The exercise was psychometry. The object was placed into my hand without me looking at it. I wanted the brain to play no part in building the pictures at this stage. I held the ring with as little force as possible.

For a few minutes I 'got in touch' with the ring. This was by being aware of the way I was feeling and with my focus entirely on it. My mind was listening to the interaction. Occasionally and with great delicacy I turned the ring and let my finger senses mingle with the energies.

I started to express the feelings I was having about this ring and who it belonged to. I felt that I was being given access to the history of the energy. Gently I allowed my voice to express the words describing this person that I felt. "Gentle, soft, delicate emotionally." 

As I continued I gained a confidence. Not one of the mind, but one of the knowing. I felt more like this person and was strongly aware of their emotional framework. After a while my mind started to assemble the information that I had got and gave me a mind's eye picture of this person. I would consider this now as a 'stereotype' image. I felt a small person, quiet, introvert, sensual, fragile yet intelligent. The mind's eye image was of this small lady to match this description. I had no details of the appearance other than the stature.

When I placed the ring on the table and opened my eyes I was aware that Rosie had been taking notes. It had been the object that she had supplied to the pool for the exercise.

Rosie then revealed that it was her ring, her engagement ring. Initially I felt gutted. I felt like I had failed. The reason was because the person that my mind's eye believed it was was not Rosie. The emotions and feelings, the subtle expressions I felt, I would not have associated with her.

But then she started going back through the notes she had made. A great deal of the sentiments, the emotions and feelings did indeed belong to her. It turned out that actually this was very much a fair description of her. 

Where the exercise had gone wrong for me was in letting my mind take the information and build a picture of the person. The resulting image had misled me and allowed my mind to consider more qualities and traits that might be associated with this newly created image of the mind. And that was where the mind had kicked in and taken over.

The most important learning part of this exercise was that I recognised where the mind had taken over. I understood how the mind had built this picture and then led me off down a garden path so some extent.

But I learnt something else too. More important in many way. I learnt that no matter what we see on the 'body' of a person, no matter what we think we know of a person, there is much more that we don't know. There is an inner person that is protected by the thickness of the body. Perhaps I discovered the inner spirit of this person, the soul even. If I did then there was a vast difference between that that I know and see as a friend and that that is within.