6/25 Class Recap

As soon as we started class, Jon told us to find a drawer or box and something to cover its contents with. He said we should avoid looking into it beforehand, only viewing it while getting it out and back to our laptops. He advised it should be like a junk drawer- something filled with unrelated objects that you don’t have to be familiar with. With this, we were able to begin our main exercise for the day: Dipping. This process relies on short-term memory rather than long-term (which will be covered later and helps with drams memories and acquired memories for scripts). The idea is going to the private places of a character and searching for the character by exploring these places as if we were snooping through their things. However, we don’t stream in order to be the character but rather to have the character reveal themselves to us. The biggest challenge in this is that the cognitive mind wants to take over. The cognitive mind will want to memorize but, that fear of not remembering hinders discovery. So, there is a specific step to this exercise to overload the cognitive perception. It’s essential to view the items passively with a soft focus and tell your mind “don’t!” when it tries to scan around or memorize.

To start the Dipping exercise, take a few breaths to relax. Then place the covered drawer or box in front of you so you can look down slightly and see it. Take one last deep breath and pull off the covering when you exhale. To dip, spend 90 seconds letting your eyes focus on the biggest, most apparent objects and repeatedly tagging them quickly by pointing at each object and naming them out loud. Don’t allow your mind any time or space, just keep going back and forth between objects. So, this should be done so fast that you’re practically speaking gibberish; thus, keeping your cognitive mind from stepping in and trying to memorize. The idea is to wear out your mind so it won’t sublimate those impulses. These big, apparent objects will end up being your anchors. Then, for one minute, go to a soft focus and simply observe the drawer/box. The goal is to create an impression, not a memory. And that impression is more of a sense of the stuff than one particular object. The rest will fill in naturally from there. Trace what’s present left to right to get a grasp of the objects you saw. When you harvest, the specifics of that sense/impression will come to you. most importantly, it doesn’t have to be what was accurate. It just has to be what you saw. The beauty of it is, when you harvest, you’re seeing it all again in your mind. When you zoom in during the harvest with Jon, you are really working on streaming as it opens up a full-on sensory experience.

Not realizing that variety was key, I grabbed the box containing my postcard collection, this ended up working out though because the postcards laying atop the pile were just detailed enough for me to paint the image in my mind when it came time to harvest. My anchors ended up being a Monticello postcard that was unobstructed by any others and the corner of one with leaves and yellow flowers that peeked out from underneath others. For some reason, my mind kept wandering back to that flowery one, which I didn’t expect. I could see each one clearly as I described them while tracing them left to right. I went over Monticello, the bit I could see of a Fort Lauderdale beach, the edges of a few stacked together, then to the flowery corner. But, just as I was getting to that second anchor, I noticed that there was a gap in the box. The box itself is oval and the postcards were all, obviously, rectangular, causing them to not fill the entire space. Jon had me zoom in on this gap: it was darker from the pile’s shadow but, I could tell it was light blue with a fleur-de-lis print. Jon did correct me when I began to say, “I don’t know if this is right,” when describing the print. But, I quickly accepted his saying it’s not about accuracy but what you see and continued on. Funny how your mind automatically thinks those things despite what you’ve been told. I was happy to officially experience streaming while going through this harvesting process and exploring that dark gap in the box. I could still see my anchors and the gap even during other people’s turns. I was most impressed by Tanya’s streaming as she mentally opened a gift box. She described it’s contents using multiple senses and found details linked to events from her past. It was incredible watching her describe what she hasn’t seen in a while or perhaps never seen at all. It really shows how this practice is about exploring those hidden spaces and getting lost in them.

You really have the idea. Now, begin to trust yourself. Start to have fun!