the origin and release of judgement - breathwork · the origin and release of judgement dr wilfried...

(c) wilfried ehrmann www.atman.atwww.atman.at

Global Inspiration Conference 2008

The Origin and Release of JudgementWilfried EhrmannDr

Baskerville UK

© wilfried ehrmann [email protected]


In generosity and helping others be like a river. In compassion and

grace be like sun. In concealing others' faults be

like night. In anger and fury be likedead.

In modesty and humility be like earth.

In tolerance be like a sea.


In this lecture, I will try to explain the mechanisms of the forming of judgement in our minds and then present ways to transform this mechanism and propose an adapted place in a world of evolved consciousness which we envision to give birth to on this planet.

We are going to explore an area of our inner functioning, which is a widespread and deep rooted cause of suffering and of social disruptions. It is widely ignored and accepted as normal. It is subtle, and yet, it can have devastating effects on humanity. It is the phenomenon of judgement, the way heart limits itself (Rilke).


Heart, that you still would not show your boundary towards good and bad and towards the unperceivable. How you limit yourself.

Rainer Maria Rilke

(Herz, dass du doch nicht deine Grenze zeigest gegen gut und böse und gegen das Unkenntliche. Wie du dich einschränkst.)


Brain and judgementJudgement is a method to gain control over our environment. When we have judgemental schemes which cover wide ranges of possible events, we can feel safer as when we are thinking that every moment can bring a surprise and we do not know whether it is beneficial or threatening.

Lack of control is the highest trigger for stress. This has been proven in many experiments. So we are equipped with an effective system designed to foresee (anticipate) possible dangers. Our brain builds up numerous databases labelled with “good”, “bad” or “neutral”. The more experience we gain in life the more judgemental structures are built up and stored in a generalizing mode. When we think or verbalize a judgement, this is just a translation into language of what had already happened on an unconscious level – a labelling of someone or something as approachable or as to avoid – something to be afraid of or to trust.


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JudgementA statement about something or someone which is emotionally charged and generalized (mentalized).When the danger – safety-category comes in, evaluation is combined with emotion. This is the root of judgement: Certain inputs in our nervous system are evaluated as dangerous = potentially life threading. So our survival mechanism is activated in the amygdala. The information is processed to the hippocampus which gives it a safe place in our memory (but not in highly traumatic moments – here the information is just stored in the amygdala). Then the information flows into our associative cortex, and there, similar experiences can cause a negative judgement knot, which serves as a protection against further threatening.

EvaluationA statement about the quality of sensory information.Every input which is registered by our nervous system, gets values in different categories, e.g. cold – warm, pleasant – unpleasant. So at the level of sensations, qualities of these sensations just are as they are, the evaluation comes on the next level, when the sensory input is run through the survival filter: dangerous = bad or safe = neutral or good.


Judgement

EvaluationGeneralization

Realityexternal

internal

Languagecontinuous

discontinuous

Emotional charge


Forming JudgementRegistration of input Sensory Input

BrainSensory organwith certain quality Preselection:

important/negligeable Limbic system

Survival filter

Dangerous = bad

Pleasant = good

Flight / Fight

Discrete/ noncontinuous

Protection state

Continuous

Growth state


How we learn

Implicit learning Explicit learningProcedural memory Declarative memory

• Unconscious

• Timeless

• Resistant to deletion

• Partly conscious

• Time parameter

• Open for deletionThe learning of judgemental behaviour to defend ourselves happens unconsciously and becomes part of our implicit memory.


The language of “Black and White”, the language of “Either – Or” is the language of forced power.Those, who are not with me, are against me. This is the language of all dictators, whether they are executing power over a family, an organisation or over a state. In the materialistic world, it is translated into the language of quantity.The language of continuum is limited to powerless structures like art and science. In therapy, we have to relearn this language by paying close attention to our body sensations. They are never either or, but always on at least one scale with infinite divisions and subtleties. Especially in body oriented therapies like breathwork, we get a deeper understanding of the language of nuances and of flow which is the language of nature. The language of either/or only exists as outflow of human mind, as an abstraction from the anxiety pattern of fight or flight. So the alternative way of argumentation came into language and thinking as result of the animalistic survival instinct. (It may be comforting to consider that the fiercest dictators or bosses are trapped in a primitive traumatic situation of fight or flight).


Continuous evaluation corresponds with the right hemisphereDiscrete or noncontinuous evaluation corresponds with the left hemisphere –cognitive judgement supported by the structure of our language – our language acts as a reinforcement of discontinuous structures with its yes-or-no-operators. Staccato-movement (Gabrielle Roth).These antithetical structures in our language are derived from the fight-or-flight-mechanism which is already incorporated in each living cell.But our language petrifies these structures by translating them from continuous to discontinuous


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Black Whiteor


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The subtle language, the language of nuances. See the subtle changes of sensations in this painting of Monet….This is the language of evaluation with no need for judgement and with a message of beauty and love, which contains everything to satisfy our needs.


(Subconscious) Fear Judgement

Sticking to judgemental behaviour (also in speech) builds up further fear patters in our unconscious mind which give rise to further judgemental structures.


We cannot get rid of such mechanisms in our brain, which are working unconsciously. What do we mean then when speaking of letting go of judgement? By holding on to judgemental thoughts and by verbalizing them we consciously support the mechanism and amplify and enforce it by doing so. When we stop judgemental thoughts and replace them by kind and loving thoughts as soon as we notice them, when we stop to verbalize judgements, we weaken the unconscious mechanisms and keep them from causing social harm.


Learning judgementMother says: You are nasty for doing this.Child perceives: “I AM NASTY (as opposed to nice or good or okay).”This happens when mother does not say: What you just have done is nasty, you are okay and you are a wonderful child. Because mother comes from a place of danger, anxiety and from a reactive judgemental position she has adopted in the course of her life adjusting to the way she has been treated herself. The child learns that the discreet form of evaluation is superior to the continuous way, which is closer to experience. So the truth of experience is alienated and overlaid by an attitude of mental protection accompanied by hostile emotions.The child also learns that power is executed via discreet language. This form of expression allows no other reaction but humiliation or opposition.


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You are so nasty!!!

Poor me, I am so nasty!


The child learns to handle power not by “I want more of this or less of that” but by “NO, NEVER, NOT”!

So the world starts to split in two halves: The good and the bad. Black and white. Either or. The sight of a trauma driven being, far from the human potential.


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I am bad, but all the others as well.


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Education

• Comparison • Perfection

A tricky judgement we learn in our path through the education machinery is the idea of perfection.It stems from the lineage of fight-and-flight. It is the control-lineage and it is fuelled by fear of failure. Perfection means ultimate control, elimination of all causes of danger. It is an abstraction created by the mind. There is nothing in nature that is perfect. There is no piece of music and no painting, which is perfect. Beautiful things do not have to be perfect. But there are people in our lives who expect us to be perfect and get angry when we are not. And quite often these people we are ourselves….


Judgement is Violence

A provocative statement to discuss!

Negative judgement acts as a weapon in our hands, which can cause damage in other people’s souls and give them the feeling of being in danger. So quarrel starts and amplifies to conflicts and wars.


A B

C

—

+

Example 1D

E

F

+—

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Example 1: B knows C and has no problems with her. Now A tells B that C has been mean to him (A). B sympathizes with A via mirroring and takes over the perspective of A about C. A was threatened in the conflict with C, which activated fear in him and resulted in a judgement which should help to avoid further hurt by C or someone similar to C. B was not threatened, but by taking over the viewpoint of A about C, she associates that she could be threatened when facing a behaviour like C’s to A. So be concludes that C is threatening.When B meets C next time, B is no longer neutral or fine with C, but tensed up. When they clear the situation, the reality becomes clear again (C shares that A had been mean to her as well. B can change his single pointed view to a systemic view and realizes the interactive nature of the conflict between A and C. So he does not feel threatened any more.If they do not talk about the situation, then mist is created which darkens the relationship between B and C without necessity.


What would be an appropriate (reflected ethical) reaction of B, when A comes with the story?I empathize with A’s feelings, but leave the judgement, that A has about C, with A.“I can understand that you (not I) feel this way.

In therapy: Client tries to win the therapist over to his side against the partner, family, boss, where the client has his/her problems. When the therapist takes sides (even in single therapy), he cannot help the client all the way through, but the therapy will get stuck sooner or later.So the therapist needs the skill of discernment between empathy and joining sides with the client by taking his/her judgement over.

Overtaking judgements creates internal realities with the tendency of becoming undistinguishable to external realities by unconsciously connecting them to the fear centre. These fake external realities then seek and find confirmation in the outer reality, which stabilizes them.


A B

C~—

Example 2

+

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C has been mean to A with action x (forgetting his birthday). A concludes that action x has the meaning that A is not important for C. Then it is likely that a chain reaction starts: Someone who does not take me important, does not like me. Someone who does not like me, is a mean person. The judgement of a behaviour is transferred into a judgement of a person. The right to disrespect the person is unethically derived from the right to criticise an action.

The ethics of respect require the following from B:When someone (A) is complaining about someone else who is not present (C), B (receiver of complaint) accepts the complaint as a perception of A, empathizes with the feelings of A, but stays in a neutral position towards C, no judgement.He takes the position of a fool: I do not know anything about C. I was not present when the insult happened. I cannot look into C.

The ethics of respect require the following from A:Sharing feelings and judgement in order to get support and comfort, but declares that he owns these feelings and judgements (these are mine and not anybody else’s).A does not seduce C to become a shareholder in his own business but seeks a friend who can help him out of the trap of his feelings and judgements.


Experiences are internal representations of sensory inputs from outside and inside the body.

They do not carry an operating manual with them.

We add evaluation, meaning, comparison.

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If the good or bad exercise of the will does alter the world, it can alter only the limits of the world, not the facts--not what can be expressed by means of language. In short the effect must be that it becomes an altogether different world. It must, so to speak, wax and wane as a whole. The world of the happy man is

diff t f th t f th


Nothing’s either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.

Shakespeare, Hamlet

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Oh no, I do not want to be

judged!


Release of JudgementEffect

• Communication Skills• Relaxation Techniques• Therapeutic Work• Meditation

Popularity –Money

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1) Communication Skills:

• Shaping our behaviour – discipline required.

• “First-person message”, rules for feedback ...

• Self responsibility for outcomes

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quo• Sufficient for improving daily routines in

cooperations, but shaky


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2) Relaxation Techniques

• Reducing the stress level• Reducing the charges in our

judgements• Reducing the causes for judgements• Body oriented approaches• Necessary for forming a society of

respect.

Relaxe

d peo

ple ar

e more

effic

ient


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3) Therapeutic Work

• Eradicating the roots of stress • Working on traumatic experiences• Necessary for stabilizing a society of

respect. The attitude of respect needs to be rooted deeper than mental concepts.

Dange

r: Cou

ld ch

ange

your

chara

cter


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4) Meditation

• Practising unconditional love• Establish a connection to a place of

inner silence • Necessary for stabilizing a society of

integrity which can handle the challenges of the future of this world.

Dange

r: Los

s of s

elf ju

dgem

ents


As long as you are not aware of the continual law of Die And Be Again, you are merely a vague

guest on a dark earth.

Johann Wolfgang von GoetheWer dies nicht kennt, dies stirb und werde, ist nur ein trüber Gast auf dunkler Erde.


Appropriate Judgement ?

Action - Behaviour Person

Positive Judgement ?

We have to name actions that happen and that are against humanity, ethics and integrity. But we do not hold a position of superiority towards any human being which would give us the right to form a judgement of this person.

Judgements always come from a place of righteousness. I have more rights than the person I judge. It leaves a feeling of minority in the person receiving the judgement.Judgements are formed in the mind. The language of the heart knows appreciation but not judgement. So every judgement which is aimed at the person leaves a trace of misused power and disrespect.


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Why is it important to let go of judgement when we are on a spiritual quest?The highest level of consciousness, holistic consciousness, is free of judgement as it perceives any judgement as an interference of the mind into the momentary experience of life. In the view of holistic perception, there is nothing like good, bad or neutral in reality. Everything is exactly the way it is and there is no other way it could be in that given moment.

Even the last but one level of consciousness is characterized by omitting judgement. Systemic consciousness does not need judgement as it does not have a point of view from where judgements could be made. So it becomes obvious on that level already that judgement is of no help for solving problems or creating new ideas.The systemic approach is not problem oriented, and judgement is applied to problems, but solution oriented, and solutions are not related to any outside standard or evaluation but only to the transformation that has happened or will happen in relation to the situation before.

the origin and release of judgement - breathwork · the origin and release of judgement dr wilfried...

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