Nathaniel Branden's remarkable and forgotten contribution for personal transformation - the sentence completion technique
I am profoundly grateful to both Ayn Rand and Nathaniel Branden for all that they did to develop and then spread Objectivism. But being presented with this philosophy isn't enough. We all have to work through these ideas to reconcile, integrate, and implement them into our own lives. We all come with a lot of "baggage", as they say, which we have to learn how to deal with and overcome.
For progress in that task, I owe an incredible debt to Nathaniel Branden and his books that use the sentence completion technique.
For those not aware, this is a way to tap into your subconscious thoughts and feelings that are holding you back, getting in your own way, or causing fundamental conflict within yourself. Only by bringing these issues to a conscious and explicit level can you begin to face them.
This practice led to some very powerful revelations for myself when I was in my 20's. (It was about a mental issue and irrational "hangup" I had with my girlfriend. With Branden's technique I got to the root of it and got past it. We have now been married for over 20 years and have wonderful 2 kids. Without his help this would not have been my story.)
Now in my 40's I'm thinking that I should return to this powerful strategy. But it made me realize that this technique seems to be a forgotten secret or lost art in our world.
Thus my request to start a discussion on this topic. I did a search within our online Gulch first. My point is supported - there apparently hasn't been a single post on this topic here - EVER!
What is even more baffling (and deserving of another completely different post, probably) - in selecting the category for this discussion topic, there isn't a category for self-improvement or psychology. Does that seem strange (and troubling) to anyone else?? I humbly suggest that one or both of those categories would be great for us to try and focus on here among us fellow Gulchers.
Anyway, I'm submitting this discussion topic under the "Books" category, since Branden's books are currently the best place to learn about and start to use this technique. I'm thinking we need a renaissance with it...
You could use this post to share if & how this technique has made a difference in your life. But my burning questions really are - why is this technique not recognized as one of his greatest contributions to the world? Secondly, maybe someone should do something about that?
For progress in that task, I owe an incredible debt to Nathaniel Branden and his books that use the sentence completion technique.
For those not aware, this is a way to tap into your subconscious thoughts and feelings that are holding you back, getting in your own way, or causing fundamental conflict within yourself. Only by bringing these issues to a conscious and explicit level can you begin to face them.
This practice led to some very powerful revelations for myself when I was in my 20's. (It was about a mental issue and irrational "hangup" I had with my girlfriend. With Branden's technique I got to the root of it and got past it. We have now been married for over 20 years and have wonderful 2 kids. Without his help this would not have been my story.)
Now in my 40's I'm thinking that I should return to this powerful strategy. But it made me realize that this technique seems to be a forgotten secret or lost art in our world.
Thus my request to start a discussion on this topic. I did a search within our online Gulch first. My point is supported - there apparently hasn't been a single post on this topic here - EVER!
What is even more baffling (and deserving of another completely different post, probably) - in selecting the category for this discussion topic, there isn't a category for self-improvement or psychology. Does that seem strange (and troubling) to anyone else?? I humbly suggest that one or both of those categories would be great for us to try and focus on here among us fellow Gulchers.
Anyway, I'm submitting this discussion topic under the "Books" category, since Branden's books are currently the best place to learn about and start to use this technique. I'm thinking we need a renaissance with it...
You could use this post to share if & how this technique has made a difference in your life. But my burning questions really are - why is this technique not recognized as one of his greatest contributions to the world? Secondly, maybe someone should do something about that?
http://www.nathanielbranden.com/sente...
I think the answer is right there why is Branden's methodology not known to a larger segment of the population.
In today's 24/7 busy world very few people have the time and dedication to implement his regimen.
I endorse it for anyone who is interested in self-knowledge.
Jan
Make any random statement, and then follow up with, "Why?" Follow the response with, "Why?" Repeat, until you arrive at an axiom.
You can start with any statement, no matter how trivial and quickly find yourself pondering fundamental issues.
But it takes a lot more than "sentence completion" to understand a philosophy and "integrate and implement" it into one's own life. A lot of "baggage" does come from having accepted bad premises and the emotional reactions based on them which are so common in what everyone is taught and absorbs, but overcoming that and rooting out the errors requires an intellectual approach with conceptual understanding of what is right and why, not sentence completion following someone else's presentation of a philosophy.
He was a great speaker who was practicing the methodology to increase self esteem, as a direct extension of his relationship with AR.
Why there is no more discussion on the subject? I have no answer to that. One reason (and I only speculate) may be that the work of AR has more relevance to today's political climate than that of Branden's
I learned a lot from Branden and found a number of books that he recommended to be useful such as Dave Elman's book on hypnosis describing the trance state as being the the suspension of the critical faculty and introduction of selective thinking. That would place many in trance states especially many while practicing their religions and philosophies.
All my life, which is most likely in the autism spectrum, I refused to join in and mentally built an independent self. I found that Rand had much to say that I could agree with but nothing to make me worship her or not question things such as "man qua man" where the standard 'man' has to be discovered. The definition of 'man' as a rational animal is not a standard because there is no standard way to measure other than as with 'with respect to reality' which is dynamic and, in the case of humans, a moral thing being a matter of choice where a bad choice is considered immoral and if not chosen as being amoral.