The Human Development Company - Presentation Papers, Published Papers and Articles

Supported by the latest brain research in neuroplasticity, (Schwartz and Stapp, 2005) The Continuum Theory™ suggests the following approach to developing the potential of an individual’s Self to the fullest: (1) developing greater awareness – through various body centered approaches, like Gestalt, and working with writing/list making, and being aware of the need for others to be loved, (2) developing clearer visions, by stepping outside of one’s past experiences, which limit the ability to create new visions, and again writing/list making (3) developing the ability to communicate by listening and mirroring, and understanding the need for others to be loved, (4) developing one’s understanding of that love is a life-sustaining energy, which is why it is needed by everyone, and how to give and receive love more unconditionally. (7)

Working with these four tracks (8) maximizes the wiring or rewiring of the brain and allows for healthier behavioral choices, which lead to both psychological and physical wellbeing.

What is the potential of an educated and trained Self ? An educated and trained self is in touch with his or her true needs – can envision goals clearly – communicates those goals effectively – loves unconditionally. It all adds up to having much greater control over one’s life – inner peace – richer relationships – success in achieving certain life goals. This can only happen if we train our ‘Developmental Self’ to;

1. be in touch with feelings and thoughts moment to moment,

2. create visions based on future wants, not past experiences,

3. learn to communicate compassionately, meaning state issues without blame and use mirroring when listening, and finally,

4. understand that love is a life-sustaining energy and that loving unconditionally is not only possible but necessary.

And as with the body or brain, which can be damaged through malnutrition, through abuse, or through a total neglect of their need to be educated and trained to reach their full potential – Self, since it has not been regarded as a developmental entity suffers from all three - a lack of proper nutrition, unintentional abuse and because of ‘neglectful disregard’, from a total lack of proper education and training. Also since its facilities have not been defined until now, we were unaware of the suitable way to even proceed in developing the Self’s potential.

Consider the following examples:
• A 5 year old throwing a tantrum before dinner.

• A 65 plus woman whose adult children use her, along with friends disrespect her, has lost her courage to speak.

• A 28 year old waiter, a college dropout, says life has passed him by….no more chance for a career, for relationship, for happiness, for purpose.

• A distraught mother of 3 ADD boys and ADD husband is ready to have a mental break down.

The problem each of these individuals faces is caused by the lack of education, training and nourishment of their Self and the continuing consequences thereof.

In Case Study #1 I will use the concept of the 4 facilities of Self to explain how the theory applies to parenting, when most of education and training or damage can take place. In Case Studies #2 thru #4 we will see the results of damage to Self – as our language so aptly conveys – damage to Self-esteem, Self-respect, Self- support, and we bundle it by saying someone is being Self-destructive. The Continuum Theory™ simply acknowledges that being Self-destructive is a result of damage to Self – specifically Self’s 4 facilities.

Case Study – #1

Let’s break down the following scenario to see what is needed in education and training for the highest level of Self’s Potential to perform to be reached. Also we can see how generally this Potential is unintentionally damaged, causing major problems for intrapersonal and interpersonal relationships.

• A 5 year old becomes insistent before dinner – is hungry and wants a candy bar?

A child will have an innately healthy reaction to being hungry – according to the developmental model of Self -
Child becomes aware of hunger - awareness
Child loves/cares about meeting its needs - loving oneself unconditionally
Child has a vision/goal of meeting its needs - vision
Child asks for a candy bar to meet its needs - communication

Mother, knows better, candy bars will ruin your appetite - ignores request, or says no, or gets angry, or gives in.

(7) When looking at the universality of human experience with love the only conclusion that makes any sense is to state unequivocally that love is a real and necessary energy. Darwin (1909) - mentions love 92 times - survival only twice in his famous treatise The Origin Of the Species. The famous psychologist Erich Fromm (1941), in his groundbreaking book “The Art of Loving” says right in the beginning that ‘human beings are starved for love’. Harville Hendrix, author of a number of best selling books on love, says in his training course “Only Unconditional Love Heals.” Bruce Lipton (2005), the famous cellular biologist and speaker says love nourishes each cell in our body. George Valiant (2003) – writing about successful aging – says we seek love even when we did not receive it in childhood – pointing to the fact that we have a built-in need – yet the body/brain seem to function well enough without love. It is known that babies die without touch. Is touch love? In books and thousands of articles people have described the pain of being rejected – not getting love. The only way we can feel pain is if something real, something tangible is being withheld from us. Exactly the way we feel when air, food and water are withheld from us. Those are life giving energies, as is loving energy. As quantum physicist Henry Stapp (Schwartz and Stapp, 2005) has now shown, energy can be created from nothing and loving energy is an amount of quantum energy that can be consciously created by human beings and sent(given) to another. This loving energy energizes people, makes them thrive, whereas the withholding of loving energy makes people lethargic, just like getting a good nourishing meal energizes us, and not getting any food or water debilitates us.

(8) I argue that all 4 tracks are necessary. Albert Ellis (2004)– addresses vision – Founder of Gestalt Psychotherapy Fritz Perls (1951) says awareness is 90% of healing – Harville Hendrix (1988) focuses on communication and vision – when we examine the various developmental and therapeutic approaches we find they are usually strong in one or two areas of Self – but do not work simultaneously with all four areas. In fact, we have not found any model that includes unconditional love – the fact that developing all 4 tracks simultaneously has been able to produce such quick, visible results argues strongly in favor of the efficacy of this approach and posits the question - Are awareness, vision, communication, and loving unconditionally further aspects of body/brain or of another, integrated part, called the Self?

Conference on Human Development – March 2010 • D 2f