Preface

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Imagine if you could see in “real-time” the process of perception in the mind of a person you interact with.  Imagine that they could see into your mind as well.  You would see how data from their senses enters the mind, and how, in a rapid complex way, their mind runs an inquiry like a computer data request from your memory library folders to seek a similar profile that already exists there and retrieve it. So far, it is efficient processing. This is what our memory is about: encoding previous experiences. 

However, what if a word you say to your good friend today triggers an experience that your friend had when he was 7 years old and his teacher shouted at him and insulted him in front of the whole class? His emotional reaction at age 7 was anxiety. As a result of this incident of past trauma, psychosomatic breathing problems were encoded in his memory.  Now, some 40 years later, “out of the blue,” this distant memory reenacts itself during your encounter with your friend. He reacts to your words with the breathing problems and symptoms he had from this past memory. And you don’t understand what is going on with your friend…