Projection & Imagination

The mind is a thinking vehicle. Its evolutionary utility is for problem solving through explanation. When one trades, they deal with two simultaneous universes: the universe of the market; and the universe of their interaction with the market. Within those two universes, the imagination component of the mind will "chase" whatever projection of the world you give it, and the awareness component of the mind will "perceive" whatever you are capable of experiencing in each of the two worlds. A well cultivated awareness is able to lucidly perceive reality (and your interaction with reality) with consistency and minimal interruption. A well cultivated imagination is able to rapidly understand the connections within the past as well as perceive plausible scenarios of the future. These two components of the mind must be kept separate. I would like to emphasise how crucial this is, by repeating it. The awareness and imagination components of your mind within the trading experience must be kept separate.

Projection is layering the world envisioned by the imagination onto the awareness of reality and of the interaction with reality (herein, the interaction). This is uniquely different from envisioning scenarios of reality and the interaction independently. In the former, the mind will begin to see both with the projection layer on top, and pursuant to the intensity of the layer, it may entirely cloud the "real" reality. In the latter, the mind will proceed to lucidly perceive both reality and the interaction, while being "prepared" for change as well as how to direct it. This is foundationally an extension of what was discussed in the chapter on Detachment & Compassion. In the former awareness and imagination are attached and the world is at risk to become muddled. In the latter, they are detached, and we are at liberty to remain compassionate to both reality and the interaction. These are seemingly highly abstract concepts, however the imagination deals only in abstractions, so we are more than capable to work with them. And crucially, practice at this - maintaining the independence between awareness of reality and the interaction, and the projections of the imagination - starts with being aware of it.

Emotions

Emotions are the intensity of the projected imagination.

Visceral Reactions

Visceral reactions are separate from emotions, though often incorrectly intermixed. Visceral reactions are a pattern recognition functionality of the subliminal component in the brain stored in the body. They are almost invariably accurate, once one adjusts to their signal and what they are attempting to "communicate".

Blindly trusting visceral reactions in a binary manner, though having utility, can also be misleading. One's subliminal mind itself has particular tendencies; let's call them software. An example in common trading parlance is when the greed reaction is triggered internally, the saying goes that one must become aware at that critical moment and often resolve to at least critically analyse the market separate from the "human nature" program running to become overconfident and overaggressive. However, there may be a plethora of other "human nature" programs running that are specifically unique to you. If you have the program embedded in your system to "protect your trend, at the expect of all else" you would be unlikely to appreciate the diverse universe in "all else", even if that meant coming to understand a new innovation that would likely shift the broader systemic trend (and impact your ability to keep your own positive trend going).

More on Subliminal Programs

Coming to know the subliminal programs running in your brain is of great utility to you. Say your current mood, the current program running, is "complacency". This can be highly useful to you, in certain interaction with reality. You may be positioned in one direction that the market continues to move in. Every time you conduct some analysis that partially skews your perspective to close the position, you decide to hold on, and it is the right choice. This continues, until, eventually you become complacent because the market just keeps going up and your persistent analysis giving you reasons for why that will end, continues to be outweighed by the market continuing to go up. The complacency becomes useful to you, since you let the position run and stay with the trend. However, understanding the program of complacency informs us that it is only a subcomponent that is useful - lightness.

Balance between Imagination and Reality

Internal winds. chakra. posture. breath. yoga.