The Invisible Gorilla

Not too long ago, I was trying to move some copy around on my Godaddy.com Website Tonight template (why, yes, GD — you CAN thank me with a free year!) when it just wouldn’t budge. I had to call the tech help number and explain my dilemma.

It was about 1 a.m. Eastern when I called, and the guy I got was professional yet still rather detached. That was until I gave him my website address and he landed on the home page.

I am a professional intuitive, not a career absolutely everyone feels is a valid use of one’s time.

To many, it’s just ‘crazy talk.’ And ironically, the name of my autobiographical book, prominently featured on my homepage, is Psychic or Psychotic? Memoirs of a Happy Medium.

Tech Dude landed on that and didn’t even attempt to conceal his loud scoff.

“Sooo,” he said, rather confrontationally, “You think you’re a psychic?”

I paused a moment, but realized I didn’t have anything to hide.

“Yep,” I replied.

“Well then,” he challenged me. “Tell me about my grandfather!”

I figured, what the heck, and “went up.” That’s my short-cut reference to how I achieve a heightened state of consciousness, where I can effectively connect with people’s energy and tap into what’s happening with them, past, present and future. I’ve been doing this since I was a kid.

ANYWAY, I did my silent affirmation, took a deep breath, and was propelled into that Unified Field, if you’re a physicist, or Collective Unconscious, if you’re a Jungian psychologist, or God Consciousness, if you’re into spiritual stuff.

“His name began with an ‘R,’” I told Tech Dude. This elicited another scoff.

“NO,” he said triumphantly. “You’re WRONG. His name began with an ‘A.’”

I felt I accurate.

“What was his name?” I asked.

“Arthur,” Tech Dude replied. I silently waited for him to connect the dots. Three…two…one…

“OHMYGOD!” he yelled. He realized that technically, I was correct. “Arthur” definitely does begin with that “R” sound.

“He says he loved the hiking and camping trips you did together,” I added.

“OHMYGOD,” Tech Dude yelled again. “WE WENT CAMPING ALL THE TIME! Tell me about my grandmother!”

In the space of 90 seconds, we’d gone from “You are full of crap” to “Give me a reading!”

There’s a great clip on YouTube of Movie Director David Lynch talking about human consciousness being like a golf ball. All our experiences, everything we believe, is contained in that little ball. It’s not “seeing is believing” – if we have no frame of reference for understanding something, even if it’s happening all around us, if it’s not in our golf ball of awareness, we’re not going to see it.

Until we have that personal experience that catapults something into our consciousness, to us, it’s just not there.

Cognitive psychologists Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris dramatically proved this point with the world-famous “invisible gorilla” exercise back in 1999. Observers were asked to watch a video of three people in white shirts, and three in black, handing off basketballs to each other. The assignment was to count the number of times the white team passed the ball.

In the middle of the video, a guy dressed in a gorilla suit walked into the circle and waved at the camera before walking off. NONE of the observers saw the gorilla! It simply wasn’t in their golf ball of consciousness.

At the heart of the presentations, teaching and consulting I do is my passion to help others see those “gorillas” and expand that golf ball of consciousness. If it means tapping into a Tech Dude’s grandfather at 1 a.m., as long as TD then understands the world is a lot more interesting and interconnected than he previously believed – then it’s totally worth it.

Here’s to all of us seeing – and appreciating — a lot more gorillas.