I’m certain that I have told this story many times. When I was four, one month before my next birthday, I set up an experiment to test influence. I picked an item at random that I saw in a store front window for my next birthday present and had no idea what it was. I imagined an image of the item flowing into my dear mother’s head. It turned out to be a tobacco pipe rack and my mother “surprised” me with it. Lots of people asked “who would buy a pipe rack for a five-year-old?” I have no idea how my mother fielded that question but I was proud of my accomplishment. I shared this experience with a few of the neighborhood kids but they just did not believe me. It had to become my secret and over time I ran a few more influence tests; all with success. The challenge was remembering that I could do this and the question that haunted me, “how did I do it?” I learned that if I could push that question out of my awareness, I could perform the act again. I challenged a few classes in college by testing out and dated a lot of young ladies using this methodology. As an adult I often forgot this skill until I became a District Manager for a start-up marketing company. I built 40 sales routes but a little to fast for staff to fully support. I needed to slow down and secure my procedure. There were no guarantees and influencing longevity varied often. Besides, training new area sales representatives took a lot of “hand holding” to come up to performance levels.
This was the 70’s and 80’s and I signed up for a plethora of energy type classes to discover just what I was doing. Because I had the college training I volunteered to perform counseling services as a practice arena. This was a fun distraction and what I learned from all the classes was that my level of influence was considered a product of phenomena and not a logical process; no manuals available.
My experience, my game, and the wise thing for expansion of knowledge about the craft was teaching. I opened a training center in Southern California and directed it for 14 years. After a number of years, I married an amazing woman and moved away. I still generated annual seminars from our new home area for many years but over time the state of energy changed.
The new energy state that produces influences is supported digitally. Yes, we can communicate and respond to digital platforms but the attention spans it generates appears far more limited. This may be a temporary glitch that will refine over future time. I don’t feel or sense this digital influence with my brain or body. At this time, we need a device to message the data and store it. Testing currently confirms that we have the smallest span of attention ever recorded for humans. And our rate of unemployment is stifling in the US. What was once thought of as start-up jobs for young adults now appear overwhelming and turnover is high.
I recommend you continue with those short meditations and “deeper question” searches. Start a hobby or volunteer locally to help others and practice deepening range without relying on digital support. Just show up and be present. These monthly blogs and chats are my hobby and I find time to help everyone in my neighborhood with projects or home repairs. I’m not anti-computer, I just don’t wish to lose human connections and my ability to both feel the need and the gratitude.
Chriss
A question to find more questions in your meditations in May:
Are values universal, culturally determined, or a product of your personal experience?
