Welcome to Our times, Today and Tomorrow. This episode is perception and the implications of felt meaning.
This is part of the Quest for Spirituality series. If you’re a leader or a thought leader, this could be the place for you.
What do the last several posts mean to us on perception involving Harnad’s cognitive research on felt meaning and Gendlin’s research about experience being essential to symbols such as words?
I won’t draw conclusions from their research. I’m not a cognitive scientist or a psychotherapist. But their work suggests many significant implications that I have seen in my other studies and experience.
There are wide implications for communication, attitude change, meaning in life, motivation, education, acting, and spaces. And I’m introducing the idea of spaces in this episode, which will be important in future episodes.
Image of Touch, Public Domain, from PxHere.com
Meaning in life
My specific interest is a subset of meaning that comes from experiences represented by symbols. Words are symbols. In his work, Gendlin deals with all experiences and meanings. Meaning is experiential. Symbols such as words have very little meaning to us until they are illuminated by knowledge and experience.
As a subset, I look at two things. First, how we communicate effectively? Second, what motivates us or moves us into action. Gendlin’s work provides a key - we comprehend words through experience. My belief is that meaning is experiential and can be compelling. It’s the compelling part that interests me.
My major focus is on understanding compelling spiritual concepts or ideas. These are concepts that compel people into action or expression in the world of beauty, art, dance, meaning, social psychology, justice, religion, and essentially all areas of human endeavor that are separate from physical needs.
They are fundamentally separate from the physical universe, yet felt physically because of the mind-body connection, which is essential. Meaning and motivation aren’t just abstract ideas, they are grounded in the mind, human body, and experience.
Gendlin showed that words are symbols that have meanings that depend on the person’s individual felt experience. Words have no inherent meaning.
For example, we can shout the word avalanche all day long but if the person hearing the word lacks experience through seeing one or being in one, the word lands with no meaning – its definition is just another variety of snow fall defined as: “a mass of snow, ice, and rocks falling rapidly down a mountainside.” If the person has watched an avalanche coming at them, there is strong experiential and physiological meaning. They are likely motivated to avoid avalanches. But the person who simply knows the definition is likely to tempt hazardous conditions.
I found that this theory of felt meaning worked very well with attitude change. Attitude change depends on three principles that determine behavior. These are the mental idea of something, which is the intellectual component. The second is the experiential component that provides emotional felt meaning. And the third is behavior, all of which create the resulting attitude. Attitude drives behavior.
Emotion is the most influential factor in forming attitudes. You can talk to people forever about an idea but their experiential emotional component will never be overridden. As Gendlin and Rogers found, felt meaning dominates. I work with all three components at once because focusing on just one is less effective.
Felt meaning has wide application in many fields including communications, education, and focusing on what we want.
When we communicate we may think that our words carry meaning. They don’t. They are symbols not any different from dead leaves. Words that have already been added to our neural nodes, when we hear them they stimulate mental neuro pathways, stirring emotions and body sensations. That’s a mouthful. It simply means that everyone is different. We don’t know if the person who receives our words understands us the same or at all.
I’ve lived in many places. I have a different, very complex, felt meaning about each of these. It’s created by my experiences in each.
A good example of felt meaning is the word radio. Radio has been very important in my life in many areas. I loved my first transistor radio and played rock and roll all day on it. I was an announcer at a regional station and had the first rock and roll show on that station.
The Navy sent me to school in electronics so I could maintain many types of radio transmitters. So I have many complex felt meanings from experience when I hear the word. One of the indirect feelings I had compelled me to leave that field.
When I say the word radio to other people, some understand the word as an object in their home or car that they listen to. For others it’s a form of broadcasting. For still others it’s a technical enterprise. Each person has their own frame of reference for the word.
What are the implications of Harnad and Gendlin’s research for communications
In terms of communicating, feeling is essential. It’s long recognized that ninety percent of communication effectiveness depends on body language. One extreme example is when someone’s feet are pointed toward the door. It often means they are uncomfortable and want to leave. Investigators use this physical sign as a potential indication of guilt.
The speaking robotic head without facial expression or inflection is not as effective to listen to. Robotic words may be less effective than reading a book since books contain descriptions of feelings and punctuation. Our face is our interface with the world. It reflects felt meaning which is like punctuation marks in a narrative but is much more expressive. Our bodies do the same thing as our face.
There are implications from this research for speakers
Politicians, pastors, teachers, business leaders, video podcasters, motivational speakers, and others need to know how communication is made more effective. It’s body language that does it. Body language, whether in the face, verbal emphasis, or from other parts of the body, lends credibility and emphasis to what you say. It’s about felt meaning. It means you feel what you communicate and it’s genuine.
Implications for actors
Even though many people might think acting is false, acting is a supreme communication method. It isn’t false. Whether it’s Method Acting or some other style that uses a similar method, actors emote from their own felt meaning. They express the unfolding drama (dramatic action) through their body language and verbal emphasis. Without doing it effectively it falls flat, a lame performance.
Implications for attitude change
In attitude change, felt meaning is the most significant and compelling part of attitude – it’s deeply tied to emotion. As clients or counselors, we can't overcome attitude with mere words. We have to gain insight into the person's experience and why they resist change. Then we have to work with those things.
In psychotherapy this is often known as deep therapy. It isn’t just reframing or talk therapy, it’s looking deep into what has shaped the person’s disturbance to identify and work with it. (I don’t do psychotherapy or clinical psychology but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand it.)
Implications for education
Felt meaning applies to education in that we understand things better experientially than through words. Experience with the topic is essential. We think education is wonderful in that we give huge amounts of information to people so that they can understand their professions and life.
In a way, current education by simply providing information is no different from the Nuremberg Funnel where the teacher pours information into the head of the student. It’s known as a weak teaching method.
The Socratic Method is a step up. It involves a shared dialogue between teacher and students. Gaming theory engagement is even better because it provides a small level of experience that is like homework but with an engaging challenge.
Actually stomping around in the field getting your feet wet and hearing related information is superior to all. All these methods combined would create better learning environments and it’s what MIT does in some community schools where they assist with education programs that feature sciences.
We need to emphasize experience in education. There should be practicums for all levels of education, not just masters and doctorates. If we did this then school would be much more interesting, and enlighten and intrigue people about their career choices.
Implications for speaking things into existence
We all can speak things into existence. We change the world with our words and body language. We shouldn’t belittle this. We make incredibly significant changes to our world, moving mountains, through our words and actions.
We tend to think of speaking things into existence like it's magic or a spooky spiritual thing. It’s reality. And just as importantly, we need to understand the impact of what we say to others so that we don’t say hurtful things but help others.
Speaking things into existence leads us into our next topic, spaces.
Implications for spaces and filling spaces
The word space usually refers to physical dimensions. But the 10th definition of space, according to Merriam Webster, is “the opportunity to assert or experience one's identity or needs freely.” Wonderful!
Lacking in the Merriam Webster definition of space is an abstract notion that can be applied to abstract thinking. We’re beginning to think of space in more virtual terms, not just personal space between people. This includes opportunity and things like, “taking up space in my head,” and public space in which everyone can participate. Everyone understands what we mean by the word space when it’s used in these ways – it’s an idea whose time has come.
Why is the notion of space important? It illustrates the human potential for growth. We aren’t in a closed system of thinking about human relations or spiritual ideas. Everything that can be hasn’t yet been thought of or created. We have boundaries to breach and new areas to enter. I’ll mention some of these after the next few paragraphs after discussing the more concrete ideas about space.
Several years ago I began talking about potential space. I’m not the only one to think of space in more abstract or virtual terms, although I have unique areas. There are the possibility space, the probability space, and the potential space to consider.
In the field of philosophy, some talk in terms of possibility space, contrasting possibility with necessity, sometimes referred to with a semantic mode such as can or must.
In games possibility space means the set of all possible moves rather than the move actually taken. Both metaphorically and literally, we can view possible moves as “an abstract decision space or conceptual space of possible meaning.”
Academics are trying to formalize a definition of possibility space because precise definitions are what academics do. Accordingly, “A possibility space is the variety of next interactions with the environment a human (or artificial) agent can imagine in the current situation.”
Possibility space isn’t a term I use. It isn’t my idea of potential space. My thoughts began by considering the universe's expansion. What is beyond the universe? Is it what we think of as space? Does it exist? Or could it be a potential space that does not yet exist but will exist when the universe expands and brings with it energy, matter, and the laws of physics? It’s a possibility without form, substance, or a pre-definition. This is a very abstract way of thinking.
My original thought was entirely about the physical. But then I found it useful to think of potential space in the realm of abstract thought, creativity, and spirituality.
This isn’t a set of potentials that can be defined because we have no idea what people might think up. It’s not physical and can’t be described mathematically. It’s more akin to infinite and undefinable. It’s the expansion of human thought into new areas.
A related term I’m using is probability space
By probability space I mean the time has come for something to occur. The moment is pregnant with a certain idea or a variation of it. In math a probability space is a set of all possible mathematical outcomes. But in the world of the mind it’s about potential conceptions of ways of being.
For example, years ago I proposed “Capitalism 2.0,” the next iteration of capitalism. It would address current problems, such as leaving people out and the transfer of wealth from the middle class to those who are already very wealthy. There are mechanisms by which both problems can be addressed and make everyone middle class or better off, and the wealthy even wealthier.
It’s probable that Capitalism 2.0 in some form or evolution will happen. Exactly what it will look like or be called is something we can’t see. But the potential is there and the moment is pregnant with possibility. It’s an idea whose time has come because there is a need and there is thinking that can address this need. Do a search for Capitalism 2.0 and see the proliferation of people now talking about it.
People can open potential and probability spaces for discussion. In this way they can determine if the time has come for that topic, partly based on whether others are thinking along similar lines. They can also determine if opportunities exist or opportunities can be created.
Why is it helpful to think in terms of virtual space in our minds? Because it breaks the false notion that humans are limited in what they can think and create. It tears down the false limiting barrier and frees the human spirit to soar.
So I’m advocating that these terms be placed into human standard language and conscience without strict definition. They should be described by descriptions that can grow, reflecting the nature of what they describe: a living idea that grows.
Our ability to create space is very relevant to human consciousness and our power to speak things into being.
When we feel an emptiness within us, this is a space of possibility, open and ready to be filled by things we discover that we realize are relevant to our future.
I’ll be adding the topic of potential spaces and probability spaces to future discussions.
What does this mean to us?
Any field that involves the use of symbols – usually words – to communicate needs people who understand that 90% of the effectiveness of communication comes through body language. Body language is a reflection of felt meaning. What we say comes from what we feel.
Our body language, which includes verbal emphasis and facial expressions, shows that we feel what we are saying. This means what we are saying isn’t just words floating through the air but genuine.
The potential and probability spaces remind us to explore new ideas. We have room for growth.
So I’ll ask you this as today’s potential and probability spaces
If you were to apply these ideas to meaning in life, what ideas do you find compelling in our overall human relations? Can you conceptualize your list as an aggregate at a higher level and explore what other similar or higher things might also be compelling?
Closing
In the next post we’ll look at consciousness and what it is. Can computers become conscious? It’s a good comparison.
Thank you for reading my post or listening to my podcast. I hope you’re enjoying this journey into the power of perceptions to misinform and destroy, and in communicating. If you are intrigued by my work, please subscribe.