I came across another version of the Iceberg Model, a theory of the levels of the mind, the other day. It had just a solid blob of unconscious mind, and that reminded me just how useful the Psychology of Vision Iceberg Model is. In Life Manual Chapter 4, Jeff describes the largely underwater part of the iceberg of our mind as ‘The Hidden Aspect of us that can do great harm to our ship’. There can be few people who don’t know about the unsinkable Titanic!!!
Separating the unconscious and subconscious mind really helps us to understand there are two levels of our hidden mind. The habit patterns formed in past experiences are stored in the subconscious mind.The gushing fears and terrors are hidden deeper in the emotional visual unconscious mind. It gives us different ways to grasp what is going on in our deeper mind, which needs to be faced on our way to healing our emotions and gaining true emotional awareness.
In the POV model, Chuck Spezzano lists the aspects of our hidden mind.
a) Emotions and Feelings
b) Insights and Beliefs
c) Images and Experiences
We need to connect with those feelings, not just find the patterns beneath. Many schools of personal development ultimately fail their clients… for they fail to recognise the power of our emotions. If we only change the habits and beliefs, we will still have moments when the bogeymen of our unconscious, the stored emotions jump out to meet us. We can also fail to find our authentic self and hence one school of personal development gives rise to wonderfully turned out people, with perfect manners and echoing, who leave you with a sense that, actually, no one is in. As we go further in our progress, we will find the deeper mind, that reveals its presence through powerful emotions. As these are formed in early childhood, there is no pattern, just an image that triggers deep emotions.
How does the Iceberg Model help?
Using a personal example, as a 4 year old I flew out to Singapore, a three and half day flight back then. I had absolutely no fear at all, and loved the experience. I never had a fear of flying, until in my 20s I took a baby on a plane – not even my baby! I was uncomfortable and fearful throughout the flight. I had absolutely no idea why I had suddenly developed this fear.
I actively avoided flying which I had previously loved, but the day came when I got on a plane with my own child – a very small plane. Again I was clenching my seat. In the following years I learned to control the fear, and even took both my children to Africa. It was many years later that I spotted the pattern. I remembered my mother saying what a terrible time she had on that flight with my baby brother. He refused to drink anything, for almost the entire flight. As a child I had absorbed her experience. As a child or an individual, there was no fear of flying, but a fear around babies flying!!
Knowing that pattern and the habit it produced around babies flying, busts it. The old experience no longer has power over me, but at some point I needed to release the fear, just feel into it, and burn through it. We describe this in Chapter 11 of the Life Manual and if you have attended workshops, you will know it is an important part of the Psychology of Vision process.
What about the Images and Experiences?
In the previous example, I have some information from family that helps me to understand what formed the baby flying fear habit. But so much of what happens to us when we are small, is beyond the patterns of our subconscious mind. Our emotions are very powerful in early childhood and the grief and fear we experience so massively, are stored in our unconscious mind. For example …
I am not sure what emergency in Singapore caused us to be taken to school in trucks with armed soldiers, or later in troop carriers. From these you can see very little, and the 50s were a great time for not telling kids what was going on. But as a kid you pick up the fear of those around you. I can bring an old childhood picture of the soldiers with their rifles staring out, and feel and even remember the smell of sweaty fear. Smells from the past can be powerful triggers too. Armoured troop carriers in the heat and humidity of Singapore are horrendously uncomfortable and you want the journey over as quickly as possible. One day, we stopped …for a very long time … on the causeway between Singapore and Malaya. All I could see through the tiny mesh windows was white railings and the sea – and I can still see them. Those strong childhood images signals their unconscious dimensions. The soldiers were all running around shouting, and gone for a long time. I still have absolutely no idea what was going on … but you don’t need much imagination to recognise the levels of fear that white railings against the sea instilled in my childhood mind.
In adulthood, with my two children, we were on a ferry that was set on fire as part of a robbery. Stood on the deck, in life jackets waiting to be evacuated, carrying my baby son, I was incapable of speech … it was taking all of my energy just to keep my body in the upright position, I was literally shaking so badly. It was as if my worst nightmare of a lifetime was coming to pass. I had seen that calm sea through the railings so many years before,and once again they signalled terror. Of course, it was a scarey experience in itself, but my level of terror left me incapable of thought or speech and seriously impacted my ability to even stand up.
Beyond the Habits of the Mind
That kind of fear is deeply unconscious. Triggered by a childhood image, we are straight into the deepest fears of our unconscious. It’s a place where we have no thoughts, no habit patterns, just fear gushing like a powerful fountain and maybe some odd images like the white railings. Clearing the fear of my overly exciting childhood took a long time, although I laugh now. In one clearing spell the image of a large white rabbit flew by me, and I guess someone put a big white rabbit in my cot, and that scared me too. We need to face those unconscious pains and fears, to release them, not only to prevent ourselves being a walking time bomb for emotional disaster, but most of all, to find and release the beauty, creativity and vision that also resides in the unconscious mind.
The joy of the Psychology of Vision method, is that you don’t have to know the patterns, although it can help to clear up a whole load of misunderstandings and bad habits of flight or fight. By dealing with our emotions, which is NOT stuffing them down or explaining them away, we clear a whole lot more. And most of that ‘stuff’ that we stuffed down in early childhood, does actually look very funny in adulthood – once we take the fear out. Who, but a child, could invest so much emotion in a set of white railings against the sea. Do you have any idea how many sets of those we have in Britain? And yes, I get that my children, especially my son, may find themselves on a ferry one day, and re experience my fear. Maybe it was one of the reasons he became an Air Traffic Controller and is keeping the skies safe!!! Chuck says so often that everything we clear up, our children don’t have to, and that has been a big incentive to me in facing my hidden fears.
If you have been gushing, blessings. It isn’t fun, but it is very worthwhile. Please email me with any questions or your own stories,
Oh, and if you haven’t been gushing or pursuing your course – what on earth can be holding you back from experiencing your full happiness and laughter? Have another look at what you are missing. All of the tools of the Psychology of Vision model, organised sequentially around the layers of the mind and the stages of relationship – for the price of a two day workshop, with a payment plan of 16 Chapter installments.
All love and joy
Christine
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