ONE BRAIN... TWO MINDS - A MAGICIANS PERSPECTIVE

By Steve Trash - Illusionist, Eco-Educator, and Rockin' Eco Hero

I'm a professional magician, but I'm NOT a super-great-magician.  I'm pretty good.  

I've SEEN great magicians and I KNOW what they look like. I'm pretty good, BUT... I know this is true. 

 I AM... a GOOD thinker. I LOVE ideas and I love pondering stuff. I love asking the question... why?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not that smart, but I think and read and ponder. Sometimes I ponder deeply. Because my job is about understanding PERCEPTION (you gotta know something about perception to make it APPEAR THAT you can defy the laws of nature) I read and think about perception and how the mind works... a lot.

Here's something that MOST PEOPLE do not understand and I'd like to share with you. I think it will help you. I KNOW it has helped me.

You and I have ONE BRAIN, but we have TWO MINDS.  First is the FAST mind - (LEAPING LIZARD is what I like to call it) - great at quick decisions/gut reactions/involuntary responses.

Our second mind (remember one brain... two minds) is the SLOW mind - (WISE OLD OWL is what I like to call it) great at wisdom and long term decisions - which college to attend/meaning of life/how to treat others/truth/etc.

Because of the way our BRAIN is designed, we sometimes use our LEAPING LIZARD mind when (instead) we should be using our WISE OLD OWL mind.

Here's why... we NEED both minds... fast and slow. Fast is GREAT at super-quick-decision making (hear something scary in the woods... get outta there) - SAFETY - and slow is GREAT at getting to TRUTH.

Here's the problem, because we are UNAWARE that our brain has a fast and slow mind, we sometimes STOP at the emotional LEAPING LIZARD reaction to an event and do not ponder it any deeper - WISE OLD OWL. 

Instead of getting deeper to the TRUTH of the matter... by sending it to the WISE OLD OWL for contemplation, we react/respond/retweet/share something that (had we taken the time... we'd know is false or simply not accurate or possibly even destructive).

We tend to have an emotion/quick/reaction to something and just STOP there.

If we have a viscerally strong response to something or someone.. (good or bad), we may STOP at the LEAPING LIZARD mind and never consider that we've fallen short of THE TRUTH. We had a strong emotional reaction... so that must be TRUTH (it isn't necessarily truth) and it's the WISE OLD OWL'S job to discern truth... not the LEAPING LIZARD'S.

LEAPING LIZARD is GREAT... if you're jumping out of the way of a speeding car, or a foul ball is heading right towards your head, but it's TERRIBLE if you're evaluating your behavior as a human being or trying to seek wisdom or looking for TRUTH.

So... Consider doing this... PAUSE... and go DEEPER... if your LEAPING LIZARD brain is yelling... "That group is BAD". "Those people are evil." "I'm on the GOOD TEAM." Pause... and simply send this idea to THE WISE OLD OWL.

Next time you have a super emotional response to... anything... pause and ask the WISE OLD OWL to take a look.

Now... If the LEAPING LIZARD says, "it's Sunday, I should be happy..." then go and have a happy day! The WISE OLD OWL would agree. Thanks for reading.

#leapinglizard #wiseoldowl #happyday #fastbrain #slowbrain #theundoingproject