Learning to Perceive · What you learn

Learning to distinguish

Please note: the workshops are currently held in German only. I plan to offer workshops in English at a later date. If you would like to learn this and organize a workshop in English yourself, you are welcome to send an inquiry to [email protected].

The core of both workshops. The question is not whether you perceive, but where a perception comes from and what exactly it says. Distinguishing means asking further, one fork after another.

Trust or check?

In one workshop a participant told me she didn’t trust her perception. As soon as she perceived something, the feeling came that she was just imagining it all.

Rico’s words

So if you asked me now, do I trust my perception? No. I don’t trust my perception, because I check it all the time.

Rico Brunner, workshop

I told her that this is a good start. If you question your perception, you have already done the most important thing. The point is to keep practicing anyway, until you notice whether what you see is right or not. Then the feeling of imagining things disappears by itself.

By the way, this feeling is not a check. It is overwhelm, because you can’t do it well enough yet. It says nothing about whether your perception was right or wrong.

Six questions about where a stirring comes from

When something stirs in me, I ask myself where it comes from. Is it something someone talked me into? Do I wish for it? Am I imagining it? Am I thinking it? Am I sensing it? Or am I perceiving it?

This distinction only succeeds with practice. At the beginning I mainly asked myself one single one of these questions. You can try it out today.

Rico’s words

I did that with myself at the beginning by always asking: is this my wish now, or does it fit him?

Rico Brunner, workshop

Checking is not mistrust. It is the reason I can follow my perception. Whether you say “see” or “sense” doesn’t matter. Some put it one way, others another.

The first question every time you look into a field

When I look into an energy field and see something, I first ask one question: did the person cause this themselves, or did it come from outside? In the workshop we practice this with happiness. Is someone happy because they have learned to be happy? Or because they have just fallen in love? In the second case the happiness depends on something that can pass again.

This question has nothing to do with blame. It asks about origin, not for a judgment. A strict rule applies to it:

Rico’s words

And if I’m not sure whether it’s self-caused or caused from outside, then I mustn’t ask the next question. Because otherwise I might as well toss a coin.

Rico Brunner, workshop

A question at an open fork produces an answer that looks like a result and is still only a coin toss. How the exercise for this goes is explained under What is practiced in the workshop.

Why every answer determines what you can still see afterwards

Every question has two outcomes. With three questions there are eight possible paths. With ten yes-or-no steps there are over a thousand, with twenty over a million.

These numbers sound overwhelming. But you don’t have to see all the paths. You only have to recognize which fork is the right one right now. That’s what you concentrate on, step by step.

If you take a wrong turn early, you can still correct it later. But on this path you won’t reach a particular insight anymore. That’s why in the exercises we take our time and allow different possibilities before we commit.

Questions that take you further

Don’t stop at the first explanation. Four questions help with this: Why is it like this? How does it play out? Is it really a problem? Are there other reasons for it?

Distinguishing often also means ruling things out. An example: before a trip there is a fear. Is it the trip itself? You feel into it and notice that it isn’t the trip. You keep asking and find the worry about someone who stays behind. This too takes practice before it works.

What you see and what you only assume

Rico’s words

And the greatest danger in energetic work is making assumptions.

Rico Brunner, workshop

When I look at a wall, I don’t ask myself whether it is made of wood. Either I see that it is made of wood. Or I say: no idea, it could be something else too. Then I don’t speculate. What lies between these two is the assumption: an addition that fits well but hasn’t been seen.

There is a third possibility. A perception you don’t understand, you can leave as it is. You don’t declare it wrong; you come back to it later. That takes courage. I myself had a time when I perceived so much that I asked myself whether I was going crazy. I put that question off until I understood enough to be able to answer it.

When it is enough

Distinguishing can also go too far. If you keep asking and asking, at some point you build yourself a big story and get lost in it. Often the solution is simpler. And if you go through every person with the same scheme, you get wrong results, because every person is different.

For me, distinguishing now happens quickly and almost by itself, because I have learned it and practiced it very often.

Wherever you stand right now

When a lot is flooding in on you, the question “Is this mine, or does it belong to the other person?” helps bring some order into it. If you want to keep what you have found for yourself, distinguishing protects you from following a quick assumption. And if you want to develop further, it is the tool with which you ask more precisely. A person can stand in different places in the family, in a relationship and at work. The questions stay the same.

Questions that come up often

How do I know whether I’m just imagining it?

At the beginning you can’t know for sure, and that’s okay. The feeling of imagining things is overwhelm from too little practice. It lessens as you practice and check afterwards. More under What is practiced in the workshop.

Can I trust my perception?

I don’t trust mine blindly; I check it continuously. That is exactly why I can work with it.

Does “self-caused” mean someone is to blame?

No. The question is about origin, not a judgment. It only decides which question comes next.

Do I have to keep all the possibilities in my head?

No. It’s enough to recognize the right fork at each point. You write down what you see so that your head stays clear.

What do I do if I can’t find an answer?

Then you say “no idea” and leave it there. That is an honest result. An assumption in its place would not be one.

Is distinguishing a talent?

It is mostly learned. More under A craft, not a gift.

What most often gets in the way of distinguishing is explained under Why even good perception can be wrong. How it is practiced in the workshop is explained under What is practiced in the workshop.