In 1994, neuroscience—in the person of one Roger Sperry, a Nobel Prize winning scientist—turned my world upside down. As an executive coach, I had been studying the effects of inner conflict—or more accurately, intrapersonal conflict—for some years. Many of my clients were afflicted with it, and they were a challenge to help and to work with. They often frustrated me.
With dogged determination, I gradually began to unlock some of the workings of inner conflict. My effectiveness with those clients improved, yet I regularly wondered, ‘Why was what I was doing working?’ …until that day in 1994. To say I experienced an epiphany is an understatement. I was ecstatic! In a few short hours of reading—in a first year college psychology textbook, no less—I discovered the secret cause of inner conflict, and discovered EVERYTHING about why what I was doing was working. And I gradually discovered something else which inspired and excited me, and still does!
Understanding the secret cause of intrapersonal conflict and how to resolve it will change radically, and for the better, our future understanding of ourselves, our inner struggles and torment, and even our current concepts of evil in the world.
—Michael Blackstone
A psych 101 textbook: what is this? Could you please explain?
Thanks
Hi Alessandra, please accept my apology for using a local phrase. A psych 101 textbook is an expression used here in the U.S. referring to a basic introductory psychology textbook for 1st year college students.
All the best …Mike
This two minds is exciting and I can’t help but think it is the answer to why I decide to diet and why it hasn’t worked for a few decades. I become excited about the weight loss and then sabatoge myself, and lose all incentive. Which side is vetoing the idea and how can I circumvent it?
Hi Gerri, welcome here. I believe your thinking is on track, and your question a good one–”Which side is vetoing and how to circumvent?”
I believe my best recommendation for right now is a book by Robert Dilts that will lead you in the right direction, Changing Belief Systems with NLP. If you wanted to work directly I can accomodate by Skype. Start with the book. There are a couple of exercises you may find helpful.
All the best …Mike
Hi Mike, I am looking for a book about Inner Personal Conflict to help one aspirant in Russia. She is working in the topic and needs about 200 pages to translate. But the difficulty is – that the teacher inststs on 2010-2011 material. If you could help I will appreciate it greatly.Best of all if it could be a link in Internet with free shared copy of such book. Is it possible?
Best regards from Russia,
Oleg Petrov
This is fascinating work. It seems to explain a lot . .. the idea of “competing commitments” that seem to block us from moving forward with an idea or a plan we say we want. Personally I notice that I often have trouble articulating concepts or connections that I feel like I have grasped, but they aren’t “seated” in language. I’d welcome your thoughts, Mike. Thanks.
Hi Laura, It is fascinating, absolutely, and the concept of dual streams of consciousness, one in each hemisphere, explains a tremendous amount about our inner experiences of inner conflict. Re your question, without more background I’m not fully confident my answer will be on target, but I’ll take a stab at it. You say you have trouble articulating ideas not seated in language. You can safely assume these thought are right-hemisphere (RH) based, and your RH does not have quite the language command of your LH. That said, your RH could very likely express her ideas in poetry or composing a song (both primarily RH activities). Say you composed a poem, then, your LH may be able to enhance it with slightly richer language. This would be an interesting experiment. Keep me posted on your results. All the best… Mike
Laura I think I know what you are talking about. I am a quilting artist and I also have trouble with my left hemisphere’s translation into words, or shape or even a color sometimes. Creativity is right hemisphere, in my case it bubbles up to the surface from a deep spring but there are no reason, logic, words or in my case even ideas to translate it. I had a “project” that sat inside bubbling for 3 full months before my left hemisphere finally managed to “translate” it into shapes. I experience what you describe about concepts and connections, but to explain it to my husband… He’s very much left hemisphere, so he will look at me and say “well if you are unable to explain it to me, how is this so obvious? Or: what have you understood? Isn’t that frustrating sometimes?
In love and light always,
Myriam Haar.