how to lose your generality

In 2023 I wrote one paper on category theory and another in theoretical ecology, accidentally making generality my home. The trouble with a home as big as generality is that I struggle to ever leave; despite knowing there can be no whole without it’s parts, I have forgotten how to pursue specifics¹.

Determined to provoke macroscopic change and interdisciplinary connections, it was reasonable that my motives trended towards the general for some time. The problem with this state however, is that engaging with specifics is a skill which often yields wider good; even in the science of generalising complex systems², one must employ particular models and tools. Beyond this, my aversion has hindered my ability to take action. Think of the generality of talking about going for a walk, versus the specificity of setting one foot in front of the other to actually walk it. In reality, a balance must be struck whereby “talking” induces reflection and synthesis, whilst “walking” allows for application and testing.

So, please enjoy this step by step account of a specific book Cognitive Hypnotherapy³ by a specific individual Trevor Silvester.

we are placebos (TAOTM)

Trevor Silvester’s notion of cognitive hypnotherapy is strikingly reasonable, with the idea that “believing nothing to be true sets you free, because then everything needs to be only be useful” at it’s forefront. This idea on beliefs is restricted to ones’ illusion of the world or reality tunnel, claimed to evolve from a causal model deemed The Algorithms Of The Mind (TAOTM) which take some composition of the remembered past, percieved present and imagined future as input. Bricks of a reality tunnel are thus the sensory distortions output by TAOTM called trance phenomena⁴, and contradicted my expectations in that they need not describe deep altered states. Rather, one is in a hypnotic trance whenever their attention is not strictly in the present.

According to Silvester, these trances are also responsible for ones’ sense of self, such that manipulating TAOTM should allow us to directly mould ourselves through our perception of reality. Consider for example how your behaviour and sensory experience is altered when you stumble upon a beautiful sunset: life seems to slow down (time distortion) and you stop in place, forgetting what you were doing before looking up (amnesia), you might even notice a dragon dancing in the clouds (positive hallucination) that brings back your childhood smile (age regression).

But now one might ask, “how am I expected to reach into my mind and purposefully manipulate its’ algorithms?” to which I might respond, “first you must reach into a particular problem state *I freeze or “talk”* and identify a specific solution state *I “walk”* that you desire in response to the problem stimulus *when attempting to “walk”*”. From there it is a process of honing in on the underlying patterns⁵, following which the appropriate interventions can be applied. The book maps these out rather systematically⁶, yet remains mindful that a mind can be fooled in many ways. In fact, interventions might often adress multiple patterns depending on what one believes will be useful, depending on one’s willingness or primacy to respond to a certain placebo.

To maximise success, Silvester gives us a most universal key with the art of wordweaving⁷. Alternatively referred to as the science of suggestion, this concept is self explanatory and builds upon patterns in neuro-linguistic programming with which words may be woven to better sculpt any reality tunnel. Most enjoyable about this method, is that although it recognises the importance of submodalities⁸ (SMD’s) it doesn’t require their explicit understanding for effective communication between perceptive qualities. Instead of suggesting one “think of the colour associated to surprise” for instance, a wordweaver might ask one to “think back to a time when you were surprised and notice what quality associates to the feeling” such that the SMD needs only it’s function to be understood. Alternatively, an if can be used to hijack ones mind into believing itself, asking “if there was a colour associated to the feeling of surprise, what colour would that be?” allows for the inception of our desired association if no such thing exists.

walking the walk (Interventions)

Putting this knowledge to use in a coherent example, I will attempt to resolve my problem pattern in an important bid towards self congruence.

Problem State: When attempting to learn or create something specific and encountering any obstacle, I assume my lack of knowledge or skills are the hinderance and seek to blindly tackle those first (this is dysfunctional as the process of continuing to engage often results in necessary things being learned or created and may be likened to bottom-up thinking).

Solution State: When attempting to learn or create something specific and encountering any obstacle, I am unworried to complete the task with presence and the understanding that I can later pursue neglected obstacle if necessary and comforted that the gains will be valuable regardless.

Intervention: Of Silvester’s proposed interventions, Spinning and Anchoring seem most obvious to me. In light of this problem, I will choose only spinning whilst reserving anchoring for the pursuit of creating a non-specific downregulator and upregulator in future.

Spinning

“Get comfy… I want you to think back to a time when you encountered an obstacle whilst pursuing a specific, well justified task… imagine yourself going through the motions, the setting, the start… now think of the feeling which is urging you to quit this task…

1. If you could point to where you get this feeling where would you point
2. If the feeling was spinning in a direction, in what direction would it be spinning?
3. Now notice the difference it makes when you slow it down, does this make it stronger or weaker
4. ASSUMING WEAKER: notice how much slower it needs to get before the feeling disappears, let me know when it has. ASSUMING STRONGER: same as weaker but instead try speeding it up
5. If you started spinning it the other way, what does that make you want to do? and what would you call that feeling?
6. Other SMDs can be included i.e. as its spinning if it had a colour, how does spinning change the colour, better worse etc.”

Continue as such until the desired feeling is reached.

sealing the deal (Post Hypnotic Suggestion)

Following any intervention, it’s important to prime one to consolidate those things which are evidence of success by Future Pacing a trance which will continue to distort their reality tunnel. With each invocation of this trance, the solution state will only become stronger until one is who they wish to be.

“From today every time you find yourself encountering an obstacle in the pursuit of something new… look at your body and notice the difference in how you feel *calling back to the final spinning state*… and notice how easy it feels to continue pursuing your task… notice how safe you feel knowing that this time and effort will make you a more knowledgable and capable person… notice how good it feels to wonder how much stronger this capable state will become every time you successfully continue a task…”