Larkin Hypnotherapy

I'm studying consciousness, preparing for re-entry into grad school. I find this passage from "The Ego Tunnel" by Thomas Metzinger particularly interesting:

"Because [your overall conscious space of existence] has been optimized over millions of years, this mechanism is so fast and so reliable that you never notice its existence. It makes your brain invisible to itself. You are in contact only with its content; you never see the representation as such; therefore, you have the illusion of being directly in contact with the world" (p. 42-3, emphasis added).

Shortly thereafter, he adds "Our ancestors did not need to know that a bear-representation was currently active in their brains.... All they needed to know was 'Bear over there!' Knowing that all of this was just a model of the world and of the Now was not necessary for survival."

The question arising in my mind is, Is it NOW necessary for survival?

Earlier in the book, he claims it is impossible to ever be completely in the moment for the simple reason that it takes time (albeit milliseconds) to process information regarding our immediate environment. As soon as the information reaches our consciousness, it is a representation of the past.

My own personal work with meditation and hypnosis suggests that this isn't true. One actual goal of meditation is to experience the Now... to be completely present here and in this moment. There is a sense of timelessness that arises when in very deep states of relaxation. This is a function of experiencing the present.

I don't know, maybe I'm misunderstanding Metinzger's point here. I'll keep reading and keep you posted.

Visit the mini meditation page to learn the steps to inducing a light state of relaxation.

When you are fully comfortable, repeat the following:

My long-time home.
A dark, windowless room.
Off white walls with childhood scribbles.
I breath three deep penetrating breaths
[breath]
[breath]
[breath]

A doorway appears.
Light shimmers through.
I don't remember seeing that door before.

Repeat it as often as you like. If you are relaxed enough, the suggestion will stick to be open to seeing the world in a way you never thought possible. Want to take a step into that new world?

I'm going through a rough patch right now, I'll spare you the details. What I would like to share, however, is a book I've been reading that is proving to be a tremendous help: Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life's Ordeals, the title sorta says it all.

The book counsels against approaching your dark night, sometimes referred to as "depression" by the more clinically minded, not as something that needs to be "cured." Author Thomas Moore encourages us to embrace it (please do not confuse this with "wallowing" in it). Allow it to help us grow, or, more precisely, integrate it into who we are. The darkness, according to many and I agree, is the richest source of creativity in our soul's toolbox.

Integration can mean many things to different people. I'm not finished with the book yet, so I don't know if Moore will agree with me or not, but I believe there needs to be room for joy in the darkness. I am not foolish enough to think we can experience full joy during these times, but conversely, room must be cleared for it.

A dear friend was comforting me recently by saying, "Don't worry. Better times are ahead." A wonderful sentiment, so let us take it a step further: Mini meditation for April 6, 2010.

Song Wu Kong is the Chinese name for "the Monkey King", a famous ancient legend from that country. He is a powerful, albeit cheeky, monkey king indeed.

Long story short, the gods bring Song Wu Kong to Buddha because they are tired of dealing with him and they can't really control him.

Buddha holds Song Wu Kong in his hand and says, "If you can jump out of my hand, you may rule heaven." This appeals greatly to Song Wu Kong's ego and, as he is renowned for his jumping, leaps as high and as far as he can.

His leap takes him to the very edge of the universe where he sees the five pillars that hold up the sky. He takes out a can of spray paint and writes "Song Wu Kong was here" on one of them and pees on another. He leaps back home and stands before the Buddha.

"I have leapt to the very end of the universe. Hand me my crown, please."

The Buddha holds up his hand. On this index finger is written "Song Wu Kong was here" and his ring finger smells of wee.

Song Wu Kong is sentenced to be confined under a mountain for 400 years, at which time he is rescued by a monk and a pig-man. Song Wu Kong, in this part of the legend is a much humbler individual walking a path of service as his task is not to protect the monk on his Journey to the West (as the legend is called in China).

This story resonates with me greatly. I frequently think I've found a way to step outside and view EVERYTHING from without. It's a false perspective fueled by ego and, when you get right down to it, rarely helpful. You/we/I are always participants in the drama, never the spectators.

I stumbled upon an old journal of mine. The entry from September 11, 1991 is a quote from Joseph Campbell:

"...[E]very failure to cope with a life situation must be laid, in the end, to a restriction of consciousness. Wars and temper tantrums are the makeshifts of ignorance; regrets are illuminations come too late. The whole sense of the ubiquitous myth of the hero's passage is that it shall serve as a general pattern for men and women wherever they may stand along the scale.... The individual has only to discover his own position with reference to this general human formula, and then let it assist him past his restricting walls. Who and where are his ogres? Those are the reflections of the unsolved enigmas of his own humanity. What are his ideals? Those are the symptoms of his grasp of life."

Twenty years ago, this passage spoke to me enough for me to copy it down.

So much of the energy around us takes place on a subconscious level. What is holding us back? What fears of which we are completely unaware consciously block our path? Who and where are our ogres?

Hypnotherapy can lower the noise of daily conscious distractions, create a safe space by which light can be shone on those ogres. The key word here is "safe". In the safety of a hypnotic state, the subconscious can give us clues about what is really influencing our behavior and, it is very important to add here it can provide us tools to defeat it or to integrate it into our conscious lives.