|
|
Transontology Programs
|
Structural Assumptions of TransontologyThe structural assumptions of Transontology are largely based on practical experience. This differs from the Axioms, which are taken almost verbatim from the Vedic tradition of Vedanta, and the Corollaries derived from them by deductive logic. Some of these structural assumptions are unique to Transontology; others are borrowed from General Semantics, cybernetics, experimental science and other fields. The common factor is that they are extremely useful rules of thumb for the practical application of Transontology. When we use them, we find that our methods work much better than when we don’t. You will probably notice that all the Transontology structural assumptions have a positive perspective. If you continue doing what you’re doing now, you are very likely to continue getting the same result.The structural assumption here is that we are each responsible for and at cause over our own lives. Though we may not be able to control what goes on in the world around us, we can always control how we respond to those events. If we want to change what is happening in our lives, then we have to change our attitudes and activities. If we always act and respond in the same way, then the most likely result is that things will remain the same. This is also why making a decision on the basis of “that’s the way we’ve always done it” is so often a prelude to disaster. If you want something different you must do something different, and keep changing your behavior until you get the result that you want.The second structural assumption is that there’s a solution to every problem as long as you’re prepared to keeping on looking until you find it. Life is so complex that very often it is not possible to reason our way to a workable solution. So if something is not working the way we want, we have to adjust our activity and test the result to see if it gives us the outcome we desire. This leads us straight to the next structural assumption: The person with the greatest number of choices in a given situation is likely to get the best outcome.This is related to the idea of the BATNA (best alternative to non-agreement). If you go into a situation with only one outcome in mind, and you can’t achieve that particular result, then you’re up a dead-end street. If, on the other hand, you have several acceptable outcomes in mind (prioritized from the most preferred to the least preferred, of course) then it is very likely that you will be able to achieve at least one of your acceptable outcomes. You cannot not communicate.Some people imagine that they can avoid personal responsibility by simply saying or doing nothing. This structural assumption points out that we are constantly communicating―by what we say, by what we don’t say, and by a host of nonverbal signals. There is more to be gained by taking responsibility for one’s actions and communicating completely and honestly, than by trying to stay aloof. The meaning of your communication is the response you get.The structural assumption here is that people respond to what they think you mean, which may or may not be an accurate interpretation of your intended meaning. In this context, communication means the whole message: not only what you said, but also all of the accompanying nonverbal signals. The value of this structural assumption is that it points out that if we want people to respond appropriately, then we need to communicate with them rather than at them. That is, we should constantly be aware of others’ responses, and adjust our communication accordingly. This interactive approach to communication will give much better results than just assuming that they will automatically understand what we intend. Everyone has all the resources they need to deal with their presenting problem.This structural assumption is a bit tricky. The real meaning is that at some level we already know how we created the problem we are most concerned with in the present moment, and therefore we already know all we need to resolve it. This isn’t quite the same as saying that we all have whatever resources or capabilities we need to get us out of any situation. Even if we accept the structural assumption as stated, in practice we must acknowledge two preconditions: To utilize a resource we must:
A person with a pressing present-time problem may not be able to access the earlier incidents that led him to create the preconditions of that problem. For example, as a young child someone may have had difficulty with learning to read, leading to creating the attitude that “I can’t read.” Now as an adult, the same person may find it difficult to keep up with developments in his professional field. His lack of reading comprehension is a self-created problem, but he honestly cannot recall creating it. The solution is for him to examine his attitudes around his difficulty until he realizes, “I can read! Anyone can increase their reading comprehension by looking up words in the dictionary, or taking one of the courses available on the Internet.” The key here is educating him in Transontology until he understands that he has the ability to examine his own mind and its programs, and change them at will. Every behavior has a positive intention.This is possibly the most controversial of the Transontology structural assumptions, since it is so open to misinterpretation. What it actually means is that every behavior has a positive intention, as far as the person exhibiting the behavior is concerned. This does not mean that every behavior is the best possible choice from an objective point of view. Nor does it mean that the behavior will have positive benefits for anyone else. A classic example of what we might call ‘inverted positive intention’ is the behavior of the insecure executive who gains reassurance from sexually harassing subordinates. The solution to this kind of inappropriate behavior is to find an alternate way of satisfying the intention by more appropriate means. Perhaps the manager has a latent interest in a hobby or some spiritual activity. By encouraging this interest, he could regain enough self-esteem that he no longer needs to bully his employees. Every behavior is appropriate in some context.Another way of putting this is: we adopt certain behaviors because once upon a time they worked. The trouble is, we often go on using a certain behavior even though it is no longer appropriate. If we accept this structural assumption, then we can also understand that the most effective solution is to develop a new, more appropriate behavior. Letting go and moving on is a skill that facilitates growth and change. Holding a lengthy postmortem over the old behavior is not only pointless, it is more likely to reinforce that old behavior. A map is not the territory it depicts; words are not the things they describe; symbols are not the things they represent.This may well be the single most important structural assumption in Transontology. It was originally stated by Alfred Korzybski, the founder of General Semantics. In very simple terms it means that consciousness is always slightly separated or abstracted from external reality. Even the sensations of our senses are not the things they represent to our mind and consciousness. We all create an internal map of reality (an ontology), but the map is not the place it depicts, and may even differ from it substantially. Words are only a kind of symbolic shorthand for the things they describe. The same with logic. Optimum sanity means that we respond to what is actually happening, rather than complaining that things aren’t as they ‘ought to be’ as shown on our map. Your mind and body are indivisible parts of the same system.The structural assumption that our body and mind are separate entities was a developed by the medical profession during the 1930s and 40s. Despite its position literally at the head of the central nervous system, mainstream medicine considered that, for all practical purposes, the influence of the mind stopped at the neck. If there was something wrong with your body―from a sniffle to malignant cancer―the only solution was some kind of physical treatment. That concept may be useful for selling medical treatments to an uninformed public, but it hardly corresponds to the reality of the relationship between the body and mind. More recent scientific evidence shows beyond reasonable doubt that the mind and body are very tightly coupled. For example, the immune system is integrally linked to brain activity, thus mental stress can inhibit immune system performance, leading to a lower state of general health. Thus we find that when a person analyzes their symbolic representations using the principles of Transontology, their state of health automatically increases. This occurs because the mind, being relieved of the stress of using an outdated or inaccurate map of reality, ceases to be a cause of stress to the whole body. If one person can do something, anyone else can learn to do it.One of the key activities in Transontology is the modeling of people who are recognized by their peers as excelling in some field of activity. This modeling helps us identify what they do differently from others, that gives them such remarkable results. Once these differences are identified, they can be communicated to other people, who can then learn to perform with a similar level of skill and excellence. Of course, the person learning the skill must have the necessary aptitude, interest and motivation, and be willing to carry out the necessary self-development effort. In other words, it is easy enough to model the activity of a world class musician. But someone who has bad hearing, is severely lacking in talent or refuses to consistently put in the necessary hours of practice, is unlikely to be able to translate the modeled information into a personal skill. Fortunately, in the case of spiritual advancement, everyone has the necessary facilities. Since every one of us is a spirit soul, we all have the ability to become self-realized. The only question is whether we have the desire and determination to do the necessary inner work. There is no such thing as failure, only feedback.When something doesn’t go as we plan, we tend to see it as failure. Depending on the situation we might respond by getting angry, irritated, sad, depressed, worried, guilty or whatever―none of which serves any useful purpose. But what happens if we see the situation as feedback, rather than failure? Or a lesson of how not to do something? Instead of being wrong or failing, we’ve learned something. Instead of wasting time and energy by feeling bad, we are free to improve our plan of action and try again. Thomas Edison experimentally tested over 1,000 materials which are not suitable for light-bulb filaments before he found one that worked well enough for practical use. A high percentage of best-selling books were turned down by more than two dozen publishers before they were accepted for publication. And always remember the poor A&R man at Decca records who rejected the Beatles as having no future in music! Change makes change.It is a fact that the only person you can really change is yourself. Transontology goes one step further, and also acknowledges that changing your own behavior inevitably has an effect on the people around you. The underlying notion, derived from cybernetics, is that when one element of a complex interdependent system changes, the whole system must change to adapt to it. There is a fascinating little experiment which demonstrates the truth of this presupposition. Groups of three people were seated in an otherwise empty room in such a way that they were each more or less facing both of the other two people. Nobody spoke, no one moved around, gesticulated or otherwise sent overt non-verbal messages. And yet, in every trial, it took no more than two minutes for the person with the strongest feelings at the time, positive or negative, to engender the same emotion in the other two people. Genuine understanding comes only from experience.You can read all you like, and talk to as many experts as you like, and watch other people doing something on video―but you don’t really understand it until you personally have done it. |
Questions? Comments? Contact:
