Cognitive Quit Smoking

If you have raised children then you will know that, while you do
your best to pass on a skill, your offspring must develop the ability
to understand that skill before they can utilise it with
effectiveness. In their own minds.
A switch must be thrown, in their minds, that (in a flash) enables
them to apply the learned lesson to new experiences with ease. We,
as adults, have no direct control over when that switch is thrown.
We talk, and we teach, and we show and we talk some more. And then,
it (mostly) happens. *Ching* wow this is new and I can use it.
Sometimes this is logical, rational, provable. And sometimes it
isn’t.
What might be common, however, is that flash of understanding. The
flash of understanding that occurs in an individual mind. There is a
tale of Zen monks asked to explain the `true nature’ of a jug of
water. The guy who got the `A’ grade smashed it on the floor.

Without words. The water was on the floor, the jug was in pieces
that was what the jug *did*. We can say that he probably could have
just turned the jug upside-down to the same effect but the smash
mimics the explosion of understanding that enlightenment brings, and
is better theater. Jesus, I can spell American (and it rhymes).
Take algebra, or spelling. Algebra. 3x + 5y = 67. It doesn’t
actually. I made that up. (But it might do I can’t be arsed to
think about it.) But the mental `clink’ of 3 times something + 5
times something else (or maybe the same thing) has to chime in the
learner’s brain. They have to jump that hurdle *themselves* and then
they understand how to use the skill. It is like enlightenment of a
sort. Well it is, unconditionally. It’s enlightenment. Then they
can work out the equation in a *cognitive* way.
Spelling is not so logical. You can’t plug in variables x,y and z
and get a pattern. George Bernard Shaw (obscure English person)
played around with a phonetic alphabet (or was he Scottish?).
Ashamed to say I don’t know. To show the lack of `logic’
he spelt FISH (I seem to have a thing about fish sh*t I promised
not to mention them) as GHOTI.
GH as in trouGH;
O as in wOmen;
TI as in naTIon.
This is not a logical skill at all (spelling, I mean) and just has to
be learned. But kids get to know 5 consonants in a row is not very
common and learn to recognise patterns, sometimes by rote (little
logic). When the switch is thrown, they start to spell more
consistently.
This is relatively interesting, but where am I going with this? Log
in to Steve’s site and it’s a good read. It is. It’s intelligent,
well-written, matches your own experience and makes you warm to the
guy and believe him. Then there’s the abcs (crucial actually, but
you learn that a bit later) and you think `ok I used to have a fag
at this point but now I am going to take a deep breath’. This is
somewhat short of exciting. Hold on. There is no chemical
substitute for a cig. That instant application of self-medication
has no substitute. You need to re-learn coping strategies in a non-
smoking life.
Anticipation is key here.
I didn’t do an abc for the visit to the dentist and when he told me I
was ok and had no special problems, I thought of - guess what a
cig. In the following couple of hours, I realised I hadn’t prepared
for the event (hadn’t developed an abc *whatever* the dentist said
you’re fine, you’re diseased or you need further tests, I’d be
stressed out and think of smoking).
He told me I was ok and I thought of a cig. Big surprise.
So, I posted that I was ok and was so happy I thought of smoking.
Then as I hit the Enter key the jug smashed on the floor.
Phil

This entry was posted on Monday, December 27th, 2004 at 3:56 pm and is filed under . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.