Journaling Dialogue - could you help me?

[CharlieBrown]

Could anyone, with experience on the below, please be so kind to shed some light on this form of journaling for me?
Where is the point of "pretending" to have a dialogue? I guess it must be related to the concept that all answers are within us, so this must be a way to facilitate finding those answers. But is this not extremely dangerous to do things like pretending that we have a dialogue with God and we "make him" say what we want to hear?

Any help, very much appreciated in advance.

CB

(from Personal Growth through Self Awareness, published with permission of the Author)

Journaling Dialogue

This is one of the most popular and powerful journaling tools. In a Journaling Dialogue, you carry on a conversation, making up both parts. Your dialogue partner can be any of the following – a person (living or dead), a family member, a problem, a body part, a thing (e.g. a car), an event or incident, your soul or God – anything. There may be an individual or an event that plays a key role in your specific challenge, or you may choose to have your conscious mind engage with your higher mind. Or you may talk directly with your challenge and ask it any questions you want. The choice of a dialogue partner is yours.
[snip]
First write “ME:” and write your question for your dialogue partner. Then write down the name of who or what you are conversing with and his/her/its response. Then ask another question. You make up the response. You do both parts of the dialogue. Your partner can also ask you questions. Trust the process. Use your imagination. Make it up.
As you get into the dialogue, ask questions like: “Is there anything else?” “Is this the truth?” “Is there more you can tell me, so I have full understanding?” “What is the meaning of this situation?” “Why did this happen?” “What should I do next?”

This is a good exercise to do for 10 to 30 minutes. When you have completed, read over the dialogue and write a short summary.

[GilesC]

I've never done this sort of exercise like it's described here.

I would hazard to guess that the point of this is becuase it brings us to the present moment, especially if we just write down the first thing that "comes to us". Typically when we write write something down we will ruminate and cogitate (i.e. think about it a lot and change things), such as we will often do on these forums (although personally I now tend to just write straight down what comes to me).

When we "think" about what we are writing, we will let our emotions, judgements etc. get involved and this will cause us to base what we are writing on things from the past; our past experiences, past learning etc.

However, when we simply write down the first thing that comes to mind, we are being more present, less judgmental and writing from as close to the Truth as we can. (This is why the exercise above says that when you have completed it, you can then go back and read it and write a summary; because you haven't let the dialogue come into the conscious thoughts and be influenced).

By doing this is the style of a dialogue, it simply allows us to create a flow of question and answer. If you were to try and just write, you will probably get your mind involved and get stuck thinking about who your audience it, what it is you want to say etc. etc.

So, by "pretending" to have a dialogue, you are correct that this is around the concept that the answers are already within us. As for it being dangerous, I guess that would only be the case if you were to use your dialogue in a dangerous way i.e. to try and control or hurt others in the physical world.

Hugs

Giles

[CharlieBrown]

Giles - thanks (as usual) for your comments.

Today I have "done" this exercise, and I must say I have been very impressed with the outcome. I pretended I was talking to God: I am not saying I got into some kind of trance, but something really weird happened. I started the exercise trying to have an open mind, but there in the back something was telling me: "this is really silly, this is really pointless, I will have no clue about what to write". Then the dialogue just started to flow, effortlessly, and the more I was getting into it, the faster I was writing.

After about 30 minutes I was drained: I stopped, went for some water, and came back. Then I reread the whole thing, and for the life of me, there are things written in there which I don't even remember I wrote, and the more I read them, the more sense they make to me.

What I believe is happened is that, for some reason, my unconscious mind took control, during that writing exercise, and pull out things that were deep in me.

I hope I am not losing my mind and getting crazy or something like that...

[GilesC]

Originally Posted by CharlieBrown

... there are things written in there which I don't even remember I wrote, and the more I read them, the more sense they make to me.

What I believe is happened is that, for some reason, my unconscious mind took control, during that writing exercise, and pull out things that were deep in me.

I hope I am not losing my mind and getting crazy or something like that...

No, you're not losing your mind (not in the sense you're talking about anyway ).

I would equate it to driving a car. Once we're familiar with how to drive it just becomes automatic and we don't have to think about what we're doing.

Likewise, with our knowledge, we already know everything, but our "mind" get's in the way and put emotions and judgement on top of the knowledge twisting it around and disrupting the flow, a bit like you would end up driving if you actually tried to think about it (you'd be all over the place).

So, you've let the controlling mind go and just let the knowledge flow out.

Spot on! Well done!

Hugs

Giles

[CharlieBrown]

Makes sense - thanks for sharing, Giles!