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THE   

SEVEN CENTERS

Centering is not like the other Overleaves. First of all, when you are in balance, you can be in any of the Centers, whichever is appropriate at the time. With the other Overleaves, you choose one and use it and its opposite pole reflexively most of the time―or, if you have a Neutral Overleaf, you choose one or two favorites to slide to. With Centering, however, Essence will choose the Centering it will habitually use when confronted with new or sudden, circumstances and although people's responses therefore vary widely, when someone else's response to stimuli is different from one's own, that response is not a bad or inappropriate habit. You can respond appropriately to any situation from any center. It is, however, very difficult to break the habit pattern Essence has chosen, and when you use that habit pattern instinctively rather than deliberately, you may become trapped in a vicious circle of Centering behavior and find it hard to break out.

 

Essence chooses only from the three Ordinal Centers for day-to-day behavior. No one is Centered in one of the Higher Centers. The energy in the three Exalted Centers is so intense that because the physical body cannot stand having that much energy run through it all the time, it would quickly bum out. Also, we are here to do Physical Plane lessons with more solid, slower, lower amounts of energy―not to use Higher Center energy to that degree. Humans can step into the Higher Centers momentarily, then step back out of them and remember this as an enlightened experience, but they don't stay in Higher Centers all the time.

 

Planetwide, people divide up into three equal segments: one third Intellectually Centered, one third Emotionally Centered, and one third Moving Centered. However, in the United States, the proportions are 10 percent Moving Centered; 40 percent Emotionally Centered, and 50 percent Intellectually Centered. 

 

You can be Instinctively Centered, but it is very rare. The Instinctive Center is where you have your primal fears and your survival lessons. It's not a place where you are supposed to live, although people step into it when they are eating, sleeping, meditating, going to the bathroom, or when it is evoked through danger, fear, or threat. Less than one percent of the population is Instinctively Centered.  Someone who is Instinctively Centered would most likely be medically defined as autistic, mentally imbalanced or insane. To have Instinctive Centering, the body would have to have a hormonal or biological imbalance to keep you there. 

THE SEVEN CHAKRAS

Chakras, the energy centers in the body that govern different aspects of your individual behavior, relate to the Centers in the following way:
 
lst Chakra (base of the spine )= Instinctive
2nd Chakra (genitals) = Higher Moving
3rd Chakra (stomach) = Moving
4th Chakra (heart) = Emotional
5th Chakra (throat) = Intellectual
6th Chakra (brain) = Higher Intellectual
7th Chakra (top of the head) = Higher Emotional
 
Note: 
The progression moves upward from Ordinal to Exalted, with the exception of the Higher Moving Center. If there were not a Higher Center lower in your body, you could not experience kundalini types of energy. The feeling would just stay physically in your head and your body would never experience that connectedness to the Universe. Kundalini energy travels upward, from the 2nd to the 7th Chakra. The Instinctive Center, down below it all, keeps the body grounded.

PARTS OF THE CENTER

HEARTS = Emotional Center

 

DIAMONDS = Intellectual Center

 

SPADES = Moving Center

Centering is also unique as an Overleaf in that each of the Centers breaks down into three different parts: the Moving, the Emotional, or the Intellectual part of that center. When choosing a personal lifetime's centering, an Essence will choose to be in a certain part of one of the Ordinal Centers. Since the center's part of itself (e.g., the Intellectual Part of the Intellectual Center) does not lead to any useful interplay and is indistinguishable to the conscious mind, this will never be chosen. What is chosen is a Center and a different part to slide to.

 

Moving between the Center and its part becomes the personality's habit, but it can also become the trap. For example, someone in the Emotional Part of the Intellectual Center will habitually think, then feel something about that thought, later moving or doing something about the feeling (Intellectual to Emotional to Moving Centers). When under stress and/or feeling trapped, that same person will think, then feel; if the emotion is a negative one, then the emotion will spur another thought,  to problem solve; that produces another feeling and so forth. This habit can be broken by purposely going to the third Center (in this case, Moving), and thus breaking the pattern, completing the Circle of Centers and getting balanced again. The best way to think about the parts of the Centers is to use the analogy of a deck of cards:

 

 

QUEEN = Emotional Part

 

KING = Intellectual Part

 

JACK = Moving Part

King of Hearts (Intellectual part of Emotional Center) is not the same as the Queen of Diamonds (Emotional Part of Intellectual Center). Nor is the Jack of Diamonds (Moving part of Intellectual center) the same as the King of Spades (Intellectual Part of Moving Center). In this deck, the Queen of Hearts (Emotional Part of Emotional Center), the King of Diamonds (Intellectual Part of Intellectual Center) and the Jack of Spades (Moving Part of Moving Center) represent pure emotion, pure thought, and pure movement.


When people go to their "third center," the one that is not part of their Centering or trap, they usually go there very appropriately. That is because they only go there for a specific reason: to become balanced. The Higher Centers and the Instinctive Center also have parts, but the distinctions are minor and not necessary for a basic discussion of Centering.

THE THREE ORDINAL CENTERS AND THEIR PARTS

EMOTIONAL CENTER (THE ORDINAL EXPRESSION CENTER)

The Emotional Center governs all emotions. Here, emotions exist in their pure form (in the Emotional Part of the Emotional Center). Perception―knowing the truth on a non‑verbal, non‑physical, non-intellectual level―also comes through the Emotional Center. Perception and pure emotion (without reason) are the positive poles of the Emotional Center.

 

You can have a perception about something and be neutral about it. In the same way, a lot of emotions actually have no cause; they are just for their own sake, just as some thoughts have no cause and some movements have no cause. People know that they have thoughts or movement without reason―times when they are effective or ineffective in thought or movement; phenomena that are just there to exercise that Center. The Emotional Center will expand and contract, people will be introspective or extroverted, happy for no reason, sad for no reason. Often what people will do with their Intellectual Center is try to make up reasons for their emotions.

 

In the positive pole of the Emotional Center, you know what is going on―you perceive relationships, events, truth, or just the fact that you are feeling a certain emotion. Sentimentality, the negative pole of the Emotional Center, is having a perception or an emotion and making a judgment about it. Judgments blur perception. With sentimentality, you feel yanked around by your emotions, good or bad; they control you. All of a sudden you are not just feeling an emotion or perceiving a situation, but you have also made certain judgments about cause and effect, good and bad; whether they are true or not. When the judgment actually becomes a thought, then you have moved to the Intellectual Part of the emotional center.

 

EMOTIONAL PART OF THE EMOTIONAL CENTER

In this part of the Emotional Center exist pure emotion and pure perception. An example of this is an emotion—joy, happiness, sadness—that just rises up “out of nowhere.”

INTELLECTUAL PART OF THE EMOTIONAL CENTER

In the positive pole, the Intellectual Part of the Emotional Center governs value judgments and prioritizing. In the Emotional Center, you perceive what is true for you―that one task is more important than others, that one item of food, article of clothing, color, or other object is more appropriate for or pleasing to you than another. The Intellectual Part puts that perception into a choice or plan. People with this Centering, guided by their perceptions, can cut to the heart of a problem or a discussion by intellectualizing a perceived truth. In the negative pole, the intellectual part of the emotional center becomes rationalization―intellectualizing on your judgments about the emotion or perception you are having, thinking up reasons for what you perceive or feel. In their trap, people with this Centering will have an emotion, make up a reason for it, feel more emotions because of the reason they made up, which lead to further reasoning, and so forth. Identifying your emotions with what you think about them is a function of the negative pole of this Centering as are jealousy, prejudices, holding grudges and repetitively reviewing problems.
 

MOVING PART OF THE EMOTIONAL CENTER

The Moving Part of Emotional Center governs actions which directly follow an emotion or perception. Mass emotions, such as everyone in the stands rising and shouting at once over a fantastic play at a football game, are a function of this Centering. In this part of the Emotional Center, you have a feeling and then you act on it. When it is used appropriately, you act on a perception―which you know to be true―without any intellectualizing in between the perception and the action. For example, you are using this Centering when you know on a perceptual level that a car is going to swerve into your lane, and you move to avoid it, eventually noticing through your intellect: "Oh, a car just swerved into the space I moved out of unthinkingly a moment ago." Automatic reactions to children and animals—perception or emotion, then action (such as hugs or petting) —come from this Centering. Going out to the movies,  meeting someone for a romantic dinner, or running out to see a great sunset are Moving Part of Emotionally Centered activities. The emotion says, "Let's go out and do something fun." Then you act it out with your activity. Acting from your imprinting (automatic action based on an emotion that is not even your own) comes from this Centering. In the positive pole, people with this Centering have a perception and then act on it without pausing to think. In the negative pole, they act on their judgments about an emotion or perception. A lynch mob is an example of the negative pole of this centering. Temper tantrums, wailing and babbling, driving too fast, crimes of passion, and other action based on sentimentality or emotionalism fall into the negative pole of this Centering. Other negative pole activities include self‑destructive habits such as alcoholism, drug abuse, eating too much or any other substance abuse in reaction to feeling a certain way.
 

INTELLECTUAL CENTER (THE ORDINAL INSPIRATIONAL CENTER)

The Intellectual Center governs ideas, use of concepts, words, and language. The positive pole of the Intellectual Center is thought. Thought involves a gathering of data. Often people think they learned something or know something by means of data they gathered, when it was actually a perception that became rationalized. Emotional Centered perception is a non‑rational element—although it can perceive what truly exists. Intellectually Centered people can also confuse the mass of thoughts they have about something or someone for their emotions. The distinction between thought and perception becomes blurred and people interchange the phrases "I think" and "I feel" without regard to communicating a feeling or a thought. In the positive pole of the Intellectual Center, people have neutral thoughts: "I state that what is, is." In the negative pole, reasoning—an intellectual construct that is not based on accurate data or necessarily any data at all—is put forth as truth.

EMOTIONAL PART OF THE INTELLECTUAL CENTER

The Emotional Part of the Intellectual Center governs desires, interests, thinking of something and then getting excited about it; having an emotional reaction to a thought. For example, selecting a book to read is usually an Emotional Part of an Intellectual Center activity—you have the emotion of desiring to read it because of an intellectual thought about the topic, the author, or even the way the cover is designed. Debating—getting emotional about ideas—falls under this Centering. It also covers optimism and pessimism—emotions based on the idea that something is going to be good or bad. People with this Centering have a reason and then create the feeling. Someone with this Centering would think about her bills, then get upset; or she would think about her grandson, then become happy.
 
By way of contrast, someone in the Intellectual Part of the Emotional Center might feel upset first, then think about her bills; or she would be happy first, then think about her grandson. Anxiety, depression, guilt, and emotional reactions based on ideas such as "I shouldn't have done that" or "It shouldn't have worked out a certain way," fall into the Emotional Part of the Intellectual Center. Embarrassment, an emotion based on an idea about an event, is also in the negative pole of this Centering. In their trap, people with this Centering are not able to act. They get stuck in their feelings about a thought and don't know what to do about it. Buyer's remorse laws exist for people with this Centering.

INTELLECTUAL PART OF THE INTELLECTUAL CENTER

This is where sentience begins—a thought about a thought, "I think, therefore I am." Self‑awareness, the conscious mind, formation of concepts and coming up with a new concept to describe something are all governed by this part of the Intellectual Center. Without developing the Intellectual Part of the Intellectual Center and the ability to look at oneself rationally, a species cannot become sentient.  This is a large part of what separates humans from other animal species.

MOVING PART OF THE INTELLECTUAL CENTER

Scientific inquiry, the building of civilization, communication, list‑making, doing tasks, and any other action based on thought are based in the Moving Part of the Intellectual Center. Non‑emotional memory, such as remembering to do a task or remembering a scientific formula, come from this Centering. People with this Centering can seem quite unemotional and are usually quite busy. They don't react emotionally, but rather intellectually. They often have the concept that emotions are something to be set aside and only enjoyed when you can really be appropriate with them. They like to set emotions aside, figure out what is right or appropriate to do and then go do that, and not let emotions get tied in. In fact, they sometimes mistrust emotions or look down on them.
 
Many times early level Old Souls will use this centering to give themselves a break from the emotionalism of Mature Soul level. In the negative pole, people with this Centering can do so much that the overview is sacrificed. They will seem to be on a treadmill, each movement getting equal intellectual value with no Emotional Center value judgment or prioritizing. They can act without perception or on false premises. They can also become busybodies, uncovering data and then spreading it around without thought to its emotional content. Going to war over an idea is an example of the Moving Part of the Intellectual Center in the negative pole. The whole concept of war—moving on a thought without allowing yourself to feel the emotional impact—is a negative use of this Centering. Intellectual crimes with no emotional motivation, like tax evasion, shoplifting, and vandalism (thinking then acting without considering the emotional impact) fall under this Centering. The negative pole of this Center also involves acting out negative ideas about yourself, for example, buying clothes that don't look very good or talking about yourself in a negative way. The concept of "self‑worth" is, in itself, an emotional perception.

MOVING CENTER (THE ORDINAL ACTION CENTER)

The Moving Center governs learned functions, i.e., movement you learn after you are born. This includes learning to walk, talk, use your facial expressions, body language, posture, and the mechanics of sexual intercourse. Any movement requiring sustained attention comes under the province of the Moving Center. Someone who is Moving Centered will be more in touch with her body. A Moving Centered person will feel things in her body before she feels them emotionally and intellectually. She will know in her body what is the right thing to do in any given situation. Everyone has this ability, however it is just more acute in a Moving Centered person; she will be much more aware of this phenomenon and she will rely on it more. For example, a Moving Centered person will get a pain in the pit of her stomach and know something is not right in the room. Or a Moving Centered farmer can wake up in the morning feeling really hungry and know it is a good day to harvest the wheat. They often can't verbalize why they know what they know because it is not an intellectual or emotional concept―and their very centering makes it difficult for them to explain what is happening in intellectual or emotional terms, often describing the phenomenon as feeling something on a "gut level." People rely on their Centering for a feeling of stability. If a Moving Centered person is in touch with her body, she will feel like she is doing the right thing and she is in touch with reality. Her body tells her kinesthetically what is happening in the environment. An Emotionally Centered person, on the other hand, will rely on what she feels is going on, while an Intellectually Centered person will rely on what she thinks is going on.
 

EMOTIONAL PART OF THE MOVING CENTER

The emotional part of Moving Center governs movement which expresses or evokes emotion―dance, sports, or any type of exciting movement like skateboarding or surfing. People who have the Emotional Part of moving center as their basic centering “do” movement not just for the exercise, but because it makes them feel good, gives them a certain high, or a kind of rush. They do well as professional sportspeople. Movement stimulates their emotion. If they are upset, they will clean the kitchen or do some sort of activity to make themselves feel better, though this seldom works.  A calm moment of intellectual reflection works wonders, however. In the negative pole, this Centering governs obsessions like gambling; compulsive shopping; ritualistic behavior (such as throwing salt over your shoulder); nervous or eccentric twitches, and smoking tobacco or marijuana excessively.

INTELLECTUAL PART OF THE MOVING CENTER

The Intellectual Part of Moving Center governs movement requiring concentration or thought―for example, knitting an intricate pattern that requires keeping count and paying careful attention. Imitation and miming also fall into this centering. Inventors often have this centering. They feel (physically) what exists and what doesn't exist in the universe and they come up with a concept about it. They can walk down the street and see a need and they suddenly get an idea of how it could be filled, and someone with a different Centering wouldn't even have necessarily noticed  the need. People with this centering are very project oriented; they do well in fields such as architecture. They like to tinker around with a project, such as fixing the car or programming the computer. A lot of actors also have this centering. It allows them to think of how to move in order to look like a different person.
 
Often people with this Centering look pretty well put together. They have a good idea of how to make their bodies feel good. They don't usually let the body go too far off balance. In the negative pole, those with this Centering can get trapped by frenetic, useless movement, getting more and more detached from their emotions. Instead of going to the party to have fun, they'll work on their chess game. They will tinker with the car endlessly, long after it has been fixed. They have intellectual compulsions about getting a certain number of activities done. Playing video games for hours-on-end is an Intellectual Part of Moving Center activity. The trap for someone with this centering is having second thoughts about doing something and then thinking, "Oh, I shouldn't have done that"―then doing something else and thinking about that as well.

MOVING PART OF MOVING CENTER

Although no one actually has this Centering, it is possible to visit the Moving Part of the Moving Center. A Moving Part of Moving Center activity is one in which you are moving without thinking or feeling anything about the movement―for example, raking leaves or running a treadmill while you are emotionally neutral about it and intellectually blank.

THE NEUTRAL CENTER

INSTINCTIVE CENTER

The Instinctive Center rules automatic functions: circulation of blood, breathing, growth of the body. The five senses come through the Instinctive Center, even though they also stimulate the other Centers. All that you are born with―past life memories, survival instincts, instinctual fears, reflexes―is lodged in the Instinctive Center. You keep your Instinctive Center (on an Essence level) from life to life and you pick up where you left off with instinctive lessons from one life to the next. Energy patterns from the last life are read into the instinctive center and carried into the next life. If you have not yet handled, for example, the fear of heights, that fear will remaine lodged in the Instinctive Center until, in one of your lives, you learn that lesson. Similarly, if you die by drowning in one life, the fear of death by drowning will be recorded in your Instinctive Center until you process through it during another life. In that way, your Instinctive Center is like a little personal piece of the Akashic Record.
 
The Instinctive Center rules emotions that are not based in reason or experience―such as being attracted to someone without reason, or being repulsed; liking or disliking certain smells; pleasure and pain. The drive for survival of the race is an Instinctively Centered impulse. The Instinctive Center also governs your pheromones―smells perceived on a subconscious level that determine your instinctive reactions to others. Your pheromones, in fact, will broadcast your karmas, agreements, and challenges for the lifetime. When you enter a room, these are apparent (on the instinctive level) for all to read. Thus, Essence programs the Instinctive Center and it will give you the impulses to go out and meet your karmas and agreements.
 
In addition, data will come up from your Instinctive Center from past lives to advise or warn you of possible similar dangers. This sort of information will often come up in basic survival situations: new job, new home, new relationship. For example, throughout your past lives you have often had aggressive relationships with redheaded females―and here comes one walking in the door! So the situation arouses an Instinctive Center reaction. Or, you decide to take a vacation and your Essence gives you the impulse, programmed into your Instinctive Center, to go to a certain place where you just "happen " to meet someone who will be significant in your life (i.e., had planned on an Essence level).
 
When you are working on an instinctively-centered issue, the process of recalling and working through a past life memory, emotion, or fear will continue on a subconscious level for whatever time it takes to resolve the issue and learn the lesson―a day, a few weeks, a couple of months, even years. During this time, the personality will feel like it is "in process" ―vaguely uncomfortable and in transition, often for no specific reason. Past life regression can often facilitate and shorten Instinctive Center processing, as can a meditation practice, massage therapies, and, for some, working with crystals.

THE THREE EXALTED CENTERS

The Exalted or "Hiigher" Centers basically correspond to the three elements of the universe: truth (Higher Intellectual), love (Higher Emotional), and energy (Higher Moving). The three Exalted Centers are a higher degree of the lower Centers, thus their name. The positive pole of the lower Centers is very close to the negative pole of the corresponding higher Centers. For example, the positive pole of Emotional Center, perception, is close to the negative pole of Higher Emotional, intuition. The negative pole of the Higher Centers do not describe what would be called "negative" experiences, but rather transcendent experiences that are less conscious than the experiences of the positive pole. Although the Higher Centers are available for anyone to experience, no one is basically Centered in Higher Centers since the body cannot sustain that state adequately. To go to a Higher Center, you must first be balanced in the Lower Centers, i.e., using the appropriate Center at the appropriate time.

HIGHER EMOTIONAL CENTER (THE EXALTED EXPRESSION CENTER)

In Higher Emotional Center, you feel complete love or agape (unconditional love). You recognize your connections on an emotional level to other people or to animals and plants. Really enjoying music, poetry, or other fruits of civilization and creations of humanity is a Higher Emotional Center experience. Recognizing past life connections with others is done in the Higher Emotional center. Emotional healing also comes from the Higher Emotional Center. The positive pole of the Higher Emotional Center is being in agape, unconditionally loving. The negative pole, intuition, is having a sense of connection, but without totally being the connection, i.e., sensing the greater whole but in an incomplete way. An example is the feeling, “I knew you were going to call," which is sensing a connection but trivializing it. The feeling of falling in love is another example—identifying agape with one person and her particular habits.

HIGHER INTELLECTUAL CENTER (THE EXALTED INSPIRATIONAL CENTER)

In Higher Intellectual center, people get the greater concept of why they are here, what life is about, and why it is going a certain way. In the positive pole of the Higher Intellectual there is sense of what is really so, truth that is profoundly, exactly right, not in just a specific circumstance, but so large that it could be applied to a wide variety of things. Seeing how life fits together comes from the Higher Intellectual Center. Conscience—living in the truth and knowing what is deception and what is not—is seated in the Higher Intellectual Center. Contentment or an intellectual sense of fulfillment, i.e. "all's right with the world," also comes from the Higher Intellectual Center. Philosophy, informational channeling, and true self‑knowledge are higher-intellectual experiences. The negative pole of the higher intellectual is telepathy or a partial sense of the truth. Mind‑reading is an example. It is knowing the truth but just on this particular level of having the same thought at the same time. This is, needless to say, trivial in comparison to the whole.

HIGHER MOVING CENTER (THE EXALTED ACTION CENTER)

In Higher Moving Center there is a sense of being connected to the energy of everything. When people are in Higher Moving Center, they feel good in their bodies. They are often extremely productive and creative. The enjoyment of speed—driving or skiing really fast, for example—can lead to a Higher Moving Center experience. Recognizing karma is a Higher Moving Center experience. The feelings of awe when you see or recognize something that is beautiful in a physical or energetic way—for example, when you see and recognize the beauty of the Grand Canyon or a perfect rose—also come from the Higher Moving Center. You are taking in the energy of the object, not just loving it but actually absorbing the energy/chemistry of it. This feeling comes in through your body and senses, as opposed to your emotions. The positive pole of the Higher Moving Center is beauty—a higher perception of the connectedness of the Universe, leading to a feeling of ecstasy. This is where people experience their "oneness" with the Universe. In the negative pole of the Higher Moving Center, there is a sense of the desire for beauty but you don't feel quite like you can find it. You know you can get to that high feeling, but don't recognize that you are there.

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