A cognitive object is any cognitive system or content to which we assign a unifying characteristic through our senses and emotions. Experiences are filtered and processed through the five classes of attention (perception, representation, memory, automatism and manifestation), which are organized by means of systems of images. The latter may be harder and more objective (for example, the physical laws of the universe) or softer and more subjective (such as personal or collective opinions and beliefs). All internal or external experiences, subjective or objective, are therefore cognitive objects that, in turn, can be broken down into simpler ones. Cognitive objects are the constituting elements of the tonal and can therefore be named with words. Having said this, we will call any cognitive object an object of recapitulation when it is being recapitulated.
Before beginning with the actual recapitulation techniques, we are going to look at a good number of examples that will help you to efficiently prepare your recapitulation notebook. This is not meant to be a rigid or exhaustive script, but rather a set of recommendations to help you to do it your own way. As you will see, you can organize the objects of recapitulation in the form of different lists and sections that, taken together, should be a faithful reflection of your personal inventory:
- Cognitive figures. It is highly recommended to start by making lists of people with whom we have had or currently have a relationship. We can refer to a person by writing their name, but also by using any other reference, for example "the music teacher I had when I was in fifth grade".
- Father(s), mother(s), siblings, children, relatives.
- Sexual partners, people on whom we focus sexual desire.
- Friends.
- Relationships within the occupational, job-related, professional and economic spheres.
- Teachers, masters and mentors.
- People that we particularly dislike, even if we do not know them very well or they are public figures.
- People that we particularly like, even if we do not know them very well or they are public figures.
- Important role models or archetypal figures in our lives, figures within the world of politics, business, literature, science, art, music, cinema, the internet, religion, etc.
- Mythical or fictional characters.
- Commands with a negative or limiting force. Introspection and the act of being aware of being gives us the opportunity to observe our mental and social processes in order to make a collection of debilitating phrases, both those that automatically appear over and over again and again in our head, and those that we use during our interactions with others. Each individual has his or her own assortment of these. It is important to write down these kinds of commands when we become aware of them. Here are some examples:
- I can't... I don't deserve it... I won’t achieve it...
- I am useless. I am incapable. I am helpless. I am awkward. I am bad. I am worthless. I am no good at learning...
- Nobody loves me, values me, pays attention to me, supports me...
- Everything goes wrong for me. I am always unlucky. Nothing ever goes well....
- I feel guilty, dirty, unworthy...
- I'm dying. It kills me. This makes me sick...
- I wish I was dead. It would be better if I had never been born. I can't go on. I can't do it anymore. Life isn't worth living...
- It's all such an effort. I don't belong here...
- I’m afraid. I feel paralyzed…
- Counter-commands or power commands. These are statements that contain positive commands and which would offset negative programming. We can recapitulate phrases of this type since in this way we will boost the links and identification with these beneficial patterns, at the same time that we will unblock the stagnant energy coming from the psychological reverses that resonate with them.
- I can... I am capable... I deserve good things... I choose...
- I would like...
- I love and forgive myself.
- I accept you and forgive you.
- I overcome my fear of …
- I can learn anything that I set my mind to.
- I am more than just a physical body.
- My benefit is your benefit, your benefit is my benefit.
- Relationship with money, work and abundance. Every living thing in this world is obliged to seek, obtain and protect its resources. Regardless of our economic and social position, it is necessary to make a thorough breakdown and analysis of our beliefs and relationship to money, work, effort and abundance and then regularly recapitulate that material.
- Events. An event is a collection of conscious and unconscious perceptions, sensations, emotions, feelings, thoughts and reactions that construct all the dimensions of a moment that one has lived. Once an event is experienced, it becomes a part of ourselves as an archive or a set of memory files, with their associated automatisms. Even when we don't remember something, we can construct a phrase or use a concept to refer to it. There are many ways to organize events, here are some examples:
- Conception. The event in which the ancestral soul merged with the physical embryo.
- Fetal stage.
- Birth.
- Significant occurrences (both positive and negative) at any point in one's life.
- Birthdays.
- Important dates.
- Yesterday. The segment of time occurring between 0:00h and 24:00h yesterday. It is very useful to recapitulate the previous day on a daily basis.
- Today's date, for example, "25th August". In this way we can recapitulate all of August 25 lived up to this point as a block.
- Relationships and sexual experiences.
- Illnesses.
- Travel and vacations.
- Specific actions.
- Routines of any kind.
- Rituals and customs.
- Jobs and occupations.
- Specific dates.
- Any lived experience.
- We can also recapitulate using the expression: Event(s) linked to ... (a thing, fact or circumstances).
- Other objects of recapitulation.
- Our debts towards others. Debts of others towards us.
- Pending issues. Things that are unfinished. Future plans.
- Personal losses of resources or opportunities.
- Things that we want to do.
- Gifts given and received.
- Pets. Animals that we hate and love.
- Places.
- Homes where you have lived.
- Schools and universities where you have studied.
- Religious buildings. Other buildings with which we have had a connection.
- Outdoor places, especially those from childhood, or those associated with sexual partners.
- Premises, businesses or sites where you have been employed.
- Meeting places such as associations, clubs, sports venues, bars.
- Streets, squares and parks.
- Educational, religious, sports, political and business organizations, associations of any kind.
- We often have preconceived proclivities and rejections that can artificially condition our well-being or generate discomfort, for example, only because it is a certain day of the week or the day begins with a certain type of weather. That is why we can recapitulate the days of the week, the months, the seasons of the year, the hours of the day, meteorological phenomena, and so on, with the aim of unblocking the energy trapped in previous related experiences and increasing the fluidity of our energy with respect to them.
- Favourite colours and those that you hate.
- Foods you like and dislike.
- Tastes and smells that you like or dislike.
- Dreams. Even when you cannot remember your dreams, it is possible to recapitulate them in the morning by using the phrase "what I dreamt last night".
- Books and publications.
- Films, plays, concerts, etc.
- Any kind of artwork.
In addition to all these objects of recapitulation, in the following chapters we will delve into the different negative emotional patterns and other aspects of our psyche such as the virtues and images. In this way, we will cover almost every aspect of the human psycho-emotional experience. This will help us, on the one hand, to learn to recognize our behavioural functioning and internal mental states more accurately and, on the other hand, will provide us with sufficient reference points that we can use to reflect our inventory in the recapitulation notebook and thus be able to recapitulate and introspect efficiently.
Recapitulation is comparable to cleaning your house, it makes everything in it shine, but no more. It is important to understand this. As a discipline, recapitulation is fundamental, but what you say and what you do, the decisions that you make and chance itself are the catalysts for change in your life. By nature, you cannot control what is unpredictable or random, so attention and intent must be concentrated on filling everything that is under our control with impeccability. Do not expect recapitulation to make the changes for you – that is your job. Let us take another look at what can be done with recapitulation.
From the psycho-emotional perspective, the energy of intensity is primarily responsible for the tensions and attachments generated in the past and dragged into the present. Releasing this energy through recapitulation indirectly facilitates the reconfiguration of emotional, belief and relational systems. For example, if you have experienced something very negative in the past and you think about it, you will usually feel bad. However, if you recapitulate the event completely, there will come a time when you will be able to remember it, but you will no longer feel the negative intensity that was previously associated with the memory, but instead a certain indifference. This supports the hypothesis that the portion of memory that generates blockages and problems is the energy of intensity, not so much the event itself. Whilst it is true that many people begin to recapitulate in order to free themselves from negative emotions, recapitulation should also focus on positive memories, as the important thing is to release and recycle all past intensity in order to transform it into a renewed resource available in the present moment. In any case, we need to recognize that the majority of suffering is absolutely unnecessary and redundant. Sometimes pain cannot be avoided, yet suffering can be. The approach to suffering through emoenergetic recapitulation is eminently practical, prioritizing how to free oneself from it (the search for solutions) rather than why it is there (the search for reasons). Even so, by combining introspection with recapitulation, we will often understand the reasons why.
From a more shamanic point of view, the second effect of recapitulation is the weakening and elimination of the subtle strings that link us to other people. These strings, even when recapitulated, have a great tendency to re-form, over and over again. This will continue to happen until we have made the necessary internal changes to limit the mechanism of emotional dependence, which fosters the patterns of the social spider's web by perpetuating the stings. Even so, it is best to regularly recapitulate the most important people in our lives, even if the strings are recreated.
Preparing for Recapitulation by Chema Sanz is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.