April 1, 2016

April 1, 2016

Written by Maximus Peperkamp, M.S. Verbal Engineer

Dear Reader,

In “Religion as Schedule-Induced Behavior” (2009) Strand describes events which can be “identified as turning points, toward hopefulness and purposefulness and away from despair and aimlessness.” When this writer had found and hit that gong, he experienced such a religious turning point. At that moment, he recognized the sound that he wanted to talk with. He realized that he was already able to make this sound and that nothing should stop him from making it. Unlike the events Strand describes, this was an event this writer would revisit again and again as it was so satisfying.

When he for the first time talked out loud by himself and listened to his own calm sound, this writer realized that he had hardly ever been able to speak  with that sound. A tremendous calm and certainty came over him as he had decided that, from now on, he would only speak with that sound. Little did he know how difficult that was going to be… He lost his sound again and again and only when he became a student of radical behaviorism, did it become clear to him why this was the case: we don’t cause our own behavior. 

As long as environmental stimuli, other people, who, due to conditioning can get underneath our skin, set the stage for Noxious Verbal Behavior (NVB), there is, except escaping and avoiding them by going away, nothing we can do to prevent this. As long as we keep approaching NVB instead of avoiding it, we will get entangled again and again. Sound Verbal Behavior (SVB), the spoken communication which is without aversive stimulation, can only exist if the environment is available that will make it possible. 

Even though he had discovered the importance of listening to himself while he speaks, it would take many years before this writer discovered the science of human behavior, which put this fact on the table. In effect, the religious experience of this writer had set into motion a quest for knowledge, which prompted “an enduring reorganization of behavior.” Now that he is more knowledgeable about radical behaviorism, this writer realizes that he has really discovered two universal response classes of vocal verbal behavior.