Eidetics Can Unlock Potential
by Jaqueline Lapa Sussman
Woman Magazine - November 1994

I don't know what to do. Each time I have to go to a board meeting in the corporation I work for, I get cold feet. this feeling of anxiety wells up inside of me and I get really scared. You see, I am the only female among a group of l2 top level executives in a corporation. Since I am the only woman, I know that men relate to me differently than to each other. They act a little bit differently in my presence. At the large board meetings, my heart begins to pound when it is my turn to report and to share my opinions. Im not a shy person. But at these corporate board meetings, I feel as if the men have the upper edge and I have to prove myself.

IN THIS MANNER, SALLY BEGAN to share her difficulties in being a woman in her workplace. She was among 20 women attending one of my "Personal Images to Empower Women" seminars, she had come to find some tools to help her move through her fears.

As Sally spoke, the other women present nodded in empathy and recognition. Each, similarly, was dealing with a gender issue in her own life, whether it was about her love life, her work; or the complexities of motherhood.

After Sally shared her story, I asked her to see an image in her mind's eye of the corporate meeting - the image that was already forming in her mind as she was telling the story. The image I asked Sally to see is called an eidetic image. These are special images stored in the brain, which can be retrieved in their entirety by employing special techniques

Similar to our watching a movie, eidetic images appear bright, lively, and lifelike. They are repeatable and remain consistent in detail when viewed over and over again. We can zoom info specific details of past events which may have been missed as the events occurred.

Eidetic images are different from other types of images such as dream and memory images in that there is no "forgetting" or "distorting" them. They are not only visual, but also contain feelings, body sensations and meanings. Everyone is unique in which feature of the image will be strongest. However, the most important feature is that our strengths, potentials, and genuine responses, not available at the time a life event occurred, is stored in the brain alongside the image of the event. This hidden potential can be retrieved by working with the images to reveal our strengths and fresh perspectives in handling any life situation.

Sally responded to me by describing the men at the board meeting, huddled together talking to each other, looking confident in their suits. "There is a feeling of camaraderie among them,” she added. "I feel awkward."

I asked Sally to scan the image for more detail. How were the men interacting with each other? When Sally examined the image more closely, she was surprised to notice that the men talking were actually competing with each other, each one trying to impress the other with his ideas or accomplishments. Instead of camaraderie, she saw tension between them.

Sally already had begun to feel more relaxed, and I then invited her to see herself interacting with them in the images; Surprised again, she said, "What I see in their eyes is pleasure as I enter the room. They arc happy to see me. It reminds me of the look they have when I have lunch with them or meet with them individually. When we meet informally or at lunch it is more relaxed. Often we talk about our personal lives. In fact they tell me some of their problems with the other men they are working with, or about their wives, girlfriends or families."

Once Sally found her connection to the men, I asked her to relive the first image of the board meeting. By this time, her perceptions had dramatically shifted. "This time the men appear like stiff little penguins in their suits. I see that they are competitive and not that trusting of each other. I see that they like me and respect me. Looking at the image now, I feel more secure, more powerful and I see that my ideas are indeed heard. I thought I had to act like one of the guys to be more powerful, but I can see that I actually have an edge being a woman. My genuine caring and connection are a kind of power. I feel much more confident now."

Sally had been seeing her work situation from the narrow perspective of her insecurities and fears. She had been raised to feel that women at work and their ideas were not as valuable as men's are. This information had been passed on to her from our culture's many oven and subtle messages about men's superiority, which limited her self-confidence. Yet, inside her existed a storehouse of other information about herself and her co-workes which she could access through eidetics.