Two Minds
When asked for the most transformative habit one can implement to be exceptional, I always say one thing: writing.
Journaling is usually received with an eye roll and a sigh, because it’s seen in a similar light as therapy - something childish and overly sentimental.
And yet, I'm not alone in highlighting how powerful this tool can be. Oprah, Warren Buffet, Austin Butler, Nelson Mandela, Taylor Swift, Kobe Bryant, Ryan Gosling, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Beyonce, to name a few, all agree.
But I’m not going to droll on about the rational benefits of journaling that I’m sure you can google for yourself. My version is going to be a little more sci-fi, with the added perspective from Boris Sidis’ novel “The Psychology of Suggestion,” some of the most interesting public research* that has ever crossed my path. *Hint: The free PDF is easily accessible online.
At first, journaling seems rather…time consuming and unhelpful. What does my mind want to complain about today?
These complaints are part of the process, and it is critical to allow ourselves this opportunity to vent. But soon after this emotional baggage is released, without any expectation, it will start to bring important insights to your attention.
But I’m getting ahead of myself here.
You see, Boris Sidis was known for putting people under hypnosis. Yes, the “When I count to three, you will fall into a trance” kind of hypnosis. He was a psychologist and a physician, so he didn’t do it as a hoax. He studied it. He experimented on hundreds of patients, at times even with seemingly inhumane tests. But he approached the questions in full scientific authority, with witnesses and precautions so as to ensure the research was not confounded in any way.
While in hypnosis, he was able to direct people to do things while they were conscious. Meaning, after they had been ‘awakened,’ his patient would carry out a task that he had ordered them to do during the hypnosis. The reason for the act was unknown to their conscious self.
The hypnotized state was merely used as a microscope to better understand the human psyche. In this way, Boris brought light to another intelligence, or perhaps ego, that lives within us. The second self.
You see, we truly have two minds. Sidis spent years crafting research to prove it, but I encourage you to experiment with yourself by entertaining internal conflict. Chances are, you already argue with yourself daily. How is this so?
Boris Sidis documented more peculiar cases, and continuously noted the significant intelligence and independence of this second self. A few important notes of his findings will be noted here.
For one, our conscious self is NOT aware of this second self’s existence. However, the second self is quite aware of the conscious self (which I will call the first self for ease).
The second self is also clearly able to control actions in the body, even while we are awake.
The final note of importance for this discussion here, is that the second self is aware of everything around you, always. Every detail. Even the things that you don’t notice - it does. You could be wholly focused on reading a book, and the second self is counting how many people pass you by, and can even recall complete conversations going on around you.
Without getting overly excited about this unimaginable and yet infallible research, let me direct our thoughts back to writing.
It seems both selves are present when a person is awake and conscious. Without fully understanding the inner workings of the relationship between the two selves, they seem to be two independent egos that are able to interact with one another. However, when our conscious mind is whirring about, all consumed with the chaos in our lives, and the chaos surrounding us, the subconscious is not accessed so readily. I think we can all say, this is a common state of our minds, most of the time.
There is, however, specific mediums in which you can intentionally try to connect with this second self. And your question might be, why would I want to?
Well, it processes everything around you. This alone can be extremely helpful for our distracted minds. We are so consumed with unimportant tasks, and yet we can’t solve any of our problems. Imagine if you could ask yourself a question, and get an answer back… a well-informed answer that took into consideration conversations in passing, opportunities overlooked, micro-expressions unprocessed by the conscious self.
It would be seen, then, as some type of genius. But we all have this, and we can all access it. The two main ways to access this intelligence is through “guessing” and through writing.
When the conscious self is not sure, chances are the second self lying deep within has a better idea. This was tested various ways, with one experiment consisting of a simple vision test. When the conscious person had not a clue what the letter was by sight alone, he was asked to guess. Strangely enough, often times he’d get it right. So when in doubt, truly just guess. It’s as if the answer will be fed to you by your genius classmate.
I mention this so we can also learn to foster more trust in one’s own abilities. Faith, I think they call it.
Now, for the writing.
Boris also carried out experiments with writing and it seemed that this was the best way to communicate with the second self for one reason: you can read it. It’s like having a written recording of your dream that you can just read the next morning upon waking. If you truly hold no expectations and just let yourself write freely, the idea would be that your higher self* is able to express itself to you quite directly and clearly. (*I say higher due to the superior intelligence and even sensory capabilities it possesses).
This might all sound sci-fi to you, but there is clearly a process happening within our minds that we are ignorant to. It is through these same processes that marketing agencies have discovered the “suggestibility” of humans, and have profited wildly off of it. This is not new stuff, it’s just not part of the required readings in school.. I wonder why.
On the mention of suggestibility, it is important to say that we can ask or direct our second self in this way. I have an inkling this is closely related to why manifestations seem to work. For we can tell our second self the goal, and they will help us find the answer. They will find old data, process new data, perhaps even come up with ideas that we can carry out to gain even more insight.
So, you see, journaling becomes a sort of portal in which we gain access to undeveloped thoughts.
Your pages will be littered with complaints - and perhaps some of those complaints are actually a call to action.
You will discover patterns in your thought, and see recurring themes throughout the weeks.
You will get to the bottom of that weird feeling you had at dinner, and uncover a hidden gem in the process.
Above all, you will start to have a relationship with this second self, and with it access to the untapped genius it contains. Re-read the names in paragraph 3 - they tapped into something!
