How to lose self consciousness

How To Stop Being Self-Conscious: 7 Strategies To Try

Self-conscious thoughts can be difficult to deal with — but you can take steps to work through this challenging self-talk.

Do you often think about how others see you or worry about upsetting other people? You may be more self-conscious than others.

Being self-conscious involves being in an enhanced state of self-awareness. You might feel like everyone around you is scrutinizing your every move. You might feel like people are judging you.

When self-conscious thoughts start to interfere with your life, it may be helpful to make some changes. It may take time, but learning how to stop being self-conscious and embrace self-acceptance is possible.

“Self-consciousness refers to a mental state when you become preoccupied with your self-image, says Dr. Nereida Gonzalez-Berrios, a certified psychiatrist based in Houston, Texas.

According to Gonzalez-Berrios, you’re essentially in a heightened state of self-reflection and understanding of your strengths and weaknesses. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, she explains.

While self-consciousness can help you better understand yourself, it can also lead to poor self-esteem. “If a person is too engrossed with oneself, then they always feel they’re being judged, scrutinized, or under the scanner,” explains Gonzalez-Berrios.

These unhealthy self-conscious emotions can affect your mental health and lead to social anxiety.

There are ways to reduce negative self-talk if you’re having trouble dealing with self-conscious emotions.

1. Acknowledge your strengths

To become less self-conscious, you may find it helpful to acknowledge your strengths, says Dr. David McConaghy, a professional psychiatrist based in New York, New York.

Do you have trouble recognizing your talents and abilities? McConaghy suggests creating a list of the things you’re great at and naming one daily. “Daily appreciation of your strengths is a highly effective method for reducing self-consciousness,” he says.

McConaghy also suggests compiling a list of the obstacles you’ve overcome and the objectives you’ve reached. Keeping these handy and occasionally glancing at them can help remind you who you are.

2. Reframe your negative thoughts

Negative self-talk about things you’re self-conscious about can replay on repeat in your mind. A negative thought loop can breed more negative thoughts, ultimately affecting your mental health and messing with your self-confidence.

Simone Smith Maldonado, a licensed therapist based in New Jersey, suggests reframing how you view yourself as a way to get out of this negative cycle.

Next time you think, “I can’t do anything right,” try to reframe the thought by saying to yourself, “I can do many things well.”

3. Understand that not everyone sees what you see

“The things that we’re usually self-conscious about are often small and not so easily noticed by others,” says Maldonado.

Try to remind yourself that people aren’t thinking and talking about you like you think they are, says Gonzalez-Berrios. “They do not know you well, so the question of criticizing or judging you doesn’t even arise.”

By recognizing that not everyone sees what you see, you may be able to take away some of the power of those self-conscious feelings, says Maldonado.

4. Develop a positive mindset

Much like reframing negative thoughts into positive ones, you may also find it helpful to develop a positive mindset by using positive affirmations.

Gonzalez-Berrios suggests telling yourself that you’re good enough in your own way. Try to remind yourself that you have many good qualities that others may not have.

5. Learn to accept your flaws

Accepting your flaws is easier said than done. But peace can come from accepting your perceived “flaws,” says Maldonado.

“Do not listen to your inner critic. It will always speak negatively about you,” says Gonzalez-Berrios. Try to accept the way you are while validating your thoughts and feelings.

6. Stop comparing yourself to others

Insecurities often come from comparing yourself to others. Gonzalez-Berrios says it’s important to stop comparing yourself to others because it can make you even more self-conscious.

“Don’t try to catch up with everyone around you,” says Gonzalez-Berrios. “Challenge the way you think about yourself. Let yourself know that the world around you is not better than you.”

7. Work with a therapist

When self-conscious thoughts are too much to deal with, and you’ve tried all other strategies, it may be time to consider speaking with a therapist.

A professional can help you get to the root of your self-conscious emotions and help you learn to challenge your unhealthy, negative self-talk. They can work with you to find alternatives to self-criticism and help you learn to manage your emotions.

Basic emotions begin within the first 9 months of life. And it’s not until around 18-24 months that you start to form general feelings of self-consciousness.

Around the age of 3, more complex self-consciousness feelings begin to appear. During adolescence, people often experience higher levels of self-consciousness because of social pressure.

As you move into adulthood, you have a more stable sense of yourself, so self-consciousness tends to level off. But, for some people, self-conscious thoughts can continue because of:

low self-confidence
mental health conditions like depression and anxiety
adverse childhood experiences or trauma

Feeling self-conscious is when you’re totally aware of yourself and how others might perceive you. If you’re too focused on what others think of you and often worry you’re upsetting or offending others, this might adversely affect your well-being.

Self-conscious thoughts can be challenging to deal with. Strategies you can try to limit self-consciousness include:

acknowledging your strengths
reframing negative thoughts
accepting not everyone sees what you see
developing a positive mindset
learning to accept your flaws
avoiding comparing yourself to others
speaking with a therapist

If feelings of self-consciousness interfere with your everyday life, consider speaking with a licensed professional. A therapist can help you get to the root of your self-consciousness and help you on your journey to reclaim your self-worth.

Self-conscious | Beverly Hills Therapy Group

Causes of Self-consciousness

Self-consciousness develops in childhood. In the 1970s, psychologists tested the self-awareness of young children by putting some blush on their noses and placing them in front of a mirror. Most children under 18 months of age did not reach up to touch their nose, which suggests that they didn’t realize that the mirror showed their reflection. Most of the subjects who were older than 18 months did touch their nose, which means they knew they were looking at themselves.

As we grow up, our self-conscious emotions become more complex. We’re not just aware of what we look like, but we also think about who we truly are and how we appear to others. Self-conscious emotions become particularly strong during adolescence. At this point, many teens start seeking support from their friends more than their family, so being accepted by peers is very important.

Self-conscious emotions tend to level off in adulthood as we form a more stable sense of self. We still experience self-conscious thinking, but it’s usually not overwhelming. However, some people continue to struggle with excessive self-conscious thoughts, which can happen for a number of reasons.

Some mental health experts cite childhood trauma as a reason for negative self-conscious emotions in adulthood. Difficult childhood experiences can make you feel different or “less than.” When you have such a critical inner voice, you may start to believe that others think negatively of you, too.

Mental health disorders like depression and anxiety can make you more self-conscious as well. One of the most common symptoms of depression is low self-esteem, which goes hand-in-hand with negative self-conscious emotions. Anxiety can cause you to dwell on self-conscious thoughts more than is healthy. Social anxiety is a particularly big risk factor for excessive self-conscious emotions as it makes you fixate on what others think of you.

It can be very easy to form negative thinking habits. If you get used to feeling self-conscious, your brain will keep producing self-conscious thoughts. These thought patterns can become stronger and stronger until they’re at the forefront of your mind all the time.

What to Do if You’re Struggling with Self-conscious Emotions

Negative self-conscious thoughts can be very difficult to deal with, but it’s always possible to break the habit. Here are some steps you can take to start working through your self-conscious emotions:

1. Recognize That the Thoughts Are Illogical

Before you can overcome your self-conscious thoughts, you have to realize that there’s a problem. This is definitely easier said than done, but it’s important to notice that you shouldn’t feel as self-conscious as you do.

Think about how often you think critically about others. You probably don’t spend a lot of time judging people for their appearance or over-analyzing someone’s small mistake. Most people are too focused on themselves to worry about others, so fewer people notice your flaws or mistakes than you may think.

2. Pay Attention to Your Strengths

It’s easy to fixate on the things we don’t like about ourselves. To reduce your negative self-conscious emotions, create a list of every accomplishment and positive trait that you’re proud of. Regularly read your list to remind yourself of your strengths.

Also, engage in activities that help you feel good. Make a hobby out of one of your skills, or use your positive personality traits to help others. Find every opportunity to lift yourself up instead of letting the self-conscious thoughts take over.

3. Practice Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the ability to recognize your thoughts, emotions, and sensations without judgment. You’re not ignoring anything, but you’re also not over-analyzing what you feel. You’re simply observing yourself and your experience.

It takes time and practice to develop mindfulness, but it’s an excellent way to manage anxiety, depression, and self-conscious thoughts. Start with one five-minute mindfulness meditation per day. During this time, try to focus on your breathing, your body sensations, or anything you hear or see around you. When your mind wanders, gently redirect your thoughts back to the current moment.

As you build up your mindfulness practice, the habit will start to take root in your daily life. It will become easier to let self-conscious emotions enter and exit your mind without dwelling on them, and your self-judgment will gradually decrease.

4. Work with a Therapist

Overcoming self-conscious thoughts can be incredibly challenging. It sometimes involves unraveling years of negative self-talk and anxiety, so professional treatment with a therapist may be your best option.

Your therapist can help you identify the source of your self-conscious emotions and develop the ability to recognize and challenge your unhealthy thoughts. They can also work with you to find healthy coping mechanisms to use as alternatives to self-criticism.

Treatment is especially important if your self-conscious emotions are linked to a mental health condition like depression or anxiety. It’s difficult to manage these disorders without support from a therapist or other mental health professional.

Self-awareness is a normal part of the human experience, but it can get out of control. If your self-conscious emotions are taking a toll on your quality of life, consider seeking therapy.

Beverly Hills Therapy Group offers therapy for a wide variety of emotional concerns. Whether you need treatment for a diagnosed mental health disorder or are looking for help managing stress or other emotions, we’re happy to offer support. To connect with a licensed therapist in Los Angeles, contact us today.

The Collapse of Self-Consciousness - Pro-Psixology.ru

One of the main reasons why women continue to live with husbands who regularly beat them is the fear of losing their self-consciousness, which seems to be a much greater danger than the physical pain caused by a raging husband. In simple terms, losing self-awareness is the same as "going crazy." Eleanor Armstrong-Perlman (Armstrong-Perlman, 1991) describes the fear and horror of complete loss of self-awareness that she observes in patients of both sexes. She noticed that the collapse of self-esteem was provoked by the realization that the object of affection had left them: It is impossible to bear the pain of losing a relationship or even hope for them. The upsetting moments in the relationship are denied, as are the anger, hatred, humiliation and shame they have caused from the experience. <...> The need is obsessive and irresistible, the very thought of a break is perceived as a catastrophe, leading either to the disintegration of the personality, or to a lonely and reclusive existence, in comparison with which living together, even in the darkest version, is preferable. <…> They refuse to recognize the hopelessness of such relationships, as well as the fact that the gain is doubtful and illusory, because to give up hope is to lose yourself as a person (Armstrong-Perlman, 1991).

The condition of a child abandoned by his mother can be described in exactly the same way; Fairbairn had seen many such cases. The "depression of abandonment" that I have described occurs as a result of a complete loss of self-awareness. An adult, like a child, needs an accessible parental object that would support self-consciousness at the boundary level and allow the personality to maintain psychological integrity. Lacking such an object, the undeveloped adult feels lost, hopeless, and terribly frightened, like the children at the Scottish orphanage where Fairbairn worked. Without an object, or at least the hope of its appearance, it is impossible to maintain an organized and holistic self-consciousness. The fear of losing self-consciousness completely subordinates human behavior to its power, it is not surprising that women endure beatings, humiliation and indifference of their partners so patiently. The motivation for female behavior in this case is the ability of her despotic partner to maintain her self-esteem at the proper level, this encourages her to return to him, despite the danger. I will touch on this topic again when discussing the domestic violence scenario. nine0003

The following two stories illustrate the loss of self-awareness due to the loss of a stabilizing object. In both cases, there is a conflict between the requirements of the object through which identification occurs and the self-esteem of the victim. Attachment to the object maintains in the victim a sense of psychological stability; but it comes at a high price due to an ever-increasing decline in self-esteem. In Terry's story, we will see that the oppressor is not necessarily a specific person, sometimes it can be a group of people; Mrs. Jackson's case is almost a classic case of attachment to one object: Terry was brought into my office by her worried parents. This girl looked very strange and seemed haggard, her head was shaved bald; according to her parents, she suffered a "nervous breakdown" while living in a fundamentalist religious sect. Before dropping out of college and secretly joining a sect, she had very good grades in all subjects. According to her parents, she was a wonderful child, but I noticed that during the first session, they did not let her open her mouth, telling everything for her. When Terry did speak, she looked at her parents indecisively and seemed to be trying to avoid the conversation, hiding behind obscure biblical quotations, designed, apparently, to imitate the speech of a “decent” sophomore student. Apparently, she was trying to guess from her parents' facial expressions and other non-verbal cues what was expected of her. nine0003

Later, Terry admitted that she is always watching other people's reactions, because she does not have her own position in life. The all-encompassing embrace of the church sect brought her unspeakable relief, because she no longer had to suffer every time, writing “her own” opinion that would suit everyone. In the first month of her stay in the sect, she was absolutely satisfied with everything, it seemed to her that she had found a place where she would like to spend her whole life. She was content even though religious teaching in itself was of no interest to her. Her nervous breakdown was a reaction to being punished for a minor violation of the norms of a fundamentalist cult. Her hair was cut off, and this humiliation, as well as disappointment in the religion that replaced her parents, provoked a collapse of self-consciousness. An important role was played by the fact that her pretty appearance was one of the significant components of her self-esteem. To be rejected by the cult that served as an object for her and on which she depended became an overwhelming test for her weak self-awareness. My task was to find out, together with Terry, who she really is. Her family put too much pressure on her to behave properly, so that the girl simply lost her own vision of herself as a person. Her family was not only conservative, but also divided. The mother never discussed fashion or hairstyles with her daughter, and the father was completely absent most of the time. Terry did not have a parent object that could serve as a model for the formation of a strong self-consciousness. nine0003

For a person who has problems with self-identification, an attractive object almost inevitably turns out to be a person who is extremely self-confident or wants to appear so, able to compensate for the weak mental organization of his partner. Typically, the partner using the independent pattern of behavior is the leader in the pair, and the "dependent" partner is the follower. Unfortunately, the presenter eventually turns into a dominant, critical fanatic who is “subject to” the insecure and contradictory self-awareness of a weak partner: Mrs. Jackson turned to me on an urgent matter. She suffered from a collapse of self-awareness caused by a conflict between two of her independent objects. Her husband insisted on their moving to Central America, as he wanted to provide all possible assistance in the struggle for the independence of one of the countries torn apart by internal conflicts. He was a well-known radical, leader of several left-wing organizations, and 15 years older than his wife. Mrs. Jackson met her future husband in college, where she was an honors student in a political science course. Despite her academic progress, she felt lost and empty, and her views were constantly changing. She tried to compensate for her insecurity and weak self-identification by choosing "strong" personalities as partners. Her first passion was an ultra-conservative border patrol. He told her a lot about weapons and convinced her to carry a pistol with her to protect herself from the dangers that he saw everywhere. The relationship fell apart when he demanded that she end all ties with her parents. Her father intervened and insisted that she stop dating this guy, but she soon discovered a "strong personality" (at the other end of the political spectrum) in her future husband. Her husband demanded that she become a vegetarian, dress in handmade rather than factory-made clothes, and read the works of writers from the American South. Mrs. Jackson willingly complied with these requirements, because they, she believed, strengthened her spirit. But moving to Central America was already too much, because she was losing touch with her family, and most importantly, with her mother, on whom she was dependent. nine0003

There is no violence per se in this example; but it contains many of the ingredients of a typical tyrant-victim pair. Mrs. Jackson used the dependent style of behavior, and her husband's behavior is the extreme of the independent style. He wanted total control over her, and she willingly agreed to all his demands in exchange for a sense of security and life orientation dictated by him. The unwritten agreement between them broke when his demand to move to Central America clashed with her unwillingness to leave her parents. Despite her extreme dependence on her husband, she was not willing to lose relationships with others, including her supportive parents, for a cause in which she had no personal interest. Her feeble identity was in stark contrast to her superior intelligence. This striking mismatch of intelligence with emotional maturity is very common in people with borderline personality disorders. Her dependence on others was rooted in her growing up history, which did not provide her with enough positive introjections. As we will see in the following chapters, the weaker a person's self-identification, the stronger his need to "stick" to an object that can support his self-esteem. nine0003

Consciousness without inner "I" / Sudo Null IT News

This article is devoted to the state of consciousness without the inner "I". Such a state with a certain training can be experienced by each person on personal experience. Perception in this state of consciousness is very different from perception in the normal state, and some of its aspects can help solve various issues regarding the human mind, which arise, among other things, when discussing technologies for transferring consciousness to a machine, creating an artificial brain or copying a human brain, etc. . nine0003

Foreword

It so happened that the theme of a state of consciousness without an inner "I" is not very popular. For some reason, this state is not considered in articles where they talk about robots with human feelings or try to resolve various paradoxes associated with the internal experience of intelligent beings. Even among people who are fond of various mental practices, for whom this state can be one of the important peaks, there are almost no those who have experienced such a state in practice and very few of those who have even heard of such a phenomenon. Perhaps I was just “badly looking”, since initially for me such a state was of practical interest, and not theoretical. For this reason, this article will be based almost entirely on my personal experience of experiencing this state. However, I hope it will still be at least interesting. The article will touch on many topics that, to one degree or another, may be related to this state, and at the end of the article you can find various ways how this state can be induced by anyone. nine0003

Since the topic is difficult to understand, first you need to define some terms and nuances. Since this state refers to the so-called altered states of consciousness , then in the article, instead of “a state of consciousness without an inner Self”, the abbreviation ISS will be used almost everywhere.

* What happens when the "I" disappears

* The human body is like a robot, or almost complete automatism

* Dialogues and thoughts without words or the language of consciousness

* The personality of a person or what is under the hood of the psyche

* Pain without suffering

* The amplitude of emotional experiences

* Why do we need "I" and why do we "think" a lot

* Mentioned in other sources

* How to repeat this experience and safety precautions

What happens when the "I" disappears

My first experience of ASC differed from subsequent ones in that the transition to the state occurred imperceptibly for me after long attempts to induce the state. In subsequent ISS experiments, the transition to the state almost always went through the fear of death: when it was possible to stop the flow of thoughts to an almost pure state, the resulting emptiness began to frighten: it seemed that a little more, and everything would disappear (either the world around would disappear, or you yourself) . However, if you overcome this fear and continue to plunge into this emptiness, then nothing terrible happens. The inner "I" really disappears like a sensation. But consciousness, what it observes, does not disappear (and it also covers with such a vivid feeling that it seems that this is the happiest state in the world). Only perception changes, the world is no longer divided into the concepts of "I" and "not I". Moreover, the absence of such a division is not the same as if the mind suddenly began to consider the whole world as oneself (although a feeling of unity with the whole world in this state may arise, but this is not the same as considering the whole world as oneself). This is precisely the destruction of the criterion of division, there is no longer a feeling of "this is I", and there is no feeling of "this is not I". At the same time, the ability to distinguish the boundaries of one's body, or to understand one's name, does not disappear. But it will happen without the feeling of "this is me" or "not me". nine0003

This state is also interesting because it is impossible to explain it later either to oneself or to another person. This state can only be experienced on personal experience and be in it in order to understand the phenomena in the world without the criterion of division into "I" and "not I". For some reason, our usual logic resists understanding the world without dividing it into “I” and “not I”, although this idea without dividing the world into “I” and “not I” is rather more correct. Arguing about such a state, one way or another, the thought wants to solve the problem through one of the two states, but the third cannot be found. nine0003

As a result, in the ordinary state of consciousness, we are forced to always use the concept of the inner "I", even when it is not necessary. For example, it is difficult for us to imagine an electron particle without transferring the idea of our “I” to it. If we imagine an electron particle, we automatically seem to feel like an electron, for which there is a more energetically “favorable” state. We have no words in the language for the states of inanimate objects. Therefore, the electron has a “beneficial” state, which in fact cannot be applied to anyone, because it has no “I”. Thinking about evolution, we get "good" genes, "important" tasks, because we put ourselves in the place of living beings that evolve, and thus understand what will be more profitable and what will not, from the standpoint of the internal experience of living beings, and not from the standpoint of the inanimate process "evolution". nine0003

Human body, like a robot, or almost complete automatism

In the ASC, you can also, as in the normal state of consciousness, feel your body and control it. However, now the body is perceived differently, it is perceived as an automaton that can walk by itself, can drive you home from work and back, can cook food by itself, and can even play the piano by itself. Those. all basic skills can work automatically. At the same time, you do not lose control over the body, you can still do anything. But you have a clear understanding that if you give the body a command, for example, to move your finger, your consciousness will not move the finger itself, the body will move the finger, move “something” in the body, some mechanisms will execute your command, as it should, but you don't personally do it. In fact, you yourself in this state cannot do anything, you can only be manager \ at a very high level, and feel how some control processes are taking place inside your body that implement your command. Moreover, the body carries out not only your commands, it also often decides what is needed now. But you can interfere with these decisions.

Body automatism can be called separately from the ASC state. For example, this is achieved by trying to “let go” of control over walking while walking, to eliminate the feeling “I am moving my legs”. If the technique works, you will begin to feel that your legs themselves go where they need to and how they need to. At the same time, you continue to feel your legs, feel how they move, but without the feeling that you personally are doing this process. At the same time, control of the situation still lies with you. You have simply eliminated the feeling of "I'm going." Indeed, a person usually does not actually control every movement, but at the same time feels that supposedly "he is walking." Those. processes in the body are simply assigned to our inner "I" after the fact. nine0003

During the very first, longest and brightest experience of ASC, when the state was already beginning to weaken, I decided to record a video of playing the piano for the last time. I don't have a lot of experience playing the piano, let alone creating professional music. The video just shows that you can automatically play at the level of your skills. The melody in the video was also created “automatically” during the game, I didn’t specifically think which keys to press, only sometimes I changed the direction of the game.

Dialogues and thoughts without words or the language of consciousness

Probably, everyone noticed that before saying or thinking something, there is already all the information in the head, which after a couple of seconds will be announced. But despite the fact that we know this information in advance, for some reason we still voice it. It turns out a kind of "duplication" of the same information presented in different forms. Perhaps this is the only thing that can be noticed inside oneself in a normal state of consciousness.

In the ASC, the sounding of thoughts does not occur (ie, you never "think" in the usual sense of the word), all information exists only in the form of sensations. Even during reading, the assimilation of information occurs without first translating it into words. Dialogue with another person will take place in the same way without “words” within oneself, and will take place automatically. In ASC, you can either completely automatically carry on a conversation with a person, or interfere with the meaning of what you want to answer. This is essentially the same "automatism" of the body, which extends to dialogue with people, to reading, to the processing of visual and auditory information. nine0003

In ASC one can feel not only thoughts as sensations without words, but also perceive any visual and auditory images not as a sound or an image, but as a sensation containing all the information. This sensation can be interpreted into a visual image or into the voicing of words, into a certain text, and there is no single correct interpretation. Those. the sensation can be interpreted in many ways, with a partial loss of information.

For example, if you imagine some complex three-dimensional object, then in ASC it will be a sensation, but what we are used to “imagining” in the ordinary state of consciousness in the form of a projection of a three-dimensional object onto a plane is only an interpretation of this sensation. nine0003

Unfortunately, it is often very difficult to interpret sensations into information that is understandable in everyday life. For example, you can feel the length of an object, but you cannot accurately express it in meters. Sometimes it is impossible to express a feeling at all, and it turns out that you know something, but do not understand this knowledge at the level of words, at the level of any ideas from the ordinary state of consciousness.

Consciousness, is it the work of the parts of the brain responsible for speech?

The article What is Consciousness describes the theory that consciousness is “the distribution of neural excitation among the prefrontal cortex, association cortex and areas responsible for speech – this is what our “I”, our consciousness or focus of perception is. " nine0003

The experience of ISS, on the one hand, proves in principle that speech and the inner self are interconnected things. However, it also proves that consciousness and the inner Self are different things, and the former can be separated from the latter. Thus consciousness and inner speech are different things, consciousness can work without inner speech.

Personality of a person or what is under the hood of the psyche

In ISS you remain an ordinary person with all his usual desires, needs, problems inside, nothing new. However, the personality of a person in ASC does not look like a solid monolith, it is no longer “I”. In ISS, different “sources” are responsible for different needs, tasks. The “source” is something that can be felt in oneself, which gives a certain signal to control the body. A person's personality is made up of "sources". They can fully automatically control the entire body. For example, the “source” can decide for your consciousness what to answer to a person in a dialogue with him, if consciousness does not intervene. It is the “source” that can be responsible for your hobby, create interest in a particular business. But not all "sources" can be attributed to the individual, many "sources" refer to basic things, such as the desire to eat, breathe, etc. nine0003

Looking under the hood of the psyche, one can see a whole "orchestra" from "sources". And it is they who most often rule everything in life most of the time. And some of these "sources" we call ourselves, our personality traits, our personality. In fact, this is essentially a "program" of behavior.

Theoretically, "sources" can be changed, thus changing the characteristics of the personality, because the "source" is an automation tool in the hands of consciousness, and not an indestructible fundamental part of what we consider ourselves to be. nine0003

Pain without suffering

In an ordinary state of consciousness, it is difficult for us to imagine that it is possible to experience very deep emotional states, sob, climb a wall, lie on the floor, scream, and that all this was possible without suffering. It seems to us that pain and suffering are inseparable things. In the ASC, one can experience very deep experiences, but they will not “burn”, due to which one can immerse oneself in them more than in the normal state. Moreover, due to the fact that empathy in ASC works well, you can experience the feelings of another person as deeply as possible, experience his states as your own, understand his pain, delve into his past, fully empathizing. nine0003

Amplitude of emotional experiences

As a child, I became interested in electronics. I was 6 years old when I first picked up a soldering iron. I really liked to make various home-made things, I went crazy for radio components and just for all sorts of pieces of iron. However, over time, my passion became less and less "bright", although I continued to like it.

Feelings in ASC are as vivid as in childhood. Once, after a walk, I went into my room, saw there, as usual, my rubbish from radio components, but I experienced the same thing as in childhood, as if I saw radio components for the first time. It was a feeling of novelty, celebration, joy of life, which was on that day in general, in principle, for any reason. nine0003

Feelings of novelty, celebration, joy of life - these are all quite ordinary sensations from an ordinary state. With age, the world becomes less and less "bright" not at all because memories are distorted and seem brighter than they were. In fact, due to the avoidance of internal problems, the “amplitude” of both bad feelings and good ones decreases, and as a result, the emotional perception of the world becomes more and more “neutral”. In this regard, ISS allows you to return perception to full power. In ISS, you can make yourself a child by just going out for a walk in the evening in your sleeping area. nine0003

Why do we need "I" and why do we "think" a lot

I have been practicing ASC for a very long time, and I was looking for reasons why the condition eventually disappears. One of the practices I did was to simply watch the thoughts that come up in my head and try to feel the reason for them. From practical observations, it turned out that any thought voiced in the head has a hidden experience under it. Roughly speaking, a person is always under the pressure of experiences, but does not realize it. Instead of experiences, a person “thinks” about something. It may be music in the head, it may be reflections, and there may even be reflections about ISS, maybe philosophy, there may be thoughts on work. However, the verdict of any voiced thought is one - it is suffering. But by translating emotions into abstract words, suffering is not experienced as an emotion. I make the assumption that the inner self is a psychological defense mechanism against experiences that works by delimiting experiences. Roughly speaking, the label “this is not me” is put on internal discomfort, due to which it becomes easier to live. And for this distinction to work, it must be constantly maintained by thoughts in the head. nine0003

Based on this assumption, it also follows that practices to suppress thoughts in the head cannot be effective, since they do not eliminate the cause of thoughts. The reason is that a person cannot or does not want to deal with his feelings, hides them from himself. To some extent, this is his choice. For the same reason, any methods that do not eliminate the “choice” of a person “not to pay attention to their experiences” cannot be effective at all. This is where their temporary action comes from.

Mention in other sources

This state of ASC is mentioned in the works of Viktor Argonov. Many of the states that the musician touches on in his works have been considered in this article from the point of view of personal experience. However, I generally do not agree with Victor's position.

From the video clip "Crossing the Line - Part 5: there, beyond the line"

Also, the state of consciousness without an inner "I" is described as the silence of the mind in the writings of the Indian philosopher, poet and revolutionary Sri Aurobindo. Much of what is described in his books coincides with my personal experience. And given that I read it after the first experience of ISS, I was especially pleased to see it. nine0003

Also, on a tip from a professor of biology, there are practitioners who have been "seriously purged of the religious husks" by Gurdjieff.

Perhaps this is all I know about this topic from other sources.

How to repeat this experience and safety

Anyone can call the ISS. Once you start training, it's only a matter of time. But first, a little safety precautions under the spoiler.

Safety

What to do if someone spoke to me in my head

At first, during the practice, it may happen that someone will talk to you in your head. This voice may appear to be anyone, but it is important to understand that you are actually talking to yourself (some part of your psyche is talking to you). A similar situation indicates that you did something against your will (well, as against, against some part of yourself). You provoked an internal conflict. If in this situation you believe what the voice offers you, then by doing so you will transfer control of yourself to this part of your psyche (in practice, it can mean the beginning of the path to a madhouse, although most likely you will simply tell your friends how you communicate with “that” world ). Therefore, politely refuse this voice, no matter what it offers you or what it doesn’t frighten you with. Don't be afraid of anything, nothing can happen to you if you don't allow it to happen. nine0003

What to do if someone is around

It may be that after the practice, the presence of some creature will be felt nearby. It is possible that the creature can even attack. It is important to remember that this is your own game with yourself. Don't go to war with imaginary beings. You just need to forbid them to come to you, to forbid you to interfere. It all depends on you, on your choice. Even if you have already managed to break firewood, you can always disperse. No one can do anything to you against your will. nine0003

Warning

After the practice, there may be a “rollback”, this is when your psychological state temporarily worsens. There may be a splash of aggression on others, you may begin to behave strangely.

Remember that practices are not the solution to your current problems. This means that if you are unhappy in a relationship, or someone has died, or whatever, you should not seek solace in practices, this actually causes the first two points, and not only them. You run the risk of starting to live in imaginary worlds. nine0050

Now let's continue. Personally, I first enter into a state of "love for everything", in which oneness with the whole world is felt, and one can feel love even for the sand under one's feet. This state is easier to call than to turn off the inner "I", so it's better to start with it. In addition, in this state, you can then track your thoughts and work out the experiences that these thoughts cause, in order to then enter the ASC. The technique is given under the spoiler.

Method

I have a specific way to enter the state of unity with the whole world, and perhaps it is just the so-called "anchor". However, it might work for you too. nine0003

First, I imagine a “bright light” somewhere up there, to which I mentally reach up. There should be a feeling of "lifting" up, or pulling the body up. You can imagine going up on a jet elevator, you can crawl up the stairs, or climb in some other way. Our goal is to climb as high as possible to the brightest "light". We seem to rise higher and higher to the upper layers, but not of the atmosphere, but of the "light" that penetrates the body. The higher, the brighter the light. This light is the essence of the inner state. This light is “there” unconditional love for everything, this is what is commonly called a “divine” manifestation. In general, this is all "good". nine0003

The level to which you can rise must be related to your condition. This feedback in the form of sensation will arise by itself. However, for everything to work properly, you can’t imagine that you are already at the very top. You must always rise from the bottom up, gradually, feeling how the light is getting brighter, listening to the sensations in the body.

After a certain number of days, this practice can cause a feeling of love for everything. After a long break, it took me 2-5 days (15 minutes on the way to work and back) to start getting into the state again. You will be able to feel unity with the street along which you walk during practice, with the water flowing in the river, with lampposts, with the road, feel love for yourself or for a part of yourself. nine0050

After mastering the technique, you can proceed to the ISS. To do this, it is enough to continue the same practice, but at the same time working with the thoughts in your head. It's important to stop them. To do this, I propose to work with the feelings that thoughts evoke. You need to dive into your own experiences and "pull" them to the level of another understanding of the world, where these experiences cannot exist, as their "logic" collapses. This is realized by a trite “love” for the suffering part of oneself.

Some conclusions

ISS can show from personal experience that the world actually looks very different. In the real world, there are no concepts of “mine”, “I”, and the beauty is that it is in such a world that real happiness can exist, because otherwise suffering would be real. Suffering is possible only as long as the sufferer (i.e. the inner Self) exists.
ISS makes it possible to see that many human abilities are separable from consciousness, and therefore, to study consciousness directly, everything unnecessary can be sifted out. nine0178
ISS shows that if a person has free will (in the form of the intervention of consciousness in processes), then we use it at least not so often, since most often parts of our psyche decide for our consciousness, which is essentially an “autopilot ".
With the disappearance of inner speech, the inner "I" also disappears, but consciousness does not disappear. Therefore, it is not yet known what exactly to transfer to the “machine”, and what exactly to “copy” into the artificial brain from the present, so that we can talk about the transfer of precisely “consciousness”. nine0178
Almost all people live under the constant pressure of internal problems, which is expressed in the presence of "voicing thoughts." "Thoughts" are the result of escaping experiences. At the same time, such a solution to the problem does not essentially solve internal problems, but it is easier to implement

Update 09/14/2019
I add to the article a description of the methodology for "forecasting the future." Who cares, please under the spoiler.

Prediction

The forecast can be obtained using techniques for entering a special state of consciousness. In a state of stopping inner speech or/and “love for everything”, it is enough to “mentally” rewind time into the future, but you need to rewind it gradually, and not immediately, so as not to go into fantasies. “Rewinding” can be understood by the feeling that something is “changing”, for example, feel yourself in the next hour - in the next hour you will know that there is already an hour more on the clock hand, but now you don’t have such a feeling, since the clock shows a different time, you are not yet where you should be, etc. Through comparisons of this kind, one can understand what it means to “rewind to the future” in terms of sensations. Time for you should be expressed as a static sensation of a certain state of reality, and it does not matter whether it is present, future or past. nine0003

Also, one more point - the forecast is also based on feelings, and not "dry" facts. Those. if you, for example, want to know if you will have big money in a month, then you need to rewind to the future, try to feel your mood "in the future", your feelings, emotions, or try to feel directly the object that you want verify. And these feelings can already be concluded. Do not try to "hear the voice" or slide into the imagination with illustrations. It is necessary to use such perception, which is the basis of our thoughts, internal dialogue, i.e. without visualization. nine0003

Do not assume that the forecast will come true, this is just a life-hack on how to squeeze extra percentages of benefit (sometimes of dubious benefit) out of your brains. The forecast is based trivially on the capabilities of our brain to predict the future, therefore this method essentially solves only the issue of removing restrictions from the knowledge that is already inside us, but which is hidden from consciousness (as a rule, because it will be psychologically difficult for us to accept this knowledge, because there may be information about the upcoming separation, death, illness, etc.). nine0003

A couple of examples of how forecasting works.
Example #1: One day I was talking to a friend from Ukraine, to whom my girlfriend left. He said that he would come to Russia in the summer, when suddenly I felt that he would not be able to buy tickets (I did not specifically try to find out anything, it happened by itself). I told him about it, and he ridiculed me, said that nothing prevents him from taking tickets right now, he just doesn’t want to disturb people (meaning that the studies are not over yet, his new girlfriend had exams ahead). Later in the summer, I decided to meet with my ex, to reconcile. At the meeting, she said that I could be satisfied, because her new boyfriend could not come to the Russian Federation, flights by plane were canceled due to the ongoing conflicts between Russia and Ukraine. nine0003

In fact, there is no mysticism here, just apparently the facts of bad news on the net were enough for such a forecast. And as you can see, in order to make such forecasts, it is not at all necessary to deliberately think about the “future” aloud. The brain itself has already thought a hundred times in the background, but not all “we” are allowed to know directly.

There were several similar situations, and there were many (about a dozen) situations where I found out the forecast at will. Of course, the forecast does not give 100% guarantees, and can often be harmful. I'll give an example why. nine0003

Example #2: I worked with an investor and we were doing a hard project. As time went on, the project was brought to the stage of a working prototype with heavy efforts on my part. At this point, I decided to "peep" what will happen in the future. My feelings told me that very soon it would become “easier to live”, the emotional state in my family would improve, and even with money everything would seem to be not bad, but not cosmic either. But it had to happen in unexpected ways. No matter how I tried to find out exactly how, I could not find the answer. It only seemed that it was not like the fact that the project would bring a sharp profit. Something else must have happened. nine0003

And something else happened. My investor decided to “fire” me and distribute the shares in the project among new tech partners so that my 50% was now divided into 4 people. The investor was not satisfied with the prototype of the device, he wanted a more advanced device, as well as to start developing 5-6 more new devices that would satisfy the needs of certain categories of potential buyers. At the same time, new tech partners would have to do development only for a share in the project, with almost no funding (that is, in words they would receive money for expenses to buy parts, but they would have to provide for themselves). nine0003

After some hesitation, I came into conflict with an investor. In the stash I had working trading algorithms for trading with self-optimization, the launch of which I had been putting off for more than a year, because I could not find and interest an investor in algorithmic trading. The situation with trading algorithms was crazy, because I had previously tested them for 10 years and even tested them in practice and got a good result. But I still preferred to rely on an investor experienced in business, because there was a “share” in the project and the result seemed quick and calm. nine0003

As a result, I put the investor's project aside until better times, it was obvious that it would be difficult to raise it in the new conditions, and decided to focus on trading as an option with a higher probability of successful completion, which ultimately brought me my first decent profit .

If in the forecast of the future everything that is coming to me would become known immediately, most likely I would not be able to go through these events as well.

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