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FROM THE ARCHIVES
Understanding Who We Are
1976
Updated 1984
In our struggle to understand who we are and where we stand in the world, we devise systems and structures, umbrellas for us to stand under, banners to wave and identify with. Words, labels, roles -- all can be useful on our journey to our Core Self, as long as they don't become frozen and restrictive. And as long as they are not used as a weapon to pigeon-hole others, or to play better-than.
There are many, many ways to look at who we are. We have, on these pages, attempted to give some of the ways that we've found helpful. This next offering is intended as another vegetable to add to the pot, making our stew here richer and more textured. It is simply offered as another way to understand who we are and how we work.
What is Your Primary Processing Mode?
Understanding our primary processing mode is one very important way we can add to our understanding. If we know - and accept - how we process, where we primarily find our life source, then we can proceed in life from a solid base. We will, hopefully, spend less time trying to be something we are not, and more time learning to work with who we truly ARE.
Each of us has within us the four elements described below: mind, emotion, heart and body. And within us, all these elements are always striving for balance. However, we each began our existence in creation in one or another of these birthplaces, if you will, and that is our primary processing mode. This is where our life source springs from, where we feel most comfortable (when accepted and not being pressured to be something else). This is the place where we can connect most strongly with our power center, and develop our core.
It's also helpful to understand what your primary processing mode is, so that you can identify the areas where you are out of balance, and more carefully understand WHY you are out of balance. One of the hardest things in the world is to see and identify our own patterns.
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MENTAL PROCESSORS |
The Mental Processor views the world primarily through the mind. Thought is their natural medium, and "figuring it out" is their greatest thrill. They evaluate all experiences FIRST through their mind. If they are in balance, they will communicate with their emotions as well, they will ask and listen, and incorporate the emotional response into their process.
Since most of us are not in balance, what we mostly see is Mental Processors who shun their emotions, and ridicule or dominate the emotions of others. And yet, the MP is the most respected and highly regarded type of person in the western culture. The MP has the ability to completely sever mind from emotion. Since emotion is not their primary source, they often don't feel the imbalance or lack of feelings in their lives, and in fact, are relieved when "emotional" people or situations are removed from their sphere. And given that most of our society currently supports the view that mentalizing is the superior way, they never imagine that their world view might be missing something.
On the positive side, the Mental Processor has the ability to envision and dream with great clarity and detail. They can hold to the purpose, standing on the prow of the ship, urging us forward with the goal always in view. They can also be dogged in seeking answers to problems, and can analyze a situation to a pinpoint. Juggling possibilities, imagining future outcomes, casting into the wide realm of what has not yet come to be, creating images that excite and inspire, all these are gifts of the Mental Processor.
Common patterns for the Mental Processors:
Judgment / Superiority / Better-Than / Less-Than
Power Patterns - Dominator, Controller
Worship / Guru / Shark
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EMOTIONAL PROCESSORS |
The Emotional Processor views the world primarily through the emotions. Feeling is their natural medium. They evaluate all their experiences FIRST through their emotions. If they are in balance, they will communicate with their mind as well, they will ask and listen, and incorporate the thought response into their process.
The Emotional Processor doesn't have the ability to sever themselves from their feelings. They may try, and may be able to set up a pretty good mask and cover story, but the truth is, their emotions are their life source, and they cannot ever get very far from them. This is a source of shame in our present society, where being too sensitive or too emotional is seen as a sign of weakness. In fact, the EP is the least accepted of the processing types, and many EP's spend their lives trying hard to be something other than what they are.
The Emotional Processor brings zest and joy to living, and a childlike quality of wonder and innocence. They also bring intuition and the ability to know the truth from a deeply feeling place. In a healed state, each emotional response to each situation would be appropriate and real to the now. Anger would be shortlived and purposeful to what's going on. Unfortunately, we are not in balance, nor wholly healed, and so what we usually see is people responding from their backlog of unhealed emotions. This means we respond to the now from the past, with feelings that don't belong to the current situation.
Common patterns for the Emotional Processors:
Self-Hate
Guilt and Blame
Fear Patterns, Paranoia
Victim Patterns
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HEART PROCESSORS |
In the 1980's we became aware of two additional types of people, or ways of processing information, thanks largely to the Right Use of Will material. The first of these is the Heart Processor.
The Heart Processor views the world primarily through the heart. Love is their natural medium, and their greatest joy is balance and a feeling of togetherness. They evaluate all their experiences FIRST through their heart. If they are in balance, they will communicate with their mind and emotions as well.
Heart people are in a unique position in the universe. They are standing in the middle, between mind and emotions, in the doorway as it were. They have the ability to ask and listen for input from both, pass that input back and forth between the two, and incorporate both thought and emotion into their process.
Generally we find Heart Processors in the middle of fights, trying to support everybody, trying to soothe feathers and make everybody be friends again. Since love is their life source, they desire love to be all around them. It's difficult for these people to take a stance or hold firm to any one point of view. Because they naturally stand in the middle where love resides, they are always trying to see all points of view. However, because they also want love to reign, they have tended to slide to the Mental Processor point of view, largely because of the conflicts and "negative" stuff that can come from an unhealed Emotional Processor.
What the Heart Processor needs to allow in themselves is the free expression of their own emotional parts, and to know that letting these parts cry will bring them to healing and a return to love in a natural, unforced way. And that's what they're truly after, the birth of love.
Common patterns for the Heart Processors:
Self-Hate
Variations on The Martyr
The Betrayer (Coming Soon)
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BODY PROCESSORS |
The Body Processor views the world primarily through the body. Physical reality is their natural medium. They evaluate all their experiences FIRST through their bodies. If they are in balance, they will communicate with their mind and emotions as well.
Body Processors are sometimes healthy and athletic... but not usually. Body processors have large physical appetites. They are the people who "live large" and do things in a big way. And this can be a problem in itself, if there are no checks and balances to keep the person healthy.
Body Processors are also prone to additional problems that we call the trickle down effect.
Since we are not yet whole and in balance, we often see Body Processors overwhelmed with imbalances in the mind and emotions. These imbalances often reach war proportions that break the heart and cause a buildup of poisons and toxins in the body. Body holds all our frozen judgments and unhealed emotion and cannot help but eventually manifest what it is holding. Illnesses have their root within. This is true of everyone, but Body Processors usually manifest this in larger ways than other people, or sooner than others. They may become bogged down and unable to function. They may become heavy and lethargic and depressed. They may become manic - resorting to constant exercise and diet in order to try to feel ok. They may become thrill-seeking adrenalin addicts, trying to use adrenalin as a way to cope with the heaviness piling up in their bodies. Or they may become addicts of one substance or another.
All of these are simply ways that Body Processors are trying to feel well. They also need to know that allowing full expression of emotions, and listening to heart and mind, will free up a lot of their confusion.
Body Processors are also operating under a heavy judgment in our society because of the confusions we hold around sexuality. Body Processors are naturally very sexual, and have high sexual needs. When caught between the restrictions of religion and family and the sex-without-love extremes of pornography and prostitution, the Body Processor can become confused and trapped in a vortex, trying to get their needs filled in ways that will never be fulfilling.
Common patterns for the Body Processors:
Addictions
The Body Royal (Coming Soon)
Need Patterns
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HOW CAN YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE? |
We each have all these elements within us, to some degree. And each of us is divine, regardless of how we process.
The mind people have a close connection to the divine source of mind, Father or spirit.
The emotion people are closest to the divine Mother, who rules the soul.
The heart people are closest to the heart of divinity, the love source, manifested as the Christ Consciousness.
And the body people are manifestations of the combined energies of all the others, living demonstrations of creation in action.
But we have forgotten our divinity, and we have judged some ways as more worthy than others.
When your natural mode is suppressed, judged, and condemned, you do one of two things: you try your best to be whatever will get approval, or you rebel and act out in angry ways against the judgements. We have a world of evidence to support this.
But when the pain of judgment and suppression reaches an intolerable level, we break. We are like a balloon filled to overfull, and we literally explode into bits. These parts, no matter how they combine or live, are always seeking healing. All "bits" are seeking wholeness and home. They ... WE... won't feel truly right until we get ourselves back together.
What we need to understand about fragmentation is that we are all victims of it. We have all been fragmented, we are all a "bit". And some of us, many of us, are carrying "bits" that may or may not belong with our original self.
What does this mean?
It means it may be difficult for some to identify their primary mode. And for a time, it will be necessary for all of us to focus on emotional healing, no matter what our primary processing modality is, so that we can know who we truly are.
How can you determine what your source truly is, and who you truly are?
- Notice. For a time, just watch yourself. Put your point of consciousness to work being observer. Try to identify when you are acting from different parts that have a different way of working. Follow your desire. If given a choice of doing a crossword puzzle or going for a brisk walk, where would your desire lead you? The difficulty here is that we all carry judgments that say one type of activity is better than another. Try to notice where you are judging, and set the judgments aside. Then see where your desire would like to go.
- What can you leave behind? It's very difficult for us to see ourselves clearly, and sometimes we have to turn the mirror upside down. Instead of looking at what you do, look at what you don't do. Ask the question, what things can I easily set aside? The key word here is EASILY. Can you easily ignore physical pain? Does it require only a little effort for you to separate yourself from hunger or sexual desire? Then you are probably not a body processor. Can you easily push your feelings aside? Are you able to control your rage or fear with little effort? Then you are probably not an emotional processor.
- Allow for change. Be flexible. This is a lot easier to say than to do. Our sense of personal identity is one of the most fragile constructs we foolishly depend on. We want to believe it is solid and sturdy, and when the floor falls out from under one illusionary "self" or another, it can feel like we're dying. One of the reasons we cling to the images and illusions we use to define our "self", is BECAUSE we don't have a connection to our inner core, to know who we truly are. We are broken and fragmented, and we feel lost and alone without the rest of our family of essence.
- Work toward becoming whole. Work with your personality from the outer layer to the inner core. As you cry all your pain, whatever is there, essence that belongs to you will become a part of your core, and it will become clearer and clearer where you feel most comfortable, which processing mode you most naturally fall into. And you will be able to live a more centered life.
Read: Are You An Emotional Processor?
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