Thank you, David, for everything. I will definitely join the Facebook group and the zoom meetings.

I am also interested in the Somatic Therapy you wrote about on your website.

Sincerely,
Deanna

Are some thoughts/beliefs more cherished than others - are there any that Deanna does not dare look into even after completing the exploration?
I don’t believe that exploration is ever completed which is probably one of those cherished thought/beliefs that I haven’t looked at, lol. I can think of ...

1) Is there a separate entity 'self', 'me' 'I', at all, anywhere, in any way, shape or form?
Was there ever?
No, and there never was. ‘Self, me, I’ are thought content which is not reality.

2) Describe how the illusion of an independent, self came into being by giving examples from actual ...

How does it feel to do this exploration?
I love discovering. It’s joyful. The body seems to be a fruitful pathway for me.

Was there a shift of some kind?
All shifts so far have been subtle. This latest is the realization that what I thought was direct experience of the body was actually ...

Were you able to find and feel "insert name" in a direct way like the other parts of your body?
Where is it?
At first, I wanted to point to the heart.

What did you find? Something? Anything? Nothing?
What sensations did you feel in your body that identified "Deanna” (If any).
I just felt the ...

Can it be known how tall the body is?
Does the body have a weight or volume?
In the actual experience does the body have a shape or a form?
None of that can be known without thought. I noticed that while focusing attention on the body there is a visual model that is overlayed. Then even more ...

Is there a separate self called Deanna?
No

Is there a past or future?
No

How do you relate to your thoughts?
Necessary to be a functioning human being but since the content of thought is not real I don’t believe them as much and question them often.

How do you relate to your emotions?
As ...

How do you feel when you don't find a controller?
Freedom! At first I thought, “oh shit, how am I supposed to live my life with this realization?” But I really don’t need to change how I do things and make decisions. What changes is my relationship with what is.

Imagine for a moment a scene ...

What is it exactly that is choosing which hand to raise?
I laughed a little while doing this exercise because you said to not go into thought so I kept telling my self not to go into thought which is going into thought. It was like you were telling me to not think of a pink elephant so I couldn’t ...

“This makes complete sense to me. What’s to resist or accept? The sensation and thought are gone already. Plus, who is resisting and accepting? There’s nobody.”

Ok, how does it feel to see that?
Relaxation in the whole body.

Does your experience shift or changw when you see that clearly?
I ...

But both sensation and thinking arise in your experience. Can you resist a sensation? Can you resist a thought?
Obviously not when you experience them is already too late to do anything about them .
This makes complete sense to me. What’s to resist or accept? The sensation and thought are gone ...

How does it feel to don't find a controller?
What happens to you when you see that fact?

I know intellectually that neuroscience has shown that parts of the brain fire up a few seconds before we become aware of a decision being made. Seems like we have a system or algorithm operating below ...

But tell me more about this sense of me
I don’t think I can. Every time I try to type something there’s thought. But there’s a split second before thought or between thoughts.

Palm Flipping Exercise

1. Hold a hand in front of you; palm turned down.
2. Now turn the palm up. And down...and up ...

1. Can you find an inherent self anywhere, outside of thought?
No

2. Can thought experience thought? Can thought experience anything? (Thought is so very overrated - by thought).
No, thought cannot experience anything.

3. Does thought make any contact with other kinds of sense experience ...

When you look at the word label ‘GREEN’, what is the actual experience?
The experience is seeing color, the brain labels the experience “word is GREEN, color is red”.

Is the colour red ‘experienced’, or is the colour green ‘experienced’ as the label suggests?
“Color” is experienced. “Red” color ...