Filtering
by Peter Shepherd
When memories are recalled by the adult, there is a mass of information which could potentially come into consciousness, so in order to make this manageable there is a subconscious analytical filtering process which selects material for conscious attention. Material is recognised, its relevance, value and importance weighted and the most relevant is passed upwards for conscious attention. In attempting to recall early experiences, a person will therefore be filtering information in this way. Being used to adult representation, he may fail to recognise childhood experiences in the way that they were actually stored and unconsciously filter the recall of kinaesthetic, emotional and auditory perceptic information as being irrelevant. Also the process is subject to the fears of the ego and prejudices of the super-ego. This filtering process also occurs during sleep, and dreams represent the material symbolically.
For these reasons it is necessary to pay particular attention to "felt" experience and to review experiences several times, so that all the information is open to inspection and can be re-evaluated from the adult point of view. When the person's feeling (in the right brain) can be exactly and truthfully realised then it can be described and so filed cognitively by the left-brain, and the block will have been released. In so doing the person will probably realise the irrationality of his previous beliefs which were at the root of his feeling - such distorted thinking as over-generalising and exaggerating, misconceptions based on false assumptions or fixed ideas, or manipulated behaviour due to adopted oughts, shoulds and musts that had been enforced upon him.
Incidents are viewed when their content has become restimulated and is dominating the person's attention. By thoroughly running through the most recent incident, the person becomes able to re-experience all of the original perceptions, feelings and thoughts, to re-experience his behaviour and point of view at the time. When the person is comfortable and able to accept the whole of the incident, which may take many re-runs through it with new data being progressively uncovered, this has the effect of removing the charge from that experience such that it no longer obscures the previous incident in the sequence. This too can then be viewed, and the sequence followed back to the root or basic incident.
When the first intention or reach is uncovered the whole sequence is then cleared of charge. The individual can see clearly, for the first time, how and why irrational conclusions had been reached, and then the imprint is released - it no longer has any power to impinge on the person's thinking. The action-cycle can be ended and new self-determined decisions can then be made.
The principle that applies here and in all Transpersonal Psychology analysis, is that by thoroughly and honestly looking at a traumatic experience or problematic situation, the falsehoods and lies in the person's perception of it will become apparent and the irrationality will "blow".
An irrational decision resulting from painful experience will affect the individual's feelings and behaviour in present time, and when this is exposed there is no need to revisit the original experience that empowers the irrationality. This is the preferred method when the original experience is not consciously in re-stimulation. Similarly, deliberately and self-determinedly dramatising a behaviour pattern or way of thinking that is normally an automatic, programmed or imprinted response to environmental or mental stimuli, will expose the circuit to inspection and it will blow.
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