How could you? Has anyone ever told you they think you are lying to yourself? What was your reaction? Were you annoyed? Surprised? Curious? Did it occur to you to ask what was meant by the comment? Doesn’t the comment imply that one part of you knows that a particular piece of information is false, but nonetheless persuades another part of you to believe the falsehood to be true?
How would that even be possible? How could you go about lying to yourself if you wanted to? What internal mechanism could accomplish such a feat?
The answer to this question, in a word, is amnesia. This of course raises the question “What is amnesia?” This is particularly problematic when you realize that every element of your life experience is recorded in your long-term memory. Could this be a clue about how lying to yourself is possible?
Very simply amnesia is indicated when the subconscious mind denies the conscious mind access to one or more memories. And, as it turns out, this is precisely the mechanism that makes possible the phenomenon of lying to oneself. To complete the puzzle, when the subconscious forbids the conscious mind access to a memory, the conscious mind will invent or make up an alternative memory – OR – the subconscious mind will suggest an alternative with which the conscious mind is comfortable. Voilà! Self deception.
Yes, you do it too. Here is a list of common memories specific to early childhood. Failure to remember even one of them can profoundly (and adversely) affect your life as an adult:
- Your birth
- Nursing
- Having your diaper changed
- Your circumcision
- Your toilet training
- Discovery of your genitals
- Crying yourself to sleep – repeatedly
- The first time you said “No”.
- Being left with a “sitter”
- Being punished as a toddler
One rarely meets anyone who has access to all of these memories – Yet any one of these memories that you are unable to recall is a clue about the origins of your personality and a potential starting point for expansion of your awareness.
The happy outcome The inaccessibility of those early childhood memories is not, in itself, a bad thing. In fact at the time you acquired those memories, your development of amnesia for them served you very well indeed. The downside of that amnesia is the way the self-deceit impaired your ability to interact beneficially with the world around you. Soul-Bonding unlocks the double-binds that call for the self-deceit, thereby freeing you from the detrimental life patterns that the amnesia causes.
When this happens, the conscious and subconscious portions of your mind will no longer be in conflict with one another, and can begin cooperating in a coherent and goal-synchronized manner. No longer your apparent adversary, your subconscious will be your closest friend – consistently supporting the goals and decisions that enhance the quality of your life.
Get your hopes up!
You too can live the life you’ve always wanted.
Bob Podolsky