Date: 08 May 97 08:25:10 EDT >From: "Milton L. Dawes" <102362.1465@CompuServe.COM> USING THE STRUCTURAL DIFFERENTIAL Using the structural differential as a tool to help us better communicate with ourselves and others, is one way we can reduce the many instances of conflicts, misundersatndings, and identification which can play so much havoc in our relationships with ourselves and with others. The structural differential can be used to remind us of differences (among other things), between what is going on, beyond our immediate and direct observations (called the event level and represented by the parabola ); our direct observations - what we are aware of (object level: circle under the parabola ); what we say about what we are aware of ( label and descriptive level: first tag under the circle ); what we assume related to our observations, (inferential level: next tag ); our beliefs, imaginations, theories, speculations, generalizations, etc., related to our observations (other tags). The broken off tag at the bottom of the structural differential, serves to remind us that when cannot know, say, understand all about anything: And that when we say anything, about anything; when we 'think' anything about anything, when we arrive at some conclusion, or opinion, or 'feelings', etc., we have at that instant, '' cut off'' , stopped our differentiating with regards to the particular situation, whether we are aware of this or not. We can remind ourselves of this by being ''conscious of our abstracting" - by being aware that we have not experienced all; said all; understood all. If we look at a structural differential, we will notice that there is some distance (and 'time') between the tag at the bottom and the parabola at the top. This time- distance-separation can be experienced as a ' metaphor ' : a visual indicator of the distance-separation between what is going on at subatomic levels - which we cannot directly consciously experience, and what we say, 'think', 'feel', understand, believe, etc. about anything. Our ''higher order abstractions'' terms ( for example, love, beauty, sin, evil, success, failure ; our speculations, theories, philosophies, and so on ...... takes us further away from what is going on than what we experience through our seeing, touching, smelling, hearing, and so on. The arrow returning to the parabola event level, and in effect to all the levels, serves to remind us to ''go back to sources'' , look for more clues, not to depend so much on words, take another look, and so on. The small circle to the side of the first circle serves to remind us that animals also abstract - see, hear, feel, and whatever else they do. But as far as we know , they are not to any significant degree, naturally self-conscious about their behaviors. We don't expect them to review and re-evaluate their actions, and engage themselves in self-improvement programs. We can review and re-evaluate: and when we don't , we are to that extent copying animals. The following provides an example of an experiment-exercise you can do to develop this differentiating ability. Developing this differentiating skill and orientation can go a long way in helping us become healthier, fitter, less stressed, longer living, more intelligent, more creative individuals, by increasing our evaluating flexibility, broadening our sensitivity and awareness, and expanding our behavioral options. Improving our differentiating skills helps to minimize dis-stress in our lives; gives us a better grasp of diverse situations; improve our communication skills; helps us become better problem solvers; better at managing a variety of social interactions, and relationships; helps us to avoid and resolve many conflicts; better managers of ourselves and situations we find ourselves in; and much more. You might be wondering "How can it do so much". Well you don't have to take my words for it. Better to try the experiment-exercise, and judge for yourself. That way, It wont be doing: you will be doing - a difference of enormous proportions. This is an experiment-exercise you can do anywhere, anytime, as long as you are awake. Dedicate at least 10 minutes each day for this, until you find that it begins to become a habit - a healthy one. Reading about this is not enough. . Ok here goes. I invite you to make your own little sketch of the structural differential. Carry it around with you. Then when you find the time, when you make the time, try the following. This can be done anywhere you might happen to be. Look at someone, or some thing, or some situation you are in, and say to yourself while looking at the parabola-event level (topmost level) of your structural differential (sd): "I don't know, I can't see, hear, etc., what's going on at the sub-microscopic levels, of this person, thing, or situation . In fact I am not aware of much that's going on in and around me. And more than that - I am never aware of "all" that' going on anywhere" You can think of the parabola as representing "all that's going on in the universe (including yourself) of which you are not immediately aware". Meditate on that for a few seconds. Some benefits: If we accept that we don't know all that's going on then we are likely to be less close minded about our ideas, opinions, decisions, and so on. We are more likely to listen to what others have to say; more acceptable of the diversity of interpretations, understandings, beliefs, behaviors, (within limits of course) of others. We become less confrontational, and thereby minimize a great deal of conflicts and unnecessary disagreements. With an awareness that we don't know all, we are less blocked, more openminded, more motivated, to try other approaches to formulating and resolving problems. We become more creative individuals. If we accept that we don't know all, we are more likely to develop a "theoretical'' and "experimental" approach to what we believe and what we do. We adopt a continuous learning approach to living when we are aware that there is more information available to us than what we presently have. And that's not all. Next, look at the person, or thing, or situation, while glancing at the "object level" of your sd. Let your eyes wander. Survey the scene. Look at colors, marks, outlines. shapes, gestures, movements, placements, etc. Listen to sounds, and so on. Feel the textures of different things around you. This level represents our "sensing" of things. When you catch yourself saying or thinking anything, say to yourself quietly - not silently. ( I 'think' it is important for you to hear yourself saying this): "Silence on the sensing-object level. Words can sometimes blur my vision, dull my senses. Things are not what I say, 'think' or believe they are. There are .others who are not sensing what I am sensing. At first, you are likely to find talking this way to yourself a very difficult thing to do. You might 'feel' a bit silly - at the beginning. But with continued practice, you might find that it gets easier and easier, until it takes no effort. Our nervous systems develop habits with great ease. Then move to the "descriptive-label level". Give the person or thing a name. Make up a name . Describe what you see. Be careful here. Some assumptions might creep in. (Old habits die hard) Say only what you see, right there before you. . Then hear yourself quietly saying: "What I call this person or thing, what I might 'think' , or believe, my words, are not it. I am here, this thing or person is over there. What I say COULD NOT BE IT. There is a vast difference between words and what they refer to. The word is not the thing-process it represents. A map (my words - beliefs, understanding, theories, knowledge, opinions, expectations, hopes, wishes, etc., is not the territory mapped) Others will describe-map the situation quite differently. They are not 'seeing' exactly what I am 'seeing' ". (You don't have to say all that; but I 'think' you get the picture). Again, look at the person, thing, or situation.. Glance at the "inferential level" (third level) of your sd. Imagine anything you can about this person or thing. Then ask yourself this: "How do I know that what I 'think' or say, or believe about this person, thing, situation, is so?" Then say "I am imagining things. I am assuming things. Others might be making different assumptions, imagining different possibilities.. I might not be entirely wrong. But at this moment, I don't know how accurate is this map I am making. More critically evaluated information could give me a more accurate map. . I wonder how I can get more information about this.? And if I have to make decisions with the information I now have, I must be open to, and must , ready myself, to do a mid-course correction when new information becomes available. Now I am not suggesting that you use the precise words I used. You can make up your own. Also please keep in mind that doing this experiment-exercise is mainly to develop differentiating skills - and that this differentiation applies to different times and places, situations and so on. If you are facing a mugger on the street, it could be healthier to find ways to protect yourself, than to be 'thinking' about , labels and descriptions and inferences as such. Of course to believe that this particular person is not friendly, would be in my opinion , a reasonable inference to make. The next level represents "generalizations". So look around at the things, people, etc., you see. Make up some generalizations. An example: This person is wearing sneakers: "People who wear sneakers are athletic".. Or this person is wearing a ring on a particular finger: " People who wear a ring on that finger are married." Say to yourself "Standing in a different place and time, others might be making their own generalizations. They are not 'seeing', they cannot 'see' all that I am 'seeing' - exactly what I am 'seeing' ". The next levels emphasize the fact that there is no end to our ability to differentiate: Hence the cutoff and arrow going back to the first level. Our ability to make assumptions, and to generalize, has no limits, theoretically. We can and do make assumptions about our assumptions; we can and do have opinions about our opinions - and especially others opinions; we can and do make generalizations about our generalizations; theories about our theories; philosophies about our philosophies ad infinitum. We can, and do indulge ourselves with words and more words, about our words - often taking ourselves further and further away from what we can observe or sense is going on in the rest of our surroundings. We can expand our consciousness and also our confusion. We expand our consciousness when we distinguish between our words and what they are about. The arrow pointing us back to the first two levels, helps us to remember not to get lost in our human made jungle of words. But to minimize our confusions by returning as often as we can to what we can sense and observe. Building our lives, our relationships, our institutions, our societies, mainly on words, as we have been doing, gives us the kind of world we have. The map is not the territory. The territory does not operate as a grammatical system. We can say quite correctly - in a grammatical sense - "The cow jumps over the moon''.." This car, this airline is safe". "We will provide jobs for everyone". "We will put an end to drugs and crime". "Nicotine is not a drug". If we put more faith in our word-maps, than in what we can see, hear, feel, smell, touch, etc., we will constantly be at odds with the territory and ourselves. This is not to say that we don't need, or can do without, fantasy, imagination, theories, opinions, hopes, and so on. What we are talking about is what is assigned the higher priority; what is given greater value; what is more significant in a given situation, and so on. . So I invite you to go ahead and do this structural differential experiment-exercise. See if it makes a difference in your life. As a fellow time-binder, I can tell you,. It continues to make a big difference in mine. MIlton Dawes