Some folks do well with this; other people never seem to succeed.

What do you want from such a system?

You want (a) success; (b) rapid success; (c) reliable success. Just like your Ford automobile, you want it to always start and carry you down the chosen road, to start quickly, and to operate reliably as expected.

In these various systems, different factors are touted as helping to attain success, rapidity, and reliability. These include –

• Practicing to attain clear images
• Adding additional senses as you visualize
• Having faith, believing
• Practicing to build history of success (creates trust)
• Adding emotions you’ll experience upon success
• Picturing as already happened
• Being *in* the picture
• Repetition
• Spending time, more time, every-day time on the same visualization
• Create ardent desire
• Create gratitude (can only feel gratitude on a basis of success)
• Turning it over to God, to the Universe, to your Higher Self, to your Subconscious

The common denominator of all of these … is that they make the visualization more *real*.

Reality – A Consensual Illusion?

For most of us, the first time we hear the concept that the world around us, what we think is reality itself, could be a consensual illusion … it seems absurd. For it directly contradicts our “experience” of the world.

But think. As infants we have no ability to choose a direction, and then create a focused visualization. We must rely upon some incoming sensory input, and what people tell us. Even the words we learn, their meanings, and the way they are strung together create a view of the world … and *inside* of that world-view we operate. Like fish that don’t see the water, we don’t see the world-view we’ve created around us. Everything we see is *inside* the world view.

In Spanish, a person cannot miss the bus. Because when the young grow up inside the Spanish language, the way they consider the missed bus is (as we’d say in English) … “The bus, she left me.” This is now the world view of how busses behave.

As growing children, sometimes we see things that others do not see. However, in order to communicate with others, to attain our goals (food, water, acceptance, grades, friendship) we are attempting to see the commonly-agreed-upon view that we hear from others. Frequently, the imaginary friend fades away from our view of the world, and we cannot see the friend any longer. The golden glow glistening around the leaves as they pulsate with light fades, leaving the flat green leaves shown in pictures and as (we come to believe) seen by others.

We accept the consensual reality as told and demonstrated to us by our family and our culture.

Is My Red Your Blue?

We don’t actually *know* that others see things as we do, even after we’ve agreed.

We can see a shirt or a dress, and we agree that it is red. But perhaps what my eyes are handing to my brain, and what I call by the word “red” would be what you would call “blue” if you could see through my eyes. Perhaps from your viewpoint, you see red and I’m really seeing what you’d call blue, but since we both call it “red” we assume we’re *seeing* the same thing. But we have no way to really check and see if that’s true.

We call it by the same name, we describe it using the same words, but maybe our experience is completely different.

Three Kinds of Entrapment

1. As in the sad movie, you could get your foot caught in the railroad tracks, and you are stuck, entrapped in the physical universe, and the train could eat you up right quick. A fleeing rabbit could be outsmarted in the quick twists and turns by the faster fox, and the rabbit is stuck, entrapped, and it’s curtains.
2. We can get stuck in the structures and blind spots of the mind we’ve constructed by our decisions, from the beliefs adopted from our parents, and from accidental conditioning (automatic reactions) caused by the accidents of our life experience. An example might be an adopted child. While one person might go on to great success and happiness, another might focus on the core belief that the parents didn’t want him, and spend a lifetime seeing rejection from friends, bosses, and lovers even when none existed. All of life could then have targets and strategies designed to deal with and avoid rejection. It’s like running down a football field, dodging invisible barriers, and often failing to see the real opponents closing in.
3. The entire world itself is a consensual reality, which some systems have called the “Veil of Illusion.”

Attaining Freedom from Entrapment

Physical skills and learned skills of the mind avoid physical entrapment, and help us to entrap/ensnare the things that we want.

Self-help and therapies and practices like Rolfing and Meditation help to fix non-optimum mental structures and blind spots in the mind.

So-called spiritual means can achieve freedom from the consensual illusion that *is* the entire world … sometimes.

Some saints and religious figures have done things that seem to be above the entire world, impossible things, miracles. One Indian holy man can create precious jewelry from thin air. Another heals with a hug. Some monks have created enlightenment and freedom in a student with a riddle, pointing a finger, or a whack with a stick. The Jesus is said to have arisen from the dead, awakened the dead by calling his name, and walked upon water.

Most of us have seen miracles, done miracles, or heard about miracles.

We tend to erase these from our minds immediately as we see them. Even when seen, they do not fit into “what is true” or “what is real” or “what is possible.” We can actually make them disappear from our memory even if we just saw it, because immediately it is easier to create the belief that we mis-perceived.

I have seen miracles: The bones in a woman’s face change shape completely in less than an hour, a woman’s vision change from 20/200 to 20/20 in five minutes, a wart be requested to fall off the body and it does, choosing one bus from over 30 from which to retrieve a book belonging to my wife, a fly requested to fly across the room to light on my finger and it does so, visualizing a lost object in a friend’s house and immediately retrieving it (twice), objects appearing where they didn’t exist before.

Miracle = it happened, in contravention to “reality,” contradicting the consensual agreement we call the world.

Magic, when it happens, nearly always happens just outside of your vision. Seldom is there a puff of smoke or sound effects. It just flows in what seems the normal way, except that it’s impossible, and is often re-interpreted immediately by the mind which is caught and can see and remember only *inside* the consensual veil of illusion that we have adopted.

Do You Believe Your Own Eyes?

If you own some blue plates, and you go to the cupboard and open the cupboard, you are very, very certain that the plates you see there will be blue, just like they were yesterday and the day before.

This kind of “reality” is very, very persuasive.

Picturing what “isn’t” against the constant automatic repeated internal creation of what “is” is pitting a weak force against a strong one.

Only repetition, strength and enhancing the weak can prevail.

And it can be done.

Some people become so practiced that they can simply feel good, think about what they want and it shows up quickly.

Others of us must start out more slowly.

But, just as you will probably have to practice if you want to play basketball, then you probably have to practice if you want to manifest a reality different than what you see around you today.

The good news is that, according to the reports of many, over thousands of years … it can be done.

The good news is that if you’ll spend time just to learn it a little, magic and manifestation and freedom will become more and more visible in your life.

Alas, for most of us, you must actually try it a bit before you’ll see results. You can’t just say, “show me,” and have your life instantly revamped. There is no force in the Universe that can take the place of *you* in this game. Nobody can shoot the basket *for* you; you’ll need to take your shots yourself.

Tips for Success

• Tip #1 — Picture what is *near* the consensual reality.
• Tip #2 — Remove counter-intentions. If you’re trying to walk north and south at the same time, little progress is possible. So in addition to creating the new reality, be sure to remove your participation in the old reality that is no longer your heart’s desire. (One example is chatting with a friend who mocks and reinforces the old views or who continually creates negative scenarios which you “should” accept. Another example is making your actions in the physical are compatible with your vision, like getting a bed large enough when you are seeking a lover.)
• Tip #3 — Practice, and you gain skill.
• Tip #4 — Connect with other people who share the view that changing the world is possible.
• Tip #5 — Choose one thing on which to focus, and then focus as if your head were on fire. Avoid choosing a long laundry list, because watering down your focus over many list items weakens each one.
• Tip #6 — Choose a target about which you can feel passionate. For example, if you think you *ought* to want a million dollars, but you have much stronger feelings about getting a new rug, a new boyfriend, or losing some weight, then the million dollars can wait.
• Tip #7 — Use a gradient. Success is cumulative, and so starting with simple things builds your “strength” or belief.

You can Use the Physical Universe, too

In some cases, a person encountering this magical/spiritual approach can completely overlook using the physical universe. That can be a big mistake. In some cases, using the physical universe may be the quicker road, and please realize you are *still* using the principles of visualization in order to bring about the manifestation of your heart’s desire.

Here’s an example:

At the age 26, I was still completely backward about how to meet and flirt and attract a girlfriend. But one day I had an epiphany, and saw a different way to look at it, and created a kind of system for myself. It worked fabulously. I turned this into an instructional manual some years later, and it appears to have worked very well for pretty much everyone who has tried it.

It consists in asking many people to go out. And in this case, for certain reasons of theory, you do not much discriminate much about who you ask out in the very beginning. (That is, you adopt a mental viewpoint which stops ruling out everybody.) Since your purpose here is not to immediately find the love of your life, but rather to experience the process of inviting and going out, and to learn how to enjoy this process, this whole thing becomes rather easy.

You stay out of bed and avoid entanglement, while you learn how to have a good time, how to share a good time, and how to operate in this world of asking women out. And what happens?

It’s the Ultimate Visualization

Your physical eyes *see* you going out with women. Your nose *smells* the perfume the women are wearing. Your sense of touch *feels* the women going out with you. Your ears *hear* the women saying yes to your invitation to go out. You see and hear and feel and experience that you are going out with women.

How much chance do pre-existing “mental” limitations and visions have of standing up against this evidence of your senses? Precious little. Because you are now pitting the strong (automatic repeating creating of your reality) against the weak (mental fears and blind spots). You are using the Universe to reprogram your reality, in the direction you have chosen.

It changes you. It changes you fast. It changes you reliably. It changes you in the direction of success. It changes you on a self-regulating gradient. It changes you “near” to the existing physical universe. And it changes you more and more as you continue.

You then discover, whether you started this way or not, that attractive women somehow start falling out of the sky, appearing in your world, manifesting. And, better still, one or more start manifesting in your dates.

Keep this up, and it’s darn difficult to avoid meeting the love of your life.

(How do you know when to say “yes” and accept the love of your life? My rule is simple. When I realize I’d be a *fool* to let *this one* escape, then it’s time to say yes.)

A Learned Manifestation Skill Remains

More good news — If you start out fairly clumsy with women, as I was, then the first time you try this, it takes a while, and it may take time before you really flip over somebody.

However, this process is teaching you a skill. And if, some time later, you need to reactivate your “dating mode,” you’ll happily discover that things go faster and easier … because you have (a) learned a new skill, and (b) this new “possibility” is now a part of your psyche, easy to accept, and now a part of you and who you are.

This is using the physical universe. Alter your actions so that your eyes and ears and nose and body create your desired reality, more and more.

And you are still visualizing, and manifesting.

You are using judo on the consensus reality you call your life to find true love and happiness.

What Visualization System is Best to Use?

Though some are probably better than others — for you in particular — it probably doesn’t matter a lot whether you engage in prayer, magic, meditation, manifestation, and such things.

You may have to sort out some of your skills in the physical universe, and in your mental universe, before you start creating thunderstorms over your town, or speedboats appearing in your driveway.

But the good news is … you can do this.

What is it about taking a shower that causes new ideas to pop into your head?

Is it the invigorating ions that are caused by splitting water droplets?

Or is it a simple as Murphy’s law triggered because you will never have pencil and paper in the shower?

I don’t know the answer to this time-proven rule, but as of this morning’s shower, I do know a super-simple way to look at mental health, a simple way to be happier and more productive.

It’s simply this –

As you go through life, and as you go through each day, stuff will be going on. Some of it’s yours, and some of it seems to just happen. And you’re going to be seeing this stuff happening and you’re going to react to it and think about it.

Now here’s the key –

If you allow yourself to *dwell* upon the bad in it, you’ll be using your mind in a way that, over time, conditions you (by repetition) to habitual thinking. And in this thinking, you’re dissatisfied with life, you’re the effect of stuff out there, perhaps a repeating victim of stuff out there. And this will never produce happiness in your life, and your thinking or perception will tend to become oblivious to the good things, the good possibilities, the good feelings, that could turn it all around for you.

But to have a happier life, if you will make an ongoing and intentional practice to consciously find what good is in whatever is happening, if you will consciously consider what’s happening and consider how it may be to your (now or later) benefit, then several good things will happen.

Over time, as you do this you will experience more happiness, because you’re going out of your way to find some happy thoughts. Thinking happy thoughts tends to go along with a happy life. Sounds a little too simple, because frankly it is simply too simple. It is so simple that hardly anyone thinks to try it.

Further, as you intentionally practice focussing your attention on discerning what good is in what’s happening, or how it may turn to your advantage, you are developing a creative problem-solving mentality, and you’ll discover yourself creating new ways to operate that are to your advantage. This too is horribly simple — if you look for ways to get good from a situation, you’re likely to find some.

Now let’s hear it from the nay-sayers!

The nay-sayer will have an automatic reaction against what’s just been said here. Now in fact, what we’re seeing with the naysayer is that something happened (some words appeared) in the naysayer’s life, but the naysayer is in the habit of finding the bad, so the automatic, trained, habit of the naysayer is to now find something that will ruin it for himself.

For example, the naysayer can object that “squelching down your negative feelings and suppressing them is an unhealthy mental practice.” And, truth be told, there is a germ of truth here. Because the ongoing practice of denying the feelings one experiences will lead to the automatic, trained, habit of becoming unconscious of one’s feelings. That doesn’t help survival nor lead to a happier life.

The difference is: if you’re *pushing against* a negative thought, you just keep it there. ‘Pushing against’ will tend to be reflected in the words you say inside your head. For example, “I’m not feeling like crying, I’m not, I’m not, I’m not!” is a pretty good example of pushing against. Another one is “I’m not going to be mad at Johnny any more!”

Maybe you squelch it, but it’s not really going away. And for some folks, who have fears about their mind being out of control, this can be a real catch-22. A self-fulfilling problem.

But if you have fears about your mind being out of control, then you can simply learn to practice meditation, in the simplest sense of the word.

Meditation, at the simplest level, is nothing more than practicing holding your mind on one thing. That one thing could be your breath going in and out. That one thing could be the repetition of a word, like ‘Om’ or ‘Shanti’ or ‘peace’ or even ‘boogie shoes.’ That one thing could be holding a picture in mind: a mountain, the bright light of a candle, the face of someone you love.

Now your mind *will* wander away; that is the unruly nature of a mind. And when you notice it’s wandered away, you just put it back.

And if you do this every day for 20 minutes, then after a few weeks you will notice that you feel better, and you feel calmer, and your fear about your uncontrollable mind will have dwindled, because slowly by slowly you are actually learning to control your mind. Not in a harsh, military and suppressive way, but by a gentle persistent returning way.

And this is the same way that you would develop your practice of looking at what’s happening to find good in it, or how it can be turned to good.

If you have a real stubborn case of the nasty unhappies, maybe you’ll have to start by simply finding ways to *minimize* the bad that you see all around you. But if you persist, you will slowly by slowly begin to develop the habit of seeing the good going on all around you.

Look, here’s a kind of proof:

In your life, like any life, there have been unhappinesses. Let’s consider how many of your experienced unhappinesses have been ‘hard’ unhappinesses caused by something that happened in the physical universe, and how many of your experienced unhappinesses have been ’soft’ unhappinesses caused as you *thought* about things that had happened or might happen.

If you’re like most humans, and even if you’ve had a rough life, then less than 5% of the unhappinesses were ‘hard’ ones, like you tripped and fell down the stairs and broke an arm or sprained a muscle, or like you had a traffic accident, or your boyfriend left for another woman, or your dog died, or somebody stole something that belonged to you, or something you owned got ruined or spoiled. These are hard unhappinesses caused by an actual event in the physical universe.

Now you may have more control over these things than you realize, but we don’t even need to think about that. What we want to look at here is this –

Do these things happen every day? Do they happen multiple times every day?

For most people, no. They don’t.

These things happen, but only now and then.

For most of us, many days go by before we get another of these ‘hard’ unhappinesses.

But if that’s the case, what about those times when you’ve been continuously unhappy for days and days at a time? Where is that coming from?

Well, if nothing is happening in the physical universe to give you a ‘hard’ unhappiness, then you’re filling up your experience with *your thoughts*.

And you must have these thoughts on automatic unhappy mode, because it’s just one unhappy thought after another. Let’s say the boyfriend left. That happened once. But what about the hundreds or thousands of times you think unhappily about it? What about the hundreds or thousands of times you think about it even before it ever happens?

With these hundreds or thousands of unhappy thoughts, you are training your mind by simple repetition to automatically generate unhappy thoughts, and these will create the unhappy emotions in your body, and you are training yourself, unconsciously and automatically, to become and remain an unhappy person.

Is this mental health? To train yourself to become an unhappy person?

No, it is not good mental health.

So what is the opposite of this unconscious training program for unhappiness?

The opposite is a conscious training program for happiness.

Can it really be that simple?

Yes. Actually, it is exactly that simple.

You choose: Unconscioiusly keep running your unhappiness training, or consciously re-train to become a happy person.

Maybe not always easy. Maybe not immediate. Takes intention, practice, and time. And it works.

You will recreate yourself as a happier, and healthier person.

Presto. Mental health and happiness.