PROGRAMS: PRACTICAL

Biocognetic Education™ – Crisis Support for Youth-At-Risk

Problem:

There is a critical need in treatment centers to prevent young people from using violence as a way to deal with conflict.

Solution:

This program is entitled “M.A.P.S.T.A.R.S.™ which stands for Mental And Physical Safe Tactical Alert Response System.” It is based on Biocognetic Education™ – The Scientific Study of Human Conflict created by Conditioned Thinking and Martial Arts for Peace.™ This program incorporates teaching a specially designed mental and physical martial arts component within a safe and controlled environment to educate young people in the awareness, resolution, and management of conflict through nonviolent means so they can experience a reduction in emotional and physical impulsivity. The fundamental intent of this program is to stop conflict at the primary prevention level but also at the secondary and tertiary level, and to learn from youth who are at risk as well as identified as problematic behaviorally.

Process:

The process of teaching M.A.P.S.T.A.R.S.™ is called A-B-C, 1-2-3. This acronym stands for:

• Avoid = Understanding and preventing conflict at the primary level.
• Bargain = Being able to employ nonviolent verbal alternatives at the secondary level.
• Control = Manage conflict at the tertiary level through the control of emotional reaction and possible physical confrontation through learning S.O.S.™ (see below)

The process of teaching the program is also dependent on the 3Es. This stands for:

• Explanation = this first stage of learning is understanding the definition or meaning of what creates conflict. This is purely intellectual. At this level one is just grasping the meaning of the concepts. This stage can be called Foresight.
• Example = this second stage of learning about conflict is when one goes beyond the purely intellectual definition to understand it through a personal example in their lives. This stage is called Hindsight.
• Experience = this third stage of learning is when one goes beyond the intellectual, purely conceptual stages of comprehension and “sees” the fact of their behavior as it occurs in the moment. This stage is called Insight. It is this third stage where behavior changes through self-awareness, not self-consciousness. It is the moment-to-moment observation, or “mirroring,” of the actual fact of one’s behavior, the “what is,” one’s “psychosomatic language” that can end the conditioned, reactive thinking/feeling that creates conflict within and without.

The object of learning is to move through these three stages and to arrive at the fundamental cause of conflict within the brain itself and to end it there before it manifests outwardly in social situations. What may inhibit this progression is getting caught at the first stage of learning by thinking that knowledge by itself will “solve the problem” of conflict. We have been deeply conditioned to think that all problems can be resolved thorough analysis, through conceptual activity. This has its place in technology and science but in changing human behavior it impedes the learning stages by holding it at the conceptual level. This conceptual level can also be retarded by the imposition of conventional moralistic, dogmatic thinking that imposes “shoulds” and “should nots” on ones behavior. This only creates more conflict between what one should and should not do or be and hence does not allow for the nonjudgmental awareness or observation (Insight) into the nature and structure of conditioned thinking that creates conflict in behavior.

The learning process can also be impeded at the secondary level through an “over-personalization” of one’s behavior where one can get caught up in justification of ones behavior in opinion and self-aggrandizement.

The third level can also go awry if self-awareness is mistaken for self-consciousness, where one is removed from the state of observation by an internal judging of what is being observed. This happens at the primary level because one has been conditioned to judge one’s behavior as being “bad” and therefore needing to impose ideals of “goodness” to replace that which is judged negatively.

Content and Procedure:

The content of M.A.P.S.T.A.R.S.™ is as follows:

• Curricula: Why Are They Always Getting Picked On? Read More
• Mukuso: Mukuso is sitting quietly and being able to nonjudgementally observe ones thoughts/feeling as they arise without any interference of the divisive nature of the thinker trying to change thoughts. This can also be done with a progressive relaxation/breathing method to reduce psychosomatic tension. (Note: Mukuso can also be done upon retiring in the evening to reduce mind/body tension to a create a more conductive state in order to sleep better.)
• Yoga: The study of Yoga helps people to strengthen their bodies and in so doing causes them to relax and reduce anxiety. The breathing exercises in Yoga bring about a sense of inner repose and “centeredness.” Yoga improves posture, coordination and increases the basic energy in the mind/body. In learning Yoga young people learn a life long skill that can help them with their health and well-being and in times of stress it will help them to calm down and be focused.
• S.O.S.™: Safe Options Self-defense is a specially developed system of self-defense developed by Dr. Webster-Doyle in his study of the martial arts for over 40 years that is based on nonlethal, legally safe, age appropriate, strictly defensive martial arts techniques that give the practioner the mental and physical confidence to not react in a fight or flight way to potential or supposed aggression. It also has the potential to reduce “body armoring, ” and the tension and aggression that occur because of it, and to increase nonjudgmental awareness needed to free oneself from habitually conditioned self-destructive thinking and behavior.