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June 2020

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From:
Waldemar Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
tree of knowledge system discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Wed, 3 Jun 2020 13:48:25 -0700
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Dear Friends:

I want to share something with you - perhaps, it will prove helpful beyond our experimental pod.
Something  which arose from our CALM-MO workshop yesterday.

Before I do so, it is appropriate to again thank KC, Charles, and Paulihna for their work and presentation - as well to Gregg for organizing the Zoom.
I also want to thank Mike Mascolo for what he shared with us visually on that day (more on that below).
The Zoom and Mike’s graphic are, for me, both remarkable and conceptually-revealing.

This has to do with my experiences with CALM-MO.
I have found it very helpful and, as I mentioned before, see the CALM part as the tactics available in applying the strategy - ie, metacognitive observation (including meta-affect and meta-bodily).

Alas, some days I am more successful than others.
But overall, I more frequently recognize when I need to utilize CALM-MO on myself.
However, I am aware that “something else” was also going on - something which has been to me ineffable but clearly active.
From time-to-time, looking back on an incidence when I used CALM-MO, I have wondered “what just happened?”

The workshop was personally revealing for me - and has helped to answer that question.
I especially was challenged by KC’s portion.
The others were also helpful, but KC explored an area which is pretty much unexperienced by me.
I seem to do OK with the cognitive and affective part of applying CALM-MO.
That is, if I am sufficiently attentive, I recognize: “OK, time for CALM-MO before I go off the rails!”
About half-way through the workshop I had an insight: “hey, I often find myself applying CALM-MO but I am not fully aware of why it was triggered.” 

Hmm - must be triggered unconsciously, huh - how come I didn’t realize that before?
Not a major paradigm shifting thought - except for me, of course.

As a result of the workshop, I realized there was another way in which I was, unconsciously, using CALM-MO:

#1: I am using CALM-MO to calibrate my bodily, emotional, and cognitive response.  In other words, in response to my thoughts, my feelings, my body response I am using CALM-MO to modulate my planned response.
#2: I am using CALM-MO to measure my reaction to the situation in which I find myself.  It occurs rapidly (ie, as a result of thinking fast).

In this way, #2 is different from #1 because #1 is occurring by thinking slow. 
#1 is a conscious, cognitive effort whilst #2 is a subconscious effort.

If you will, I realized I was using CALM-MO as an existential monitor in #2.
I was evaluating what the situation in which I found myself was being sensed & perceived by myself - but, not necessarily as a consciously analysis of that situation.

That’s where Mike’s graphic comes in.



Apprehending the two ways in which I am using CALM-MO involves the conscious mind, I wondered how this is operating in the subconscious mind.
That’s Mike’s graphic (which he has added to since the workshop). 

And, as a result, I perceived what was going on with the mysterious method #2:

I was, subconsciously sensing and perceiving input from Reflection, Emotion, and/or Bodily to measure status in the 4 arenas of CALM.
If there was concordance in all areas, I did not receive the message “time to employ CALM-MO in this current situation.”
But, if one or more of the arenas was discordant, then I did receive the message “time to employ CALM-MO in this current situation.”

For example:

If the situation involved a thought, was it something which I was comfortable accepting lovingly?  If not, then the stimulus to apply CALM-MO was triggered.
If the emotion being “transmitted” in the situation was something with which I really couldn’t accept lovingly, then the stimulus to employ CALM-MO was triggered.

And, most interestingly (to my Western mind) was the role of Bodily response to the situation in which I found myself.
Clearly, there were times I experienced when cognitively and affectively everything seemed OK, but something - ie, Bodily response - detected a reason to be careful and the need to use CALM-MO.
That explained those times when I found myself using CALM-MO to modulate the situation but did not remember having experienced cognitively or affectively the need to so.

Clearly, if the 12 arenas on the chart are “green” then my experiential monitor was not alarmed by what was transpiring.
But, if there was a yellow square, and especially a red one (measures of how discordant I perceived the situation) then it was time for CALM-MO adaptations on my part.
The more squares which were “not green” resulted in a strong impulse to apply CALM-MO.
Obviously, this is modulated by my worldview and ethical stance/intention - so, the outcome is unique to each person.

This suggests, to me, that it is important to integrate the MO strategy into my repertoire of characteristic adaptations both in terms of how I might act and how the situation is “acting.”
In other words, to me, CALM-MO needs to be “a way of life” rather than a series of techniques which might be applicable “if I wanted to do so.”

So, thanks, KC, Paulihna, and Charles for your help.
Thanks, Mike, for helping me to “see.”
I hope your presentations will be recorded so that they may be accessed via the appropriate website.

Best regards, and thanks for “listening,”

Waldemar

Waldemar A Schmidt, PhD, MD
(Perseveret et Percipiunt)
503.631.8044

Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value. (A Einstein)


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