2P8225 Spiritual Formation Session 5 Big Idea #3 Attachment Filters Tipping Points in Spiritual Transformaton

Gut Level Memories as Attachment Filters Review of Session 4 Gut Level Memories as Attachment Filters Semantic memory – verbal information packaged in words. Autobiographical memory – your own “story” from the past. These are conscious memory. Gut level memory is non-conscious. Gut level memory consists of emotions, perceptions, sensations, and a corresponding pattern for responding. Patterns become attachment “filters” – organized strategies for relating.

God is one of our attachment figures And we tend to relate to him through the same attachment filters that we use with others. Imagine that God begins thinking about you. What do you assume God feels about you when you come to His mind? Your answer will give you a clue as to which attachment filter is the one through which you relate to God.

The Furnishing the Soul Inventory is guided self-probing. “Our real idea of God may lie buried under the rubbish of conventional religious notions and may require an intelligent and vigorous search before it is finally unearthed and exposed for what it is. Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God.” – A.W. Tozer The Furnishing the Soul Inventory is guided self-probing. Self-probing: the Furnishing the Soul Inventory is guided self-probing.

Spiritual Transformation Spiritual transformation involves your two God-stories (the verbal story and the gut level “in the moment” or “between the lines” story) becoming more consistent, more congruent. We need to pay attention to our “between the line” stories. For example, “What feelings does the following passage awaken in me?”

1  The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. 2  He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters. 3  He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. 4  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil , for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. - Psalms 23:1-4

For many people, their two “God-stories” are different. Their head tells them this is a message about God’s provision and security. But their gut tells them that God is disappointing or not to be trusted, because they remember a painful time in their life when God “wasn’t there” for them. Noticing the gap or difference between the two messages is an important step toward spiritual transformation. Resolving the difference takes courage and diligence, but it is a critical part of how we come to know and trust God.

REVIEW of Attachment Filters

Three Attachment Filters SECURE –people in my life will be responsive and helpful to me when I need them. DISTANT – people will not be interested or responsive to me when I need them. ANXIOUS – people may be interested, but will not be reliable or available when I need them. SECURE = positive self, positive others DISTANT (dismissing) = positive self, negative others DISTANT (pre-occupied) = negative self, positive others ANXIOUS = negative self, negative others

On to Session 5 Big Idea #4 Tipping Points in Spiritual Transformaton

Session 5 Big Idea #4 Our Attachment Filters Need To Be Transformed Attachment filters shape our patterns of attachment relationships. They are our only bridge for connecting. They constitute our perspective, our bias, our framework. -Don McNaughton

Attachment filters are stubborn. Filters become engrained pathways. Filters are self-reinforcing… Familiar paths exert an influence on us to travel that same way again. For example, walking through a field of tall grass. Various things influence our choice of path (light, footing, elevation, etc.) But when we walk through the field subsequent times, the tendency is to follow the path we walked the first time.

We need to destabilize our attachment filters to facilitate change. Another example: depressed people... Depressed people have less blood flow to the right hemisphere of their brain, where facially expressed emotion is processed. They are unable to use the facial expressions of others to help them feel better and change their filters. This further intensifies their depressed state and their existing attachment filter. Reinforcing also occurs as we influence how others relate to us. In a negative sense, we work against our own growth and healing because of our attachment filters. We need to destabilize our attachment filters to facilitate change.

What Attachment Filter…? What is your “gut” response to the image on the next page? Ask “What is your response to this image?” “What message came to your consciousness?” WHY? What attachment filter was at work?

What Attachment Filter…?

What message came to your consciousness? Why do you think that message came to you? What attachment filter do you think was at work?

The picture is of a four foot high solid glass work of art by Christopher Ries, called “Guardian.” The image Ries sees is a guardian angel. (http://www.christopherries.com/selected_works.htm)

Another Ries glass sculpture - “Harp.” (http://www.christopherries.com)

What feelings does the image on the following page awaken in you What feelings does the image on the following page awaken in you? What thoughts?

Again, for the picture on the next page… What feelings are aroused Again, for the picture on the next page… What feelings are aroused? What thoughts? Were they different from the first picture? Why?

Can you make any connection between how you experience these images and “gut-level” memories from your past? Can you use this awareness of your gut-level message to check yourself and choose to settle conflicting messages between your head and your gut? To make your head knowledge and your gut knowledge the same? Does this help you understand how it can happen that we might say in our head “I am trusting God for my need” but in our gut we might say “He will not come through for me”? Or conversely, in our head we say, “I don’t see God; he has abandoned me” while in our gut we say, “I know God won’t let me down – he will show up at the right time.” Spiritual growth involves bringing both messages together to say the truth in harmony.

REVIEW: Our Attachment Filters Need To Be Transformed How does change occur? Through contagious behaviour. Through small changes in new directions. In an irregular, unpredictable manner.

Our Attachment Filters Need To Be Transformed What are the agents of change? “In sync” communication - “getting it,” connecting well with others, identifying well with others. Compassion – using your resources to help others in need, being moved to help others. Both of these points have to do with being significant or important to another person, and with appreciating one another.

Transformation is about getting the big picture; it is about getting the two stories of head knowledge and gut knowledge to harmonize. How do you do that? By relating, by telling your story to others. Stories and images activate our attachment filters, and make them accessible to us and others for change. It is critical that we encounter the stories of Scripture, and the stories of others, particularly those who are living out God’s truths.