As a clinical hypnotherapist, I have the pleasure of using words to help bypass the conscious faculties while working with individuals who want to get past limiting mental patterns. These words are usually scripted intentionally with structures that aim primarily to grease resistance in the client and so allow the subconscious to take on more positive suggestions. Sometimes through repititive words, embedded loops or through the use of onomatopoeia, phrases that are not literarily sound to the conscious mind, the more firm structures of mind let go of its grip. A command like “I want you to tell me only the things you want to tell me everything”, while it doesn’t sound grammatically correct, could have a profound impact on the subject depending, of course, on how other parts of the inductions are created. The mind then turns in on itself, collapses and lets the inner/subconscious mind find expression.
In all of this, what I particularly enjoy is helping the client(and myself) to realize the shift in perception. The subject finds this shift similar to when clouds slowly shift to make visible the ever present blue skies.
I want to attempt to do something similar with this particular edition. But not with hypnotic scripts but with your own experience, helping you notice the difference between the clouds and the skies, the wave and the ocean and our stories and the one behind the stories. As I type this I am keenly aware that the rascal mystic, GI Gurdjief’s work may also have inspired my curiousity for this ‘exercise’ . Please let me know how this lands for you. Read these instructions first and then read them again for the practice. However it lands for you!
Find a comfortable position. Preferrably seated with your back straight. Alert and comfortable is the watch phrase here.
Set a timer for 7 minutes for this exercise. Don’t ask why 7 minutes(*wink). In that time, you have to be committed to not doing any other thing but this exercise. This just means you are not worrying or concerned yourself about anything— this includes anything on your to-do list, any concerns that may pop up while doing this exercise. After this exercise you can go ahead and pick up any mental jabberments.
Look up at a spot in the room or space you’re located in. Preferrably one that’s up to 2 meters away and above your line of vision.
As you lock this visual target, widen your peripheral vision so you can see the left and right sides of your room or location without your eyes going in that direction( you can read more about the science behind this in my Medium article, My friend had suicidal thoughts, here’s what we did).
As you stare at this focused target, bring your attention to the sounds around you. With the sounds in attention, notice that the sound is happening inside you and not outside you. Logically speaking, you are feeling vibrations in your ear drums— which are happening in you. Be attuned to that sense of sound and not the translation in the mind of the sound. Nisargadatta once said, “shift your attention from words to silence and you will hear”. In this take note of what you hear, not from the physical plain but in your perception.
Now, focus on the fiber and sense of your aliveness . Go through these or similar self-inquiry questions: What does it mean to be alive? Can you place a finger on that aliveness? Can you see that all that appears to you are not you? Your race was not chosen by you and is also not you. Your hydration or dehydration? Was it designed by you? Are you able to choose not to be hydrated or choose to be dehydrated? Your sense of focus or no focus while doing this exercise, is any of it you? Bring attention to your stomach. Any sensations of hunger? Can you see those happening on their own? Where is the you that does any of these?
Pay attention now to the mind. What is it doing now? Relaxed? Agitated? Confused? Analysing? What is paying this attention? I know the answer is too simple to be true. But pay attention. What’s it that is paying attention?
Is it obvious yet that that which pays attention is not an object? Is it not obvious that experience is like a movie— moving but not in action, static but not stationary.
If you’re like me you will end up being lost yet again in the movie of life. But see that still has nothing to do with you. So can we just relax and enjoy it. If you ever came across Brother Lawrence idea of practicing of the presence of God, here’s your cue to practice these exercise continuously. In my experience the continuous reemberance of myself helps me see the non-realness of day to day experiences .
Oh, not that they are not real, they just are not what we think them to be.
Presence is what this is called.