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The Lefkoe Occurring Process (LOP) and the Lefkoe De-conditioning Process (LDP) are the two newest processes that constitute The Lefkoe Method (TLM). I’ve mentioned them before in other posts; today I will summarize each of them and describe how each offers a unique benefit not found in any other process in TLM or, to the best of my knowledge, in any psychotherapeutic or personal growth technique. I also will describe the Who Am I Really? (WAIR?) Process, which helps you enter an altered state of consciousness.
Our beliefs are the meaning we gave to a series of events in the past, which we now feel is “the truth.” For us, a belief is an accurate description of reality, which gives it the power to influence our thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
We also give meaning to reality moment by moment and the meaning we give events determines how reality “occurs” for us. For example, someone you know walks into a crowded room and doesn’t say hello to you. That is a fact. It may occur to you, however, that she doesn’t like you, or that she is being rude, or that she didn’t see you. All of these “occurrings” are possible meanings for her behavior—that exist only in your mind.
But here’s the problem. For most of us the way the world occurs for us is our reality, because we never distinguish between the two. And because the way we think reality “is” determines our thinking, our feelings, the possibilities available for our actions, etc., for most of us most of the time our responses to “reality” are really responses to our occurrings.
Because our emotions are usually the result of our occurrings and not reality itself (because events have no inherent meaning, they usually cannot cause feelings), the ability to dissolve our occurrings enables us to eliminate most negative emotions at will.
Unlike beliefs, which once formed become our reality forever (unless they are eliminated), our occurrings are only the meaning we have given transient events and then disappear either immediately or shortly after the events are gone. As a result current occurrings rarely affect us in the future.
The single best, easiest, and fastest way to control your experience of life is to consistently make a distinction between reality and how reality occurs for you, and then to dissolve the occurring, so you are left with nothing but the facts of reality.
For more details on “occurring,” see a short video I made that visually explains how we create occurrings and how we can dissolve them: http://occurringcourse.com/how-occurring-works/. See also a blog post devoted entirely to this topic: https://www.mortylefkoe.com/create-experience-life/.
Although eliminating beliefs and conditionings can make a profound difference in how you experience your life, you will gain more minute-by-minute control over it using the Lefkoe Occurring Process. (For information about the next course where I teach participants how to use it, see http://www.occurringcourse.com/discover/.)
The Lefkoe De-conditioning Process
This process has the potential to be used in a wide variety of problems, but it was created for and currently is only used for eating problems.
I discovered after years of trying to help people stop their overeating by eliminating beliefs that that approach was insufficient.
I had known all about “classical” conditioning, in which a stimulus is conditioned to produce a behavioral or emotional response. So rejection or making a mistake can be conditioned to produce anxiety. Or being told what to do can be conditioned to produce anger. This type of conditioning was demonstrated by Pavlov’s dogs that were conditioned to salivate by the ringing of a bell. The Lefkoe Stimulus Process can easily de-condition this type of conditioning. But that type of conditioning didn’t seem relevant for overeating, which involves a behavior that seems compulsive.
There is another type of conditioning called “operant” conditioning. This type of conditioning is the result of rewarding or punishing a behavior. As a result you become conditioned to act in a certain way in order to achieve the “reward” or avoid the punishment. This also didn’t seem relevant to the way eating gets conditioned.
So at some point I realized that overeating was largely the result of a different type of conditioning. Here’s how eating gets conditioned: When we have some type of negative feeling—such as anxiety, depression, neediness, and loneliness—and then eat, two things happen: we are distracted for the moment from the negative feeling and we have substituted a positive feeling (eating) for the negative feeling. After experiencing a “pleasurable distraction” (or a comforting or a numbing feeling) many times when we eat, eating gets conditioned and becomes a compulsive reaction whenever the negative emotional “trigger” it was associated with shows up in your life.
Other behaviors could get conditioned the same way, but so far eating is the only compulsive behavior I have found to be conditioned this way.
The Lefkoe De-conditioning Process makes several distinctions that enable eating to be de-conditioned, so that it is no longer an automatic compulsive behavior whenever the trigger appears.
For more details, see an eBook I recently wrote about how overeating is caused by this type of conditioning and how it can be totally stopped using the Lefkoe De-conditioning Process and, in some cases, the Lefkoe Belief Process: http://eatingreport.com
These are my two newest processes and I’m very excited about them. One of them will help people stop overeating for good without using will power. The other will enable you to create your experience of life, minute by minute. Do you know anything else that can do this?
The Lefkoe Method is both practical and spiritual
It wasn’t until several years after I had been using the Lefkoe Belief Process that I realized that it opened the gate to a profoundly spiritual experience of oneself. After a while I created a process—that I now call Who Am I Really? (WAIR?)—that supports the spiritual part of the Lefkoe Belief Process.
WAIR? enables people to distinguish themselves as the creator of their lives. This awareness is not merely a thought process, where you understand that you create your life. It isn’t even merely the experience of creating your life. It is a creative process, where you distinguish yourself as the creator of your life, at which point you know it on a very profound level that goes way beyond understanding or even experience. In this altered state you experience that anything is possible and that nothing is missing.
All the other individual processes that comprise TLM help you change the “creation” you think you are in some way. The WAIR? Process helps you realize that you aren’t merely your creation, you ultimately are the creator of the creation.
All in all, TLM is a profoundly spiritual method to improve your life. It not only helps you in a very practical, day-to-day way, it also helps you distinguish yourself as the creator of your life.
You really have to do the WAIR? Process to get how powerful it is. It is included at the end of the free beliefs at http://recreateyourlife.com and it also is a stand-alone process in all of the streaming video and DVD products we offer at http://recreateyourlife.com/store.
For an entire blog post devoted to a detailed examination of the WAIR? Process, see https://www.mortylefkoe.com/get-into-an-altered-state-of-consciousness-in-minutes/.
Next week’s post will describe the final two processes of The Lefkoe Method.
Please share below any comments you have on the Lefkoe Occurring Process, the Lefkoe De-conditioning Process, and the Who Am I Really? Process.
These weekly blog posts also exist as podcasts. Sign up for the RSS feed or at iTunes to get the podcasts sent to you weekly.
If you haven’t yet eliminated at least one of your limiting self-esteem beliefs using the Lefkoe Belief Process, go to htp://www.recreateyourlife.com/free where you can eliminate one negative belief free.
To purchase a DVD program that I guarantee to help you significantly improve your confidence and also eliminate the major day-to-day problems that most people face, check out http://recreateyourlife.com/naturalconfidence.
copyright © 2010 Morty Lefkoe
Morty, loving your programs but I think the site needs to be updated and reorganised a little.
It’s extremely difficult to navigate.
Nez.
In the weeks since I finished the Lefkoe Occurring Course, I’ve noticed how I am operating more and more from a creator mentality. Even though there are areas of my life I want to improve, I can say that I am happy most of the time. As Morty said, it isn’t about willpower; once you learn the process and use the tools on a regular basis it becomes a part of you. Willpower is about force and most of us don’t like to feel forced to do anything. The LOP, in a sense, precludes the need for willpower and you do things “naturally.”
Love and Light,
Lauren
Hi Morty
i would like to share with you my experience, before 4-5 years i had
a period which naturaly i lived by what you are describing here as the occuring process. every event in my life i gave a meaning that was good for me: i asked my self the question, is this meaning good for me? if it was i used it(it was a period of 2 years and it was not a pure desicion, i went through something that i had to live by it). it was a great time, i felt that nothing can touch me and it was great. my question is how you give the meaning to things(automatic)? i think by your believes so if you will stop give meaning by willpower like i did 1 day, you will become back to live and to give meaning automatic by your believes. its like trying to stop eating by willpower, 1 day you will come back to eat as you used to.
Hi Asaf,
In the course that I will be teaching in February, people learn how to make the process of dissolving our occurring automatic, without even being conscious of doing it.
Once it becomes automatic you no longer have to think about it. There is no need to use will power.
Love, Morty