First feedback:
"I recently read some literature about combatting anxiety disorders and came across a useful concept.
The author - Howard Liebgold - suggests imagining there is a voice inside you which, though once a guardian, has now become a tyrant. This voice is the boo voice... or the boo monster.
The boo monster sounds then like a synonym for the tonal part of us that has been hijacked by the flyer, which each of us carry within our heads.
Liebgold has come up with some general ascertations about the content of the boo monster's voice.
he asserts that, amongst other things, the boo voice ALWAYS:
lies
exaggerates
catastrophizes
demeans
deprecates
and depresses
and he affirms that the boo voice is intent on scaring you (hence 'boo!').
In The Active Side of Infinity don Juan asserts that intent is best mobilized when it is focused on abstract goals such as freedom or sobriety. But the most specific example he gives Castaneda is that of "resolving the conflict of the two minds".
By 'two minds' he is of course referring to the flyer mind (the false mind), and the innate true mind.
Liebgold suggests an exercise for learning to recognise and expose the false mind (the boo monster).
The exercise is simplicity itself. When a thought comes along that fits any of the above categories, restate that thought with the prefix "the boo voice says..."
For example, the thought "I hate life" comes along. You restate it IMMEDIATELY as:
"the boo voice says, 'I hate life'".
In doing so you are learning to recognise the false mind for what it is, and at the same time detach yourself from it. (What Liebgold doesn't point out is that by recognising and exposing your false mind you are also unwittingly learning to recognise - what remains - as your true mind, and to associate with it more strongly.)
Try the exercise and you will, I think, be pleasantly surprised as to the nature of your true mind.
Resolving the conflict of the two minds must, by definition, end with the departure of the false mind (since the innate mind has nowhere else to go). don Juan often asserts that this process takes years to accomplish, and that sometimes the departure of the false mind can result in the death of the warrior. Once you have tried this exercise for a little while I think you will corroborate for yourselves (if you haven't already), that the true mind is up for this task and knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that it is equal to it. In fact, for the true mind, whether the departure of the false mind results in freedom or death is of absolutely no concern. What matters alone is undertaking the most engaging, exquisite task that is available to it at this juncture of its journey: "resolving the conflict of the two minds".
The boo monster's ONLY weapon against us is its voice. Learn to recognise your enemy and disarm it, and you are well on your way to defeating it.
Resolving the conflict of the two minds sounds analagous to other descriptions that don Juan talks about such as 'losing the human form'; and to the process he relates in which the tonal of the warrior is preserved but its crown is removed and it is dethroned, so that it may return once again to its natural state: that of being a guardian (protector), rather than a prison guard.
The moon is full, and the energy is high; no doubt this clarity will fade so I was drawn to share it with you now.
(Liebgold also asserts that "85% of anything read or heard once will be forgotten".... so re-read several times anything you think is important!)"
Baz