Mind, Time & Power!
Using
the hidden power
of your mind to:
Heal your Past,
Transform
your Present,
Create your Future
by
Anthony
Hamilton
Published by Anthony Hamilton at Smashwords
Copyright 2009 by Anthony Hamilton
This book is available in print at
http://www.anthonyhamilton.org
Smashwords Edition, License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
What people are saying about “Mind, Time and Power!”
"Mind, Time and Power!" is a
must read"
Dr. Lee Pulos, author, "The Power of
Visualization"
"The key ingredient for me was how to put positive thinking to work, practically." Barbara P., Sales – McLeod, Young, Weir
"Health, wealth and prosperity are
now in my realm of reality, and you have helped me find the answer."
Ruby S., Realtor – Park Georgia Realty
Part One
Discovering Your Hidden Power
Dedication
Prologue
Introduction
Chapter 01 The Magician Within
Chapter 03 Wake up to Your Power
Chapter 04 Concepts, Models and Maps
Chapter 05 Adopting a New Model
Chapter 07 The Mind as Creator
Chapter 08 Models of the Universe
Chapter 09 Einstein's Model of the World
Chapter 10 A New Model of the Mind
Part Two
Using Your Hidden Power
Chapter 11 What the New Model Means to You
Chapter 12 Does Your Mind Contain a Time Machine?
Chapter 13 The Key to Your Personal Power
Chapter 15 The Affirmation Principle
Chapter 16 Beliefs, Emotions and States
Chapter 18 Cultivating the Future
Chapter 19 Designing Your Destiny
Chapter 21 The Key to Self-Motivation
Chapter 22 Using Your Imagination
Epilogue
Dedication
This book is dedicated to my children Alecia, Graham and Ian. You have taught me that the world is indeed a mysterious place, and a very benevolent one.
To the most influential men in my life: my father Robert, who taught me the way the world works; the Vikings, who offer me continual support, understanding and good-natured ridicule.
To the most influential women in my life: my mother, Eileen, who taught me that anything worth having is worth fighting for; Natashaw and Pauline who gave me the greatest gifts any person can give another; and most of all, Zhang Jing who taught me that I am loveable just as I am.
I owe it all to you.
Prologue
I have always believed each of us was born with the power to realize our dreams. As a child, whenever I read about someone who achieved something important, I would think to myself, 'I could do that too, if I really tried.' However, over time, I found that when I really did try to achieve my goals, as often as not my efforts resulted in disappointment and frustration.
When I finally took a long, hard look at myself a number of years ago now, I had to admit that many areas of my life were more like a nightmare than a dream.
My relationships were confusing and painful. My work provided little satisfaction. I felt overworked, underpaid and unappreciated. It seemed wherever I looked, my world was filled with situations and circumstances I didn't want.
'If it's really true that each of us was born with so much power' I wondered, 'how did my life come to contain so much of what I don't want?'
My search for an answer to this question lasted more than a decade. Eventually I realized that the unwanted conditions of my life were the result of a series of unconscious choices I had been making.
In other words, I had been creating the unwanted conditions of my life -- but I had been doing so unconsciously.
To change things around required that I first of all become aware of what these choices were -- then consciously make some new ones.
In making the shift from unconsciously choosing what I don't want to consciously choosing what I do want, I discovered that I actually did have the power to determine the contents of my life, but had never been taught how to use this power.
The purpose of this book is to describe the process I went through in making this discovery and to assist you in discovering your own inner power, should you choose to do so.
Introduction
As a young man I was fascinated by people of power. I loved reading tales of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. I was especially intrigued by the magical power of Merlin the Magician.
He had extraordinary insight and wisdom and possessed the power to do things that were impossible for the average person. He could heal the sick, predict the future, make things appear or disappear, understand the inner workings of the world and unravel the secrets of the universe. This kind of 'secret' power was very appealing to me.
In the middle ages, European alchemists searched for the secret for transforming lead into gold. I too was captivated by the idea of being able to transform an ordinary substance into something of great value and power.
In high school I realized that the founders of modern science -Copernicus, Kepler, Gallileo, Newton - began their careers as alchemists and became scientists as they learned to explain their discoveries with newly formulated laws of physics and chemistry instead of magic formulas and superstitions.
Their work created science from the fires of the alchemists' cauldrons. These early alchemist-scientists bridged the gap between the magicians of old and the giants of the modern scientific age - Rutherford, Edison, Marconi and Bell.
The most famous of these early scientists was Isaac Newton, a brilliant 17th century thinker who formulated laws of gravity and motion. These modern scientists have something in common with the ancient magicians and alchemists - the ability to see the connection between the world of the mind and the world of matter.
They have discovered that the transformation of the world is always preceded by the transformation of an idea.
The most famous of these modern scientists, Albert Einstein, transformed Newton's ideas of time and space, coining the phrase space-time continuum to explain that the laws of space and the laws of time are mirror images of each other.
Since one characteristic of the human mind is its connection to both the past and the future, I wondered if Einstein's ideas of time might also be applied to the mind, meaning that a psychology based on the work of Newton could be replaced by a psychology based on the work of Einstein.
If so, this would bring into play the power of the future as a creative force. This seemingly bizarre idea made intuitive sense to me. 'After all' I thought, 'isn't it true that to succeed in life we must know which possible future we want to experience?' In short, we need a dream to create.
Whether our creativity is manifested in the arts, in business, politics, sports or science, are not those of us with power those who know what dreams we want to make real?
Does not our dream create a connection to our chosen future and provide the information, the inspiration and the motivation that keeps us going when people lacking a dream run out of steam?
I realized that the power of a goal is that it tells us how it can be achieved -- if we will but ask the right questions.
And of course, a goal is in the future. So here was a clear example to me of how the future could be used as a source of information and power.
In the course of my own personal journey I have come to realize that we are all alchemists.
We all have the power to transform ordinary experiences into extraordinary lessons. We can transform our failures into sources of power. We can transform ourselves from ordinary people into people of extraordinary patience, love, wisdom and compassion.
A 21st Century Psychology
I believe the transformation from a 17th century psychology to a 21st century psychology is an idea whose time has come.
I believe it is time for each of us to realize that we were born to be co-creators, to participate in a great river of unfolding manifestation which began before we drew our first breath and which will continue long after we are gone.
If we are to claim the power we were born with, we each need to begin by transforming our vision of ourselves. We need to see ourselves as people of power.
I came to realize that the life I wanted to create was calling to me, trying to manifest itself through me, if only I had the courage to accept responsibility for living my dream.
I believe the same is true for you.
If you have a vision of a life you would like to create, I believe the power to create your dream is lying within you right now, waiting to be claimed, if you will have the courage to accept it.
Can you do that? Can you accept that you have within you the power to create your dream?
If you can, I promise you an exciting and eventful journey. The path to the future of your choice will be at times confusing, at times frustrating, at times frightening. But it will never be boring. If you will persist in the belief that you deserve to be happy, that you deserve to be fulfilled, that you deserve love, I believe that one day you will wake up as I did to realize that the life you have dreamed about is happening to you now.
Anthony Hamilton
Victoria, British Columbia
November, 2009.
The Magician Within
“I can sing a rainbow.”
Graham Hamilton
You were born with the power to create the life you want. However, if you are like most people, your life at the moment contains a number of situations and circumstances you don't want….and at the same time, lots of things you do want are not yet a part of your life, even though you may have tried long and hard to achieve them.
This leads to an obvious question… "If I have so much creative power, why does my life contain so many things I don't want and why have I failed to achieve the goals I do want?"
The answer to this question is deceptively simple: Your life is the way it is because up to now, your creative power has been working UNCONSCIOUSLY. In order to change things you will need to become aware of this power and learn to re-direct it CONSCIOUSLY. As you do this, you will stop creating things you don't want and begin experiencing more of what you do want.
In doing this you will become aware of a power you were born with but which you have never learned to use.
The purpose of this book is to describe what I discovered in making the shift from unconsciously creating what I don't want to consciously creating what I do want and to help you in making a similar change, if you care to do so.
The key to the whole process is to realize that the secret power we are talking about lies in the creative power of your thoughts.
Put simply, your thoughts create your life. Because most of your thoughts are unconscious, you are doing a lot of unconscious creating. Your job from now on will be to become more conscious of your thinking and learn how to plant into your mind specific kinds of thoughts, so that the process turns around.
This is easier said than done, as you will find out.
Developing your personal power
Down through the ages many masters have spoken of developing this kind of power and their advice has always been the same - know thyself.
They meant that the key to mastery over the outer world is gaining mastery over the inner self - to choose for ourselves what we think and how we feel.
The rewards of developing this power are personal happiness, peace of mind and worldly success. But developing this degree of mastery takes discipline. The journey to the inner self is not for the faint of heart.
This book outlines a system to develop the power to transform various aspects of your life, so you will be able to remove what makes you unhappy and put in what makes you happy.
As you study the concepts, do the exercises and practice the techniques, you will find that your awareness, your control and your power grow. You will discover that you really do have the ability to create conditions and circumstances of your choosing. The key to the entire process lies in learning to use your mind in a way that may be quite different from what you have been taught before.
We each live in two worlds
The first step is to realize that the mind operates simultaneously in two worlds - an outer, physical world of events and an inner, world of thoughts. Like a cat perched on a windowsill, your conscious awareness sits at the interface of both worlds, looking both outward and inward.
Sometimes your awareness is directed outward, to the physical world, making you conscious of what's going on around you. At other times it's directed inward, to the world of thought, making you conscious of what you are thinking. Most of the time you are not really conscious of either. This causes problems.
Because we have blind spots in both worlds, the relationship between these two worlds is not easy to figure out. There are aspects of both worlds we are simply not aware of.
At first glance the outer world seems separate from the inner world. But this is an illusion. The two are intimately connected. In fact, your two worlds are really just different aspects of one overall reality reflecting something going on very deep inside of you. Your job from now on will be to figure out what that "something" is.
Perception and reality
What we call our "reality" comes down to what and how we perceive it. What we perceive in the outer world is a reflection of what we conceive in the inner world. Our beliefs about reality influence our experience and perception of reality. Our perception of reality is distorted and influenced by what we think and how we think.
One clue to this whole idea of "connection" is to explore the nature of our private, innermost feelings.
Most people's feelings are simply a reaction to what happens in their outer world. At first, this seems obvious - something happens to us and we feel either good or bad about it, so we naturally think our feelings are caused by what has happened.
But this is another illusion.
Our feelings are not caused by what happens but by the meaning we attach to what happens. Since ultimately the meaning of any event is chosen by each of us, (usually unconsciously) our feelings are really the result of our thinking…not of the event itself.
We may perceive and even believe that events cause our feelings, but the reality is quite different. As you learn to give each event a positive meaning (and a positive feeling) your world will undergo a profound shift. Cultivating the skill of consciously giving events a positive meaning will be one of your main tasks from now on.
How your two worlds affect each other
That the outer world can affect the inner world seems obvious. What might not be so obvious is that the connection goes both ways. In other words, our thinking affects the outer world!
The process that brings this about is quite subtle, but we can easily prove it to ourselves because any time we change an attitude the world shifts. The fact that you can change your reaction (and your feeling) about any outer event will give you proof you’re your thinking can affect your world. Doing this with control can take considerable insight and awareness.
The good news is that to create our desires as physical realities we don't need to change the world. We need only change our thinking. The outer world will then be transformed automatically. Changing your thinking changes both your worlds!
Two sets of awareness - two sets of senses
As we examine the outer world our outer awareness gathers information using our outer senses. As we examine the inner world, our inner awareness gathers information using our inner senses.
The operation of the inner awareness is subtle. When it gathers information from the past we call it memory. When it gathers information from the future we may call it day-dreaming (if the information is positive) or worrying (if the information is negative). But the inner awareness is always operating, gathering information form different areas of our inner world, and most of the time we are not conscious of what it is doing or how it is doing it.
To consciously direct the inner awareness so it gathers specific information from specific areas of the past or the future is a major aspect of the your new skill of conscious co-creation and can take considerable effort to master.
A later chapter gives a detailed description of the inner field of time in which the inner awareness moves. You will receive specific instructions on how to move your awareness around within this inner field of time. How well you develop this skill determines whether you become a victim of circumstances or a creator of them.
Controlling the movements of your inner awareness is the master key which unlocks a storehouse of inner knowledge and power. As we bring various aspects of the past and future into the present to be examined, we discover that we have everything we need to heal the past and create our dreams.
Matter and energy are two sides of the same coin
Einstein's famous equation, E=mc2 shows that matter, energy, time and space are simply four different aspects of one overall reality. Scientists now understand that
the physical and the non-physical are connected,
knowledge depends upon belief,
the observer influences the results of every experiment,
expectations influence the conditions we encounter.
Magicians have always known this.
Ultimately the power to transform your reality depends upon your belief. Your power is only as strong as you believe it is. How much creative power do you believe you have today? Are you prepared to do the necessary work to change this belief?
We each have two brains
In the mid 1970's a scientist in California named Roger Sperry performed a remarkable experiment. In an effort to cure a patient's epilepsy, he cut a bundle of nerves connecting the two halves of the patient's brain. As a result, Sperry came to realize that we don't actually have one brain. We have two! He also discovered these two brains do quite different things.
After the patient's brains were cut, Sperry discovered that the patient could talk about what he held in his right hand because this hand was still connected to the language center in the left brain. But he couldn't talk about what he held in his left hand because the operation had severed the connection to the language centre.
Sperry discovered that using his left hand, the patient could draw a picture of an object previously held in this hand. This proved that his right brain retained the memory. But because his brains were now divided, different information was held by each brain! His right hand literally didn't know what his left hand was doing! When asked, "Do you know what you are holding in your left hand?" his head nodded Yes while his mouth said, No!
The source of your inner conflict
Sperry's discovery gives us insight into the conflict we each experience when we feel something to be true that our thinking says is false or when we feel we want something but think we don't deserve it.
The conflict between thinking and feeling creates endless problems for each of us. It interferes with our ability to achieve happiness and success. It makes us chase after things we think will make us happy and blinds us to the treasures we already possess. It tricks us into behaviors we know are unhealthy as though we are driven by some unseen force. As our private, inner conflict spills over to affect our public, outer world, it makes our lives a confusing jumble of conflicting beliefs, behaviors, emotions, desires and fears.
To erase our conflicts and create harmony in our world we need to control both our thinking and our feelings. This can be tricky.
Regaining the balance in our lives
To regain balance in our lives and access our personal power, we each need to embark upon a private, inner journey, following a private inner logical and emotional path. We need to investigate, understand and exercise both our brains.
During the course of this journey, we'll come to discover what we really want, how we really think and what we truly believe. We'll discover what we feel and why we feel it. As we progress on the path we'll recapture the sense of wonder we experienced as a child, when fantasy and reality were one. We'll also discover a great wellspring of creative power lying within us waiting to be tapped. Harmony within will create harmony without.
For each of us, the journey both begins and ends with gaining an increased knowledge of ourselves. We begin by sorting out our thinking and sorting out the various pieces of our lives. Then we need to put them back together again so they fit together in a new way. We need to take ourselves apart and put ourselves back together again.
A magical process
This is not simply a book about positive thinking. Instead, it is a guide book for your own personal voyage of self discovery and a hand book for coming into conscious cooperation with the creative forces of the universe.
Your success in creating the external conditions you desire will depend upon your gaining an increased awareness of yourself and your power. Since your personal journey involves a re-examination of both your inner and your outer worlds, the program outlined in these pages has a dual nature to it.
The first aspect of this process involves discovering the source of your creative power and learning how to use it. The second involves deciding what goals you want to create for yourself and deciding what kind of person you would like to become. This is vital. Since your external circumstances will always reflect your inner nature, the new reality you create will really be a reflection of the new person you are becoming.
What type of work do you want? What kind of lifestyle do you wish to live? What type of man or woman do you wish as a partner? How healthy do you wish to be? What effect would you like to have upon your family, upon your community, and upon your world? How can you achieve your own happiness?
As you progress through this book you will discover your own answers to these questions.
Although the information in this book is organized into chapters, it actually revolves around five main themes which weave throughout the text. You will encounter different aspects of each of them in various places throughout the book.
These five themes are:
Motivation,
Attitude,
Goals,
Imagination,
Consciousness,
The first letters of each of these words, taken together, spell "MAGIC"
This word represents five powerful skills you must master if you are to consciously create the life you want. I'll briefly discuss each of these in turn.
Motivation
A motive is actually two things at once. Firstly, it is a reason to act. Secondly, it is a force for movement.
To persevere along our chosen path we must know both what we want and why we want it. A clear idea of WHY we want something transforms our intention into a force which propels us from one reality to another.
Attitude
Attitudes do several things at once. They filter thoughts, so we think more of one kind of thought and less of another. They shape our perceptions, so we notice different kinds of things in both the inner and outer worlds. They give meaning, form and texture to both our worlds. Our attitudes determine both the conditions we meet the emotions we feel. When we expect resistance we encounter it. When we think ourselves unworthy of success we feel frustrated wanting something we think we don't deserve.
To work with your attitudes means to work with a form of energy most people are simply unaware of. To consciously choose attitudes that work for you allows you to create both new opportunities and new emotions.
Attitudes form patterns which can be discovered and changed. In a later chapter we will explore a powerful method for uncovering and altering these patterns. You will learn to delete negative attitudes and insert positive attitudes. When we adopt the attitude that success comes from doing what we enjoy, the more fun we have, the more success we experience. Changing your attitude about life changes your life.
Goals
To design our destiny means to decide the ultimate meaning of our lives - to live life on our terms. If we don't know what we want we will never have the power to create it nor will we feel satisfied with what we already have. We can use our left brains to sort out the pieces of our lives and our right brains to choose new patterns for them. We can create a written plan that serves as a road map to the future of our choice. Doing this will focus our mind, balance our personality, rid us of stress and keep us physically and emotionally healthy. As we continue this process we discover that anything we can imagine in our inner world we can experience in our outer world.
Imagination
The imagination is the connecting link between the inner and outer worlds. The ability to control your imagination is the mark of the master. People with no control over their imagination get trapped in worry. This makes them victims of their thinking. They might end up being inner realities that don't exist physically.
The most valuable talent each of us can develop is the ability to hold in our mind a clear image of a desired situation while holding in our body a positive feeling about it. This skill connects us to an unlimited wellspring of positive energy that helps bring the imagined situation about. Control creates power. Controlling our imagination enables us to use our thinking and our feelings as creative forces, bringing into being the realities we want to create.
Consciousness
Even though the earth exists at one point in space, its gravity reaches to the farthest edge of the universe. In a similar manner, your body exists at one point in time but your thinking reaches to the farthest limits of your past and your future.
Your conscious mind straddles the boundary between the physical and the non-physical. You have the ability to hold in your mind thoughts of the outer world, thoughts of the inner world, or both simultaneously.
As the focus of your awareness moves from the inner world to the outer and back again, your emotions become forces that either drawing your desires to you or keeping them away. What each of us actually creates depends upon the strength of our motivation, the pattern of our attitudes, the clarity of our goals, the mastery of our imagination and the cultivation of our consciousness.
Cultivating your skills in these five areas will give you the power to achieve your goals, as well as to experience happiness, health, wealth, peace of mind, harmony in your relationships and success in your world. You will gain freedom from fear and the ability to both give and receive love. People will begin to recognize you as a champion. You will become a force in the world.
As we progress on this personal journey of awakening, we discover that each of us has a magician inside of us. As we gain access to the power of this inner magician our power increases and our lives become magic.
Chapter Two
What is Thinking, Anyway?
“Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream... merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily... life is but a dream.”
Child's Nursery Rhyme
Since the purpose of this book is to give you more power over the way your life is unfolding and since I've already said that the key to this power lies in gaining increased control over your thinking, I'd better define what I mean by the term, "thinking" so we are on the same page. What is thinking, and what happens in your mind when you think? Here is a definition we can use...
Thinking is the process of constructing a model of reality in order to understand your experience.
The following story will illustrate what I mean.
Imagine that you and I are sitting in a coffee shop one day and I begin telling you of a picnic I had the previous Thursday with a friend of mine in a grassy field by a local river. Imagine too that I tell you this friend brought her Irish Setter along. In order to understand my story, you need to understand the terms, last Thursday, field, river, picnic, friend, Irish Setter, and so on… otherwise you won't know what I'm talking about.
But of course you do understand these words. And as you sit listening to me, you unconsciously construct in your mind's eye a mental model of the scene I'm describing. You see us sitting by the river having a picnic, with the dog playing near by.
This is what thinking is ... creating a model of reality in order to understand your experience. Your experience in this case is listening to me tell my story and the model you created is your little internal movie, or "mental snapshot" of our picnic.
Because this internal activity is automatic, you don't consciously think about the fact the picnic you see in your mind is not the actual one that took place, that it's only a model. You don't actually see my friend, the river, the grass, the dog, or the picnic area. You just see internal representations of them with your inner senses.
Now, suppose we meet each other on the street again the next day and I'm pushing a young, blind lady in a wheelchair, as her seeing-eye dog walks alongside. As I introduce you, you suddenly realize she's the friend I had the picnic with.
As soon as this realization hits you, you replace your original mental picture with a new one. This gives you a new understanding of my story, because you didn't originally imagine my friend to be blind, or in a wheelchair, or that her dog was a seeing-eye dog. (As a matter of fact, the same process might have just happened as you read this anecdote… did it?)
This story illustrates my point.
This process of internal model making and re-making is usually completely unconscious. Since we don't normally get the kind of feedback as you did in my example, we normally aren't aware of how inaccurate our internal mental models are. (Let's face it: if you hadn't met the two of us on the street the next day you might never have known that your original conception of our picnic was totally inaccurate.)
Because the process is automatic and unconscious, after you've constructed one of these concepts, you store it away ready to be used again later without realizing that it's inaccurate.
You can use the same concepts over and over again for years…never realizing that your idea of something may be quite different from the thing being referred to.
This story illustrates what happens inside each of us. We construct models of reality called concepts to try and understand our experience, while remaining completely unaware that our internal models may contain completely false information.
Many times the differences between our concepts of reality and actual reality don't matter much. But understanding the process of constructing these models is absolutely vital. The differences between your model of reality and your actual reality lies at the root of some fundamental aspects of your life. If you don't understand this process, you won't understand why your life isn't working, and you won't be able to change things for the better. You'll continue to think the problem lies in the world when it really lies in the way you think about the world.
If you don't wake up to what's going on inside of you, you may live the rest of your life trying to change the outer world instead of changing your thinking!
Your mind has lots of concepts and models in it
One goal of this book is to wake you up to the fact that these mental models exist and have a huge impact on your life.
Here are some examples of concepts already existing in your mind.
A concept called your self-image determines what you can and can't do.
A concept called the world determines what is possible and impossible.
A concept called your past generates feelings and emotions in you.
A concept called your future determines what is likely to happen to you.
A concept called other people influences how you interact with people.
A concept called your mind determines how it operates, what information it contains and some of the things it can and can't do.
It's important to realize three things about your inner concepts:
that they exist;
that they are false;
that they can be changed.
Many of your mental models were created by you as a child and are highly inaccurate. To develop your power you need to realize that they are there, that they can be changed and learn how to change them. When you succeed in changing your thinking, new possibilities, new powers and new abilities become available to you.
Much of the work of developing your personal power comes down to becoming conscious of some of your unique, automatic thought patterns, then changing them until the new pattern becomes automatic in turn.
Start paying attention to your thinking. Try to notice the kinds of concepts that exist in your mind. Simply being aware of them will take you a long way on the road to increasing your personal power.
As you investigate your inner world and change things around a bit, you will discover that you have talents and abilities you never thought existed. You'll discover that the world is quite different from what you imagined, that other people operate in ways you didn't realize, and you'll discover that the key to getting what you want in life is quite different from what you thought.
Chapter Three
Wake Up to Your Power
“Nothing determines who we
will become so
much as the
things we choose to ignore”.
Sandor McNab
Why your life is the way it is
Whether you are conceiving your inner world or perceiving your outer one, you are using the same nerves. A continuous feedback loop connects your inner world and your outer one as your mind is constantly projecting your internal models outward, where you experience them as external reality. This leads to the basic illusion I spoke of in the first chapter. The contents and characteristics of your outer world are shaped by the contents and characteristics of your inner world.
When a couple walking in the park sees a large German Shepherd dog running toward them, one person becomes afraid while the other begins to smile. Each person thinks he is reacting to the same physical dog. In fact, they are reacting to different mental ones.
You have been largely unaware of this process until now and have paid little attention to the contents of your mind. Yet the circumstances of your life reflect what is going on inside of you. The qualities and characteristics of the contents of your mind are constantly being projected outward, appearing to you as qualities and characteristics of the physical world.
If you believe in obstacles you will encounter them.
If you believe in angels you will see evidence for them.
If you believe people respect you, you will feel respected.
If you believe other people are against you, you will encounter resistance.
As long as you remain blind to this on-going feedback system, you'll accept the negative aspects of your life as things you simply have to put up with. But It doesn't have to be this way. When you change your mental models your life will change.
You have as much freedom to choose the contents of your life as you do to choose the furniture in your home. But if no one has shown you how to exercise this choice, you won't have this power. As you begin to control your thinking, you will gain creative power over the contents of your life.
There are many levels of unconscious thoughts and many ways to consciously influence them. The basic skill is to become aware of the patterns which already exist in your mind and to gain a measure of control over them.
Changing your personal reality
Until now you've considered your world to consist of events. You've focused your attention on trying to produce more of the events you want while avoiding those you don't. But this isn't the way it works. You've been focusing your efforts in the wrong place
Your personal reality is not so much made up of events but of your perceptions and the meaning you attach to these perceptions. When you take apart this unconscious network of perception and meaning you discover that your past, your present and your future have changed. Events haven't changed but your life has!
This is personal transformation in the true sense. Exercising this power leads to a new understanding of your past, since memories that used to trigger pain now trigger pleasure. It changes your future, since what formerly intimidated you now excites you. Over time, as your thinking changes, your external circumstances begin to line up with the new pattern of perception and meaning laid down by your new thought patterns.
As you wake up to your power to make these kinds of changes you realize that the activity of both your brains is intertwined like two snakes fighting. It's difficult to tell if your thoughts are leading your feelings or your feelings are leading your thoughts. To separate the activity of each brain requires insight and awareness. The best way to gain this insight and maintain this awareness is to begin keeping a journal in which you keep track of certain kinds of ideas. I'll explain more of how to do this as we go.
Unconscious thought patterns
Working with unconscious thought patterns involves working with powerful forces of which most people are blind. When you know what to look for you can see their effects everywhere. From now on begin to notice the following kinds of thought patterns:
Images
If I ask you the color of your favorite shirt you can tell me, proving you have a visual memory. Yet many people are blind to the flow of imagery constantly playing just beneath the surface of their awareness. Write this statement on a card and carry it with you so you'll be reminded of it on a continuous basis: My ability to visualize is improving daily. This will prepare you for the visualization training you will be doing shortly.
Self Talk
You have a little voice carrying on continuously just below the surface of your awareness. Sometimes this voice says things you don't want to hear. Unless you take control, these unwanted comments can affect you in ways you don't want. Learning to change the content and the tone of this internal voice is a very powerful way to influence your internal and your external world.
Denial
Have you ever noticed yourself thinking something like, "It looks like such and such is true, but that wouldn't make sense, so I must be mistaken."? The decision to ignore information that doesn't fit with your beliefs is an unconscious mechanism your mind uses to avoid painful feelings. Denial is very influential in creating the unwanted conditions you have been experiencing up to now. Catching yourself doing this will become one of your most powerful tools in creating the life you want. Failing to notice yourself doing it will keep you from developing any real power.
Negative feelings
Your feelings provide a vital clue to the thinking patterns of your right brain. Learning to control them is one of the most important keys to developing your power. We think of ourselves as logical beings because much of our thinking seems to happen in a logical sequence. But feelings are different. They aren't logical. They endure over time, influencing the content of your experience. You can feel good for a few minutes, angry for days or depressed for weeks. The shock of a powerful negative event might effect you for years. On the other hand, a friendly glance from a stranger can cause your feelings to shift in an instant.
Intuitions, emotions and states
It's important to pay attention to your feelings since how you feel affects how you think. We can divide feelings into three categories: intuitions, emotions and states, each one more intense and exercising more control over your life.
Intuitions are subtle nudges, giving you valuable insights helping you make choices.
Emotions are powerful forces which affect your thinking and your perceptions. They influence your memory of the past and your expectations for the future. They affect your perceptions of your past, your present and your future. Things which mean one thing when you're feeling up can mean something entirely different when you're feeling down. Emotions create self-fulfilling prophesies. You'll expect less success when you're feeling down than when you're feeling confident.
It is a great mistake to deny your negative feelings and dismiss them as of no importance. Emotionalized thoughts are powerful creative forces. One moment of anger can destroy a relationship you have spent years nurturing.
States are intense emotions that charge your entire being for good or for ill. Some examples of states are anger, fear, confidence, being in love. Although any emotion will influence your thinking to a certain degree, an intense state can transform a heaven into a hell or a hell into a heaven.
We consider states so important that we even identify people by their states. We call one person a worrier, another an optimist, a third scatterbrained. These terms also describe the worlds in which these people live, since each person's life reflects their predominant states. Developing and maintaining a set of positive states not only allows you to enjoy the present. It also allows you to remember more positive things in the past and to expect more positive things in the future. A state of self-confidence increases the chances of bringing your positive expectations into your life as physical realities.
The underlying premise of this book is not simply that you can create your reality but that you are creating it right now, unconsciously! Unconscious mental images, self-talk, feelings, intuitions, emotions and states are powerful forces which are creating definite effects in your life today. Becoming aware of them gives you insight into why your life is the way it is and provides you with powerful tools to begin changing it. As you wake up to the existence of these unconscious thought forces, you wake up your power to influence both your inner and your outer worlds.
Chapter Four
Concepts, Models and Maps
“There are more things in
heaven and earth
than are
dreamt of in your philosophy.”
Shakespeare
All your life you have been unconsciously constructing concepts in an effort to understand your experience and have assembled these concepts into complicated interactive networks called cognitive maps. You believe each concept, model and map accurately represents aspects of the world. This is an illusion.
If a person likes dogs, it's because his concept dog has pleasant qualities associated to it. If he doesn't like dogs, it's because his concept has unpleasant qualities. In neither case do his feelings have anything to do with dogs. Instead, they are a reaction to the qualities of his internal concept. Every time you meet a dog the feelings you experience are due to the non-physical dog in your mind, not the physical one in the world. This is true for every experience you have.
When you gaze into the world, you expect it to have the characteristics of your model. If your expectations are realized, you feel comfortable. If not, you feel some degree of discomfort. This triggers your explainer to generate a theory (called a belief) to explain the differences. In this way you learn to feel comfortable in the world and develop a set of beliefs to make sense of it.
Normally, the entire process of constructing mental models, associating characteristics to them, recognizing their physical counterparts in the world, comparing the two, experiencing feelings and generating beliefs is an automatic, modularized activity to which we are completely blind. These inner actions are as unconscious as those involved in triggering images and feelings in you as read. As your eyes scan the patterns formed by the ink, you simply experience the sensations.
In a similar way, each of us thinks we are perceiving, experiencing and understanding the world when we are really experiencing the actions of our mind as it projects our expectations onto the world. As we become more aware of the contents of our inner world and the action of our mind we gain insight into how changing this internal activity, leads to a different experience of the world.
Maps of space
A network of interlocking maps of space help you understand relationships between aspects of your world. You have an inner map of your city, your country, the world and the solar system. And you understand the relationship between them all. These inner maps are not very accurate. Information is generalized, distorted or deleted altogether. Distances, shapes and relationships are wrong. But a map doesn't have to be accurate to be useful.
When you drive to work, the route you visualize doesn't contain the same buildings, trees or streets as the route you drive. But it helps you get to work, so it's done its job. Likewise, your cognitive map of the solar system helps you understand where Venus is, but your conception of Venus is quite different from the physical reality of the place.
Maps of time
Maps of time help you organize the events of your life. You have an inner representation of your childhood, your teen-age years, your twenties, and so on. These temporal maps are also very distorted and generate feelings when you think of them. Huge areas of your past contain virtually no detail at all but you never notice the blank spots. If asked, Can you remember your childhood? you say yes, because you have a concept of it. But most of the data from those years is simply not there.
If asked, How did you like high school? a flood of sounds, images and feelings washes over you. You think the feelings are due to the events that took place. This is an illusion. They are due entirely to the characteristics of your mental map.
You also have an unconscious map of your future. It represents what you think will happen and what you you'll have to do to reach your goals. Although your concept of the future is quite different from what will actually happen, the feelings it generates determine how you set about trying to accomplish things and determines how you react to the results of your efforts.
Your internal maps of your past, present and future are no more accurate than your map of the route to work. Problems arise because you forget you have them. You think your problems are due to what's happening in the world, when they are really due to what's happening in your mental model of it.
The source of all our problems
We are all trapped in the same vicious cycle. We construct models of the world to understand it, then our models distort our experience of the very thing they're supposed to help us understand. This inevitably leads to situations where life doesn't match our expectations, leading to confusion and pain. We explain these away in order to feel better, but since our explanations are also based on distorted models, they don't solve the underlying problem. The very strategies we use to avoid negative feelings create more unwanted circumstances and more negative feelings, until our image of how life works becomes so out of alignment with reality nothing seems to make any sense.
Because we are reacting to a model of the world we think is reality, we convince ourselves that the problem lies outside of us when the source of our difficulties is a mental process we don't even know exists. We try to live our lives as best we can, struggling to make reality conform to our model of it, producing more stress, more frustration and more disappointment. We try to avoid negative feelings by avoiding negative situations. But since our feelings are not caused by situations but by our thinking, our efforts don't work. Is it any wonder we sometimes feel overwhelmed?
The solution to all our problems
Most of the difficulties we experience in life stem from the fact that the concepts, models and maps we are using to understand the world are wrong. The way we think the world operates is out of step. Our problems are not due to past events, the actions of other people, or the way the world works. They are due entirely to our inaccurate mental models.
To solve our problems and develop our personal power, we need to shift the focus of our efforts. We need to stop trying to change the world, and instead change the way we think about the world. We need to concentrate on changing the concepts, models and maps that make up our model of the world. From now on most of our efforts will involve working with these internal structures.
As you read the following chapters, some of the tasks you'll undertake and some of the skills you'll develop will be considered impossible by other people because they don't fit their model of reality. But as you set about modifying your internal reality, your external reality will undergo a profound shift. You'll develop a new feeling of power, discover abilities you never knew you had, and see opportunities for happiness and success to which you have been blind your entire life.
Chapter Five
Adopting a New Model
“I am never discouraged, because
every wrong
attempt discarded is
another step forward.”
Thomas Edison
Is the world a process or thing?
A model can be defined either by its function or by its properties and the information conveyed by the model depends upon this distinction. To define something by its function conveys limits. To define something by its properties conveys possibilities.
If I define the word hammer by its function, I might say, A hammer is used to drive nails into a piece of wood. Whether you visualize a shape like a hammer or a like a potato doesn't matter much.
But say I define the hammer by its properties. I might say, It's made of metal, shaped like a 'T', about a foot long, weighs about three pounds, has a flat metal end on one side of the 'T' and two metal prongs on the other.
This definition not only conveys a different picture of the hammer, it implies a number of new possible functions. Hearing this definition might make you realize that in addition to hitting nails, a hammer could be used to pry open a can of paint. This possibility is something the image of a potato won't convey.
The limitations you have experienced in your life to this point are due entirely to the limitations of the models you are using to think about your life. Many of these limitations are due simply to the fact that you have defined many concepts as things when they are processes. Adopting a new definition not only makes these limitations disappear, it may stimulate you to find ways of doing things you may have thought impossible before.
As you begin to see things differently, your life begins to take on a new tone. You begin to display a new level of personal power, success and self-esteem. You begin to feel a new level of confidence. Observing your new successes, some people will simply say you are lucky. This will be their explainer talking, trying to make them feel better. But you'll know the truth ... that you have built yourself a different model of reality, one containing a picture of you as a person of power.
Making a sandwich ... a model as a thing
Picture a building site at lunch time. The whistle blows and two workers, Tony and Bruno, sit down to eat. Each opens his lunch box and pulls out a paper bag with sandwiches and a thermos of coffee. As Bruno unwraps his sandwiches he becomes agitated.
Good grief, he says, Bologna again! I always get bologna sandwiches. I hate bologna sandwiches! Then, resigned that he has no choice, he begins to eat.
Tony turns to him and says, If you hate bologna so much, why don't you ask your wife to make you something else for lunch?
What do you mean? says Bruno, I always make my own lunch!
We laugh at this story because it seems ridiculous that someone would make something he doesn't like and then complain about it. We consider ourselves intelligent enough to change a behavior that doesn't produce the desired results. But as just pointed out, the difficulties we encounter in life are caused by the models and maps we ourselves have made, so the source of our frustration is created by each of us.
You experience disappointment just as Bruno does. You settle for less than you want out of life. You feel badly about certain events in your past, feel upset by certain people in your present and are afraid of certain situations in the future. You accept these things as inevitable parts of life, but this is not life! This is your model of life! The frustration you feel is not due to events, people or situations. It is due to your internal models.
If you believe anything in your past, present or future has the power to make you feel badly, you've made the same mistake Bruno has.
But before you feel insulted, realize you haven't had much choice. You've been using a set of concepts and models handed down to you by others and have had virtually no choice but to construct your understanding of life from the material available to you. However you'd be shortchanging yourself if once shown a better way, you continued using the same models and continued having the same negative feelings.
Any unpleasant situation that persists in your life does so because of the model of reality you are using. You can discard this model and replace it with a new one, as soon as you have a new one to replace it with. I'll soon give you a series of new concepts you can use to erase your negative feelings and which will also give you fresh insight into some talents and abilities you've not been aware of until now.
But before we get to that, consider this next example.
Driving to work ... a model as a process
Picture Bruno and Tony having lunch again the next day. Still eating a bologna sandwich, Bruno turns to Tony and says, That construction on Tenth Avenue is tearing the heck out of my suspension.
Yeah, Tony replies, I know what you mean. I've been taking Ninth Avenue all week.
Bruno turns to Tony in disbelief, What? You mean you can get to work driving along Ninth Avenue?
Of course, replies Tony. You can get here on any street that runs east and west.
Bruno's jaw drops. Gee. he says, What do you know about that?
This is another ridiculous example of an obvious point. We know driving to work is a process that can be accomplished a thousand different ways. Bruno's problem is that he thinks of the drive to work as a thing. In doing so he fails to see how easily it can be changed.
There are several noteworthy differences between things and processes. Things have parts; processes don't. Things can only be changed by changing the parts, while a process can be easily modified by changing the process at any point. A process doesn't have an effect. Instead, it produces by-products. When you alter a process, you change the by products. If Bruno were to modify his process of driving to work by driving one more block North before turning West, he'd save a lot of wear and tear on his car.
Here are some examples of common processes we often conceive as things: relationships ... holidays ... waves ... trees... weddings ... personalities ... childhood ... life ... the past ... the present ... the future ... the world … the mind.
Recognizing that something is a process rather than a thing can have a huge impact on your life.
Chapter Six
Models of the Mind
“Only in imagination does every truth find an effective and undeniable existence. Imagination, not invention, is the supreme master of art, as of life.”
Joseph Conrad
To understand the word mind you need a model of it (a concept) and the characteristics of whatever model you use will be unconsciously transferred to your own mind. Throughout history people have used different models to understand the mind. This limited the mind to the properties of the model. In this way we have blinded ourselves to many of our natural talents and abilities.
The mind as a storehouse of information
Until the 1950's, the model used by psychologists to describe the mind was a library. The mind was pictured as a vast storehouse of information, with rows upon rows of volumes, each containing information about some area of life. It was believed that each event of your past was recorded in this library and remembering was the act of retrieving this stored information.
This model isn't very good. It can't explain why memories change or how we can remember things that never happened, like dreams. It can't explain why memories are affected by emotions, or how memories of two different events can get fused together, so we seem to have one memory of one event. It can't explain our ideas of the future, or how a goal can become a source of inspiration. It can't explain how an inventor can use a mental image of something that has never existed as an aid to develop it.