Story Hopping is the ability to cast yourself in and out of another person’s Story at will. 

It is done by combining Subjectivity and Objectivity with Identity Placement. 

“Identity” in this case, refers to your Position within The Point of View. 

When you listen to someone’s Story or when you watch TV, where are you in the Story?

Are you the Villain? The Victim? The Audience? or The Investigator? 

The Investigator is “Closed” and Objective. 

The Audience is “Open” and Subjective., but the maintain the reminder that they are the Observing and not Experiencing. They may feel Sympathy, but never Uncontrolled Experience.

It’s the difference between saying “I choose not to feel that experience.” — and yes, you can choose this quite easily when you Discipline your Mind — and choosing to project yourself into their Story and make yourself the Center of Their Story. 

Mastering this Discipline begins with the Theory and Education. 

You must understand all the working positions and memorize the Feeling. Memorize means to become aware of how the emotion feels and then to give it name. 

There are two feeling here : 

The Feeling like you are standing in their Story and making yourself the Center of Their Story. This is Identity Displacement, where you have hijacked their story from them. After a while, you say things like, “I experienced the same thing” when you didn’t or “I was there with you” when you weren’t. 

This is Narcissist PTSD. 

The other Feeling is the feeling of watching someone experience their Story, and you stay in the Audience as an observer. You maintain the Awareness that you are only WATCHING and that you are “in the bushes hiding.” You are not part of this at all. 

You are the Reader only. This keeps you detached from the Story and reminds you that you can leave anytime you want to. 

I wonder how many people deep down, truly want and love to feel and experience stories so deeply because they enjoy the Feeling of Live Story and they fear losing their “skills” of undisciplined Story Hopping so they resist this Discipline. 

I remember myself thinking, “If I learn this, will I lose the ability to enjoy Story on this level ever again?”

Yes. Yes, you do. I refuse to ever allow myself to sink back into any story that deeply ever again. It is a loss of Control and it is one I do not permit from myself.

Objectiveness comes with Analytical thought and Logic. It keeps Reasoning at the forefront of the Mind, which keeps Emotions at bay. 

Use Reasoning to Focus on the Emotions, assess them, analyze, Name, and them diagnose your Emotions, and then return to Reasoning to assess the best course of action for your Emotional Management. 

I protect my Cognitive Core and minimize my Emotional Journey by applying Reasoning and Strategy to my Emotions and my Story Placement. This ensures my greatest self-control and Discipline always.

To practice this, start by become more and more aware about where in the Story you are Experiencing things when you talk to people. 

Are you the Main Character of their Story? 

Here is the thing… You cannot be the Main Character of your Story is you are assuming the Role of someone else’s Story. Every time you Story Hop, you have abandoned your own Story. 

You must develop yourself as your own Main Character (Identity) as well as your own Story (Life Stream) and then master the Skill of Staying inside your own Charcter.

Theater and Stage will help you with this tremendously. When you choose a character to read script for, and you share the Story with others, this training teaches you fast how to “stay in character.”

And that is really, all that you are doing with Story Hopping. You are not Staying in Character. It’s like you’re trying to be all the Roles of the Entire Play. 

Theater and Stage is truly, one of the Core Disciplines of The Self. This is why we call it “A Play.”