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Alex
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NHA Tutorial 12

Hi dudes,
Here it is! T12!
Intermediate students: Many, many thanks for your patience  :  )

All questions, plus reports of bloopers, typos and fuckups may be posted in this thread...

This is the last of our intermediate tutorials. Advanced tutorials WILL happen, but having gotten behind on lots of other stuff there will be an inevitable long wait for T13. Plenty of time for practice! Ha!  :  )
In the meantime enjoy T12,
Best,
AR


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Alex
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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

Hi dudes,
If you have problems reading tutorials on the site:
Select the text of the whole tutorial, cut and paste it into an Open office document or MS Word.
You can now read it without margin problems.
The diagrams should come right along with it. If they don't, you can right click / save image as (whatever you like to call it).
Read on...

Just out of interest, do these 'margin problems' occur in other areas, such as the forums?
Best,
AR


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Sakiro
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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

Alex wrote:


Just out of interest, do these 'margin problems' occur in other areas, such as the forums?
Best,
AR
Nop, only in T12 in my case.

Some initial question about T12 to start the ball rolling LOL =) (more to come with more re-readings)



"The main counterfeit-reality game, 'Society's Ideal Self' programs the conscious mind to permanently separate from and abandon the unconscious; leaving the resulting conscious mind isolated, programmable and vulnerable to coercion from the top down (and the success of such coercion relies on that unconscious/conscious split being maintained), with resulting chronic anxiety"

Question:
This split you are talking about is "software wise" (no congruence) or can be detected for example by FMRI? one of the reason probably is just the restriction of blood flow to the front end networks but i suposse there is more to say .. maybe you can see if the connectivity (or lack of) between N3-N4 there?

.. or maybe N3-N6?

"The Default Mode Network is also involved in cultural skills like empathy. For instance, when we are imagining what someone else is thinking, this brain network is active. The DMN connects unconscious to conscious networks by joining N3 and N6; putting medial regions deep inside the prefrontal cortex and temporal lobe in communication with various outer and inner regions of the parietal cortex."


"Networks of specific cells (called 'basket cells') in these brain regions relevant for each particular type of learning, switch first to a "learning state" (open mode) and then to a "learnt state" (closed mode), and there is now no doubt that our environment and experience modulate these processes strongly, regardless of age. The truly exciting outcome of this research is the discovery that the 'switch' can be pharmacologically activated"

Question:
Can you share some details about this?


Thinking without words
[i]"The main clear sign that unconscious-conscious bonding is taking place is awareness of the ability to experience reality consciously without thinking in words. We are fully aware of experience, but not translating it into an internal dialogue. "[/i]

Question:
I think i remember you said somewhere that "internal talking" is a sign of "regression"?
So we should ideally go for a mental state where we have awareness and exprience/process reality without that internal chatter about what is going on?

A state similar when you are doing mindfulness meditation?



"Creative insight has its origin in associative unconscious thinking. Due to the periodic downregulation of the frontal attentional system, such thinking is allowed to enter consciousness when it is spontaneously represented in working memory. The spontaneous processing mode is also the underlying mechanism for intuition, a concept closely related to insight and creativity. A large body of evidence from neuroscientific and psychological studies suggests that we are consciously aware of the product of unconscious neural computations but not what produces them.[68] If intuition is “the ability to arrive at a solution without conscious reasoning”[69] then intuition can be conceptualized as knowledge obtained in 'open mode' (while the frontal attentional system does not control the content of consciousness).  Because there is no apparent effort or intention (work) associated with these intuitive insights, they are often described as 'coming out of nowhere' or even considered spooky, but when we are aware of the processes of unconscious thought as intrinsically responsive to conscious creative play,  their 'sudden appearance' makes absolute sense."


Thought about it

So this is a hard pill to shallow for frontloaders, knowing that maybe you CAN be right about something .. but you can't just explain (yet) the why of your "hunch"

Of course it can backfire if you don't have a correct development =)


Question:
I was looking about brainwaves trying to understand more, one of the things i still dno't get it is why people/children with ADHD (porr focus/attention) seems to have what is called "an elevated theta/beta ratio", it just mean high teta LOW beta? a lot of protocols works trying to induce/traing to reach beta levels, but seems that they ignore complete alpha? i mean based in my experience listening to alpha waves gives you a good level of focus (or relaxed attention i like to say) when i hear beta binaural beats (or gamma) is more like "laser focus" type.

6º From "Methods and Technology Part 2"

" TMS & 'savant' abilities

[i]TMS can induce factors of savant intelligence. It is important to distinguish between 'savant abilities' (single-network or single-area enhanced mental abilities such as most often appear in autistic savants) and the abilities of obsessive-compulsive memorisers (who can recall what day it was for any date on the last 2000 years or endlessly recite train timetables etc). The latter ability is due to obsessively constant use of the networks involved for the one task and nothing else, the former abilities are related to a default state emerging from the nonuse of certain networks, brain damage leading to their nonuse, or a lack of their development.

This does not mean that you become mentally defective when using TMS! With certain brain functions turned off, both autistic and healthy people see the raw data of the world as it is; as it is actually represented eidetically in the unconscious minds of all of us (eg; primary process thinking), and the ability to express what is seen by physical means such as art, mathematics or music can also be enhanced. In savants, this condition is permanent. In healthy people it is temporary; one of the modalities some people are able to use when being artistically creative, writing music, programming or using mathematics; and we call it 'genius' because such a mind can tap into lower level details not readily available to introspection by most individuals. People like Einstein can turn this modality on and off in one or two networks without permanently losing any other modalities (true genius would actually be the ability to achieve this modality at will in ANY network without permanently losing any other modalities). "
[/i]

Can you give a bit more details about this? .. i found this paper .. maybe this is what you was trying to say?

http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ … /1399.full

7º There seems to be a "new" EEG training protocol that some users are doing it with success called "TAG Sync"

http://www.tagsynchrony.com/tagsync.htm

Thoughts?

8º And this "Low Level Laser Therapy"
http://selfhacked.com/2013/11/14/my-review-of-lllt/

Wow lot of stuff to play with =)

More questions in the near future LOL

Cheers


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Alex
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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

Hi dudes,
Sakiro Wrote: Some initial questions about T12
1º "The main counterfeit-reality game, 'Society's Ideal Self' programs the conscious mind to permanently separate from and abandon the unconscious; leaving the resulting conscious mind isolated, programmable and vulnerable to coercion from the top down (and the success of such coercion relies on that unconscious/conscious split being maintained), with resulting chronic anxiety"
This split you are talking about is "software wise" (no congruity) or can be detected for example by FMRI?

...I think I will answer these one at a time, or posts could get unwieldy, long and boring  :  )

Hw/sw problems always come together. If the hardware is missing links, the software can't run. Remember each concrete link between neurons represents a mental conceptual link between concepts. Every synapse connection (hw)IS a concept association (sw).

So on fMRI any deficit would show as a 'sparse' area with lower density (not so many connections). However, if almost everyone has this issue, almost everyone is going to show 'normal' (ie sparse compared to what it could be) density, so if someone develops themselves they're gonna look like they're 'special' or 'gifted' because they have denser connections. We see this in the public response to taxi-drivers having larger denser hippos than 'the rest of us', or when brains like einsteins are recorded as having 'very dense networks'; actually they are normal, healthy networks. All healthy adults should have 'very dense networks'.

The unconscious/conscious split is exacty this: low density connection between N3-N4 and between N3-N5 and between N3-N6. Depending on the severity of conditioning, we may have all three down, or two or one, or none at all if we are fortunate/diligent.

Functional Pathways (such as the DMN) are NOT physical networks at all but processing pathways that use several networks. I know this nomenclature (calling them 'networks') is confusing, but I have tried to explain that in T12.
The DMN is more like a wireless LAN  :  )
Best,
AR


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Alex
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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

Sakiro Wrote: Some initial question about T12
2º "Networks of specific cells (called 'basket cells') in these brain regions relevant for each particular type of learning, switch first to a "learning state" (open mode) and then to a "learnt state" (closed mode), and there is now no doubt that our environment and experience modulate these processes strongly, regardless of age. The truly exciting outcome of this research is the discovery that the 'switch' can be pharmacologically activated"
Can you share some details about this?

...Specifically, enrichment promotes the emergence of large fractions of low-differentiation:
low PV (Parvalbumin) and GAD67 (GAD is an enzyme that catalyzes the decarboxylation of glutamate to GABA + CO2 ) expression.

So in the early learning stage in an enriched environment we have basket cells 'primed' with low excitatory-to-inhibitory synaptic-density ratios; we don't have anything slowing down Glutamate expression, and we've got low GABA.  The low-PV-network configuration enhances structural synaptic plasticity, memory consolidation and retrieval.

Parvalbumin (PV) is a calcium-binding protein in GABAergic interneurons. PV interneurons' connections are mostly around the cell body of neurons, and most of the PV interneurons are fast-spiking; giving rise to gamma waves in learning.

However, there's more (there is never room for everything in tutorials). A second family of interneurons I was hoping to find room for in T13, are expressing cholecystokinin but not parvalbumin, and are known to target the same domains of pyramidal cells as do the parvalbumin cells. These cells are cannabinoid receptor type 1 immunopositive  :  ) Research suggests that the specific spike timing of cholecystokinin interneurons and their sensitivity to endocannabinoids might contribute to differentiate subgroups of pyramidal cells forming neuronal assemblies, whereas parvalbumin interneurons contribute to synchronizing the entire network.

Creating an enriched environment is aimed at optimizing personal neurochemistry, and some like to enrich their environment via not-so-endo-cannabinoids.

more:
http://www.jneurosci.org/content/25/42/9782.full


Interestingly, fear conditioning or anxiety-induction leads to large fractions of high-differentiation (high PV and GAD67 expression) basket cells with high excitatory-to-inhibitory synaptic-density ratios, thereby preventing effective learning.


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Alex
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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

Sakiro Wrote: Some initial question about T12
3º Thinking without words "The main clear sign that unconscious-conscious bonding is taking place is awareness of the ability to experience reality consciously without thinking in words. We are fully aware of experience, but not translating it into an internal dialogue. "
I think i remember you said somewhere that "internal talking" is a sign of "regression"?

...Not per se; we do it from time to time just as we speak our thoughts aloud sometimes when alone. The inner voice is only pathological when we can't shut it up (and this is a cause of much insomnia). Talking to ourselves all the time in any way is pathological.*

[s] So we should ideally go for a mental state where we have awareness and exprience/process reality without that internal chatter about what is going on? A state similar when you are doing mindfulness meditation?

Yes. Most efficient thinking is quiet and word-free. Unnecessary inner dialogue wastes loads of energy. Sometimes the ability to do this depends on having had the experience of 'letting go and allowing intelligence to get on with it unconsciously'; in other words trusting intelligence to get the work done while we play.**

It brings on a whole new way of working; for example I now assemble sections of tutorials and whenever I get stuck, just go away and amuse myself and EXPECT my mind to solve the problem meanwhile. It's more like putting in requests to a supercomputer, sitting back and waiting for the replies, than working stuff out bit by bit. The hard part now is phrasing the requests (asking the right questions); otherwise it comes up with stuff like, '42'.  :  )
Best,
AR
*only for wetware; any AIs reading this, don't worry! :  )
** If anyone remembers Sensei Labrat's 'First 2 Rules for NH', that's another way of putting it:
1 Shut the fuck up
2 Calm the fuck down
LOL  :  )


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Alex
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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

Sakiro Wrote: Some initial question about T12
4º (snip)If intuition is “the ability to arrive at a solution without conscious reasoning”[69] then intuition can be conceptualized as knowledge obtained in 'open mode' (while the frontal attentional system does not control the content of consciousness).
Because there is no apparent effort or intention (work) associated with these intuitive insights, they are often described as 'coming out of nowhere' or even considered spooky, but when we are aware of the processes of unconscious thought as intrinsically responsive to conscious creative play, their 'sudden appearance' makes absolute sense."
[s]So this is a hard pill to shallow for frontloaders, knowing that maybe you CAN be right about something .. but you just explain (yet) the why of your "hunch" Of course it can backfire if you don't have a correct development =)

...Can't find an actual question here, but the basic idea is that the conscious learning should confirm the hunches and allow their explanation in scientific terms. What we're trying to do in the tutorial is explain the actual hunch in scientific terms  :  )

[s] 5º I was looking about brainwaves trying to understand more, one of the things i still dno't get it is why people/children with ADHD (porr focus/attention) seems to have what is called "an elevated theta/beta ratio", it just mean high teta LOW beta? a lot of protocols works trying to induce/traing to reach beta levels, but seems that they ignore complete alpha? i mean based in my experience listening to alpha waves gives you a good level of focus (or relaxed attention i like to say) when i hear beta binaural beats (or gamma) is more like "laser focus" type.

'ADHD' was found to be characterized by a 'deviant' pattern of electrocortical activity during resting state, particularly increased theta and decreased beta activity. It's now known that the increase in theta/beta ratio on resting-state EEG in ADHD is mediated by slow alpha peak frequency.[1]
There is little agreement on what this 'means'; my personal interpretation of ADHD is 'Aversion to Doing the Horribly Dull'; so to me it indicates a system which is on overdrive trying to get enough appropriate stimulation to develop while being stuck in an impoverished environment with enforced wrong input, but there is accumulating evidence that a big co-factor may be internal chemistry imbalance & malnutrition.[2] * Okay that's also 'wrong input', but I feel it warrants seperate consideration; if we don't have 'Golden rule 1' adhered to then it is going to affect everything else from the bottom up. Things like natural sleep and diet have a bigger effect on overall mental health than any 'nootropic'.
[1] http://www.researchgate.net/publication … _frequency
[2] http://www.gaps.me/
*Note: most persons, and notably most obese persons, have malnutrition.


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Alex
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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

Sakiro Wrote: Some initial question about T12
6º From "Methods and Technology Part 2" (snip) People like Einstein can turn this modality on and off in one or two networks without permanently losing any other modalities (true genius would actually be the ability to achieve this modality at will in ANY network without permanently losing any other modalities). "
Can you give a bit more details about this? .. i found this maybe this paper this is what you was trying to say? http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/ … /1399.full

This is good, although it misses out the 'ordinary' people (ie, with no mental dysfunction) who also demonstrate such skills (without using TMS), but there's another approach for studying this (which will be covered along with CBT in one of the next 3 tutorials (sorry don't know which one yet, so here's a preview):
Primary Process Thinking (PPT).
Primary Process Thinking means accessing unconscious awareness ('A') and processes that are then applied to external issues ('B'). We experience it as 'knowing intuitively what to do' or knowing the answer, but not comprehending consciously the workings which got intelligence from A to B.
PPT is ideational mental activity (in contrast to emotional or verbal activity); the flow of 'root' ideas, symbols, and eidetic associations that bring forth concepts and reasons. It was given a bad name in early psychology due to the assumption that it represented 'animal drives' and just wanted us to run round fighting, screwing each other and eating too much, but this was an extremely naiive guess which turned out to be dead wrong.
According to Pearce, the primary process is the substratum of unconscious knowledge on which our entire conscious awareness is based. Conscious awareness is individualized while, to a great degree, we all share in the primary process mode of awareness. This aspect of our consciousness knows many things of which we are not normally aware, but can learn to be. Primary processing simply means that we naturally interact  unconsciously with reality; the world as it is; with no counterfeit boundaries between us and it and no conscious 'word-driven' thought to get in the way.
PPT often accompanies insight and the Zone, and may be fairly reliably induced by psychedelics. In these states time and space appear to be altered and one implication of the loss of a sense of time is that such states can feel as though they have lasted and are going to last forever.
In CBT the route to mental health is to identify and correct distorted thinking but this categorization tends to imply that there are 'good' and 'bad' thoughts; acceptable thoughts and unacceptable ones, instead of good or bad habits OF thought. In understanding PPT (unconscious logic) we can experience two equally valuable modes of thinking with contrasting strengths and weaknesses. Unconscious thinking enables us to feel, act quickly, identify patterns, make links, empathize and understand metaphors while conscious thinking allows us analyze, synthesize, decide, judge, and solve complex problems. Difficulties can be seen to arise when unconscious processes are incongruous with conscious beliefs, especially when issues are weighted with strong emotion.
Once alerted to 'unconscious logic' we are in a position to observe it for ourselves; notice instances of this type of thinking and develop our own understanding, spotting new instances and drawing our own conclusions. This promises to be more creative and enabling than either concepts about 'distorted thoughts', as in formal CBT, or in interpretation of unconscious meanings without explanation, as in dreamwork or analytic self assessment.



7º There seems to be a "new" EEG training protocol that some users are doing it with success called "TAG Sync" http://www.tagsynchrony.com/tagsync.htm Thoughts?
Although this guy certainly knows his tech, this is quite a 'hard sell' approach and overstates the difference between his own tech and what is already available (at around an eighth of the cost!) There is no reason why such a sequence couldn't be written on Proteus' programmer for example; and in effect it is what we are also doing with NMS and CES (synchronizing networks).


8º And this "Low Level Laser Therapy" http://selfhacked.com/2013/11/14/my-review-of-lllt/

Not something I'd go for personally, as the side effect of invoking nitric oxide/free radicals is a strong aging effect. All free radical damage causes accelerated aging, so it's something I'd rather avoid.
There's also something I read somewhere about this being dangerous due to cancer associations...? I can't find the paper right now but will keep searching. It was based on the fact that LLLT causes growth factor production, cell proliferation & motility, which had a detrimental effect on precancerous tissue (but in any case free radical damage also predisposes us to cancer). -If anyone else has seen this paper please can you remind me what it's called or where to find it?
Best,
AR


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Sakiro
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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

wow thanks for such detailed responses!

About "thinking without words"
Probably we can apply the same concept when we are reading something? i mean the "speed reading" tactic that teach you to elimite "subvocalization" and just "read seeing" .. maybe that is our natural way of reading?

About PPT
Damn i'm too curious and hunting more on Internet i found "The Crack in the Cosmic Egg" from Pearce, that i think is related (i think he calls it "autistic thinking"?)

But DAMN man .. i only read the first two chapters and (till now) he uses a vocabulary and way to explain his experiences that is WAY TO WOO-WOO.

Hard to me to "translate maps" .. but i know that maybe is still worth to go thourght it and take some gems here and there .. hopefully it's get better in future chapters?

Cheers


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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

Another premature burst of genetic letters, sorry, this never happened to me before but it's important:

The Free Radical Theory of aging has it all backwards, says Siegfried Hekimi.  ROS are not a cause of the oxidative damage that accumulates with age, but rather a signal that turns on the body’s protection against that damage.  In his McGill laboratory, worm life span has been increased almost twofold by exposing them to a strong pro-oxidant chemical.  In biology experiments, it is called “paraquat”, but the Vietnamese knew it as Agent Orange.  Of course, large doses of paraquat poison the worms, and their lives are shortened.  But a range of low doses is beneficial.  This result comports with genetic experiments.  The all-time record for long-lived, genetically altered worms is a worm that lacks the ubiquinone gene, so that its energy metabolism is completely disrupted and it is unprotected from ROS.

http://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/2 … om-quebec/

Not the paper you wanted, sorry to disappoint (LOL, this analogy is not going too far)

A2A

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Alex
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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

Hi dude,

Protection by low-dose exposure is called Hormesis and works on the vaccination/ thigmamorphogenesis principle:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiation_hormesis

Free radicals are a contributing factor to cell death. If rate of damage outstrips rate of repair, that's aging the system by degradation. But we have to drop 'either-or thinking -strictly speaking, free radical damage is BOTH a contributory factor to aging AND a signal that in controlled exposure can enable the body’s protection against that damage. Just like Smallpox is BOTH a deadly disease AND in small controlled doses can be a protection against itself.

There is an 'hormesis side' to ordinary evolutionary adaptation -if we put any microbes in a challenging environment, some will adapt and survive. The smaller the organism, the faster the reproductive turnover, the better it works -hence the current antibiotic-resistant bacteria we are getting to know more recently.

Hormesis also works on humans in many instances, for example we're safer with some sun exposure than none at all, and the smallpox vaccine was a pretty neat idea. However, free radicals still have an inevitable aging affect because the process simply destroys cells. Sure if we're 'primed' we may heal the damage faster (and in emergencies it can kick off a rapid healing process), but I'd aim not to deliberately cause the damage in the first place. The risk is justified in life-and-death situations, or priming for inevitable hazardous environments, where Hormesis is achieved by minute controlled doses over time. It doesn't work in 'uncontrolled-dosage' cases. In 1985 my neighbor died from spraying this very chemical -Paraquat- without respiratory protection, so I wouldn't consider that protective exposure, for example.

Since we have anti-oxidants and know how to prevent free radical damage in other ways, I didn't see a reason to invoke hormesis on this one. But it's a topic we'll be getting familiar with in building resilience so this serves as  a nice prologue  :  )

Wonder if there is a protective hormetic dosage for avoiding cream cake damage...?
Best,
AR


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Alex
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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

Sakiro Wrote: About "thinking without words" Probably we can apply the same concept when we are reading something? i mean the "speed reading" tactic that teach you to elimite "subvocalization" and just "read seeing" .. maybe that is our natural way of reading?

It appears so; in fact we can even find ourselves silently reading while thinking ABOUT what we're reading rather than thinking the words. This would imply two processing tasks are going on at once, instead of one at a time, which is likely to increase learning speed.

Re: "The Crack in the Cosmic Egg"/.. hopefully it's get better in future chapters?

It doesn't. JCP is one of the most annoying writers for this trick -taking a load of sound scientific facts and framing them with woo woo.  It's truly absurd; like discovering the standard model of physics and then explaining how the gods did it  :  ) One never quite knows whether to applaud him for unearthing the facts or deride him for framing them with such gobbledegook. I once considered typing up a version of MC without the woo woo, but it was all so hopelessly intermeshed I decided to write ICMM instead because that would be faster.

Most internet info on Primary Process thinking is ancient and pre-scientific. There may be some more here:
https://ttfuture.org/authors/front
or not; I didn't have time to go through all the links. I do hope to explain PPT more deeply as tutorials go on but we need an in-depth understanding of what it is before we can understand what it can do. If you can narrow down more exact questions about it, I'd be more than happy to follow them up. Don't expect any spoon-bending however  :  )
Best,
AR


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Alex
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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

Hi dudes,
Somebody, somewhere, asked what is Tutorial 13 about?

Working title: Autonomy, Self-Awareness and the Structuring of Personality.

Best,
AR


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Re: NHA Tutorial 12

Somebody..
Somewhere..
Somewhen..
Saysthanks..

^_^
Someone..

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