Voice Dialogue is an excellent tool to explore and extend our personality, helping us to navigate our world more effectively from the centered and grounded reality of the Aware Ego Process. The focus of Transpersonal Dialogue is to reconnect us with our Essence, a space within us that is more than our personality, where past and future fade away and we are deeply present in the Here and Now. Our intense attachment to the idea of a separate Identity starts to fade away and we are deeply connected to the universe and all living beings. Combining Voice Dialogue and Transpersonal Dialogue opens the opportunity to live our lives consciously grounded in our personality as well as deeply connected to a sense of spacious Being.

 Who Are We?

There are a multitude of spiritual practices supporting people in the search for Enlightenment, Stillness, Being, Flow, Connection to Source. Voice Dialogue is in itself a consciousness process that can take us to a similar experience. By fully identifying with a self and then separating out and dis-identifying from this self, we can come to the realisation that even though we contain all these selves, we can also watch and describe them, therefore we are not them. So who are we? This can be disconcerting, especially if we are attached to the idea that we are a separate individual. Developing an ever increasing Aware Ego Process through Voice Dialogue and other practices it is possible to handle the sense of emptiness, dissolving and merging that can be experienced when following this path of inquiry.

Another pathway is to work with a group of Primary Selves, what I call "the Gang" which can include the Rulemaker, Perfectionist, Pusher, and Critic, etc. After such an exploration people often experience the pressure, stress and depression that an overactive Primary Self System can produce. If I ask at that moment for a part of them that is not trapped within that system and we find a space in the room where this energy would be, we might drop into a Source experience.

Using elements of Genpo Roshi's Big Mind - Big Heart process is anotherway to deliberately access the Transpersonal, either with individuals but especially with groups. After training with Genpo Roshi some years ago I have integrated some of his processes into my teaching.

Transpersonal Dialogue

The reason I make a distinction between Voice Dialogue and Transpersonal Dialogue is that I have a sense that when I work with people once they are in an expanded sate my intention, focus and method changes. Initially I support the client in learning how to keep coming back to stillness by noticing other Selves that come in and practicing letting them go. These are usually Primary Selves like the Pleaser who is aware of being watched and wants to do it right, or the Critic that comments on this, the Rational Mind trying to understand what is going on, or some kind of Pusher wanting to make sure that the client remembers how to do this again next time. I invite the client to stay centred in Presence and let parts of the personality come and go, without judgement or attachment. Because the energy is contagious it is possible to induce the experience in the client by raising the vibration within myself. Once I have a feeling that the client has more continuous access to the energy I will start to extend and ground it by asking people to open their eyes, look around the room, connect with me and even walk around and talk. My role as a facilitator is to keep being connected to the spaciousness and notice when they lose that experience and bring them back to it. This process gives them the experience of being able to be active and linked to another person whilst resting in the experience of Being. Most of us have only experienced this kind of expansion when we are alone and inactive or through intense meditation or peak experiences. To be practicing this in a session can be life changing.

Towards the end of this exploration, before going back to the Aware Ego place, I usually spend some time brainstorming with the client about ways to remember and access the Transpersonal, such as meditation, being in nature, gardening, dancing, listening to certain kinds of music, etc. 

The Aware Ego Process

When I started working with this in the mid-nineties I had a tendency not to want to come back to the centre and reconnect with the personality. Clients often experience this shift as artificial, awkward and restricting, they want to stay in the expanded state. But the real gift of this exploration is, as always in Voice Dialogue, the Aware Ego Process. From here we can sit between the polarity of our personality on one side and Being in Source on the other. We can practice bringing both energies in and out and learn to have some choice about the intensity by dialling them up and down. Having more awareness and choice creates the possibility to start living grounded in Being whilst connecting with life out there through our personality with an Aware Ego process activated. 

The Transpersonal as a Resource

Apart from the obvious benefits of having more deliberate access to a space of emptiness and deep connection to the universe, this process can
also support people through difficult times. When life challenges us with illness, loss, trauma, aging, etc. our Primary Self system gets more activated to protect our vulnerability. Voice Dialogue teaches us to connect to our vulnerability directly and then having deliberate access to Source expands our capacity to take care of ourselves more consciously and stay present and connected during those turbulent times.

Training Other Facilitators

We know that it is important as a facilitator to have access to a part in order to be able to facilitate it in any depth. This is especially the case with the transcendent energies, as they are so subtle and refined that their presence can easily be missed. On the other hand, people who are interested in working with the Transcendent are often unconsciously identified with it. The Higher Self has become a Primary Self protecting them from the experience of their vulnerability and other parts of their personality. It is therefore important to become aware of and separate from any spiritual Primary self-system. 

Because the transcendent energy often comes through a deep experience of a Disowned Self, trainees have to become comfortable and confident with working with disowned energies. They have to be able to walk into the jungle whilst holding the Aware Ego Process for the client and themselves. 

It also takes some skill to notice the presence of a gateway, being able to intentionally access Beingness and then help the client to keep out interrupting voices and expand the transcendent energy. If inducing and holding the space presents challenges, being able to then connect with the client from emptiness and assist them in grounding the energy is often very confronting. A strong sense of intimacy opens up when we connect in this way with someone and it can be difficult for the facilitator to allow this to happen and be able to hold the impersonality of an Aware Ego at the same time. 

The work with the Aware Ego Process at the end of the session is important as well. Trainees need to know how to assist people in bringing in both energies (Personality and Transpersonal) and then consciously release the intense connection that often occurs between facilitator and client in this work. 

As with all aspects of facilitating, the personal gains for the trainees are immense. I often teach facilitating to participants even though they will never become facilitators. Learning how to be with another person from an Aware Ego space with mindfulness, non-judgement and total focus, is an incredibly empowering and satisfying skill. And if we can turn this compassionate attention and acceptance towards ourselves, so much of the suffering that is being caused especially by the Critic gets released. Facilitating the Transcendent teaches the trainee to deliberately tune into an experience of Being and Source within themselves and function in connection with others, without losing this link. Imagine being able to increasingly do this not just in sessions but also in your daily life!

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Ana will be in London in May to teach a master class. To see her website click here.