Dissosciative Identity Disorder

It used to be called multiple personality disorder. If you look deeper, Freud suggested that within every person’s subconscious lay hundreds of sub-personalities. Jung developed the idea further, calling them archetypes, but expounded on them further, saying these personalities had sovereignty within you and should be considered as equals, and if you want improved mental health you needed to learn to engage them. He invented the ‘active imagination ‘ technique to engage these inner beings. If you knew the characters that frequent your dreams and nightmares were just as substantial as you are, would that change how you engage them? Jung even encouraged exploring the darkness in us, because beyond this space is the treasure of transcendence.

A technique that resembles Jung’s ‘active imagination ‘ is Napoleon Hill’s ‘invisible counselors’ technique. You dont have to take my word for it, google it, you will find it. It was published in Hill's book ‘think and grow rich,’ and is pretty much just skipped over because of the weirdness, but if you follow the steps, you will be engaging your unconscious mind and all that lies in it in a very personal, unique way. It may even scare you. It scared Napoleon Hill to such a degree that he gave up the practice for a moment. Seriously, he isn't the only one. Though Tesla didn't advocate daydreaming per se, he engaged it so well that was indifferent to him if he improved an invention in a lab or his head, he got the same results. Einstein called it "thought experiments.' Einstein was also kicked of school because he was considered academically lazy. In our society, we are not encouraged to play, or to day dream. Pay attention! Focus! Sitting at a desk regurgitating information is not the pathway to enlightenment; it if were, we would have more enlightened people!

Whether its Milton, Erikson, Jung, Tesla, Einstein, you will find a constant message: your unconscious you is bigger and more powerful than you, and if you engage it, you will encounter the miraculous. Maybe its not really magic, but it will feel like that. It will feel realer than real. There are lots of entry points. You dont need a guide, but sometimes its nice to have a friend or someone knowledgeable who can hold your hand through the scary stuff. We all have scarry stuff, but if you see the scary stuff as gatekeepers who are just there to block the entry until you demonstrate you’re ready, then you will realize these are also your best friends; they only appear as shadows because the light is on the  other side!

What does this mean? Play more. Dream more. Day dream more. Have you ever seen a child engaging an invisible friend? The conversation is one sided, but you don't ever see them correcting the dream-mate. The conversation just flows. When you engage yourself, let it flow, don't correct and make it ideal, or change the outcome to get what you want. If going where you wanted got you where you wanted to be all the time more people would have what they want and be where they wanted to be. More often than not, we get in our own way. Get out, go with the flow, follow this inner dialogue, engage it, and be surprised at the synchronicity that will arise in your life.  And again, you don't have to take my word for it: 'Bored and Brilliant: How Spacing Out Can Unlock Your Most Productive and Creative Self," by Manoush Zomorodi. The pathway out is in.

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