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Clean Space: Modeling Human Perception through Emergence by Penny Tompkins & James Lawley
David Grove, the originator of Clean Language [1] and the innovator of many processes for working with autogenic (client-generated) metaphor, has done it again. He has created Clean Space, a fascinating new approach that uses emergence to model human perception and facilitate organic change. Steven Johnson notes the importance and ubiquity of emergence: We have only recently begun to recognize it, yet it exists at every level of our lived experience. It is fast becoming clear that our lives revolve around the powers of emergence. An ant colony behaves with an intelligence no particular ant possesses; a brain is conscious although no particular brain cell is; a city develops districts and neighbourhoods no planner could impose. In each case, complex problems are solved by a profusion of relatively simple elements. Order arrives from the bottom up, not top down. Such systems display emergent behaviour: the movement from low-level rules to higher-level sophistication.
(C over of book)
Universality of Space
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Clean Space: Modeling Human Perception through Emergence by Penny Tompkins & James Lawley
Whenever we see something, we see it somewhere; whenever we hear a sound, it's coming from somewhere; and whenever we touch something, we feel it somewhere. Likewise, whenever we create an image in our mind, we see it somewhere; whenever we hear a sound internally, we hear it coming from somewhere; and whenever we feel a feeling inside, we feel it somewhere. Neuroscientists tell us there are no actual images, sounds or feelings in the brain, but subjectively it seems like there are. In other words, our representations are metaphors that exist in a mindspace -- a stage in the theatre of our mind where the play of consciousness is enacted. Metaphors embody and define the intangible and abstract, but this limits and constrains perceptions and actions to those which make sense within the logic of the metaphor. Metaphors are therefore both descriptive and prescriptive. They can be a tool for creativity or a self-imposed prison. Either way, there are some metaphors we simply cannot do without, and space is one of them. Metaphors of space are everywhere: A sense of direction Where is my career going? Moving forward Things are looking up One step at a time Life path Moving up in the world Moving on The way ahead Rise to the top On track A turning point Inflation is levelling out It's all downhill from here Down in the dumps In the pit of despair We're stuck I'm going nowhere How do we get out of this mess? Following blindly The roller-coaster of life Over the hill The deadline is approaching Lead astray Going round in circles Put the past behind me
Space is so fundamental to perception that perhaps location should not be regarded as a quality (a submodality) of our sensory systems. Steven Pinker's view that the metaphor of space is more like the "medium of thought itself" may be more appropriate. He draws this conclusion because: Location in space is one of the two fundamental metaphors in language, used for thousands of meanings. ... Many cognitive scientists (including me) have concluded from their research on language that a handful of concepts about places, paths, motions ... underlie the literal or figurative meanings of tens of thousands of words and constructions, not only in English but in every other language that has been studied. (pp. 354-357)
As you will see, Clean Space makes full use of the discovery that space is the medium or context for thought itself.
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Clean Space: Modeling Human Perception through Emergence by Penny Tompkins & James Lawley
Spatial Sorting
Robert Dilts has made a significant contribution to NLP through the use of 'spatial sorting'. He has designed a number of processes such as Perceptual Positions, Neuro-Logical Levels, SCORE and Timeline that enable us to 'sort' and 'anchor' our thoughts and feelings into different physical places. In these processes the practitioner specifies a number of categories and allocates each of them a space. In Perceptual Positions for example, first, second, third and sometimes a fourth position are given a location by the facilitator. The facilitator provides the characteristics associated with these spaces, often with metaphors such as: 'seeing out of your own eyes', 'standing in the other person's shoes', 'a fly-on-the-wall position'. The facilitator guides the client through a sequence of moves from position to position -- usually with the liberal use of metaphors to instruct the client to 'leave that experience there', 'step out of that', etc. In these techniques the location of the space, the form of the perception, and the order of moves are to varying degrees predetermined by the facilitator. Clean Space is like doing a mixture of Perceptual Positions, Neuro-Logical Levels, etc. without the facilitator defining any of the spaces; or deciding the category of experience allocated to the spaces; or predefining the number of steps. In Clean Space, each position is located by the client and its attributes are defined by the client. The whole process emerges out of the client's innate ability to, as Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner put it, "conceptually blend" their perception of metaphorical space with their perception of physical space.
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Clean Space: Modeling Human Perception through Emergence by Penny Tompkins & James Lawley
Clean Space is not like a traditional technique: the steps cannot be predefined since neither you nor the client knows what will happen next. Each move is contingent upon what has just been said or done and on the logic of the client's information. How many spaces the client identifies, their location, the order in which they are located, the information emerging from each space, and the number of iterations are determined during the process. Clean Space is a developmental model that recognises that complex-adaptive systems (people) learn through embodied activity, feedback and iteration. The result is an emergent property which was not predictable from the underlying rules or initial conditions. Clean Space is a new way to utilize bottom-up modelling in human psychology.
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Clean Space: Modeling Human Perception through Emergence by Penny Tompkins & James Lawley
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Clean Space: Modeling Human Perception through Emergence by Penny Tompkins & James Lawley
- If the client seems to be talking from a different space than the one they are occupying, move them to that space. - Clients indicate a higher-level knowing when they name a group of spaces, a relationship between spaces, or a metaphor for a configuration of spaces (lines, shapes, angles, edges, etc.). Use the client's word(s) for the grouping of spaces to refer to them as a whole. 8. Finishing Be sure the client completes the process in Position 1. This is their 'control position' from which they can notice any changes that have occurred during the session. It is from here that they leave to continue their lives.
David Grove says, "your aim is for the client to establish a network of relationships between the spaces." Once this configuration is established, the client's natural ability to detect patterns and make meaning, coupled with their desire to change, results in the system learning from itself. When you facilitate Clean Space, your language, gaze and gestures must be clean. That is, all that you say and do needs to be congruent with the client's mental landscape from their perspective. This means resisting the temptation to add in your own words. The moment you do this the client has to stop modelling them self, and start modelling you. This applies not only to meta-comments, reframes and Ericksonian language, but also to those apparently innocuous additions such as "Tell me what you know from there." The 'tell me' unnecessarily brings the facilitator into the equation and implies a dialogue rather than an exploration by the client of the logic of their own perceptions.
Space Speaks
Most people naturally scale their inner landscape to fit the dimensions of the physical space available. We have successfully facilitated clients in small rooms as well as outside where some of their spaces were 200 metres apart. The client's desired outcome can be anything they want. It does not have to fulfil any 'Wellformedness Conditions' or SMART criteria. It is important however, that the desired outcome is in their own words, and written (or drawn) by their hand -- uncontaminated by any comments, suggestions or leading questions from the facilitator. The client may rewrite their statement at any time during the process. You may also find that the client starts moving to new spaces and returning to existing spaces of their own accord. When this happens you know they are self-modelling. If the client wants to move to a space outside the room or building, encourage them to do so if that is appropriate. If not, they can find what David Grove calls a 'proxy space' which can stand for the one they are unable to occupy physically. We suggest you say something like: 'Find a space in here that represents or stands for [client's words for the space outside].' Once space becomes psychoactive it is imbued with meaning, and the client is likely to discover deep significance in the coincidence of events and the location of objects. These synchronicities should be incorporated into the process. For example, a client who wanted to "discover his next steps" was being taken though the Clean Space process in a public park. He was standing in one of his spaces when he turned to see a workman in a pond pulling a "No Waiting" sign out of the water. As client and facilitator watched in amazement, wondering whether they should believe their eyes, the workman fished around under the water and brought a second "No Waiting" sign to the surface. The client exclaimed, "I might be able to ignore one sign, but not two!" The facilitator simply replied, "Find a space that
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knows about not being able to ignore two signs." The Clean Space process can easily continue across sessions. At the end of a session, invite the client to map the configuration of their spaces. At the start of the following session, the client can replace their desired outcome and position labels as before. When they are in Position 1, they can notice if anything has changed. Whether it has or not, the next phase of self-modelling will have already begun.
Concluding Remarks
With Clean Space the client lays out the content of their mind in an embodied process that enables them to figure out (self-model) how it all fits together. Amazingly, no specific change technique is required. Clean Space relies on the client's natural ability to utilize emergence. Change happens organically as a result of the client's system becoming more aware of its own organization. As Milton Erickson said, "Therapy results from an inner resynthesis of the patient's behavior achieved by the patient himself" (quoted by Ernest Rossi). Clean Space is a very flexible process that can be adapted in hundreds of ways. It can be used by individuals to solve problems, to stimulate creativity, as a way to prepare for exams (it's like walking around your own personalized mind map), and as a generative development process. We have also used it with couples, in conflict resolution and negotiation, and in group facilitation. Clean Space can easily be incorporated into other methodologies. However, we strongly recommend that you first trial it several times in its pure form. Not only will your clients discover some surprising things about themselves, you are likely to notice how little you need to do. Generally, the less you try to make something happen, the more something unexpectedly productive happens. To appreciate the full implication of Clean Space you will need to experience it from the client's perspective. Afterwards you will have a better idea of how creating a psychoactive perceptual space and moving around it engages much more than ordinary cognition. We'll leave the last word to one of our clients: "I couldn't see how standing on another piece of carpet could make any difference, and yet when I did, I instantly had access to new knowledge, and that opened up a completely new perspective."
POSTSC RIPT
In 2009 we undertook a major review and updating of the principles, methodology and choices available to a Clean Space facilitator, see: Clean Space Revisited. And in 2012: James wrote a blog, Setting Up Clean Space, which focuses on the artistic (rather than the technology) aspect of Clean Space.
Notes: 1. See also in Anchor Point: Watch Your Language! March 2001; A C ase Study May 2001; A Model of Musing, May 2002.
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2. The facilitation team at Findhorn also included Steve C allaghan, Phil Swallow, Wendy Sullivan, C aitlin Walker and Marian Way. References:
Robert Dilts, Changing Belief Systems with NLP, Meta Publications, 1990. Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, The Way We Think: Conceptual Blending and the Mind's Hidden Complexities, Basic Books, 2003. Edward T. Hall, The Silent Language, Doubleday, 1981. Steven Johnson, Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities and Software, Penguin, 2001. George Lakoff and Mark Johnson, Metaphors We Live By, The University of Chicago Press, 1980. James Lawley and Penny Tompkins, Metaphors in Mind: Transformation through Symbolic Modelling The Developing Company Press, 2000. Steven Pinker, How the Mind Works, The Softback Preview, 1998. Ernest Rossi, The Psychobiology of Mind-Body Healing, Norton, 1993. Stephen Wolfram, A New Kind of Science, Wolfram Media, 2002.
Acknowledgements: Thanks to the London C lean Language and the Metaphor Practice and Research Groups for their continued exploration, challenge and development of our model of C lean Space. And to Philip Harland and Phil Swallow for their useful feedback on this article.
URL: http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/articles/articles/24/1/Clean-Space-Modeling-HumanPerception-through-Emergence/Page1.html
Penny and James are supervising neurolinguistic psychotherapists registered with the United Kingdom C ouncil for Psychotherapy since 1993 coaches in business, certified NLP trainers, and founders of The Developing Company . They have provided consultancy to organisations as diverse as GlaxoSmithKline, Yale University C hild Study C enter, NASA Goddard Space C enter and the Findhorn Spiritual C ommunity in Northern Scotland. Their book, Metaphors in Mind was the first comprehensive guide to Symbolic Modelling using the C lean Language of David Grove. An annotated training DVD, A Strange and Strong Sensation demonstrates their work in a live session.
All information on this web site (unless otherwise stated) is Copyright 1997- 2013 Penny Tompkins and James Lawley of The Developing Company. All rights reserved. You may reproduce and disseminate any of our copyrighted information for personal use only providing the original source is clearly identified. If you wish to use the material for
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any other reason please contact: Penny Tompkins and James Lawley of
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