What is it then, this “inside-out” malarkey? You’ll hear me banging on about it all the time, but what does it actually mean? And what difference does it make?
Put simply, 100% of the experience of being human is happening from within. Mediated by the Principle of Thought. Moment to moment, we’re bathing in this constant stream of data—vibrating energy—and to prevent us from going mad, our psychological systems are screening out 99.99% of it and presenting us with a best guess at what we need to know, in order to avoid being eaten, and giving us the best shot at procreation.
It’s an image of what’s what. And that’s our reality. Ours alone. Because it’s happening inside us, not anyone else.
And so, moment to moment, although it really really looks like we’re living our lives experiencing a bunch of feelings that result from our external circumstances, that’s a trick of the mind. Because the reality is we’re living in the feeling of Thought-perception.
Yeah, I know.
And it’s fair enough to kind of get it. And it’s perfectly reasonable to just brush over it as maybe a bit interesting and nothing more… but the implications, when followed through… well, they’re really very practical.
In fact I’d go as far saying they’re pretty important actually. Profound, even. Ok, huge. Life-changingly huge.
So huge I quit my job to start gently leading people to see this for themselves.
Because when you do, nothing is ever the same again.
Something occurs
So I’m out Walking & Talking with a client and I’m reaching for suitable metaphors to get this stuff across, because, as you’ll gather from reading the paragraphs above, it’s mostly like, WTF Giles, you crazy man?!
And I’ve learned, over time, from basic principle (and many bungled attempts), that the worst thing I can do in these circumstances is to get all up in my head, trying to think of the best way of explaining it.
No, it has to be felt. To be experienced. So I stay present, stay quiet, stop trying so hard and briefly reassure myself “something will occur” when it needs to.
We’re walking on a short but necessary section of very narrow country lane, single file, me behind, when a vehicle comes out of nowhere. The car is big, the road is small, and we both press ourselves into the hedge. It slows (a bit) goes past and I catch my client up. She’s apoplectic. And apologetic, her gesture still hanging in the air.
“Sorry, sorry, excuse my French! But… did you see that?!”
“See what?”
“He nearly ran us down! I was nearly knocked over by his wing mirror! Who does he think he is?”
I chuckle, making light of it, to get us back on track.
“Yeah, it’s really narrow down here, isn’t it? Barely enough room for a vehicle at all, let alone people as well! Still, we’re over that stile and into the next field just there…”
I meet her eye and it’s clear she’s really hacked off.
And in that moment, I realise that “something has just occurred.”
Here it is: we’re in.
I ask,
“Did you see my reaction?”
“No, I didn’t. What did you do, give him a hard stare?”
“No, I got out of the way, because I’ve evolved the skills we need to avoid cars and wing mirrors, just like you have, and then I caught up with you. And here we are. Safe and sound. How you doing?”
A layer of irritation is laid down on top of the dissipating anger.
“What do you mean?”
I prod.
“You’re pretty pissed off right? Where’s that coming from?”
“That bastard nearly knocked us both down! And it’s happened before! They’ve no consideration whatsoever for walkers! It makes me so angry!”
The illusion
A natural, learned, totally understandable, innocent misunderstanding.
It’s outside-in thinking: falling for the illusion that circumstances are destined to “make us” feel a particular way.
To my client, the anger really and truly felt like it had been caused by what had just happened. That these strong emotions contained some information about the incident itself. But they didn’t.
At a fundamental level, they were a reflection of Thought taking form in that moment, and nothing more.
“So, tell me. What do you make of the fact I experienced the exact same event, and wasn’t bothered in the slightest?”
Implications
Whether it’s a ‘dangerous’ run in with a car, ‘harsh’ words from a critic, a ‘disappointing’ outcome, an ‘annoying’ child, an ‘impossible’ task, a ‘shit’ situation or an ‘insensitive’ partner… the object is neutral and the adjectives come courtesy of Thought.
Every time. No exceptions.
Of course, for as long as we live and breathe, it will always look like experience is coming from “out there,” but at the level of principle… well, it comes from inside of us. 100% of it. We experience life from the inside-out.
And as Sydney Banks wrote:
“If the only thing people learned was not to be afraid of their experience, that alone would change the world.”
💟
Giles