Back again, again, (Again this got long quickly so I’ve broken it up yet again. Part 3A is about ambiguous/absent signals, and what they might “mean”, and Part 3B is more about the tricky bits of having the conversation. Part 4 is still unfolding). Alright...let's get right to it. You think you’re getting signals. Something. Some twitch. Some itch. Some flutter. And you’re pretty sure you noticed it; but not totally sure you’re sure. (Notice: You’re asking a question about whether or not "that" was an actual signal, so that should be a good indication that it might have been one . . . right?) ;-) And you’re pretty sure you can’t replicate it, consciously, (as you’ve tried without success), and so . . . you take the next step and ask your unconscious to send it again, (to confirm that it was actually a “True”/”Real”/”Actual” involuntary signal sent from the unconscious (remembering that this is only a metaphor, and that you’re both still in this together))...and . . . NOTHING “seems to” HAPPEN! (Noticing a different signal is saved for Part 3B) So what’s up? What does this mean? Do you not have an unconscious? Does it not want to communicate with you? How come it’s not saying/doing anything? How come you’re not noticing? Is something wrong with you? Are you broken? To me all of these questions (which are unfortunately very common, during the early goings), are: A) Very amusing ;-), and B) Represent a significant misunderstanding about what is (and/or is not) occurring. So, let’s talk about this (most) common hiccup, and tease it out a little: You “notice” no response, (when asking for a repeat of the signal, or occasionally mid-conversation) (In my model), this “means” one of (at least) two things: 1) My unconscious has nothing to offer, or 2) I am not consciously noticing what it does/did have to offer Please notice that these “meanings” do not stray very far from the actual “description” of the experience. (Keeping Occam’s Razor sharp) As most of us are quite familiar with, the conscious is excellent at inventing/making up possible “meanings” for things. The challenge (especially because we’re attempting to attend to unconscious signals at a conscious level) is to not take the bait. For those that need the re-frame more clearly . . . Ask yourself this . . . what does the unconscious spend most of it’s time doing? Really . . . What does it do, there in the background, (at the foreground of our experience)? Make a list (quickly and unconsciously) . . . done? Great! I suppose that on it we would find such usual suspects as breathing, blinking, immune system functions, food processing, and cell regeneration, etc. Probably not on the list (or at least not anywhere near the top)...”Inventing meanings for signals we may or may not have noticed”. So...our unconscious is probably NOT trying to just be deliberately difficult or trying to play guessing games with your conscious, and from my experience, impatience, and ill-formed questions seem to be the main (and most common)culprits here; Both of which are very conscious exercises. (More about the quality of these interactions/signals in Part 3B). So, let’s get back to our example of no “noticeable” signal. So, if we ascribe the first “meaning” to this situation, (“The unconscious has nothing to offer”), we could verify that we are right, (or wrong) by proposing the following as a follow up: “I have guessed that you (the unconscious) have nothing to offer at this time, If this is correct, please continue to offer no noticeable response. . .” and then wait. (Well worth noticing is the clever double bind nature of this proposal . . . and this precisely the type of leverage useful to crack even the toughest nutz. These are very useful for those that are having “trouble”, because, as we previously noted, the unconscious cannot, not, communicate, and (properly framed in this way) the absence of a “noticeable signal” can be taken as just such a signal. I (personally) have found great value (especially early on) in creating exactly these types of double binds for my unconscious). Now, going the other route, (“Not noticing what it does have to offer”), you can ask it to amplify the signal to the level of “conscious noticability”, using any tactics you like, and then wait. My unconscious seems to respond well to playful taunting, but on some occasions I’ve resorted to begging, threatening, and even blatant bribery. In any of these cases, your options are many. You can wait, or not wait. You can ask the same question again. You can ask a different question. Or you can ask the same question in a different way (which is of course, actually a different question ;-) ).  Also, interestingly, there may be something useful hidden within your intuition about which of these "meanings" you consciously think is most likely (whenever this occurs), but I’d hate to suggest that to your consciousness. Okay, that’s it for now. More next time on actually conversing, and what to do with those feisty “no” signals, (especially when they are wrong. . .lol). Enjoy, Mark MacLean Heads up though. . . in my next post I will be assuming that you know you’ve got signals, (so if you’re still having “trust” issues, you’ll have to wait for Part 4).