The Mind Model
To continue with the hypnosis model, we move on to defining how the mind model works in association to hypnosis and trance.
The Three Mind Concept: The theory that I operated with when constructing this mind model is that there are in reality, three separate minds at work, in what most people would normally view as their singular mind.
These minds work together like a muscle group, with none having jurisdiction over the others, but each having their own specific responsibilities and functions.
Although there are many other existing names that are used to describe these minds, none of these other names tell us anything about what each mind does.
So in order to help people understand the mind model for “which mind did what”, I came up with more descriptive names and definitions for each of the three minds for this mind model.
These three minds are identified as:
The Analytical mind
The Reactive mind
The Judgmental mind
They are defined in the mind model as follows:
The Analytical Mind: this is our interface to the outside world that collects and interprets data for us.
It utilizes all logic, all analysis, all rational, all problem solving, and all truth detection, for one single goal: to determine what is real and what is true.
It is our ability to drill down and determine the reality and/or truth of the matter.
I personally believe that this mind was derived from a survival need to find out what is a real threat and what isn’t, and if someone is trying to fool us or not, even down to how much does two plus two really equal.
I also feel that this is what the “critical faculty” as described by Dave Elman is all about.
The key point about this mind is that having all of those amazing abilities comes at a price.
When analyzing something, it takes all of the focus of the analytical mind to do so.
Meaning; it can only focus (or do) on one thing at a time.
Example: You can prove this to yourself by trying to sing your favorite song out loud, while simultaneously counting from one to ten in your head.
Each task is very simple. You know all of the words to your favorite song by heart, and counting to ten is something you have been doing since the first grade.
Yet, you will find you can’t do these two simple things at the same time. You can jump back and forth between the tasks really fast, but you cannot do them both at once.
This is also the reason that we hate being interrupted, or when someone breaks our chain of thought.
This limitation of the analytical mind is an important one to remember, because this is the reason that we need natural trance states to survive, and why I believe, that we have them in the first place.
Let me explain.
We have a survival need to be able to multitask, to do more than one thing at a time.
An example of this need is that we need to still be aware of our surroundings, looking for threats while we perform other tasks.
And; as we have just proven by the above example, the analytical mind is not capable of doing two things at once.
So we can conclude that trance is not a function of the analytical mind, and, that there has to be more than one mind at work to accomplish it.
How do we do it with this mind model? Read on…
The Reactive Mind: this mind controls all of the automatic reactions outside of the autonomic nervous system.
It controls all reactions that we have learned from the time we are born until the time we die.
Its purpose is also to keep us alive and safe by adapting our body to changing environments, whatever environment it believes that to be.
I personally believe that the reactive mind is our survival mind.
It contains no ability for rational thought and simply reacts to input in a “cause and effect” manner.
So, in effect, we have the inverse of the analytical mind.
The reactive mind has no intellect or reasoning power at all, yet it can do multiple things at once without a problem.
This mind comes with no reaction instructions at birth.
Everything we learn from the point of birth forward; is also a reaction learned by the reactive mind.
This is what most learning really is, learning how to react without having to think about it.
If you stop and think about it, we have a lot of different names for this learning process.
We call it “learning the ropes”, “getting the hang of it”, “becoming acclimated to it”, “getting used to it”, etc. With musical instruments, we call it “learning how to play”.
These are all similar terms for learning how to automatically do something without having to consciously think about it, and we learn it like this, because we want to be able think about something else, or even think ahead, while we do it.
It may be interesting to note at this point, that once the reactive mind has learned how to react to a given situation, trigger or stimulus; that learned reaction is very difficult to change.
So; now we have two minds that are opposites of one another, what brings them together?
What this mind model needed next was a management tool.
A mind that can make decisions, determine what direction to take, know if it likes something or not, and to develop and maintain a personal code of conduct.
This management tool is called… The Judgmental Mind:
It is the decision making part of our mind that also controls our behavior.
All of our morals, virtues, values, ideals, and rules that make us who we are, are kept and enforced here.
The judgmental mind maintains the lists of what we will do, and what we won’t do, determines if we like something or not, and is the part of us that experiences emotions.
It is considered our “higher” or spiritual self.
It is the mind that provides the “voice” in our head, and it makes all decisions based on how it “feels” about something.
What makes the judgmental mind different from the other two is that this mind is multifaceted.
Which means one part focuses specifically on each reaction or behavior that we have, like a manager.
Because of this diversity of control, it can do more than one thing at a time like the reactive mind, and yet it can focus on specific things while it does so like the analytical mind.
This means we can have conflicting views on things and actually argue with our self about them.
The limitation that this mind has, is that it doesn’t know what is real and true in the world.
Its primary focus is of taking care of the host person.
So, it acts as a gatekeeper or watchdog for input to the reactive mind, and uses input from the analytical mind as to what is real and true, to help it make decisions.
This decision making activity is much more complicated that it might seem.
For the judgmental mind to be able to make good decisions and judgments, it must not only be able to view things from a multiple of perspectives, but also needs to be able to make comparisons to the established self-behavior standards, and provide continual behavioral governance for each of the many parts of our daily life experiences.
To do this, this mind seems to operate in the same manner as the management structure of a large company.
As stated earlier, it has a like a specific “manager” for each type of behavior we have, and each ideology we follow.
It is important to reiterate, that unlike the other two minds, this mind can be in conflict with itself, and bases the decisions it makes on how it “feels” about something, and not on what the data says, or what it considers right or wrong.
It can know what the right thing to do is for others, and know what would adhere to its accepted personal code of conduct for self.
Yet; it can decide to do something entirely different if the right emotional justification presents itself.
An example of this would be: if you ever knew what the “right” thing to do was, yet did something else.
The overall goal of the judgmental mind appears to simply be the betterment of the host person.
All of the management “parts” of this mind appear to have this as their number one priority.
It may be interesting to note at this point, that the judgmental mind can view punishment as being necessary for the benefit of the person.
I believe this is because some of us are told as children..."you need to be punished in order to feel better..."
It is important to realize that although these three minds work together like a muscle group, they do not control one another.
I said earlier in this mind model that the judgmental mind plays watchdog over the input to the reactive mind.
It can allow, or prevent, input from being automatically reacted to.
This safeguard is necessary so we don’t automatically react to just any outside input.
It looks for the “intent” of the outside input and will block the input if there is evidence of something trying to control us without our permission, or if there is some other benefit for blocking it.
However; the judgmental mind cannot change the reactions that the reactive mind has learned, and neither can the analytical mind.
The analytical mind cannot change how the judgmental mind feels, or what it decides for us to do, just as the judgmental mind cannot change what the truth is for the analytical mind.
Understanding this facet of the mind model is important when using hypnosis for change work.
This mind model is still missing one key component...the imagination.
Mind Model...Mind Model...Mind Model
