Refining Ourselves [Part 1]

I’ll bet I know what you’re thinking right about now: ‘Hold it! Even among my circle of friends, there’s a lot more depth and variety than just seven types of people!’ And, of course, you’re right. There is. That’s where the refinements come in.
Soul Age, of course, colors how we view the world, how we act and how we’re perceived by others—but even adding that to the mix would only give us 343 varieties—if we take each level of each age into account— it certainly wouldn’t account for the astonishing diversity on the planet.
So, how does Michael account for that?

Well, there’s imprinting, for one. That happens after birth —most likely during childhood. We’ve all said something or done something, stopped in amazement, and said to ourselves: ‘Oh, my God! I’m my mother!’
That’s imprinting at its most obvious level.
There’re more subtle ways we’re imprinted, as well. During our early growing up times, we take on subtle qualities that emanate from the Role[s], Soul Age[s], actions or words of one or more of our caregivers. Or we may take on world-viewpoints, ways of meeting the world, etc. that go back for generations of ancestors. We incorporate these into our personalities as we’re growing up. Some of them we may find useful. Others we may not like so well and spend time and energy letting go of in a determined effort NOT to pass them on to our children.
[Although I’m an Old Soul, as a child I felt a fair amount of body shame — it may have simply been a result of my personality’s developmental levels at the time — or it may have been imprinted from my (Baby) father, I’m not sure. I did, though, work to let go of that viewpoint during my teens and twenties and, I’m pretty sure, it’s no longer part of my makeup. If you check back, I’ll bet you’ll find similar experiences in your background.]
xxx
Then, there’s Centering: a characteristic we do choose before birth.
Again, there are 7 Centers—3 of which are most commonly used by people on the planet, 1 we may enter a few times each day and 3 more that we can, on occasion, enter into by focusing on them.

The Intellectual, Emotional and Moving Centers are the ones most of us use most of the time. They are the ways we respond to the world instantly. The 3 main Centers are equally distributed worldwide at any given time though different cultures tend primarily toward one or two. For instance, the US is, right now, primarily Intellectually Centered [50%] though Emotional Centering [40%] is a pretty close second and only 10% of the population is Moving Centered.
We each have a preferred Center and a secondary one we use as backup.

Here’s how Centering works during a crisis: Say a loss of a job occurs— people who primarily operate from the Intellectual Center stop and think about why it happened.
The Emotionally Centered folks will first respond with hurt, anger, grief, even fear at being suddenly unemployed, etc.
The Action Centered person will be up at the crack of dawn and head out in search of a new job.

The person in Emotional Center [of which I’m one] will process incoming information the most rapidly because, for better or worse, the intellect isn’t being used to dissect the data they’re processing before they respond. The Emotional Center gives a deep sense of knowing and intuitive assuredness. The process occurs much faster than the logical process does.

[Just for what it’s worth, about 2 or 3 months ago, I pulled almost all my money out of my bank accounts—leaving just enough to live on so checks wouldn’t bounce.
Against everyone’s advice and amid dire warnings about lost interest, etc., I piled it into a safety deposit box. Now, those people who warned me against doing that are seriously asking me if I’m psychic. I don’t think I am— I just pay attention to what is happening around me.
While I don’t know that any reliance on my Emotional Center was behind my choice, I don’t know that that isn’t why, either. It just felt like the right thing to do and I didn’t apply logic [even though that is my secondary part] —I just acted on my feeling.
And, just this weekend, my bank made the news. It looks like it might get gobbled up by a bigger bank. Who knew it was holding a bunch of sub-primes? Not me. . . .]

The person in the Intellectual Center will think through the data they’re processing. They’ll likely make lists of pros and cons when approaching a decision, for instance. They’re more linearly oriented —a way of meeting the world that is highly prized in our culture. The kids who make straight A’s and do well on IQ tests [even if they’re not the ‘smartest’ kid in their class] are operating from their Intellectual Centers. They can be scintillating conversationalists and deep thinkers.
Those in the Emotional Part [their secondary center] will bring their feelings into the mix—thinking their feelings through thoroughly or feeling through their thought processes until they feel almost dizzy from the effort.
The people in the Moving Part will not ‘get’ emotions all that well. Being intimate with such folks may require spelling things out as they are unlikely to be able to tap into the nuances behind the emotions involved. Remember Patrick Swayze’s character in Ghost? His fiance says, ‘I love you.’ He says, ‘Ditto.’

The Moving Centered person doesn’t stop to think or emote about what’s going on around them too much. Their favored way of meeting the world is to act. They’re balls of activity—always on the move. They’re so in touch with their bodies that they can feel what is going on around them before either emotion or intellect kicks in.
They’re the most likely to jog every morning before work and favor careers in aviation, construction, postal work, anything that lets them be out and about. They’re likely to pace, fidget and jump from one project to the next—often before finishing the last one. These folks may miss lots of deadlines —not because they’re lazy— in fact just the opposite is the case. They were too busy to finish on time.
If using the Emotional Center as backup, they may choose a career in dance— bringing a great sense of feeling to the movement.
In our society that favors intellectual pursuits, it can be distressing to live in the Emotional Part of Moving Center. These folks feel themselves to be out of touch with most of the people around them.
Princess Di described herself as being, ‘Thick as a plank’ although she was certainly smart enough to live a full life.
Those in the Intellectual Part of Moving Center may take on a career in acting or mime, automobile or computer repair.
Fred Astaire brought a very refined, intellectual feel to his dance style. And we can all see how Paul Newman never stopped moving— going from acting to racing to his philanthropic work without pausing to breathe.

We tend to be not-so-good at using our secondary, backup center and, as a result, tend to use its negative pole more often than its positive pole. For instance, I’m primarily Emotionally Centered with the Intellectual Center as my backup. And, I’m here to tell you, I used to think a feeling to death. An emotion could stop me in my tracks while I thought it through from end to end— ‘Why am I angry? [hurt? scared? worried? etc.] sometimes I would start going in circles.
It could be decidedly uncomfortable and took years of therapy to move past. I’m better, now, at just allowing myself to experience my feelings—but it has taken a lot of work and, when I’m under stress, I can still fall back into that pattern till I catch myself and consciously make my way out of the maze.

Likewise, a person with the Intellectual part of the Moving Center might become agitated or go off half-cocked when they experience stress. They can stall out as they try to bring logic into the process—thinking their recent actions through until they become thoroughly confused.

Or person in the Emotional part of the Moving Center may become frenetic during a crisis as the emotions get in the way of approaching the problem with the ordered application of appropriate action.

A person in the Moving Part of the Emotional Center may respond to a problem with the ‘Ready, Fire, Aim’ approach —doing exactly the wrong thing and failing to plug the brain in at any time during the process.

The way out of the trap is by bringing in our 3rd center. So, someone who operates from the Emotional part of the Intellectual or Intellectual part of the Emotional can most easily move away from feeling blocked by going for a brisk walk or run.

I worked with a client at a drug treatment center back in the 1970’s. He was what I would refer to as a Bantam Rooster. He wasn’t a large man—in fact he was about 5’4”. He would walk into a bar and pick a fight with the biggest, baddest, meanest, scurviest character in the joint—who would promptly mop the floor with him.
He desperately wanted to stop this process but just couldn’t do it. He would steel himself before going into the bar. He would talk logic to himself—ahead of time. But, once he’d had a beer or two, he was off to the races.
When he brought this problem up in therapy, I asked him what he liked about it. It took him a while to work it out but, it turned out, he thought [at such a deep level that he didn’t know it was there] such behavior impressed women. As soon as he uncovered the motives he had hidden even from himself, the urge to commit suicide-by-Hell’s-Angel evaporated. My guess as to his centering? Moving part of Emotional Center or vice versa.

Interestingly, long before I’d ever heard of Michael or Centering, I brought logic into the formula. In fact, this young man had already begun the process by attempting to apply logic to the problem prior to going into bars—even before he started therapy. At some instinctive level, we seem to understand that applying our least-used method of operation is the way out of our problems— whether or not we can effectively apply the approach.

The fourth most commonly used center is the Instinctive Center. We each tap into it from one to several times per day when we are showering, toileting, gardening, practicing meditation or yoga, cleaning the kitchen, jogging or walking [if we are in the habit of doing it daily and no longer really think about it] doing those things we don’t need to think about and those things that lend themselves to quiet, repetitive motion. These actions can lead us into a reflective mode which can, in turn, lead us into the higher centers.

A very few people spend their entire lives in the Instinctive Center. Charles Manson or other criminals who demonstrate the crazed stare are often living within this center constantly.
People trapped in a war zone such as Darfur or Zimbabwe are likely to devolve into this Center because their lives are at such high risk that they retreat deeply within themselves.
Likewise, schizophrenics and other psychotics may retreat to this Center, as well.
Hitler lived primarily in the Instinctive Center and, as a result, descended into his deep sense of xenophobia.

Sometimes, we can tap into it when we use deep forms of therapy such as Rebirthing, breath work or Rolfing.

If we become so ill we experience a high fever or severe pain we may descend beyond our usual centers and drop into the Instinctive level. We may, then, emerge with a new-found insight we hadn’t known was there because we were forced to face some reality we had buried at a very deep level.

As mentioned above, the Instinctive Level can be used as a doorway to the Higher Centers. We don’t choose these prior to birth but can, with discipline and focus, learn to tap them.
Yoga can, on occasion, be used for this purpose. I have used the deeper forms of therapy to reach them.
The Higher Intellectual Center allows you to glimpse the meaning of life and to fully understand why you are here.
The Higher Emotional Center lets you truly feel Agape for all creatures. The drugs ecstasy and ADM provide a shortcut though the actual goal is to be able to tap into it without the use of drugs.
The Higher Moving Center may, on occasion, be experienced while making love. It can also be tapped into when seeing an extraordinarily beautiful sunset, focusing on a single flower, etc.
These centers always leave one with a sense of peace and a wish to return to that state.