December 29, 2013

December 29, 2013

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

Slowly but surely this writer began to recognize that the production of Voice 2, which he would later call Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB), and Voice 1, which he would later call Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB), has nothing to do with what we decide individually,  but is always determined by our environment. Even those  who most of the time produce NVB, can and do, on other occasions, when the circumstances allow it, also produce SVB. This is much less puzzling once we step away from the notion of an indwelling agent, a self, who presumably is the doer of our deeds. Viewed from an environmental perspective, we see that such mentalism leads to all sorts of assumptions about our behavior, which are completely false. 

When introduced to SVB, people are bound to think of it in mentalistic terms. That is, they think, like this author did, about how they can maintain or remember it. They inevitably believe that they can individually do it. SVB doesn’t work that way, but NVB does. So, if they try to have SVB, they are bound to fail, as did this author. The writer called it speaking with Voice 2, because he knew he was only able to get to that voice by first producing Voice 1. He found that Voice 2 became possible only after Voice 1 had been identified. He didn't know, however, that in the Voice 1-Voice 2-Phase of his work, he was  already exploring the contingencies of reinforcement with those with whom he interacted.  As Voice 1-Communication had to be stopped to attain Voice 2-Communication, his explanations seemed paradoxical to those, who weren’t capable of adopting an environmental view, who still considered behavior caused by a person’s self-control, intelligence, sensitivity or morals.

 Although this writer got many rejections, he went on with his exploration of Voice 2, Communication, even in the absence of others. He would just sit  by himself in his attic and listen to the sound of his voice, which would make him feel calm and at ease. Luckily, there were some people who trusted him, who experimented and discovered with him the communication that is possible with Voice 2. They liked to call it the Language That Creates Space and they came together once a week to explore this unique and fascinating process. Although this group was very satisfying, this writer remained dissatisfied with the limited reach of something so incredibly positive and enhancing.Because he was reinforced by others, he kept relentlessly exploring what he had found. He repeatedly noticed, however, that although he intended to speak with Voice 2, he again and again spoke with Voice 1. It was only always after the fact, when he was back in his attic and thinking and talking again with himself about what had gone wrong, that he realized, while speaking with Voice 2, that he must have been speaking with Voice 1. It frustrated him, but it also dawned on him that he was incapable of maintaining Voice 2 under certain circumstances. First, due to his own mentalistic beliefs, he beat himself up over what he considered to be his failure, but later the benediction of Voice 2 was such that this behavior subsided.  As he more actively avoided the environments in which he was unable to produce Voice 2, his ability to speak with Voice 2 increased. Actually, this is not a correct way of explaining it. There is no  inner agent deciding to avoid these environments, but over time the body of this author has changed due to conditioning. The author is still sometimes inclined to use language in a fashion shaped by mentalism, but that, as well as his physiological reactivity is becoming less and less. The production of Voice 2 was an incredible big deal for him back then, but as he was able to alter his behavioral history, it is no longer such a big issue because it happens every  day.