The movie has a focus on “getting stuff,” which is probably a good thing, because this focus that anyone can understand is probably one of the reasons the movie has been wildfire word-of-mouth and rapidly making its way into mainstream culture. And after all, if you’re just too darned spiritual to want some stuff for yourself, you could always manifest a bunch of stuff and give it to the poor!

For the rest of us, getting some stuff sounds just swell. And just a tiny bit of reflection brings us to the realization that we could use the same method to be, do, or have more of the things that interest and inspire us. Nothing wrong with that.

But what about lazy people?

Sometimes people are kind of, well, lazy. And lots of the people seeing this movie are electrified and inspired, but haven’t thought about this kind of “manifesting” before.

As a result, perhaps they find it real attractive to sit on their cushy sofas and just wish up a storm. They’re visualizing sports cars, new homes with pools on the ocean at Acapulco, and bank accounts that just splash with the money overflowing. They’re visualizing new girlfriends who resemble models, cushy jobs where they do nothing at all, and servants leaping around saying “yassah! yassah!”

And some of these folks sitting on their cushy sofas seem to be expecting these things to just magically appear out of the thin air. And … it doesn’t work like that.

It does work. But it works a bit differently.

::: HOW THE LAW OF ATTRACTION WORKS

In the movie, they speak of “Like Attracting Like,” and without getting into discussions of frequencies and vibes, let’s simply say that the idea is that if you’re “tuned in” to the idea of a new girlfriend, then you’re wonderfully positioned to have one show up. And it might be hard to say how much is due to magic — because the universe loves you — and how much is due to your paying attention to what’s around you because you’re tuned in.

I have an opinion about that, and probably you have an opinion about that. My opinion is that it’s simply magic. Some day we may learn that it’s science, but for right now, it’s magic and I’ve seen it happen so repeatedly that I think it’s magic and it’s darned handy.

I have a theory about how it works, but it’s just my theory. I may not know how a refrigerator works, or how a television works, or how a jetski works. But I can use a refrigerator or a television, and I think I could operate a jetski.

In a like fashion, I know the rules for manifesting things, and by golly things manifest, and that’s just swell. And the way that they manifest is not like the cushy-sofa-sitter is picturing.

It works like this …

::: THOUGHTS BECOME THINGS

Thoughts do become things, but perhaps this is less magical than we might imagine.

For example, the lightbulb was just an idea that Edison dreamed up. He then did experiment after experiment learning what didn’t work. And then, one day, one of his experiments revealed what did work.

Nicola Tesla was walking in the park, talking with a friend, and he glanced up at the sun. He was struck with a vision, of a circle around the sun. And the circle around the sun had magnets and he saw electricity flowing. And his friend watched in stupefaction as Tesla stopped in mid-sentence and began drawing a diagram in the dirt. This diagram was the electrical-generator motor, and the same design he saw in a circle around the sun is powering your lightbulbs, refrigerator, and television today.

But his first Electrical Generator, built at Niagara Falls so as to be turned by the falling water, did not spring into being out of thin air. It required steel and wire and machinery and hauling heavy stuff. It required negotiation and salesmanship. Money changed hands. People had to be hired and paid. There was grease and sweat and wrenches and loud noises. And … then … there was an Electrical Generator, and it was making electricity.

Notice that both Edison and Tesla had an idea, a thought, but that before the thought became a thing, each of them went through a period of hard work and doing stuff.

::: WHAT IS ‘ATTRACTION’?

The easiest way to think about this is to think of an iron magnet.

Place an iron magnet upon the table top. Nearby place some iron filings. Zoom! The iron filings leap across space to attach themselves to the iron magnet.

In the same manner, you can seemingly cause things to find their way through space to you. But unlike a magnet, which is “hardwired” to attract one thing — iron — you have the ability to create. What can you create? You can create thoughts. Iron cannot do that.

When you create thoughts properly focused on the thing you desire, like a new car, it is as if you are making yourself into a “new car magnet.” As you go around thinking of positive wonderful things, these positive and wonderful things tend to show up.

And on the other hand, when you go around thinking of horrid and undesireable things, by golly these things tend to show up, too!

Now we might quibble: Is it due to the Magic of the Spheres? Or is it just that you’re sensitizing yourself to these things and so you notice them? And I say, “Go ahead and have any opinion you wish,” but please notice that the facts seem to be true.

When you constantly picture good stuff, good stuff seems to show up. When you constantly picture bad stuff, bad stuff seems to show up in your life.

So it appears that you can create your reality. And it doesn’t really matter whether it gets created by elves or far-out science. If you can create your reality, why not create a good one and enjoy your good life?

::: WE START WITH A THOUGHT

Perhaps the oak trees began as a thought in the mind of God. Hard to prove it. But for certain all the man-made things — shoes, and ships, and sealing wax — began with an idea. A fellow invented bubble gum by accident. Another guy invented useful rubber products by accident. Other folks invented things like the cotton gin and the gin and tonic by experimenting.

But every (man made) thing in the universe began as a thought. So we can feel pretty certain about that one.

::: IS THAT ALL THERE IS TO IT?

You think a thought and then the thing is there?

Well, actually, sometimes it does happen like that. I think of a friend and my phone rings and it’s my friend. That sometimes happens. And similarly maybe I think that today I’d like to have $1800 of new income show up. And quite often I get an email or a phone call from somebody who wants to send me $1800.

Now it is possible that it might be Publisher’s Clearing House telling me I’ve won, but quite often these people who want to send me money also want something for their money. I make musical instruments — see http://megatar.com — and often when people contact me to send money, they want me to send them a musical instrument.

Is the the wondrous fact that I thought of getting $1800 and somebody called up and offered to send $1800 diminished by the fact that it’s commerce? Is this reality diminished by the fact that the dollars didn’t just appear “Poof!” on the table?

Not really. I find that being able to call up what I’d like makes me happy when it shows up and it doesn’t matter to me whether it’s delivered by UPS or Federal Express.

Sure, if I found $1800 lying on the ground outside my back door, that would be another swell way to get $1800, but when you’re all a-manifesting stuff, the one thing you don’t get to do is to tell the Universe how to send it. You get to choose what you want. The Universe gets to send it any way it chooses.

::: THE PREACHER AND THE FLOOD

There were warnings of a flood one day, but the Preacher knew that the Lord would provide, so he didn’t leave with all his neighbors. And sure enough it did come a flood, and he had to climb up on his roof.

The view up there was fine, and he saw some people he knew paddling by in a boat. They smiled and waved.

“Come on, Preacher!” they called. “We’ve got room in the boat.” But he shook his head.

“No, thanks,” he said, “Pick up somebody else. The Lord will protect me.”

So they paddled around the bend, and then the Preacher saw two men holding onto a large log. They called to him to jump in the water and join them as they drifted down the current. But he declined, saying that the Lord would provide.

And the water rose, and rose. And it swept him away and he tumbled in the dirty water, and he drowned.

And when he opened his eyes, he stood before the Pearly Gates. And he saw, past Saint Peter, God himself looking out at him. And the Preacher was just a little bit miffed.

“Lord,” he said, “I believed in you. I believed in you and you let me down!”

“Foolish man,” said the Lord, “I sent you a news broadcast, a boat, and a log.”

::: HOW TO GET IN THE BOAT

Take action.

In the movie, “The Secret,” several people (Joe Vitale, Jack Canfield) say that “you may have to take some action.” Perhaps you get an inspired idea. Maybe you just get a “What if …” idea. Maybe you already know what you need to do.

You’ve got to do your part.

If you’re sitting in front of a table, and on the table is a glass of water, and you’re thirsty, you don’t just sit there asking the Universe to get the water into your mouth. Instead you just pick up the glass and drink.

What if you’re in some business building, and you’re thirsty. You ask the Universe for some water. But you also look around the halls and ask people. Sure enough, you find a water cooler. Now you could be ungrateful and snippy, and you could say, “The Universe didn’t do a darn thing for me. I found it myself!”

Which reminds me of Moishe in Jerusalem

::: MOISHE IN JERUSALEM

Moishe had finally gone to see the Holy Land and he had a car to drive around. He was having a hard time finding a parking place, though. So he called on the Lord.

“Lord,” he said, “I really need a parking place. If you’ll just give me a parking place, I promise to keep the sabbath, and to be a better man.”

At just that moment, right in front of him, a car pulled out of a parking space that couldn’t have been more perfect. Moishe leaned out the window and looked up.

“Never mind!” he called. “I just found one!”

Albert Einstein once said, “You need to treat life as if nothing is a miracle … or everything is.” And that’s really the choice that we have. You can choose either way. But here’s a hint: When you choose to treat life as if it is all miraculous, it’s more fun.

::: THE HEART OF THE MATTER

When you decide to try the method given in “The Secret,” you will start to picture something that you desire. You will start to *feel* the emotion that you have when you contemplate this thing you desire. You will remember to *feel* gratitude for the things you already have in this life. You will choose to *trust and believe* that what you want is on its way, that you are going to have it.

Now here’s the key point.

On the one hand, though you get to choose what you want, it is *The Universe* that gets to choose how it will come. You don’t get to choose that. No matter how it comes, it will get to you, but you have to give up being able to tell the Universe how you want it delivered.

Nextly, you may have to take action. Suppose you want a girlfriend, and you know there’s a gaggle down at Joe’s Bar on any Saturday Night. If you *refuse* to take action, and wander on down to Joe’s Bar, then you are picturing a *COUNTER-INTENTION* to your alleged desire.

It’s like a diet. Losing some weight should be a simple thing in theory. You just eat less food and burn more energy, and you’ll lose weight. But for most of us, it’s a little more stubborn than that. And the reason is dead-simple obvious.

The reason why diets proceed slowly is because you’re holding two different and conflicting ideas in your head at the same time. On the one hand you say, “I want to lose some weight.” And at the same time you think, “I want to eat that luscious big piece of cake!”

Going in two directions doesn’t work!

Try it. Stand in the middle of the living room. Take one step to the North. Then take one step to the South. Repeat this over and over, as fast as you can. See how long it takes to get to the kitchen!

::: COUNTER-INTENTION GOES NOWHERE

In actual fact, the practice of visualizing (with emotion) what you want, and having it appear in your life is actually pretty simple. However, you cannot move in two directions at once.

You cannot picture the “good times with new girlfriend,” while at the same time picturing “how bad old girlfriend treated me.” Because at the same time you’re picturing good times and bad times. It just cannot get you anywhere.

Likewise, if you’re picturing “fun times with new girlfriend,” and for a moment you have the inspired idea to mosey on down to Joe’s Bar, but then you think “sit on my butt and watch wrestling on television, yeah!” And now you’re picturing two opposite and contradictory ideas. And which one are you *acting* on?

::: THE UNIVERSE ISN’T STUPID

The Universe isn’t stupid. It’s clear where your priority lies. And that’s what the Universe will deliver to you. You get to watch wrestling on television.

And similarly, if you’re picturing “fun times with new girlfriend,” and it just pops into your head to maybe wander down to Joe’s Bar and flirt around, and then you have the thought, “Oh, but wait. I’m clumsy at flirting. It might not work.” And so you think you’d like to have a new girlfriend but you don’t want to mosey down to Joe’s Bar, so you go into the kitchen to see if there’s any doughnuts left.

And guess what? You’re refusing to act. You are *declining* the available women standing around down at Joe’s Bar.

When you decline to go to the trouble of mosying down to Joe’s Bar to fetch one of those women, what are you thinking? That you’re going to find one in your kitchen cabinet in the sack of doughnuts?

When you decline to bother to go fetch your new girlfriend, you’re expressing a counter-intention. You are *demonstrating* that you don’t really want the woman.

Guess what?

That’s what you’ll get.

You’ll get a doughnut, but no woman.

::: THE ANSWER

Use the method given in the Secret. It will work. And, at the same time, get yourself down to Joe’s Bar and hustle. And walk up to them at the Supermarket. And ask your Aunt Mabel to fix you up with women from Church. And join a pottery class. And strike up conversations at the bus stop. And ask them out every chance you get. And keep on using the visualization with feeling. Now everything you do is telling the same story.

That’s when it *really* works.

Immediately, it’s as if unseen forces in the Universe cause women to come toward you in seemingly strange coincidental ways.

The Law of Attraction says that when you send out your message as a thought, with feeling, and when you hold that desire clear in your mind, with belief and faith, that it will come.

Try it. Try it with your eyes wide open, and be willing to do the work that is shown to you.

You’ll see magic. Real magic. If you take action.

People in my parents generation used the word “beggers” to describe people who beg on the street. Or sometimes “moochers,” “panhandlers,” or “bums.” Of course, in tiny Henrietta, Texas, where I grew up, the town was too small to have an official panhandler, so the town drunk filled in part time.

Friends of mine as I grew up didn’t seem to like the word “Begger,” though it would seem to be accurate. And I guess the phrase, “Buddy, can you spare a dime?” from that older time had mutated into “Spare change?” by the hippie period in the 1960’s.

THE SPARE-CHANGER

The writer in “Evolving Times” was describing what we’ve all felt in that situation. You’re walking along and you are suddenly asked, “Spare change?” Which as we all know, means “Do you have any spare change, that you could give to me?” (I guess those beggers are either very lazy, or they are astonishingly efficient.)

And then what happened?

Well, as you know, the common reaction is that you say “No, sorry,” and you hurry a bit more to get past the place where you just told a lie.

The writer of that blog is someone who follows the “Law of Attraction,” which states that what you think and imagine in your mind tends to manifest in your life. And the key thing there is that it doesn’t matter whether you think about something you do want or something you don’t want. In either case, you’re picturing something, and you tend to attract more of what you are “picturizing,” and so more of that is likely to show up.

So if you’re following the Law of Attraction, it greatly behooves you to pay attention to what you’re thinking and picturing. And the writer suddenly realized that, telling that lie to the spare-changer, because the writer didn’t want to stop and give away money, was in fact a statement to the Universe that “No, I do not have any money at all that I could spare.”

Which, according to the Law of Attraction, would tend to bring you that very thing. A shortage of money so acute that you couldn’t possibly spare even a quarter!

Bummer.

And even if a person didn’t try to follow the Law of Attraction, even so, you’d be programming your own habitual thought that you don’t have any money whatsoever to spare. And this kind of thought, repeated and made habitual, would cause you to experience the emotions that would be reasonable for a person who had no money whatsoever beyond the strictly necessary. And those particular feelings aren’t much fun.

So whether you follow the teachings of the Law of Attraction, or whether you follow the Law of NFL Football, either way, letting yourself get in the habit of telling this particular lie to the spare-changers is a losing proposition for your own prosperity and enjoyment of life.

A RAY OF HOPE

Now, having shown you a veritable hell on the sidewalk, it’s only fair that I show you how beautifully we can escape these torments and have a delightful day, and it’s just warm enough.

Here’s how –

Realize that the spare-changer is, in his or her own special way, saying “Hello!” to you. Watch them and you’ll realize that they greet everyone with this same phrase. It’s their greeting to other humans. And that’s OK. They are free to greet the other humans any way they choose.

And you have the same right.

So when they greet you, saying “Spare change?” you can just smile broadly and greet them right back, saying “Hello!” or “How ya’ doin?” or “Nice to see you!”

And what you will discover is that quite often they’ll simply say, “Hello,” or “Fine, thanks.”

Other times they’ll repeat their greeting, “Spare change?” but you’re already past them now. And so if getting past them without stopping, and without giving away money was your goal, then you’ve succeeded.

And other times they’ll just stop, silent. Gave them pause, you did. Probably not many people greet them back.

Or, you could just stop and give them some money.

It’s your call, and you have a perfect right to do it any way you choose.

As you may recall from the movie, that young man started out hating the pirates, and yet, in the course of his adventures, he’s become bolder and he has dared great things, and by golly he has become a pirate. And that’s a good thing.

And so … why is it a good thing to be a pirate?

Here’s an idea to consider –

“Personal growth only takes place outside your comfort zone.”
– Tony Robbins

Think about it. Think about moments when you’ve attained major personal growth. Think about the moments just before you attained this personal growth. Would you say those moments were “comfortable?”

Probably not. We grow the most when we’re challenged. Funerals. Difficult contests. A breakthrough moment. When you go beyond what you know. That’s when it happens.

While it’s not always street-smart to “live on the edge,” it is usually exciting. And while the path of wisdom does not lead us to endanger our lives, our loved ones, or that which we hold dear, it is also a fact that living a life in which there is no challenge, no “danger,” no spice, nothing new, the same every day … well, I suppose it’s good for some folks, but I question whether it’s good for you.

Wouldn’t you rather be a pirate?

There. Didn’t that feel good, just thinking about being a pirate?

Why is that?

DILEMMA OF THE DAY

Mankind, and men (and women) have it in them to both (a) seek safety, and (b) seek novelty. I suppose evolution built that into us. I mean, some folks living way back when who didn’t seek safety left no descendants! And other folks who avoided anything new couldn’t adapt to the first change and they didn’t leave any descendants either!

So you and me, and all the rest of humankind, are the descendants of those humans who did both (a) seek safety, and (b) seek novelty.

So that means it’s a natural fact. We’re built that way. That’s just the way it is.

Go with the flow, and live well. Rebel and become like those way-back folks who left no descendants.

HOW DOES IT PLAY TODAY?

How does it play out? Look around you. One common scenario is a guy who works at a boring job, doing something he finds less than inspiring — it never occurred to him to create something inspiring, because his attention was fixed on renting an apartment and he needed some cash each month — and he’s seeking safety.

He’s a human, so he’s also seeking novelty.

How will he find it?

Television, I reckon.

Synthetic adventures. Stuff that happened to everybody else but him.

When he gets to the end of his life, lying on his deathbed, and maybe he’s thinking back, and he’s saying to himself, “Man, what a great life. I watched me some really good TV!”

So if that’s the obvious outcome of that behavior pattern, then why did he follow that pattern of behavior for 40 years? I can think of only one answer. He just didn’t know any better. He never looked. He never examined the path, and the outcome. He was too busy seeking safety, and finding his novelty cheap and easy.

Personal growth only occurs when you’re outside your comfort zone.

HOW TO HAVE PERSONAL GROWTH

It’s simple: Just operate regularly outside your comfort zone. Make it your habit to do so.

In other words, be a pirate.

You know you want to.

Perhaps you are now asking yourself, “But how?”

Well, you’re a grown person. Figure it out. That’s your first assignment.

There. You’re outside of your comfort zone right now.

Keep it up.

Think of the President. There’s your opinion … automatically.

Go out on a date. There’s your usual feeling … automatically.

Decide to tie your shoe. There go your hands … automatically tying your shoe.

But what if you’d like to do something … different … for a change?

MAKING A CHANGE

You might formulate a plan, like going on a diet, but your usual responses are going to be served up automatically. Just the *thought* of a meal will automatically trigger your usual response to have more pie. Your non-conscious mind trying to help you, just like you trained it to do, by repetition. That’s how it learns.

But let’s use going on a date as an example. Let’s say that it has been your habit to be up-tight, anxious, and worried. For our purposes, it doesn’t matter how this got started or whether your parents were good people or what your astrology sign is. Let’s just say that uptight, anxious, and worried has become your habit.

And maybe you think this isn’t the best way to enjoy your next date.

Now, just supposing you have that thought, thinking about going on your next date, most likely already your non-conscious mind starts serving up your usual feelings, so quite likely you may begin to feel uptight, anxious, and worried … and you haven’t even gone out on the date yet!

How then can you make a change?

CREATING SYNTHETIC EXPERIENCES

One way is to mentally “rehearse,” using your ability to chose which thoughts to think. You can mentally rehearse the date, and you can choose to imagine success, and all sorts of things going right. And the way your body will react to these thoughts and images of success is by giving you a bunch of good feelings.

If you are persistent, and will rehearse and rehearse, then you can build up an amount of positive “experience” which becomes a habitual way of thinking and feeling, just as your old pattern was a negative experience which became a habitual way of thinking and feeling. If you persist, eventually you’ll have more positive “experience” than negative experience, and you will discover your dates being more enjoyable.

Of course, doing it once, and saying, “Cool!” won’t do the job.

There are some other ways, such as using hypnotic or Neuro-Linguistic Programming methods, but simple mental rehearsal gives a clear model of what works.

COMMUNICATING DIRECTLY WITH YOUR NON-CONSCIOUS MIND

As you formulate your new plan for making a change, you can also “talk” with your Non-conscious Mind. By doing this, you can discover ahead of time how your non-conscious mind will automatically *help* you, and how your non-conscious mind will automatically *block* your new plan.

If you can know these things, then usually you can modify your new plan so as not to automatically invoke a lot of blockage, and in fact you can often modify your new plan so that automatic behaviors that will be served up by the non-conscious mind will assist your new plan.

So the question is: How do you talk with a Non-conscious Mind?

It doesn’t speak you know. It doesn’t even have self-consciousness as you and I know do. It’s not an actual entity as you and I seem to be. But it *acts* like an entity. It *acts* like a different, and autonomous, part of you. Because it is.

IT RESPONDS TO YOUR THOUGHTS

Here’s the answer: Although it cannot talk, it does have the habit of automatically generating the habitual thoughts and feelings you’ve entrained it to store, by your repeated thinking, feeling, or performing habitual actions.

So here’s what you do. Let’s say your new plan is to be more relaxed on your next date, and to have more fun.

So you sit down, and though you can do this just mentally, it will be easier to learn if you first try it with pencil and paper. So you start writing down your plan, with a lot of details. And as you write, pay careful attention, with every word that you write, what feelings and thoughts are popping into your awareness.

These feelings and thoughts are the responses of your non-conscious mind to your plan, word by word, and bit by bit.

For example if you write (or say), “I’m going to go out,” you might have a vague feeling of questioning. (That’s your non-conscious mind’s automatic reaction to the idea of your going on an excursion.)

And you then continue, writing (or saying), “on a date,” and immediately you notice a gentle feeling of unease. So right there you could react, and try some different words, like “I mean, to go get some dinner,” now you get a feeling of relaxation and ease.

And you continue, “with Sally,” and you notice that there’s no feeling of uneasiness. You just saw that your thinking “go out” and especially thinking “go on a date” are triggering the unwanted, automatic responses entrained into your non-conscious mind, but that “going to get some dinner … with Sally,” doesn’t trigger any automatic unpleasant stuff at all.

HOW TO USE WHAT YOU DISCOVER

Well for one thing, pay attention to your thoughts. If you feel uneasy, did you just think thoughts about dating? If so, reframe them differently. In this way you are retraining the non-conscious mind as you go.

You might discover, for example, that your non-conscious mind is going to produce a lot of automatic negative stuff if you plan a trip to the bowling alley, but no automatic negative stuff if you go golfing, and that it will generate warm and pleasant feelings if you’ll take a picnic to the museum.

Then, for certain, take more picnics at the museum, and for those other places like the bowling alley, visit the bowling alley on your own and meditate there or listen to music that always puts you in a good mood, or do something in those places that create more confort for you in those places.

A SIMPLE EXAMPLE

Recently, I’ve been engaged in the process of buying a house, and I knew I had to go to the Title Company, because that’s part of the process. I’d never been to a Title Company before, and when I thought about the mysterious ‘Title Company,’ I felt a discomfort and an uneasy feeling. So, before the day that I had to go there with the seller of the house, I went to the Title Company on my own.

I walked in, and the first thing I did was to “locate” myself in the place. That is, I made a point to look at the space and the things in it. I looked at the carpet and its color, and the way the sunlight fell through the window on the floor. I looked at the desks, and the walls, and the chairs. And then I looked at the several people in the room.

I picked one of them, and was invited to sit down. I sat down and felt the chair, and examined the person across from me. And then I asked a half a dozen questions about the process, which both told me something about the process, and also told me something about the people who work there. I then thanked the lady and left, noticing the furniture and fixtures as I did so.

In short, I familiarized my senses with the place, the process, and the people.

Then, the next day when I returned there with the seller of the house, guess who was relaxed and comfortable in that place? That’s right. My disquiet (automatic reaction from the non-conscious mind) was gone, replaced with a feeling of calm familiarity.

In the same way, you can familiarize yourself with unknown places and situations, and you can de-sensitize yourself from upsets that occurred in the past in certain locations. It’s not a perfect system, but it does work.

HOW THE NON-CONSCIOUS MIND SPEAKS “NEW” IDEAS TO YOU

So far, we’ve discussed how you speak to your non-conscious mind, and how you can perceive its reactions to what you say. However, as you engage in this practice — and at many other times, once you tune in to this process — you will begin to discover that your non-conscious also initiates communications to you, and these can be new ideas. They are probably triggered by things you say and do, but these new communications, to you, represent new and additional thoughts.

This is the process we see anytime you are “brainstorming,” which is listening to all the (wild and wacky) ideas that spring up as you consider a problem. During our daily life, as humans we learn to “tune out” all these associations. We have to do so in order to concentrate on the task at hand. But when you “brainstorm,” you pay attention to all these ideas as they arise. Although many do seem irrelevant, often wondrous gems can be found. And sometimes, behind an idea which seems loco, will be found a useful idea that is completely “outside the box.”

KEEPING THE FLOW GOING

The key in brainstorming, to keep the useful flow a-flowing, is to write down every single idea, no matter how “useless” or “silly.” That is, you permit no criticalness to intrude. (If criticalness or judging ideas is permitted, then very quickly you go back into “daily tasks” mode where non-fitting ideas are squelched, and the flow dries up. Put another way, your non-conscious mind quickly gets the message that you aren’t interested, and stops bothering to send you this rich trove of ideas.)

When you are having your “conversation” with your non-conscious mind, and feeling its reactions to what you are saying, it will also offer up new ideas. These are ideas that just “pop” into consciousness. Hopefully you are listening, and being non-critical and non-judgmental during this process, because these “offered-up” communications seemingly originated by your non-conscious mind are often creative solutions to the project you are considering.

In our dating example, you might discover as you consider taking Suzie to miniature golf, that you suddenly get an image of some female relative from the past or an old girlfriend or a childhood friend. Where did that come from? You guessed it.

Why? That’s the interesting question. When you look, you may suddenly have an “Aha!” when you realize that Suzie is triggering this old similar situation and maybe that’s where some of the worry or anxiety is coming from. Sometimes, when you spot old connections like this, just the process of spotting it is enough to disconnect or weaken the automatic response. Much of conventional therapy is in hopes of attaining enough of these new awarenesses so as to improve your usual operation.

Or, it might be that you get that image of some female relative from the past or an old girlfriend, and you ponder it, and then you think, “Aha!” because you just remembered that Aunt Bessie or old girlfriend Lucy used to really enjoy baking gingerbread cookies, and you wonder if your new date might — radical thought, outside the box — you wonder if your new date might enjoy (as a “date”) the two of you baking some gingerbread cookies, and then you carry them in a picnic basket with a thermos of milk to this really secluded place in the park for a romantic date of cookies and milk? Here, your non-conscious mind had handed you a creative and different idea for a date, that might be lots of fun.

IT WILL FIND THINGS FOR YOU

We’ve all had the experience of searching for a word and can’t immediately grasp it. You’ve probably also had the experience that you are suddenly reminded of something, but you can’t quite remember what. Or you want to recall the past, and you know it’s in there but not floating to the surface.

Your non-conscious mind is already in contact with that information. That’s why you have the “feeling” that you know that word, or why you have the “feeling” of being reminded, or you have the “feeling” that you know it’s there.

If you just ask your non-conscious mind to fetch it for you, then at some later time — maybe two minutes and maybe two hours — as you are doing something else, suddenly the missing word, or the missing memory, or the missing information will “pop” into your mind. Your non-conscious mind, having been given the task, has been working on it, and has found a route to present it to you.

This is also related to the process of handing a task to your non-conscious mind, such thinking of a problem as you go to sleep, and awakening with the solution. But that’s another whole thing. And, the better you and your non-conscious mind can get along, and the better the two of you are communicating, the better it can serve you. Remember, it’s looking out for you in every way that it can, as best it knows how. And when you operate in conformity with its activities, you become more integrated and more effective. And, generally, happier.

CHANGING YOUR MIND

The Non-conscious Mind cannot speak, but it can automatically issue feelings and thoughts. That’s what it does. So if you’ll speak (or write), paying close attention to the feelings and thought automatically arising as you do so, you’ll be carrying on a dialogue with your own non-conscious mind.

You can discover where it will automatically help you, and where it will automatically block you. And so knowing, you can choose your path so that it will help you, and you can also find ways to change some of those ‘automatic blocks’ into more useful habitual reactions.

And, so doing, you are changing your mind.

For the better.

Now right there is a poser, because you might think, “Well, if it’s unconscious, then how can it be a mind?”

And if you read up on this, and if you watch dramatic movies about people who have disturbed the ‘Subconscious’ mind, you could easily get the idea that the Subconscious mind is a kind of lunatic stalker which lives inside of us, and given the right situation, it might burst out and *make* you do something … bad.

Scary, huh.

Well, it’s not like that. It’s something far simpler and less mysterious, and you’ve seen it all your life, but you didn’t think about it. Here’s what it is …

HOW TO TIE A SHOE

When you’re a child, you learn to tie your shoe. The first day you really have to concentrate. Finally, you get it tied.

The next few days, it still requires a lot of thought and focus, but in a week, you know the moves. It’s a kind of sequence. You’ve ‘learned’ the sequence. And now, in your normal, conscious mind, the idea of “tie shoes” leads to “certain sequence of actions,” which we might now label as “how to tie shoes.”

Except that we don’t think much about it. We just do it. And over time we do it more and more. And now, think a moment. If you’re wearing shoes with laces today, how much did you think about how to tie them this morning?

ACTIONS BECOME UNCONSCOUS

Probably you didn’t think about it at all. You certainly didn’t think of the steps involved. And yet your shoes got tied this morning. Because the habitual action, repeated, has become “built” into your brain and into your mind. (If you’re interested in the biochemistry of the neurons and how they change structure over time to accommodate learned, repeated activities, then read “Evolve Your Brain,” by Joe Dispenza.)

We see this our entire life, and we just think, “it’s become a habit.”

And it’s a darned good thing, because do you realize how slowly your day would go if you had to stop and really concentrate in order to get out of bed (learned as a toddler), how to shave or fix our hair (learned as teens), how to dress (learned as children), how to drive a car or take a bus (learned long ago), how to operate a time-clock or turn on a computer (learned as young adults), how to use a telephone, how to read the clock (”the big hand is …”), how to read the news, how to operate a vending machine or order from a menu, how to write a check, how to wash clothes, how to make a pot of coffee, how to …

You see, it would be impossible to have the life you have if these things required attention, or consciousness. But they don’t. By repetition, they’ve become “automated circuits” or stored body memory, and can be engaged just by calling them. Your conscious mind decides, “tie shoes,” and another part of your mind handles it for you.

THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND

In fact, you were just looking at the “Unconscious Mind,” or the “Subconscious Mind,” and we don’t even realize it because we’ve seen it in action our whole lives long.

Now, bear in mind that a lot more than tying your shoes becomes automatic, repeated, habitual response as we store it away. For example, your habitual feelings and moods (happy-go-lucky, depressed, anxious, angry, dull, chipper, amused, terrified, worried, elated). And for example, your opinions, prejudices, and beliefs (Chinese people cannot drive, your mother is stupid, cops are pigs, your new sweetheart is just dreamy, your old sweetheart was just awful).

Just the conscious thought, or even half-conscious thought as when day-dreaming, will automatically trigger your stored “programs/routines/habits,” and they will play out. Some are useful (driving to work), and some are not (worrying what people will think).

And, sure enough, all that stuff is not conscious. It is not part of your conscious mind, now that it’s been stored as a habit. And for most of us, there doesn’t seem to be some other conscious entity in your head other than yourself. And it operates like a “mind” in that it offers up thoughts, automatically, all day long. Automatic thoughts. Sometimes useful. Sometimes not.

That, and nothing else, is the “Unconscious Mind,” or the “Subconscious Mind.”

THE ‘NON-CONSCIOUS’ MIND IS LOOKING OUT FOR YOU

I like to call it the “Non-conscious” mind because it operates much like a mind, but it’s somewhat more automatic. It follows certain habitual rules rather than thinking things out step by step like you do when you’re consciously puzzling out something new. This non-conscious mind is also directly related to thousands of habitual things that the body has to do, most of which has *never* been in your conscious mind at all, such as regulating your blood pressure, sending chemical messengers here and there, remembering to breath harder when working out, keeping the heart beating while you sleep, and thousands of other bodily processes, none of which are (normally) conscious. It *is* an unconscious mind for it has no self-aware consciousness like *you* do, and it operates in a way that generally you are unconscious of that mind, which I’ll call the non-conscious mind.

It’s not hiding. It’s not stalking. It’s not dangerous, but rather it has been preserving your life as best it can for your entire life long. However, it *does* operate automatically, and sometimes that doesn’t fit.

Automatically driving in the right-side lane will fail to work well when you visit England.

Automatically winking at the pretty girl will fail to work well when she’s your new boss.

Automatically picking your nose when it bothers you will fail to work well when you’re having tea with the Bishop of Boston.

DRIVING IN TWO DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS

Now, let’s get to something *useful* with this information.

Have you ever gone on a diet? Most likely you have. And quite often on diets, it’s not such an easy thing to do. And the reason is quite simple.

You’re thinking two different thoughts. One is “I want to go on a diet.” And the other thought is “I want to eat that big piece of pie.”

You’re thinking both thoughts!

If a car had two drivers, and they were fighting over the steering wheel, and first one was stronger and then the other, can you imagine how the car would be careening all over the road, on and off the sidewalks, into porches and houses and attracting the police while pedestrians leap into the bushes to escape?

What wonder then that most diets fail to follow a straight path to success?

Now, when you consciously decided to go on a diet, where do you suppose that other thought came from?

It came from your automatically-operating non-conscious mind, offering up to you the habitual responses you have entrained all these years. It doesn’t stop working just because you had a different thought today. It’s been remembering that you like a second helping of potatoes and gravy for your whole damn life, and a few minutes of new thoughts don’t neutralize that automatic program. Your non-conscious mind is looking after you, regulating your blood and digestion and helping you drive the car and take another serving of pie by golly.

HOW CAN A HUMAN CHANGE?

Thus comes what we call “will power.” If you can persist long enough with a new course of action then the new course of action becomes ingrained, made automatic and unconscious, and then the new course will be offered up to you next time.

That’s why when you are actively exercising every day, it’s fairly easy to continue exercising the next day. But when you’re in the habit of *not* exercising every day, then tomorrow it’s not so easy to exercise.

The non-conscious mind is looking out for you, the best way it knows how.

And, there are some other ways to make progress. For example, if you could just “talk” with your non-conscious mind, perhaps the two of you could get along. (”Can’t we all just get along?”)

And the fact it, although the non-conscious mind can’t talk, if you know how, you can easily carry on a conversation with your non-conscious mind. And if you can just know what things it’s going to automatically *help* you with, and where it’s going to automatically *block* your new plan, this helps tremendously for your formulation of workable plans.

And over time, the two of you will, in fact, get along better and better.

More to follow.