Learning to Perceive · What you learn
Why even good perception can be wrong
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].
If you perceive a lot, you quickly have a story. Four things distort a perception especially often: interpreting too early, prior knowledge, wishes and ready-made sentences. What you can do about them.
Learning to Perceive · Stumbling blocks
If you perceive a lot, after a few minutes you have enough for a story. The hard part is noticing when you have looked enough.
Good perception doesn’t protect you from interpreting wrongly. That’s why checking and being honest are part of perceiving.
The film whose ending you think you know
Rico’s words
For me it’s comparable to a film you’re watching. Where you always say too early, after ten minutes: “Yes, I know how it ends.” After half an hour: “I know how it ends.” After an hour: “I know how it ends.” And at the end of the film: “Well, that ending was unexpected.”
Rico Brunner
Why it hits precisely those who perceive a lot
You might expect that it is mainly beginners who interpret too early. But I often see people with good perception doing it too. If you see a lot, you quickly have enough material for an explanation. The explanation then feels like a result, even though the observation isn’t finished at all.
I know this from myself. At about sixteen I noticed that I perceive differently from many others.
Rico’s words
Of course, when you’re that young, you tend to interpret too quickly, to look at things wrongly. It took its time until I could develop a stable perception.
Rico Brunner
One principle helps here: from a person’s behavior you can’t conclude directly what their energy field looks like. The same behavior can have very different reasons.
How you notice that you have looked enough
There is no simple rule for this, not from me either. I can tell you that you have to learn to recognize it and that it took time for me. What helps is a fixed order.
If I’m unsure whether my intuition is right, I take a step back. I get an overview once more and look at whether I have really observed everything. Only then do I interpret again. And at the end I go through everything once more from beginning to end and deliberately ask myself: what have I forgotten? Often a new view is added then.
When your knowledge fills the gaps
At the edge of the forest stands a large dark figure. Your head says at once: a bear, get out of here. If you were mistaken, that’s no big deal. Going up to it first to take a look is living dangerously. This quick filling-in is vital for survival.
In perceiving, it gets in the way. What you already know fills the gaps before you have looked. Then you no longer see only the energy field, but a mixture of the field and a teaching that is supposed to explain it. And you start bending what you see so that it fits the teaching. For me, one of the greatest challenges was switching off my own knowledge while observing. If you have read and learned a lot and mix it with your intuition, you weaken it, because the knowledge overlays it.
Seeing what is, not what you wish for
The third trap is your own wish. That’s why, for me, honesty is not a side virtue. Without it I couldn’t have developed this work.
Rico’s words
But I could only develop the energy field work by concentrating on my values, by making an effort, by approaching energy fields with absolute honesty, so that I see what is and not what I wish for.
Rico Brunner
If you gloss over things, you see less. How the wish disguises itself as gut feeling is explained under What intuition is.
Ready-made sentences instead of distinguishing
Some people have a sentence ready for everything. An example: anyone who is unhappy has only themselves to blame. A sentence like that may be true in an individual case. The problem is that it is handed out without checking. It replaces the uncertainty instead of bearing it.
A ready-made sentence
- seems to fit everyone
- gets by without a question
- takes away the uncertainty before anyone has looked
A distinction
- applies to this one person
- arises from questions, one after another
- bears the uncertainty until something is clear
The same applies to whole teachings and philosophies. A philosophy is an assumption. It may work or it may not. Whether it applies to the person in front of you only becomes clear when you look. More about findings and assumptions under Learning to distinguish.
Be careful with advice you would follow yourself
Rico’s words
And that’s why, when you give people advice that you would follow yourselves, be careful and question that advice once more.
Rico Brunner, workshop
The question you then ask yourself is not “Is that right?” but “Does this come from me or from them?” What fits you can be wrong for the other person. More on this under When to say what you perceive.
When you were wrong
Being wrong is part of learning. In the past, when I interpreted something wrongly, I didn’t primarily want to know what would have been right. I wanted to understand why the wrong interpretation came about. Did I interpret too early? Did I overlook something? Did I see what I wanted to see? With these questions you learn more than with the sentence “I’m bad at this.”
Wherever you stand right now
In a hard time, a quick interpretation is especially tempting, because it promises something to hold on to. If you want to keep what you have found, you are more likely to know the ready-made sentences that have proven themselves. And if you want to develop further, you can easily trip over your own knowledge. In one person all of these can occur at once, depending on whether it is about family, a relationship or work.
Questions that come up often
- How do I recognize that my observation is complete?
- There is no simple rule. What helps is the fixed order of observing, questioning and checking, and the question at the end: what have I forgotten? In the workshop you ask the question for it afresh each time. More under What is practiced in the workshop.
- Does that mean I should mistrust my first hunch?
- No. You should check it before you build on it. That is exactly what makes it possible to follow it.
- Is a philosophy or teaching wrong, then?
- Not necessarily. It is an assumption that may work or may not. Whether it applies to a particular person only becomes clear when you look.
- What do I do when I’ve realized I was wrong?
- Ask why. Interpreted too early, overlooked something or wished for something? The answer takes you further.
When and how much you say of what you perceive is explained under When to say what you perceive.