Should We Explain ‘Claiming Territory’ – Neil Moore
Found in: Claiming Territory
Karen T., Illinois
Has anyone ever explained the automatic claiming of territory to the students, and the need to consciously surrender? I would think that it would be helpful particularly with teenagers and adults.
Neil Moore
Claiming Territory, as I call it, is an ontological function. It operates at the level of how people are ‘being’, as compared to operating psychologically, which operates at the level of how people are thinking.
What is crucial in understanding the difference between managing the two, is realizing that you don’t cause ontological shifts with psychological explanations. What has to occur is an experience of the ontology. The student attempts to Claim Territory, you act accordingly (not explain acting accordingly), and the student experiences the attempt to Claim Territory as being unsuccessful. It happens again, you act again – and the shift begins to occur, over time, and not without you needing to make mistakes along the way.
But ultimately, it’s a shift from ‘Learning By Doing’ – to – ‘Learning By Being’.
Don’t get into explaining this stuff to students. There’s way, way more to it than the profoundly, over-simplified level that I address it at on the audio recordings. Just know that it is a condition of being for all human beings, and recognize it for that. You want all of this to be occurring experientially. I can promise you that the alternative will take you down a path that you don’t want to go down.