Key to Concepts, Abbreviations and Strange Words - Summary

Written by Ilan Shalif, Ph.D.

• 12.- Bio-Feedback is the shortened name for the feedback people receive from their biological systems - originally given to the information individuals received from instruments, while they are measuring ongoing biological processes of their body. It is usually connected with the word "training" to create the concept "biofeedback training". This kind of training is supposed to enable people to control measurable biological processes of their body, in spite of the fact that they are usually unaware of them and the way they succeed in doing it. (We can become aware of only part of those when they reach extreme levels.)
• 13.- Natural biofeedback is a longer form of the term "biofeedback". It will be used instead of the shorter one, in order to stress the difference between the two main kinds of feedback: the instrumental bio-feedback described above and the natural biological feedback. In contrast to the former, in which the feedback is supplied by instruments, in the latter, both the information and the means of its communication are biological.

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  For instance, a tense muscle can supply us with an indirect instrumental feedback about its tenseness when we attach to it the electrodes of a Myo graph. We - and our central nervous system - also receive from the same muscle a natural and more direct biological feedback which comes from the tension-sensitive receptors of the muscle via nerves.
  It seems that the internal processes initiated by natural or instrumental biofeedback - are the only processes that can update the Trashy Supra- Programs. We can enhance or weaken the influence of the natural biofeedback on the various activation programs of the mind at will and in a relatively wide range.
  When we want to weaken its influence, we only have to divert our attention from its source or mask it by a supply of competitive inputs to awareness. When we want to enhance it, we usually have only to increase the amount of concentrated attention paid to it or curb the influence of its competitors.
  The General Sensate Focus technique and Gendlin's Focusing are essentially systematic procedures, aimed at the enhancement of the influence of the natural biofeedback, on the processes responsible for the mending and updating of the various activation programs. (Though Gendlin does not use this kind of conceptualization.)
• 14.- Sensate-Focus(ing) or Focusing: The act of concentrating attention on a sensation at a point of the body, or to that of a region (small or large) or to the totality of the sensations felt at the particular moment. It can be done relatively spontaneously and it can also be done deliberately... and even as part of a schedule.
  It can be done for a very short time (for a second or two) and it can also be done for longer periods that sometimes continue for many minutes or even for a whole hour. Masters and Johnson, the famous sexologists, have used this concept and activity in their work and writings since the early sixties. They developed a most practical and directive program for overcoming problems of the sexual functioning of couples.
  The key concept to their program and the main remedy for this problem is the sensate focusing. The participants of their program are trained through progressive steps, to focus during fore-play and intercourse on sensations of the body that are related to the erotic zones. This technique helps the trainees to acquire the habits needed for mutually satisfied sexual relations. Thus the remedy for their specific problems is achieved. More on how it really works
• 15.- Cognitive processes is a technical term for the different kinds of processing information done in the brain while it deals with the new input and with the older ones that are stored in the memory. It is mainly used to define higher level processes the products or results of which are accessible to the awareness and logic or potentially so.
  It was usually attached to the objective non emotional perceptions and verbal conceptualization or thinking. These are named now "the cold cognitive processes" in order to differentiate them from the more emotionally loaded ones - "the warm cognitive processes".
• 16.- Subliminal - perception or sensation - is the term used to define the input of a process to the subsystem of the awareness when it does not engage our consciousness. This can happen when the input is too weak to begin with, when psychological "defenses" and other filtering processes - the "Cover-Programs"(17) - weaken it and when we consciously choose to attend to something else.
  Though we are unaware of them when in this condition, they may still have a profound effect on all the ongoing processes of the mind - mainly on those that are outside of the awareness. Even when they are subliminal, we can influence them consciously in a systematic way. For instance, when a sensation becomes too weak to discern, we can still continue to concentrate our attention on its source of origin in the body, and thus continue to enhance its effects on the other ongoing processes.
• 17.- Cover-Program is a kind of a Supra-Program(8) that serves to prevent or to weaken the activity of other supra-programs and to prevent or restrict their intruding into the awareness. Sometimes the covering affect is applied only (or mainly) to some of the components of the emotional supra-program - mostly to those that are available to the awareness.
  The most prominent cover-programs are usually called "defenses". These defenses - as the name implies - are supposed to be a system of mental processes which protect us from becoming aware of forbidden material or unwanted and damaging emotional experiences.
  The cover-programs take part in regulating the allocation of the limited amount of brain resources and the limited capacity of awareness to the various tasks at hand. They are valuable and faulty in all the ways the other supra-programs are.
  The main problems the cover-programs cause us - during focusing and during the spontaneous attending to the natural biofeedback - are the restricting, diminishing and weakening of the appropriate felt sensations(7) needing focusing. As a result, the updating and mending of the "covered" programs is limited. More on the cover-programs

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