Imagine two assistants, one man and one woman, sitting on the chairs in your mental laboratory. The idea of using imaginary assistants to help de-
velop your intuitive faculties is not new. In 1937, Napoleon Hill, in his book
Think And Get Rich explains how he had the idea of gathering together a
group of illustrious personages in his imagination, in order to acquire some of their qualities for himself.
What started off as a simple exercise in autosuggestion took a strange turn. Each of his imagined personalities began to develop their own habits. Abraham Lincoln, for example, would always arrive late, and Hill sometimes had trouble preventing the others from arguing with him about his lack of punctuality!
“For the last few years, the experiment has taken a completely unexpected turn. I now consult my group of imaginary councilors whenever I am faced with a difficult problem. The results are often quite amazing.”
John C. Lilly, the celebrated neurologist, who studied the human mind using various techniques, including meditation, LSD, hypnosis, Gestalt therapy and sensory deprivation, had firsthand experience of death after a couple of near-fatal accidents.
“Each time I was very close to death, each time I really thought I was going to die, two persons - I can only describe them as mentors - appeared in my mind. Now, whenever I have a difficult decision to make, these same mentors come to me and advise me what to do.”
When asked if his mentors were projections of his own imagination, Lily replied, “It is possible that my guides are aspects of my own subconscious or super-conscious mind… I really don’t know.”
Carlos Castaneda, initiated into the mystical practices of the Hopi Indi- ans in New Mexico, often talks about his ‘allies’ as he calls them. For centu- ries the Catholic Church has encouraged believers to pray to guardian angels and saints.
The idea of imagining two assistants, a man and a woman, originated with José Silva, and corresponds to the concept of animus and anima pro-
posed by Jung. In men, the anima, or feminine, intuitive, artistic part of the self, is repressed, for obvious cultural reasons (a man should not seem to be effeminate, but always appear virile and strong).
The opposite is true for women. The animus, the logical, rational, con- ceptual part of the mind, is repressed, because women should not appear to be too masculine.
“It is because we do not make conscious, intentional use of both aspects, considering them to be normal functions of our being, that the anima and animus tend to create personality problems. As long as the repression contin- ues, the two aspects manifest themselves as relatively independent parts of our personality. They cannot be fully integrated as long as we continue to ignore one or the other.”
Creating symbols for the animus and anima allow us to express parts of ourselves that would otherwise be repressed.
Neuro-physiology has recently added a new stone to the edifice of our understanding of the mind: it seems that our two cerebral hemispheres con- trol very distinct types of activity. The right brain corresponds to the anima and to spatial perception, while the left brain corresponds to the animus, and controls language functions.
Robert E. Ornstein, who discovered the distinction between right and left brain functions, regrets the latent cultural conflict that exist between these two modes of thinking - the linear, logical, verbal, left brain type of thinking glorified by science and technology, as opposed to the intuitive, emotional right brain way of thinking, related to the arts, spirituality, and creativity in general. In fact, our culture has been built by persons using both logical and intuitive thought, and to say that one is better than the other is a mistake.
On the contrary, people have to balance their right and left brain func- tions in order to become complete human beings, just as each twenty-four hour cycle is a balance between day and night. The right brain’s powers of imagination, intuition and dreaming should be taken into consideration, and
not be ignored as a futile waste of time and energy, as so many people tend to do. Ornstein goes so far as to say that developing right brain functions is an essential factor for our individual and cultural survival.
I have often found myself in conversation with theosophists or spiritual- ists who say, “You talk about guides or assistants, but why are you hiding who they really are? Why not admit that they are guardian angels, sent from above to help you?”
I have no doubt that people who believe strongly enough in spirits will encounter them. I, on the other hand, prefer to maintain my own vision of the way things are. As John Lily said, “Everything we believe to be true is true, or at least becomes true in our mind. Of course there are certain limits that have to be determined experimentally and individually. These limits, in turn, rep- resent new beliefs, which must eventually be transcended.”