“Againstness” was a draft term I was using to point at a piece of phenomenology. We just never found a better term.
I never found a reliable way of naming the quale. I’m honestly not sure if even the others at CFAR ever understood what I was talking about.
The very best I’d found was that people seemed to encounter it pretty systematically with high SNS activation. Then the term encountered Goodhart drift, so folk sometimes started using “againstness” specifically to talk about SNS activation, which just adds all kinds of confusion.
(I mean, you can increase SNS activity by lifting your arm over your head. But that generally doesn’t increase againstness in any meaningful sense best as I can tell.)
Attempted telekinesis is a more central example type. Its phenomenology is practically made of againstness.
Now that I’m writing this comment, actually, I wonder if the whole thing would have been clearer if we’d just pretended we were only talking about attempted telekinesis, highlighting the madness of it, and working on dissolving it.
The real point of the Againstness class was to get participants more into their bodies. That was quite important at that point in the workshop’s flow at the time.
It was also an anti-psychotic influence. More grounding than exciting.
I don’t remember the stats — I bet Dan and/or Duncan could recall this or pull it up — but by my recollection, by the end of each workshop (a) Againstness pretty systematically was one of the top-ranked classes until after my kensho and (b) basically no one could remember what it was about.
Now that I’m looking back on it, I think that’s actually a sign of success, not need for editing. It (combined with several other signs) meant the learning was more somatic, less cognitive.
But in any case: This befuddlement you’re expressing along the lines of “WTF is ‘againstness’?” is close to universal, and if I were drafting this material from scratch I definitely wouldn’t use that concept or term.
‘Againstness’ felt like a nearly self-defining word to me.
Your course had a rough/sketched/outlined model based on other models at various levels and there’s a few example techniques based on it (in the course).
“againstness control” is totally sensible – just like, e.g. ‘againstness management’ and ‘againstness practice’, are too.
I think there’s an implied (and intriguing) element of using SNS arousal/dominance for, e.g. motivation. I think there are some times or circumstances in which ‘SNS flow’ is effective, e.g. competitive sports.
I don’t think your example techniques need a special term. I understood this post as ‘gesturing’ at something more than presenting anything comprehensive.
Your befuddlement totally makes sense.
“Againstness” was a draft term I was using to point at a piece of phenomenology. We just never found a better term.
I never found a reliable way of naming the quale. I’m honestly not sure if even the others at CFAR ever understood what I was talking about.
The very best I’d found was that people seemed to encounter it pretty systematically with high SNS activation. Then the term encountered Goodhart drift, so folk sometimes started using “againstness” specifically to talk about SNS activation, which just adds all kinds of confusion.
(I mean, you can increase SNS activity by lifting your arm over your head. But that generally doesn’t increase againstness in any meaningful sense best as I can tell.)
Attempted telekinesis is a more central example type. Its phenomenology is practically made of againstness.
Now that I’m writing this comment, actually, I wonder if the whole thing would have been clearer if we’d just pretended we were only talking about attempted telekinesis, highlighting the madness of it, and working on dissolving it.
The real point of the Againstness class was to get participants more into their bodies. That was quite important at that point in the workshop’s flow at the time.
It was also an anti-psychotic influence. More grounding than exciting.
I don’t remember the stats — I bet Dan and/or Duncan could recall this or pull it up — but by my recollection, by the end of each workshop (a) Againstness pretty systematically was one of the top-ranked classes until after my kensho and (b) basically no one could remember what it was about.
Now that I’m looking back on it, I think that’s actually a sign of success, not need for editing. It (combined with several other signs) meant the learning was more somatic, less cognitive.
But in any case: This befuddlement you’re expressing along the lines of “WTF is ‘againstness’?” is close to universal, and if I were drafting this material from scratch I definitely wouldn’t use that concept or term.
I think ‘againstness’ is nearly perfect :)
I didn’t think anything was confusing!
‘Againstness’ felt like a nearly self-defining word to me.
Your course had a rough/sketched/outlined model based on other models at various levels and there’s a few example techniques based on it (in the course).
“againstness control” is totally sensible – just like, e.g. ‘againstness management’ and ‘againstness practice’, are too.
I think there’s an implied (and intriguing) element of using SNS arousal/dominance for, e.g. motivation. I think there are some times or circumstances in which ‘SNS flow’ is effective, e.g. competitive sports.
I don’t think your example techniques need a special term. I understood this post as ‘gesturing’ at something more than presenting anything comprehensive.