Rod Sherwin's Post

How would you notice even a little bit that the shift had occurred?

Rod Sherwin | 03.02.08 | 10:10 PM |

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I would like to post the question asked in John Arnold's post "If a shift happened, would we know" in a different way with the idea of getting more specific answers.

Imagine a scale from zero to 10 where 0 is "the idea of a shift being needed has not even been thought of" and 10 is "the shift has occurred and we are living in the world after a great shift". Pick a number to represent where we are now on this scale; pick a number between 0 and 10. This number is entirely subjective for each person.

Now, here's the key question: how would you know that you were one step up on your scale? So if you are at a 3 now, how would you know you were at a 4? What would be different about being at a 4 on your scale as opposed to being at a 3?

Note that we aren't going from a 3 to a 10, but only a little bit up on the scale. Maybe it's only from a 3 to a 3.5. But whatever your number, how would you know that measure had improved by just one step?

Make you answers concrete and sensory based. That is, what would you notice happening around you? What would you hear people saying differently? What would you notice was different about how your day unfolded? Use all five (or more) senses to describe what you notice is different at just one step up on your scale?

I look forward to your answers.

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Member Comments:

Becoming aware of Shifts

Submitted by Karen Shue on March 18, 2008 - 11:41am.

I love this question -- I work with people's brains as a neurofeedback (brain biofeedback) provider using nonlinear methods of feedback and it is very common indeed that people experience changes - shifts in their ways of being, thinking, feeling, and/or acting - that they are just not aware of at the time of the shift.

I think this is partly the effect of changing the part (i.e., the brain) that would itself be able to become conscious of the change - often this is hard to detect from the inside ;-). It may also be the result of early shifts or the tiny movements toward a noticeable/conscious shift being things that happen at a more physical or other nonconscious level as "preparatory" steps for the whack-you-in-the-face changes.

So how do people finally notice these potentially subtle yet powerful shifts? Here a few I've noted over the years:
- Other people notice and say something
- Other people start responding to them differently (although they don't seem to be able to label the change either -- it's just that as one part of the "system" changes, the ripple effects have an impact on others as well)
- They find themselves doing something differently or responding differently to "typical" situations (e.g., "...and I stayed so calm, that's not like me, I would usually have burst into tears")
- They enter a situation they haven't been in for awhile and discover something about it doesn't bother them any more (or delights them in unexpected ways)
- They talk about "feeling" different -- in the beginning they aren't sure if this is real or imagined, but then as they watch it, it seems to suddenly pop over into a solidly felt change.

My favorite story is not my own, but is about a woman who came to neurofeedback with a fear of driving over bridges. She had to cross several bridges to get to her appointments, so always had her husband drive her. Several weeks into her training, the provider came out to say hello to her husband -- who was not there. The woman looked at him quizzically saying "Why would my husband be here? He's at work..." It turned out that she had been driving herself to appointments -- across the bridges -- without even noting it as a change that might be worth sharing with the provider!

In general, I find people aren't -- and maybe can't be typically - aware of the 3.0 to 3.5 kinds of changes, unless they are task-based changes or "satisfaction" estimates. In this realm of mini-movements, shifts seem to be of the "hmmmm" variety.

Significant shifts seem to be more of a bifurcation -- a sudden divergence from the way things/me have always seemed. And even then, the shift may be at some physical/spiritual level that isn't necessarily noticeable until they enter the "right" situation to elicit the change/bring it to awareness.

What a grest question!

Karen

Dr. Karen Shue
http://www.BrainandHealth.com
http://neurofeedback.blogharbor.com/blog

Setting things up to notice the changes

Submitted by Rod Sherwin on March 20, 2008 - 5:11pm.

Karen,

Thanks for you great thoughts on this topic. Your story about the women driving over the bridges is an analogy of what I suspect is happening in our society; that the changes is already happening but we keep running around saying that a change is needed. It is one of the reason's I asked the question the way I did. I find that if we ask ourselves to pay attention for the changes, that we tend to notice more of them happening and get into a positive feedback loop.

Regards,
Rod
Tap4Health EFT Practice, Melbourne, Australia

how would you notice

Submitted by Jutta on March 16, 2008 - 1:45pm.

the success of this web-site and the interest people are displaying in the law of attraction demonstrates that the shift is well underway .10 yrs ago quantum physics was considered to be in the realm of sci-fi and now we have products for sale based on quantum resonance . We can see evidence of a shift easily in the collosal interest in books like The Secret and web-sites like Innersource and Eft that teach people to manage their stress levels and brain functions as well illness without allopathic medicine

Shift = Identity Change

Submitted by Lawrence Carson on March 11, 2008 - 9:16am.

So when do I notice a mini "shift" has occurred?

When ever I can laugh at myself I know that a shift has occurred. However, if I can not laugh at my foibles I know I am still the same person that did them. And if I can laugh ... I am laughing at a person that I used to be ... but am no longer.

Self Humor ... is the road sign you have just changed ... along the road of disassociation.

However ... CAUTION ... these are merely notions seeking to enter into someone else's library of "Belief Opinions" ... aka BO's. :-)

Funny

Submitted by John K Arnold on March 11, 2008 - 10:32am.

I guess according to my laughing, I just had a shift. I laugh all the time. I find lots of things funny. I guess I have BO, belief opinions that I find funny. Now whenever I hear someone say "He has BO." I will be laughing. I guess we all have BO.

John

Analog shifts

Submitted by Jeffery DeCelles on March 5, 2008 - 6:54am.

I am shifting, Rod, but quantification is elusive. This seems intrinsic to the shift. The shift includes a re-normalization of sensory ratios, per McLuhan, from visual/linear to auditory/simultaneous, and a correlated shift in cognitive bias from discrete/digital to continuous/analog. I don't read much, but listen to podcasts and audiobooks a lot.
What this feels like, in my skin-suit, is: At a superficial level, I'm not sure who I am, day-to-day or hour-to-hour, "egoic indeterminacy" is a useful term; a variable degree of mild synesthesia has become commonplace, but remains manageable; my local environs have gained a subtle enrichment of emotional nuance; I have an enhanced empathic response to people, both familiar and not; syncronicity is more common.
I am familiar with this suite of affects. I am no stranger to psychedelics, but it's been years since I met them in the flesh.
What I am doing, which may be potentiating these experiences, is:

>Bio-feedback augmented meditation, using a HeartMath "emWave" HRV monitor, combining that with binaural-beat sound compositions from BrainSync.com, and watching the sound on a Media Player visualization. Twenty-plus minutes per day, on challenge level three of the emWave. This seems to mobilize kundalini, or similar phenomena.

>I've re-commenced working with PsiTrainer, an REG-based software product designed to develop Psi abilities. See www.psigenics.com. I have lots of variability in response, day to day, and tend to push harder when my effect size is larger.

>Nootropic supplementation, with recent addition of raw cacao bean nibs. Very interesting, may be boosting endogenous anandamides and phenethylamines. Other aminos include A-L-carnitine, L-glutamine, whey and soy isolates.

>I'm maintaining my link to this community, checking this site frequently, and interacting as much as time allows. I'm quite aware that orthodox medical types might be likely to impute pathology where none exists. I'm betting this crew, my tribe, will grok me. I've been down this trail many times, friends. What's different now is, the time is right. My work-mates in the mundane world "get me" pretty well, my domestic scene is stable, and spring is coming. Vive la difference!

When the going gets strange, the weird turn pro.

So, Rod, the sum of many subjective shifts, large and small, may be all we ever know about a Great Shift. Maybe some big Hurrah! will come forth, but I'm not looking for one.

Most, I think, are looking for the big shifts...

Submitted by Rod Sherwin on March 6, 2008 - 1:38am.

Jeffery,

I think most people are looking for the big Hurrah! shift, maybe at midnight at the start of 2012. But like you, I don't think this will be an overnight thing. I think it will be lots of little shift that will leave us looking back in 10 years amazed at the shift that has happened.

It is the reason that I asked the question the way I did; because I want to notice, and help others notice, the little shifts that are signs of the big shift.

I am surprised that no-one has been able to concretely identify the externally noticable and describle differences that would indicate a shift is happening.

Regards,
Rod
Tap4Health EFT Practice, Melbourne, Australia

Concretely...

Submitted by Jeffery DeCelles on March 6, 2008 - 10:15am.

I write this to you, Rod, and our global community, via a medium unavailable to common folk less than two decades ago. That's a Great Shift, where I come from.
I can search the web for any word, concept, or product, and get more results than I have time to sort, of adequate veracity, in seconds. The era of expert elites is dissolving. Great Shift #2.
The electronic equivalent of telepathy is available to me via a small device on my hip, which cost me less than two hours pay, plus a dollar a day to connect. Great Shift #3.
Every morning, I ingest a sophisticated mixture of nutrients derived from sources around the planet, intending to amplify my physical and neurological functioning to novel levels, and this costs me little more than a basic breakfast at my local diner. Great Shift #4.
Most mornings, I devote twenty minutes to a practice of intention/attention augmented by real-time biofeedback of subtle shifts in my heart-rate-variability, while driving my auditory cortex to specific brainwave ranges in cross-hemispheric resonance and driving my visual cortex in syncrony. All affordable on modest income, and unavailable at any price three decades ago. Great Shift #5.
Some may doubt the efficacy of these practices. I don't, and base my confidence on personal experience of physiological plasticity, first confirmed in weight training and athletic endurance training, then in recovery from organic brain syndrome consequent to acute alchoholism.
These adaptive practices were largely unknown in my youth, and are now available to anyone who seeks them, with sufficient zeal.
The relevance, as I see it, to the global shift is this: Western Industrial Capitalism, wedded to scientific materialism, is terminally addicted to fossil fuels, practices pathological denial regarding relationships to the planet and other cultures, and is approaching a "bottom" similar to any addict at the end of a run.
Bright spots are in evidence, recovery, though challenging, possible, and the potential futures, dazzling.

Concrete enough for ya?

The Bottom

Submitted by Butterfly-Bee on March 8, 2008 - 6:06pm.

Unencumbered
Hi Jeff,
Not feeling too happy, I've been pretty quiet. Just want to say that the idea of Western Industrial Capitalism hitting "bottom" seems to ring true....and then the recovery...

Also, it seems we've been shifting quickly for years. Think about 100 years ago...no flight, etc. and now technology coming forward in leaps and bounds with no forethought about results. Even that is rather like drinking too much.

Everything is shifting under our feet...even the earth's axis changed due to a tsunami.

First the chaos, from that...we will see. It's up to us.
Barbara

And in the future?

Submitted by Rod Sherwin on March 6, 2008 - 9:25pm.

Jeffery,

Definitely getting closer to what I had in mind. And, all those things you mentioned are in the past. They are the reason we are n on the scale from 0 - 10 towards a great shift. What I am interested in is how would you notice we are at n+1 on the scale? This means things that don't yet exist but may not be that far away. So, I'm looking for the next little shift and how would we notice it.

Cheers,
Rod
Tap4Health EFT Practice, Melbourne, Australia

Past, present, and futures

Submitted by Jeffery DeCelles on March 7, 2008 - 6:04am.

I'll click on the precog module and give an abstract of the feed.

Empathy. An escalation in episodes of immediate understanding of fellow human's inner experience. I get cut off in traffic and somehow bypass outrage, instead get a flash of the offender's perpective, see myself though their eyes. Oh.
This comes about through an increased permeability of boundaries, catalyzed by upwelling mind-field resonance. As the reference signal of [Human] gains amplitude, each little [Me] shrinks a bit.
(As the sun of We rises, the single star of Me dissolves in radiant blue unity).

One quanta of compassion at a time, the tower of ego-dominion comes down.

Quantification

Submitted by Chris Lowe on March 3, 2008 - 4:54pm.

Namaste Rod

I find as soon as I try and quantify any shift I sense happening on an individual, communal or global level the sense of expansion is diminished by needing to assign it a number.

Individually I rely on noticing the flow of things and I measure them in insights and synchronicities. Such as my elder daughter turning up Sunday evening with a boot full of plants which she had removed from her own garden. I had intended to buy the same plant that day but had run out of time. When such events happen spontaneously and answers to my questions or intentions occur in unexpected ways, I know I am "in the flow".

When a major planet changes signs it affects an individual's horoscope. Often times, a planet will change signs and then "go retrograde" moving backwards and forwards between the two signs before finally settling into its steady transit of the new sign. Similarly, I believe that in the sixties humankind experienced a taste of "a great shift" which we were not prepared for, and like a retrograde planet whatever influenced that shift receded in the mid seventies leaving only a gentle undercurrent of its influence. Hopefully we are now better equipped to handle such a shift. Without doubt that influence is once again exerting its full potency, as is evidenced by sights such as this and the growing belief that we can positively influence out lives, environment and planet by raising our consciousness.

I believe the more we form and release our intentions without expectation of how the result will be achieved; the more faith we exhibit in the abundance and magnanimity of the universe; and the more we realize the true creators we really are, the more we expedite "The Great Shift".

And if we didn't notice the shift; if it flowed as naturally spring water over smooth stones where would be the harm?

Chris

Submitted by John K Arnold on March 4, 2008 - 5:18pm.

Hi Rod, Hi Chris,

When I read Chris's note, I thought "Why did Chris's daughter put plants in a shoe?" Then I remembered you guys live in Austalia and a boot is what we call the trunk of a car. Now that I think about, trunk is a very odd word to call the compartment on the back of a car.

I like to read things that people write from themselves. Then, they are writing their own creations, expressing their own creativity, being the creative source. This seems to come as a shock to lots of people in the shift, consciousness and transformation area. In my groups, I find people like to talk about a technique, seminar, book or other things they attended, but find it hard to make it real in their life. Writing as you guys do, personally, is very refreshing.

John

Colloquialisms and Spell Checks

Submitted by Chris Lowe on March 5, 2008 - 4:21pm.

Thanks for your kind response John. My apologies for the colloquiallisms. It amazes me how our terminologies differ within the same language - almost taking the form of different dialects.

And don't get me started on spelling...; even when I set my Spell Check to English (Aus) - it still destroys any confidence in the perpetuity of the education I was given. I was taught to spell 'colour' this way and 'realise' that way, but Microsoft see it differently (along with a myriad of other common words) and I think that on this even Apple would side with Bill Gates. I used to get quite out of shape about it, feeling my cultural heritage was being undermined, but now accept that by globalizing methods of communication we are breaking down another impediment to free and open association. It still an gets my hackles up though because it can be so inconvenient.

So, now I've spat my dummy (read that as 'pacifier') in the dirt, I feel about 5 kilos (11 pounds) lighter.

Have a great day John, I'll continue to read your posts with interest and enthusiasm no matter how they are spelt.

Chris