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the Four Visual Intensity Patterns
of Personal Consciousness

Overwhelmed, Wounded, Relive a Wound, and Healing



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This article compares and contrasts the sequences of inner states people go through during the four basic patterns of personal consciousness: getting overwhelmed, getting wounded, reliving a wound, and healing.


Visual-Intensity-Title

Introducing the Four Visual Intensity Patterns of Personal Consciousness

What you see above are the four "visual intensity patterns of personal consciousness." What do these lines represent? The way "what we see on the screen of our minds" varies in intensity, depending on what we experience.

Most important, these visual intensities repeat in patterns; four patterns, to be exact.

Only four patterns?

Yes. Even so, these patterns are like the different types of clouds repeating. You may know certain clouds are "cumulus" clouds, but no clouds will ever be the same. The pattern, yes, but the clouds themselves, no.

It turns out we have something very similar going on inside our heads. On the screens of our minds, to be more specific.

Thus, despite the fact that we will never, ever see the exact same thing twice on the screens of our minds, the intensity of what we see does repeat. In fact, it always repeats in one of only four patterns.

Sounds simple, right?

Actually, it is simple. Very simple. And yet somehow, prior to Emergence, these four patterns had never been recognized.

So what are the four patterns?

  • getting overwhelmed
  • getting wounded (getting a BLock)
  • reliving a wound (re-experiencing a BLock
  • healing (emerging from a BLock; other wise known as having an "epiphany or an "aha.

This is it. The four patterns on personal consciousness.

So what's the big deal?

The big deal is, learning to recognize these four patterns reveals the true nature of wounds, healing, learning, growing, and becoming more conscious. Not too small a reward.

The beginning, of course, is to theoretically learn to recognize these four patterns, which is the point of this brief article.

Below, then, you'll find four diagrams, each with a brief description of what they mean.

The first, "getting overwhelmed," is by far the most common. Good to know that we're not alone.


The Visual Intensity Fractal for Becoming Overwhelmed - per Emergence Personality Theory

the 1st Pattern of Personal Consciousness: "Getting Overwhelmed"

(getting lost in an unmade decision)


What you see above is, in essence, the generic script by which people get overwhelmed. By this, I mean, all people who experience the script of inner states shown above will feel overwhelmed during the event.

Now before explaining this sequence further, please note I have documented three kinds of inner states: [1] visual intensity, [2] screen of the mind, and [3] state of consciousness.

The first kind of inner state, [1] visual intensity, is represented by the red line going from left to right across the page. This red line represents the changing overall degree to which people picture on the screen of their mind.

Please note, this varying "intensity" does not in any way indicate "what" is on peoples' screen of the mind nor how they feel about it. It only indicates how much material they have there.

The second kind of inner state, the [2] screen of the mind, represents the degree to which people can identify and assign personal meaning to what they see on the screen of their mind. For instance, when people experience a "normal" screen of the mind state, they "occasionally see something mildly interesting."

This in fact, is how most people spend a good portion of their lives, at least during the hours in which they are awake.

The third kind of inner state, [3] state of consciousness, represents both how wide the person's field of vision is and how in-focus this field of vision is. Thus, when people experience a "normal" state of awareness, they generally and flexibly widen and narrow their field of vision, zooming in and out as their interests change.

Now look more closely at this particular sequence of inner states, the one above titled, "The Sequence (inner states) of Getting Overwhelmed, what you will see is the three inner states of a person who has become overwhelmed.

Examples of life events like this would be getting a great job offer which requires you to move within days and you love where you live, or falling in love with two new cars and having to decide which you want right away in order to get a great deal.

What is significant in this sequence of states is that the central sequence shown here, the overwhelmed sequence, is similar to the central sequence of getting wounded (shown below) with one exception. The person does not get startled in the midst of it.

Thus, when people get overwhelmed, the become hyperaware, perhaps thinking of all the details of a decision they must make. And if they can not come to a decision, the intense rehashing people commonly engage in can eventually put them into shock.

These two states comprise the getting overwhelmed sequence.

However, in this first pattern of personal consciousness, because people transition gradually from hyperawareness into shock, the event ends with no lasting internal effect on people. They simply come out of shock and resume life as usual.

Again, what is important to note here is, getting overwhelmed means simply that people become hyperaware and then gradually transition into shock. And because the transition is gradual, there is no lasting effect.

So what happens when people transition from hyperawareness to shock suddenly?


The Visual Intensity Fractal for Getting a Wound - per Emergence Personality Theory

the 2nd Pattern of Personal Consciousness: "Getting Wounded"

(getting visually blocked)


What you see above is, in essence, the generic script by which people get wounded. By this, I mean, all people who experience the script of inner states shown above will be wounded during the event.

What wounds them? The wounding sequence: hyperawareness, startle, shock.

Now to see this, begin by looking at the first inner state, visual intensity.

Notice how this person's visual intensity varies not only in amount but also in how suddenly this intensity varies.

This rate of increase and decrease is actually one of the more important factors in the human wounding sequence, and in fact, the particular shape represented by this red line is the shape present in all human wounding events.

I call this shape, the "P" Curve.

Now examine the second sequence of events shown here, the screen of the mind sequence.

Here, what you see is that the person's interest varies from mildly interesting, to intensely important, to seeing nothing, to mildly important.

Please note, this sequence, in and of itself, does not injure people. In fact, the sequence of events represented by the next diagram has many similarities to his sequence. So what makes this sequence wound people? In and of itself, it doesn't. So what does?

To see this, please look at the third and final sequence of inner states, the states of consciousness.

Here, if you look at the sequence of states going across the page, what you'll see is a sequence of three states in the center of the page. This sequence of three states is [1] hyperawareness, [2] getting startled, and [3] going into shock.

This sequence is probably one of the most important sequences to ever learn, in that experiencing this sequence is what wounds people.

What this sequence also signifies is where in the event the wound occurs. It occurs at the very moment people transition from hyperawareness into shock. In a sense, all that happens is that whatever the person was hyperaware of in that last instant gets charged with the experience of the startle. More over, this association is permanent and painful.

Also significant is that fact that if and when people later experience something similar to what they experienced in the instant of the startle, they see the new event as just as bad as the original event, even if, in reality, it is not even close.

What keeps people from seeing the "reliving" events as different from the wounding event itself?

The state of shock which follows the startle, which causes people to lose their ability to picture on the screen of their mind.

In effect, once in shock, people see nothing past the point at which they got wounded and so, they rely on past experience and logic to explain what the event they just experienced.

Again, please note, this sequence is the same as the "getting overwhelmed" sequence with one exception. The transition into shock is abrupt and painful.

it is the startle in the midst of a transition from hyperawareness to shock that BLocks peoples' inner screens. And since people do not get startled here, they do not get BLocked.


The Visual Fractal for Reliving a Wound - per Emergence Personality Theory

the 3rd Pattern of Personal Consciousness: "Reliving a Wound"

(getting "keyed")


In this third sequence of inner states, you see the sequence of inner states people experience when they relive a wound. Notice how similar the inner states are to the original, wounding event, especially with regard to the central sequence of three events; hyperawareness, startle, shock.

What is different, though, is how they hit the BLock. Notice there is more than one attempt to get past this BLock.

Please note, sometimes a wound is so intense and sudden that when people relive it, they do not bounce back but simply relive it exactly as they did the first time. Also possible though, is that over time, people adapt to the situation and learn damage control sequences, really little more than will powered imitations of real health.

Whatever the case, though, without healing, the person can not visualize on the screen of their mind past the point of the BLock. This means, while they may learn to minimize the pain they feel, they will remain unable to see any beauty in these situations.

Here, then, is the real test for whether a wound has been healed or not. If it has been healed, the person can effortlessly see beauty where they previously went blank. If healing has not happened, then regardless of whether the symptoms are gone or not, the BLock is still there, albeit buried under will power and logical wrappings.

And for the therapists reading this, these two differences define the difference between behavioral "extinctions" and emergence healing. Behavioral "extinctions" do not alter the person's ability to picture on the screen of the mind. Emergence does.


The Visual Intensity Fractal for Healing - per Emergence Personality Theory

the 4th Pattern of Personal Consciousness: "Healing"

(emerging from a BLock)


Finally, here is the sequence of inner states which people experience during healing events. Notice that the sequence of three events in the midst of this event has changed from [1] hyperawareness, [2] startle, and [3] shock to [1] hyperawareness, [2] amazement, [3] and emergence.

Even from the sound of the words, you can sense how different this feels from simple symptom relief. More over, when applied to real life situations, the difference is profound. For instance, symptom relief in marital fighting would be will-powered conversations wherein the two people behave on the outside a lot nicer to each other than how they feel on the inside. With Emergence though, healing means peoples' outsides and inside match.



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