This was originally posted on Facebook by Roy Æ Hodges.
In Hilgard’s neodissociation theory (Hilgard, 1994), during hypnosis, it is proposed that there is a division of consciousness, one of mental activity and another accompanying an awareness of phenomena. It could be said that invitation for divine manifestation is where a hypnotic like state allows for the weaving of mental activity and direct sensory awareness. Perhaps, a highly trained central executive function disassociates the activities of Baddely and Hitch’s Working Memory Model (1974); this seems apt in application to autotelic behavior. It may be possible that the central executive’s skill in autotelicism and this neodissociation may be correlated to increases in operant conditioning of martial practices. The question most martial artists would ask, refactored into science, would be: what is the independent variable driving autotelicism to an extent that practitioners accelerate quickly in learning as measured by an approach toward near-instantaneous adaptive creativity of an independent variable of martial quality. It is this acceleration, rather than velocity, that appears as a kind of divined behavior, where general observers are more readily to recognize qualities of work products, or lack thereof, and yet may be less recognizing of rapid accelerations in quality across numerous measures though it be subconsciously held, in awe. This inability to consciously acknowledge rapid acceleration may be a result of functional fixedness in addressing <singular|n> deficiencies, repressed awe due to hyper-competitiveness, or generalized neurosis/psychosis, whereas skilled instructors, practitioners, and professors address the attention toward resolution of the very obstacles aforementioned which constrain field-groking <<retention|reproduction>|motivation> to borrow from Bandura’s Modeling Theory (Bandura, 2017).
Additional Commentary
A Note of Appreciation
This is shared in honor of 10 AM sessions at Aikido Shobukan Dojo during residency, namely Chris Royal, Alonzo Crawford, Steven Schneid, and Patty Saotome Sensei. Their academic backgrounds have been a continuing inspiration.
References
Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. In Psychology of learning and motivation (Vol. 8, pp. 47-89). Academic press.
Bandura, A. ed. (2017). Psychological Modeling: Conflicting Theories. Transaction Publishers.
Hilgard, E. R. (1994). Neodissociation theory. In S. J. Lynn & J. W. Rhue (Eds.), Dissociation: Clinical and theoretical perspectives (p. 32–51). Guilford Press.