Some years ago on my first NLP Trainer training I was fortunate enough to have a vivid demonstration of how as human beings we make meaning from everything we interact with.
The very excellent Peter Freeth sat on the floor and invited us to join him, as he told us about the origins of his family name he gave each of us a pin in blue tack and a small square of paper, 5 cm x 5 cm, creased from corner point to corner point as if an X had been placed in the middle. After a little more chat he asked us to place the center of the X on the tip of the upturned pin (the head buried in a stabilising dollop of blu tack). As we sat there watching some began to twist and spin, we placed our hands either side of the experiment careful not to waft air towards them, to see what if any difference it would make.
Some continued to spin, others stopped and went the other way.
Our instructions were to make the ‘top’ do something it wasn’t, so if it was moving – to be still, without touching it or blowing on it etc, merely to imagine the top doing what we willed as an image in our minds. We all set to diligently flexing our mental muscles.
Peter left us to ‘mentally’ send the messages to our little spinning tops for a short while, some people reported immediate success others limited success and some no perceivable and then came one of the the best questions for processing I’ve ever heard.
“What do you make of that?”
For some people they guessed it was tiny air currents invisible to our eyes and sensory equipment, for others the interconnectedness of scenario universe, even quantum mechanics, everyone had a different idea of what was going on, none more valid than any other in that context. There was a wide range of ideas, some based on scientific theories others from the paranormal some mysticism and more.
We all had views, made meaning of what was happening before our eyes, we constructed explanations, reasoned with other points of view and decided on a meaning for each of us.
And this really brought home to me just how much meaning can be made and in such variety by different people witnessing the same event. Depending on your own experiences you can make meaning in many ways. For me one of the keys to freedom is to realise when you are making meaning based on your own experiences instead of someone else’s and when you notice you’re using someone elses map of the world to stop and say to yourself,
The very excellent Peter Freeth sat on the floor and invited us to join him, as he told us about the origins of his family name he gave each of us a pin in blue tack and a small square of paper, 5 cm x 5 cm, creased from corner point to corner point as if an X had been placed in the middle. After a little more chat he asked us to place the center of the X on the tip of the upturned pin (the head buried in a stabilising dollop of blu tack). As we sat there watching some began to twist and spin, we placed our hands either side of the experiment careful not to waft air towards them, to see what if any difference it would make.
Some continued to spin, others stopped and went the other way.
Our instructions were to make the ‘top’ do something it wasn’t, so if it was moving – to be still, without touching it or blowing on it etc, merely to imagine the top doing what we willed as an image in our minds. We all set to diligently flexing our mental muscles.
Peter left us to ‘mentally’ send the messages to our little spinning tops for a short while, some people reported immediate success others limited success and some no perceivable and then came one of the the best questions for processing I’ve ever heard.
“What do you make of that?”
For some people they guessed it was tiny air currents invisible to our eyes and sensory equipment, for others the interconnectedness of scenario universe, even quantum mechanics, everyone had a different idea of what was going on, none more valid than any other in that context. There was a wide range of ideas, some based on scientific theories others from the paranormal some mysticism and more.
We all had views, made meaning of what was happening before our eyes, we constructed explanations, reasoned with other points of view and decided on a meaning for each of us.
And this really brought home to me just how much meaning can be made and in such variety by different people witnessing the same event. Depending on your own experiences you can make meaning in many ways. For me one of the keys to freedom is to realise when you are making meaning based on your own experiences instead of someone else’s and when you notice you’re using someone elses map of the world to stop and say to yourself,
“What else could this mean?”
What meanings have you made recently that when you really think about them are developed from other peoples maps of the world (ideas) rather than your own experience?
and how could you see them in a different light?
What meanings have you made recently that when you really think about them are developed from other peoples maps of the world (ideas) rather than your own experience?
and how could you see them in a different light?
from your own map of the world?
In more useful ways?
[Read more...]Source: http://www.andrewduffy.co.uk/tip-76-we-are-meaning-making-machines/
