Finding Yourself: The Void Exercise

This exercise is designed to help you get a better feeling of who you are when you strip all social conditioning away.

It only works, if you follow the instructions precisely, and do not skim the text, as reading further than is required will spoil the exercise for you and you will bias yourself before even starting.

If you are ready to begin, then please find thirty minutes of uninterrupted time and a quiet place. You may want to take out your phone or another device and start recording audio (you can also just try to remember what is about to happen in as much detail as possible). Only read the first three steps before starting.

Step 1: Close Your Eyes.

You will now need to use your visual imagination. If you are unable to create images in your mind’s eye - then you can use any type of imagination available to you such as auditory, analysis, talking to yourself, etc.

Step 2: Go Into The Void

Now imagine yourself inside a complete void. This notion of “you” can take any form you like. So can the void. Beyond that, I will not say anything, as anything I say will prime you and will act as yet another social conditioning.

Step 3: Observe Yourself

Once you see yourself in the void, observe yourself. What are you doing? What is the void doing? Now is the time to let go completely and to continue doing the exercise for as long as possible, but ideally not less than 5-10 minutes.

While you are at it, you can speak out loud, describing your experience. If this seems to whacky to you (although I must say, talking to yourself is not that bad), then simply try to remember as much as possible. Enjoy, and come back here when you are done. Do not read further before you are done with this step.

DO NOT READ FURTHER BEFORE YOU HAVE DONE THE EXERCISE

NO CHEATING

SERIOUSLY

Step 4: Record

It is now time to record your journey. If you have already done so with the audio recording, then you can skip to the next step, or you can still make notes a journal.

Write down all the details. Did you move? Did you go fast? Slow? In which direction? Did you change directions? Did you start filling the void with things? If so, what kind? Were there colors? Were there other people or animals? How long was the void completely empty? What did your imagination do? What about sounds? Did you start falling asleep? Was it fun or boring?

Write it all down.

Step 5: Reflect & Bring It Back To Yourself

If we assume that your behavior in the void, in some form rep[resents yourself without social conditioning - what do you think it means for understanding who you are?

Was it in line with what you thought of yourself? Did your actions correlate with your beliefs? For example, if thought you were an optimist - was it all pretty and optimistic? If you thought you are not artistic, was it truly so or did you start creating worlds? Which parts aligned with your own beliefs, which ones could be classified as a surprise?

Finally, sleep on it and see if your newfound knowledge can help you have a better understanding of why you do what you do, and perhaps you will find a few things you are now able and willing to change about who you truly are.