of what is going on inside the body. The available senses are mainly seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling, and time and space. We could argue about the last two, since there aren't any known organs for perceiving time and space, but I don't think we can get somebody stably into present time without them. Is present time something you see, hear, or smell? Well, neither, it might possibly be something you feel. Or, a certain vibration, I don't know. Space might be a visual, and time an auditory, that is possible. However, they are important, so I'll consider them separate for now. Each sensory modality has many finer distinctions. These sub-modalities, such as color, focus, pitch, tempo, weight, pressure, temperature, etc., could be regarded as individual perceptions, but more appropriately they are distinctions within the major perceptions. Traditional objective processes have served several purposes. They have been successful in putting lower grade clients in better touch with the physical world, overcoming the effects of drugs, get into present time, and get better reaction time. The other set of purposes is more advanced: handling the body from an exterior viewpoint, cogniting on the true nature of MEST and bodies, and so forth. I would find it wise to concentrate on the first set of purposes with new people, and save the other ones for more advanced or adventurous clients. The thing is that the whole set of the traditional objectives might be too much to swallow on face value for people. I love getting the objectives myself, I've done them all through three times. And I've many times seen them give really good results on others. However, now, without any organization to indoctrinate people with religious dedication, I don't find it easy to sell people on the idea of walking back and forth between walls until something happens. Generally speaking, I try to avoid using repetitive processes on people who aren't ex- scientologists. These processes are based greatly on the client's prior agreement to go through with it no matter what, and on a sales job having been done convincing him it will produce a positive result. That is not a problem with most types of processes other than objectives. I can usually get faster and better results with techniques that aren't rote. However, the traditional objectives have been designed as the ultimate endurance race. You drive the pc up the wall with the repetitiveness, and he has to change in order to stand it. We force him into present time, by making anything else unbearable. Without all the sales and indoctrination being done in advance I can only see it being done effectively by locking people into a room over a weekend and not letting them out before they've EPed. But, that makes it into some kind of EST seminar, and that is not exactly what I want to run at this point. Not that it is a bad idea, it just takes more logistics. So, what do you do with a new client who has had his major case areas handled, who comes in for an hour session a week, who needs to be more in PT, but who doesn't have the commitment to spend many hours doing something that doesn't appear to him to be beneficial? Well, it needs to be divided into smaller chunks first of all. A client you haven't evaluated for, needs to have more wins per unit of time. He must frequently notice a gain, and must certainly get a noticable result in each session. But then again, you can get much faster and more lasting gains than you can with a rotely indoctrinated client. Remember also, I don't keep it a secret to my clients that they are cause. I don't persuade them that I have a big secret they don't have, and that they could only get up from the mud with my help. I try to stay in ARC with them, and with their reasons for getting sessions. When they are in-session and winning I know we are on the right track. If they aren't, I don't force them with the mechanics of the session, but I change to something that works. Objective processing can fit in fine in this scheme as long as we do relatively small cycles of action that relate to something the client wants. What also could improve the effectiveness of objective processing would be for both the practitioner and the client to be more aware of the starting and ending points of what we do. We do a process because there is something there to improve. The process is finished when we realize that it has improved. It is not just something we do blindly, because it HAS to be done, and everybody needs it. Saying that objectives are just about perception might be a little too broad. I see several main types of result we might want to get with objectives: ¥ Get more in tune with the body, better control, more aware of body condition ¥ Increased ability to keep the environment in order ¥ Being able to tolerate repetitiveness comfortably while staying in PT ¥ Increased sensory acuity, reliable perceptions of outside world ¥ Realizing one isn't just a body We should start with a stated area where change is needed. It might be an origination from the client, or, more likely, it would be based on some sort of general questioning from the practitioner. Like, if we ask how they are doing with the body, most people would have something they want changed, or there would be some obvious areas where they are limited. If there weren't there wouldn't be much point in trying to handle it. To inquire about their current body awareness we would ask how they feel about their body: do they always have energy, do they get sick, is it difficult to get up in the morning, would they like better reaction time? One way of improving body awareness could be to go through every body part and have them perceive it from the inside. Sort of like an internal touch assist, contact it and withdraw, contact and withdraw. He should get a distinct feeling of the body part from inside. Describing it out loud might help. Also one can put attention on getting the flow of energy going in the area. Contact and withdraw until the energy is flowing freely. Another process would be to perceive specific sub-modalities, like temperature, position, movement, vibration, pressure, weight, tension; and then to change them. Like, the client will try to sense through the body which parts are warmer than others, he can feel the temperature of specific limbs or organs from the inside. Once he can do that easily, he can then start changing the temperature. Can he make his left hand warmer or colder than the right hand, and so forth. He should become able to change even small areas, like a part of the hand. Do the same kind of thing with other possible body senses. People who already do other body awareness practices, such as Tai Chi or Yoga might do these things much more easily, or might not particularly need them. For people who are ready for it, one can also have them communicate with the body to get feedback on what it needs. Most body parts will answer up and will supply information on what they need in terms of care and nutrition, etc. That is not even a very advanced thing, most people can do it if they try. We can also have the person use the body in different ways and notice how that feels different. Like, have them do things like walking, standing, and sitting in a different manner than they otherwise would. Have them become more conscious about how different postures make them feel differently. More subjective charge that come up can be handled as such. The person might be embarrassed about certain body parts, or might have fixed ideas. Increased objective awareness of the body will make it easier to run many other types of processes. Incident clearing, for example, is kind of difficult if the person can't perceive the feelings in the body. The body is an excellent meter. If the person can make precise distinctions on what he feels in present time, then we can change things much faster. Ability to keep things in the environment in order, is a totally different subject, a different kind of objective. We find out that it is needed by asking the client about the state of his MEST. Does he enjoy cleaning up, how does his desk look, is it difficult to find things, does he finish what he starts? A locational would probably be appropriate with somebody who has a lot of disorder around, preferably if it can be on their own area. Walk around and get them to touch and withdraw from things. If would probably also be good to have them describe what they see and feel. Disorder is also likely, more likely for that matter, to be based in subjective mechanisms. They need a different strategy for doing things. It is an indicator of which method the person uses for thinking. Also, simply going through the motions of finishing cycles, putting things back where you found them, etc., will tend to establish different patterns. If you get somebody to start, change, and stop a physical object repeatedly, they will probably get the idea eventually. It might not be very fast, but it is workable if the person is willing to do it. Doing communication exercises works as objective processing also. If you can sit for a couple of hours and look at somebody, then you should do pretty well with staying present under repetitive conditions. Being flat on repetitiveness might serve a person well in terms of being able to stay in PT and being willing to confront what goes on. I don't know if the only way of doing that is to do something repeatedly until he is blue in his face and decides to change his mind to that he can handle it. It works, but it is kind of crude, and it can only happen if the person is committed to staying there for the duration. It might work to deal with repetitiveness subjectively before objectively. Like, we could find fixed ideas about repeating actions, somatics that would appear, etc. And we could work more directly on putting the person in the state of mind that would be comfortable with repetitiveness. It has something to do with being able to produce one's interest and comfortableness internally, instead of expecting that the external environment will always entertain you. If we can change the person's considerations to the point where he can get something out of anything, any future case gain will come much easier. All the secrets of the universe can be found in a pebble on the beach, I believe somebody said. But that is only if one is in the frame of mind that one can keep looking and cogniting despite an apparent lack of randomity. Sensory acuity can be heightened through many different exercises. The need for improving it would probably be a wish of responding more appropriately to other people. It might not be immediately obvious to most people that their lack of success with others relate to their own lack of sensory acuity. The idea might be easier to sell to them after they have handled the majority of their own stuff, and, by themselves, put their attention farther out. An increase in recognition of perceptual distinctions might start with a definition of what they might be. There is a great many sub-modalities one can get skilled in recognizing. They are improved simply by practicing them. E.g. if you want to be better at recognizing different pitches of sound, you repeatedly listen to them until you can identify them with certainty. For example, on a touch tone phone there are 12 different tones signifying different keys pressed. If you practiced a little you would be able to identify them to the point that you could recognize the sound of a phone number without looking. The average person would not have much motivation to do things like that if they are more concerned with their every day problems. Since these often deal with other people, it might be more attractive to train sensory acuity of noticing the indicators of other people. There are a lot of NLP exercises that increase obnosis and they can be very useful here. It would be exercises in duplicating or deliberately mis-duplicating another person's body posture, tone of voice, use of language, etc. That sharpens the senses and makes it easier to establish ARC with other people. People who are willing to explore things for more philosophical reasons, fall sort of in another category than the average client who asks for clearing because there is something they want to have handled. I don't particularly think it is right to simply turn the second group into the first by indoctrination and PR, like it was done in Scientology. That makes much case go unhandled, because the person not-ises it and it never gets addressed. I'd rather be non- evaluative and go with the case that comes up until it is taken care of and nothing more comes up. And that is probably the point to turn the person on to training and the more philosophical or altruistic pursuits of higher dynamics. The realization that one is not just the body can come in just about any clearing action. I wouldn't actually say that objective processing is the best way of accomplishing it, except for the very repetitive kind that makes it so unpleasant to be in the body that one has to exteriorize. Awareness beyond the body might be accomplished by putting attention on anything BUT the regular body perceptions. If you deliberately avoid sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell -- well what DO you pick up. You are then much more likely to contact your more REAL senses, instead of the illusory body perceptions. But until one starts having enough awareness of the world beyond the physical plane to not be dependent on the physical anymore, it is very worthwhile to increase one's ability to use present time body perceptions.