Category: Buddhism

Anhedonia for the masses now? — insights from schizoid personalities

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

I’ve been noticing something remarkable lately- everyone I interact with at work just is completely checked out. Used to be just me faking and masking, now it’s the most extroverted amongst us that I am clocking a seismic shift in.

Has the world finally caught up to my perpetual state of disconnection? Where I’ve long inhabited emotional neutrality, now everyone seems to drift—listless and anesthetized by invisible systemic pressures.

Is this mass schizoid experience a diagnostic canary in society’s collapsing coal mine? Economic precarity, technological alienation, and relentless performative expectations have seemingly drained collective vitality. What I’ve experienced as individual pathology now appears a widespread condition: a numbing adaptive response to late-stage capitalist entropy.

Are we all becoming involuntary ascetics with our affect flattened?….a synchronized emotional shutdown? And if so, what will remain special about how we see the world?

link

I found this post and replies to it interesting and related to Buddhist practice and thought. I personally learned in my childhood and youth, through unregulated experience, states like dissociation, depersonalization, or ‘checking out’. I do not believe that in moderation those are ‘disordered’ states. As a young adult, I did not ever think there was anything wrong with me for experiencing states like that. Augmented or probed deeply through meditation, dissociative-type states appear to me to be related to Buddhist samadhi states, probably even part of the same continuum. Western civilization is awesome in many ways, but generally lacks a deep appreciation of samadhi states as they are practiced and learned (and learned from) in Buddhism, Taoism, yoga, and similar traditions. Basically, the West lacks the vocabulary for the beauty and depth of samadhi states, which may appear to some, or be wrongly defined by some, as psychologically ‘disordered’, ‘depersonalized’, ‘dissociative’, ‘anhedonic’, or ‘checked out’. Taken too far samadhi could become an unwholesome trance state, but this is normally not a problem as proper Buddhist practice also includes rational thought, mindfulness, contemplations on others, compassionate activity. I believe I am not too far off in the gist of this comment simply because there is virtually no common vocabulary in the West known to many that describes deep meditative states or samadhi states; ergo, the West does not have a good understanding of them. The quoted post above and the comments under it at the link above comes from a subreddit on Schizoid Personality Disorder. I am not saying there is no such thing as SPD or anhedonia, but maybe some people who think those terms apply to them are only thinking that way because Western psychology does not have a deep enough vocabulary to couple with their experiences. I believe the insight that things have changed since covid is valid and maybe there is a lot of good in that. Taking no pleasure in a world of lies and bs can also be seen as awakening to the First Noble Truth of worldly suffering and delusion. ABN

How (intimate) interpersonal language functions

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

Parentheses around the word (intimate) indicate a spectrum from less to more intimate, less to more psychologically important.

1) If we study how (intimate) interpersonal language functions, we will discover that it is significantly both defined and impeded by errors in listening and speaking.

2) The more intimate interpersonal communication is the more idiosyncratic it is.

Since (intimate) interpersonal communication is psychologically more significant the more intimate it is, it follows that it is very important to analyze and understand this kind of communication. It also follows that (intimate) interpersonal communication is harder to analyze from the outside the more intimate it is.

It is essentially impossible for an expert to tell two lovers what their words mean or how to understand their acts of communication.

Therefore, the lovers must do it themselves. The expert can only show them how to do it themselves.

3) This is a fundamental truth that rests in the nexus between language and psychology: the more intimate the communication the more important it is psychologically and also the more important it is that the communicators be able to analyze their communication satisfactorily and correct errors that inevitably occur.

4) How to do that can be taught. This is a good job for psychologists. Doing the analyzing and correcting is the job of the intimate communicators.

5) If (intimate) interpersonal communications are not analyzed and corrected; if errors are not discovered and removed from the system, the psychologies of both communicators will be harmed.

6) Conversely, if (intimate) interpersonal communications are analyzed and corrected; if errors are discovered and removed from the system, the psychologies of both communicators will be benefited.

7) Indeed, removing error from an (intimate) interpersonal communication system will result in gradual optimization of both the system and the psychologies of the analyzers.


8) In sum:

  • communication error is inevitable in (intimate) interpersonal communication systems
  • it is very important to correct these errors
  • and to analyze them and the communication system itself in the light of these corrections
  • this optimizes both the communication system and the psychologies of both communicators

There is no other way to accomplish such sweeping improvement in both communication and individual psychology. There is no outside way for intimate communications to be analyzed and no one else to do it but the intimate communicators themselves.

This fundamental truth applies both to intimate communication and psychology. Psychology is determined by intimate communication and vice versa.

FIML practice is specifically designed to correct (intimate) interpersonal communication errors and is best used for this purpose.

first posted JANUARY 6, 2019

‘Empty yourself completely and sit waiting’ — Saint Romuald

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

Romuald (Latin: Romualdus; c. 951 – traditionally 19 June, c. 1025/27 AD)[1] was the founder of the Camaldolese order and a major figure in the eleventh-century “Renaissance of eremitical asceticism“.[2] Romuald spent about 30 years traversing Italy, founding and reforming monasteries and hermitages.

Romuald was able to integrate these different traditions and establish his own monastic order. The admonition in his rule Empty yourself completely and sit waiting places him in relation to the long Christian history of intellectual stillness and interior passivity in meditation also reflected in the nearly contemporary Byzantine ascetic practice known as Hesychasm.

Sit in your cell as in paradise. Put the whole world behind you and forget it. Watch your thoughts like a good fisherman watching for fish. The path you must follow is in the Psalms — never leave it.[9]

link

St Romuald’s empty yourself completely and sit waiting is an instruction in how to enter deep samadhi. Samadhi states are the experience of spiritual truth, whether it be Buddhist or Christian. Buddhism emphasizes samadhi as the eighth element of the Noble Eightfold Path and as the third training of the Three Trainings — ethics, samadhi, and wisdom. ABN

UPDATE: It’s worth noting that Christian monasteries (and by extension Western universities) were modelled on Tibetan Buddhist Viharas, as were Islamic madrasas. I did not post this entry on St Romuald for that reason or to connect Christian ascetic practices with Buddhism, but rather to show that samadhi states, by whatever name, are practiced in many wisdom traditions. They are the most fundamental base of being a conscious human. Samadhi can be described as deeply knowing or contemplating the artesian well of consciousness that bubbles up or flows constantly in each and every one of us. They are dynamic yet still states that can be experienced when we devoutly empty ourselves and wait. ABN

Small lies matter

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

A new study shows that even small lies can weaken our self control, causing us to tell bigger lies and more of them.

Lead author of the study, Neil Garrett, says of it:

“It is likely the brain’s blunted response to repeated acts of dishonesty reflects a reduced emotional response to these acts. This is in line with suggestions that our signals aversion to acts that we consider wrong or immoral. We only tested dishonesty in this experiment, but the same principle may also apply to escalations in other actions such as risk taking or violent behaviour.” [emphasis added] (How lying takes our brains down a ‘slippery slope’)

The study itself can be found here: The brain adapts to dishonesty.

Here is the abstract:

Dishonesty is an integral part of our social world, influencing domains ranging from finance and politics to personal relationships. Anecdotally, digressions from a moral code are often described as a series of small breaches that grow over time. Here we provide empirical evidence for a gradual escalation of self-serving dishonesty and reveal a neural mechanism supporting it. Behaviorally, we show that the extent to which participants engage in self-serving dishonesty increases with repetition. Using functional MRI, we show that signal reduction in the amygdala is sensitive to the history of dishonest behavior, consistent with adaptation. Critically, the extent of reduced amygdala sensitivity to dishonesty on a present decision relative to the previous one predicts the magnitude of escalation of self-serving dishonesty on the next decision. The findings uncover a biological mechanism that supports a ‘slippery slope’: what begins as small acts of dishonesty can escalate into larger transgressions. [emphasis added]

Though this is only one study based on results from only 80 people, I find it very credible.

In Buddhism we learn that even the smallest of thoughts can have enormous consequences.

An important aspect of Buddhist mindfulness is watching how our thoughts develop and how they affect us and others. FIML practice is based on sharing the fruits of real-time mindfulness with a partner.

Done correctly, FIML allows us to observe small transitions in our minds and correct them in real-time if they are wrong.

FIML does not deal all that much with lies per se because partners are expected to be beyond that and FIML won’t work if partners lie.

Nonetheless, FIML does deal with small misunderstandings that can lead to slippery slopes similar to what is described in the study.

For example, if you think your partner’s tone is dismissive and it isn’t and you don’t do a FIML query, the next time you hear that tone you will experience confirmation bias and be on your way down the slope. It’s very hard to trace that sort of thing back to its origin after a few occasions. Your misunderstanding of your partner’s tone could be construed as an unconscious lie that you are telling yourself.

This is why FIML is so important and why it is very helpful to start doing it early in your relationship when all is well and there are no misunderstandings.

FIML can be described as detailed, shared, real-time moral and existential awareness. It demands integrity and mindfulness from both partners and rewards them with greatly enhance shared integrity and mindfulness.

A major purpose of FIML is to prevent the sort of thing that happened in the study. To prevent partners from sliding down a slippery slope that sometimes cannot be regained.

first posted October 24, 2016

Is morality a fundamental part of nature?

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

Viewing nature as a signaling network shows its advantage with this question.

Instead of asking where our moral sense comes from, we ask instead what makes for a good signaling network?

The answer is “good organization.”

By “good,” I mean efficient, well-made, good use of resources, easy to maintain, rational, etc.

You are a signaling network.

A well-organized you will probably tend to be morally pretty good and wanting to get better at it, depending on your conditions.

Of course some people view “morality” as whatever is in their best interests. And that is a type of moral thinking. When it is found out, though, most other people, very reasonably, do not like it.

If we view nature as the evolution of signals and signaling networks rather than as the evolution of matter, we will see that changes in signal organization are fundamental to the evolutionary process.

In this sense, it is the most ordinary thing in the world that you, a complex signaling system that is conscious, would consciously seek good organization and/or want to adapt your organizing principles, both objective and subjective, to conditions that impact you.

Conditions that impact you are signals being perceived by the signaling network you think of as yourself.

Your adaptations, both small and large, will encompass many moral considerations and choices.

Morality can be viewed as a kind of organization. The networks that make up your being must organize their relations with the world around them and other sentient beings. We make many moral decisions when we do this. These decisions are an integral part of how we are organized.

Last night I heard a drunk swearing at his friend from the street. “You fucking bastard…” etc. Not well-organized, but still he was yelling a local version of morality and this was fundamental to his networks and behavior.

first posted MARCH 4, 2017

UPDATE 11/09/22: The above shows that what we scientifically think of today as evolution does not contradict what might be called spiritual evolution, or Buddhist evolution that happens in three ways combined: through 1) morality/ethics; 2) concentration/mindfulness; and 3) wisdom/understanding. Karma is the path of our mind as it wends through its various and numerous realities, sometimes tending toward goodness or the Tathagata, sometimes tending away. By consciously contemplating our signaling networks and describing them to ourselves and close friends we can make our signals clearer and more ethical and thus become wiser, have better understanding. The act of doing this is a kind of concentration or mindfulness. It really doesn’t matter what your religion is, including atheism or even oblivionism, honestly analyzing your signaling will change you probably for the better. ABN

Swedish court jails ‘far-right’ leader for burning Qur’an and making ‘offensive’ statements

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

A far-right Danish-Swedish politician has been sentenced to prison on charges of incitement against an ethnic group for burning copies of the Qur’an and making offensive statements about Muslims.

Rasmus Paludan was the first person to go on trial in Sweden – and is now the first to be sentenced – for burning the Qur’an during an organised demonstration.

The leader of the Danish political party Stram Kurs (Hard Line) was on Tuesday sentenced to four months in prison at Malmö district court for two cases of incitement against an ethnic group and one case of insult in 2022. He was also ordered to pay damages and fees of 80,800 kroner (£5,822).

After Paludan’s trial last month, the chair of the court, Nicklas Söderberg, said: “It is permitted to publicly make critical statements about, for example, Islam and also about Muslims, but the disrespect of a group of people must not clearly cross the line for a factual and valid discussion.

“In these cases, there was no question of any such discussion. The statements instead only amounted to insulting and smearing Muslims.”

Paludan was sentenced to prison because he had been previously convicted of similar crimes by a Danish court, the Swedish court said.

The judgment said: “Rasmus Paludan has expressed disrespect for a people group or other such group of people with allusions to creed, national origin or ethnic origin by putting bacon in and around a Qur’an and then setting fire to, kicking and spitting on the Qur’an.”

link

Europe has slid down the slippery slope of ‘hate’ speech, ‘offensive’ speech, pejoratively calling people ‘far-right’ much further than USA. I hope and believe Trump will keep his word on protecting American free-speech. Besides wooly-headed leftists and dim-witted Eurocrats, most serious thinkers can clearly see that speech restrictions for any reason should not be written into law. Those who do want speech proscriptions written into law invariably have something to hide, no matter how they couch their arguments. Buddhists will recall that there is a long tradition in Buddhism of denying the scaredness of even the Dharma itself, the teachings of the Buddha. There are multiple stories of monks spitting on statues of the Buddha to illustrate that nothing is so holy we cannot stand our own ground before it. The Buddha himself said once you have used the raft to cross the stream, you do not need the raft anymore and should abandon it. So from an American point of view and also a Buddhist point of view, I disagree strongly with all laws designed to control speech or define what is ‘hateful’ or ‘offensive’. Legally, logically, rationally and Buddhistically, it is a spiritual and civilizational dead end to punish speech, including ‘defaming’ so-called ‘sacred’ materials. ABN

Identity and signaling

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

Identity is constructed of memories, memories that have to be tended to, and this takes time and energy.

You have to remember who you are and often have to work pretty hard just to maintain that image within yourself, to say nothing of projecting it toward other people and getting them to accept it.

A big problem with this way of constructing a “self,” an identity, is it’s probably based on misinterpretations and a good deal of self-deceit.

Our identities, such that they are, are complex fictions. They are a central flaw in our internal signaling system.

If your identity is large and complex, it will use a good deal of energy. As you signal internally to yourself about your identity, you will also be receiving signals from other people, and these signals will necessarily be processed by your large and complex identity. And that, of course, will lead to serious misinterpretations, both internal and external.

If you belong to a group that defines, or helps you define, your identity, you can save some energy but will have as much fiction, maybe even worse fiction.

Consider the codes of group behavior (group signaling)  for Stalin’s NKVD officers who purged so many millions of innocents in the 1930s. All of those officers had identities that were largely determined by signals coming from the NKVD and Joseph Stalin.

There was a weird sort of ethical behavior among those officers in that they were trying to adhere to a group signaling system and not go their own way. This same problem in less serious form can be observed all over the world in every culture.

One problem with ethics and ethical signaling within groups is ethical questions can be difficult. There are few formulas that will always work, and formulas are what hold groups together.

Back to your identity. I hope it is clear that you have to be careful when you base your identity on group signaling systems. If you are a banker, you might do many bad things out of loyalty to your group. Same for all of us.

While ethics are hard to codify, the will to behave ethically is simpler. I want to do the right thing but I don’t always know what it is or how to do it. That is a good statement to make. If you can honestly say that to yourself, that is good because that means that your internal signaling system is seeking greater integrity, great clarity.

When we seek clarity and integrity within our signaling systems, we are seeking better ethics. We are changing our identities, or allowing our identities to be transformed by a higher desire for clarity, purity, integrity, goodness.

When we seek to improve our signaling systems, our ethics, we begin to abandon static identities and poorly constructed fictions about ourselves by subjecting them to a higher order of thought. If we can take a meta-position on ourselves, we will find the process of improving signaling is easier and more enjoyable than clinging to a static fictionalized identity that may have been constructed years before.

first posted July 24, 2013

Speech comprehension and context

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

A new study on speech comprehension shows that humans respond to the “contextual semantic content of each word in a relatively time-locked fashion.”

These findings demonstrate that, when successfully comprehending natural speech, the human brain responds to the contextual semantic content of each word in a relatively time-locked fashion. (Source)

This process is roughly illustrated here:

While I do not doubt these findings for simple speech in simple contexts, I do wonder what the results would be for speech in psychologically complex contexts, whether that speech is simple or not.

I wonder this because I am certain that in almost all psychologically complex contexts (those rich with subjectivity, emotion, idiosyncratic memory or association, etc.) the “contextual semantic content of each word” will necessarily be different, often very different for each speaker.

Psychologically rich interpersonal speech is almost always fraught with contextual differences that can be very large. Sometimes participants know these differences exist and sometimes they don’t. It is very common for speakers to make major mistakes in this area, the most important area of speech for human psychological well-being.

It seems possible that EEG with increased sensitivity might one day be able to detect “context diversion” between speakers, but even if complex emotional information is also included, people will still have to talk about what is diverging from what.

My comments are not meant to detract from the very interesting findings posted above. I make them because these findings illustrate how inherently problematic real-time mutual comprehension of the “contextual semantic content” of all spoken words actually is.

FIML practice is the only way I know of today to find profound real-time mutual comprehension of complex interpersonal speech.

Brain plasticity and ‘critical periods’ for learning

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

Neurodevelopment: Unlocking the brain

This is an interesting article on brain plasticity and “critical periods” for learning some skills (e.g. stereo-vision, language acquisition, etc.). It seems there may be ways to reset or reopen critical periods through chemical or behavioral interventions.

Vision therapy, which aims to correct adult amblyopia and other eye conditions, already has shown that basic visual skills can be relearned and some visual problems corrected by proper training.

Incidentally, FIML practice retrains us to listen, speak, and think differently. In doing this, FIML may be reopening a critical period for language/semiotic processing or even for the fundamental organization of consciousness itself. Once acquired, FIML skills have far-reaching effects on virtually all aspects of human social and psychological awareness.

If Buddhist practice is thought of in a light like this (that new cognitive skills are learned as some old ones are unlearned), it may remove some of the mystical aspects of how people understand the Dharma while also making Buddhist teachings more appealing to people with science training or an affinity for objective science.

first posted July 6, 2012

Perceptual distortions inevitably accrue and distort our psychologies

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

Keep your eyes focused on the cross between the flashing images. The faces will appear grossly distorted in your peripheral field of vision. Now, consider that just as our eyes can distort faces as in the gif above, so our minds can and frequently do distort all of our perceptions, especially ones with psychological relevance. This is how our minds do not work well psychologically and emotionally. To compensate for psychological distortions most people in all cultures in the world are forced to cleave to whatever the default assumptions of their cultures are. This leaves us with plastic faces and conformist mannerisms, while inside our minds are filled with emotional distortions. As we carry these distortions through the years, our psychological misperceptions of ourselves and others can become deeply misshapen, leading to neurotic confusion on many levels. No general theory or general method can fix this problem, which at its core is an accumulation of idiosyncratic perceptual distortions held in memory (and the responses that arise from them). FIML practice is a specific activity designed to find and remove perceptual and psychological distortions. FIML will always be unique to the partners using it. It will always deal with their idiosyncratic distortions as they arise in real time. In this sense, FIML has no content except what you put into it. FIML is a tool that helps us see ourselves as we are really functioning in real-time. ABN

Intelligent men exhibit stronger commitment and lower hostility in romantic relationships

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

Men’s general intelligence is associated with better relationship investment and lower aversive behaviors, according to a study published in Personality and Individual Differences.

Past research shows that higher general intelligence (g) is associated with numerous positive life outcomes, such as academic success, better socioeconomic status, and lower likelihood of criminality. These studies also suggest that intelligence may play a role in romantic relationships. General intelligence has been linked to lower rates of divorce and higher chances of being married in mid-life, but the effects of intelligence on more nuanced relationship behaviors have not been as widely explored.

In their new study, Gavin S. Vance and colleagues examined how men’s intelligence related to behaviors such as partner-directed insults, sexual coercion, and relationship investment.

Their research builds on existing theories that intelligence could influence romantic relationship behaviors. Some past studies suggested that specific cognitive abilities, such as problem-solving and memory, can contribute to better conflict resolution between partners. For instance, people with strong working memory skills tend to recall their partner’s perspective during conflicts, helping to reduce the severity of relationship issues.

link

Working memory can be cultivated and improved. Memory is important in Buddhist mindfulness practice as well as in Buddhist ethical practices. Memory skills greatly enhance FIML practice. Some people are fundamentally more talented mnemonically, but most people can very effectively improve interpersonal skills when working with a compatible partner. Mindfulness when applied to interpersonal communication improves not only memory and communication skills, but also our understanding of how we actually are operating in the world. In a nutshell, morality boils down to internal subjective integrity — active use of our working memories, Buddhist mindfulness, and FIML all contribute to a wise understanding of what we are and why good ethics are of fundamental importance to that. ABN

Metacognition improves memory retrieval

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

In this post I am going to argue that strong metacognitive awareness of one’s own intentionality in real-time translates into better and more accurate memory retrieval.

More specifically, I mean that the strong metacognitive awareness of one’s own intentionality that results from FIML practice is a skill that transfers to memory retrieval.

FIML partners spend a good deal of time asking and answering questions about each others’ intentionality in real-time.

The metacognitive skills that develop out of that practice streamline communication between partners, while also streamlining communication within the brains of each partner.

Each partner benefits psychologically as a standalone individual from the practice of FIML because FIML skills can also be applied to individual, subjective brain functions.

One of the psychological benefits of FIML practice is greatly enhanced awareness of the difference between truth and lies during interpersonal communication with the FIML partner.

This awareness beneficially affects memory retrieval.

It does so by increasing the individual’s capacity to better know when memories are reliable and when they are dubious if not outright false.

Advanced FIML practitioners will have less need for egotistical interpretations of their pasts (or anything else), and thus have minds and memories that are more streamlined and efficient.

This happens because FIML practice gradually shifts brain organization away from the heuristics of a static ego to operations that can be described as “metacognitive.”

Metacognitive operations of this caliber are a great improvement on static beliefs in a self or an egocentric narrative.

Additionally, since psychology is based on memory, fine metacognitive awareness of memory retrieval will also improve psychological functioning in other areas.

For example, emotions based on memory (all of them really) will be less likely to negatively influence intentionality if fine metacognitive awareness of memory retrieval is functioning in the individual.

The same can be said of psychological schemas, framing, values, beliefs, instinct and its interpretations, and so on. All aspects of human psychology can enjoy improvements (more truthful, less stupid) through the metacognitive skills that result from FIML practice.

first posted AUGUST 14, 2016

Next-level metacognitive control

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

Experienced FIML practitioners enjoy levels of metacognitive control ordinary humans cannot even dream of.

This control comes after years of diligent FIML practice. It happens because the skills acquired through FIML combined with its metacognitive results allow practitioners to practice FIML on themselves.

FIML practice gradually removes virtually all communication error between partners. This error-removal process is ongoing because all living systems must continually remove waste and error to function optimally.

Successful FIML results in two major achievements:

  • very clear, optimally functioning cognition and metacognition
  • the skill-set needed to attain the above

When these achievements have been realized, FIML practitioners will find they are able to rather easily apply them to their own introspection, their own subjective states while alone.

Ordinary people cannot do this because they have not experienced the metacognitive states brought about by FIML nor have they acquired the skills to quickly remove error from their thoughts.

The FIML skills of quickly removing error from our thoughts cannot be acquired overnight. It must be built upon diligent practice and experience. You cannot imagine it into being.

Once these skills and experiences have become established in the mind as reliable functions, they can be applied to mental states while alone.

first posted DECEMBER 16, 2017

Organ donation explained

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

If this is true, receiving a donated organ cannot be morally justified either. We know of savage organ harvesting abuses in China, Ukraine and Israel. But few know how sketchy the brain-dead claim is in USA. If there are important nuances to this, I am open to changing my views. Buddhists have long believed that death occurs long after cessation of breathing and recent research has shown this to be true. I removed myself from the organ donor registry some time ago. I believe some Buddhist say it is an act of generosity to donate organs and I do not doubt that, but if it is also a medical scam to cajole loved ones into agreeing to allow it, donating would also entail supporting that system.

Full video: Dr. Byrne – Jaw-dropping Discussion with one of the Founders of Neonatal/Perinatal Medicine. ABN

Metacognition and real-time communication

~ ABN ~ Leave a comment

Metacognition means “awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes,” or “cognition about cognition,” or “being able to think about how you think.”

To me, metacognition is a premier human ability. How can it not be a good thing to be aware of how you are aware and how you think and respond to what is around you?

In more detail:

The term “metacognition” is most often associated with John Flavell, (1979). According to Flavell (1979, 1987), metacognition consists of both metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive experiences or regulation. Metacognitive knowledge refers to acquired knowledge about cognitive processes, knowledge that can be used to control cognitive processes. Flavell further divides metacognitive knowledge into three categories: knowledge of person variables, task variables and strategy variables.

(the original source for this quote has disappeared but this article on Wikipedia makes the same points and more)

Most people do metacognition and are aware of doing it. We do it when we plan, make decisions, decide how to get from one place to another, how to relate to one person differently from another, and so on.

Where we don’t do metacognition is in real-time communication in real life, where it matters most. This is not because we are not able to do it. It is because very few of us have the right technique, Flavell’s “acquired knowledge” that allows us to do it.

If we have the right technique, we will be able to gain a great deal of knowledge about real-time cognitive process while also learning how to control them.

FIML practice is a metacognitive practice based on, to quote the above source, “acquired knowledge about cognitive processes… that can be used to control cognitive processes.”

In the case of FIML, the “acquired knowledge” is the FIML technique which allows us to gain conscious “control over cognitive processes” of real-time interpersonal communication.

FIML is different from other analytical communication techniques in that FIML provides a method to gain control over very short or small units of communication in real-time. This is important as it is these very short real-time units that are most often ignored or not dealt with in most analyses of human communication.

If you know how to catch small mistakes, they become sources of insight and humor. If you don’t know how to catch them, they often snowball into destructive misunderstandings.

FIML is fairly easy to do if you understand the importance of correcting the minor misinterpretations that inevitably arise between people when they speak and communicate. By using the FIML metacognitive method, partners gain control over the most elusive kinds of interpersonal error which all too often lead to serious interpersonal discord.

FIML can and does do more than catch small mistakes, but first things first. If you cannot correct small errors in real-time communication, you are not doing anything even resembling thorough metacognitive communication.