Awesome Seminar - Demon states

[Guest guest]

Hey there Betty Boop,

I have included below part of an article written by Michael hall

describing the Demon or more accurately (Daemon) States. They are an

incredibly useful resource to have.

 

The link to the complete article is here:

http://www.neurosemantics.com/Techniques/genius.htm

& a similar article:

http://www.neurosemantics.com/Articles/BeingAllThere-Genius.htm

 

, Betty Boop

<girlygirl4eva111> wrote:

>start......I was wondering what was meant by " Demon States " I saw it

>a few emails back and thought it was a typo but obviously it aint so

>I was curious about it. Thanks alot and blessings to you all...

 

Developing your Personal Genius " demon "

 

Developing a " Controller " Meta-State

A John Grinder Pattern for Increasing

Your Choice of Total Focus

In Developing Your Personal Genius

 

How To Keep It

How to Manage It

How To Keep It Balanced

 

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

Have you ever felt 100% committed to anything? What would it feel

like to experience a time-and-place wherein you became so totally

focused on one thing that " time, " " space, " " environment " and even

your " self " just vanished away.... now... as you fully experience

again that kind of commitment state to something -- a movie, a

conversation, a ballgame, a tennis match, rock climbing, making love,

learning something that totally fascinated you... obsessed you...

 

Numerous theoreticians have variously labeled the experience of a

totally committed and passionate state. Glasser (1976) described it

as a " positive addiction. " Csiksezentmihalyi (1991) more recently

termed it a state of " flow. " The ancient Greeks called it " demon "

(diamonia). John Grinder and Judith DeLozier, in Prerequisite for

Personal Genius (1987) also described it as a " demon " state --one

wherein you become completely and totally focused.

 

" That's what demons are. They're so narrow-band focused that the

whole resourcefulness of the organism is expressed at that single

point. That's why you can just ease your way through otherwise very

difficult situations. " (p. 219)

 

Also, quoting Casteneda's Don Juan adventures, they described it

using the metaphor of " being a warrior. "

 

" If you observe warriors at any moment you will find that they are

completely, passionately committed to whatever it is that they're

doing at that moment in time. ... although the warrior will do

diverse, even unrelated kinds of things, the warrior acts with utter

congruency and a passionate commitment... " (p. 164).

 

" Castaneda proposes the worthy opponent -- a person or a context

which serves as a stimulus for the child to make a full mobilization

of resources. " (p. 208).

 

In all these descriptions, we have " genius " described as an intensely

focused and concentrated state of consciousness characterized by

passion, commitment, flow, intensity, purposed, conscious-and-

unconscious alignment, etc. And sometimes, just sometimes, to those

outside of this state -- it can look like madness. Judith DeLozer,

quoting Castaneda, described it as " controlled folly. "

 

Further, such intense demon states typically involve a transformation

in one's sense of self. Csiksezentmihalyi described it as self-

forgetfulness -- a form of self-transcendence. Grinder (1987),

following Bateson, described it as an extension of self.

 

" When you were driving race cars you made that complete demon

commitment. You had to be good. In that context your consciousness

let go and allowed you to extend your definition of self to the

tires.... " (p. 79).

 

And Then the Demon Vanishes

 

If " one of the prerequisites for effective personal organization is

the ability to make clean, 100% commitments at each stage of whatever

activities you engage in during the day " (Grinder, 1987: 164), then

having that state interrupted or contaminated so that we lose that

100% passionate commitment becomes an important concern. And a common

one. How often and frequently we seem to lose our state of flow! So

many things seem to interrupt, contaminate, and interfere with it and

do so with such ease and frequency!

 

The problem then that many of us have with our " demon " states of

excellence, commitment, passion, flow, " addiction, " etc. lies in how

one of these states will interrupt another, or how other less intense

states or experiences will interrupt them. John Grinder has noted

that self-interruptive behavior functions as a dead giveaway that we

have " overlapping demons. "

 

" How many of you are self-interruptive in your activities? Isn't in

fact the normal situation one in which you're trying to single track

and things have not been carefully sorted, or you do not have

controllers to make the choices about their appropriateness and you

get intrusions? " (p. 170)

 

" One of the most important functions that we are responsible for as

individuals in a fragmented technological society is clean state

switching. " (p. 164)