The Elevator is a tool of awareness that bypasses your Intellect and draws on your Spiritual Self to find patterns. You can use it to go deeper into any particular area you are struggling with, and identify what patterns are driving unwanted reactions.

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1. Create your Elevator question

The first step is to create a question you want answered. The question is not meant to provide a “yes” or “no” response; it is crafted to help you discover and uncover patterns. We are looking to dive into the issues and uncover the driving patterns you want to identify and take through the Cycle of Transformation. Every question begins with “What are the unidentified patterns …” or “What patterns …”.

Examples include:

• What are the unidentified patterns that stand in the way of achieving my vision?
• What are the unidentified patterns that keep me from creating a fulfilling, healthy, loving relationship?
• What are the unidentified patterns that keep me from fully being empowered in my work?
• What are the unidentified patterns that drive my inability to commit to ______? (home, relationship, work, vision)
• What are the unidentified patterns that limit my experience of my sensuality and sexuality?
• What patterns drive my anxiety when I talk to my boss?
• What are the unidentified patterns that keep me from hearing and trusting my Spiritual Self?
• What are the unidentified patterns that make it difficult for me to be intimate?
• What patterns drive me to continually look for what’s negative in my spouse/partner?
• What are the unidentified patterns that underlie my depression/anxiety?
• What are the unidentified patterns that drive ____ (choose a major pattern, e.g. self-doubt, controlling, withdrawn)?
• What are the unidentified patterns holding me back from ____?
• What patterns got triggered at lunch today with (name)?
• What patterns stand in the way of me forgiving my father?

Choose one that resonates with you or make your own. Remember to be specific and start with “What are the unidentified patterns that…”

Make sure you write down your question.

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2. Elevator experience

Now you can take yourself through the elevator experience. Trust whatever comes up; there are no right or wrong scenes. Just let it be what it is.

Close your eyes. See an elevator in front of you, any kind of elevator you want, with the doors open. Walk into the elevator. You see a button on the control panel that has your question on it. With curiosity and eagerness to learn more, you push the button and the elevator doors close. The elevator moves down, down, down and, at some point, stops. When the elevator stops, the doors open and there is a scene.

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3. When the elevator doors open, experience what is there

As the doors open experience what is there – perhaps a scene from your childhood or adulthood or something you have never experienced before. Use whatever scene appears, walk out into the scene and experience everything that’s there for you. Where are you? How old are you? What’s happening? What are you doing? What’s the mood of the scene? What are you feeling? Who is there? How are the others acting in the scene? What are you thinking? Let the scene play out like a movie until there is no more to experience.

Let the scene play out until the end and then open your eyes.

• If the elevator doors open on a scene that is blank, dark, or hazy, turn on a light, walk through the fog, see the sun rise
• If the elevator doors open on a fantasy, dream-like scene, play with it, move around in the scene; especially move toward anything in the scene that might frighten you

When the scene is complete, open your eyes, and write down the scene in as much detail as possible.

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4. Write down the scene in as much detail as possible

Include everything you were feeling, thinking, and doing while in the scene, as the scene progressed. Be specific.

• Where are you?
• How old are you in the scene?
• What is happening?
• What’s the mood of the scene?
• Who else is there?
• What are you doing?
• What are others doing?
• What are you feeling?
• What are you thinking?

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5. Get back on the elevator

Get back on the elevator and push the button with that same question on it. Go down, down, down, down, and allow the elevator doors to open onto another scene. Describe each scene in detail. Repeat this a third or fourth time.

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6. Identify the Patterns in your elevator scene

Now it’s time to identify patterns in your elevator scenes. Go over what you have written. Identify (circle, underline, write in margins) one or more pattern you see in the scene. Some scenes have one pattern, and others have several. Each pattern you identify brings greater awareness.

• What are the feelings that are exhibited in the scene? Do these feelings point to fears, expectations, compulsive stuck places, blocks? For example, “I felt disappointed.”
• What are the thoughts and beliefs that are in the scene? Look for admonitions and behaviors. For example, “I thought, ‘I’m stupid for even trying.’”
• What are the behaviours that are in the scene? These could be physical behaviours, facial expressions, or certain kinds of actions to which you have attributed meaning. For example, “I cringed away from him. He acted superior.”
• What are the simple physical realities in the scene? For example, “I went there alone. I wanted to do this myself.”
• Look for any limitations in what look like ‘positive’ scenes, (e.g. ‘I just feel grateful to go in the house’, where the ‘just’ could suggest a pattern of ‘making do with whatever I get’, ‘crumbs are better than nothing.’)

Next, as you review all the scenes as a whole:

• Notice what are the overall messages and moods in all the scenes
• Notice the implications and assumptions that are present
• Pay attention to the wording of what you have written down and what meanings are present
• Look for equivalencies in how the content of your scene is related to the question
• Then, read the scene and see if there are words or expressions that address the question.

You can download a worksheet to record any new patterns you discover here

Once you have identified your new patterns, you can work on them as you would any other pattern – perhaps starting with Recycling, or by using a cathartic release tool.

If you want to listen to an audio guide to the elevator tool, you can listen to Hoffman facilitator Jeremy Kynaston lead a virtual trip in our webinar archive, here