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Lifting the Veils of IllusionWhat exactly are you doing inside your head?Is it making you happy? Does it make you feel separate from Self? Do your thoughts seem real? Find out: - precisely what we do in our heads (so you'll never be fooled again) - how to stop being a slave to the mental conditioning in your mind - and how to discover what is deeper and always present regardless of thoughts and emotions.  Wake up from the illusions created by our minds, our language and our habitual responses! What's happening inside our heads is where all the illusory action is taking place.
We have a television in our heads which is usually playing dreadful reruns, B-grade movies and down right stinkers from horrible moments in our lives. We have a radio, which is sometimes talking incessantly at us and telling us all manner of terrible things. We have a remote control (except no one informs us of this and so we think we're stuck playing the reruns). We have a pleasure and a displeasure button (more on that later) and we have antennas that hone in on what we like and dislike. It just so happens that the antennae and the buttons control our lives. They're worth knowing about if we want to be the master rather than the slave.
Strangely, we're encouraged to think about all manner of topics but rarely do we know HOW we think. Nor do we know how free our natural state is when we don't fill up our minds with certain thoughts, voices, words and pictures. When we know how we think we have more choices. We can discover that freedom is our natural state of being. We can discover the positive results when we choose to change the negative patterns. We can continue to respond to past conditioning, negative patterns and triggers.(Yes it is a choice.) All of which we will closely scrutinize in this chapter so our choices become crystal clear and choosing what we want is easy. 
How do we think?When we learn anything we create a map in our mind, we store it visually, as well as in words, sounds and feelings as a way to know something. This is very useful. We don't have to relearn turning a door handle each time we see one. We have a mental map of a door handle in our heads and we know what to do each time we see one.But when we don't know EXACTLY how we think in terms of pictures and words we can delude ourselves that our mental maps are real. Like when we create a map in our head about a person and from then on we never see that person 'in the now' freshly but instead only respond to the map in our head. The map is never the real thing. Nor is the menu the actual meal and we wouldn't normally find a map satisfying, let alone take it to be the real thing. 
Yet we often fully believe our linguistic, emotional, mental and physical maps are real. (No mum, this is not you.) 
Our maps actually act as an induction and put us into an hypnotic trance. Mesmerized by our maps we don't see what is really present and we respond to the maps in our mind, rather than to what is actually occurring. I could say the word 'dad' or 'mum' and our minds search our mental files and display thoughts and feelings. Depending upon our personal experience, we might picture our parent, hear our thoughts about them and experience a feeling. From our thoughts and feelings, we enter a story about them. How often do we freshly see our parents as human beings without the 'past' or the baggage we carry around in our minds and endlessly watch as reruns? Its possible we rarely experience reality because we're asleepSo how exactly do we take ourselves out of the 'now' or the 'real' and put ourselves to sleep? How is it that we respond to an illusion rather than the actual present? It goes something like this1. First something happens then 2. we become aware of that something happening 3. we describe what is happening 4. we make mental descriptions or give meaning about that and then 5. we keep building upon our descriptions Descriptions are maps. Mesmerized by these maps we enter a trance and believe them to be real. This is the process of thinking. Normally we think that thinking happens so fast we can't control our thoughts. But . . . we can slow it down and discover we do have power over them. here is the slowed down version. 
JUST A WORD itself can galvanize our imaginations into action and take our attention away from the real present and onto pictures, feelings and words in our heads. Rarely do we actually experience something without labeling it. Next time you experience fear try experiencing it without labeling it fear (unless of course you're in a dark and dangerous alley and fear is your ally to get you the hell out of there). You may find that it's a sensation that has a start and a finish, a shape and a finite size and that without the experience being labeled you may discover that it isn't fear if you don't call it fear. You may discover that it isn't even a horrible experience when the sensation isn't labeled.Normally we label emotions and then attempt to fix our external environment (a viable and often good choice to make) but just, not always. HERE IS THE NEW INVITATION Directly experience an emotion without labeling it and then see if you need to fix anything. 
How can we directly experience an emotionGo backwards. (Yes, you read that right) Go backwards.If you find yourself caught in a mental story ask yourself what the emotion is underlying it and driving the story. Label the emotion and then take the label away and feel just the sensation. Describe the sensation and then take away the description. With no words, experience the feeling. 
Where on this chart do you stand right now?Are you telling yourself a story about your life (something from the past maybe, or the future). What if you stepped backwards, stopped telling the story, stopped verbally describing the situation and freed up your mental awareness so you could experience a natural beingness? This is how we empty the proverbial teacup and let something new in. This is how we see outside the square. This is how we can truly see a situation freshly before we take action. This is how we can change patterns to positive ones. It's also how we can rest in our natural state and feel free. 
THIS IS NOT TO SAY there is anything wrong with thoughts and emotions. Fear can be a great motivator to get out of a frightening situation. Sadness can motivate us to search for a new path in life. Rage can spurn us toward success. We don't need to strive to live a life free of emotions and thoughts. But if we're limiting our lives because fear is holding us back or anger is ruining our experience of happiness it can be enlightening to see if we're habitually or unnecessarily putting ourselves into an unwanted trance. We can then allow something fresh and creative to come through. I am also not suggesting there is anything wrong with a story or using our imaginations. Stories and imagination can be inspiring and life changing and they can be a poison that not only robs us of experiencing happiness in our present moment but affects our future too. If we're unhappy and failing to achieve what we want its hugely beneficial to check what we are labeling, picturing and voicing in our heads. Check out these daily trances that occur naturally throughout our lives.To enter a trance we don't need a hypnotist swinging swinging a watch chain in front of our eyes. It doesn't matter whether we're reading a book, watching TV, listening, thinking, talking or driving. Anything can and will induce a trance. It's a natural ability we all have and something we often enjoy.
A trance state is only misleading when we take it to be real and when we unconsciously and repetitively enter one without being aware of what is happening. Here is where it can be useful to use labels. When we can stop for a moment and put a label to which trance we're in we can wake up to the present moment.To follow just some of the states we unknowingly enter is a shocking discovery. Here are just a few, starting with the moment of waking up in the morning, to going to work and then back to bed. Age RegressionWhen we relive or revisit the past in any way, we've entered an age regression trance. This is fine if its a happy past but when its a miserable one not only are we subjecting ourselves to further unhappiness, we're also, as we'll look at later in the chapter, raising our antennae for a repeat experience.
Future tranceWe can imagine the future and respond as if it were real. Some of us endlessly scare ourselves by imagining all the things that can go horribly wrong in our lives. Maybe we have some idea that if we play scary scenarios we'll learn how to overcome these situations. Yet mostly all we do is hone our minds to see those exact situations we would like to avoid.
Sensory DistortionWe can be numb to our senses, like when we hunch our shoulders at the computer, oblivious to to an ache but fully engrossed in what we're doing. Or, when we overeat unaware that we're full and we're tucking into more food.We can also be super aware of body parts like cellulite or that beer gut. We look at others or ourselves as just body parts and lose awareness of the whole person. 
Hallucinating something that doesn't existThis is when we see, hear or feel something that isn't there. A stage hypnotist can hypnotize someone to see an onion as an apple. They're literally seeing an apple eveb though it isn't there.Quite naturally we see things that aren't there, like when we read someone's face and we're sure we're seeing disapproval when its not there.
Hallucinating something out of existenceThis is when we don't see, hear or feel something that is present. This trance can affect our happiness when we don't see how much we're loved for instance. We often do this with our parents, partner or children.
Sometimes we exchange one bad trance for another one.
Hypnotic SuggestionThe things we say can act as hypnotic suggestions, which later becomes our experience.
Probably the most misleading trance is our identity. Maybe we feel that without one, we would be naked and vulnerable or maybe because of conditioning we create a sense of a 'me' believing it will give us a sense of worth. This is not to say we don't feel fabulous or intelligent when we've worked hard to build a sense of worth. But if we have a lousy sense of self worth it can be inspirational to realize that how we imagine ourselves to be is made up, exists only in our heads and is changeable.
When we say we have an identity what we're really saying is - 'I'm a someone because I see an imaginary picture and the radio in my head tells me so.' Try it for yourself. You'll find you have to have a pictures, words and feelings present to say you are a wife or a doctor or a victim or a success or a failure. Identities are usually dependent upon the past. If we have had a good one, our identity can serve as a resource. If we've had a bad one, it can seem harder to use our memories as a positive platform. When we habitually relive a memory or we filter our present moments through the past, we maintain a limited view of ourselves. but we don't have to. It's liberating to discover our ego only exists as a figment of our imagination. Its a lot of work when we try to fix it, clean it, discipline it or make it holy so we can like ourselves. We put enormous effort into doing all sorts of things to have a better image internally. We can also change it in a second. When we see we're making it up we can be free of it or we can make up a good one that inspires us and makes us feel good about ourselves. A little aside -We can even imagine multiple identities living inside of us, forget that these inner parts are metaphors and become slaves to the likes and dislikes of opposing imaginary people. Woe betide when they start arguing! 
Likes and dislikes - reality or trance?It's a revelation to discover the trances we enter when we're with people, especially the one's we dislike. We'll find that what we really don't like are our own trances about them.
Think of someone you likeNotice the pictures that come to mind, the things the radio in your head is saying and the nice feelings that come with those thoughts. It's a nice trance isn't it? We like some trances and dislike others and think its the person or the object, when in fact its something we're generating. Knowing this gives us insight to see what is real, as well as the power to play with our illusions.Some trances we don't want to change. I love going into trance about my puppies, my husband, writing and cartooning, many of my hobbies and such. They make me perfectly happy. But with people who've been horrible in my life I can wake up from any victim trances that have been running. For some people I can discover its the trance I have about them that I don't like. For others who've been consistently a bad influence I am free to avoid as well as be free from any trances about them. WHEN WE LOOK CLOSELY AT WHAT WE DO, it actually seems like a lot of effort to put ourselves into a trance. But when we don't know anything else it seems normal. What can be even worse is when we call it life and think its unchangeable.
While certain traumas may need to be consciously revisited and healed or grief give the time its due, some of our milder, negative memories don't need to be continuously relived. We don't need them to be the filter through which we see the present or look to the future. We have to be in a trance to be unhappy today about something that happened yesterday or could happen tomorrow. (sometimes of course that trance would be useful and motivating you to take action.) Recalling a painful memory is an age regression trance. We have the power and the ability to dissolve the past. We can take the sting out of it by playing with the images and sounds until it is ridiculously silly or so absurd the memory doesn't hurt anymore. We can change the picture, the sound, the speed, the size, the lighting or any of the elements. This can serve to break the illusion altogether.
TIP : There are many ways we can change these memories. We can purposely change them as the girl above has done. We can find a positive learning from them so we can move on in our lives. We could even use the remote control and change the channel. We could even change the meaning. A possible negative meaning from the above scenario could be - 'I got dumped because I'm not good enough.' This could be changed to 'I got dumped because someone better is coming into my life now'. Like the girl below we can sometimes change just the meaning (rather than the circumstances.) When we realize we've made up the negative meaning in the first place, we can play in ways that work FOR US and not against ourselves. 
IS HAPPINESS JUST A MAP? We sometimes look to our internal maps to see if we're happy. 
We also look to our internal maps to see if we're unhappy. 
We don't just look to our own internal maps to find happiness. We look to other peoples as well. We can spend our entire lives trying to convince others to have the internal maps about us that we want them to have. We can even pray that a god too has good internal maps about us. What we're doing is praying, wishing and in some cases working extremely hard to put others, including a god, into a trance believing that will make us happy. 
As we search for happiness its vital to see if what we're doing is what the girl above is doing. Are we putting others into a trance because our happiness is dependent upon them having pictures or words in their heads about us to be happy? Are we unhappy when we imagine they're picturing awful things about us? Are we sometimes in a trance about what other people's trances are? If this is what makes us happy or unhappy we could become victims of what other people are doing in their heads. Now obviously the above are necessary survival strategies for work. We do need others to think well enough of us to employ us. And its fantastic when we discover we're loved or held in high esteem by others. It's not an unworthy goal to have. But it's still good to know what we're doing and when we're doing it so we can make a conscious choice, especially if what we imagine others are thinking is making us unhappy. Did you know that your buttons are ruling your life? If we don't know about our buttons we may be unconsciously acting like slaves. 
Usually we move toward what we like and away from what we don't. If we see something and like it, its hit the pleasure button. But how was it hit in the first place? This is when either our past comes into play or our emotions. - if we see something and at the same time we're experiencing an emotional high we sometimes link what we see with the 'high'. - if we see something that makes us recall a memory we like, we tend to like what we see. - if we see something that someone we love or admire likes, we tend to like it too. We can even dislike what the person we like, dislikes. ANOTHER ASPECT THAT"S IMPORTANT ABOUT OUR BUTTONS is that they sit atop antennae - or seem to! Emotions raise our antennae whether we love something or hate it. We literally cannot seem to see what we want when our minds are filled with what we don't want. Normally our minds are full with the things we say to ourselves, the things those around us have taught us and past conditioning.
If you like what you're reading, want to break free of any limiting patterns, including the enneagram patterns - download the ebook online now
- it is a 220 page ebook of text and cartoons - know more about the nature of trance - know how to bust free from the patterns of trance - clearly see through the veils of illusion created by your personality - understand the enneagram and the nine personalities in detail. - discover how words create illusion - understand how you get triggered - understanding NLP in the context of awakening (anchors, reframing, metaphors, hypnosis, presuppositions and more) All made easy to understand with cartoons.
This ebook in pdf format is available online now at only US$19.75. Fast and easy to download. Click the buy button below and have your copy now. Apart from the font cover all cartoons and illustrations are in grey scale for easy printing.
This ebook in pdf format is available online now at only US$19.75. Fast and easy to download. Click the buy button below and have your copy now. Apart from the font cover all cartoons and illustrations are in grey scale for easy printing.
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