The Alter Ego Workshop: A Cognitive Exercise

1. Introduction

We all show and hide different aspects of ourselves to different groups and in different situations. Who pops out to have dinner with friends, to obey our grandmother, greet co-workers at the boss’s funeral, or when we are uncertain and lost in an unfamiliar place? Big, anonymous cities, the World Wide Web, travelling, all give people the opportunity to live parallel lives with completely alternate selves. But most of us squash and suppress whole personalities just so we can go about our daily routines. Physicists working on the Theory of Everything propose seven or eight extra dimensions coiled up within the three or four we know.

Can we agree that we have alter egos coiled inside, us? Can we give them some room to come out and play?

2. Making Your Alter Ego

The first step, if you choose to take it, is to make an avatar of your alter ego(s): a material representation of your imprisoned self(ves).

1. a). Gather Materials–a peg doll, cloth, pipe cleaners, wool, crayons. *

2. b). Gather Tools–scissors, glue.

3. c). Gather Yourself–rested, fed.

4. d). Go to: http://www.creamcityreview.com/ io-main

The audio file supports a meditative frame of mind allowing your alter ego to flow from your fingers into your avatar without self-censorship.

* Other materials can be used, clay, balloons, straw, papier mache, a face drawn on your finger, etc.

3. Getting to Know Your Alter Ego

When you have finished making your alter ego, spend some time getting to know yourself.

Do you have a name?

Are you shy, angry, greedy, flamboyant? Are you two years old?

Are you omnipotent?

Are you pregnant?

Talk out loud.

Walk about.

What are you feeling?

How would you act under pressure?

How would you act if tempted?

How would you act in love?

4. Playing with Your Alter Ego

Studies have shown that of all cognitive-breakout exercises, melodrama best supports the process of inhabiting, and unfolding diverse alter egos. Therefore the next step in this cognitive exercise is a guided exploration that takes the form of a melodrama in three acts.

Your alter ego is invited to take part in three improvisations that trace the interrelationships of three characters.

Love, compassion, repulsion, depression, and some of their attendant difficulties, are explored as your avatar serially steps into the mind of each character.

Working through emotion, and the stories that emotion precipitate, helps us consolidate personality. However, the aim of the exercise is not to form a complete alternate self, but to understand that emotional response and judgment is tied more to context than personality; that self in this erea* is a language-based and very malleable construction.

* Erea is a portmanteau word combining era (time) and area (space)

5. Registering for the Melodrama

If you choose to take part in the melodrama you will need to register for a partner. Your partner is another Alter Ego Workshop participant, whose avatar will be acting opposite your own in real-time improvisations enabled by video-chat.

To prepare for each act, read the short preamble that sets the scene. Online your avatars will be assigned roles and you will be given a short script to start the improvisation process. Then let your avatar unfold the scene.

Register here for Alter Ego Workshop partner: http://impcon.org/?page_id=420

Warning: This is not a risk-free enterprise; self-image, identity and self-confidence are at stake, not only your own, but that of your partner. We consider that the avatars are necessary buffers for both of you. Although the complete loss of your normal narrative selves is extremely unlikely, it is a condition that may bring difficult consequences in this erea.*

* See the case study The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart, William Morrow, 1971