The Complexity Trap: Why the Simplest Reading is Usually the Best One

Reflections from a Practicum

In a recent discussion with our advanced practitioners, a powerful theme emerged that I think every sensitive, psychic, and seeker needs to hear: The tension between the complexity of our minds and the simplicity of our spirits.

We opened the floor to discuss what was "lighting up" in everyone’s space. One practitioner noted a feeling of "vastness" in meditation that was coupled with anxiety. Another noted how difficult it was to truly "see themselves" clearly.

We ended up watching a live reading where a student was trying to read a peer. The reader started describing incredibly intricate details—leather straps, complex machinery, disorientation. It was a fascinating picture, but it was heavy.

I stopped the reading and asked the reader to simplify. "Just say hello to their spirit," I suggested.

The moment they dropped the complex imagery and just looked at the simple truth, the message became clear: The readee was trying to breathe underwater. They were over-analyzing their environment to survive, rather than just swimming to the surface.

Why do we do this? Why do we take a simple energetic problem and turn it into a complex puzzle?

1. Validation via Complexity As one of our students pointed out, sometimes simplicity "pisses people off." Clients (and our own egos) often want a complex validation of their struggles. If I tell you, "You just need to ground," it might feel dismissive. But if I tell you a ten-minute story about your past lives and karmic knots, it feels "important." But "important" isn't always effective.

2. The Fear of Alienation Another profound insight from the group was the fear that simplicity leads to alienation. Many of us bond with others over our shared chaos, our trauma, and our complex problems. If you simplify your life—if you just fix the problem and move on—will you lose your friends? (Spoiler: Your circle might change, but the depth of connection will deepen).

3. The "Student" Identity We also discussed the shift from "Student" to "Teacher." A student looks for the complex answer outside of themselves. A teacher (or a leader) trusts the simple answer inside themselves.

This is why at Art of the Seer, we are non-dogmatic about the Basic Tools: Grounding, Running Energy, Center of the Head, Roses, and the Gold Sun.

These aren't "beginner" tools that you graduate from. They are the master keys.

The truth is rarely complicated. A lie is almost always complex.

🔭 One of the truly magical things about our community at Art of the Seer is that since we share a commitment to the same tools, techniques, and practice container, it’s easy to reach out to each other members and create your own reading and healing exchanges. Using this post as inspiration, find a partner to work with—perhaps someone you know from a current or previous class, or post in the practicum chat groups that you were inspired by this post and find someone new to explore with.

Pair up with a reading partner and exchange 30-minute Clairvoyant Readings together. Practice both giving and receiving as a way of deepening your experience and relationship to this topic.

The Reading Topics:

Healing Focus: Give the readee a healing on their Analyzer (the logic mind). Help them drain out the need to "figure it out" and replace it with the permission to "just know."

Sometimes something is too charged to feel safe being vulnerable in interpersonal spaces with it at first. If this is really stimulating you, you can work this energy in meditation using your tools, or in moments of embodiment and pause throughout your day.

The "So What?" Protocol

Next time you catch yourself spinning a complex story about why something is happening (e.g., "He didn't text back because of his childhood trauma which triggers my abandonment wound..."):

If the energy isn't there, you don't need to analyze why. You just need to call your energy back. Complexity is often just a way to avoid making a decision.

Tell me in the comments: Where in your life are you over-complicating things to avoid making a simple reading and choice?

Sometimes we need to write it down to get it out of our aura. People learn, experience, and process energy in a variety of ways—visually, auditorily, conceptually—and here at AotSA, we validate all those different forms. If you process through writing, take 10 minutes with your journal to "audit" a recurring picture in your space you’ve come across using this template.