TOC
The Teenager's Room
The Analogy:
L
et’s say that you have a teen-aged son. His room, naturally, is
a total disaster area. Clothes and unidentifiable things cover
every inch of floor and wall space. Drawers and shelves put there
for organization have things hanging from them which were either
gained from a lovely lady, a construction site, or the other side
of the moon.
The place may even be harboring the beginnings of some new life
form. Who can know?
You peer into the room, not wanting to venture forward out of a
sense of self-preservation, and ask him for some item he borrowed
a week ago and never returned. He ventures into the room and
returns with something that, if you use your imagination, is
similar to what you asked for. "Like this?" he asks. You ask
again, and the same action is repeated. Soon, a pile of strange
and sometimes unidentifiable objects is in your possession, but
what you asked him for never seems to materialize from the
primordial ooze of his room.
In what seems like an endless comedy, he continually returns from
the Den of Chaos and asks, “You mean something like THIS?” Like
most teen-agers, he either can’t or won’t understand you, and you
can’t or won’t understand him. Such are the ways of a teenager
and his parents.
The Meaning of the Analogy:
The subconscious mind lives in a teen-ager’s room. It is
filled with junk and is in continual disarray. If you ask
him to get something from the room quickly, he will generally
bring you the first thing he finds that is like what you want.
“Like this?” he asks as he delivers it to you. Ask again and
he will bring you the next thing he finds which is LIKE what
you want, but never exactly what you asked for. This can
continue almost indefinitely, as the amount of junk in his
room is seemingly without limits.
When you cue the subconscious to give you an impression, it
can give you the simple answers straight, but when it comes
to more complex things, it will simply rummage around in its
jumble and grab the first thing which matches the impression.
It holds that thing up to you and says “Like this?” Your
conscious mind, however, is looking for a direct answer and
tries to take what it is shown as a literal fact.
For example, you cue your subconscious mind for an impression.
“Red!” it tells you. That’s simple enough. You write down the
word and task for another. But this time, the impression is a
more complex one. Let’s say it is, “A shape which curves first
in one direction, then in another.” Your subconscious, not
being able to tell you such an impression because it speaks
teenagerese and you don’t, will rummage quickly through its
jumble of memories and grab the first thing it can find
which has a similar curve. That is what it will show you.
Let’s say it is a memory of a goose-neck lamp.
Your literal conscious mind sees it and says, “A goose-neck
lamp?” Then, the >NAG (Namer and Guesser) jumps in with its
immediate conclusion and says that the target must therefore
be an office of some kind, because that is the most likely
place to find a goose-neck lamp. The conscious mind then
comes to the conclusion that the target is an office and
begins to interpret every following impression on the
basis of how it fits an office. It also judges every new
incoming impression for validity by whether or not it fits
the picture of an office.
But the subconscious was just trying to tell you a shape.
This is how >STRAY CATs and AOLs are created.
You must therefore learn to speak the language of the
subconscious mind. It thinks in pictures, and is rarely
ever able to show you exactly what it means, especially
when the concept is a complex one. When it tells you
something, you must realize that it is saying “LIKE this.”
It is not saying, “It IS this!”
This is especially true when what it gives you is a clear,
static visual.
Therefore, especially when the perception is clear and distinct,
you must fall back on the CRV rule of:
"Describe, don't identify."
You are getting a clear picture - so descriptors are easier to
get. Just describe it.
A student once came back with the impression that the target
was “Eifel Towery”. I asked if she was saying that the target
was the Eifel Tower (it wasn’t). She said that she was aware
that it was not, but that it was somehow LIKE the Eifel Tower.
The target was, in fact, a tall, tower-like frame structure
holding high tension power lines.
When you cue your subconscious mind for an impression and
it comes back with a picture of, say, a goose-neck lamp,
never make the mistake of thinking that that is the target.
Simply understand that some part of the target is somehow
“goose-neck lampy” and let it go at that.