More on Repatterning, Repetition, Unconscious Installation.
At Marknosis, Rex Karz points out that one really should state one’s outcome goal when seeking advice or the advice can’t be as meaningful or useful.
Good point, the targeted outcome would make a difference . . . one would think.
Rex noes that if an “unconscious installation” is possible, one could watch a video on how to play a guitar and then be able to join Frank Zappa’s band!
Well, there are processes that do help one improve in a physical skill by watching a video . . . certainly, your skill levels or at least your knowledge of guitar playing will improve after having watched an instructional video in and of itself . . . albeit, not to any unrealistic level. 🙂 There is also a very nice hypnotic process I use all the time with folks for skill improvement that involves watching videos or looking at photos. Basically, zap ’em with your induction (I tend to use Elman-based processes but use whatever works for the client in a way that engages the imagination and bypasses the ol’ critical factor) then have ’em stay in “state” with their eyes open and have ’em watch a video of someone really good at their target skill and then suggest that they associate fully into that person’s actions to the point that they FEEL their muscles working as that person moves and as they do this they can FEEL this learned behavior becoming deeply embedded into their unconscious learning. After watching the video in this state, have ’em close their eyes and then do a count down from twenty to one and with each number you say they FEEL their mind-body running the entire physical process through from beginning to end ten, twenty, or one hundred times, depending upon the complexity of the skill (make sure they understand to really FEEL it) just as they have seen it and felt it as deeply trance identified with the performance in the video and with each number this skill becomes deeply embedded into their body and their mind as an unconsciously competent skill of their own. Do the count, some compounding suggestions, then emerge and do a little jig (jig optional). In a sense, this is a form of installing a skill into the unconscious and it is definately effective (I know this from personal experience and there are plenty of “scientific” studies that have shown the usefulness of visualization methods on accellerating skill improvement but it is ALWAYS those who use both conscious practice and visualization processes who improve the most while those who only visualize or imagine do actually improve over those who don’t do anything but their changes are insignificant when compared to those who merely practice with no trancework involved), however it is a process whereby one is aware of the outcome and what is particularly being done.
To some, the idea of “unconscious installation” of skills as it is often presented by a certain number of trainers is tantamount to laziness. It’s the . . . “you don’t have to do anything or study or practice or even bother to engage the learning process and just sit back and listen to these rather interesting and humorous anecdotes, stories, and metaphors and before you know it, you will be a full-fledged completely proficient and amazingly skilled practitioner” . . . school of training.
I have no doubts that one can also use metaphors, stories, associative processes and the like that are outside of a student’s conscious awareness that enhance learning of what is explicitly being taught . . . and certainly, one can install certain behaviors via anchoring or other processes without a person being aware of it . . . I’m just not a big believer in unconsciously installing complex skillsets that a person has no previous knowledge of or resource access to without also concsiously learning those skills and background theory. Others are free to disagree with me, but I would like to see the objective proof.
All the best,
Brian http://www.briandavidphillips.com
