S.E.L.F.: a "Science of Consciousness" approach!

S.E.L.F. or “Self-Explore and Learn through Feedback” is a complete system for awareness-raising, transformation, self-healing and for raising human potential. Its operation is based on a new “Science of Consciousness” paradigm that utilizes theories and practices that regard the subjective, system dynamics and bio-electromagnetism.

To Experience or not to Experience?
Psychology has mostly gone away from analyzing how we experience the world to therapeutically modifying how we react to how we experience the world. From psychoanalysis to behavioral therapy! Consequently 'evidence-based' research regarding cognition and behavior has been overemphasized while research regarding interpersonal therapies has not been given the importance that it deserves. The reason for this is that the latter poses problems that may result in outcome bias.

From a cognitive therapeutic perspective learning would therefore involve changing a person's behavior. But what about the patterns of action and reaction that created these behaviors in the first place. These are learned through upbringing, education and social conditioning. Can these conditioned actions and reactions be relearned to create a more sustainable experience of the world?

This article will present a view on how this relearning can spontaneously be achieved: 1) with a minimum of effort, 2) through awareness-raising, and 3) from within.

The Language of the Subjective
Just as we have a language through which we can express ourselves and interact with others within the objective domain (the environment), our subjective experiences also follow a language-like logic of expression, meaning, syntax, etc. within our subjective domain. This languaging can even be seen at a biological level where so-called "Coding DNA" interact with "Proteins". This “Coding” is a communication form that is based on a specific syntax (way of coding), sentences (DNA), words (gene expression) and chemical words. This is one of the many conclusions of the internationally renowned Human Genome Project.

At the Caribbean Integral Institute (www.ciiedu.org) in the Netherlands Antilles we've been working with a novel pulse process-diagnosis approach to isolate different subjective experiences and gain a deeper understanding of their: expression (in consciousness and bio-electromagnetically); meaning (normal: think, sense and attend | abnormal: fear, sad and reject); syntax (non-linear dynamic); etc. and have named this languaging the “Inner Response Dialogue” or IRD. We believe the connection between the IRD and gene expression to be the systemic basis for the connection between mind and body.

Within a neuropsychological context the IRD could be attributed as “bio-behavioral” and an expression of mind and body. For example, when you feel fear, your body simultaneously tenses up. This tensing up is caused by electrical stimulation from the central nervous system through the adrenal cortex and the stress-hormone “Cortisol”. When this electrical stimulation, which causes stress, continues to build up over a longer period of time it becomes “pathogenic” or is conducive to the creation of dis-ease. On the other hand when you feel happy, your whole body expresses that happiness and you feel elated.

Within another context the IRD can be connected with so-called “consciousness correlated anomalous physical phenomena”. Our observation reveals that when the IRD mainly expresses the subjective responses of fear, sadness and rejection or any other extreme emotional response it can indeed be considered “anomalous” or irregular. This can be observed by reading the bio-electromagnetic expression of the IRD through Pulse process-diagnosis.

With this discovery, the IRD, we can add a contextual framework and diagnostic practice that, to a large extent, allows the interpretation of subjective experience. Lets look a little bit closer at what the IRD entails.

How to Reveal the Subjective
The IRD which is an expression of so-called “system-confined consciousness” that occupies the subjective domain, is itself based on four dimensions: "self-confined" consciousness, time, energy and space. The mindful or “self-confined consciousness” viewpoint is the zero-dimension and unifying perspective from where we can witness how we experience reality through the IRD within the subjective domain and how we respond to the same through different behaviors. The “self-confined consciousness” on the one hand connects with “unconfined consciousness”, a field that transcends the subjective, and on the other with “system-confined consciousness”, which occupies the subjective. This describes the basis of all mindful practices.

S.E.L.F. or Self-Explore and Learn through Feedback offers theories, concept models and different reading (process-diagnostic) and feedback practices to reveal what holds together the subjective domain, namely the dimensions: time, energy and space. The reading and feedback practices are based on three different perspectives that regard subjective experience.

These reading and feedback perspectives are:

• Historic perspective (course of life) which reveals the dimension of 'time';
• Archetypal Patterning perspective (conditioned patterns of action/reaction copied from one's parents/guardians) which reveals the dimension of 'energy';
• Causal Dynamic perspective (present-moment dynamic interaction) which reveal the dimension of 'space'.

To Make a Shift within Consciousness
Our practical observation revealed that when a facilitator describes the above three dimensions time, energy and space through process-diagnosis, the learner instantly and automatically shifts from an “I” (system-confined consciousness) viewpoint to a mindful self (self-confined consciousness) viewpoint. This is when the facilitator acknowledges the viewpoint from where the learner is witnessing the IRD based patterns of action and reaction within the domain of the subjective. This naturally elicits a four-dimensional (4D) awareness which can be considered the "light of consciousness".

Uncover your innate Wisdom and Potential!
By mindfully witnessing and not automatically reacting to mentioned IRD mechanisms the learner then consciously allows the mind-body system to breach these mechanisms by reprocessing the traumatic experiences that feed them. Thus naturally ‘unlearning’ the patterns of action and reaction that cloud our perception and limit our innate wisdom and potential. When the learner is aware of his/her "mindful self" viewpoint; the dynamics of the IRD within the subjective domain; and its various expressions in the form of past impressions and present behavior; s/he can independently and consciously shift within and beyond "system-confined" consciousness, which raises his/her present-moment or 4D awareness. This 4D awareness-raising can be further stimulated through the interaction with people and situations in the environment. These tend to trigger and thereby reveal yet unseen patterns of action and reaction.

S.E.L.F. Assisted Learning
In S.E.L.F. reading and feedback practices are used to assist in raising the learner’s 4D present-moment awareness about the conditioned IRD mechanisms (mostly fear, sadness and rejection) that underlie psychosocial stress responses, ... our inner barriers. From the instant shift in consciousness that this elicits and consequent feedback, s/he will learn to gradually dissolve all inner limitations. This also immediately affects the situations that trigger these inner limitations. Facilitators not only employ mentioned reading & feedback instruments to assist in 'unlearning' the limitations imposed by the IRD but also assist, through feedback, in 'relearning' or transforming them into authentic mechanisms for inner dialoguing. This results in authentic behavior much like that of small children.

This process of 'unlearning' is set in by a few learning experiences (an average of three) and thereafter reinforced with mindful practices. Through subsequent practice learners establish the "mindful self" viewpoint as their new "home" and gradually breach and dissolve their inner barriers. The awareness and clarity about subjective experiences and in sync with the objective are enhanced with each mindful processing cycle and will be accelerated with each iteration. Through this cleansing experience learners regain their innate capacity to become co-creators of their own experiences and from beyond they gradually learn to manifest their true potential.

Conclusion
This transformational learning approach is for all to experience amazing new possibilities. It can be transferred, taught and has a reproducible psychological, emotional, bio-energetic, physical and observable effect. Beginners as well as professionals in any field are able to perform and utilize this work to affect change.
What is more, the exploration of the subjective, through tools for process diagnosis, can foster new ideas, give insights and initiate new developments in other fields.

[S.E.L.F. is a Creative Commons (www.creativecommons.org) development]