The Double Helix

If you hadn’t figured it out, committing to the Three Gates not only changes your behavior, it makes you VERY aware of the difficulty of applying them to all three arenas. Its HARD if you aren’t used to it. Maybe even if you are.

But one side-product is gaining sensitivity to smaller and smaller divergences from the truth. You notice the difference between what you SAY and what you DO. Breaking promises to yourself on smaller and smaller levels.

The result is that you notice these digressions, these divergences, in others. The hypothesis: the more honest you are with yourself, the harder it is to be deceived by others.

That’s the hypothesis. Is it true? I suspect so. It SEEMS so. The more we need to mask our emotions, thoughts, values and beliefs from ourselves, the more we have to believe your justifications for breaking promises to yourself, the duller your internal lie detector gets.

That’s the hypothesis. I’ve certainly never performed a formal experiment on the subject, but casual observation and noticing patterns in coaching clients over years suggests it is a valuable one.

Consider it. Yes, you can still “cheat an honest man.” Usually by appealing to their humanity, asking them to help someone. That honest heart can assume that others are just as honest.

Which is why the Three Gates have to be applied to the Three Centers. The “Belly Brain” is first, the warrior center. The part of you that knows there are tigers in the forest. Knows that people…