Waking Up

What Happens When You Wake Up?

By Van K. Tharp, Ph.D.

A lot of things are happening these days that suggest that something major is happening in the world. The US has our first ever black man as a presidential nominee. And it was to be either the first woman or the first black man. When I graduated from high school, I would have guessed that the possibility of the US having a black president in my lifetime was zero. However, I would have also said that the possibility of me being married to a dark- skinned woman, living in the South, was also zero and that happened 16 years ago.

I also think that there is a possibility of a major change in the world economic system soon. If that happens, it will change everything. Most people will find these changes very uncomfortable because major change usually is uncomfortable. In fact, some people have thought that I was being quite negative in my market updates and my view of what was going on. Well, you could make that assumption. But I’m actually quite positive because I think major change is happening that will, in the long run, help the human race.

So let me describe a little more about what I’m talking about. I have a great little book in my personal library by Jeffrey Moses (with an introduction by Mother Teresa) that is entitled Oneness: Great Principles Shared by All Religions. And by the way, as a modeler, I tend to believe that the shared principles are the key principles.

Well one of the key principles, one I’ve been telling people for years, is that “IT IS BETTER TO EXAMINE THE SELF.” Here is what Moses says:

Our activities and successes are based on our inner strength and wholeness. To grow, it is necessary for us to recognize and correct our own faults. Yet, it is difficult to do this since we hide our shortcomings not only from others but from ourselves.

When we gain the ability to recognize and correct our own bad habits, we begin to make rapid strides toward greater happiness and success in all spheres of life. Only by learning to admit our own faults can we become more tolerant and loving to our fellow man and to his shortcomings. p. 51.

Why Knowing Yourself Is Important to Trading Success

• You don’t trade the markets, you trade your beliefs about the markets. Thus, it is important to recognize the beliefs you are trading and determine whether or not they are useful.

• There are optimal mental states for trading and there are very detrimental states for trading. The first step is to recognize your mental state so that you can determine whether or not it supports you. Most people just identify with their mental state and thus don’t even recognize that they are being run by it.

• In order to trade, you must know who you are. And when you know who you are, then you can develop or adopt a trading system that fits you.

• You must know yourself before you begin trading. And when you know yourself, you can develop objectives that fit you and you can then use position sizing to meet those objectives (and it is position sizing, not your system, that you use to meet your objectives). The quality of your system only indicates how easy it is to use position sizing to meet your objectives.

Lately, however, I’m beginning to realize that there is a lot more. If you’ve been working on the Peak Performance Course, much of what you’ve been learning is the structure of the ego and how to reprogram yourself to function at a super level. It’s like Neo (from the movie The Matrix) taking the red pill instead of the blue pill. Once you’ve taken the red pill, you can start reprogramming yourself to do all sorts of super things.

Object Consciousness

But there is a level beyond the red pill. That's what Neo realizes at the end of the original Matrix movie. He’s not part of the matrix at all. He’s beyond the matrix. And when he realizes that, his power becomes much greater than anything in the matrix. Although I’ve seen the answer for many years, I’m now beginning to understand it from an experiential level. I recently heard Eckhart Tolle say that there are two types of consciousness, “object consciousness” and “space consciousness.” Object consciousness identifies with the objects in consciousness. A thought or belief comes to you, and you believe that you are that thought or belief or emotion. For example, someone might say:

· I am very sick.

· I am angry.

· I am trading well today.

Those are all examples of object consciousness. Information flows through you and you think that you are that information. You are your beliefs. You are your emotions. You are the subpersonality that seems to be in control of you at this time. When someone is in total objective consciousness, they are very "asleep." If your head is full of meaningless random thoughts and energies, and if you think that’s who you are, then you are in for a lot of pain and suffering.

Suppose you keep losing in the markets, and you suddenly adopt the belief that your system is not good. If you have that belief, then you’ll probably stop trading it. And you might become quite emotional about the belief, since it might be charged by your reactions to the losses you incurred while trading it. Think of the pain that comes from saying to yourself, “My system no longer works – I’ve lost a lot of money. I’m a big fool and I’ve lost a lot of money. Oh, poor me!”

But let’s look at that belief without the emotion. Your belief is that your system no longer works. If you’ve been trading a long term trend following system in today’s market, you might have such a belief. But wouldn’t a more useful belief be “I have a great trend following system but it doesn’t work well in volatile sideways and volatile downward markets”? However, until you thoroughly examine the belief to determine if it is useful, you will probably think it is a fact. And if you think you are the belief, you will suffer a lot.

Going to a New Level – Space Consciousness

Remember that beliefs are your filters to reality. They shape your reality. So it is important to continually look at your beliefs to see if they support you. In fact, most of the work I’ve been doing with traders over many, many years, has been to simply have them look at their beliefs and emotions so that they can reprogram themselves. But such reprogramming is hard to do 1) if you think your beliefs are facts (meaning they are real) and 2) if they are highly charged. I’ve usually had to get rid of a lot of charge to help people with important belief changes. However, I suspect that I’m going to be taking things to a new level shortly by moving beyond such beliefs.

And what do I mean by that? Let’s take one more step now and look at what Eckhart Tolle calls “space consciousness.” By space consciousness, Tolle implies that you are not the objects flowing though your consciousness at all. You are the AWARENESS of those objects. But you are so powerful at creating your life, that if you decide that those objects (beliefs and emotions) are you, then you will create that reality for yourself. But if you decide that you are just the awareness of your beliefs and emotions, then they are just things moving through you.

I’ve meditated for many years. I’ve heard the statement that you are not your beliefs and you are not your emotions. But when you suddenly understand that from an experiential viewpoint, it changes everything.

To learn more about Dr. Van K Tharp and what he offers click here

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