Tangible Minds™

A strange experiment

Tangible Minds began 13 years ago with a simple trick of the mind that lifted my mood instantly. This mental trick went against everything I knew about how moods were supposed to work. It ignored all my thoughts, beliefs, and memories, and focused instead on the actual experience of feeling in the present moment. I threw myself into a full investigation, and what I discovered shocked me.

Seeing systems

I started to see how feeling-states have structure – we experience them as if they occupy space and have qualities of substance. To explore this virtual structure, I developed a series of simple questions about the location of a feeling, its texture and weight, its color and temperature and movement. It was as if I had created an x-ray for feelings, and was able to see them as tangible entities.

One thing I discovered is that feeling states show up in systems of three, four, five or more at once. Each one is connected to the others. Acting together, they drive vicious cycles of mood and behavior at the root of any problem issue. You can uncover these systems simply by repeating the question, "what else do you feel?" and following the trail.

Noticing patterns

As I studied these fascinating structures in myself and hundreds of other people, I searched for patterns. I wanted to make sense of what I was seeing. It took me more than a decade, because I had nothing to go on except the words that came from people's mouths as they did the work.

Here is a little bit of what I discovered:

• Sources: One third of our feelings connect us to an experience of source. This source is a baseline for knowing what is possible. If the source is open and limitless, that is how we live our life. If it is closed, we live with greater control and compensate for its lack.
• Boundaries: In order to create the experience of being a self in the world, the mind must create the experience of what is inside and outside the self, as well as a permeable boundary managing the interaction between the two. Think of the boundary as your identity.
• Nine parts: In any given situation, nine distinct feeling-states govern our experience. This nine-part structure is universal, and is based on three parts each for inside, outside, and boundary aspects of our experience.

Understanding the core structure of the feeling mind confers unprecedented power and freedom. You can very quickly get to the heart of any issue, deconstruct it, and then reconstruct it in a form that is supremely fulfilling.

How it works

A gentle journey to the center of who you are

The Tangible Minds inquiry experience begins with the feeling-states you have now, in the context of a challenging issue. It's a seemingly simple place to start, but the paths that lead from feelings take you to the core.

1. You start by identifying the nine distinct feeling-states you experience in the problem situation.

2. You then give attention to each feeling, one at a time, answering questions that give the feeling a tangible, sensory structure.

3. You invite each structure to change, following its inborn knowing, to its highest state. The change happens quickly, in a few minutes.

4. You look around at your life from this new place, and discover that you perceive and believe very differently, in a way that feels more true to who you really are.

5. Finally, you take the new feelings into your life and celebrate your new, empowered, authentic responses to the universe.

It's all about release

When a feeling-system is locked in a vicious cycle, driving unwanted patterns of mood, thought and behavior, you might as well be in prison. There's no way out using conventional tools. Any thought you try to think is created by the structure and perpetuates it. And while you can reduce the intensity or deflect the conscious focus by drugging the brain, the patterns will still be there.

When you go to the tangible core, though, and realign each component of the system according to its individual knowing of what feels best, its as if you've dissolved the bars and set yourself free. The system comes alive again, expressing infinite shades of feeling. I'll never forget my utter astonishment at the richness of my feelings the day after I ended my bipolar disorder. And when feelings are free to respond, so too is thought, behavior, belief.

The Tangible Minds inquiry practice is powerful. I doubt I've seen a fraction of what is possible when intelligent people are applying this work to the myriad human problems that exist.

What do YOU want?

Tangible Minds inquiry can take you as far as you want to go. Not only can it relieve current distresses like anxiety and depression, it can also routinely lead to states of being that many practices consider the highest we can aspire to. Honestly, I don't know how far the work can take us. I haven't seen a limit yet, but I intend personally to keep applying the work in my own life. It's been an amazing ride so far.

You can read more about your many options to pursue this practice on the Next steps page. Please contact me to ask about scheduling and pricing.