Steve Andreas > Articles > Aligning Perceptual Positions

Other Position

Connirae: OK. Now that we�ve aligned Self and Observer positions, it is possible to go into Other position and gather uncontaminated data. Before aligning Self and Observer positions, it�s very difficult if not impossible, to gather clean data about the Other. If we aren�t cleanly sorted ourselves, we tend to carry bits of ourselves into the Other Position and strongly color what we learn about the other person.

For this exercise, when we step into Other position, we won�t align it, we will just discover what we find there. The reason we aren�t aligning it is that we are primarily discovering what we can learn about that person and their experience. Most likely they are not aligned in this situation, just as we weren�t. Often the other person is not in a very resourceful state, so you don�t need to stay there very long�just long enough to get a sense of what it�s like.

To make this easy, you can just let the situation swing around and pop into the other person, looking out at Bob.

Bob: That�s really different. As her, I feel confused. That�s kind of a revelation to me.

Connirae: Good... And... we need to remember that this is still a hallucination�a guess. It�s our experience of being them, not their experience of being them. The more we align our perceptual positions, the more accurate our guesses become.

So, now you can let the scene rotate again, so that you move back into Observer position... and then back into Self.