April 14, 2013
Modeling Excellence Series #11
While The Matrix Model originated from the Meta-States Model and not from any particular modeling, Bob Bodenhamer and I immediately used it as a modeling tool as we applied it to the experience of stuttering. And in doing that we realized that we could use this model as a format or tool for modeling any human experience and especially complex human experiences. In fact, the more systemic the experience, the more the useful the Matrix Model became.
Why is that? How does that work? The explanation goes to the fact that the Matrix Model is based on three axes- Meaning, Performance, and Self.
Meaning because all of human experience and therefore “reality” is a function of the meanings that we construct about things. To understand any person or any experience that humans have we have to find out what meanings have been created. What does the person think in representing something (see, hear, sense), how does the person frame those representations (classifies, categories, invents concepts), what metaphors and understandings used to put all of that together, etc.
Performance because from meaning comes embodiment, the feed-forwarding into ourselves so that we go into state, experience emotions, and create the biological energy to speak and act to influence the things and people in our world. Performance because the body is designed to actualize our mental constructions.
Self because the earliest and most fundamental frames we build are about ourselves as we build up a matrix of frames about our worth, competence, relationships, temporality, and dimensions of operations (self, power, others, time, and world). That’s then why we never leave home without our Self, and the Self that we take with us everywhere we go filters all of our subsequent experiences.
These three dimensions of experience provide the three basic categories that take in just about everything we need to consider when it comes to modeling a complex, systemic human experience. And these three dimensions are not separate or distinctive dimensions, they are interactive and systemic. That’s because the meanings we construct are fundamentally meanings about ourselves in the various worlds that we navigate and as we do they are made actual in our body and so our performances.
Now we can follow the two loops of communication, the feedback- feed-forward loop of information in-energy out. These two loops enable us to explore the outer game (stimulus – response) and then the inner game (thinking-feeling). The outer game loop of stimulus or in the world that triggers us to respond is the obvious loop. Information comes in and we respond with energy in our speech and behavior as we act to deal with that information. Yet this loop, while empirical and sensory-based and quantitative is superficial. It’s just what happens on the outside that you can see and hear and sense.
The more significant loop is the internal one. This is the thinking-feeling loop. First we “think” and that doesn’t mean just consciously, but also unconsciously. We think by representing, by languaging, labeling, evaluating, framing, associating, metaphoring, etc. This is the feedback we give to ourselves as we draw conclusions, compute our meanings, interpret, make sense of and layer more thoughts-and-feelings about our abstractions. And as we conclude and interpret things, we then feed-forward into our neurology and body the energy that activates and mobilizes us. This creates our emotions and our somatic-body-states.
This inner-game loop is the loop of feedback- feed-forward that creates our mental maps and sense of reality. And among the conclusions we are drawing and the meanings we are inventing for our interpretations are all of our abstractions, conceptions, and ideas about our Self.
Matrix Modeling centers in following the energy. In Neuro-Semantics we say that we “follow the energy through the system.” And why? Mostly to understand the system- the person’s mind-body-emotion system. Then, once we understand how a particular experience or system works, we understand where we can intervene in the system to create a desired change. We follow the information into the system to see where it goes, how it is processed, changed, interpreted, abstracted as it moves around the system, and then see how it is actualized and turned into neurological energy.
Matrix Modeling occurs by recognizing the cues of the sub-matrices within the Matrix so that we can tell when any given matrix flashes on as information or energy (emotion, feeling) is experienced in that matrix. You can tell when it flashes on because the person will mention it, the person will talk about their worth (self), their skills, powers, responsibilities, etc. or the lack of them (powers), their relationships, other people, groups of people, etc. (others), some facet about time, the past, present, or future (time), or some domain of meaning (some profession or area where humans live).`
Neuro-Semantic News
- May in Rio — The Self-Actualization Psychology Training and Diploma.
- June in Kuala Lumpur – the Second International Neuro-Semantic Conference — on Coaching, Coaching Excellence.
- July in Johannesburg – the Self-Actualization Psychology Training and Diploma.
- April in Oslo Norway — Coaching Mastery for ACMC Credentials.
- May in Hong Kong — Coaching Mastery for ACMC Credentials.
For Contact details go to www.neurosemantics.com click Training — Dr. Hall’s Schedule.
L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.