Player for audio file at end of text. Welcome to Episode III of the Infinite Potential Series. Opening wide the eye of the heart. Episodes I & II discussing Radical Life Extension - slowing the aging process and threats to humanity's existence were both exciting and stressful. How do we have good, better than good, wonderful lives in spite of the worldwide crisis in consciousness, the chaos and turmoil as the old world order fades and something new is being born? A: I assert there are learning experiences that, like a rising tide, has the potential to lift all our ships. And for those who (get the hang of this concept) mindfulness become aware enough - the tide transforms to a creative wind of self actualization beneath our wings. There are simple, powerful, established principles. Self knowledge tools hidden in plain view. Overlooked Jewels just lying around. D: If these concepts are so obvious why don't more people apply them? A: Part of it is conditioning. It is hard to break free of cultural trances. Using media to condition people increases power and profit. D: How does the ordinary human being transform the quality of day to day life? How do we even begin to talk about it? A: One good way might be to recognize that there is a science and art to bringing about healthy change. Self regulation is part of it. Self regulation includes stress science and to learn it and practice it costs nothing. Actually it is profitable. The good news is that the rate of change for all of us is increasing. That is also the bad news. That means we need to learn excellent self regulation skills and we need to apply them on a full time, top priority, emergency basis. D: You have been presenting the notion of radical or extreme self regulation and stress management training for a long time. A: Excellent self regulation skills are necessary in order to reduce suffering, accumulate energy, make thinking more coherent, clarify the mind and increase creativity. Don't you think? D: Of course, but sounds like hard work. It should also be fun. A: It can be. But I think doing the best one can to learn and apply change, that is self regulation mind body strategies is choiceless. What is the alternative? In Episodes I an II we have tried to set the stage for what I think is, perhaps, the greatest adventure of mind, body, spirit a human being can have. Self regulation leads to self knowledge which unfolds life changing potential. D: Everyone wants to understand how to better handle the crises that come to us all. A lot of people find understanding their own minds painfully difficult. A: We all have become discouraged, even depressed at times because getting results with our own minds seems so complicated, illusive. It is possible to help some people discover actions and ways to work which can produce breakthroughs - often amazingly fast. Also, we learn in The Process... D: How far can we go in Episode III? A: We can make a productive, start. If we move too fast some may feel overwhelmed and lost. D: Too slow and some may feel bored. A: It's a delicate dance. We must use language carefully so we all understand the meanings of words that are key to the process of mindfulness - of consciousness. English is a young language and scientists working on consciousness are defining and redefining words that we use all the time but often misunderstand - and assume we know the meanings of. Words like happiness, consciousness, thinking , attention, creativity, meditation, contemplation, mindfulness, mindfitness, awareness, self regulation, stress science, spirituality even words like atheism, agnosticism and religious have different meanings to many people. We can prevent much misunderstanding and gain lots of insight if we are clear about our definitions of words. Older, more mature languages such as Sanskrit, Tibetan, Pali, Greek, Chinese, Aramaic, Hebrew and others have words for describing subtle qualities of consciousness - of mind - which are difficult to translate into English. Scientists and others are working to bring those words and concepts into English and other modern languages. This process is a most beautiful art, science and technology. D: The word is not the thing and the description is not the described. A: Yet words are necessary. We can't assume everyone understands them in the same way. D: You say self regulation and stress management is a critically necessary foundation for improving the quality of life. Some might not agree. Can you explain that better? A: Let me answer briefly and then I'd like to focus on just one critically important word. After that we will probably be out of time for Episode III. We will go more deeply in Episode IV. D: What word would you like to start with? A: How about happiness? D: Great. Now why is radical self regulation and stress management so important? A: To increase the quality of life one must increase the quality of consciousness. Enhancing consciousness takes tremendous energy. A bucket full of holes wastes all the water you pour into it. If a person is not practicing self regulation and stress managment competently then they are like a bucket full of holes and cannot accumulate the quantity and quality of energy necessary to enhance their own mental capabilities - consciousness. Paradoxically, low energy causes psychesthenia which means over thinking and disassociation. Furthermore, psychesthenic thoughts tend to be incoherent and fearful which further drives unhealthy stress and blocks creativity and awareness. Conversely, reducing the maladaptive stress response allows energy to build, the brain to run quieter leading to more coherent thinking. In addition, the alpha theta brain wave mix gets richer causing an increase in creative imagery. Self regulation increases awareness, mindfulness which increases ability to watch thinking more clearly. This causes thinking to become even more coherent. Using Maslow's stages of actualization, I believe we tend to self actualize in proportion to how well we watch ourselves think. So, in a sense, all a person has to do is quiet the voluntary nervous system (muscles), which leads to balancing the autonomic system (emotions) which further leads to quieting the central nervous system which leads to the stabilization of attention which leads to ... D: Learning how to transform the moments of life. Mindfulness? A: Perfect. Being a serial transformer of one's own reality. D: What role does faith play? A: For some people their belief, religious, agnostic or atheistic can be a powerful form of self regulation and stress management. D: Krishnamurti once said, "As we are concerned with the total development of the student and not of any one particular aspect, attention which is all inclusive becomes important. This total development is not conceptual - that is, there is no blueprint of the totality of the human mind. The more the mind uses of itself, the greater is its potentiality. The capacity of the mind is infinite." A: That's inspirational. D: We'll come back to self regulation later but now what is happiness? How do we understand it? Is it an illusion? A: Your joie de vie is one of the greatest gifts life has given me. Through happiness and sorrow, you are the happiest person I've ever known. So what do you think? D: I'm so grateful for my life but I was trying to speak for our listeners. A: In our culture most people like to learn through the medium of science. For example, Martin Seligman one of the most influential psychologists has studied happiness for decades. He is a Fourth Wave psychologist who is advancing the field called Positive Psychology. Since the forties psychology has been almost completely focused on treating disorders. The medical model. To psychology's credit these treatments have reduced the total tonnage of suffering in the world. However, Seligman wants psychologists and educators like us to help people who are more or less functional to focus on unfolding hidden potentials - to increase creativity, the joy in their lives. Rather than helping people go from say a -5 to a -2 he wants us to think in terms of helping people go from a +2 to a +6. Instead of focusing on what's wrong with you and trying to fix it, let's focus on what's right with you and amplify that. To increase the total tonnage of happiness in the world. D: But what, exactly is happiness? A: Happiness is a vague term for many things. Seligman describes three major kinds of happiness which are workable in today's world. It is interesting that they correlate well with Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs and stages of actualization. D: You mentioned him before. Who is he? A: A famous psychologist who inspired Seligman. Abraham Maslow taught that humans can actualize their potential and codified some of the stages of actualization which can also be thought about as stages or levels or dimensions of consciousness. D: Decades ago you began suggesting that teaching self regulation to people who were already functional could bring about a greater benefit to society than working with the sick ones. A: Ouch! that sounds pretty cold hearted. Healing the sick is critically important as well. I would have been dead long ago several times over if it were not for expert and timely medical care. As you, know your medical skills saved my life at least once. But I think we have to get both jobs done. The idea is that raising the consciousness of the relatively strong is the best way to raise the consciousness of the electorate and thereby bring improved benefits to everyone including those who are in trouble. For decades I focused on the clinical applications of biofeedback and self regulation and it was a wonderful way to earn a living. But now we have the opportunity to go back to our first love. Positive psychology, life and perfor
