Why Cognitive Truths get Trumped by Experiential Truths

Psychology in the Spirit Coe and Hall

Belief Distortions

What do we do with emotions?

The heart is deceitful above all things, wickedand beyond cure. Who can understand it?

Jeremiah 17:9

Belief Distortion

There are two ways of knowing:

Head knowledge ….. the high road

and

gut-level knowledge …. the low road

Belief Distortion

There are two ways of knowing:

Problem: They are neighbors, but they do not speak the same language.

Belief Distortion

There are two ways of knowing:

The high road speaks the language of words and logic.

(Explicit)

The low road speaks the language of emotions.

(Implicit)

Belief Distortion

The Low Road is literally speechless,

We know much more than we can find the words to say.

The key is to have a personal, relational knowledge of God and self that informs the development of conceptual principles about God and spiritual growth.

Belief DistortionThe High Road

Head knowledge: linear one piece of info follows

another logical premises lead to conclusions language based processed in words conscious conscious attention

required

Information that gets processed in the prefrontal cortex, (therefore the high road) the brain’s executive center.

Belief DistortionThe high road receives significant input

(influence) from the emotional centers of the brain

that evaluates meaningand processes our relational

experiences,it sends back fairly little to

the emotional centers of the

brain.

Belief DistortionThe Low Road: Gut-level knowledge

Intuition

Emotions

Physiology

We don’t know how we know it, we just know it.

Belief DistortionThe Low Road: Gut-level knowledge

The bottom and right parts of the brain.(therefore the low road)

Amygdala assigns our experiences meaning.

Low Road: Knows through physiological sensations, gut level meanings and emotions. Sub symbolic code.

Belief DistortionThe Low Road: Gut-level knowledge

Emotions: the unconscious and automatic way we evaluate the meaning of experiences.

Examples:

Belief DistortionThe Low Road: Gut-level knowledge

Emotions Processed automaticallyOutside of direct control

Therefore: Emotions are the clearest window into the deepest level of our soul….what we really believe.

Belief DistortionThe Low Road: Gut-level knowledge

Primary emotions: shifts in brain statesevents tagged as either good or bad

the brain groups them into one of seven groups anger, sad, happy, surprise…etc.

Belief Distortion

When conscious ideals do not translate into behavior:

it may be that

The low road vetoes the high road when in conflict.

Belief Distortion

The more intense the feelings of the low road,

the more likely they may veto the high road

when in conflict!

Belief Distortion

How to get the High Road and the Low Road together:

Back translate:

Narrate story lines:

Skills of: contemplation, solitude, quiet, safety.

Belief DistortionHow to get the High Road and the Low Road

together:

Preparation: meditation

Incubation: “turning away”

Illumination: new ways of looking at the problem

Reflection and Interpretation: head knowledge

Belief Distortion“Gut level knowledge of one’s self and others filters the flow of emotional energy that comes through our system.

One of the ways it does this is by cutting the link between painful, gut-level experiences and symbolization of meaning of the experiences in the explicit head-knowledge system.”

A classic defense mechanism.

Belief Distortion

“If there are certain gut-level experiences that we cannot access due to our own pathology, this cuts off a source of very important information about human nature that could potentially be articulated conceptually in the explicit system.”

Projectives can access the lower road.

Belief TransformationThe Upper Road and the Lower Road connect in:

TruthSafe environmentsEmpowering environmentsOne on one intimacyCommunityFamilySmall Groups

Case Richard came to see the you stating that he

“was struggling to make it day to day.” His wife and kids had recently left him and he was not performing well at the job. He was very depressed. He would lose his job soon.

He is a Christian and believes that God is sovereign over everything. He believes that God is good. But Richard is sleeping only two to three hours a night. He cannot function at work, he just stares at his computer.