Online Clean Space Study Group

• Purpose: Research and Development of online applications of David Grove's work in Systems Theory for individual and group problem solving and ideodynamic hypnosis in the healing arts.
  

• When: Weekdays at 11 AM US East Coast Time (4 PM GMT) and other times to be arranged. Screencasts will be made available. Contact for link. Test your connection here.

• Meeting Format: The group will be using an Interactive Whiteboard and Video-Conferencing demonstrating Grove's Emergence Process.
  

• Who Should Attend: Practitioners, students and those interested in learning more about about online treatment. Members may adopt a number of different roles: observer, practitioner, subject, consultant, trainer, host. Members may also bring selected clients and case materials for demonstration, training and consultation.

• Software Development: This project is modeled using computer modeling tools to explore and develop the next generation of tools for online treatment. A Use Case Form for participants in this effort is here.

• Contact: email, instant message, Skype

David Grove (1950 - 2008)

I knew and studied with David Grove for twenty years. I will miss him.

David was an explorer in the tradition of his Māori ancestors. That tradition conferred great respect upon navigators known as "finders of islands." A few, intrepid and with perseverance and luck, became "discoverer of islands."

David was such a man and his fundamental discovery is called Emergence, a process which integrates both Freud and Einstein. Freud because Grove essentially resolved Freud's dilemma of transference. Einstein because Grove's insights allow us to systemically explore an observer-independent four dimensional space-time using an Emergent Iterator.

The Emergence Iterator process starts with one or more persons mapping information in 3 dimensional space. David would then "run the numbers" by asking the client(s) to iteratively visit information contained in this space.

This focused Iterator, or Power of Six as David called it, can be modeled mathematically. What we get is a fractal called a Strange Attractor, so called because of it's appearance. Each iteration of the fractal is different because the starting point of one iteration includes the output of the iteration before.

An Emergence Session is a series of embedded Iterators; towards the end of an Emergent Session David would often ask for six Action Plans.

Earlier, brain theory and clinical applications were discussed. In a later post we will we apply Grove's work to group problem solving and the art and science of Software Engineering.

Barre Commons

Barre Commons, Barre, Massachusetts, USA
I've spent the last summer in an old Victorian house overlooking Barre Commons. I can walk to meet most of my needs.

David Grove and the Brain

In January 2007, I read an interesting article of a man who suffered traumatic brain injury to a particular part of his brain and subsequently quit smoking cigarettes. Cigarette smokers who suffer damage to this brain region, called the insula, often lose the urge to smoke, according to a subsequent study.

• Twelve (of 19 smokers) stopped smoking immediately after their brain injury and reported feeling no urges to smoke and no relapses since they quit. "My body forgot the urge to smoke," one man told the researchers. (1)

The brain insula maps bodily sensations to "social emotions", emotions that move addicts to procure drugs, for example.

Various methods of influencing the insula in treating addicts have been proposed, including medications and TNS (Trans Cranial Stimulation). I wondered if the less intrusive therapeutic hypnosis could be used for this purpose as well.

I used hypnotherapy to help patients with drug cravings, and realized that David Grove's work with the sense of space (2), a primary sensory modality that integrates the other senses, could also be effective. My experience with Clean Space or Emergence convinces me that it is an effective addition to traditional hypnotherapy. Induction into a Clean Space session does not require hypnosis, but clients often do develop a light trance.


In Clean Space, a person can be viewed as an information system or information space.

Figure 1.

Here the client is in the space of abc and the facilitator is in the space of d.


The client is asked to write (or draw) their goal, mission, or problem that prevents them from reaching their goal. They are guided to find the right space (height, angle, direction, etc.) for the goal and themselves in relationship to the goal. The result is shown in figure 2.

Figure 2. Post-induction: Psychoactive Client InfoSpace

The client in now in the "space of a", the goal is in the"space of b", and "c" is the space between a and b. We can say that space has become psychoactive for the client; it has personal meaning and is aligned with their unique physiology. We define the elicited psychoactive space as personal InfoSpace, or InfoSpace.

The facilitator remains in the "space of d", outside the client's InfoSpace. The subsequent Clean Session involves exploring the client's InfoSpace and helping them navigate from the space of a to the space of b.

For example,

• A client mentioned she had cravings for opiates at certain times and places. I said, "Oh, that needs to go on there," using my finger to point from her to her space of b. This is a Clean Intervention because she had already defined "that" and "there". She had no subsequent further complaints of opiate cravings.
  

• A week later, however, she complained of itching over her entire body (probably a side effect of a cocktail of HIV medications). She rated the itching a 5 on a scale from 1 to 10, but said at night it was a 10. I told her "that" needed to "go on there", using my finger as before. She did so, and a few moments later, I asked her to rate the itching. She looked down at her body as to search for the itching and was pleasantly surprised that it was gone. She had no subsequent further complaints of itching. (3)
  

• I also noticed that changes propagated to other areas of clients' lives, including relationships.
  A client living in a homeless shelter for addicts reported that he was no longer as bothered by other residents' upsets. He realized he could "let them have their own space" when needed.

• A couple, both recovering from drug addiction, reported that they were more able to tolerate their partner's mood swings while maintaining their own equanimity. Psychologically speaking, their ego boundaries had been strengthened.

• A recovering addict used Emergence to help prepare herself for oral surgery. A telephone contact post surgery assisted in moderating her pain without narcotics.

A key to InfoSpace induction process is to not assist the client in finding their space of b and a. By not so assisting the process remains "clean". Allowed the necessary time to perform the spatial task, they elicit and align InfoSpace with their own physiology and neurology. Once InfoSpace has been elicited, subsequent movement of and other changes in information, such as "cravings" and "itching", can lead to profound long lasting systemic change.


Supporting Research

Experimental evidence supports a theory of how an Emergent Iterator works. The spatial mapping system of the brain facilitates transformation of short term memory into long term memory through genomic expression, protein synthesis and neurogenesis.

Eric Kandel , Noble Prize winner in Medicine in 2000, for his work on memory, found that older laboratory mice with memory deficits had long term spatial memory deficits in the hippocampus. And conversely, younger mice (and older mice without memory deficits), showed new neuronal cell growth (neurogenesis) in the hippocampus regions. Significantly,

• ... when a mouse is forced to pay a lot of attention to a new environment, by having to learn a
  spatial task at the same time that it is exploring the new space, the spatial map remains stable
  for days and animal readily remembers a task based on knowledge of that environment. (4)

The hippocampus contains stem cells for use in making new neurons, and is involved in mapping 3 dimensional space as well as consolidating short term into long term memories. Further, explicit (conscious) and implicit (unconscious) memories are

• ... processed and stored in different regions of the brain. In the short term, explicit memory for
  people, objects, places, facts, and events is stored in the prefrontal cortex. These memories are
  converted to long-term memories in the hippocampus and then stored in the parts of the cortex
  that correspond to the senses involved - that is, in the same areas that originally processed the
  information. Implicit memories of skills, habits, and conditioning are stored in the cerebellum,
  striatum, and amygdala. (5)
  

Kandel reports that it took about 15 minutes for the animal to learn the experimental spatial task, and relates that to the strengthening of synapses in the hippocampus (short term memory). It took several hours for the creation of new synapses (consolidation of short term into long term memory).

Ernest Rossi, in his work on therapeutic hypnosis and genetics discusses the genomic expression of Immediate-Early Genes, Early Activity-Dependent Genes, and Late Activity-Dependent Genes.

• Many lines of research suggest that immediate-early genes (IEG's) are the newly discovered mediators between nature and nurture at the cellular-genomic level. Immediate-early genes act as transducers allowing signals (sometimes called primary response genes or third messengers) from the external environment to regulate the adaptive transcription of target gene expression at the cellular level. Immediate-early genes can initiate a series of molecular-genomic transformations that can transduce relatively brief signals from the environment into enduring changes in the physical structure of the developing nervous system and the formation of new memory and learning throughout life. (6)
  

Immediate-Early Genes can promote protein synthesis in a matter of minutes, Early Activity- Dependent Gene expression can take as little as 10 to 12 minutes (short term memory), and Late Activity-Dependent Gene Expression can take 1 to 2 and last to up to 8 hours (long term memory consolidation). Rossi goes on to say,

• Facilitating gene expression, neurogenesis, and stem cell differentiation and maturation into newly functioning tissues is a basic mechanism of healing that makes rehabilitation possible. ... (the) neuroscience hypothesis is that behavior activation initiates activity-dependent gene expression. This activity-dependent gene expression initiates healing by the generation of proteins that facilitate neurogenesis and stem cell differentiation into new tissues. (7)
  

Rossi's and Kandel's research sheds light on clinical experience with Emergence. It is postulated that mapping elements such as mission, goals, thoughts, ideas, behaviors, sensations, feelings, and symptoms, etc., onto 3 dimensional InfoSpace recruits spatial mapping systems in the brain, promoting neurogenesis and long term change. An Emergent session is analagous to Kandel's laboratory animals' "having to learn a spatial task at the same time it is exploring the new space."

It can take a few to 20 minutes or more for clients to enter Emergence. Their subsequent exploration can become most absorbing and can last 1 to several hours. Towards the end of a session, the client is asked to formulate a number of action plans. The facilitator then can weave in post- hypnotic suggestions for the remaining waking hours, sleep that evening, and subsequent days and weeks.

Sometimes the Emergence experience is so intense that clients feel like taking a nap afterwards. Care must be taken by the facilitator to properly re-orient the client, especially if they are driving from the office. A client reported he indeed did "sleep soundly" and "awakened refreshed" after an InfoSpace session. And changes made during the session continued to evolve over days, weeks and months.


Of course, humans do not live in a static 3 dimensional universe, but, as Einstein showed us, there is the 4th dimension of space-time. One strategy for working the 4th dimension is to fix an element in 3 dimensional space and using an Iterator to move it through time. Let's say that a client describes an annoying sensation, a gnawing feeling in their stomach, for example. The facilitator could iteratively ask,

• ..... and what's there, now? ..... and what's there, now? ... ..... and what's there, now? ..... and what's there, now? .... and what's there, now? .... and what's there, now? ...
  

waiting for a verbal or non-verbal response between each iteration. Inevitably the client's experience will evolve over time. And the change can be ratified by asking

• ... and what do you know about that, now? ...
  ... and how does that compare to before? ...
  

Grove describes this Iterator process as "running the numbers", "Clean Numbers", or "the Power of Six". The Power of Six Iterator can be used in a variety of ways. For example, one could iteratively ask the client to move to a different space of a, asking "... and what do you know from that space there?" as shown in figure 3.

Figure. 3 InfoSpace After Power of Six Iterator.

The emergent knowledge can be ratified by asking. "... and how does that compare to before?..."

InfoSpace thus has a history, a past, present, and future. We define InfoSpace as existing in 4 dimensional space-time. We operate on information elements in space with distance, size, shape, angle, direction, etc. And we operate on the time dimension by fixing a particular element in space and move it through time.

The number 6 in Grove's Power of Six has been arrived at emperically, but it may relate to the Feigenbaum scenario as described by Rossi.

Figure 4.

• Figure 4 is a Feigenbaum tree diagram that shows the 6th iteration or bifurcation approaching the domain of chaos and unpredictability of psychological experience.
  
• Each bifurcation represents a "choice point." Here the solutions of mathematical feedback loops (iteration, recursion, replay) divide and diverge in the "decisions" of consciousness, dreams, and behavior on all levels from mind to gene.
• The basic iterative process for generating the Feigenbaum period doubling sequence is to take the answer from an equation and feed it back into the same equation to get an new answer and then keep doing this over and over again. This is the same fundamental process that takes place in all biological and psychosocial systems. Life at all levels from the molecular-genetic to the psychosocial involves doing the same iterative operations over and over again in the process of evolutionary adaptation as well as daily survival. At the molecular-genetic level, for example, gene transcription and translation takes place over and over again in an adaptive feedback loop with the environment. In psychology one stimulus-response unit of behavior is feedback for the next; the experience of one cognition becomes feedback leading to the next etc.
  
• The Feigenbaum period doubling sequence is an appropriate model for the life sciences because it inherently models the physical and biological process of feedback with mathematical iteration. Most important was the discovery that there is a well defined path or route which leads from order to chaos that is described as "universal". It is universal because the same abrupt changes between order and chaos, usually called "bifurcations," can be found in many apparently different equations used to model different processes in nature. When the series of iterated answers to different equations are graphed they all have features in common with the Feigenbaum period doubling sequence as illustrated with the logistic equation in Figure (Four above). (8)

Looking Forward

David's schema is a welcome addition for general problem solving for individuals, families and groups. There are great possibilities for applications in technology and medicine.


References

1. Greg Miller, Brain Damage Sheds Light on Urge to Smoke, FreeRepublic.com, 01/26/2007 http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news...
2. Penny Tompkins and James Lawley, Clean Space: Modeling Human Perception Through Emergence, Cleanlanguage.co.uk, September, 2003, http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/articles...
3. Personal clinical experience.
4. Eric Kandel, In Search of Memory, W.W. Norton, New York, 2000, p. 312.
5. Ibid., p. 130.
6. Ernest Rossi, A Discourse with our Genes - The Psychosocial and Cultural Genomics of Therapeutic Hypnosis and Psychotherapy (Salvatore Iannotti, M.D. editor), Editris SAS, Italy, 2004, p. 93.
7. Ibid., p. 95.
8. Ernest Rossi, The Feigenbaum Scenario as a Model of the Limits of Conscious Information Processing http://www.ernestrossi.com/