Freedom From Failure
1
Discovering Our Gifts with Imaging
Eidetic imagery enabled me to pinpoint the sources of my character, its strengths and weaknesses, thereby helping me to identify specific capabilities. Imagery can be a useful tool for anyone interested in maximizing his or her business potential as well as personal development.
Hon. William Simon, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury
Confucius tells us that a picture is worth a thousand words. That statement is a thousand times truer when we scrutinize ourselves and seek to discover the person we would like to be. With images, mental pictures of ourselves and those around us, we can peel away the layers of our life and personality and uncover negative aspects that keep us from succeeding, and positive ones that propel us toward our greatest fulfillment.
Over the past two decades I have worked with thousands of people who have used self-imaging to achieve their goals, people at the top of their profession in the worlds of the arts, science, major league sports, government, and business. Some of these people are household names, women who led social revolutions and men who have managed America. Corporations, whose products are in every home in America, have hired me to work with their creative and management staffs to improve productivity and profitability.
And I have worked with men and women who wanted desperately to find love and just couldn't make a relationship stick, people who are stressed by situations at work or going through emotional meltdown from problems with their spouse or children.
By using imagery, Jacqueline Sussman allows us to re-enter past experiences and understand unexamined emotions. She gives us a map for inner traveling.
Gloria Steinem, author, publisher, social revolutionary
No matter what our initial goal is, a man or woman seeking love and fulfillment, a top executive wanting more success, or a professional athlete sweating out the last ounce of inspiration, the process of self-discovery through images is the same.
All of this work is done in the field of eidetic (i-det-ik) imaging.
Eidetic images are visual memories that each of us keeps stored in our mind. They are the emotionally charged record of the events that shaped us into the person we are today. Accessing them gives us deep insights and perceptions, not just about other people and situations, our lovers and bosses, our career or other goals, but about who we are and how we got to this point in life. They also reveal the grandeur of our beings. Deep within each one of us is a reservoir of tremendous power and ability that lies dormant waiting to be found. Eidetic images reveal our greatest potentials.
The images are not products of our imagination or fantasy, but are the actual visual record of the events of our life. They are prime memories full of meaning and emotion. While a simple apple may be part of our visual memory bank, an image of a person we love--or hate--is an emotionally charged image that we can examine with eidetic techniques to draw fresh perspectives about the person, ourselves, and the situation. We can tap within and discover new strengths to deal with any problem life throws at us.
This book evokes on your unique personal images, the visual record of the events that shaped you from birth. At birth each of us was endowed with natural talents and abilities and from that day forward we have been shaped and molded by the people around us, by our parents, teachers, friends, and society in general. Unfortunately, few of us have managed to reach adulthood without layers of negative self-images being imposed during the process. Often the people around us were well meaning, but the images they projected for us are still fraught with anger, fear, or anxiety. We have to dispel the layers of negative images and replace them with the positive images of the potential that already exists within us.
What were we like--what did the future hold for us--before other people layered upon us their false images? We can know our full potential by looking within and discovering the images of our greatness, which are like jewels in the psyche waiting to be mined.
Eidetic imagery has worked with my team of designers in a traditional corporate environment. Through use of eidetic images, the team was able to work throughdestructive behavior that was based on their perception versus reality. The images reveal insights that words could not convey.
Ivy Ross, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Barbie, Division of Mattel Toys
Most forms of self-assessment focus not on this all-important, all-powerful imagery that controls our actions, but on its insignificant symbol--words.
The importance of personal imagery is apparent. History, literature, and religion redound with examples of overpowering imagery. Genesis tells us that before God created the world there was darkness and chaos. Then there was light and imagery (which the Bible calls "form") and it was good ...
In this modern age we likewise recognize the unique power of imagery. The illustrations in children's books and movies remain with us long after the words and storylines are forgotten. The famous pictures of Abraham Lincoln, Marilyn Monroe, John Kennedy, and electrifying images of war and terrorism haunt us after the words describing those subjects are forgotten.
Shakespeare understood the transcendence of imagery over words. Hamlet is driven to death not by words but images of his father.
"My father, I see before me my father."
"Where, noble Hamlet?" Horatio asks.
"In my mind's eye."
Hamlet is likewise tormented by vile images of his father's killer, whose face he contrasts with his father's "as Hyperion to a satyr."
Eidetics give us the insight to unleash our full power.
Rick Peterson, Oakland A's Pitching Coordinator
Unfortunately, even those of us who have had the nicest parents and most comfortable circumstances have to unearth and resuscitate the marvelous person that is us, the person we were at birth with all our natural potential intact, before layers of fear and self-doubt coated us or left us at war with our emotions. To be the best we can, we need to rediscover our radiant essence. All of us have inner voices, images that whisper negatively and sometimes even cruelly over our shoulders, whether we are up to bat in the World Series, shyly eyeing someoneacross a candlelight dinner, or standing up to a domineering boss. We submit to these negative nuances without consciously thinking about it; when that happens, world-class athletes hit 300-foot foul balls instead of 400-foot home runs, our natural inner warmth and sensuality are not communicated to the person across the table, and fears keep us from expressing our true feelings to a boss or spouse.
Sometimes the negative images seem subtle and simplistic:
"Jane, don't be silly, you can't do that," and "Paul, you have to be practical ..."
When we have been subtly and inadvertently "programmed" to believe that success and happiness are out of our reach, we are not going to reach for the stars. To see ourselves clearly, we have to probe beneath this programming and discover our true radiant self. For most of us, rediscovering our unique selves will be as exciting as uncovering a treasure trove.
"This goes a step beyond Jung."
Elizabeth Kübler-Ross
Let's do a simple but important image that can give you insight into many situations in love and work. All you have to do is imagine someone swimming in a running stream. The person can be your lover, a coworker, someone you are having a problem with, someone you feel competitive with, or simply a person you want to know more about.
Relax for a moment. Then, keeping your eyes open or closed, whichever you prefer, see the person swimming in a running stream.
Watch how they swim. How are they swimming? Fast, slow, easily or with difficulty? Aggressively or just flowing with the current?
How do you feel as you see the image? What meaning or insight do you gain about them as you see the image?
This image allows you to gain insights into the person that are stored in your own mind. Every interaction with the person, all the subtleties that you would not recall if you were being giving the third degree by the police, coalesce and are drawn out when you see the person in your mind's eye performing the task. As you use other image tools set forth later in the book to probe the person, you can draw more and more insights about them or about your relationship with them.
These images are not fantasies but imprints of true, factual life. For example, an even more dramatic example of how these images are real imprints concerns our parents. It doesn't matter how old you are--wecarry with us from birth to the grave images of our parents. To do this image, "see" your parents standing before you in your mind's eye. Examine the image for a moment. See your parents standing in front of you. Do not worry if you see a clear image or just a sense of your parents. Who is on the right side--your mother or father?
Now, try to switch their position. Is there any tension or difficulty doing so? Whose side appears stronger, mother's or father's?
See yourself touching your mother's body. How does it feel? Is it cool, warm, or hot to the touch?
Now see yourself touching your father's body. How does it feel? Is it cool, warm, hot? Allow the sense impressions that you get while seeing the image to come forth. Just take your time.
Most people see the image of their mother on the right side and their father on the left. There is what is called an inversion of the images if this is not the case. Inversion will be explained later.
The fact that your parents had a certain body temperature (and the left-right positioning) in your images of them has significance in terms of not only your connection to them but to your own life energy. No matter how old we are, no matter how long we have been away from them, we tend to unconsciously emulate our parents--or react in the opposite. As we get into imaging and its results, we will discover that things as simple as the body temperature of our parents and their position in our image has influenced how we deal with the world--and why.
In doing these and dozens of other images you will gain enormous insights about yourself in terms of relationships, careers, and most other important aspects of life. For example, have you ever thought about why some people are sensual regardless of their features ... and others aren't, no matter how physically attractive they seem to be? In imaging you'll discover that sensuality is an energetic mind-body connection not unlike the mind-body connection that business executives and star athletes use to achieve success in their fields.
Throughout this book you will probe into your storehouse of visual memories and, just as you peel an onion to reveal layer after layer, you will make discoveries about yourself and learn how you can turn limiting images, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, abilities, attitudes, and reactions into positive ones. You will have the opportunity to look at your unique "history," all of those personality-shaping aspects from childhood to relationships, from school to careers, from failures to success. It doesn'tmatter if you have risen to handling millions of dollars as an investment banker, just want to be happy, or if you simply want tools to over-come negative states of mind! The women and men who have used the imaging process to find the treasures within them range from successful people who want to be more successful to people who simply want to succeed at a loving relationship, to those desiring to discover peace at times of stress.
The results are usually immediate and are often startling. And the most incredible thing about imaging is that it is simple to do in the privacy of your home and the results will be self-evident--you will not need anyone to interpret the insights you gain.
All you really need is the desire to take a journey inward and know thyself ... to discover the source of your strengths. Within each one of us, lying just below the surface is a treasure trove of energy, abilities, and power waiting to be released.
Eidetic imaging techniques are as old as the ancient Greeks and as new as the cutting edge of modern psychology. Just as many of the great movements of the past century's science of mind are identified with specific people (Freud, Adler, Jung, Skinner, and others), the pioneering work in imaging in the last half century has been performed by Dr. Akhter Ahsen. Today, as a result of Dr. Ahsen's seminal studies, the doctoral practitioners of imaging are associated with many of the great universities of the world (Harvard, Stanford, Yale, etc., not to mention great institutions in Britain, France, Italy, and around the world).
I have found that these eidetic images effectively and permanently free blocked energy that allows people to get on successfully with their lives.
Carol Jenkins, former Fox Five News Anchor
In a sense we will be taking the Hero's Journey, that path in life that each of us must take to understand ourselves, discover our innate strengths, and our place in the universe. Only this journey will be an inward one.
As you turn the pages, remember that this book is about you and your journey in life. Learn from the experiences of others, apply the techniques that have been so successful with others, but never forget that it's all about you. Looking inward can be thrilling, but is never lonely; even the best and most successful have had to search inwardly to discover their greatness.
This is your journey, but it is a well-trodden path, one in which the spirits of giants will be walking alongside of you.
As a key commissioner, I have to deal with severe challenges as a lobbyist for my agency. Eidetic images have bolstered my self confidence and made me feel invincible when I needed it the most.
Patricia Russo, Commissioner, Connecticut Permanent Commission on the Status of Women
An exciting and ingenious way of getting at conflict areas.
Contemporary Psychology
A unique and important contribution to the scientific study of healing with imagery.
New Age Magazine
Copyright © 2003 by Jaqueline Lapa Sussman
