Rules of the Game by Neil Strauss Page A

your mind, never to be known until you spend years on a therapist’s couch, only to discover that you’re a helpless victim of some random childhood event.
    King disagrees. He explains that we can, in fact, control our subconscious. “The subconscious is not an unruly, rebellious child, nor does it ever work against your best interests… Whenever the ku [subconscious] seems to be opposing you, it is because it is following previous orders that you either gave it or allowed to remain.”
    A good example of how you can train your subconscious involves changing habits. Mental and physical habits are learned responses stored in your subconscious memory and released by associated stimuli. Huna teaches that the only way to eliminate a bad habit is to give your subconscious a more effective way to deal with the stimuli.
    One strategy is to consider changing your speech habits. Maybe you litter your speech with brain farts and pausers. At some point in your life, perhaps these pausers allowed you extra time to choose your words. Eventually, they became a habit. Instead of accepting this bad habit or trying to quit cold turkey, Huna teaches that we must replace it. “The important point here is that there is no vacuum in the subconscious,” King writes.
    So instead, teach your subconscious to dump your pauser by learning to speak more slowly. Or train yourself to tap your finger against something every time you have the impulse to say “um.”
    Your subconscious wants to help you. It’s just that sometimes the subconscious gets poor training. “Your subconscious never works against what it believes are your best interests,” King writes. “Unfortunately, the assumptions on which those beliefs are based may be very faulty.”
    By interacting with your subconscious, King argues, you can understand your motivations and change the ones that aren’t effective. He provides several strategies for interacting with your subconscious.
    First of all, King suggests that you give it a name. Next, you can try one of two forms of memory search. The first is called a “treasure hunt.” For this activity, simply talk to your subconscious as though you’re chatting with a new pal. Name a memory of something pleasant and see what the subconscious brings back in terms of detail and vividness. Or you can ask your subconscious to return its own favorite memories. Memories you had forgotten will appear, and sensations will come flooding back.
    The second form of memory search is called “trash collecting.” For this activity, ask your subconscious to bring up all its worst memories. Do this enough, and you’ll begin to see patterns. “The memories will follow certain themes thatwill provide you with clues to areas of limiting beliefs that may be hampering your development,” King writes. “You may find, for instance, that a whole series of ‘worst memories’ in a particular session has a fear-of-rejection theme or a need-to-control theme.” When it comes to women, we’ve all had embarrassing experiences. But if these incidents aren’t properly handled in our subconscious, they can cause us to sabotage our own potential for success.
EMOTIONAL FREEDOM
    One of King’s main teachings is to stop being a victim to your subconscious, and instead learn to guide and instruct it.
    One way to do this is by striving for what King calls emotional freedom. Stop identifying with “the emotional reactions of your subconscious,” King writes. “When you say, ‘I am angry,’ you are identifying with the subconscious, and you may find it extremely difficult to get rid of the anger.”
    Instead, determine the purpose and origin of a new emotion as soon as it starts. Ask yourself, “Where did this emotion come from? Why am I feeling it right now?”
    These and other questions allow you to discover the sources of your emotions. Even