MILTON IN AUSTRALIA

17-11-2002 “SUCCESS” SEMINAR AT WOODSTOCK

(Notes taken by Pauline during Milton's Seminars in Australia).

It is important for us to recognise how we go about succeeding.

Don't take little successes for granted - even getting here today was a success.

AK - Noticed the Relationship between technology and how we thought.

Technology was expanding and improving incredibly - scientific method.

Reference Point - the answer to a question depends on your point of reference.

Thinking about how we think - evaluating our evaluations

Thinking <- -> feeling <- -> attitudes <- -> behaviour

RELATE to the

<- ENVIRONMENT (the environment(universe) doesn't care) ->

Try to make sure that the environment matches what we think and do –

Be as aware as you can be (map-territory)

VARIABLE – T1 - T2

We are variables - we change

Features of a situation you can change to make a difference

STRUCTURE - (as a verb) -

Be aware of how we structure a situation

Our opinions etc

different elements

The structures (things) around us

How we analyse is a structure of the environment

FUNCTION - e.g. y is a function of x

What we are aiming at

Self Awareness is very important and we often don't recognise how many we affect - WIGO-

Much better chances of success if you look closer at WIGO - M/T.

Evaluation

Exercise - Group of three - What do I want to be a success at?

Motherhood - functions of being a successful mother - what you could do -

Need an attitude of experimenting - cannot fail - when things don't work the way we expect them to work. Can think to themselves the message from the universe is saying, “there are other ways- look for variables"

e.g. - variable of going to the gym - component

Function - make the connection between the need to go to the gym to get fit –

See how it is related.

Need to recognise that with structure - you just don't call it that and when you do call it that, you can focus more

- Words for power make a difference

- Talking about the situation affects the way we structure it

Our success is a function of what you bring to the situation

- need to know yourself and be aware of what we bring to the situation

Often we don't use our intelligence as intelligently as we could.

We are bombarded with information every day, every second - 31million seconds per year X years an individual has been on earth - much of it is aristotolean in nature.

You are affected by it - but you can learn to modify it and be more aware of it.

CALCULUS - We can make better maps with more increments of information

Milton talking about driving instructing - Used to get the learners to verbalise everything they see,

no matter how small- they calmed down, noticed more and Milton could hear what they said they were looking at, and noticing. He also expanded on this at Wollongong and said that he came across the idea of the calculus in Science and Sanity - it made particular sense when parking the car – we have to look very closely, step by step, inch by inch when parking in a difficult spot. To be conscious of what you are doing, how you do it and take note of patterns, changes and rhythms- chop large, hard problems into many small, easy pieces.

ICON - Instances of Conditioning

We are bombarded by information 31,449,600 sec per year – i.e. 1,325,419,200 sec in my life so far. i.e. 22,090,320 minutes in my life so far which means LOTS of chances to be bombarded with information.

This is not all there is... etc;)

It is amazing how much more aware you are of what is around you when you stop and listen quietly- for sound, especially if you shut your eyes. We stopped to listen. I had been unaware of some of the bird noises, and of the quiet motor running the spinny optical illusion out the front. We watched a fascinating video of a man and a chair and then went into a group with Sandra, Andrew and Fred to discuss it.

Milton talked about a friend who gave him some insight. The person had a fantasy about Milton, and told him, and he said no, that is not how it would be, and the person said -This is my fantasy, not yours - you have no say".

Don't relate to the universe as if it is our fantasy, as it has no say. We often treat real life people like they are in “our" fantasy and they have no say. We need to ask ourselves how much we contribute to how things work out.

MILTON – Wednesday night at Fred and Agnes' home 20^th Nov 2002

Milton advised that we take an experimental approach to life - sometimes things do not work - this

indicates the universe is telling us something - there is something to learn about what goes on in

the universe around us.

Our Earliest Memory Exercise - I mentioned Sunday School- remembering Marilyn who I called Maryl, being called Beryl, because they misheard me.

- Becoming more acquainted with ourselves, and our first memory is significant in that WHY that particular memory is important enough for you to isolate it and remember it.

Second Exercise - First memory where we feel that we are a separate entity - I described feeling alone in the playground in infants school, and feeling very lonely, wishing I was home with my mother. An earlier similar significant memory occurred in preschool, when I knew my mum and grandmother would be in church that day - the preschool was next to the church, and I remember walking beside the church, probably crying, thinking that mum and nanna were in there and wanting them.

Most people chose an early school/daycare/emigrating situation as this memory.

This exercise demonstrates the GS principle of the organism-as-a-whole - GS is applying principles to ourselves - recognise what we are constructing from the situation.

Look at these things in myself now - how if affected me - those memories are significant Go with the flow - clutching your ideas closely when going into a situation makes it harder to really see WIGO and try to interact with the environment as realistically as possible.

Need to be aware, to realise what needs changing ~ change or become more aware ~ improve.

We have been conditioned ove a long period of time, and it is very hard to change.

We did a Precious Moments Exercise - Milton remembered ringing his Aunt at Christmas from

Canada - she raised Milton and his cousins (I don't think they were her children), and did a wonderful job - he had remembered a special moment, and rang to thank her for her joy (can't remember what exactly), and she said moments before his cousins who were with her in Jamaica and had just finished saying exactly the same thing to her. He felt very connected to them, and felt it was a very moving, precious moment.

The moment I recollected was Andrew's birth - how incredible those first moments were, and how

I deeply felt he was a very wise, old soul, who could teach me much. It was a very strong feeling - his eyes and his being radiated it - and to me he still demonstrates this. It significantly affected my parenting.

Ask yourself "what am I bringing to this situation at this time" - realise you are included in the whole of the situation. Don't have expectations - go with the flow.

Think about enjoying the journey - don't focus so much on the destination - eg when driving to Meryl's (Byron Bay) - until the very last moment you are not at your goal, so the gift is to enjoy the trip - appreciate the moments. Milton does that when driving to Milwakee from Toronto.

Milton- WOLLONGONG WORKSHOP 22-24th November 2002

Fri night- Gavan's room

Milton talked about waves - think of your life as a series of waves - many different waves, different sizes etc, but things, feelings etc come and go.

Waves - sound waves, new interests are like a wave coming over you - you are very interested and rise quickly - eg - drugs - first time you take one - the first wave is more intense, then have to take more and more to approach that feeling.

Your Expectation - wave of anticipation 7 peak when it happens 7 then it drops off Make the effort to be involved in more things - that can make you more interesting 7 lots of little waves and ripples

The British Empire is at the end of a wave.

Robert talked about his dog (Bibs and the neighbour's dog, Patsy) running away that week, and how the experience was first not as intense, then worry built and built until the expectation and relief when Bibs was found.

It reminded me of when our cat Charlie ran away - wave of worry that built then ebbed as we lost confidence that we would find her - began to feel resigned to not getting her - then wave of happiness when we got her back. Interesting that the kids were much more optimistic than me when we got the phone call a month or two after she disappeared.

WAVE:

Worry Resigned loss Charlie comes back

Robert asked about Bio-rhythms.

We listened to Milton playing the drums - back to your mother's heartbeat - primal beat – different people had different feelings and different visualisations during the drumming.

Milton feels he is a very calm person - feels the calmness he feels is helped by his "go with the flow” of the rhythm that he loves. A strong belief in something helps to stabilise you.

Get to know yourself - people will try to push you, you need to know what makes YOU satisfied.

Laurie said on Saturday morning re waves - that he woke up and felt too tired, but thought of the waves we talked about last night and that he could be at a low part of a wave and could feel better later. So he got up and didn't stay in bed as he wanted and was aware of feeling better soon after that.

MILTON - WOLLONGONG WORKSHOP 23-11-02

David, Brett, Sandra, Pauline, Andrew, Robert, Chris, Gavan, Laurie, Betty were present

(last night Adrian as well)

Structures - Need to structure ourselves and our awareness - be aware of the structures around us. Structure: interrelated components of a situation - think “non-allness”.

Structural differential - how we organise the STRUCTURES in WIGO.

The universe doesn't care it is up to us to structure our behaviour around it.

Structures - Ordering, organising, arranging

ICON - Instances of Conditioning

From our culture, ads family, TV, natural area, house, school, friends, social group, work group etc

We are bombarded by information 31 mill sec per year - ie 1302 mill sec in my life when awake so far - 22 mill minutes in my life so far which means LOTS of chances to be bombarded with information.

Conditioning How we interpret ICONS

(Drawing of person with arrows around them) (Drawing of face with arrows inside)

GS can't do much about ICONS, We can do something about

but can help us structure how this

we receive them.

Many times we come across things (like stubbing our toe on Gavan's step), and might feel annoyed at

the step, rather than just thinking that we need to restructure our perception from WIGO.

Use STRUCTURE as a VERB - something we can do - we have an effect

DEF: Imaginative associating, ordering of a situation, , interrelated components with an awareness that not all components or their interconnectedness and interactions can be known, and that any structuring is only ONE of many possible arrangements. Eg. Repacking a car boot can fit heaps more in - to do with re-structuring.

MAP DOES NOT = TERRITORY (Use this formulation to help us structure)

- Words do not = person, process or thing they are describing.

Map is not ALL the territory. The map is affected by logistics, map makers, ICONS, etc.

Your reactions to an event is your map of the situation

How you feel about something has a lot to do with your structure, hopes, expectations. - take them from the map, rather than reality.

Definition of GS - Thinking about how we think, evaluate about how we evaluate using guidelines such as map/territory, consciousness of abstracting, Time 1, Time 2 , non allness etc. Use of GS principles as our standards and recognise there are standards, our way of measuring as guidelines - practice improving our thinking skills - how to use language more effectively. Practise coming up with definitions of GS in yourself.

Non-allness - whenever we think we are doing, we are doing many other things at the same time.

After Morninq Tea

Many of our life situations we don't have a method - SC? GS does and we can use those.

Andrew, Chris and Gavan measured by guesswork the size of the white board. When we measure, we bring our own standards - based on cultural experiences, our values and ethics, our fears etc. We tend to focus on things that agree with our goals and we naturally tend to ignore things that don't.

In our workplace, home etc, it works better to empower people to help come up with a solution themselves - people resent and work against things imposed on them.

We listened to wave music - waves in waves - We can't expect to be in sync with someone a lot of the time -unrealistic to - eg: Marriage - we maybe in the crest of a wave when they (partner) are down,. The relationship rolls along, sometimes up, sometimes down. Being aware of that can help tremendously with not feeling too disappointed, or feeling things are lost for good if you are experiencing a down. It helps to curb that downward, negative spiral.

We did an exercise when we all guess when one minute was up. Quite a range of responses.

Awareness of our rhythms makes a difference as to how well we can deal with life - we can change to a certain degree, but there is a limit to how much we can change a structure.

Robert - What is GS? - to study the process between language, thought and action. Being careful

with the language you use.

Milton -.what is GS about -Extensional - to be aware of what you are experiencing internally becomes intensional when we use labels etc.

Exercise - Went for a walk on the beach with Sandra - si lent observation - didn't say anything the whole time. This enabled me to become more aware of the things in WIGO that I might not normally notice - little and not so little

Try to remain aware of the little tensions that build up in your body - relax them immediately and you will be much better off and more rested.

Second Walking exercise - with Sandra - This time you could talk and notice what you notice - observe what you can see inside or outside yourself.

Third walking exercise - with Sandra - this time answer all of each others' comments with “Is that all?" A good way to remind us of the etc. Recognise that this is not all. This can help us incorporate non-allness and think to yourself "That is not all" when we or others are talking.

AFTER LUNCH

Think of the walks as a walk through life - the challenge of bringing the exercises into normal life. Most of our conversation goes on with ourselves and it is our self talk that can improve our GS skills.

Exercises - get each member of the group to develop an exercise re a formulation and practise them on Tuesdays. See how the different principles relate to each other - m/t is the foundation. Pick principles and look for examples.

Look at a TV show etc and find GS not being applied - sitcoms thrive on this.

Uncertainty Principle - The way you go about uncovering something can affect it - the instrument you use can conceal something and affect and change what you are studying.

GS looks for the differences - we have not had much practice as we are generally trained to look

for similarities.

Non allness - whenever we think we are doing, we are doing many other things at the same time.

MILTON - WOLLONGONG WORKSHOP 24-11-02 - Sunday AM

"Consciousness of abstracting is the basis of the whole GS system"

Numbers provide us with a common language - we all use one number system, even though we speak many different languages. Fractions help us to recognise that things are part of a whole.

Life isn't as predictable as number sequences.

2,4,6,8,10 -> 12

could be 2,4,6,8,10 -> 15

The people who see just 2,6,10 in a situation are not aware that they have not seen all. There are more numbers in between - more parts to the calculus. We all organise our information differently and you can get into trouble if you don't recognise that.

Exercise - Indexing before we talk

We got into groups and told each other a story, and if we were going to interrupt the story with a question or comment etc, we needed to say what kind of 'statement' we were going to make before we said it.

Eg - seeking an explanation

- making a comment

- giving advice

- going to criticise

- going to make a joke etc etc

The story was simply to enable us to get practice in being aware of what kind of interjection we were making. To improve our awareness and help us to become more self reflexive.

Robert started by talking about building their house in the country near Canberra. We became reasonably adept at remembering to preface our statements.

David called our statement before we talked "our meta-map". That is - what we are about to say – about the map.

To be awake we are conscious - to be conscious about being conscious - meta-consciousness. (Multiordinality - being aware of not only of the consciousness on one particular level of abstraction.)

Consciousness of Abstracting - cant be conscious of doing something unless we are conscious of being conscious of doing it.

Abstracting is more than selecting, because it is adding your inferences. Cannot select without leaving out (abstracting).

Sunday, after lunch

A Calculus approach to everyday living can help us make better maps - incremental steps. Help us recognise the ways we structure our experience and our maps are not the same as the territory. Watch how we watch expands our understanding of a situation and ourselves too. This applies to everything in our inner and outer worlds.

Noticing that you don't notice everything helps you to notice more!!

Relative invariance under transformation.

- Something stays the same: 1/2 = 2/x – i.e. - what you know about 1/2 and 2/ tells us about 'x'

Knowing something about one thing can help you identify something about something else. (eg roads in a city etc. being like our blood stream).

Look at how one thing operates, and then something that you can relate to that helps give you insights.

E=mc2 is about a more finely tuned awareness about being more in touch with what we are thinking, feeling, saying or doing.

Complex breaking down into more manageable bits. - helps us to recognise that the ways we structure our maps are not the same as the territory.

Watching how we watch. The more we differentiate, the less we tend to identify.

We often make plans based on limited information - better to get more information - study it through smaller steps. The more little steps, the more accurate. We need to listen closely and look closely, as a finely tuned awareness can lead to better maps.

For example, fitting carpet into a round room

- measure it in small rows.

Think of the smaller strips as

increments of information

and the more increments

the more accurate your map.

Need to get more information.

And more up to date info helps.

Hickory Hollow's Tramp exercise: A song from the 60's by OC Smith.

Listening to this song several times helped to demonstrate how many layers are interwoven in things around us - in this instance a song - the layers of music, lyrics, deeper meanings, waves in the pattern of the music, beat etc etc etc.

THE STUDY OF A CONTINUOUS FUNCTION

BY FOLLOWING ITS DEVELOPMENT

THROUGH INDEFINITELY SMALL STEPS

THE STUDY OF A	CONTINUOUS	FUNCTION	BY FOLLOWING ITS	DEVELOPMENT THROUGH	INDEFINITELY SMALL STEPS
Contemplating	Never ending	Happening	Ordering	Growing	Minute
Examining	Non stopping	Process	Exploring	Changing	Itsy bitsy
Exploration	Eternal	Relation	Monitoring	Improving	Miniscule
Learning	Ongoing	Operation	Noticing	Evolution	Microscopic
Internalise	Flowing	Action	Structuring	Unfolding	Incremental
Structuring	Everlasting	Activity	Studying	Decay	Tiny
Watching	Incessant	Behaviour	Looking at	Emergence	Teeny weeny
Investigating		Goings on	Investigating	Progress	increments

Mine - the evaluation of a continuous process by observing its development through many small steps.

Gavan - Evaluating a never ending happening by observing its evolution through itsy bitsy steps.

David - The tracking of a flowing process through observing indefinitely small changes.

Andrew - The exploration of an everlasting event by observing change through indefinitely minute increments.

ooo000ooo

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