By Jeffrey Feldman, PhD
ASCH President
In the previous newsletter, I referenced former ASCH President John Hall’s metaphor of gardening changes necessitated by climate change, and how we must similarly adapt to changing circumstances to help ASCH thrive and grow. While struggling with how best to think about and facilitate this, I recently learned of the acronym brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible (BANI) coined by the futurist Jamais Cascio (Cascio, 2025). In organizational planning and leadership circles, it has supplanted the acronym volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA), developed in 1987 at the U.S. Army War College, as a conceptual framework for understanding modern challenges and disruptions. Such challenges are generated by a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity—volatility from rapid and unprecedented changes, uncertainty due to a lack of clear predictability, complexity because of many deeply interconnected moving parts and factors, and ambiguity from difficulty interpreting what events mean.
In 2018, even before COVID-19 and our current political situation, Jamais Cascio developed the acronym BANI in response to a more chaotic, fragile, and emotionally overwhelming world. It reflects a reality in which things are more brittle, we are more anxious, causation is nonlinear, and everything seems more incomprehensible—brittle because systems we thought were strong (such as our democratic institutions and environmental and public health safeguards) can suddenly break apart; anxious due to pervasive feelings of stress, helplessness, and fear of the next crisis; nonlinear because there are not easily predictable cause-and-effect relationships, with small actions at times leading to unexpected results; and incomprehensible since events and technology (like AI) move faster than human understanding.
Thankfully, in 2024, Jamais Cascio developed a Positive BANI framework that provides a conceptual model to help ourselves, our patients, organizations, and communities thrive in chaos. Positive BANI suggests that we need to be bendable, attentive, neuroflexible, and interconnected. We need to be bendable to convey the need to be flexible, adaptive, and resilient. This reminds me of a principle taught in aikido that I engaged in many years ago: “Expect nothing, be ready for anything.” (The concepts came to me far more easily than the physical skills.) Similarly, it is far easier to understand the concept than to know how best to apply it to ourselves and ASCH. We need to be attentive to mindfully and empathically recognize the effects of change on us and others. Organizationally, this requires creating a sense of safety and respect that not only allows for, but also values open communication, especially when differing views are expressed. Such attentiveness is at the heart of hypnosis as expressed by past president, longtime board member, teacher, lecturer, fellow, and contributor to ASCH Dov Glazer, who, in a personal communication, expressed, “Clinical hypnosis is a nuanced, deeply interpersonal art. It relies on subtle nonverbal cues, mutual rapport, sensory feedback, and the shared physical presence that can only occur when two or more people are in the same physical space.”
Highly related to bendable is neuroflexible, which involves recognizing changing conditions, adjusting, and changing accordingly: that is, to improvise and not be tied to a fixed way of doing things, keeping alternatives in mind. We use hypnosis to enhance neuroflexibility in our patients. Additionally, an appealing aspect of practicing hypnosis for many of us is being attuned to the patient, their responses to suggestions, and adjusting moment to moment so that it is an interactive, collaborative process.
Positive BANI lastly emphasizes the reality that we are all interconnected and that organizations need to enhance such interconnectedness. Since its inception, ASCH has primarily generated such connections through the Annual Scientific Meetings & Workshops (ASMW). Unfortunately, the cost of such meetings has greatly risen in recent years, such that the last in-person meeting in Jacksonville, in many ways an excellent meeting, resulted in financial losses that we only now are recovering from. Our discipline does not lend itself to financial support from drug and device manufacturers who exhibit at and otherwise fund medical meetings. (I recently attended a meeting of the Southern Headache Society in Atlanta where a board member and meeting organizer introduced the exhibitors stating, “Without the support of these exhibitors we simply could not have this meeting.”) Additionally, the high cost of travel and hotel, as well as the time involved in traveling to meetings, are significant barriers to attendance for many of our members, especially those early in their careers who often have young families.
A more cost-effective approach was pioneered by a few leaders of our component societies who, in response to the challenges of COVID-19, demonstrated exemplary neuroflexibility, developing the virtual format of the Hypnotic Idea Exchange. This monthly gathering, led so ably by our ASCH President-Elect Dana Lebo, continues to provide remarkable speakers and opportunities for virtual connection. From a financial and practical perspective, this seems to be the best approach for ASCH. Unfortunately, as Dov Glazer so well put it, “While virtual platforms offer convenience and value for conveying information, the profound experiential heart of hypnosis—and the true camaraderie that defines a professional society—cannot be fully replicated by a screen.” The board struggles with this dilemma, at times with conflicting views. I find hope, though, from Cascio emphasizing that a diversity of perspectives that are interconnected can find better solutions than what develops from those of a like-minded point of view.
With a heartfelt dedication to ASCH and a similar commitment to facilitating in-person camaraderie, board member Ran Anbar exemplifies neuroflexibility, working to create options for members at the next ASMW, March 11–14, 2027. He is investigating low-cost venues in various locations where attendees can come together to view and discuss the virtual presentations and subsequently socialize. Please be on the lookout for the announcement of the specifics of this soon.
It is my hope that through being bendable, empathically and respectfully attentive to each other, neuroflexible in dealing with rapid changes, and by developing more opportunities and channels of communication to be better interconnected, we can build a stronger society going forward.
References:
Cascio, J. (2025, August 1). BANI 2025: An overview. Medium. https://medium.com/@cascio/bani-2025-an-overview-575d92026fe1.
