Recently, I was fascinated by an article I found on the concept of quantum mechanics known as the “many-worlds interpretation.” In simplistic terms, it postulates that every significant event that occurs in your reality has multiple possible outcomes. At each decision point, reality splits into alternate versions to accommodate each choice, in effect creating an infinite number of parallel universes. While the concept of infinite universes occupying the same space as one’s current reality can be a difficult concept to grasp, in my experience, something similar goes on in our minds.
It’s my theory that when we have unusual experiences or make certain decisions in life, our consciousness divides itself in order to understand the “truth” of the situation and to play out each potential choice that is out of the norm for us. It spurs a collection of “parts” within our consciousness, each one holding a different belief about what that event or decision represented, or the accepted “truth” of the matter.
Have you ever found yourself saying, “part of me wants to do this, but another part really doesn’t?” In my experience this is not just a figurative statement, and it is why we can make a decision that we feel great about one minute, and then later wonder how we could have been so “ignorant.” There are literally different parts of ourselves sharing our mental space, all believing they are best suited to help us make decisions. Yet each part is only able to view the world through its own, distorted filter that led to its creation, and the choices it advocates will inevitably lead to more of the same experiences.
To deprogram ourselves around our emotional triggers or other personal challenges, we need to untangle the “truths” from the “myths” within our minds, thereby recognizing and diffusing these splintered parts of ourselves.
When I first started doing hypnotherapy over 20 years ago, a woman named Marie came to see me because she had terrible relationships with men. She felt like she was always picking the wrong one, or just didn’t know how to get along with them. It got so bad she thought perhaps she might be better suited to same sex relationships. She tried to date women, but soon discovered that path was unfulfilling.
Feeling stuck, Marie thought she would try the type of regressive therapy that was my specialty. In one of our early sessions, I regressed her back to a time when she was about 18 months old. She described seeing herself happily sitting on the dining room on the floor playing with some toys. The peace of the moment was shattered when her father burst forth into the room from the kitchen brandishing a gun and yelling. He quickly stopped and walked back into the kitchen only to repeat this act several times. Each time the scene was the same, waving a gun and yelling, before turning around and leaving the dining room to go back into the kitchen.
At 18 months, Marie didn’t understand what a gun meant, but she could tell her father was misbehaving or at least acting outside the norm. Because she didn’t understand his behavior, her young mind came up with several versions of why he would do this. Perhaps he was angry at her, even though she couldn’t think of anything she had done to deserve it. Perhaps he was just naturally violent. Perhaps he was crazy. Those parts translated into programming that told her men are unpredictable, untrustworthy and even dangerous. They should be treated with caution at best, avoided at worst. As she grew older, those lines of programming developed into dysfunctional behavioral issues with men, which resulted in attracting incompatible men into her life over and over again.
After we examined this experience from her perspective, I suggested she talk with her father about his version of the event. To which she replied, “I haven’t spoken to him in years.” It took a few weeks for her to build the courage to reach out, but she eventually called him. She let him know she was contacting him because she needed to understand something that came up during hypnosis. Her father was shocked when she recounted the event. He couldn’t believe she was able to remember the details and simply replied that he had been practicing for a part in a theater production.
What is most fascinating about Marie’s story is that, as soon as she understood what the truth was of that formative incident, all the subconscious parts that were created as placeholders in an attempt to explain her father’s behavior simply vanished. They were no longer needed; the programming was obsolete.
Over the next few months, Marie not only reconnected with her father, she also developed a relationship with a lovely man with whom she married and created a family. This is just one example of hundreds that I have witnessed. As soon as the mind understands the truth of a formative situation, all of its made-up stories around the event melt away.
As we go through life, we attract situations that test the beliefs we hold about the world around us, to help us figure out which are true and which are false. The problem is, if we are not paying attention to identifying the root causes of our limiting beliefs, these new situations simply lead us to pile new false convictions upon older ones. Some social communities and family systems of thought can reinforce these limiting beliefs. Additionally, this lattice of false understanding can filter every experience we have, leading us to seek out new examples that prop up the existing system of thought, and to ignore any feedback life provides us that would reveal the truth behind a situation.
Just as quantum mechanics suggests there might be an infinite number of alternate realities based on each decision we make, so too could there be a multitude of stories and beliefs swimming around in our minds. Left unchecked, these mythical understandings create a feedback loop of filtered experiences that reinforce each other to such an extent that they act as a barrier to our ability to achieve what we want in life.
This week, take stock of an aspect of your life where you always seem to struggle. Dig deep to evaluate where those beliefs first appeared and consider alternatives surrounding their truth. Have the courage to enlist family, friends, and old acquaintances as much as you can, to gain as much information as possible. As you reach the core truths of the situations, witness how your perspective changes around the subject and take note of any emotional triggers that evaporate in the face of truth.
Recently, I was fascinated by an article I found on the concept of quantum mechanics known as the “many-worlds interpretation.” In simplistic terms, it postulates that every significant event that occurs in your reality has multiple possible outcomes. At each decision point, reality splits into alternate versions to accommodate each choice, in effect creating an infinite number of parallel universes. While the concept of infinite universes occupying the same space as one’s current reality can be a difficult concept to grasp, in my experience, something similar goes on in our minds.
It’s my theory that when we have unusual experiences or make certain decisions in life, our consciousness divides itself in order to understand the “truth” of the situation and to play out each potential choice that is out of the norm for us. It spurs a collection of “parts” within our consciousness, each one holding a different belief about what that event or decision represented, or the accepted “truth” of the matter.
Have you ever found yourself saying, “part of me wants to do this, but another part really doesn’t?” In my experience this is not just a figurative statement, and it is why we can make a decision that we feel great about one minute, and then later wonder how we could have been so “ignorant.” There are literally different parts of ourselves sharing our mental space, all believing they are best suited to help us make decisions. Yet each part is only able to view the world through its own, distorted filter that led to its creation, and the choices it advocates will inevitably lead to more of the same experiences.
To deprogram ourselves around our emotional triggers or other personal challenges, we need to untangle the “truths” from the “myths” within our minds, thereby recognizing and diffusing these splintered parts of ourselves.
When I first started doing hypnotherapy over 20 years ago, a woman named Marie came to see me because she had terrible relationships with men. She felt like she was always picking the wrong one, or just didn’t know how to get along with them. It got so bad she thought perhaps she might be better suited to same sex relationships. She tried to date women, but soon discovered that path was unfulfilling.
Feeling stuck, Marie thought she would try the type of regressive therapy that was my specialty. In one of our early sessions, I regressed her back to a time when she was about 18 months old. She described seeing herself happily sitting on the dining room on the floor playing with some toys. The peace of the moment was shattered when her father burst forth into the room from the kitchen brandishing a gun and yelling. He quickly stopped and walked back into the kitchen only to repeat this act several times. Each time the scene was the same, waving a gun and yelling, before turning around and leaving the dining room to go back into the kitchen.
At 18 months, Marie didn’t understand what a gun meant, but she could tell her father was misbehaving or at least acting outside the norm. Because she didn’t understand his behavior, her young mind came up with several versions of why he would do this. Perhaps he was angry at her, even though she couldn’t think of anything she had done to deserve it. Perhaps he was just naturally violent. Perhaps he was crazy. Those parts translated into programming that told her men are unpredictable, untrustworthy and even dangerous. They should be treated with caution at best, avoided at worst. As she grew older, those lines of programming developed into dysfunctional behavioral issues with men, which resulted in attracting incompatible men into her life over and over again.
After we examined this experience from her perspective, I suggested she talk with her father about his version of the event. To which she replied, “I haven’t spoken to him in years.” It took a few weeks for her to build the courage to reach out, but she eventually called him. She let him know she was contacting him because she needed to understand something that came up during hypnosis. Her father was shocked when she recounted the event. He couldn’t believe she was able to remember the details and simply replied that he had been practicing for a part in a theater production.
What is most fascinating about Marie’s story is that, as soon as she understood what the truth was of that formative incident, all the subconscious parts that were created as placeholders in an attempt to explain her father’s behavior simply vanished. They were no longer needed; the programming was obsolete.
Over the next few months, Marie not only reconnected with her father, she also developed a relationship with a lovely man with whom she married and created a family. This is just one example of hundreds that I have witnessed. As soon as the mind understands the truth of a formative situation, all of its made-up stories around the event melt away.
As we go through life, we attract situations that test the beliefs we hold about the world around us, to help us figure out which are true and which are false. The problem is, if we are not paying attention to identifying the root causes of our limiting beliefs, these new situations simply lead us to pile new false convictions upon older ones. Some social communities and family systems of thought can reinforce these limiting beliefs. Additionally, this lattice of false understanding can filter every experience we have, leading us to seek out new examples that prop up the existing system of thought, and to ignore any feedback life provides us that would reveal the truth behind a situation.
Just as quantum mechanics suggests there might be an infinite number of alternate realities based on each decision we make, so too could there be a multitude of stories and beliefs swimming around in our minds. Left unchecked, these mythical understandings create a feedback loop of filtered experiences that reinforce each other to such an extent that they act as a barrier to our ability to achieve what we want in life.
This week, take stock of an aspect of your life where you always seem to struggle. Dig deep to evaluate where those beliefs first appeared and consider alternatives surrounding their truth. Have the courage to enlist family, friends, and old acquaintances as much as you can, to gain as much information as possible. As you reach the core truths of the situations, witness how your perspective changes around the subject and take note of any emotional triggers that evaporate in the face of truth.
“The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie, deliberate, contrived and dishonest, but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.” – John F. Kennedy, 35th president of the United States (1917 – 1963)
