January 26, 2014

January 26, 2014

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Behaviorist

Dear Reader, 

 

Today this writer organizes one of his seminars in the Chico Branch Library of Butte County. What follows below is the text which was used to announce this event and some comments on my previous seminars. This writing is not meant to predict what is going to happen, but rather to set the stage for it. Prediction of outcome is not of any concern, because this author knows that he and the participants will be talking about events after they have happened. Only based on what has happened can one say what is more likely to happen in the future. The behavior, that is, the speech of this writer, will occur first and then the description of this behavior will follow. The talking of this author will set the stage for what is going to happen in today’s seminar. 

It has already happened many times. This writer has given hundreds of seminars. Those who respond to the words of this author by coming to the seminar must be already somewhat familiar with the process. It is their previous experience to which this writer appeals, which also sets the stage for today’s events to unfold. Thus, the seminar will be a combination of talking about experiences by the participants that have already happened to the participants and talking about experiences by the author that have already happened to the author. Since this talking is another kind of talking than the talking we are used to, it will be apparent to the participants that this kind of talking, although it did happen, wasn’t really possible because circumstances weren’t conducive to it. In this seminar, these circumstances are explained by this author. 

In this interactive seminar we discover what is needed to make authentic interaction possible. We identify stimuli outside of ourselves, in our environment, which set the stage for Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB). Once the contingencies of reinforcement, the necessary external circumstances for SVB, have been discriminated, we find that 1) covert private self-talk is caused by overt public speech, 2) we misunderstand each other because we misunderstand ourselves, and 3)spontaneous speech is possible due to accurate description and the active avoidance of our predetermined speech.   

In SVB communicators are no longer individually considered to be responsible for how they communicate because they acknowledge they are each other’s environment. That there is “our way of communicating” is based on a catastrophic misunderstanding. In Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB), our normal way of communicating, listening to others prevents listening to ourselves and public speech excludes private speech. NVB is talking at each other, not with each other. 

In SVB speakers and listeners co-regulate each other. Although participants will be doing a lot of talking, SVB emphasizes the listener and makes repeatedly clear that without listening to ourselves, we can’t and don’t listen to each other. In SVB issues can and will be discussed and understood which can’t be discussed in any other way. Since the circumstances in which SVB was possible were only momentarily and accidentally available, we have not experienced it on an ongoing basis. In this seminar these circumstances are described and created. SVB is not a therapy or method, nor is it a spiritual path. It is a scientific behaviorist account of how interaction really works. Experimentation is needed to verify the great promise that it holds. 

A lot of things have happened, but were never talked about because circumstances were not suitable. Once circumstances are suitable, we are able to talk about things which previously we couldn’t talk about. The change of environment which occurred was caused by how we communicate. We change from NVB to SVB, because SVB makes it possible to address the things which have already happened, while NVB is focused on what is going to happen. SVB gives us peace of mind, because it allows us to catch up with ourselves, whereas NVB makes us miss the moment, because we are constantly worried about the future. In NVB we project an image of ourselves onto others or on the situation, but in SVB we give an accurate description of the experiences we went through and we create a situation in which others are able to do the same. 

Speech about what is going to happen is overrated because it made speech about what happened impossible. Besides, speech about what is going to happen is only going to have any meaning if it is based on the accurate description of what has already happened. If what has already happened has been analyzed correctly, there is no need to focus on what is going to happen. SVB is the accurate analysis of what has already happened: 1) public speech happened first, only then could private speech happen; 2) misunderstanding of ourselves only seems to precede misunderstanding of each other, because we believe that private speech precedes public speech; 3) since spontaneity was not possible based on these premises, there was little room for authentic human speech.