Instructor: Rainsong
Date: May 19, 2018 (Saturday)
Topic – @everyone This week’s seminar starts in about an hour. Topic: consulting “File Clerk Dude”/subconscious (suggested by ShadowRain)- Saturday, 19(?) May 2018 at 6:30pm/1830hr New York Time — text format in the PSC #lecture room (Discord) — Instructor: Rainsong — Search LECTURE24
Rainsong – Good evening, ladies and gentlemen,
Welcome to another psionics seminar here at the social club.
As usual, we’ll be discussing real-world psionics, as opposed to video games. If that concept is distressing to you, you might want to find a different chatroom before you get too weirded out.
Rainsong – Our topic for the evening is “consulting your subconscious” aka the “File Clerk Dude”
Scelana – Seems I made it in time
Rainsong – The concept of the so-called subconscious mind as a file clerk comes from a book I lent to a buddy of mine, about thirty years ago, and didn’t get it back. My memory fails me as to author and title, so I’ve been unable to credit the idea.
Rainsong – Hi, Scelana
Rainsong – So, are there any questions or comments before we dive into this?
Will Worker – Not ATM.
Scelana – I have none atm
Rainsong – The “subconscious” refers to the part of the mind that (among other functions) keeps the basic processes of the body going: digestion, respiration, causing the fingernails to grow. All that stuff “you” don’t typically pay much attention to.
Rainsong – It also takes most of what you “notice” and “think about”… and files it away in the memory.
Rainsong – Hence the file-clerk analogy.
Rainsong – He’s sitting there at his desk, passing the time with a book or game of mine-sweeper or whatever. Whenever you form a long-term memory, he chucks it into the appropriate spot, and goes back to his book/game.
Rainsong – (For the record, I’m not saying that this is literally how the mind works. And, there is debate about the subdivisions of the mind. We’re just using this “model” this evening because it is workable for our purposes.)
Rainsong – So far so froody?
Scelana – Yep
Rainsong – So, File Clerk Dude sits there and does his thing. (If you see “FCD” used in the logs, blog, or elsewhere in this community, this is what it stands for: “File Clerk Dude”)
Rainsong – And for the majority of people, that’s pretty much all he does with those memories. He chucks ’em in the files, and leaves ’em there.
Rainsong – If someone tries to pull up an old memory, he’s pretty surprised. Does a double-take. (“You want one of these files? Really?”) And goes back into his filing cabinets and roots through the drawers.
Rainsong – “Hmmm. Did I put the instructions for how to get to Jody’s place under M for map? Or J for Jody? Or….”
Rainsong – And moving psi-stuff around the body voluntarily? He’s just going to stare at you blankly the first time you ask him to do that. “You want me to do… what, exactly?”
Rainsong – It’s pretty broadly believed (not universally, but broadly) that the subconscious/FCD plays a large part in getting psionic stuff to work.
Rainsong – There are a few things to know about him, when trying to get him to do stuff.
They are also important to know if you’re into hypnosis and/or NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), too.
1) He tends to take things very literally.
2) He works with images, feelings, and the like much better than with words.
3) He doesn’t acknowledge grammatical negatives.
4) And he tends to have more of a pull than the conscious mind does
Rainsong – Alright… questions or commentary at this point?
Scelana – None so far
Rose – 2 is really good to know, i didn’t know that yet
Rose – can grammatical negatives happen somehow in images and feelings?
Rainsong – They can, yes, but they aren’t as obvious when they happen.
Rainsong – For example, intending to avoid something can be set up in pictures. But that can still be mis-interpreted as trying to draw something closer. “Worrying” about something makes it more likely to happen, if you have any micro-PK ability at all.
Rainsong – That’s why it’s bad luck to be superstitious
Rainsong – So instead of “avoiding”… figuring out what to encourage instead.
Rainsong – Sometimes that can be tricky, I admit.
Rainsong – And sometimes it’s better to get someone without a vested interest to work on your behalf if you can’t get around the worrying aspect. (Working on cancers or severe sudden illnesses, for example)
Rainsong – Likewise, if you have unavoidable flashbacks about whatever-you’re-trying-to-avoid, as is often the case of PTSD.
Rainsong – Yes, it is possible to get around them – sometimes – depending on what stage of recovery you’re at. But in full grip of the injury/illness in question? Probably not.
Rainsong – Just like you’re not going to be able to do pushups with two broken arms, without causing yourself further injury
pinemysteri – Just curious, how much does your own perception of your abilities play into this?
Rainsong – Pine: Depends on what you mean. If you’re absolutely convinced that “all this stuff is fake”, your subconscious will often be happy to oblige, and simply not do anything to make stuff work.
pinemysteri – Oof. Alright. I tend to fluctuate between “I’m 99% sure this isn’t working just for me” and “Maybe I have a bit of an idea what I’m doing”, so thanks.
Rainsong – With either of those, taking a view of “Let’s play with this and see what happens” is enough to get around that problem, at least.
Rainsong – In fact, it can be enough to get around the “This stuff is definitely all fake” too
Levi – I like the suspension of disbelief. Like you don’t have to believe forever, just while it’s Christmas, maybe santa is real
Rainsong – nods
pinemysteri – Thank you, that’s helpful and I’ll start doing that more.
Rainsong – You’re welcome. 😀 That is, after all, the purpose of this evening’s seminar.
Rose – but what if when trying to visualise what to encourage, the scenarios you’re intending to avoid/are worried about flash inbetween, or try to take back full focus in your mind?
Rose – But this is generalized across everything I’m trying to accomplish. I usually end up fighting to get the scenario I’m trying to accomplish in the foreground of my mind, and trying to drive out of my mind the scenario I’m worried about, though it usually ends up in the background.. and it turns into a constant mental tug-of-war
Rainsong – considers how to answer that
Levi – That’s part of the fcd not getting negatives right? I mean if you’re fighting against a scenario she’s focusing extra hard on that thing?
Rainsong – Levi: That’s exactly so.
Levi – My way around that is just a mental trick. I say I’ll deal with it later. I can think about the fallout tomorrow. That way you’re not feeding it but still acknowledging that it’s a thing and you can focus on the positives.
Levi – Takes some pretty pro procrastination skills though
Rainsong – Levi: That’s often how I deal with it, too.
Levi – It’s a nice way. And the problems tend to resolve themselves anyway
Rainsong – And, it’s not too far from the concept of the AOL break in remote viewing: You write down the contaminated data, to prove to your FCD that you’re taking it seriously, and then get back to the task at hand.
Levi – Quick disclaimer: it only works for worrying style stuff though. If you’re putting of thinking about breaking up with an abusive guy or whether to do drugs. Give that 5 minutes to think about and make a descision. But you only really need a minute or so to know what you should do
Rainsong – Another good point, Levi
Levi – Thanks, evening by the way 😀
Rainsong – Good evening 😀
Rose – Centering: Positive: Pulling all parts of myself back in correctly Negative: Pulling things that aren’t me into myself
Rose – Grounding: Positive: Dumping all negative energy into the ground successfully Negative: Dumping all positive and negative energy, life energy, and skillfulness into the ground
Rose – i know the “skillfulness” thing is ridiculous
Rose – the problem is i have to fight to keep my focus on the positive side of that list, whilst the negative side of that list is constantly trying to steal my focus – and thus alter the outcome
Rainsong – For grounding, your worst-case-scenario is that you push too much “stuff” into the ground, and end up tired and light-headed until you either rest or pull “stuff” back into yourself. You can’t ground skills out of your body. (You can, however, get rid of them other ways, if you really want to)
Forest_Horns – … theres a rather large degree of separation from “intentional focus” and just thinking about a thing…. if your constantly worrying about a thing it may get near the level of intentional focus but probably not going to cross the threshold… this specific reason is why energy work takes repetitious practice in the beginning and many magic groups take time to develop a focus mind rather than going through the repetitious practice
Levi – ^
Levi – you just choose. do it or don’t
Rainsong – In more general terms, for the grammatical negatives.
Rainsong – Sometimes, folks use self-hypnosis for any number of purposes, such as quitting smoking.
Rainsong – Regular therapeutic hypnosis is also used for this.
Rainsong – If someone tries to use the “You will stop smoking. You won’t smoke any more. You don’t enjoy the smell of tobacco”, guess what happens?
Levi – you endlessly think about smoking and tobacco
Rose – constant smoking, loving the smell of tabacco, …but also a suggestion to stop smoking, so.. conflict?
Levi – it’s more like keywords in google
pinemysteri – seo ignores certain words ^^
Rainsong – It’d be much more effective to replace the activity of smoking with something else.
Rainsong – Suppose the person smokes when they are under stress.
Nickodemo – Meditation xD
Rainsong – “When you start getting anxious about that public speaking event next week, you’ll cross your fingers to relax.”
Rainsong – Yea, search engines have some things in common with the FCD. 😉
Rainsong – Presuming the hypnotist is competent, they will have the client imagine a nice relaxing feeling (such as chillin’ on the beach) while crossing the fingers, too.
Rainsong – The image-vs-words issue is also why instructional materials for noobs include so many visualizations and gestures and the like. Visualization is using the imagination. In this context, it is using the imagination to explain something to the subconscious.
Rainsong – In spite of the name, it doesn’t have to be visual as such. You can use smells, sounds, touch, and the like as well.
Levi – you can just talk to the fcd as well btw. It’s just tricky with the analytical overlay. but it’s way more efficient
Rainsong – Start with the long-form, tedious version of a psionic activity… and shorten it later, when it is well practiced
Rainsong – Efficient, yes. But at first, it’s not as effective.
Rainsong – Think of this as using a picture dictionary to communicate with someone who speaks not a word of your language, nor you of theirs.
Rainsong – Eventually, you’ll be able to talk to each other. But at first, you point and mime.
Rainsong – (Contrary to the instincts of some tourists, yelling slowly does not work for either purpose 😛 )
Levi – It’s nice when you get to a point when you form some kind of friendship with your subconcious
Levi – I like mine more than most people
Rainsong – It is indeed
Levi – narcissistic as that is
Levi – so… what can you do when you get some level of communication going?
Rainsong – When you get communication working, your subconscious is quite keen to do what you want it to do…
Rainsong – … as long as “what you want it to do” doesn’t overtly violate some kind of standing order the FCD has in place, such as defense mechanisms and taboos learned in early childhood. Re-setting the standing orders is complicated, and outside the scope of this seminar, I think.
Levi – though its worth saying that it’s entirely possible to have arguments with yourself
Levi – and even more possible to lose them
Rainsong – Arguing with yourself is surprisingly common. But, when cooperating, the subconscious can take on quite complicated tasks by himself, with only a very small nudge. For example, because of habit of long practice, if I want to put up a defensive Shield, I can do that just by clenching one fist.
Rainsong – Mark-1, Mod-0 “cantrip”, that is.
Rainsong – (Of course, choosing the wrong gesture as the trigger can have amusing side-effects. For example, I’m a martial artist. Not a very good one, granted, but clenching a fist happens on a pretty regular basis in the dojo….)
Levi – also, you can tell the subconious what’s important at that moment. for example when you study for an exam, you don’t tend to remember much because the sub-c doesn’t see it as vital on a deep level. If you tell it that’s it’s important, you have a much easier time retaining information
Rainsong – True. And if you can convince the FCD that the test is not threatening, such that you don’t become scared of it, you’ll retain even more.
Levi – ironically, there’s a level of disconect between you and the sub-c, so talking to it often and talking about what you want, what’s important to you is amazingly helpful
Rainsong – The more often you engage deliberately with the FCD, the smoother the communication becomes.
Rainsong – To use the foreign-language analogy again: The more often you actually talk with people in Azerbaijani, the more fluent your Azerbaijani will be
Rainsong – A useful, practical exercise to get your FCD’s attention is to simply ask him questions from time to time. Ideally, using pictures and the like, but even with words if you have to.
Levi – worth mentioning that using words is inefficient. you get bundles of raw data, that can be roughly translated… with the occasional mistake
Levi – images are symbolic rather than literal.
Levi – like a tardis may mean time as opposed to a literal tardis
Rainsong – For example, calmly ask your FCD the name of the kid who sat behind you in fourth-grade French class, and then let the thought go. Chances are, that name will pop to the surface sometime in the next few hours (or perhaps overnight). The more often you ask these sorts of things, the faster the response time will get.
pinemysteri – how can you determine FCD from imagination?
pinemysteri – and thanks, that’s a helpful example
Rainsong – Ah, yes, about that literal thing. When talking to the subconscious, assume he’ll interpret whatever you say absolutely literally… regardless of how much symbolism he uses to talk to you. If you describe a common occurance as a “pain in the neck”, don’t be surprised if you end up with a sore neck.
Levi – I usually can’t. I have to suspend my mind, pretend I’m freefalling, so there’s space for the reply
Levi – I know it’s genuine wwhen the reply is overly sarcastic
Rainsong – Pine: You mean of the information the FCD gives you? Sometimes, practice will help in distinguishing that. But, that problem is part of the reason for the protocols in remote viewing. And it’s why a strong preference for a certain result will skew the answers when you’re dowsing.
Rainsong – You’ll never be 100% always certain. But over time, you’ll get a better idea of what’s genuine and what’s make-believe.
Levi – rainsong, how do you create the space for the reply?
Rainsong – When I’m doing the very deliberate sort of exercise? I imagine a painter’s canvas or a similarly blank background flat object, and wait to see what appears on it
Rose – how does that apply to clairvoyance and the like? It’s the case that with practice, it helps with distinguishing between imaginary information and real information and, right? Then, does this work exactly the same as when receiving information from the FCD?
Rainsong – Yes, because the clairvoyant information is (generally regarded as) coming in via the subconscious.
Rainsong – As do other perceptions via the regular sensations, actually.
Rainsong – The FCD is the filter for the incoming data, among his other duties
pinemysteri – so if you wanted to use this for psionics, you would still start off by asking mundane questions to practice, yes?
Rose – So the clairvoyant information comes in via the subconscious and passes to the conscious, but doesn’t originate in the subconscious but outside of it?
Rainsong – Pine: Yes.
Rainsong – Rose: If it’s clairvoyant information, the data originates somewhere else, yes.
Rose – Then, seemingly, for clairvoyance, that delay you spoke of (ask the sub-c a question and an answer pops up hours later) doesn’t apply when using clairvoyance. Why?
Rainsong – Actually, it does. Someone just starting out with clairvoyance often experiences the same delay at first.
Levi – the sub-c doesn’t have to search for the information. It doesn’t have to trawl through years of badly organised memories
Rainsong – It does have to search the wherever-the-information is… and also to figure out what he’s looking for.
Rainsong – Or it could be some other reason, for that matter.
Levi – eh true, one definitely feels like less effort though
Rainsong – But absolute noobs trying it for the first time, with no “unprompted” prior experience, often experience the same kind of delay
Rainsong – Levi: true enough
Rose – Does that kind of practice with clairvoyance also reduce the delay between asking questions to your subconscious and the answer? Does it do so by the exact same amount as it does clairvoyance? In other words, if you have a low delay time/high response speed in clairvoyance, is it the same with asking questions to your subconscious?
Rainsong – The “exact time” is variable for both. It won’t always be the same, for searching memories or for clairvoyant activities. But it should get more efficient at approximately the same rate, with practice.
Rose – so if one practices clairvoyance and the response time improves there, the subconscious question response speed has also improved?
Rainsong – For a lot of people, the memory searching always lags a bit more slowly than clairvoyance, however
Rainsong – Yes
Rose – okay ^^ thank you
Scelana – I’m curious, does mentally trying to save certain kinds of memories in a specific manner especially starting early on like from childhood affect how memories are stored and searchable by your fcd? I started very early on saving specific types of dreams i had as if it was being done on a computer. So clicking/choosing save to save one. I’ve noticed dreams i have matching that type seem to still not be forgotten and I retain a lot of details and can more easily recall overall
rowinha – reorganizing the memory also fixes that delay…
Levi – How would one organise the mind?
pinemysteri – what if you don’t have a memory to begin with haha
rowinha – then store the data elsewhere. :shrug:
Rainsong – Pine: if you don’t have a memory that you’re searching for, it’ll go to a clairvoyant search, yea?
Rainsong – Scelana: yes, it’s possible to affect how the memories are searched by mucking around with how they are filed.
Scelana – It got to the point to if I have a dream of that particular type it seems to pretty much automatically save
Scelana – Ahh i see
pinemysteri – duh yes my bad
Rose – hmm, I’ve noticed that as well… my memory saves and discards based on what i taught “it” to be important to keep, and what’s far less important..
Rainsong – That’s pretty much how long-term memory works, yes.
Rainsong – “Saving” everything is not only rare, but considered pathological.
Rose – what about short-term memory?
Rainsong – By definition, pretty much, it either gets transferred to long-term or it deletes.
Rainsong – (And yes, I am very much aware that I’m not using the technical jargon 😀 )
rowinha – it spends some time in middle memory, if you expect to use it soon but don’t value it. like, say, for a class.
Rose – and i assume how you’ve “trained” your FCD determines which short term memories it saves and which it deletes?
Rainsong – Rose: Yes, that’s basically correct
Scelana – Ahh
ShadowRain – has a question
Rainsong – ShadowRain?
ShadowRain – Given communication between you and your subconscious is developed enough to be decently useful, how would you go about using it to get better (or make work in the first place) things like energy work and constructs?
pinemysteri – ^^
Levi – you can just inform it what you’re about to practice and the outcome you want before you start. It gets all of you on board and focussed on what you’re doing
Rainsong – Interesting question, there. The answer is a bit complicated.
Rainsong – If you have a clear idea of what you’re actually wanting to do, and you have at least a fair-to-middling amount of basic ability (latent or otherwise), explaining to your FCD what you want to do ought to be enough to get the ball rolling.
Rainsong – For example, the various elaborate mental images described for producing a basic psiball are all composed with this end in mind.
Rainsong – If you don’t have a clear idea of what you want to accomplish, you need to figure that out before handing it over to the FCD.
Rainsong – And if your talents simply do not lie in that direction, there is a limit to what will be accomplished. That said, I haven’t seen too many people over the past two or three decades of teaching who lacked the basic innate talent to do at least rudimentary energy work.
Rainsong – (There’s no question that Shadow has such talent, so I’m assuming she’s asking the question for the benefit of the novice students.)
ShadowRain – Hehe I asked for the topic for a reason, it was super helpful to me when I was starting out
ShadowRain – That said, a comment: your subconscious literally has to do some energy work in order to keep you alive (your energy system helps keep you alive) so they have to be capable of some, which is plenty for a psiball for instance
Rainsong – Quite so.
Levi – it’s usually a good idea to ask the subconcious for the what not the how. If you try to tell it how to do it’s job it’ll severely limit it as it knows a hell of a lot more about magic than you do
Rainsong – Also true.
Rainsong – Just remember that your conscious and subconscious don’t “think” about things the same way. So translation is needed.
ShadowRain – Is that what the visualization is for?
Rainsong – And, regardless of what is politically correct, psionics appears to be a lot like any other skillset: some people are going to learn faster than others, and some will be able to accomplish more than others, no matter how much effort the “others” put in. Not everyone who takes up piano will ever play like Mozart. But most folks with the use of two hands can learn to play a decent sonatina.
Rainsong – ShadowRain: Yep. It’s not the only way, but it’s often the simplest
Rainsong – Picture dictionary and mime 😀
ShadowRain – May I add another note?
Rainsong – Please do
ShadowRain – Some people find treating their subconscious kind of like a computer works well, like giving it commands for it to run. Other people (like me) find developing a relationship with it like it’s a little person in your head works well–if you’re going to go that route, it’s helpful to not just bug it to do things for you, but also listen to what it has to say, like any concerns it has, and generally talk to it at other times besides when you want something. Kind of like you’d develop a relationship with anyone else.
ShadowRain – Listening is important.
ShadowRain – But experiment and see which way works best for you
ShadowRain – 🙂
Rainsong – Good points
Levi – A nice middle ground for that is asking opinions
Rainsong – True
ShadowRain – nods
Rainsong – Any other questions or commentary?
Rainsong – I’m thinking we ought to close down the seminar for the evening, soon. We might add a “Part 2” in a few weeks.
ShadowRain – That sounds good 🙂
ShadowRain – Thank you for doing the class Rainsong
Rainsong – Thank you for the topic suggestion 😀
Scelana – Thxies for the lecture Rainsong
Rainsong – Thanks 😀
Rainsong – And thanks for participating.