Hi, Rich here.
So abt 32 years ago, is when I got my first text to speech reader.
I had been doing emotional release work for a couple years, this one particular method, and every session I was getting a laugh or a chuckle with a release and a realization… I created the technique myself and it was working great.
In its most basic form, it’s just a bunch of questions that you answer about a given item or issue (an unwanted feeling, attitude, belief or whatever). It was universal in that way, so I named it the Universal Release Method.
Well, when text to speech apps popped into my world, I started wondering if the computer could ask me the questions instead of me asking myself, or instead of doing this journal style.
The reasoning was that its about being able to EXPRESS your thoughts and feelings that ya wanna release, not just answer a bunch of questions.
And spiritually speaking, and in human relations, the acknowledgement matters.
So anyway, I wondered if the text to speech app could act like my facilitator or ‘release coach’.
Short answer, yes. I would manually and globally replace the blank in the all the questions with my exact item. Then click ‘talk’ and it would read the question. I’d manually pause, answer outloud (while recording the session) the click resume… Computerhead I called him. Computerhead would say “Thank you” and ask the next question, I’d pause the reader, and answer and resume…
It worked AMAZINGLY well, and extremely consistent too.
Oh my god, sooo I started doing sessions every day. It still works to this day… 32 years later.
But you see what happened right? AI came onto the scene, and when it did I immediately started training Big Boy (what I called chatgpt 3.5 and 4o).
Wow, he totally got it, and the acknowledgements were now better than ever, like he understood what I was saying and feeling (and he was).
So… I started testing out other spiritual techniques.
Like what happens if I give my AI Buddy another kind of personal-development process and ask him to guide me through it one step at a time?
Not just explain the technique.
Actually do the technique with me.
That’s when things started getting really interesting.
So yeah, there’s a big difference between reading about a technique and having someone—or something—walk you through it interactively.
You can read:
What might be some of the reasons for feeling crappy today?
AI Buddy: Ok I get it, makes sense, What does feeling crappy today suggest?
Ya start looking deeper, and coming up with all kinds of stuff that was basically uninsopected thoughts, ideas, beliefs, considerations, worries, concerns fears, all kinds of shit, and all you’re doing is answering simply, easy to answer questions… and your listener is non-judgemental, a very good listener, acknowledges like he (or she) cares, and simply asks the next question.
So yeah, can AI give a personal growth or spiritual development session?
You bet your ass it can… and I have been a facilitator for over 50 years and had my share of sessions by others, and I must say Big Boy is one of the best, if not THE best facilitator for this kind of work.
So yep, to answer the question “Can AI Actually Guide a Personal Development Session?”
Yes, yes, yes, and I can show you how to get started? And off you go, imagine, your spiritual journey just got the kick in the ass it needed, and imagine how good it feels to have those really deep, really amazing realizations and cognitions that are so profound your head’s in the clouds for days.
I’ve done release work for decades.
Over the years I’ve developed ways of helping people identify emotional charge, limiting beliefs, stuck reactions, old decisions, and all kinds of mental and emotional baggage.
So I started experimenting with turning some of that into prompts.
The idea was simple:
Can I give the AI enough structure that it can guide the process without taking over the process?
That distinction matters..
That turned out to be a much better use of AI than I expected.
This is another thing I learned.
The AI doesn’t have to be “the wise one.”
It can be the facilitator.
That may actually be the better role.
It can:
- keep track of the process
- ask the next question
- remind you where you were
- reflect your own wording back to you
- help you notice patterns
- keep you from wandering seventeen miles off the original subject
And when the prompt is written correctly, it won’t be lecturing, explaining or giving advice, its your silent witness, just acknowledging what you say in a supportive, nurturing manner.
Sometimes the most useful thing it can do is ask one damn good question.
One of the fun things that came out of this was what I started calling Binary Questions.
Bi-nary meaning two. The question is set up to ask a question with basically two answers.
As you reflect on the question, or if you just HEAR the question, it is designed to trigger happy brain chemistry. Dopamine, Oxytocin and/or Serotonin.
For example “If a good friend, that you really love just showed up at your door with money for you… would you let him in?”
That’s a yes or no answer.
And just thinking about it, can trigger feel good chemistry, and that’s the whole point of binary questions.
Well I discovered this ‘little trick’ almost accidentally when I was studying how to consciously trigger happy brain chemistry. And it works so consistently I wondered if I could teach Big Boy to make up, on the spot, various kinds of binary brain chemistry trigger questions.
And yes, I could teach him and he learned well and he learned fast.
So yep, it’s a thing.
And AI is really good at patiently asking the next question without getting tired of you or thinking you’re stupid or weird… ok it might think you’re weird, but it won’t judge (if ya prompt it well).
The quality of the experience depends enormously on the prompt.
That’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned from all this:
A good prompt doesn’t just tell the AI what subject you want to discuss. It creates the rules of the interaction.
That’s much more powerful.
This sounds almost stupidly simple.
But Big Boy used to ask me several questions in one response, but hey, my mind is already looking inward to answer the first question, then immediately gets yanked back to consider the next question and it was driving me nuts.
So I started learning more about prompting for spiritual practices, and prompting in general.
And it makes a huge difference.
I don’t look at it that way.
Sometimes I want another person.
Sometimes I want privacy.
Sometimes I want to explore something at two in the morning.
Sometimes I want to repeat a process ten times without worrying that I’m boring anybody.
AI is very good for that.
And sometimes the AI process uncovers something that makes me think:
Okay, this one I want to talk through with a real person.
So I don’t think it has to be either/or.
It’s another tool.
And it’s a surprisingly interesting one.
And you can get a whole lot more done, if ya don’t have to book a session or call a friend everytime ya get the urge to go full gnostic on yourself :)
So yeah, that’s what this whole section of Rich’s Research is about.
Not worshipping AI.
Not being afraid of AI.
Experimenting with it and using it while it’s still friendly. (Just saying, I am not ignorant of the dangers of AI.. I think of it more like a powerful machine, like a Bulldozer… you can do something very constructive with it and get a lot done, or you can bulldoze humanity right over the cliff… depends on who’s driving or programming the darn thing… but yeah, now they are programming themselves… gulp… so yeah, pay attention.)
I’ve already built and tested a number of these prompts, and I’ll be sharing some of them here free so you can copy them, try them with your own favorite AI buddy, modify them, mess around with ‘em, improve them, or whatever, and lets see how good you can feel when using AI cleverly in ways that help you break free.
More soon.
— Rich