Our Brain has a 'Goal Striving Mechanism' - Let's Learn How to Make Use of it

In this blog I am going to discuss about how, I came to know about  the existence of 'automatic goal striving mechanism' in the human brain. Then,  I started exploring this mechanism.  I started working on finding the means and ways of making use of this magical mechanism for achieving whatever we want in life, and for improving the quality of life.  Here is my story. I look forward to your views and thoughts on this, so that jointly we can take it forward. 

MY OBSERVATIONS

My grandson who was studying in 5th standard became interested in robotics and joined the class for learning. He got a kit and started working on making a robot to perform  certain functions like identifying the objects by colors, picking up a particular color piece and moving it to some location. I observed him doing this quite keenly. I watched him writing programs to first identify the objects by color, estimating the distance, making the robot move that distance by programming, picking it up, moving it to desired location, placing it in the desired position. A little mistake in giving the instructions through programming, the robot was not able to perform that simple task. I just asked him, do you remember, as a small child of two to three years, how easily you were able to do this. He told me "Dadu (he calls me by this name), yes I remember very well, I  was able to do this, and I have seen other small children also doing it". I asked him , who may be  writing the programs to perform these acts, how many sensors  may be there in our body-mind system? He started thinking about this and I too. 

My explorations

I came across research work which had shown that our brain especially subconscious mind,  makes judgement and decisions quickly and automatically, it even continuously makes predictions about future events. I started doing simple experiments. I started with waking up in the morning at a certain time early in the morning without alarm. It mostly worked very well . I had observed my son and daughter-in-law, making so much efforts to wakeup their children. I gradually tried with two to three things to be reminded during the day time, and it worked. Science has been talking about the internal clock; but it is much more than that, because it is executing that command of getting up by activating the different parts of our body-mind system to wake you up. I started teaching others but found some people wakeup in between also especially when they have important work like catching a train or a flight. I started thinking that it has some prerequisites too like body and mind should be relaxed as this property is of subconscious mind. 

Then I studied about CYBERNATICS, which deals with the scientific study of how information is communicated in machines and electronic devices, comparing this with how information is communicated in the brain and nervous system. Rodney E. Donaldson the first president of the American Society for Cybernetics has defined it as "The science and art of understanding of understanding". The word cybernetics comes from the Greek language meaning "governance". Cybernetics in biology is the study of information flow and control in biological organisms. 

Wiener in his book , Cybernetics, which describes both animals and the self- guided missiles;  has described following cybernetic mechanisms: There is a mechanism which can accept a "goal", has a "sensing equipment", has a "propulsion system", has a "correcting device" , has some form of "memory". Maxwell Malts author of the book Psycho-Cybernetics; drew the inspiration from Norbert Weiner's book and noted that Wiener sees that man operates the same way. From this, he drew the following conclusions on a human being :

• A person, for what is conscious, is the operator , which can identify and offer goals.
• What is traditionally called the "subconscious mind" is not a "mind" but a cybernetic mechanism built on our nervous system.
• This cybernetic mechanism in human beings can accept a goal -image and an emotion determines if it accepts it ; the mechanism has sensing equipment like the eyes and ears . The various systems, primarily the muscular and nervous system, propels the mechanism . The nervous system works with other systems as a correcting device. The memory can be used to see past successes, making future success more likely,
• The operator gives a goal to the mechanism ( called the "Automatic Success Mechanism" and "Automatic Failure Mechanism", which refer to the same mechanism.
• The mechanism responds no matter what is the goal; whether the goal is positive or negative. It will operate.
• It goes with the Prescot Lecky's  self-consistency theory that self-consistency is a primary motivating force in human behavior - this focuses on the importance of self in the regulation of thoughts and ideas. The basis of this theory proposes that people use self helping measures to maintain consistency of ideas within them , People need a "master motive" that organizes and maintain consistency in their ideas and behavior. A person can function normally due to to the regulation of their self-concept and maintaining constancy within their mental functions.

APJ Abdul Kalam, known as missile man of India , has said " The servo-mechanism in our human system is much more sophisticated , powerful, and complex than the servo- mechanism that is used in missiles ".

When I read this  statement of APJ Abdul Kalam ji , I got inspired with enormous power within and started contemplating about how we can make use of this power for making our lives better in every way. 

Development of the model 

I was inspired by the above explorations and started contemplating how these can be used for manifesting the individual's dreams, achieving goals, self development, finding creative solutions to problems etc. Professor Dr. K. N. Krishanaswamy and I started working and researching together. Our main objective was to develop a method/model aimed at a successful and satisfying career and enlightened living for the individual. Our studies and research led to the concept of programming the ' inner human computer ' using our brain's 'Goal Striving Mechanism' based on the servo cybernetics mechanism described earlier in this blog, We named our model as Body Mind Programming (BMP).

In BMP  we relate to  those goals that are self-motivated and are considerable importance to the individual. BMP deals with the question of success in life through the accomplishment of worthy goals set by the individual for his/her own development and prosperity. We define success as continued expansion of happiness and the progressive realization of worthy goals.

How goal is decided and then  how it is conveyed to the Automatic Goal Striving Mechanism (AGSM)- we have a method, which facilitates the individuals to have a great purpose, a worthy goal, or some extraordinary project by which the individual can get inspired. Once the goal is known, next is conveying the goal to our inner inbuilt goal striving mechanism which resides in our subconscious mind. It involves first going to the state - 'altered consciousness state alpha' ( when our brain is producing alpha waves ) and then conveying the goal. For going to alpha state and beyond BMP has two vehicles named 'Rhythmic Balance' and 'Pacific Harmony'.

Rhythmic Balance relaxes the body and calms the mind. Then Pacific Harmony takes it to deeper levels of consciousness (alpha and beyond). These vehicles use tools - relaxation, breathing, affirmations, and visualizations.

Next step is to convey/communicate the goal in the language of the cybernetics mechanism - images and emotions. For this we  have another two vehicles 'implantation' and  'nurturing'. Implantation implants the goals as seeds, then nurturing creates a vividly imagined experience. Our nervous system cannot distinguish between the real and the synthetic (imagined) experience. Thus a strongly forged image held in our mind for a long time, will lead to an emotional response or bodily response. Mental and physical behavior is influenced by images. This aspect of the human nervous system is made use of for nurturing the goal embedded in the implantation stage. It augments the implantation as well as speeds up the development and growth from the seed(goal). We use visualization as a tool for nurturing to help implantation of our desired goal or objective in the deeper levels of our mind. This process we call programming.

After programming; there is a step for surrendering; many thinkers working in the field of creativity and innovation have stressed on the need and importance of surrender. Surrender is letting go of attachment to the result and allowing the higher power (our creative resource) to take over and do whatever is needed in whatever way it deems fit. This is quite consistent with Max Plank's assertion that the determined causal relation can be upset by the supernatural (infinite intelligence). After surrendering is the step of follow up - taking actions, following inner promptings.

The diagram depicts BMP in Nut-Shell 

The technique has been successfully used by many people from all over the world. 

Above technique is a new paradigm for bringing desired changes in behavior, habits, attitudes, mindset, beliefs etc. 

Please share your thoughts and comments on my blog, do you agree with my thinking or your thoughts are different. 

Raj Kumar Dham ( R. K. Dham)

rkdham@gmail.com
+919845287581
To learn more - register at https://bit.ly/BMPintro 
Bangalore 

References:-

1. Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Malts.
2. Cybernetics by Norbert Wiener
3. Create Your Own Future Through Body Mind Programming by K N Krishanaswamy and Raj Kumar Dham.
4. Self-consistency, a Theory of Personality by Prescott Lecky