JW: Friday Experiment and Progoff Journaling

Thinking about Friday and talking through the trip. I’m wondering how this will work? I know that if I have any sort of visuals, I’ll need silence to let them play out. How do you see this working?

EWR: We are only doing 2 caps so I don't think we will experience much of anything except some mild euphoria. I think we are trying to get the measure of this particular substance and see if it has potential. So I don't think a lot of prep is necessary.

            JW: Probably true. Let's try it this way and see what happens.

Also thinking about the Progoff journaling … while Valerie was talking, I thought it might be a way to go deeper in journaling. I found a video that offers an experience of it since you will miss the session tomorrow.  Here’s the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J32D_OVSqHM

The first part of the video offers a chance to capture the main parts of your life in lists for deeper journaling later. I’ll put the categories below. There is also “entrance meditations” to lead you into a deeper, “twilight” state (which I feel like I need). However, the first experience of that didn’t bring up much so I’m wondering if the Friday experience might help.

Progoff categories from video:

4/1/2023 Entrance meditations ... to help us enter into an atmosphere of silence and the twilight.

This period of my life.  what does this period of my life feel like? Right now is different from those that came before. When did it begin? What happened to lead into this period. What are the feeling contours during this time of my life. Look at the big picture from an interior perspective.

Categories:

Persons - who are the main persons in my life during this period?

Works - what am I doing during this period of my life ... what are the chief activities in my life ... especially those that are important and have an impact in my life?

Society - what are the groups I am involved with? Large group or small.

Body - the vehicle that carries us through life ... both who we are and separate from ourselves. What's been going on with my body during this period of my life? Am I aware of my body image? Attitude toward my body.

Events - what has occurred during this period of my life. Significant events and our current attitude toward them.

Wisdom figures - Significant religious, inspirational, heroic figures: Who are they and what's my attitude toward them?

Meaning - how is my life meaningful? What's it all about?

4/1/2023 - Period Image ... re-enter the twilight state. Allow images or ideas, feelings to arise.

Also, found some old journal work based on Natalie Goldberg’s work … mainly prompts for lists and then choosing something from the list to journal on for 10 minutes. Prompts included:

The first time…

The last time …

What broke me …

The best song of my life
What I can’t live without
What I can’t forget
What I can’t forgive
At night I think of …

I think my conclusion is that I need prompts but still think the Progoff method is a bit more structured than I want.

EWR: I actually watched that video a week or so ago. I was not very impressed and although I tried to respond to the prompts I didn't come up with much. I am gambling that a live session will be more productive, although it is a gamble. This may be a bust but I think I have to try something because it just is not working for me to do this by myself.

JW: I have some of the same feelings and wonder about our resistance. Maybe something to talk about Friday? I also wonder if we have covered the "life context" ground so much that it's hard to get to new stuff. The other two workshops might be more new ground ... or not. Could we be touching an important barrier? What is keeping this from working? What is "this?"