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ARE YOUR BELIEFS HOLDING YOU BACK?
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One of our GC black belts (who is also a former
psychiatrist and career long scientist) takes a philosophical deep dive into self-limiting thoughts that could be keeping you from achieving your martial arts goals--and life goals in general. GM Perkins has called this "required reading".
Random Empirical Thoughts on Instinct, Knowing, and Believing and the Relationship to Subordinating the Ego
[Bolded sections added by M. Kovsky]
Nearly
a century ago Sigmund Freud formulated a philosophy of the mind. Almost
everyone has heard of the “Ego, Superego, and Id”. But these terms
obscure rather than help understand what is going on. And, like many
philosophies, if you interpret it too literally, you end up confused; I
know I did.
I
think the three-part model of the mind has utility. But rather than use
those three terms (id, ego, superego) it is more apt to think of our
consciousness as: Instinct, Beliefs, and Knowledge. Indeed, the Freud
model suggests that “Id” exists from birth and is analogous or identical
to “instinct”. Ego and Superego are constructs that to me – a former
psychiatrist and a career long scientist – are misinterpretations of
what Eastern philosophers have been writing about for centuries. But I’m
not going there right now.
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Let’s
start with “Instinct”. Nature has been “conducting” empirical
experiments for billions of years. That experiment is evolution. All
living systems from simple ones (viruses, bacteria, etc.) to complex
ones (anything with a brain) are the product of genetic code that has
been modified over the entire period of evolution. During that time, the
code that ensured an organism’s ability to recognize and acquire food,
procreate, and protect itself (from starvation, predation, and the
environment) was kept and perpetuated. Code that did not allow an
animal to survive eventually was lost. But the beauty of this is that it
creates what we call “instinct”. Instinct requires no thinking.
Instinct is “hard wired”. Instinct prompts reactions to external and
internal stimuli without “thinking.” And for organisms that cannot think
(I’m not going down that philosophical rabbit hole), instincts are just
as essential to survival as physical attributes.
Most of us have
been taught to suppress our instincts to varying degrees and in a civil
society that is often a good thing. Imagine the world if every human
reacted to every instinct in an unbridled way. We have created rituals
and rules/laws in the world to subordinate instincts. However, in the
case of protecting ourselves, many societies have gone too far in
suppressing instincts.
Instincts are not inherently good or bad;
instincts persist because in a population of organisms in a real world
setting over long periods of time, these will tend to preserve the
species but not necessarily any individual. Instincts, however, are not
good at rapidly changing situations (rapid climate changes or man-made
situations like oil spills).
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The next idea is “knowledge”. Knowledge maps to the Freud model of superego only in that it is at the “top”. I am defining “knowledge” here to be those ideas which we can accept because there is non-contradicted empirical or experimental information that supports the idea. This is similar in the scientific method to a “theory”. A theory is not “fact”; it is a probable explanation for an observation. Once you have contradictory evidence for a theory, it must be abandoned or revised. If you hold on to a disproved theory, it becomes a “belief”. Both “theories” (e.g., Einstein’s theory of relativity) and “facts” (e.g., if you put your unprotected hand in a hot flame you will get burned eventually) are knowledge. They differ only in certitude. We are born with almost zero “knowledge”. * I say “almost” because recent evidence is that unborn babies do pick up information from the environment (e.g., language or languages) being spoken in their pregnant mother’s presence and these stimuli mold the unborn baby’s brain.
A beautiful thing about the human mind (and perhaps the minds of other animals) is first that we have a vast capacity to acquire knowledge. Second, we can use that knowledge to temper our reactions to instinct. And we can transfer that knowledge to future generations or other societies. An example of this tempering of instinct would be the “Ten Commandments” of Judeo-Christian tradition. The problems start to occur when the reasons for tempering instinct either prompt society to completely suppress instincts or when the reasons for the tempering (thou shalt not do “x”) are put forth as “because I (or some other being) said so”. This is where we get to beliefs. A belief is a mental acceptance of a claim as true.
Beliefs exists because we either:
• Don’t have knowledge to deal with situations or observations (e.g., believing that the Sun is a chariot of fire racing across the sky)
• Don’t have the instinct in dealing with the situations (e.g., since the branches of human evolution’s tree do not include flying monkeys, we have no “instinct” about flying; conversely, as former tree dwelling creatures we have inherited instincts about falling and snakes).
• Not knowing can be very anxiety producing, so we “make things up” to explain what we do not or cannot know.
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As
a scientist, that anxiety of not knowing translates into actions that
have helped me acquire knowledge to fill in the blanks about nature; as
an introspective person, that anxiety has forced me to question my own
picture of myself.
Some might accept a superficially rational
explanation such as “the world is flat” because lacking an understanding
of gravity precludes grasping living on a sphere. The most pervasive
anxiety of not knowing something manifests itself as our own internal
representation of ourselves. Very few of us are aware or enlightened
enough to have an accurate representation of ourselves, so we make
things up. Worse, we go to extreme efforts to maintain the integrity of
that internal image of ourselves because if we don’t the anxiety,
psychic pain, and physical consequences can be overwhelming.
Paradoxically these attempts to preserve our internal beliefs about
ourselves can be life threatening (think body dysmorphic disorder), or
dangerous to others (think megalomania). In broad terms, this
representation of ourselves is analogous to “Ego” especially as we use
the term in day-to-day situations.
On the other hand, the
“perfect” ego is an absolutely accurate representation of ourselves – it
is a state of knowledge, not belief, and one that very few have
acquired. Knowledge of yourself allows you to trust yourself. If you
don’t know yourself, you are left “believing” in yourself. If you or
someone else had to do something to save a situation would you feel more
comforted by a trust in yourself or someone based on your or their
previous actions (knowledge) or a hope in yourself or someone else
because there is no other alternative except nihilism (belief)?
My
observations and others’ scientific inquiries have drawn me to a
construct of instincts, knowing, and believing that is germane to both
martial arts, living closer to the natural world, and (even) being more
successful and happy in general. These are some of the points:
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• We have instincts that can allow any human to protect themselves and their families
•
These instincts are VERY powerful but most of us have a diminished
experience of them because we are not faced with life threatening
situations on a regular basis.
• We are born with very limited knowledge and NO beliefs.
• Knowledge can augment our instincts;
So, knowledge + instinct = superior outcome.
BUT: knowledge can interfere with instincts if we “overthink” things.
• Beliefs (often) diminish our instincts; so, beliefs + instinct = inferior outcome
BUT: sometimes our instincts--not our beliefs--guide us to success; this just reinforces the belief.
• Beliefs, especially when held in the face of contrary evidence, can cause psychic or physical pain.
•
Beliefs drive us to acquire things that support the belief and not get
closer to knowledge – even though we might be fooled into thinking that
we are acquiring knowledge.
• The ego (our internal representation of ourselves) can either be based on knowledge or fantasy (unsupported beliefs).
•
Because few of us have perfect egos (i.e.., fully accurate version of
ourselves) in times of stress or crisis making choices that serve our
ego rather than being driven by instinct and knowledge can and usually
does produce undesirable outcomes.
The inability or
unwillingness to subordinate the ego is a primary failure in crisis
situations. It is easier said than done to subordinate the ego because
we have so very much invested (usually psychologically) in our beliefs
about ourselves.
In the martial arts, the following additional points
are germane:
• Knowledge can be lost or hidden
(E.g., many ethnic dances have origins in martial knowledge).
•
Knowledge can be hidden but transmitted knowingly or unknowingly to
practitioners. Think capoeira, native American war dances, Irish step
dancing, cakalele [a war-dance from North and Central Maluku in Indonesia].
• Many who have discovered real principles lacked
the ability to explain those principles to students; students filled in
the blanks with beliefs but missed the truth.
• There are arts where
knowledge is revealed only to the persistent either because the
teachers cannot articulate the knowledge or the knowledge is considered
too valuable to be conferred on the dilettante.
• Beliefs get in the way of advancing in an art where there is available knowledge
Sometimes
the truth is at odds with our mental representations of ourselves or an
art. Until one abandons their emotional connection to that
representation, they will have great difficulty in tempering their
instincts with knowledge. If you believe something is impossible and
cannot trust that it is possible, you will never be able to do
it.
Advancing in martial arts is no different than the most successful
paths for advancing in life or business – unless the life and business
you endeavor to succeed in is founded on subterfuge.
All this has
caused me to constantly increase my knowledge, challenge and even
abandon my beliefs, and get more in touch with my instincts.
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Are YOUR beliefs holding you back?
Don't think outside the box.
Get RID of the box.
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CONGRATS TO NEW GC 1ST DEGREES!
Dennis Cook
Michael McNulty
Amanda DeBold
Bernard Rozenberg
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CINCINNATI / SAN FRANCISCO SEMINARS... |
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HURRY--CINN. EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT ENDS AUG. 15
~ SAVE $50 ~
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Can I learn how to fight for my life in 1 weekend?
Guided Chaos is the fastest way to learn how to fight for your life for 2 reasons:
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2. It provides you with a training methodology that can take you to the highest levels of mastery in the shortest period of time, without digression, formality or esoteric nonsense. While #2 can't be accomplished in a weekend, you can knocks years or decades off your goal to maximize whatever physical attributes you already have.
Guided Chaos uses Physics and Anatomy. Period. But its physics and nervous system training has been hailed by leading movement scientists as beyond anything they've ever experienced. In fact, one of them called John Perkins "The Einstein of Non-linear Learning."
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GUIDED CHAOS is the GREASE that makes
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"After experiencing Contact Flow hands-on with the experts, I consider it to be the 'piece de resistance' of martial arts."
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--Dr. Jan Bloem, one of Europe's leading authorities teaching special police and military special operation units, www.datmovement.nl |
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"Guided
Chaos should be required training for anyone interested in push hands
and the self-defense aspects of the internal arts."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--Sifu Ken Gullette, certified as an instructor with the U.S.
Chen Family, connected directly to the
Chen Village tai chi school through Grandmaster Chen Xiaoxing. http://www.internalarts.typepad.com/ |
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WANT A SEMINAR IN YOUR AREA?
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DVD, they each have critical training not found in the other.
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"WOW." I just watched like 4 minutes of the new GCC video. WOW. I've been using and training GCC since 2000 and GC since 2003. You guys know my story:) I'm actually speechless. It's that good and has evolved that much! Just the little course correction, I watched on the GCC chop (saying "hi") is a gold mine and could be a life saver when fractions of a second count. I'm very honored to be considered part of the GC family. I'm so impressed that you never stop refining and finding ways to make this art teachable to all kinds of people. Love you guys." --Bob
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GUIDED CHAOS is the GREASE that makes
all your OTHER training work BETTER.
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WHICH DVD OR DOWNLOAD SHOULD I GET?
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NOTE: Because of how they are edited, Guided Chaos DVDs and On Demand Downloads have more vital info packed into them than virtually any other self defense DVDs available.
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Guided Chaos: the free-form, simultaneous attack and defense system
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