Living Longer Column, February 25, 2010 (850 words)
Self-Analysis:
Discovering The Hidden Power Inside Us
by Art Kunkin
I ended last week’s column by observing that highly productive and “self-actualized people are motivated by what I call a sense of history, by a sense of knowing that other people have achieved great things and they, likewise, have the ability to accomplish great, creative, never-before-seen original works. Somehow, maybe by a sense of past lives welling up into their consciousness or, if you don’t believe in the possibility of past lives, perhaps by some genetic configuration of the DNA in their chromosomes, there is this inner sense of building on and competing with the achievements of past individuals.
“In short, perhaps what we need to do to become more creative, motivated, productive and happy creators rather than passive consumers of entertainment is to have a greater and more conscious awareness of our heroes and heroines. Decide whom you admire most! Read about them! Admire them! Feel them inside of us! Compete with them! Then set new goals! Then write the goals on three by five cards and post them on our refrigerators! Then start and complete a new ACTION!
“In other words, your role models determine your life!”
This week I am continuing those thoughts by suggesting that it is useful to occasionally sit quietly in a safe place and experiment with re-discovering that secret source of power within you. The procedure I advocate is to ask yourself some questions about your own past. Then experience your answers with passion and involvement as if your memories were events happening right now. Then experiment by focusing on one question for an extended period of time of self-analysis.
1: Have you ever been interested in a particular historical period? Have you ever read a historical novel and had an emotional feeling toward one or more of the people depicted?
2: Have you ever had a special interest in a particular geographic area? Where would you like to travel? Do certain ethnic cultures or foods have a special appeal to you? Did learning a second language come easily for you?
3: Do certain paintings, sculptures, art works, music or artifacts fascinate you?
4: Do you wear a distinctive kind of clothing? Do you buy clothing or jewelry with cultural or historical motifs?
5: What job-related skills come easily to you? If you were to go back to school, what classes would you like to take? What activities are you so passionate about that you would spend a lot of money to do them?
6: As a child, did you have an imaginary playmate? What was their name?
7: What are the recurring patterns in your life? What kind of people do you select for relationships? What kind of recurring jobs have you had? What are your recurring patterns in regards to finances, emotional outlook, self-esteem, repeated types of challenges in your life, etc? Have certain accomplishments come easily to you? Have you instinctively known information?
8: Does a particular smell, sound, sight, taste, touch or emotion prompt an emotional reaction or produce a particular recollection? So you have any birthmarks? Where? Do you have a fear or phobia for which there is no apparent cause? A fear of drowning? A fear of flying? A fear of spiders?
9: Have you ever had recurring dreams or daydreams? Are any of the distant past? Have you ever taken on a different identity in your dreams? Have you ever had any dreams in which the images were particularly clear and easily remembered when you woke?
13: Has a certain place or circumstance felt strangely familiar? Have you ever had a deja vue experience where it seems you are repeating an experience you have already had? What stimulated this deja vue experience?
14: Have you ever experienced “love at first sight?” With whom? Have you ever felt a stong liking or disliking for someone although there was no conscious reason to feel this way?
15: Do you feel like “mothering” or “fathering” a romantic partner?
16: Do you feel attracted toward one race, group of people, a cause?
17: Are you drawn to a particular relative, alive or deceased? Do you exhibit any of the same physical or personality characteristics.
18: Have you ever joked about doing something or being someone else in another life?
I hope you have had fun exploring these questions and used them to implement the instructions in the second paragraph of this column. I have prepared a longer list of such questions for a class I once taught and will be glad to email them to you if you contact me.
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Art Kunkin is the journalist who founded the alternative weekly newspaper, The Los Angeles Free
Press, 1964 to 2010. Art’s book, “Immortality: The Secret Finally Revealed” is available through
his web site www.alchemyrevealed.com. A free introductory report about his own research into
stopping aging published in the English magazine, Fortean Times, can be obtained at
www.immortality-is-possible.com. These Living Longer articles are archived at his blog artkunkin.com.
To learn more about his new organization, The Association For Living Longer (ALL) or to ask any question, his email address is artkunkin@gmail.com.