From: Michael M. Butler (butler@comp*lib.org)
Date: Wed Nov 26 1997 - 06:29:05 MST
>Very interesting stuff indeed, from what little I've read. I find it to
>be quite congruent with, and complementary to, the studies of focused
>attention one finds in the literature of meditation. Particularly the
>concept found in Buddhist (vipasana) and Zen meditation of constant
>mindfulness or bare and precise attention at all moments of
>consciousness. It seems to me (without having gone through a
>practitioner training myself) that the NLP focus on detailed observation
>could serve to develop these faculties.
Never having formally done Zen or vipanasa, all I can say is that the
congruency has occurred to me as a possibility, too. The hazards seem
similar, too--am I falling asleep? am I ego-tripping? am I only kidding
myself that I am seeing something at a particular time?
But some approaches invite a kind of relaxed split attention, which is
probably not true Zen: you still have a little agenda nudging you along,
whether that's playfulness or generative change or whatever.
One simple (silly?) example, illustrative of the kinds of things Grinder,
Delozier & Associates were using as, I think, a combination of warm-up
exercise and research: without letting it become the exclusive focus of
attention, see if you can, in the course of a normal conversation,
correlate the other person's lip dimensions and color with some aspect of
the communication you are having. Make a determination. Complete the
conversation. Check your results with another person doing the same
exercise with that particular person.
No guarantee is made that you will see the same thing. But isn't it
interesting what a room full of people can (think?) they see? Did everybody
just groupthink their way along? Hmmmm.
And I remember sharply the discovery that "simple" is not identical with
"easy". :) :)
>Hmmm, I'm interested in reading the results of even poor-methodology
>studies in the area. Any references would be appreciated.
I don't have the info ready at hand. Third-party accounts disagree over
what the results meant, but that in itself means little. I'll post to the
group if I find good source material.
>mez
MMB
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