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Chana: Great. Can you give me another turnaround for rich people are evil?
Greg: Rich people aren’t evil? Isn’t that the same thing?
Chana: It sounds similar, but you might be surprised at the different perspectives your mind offers with a slight change in language.
Greg: Alright. Okay, I see one now.
Chana: What is that?
Greg: Well, there’s being good, like giving charity or creating jobs. But there’s also not being evil, which has to do with a person’s character, like how they behave.
Chana: And how do you think rich people behave?
Greg: I guess I don’t know. I honestly haven’t stopped and thought of them as people.
Chana: Would you guess that business owners make more money from being honest and fair or by cheating and being evil?
Greg: I never thought of it that way.
Chana: Which way?
Greg: Well, I know that if I walk into a laundromat, say, like Rick’s, and they were rude or charged me extra, I wouldn’t go there anymore.
Chana: What does that mean to you?
Greg: I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I can see you have to be pretty honest to make it in business. And nice, too.
Chana: How does that realization make you feel?
Greg: Good. Settled more. Calm. Like I’m more honest with myself. But now the thought of Enron popped into my head.
Chana: Why?
Greg: I guess I don’t want to be caught unawares. They were super dishonest and messed with a lot of people.
Chana: Do you have to believe that rich people are evil to be aware?
Greg: No. I guess not. I could do my research before making an investment. But still. Enron is a big deal. They fooled even the experts.
Chana: Big deal how?
Greg: They were all over the news, and people talked about it for months.
Chana: Were they all over the news because rich people are evil?
Greg: Yes. Well, wait. Let me think about this. The news usually announces stuff that’s surprising. If it was surprising what Enron did, then I guess it’s unusual. Now that I think about it, you could probably get away with being sneaky for a while, but it’ll eventually catch up with you as it did with Enron. In the long run, for people who care about the success of their business and their reputation, being a slime-ball is probably ineffective.
Chana: What do you want to do?
Greg: I don’t want to be a slime-ball! I want to be a good, upstanding guy. And I want to build a successful business.
Chana: How might you go about that?
Greg: I think having principles on my wall would be helpful. I want to remember what’s important to me.
Chana: Like what?
Greg: Honesty, Decency, Respect. Also, I want to guarantee my products because I want the customer to be happy. And I want to be fair to my employees and suppliers (sinks.)
Chana: Why did your posture change?
Greg: I haven’t been paying them on time. That’s not cool. I’m going to make that a principle: Pay everyone on time.
Chana: Anything else?
Greg: Yes, I want to grow as a person, and I want my business to be a vehicle for that.
Chana: How?
Greg: Hmm… through books and classes. I bet there are people out there who teach about how to grow a business on solid principles. I could read and watch them and share them with my staff.
Chana: How do you feel?
Greg: Strong. There’s no anger left. I’m just excited to move forward.
Chana: Is there anything else you want to do?
Greg: Yes. Can we work through the rest of my bogus beliefs on this Survey?
Greg had subconsciously decided that it was infinitely better to be an upstanding person in debt than a slime-ball on financially solid footing. There was thus always too much month at the end of his money. By engaging in Inquiry, Greg was able to disentangle the connection he had built between Wealth and Evil and free himself to pursue both financial success and a high-conscious life.
We can get stuck in a Bind when we believe that two things we want are mutually exclusive and can trap ourselves into thinking that no matter what we do, we lose. Doing a Double Bind Study allows us to question the underlying logic of our beliefs and opens us up to new ways of thinking.
Lugging around heavy meanings to otherwise neutral terms.
“History is full of the dead weight of things which have escaped the control of the mind, yet drive man on with a blind force.”
—F. M. Powicke
In the Double Bind Study, we got a chance to see how destructive it can be to intertwine two ideas together without thinking through the consequences of such a marriage of meanings. In this section, we’ll be delving deeper into how our minds go about understanding the world and how we can catch ourselves from developing beliefs that wreak all sorts of havoc. Lucky for us, Greg was carrying around a whole lot of Dead Weight, giving us ample material to explore.
Chana: Are there any other beliefs in the survey that stand out for you?
Greg: Yeah. “If I ask for help, people will think I’m weak.”
Chana: How highly did you identify with that one?
Greg: I scored a 9 out of 10.
Chana: I notice you clenching your eyes.
Greg: I’m embarrassed just thinking about it.
Chana: So if you need advice on how to build your business…?
Greg: I’d try to figure it out on my own.
Chana: And how has that been working for you?
Greg: I fumble a lot. I’ve learned so much the hard way.
Chana: You’ve had to; you’re carrying around Dead Weight.
Greg: What do you mean?
Chana: You’ve equated seeking help with weakness.
Greg: It’s another Double Bind. I can either get help and be weak or struggle on my own and be strong.
Chana: Exactly. You’ve got it.
Greg: So what’s the Dead Weight?
Chana: It’s a ball-and-chain you’ve attached to a word or concept. You know you’re carrying around Dead Weight when something you desire is dragging around something you loathe. They’re entangled with each other, which makes you feel twisted up inside.
Greg: Yes, that’s exactly how I feel. Tight and nauseous.
Chana: So, when you believe that if you ask for help, people will think you’re weak, what’s the thing you desire?
Greg: If I were honest with myself, asking for help would probably lead me towards success much faster than doing it alone.
Chana: Exactly, help is your target. The Dead Weight is the thing you’re avoiding.
Greg: Weakness.
Chana: The fear of weakness is so heavy, it keeps you from moving forward.
In Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), we talk about three ways the mind develops its map (story and beliefs about the self, life, and the universe) and processes the outside world.
We use Generalizations to quickly make sense of world.
It’s helpful to assume that the round thing in front of the driver seat in my car will function just like the round thing in a rental car so that I don’t have to rediscover the steering wheel every time I get into a vehicle. However, it can be destructive to use one negative experience with a man as the basis for the belief that “All men are jerks.”
We use Distortion to alter reality to suit our beliefs.
I can walk into a run-down apartment and helpfully use distortion to imagine how it would look with some touch-ups and a new coat of paint. Conversely, I can also use this faculty to harmfully alter how I hear another person’s offer for assistance as an attempt to manipulate me instead.
We use Deletion to filter out stimuli that don’t serve our beliefs
As I focus on writing these words, it’s important for me to ignore the rustling of leaves outside my window or the subtle temperature change brought on by my air conditioner. To my detriment, though, deletion might cause me to ignore a phone call from a new acquaintance if I believe that “No one wants to be my friend.”
As we notice these processes at work, we can viscerally understand how our consciousness is creating its version of reality minute by minute. We cannot keep our minds from generalizing, distorting, and deleting information, lest we go mad. What we can do is examine the beliefs that make up our maps. As is true with all Dead Weight beliefs, Greg has used generalization to make a sweeping assumption about what it means to seek help. He probably developed this belief at a young age, before he ever had a chance to examine its wisdom. Since then, he’s been distorting and deleting his experience of reality to only notice the people who have been weakened by the assistance of others, rather than strengthened by it.
Greg: It’s hard for me to imagine how asking for help isn’t weak though. Doesn’t it mean there’s something wrong with me?
Chana: I hear how strongly you believe that. It’s why Inquiry is going to help you. I’m going to mirror your question back to you. Does asking for help mean there’s something wrong with you?
Greg: Yes. It feels like it.
Chana: Now I’d like you to engage your intellect. Can you absolutely know that it’s true that asking for help means you’re weak?
Greg: I still want to say yes.
Chana: Thank you for your honesty. That’s all we’re seeking here. Now, how do you react when you believe that asking for help means there’s something wrong with you?
Greg: Tight. I want to hide my face in my hands. I want to get small and hide.
Chana: What are you unable to do when you believe the thought?
Greg: I for sure can’t ask for help. I think I get dumber, too. It’s like I can’t even ask myself for help. I don’t feel so competent or resourceful. (Eyes pop up.)
Chana: Why did your eyes just pop up?
Greg: I just realized how weak I sound. It’s like I’m already weak even without asking for help. I get so small from the fear of looking weak that it’s hard to get anything done.
Chana: I think you’re ready to offer alternatives to this belief. What’s the opposite of asking for help means there’s something wrong with you?
Greg: Asking for help means there’s nothing wrong with me? Chana: Yes. Give me three reasons that’s true.
Greg: I made my best friend in college by asking this kid on the quad who was playing bongos to teach me how to play. He was so excited to share what he knew, and we bonded over it.
Chana: Two more.
Greg: Hmm…. I can’t think of anything.
Chana: Do you ever hire an expert to do any of your work for you?
Greg: I hire an accountant to do my taxes. I guess that’s seeking help. I never thought of it that way though.
Chana: Why not?
Greg: I guess what would mean admitting that I was getting help. Then I would never get an accountant, and I’d have really messed up tax filing.
Chana: So you made up a story that hiring an accountant is not “seeking help” so that you could still feel good about the decision.
Greg: Yeah. Oh. I just thought of something. My clients ask me for help all the time. It’s why they hire me.
Chana: And do you think there’s something
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