<h3 id="ea0192f8-6bcc-443b-a83a-faac34bedcb8" data-toc-id="ea0192f8-6bcc-443b-a83a-faac34bedcb8" style="text-align: left;">Note</h3>The following article is a translation from a <a target="_blank" href="https://salpicondepajaro.wordpress.com/2024/07/20/la-multitud-que-llevamos-dentro/">blog post in Spanish</a> that Sally made a while ago. Given it’s related with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.awakenedtribes.com/blog/the-mirror-effect-self-awareness-and-spiritual-growth/">The Mirror Effect</a> Podcast episode, we thought it could be interesting to try an English version. Would love to hear your thoughts on it!<hr><blockquote>“Since each of us was several,there was already quite a crowd”-Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari</blockquote>A few weeks ago I went to see the play “Una” (One), a free adaptation of the novel “One, None and a Hundred Thousand” by Luigi Pirandello. Beyond the fact that the performance was fantastic, the theme resonated with me and reminded me of something I’ve always found fascinating: there is no single version of ourselves—neither for ourselves nor for others.Weeks later I read “Ignorance” by Milan Kundera, where I found echoes of this idea, which became the spark I needed to write about it here. The novel tells the story of two expatriates who return to their hometown only to find that the versions of them held by those who never left were frozen at the moment of their departure.Those who never moved on had preserved the version they knew from so many years ago, denying all that had happened in between, pretending time hadn’t passed and assuming their personalities remained unchanged.<blockquote>“By completely ignoring what she has experienced abroad, they have begun by amputating twenty years of her life. Now, with this questioning, they try to stitch together her old past with her present life. As if they amputated the forearm and directly attached the hand to the elbow; as if they amputated the calves and joined the knees to the feet.” — Fragment from “Ignorance,” Milan Kundera</blockquote>Has it ever happened to you that someone you’ve known for years suddenly presents themselves as a complete stranger? Someone you thought you knew, all of a sudden—like a veil is lifted—reveals traits and a personality entirely unfamiliar to you. And when we examine it more closely, we’re not even sure whether that person changed or whether our perception of the world shifted, and now we see them differently.Or perhaps you've found yourself not recognizing yourself—your reactions or ways of dealing with certain situations. Back in my psychology days, a patient once said to me: “we humans do not simply ‘are’ something, but rather we are becoming”, quoting an author whose name I no longer remember. They meant that, far from the labels and conceptual boxes in which we sometimes classify ourselves as though we were canned goods, we are beings in continuous change.It may sound cliché and easy to say, but the truth is that the most common thing—both regarding ourselves and others—is that we remain stuck with an image and a personality that probably no longer exist.<blockquote>“Until one day, walking and chatting with a friend, I was surprised in a mirror. I stopped. It lasted a moment. I didn't recognize myself. (…). For others I am that surprised stranger in the mirror (…). I thought I would be that one stranger. One for everyone. But very soon I discovered the hundred thousand Moscardas that I was—not only for others but also for myself. All with this same name, Moscarda.” — ‌Excerpt from the script of the play Una.</blockquote>Let’s break it down a bit more. There’s what we believe we are, what we show to the world, what we think we show, what others see, and what they interpret from what they see. It’s a complication similar to that of communication, which is ambiguous by nature: between what I want to say, what I say, what I think I said, what the other hears, and what the other interprets, there can be a chasm of meaning.Thus, what others see of what we show doesn’t always match what we believe we are—and even less so encompass the totality of our personality, which, to make things harder, we sometimes don’t fully know ourselves.What we call “I am” stands as a collage of old, new, and possible (perhaps even aspirational) versions; our own, others’, our culture’s, our ancestors’, the collective unconscious’; some even attribute their madness to biology and how substances mix in their bodies.And there’s more: that “I” varies and shifts over time (and I don’t mean years; it can change from one moment to the next depending on the circumstances we experience), although we don’t always notice it and cling to old versions, believing we haven’t changed.If we add to this mess what others see of our personality—according to their own frameworks and particular ways of perceiving the world—it wouldn’t be surprising if that person we are to someone else seems like a complete stranger to us.<blockquote>“Be honest: have you ever thought about wanting to see yourselves living? You live without thinking about what you are to others. You have the illusion that others see you as you imagine. (…) I think the problem lies in the presumption of believing that reality, as each one sees it, is the same for everyone. We see it, we touch it, we live inside it—and if we like it, we smoke a cigarette. (…) Without suspecting that the reality that surrounds us doesn’t have for others more consistency than that smoke.” — ‌Excerpt from the script of the play Una.</blockquote>If we assume we are in permanent change, and that this change affects how we see, are, and exist in the world, perhaps we can allow ourselves to look at others—and ourselves—with fresh eyes, with the curiosity of clean look, clear of preconceptions, with the same interest we have when meeting someone new—and free from old and obsolete versions.Just as in Yoga they say every day of practice is always the first, because our body and mind are different each time, the same could apply in meeting oneself and others. “Some things never change,” some will say—but I wonder: isn’t it our eyes that stay fixed in a perceptual box and don’t allow us to see the changes?I’ll leave it there.Cheers!&nbsp;

A reflection on the many selves we carry, how we change over time, and how perception shapes our view of ourselves and others.

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The Multitude We Carry Inside

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