ALFRED KORZYBSKI AND MINDFULNESS

Korzybski wrote a lot about mindfulness except he did not call it mindfulness, he called it “consciousness of abstracting.” And this idea is perhaps the major theme in his magnum opus, Science and Sanity. Becoming conscious of abstracting means recognizing that you are “abstracting” —summarizing and drawing conclusions and that what you think and say are functions of your mental map-making, not reality. Then, being conscious of that, you do not identify your thoughts, ideas, conclusions, beliefs, etc. with reality. And that keeps you open, aware, and flexible.

Then, being mindful in this way, you are far, far less likely to suffer the jars, shocks, and surprises of reality. Such mindfulness will enable you to more easily and graciously adjust yourself to ever- occurring changes which, in turn, allows you to be more effective in adjusting (i.e., sane). Here Korzybski writes about many of the benefits of this level of awareness.

“There is no danger of taking ‘the joy out of life,’ the opposite is true. With the consciousness of abstracting, the joy of living is considerably increased. We have no more ‘frights,’ bewilderments, or similar semantic experiences. We grow up to full adulthood; and when the body is mature for the taking up of life and its responsibilities, we accomplish that, and find joy in it, as our ‘mind’ and ‘emotions’ have also matured. Such a consciousness of abstracting leads to an integrated, semantically balanced and adapted adult personality. Joys, pleasures, and ‘emotions’ are not abolished, as this cannot be done, given the nature of our nervous system and ‘mental’ healthy, but they are ‘sublimated’ to higher adult human semantic levels. Life becomes fuller, and the individual ceases to act as a nuisance and a danger to himself and others.” (S&S, p. 527)

Many discussions about consciousness fail to go anywhere because “consciousness” is always about something and never detached or about nothing. Whenever you are conscious, you are conscious about something. What is that something? So with mindfulness. You are mindful about what? The most curative mindfulness is about your thinking— “consciousness of abstracting.” That’s because knowledge is stratified and what you “know” comes in an order of levels. That is, you think, then you think about what you just thought. This reflexivity layers thoughts upon thoughts. It creates logical levels.

“I have found that one of the main difficulties of the learner, or in ‘thinking’ in general, consists in the fact that in any verbal discussion we must utilize different orders of abstractions and multi-ordinal terms. If we do not realize this, the problem often seems very involved; once we are conscious of it [mindful], however, the problem becomes simple. ... this special flexibility ... represents the working mechanism of ‘high intelligence’” (S&S, p. 487)

That thinking and learning occurs via different levels also follow the structure of the human nervous system and brain, there also we process information at different levels. Due to this different levels of abstractions, an inherent characteristic of human knowledge, “we cannot abolish it without abolishing multi-ordinal intelligence.” As we have lower brain functions and we have higher brain functions, we must make sure they operate in an open-loop way so they properly influence each other.

“Intelligence requires the passing from level to level in both directions.” (S&S, p. 482)

Given this, in order to use your full brain in a holistic way, you have to think (be mindful) at the primary level of facts, differences, immediacy and at the higher levels of conclusions, generalizations, similarity, etc.

“By training in this passing to higher and higher abstractions we train the ‘mind’ to be more efficient; this ‘mental’ expanding should be the structural and semantic aim of every education.” (S&S, p. 483)

By going forward and then back, and then going upward and back down we think in an integrative way and thereby close the knowing-doing gap. This then gives you a felt sense regarding what you know as well as a conceptual sense. You feel what you know and you know what you feel.

“Realizing that we abstract in different orders, we slowly acquire the most creative structural feeling that human knowledge is inexhaustible; we become more and more interested in knowledge; our curiosity becomes aroused; our sorting spirit stimulated and our level of multi-ordinal intelligence raised. It is well know that the higher intelligence is characterized by a critical attitude ... he will inquire, investigate, will always ask ‘What do you mean?’” (S&S, p. 485)

Key to this heightened curiosity and inspiration lies in removing the blocks such as semantic reactions and identifications.

“We should avoid the mistake of assuming that the average man ... does not ‘think.’ His nervous system works continually, as does that of a genius. The difference consists in that its working is not productive or efficient. ... By the elimination of semantic blockings, we release the creative capacities of any individual. ... Instead of being a semantic slave of the structure of language, he becomes its master.” (S&S, p. 485)

Then you can become mindful in a new and exciting way.