Imaginary Mentors: A Technique for Unlocking Wisdom

August 6, 2007

How many of us would give our right arms to have just a few minutes time with one of our heroes? How many of us would trip over ourselves trying ask them all the questions we could cram into just the few minutes we could manage to catch their ear? I?m sure this is something we?ve all thought about, wishing we could pick the brains of the older, wiser, and more successful amongst us. We wish we had a wise old mentor who could bestow upon us the brilliance of a life well lived and hard lessons learned; who would pat us on the head and steer us down the right path. We?ve all sought that kind of guidance in our lives, but truly great mentors are hard to come by at times and can hardly be there for us every time we need them. We need a better way to glean the wisdom of the ages when we are by ourselves and heroes and mentors are no where to be found. The best place to do this is your imagination.

I know when I was a kid I used to fall asleep imagining scenarios and stories that I wished I could live out; people I wished I could talk with, walk with, go on adventures with. As I grew up, these fantasies slipped away into simply going to bed in mental silence, I ceased to imagine the impossible scenarios the way I used to. It has only been in the past few years that I?ve discovered my imagination again and begun to use it once more to ?communicate? with the people whose confidence I wish I could have, even if only for a brief moment.

I know all this sounds very ?new age? and strange, but trust me, I?m not talking about channeling spirits or anything like that. I?m talking about learning to solve your problems by unlocking the wisdom and the knowledge that sits idle inside your subconscious mind. I?m talking about learning how to solve those creative problems like writer?s block by digging down into your subconscious and learning exactly what it is that?s holding you back. Imagine being faced with a huge personal decision, say buying a house, or getting married, and being able to consult with your deepest, hidden, subconscious desires to find out what it is you really want. That?s what I?m suggesting; learning to solve any problem, make any decision with the confidence and guidance of a true mentor.

Sounds unbelievable, doesn?t it? But it isn?t anything new. It?s all about the bifurcation of our minds into the conscious and the subconscious mind.

The Grand Design of the Mind

Your subconscious mind is a powerful tool; it creates phobias, addictions, habits, and still manages to control such trivial things as breathing. When you dream at night it is your subconscious mind that is talking to you. When you feel that pull at the pit of your stomach pointing you in a certain direction, that is your subconscious mind. The subconscious part of your mind, which is separately operated from your conscious mind, though closely connected, holds all of the wisdom that you have gleaned from your time on earth. Everything you?ve ever learned, from ?fire is hot? to ?darkness is scary,? is locked away in your subconscious mind. You?re much smarter, much wiser than you think you are, or other people give you credit for. The problem is that most of this wisdom and intelligence lies dormant in your subconscious, only released when your mind can see no other option.

If you?ve ever realized right at the last moment that you were about to make a bad decision, you know what I?m talking about. It isn?t that your subconscious is trying to keep things from you, it?s that your conscious mind gets in the way. Our conscious minds, the part that actively thinks feels and identifies with the words ?I am,? stands in the way of our subconscious mind because of our fear of relinquishing control. We grip onto our conscious mind because to us it is the only part of our minds that can be readily accessed and located. The subconscious is far more shadowy and is therefore mostly resisted. When we can get into our subconscious and unlock what lies inside, bringing it to the surface of our consciousness we can finally have access to all our hidden wisdom. It is when we try suppressing our subconscious that we see problems occur in our lives. Our subconscious refuses to be ignored and will make itself and its beliefs known through negative experiences and feelings that creep into your physical world.

This is where a mental conversation with one of our personal heroes can come in. It sounds weird but if you begin to use your imagination to have a mental chat with a fictional mentor, it is really your subconscious that you?re speaking with. These imagined characters speak with your words, but not truly from your consciousness.

Beginning the Conversation

I personally have used this when faced with creative problems. I?ve ?conjured? up William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe and chatted with them in an Elizabethan pub when I needed some advice on writing fiction. I?ve imagined sitting at a conference table with Thomas Edison and Henry Ford when I need some guidance in the business and financial world. Socrates walked me through finding out what it was I truly wanted to do in life. Now keep in mind that when I tell you about all of these ?conversations? I am not claiming to communicate with the dead, I?m merely carrying on a conversation with imagined characters in my head which, now I put those two statements side by side, doesn?t make me sound any less crazy. But trust me, it can be truly helpful because remember that it isn?t really the ?character? that?s talking to you, it?s your own subconscious mind.

To do this yourself all you need is a few undisturbed minutes in a quiet space where you can sit back comfortably and close your eyes. I personally still like to do this as I lie in bed before drifting off just the same way I did when I was a kid. First you must imagine the space you wish this conversation to take place in. For Shakespeare and Marlow it was an old English public house, for Ford and Edison it was around a meeting room conference table, Socrates was at the theatre at the Acropolis in Athens. The setting doesn?t have to have a connection to the person you?re talking with, but I personally like that added touch. If you?d rather pick a nice relaxing place that makes you feel comfortable and more at ease, then go with that. Once you have your setting, try to make it as detailed as you can. Imagine the smells, sounds, the temperature of the room, etc. Try to experience as many details as you can to make it more real to you, because the more real you can make your setting feel to you, the more deeply into this exercise you can go and the more success you will have with your answers.

Now, you must populate this world with those people you think will be most helpful to you and begin the conversation. I generally like to greet my ?guests? and thank them for taking the time to speak with me. It sounds dumb but it makes it a bit more real to me. Now you just start asking the questions you want answers to and listening to the answers they have for you.

Yes, you are talking to yourself and, yes, you are putting words in their mouths, but that?s beside the point. It may seem stilted and awkward at first, but the more practice you get at these conversations the more surprised you will be by the answers you will get back. The wisdom and depth of the answers or the sheer obviousness of the solutions can be staggering. What can be more staggering still, however, is the feeling that you already knew the answers to all of your questions. You feel that way because you did know, you just had to remind yourself of those answers and bring them to the forefront of your conscious mind.

So the next time you feel yourself struggling with a big decision, or in need of some comfort, or some advice from the more experienced, give this method a try. Imagine yourself with anyone you like. Try Buddha, Gandhi, Edison, Franklin, Ford, or anyone else you admire. You don?t even have to stick with real people. Next time you?re faced with a tough decision, imagine yourself in the office of the Headmaster of Hogwarts, sitting across the desk from Albus Dumbledore. Imagine the advice he could give you!

The best advice I can give you about using this technique is to push past feelings of foolishness. Never let feeling foolish stop you from trying anything. You?re going to feel like a complete fool when you first start out doing this, but the more in-depth your answers start to become and the more help you get out of them, the more inclined you will be to use this technique without such judgments. Keep an open mind and you?ll be surprised at what can come to you through just a few quiet minutes with a mental mentor.

Posted in Creativity, Metaphysics, Motivation, Self Improvement, Success, The Mind