All mentalism shows have two very different perspectives: the audience’s and the mentalist’s. The audience receives only a very limited amount of information, every bit of which is carefully designed and presented to them to create an illusion of something happening that isn’t actually happening. A subjective perspective. The mentalist, on the other hand, has an objective perspective of the illusion. He or she sees not only what the audience sees, but everything that goes into making the illusion seem real. It’s almost as if the audience is seeing the illusion through a keyhole, viewing only that which the mentalist wants them to see. The mentalist, however, sees all there is to see in the “room.”
The audience has a subjective “keyhole perspective” and the mentalist leverages that vantage point to create an entertaining experience for them. In my seminar and show The Magic of Cultivating Positive Emotions, I use this entertainment strategy to draw an analogy for the attendees to how we can better understand our emotions.
My friend Chris Bousum posted something on Facebook that reminded me of keyhole perspective and the positive impact of not allowing subjective, negative emotions to rule us. Chris called it “seeing the world through a tiny lens,” but it’s the same concept as keyhole perspective. I really liked his take on it.
“When we are hurt, we see the world through a tiny lens. We cannot act as our complete selves when committed to that perspective.”
That’s it! Keyhole perspective – or “tiny lens” perspective, as Chris called it – prevents us from realizing “our complete selves.” Our fullest potential. When I saw his comment I asked Chris to unpack it a bit and tell me the backstory. Here’s what he shared with me about the hurt that extended back years into his childhood.
“My self worth was so wrecked that I would be destroyed by anything that appeared to be rejection. In that hurt state my actions and reactions were very skewed to anger and belligerence. Empathy would escape me. I felt hard, cold, and hollow. It was part of my depression. And my pride would commit to that frame of mind. I didn’t realize what was going on but now I can see it. When I feel rejected I can still taste the feelings but know to let it go and that life is so much better without holding on to it.”
Our minds, bodies, and spirits are not only connected, they are aspects of the same human, inextricably interwoven, working together to make us who we are. When we succumb to negativity – hate, bitterness, over-commitment, dwelling on past mistakes, unforgiveness – our bodies, our minds, and our spirits are impacted. But we too often don’t fully appreciate that we have a choice — live in the subjectivity of our negative emotions or use the keys of positivity to open the door to a more objective view of what our lives can truly be.
Adapted from the book The Magic of Cultivating Positive Emotions by Rod Robison. Available at www.TucsonMagician.com/books.
