Black Sun

    Mental and Emotional Release

    In-Depth Explanation

    In-Depth Explanation

    Mental and Emotional Release (MER)

    This is a summary of the book Mental and Emotional Release (MER) by Dr. Matt James. MER is a guided meditation of your life timeline that can be done by oneself or by another person.

    How This Theory Benefits You:

    An Easy Way to Resolve Emotions

    • The method is a quick and effective way to make significant changes in your life and it's simple to practice on your own.

    In order to do MER, you release 5 specific emotions in the order listed: anger, sadness, fear, hurt, and guilt (Or use shame and pain instead of hurt and guilt). For each emotion you repeat the exact same process until all are done with all five.

    To start there are a couple things that are important to understand:

    Key Concepts

    1. Gestalt Patterns

    Our first experience of an emotion sets a pattern of how we experience that emotion in the future, named a Gestalt. Releasing the emotions from the first experience disrupts the pattern and allows for easier release of subsequent experiences of the same emotion.

    2. Emotions in the Present

    Emotions can only be experienced in the present. We can't experience emotions in the future as they haven't happened yet although we can experience emotions about the future in the present. This idea is used in conjunction with the knowledge that our brain has an extremely difficult time distinguishing between reality and imagination to assume that if you place yourself in your life timeline before the event occurred, your brain won't know the difference and will be able to release the emotions from the event easier.

    3. Visual Dissociation

    Engaging in degrees of visual dissociation allows for enhanced processing without getting overwhelmed. Visual dissociation can be accomplished in several different ways in the visual meditation.

    Here are the steps to do MER:

    The MER Process

    1. Picture your life timeline in your head making it a physical thing rather than an abstract idea. It can look however you want.
    2. Imagine yourself hovering above your timeline and then imagine yourself rising into the air as high as you can go while still being able to see the timeline. This tests your ability to use this method effectively and may be used in the future for other reasons. If you can't imagine yourself rising above your timeline, this method likely will not work for you.
    3. Allow yourself to float back to the first time you experienced a particular emotion or belief that you want to get rid of. This can be before, during, or after your birth. If there is no specific memory for the emotion, pick a spot on your life timeline that feels right. Trust that your subconscious mind knows where it needs to go.
    4. Once the spot is identified you allow yourself to float back a bit further on the timeline to before you ever experienced the emotion.
    5. When you're positioned in the past before the event happened, rate your distress on a scale of 0-10 with 10 being the worst you can think of. Ask your subconscious mind to release all negative emotions associated with the event. Wait patiently until all negative emotions are released and you can rate your emotional distress thinking about the event ("before it happened") at a 0. Continue asking the subconscious to release as necessary.
    6. Float up through your entire timeline repeating this process for any event in your past that organically comes to the subconscious mind that needs to be processed until you get to the present on your life timeline.

    If an emotion is not being released:

    Troubleshooting

    1. Go back in the timeline before the event and try again.
    2. Ask the subconscious if there is something that needs to be learned from the experience before release is possible.
    3. Go back even further in the timeline assuming that there must've been a previous experience at work or that increased physical distance from the event will help create emotional distance and easier release.
    4. Use height to help with release in the same way as going back further in the past.
    5. Other techniques to promote relaxation may also be integrated as applicable.

    PTSD and Phobias

    PTSD and phobias use an extra visualization when they arise in the timeline of a given emotion or belief. The meditation is to visualize oneself watching their experience as if in a movie theater from the perspective of a second self in the projector room of the theater. The scene is played from start to finish in black and white that you watch while in the theater. Then, the individual goes into the event itself (into the screen) and plays it backwards in color. The meditation goes back and forth from then on between the first and second viewpoints until all emotion is released from the trauma or phobia.

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