Games for Accelerating Learning Manual

www.neurosemantics.com

Disclaimer: We have designed this Training Manual for training and education and not as a substitute for

psychotherapy or psychiatry. Even though this material was designed and written by a psychologist and a Professional Licensed Counselor in the State of Colorado, we do not recommend that this should be used

A C C E L E R A T E D L E A R N I N G

U S I N G N L P & N E U R O - S E M A N T I C S

The Vision

Part I: The Structure of Learning

Learning as Running Your Brain The State of Learning

Where Education Goes Wrong Learning

Principles

Foundations of Accelerated Learning Saboteurs to Learning Excellence

Relaxed & De-stressed Learning

Committed to Learning Excellence Frames for Learning Excellence

The Learning Frame Game Learning Factors

Learning

Stages:

Competency Levels Learning

Levels

(Bateson)

Meta-Learning: Learning About Learning States

Learning Filters or Styles (Meta-programs)

Gardner's Learning Styles

Part II: LEARNING STRATEGIES

Spelling Strategy Vocabulary Words

Video-Tracking Reading Strategy Advanced Reading

Articulating Learnings

Reducing Test & Performance Anxiety Testing Power

Note Taking Strategy

Asking Stupid Questions for Acc. Learning

The Sleeping on it Strategy

Part III: Meta-Stating Your Learning States

Meta-States: States-about-States

Meta-Stating:

The Process & Model

Outframing Learning with new Resources & Frames

Learning Attractors to Self-Organize Your System

Part IV: Meta-Stating Patterns for Accelerating & Empowering Learning

1) Stopping the World: Sensory Awareness 2) Meta-Detailing Learning

3) Perceptual Positions for Wisdom 4) Getting a Big Enough "Why?"

5) Meta-Stating Your Learning Genius Excellence

6) Mind-to-Muscle Meta-Stating

7) Meta-Stating Executive States 8) Meta-Stating Feedback

9) Becoming a Ferocious Learner: Swishing to a New Self

10) Meta-YES-ing As a Belief Change Pattern

11) Einstein's Creative Problem-Solving 12) Meta-Stating Implementation

13) Meta-Stating Alignment

V. Coaching Others in Learning Skills VI. GOOD STUFF AT THE END

Models used

How to Get Your Money's Worth Glossary

Bibliography Author

M O D E L S U S E D I N T H I S T R A I N I N G

N L P

-A Model of Communication

about human processing that empowers us to "run our own brain."

Using the "languages" of mind (our internal cinema of sights, sounds, and sensations) along with language, we "think" and frame things using these

see, hear, and feel

dimensions. As we

represent

data to ourselves on the inner screen of consciousness, that internal movie signals our bodies to go

into a state—a

mind-body or neuro-linguistic state and that governs the quality of our life and experiences. Developed by a linguistic and computer student about human

excellence and genius, N L P provides insights and specific step-by-step techniques for

running

your own brain,

managing your own states, communicating more effectively and elegantly with

yourself and others, and replicating human expertise.

M E T A S T A T E S ®

-A Model of Reflexive Consciousness that extends the N L P Model, taking it to the next level. It details precisely how we

reflect back on

our thoughts and feelings to create

higher levels

of

thoughts-and-feelings and layers of consciousness. In so using our thoughts-and-feelings

thoughts-about-our-thoughts, feelings-about-feelings, we create mind-body

states-about-states

or

Meta-States.

Primary States

involve primary emotions like fear, anger, joy, relaxed, tense,

pleasure, pain, etc. and these thoughts directed outward.

Meta-States

involve a layering of higher level concepts to involve structures like fear of fear, anger at fear, shame about being

embarrassed, j o y of learning, esteem of self, etc.

Meta-States

describe the higher

frames-of

references

that we set and use that create more stable structures (beliefs, values, understandings, etc.)

NEURO-SEMANTICS® —

While it sounds like a big word, it refers to a simple fact. Namely that we create meanings in our minds (semantics) and we get these meanings incorporated into our bodies (neurology). That's why, when things

mean

something to u s — w e

feel

it in our bodies. The meanings show up in

what we call "emotions." The meanings take the form of values, ideas, beliefs, understandings, paradigms, mental models, frames, etc.

Neuro-semantics

provides a

model of how we humans make meaning

as w e evaluate

experiences, events, words, etc. It's a model of how we then live in the world of Meaning that we construct or inherit. Neuro-semantics describes the frames of reference we use as we move

through life and the frames of meaning that we construct. It creates the Matrix of Frames in which we live and from which we operate.

Neuro-semantics

arose from the

Meta-States model

which provides a way to think about the levels of states or mind that we experience all the time. That's because we never just think. As soon as we think or feel—we then experience thoughts and feelings about that first thought, then other thoughts-and-feelings about that thought, and so on. Technically this is called

self-reflective consciousness. Practically, it's the Frames for the Games that we play in life.

" M E T A "

(above, about, beyond)

T H E V I S I O N O F L E A R N I N G E X C E L L E N C E

Any fool can learn from experience;

and, in fact, many do.

It takes an intelligent person to learn from a book

and from the experiences of others.

And that's Meta-Learning!

Do you know how to grab a book and suck all of the learnings and vital information out of it?

Would you like to learn the Art of Absorbing Ideas from Books and Trainings?

Does "Book Learning" or "High Level Concepts" turn you Off or On? How

Ferocious or Effective

are you as a Learner?

How does this effect your earnings, sales, career, relationship, understandings, etc.?

Would you like to learn like the Experts learn and Develop your own Learning Excellence?

HOW TO REALLY TAKE CHARGE OF YOUR LIFE

THROUGH DEVELOPING "LEARNING EXCELLENCE"

With Learning Excellence you can

Cut your learning curve for new knowledge in 54 or even 1/4 the time. Experience the

joy & delight

of learning itself

Build and activate your own personal skills of Accelerated Learning Learn more thoroughly and Permanently

Increase your effectiveness, intelligence, creativity, and problem solving skills

Become a ferocious or passionate learner that doesn't back off from following your dreams and making your visions come true

Eliminate blocks and limitations that have sabotaged your natural brilliance.

So what?

Keep up with the pace of change & stay on the cutting-edge in today's world. Make more money and increasing your Wealth

Make smarter business and personal decisions with higher quality information Use your God-Given Intelligence more Insightfully and wisely

Experience richer and fuller relationships Solve problems in half the time and effort Accessing wisdom and discernment

If you don't know how your mind works—

how do you expect to develop the high level skills of a Learning Expert... the Accelerated Learning Skills of your own natural brilliance? The fact is, if you don't know how your mind works, you can't. People with the so-called "Learning Disabilities" simply do not know how the mind works. Consequently they

have trouble running it effectively. When you learn to run your own brain,

Learning Excellence

becomes a piece of cake.

As the speed of change continues to accelerate in our society,

knowing how to learn (meta-learning)

is going to become the most crucial skill for success, leadership, and expertise.

P A R T I

T H E S T R U C T U R E O F L E A R N I N G

Learning Skills Using NLP & Meta-States For Accelerated Learning

"Many of the most creative persons in human history have had significant learning problems:

Thomas Edison, Winston Churchill, Pablo Picasso, Albert Einstein. Far from being crippled by these difficulties,

these were able to build on their strengths to make remarkable distinctive contributions." Howard Gardner (1993, p. 205)

T H E V I S I O N

-L E A R N I N G E X C E -L -L E N C E

Let's begin with the

vision of accelerated learning

itself. This means

accelerating

the speed, quality,

comprehension, creativity, and power of the mind. This means enhancing one of the most distinguishing features of human beings—learning. It means learning to use our brain with more precision, focus, and control. And this will increasingly become the key skill that successful people will have to have in the 2 1 s t century.

How much confidence do you have in your current

skills, competency, and expertise in learning?

Has anyone (including yourself) ever insulted or downgraded your learning skills? Attached some "learning disability" label to it?

How quickly can you (or do you) go into a state of judgment, harshness, or insult when you don't pick something up immediately, thoroughly, or quickly?

L E A R N I N G

What do we mean by "learning" anyway?

In Learning we "inform" and order consciousness.

Why? Because the natural state of "mind" —apart from our structuring and ordering it is chaos, disorder, entrophy. Mind naturally tends toward disorder. Whenever we order it —give it form and structure, we are

forming

it on the

inside,

hence, "in-form-ation."

When you learn, you perform a programming task. You form yourself— your mind, emotions, habits, patterns, etc. You construct your sense of "reality." All of your learnings and your very

habit of learning are just "constructions." That means you have learned to learn the way you now learn—and if your currently learning style doesn't serve you well, you can unlearn that and learn a much more empowering style.

Mind, as an information processing mechanism— needs and seeks for data by which it can become ordered, structured, and formed.

This means we all have a natural "information hunger."

We want to know... to understand... to comprehend ... to make meaning.

Naturally, our brain and nervous system moves us to "learn" —to take in data and order our internal world. Naturally, we are "mean green learning machines."

Negative experiences with teachers, books, and schools can invite us to create a negative relationship to

the Concept

of "learning." This can put a person

at odds

with the idea of

learning or some facet of the concept.

Learning therefore describes the

organizing of mind

(actually, the mind-body system) in order to empower you to handle a knowledge governed domain—so that you can effectively master your style of relating to the world.

Webster says that learning involves gaining knowledge, understanding and skill in a study or experience.

Learning

involves everything from simple

detection of stimuli,

calibration to the world of our senses, to the most advanced pattern recognition and creation of the mind.

"Education," from the Latin root, educere, means "to draw out." The drawing out process

highlights the experience of learning as an accessing, developing, and application of resources as we bring mind-and-emotion to bear upon various events, contexts, and ideas. We naturally learn

and learn best through experiences

that draw us out,

that draw out our mind, our heart, our emotions.

In the

learning and discovery process,

we delightfully engage and encounter "reality." The adventure of this encounter is what we call "learning." It affects us. It affects our thinking,

emoting, speaking and behaving. It stretches our self-definitions, our mental maps about the world, and our skills in responding to it.

The best learning is playfulness and losing oneself in the play.

As children, we begin with this innate ability to lose ourselves in play. Later, it's beat out of us, and if we learn to recover it, we call it "the strategy of genius."

OPENING FRAMES

Are you in the right state? Your state of Mind-Body plays a crucial role in learning. To engage in

accelerated learning we need to be in the right state. We begin here. We begin by accessing the right

state for this training. This is step one.

Are you feeling a bit critical about yourself and your level of skill or confidence about Accelerated

Learning? Do you sometimes "feel stupid?" If so, remember that's just a meta-state and a not very

useful one at that, unless, of course you enjoy it, appreciate it as a signal to "Learn More!" and know how to use of your ignorance and stupidity to fuel your intelligence.

For the sake of this training—set aside any and every fear, negative emotion, apprehension, etc. about "learning." If you need any of those, you can pick them back up later, but for now... Begin with the

realization that those are just old experiences and references about "learning" and that they do not enhance things. Judgment will interfere and sabotage your learning. Judgment de-accelerates learning.

As you will shortly learn about your learning, we all too often connect and link up some negative

experience (due to the frustration of a teacher or parent) to learning and that creates the limiting mental boxes that we then live in.

Throughout this training always remember that You are so more than your skills and strategies for learning So any learning problem is just that, a learning problem. It's not a problem about you. It's always about your states, frames, and strategies.

process information encode information

set frames of understanding (beliefs, values, decisions, etc.) reflect on our understandings

From state management, you will learn the NLP and Meta-State Models for understanding "mind" and how we —

L E A R N I N G P R I N C I P L E S

Every field of excellence, where experts excel and demonstrate a level of genius, is governed by principles, laws, and concepts. The Domains of Knowledge have operating principles that we need to learn and adapt. The same holds true for the domain of

Learning Excellence.

There are numerous

learning principles

that provide dynamic and profound processes for accelerated learning.

#1. Learn happens.

It's the natural state of your mind-body interacting with your environment. We're bom as ferocious learners. Sometimes when the wonder, curiosity and play is knocked out of us, we have to take charge of our own brains and recover it.

#2. We cannot not learn.

Since it's our nature to learn, the only a question before us concerns

what

we learn and

how

we learn it. We can even learn to refuse new learnings.

#3. Learning needs nurturing.

Although we have a learning brain and nervous system, it still needs to be treated kindly and gently to bring out it's natural powers. It is designed for learning, abstracting, map-making. Relax and let it do what it does best. Refuse to tolerate any and all harsh self-judgments. Nurture the health and optimal functioning of your brain and nervous system.

#4. Learning how to learn accelerates learning excellence.

Meta-learning

is the key to accessing our own learning genius. As we learn "learning know how" we increase our natural intelligence.

#5. First learnings set the frame but aren't fatal.

Our first learnings about learning set the stage for our subsequent experiences. They set the first frames about learning and often to our detriment. If we learn that learning is heard, difficult, that we are stupid, etc., that undermines our orientation toward learning. But such frames aren't the last word. We can deframe them and set new frames.

#6. Learning richness arises when we "make sense" vividly.

The quality (depth, stability, permanency) of your learning is a function of your representational richness. The representational richness of our information informs and commands our entire mind-body to have an "experience" of the information.

#7. Learning occurs in levels.

This makes frame setting essential for expert learning skills. Otherwise we end up with holes in our comprehension . Learning excellence necessitates moving up and down the levels of mind, distinguishing the levels (sensory based versus evaluative, etc.) We learn best by starting out slow

and then speeding up as we develop a model and hold that in mind.

#8. Specific information topics necessitates specialized strategies.

We can expect therefore different strategies for reading, spelling, history, concepts, mathematics, etc. #9. Balancing Uptime and Downtime States accelerates high quality learning.

While learning excellence begins with sensory awareness, it doesn't stay there. We come "up" to get more feedback data and go "in" (down) to construct a map. The quality of our learning flows from the quality of our registering of sensory based information and checking it out as we create ever-higher abstractions.

#10. Learning excellence involves a focused state of mind that can zoom in on a subject and grab it and not let it go.

This describes the laser beam focus that can screen things out. Accelerated learning is nothing more than getting lost in playing with ideas, actions, skills, etc.

#11. Learning needs Frames to control focus, orientation and purpose.

We learn best when relaxed, motivated, intentional, focused, playful, happy, etc.

Relaxation and

learning:

A great many learning problems are problems of stress, tension, worry, negative reflexivity, etc.

Intentional and learning:

put your object in the back or front of your mind and let it operate as an attractor. Why are you reading? To understand, to criticize?

#12. The Fuel that accelerates Learning is Passion.

Excellence comes from having a high motivation to learn.

Motivation and learning:

if your motivated enough, you can learn just about anything. Most learning problems are actually

motivation

problems. Passion, desire, vision —these provide the

fuel

for passionate learning.

#13. Learning means Personalizing learnings.

The art of

personalizing

representations and learnings is to

step into the Video-Recording.

To

personalize ideas, we can also set identification frames and self-definition frames. We further

personalize

by making the learnings

"ours,"

via marking and indexing books, papers, etc. as we read and study.

#14. Mind-Muscle your learnings to make them last.

The genius of learning involves getting the ideas into our muscles so that we have muscle memory for the concepts and principles. To do that we will use the Mind-to-Muscle Meta-Stating Pattern. Practically, this means talk about your learnings, acting on them, etc.

#15. The skills of Un-Learning govern learning excellence also.

Effective un-learning plays an important part in accelerated learning. Know how to

suspend

old thoughts, ideas, and beliefs. Know how for

"trying on"

a new thought. In this way, we can give a new idea a chance. Recognize and identify your own biases.

#16. We can accelerate our Learning via Modeling Learning Excellence.

As a symbolic class of life we humans do not have to re-invent the wheel or computer or anything that other humans have already learned and developed. We can

model

what they've done.

Time

binding

refers to the idea of theoretically "beginning where the previous generation ended." I can accelerate my learning by vicariously gaining skill, frames, understandings from others. Modeling itself is a learning mode.

Modeling provides an excellent method for assimilating specific attributes. We can even model the unknown by using

the "As if" frame.

#17. Imagination can greatly propel learning.

By using the "As if Frame and playing with "what if ideas, we can greatly accelerate our learning by taking on the attributes and skills of desired possibilities.

#18. Learning can be coached.

Get a mentor if you really want to accelerate your learning in a specific area of expertise. Who have you invited into your world as a coach?

#19. Learning can become habitual.

Habits provide the wonder of freeing us from consciousness

and simultaneously

allows us to move up to even higher-order thinking. As we consciously develop health mental and emotional habits that

support intelligence, our attention is freed to attend to more advanced and higher thoughts. Habituate basic learning skills one at a time through patient practice.

#20. We learn best by asking lots of wild and stupid questions.

Learning as exploration, curiosity, wonder, etc. means asking lots of questions. In the spirit of true learning, there are no "stupid" questions, just

questions.

The great inventors and explorers of the mind were those who were bold enough to ask the questions many others thought too stupid to entertain. "What if we could put a man on the moon, how would we do that?" "What if we could create a flying vehicle."

This facets of learning also highlights the importance of

relationship

and

open assertive

communication

between mentor and student. The less free and assertive one feels to ask, explore,

inquire, etc., the less quality the learning will be. This will put the brakes on the very spirit of learning.

#21. Learning is greatly affected by the higher levels of mind.

What do you

believe

about learning?

What do you think of yourself as a learner?

Do you have

confidence and faith

in yourself to run your own brain? Do you value the subject that you're studying?

WHERE EDUCATION GOES WRONG

"What usually happens in the educational process is that the faculties are dulled, overloaded, stuffed, and paralyzed so that by the time most people are mature, they have lost their innate capabilities,"

Buckminster Fuller

Growing up in the current educational systems has caused most of us to have been

mis-educated about learning.

Formal schooling has even traumatized some people with regard to "learning."

How has "education" as most of us have experienced it gone wrong? How has it created various blocks to learning?

It Assumes Too Much.

Educators and teachers began from the assumption that we all just naturally know

how to learn

and so did not teach us the most basic

Learning Skills.

They assumed we didn't need to learn about learning.

"Most students do what they think will work. If it doesn't work well, the diligent students will try harder... until they are frustrated and fall behind... resulting in emotional problems, behavior problems, and loss of self-esteem." (Blackerby, p. 12)

It is too Passive. Education has been primarily passive. The teacher "teaches" us— as students we

are just to receive. This has undermined a sense of personal responsibility, proactivity and the passion for life-long learning.

It is too quick to Judge.

Education has traditionally been very quick to label: "slow," "dumb," "learning deficiency," "under-achiever," "attention deficient disorder." Once the labels are attached

and accepted, both teacher and learner adopt a determinist attitude.

Judgment, in fact, blocks learning. The more judgments we have in our head and the quicker we

are to judge ourselves or others, the more we sabotage our learning capabilities.

It

discourages exploration, questions, and playfulness.

"School learning" has tended to become far too serious as students are constantly judged and evaluated. This has relegated exploration, curiosity, creativity and questions in service of conformity and the mass production of students.

It accepts

I.Q.

testing and labeling too readily.

Teachers who buy the IQ mythology then begin to operate from, and project, negative expectations. Successful learners have to defy and resist these with a vengeance.

"The whole concept of relating IQ to life achievement is misguided, because IQ is a pretty miserable predictor of life achievement." (Sternberg, p. 24)

"What's frightening is that people make important decisions on the basis of

pseudo-quantitative precision—information that is numerically precise, but conceptually inaccurate." (p. 34)

"Intelligence tests clearly measure achievement—what else is vocabulary. No one ...would argue that we are born with vocabulary words conveniently stored in our brain." (p. 59) "I have found that many students are misdiagnosed with the label of ADD. The behavioral symptoms fit many persons (child and adult) who are highly stressed, suffer from trauma, are bored in school or work or who are acting out other behavioral problems. Many times teaching students how to learn in school, how to focus, how to organize, how to set priorities and/or how to have a better attitude in school causes the symptoms to go away." (1996, p. 163)

Don Blackerby, Ph.D.

T H E S T R U C T U R E O F A C C E L E R A T E D L E A R N I N G

The following provides an overview of the following pages, to

accelerate

our mind and nervous system to learn in a powerful, precise, and profound way, we will use the following strategies as our basic orientation.

1) Access the Right State

Are you in the right state for learning? All learning, at every level, and within every stage involves "state dependency." Accelerated learning results from being able to effectively manage your states & meta-states and to step into "the right state" when you need it.

2) Refuse the Learning Sabotages

Some beliefs and states of mind-and-emotion undermine, interfere with, and sabotage the ability to learn. These must be rejected and refused.

3) Commit Your Whole Mind and Body to Accelerated Learning

An empowering decision to learn, to become a ferocious learner, to use our mind for learning—accelerates our ability and skills in learning.

4) Set the Right Frames for Learning.

To play the Accelerated Learning Game we need some very special and powerful frames.

5) Tap the Key Learning Factors.

There are certain

factors

involved in learning that we have to recognize, adjust ourselves to and learn to use in order to experience expert level learning.

6) Incorporate the Highest Quality Principles of Learning into your Muscles.

As in any other field, there are certain principles that govern the learning process. This makes learning them and installing them into our muscles crucial.

7) Gracefully Accept and Move through the Learning Stages.

There are stages in the process and have to be negotiated— which means acceptance of our incompetence when we begin!

8) Develop a Strategic Learning Approach to the Levels of Learning.

All learning does not occur on the same level. After primary level learnings, we advance to the learning of frames. We have to use a different strategy on each Learning Level. There are levels to learning, so adapting a strategic attitude assists in developing accelerated learning. This also leads to Meta-Learning Skills—when we learn about our learning. The Levels of Learning involve how we layer level upon level and so move from associative meanings and framing to representational encoding of information and then on to higher level framing that involves abstract concepts.

9) Develop & Adjust to the Right Filters

There are numerous thinking filters or Meta-Programs that govern the flexibility of our consciousness in handling information.

10) Model Learning Excellence in others.

Modeling is the fast track to mastery in every feel. We can greatly accelerate our learning time by modeling others (their skills, attitudes, beliefs).

T H E S T A T E O F L E A R N I N G

States of mind and emotion effect learning. Therefore the art of effective and accelerated learning necessarily involves accessing an intense and effective learning state. What state are you in right now. Check and see. Is it useful for learning about learning?

State accessing and managing refers to effectively handling our neuro-linguistic mind-body states so that they can do our bidding.

What are the

optimal learning states?

Consider the "natural" state of the small child. What makes a young child so ferocious a learner involves the mental atmosphere of trust, joy, spontaneity, exhilaration, fun, playfulness, and no-judgment. The child doesn't know that it's bad to fall down, get food all over the face, or make mistakes. The child enjoys what we later punctuate as "mistakes."

Figure

A Neuro-Linguistic "State" of Consciousness

E N G I N E E R I N G T H E R I G H T S T A T E F O R L E A R N I N G

Access a learning state.

Think of a time when you learned something quickly, thoroughly, easily, and effectively... Re-experience that awareness completely. Or think about what it would be like if you fully experienced a very intense learning state ... pretend that you have ... and imagine it fully.

In the accelerated learning state, you will be in visual, auditory, and kinesthetic

external.

You will have all of your senses wide open and receptive to the world. We call this

an "Uptime" state.

Write down some

referent experiences

for a pleasant, enhancing, and resourceful learning state.

Write down your see-hear-feel (VAK) representations of the learning experience that triggers or anchors you to go back into that state of mind-and-body.

What

verbal instructions

do you have to give to yourself to put yourself into

a vital learning state?

Write out the actual

language inductions

that you use. ("Ah!" "Interesting." "Curious!" "What can I get from this?" "How might this prove useful?")

What qualities and special features or distinctions (submodalities) do you find in your thoughts that help you to access your most enhancing learning state? Maybe a quiet inner voice, bright pictures, deep breathing, etc.

What do you have to do to amplify (juice up) this state for yourself?

Gauge the intensity (emotional energy) that you have in this state at this point from 0 to 10. (0 —no chance in hell I could learn anything; 10 —Watch out Einstein!)

M E T A - L E A R N I N G :

L E A R N I N G A B O U T O U R L E A R N I N G S T A T E S

State Gauging or Scaling:

States are Energy Fields that involve mental and emotional intensity. Gauge your state's intensity from 0 meaning "none" and 10 meaning "total" to scale it's intensity.

How much do you think and feel this?

State Dependency:

Once in a strong and intense "state," we experience our learning, memory, behavior, perception, and communication (LMBPC) as

state dependent.

The state itself powerfully and pervasively influences the nature and quality of these functions.

State Object or Focus:

What is the object of your learning? Learning what? What is the state about?

State Assessing/ Inducing:

Memory:

Remembering a state

("recall a time when...")

Imagination: Creating a state ("what would it look, sound, and feel like if...")

State Amplification:

All states do not have the same level of intensity, so gauge for intensity levels. Do you need more "juice?" What processes do you rely on for amplifying your states? How do you crank them up? Make it more so.

State Qualities:

What are the qualities and properties of your learning state?

State Purity/ Contamination:

SABOTEURS TO LEARNING EXCELLENCE

"The greatest of all faults — to be conscious of none."

(Carlyle)

Everything does not support "Learning Excellence." There are Dragons abroad that can undermine our natural brilliance. Prior to Dragon Slaying and Taming comes the recognition of a dragon states when you see, hear, or feel it. Dragon States refer to states of self-judgment, harshness with self, insult about your learning style or speed, etc. These states will absolutely ruin and undermine everything we're going to do in this training.

We have to de-construct (de-frame) the stupid/irrational ideas that get into our heads (and nervous systems) that sabotage this innate Learning Orientation that we're born with. We call this "Dragon

Slaying/Taming" —a process by which we destroy or tame the forces (conceptual, semantic, neurological) that have become organized against us.

You have to cut that kind of stuff out—totally and absolutely, you have to cut out that non-sense. Are you ready?

Saboteurs:

Numerous influences, ideas, and processes can sabotage learning excellence. What stops you from learning in a powerful, ferocious, and effective way? If your mind is not zooming in on the data, information, or experience with intense focus, then,

where is your mind?

What are you doing mentally and conceptually?

Checklist of Possible Saboteurs to your own Learning Excellence:

Pre-judgments

about things, what they are, what they mean, their use, value, etc. This essentially

closes the mind

to new data.

How open or closed do you feel yourself to new information?

How easily can you step back from you thoughts, and recognizing them as just "thoughts," just "mental maps," enjoy letting them expand, grow, extend, and develop?

Rigidity and inflexibility

in trying on new ideas, thoughts, processes, etc. Not even giving learning a chance due to rigid beliefs, disagreements, mismatching,

How flexible or inflexible an approach do you take to thinking, representing, etc.?

What would you need to think, believe, or understand in order to become more flexible? Negative thinking patterns that involve frames of judgment against self.

What negative thoughts do you recognize that get in your way from stepping into the state of Learning Excellence?

Fear of failure, fear of being different, fear of looking stupid, etc. Stress, anxiety, negative emotional preoccupation, etc.

How stressful and/or anxious do you feel when it comes to learning? How relaxed, calm, and centered do you feel?

Principle:

A bad conceptual relationship to the very idea of "learning" will totally undermine

and prevent you from discovering, accessing, and enhancing your Learning

Genius.

Will you make a commitment right here & right now to totally commit yourself to catch and renounce putting yourself down for being a human being with a fallible mind?

Distraction:

Thought Balls

bouncing all over the place.

To what extend do you currently love or hate the

thought-balling

nature of your mind?

To what extend to you now realize that your

thought-balling

describes the intelligence of your mind to be creative?

Boredom: dis-interest

How quickly do you reject things as "boring?"

How skillful do you feel in

taking interest,

finding interest, and creating interest in things? Anger: Open and Covert

Anger at self (Self-Contempting), at others, at the "unfairness" of the world, over mistreatment, traumatic events, etc. can sabotage our learning. It can put us into a chronic Fight mode— striving always to "survive."

Dislike or refusal to accept frustration and confusion in the process of learning. How impatient are you about "getting" something?

How do you treat yourself when you have to "stay with something" for awhile in order to learn it?

The Synergistic Learning State

Calmly Alert & Full of Wonder

When we combine playful delight with curious wonder and confident trust in ourselves with a relaxed state... and all of the other components necessary for a powerful learning state, we get a holistic experience that generates

accelerated learning abilities.

1) Recognizing the Sabotage of Stress on Mental Functioning:

Brain functioning under "stress" undermines "learning." Due to the body's neurological ability

to go into the Fight/Flight or General Arousal Syndrome, both physical and psychological "stress"

prevents higher-ordered consciousness, and hence "learning." Why?

Neurologically, we have an extremely fast and effective reflex system that's designed to deal with

perceived threat.

As soon as our higher brain (the cortex) gets a "threat" or danger message, it cues the autonomic nervous system and in a split second, our whole organism mobilizes for fight or flight (including freeze). Neuro-chemicals and neuro-transmitters are released that activates our entire physiology. Glucose foods into the system, heart rate accelerates, blood is diverted from the brain, digestive system, and periphery of the body to the larger muscle groups. Breathing accelerates and oxygen consumption increases, blood pressures rises, etc.

The adrenaline rash that we feel works as a survival mechanism as it mobilizes us for a survival mode of thinking: black-and-white, flee or fight, me or him, etc. Simultaneously, higher order consciousness becomes much less predominate. Our ability to reason, use higher logic, consider a fuller range of options, focus, etc. weakens.

All of this is operative also with

psychological

stress—the

non-physical threats that make up so much of our everyday life. Fear of what others will think of us, the apprehension of looking stupid, anxieties about money, work, family, loved ones, health, etc. And all too often today, most people tend to live in a continual state of low-grade arousal that undermines their optimal brain functioning.

2) Relaxing the Stressed Brain.

Access

"the Relaxation Response"

(Herbert Benson) to mobilize relaxation as a way to enhance your mental powers. We

accelerate

our learning skills and abilities as we learn

"Instant Relaxation "

skills. This, in turn, leads to—

A calm and quiet focus

A mind that can concentrate with one-pointed focus

The ability to let "thought balls" come and go without them interfering. The patience to stay with a subject until we get it.

The ability to become fully present in a sensory-aware state (Uptime)

"Stress" is not a thing or entity, but a way of perceiving and interpreting events. This makes "stress a highly subjective and personal response to stimuli. The experience of "stress" is therefore not inevitable.

Check in with your body from time to time: posture, breathing, tension, etc. Progressively relax your muscles and mind

Trance out into a calm, refreshing memory

Mind Calming techniques to move from

Beta

brain waves (normal waking consciousness) to Alpha (deep physical relaxation, emotional tranquility, calm quiet mind. Theta refers to the deep meditative reverie, a dreamlike and contemplative state. Delta refers to the brain waves of sleeping and dreaming.

COMMITTED TO LEARNING EXCELLENCE

Are you committed to your own Learning Excellence?

In a little bit you are going to learn how to pronounce a Big and Ferocious "YES!" to thoughts in order to turn them into beliefs...

Yet there's nothing that prevents you from beginning that process right now. How about a fabulous "YES!" to these questions??

Are you

willing

to take the first step toward being committed to your Learning Genius? Are you

willing

to

experiment

and

play

with the process for becoming

totally committed

to

accessing and developing your own Learning Genius?

Are you willing to re-order and reframe any and every negative experience that you have

had with Learning?

Are you willing to begin to construct a brand new self-image wherein you begin to see and experience yourself as a

Learner,

as a

Ferocious Learner,

as a

Master

at organizing your consciousness?

F R A M E S F O R L E A R N I N G E X C E L L E N C E

D R A G O N S L A Y I N G / T A M I N G R E F R A M E S F O R L E A R N I N G E X C E L L E N C E

"Frames:" Frames-of-reference: what we specifically

reference

in our thinking, emoting, meaning making, etc. Without knowing our frames (or another's), we really have no idea about their meanings and states.

Conceptual Frames

refer to those higher reference structures: history, memory, imagination, concepts, etc. that we carry with us everywhere we go, and since they put us into various states, they describe our Meta-State

Structures.

Reframing: Exchanging one frame-of-reference (term, label, perceptive, etc.) for another. Deframing: Pulling apart the frames by examining the linguistic structures.

1) Whatever experiences you have had with Learning were simply "experiences" that you have been through. They do not mean anything other than that (unless you overload them with meaning).

2) If you have taken the experience of

"not getting it"

(it meaning any idea, skill, understanding) and used it to map yourself as "dumb" — you have simply misused your natural intelligence.

3) If you have taken the experience of

"having too much information and no structure by which to sort and

separate it" and translated that state of "fusion" (i.e. "Confusion") to mean you are "stupid," you also have

simply misused your intelligence in a powerful way! Confusion means you have

plenty of information.

Confusion means

it's time to use a higher level of mind,

one that can give structure and order to the information. This makes Confusion "the gateway to all kinds of new learnings."

4) If you have taken the experience of

"having all kinds of thoughts firing off at the same time "

(what we will hereafter call "Thought Balls" and "thought balling") and used that sense of feeling "distracted" to insult yourself with labels like, "Attention Deficit," then you have probably created both an incorrect map and one

that will severely limit you.

5) If you have taken the experience of

"recognizing that a phenomenon has many parts that interact"

(a system of parts and processes) and labeled it as "complex" and then anchored that to feeling bad, then you have undoubtedly created an effective program for keeping yourself from representing with clarity, understanding,

T H E L E A R N I N G F R A M E G A M E

F R A M E S F O R L E A R N I N G E X C E L L E N C E

Men are failures not because they're stupid,

but because they are not sufficiently impassioned.

In the process of

training to access the accelerated state of

Learning Excellence, we need to set some really

wonderful, powerful, and magical frames.

1) RUNNING YOUR OWN BRAIN— FRAME GAME.

Learning is simply Running My Own Brain with Power, Finesse, Grace, Elegance, and Mastery, that's all

"Learning" speaks about consciously using your brain to handle its fits and jumps appropriately.

Brains engage in "Thought Balls." It's only natural. As you know this, respect this, honor this, appreciate this... now take a moment to

adopt a Kinder/Gentler Approach to Yourself

when your brain has its jumps and fits.

Give yourself a break:

Refuse to demand that it happen instantaneously, immediately, or quickly. Refuse to demand that it happen perfectly, flawlessly, errorlessly.

Refuse to expect perfect concentration and focus.

Refuse to expect conformity with the ways others learn. Be Kinder/Gentler With yourself:

Accept & Patiently Enjoy that "learning" takes time...

it occurs over a period of time. Whether fast or slow— you will learn if you don't interfere your learning with negative emotions of judgment.

Accept the fact that your brain is so creative it will "Thought-Ball" on you when you least

expect it.

Celebrate this god-like power! Then learn how to handle the thought-balling so that you

have

it, rather than it having you.

Learning involves entering into the domain of interest that we care about, that we want to associate ourselves with, and so we represent, encode, and set frames. Now, given our "nature" as a semantic class of life with a nervous system/brain that maps, we are ferocious

Learning Machines.

It's our nature. All we have to do is support and nurture this.

2) THE MAPPING ADVENTURE FRAME GAME

Learning is simply the Adventure of Mapping—of creating ever more useful Maps for your Navigation

through Life, that's all.

We "learn" or becoming "informed" as we use our brain and nervous system to engage in the learning or mapping processes whereby we (1) associating and linking things together, (2) represent or encode information in a memorable and retrievable format, (3) and frame or order the structure of that information in every higher levels of understandings.

Approach things as a student rather than an expert. The student frame keeps you mind open.

3) THE LEARNING FROM MISTAKES FRAME GAME

Learning is simply Mapping and Re-Mapping and using "Mistakes" to Refine our Internal Maps, that's

all

No one can or does map things out "perfectly" or "flawlessly" the first time. It takes time and repetition and continuous improvements to develop High Quality Maps.

Accept that we "learn" by making mistakes— we need "errors " to establish a program of

self-correcting information.

Pity the poor person who gets it right the first time and doesn't get the opportunity to use "neuro-linguistic feedback."

4) THE "I'VE GOT A UNIQUE BRAIN" FRAME GAME

Learning involves finding your natural brain-ordering style, using it for all its worth and then building on

that Strength to expand your learning skills, that's all

None of us "learn" precisely the "same" way as anybody else. We all have unique facets of our mind-body system.

Accept the uniqueness of your own learning style.

While we all have similarity in the way our nervous system/ brain works— we all also have our own unique way that we learn best. Celebrate

this in your search for your own best learning style.

5) THE "IT'S JUST SIMPLE LAYERS" FRAME GAME

Learning simply involves one simple formatting upon another simple layer, that's all.

What we call "complexity" can be broken down into the layers of thoughts and feelings about other thoughts and feelings.

Accept the simplicity of how many interacting parts come together to create interactive systems.

"Complexity" only means that you are standing in the presence of a system of simple parts which interact over time according to simple principles. By avoiding

overwhelming

oneself, and learning to comprehend first the parts, then the interactions, etc., what once may have seemed "complex" can seem simple.

Multiple Intelligences (Howard Gardner).

6) THE LASER-BEAM FOCUS FRAME GAME

Accelerated Learning simply involves a focused mind that's highly motivated to absorb new data, that's all

To

accelerate

your learning skills, simply add

massive motivation.

The brightest person on the planet will hardly be able to learn anything that he or she is not interested in. Minds need reasons, motivations, visions. To learn best, we need a big WHY... for the adventure. We need a compelling desired outcome that pulls us

into the "learning" experience.

"Give me one good reason why I should...!"

LEARNING FACTORS

There are numerous factors that are involved in the learning process

Factor

_{Questions to Set Learning Frames}

Results

Orientation What is this material about?

How should I begin to read this information? How has the author organized the materials?

Focus _{What is this about?}

Can I focus on this?

What would help me focus on this subject? What focus would best fit this subject?

Interest _{How interesting do I naturally find this subject?}

What I can do to increase my interest in it? What's valuable about this information?

Intensity _{How much intensity do I need to learn this?}

How much natural intensity do I feel?

Motivation

Strategy

How is this important? How will I use this?

In what part of my life will I use this?

What strategy do I need in order to learn this? How should I approach this?

State _{What state do I need to be in to really learn this?}

What state is this material written to? What state am I in right now?

How can I access the right states?

Meta-Detailing _{What principle or concept (generalization) governs}

this subject?

LEARNING STAGES

Learning Happens in Stages: The Call for Patience.

As we apprentice ourselves to become "disciples" to

a discipline,

we move through developmental stages of competence. Knowing these enables us to anticipate them with more grace. The Learning Stages inform us also about the need for

patience

as we move through the stages. The Dragon State of impatience undermines and interferes with Learning Excellence.

1) It begins with incompetence.

We begin the process of learning a new skill from the blissful state of ignorance, from being

Unconsciously

Incompetent.

We have no discipline, no learning, no skill development, no challenge. We live in an Eden,

blissful and happy, and unskilled, unchallenged, a long way from mastery.

2) It then shifts to painful awareness of incompetence.

Then we become conscious. Then light appears and we realize that a whole new world of excitement, skill, expertise, and knowledge exists. We bite into the forbidden fruit of the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil." Yet this creates a certain amount of anxiety, pressure, distress, unpleasantness. We become

Consciously Incompetent.

We face some of the reality constraints about what it would take to become competent, the work, the process, the struggle, the challenge. We feel confused, inadequate, incomplete, "dumb," and incapable of handling this domain. And so we are. Many people feel tempted to turn back to the Garden of Innocence when they hit the stage of

Conscious Incompetence.

It's not pleasant feeling incompetent. And if we run some head-programs of comparison, perfectionism, impatience, etc., we may go into a state of self-judgment. "I hate being put down like this." "What's wrong with me that I can't get this?" "Why does it have to be so hard?" "I'll never get this"

Here it seems like the "discipline" of apprenticing ourselves to the new domain seems so "hard," overwhelming, uncomfortable, and rigorous. Here many people turn back. They refuse to go on. They don't have a good relationship with learning itself, with unsuccessful attempts, with using so-called "failure" as just

feedback, etc. They don't seem to know how to give themselves a chance—an opportunity to grow, develop, get better. They judge and evaluate themselves so harshly. If only they would take a kinder and gentler approach, validating and celebrating every little step of progress.

3) Then we Get Good and Know it!

If we work through the second stage, we find ourselves eventually in the marvelous and wonderful place of stage three. Then, in

Conscious Competence

we feel great! The discipline seems easy and delightful. Attaining a level of competence brings the joy of it feeling confident. We have become a practitioner in the science or art. We know our business, and do it well. Though we know that we have many more things that we can develop, we delight in the level of mastery that we have attained.

4) Then we become mindless Masterful

Eventually, it all habituates and we lose awareness of how we do things; even of what we know. We know it intuitively. As it drops outside of awareness, we have stepped into the next level of development,

Unconscious Competence.

The discipline seems like "a piece of cake." We experience it as "No problem." We can do it without our mind. The programs for the competencies have become installed in our very neurology. We literally have an "in-knowing" (in-tuition) about the skills.

5) Another Level of Awareness

Experts and masters live at the level of Unconscious Competence. This means that the expert, typically, will

not be able to explain his or her expertise. They just do it. They have lost awareness of how they do it. To

move beyond that to the more complex level of

Conscious Competence

2 we have to bring back into awareness the structure, form, and process for the excellence in order to train others in it. This represents the fifth stage

Ignorance/Bliss No Discipline No Skills No Mastery Painful Awareness Inadequacy Self-Consciousness Unskilled/ No mastery "Hard" "difficult" Easy Discipline Confidence Adequacy Growing mastery Skillful "Piece of Cake" Mastery Intuitive Skills Habitual Programmed Higher knowledge of the Skills of Mastery Trainer of Excellence

In becoming

excellent

at what we do, we move through a series of developmental stages— the Competence Levels, By stepping up from stage to stage we move ever more into

mastery levels of skill and expertise.

This describes the learning process by which we develop. To succeed in any field necessitates a committed and playful discipline by which we apprentice ourselves to the necessary understandings and skills. This will not occur overnight. It will take time.

It will take a clarity of vision that enables us to utter a strong and resounding

"Yes!"

to the things of value and a similar resounding "No!" to the things opposite of our objectives and to the things that get in our way.

STRATEGIC LEARNING

Different strategies for different knowledge domains: reading, spelling, mathematics, concepts, etc.

Sort for:

The

kind

of information

The level at which the information occurs: chunk up or down? The

source

of the information: person, book, experience, etc.

The

depth/height

of the information: how abstract or conceptual?

Reading and Comprehending as Video-Thinking

We experience "thoughts" and "thinking" by reproducing in our "minds" the content of what we see, hear, feel, smell, etc. This enables us to think about thinking as Video-Tracking the stuff on the outside and re-presenting them to ourselves on the inside. This also puts into our hands the basic and primary "languages"

of mind:

The VAK of NLP: Visual — Auditory — Kinesthetic Or: Pictures —Sounds — Sensations

Thinking, learning, reading, etc. then necessitate learning how to effectively use our Internal Studio for mapping the world. Let's think about it as effectively using our

Mental Theater

Mind-Tracking: Take the words and ideas and

track over directly

from the words to the screen in your mind. The VAK nature of thinking gives us some "languages" of the mind to use in our tracking.

This gives us insight into how the mind actually processes information and thereby gives us a way to work with that process intelligently. The actual activity of "learning" involves simply tracking

information over to our representational screen of consciousness.

"Reading " and comprehending

our reading involves simply learning how to become increasingly effective at Video-Thinking. When we don't do this, we end up with "holes" in our comprehension. This leads to the creation of ill-formed maps about things.

The visual track: The Pictures and Images that we see.

The auditory track: the sounds, noises, words that we hear.

The kinesthetic track: the sensations that we sense in our body both that of touch (tactile) and that of gut (proprioceptive sensations inside the body)

The olfactory track: the smells

The gustatory track; the sense of taste

Snapshotting the VAK and Overlapping for Map Richness: start with your strongest

mind-language system and track over to the other systems. Practice making Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic Snapshots until you can hold the representation in your mind (Constancy of Representational). This will solve most complaints about being "unable to visualize."

Do this with — "A horse" "Washington DC"

Dr. Don Blackerby has a theory that say that most people who develop problems in school do so about the fifth grade when pictures in books decline and the content becomes more abstract. For

some this creates the problem of being unable to visualize the ideas (1996, pp. 14-15).

Symbolizing Your Video-Recording of Information

After you make your Internal Movies — we move to a higher level of mind, a meta-level, and there we use Symbols to "stand for" and "represent" the Video-Recording.

A) Words, Language, Sentences B) Mathematics, Music, etc.

C) Diagrams, schemas

We abstract from one level to a higher level:

— To summarize, generalize, create maps-of-maps, etc.

— To induce up to a principle, concept, belief, understanding.

In doing this, we establish an Internal World of Symbols and Symbolism:

— Separate Domains of "Knowledge" — "Understandings"

— Inter-related Categories or Classes of Information that enable us to sort & separate, relate and compare, etc.

Express Immediately

Use the Pattern of

Impress Express.

What you have impressed upon you, immediately seek to express it in some way. This allows us to personalize our learnings, install them into our muscles, and to "author" the learning.

THE CINEMATIC STRUCTURE OF "THOUGHT"

We can discern

features, qualities, and properties

in every sensory based system for encoding information in our mental movie. We call these "submodalities." This inadequate term mis-represents things since these are not "sub" level things— but operate at a meta-level as

conceptual

understandings about the VAK.

So?

You have to

go meta

to recognize the

features, qualities, and properties

of the VAK.

You have to use a

meta-level distinction

to think about these features: "location," "intensity," "distance," "volume," etc. Since you cannot put these nominalizations in a wheelbarrow, these do not exist anywhere except in a mind.

We

use

these features or "submodalities" to encode meaning, and we do that

symbolically and

Semantically.

What does it mean when you

encode some visual image of a memory as close? What does it mean when you picture it as far away?

What does it mean when you see it in three-dimensions versus two-dimensions?

What meanings arise or get evoked when you encode a voice with a serious tone versus a more humorous one?

Because we learn to use the features of our representations symbolically—as metaphors, they come to stand for higher level meanings or frames. In this way they create our Neuro-semantic states and structures.

This gives us the ability to cue our brains-and-nervous systems to respond to something as "real" versus "just fantasy." For most of us, we put the first in color, close, 3-D, and panoramic, and encode the second the same except we put it "on a screen" so that it we see

it with a border and not panoramic. In this way, the representational distinctions take on and elicit higher level meanings. But, this does not hold for everybody.

Cinematic Quality "Submodalities"

Meta-Programs

Evaluative States/

Meta-States

Representational Systems Sensory Based Descriptions

The Form & Structure of thought

Thinking Patterns @ RS Evaluations

Higher Meanings @ Thought

Semantic States

Higher Level Evaluations

Visual

Representation System: VAK

Brightness

Focus/ Defocused

Color/Black-&-White Size

Distance: close or far Contrast Movement Direction Foreground/ Background Location Associated/Dissociated Changing/ Steady Framed/ Panoramic 2D (Flat), 3D (holographic) Speed: fast, slow, normal

Chunk Size: General/ Specific Global / Detail

Options/ Procedures

Sensor / Intuitor — Uptime—Downtime

Judger/ Perceiver —Controlling / Perceiving Self- Referencing — Other-Referencing/

External Ref

Match- Mismatch / Same— Difference

Auditory

Pitch

Continuous or Interrupted

Skepticism

Tempo: fast/ slow Volume: loud/ soft

Rhythm Duration Cadence Foreground/ Background Distance Location Clarity

Toward / Away From Values

Associated/ Dissocated

Goal Sort: Optimizing/Perfectionism/ Value buying: cost, Time, convenience

Time Tenses: Past/ Present / Future "Time"

In Time / Through Time

Affiliation: Independent/ Dependent/ Team/ Manager

Extrovert/ Introvert / Amivert

Convincer/ Believability —VAK or Words

Assoc./ Dissoc.

Kinesthetic

Pressure

Location & Extent Shape Texture Temperature Movement Rhythm Duration Foreground/ Background Associated/ Dissociated Intensity Frequency Weight

MO: Impossibility— Possibility MO: Necessity — Desire

T H E S T R A T E G I C A P P R O A C H O F L E A R N I N G L E V E L S

Managing the contents of mind as we move up the levels. In learning, we inform and structure our consciousness. We do this to develop Structured Patterns for responding to the world, to people, to information, to experiences. This means that as we learn we encode and in-form (form ourselves on the inside) at different levels as we mental map things.

With each Level of Learning we have a different Level of Mapping:

1) Perceptual Mapping:

The mapping/ learning that we do as we perceive things with our eyes, ears, nose, etc. (our sense receptors). This level occurs at a pre-conscious level and is purely "neurological." It's part of our programming and wiring. It highlights our nature as "Learning Machines." We experience the world

as we "capture"it (capire, Latin). We capture (percapire) its features

2) Representational Mapping:

The immediate "screen of consciousness" that we experience (hence our experiential or phenomenological sense of reality). This refers to our internal theater of awareness—what we record

and encode using the "languages of the mind" — the sensory systems (seeing, hearing, feeling, etc.). We video-track from our senses and hold our representations constant. This constancy of representation describes our internal "awareness" of the world.

3) Conceptual Mapping:

To represent our representations, we have to move to yet a higher level and use yet a higher system of symbolization, namely, words, language, and linguistic systems. As we abstract and generalize

from our information, we move to a higher level. This creates the phenomenon of "Concepts," and hence Conceptual States. This refers to those higher states (meta-states) that involve our more complex ideas about things: purpose, self, male, female, reasons, authority, etc. At this level and all the levels above this, we create the internal mental "programs" that we use for being, functioning, thinking, feeling, relating, believing, valuing, etc. After all, we are a semantic class of life who live by symbols and concepts.

T H E B A T E S O N L E V E L S O F L E A R N I N G

Gregory Bateson (1972) developed a model that sorted out the different levels of learning. 1) Zero Learning:

No learning. A stimulus (S) occurs but there is no predictable Response (R). A bell rings but it elicits nothing, no response.

2) Learning I:

Here we learn to

associate

a Stimuli with a certain Response. This sets up a S—R pattern. This comprises the most basic form of learning of all life, from one cell organisms to animals and humans. S—R Learning is the learning of

association, linkage, and connection.

We go or stop according to the color of the light signal (red, green, yellow). We run or stop according to the coach's whistling. We learn to go respond to the school bell, to go out or to return from play on the playground. We

learn to add when we see a plus sign, subtract at a minus, multiply at a times, and divide at a division sign. We call this kind of learning,

an anchor

or

anchoring.

Things get "anchored" to other things. Your favorite song "anchors" you to feelings of relaxation or romance. One thing is associated with

another. 3) Learning II:

When we

learn

about our

S-R learnings

we have moved up a level and now our learning is

about

our previous learnings. This brings us to Bateson's Learning II. We now learn to recognize

contexts,

hence, Contextual Learning. We learn about our associative patterns, hence we learn about our thinking and attentional patterns or Meta-Programs. We learn to detect patterns that work versus those that do not. We learn to index our Learning I patterns: when, how, why, with whom, etc. This introduces what we call "Epistemology." We study or learn about

how we know

what we know. At this level of learning, we are learning about Structures, Formats, and Models. Here we are learning in the sense of Framing.

4) Learning III:

At the next highest level of learning, we learn how to change, alter, and transform our Learning II patterns about our associative learning. At this level, we step back from our learning styles to question

them, from our models, from our paradigms, from the culturally inherited patterns and explore the question of

how else

could we think, perceive, etc. This leads into the realm that we call paradigm shifts and personality transformation. Here we learn about how to reframe our framing.