Within human beings act two types of mind.

Actually, "mind" is a word that does not perfectly fit the definition of the human mechanism acting internally to evaluate and render reality, however, in this context, we will use it for convenience.

In terms of depth, the first of these two minds is the first you meet, more evident and manifest, using the internal dialogue as an element of self-affirmation and self-perpetuating. From now on, we will call this mind the Surface Mind.

Its features are simple: the Surface Mind constantly dialogue with itself, is totally focused on the past and the future, rationalizing everything in terms of profit and loss from what it can understand about reality, and makes decisions based exclusively on the past experiences. It changes its ideas and direction every few minutes. It projects anything that can be projected and computes anything that can be computed. It is unable to concentrate and its natural state is this:


Below the Surface Mind, there is a more silent mind, which perceives reality without interpretation of thought, it knows what is the best way for us and lets us know through sensations and feelings. Since this mind doesn’t operate through thoughts, but through an energetic assessment of the here and now, it shows us a way without relying on any calculation of profit or loss and no expectation for a certain result. This mind has no need to make plans or projects to set future deadlines, because it doesn’t use the future as an escape way, and doesn’t take decisions based solely on data from the past, because it doesn’t use the past as an immutable model for the present. From now on, we will call this mind the Deep Mind. The two ways in which we interact with and interpret the reality are therefore the internal dialogue, related to the Surface Mind and the sensations, the "feeling", related to the Deep Mind.

But beware! What we call sensation, here, does not refer to emotions, because sensation and emotion are two very different things.

An emotion is usually a body's reaction to an experience or a image, or even an internal dialogue, that the Surface Mind associates with the conditions that have caused it. This association ends quickly to mechanically trigger the same reaction of the body, the same emotion, whenever the same external conditions recurs.

An imaginary example: one day, a person treats you unpleasantly, and the hat that the person wears is something that strikes you. From that moment on, in an unconscious way, the Surface Mind associates that particular hat with a rude behavior. So every time you will meet someone with a similar hat, you will perceive an internal discomfort, an unpleasant emotion that will takes you to step back or to be rude for no reason, even if the person wearing it is the most educated one you've ever met. This reaction is an emotion: the body has triggered an automatic, mechanical, associative emotion, ultimately totally unreal. The Surface Mind and emotions are strictly related. We will see later in detail what this means, because the mechanism inner dialogue-emotion is a key element that must be understood as best as possible.

A feeling is something rather vague, like a delicate and subtle interior background, that constantly communicates information about how to better interact with the Energy and therefore the reality which surrounds us. This undefinable background is almost suffocated by the Surface Mind, but in the course of time it can become powerful and clear, if we allow it to act without resistance, and if we recognize in it our true inner voice that knows what is best for us and knows how to communicate it to us.

It happened to every one of us to feel somehow divided between an interior impulse fed by a feeling or a sensation and directed to an experience, and a series of rational thoughts that somehow attempt to dissuade us, and inoculates in us doubts that takes away the enthusiasm. In almost all cases, even always if we are unfamiliar with the expansion of the Consciousness, the rational thought prevails on feeling, and the feeling or sentiment are rejected until they are completely off.

Do we perceive an inner impulse to a new experience? Here it comes an inner dialogue of doubt, worry, fear. Here it comes emotions of fear and confusion caused by the same associative inner dialogue. Here it comes that the new experience is postponed or removed from the possibility of its manifestation, because no one likes to feel unpleasant emotions, and the fear, the worry can be very unpleasant if we become these emotions. So, in general, we step back, to make them disappear.

This happens because the Surface Mind always tries to fight back or keep in silent the Deep Mind, and generally it succeeds in this intent because we give it our agreement as a Field of Consciousness, and because we do not know that we can observe emotions without becoming them. This is the reason why the Surface Mind keeps our inner field in constant confusion; to prevent us from listening to the faint whispers of the Deep Mind. A listening that could lead to the end of its unopposed control over us.

And this is the reason why the behavior of the Surface Mind is another elusive footprint on the shores of the Consciousness. A behavior that is actually one of the most powerful weapons in the arsenal that keeps us in a silent defeat. Something that keeps us trapped in a cage that has no physical bars, with invisible chains. Something that looks normal only because billions of people are under its control. Something that works in the shadows because the Light of Consciousness would reveal it, thus make it ineffective.

Something that from now on we will call lo Sfidante, the Opponent. The Opponent of our Consciousness.