“Chains of associations are an unconscious series of associations that can lead a person to irrational and inaccurate conclusions, in a way where they may not even realize that they’re being irrational and inaccurate.
For example, let’s say that Tom has a friend, and normally Tom’s friend calls him every month. But the friend didn’t call Tom last month.
Then Tom’s chain of association might be: my friend hasn’t called last month. That’s because he doesn’t want to talk to me. He doesn’t want to talk to me because he doesn’t like me. In fact, he has never liked me. And he doesn’t like me because he thinks I’m an unlovable awful person. And in fact he’s right, I am an unlovable awful person.
So as you can see, chains of associations can be a series of wildly inaccurate, fear-based assumptions that can lead people to conclusions that may be completely irrational, unjustified, and fear-driven. Because perhaps the real reason why his friend hasn’t called is that the friend was just really busy, or something awful happened in the friend’s life and said friend is currently distracted.
You can imagine that the average person forms these chains of associations many times every single day and is frequently led astray by them. It is important to notice how you feel. What are you actually seeing and hearing with your ears and eyes? And what emotions and assumptions and thoughts are arising in response to that? What are the actual observations or facts, and what are assumptions or projections? Don’t just jump to conclusions — actually observe first.
The next time you see or hear something and you immediately feel some kind of fear or anxiety or anger or judgement, I invite you to take a moment to observe what is actually happening. Because it’s possible that some chain of association is tugging at you and is trying to drag you away to some unconscious, potentially unjustified, and perhaps fear-based conclusion.
So: just take a moment to observe.”
channelings@substack.com, “Tunia: Chains of Associations”
