The Sage Model was created somewhat by accident. I started out by studying processes that cause change in people. Over 15 years, I examined every process that I could find that helped people to change. I took courses, seminars, training programs, and participated in marathons, group therapy and individual therapy. I read new and old books. (Do you remember the 60’s and the self help craze?)
At first the goal was to discover how change is created. I theorized that there might be one single element common to every change process. I thought that if I could find that common element, I would discover the basis for transformation — the key to how people change.
Gradually, I realized that I was asking the wrong question. I could not find a single element that was inherent in every change process. Instead I noticed great diversity in processes that brought about change.
Here is a short list of things that cause transformations in people — sometimes:
• Religious conversions.
• Near death experiences
• Hypnosis
• Gestalt therapy
• Rational Emotive Therapy
• Transactional Analysis
• Marriage or divorce
• The death of a child or spouse or parent
• Getting fired, or getting hired
• Having a child
• Psychoanalysis
• EST training
• Neuro Linguistic Programming therapy
• Achieving fame or high honor
• Behavior modification
• Psychosynthesis
• Joining a cult
• Recreational drugs
• Rebirthing
• Diet changes
• Medically administered drugs
• Reaching a goal
• Completing a project
• Regular exercise
• Rolfing, structural integration, or deep massage therapy
• Studying Gurgieff and Ouspensky
• Studying Abraham Mazlow’s work
• Psychoanalysis
• Adoption of new beliefs
• Etc. etc. etc.
I recognized that each of these experiences or processes caused some kind of transformations in some people. That realization led to a new question: “How would the mind have to operate to make it possible for each of these processes to cause transformations?”
From this question the Sage Model gradually evolved.
Using the Sage Model, it is possible to understand and explain how each of the various transformational processes produces change. Something equally important also becomes possible. The Sage Model helps us to understand why a given process doesn’t cause transformation in some situations.
Prior to the Sage Model, a person with a problem might go from one process or therapy to another, not knowing which would work to produce the desired results. With the Sage Model it is possible to identify the source of a problem, and either solve it yourself, or select the change process that offers the best chance of helping you solve it.
Sagery teaches people to fix themselves when they hurt. This disrupts the existing psychology model. We all think we need to go to a psychiatrist, psychologist, or therapist when we hurt or feel broken.
Think about that.
When I introduced The Sage Model to an audience of therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists and professors of psychology, the reactions were so varied, I didn’t see for a long time that Sagery was so disruptive that it would never be accepted by those who made their living “fixing” people.
A therapist said something like, “If I taught Sagery to a patient, why would he ever come back?”
A University professor of psychology said he thought I had invented an entirely new psychology. “The first entirely new psychology since Freud.” (I blush. I think it’s an overstatement. But, notice I still quote him.)
The most insightful observation was from another psychiatrist who said,” Deeply troubled patients will be unable to fix themselves, so they’ll always need us. But, the rest of the population could use Sagery to resolve their issues themselves.”
When I wrote “Sagery” I was on sabbatical from Kaset, a company I co-founded with Shannon, and I was needed back at Kaset. So, I put the book on the shelf and didn’t bring it back out until after we had retired from Kaset. We formed Visionary Publications Inc, and published Sagery on the internet. Now, retired again, and relocated to California, we are letting people use it for free.
Some possible answers:
1. We tried that, but we’re lousy at internet marketing.
2. We’ll reach more people if we don’t charge anything.
3. We don’t need the money.
4. Maybe you can learn it all and teach others. You can make money if people are willing to pay to be taught. You can pay it forward.
5. All of the above.
That is an intriguing question. Read it and see what you think.
I happen to think so. But, I’m a visionary, not a rocket scientist.
I don’t see why the idea doesn’t stimulate some thought among rocket scientists. Climate change threatens all peoples in all nations. Maybe it could bring nations together to fight a common threat.
When the white paper “the future of Education” was written in the early 90's, it was visionary in the extreme. Much of what I visualized had not yet been invented. Today, it is not only possible, but in use by instructional companies.
The educational bureaucracy is putting up the expected fight against the new, often for-profit schools that are evolving rapidly. I believe the high-tech computer based systems will win out. The paper presents the reasons.
The traditional educational system, with its lockstep regimen cannot produce the educational excellence of the computerized go-at-your-own-pace approach.
My ideas of contextual learning, that addresses student motivation, have not yet evolved much. But, once the new educational system wins out, and providers have to compete for student use and success, I predict winning providers will embrace contextual learning happily.
Politics and bureaucracy have frustrated the use of schools for teaching adults, job retraining, and elder care. But, I believe the cost advantages, and effectiveness will win out in the end.
My vision will not be totally achieved in my lifetime, but it is on its way and that is all a visionary can hope for.
It would be therapy if the therapist kept the knowledge and guided the patient to changes chosen by the therapist.
In “this stuff” the teacher teaches Sagery to the student. The student makes the changes he or she chooses and becomes his or her own therapist.
As people in the helping professions have pointed out, it is unlikely that students with disorders such as those described in DSM-5* would be able to use the sage model and the 4 questions to resolve their issues. So, therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists et al would still be needed, but normal, healthy people might not need them any longer.
(*Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)
In May 2014, it was 29,600.
I include this link because someone might want to see what I look like. (The demand has not been great.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6GsnTNR_Hg
When originally published, “Busting Bureaucracy” sold 8,000 copies in 4 languages, until the publisher was bought by another publisher, and then that was bought, and on and on, until it was out of print. I bought the rights and we have given it away as a free download. It’s used as a text in schools around the world, possibly because it is free.
Best estimate is somewhere around 400,000 downloads at this point and still going strong. You could read it if you like. (I wouldn’t recommend it. It’s for businesses that have become too bureaucratic.) If you like you will find it at: http://www.bustingbureaucracy.com
Shannon and I built a training company called: Kaset Inc. (Ken And Shannon’s Extraordinary Training)
We used some of the things taught in Sagery and the Sage Model. We specialized in customer relations improvement. When Kaset was rated as the best customer relations training company for three years running, Times Mirror Corporation bought it and we retired in 1992.
By the time we left, Kaset had taught well over a million working adults how to give extraordinary customer service. The number is much higher now.
You needn’t care at all. Just know that some people live in the past, some in the present, and some in the future. I tend to live in the future. You may notice that my writing and thinking are biased that way. (Some of my visions are documented in “The Future of Education” and “The Thruster Project.”)
When I find myself troubled, I go immediately to the present in my thinking because that’s where the wisest choices are found. That’s part of what you could learn in the Coping series.