Maxwell Maltz Psycho-Cybernetics Quotes and Notes

A plastic surgeon does not simply alter a man's face. He alters the man's inner self.

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Some patients showed no change in personality after surgery. In most cases a person who had a conspicuously ugly face, or some "freakish" feature corrected by sur-gery, experienced an almost immediate (usually within 21 days) rise in self-esteem, self-confidence. But in some cases, the patient continued to feel inadequate and experi-enced feelings of inferiority. In short, these "failures" con-tinued to feel, act and behave just as if they still had an ugly face.

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There was something else which was usually influ-enced by facial surgery, but sometimes not. When this "something else" was reconstructed, the person himself changed. When this "something else" was not recon-structed the person himself remained the same, although his physical features might be radically different.

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It was as if personality itself had a "face." This non-physical "face of personality" seemed to be the real key to personality change.

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If this "face of personality" could be recon-structed, if old emotional scars could be removed; then the person himself changed, even without facial plastic surgery.

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It is rather strange that the new science of Cybernetics grew out of the work of physicists and mathe-maticians rather than that of psychologists, especially when it is understood that Cybernetics has to do with tele-ology—goal-striving, goal-oriented behavior of mechani-cal systems. Cybernetics explains "what happens" and "what is necessary" in the purposeful behavior of ma-chines.

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The fact that this breakthrough came from the work of physicists and mathematicians should not surprise us. Any breakthrough in science is likely to come from outside the system. "Experts" are the most thoroughly familiar with the developed knowledge inside the prescribed boundaries of a given science. Any new knowledge must usually come from the outside—not from "experts," but from what someone has defined as an "inpert."

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Pasteur was not an M.D. The Wright brothers were not aeronautical engineers but bicycle mechanics. Einstein, properly speaking, was not a physicist but a mathemati-cian. Madame Curie was not an M.D. but a physicist

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The "self-image" is the key to human personality and human behavior. Change the self-image and you change the personality and the behavior.

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The "self-image" sets the bound-aries of individual accomplishment. It defines what you can and cannot do. Expand the self-image and you ex-pand the "area of the possible."

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"Positive thinking" does indeed "work" when it is consistent with the individ-ual's self-image. It literally cannot "work" when it is inconsistent with the self-image—until the self-image it-self has been changed.

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There is an abundance of scientific evidence which shows that the human brain and nervous system operate purposefully in accordance with the known principles of Cybernetics to accomplish goals of the individual.

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complex "goal-striving mechanism," a sort of built-in automatic guidance system which works for you as a "success mechanism," or against you as a "failure mechanism," depending on how "YOU," the operator, operate it and the goals you set for it.

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The self-image is changed, for better or worse, not byintellect alone, nor by intellectual knowledge alone, but by "experiencing." Wittingly or unwittingly you devel-oped your self-image by your creative experiencing in thepast. You can change it by the same method.

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It is not the child who is taught about love but the child who has experienced love that grows into a healthy, happy, well-adjusted adult.

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For centuries it has been recognized that "Nothing suc-ceeds like success." We learn to function successfully by experiencing success. Memories of past successes act as built-in "stored information" which gives us self-confidence for the present task.

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Experimental and clinical psychologists have proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the human nervous system cannot tell the difference between an "actual" experience and an experi-ence imagined vividly and in detail.

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Acquiring information itself is passive. Experiencingis active. When you "experience," something happens in-side your nervous system and your midbrain.

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It usually requires a minimum of about 21 days to effect any perceptible change in a mental image. Follow-ing plastic surgery it takes about 21 days for the average patient to get used to his new face.

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it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.

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During this time do not be continually looking over your shoulder, so to speak, or trying to measure your progress. During these 21 days do not argue intellectually with the ideas presented, do not debate with yourself as to whether they will work or not. Perform the exercises, even if they seem impractical to you. Persist in playing your new role, in thinking of yourself in new terms, even if you seem to yourself to be somewhat hypocritical in doing so, and even if the new self-image feels a little uncomfortable or "unnatural."

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Striving to be "success-ful" brings not only material success, but satisfaction, ful-fillment and happiness.

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Noah Webster defined success as "the satisfactory accomplishment of a goal sought for."

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Man is by nature a goal-striving being.

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Once an idea or belief about ourselves goes into this pic-ture it becomes "true," as far as we personally are con-cerned. We do not question its validity, but proceed to act upon it just as if it were true.

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This self-image becomes a golden key to living a better life because of two important discoveries: (1) All your actions, feelings, behavior—even your abilities—are always consistent with this self-image.

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The self-image is a "premise," a base, or a foundation upon which your entire personality, your behavior, and even your circumstances are built.

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(2) The self-image can be changed. Numerous case his-tories have shown that one is never too young nor too old to change his self-image and thereby start to live a new life.

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Jesus warned us about the folly of putting a patch of new material upon an old garment, or of putting new wine into old bottles. "Positive thinking" cannot be used effec-tively as a patch or a crutch to the same self image. In fact, it is literally impossible to really think about a par-ticular situation, as long as you hold a negative concept of self. And, numerous experiments have shown that once the concept of self is changed, other things consistent with the new concept of self, are accomplished easily and with-out strain.

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Prescott Lecky, one of the pioneers in self-image psychology. Lecky con-ceived of the personality as a "system of ideas," all of which must seem to be consistent with each other. Ideas which are inconsistent with the system are rejected, "not believed," and not acted upon. Ideas which seem to be consistent with the system are accepted.

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Lecky theorized that if a student had trouble learning a certain subject, it could be because (from the student's point of view) it would be inconsistent for him to learn it. Lecky believed, however, that if you could change the

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student's self-conception, which underlies this viewpoint, his attitude toward the subject would change accordingly. If the student could be induced to change his self-defini-tion, his learning ability should also change. This proved to be the case.

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The trouble was an inadequate self-image

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I was amazed by the dramatic and sudden changes in character and personality which often resulted when a facial defect was corrected. Changing the physical image in many instances appeared to create an entirely new person.

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A "moronic," "stupid" boy changed into an alert, bright youngster who went on to become an executive with a prominent firm.

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But what about the exceptions who didn't change?

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Or what about all the others who acquired new faces but went right on wearing the same old personality? Or how explain the reaction of those people who insist that the surgery has made no difference whatsoever in their appearance?

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No matter how drastic the change in appearance may be, there are certain patients who will insist that "I look just the same as before—you didn't do a thing."

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Comparison of "before" and "after" photographs does little good, except possibly to arouse hostility. By some strange mental alchemy the patient will rationalize, "Of course, I can see that the hump is no longer in my nose —but my nose still looks just the same," or, "The scar may not show any more, but it's still there."

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Still another clue in search of the elusive self image was the fact that not all scars or disfigurements bring shame and humiliation.

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proudly wearing his "saber scar"

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according to this theory, persons with normal or acceptable faces should be singularly free from all psychological handicaps. They should be cheerful, happy, self-confident, free from anxiety and worry. We know only too well this is not true.

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demand a "face lift" to cure a purely imaginary ugliness. There are the 35- or 45-year-old women who are convinced that they look "old"

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There are the young girls who are convinced that they are "ugly"

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Such "imaginary ugliness" is not at all uncommon.

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survey of college co-eds showed that 90 per cent were dissatisfied in some way with their appearance.

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approximately the same percentage of our general population find some rea-son to be ashamed of their body-image.

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These people react just as if they suffered an actual dis-figurement. They feel the same shame. They develop the same fears and anxieties. Their capacity to really "live" fully is blocked and choked by the same sort of psycho-logic roadblocks. Their "scars," though mental and emo-tional rather than physical, are just as debilitating.

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self-image

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is the common denominator—the determining factor in all our case his-tories, the failures as well as the successes

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The secret is this: To really "live," that is to find life reasonably satisfying, you must have an adequate and realistic self image that you can live with. You must find your self acceptable to "you." You must have a whole-some self-esteem. You must have a self that you can trust and believe in. You must have a self that you are not ashamed to "be," and one that you can feel free to ex-press creatively, rather than to hide or cover up. You must have a self that corresponds to reality so that you can function effectively in a real world. You must know your-self—both your strengths and your weaknesses and be honest with yourself concerning both. Your self-image must be a reasonable approximation of "you," being neither more than you are, nor less than you are. When this self-image is intact and secure, you feel "good." When it is threatened, you feel anxious and in-secure. When it is adequate and one that you can be wholesomely proud of, you feel self-confident. You feel free to "be yourself" and to express yourself. You func-tion at your optimum. When it is an object of shame, you attempt to hide it rather than express it. Creative expres-

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sion is blocked. You become hostile and hard to get along with.

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Today, I am more convinced than ever that what each of us really wants, deep down, is more LIFE. Happiness, success, peace of mind, or whatever your own conception of supreme good may be, is experienced in its essence as-more life. When we experience expansive emotions of happiness, self-con-fidence, and success, we enjoy more life.

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There is within each one of us a "life instinct," which is forever working toward health, happi-ness, and all that makes for more life for the individual. This "life instinct" works for you through what I call the Creative Mechanism, or when used correctly the "Suc-cess Mechanism" built into each human being.

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New Scientific Insights into "Subconscious Mind"

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the so-called "subconscious mind" is not a "mind" at all, but a mechanism—a goal-striving "servo-mechanism"

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, which is used by, and directed by mind.

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man does not have two "minds," but a mind, or consciousness, which "oper-ates" an automatic, goal-striving machine.

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This Creative Mechanism within you is impersonal. It will work automatically and impersonally to achieve goals of success and happiness, or unhappiness and fail-ure, depending upon the goals which you yourself set for it.

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Like any other servo-mechanism, it must have a clear-cut goal, objective, or "problem" to work upon.

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The goals that our own Creative Mechanism seeks to achieve are MENTAL IMAGES, or mental pictures, which we create by the use of IMAGINATION. The key goal-image is our Self-image.

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Our Self-Image prescribes the limits for the accomplish-ment of any particular goals. It prescribes the "area of the possible."

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our Creative Mech-anism works upon information and data which we feed into it (our thoughts, beliefs, interpretations).

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our Creative Mecha-nism makes use of stored information, or "memory,"

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the method to be used consists of creative mental picturing, creatively experiencing through your imagination, and the formation of new automatic reaction patterns by "acting out" and "acting as if."

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Every living thing has a built-in guidance system or goal-striving device, put there by its Creator to help itachieve its goal—which is, in broad terms—to "live."

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In man, the goal "to live" means more than mere sur-vival.

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Man has certain emotionaland spiritual needs which animals do not have. Conse-quently for man to "live" encompasses more than physicalsurvival and procreation of the species. It requires certainemotional and spiritual satisfactions as well.

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the Success Mechanism in man canhelp him get answers to problems, invent, write poetry,run a business, sell merchandise, explore new horizons in science, attain more peace of mind, develop a better per-sonality, or achieve success in any other activity which is intimately tied in to his "living" or makes for a fuller life.

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The Success "Instinct'

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animals have a "success instinct."

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man too has a success instinct, much more marvelous and much more complex than that of any animal.

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Man, on the other hand, has something animals haven't —Creative Imagination. Thus man of all creatures is more than a creature, he is also a creator.

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"Imagination rules the world," said Na-poleon. "Imagination of all man's faculties is the most

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God-like," said Glenn Clark. "The faculty of imagination is the great spring of human activity, and the principal source of human improvement

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," said Dugold Stewart

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"You can imagine your future," says Henry J. Kaiser, who attributes much of his success in business to the constructive, positive use of creative imagination.

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your physical brain and ner-vous system make up a servo-mechanism which "You" use, and which operates very much like an electronic com-puter, and a mechanical goal-seeking device.

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In his book The Computer and the Brain, Dr. John von Newmann

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The word "Cybernetics" comes from a Greek word which means literally, "the steersman." Servo-mechanisms are so constructed that they auto-matically "steer" their way to a goal, target, or "answer."

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Psycho-Cybernetics does not say that man is a machine. Rather, it says that man has a machine which he uses.

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similarities between mechanical servo-mechanisms and the human brain:

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THE TWO GENERAL TYPES OF SERVO-MECHANISMS

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Servo-mechanisms are divided into two general types: (1) where the target, goal, or "answer" is known, and the objective is to reach it or accomplish it, and (2) where the target or "answer" is not known and the objective is to discover or locate it. The human brain and nervous system operates in both ways.

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the self-guided torpedo, or the interceptor missile. The target or goal is known— an enemy ship or plane. The objective is to reach it.

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They must have some sort of propulsion system

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They must be equipped with "sense organs" (radar, sonar, heat perceptors, etc.)

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These "sense organs" keep the machine informed when it is on the correct course (positive feed-back) and when it commits an error and gets off course (negative feedback).

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The machine does not react or re-

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spond to positive feedback. It is doing the correct thing already and "just keeps on doing what it is doing."

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a corrective device, however,

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will respond to negative feedback.

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the corrective mechanism automatically causes the rudder to move

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If it "overcorrects" and heads too far to the left, this mis-take is made known through negative feedback,

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The torpedo accomplishes its goal by going forward, making errors, and continually correcting them.

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We are able to accomplish the goal of picking up the cigarettes because of an automatic mechanism, and not by "will"

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select the goal, trigger it into action by desire, and feed information to the automatic mechanism

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When "YOU" select the goal and trigger it into action, an automatic mechanism takes over.

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The baby has little "stored information" to draw upon. Its hand zigzags back and forth and gropes obviously as it reaches. It is characteristic of all learning that as learn-ing takes place, correction becomes more and more re-fined.

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Once, however, a correct or "successful response" has been accomplished—it is "remembered" for future use. The automatic mechanism then duplicates this successful response on future trials. It has "learned" how to respond successfully. It "remembers" its successes, forgets its failures, and repeats the successful action without any fur-ther conscious "thought"—or as a habit.

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suppose that the room is dark so that you cannot see the cigarettes.

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You know, or hope, there is a package of cigarettes on the table, along with a variety of other objects.

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an ex-ample of the second type of servo-mechanism.

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Recalling a name temporarily forgotten is another example. A "Scan-ner" in your brain scans back through your stored memo-ries until the correct name is "recognized."

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First of all, a great deal of data must be fed into the machine. This stored, or recorded information is the machine's "memory." A problem is posed to the machine. It scans back through its memory until it locates the only "answer" which is consistent with and meets all the conditions of the problem. Problem and answer together constitute a "whole" situation or structure.

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When certain areas of the cortex were touched, patients did not merely "remember" past experiences, they "re-lived" them, experiencing as very real all the sights, sounds and sensations of the original experience. It was just as if past experiences had been recorded on a tape recorder and played back.

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Science Can Build the Computer but Not the Operator

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A computer does not have a forebrain, nor an "I." It cannot pose problems to itself. It has no imag-ination and cannot set goals for itself. It cannot determine which goals are worthwhile and which are not. It has no emotions. It cannot "feel." It works only on new data fed to it by an operator, by feedback data it secures from its own "sense organs" and from information previously stored.

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Is There an Infinite Storehouse of Ideas, Knowledge, and Power?

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"There is one mind common to all individual men," said Emerson, who com-pared our individual minds to the inlets in an ocean of universal mind.

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"ideas are in the air,"

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Dr. J. B. Rhine, head of Duke University's Para-psychology Laboratory, has proved experimentally that man has access to knowledge, facts, and ideas, other than his own individual memory or stored information from learning or experience. Telepathy, clairvoyance, precogni-tion have been established by scientific laboratory experi-ments. His findings, that man possesses some "extra sen-sory factor," which he calls "Psi," are no longer doubted by scientists who have seriously reviewed his work.

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Searching for a new idea, or an answer to a problem, is in fact, very similar to searching memory for a name you have forgotten. You know that the name is "there," or else you would not search. The scanner in your brain scans back over stored memories until the desired name is "recognized" or "discovered."

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The Answer Exists Now

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when we set out to find a new idea, or the answer to a problem, we must assume that the answer exists already—somewhere, and set out to find it.

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When you set out to do creative work

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you begin with a goal in mind, an end to be achieved, a "target" answer, which, although perhaps somewhat vague, will be "recog-

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nized" when achieved.

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If you really mean business, have an intense desire, and begin to think intensely about all angles of the problem—your creative mechanism goes to work

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When this solution is served up to your consciousness—often at an unguarded moment when you are thinking of something else—or per-haps even as a dream while your consciousness is asleep —something "clicks" and you at once "recognize" this as the answer you have been searching for.

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PRACTICE EXERCISE NO. 1 Get a New Mental Picture of Yourself

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You cannot merely imagine a new self-image; unless you feel that it is based upon truth.

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Experience has shown that when a per-son does change his self-image, he has the feeling that for one reason or another, he "sees," or realizes the truth about himself.

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every human being has been literally "engineered for success" by his Creator. Every human being has access to a power greater than himself. This means "YOU." As Emerson has said, "There are no great and no small."

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Read this chapter through at least three times per week for the first 21 days. Study it and digest it Look for ex-amples in your experiences, and the experiences of your friends, which illustrate the creative mechanism in action.

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Memorize the following basic principles by which your success mechanism operates.

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1. Your built-in success mechanism must have a goal or "target." This goal, or target, must be conceived of as "already in existence—now" either in actual or poten-tial form. It operates by either (1) steering you to a goal already in existence or by (2) "discovering" some-thing already in existence. 2. The automatic mechanism is teleological, that is, oper-ates, or must be oriented to "end results," goals. Do not be discouraged because the "means whereby" may not be apparent. It is the function of the automatic mechanism to supply the "means whereby" when you supply the goal. Think in terms of the end result, and the means whereby will often take care of themselves. 3. Do not be afraid of making mistakes, or of temporary failures. All servo-mechanisms achieve a goal by nega-tive feedback, or by going forward, making mistakes, and immediately correcting course. 4. Skill learning of any kind is accomplished by trial and error, mentally correcting aim after an error, until a "successful" motion, movement or performance has been achieved. After that, further learning, and con-'tinued success, is accomplished by forgetting the past

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'errors, and remembering the successful response, sothat it can be "imitated."

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trust your creative mechanism to doits work

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You must "let it" work, rather than "make it" work.

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its nature is to operate spontaneouslyaccording to present need.

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It comes into operation as youact and as you place a demand upon it by your actions. You must not wait to act until you have proof—youmust act as if it is there, and it will come through. "Dothe thing and you will have the power," said Emerson.

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Imagination—The First Key to Your Success Mechanism

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p31 "Creative imagination" imagination sets the goal "picture" which our automatic mechanism works on. We act, or fail to act, not because of "will," as is so commonly be-lieved, but because of imagination. A human being always acts and feels and performs in accordance with what he imagines to be true about him-self and his environment. This is a basic and fundamental law of mind.

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p32 When college students, wide awake, have been told to imagine that a spot on their fore-heads was hot, temperature readings have shown an actual increase in skin temperature.

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p33 the plain truth is that when a subject is con-vinced that he is deaf, he behaves as if he is deaf; when he is convinced that he is insensitive to pain, he can undergo surgery without anesthesia.

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p34 You act, and feel, not according to what things are really like, but according to the image your mind holds of what they are like. You have certain mental images of yourself, your world, and the people around you, and you behave as though these images were the truth, the reality, rather than the things they represent.

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Why Not Imagine Yourself Successful?

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p39 "You must have a clear mental picture of the correct thing before you can do it successfully."

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p40 The Real Secret of Mental Picturing

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each of his business ac-complishments was realized in his imagination before it appeared in actuality.

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An automatic goal-seeking machine which "steers"

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p41 mental-picturing the desired end result

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This same creative mechanism within you can help you achieve your best possible "self" if you will form a picture in your imagination of the self you wanted to be and "see yourself" in the new role.

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p43 Dr. Albert Edward Wiggam called your mental picture of yourself "the strongest force within you."

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God created man "a little lower than the angels"

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God created man in his own image.

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such an all-wise and all-powerful Creator would not turn out inferior products

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p44 that man's pri-mary purpose is to "express himself fully."

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Jesus expressed the same thought when he told us not to hide our light under a bushel, but to let our light shine —"so that your Father may be glorified."

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p45 "Hold a picture of yourself long and steadily enough in your mind's eye and you will be drawn toward it," said Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick.

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Great living starts with a picture, held in your imagination, of what you would like to do or be."

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30 minutes each day

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The important thing is to make these pictures as vivid and as detailed as possible. You want your mental pictures to approximate actual experience as much as pos-sible. The way to do this is pay attention to small details, sights, sounds, objects, in your imagined environment.

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p46 Details of the 46 PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS imagined environment are all-important in this exercise, because for all practical purposes, you are creating a prac-tice experience.

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during this 30 minutes you see yourself acting and reacting appro-priately, successfully, ideally.

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p48 his teacher became convinced that he was "dumb in mathematics."

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p49 Note: P71 p49 The power of hypnosis is belief / acceptance. What have I to do with thee? It is taking the conscious mind, obstruction, out of the way and uploading it directly into the subconscious, bypassing conscious reasoning / filtering. he did not "look like a success-ful executive."

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The only change was in his belief and in his self-image.

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the power of hypnosis is the power of belief.

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if you have accepted an idea

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p50 typical of practically all students who make poor grades.

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brought about almost miracu-lous improvement in the grades of school children by showing them how to change their self-image.

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poor grades in school are, in almost every case, due in some degree to the student's "self-concep-tion" and "self-definition."

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Unconsciously, making poor grades became a • "moral issue" with him. It would be as "wrong," from his own viewpoint, for him to make good grades, as it would be to steal if he defines himself as an honest person.

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p51 How a False Belief Aged a Man 20 Years

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p52 "Voodoo curse"

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p53 The important thing is he saw the truth and be-lieved it. He gave a sigh of relief, and it seemed as if there was an almost immediate change in his posture and ex-pression.

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every human being is hypnotized to some extent, either by ideas he has uncriti-cally accepted from others, or ideas he has repeated to himself or convinced himself are true.

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p54 the idea "you cannot do it" causes contrary muscles to contract quite apart from their will. The negative idea causes them to defeat themselves—they cannot express, or bring into play their actual available strength.

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What the hypnotic suggestion did do was to overcome a negative idea which had pre-viously prevented him

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p55 All this happens apparently merely because the hypnotist tells them that they can and instructs them to go ahead and do it.

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The power, the basic ability, to do these things was inherent in the subjects all the time

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At least 95 per cent of the people have their lives blighted by feelings of inferiority to some extent

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p56/57 Feelings of inferiority originate not so much from "facts" or experiences, but our conclusions regarding facts, and our evaluation of experiences.

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It all depends upon "what" and "whose" norms we measure ourselves by.

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It is the feeling of inferiority that does this.

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because we think, and believe and assume that we should measure up to some other person's "norm," we feel miserable, and second-rate, and conclude that there is something wrong with us. The next logical conclusion in this cockeyed reasoning process is to conclude that we are not "worthy"; that we do not deserve success and happiness, and that it would be out of place for us to fully express our own abilities and talents, whatever they might be, without apology, or without feeling guilty about it.

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The person with an inferiority complex invariably com-pounds the error by striving for superiority.

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God did not create a standard person and in some way label that person by saying "this is it." He made every human being individual and unique just as He made every snowflake individual and unique.

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There is no "common man"—no standardized, common pattern.

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All you need to do is to set up a "norm" or "average," then convince your subject he does not measure up.

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inner security can only be found "in finding in oneself an individuality, uniqueness and distinctiveness that is akin to the idea of being created in the image of God." He also said that self-realization is gained by "a simple belief in one's own uniqueness as a human being, a sense of deep and wide awareness of all people and all things and a feeling of constructive influencing of others through one's own personality."

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Note: P81 p59 The Law of reversed effort Emile Coue p59 It has been amply demonstrated that attempting to use effort or will power to change beliefs or to cure bad habits has an adverse, rather than a beneficial effect.

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effort was the one big reason most people failed to utilize their inner powers.

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"Your suggestions (ideal goals) must be made without effort if they are to be effective," he said. Another famous Coué saying was his "Law of Reversed Effort": "When the will and the imagination are in conflict, the imagination invariably wins the day."

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Dr. Knight Dunlap made a lifelong study of habits and learning processes and perhaps performed more experiments along this line than any other psycholo-gist.

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his finding that effort was the one big deter-rent to either breaking a bad habit, or learning a new one.

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Note: P82 p60 Go to the end and live in the end. We are goal driven beings. p60 His experiments proved that the best way to break a habit is to form a clear mental image of the desired end result, and to practice without effort toward reaching that goal.

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In many cases, the mere relaxation of effort, or too much conscious straining, is in itself enough to eradicate the negative behavior pattern.

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How to Use Mental Pictures to Relax

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DEHYPNOTIZE YOURSELF

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the "unconscious," is absolutely impersonal.

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has no "will" of its own

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It always seeks to give you appropriate feelings, and to accomplish the goals which you consciously determine upon.

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data which you feed it in the form of ideas, be-liefs, interpretations, opinions.

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It is conscious thinking which is the "control knob" of your unconscious machine.

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"conscious thought control."

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"a person has to start in the present to acquire some maturity so that the future may be better than the past.

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There simply isn't any future in digging continually into the past.

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common de-nominator in every patient

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control his present thinking to produce enjoyment."

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The fact that there are "buried" in the unconscious, memories of past failures, unpleasant and painful experi-ences, does not mean that these must be "dug out," ex-posed or examined

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all skill learning is accom-plished by trial and error

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as soon as the error has been recognized as such, and correction of course made, it is equally impor-tant that the error be consciously forgotten, and the suc-cessful attempt remembered and "dwelt upon."

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Our errors, mistakes, failures, and sometimes even our humiliations, were necessary steps in the learning process.

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they were meant to be means to an end—and not an end in themselves.

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When they have served their purpose, they should be forgotten.

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the error or failure itself becomes the "goal"

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The un-happiest of mortals is that man who insists upon reliving the past, over and over in imagination

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If we are victimized, it is by our con-scious, thinking mind and not by the "unconscious."

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The minute that we change our minds, and stop giving power to the past, the past with its mis-takes loses power over us.

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When a shy, timid wallflower is told in hypnosis, and believes or "thinks" that he is a bold, self-confident orator, his re-action patterns are changed instantly.

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the talents and abilities displayed by hypnotic- sub-jects were due to a "purgation of memory" of past failures, while in the hypnotic state.

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if ordinary people carried around within themselves talents, abilities, powers, which were held in and not used merely because of memories of past failures — why couldn't a person in the wakeful state use these same powers by ignoring past failures and "acting as if it were impossible to fail?"

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"ACT AS IF"

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I enjoy life; I might almost say that with every year that passes I enjoy it more . . . very largely it is due to diminishing preoccupation with myself.

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Gradually I learned to be indifferent to myself and my deficiencies; I came to center my attention upon external objects: the state of the world, various branches of knowledge, indi-viduals for whom I felt affection."

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Bertrand Russell, The Conquest of Happiness

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method for changing automatic reaction patterns based upon false beliefs

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"It is quite possible to overcome infantile suggestions of the unconscious, and even to change the contents of the un-conscious

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Whenever you begin to feel remorse for an act which your reason tells you is not wicked, examine the causes of your feeling of remorse, and convince yourself in detail of their absurdity. Let your conscious beliefs be so vivid and em-phatic that they make an impression upon your uncon-scious strong enough to cope with the impressions made by your nurse or your mother when you were an infant.

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Look into the irrationality closely with a determination not to respect it and not to let it dominate you. When it thrusts foolish thoughts or feelings into your consciousness, pull them up by the roots, examine them, and reject them.

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man should make up his mind with emphasis as to what he rationally believes, and should never allow con-trary irrational beliefs to pass unchallenged or obtain a hold over him, however brief.

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This is a question of reason-ing with himself in those moments in which he is tempted to become infantile

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inherent in the very nature of "mind" itself, that all ideas and concepts which make up the total content of "personality" must seem to be consistent with each other. If the inconsistency of a given idea is consciously recog-nized, it must be rejected.

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"Would you physically get down on all fours and crawl into the man's office, pros-trating yourself before a superior personage?" "I should say not!" he bristled. "Then, why do you mentally cringe and crawl?"

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Lecky found that there were two powerful "levers" for changing beliefs and concepts. There are "standard" con-victions which are strongly held by nearly everyone. These are (1) the feeling or belief that one is capable of doing his share, holding up his end of the log, exerting a certain amount of independence and (2) the belief that there is "something" inside you which should not be allowed to suffer indignities.

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Trace down the belief about yourself, or the belief about the world, or other people, which is behind your negative behavior.

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Perhaps you secretly feel "unworthy" of success or that you do not deserve it.

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To root out the belief which is responsible for your feeling and behavior—ask yourself, "why?"

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you hang back feeling that "I can't"? Ask yourself "WHY?" "Why do I believe that I can't?"

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Then ask yourself—"Is this belief based upon an actual fact-—or upon an assumption—or a false conclusion?"

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Then ask yourself the questions: 1. Is there any rational reason for such a belief? 2. Could it be that I am mistaken in this belief? 3. Would I come to the same conclusion about some other person in a similar situation? 4. Why should I continue to act and feel as if this were true if there is no good reason to believe it?

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Wrestle with them. Think hard on them. Get emotional about them.

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try to arouse some indignation, or even anger. Indignation and anger can sometimes act as liberators from false ideas.

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Just as the transaction was about to be completed, the lendor's wife spoke up and said, "Don't be a fool—he will never make enough money to pay it off." Darrow himself had had serious doubts about the same thing. But "something hap-pened" when he heard her remark. He became indignant

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The experience awakened "something" within him—some "new self"—and at once he saw that this woman's remark, as well as his own opinions of him-self, were an affront to this "something.""

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The Power of Deep Desire

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Rational thought, to be effective in changing belief and behavior, must be accompanied by deep feeling and desire.

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Arouse a deep desire for these things. Become en-thusiastic about them. Dwell upon them—and keep going over them in your mind. Your present negative beliefs were formed by thought plus feelings. Generate enough emotion, or deep feeling, and your new thoughts and ideas will cancel them out.

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When you worry, you first of all picture some undesirable

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Note: P96 p74 future outcome, or goal, very vividly in your imagination. You use no effort or will power. But you keep dwelling upon the "end result." You keep thin... p74 future outcome, or goal, very vividly in your imagination. You use no effort or will power. But you keep dwelling upon the "end result." You keep thinking about it—dwell-ing upon it—picturing it to yourself as a "possibility." You play with the idea that it "might happen." This constant repetition, and thinking in terms of "pos-sibilities," makes the end result appear more and more "real" to you. After a time, appropriate emotions are automatically generated—fear, anxiety, discouragement-all these are appropriate to the undesirable end result you are worrying about.

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Now change the "goal picture"—and you can as easily generate "good emotions."

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again appropriate emotions of enthusiasm, cheerfulness, encouragement, and happiness will automatically be generated.

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'As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.'"

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your automatic mechanism does not reason about, nor question, the data you feed it. It merely processes it and reacts appropriately to it.

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"Always think of what you have to do as easy and it will become so," said Emile Coué

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You simply must learn that if you can interest the neighbor you can interest all the neighbors, or the world, and not be frozen by mag-nitudes."

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Many people are bowled over by the chance remark of a friend—"You do not look so well this morning." If they are rejected or snubbed by someone, they blindly "swallow" the "fact" that this means they are an inferior person.

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"I failed once in the past, so I will probably fail in the future," is neither logical nor rational. To conclude "I can't" in advance, without try-ing, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, is not rational.

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Decide What You Want—Not What You Don't Want

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It is not the job of your conscious rational mind, how-ever, to create or to "do" the job at hand. We get into trouble when we either neglect to use conscious thinking in the way that it is meant to be used, or when we attempt to use it in a way that it was never meant to be used. We cannot squeeze creative thought out of the Creative Mech-anism by making conscious effort. We cannot "do" the job to be done by making strained conscious efforts. And because we try and cannot, we become concerned, anx-ious, frustrated. The automatic mechanism is unconscious.

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only by trusting and acting do we receive signs and wonders. In short, conscious rational thought selects the goal, gathers information, concludes, evaluates, estimates and starts the wheels in motion. It is not, however, responsible for results. We must learn to do our work, act upon the best assumptions available, and leave results to take care of themselves.

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Note: P100 p78 Forebrain is the conscious, reasoning, rational mind. p78 Our trouble is that we ignore the automatic creative mechanism and try to do everything and solve all our problems by conscious thought, or "forebrain thinking."

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the forebrain cannot create. It cannot "do" the job to be done

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Note: P101 p79 William James explains that one must learn the habit of letting go for things to happen. Constantly dwelling upon the wish interferes and inhibits its progress. p79 by its very nature it was never engi-neered to solve problems

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Jesus told us that a man cannot add one cubit to his stature by "taking thought."

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Because modern man does depend almost entirely upon his forebrain he becomes too careful, too anxious, and too fearful of "results," and the advice of Jesus to "take no thought for the morrow," or of St. Paul to be "careful in nothing," is regarded as impractical nonsense.

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William James

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modern man was too tense, too concerned for results, too anxious

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"If we wish our trains of ideation and volition to be copious and varied and effective, we must form the habit of freeing them from the inhibitive influence of reflection upon them, of egoistic preoccupation about their results.

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When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome. Unclamp, in a word, your in-tellectual and practical machinery, and let it run free;

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Note: P102 p80 Surrender, let go, and trust God to do it and make it happen. p80 Victory by Surrender

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passivity, not activity—relaxation, not in-tentness, should be now the rule.

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let go your hold, resign the care of your destiny to higher powers, be genuinely indifferent as to what becomes of it all

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phenomena which ensue on the abandonment of effort

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somewhat like a bolt out of the blue, when the conscious mind has let go of the problem and is engaged in thinking

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of something else.

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in order to receive an "inspiration" or a "hunch," the person must first of all be intensely interested in solving a particular problem, or securing a particular answer.

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And above all, he must have a burning desire to solve the problem.

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But, after he has defined the problem, sees in his imagination the desired end result, secured all the information and facts that he can, then additional struggling, fretting and worrying over it do not help, but seem to hinder the solution.

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"Ideas, I find, come most readily when you are doing something that keeps the mind alert without putting too much strain upon it. Shaving, driving a car, sawing a plank, or fishing or hunting, for instance.

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"let go," stop trying, not care, and give no thought to the matter of their behavior,

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"Do your worrying before you place your bet, not after the wheel starts turning."

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"When once a decision is reached and execution is the order of the day, dismiss absolutely all responsibility and care about the outcome. Unclamp, in a word, your intellectual and practical machinery, and let it run free."

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Consciously practice the habit of "taking no anxious thought for tomorrow," by giving all your attention to the present moment.

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It can only function in the present—today.

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don't try to live in to-morrow, or in the past.

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Creative living means responding and reacting to environment spontaneously.

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Your creative mechanism will react appropriately in the "now" if you pay attention to what is happening now.

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William Osier, A Way of Life

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'she took cognizance of things, only as they were presented to her in succession, moment by moment.'

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Practice becoming more consciously aware of your pres-ent environment. What sights, sounds, odors are present in your environment right now that you are not conscious of?

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Consciously practice looking and listening. Become alert to the feel of objects.

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"What is there here and now that I should respond to? that I can do something about?"

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the absurd habit of trying to do many things at one time.

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The truth is: We can only "do" one thing at a time.

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Just as only one grain of sand could pass through the hourglass, so could we only do one thing at a time. It is not the job, but the way we insist upon think-ing of the job that causes the trouble.

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Remember the fairy story about the Shoemaker and the Elves? The shoemaker found that if he cut out the leather, and laid out the patterns before retiring, little elves came and actually put the shoes together for him while he was sleeping.

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whenever his ideas would not jell, "Never mind, I shall have it at seven o'clock tomorrow morning."

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Relax while you work.

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"I feel more and more relaxed,"

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happi-ness is, "A state of mind in which our thinking is pleasant a good share of the time."

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Happiness is native to the human mind and its physi-cal machine. We think better, perform better, feel better, and are healthier when we are happy. Even our physical sense organs work better.

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"A merry heart doethgood like a medicine, but a broken spirit drieth up the 'bones." It is significant, too, that both Judaism and Chris-tianity prescribe joy, rejoicing, thankfulness, cheerfulness as a means towards righteousness and the good life.

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"Happy people are never wicked,"

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Dr. Schindler has said that unhap-piness is the sole cause of all psychosomatic ills and that happiness is the only cure. The very word "disease" means a state of unhappiness—"dis-ease."

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"Be happy—and you will be good, more successful,]healthier, feel and act more charitably towards others."

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One of the most pleasant thoughts to any human being is the thought that he is needed, that he is important enough to help and add to the happiness of some other human being.

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"The attitude of un-happiness is not only painful, it is mean and ugly,"

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they are attempting to live their lives on the deferred payment plan.

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If you are to be happy at all, you must be happy—period!

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"Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be," said Abraham Lincoln.

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Much of this habitual unhappiness-reaction originated because of some event which we interpreted as a blow to our self-esteem.

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by not adding to the misfortune our own feelings of self-pity, resentment, and our own adverse opinions.

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It is a fact that you lost $200,000. It is your opinion that you are ruined and disgraced."

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"Men are dis-

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turbed," said the sage, "not by things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen."

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all these "impossibles" were opinions, not facts.

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man is a goal-striving being

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Happiness is a symptom of normal, natural functioning and when man is functioning as a goal-striver, he tends to feel fairly happy, regardless of circumstances.

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He maintained an aggressive attitude, he was still goal-oriented despite his misfortune.

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Form the habit of reacting aggressively and positively toward threats and problems. Form the habit of keeping goal-oriented all the time, regardless of what happens.

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by practicing a positive aggressive attitude, both in actual everyday situations which come up, and also in your imagination

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See yourself in your imagination taking positive, intelligent action toward solv-ing a problem or reaching a goal. See yourself reacting to threats, not by running away or evading them, but by meeting them, dealing with them, grappling with them in an aggressive and intelligent manner.

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"Most people are brave only in the dangers to which they accustom them-selves, either in imagination or practice,"

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"The measure of mental health is the disposition to find good everywhere,"

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happiness isn't something that happens to you. It is something you your-

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self do and determine upon.

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bad thinking got him into more spots than bad pitching.

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like a squirrel hoarding chestnuts, we should store up our moments of happiness and triumph so that in a crisis we can draw upon these memories for help and inspiration.

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Stop reading the papers.

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close the doors of my mind to destructive thoughts—and divert my thinking to other things."

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A Scientist Tests the Theory of Positive Thinking

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'We might have to give up our philosophy of evil, but what is that in comparison with gaining a life of goodness?'

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Note: P129 p107 Law of Attraction p107 "The outward changes of my life, resulting from my change of thought have surprised me more than the in-ward changes, yet they spring from the latter.

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I stumbled on a path of life and set forces to working for me which before were against me."

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If a person wants to improve himself, he said, "Let him summon those finer feelings of benevolence and usefulness,

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Note: P130 p108 The original meaning of the word habit was garmet p108 Our self-image and our habits tend to go together. Change one and you will automatically change the other.

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The word "habit" originally meant a garment, or cloth-ing. We still speak of riding habits, and habiliments. This gives us an insight into the true nature of habit. Our habits are literally garments worn by our personalities. They are not accidental, or happenstance. We have them because they fit us. They are consistent with our self-image and our entire personality pattern.

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They confuse "habit" with "addiction." An addiction is something you feel compelled to, and which causes severe withdrawal symptoms.

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Habits, on the other hand, are merely reactions and responses which we have learned to perform automatically without having to "think" or "decide." They are per-formed by our Creative Mechanism.

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Fully 95 per cent of our behavior, feeling, and response is habitual.

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In much the same way our attitudes, emotions and be-liefs tend to become habitual. In the past we "learned" that certain attitudes, ways of feeling and thinking were "appropriate" to certain situations. Now, we tend to

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think, feel and act the same way whenever we encounter what we interpret as "the same sort of situation."

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make a conscious decision—and then by practicing or "acting out" the new response or be-havior.

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The pianist can consciously decide to strike a different key, if he chooses. The dancer can consciously "decide" to learn a new step—and there is no agony about it.

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Now, consciously decide that for the next 21 days you are going to form a new habit by putting on the other shoe first and tying your laces in a different way.

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"I am be-ginning the day in a new and better way."

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a graphic picture of what the suc-cessful personality looks like

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a goal-striving mech-anism,

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Time and again, I have seen confused and unhappy people "straighten themselves out," when they were given a goal to shoot for and a straight course to follow.

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they have never developed a clear-cut self-image of themselves in any role.

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The "Success-type" personality is composed of: S-ense of direction U—nderstanding C-ourage C-harity E-steem S-elf-Confidence S-elf-Acceptance.

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These goals, which were important to him, kept him on the track. However, once he got the promotion, he ceased to think in terms of what he wanted, but in terms of what others expected of him, or whether he was living up to other people's goals and standards.

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He was now on the defensive, defending his present position, rather than acting like a goal-striver and going on the offensive to attain his goal. He regained control when he set himself new goals

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"Functionally, a man is somewhat like a bicycle," I

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"A bicycle maintains its poise and equilibrium only so long as it is going forward towards something. You have a good bicycle. Your trouble is you are trying to maintain your balance sitting still, with no place to go. It's no wonder you feel shaky."

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We are engineered as goal-seeking mechanisms.

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When we have no personal goal which we are interested in and which "means something" to us, we are apt to "go around in circles," feel "lost" and find life itself "aimless," and "purposeless."

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we find no real satisfaction or happiness in life without obstacles to conquer and goals to achieve

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Prescription: Get yourself a goal worth working for. Better still, get yourself a project. Decide what you want out of a situation. Always have something ahead of you to "look forward to"—to work for and hope for.

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Even your body doesn't function well when you stop being a goal-striver and "have nothing to look forward to." This is the reason that very often when a man retires, he dies shortly thereafter.

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In addition to your purely personal goals, have at least one impersonal goal—or "cause"--which you can identify yourself with. Get interested in some project to help your fellow man—not out of a sense of duty, but because you want to.

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Most of our failures in human relations are due to "misunderstandings."

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no one reacts to "things as they are," but to his own mental images.

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He is merely responding appropriately to what—to him—seems to be the truth about the situation.

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Ask your-self, "How does this appear—to him?" "How does he interpret this situation?" "How does he feel about it?" Try to understand why he might "act the way he does."

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We do not like to admit to ourselves our errors, mistakes, shortcomings, or ever admit we have been in the wrong.

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We do not like to acknowledge that a situation is other than we would like it to be. So we kid ourselves. And be-cause we will not see the truth, we cannot act appropri-ately.

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daily admit one painful fact about ourselves to ourselves. The Success-type personality not only does not cheat and lie to other people, he learns to be honest with himself. What we call "sincerity" is itself based upon self-understanding and self-honesty. For no man can be sincere who lies to himself by "rationalizing," or telling himself "rational-lies."

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"It doesn't matter who's right, but what's right."

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You must have the courage to act

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'The best defense is a strong offense,'

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FAITH is not believing some-thing in spite of the evidence. It is the COURAGE to do something regardless of the consequences.

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Note: P140 p118 gambling and Alcoholism p118 Pick out the course which gives the most promise—and go ahead. If we wait until we are i absolutely certain and sure before we act we will never do anything.

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You must daily have the courage to risk making mistakes, risk failure, risk being humiliated. A step in the wrong direction is better than staying "on the spot" all your life. Once you're moving forward you can correct your course as you go.

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Have you ever wondered why the "urge" or desire to gamble seems to be instinctive in human nature? My own theory is that this universal "urge" is an instinct, which, when used correctly, urges us to bet on ourselves, to take a chance on our own creative potentialities.

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A man who will not take a chance on himself must bet on something. And the man who will not act with courage sometimes seeks the feeling of courage from a bottle.

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You've got the resources. But you never know you've got them until you act—and give them a chance to work for you.

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practice acting boldly and with courage in regard to "little things."

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Successful personalities have some interest in and re-gard for other people.

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They respect the dignity of human personality and deal with other people as if they were human beings, rather than as pawns in their own game. They recognize that every person is a child of God and is a unique individuality which deserves some dignity and respect.

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One of the best known methods of getting over a feeling of guilt is to stop con-demning other people in your own mind—stop judging them—stop blaming them and hating them for their mis-

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People are important. People cannot for long be treated like ani- ; mals or machines, or as pawns to secure personal ends. Hitler found this out. So will other tyrants wherever they may be found—in the home, in business, or in individ-ual relationships.

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"Alas! the fearful Unbelief is unbelief in your-self."

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isn't it on those days when we are most, subject to the 'fearful Un-belief,' when we most doubt ourselves and feel inadequate to our task—isn't it precisely then that we are most diffi-cult to get along with?"

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holding a low opinion of ourselves is not a virtue, but a vice.

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The person with adequate self-esteem doesn't feel hostile toward others, he isn't out to prove anything

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Stop carrying around a mental picture of yourself as a defeated, worthless person. Stop dramatiz-ing yourself as an object of pity and injustice.

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The word "esteem" literally means to appreciate the Worth of.

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p122 But the biggest secret of self-esteem is this: Begin to appreciate other people more; show respect for any human being merely because he is a child of God and therefore a "thing of value."

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For real self-esteem is not derived from the great things you've done, the things you own, the mark you've made—but an appre-ciation of yourself for what you are—a child of God.

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Note: P144 p122 (6) Self-confidence - This is a most important chapter Confidence is built upon an experience of success. When we first begin any undertaking, we are likely to have little confidence, because we have not learned from ex-perience that we can succeed.

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Managers of boxers are very careful to match them care-fully so they can have a graduated series of successful experiences.

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Note: P145 p123 Repition does not teach. It is going through all the different ways of how not to do it, that teaches us what works. We learn best by trial and error. Universities teach only one way, the way they believe to be the only and correct way. They do not teach different approaches to the same thing. University teaches that 4 = 2+2, not 1+3 also. If they teach 1+3=4 then 3+1 and 2+2 are wrong. p123 form the habit of re-membering past successes, and forgetting failures.

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not because "repetition" has any value in itself.

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If mere rep-etition were the answer to improved skill, his practice should make him more expert at missing since that is what he has practiced most.

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although his misses may outnumber hits ten to one, through practice his misses gradually diminish and his hits come more and more frequently. This is because the computer in his brain remembers and reinforces his successful attempts, and for-gets the misses.

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This is the way that both an electronic computer and our own success mechanisms learn to succeed.

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We destroy our self-con-fidence by remembering past failures and forgetting all about past successes. We not only remember failures, we impress them on our minds with emotion. We condemn ourselves. We flay ourselves with shame and remorse (both are highly egotistical, self-centered emotions). And self-confidence disappears.

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What matters is the successful attempt, which should be remembered, reinforced, and dwelt upon.

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must be willing to fail 99 times before he succeeds once, and suffer no ego damage because of it.

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Deliberately re-member and picture to yourself past successes.

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call up the feelings you experienced in some past success, however small it might have been.

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recalling brave moments is a very sound way to restore belief in yourself

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the practice of vividly remembering our past successes and brave moments as an invaluable aid when-ever self-confidence is shaken.

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The most miserable and tortured people in the world are those who are continually straining and striving to convince them-selves and others that they are something other than what they basically are.

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Changing your self-image does not mean changing your self, or improving your self, but changing your own men-tal picture, your own estimation, conception, and realiza-tion of that self.

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realistic self-image, come about, not as a result of self-transformation, but from self-realization, and self-revelation. Your "self," right now, is what it has always been, and all that it can ever be.

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Note: P147 p125 Like my dad always said - "We can change our personality, but not our basic self. (character)" You are a sinner means you are not righteous and righteous means not living the Law not prospering and taking all that has been given to us. p125 You are somebody,

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because God created you in His own image.

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Most of us are better, wiser, stronger, more competent now, than we realize. Creating a better self-image does not create new abilities, talents, powers—it releases and utilizes them.

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We can change our personality, but not our basic self.

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Personality is a tool, an outlet, a focal point of the "self" that we use in dealing with the world. It is the sum total of our habits, attitudes, learned skills, which we use as a method of expressing ourselves.

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Self-acceptance is easier, however, if we realize that these negatives belong to us—they are not us.

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You may have made a mistake, but this does not mean that you are a mistake. You may not be express-ing yourself properly and fully, but this does not mean you yourself are "no good."

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We must recognize our mistakes and shortcomings be-fore we can correct them. The first step toward acquiring knowledge is the recog-nition of those areas where you are ignorant.

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all religions teach that the first step toward salvation is the self-confession that you are a sinner. In the journey toward the goal of ideal self-expression, we must use negative feed-back data to correct course, as in any other goal-striving situation.

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Note: P148 p126 The Actual Self is the person, the personality, we are in this lifetime, it is not the Real Self, the one, the God within us, that we have always been throughout all our lifetimes. "In our Actual, expressed Self, we never ex-haust all the possibilities and powers of the Real Self." p126 our "actual self," is always im-perfect and short of the mark.

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In our Actual, expressed Self, we never ex-haust all the possibilities and powers of the Real Self.

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It is important that we learn to accept this Actual Self, with all its imperfections, because it is the only vehicle we have.

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A stage coach may not be the most desirable transportation in the world, but a real stage coach will still take you coast to coast more satis-factorily than will a fictitious jet air-liner.

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Don't hate yourself because you're not per-fect. You have lots of company. No one else is, either, and those who try to pretend they are are kidding them-selves.

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It is a gift of God. You are—period.

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"It is the young man of true conception who says, 'I am everything,' and then goes to prove it.

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it means faith, trust, confidence, the human ex-pression of the God within us.

*****

Accept yourself. Be yourself. You cannot realize the potentialities and possibilities inherent in that unique and special something which is "YOU" if you keep turning

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your back upon it, feeling ashamed of it, refusing to rec-ognize it.

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By recognizing the potential danger, corrective action can be taken—and safety assured.

*****

if you can read the signposts, and take proper corrective action, de-tour signs, dead-end street signs, and the like, can help you reach your destination easier and more efficiently.

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The pain of appendicitis may seem "bad" to the patient, but actually it operates for the patient's survival. If he felt no pain he would take no action toward having the appendix re-moved.

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The failure-type personality also has its symptoms. We need to be able to recognize these failure symptoms in ourselves so that we can do something about them.

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We need to recognize them as "undesirables," as things which we do not want, and most important of all convince our-selves deeply and sincerely that these things do not bring happiness.

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F-rustration, hopelessness, futility A—ggressiveness (misdirected) I-nsecurity L-oneliness (lack of "oneness") U-ncertainty R-esentment E—mptiness.

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We adopt them because we mis-takenly see them as a "way"out of some difficulty. They have meaning and purpose, although based upon a mis-taken premise. They constitute a "way of life" for us.

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Frustration is an emotional feeling which develops whenever some important goal cannot be realized or when some strong desire is thwarted.

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accept the fact that perfection is not necessary nor required, and that approximations are good enough

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Chronic frustration usually means that the goals we have set for ourselves are unrealistic, or the image we have of ourselves is inadequate, or both.

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he should be

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If it's good enough for the professionals, it should be good enough for you.

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he had had many opportunities, all of which he muffed.

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something was always de-feating him just when success seemed within his grasp.

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His self-image was that of an unworthy, incompetent, inferior person who had no right to succeed, or to enjoy the better things in life, and unwittingly he tried to be true to that role.

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Note: P155 p133 Feeling is the prayer that creates. Thoughts and feelings go together. Feelings are the soil that thoughts and ideas grow i p133 Feelings of frustration, discontent, dissatisfaction are ways of solving problems that we all "learned" as infants.

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Many children con-tinue to get their way, and have their problems solved by over-indulgent parents, by merely expressing their feelings of frustration. All they have to do is feel frustrated and dissatisfied and the problem is solved.

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Thoughts and feelings go together. Feelings are the soil that thoughts and ideas grow in.

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Excessive and misdirected aggressiveness follows frus-tration as night follows day.

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Aggressiveness itself is not an abnormal behavior pat-tern as some psychiatrists once believed. Aggressiveness, and emotional steam, are very necessary in reaching a goal. We must go out after what we want in an aggressive rather than in a defensive or tentative manner. We must grapple with problems aggressively. The mere fact of hav-ing an important goal is enough to create emotional steam in our boiler, and bring aggressive tendencies into play.

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The emotional steam is then dammed up, seeking an outlet. Misdirected, or un-used, it becomes a destructive force. The worker who wants to punch his boss in the nose but doesn't dare, goes home and snaps at his wife and kids or kicks the cat.

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The failure-type personality does not direct his aggres-siveness toward the accomplishment of a worthwhile goal.

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The answer to aggression is not to eradicate it, but to understand it, and provide proper and appropriate chan-nels for its expression.

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providing a proper outlet for aggression is as important, if not more so, than providing for love and tenderness.

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Mis-directed aggression is an attempt to hit one target (the original goal). by lashing out at any target.

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"The poor fellow has nothing against me personally. Maybe his wife burned the toast this morning, he can't pay the rent, or his boss chewed him out."

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Another good device is to vent your spleen in writing. Write a letter to the person |who has frustrated or angered you. Pull out all the stops. Leave nothing to the imagination. Then burn the letter.

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We compare our actual abilities to an imagined "ideal," perfect, or absolute self.

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The insecure person feels that he should be

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He should be

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He should be

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Since man is a goal-striving mechanism, the self realizes itself fully only when man is moving forward towards something.

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The man who is convinced that he is "good" in the absolute sense, not only has no incentive to do bet-ter, but he feels insecure because he must defend the sham and pretense.

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"Why callest thou me good? There is but one good and that is the Father."

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"I count myself not to have achieved . . . but I press on toward the goal."

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When a championship team begins to think of itself as "the champions," they no longer have something to fight for, but a status to defend.

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The underdogs are fighting to do something and often bring about an upset.

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When you step into that ring you aren't defending] the championship—you're fighting for it.

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If you are perfect and superior now—then there is no need to fight, grapple and try. In fact, if you are caught trying real hard, it may be considered evidence that you are not superior—so you "don't try." You lose your fight—your Will to Win.

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it is the extreme and chronic feeling of loneliness—of being cut off and alienated from other people

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It is a loneliness from your real self. The person who is alienated from his real self has cut himself off from the basic and fundamental "contact" with life.

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Doing things with other people and enjoying things with other people, helps us to forget ourselves.

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we become inter-ested in something other than maintaining our own shams and pretenses.

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Loneliness is a way of self-protection.

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It is a way to protect our ideal-ized self against exposure, hurt, humiliation. The lonely personality is afraid of other people.

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constant exposure to the object of fear immunizes against the fear.

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"The greatest mistake a man can make is to be afraid of making one."'

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Being "wrong" holds untold horrors to the person who tries to conceive of himself as perfect. He is never wrong, and always per-fect in all things. If he were ever wrong his picture of a perfect, all powerful self would crumble. Therefore, de-cision-making becomes a life-or-death matter.

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One is continually in hot water from impulsive and ill-considered actions, the other is stymied because he will not act at all.

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The great Babe Ruth, who holds the record, for the most home runs, also holds the record for the most strike-outs.

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A guided torpedo literally arrives at its target by making a series of mistakes and continually correcting its course. You cannot correct your course if you are standing still. You cannot change or correct "nothing." you must consider the known facts in a situation, imagine possible consequences of various courses of action, choose one that seems to offer the best solution—and bet on it. you can correct your course as you go.

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Note: P163 p141 Big men and big personalities make mistakes and admit them. It is the little man who is afraid to admit he has been wrong. p141 Many people are indecisive be-cause they fear loss of self-esteem if they are proved wrong.

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Big men and big personalities make mistakes and admit them. It is the little man who is afraid to admit he has been wrong.

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"We learn wisdom from failure much more than from success; we often discover what will do, by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery."

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every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.' "—Mrs. Thomas A. Edison.

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When the failure-type personality looks for a scape-goat or excuse for his failure, he often blames society,

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"the system," life, the "breaks."

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He resents the success and happiness of others because it is proof to him that life is short-changing him and he is being treated unfairly

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resentment is a cure that is worse than the disease. It is a deadly poison to the spir-it, makes happiness impossible

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The person who always carries a grievance, and has a chip on his shoulder, does not make the best companion or co-worker.

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When co-workers do not warm up to him, or the boss attempts to point out deficiencies in his work, he has additional reasons for feeling resentful.

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Many people get a perverse satisfaction from feeling "wronged." The victim of injustice, the one who has been unfairly treated, is morally superior to those who caused the injustice.

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Resentment is an emotional rehashing, or re-fighting of some event in the past.

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Resentment Creates an Inferior Self-image

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Habitually feeling that you are a victim of injustice, you begin to picture yourself in the role of a victimized person.

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It is then easy to see "evidence" of injustice, or fancy you have been wronged

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Habitual resentment invariably leads to self-pity, which is the worst possible emotional habit anyone can develop.

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such people feel good only when they are miserable.

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You begin to pic-ture yourself as a pitiful person, a victim, who was meant to be unhappy.

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Remember that your resentment is not caused by other persons, events, or circumstances. It is caused by your own emotional response—your own reaction.

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He makes unreasonable demands and claims upon other people.

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If life owes you a . living, you become resentful when it isn't forthcoming.

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Resentment is therefore inconsistent with creative goal-striving.

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You set your goals. No one owes you anything. You go out after your own goals. You be-come responsible for your own success, and happiness.

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Along the way, they lost the capacity to enjoy. And when you have lost the capacity to enjoy, no amount of wealth or anything else can bring success or happiness. These people win the nut of success but when they crack it open it is empty.

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A person who has the capacity to enjoy still alive with-in him finds enjoyment in many ordinary and simple things in life. He also enjoys whatever success in a mate-rial way he has achieved.

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The person in whom the ca-pacity to enjoy is dead can find enjoyment in nothing.

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knocking themselves out in night clubs trying to convince themselves they are enjoying it. They travel from place to place

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The truth is that joy is an accompaniment of creative function, of creative goal-striv-ing.

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Life Becomes Worthwhile When You Have Worthwhile Goals

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Emptiness is a symptom that you are not living cre-atively. You either have no goal that is important enough to you

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Emptiness, when once experienced, can become a "way" of avoiding effort, work, and responsibility. It becomes an excuse, or a justi-fication for non-creative living.

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select some goal worth striving for-—and go after it.

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Emptiness may also be the symptom of an inadequate self-image.

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It is impossible to psychologically accept something that you feel does not belong to you—or is not consistent with your self.

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He may even feel guilty about it—as if he had stolen it.

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leads to the ex-ternal symbols of success

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He is unable to "take credit" in his own mind for his accomplishments.

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"If my friends and asso-ciates really knew what a phony I am," he will say

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the "success syndrome"—the man who feels guilty, in-secure and anxious, when he realizes he has "succeeded."

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Striving for a phony success to please others brings a phony satisfaction.

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To ignore these negatives might ruin your car. However, there is no need to become unduly upset if some negative signal flashes.

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the driver of the automobile does not look at the control panel exclusively and continuously. To do so might be disastrous. He must focus his gaze through the windshield, look where he is going, and keep his primary attention on his goal—where he wants to go. He merely glances at the negative indicators from time to time. When he does, he does not fix upon them or dwell upon them. He quickly focuses his sight ahead of him again and concentrates on the positive goal of where he wants to go.

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We need to be aware of negatives so that we can steer clear of them.

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Used correctly this type of "negative thinking" can work for us to lead us to success, if: (1) We are sensitive to the negative to the ex-tent that it can alert us to danger. (2) We recognize the

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negative for what it is—something undesirable—some-thing we don't want—something that does not bring genuine happiness. (3) We take immediate corrective action and substitute an opposite factor from the Success Mechanism.

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scar tissue

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a callus, a protective shell

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We form emo-tional or spiritual "scars" for self-protection. We are very apt to become hardened of heart, callous toward the world, and to withdraw within a protective shell.

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Many people have inner emotional scars who have never suffered physical injuries. And the result on per-sonality is the same.

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To guard against future injury from that source they form a spiritual callus, an emotional scar to protect their ego

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vow never to trust any man again

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vow never to trust any authorit

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vow never to become emotionally in-volved with any human being in the future

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The emotional wall that we build as protection against one person, cuts us off from all other human beings, and from our real selves.

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juvenile delinquents

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Some-time in the past they were hurt by a person important to them, and they dare not leave themselves open to be hurt again.

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the goal of every human being should be to become a "self-fulfilled person,"

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Self-fulfilled persons have the following characteristics: 1. They see themselves as liked, wanted, acceptable and able individuals.

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2. They have a high degree of acceptance of themselves as they are. 3. They have a feeling of oneness with others. 4. They have a rich store of information and knowl--edge.

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Three Rules for Immunizing Yourself Against Emotional Hurts

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It is a well-known psychologic fact that the people who become offended the easiest, have the lowest self-esteem.

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It is the person who feels undeserving, doubts his own capabilities, and

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has a poor opinion of himself who becomes jealous at the drop of a hat. It is the person who secretly doubts his own worth and who feels insecure within himself, who sees threats to his ego where there are none, that exaggerates and over-estimates the potential damage from real threats.

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Many people have no epidermis on their ego. They have only the thin, sensitive inner skin. They need to become thicker--skinned, emotionally tougher, so that they will simply ignore petty cuts and minor ego threats.

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a healthy strong ego, with plenty of self-esteem, does not feel itself threatened by every innocent remark.

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The person who feels his self-worth is threatened by a slighting remark, has a small weak ego and a small amount of self-esteem. He is "self-centered," self-con-cerned, hard to get along with and what we call "egotistic."

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When a person has ade-quate self-esteem little slights offer no threat at all—they are simply "passed over" and ignored

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the person who apparently puts up the most sales resistance at the outset, is frequently an "easy" sell once you get past his defenses

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Every human being wants and needs love and affection. But the creative, self-reliant person also feels a need to give love. His emphasis is as much or more on the giving as on the getting.

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He has sufficient ego-security to tolerate the fact that a certain number of people will dislike him and disapprove.

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The passive-dependent person turns his entire destiny over to other people, circumstances, luck. Life owes him a living and other people owe him consideration, appre-ciation, love, happiness. He makes unreasonable de-mands and claims on other people and feels cheated, wronged, hurt, when they aren't fulfilled.

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the neurotic personality is forever "bumping into" reality

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Develop a more self-reliant attitude. Assume responsi-bility for your own life and emotional needs. Try giving affection, love, approval, acceptance, understanding, to other people, and you will find them coming back to you as a sort of reflex action.

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If there is no tension present, there is no disfiguring emotional scar left.

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Have you ever noticed how easy it is to "get your feel-ings hurt," or "take offense," when you are suffering ten-sions brought about by frustration, fear, anger, or—de-pression

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We "take" the remark in the wrong way, become offended and hurt, and an emotional scar begins to form.

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but by our own attitude and our own response

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When we "feel hurt" or "feel offended," the feeling is entirely a matter of our own response. In fact the feeling is our response.

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It is our own responses that we have to be concerned about—not other people's.

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Scientific experiments have shown that it is absolutely im-possible to feel fear, anger, anxiety, or negative emotions of any kind while the muscles of the body are kept per-fectly relaxed

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You alone are responsible for your responses and reac-

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tions. You do not have to respond at all. You can remain relaxed and free from injury.

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The patients are also asked to practice relaxation daily at home, and to carry the calm peaceful feeling with them throughout the day.

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what about the old emotional scars which were formed in the past—the old hurts, grudges, grievances against life, resentments?

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In removing old emotional scars, you alone can do the operation. You must become your own plastic surgeon— and give yourself a spiritual face lift.

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To speak of an emotional face lift and the use of "men-tal surgery" is more than a simile.

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They must be "cut out," given up entirely, eradicated.

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" 'I can forgive, but I cannot forget,' is only another way of saying 'I will not forgive,'" said Henry Ward Beecher. "Forgiveness ought to be like a cancelled note-torn in two, and burned up, so that it never can be shown against one."

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Forgiveness, when it is real and genuine and complete, and forgotten

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Your forgiveness should be forgotten, as well as the wrong which was forgiven. Forgiveness which is remem-bered, and dwelt upon, re-infects the wound you are attempting to cauterize.

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Forgiveness Is Not a Weapon

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forgiveness itself can be used as an effective weapon of revenge

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Therapeutic forgiveness cuts out, eradicates, cancels, makes the wrong as if it had never been. Therapeutic for-giveness is like surgery.

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The scar tissue is cut out, completely and entirely. The wound is allowed to heal cleanly.

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just as it was before injury and just as if the injury had never been.

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We find it difficult to forgive only because we like our sense of condemnation.

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As long as we can condemn another, we can feel superior to him

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there is also a perverse sense of satisfaction in feeling sorry for yourself.

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True forgive-ness comes only when we are able to see, and emotion-ally accept, that there is and was nothing for us to for-give. We should not have condemned or hated the other person in the first place.

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Jesus Didn't "Forgive" the Adulterous Woman

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Nowhere in the narrative, as it appears in the New Testament, are the words "forgive" or "forgiveness" used, or even hinted at

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Note: P185 p163 Forgive us our sins as You forgive ours. Never again will I remember your sins. p163 You cannot forgive a person unless you have first con-demned him. Jesus never condemned the woman in the first place—so there was nothing for him to forgive

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we ourselves err when we hate a person because of his mistakes, or when we condemn him, or classify him as a certain type of person, confusing his per-son with his behavior

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or when we mentally incur a debt that the other person must "pay" before being restored to our good graces, and our emotional acceptance.

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And if for-giveness is anything less than this, we might as well stop talking about it.

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We beat ourselves over the head with self-condemna-tion, remorse and regret. We beat ourselves down with self-doubt. We cut ourselves up with excessive guilt.

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Remorse and regret are attempts to emotionally live in the past.

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Emotions are used correctly and appropriately when they help us to respond or react appropriately to some reality in the present environment.

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The past can be simply written off, closed, for-gotten, insofar as our emotional reactions are concerned.

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The important thing is our present direction and our present goal.

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We need to recognize our own errors as mistakes.

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But it is futile and fatal to hate or condemn ourselves for our mistakes.

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You Make Mistakes—Mistakes Do Not Make "You"

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think in terms of what we did or did not do, rather than in terms of what the mistakes made us.

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mistakes in-volve something we do—they refer to actions

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to say "I failed" (verb form) is but to recognize an error, and can help lead to future success.

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to say, "I am a failure" (noun form) does not de-scribe what you did, but what you think the mistake did to you.

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all children, in learning to walk, will occasionally fall. We say "he fell" or he "stumbled." We do not say "he is a faller" or he is a "stumbler."

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many parents do fail to recognize that all children, in learning to talk, also make mistakes or "non-fluences"—hesitation, blocking, repetition of syllables and words. It is a common experience for an anxious, con-cerned parent to conclude, "He is a stutterer."

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His learning is fixated, the stutter tends to become permanent.

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The parents rather than the child, the listeners rather than the speakers, seemed to be the ones most requiring understanding and instruction."

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essential, he said, that the patient learn to stop blaming himself, condemning himself, and feeling remorseful over his habits

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particu-larly damaging the conclusion "I am ruined," or "I am worthless,"

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"You" make mistakes. Mistakes don't make "You"—anything.

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To live creatively, we must be willing to be a little vulnerable. We must be willing to be hurt a little—if necessary, in creative living.

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Many times I have seen a man or woman apparently grow five or ten years younger in appearance after removing old emotional scars.

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People with emotional scars, grudges, and the like are living in the past, which is characteristic of old people.

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a nostalgia for the future instead of the past.

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PERSONALITY

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something that is released, from within

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God—that spark of divinity within us

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the free and full expression of your real self.

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This real self within every person is attractive. It is mag-netic

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It does have a powerful impact and influence upon other people. We have the feeling that we are in touch with something real—and basic—and it does something to us.

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Why does everyone love a baby? Certainly not for what the baby can do, or what he knows, or what he has, but simply because of what he is. Every infant has "person-ality plus." There is no superficiality, no phoniness, no hypocrisy. In his own language, which consists of either crying or cooing, the baby expresses his real feelings. He "says what he means." There is no guile. The baby is cer-tainly honest. He exemplifies to the nth degree the psycho-logic dictum—"Be yourself." He has no qualms about expressing himself. He is not in the least inhibited.

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The word "inhibit" literally means to stop, prevent, pro-hibit, restrain. The inhibited personality has imposed restraint upon the expression of the real self.

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he is afraid to express himself, afraid to be himself

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shy-ness, timidity, self-consciousness, hostility, feelings of ex-cessive guilt, insomnia, nervousness, irritability, inability to get along with others.

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His real and basic frustration is his failure to "be himself" and his fail-ure to adequately express himself.

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The purpose of negative feedback, however, is to modify response, and change the course of forward action not to stop it altogether.

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if the mechanism is too sensitive to negative feedback, the servo-mechanism overcorrects

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Negative feedback always says in effect, "Stop what you're doing, or the way you're doing it—and do some-thing else." Its purpose is to modify response, or change the degree of forward action—not to stop all action.

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Stuttering as a Symptom of Inhibition

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Voice teachers advise that we record our own voices on a tape recorder, and listen back to them, as a method of improving tone, enunciation, etc. By doing this we become aware of errors in speech that we had not noticed before. We are able to see clearly what it is we are doing "wrong"—and we can make correction.

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If we are consciously overcritical of our speech, or if we are too careful in trying to avoid errors in advance, rather than reacting spontaneously, stuttering is likely to result.

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Conscious Self-Criticism Makes You Do Worse

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Dr. Cherry stated his belief that stuttering was caused by "excessive monitoring." To test his theory he equipped 25 severe stutterers with earphones through which a loud tone drowned out the sound of their own voices. When asked to read aloud from a prepared text under these conditions, which eliminated self-criticism, the improvement was "remarkable." Another group of severe stutterers was trained in "shadow-talk"—to follow as closely as possible, and attempt to "talk with" a person reading from a text, or a voice on radio or TV. After

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brief practice the stutterers learned to "shadow-talk" eas-ily—and most of them were able to speak normally and correctly under these conditions, which obviated "advance criticism" and literally forced them to speak spontane-ously—or to synchronize speaking and "correcting." Addi-tional practice in "shadow-talk" enabled the stutterers to learn how to speak correctly at all times.

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Excessive "Carefulness" Leads to Inhibition and Anxiety

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You can hold your hand perfectly steady, until you try to accomplish your purpose, then for some strange reason you quiver and shake.

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"purpose tremor."

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It occurs, as above, in normal people when they try too hard, or are "too careful" not to make an error in accomplishing some purpose.

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Excessive carefulness, or being too anxious not to make an error is a form of excessive negative feedback. As in the case of the stutterer, who attempts to anticipate possible errors and be overly-careful not to make them — the result is inhibition and deterioration of performance.

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too much concern for possible failure, or doing the "wrong thing,"

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William James's Advice to Students and Teachers

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"Who are the scholars who get 'rattled' in the recitation-room?" asked the sage. "Those who think of the possibilities of failure and feel the great importance of the act." James continues: "Who are those who do recite well? Often those who are most indifferent. Their ideas reel themselves out of their memories of their own accord.

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conversation does flourish and society is refreshing, and neither dull on the one hand nor exhausting from its effort on the other, wherever people forget their scruples and take the brakes off their hearts, and let their tongues wag as automatically and irresponsibly as they will.

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The advice I should give to most teachers would be in the words of one who is himself an admirable teacher. Pre-pare yourself in the subject so well that it shall always be on tap; then in the class-room trust your spontaneity and fling away all further care.

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My advice to students

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Just as a bicycle chain may be too tight, so may one's carefulness and conscientious-ness be so tense as to hinder the running of one's mind.

*****

If you want really* to do your best in an examination, fling away the book the day before, say to yourself, 'I won't waste another minute on this miserable thing, and I don't care an iota whether I succeed or not.' Say this sincerely, and feel it, and go out and play, or go to bed and sleep, and I am sure the results next day will encourage you to use the method perma-

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nently." (William James

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"Self-consciousness" Is Really "Others Consciousness"

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Good actors and actresses and public speakers can sense this communication from the audience, and it helps them to perform better. Persons with "good personalities," who are popular and magnetic in social situations, can sense this communication from other people and they automatically and spontaneously react and respond to it in a creative way. The communication from other people is used as negative feedback, and enables the person to perform better socially.

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the "reserved" personality who does not warm up to other people. Without this communication you become a social dud—the hard-to-get-to-know type who interests no one.

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it should be more or less subconscious and automatic, and spontaneous, rather than consciously contrived or thought about.

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"What Others Think?" Creates Inhibition

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The way to make a good impression on other people is: Never consciously "try" to make a good impression on them. Never act, or fail to act purely for consciously con-trived effect. Never "wonder" consciously what the other person is thinking of you, how he is judging you.

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James Mangan cured his self-consciousness by remem-bering how he had felt, and how he had acted, when he "was going to the kitchen to eat with Ma and Pa." Then, when he walked into a ritzy dining room, he would imagine or pretend that he "was going to eat with Ma and Pa"—and act that way.

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Mangan also found that he could overcome his "stage fright" and self-consciousness when calling upon big shots, or in any other social situation, by saying to him-self, "I'm going to eat with Ma and Pa," conjuring up in his imagination how he had felt and how he had acted— and then "acting that way." In his book, The Knack of Selling Yourself, Mangan advises salesmen to use the "I'm going home to eat supper with my Ma and Pa! I've been through this a thousand times—nothing new can happen here," attitude in all sorts of new and strange situations. "This attitude of being immune to strangers or strange situations, this total disregard for all the unknown or un-expected has a name. It is called poise. Poise is the de-liberate shunting aside of all fears arising from new and uncontrollable circumstances." (James Mangan, The Knack of Selling Yourself, The Dartnell Corp., Chicago.)

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not "self-consciousness" at all. It was really excessive "others consciousness."

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Then he stopped fighting and trying to conquer his "self-consciousness," and instead concentrated on de-veloping more self-consciousness: feeling, acting, behav-ing, thinking as he did when he was alone, without any re-gard to how some other person might feel about or judge him. This total disregard for the opinion and judgement of other people

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"Conscience Doth Make Cowards of Us All"

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Conscience itself is a learned negative feedback mech-anism having to do with morals and ethics.

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Note: P202 (p180) Your heart, conscience, can be deceiving. p180 "Your conscience can fool you." Your conscience itself can be wrong. It depends upon your own basic beliefs concern-ing right and wrong.

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Conscience can mean many tilings to many people. If you are brought up to believe, as some people are, that it is sinful to wear buttons on your clothes, your conscience will bother you when you do. If you are brought up to believe that cutting off another human's head, shrinking it, and hanging it on your wall is right, proper, and a sign of manhood—then you will feel guilty, unworthy, and undeserving if you haven't managed to shrink a head. (Head-shrinking savages would no doubt call this a "sin of omission.")

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Conscience's Job Is to Make You Happy— Not Miserable

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blindly obeying conscience can only get us into

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trouble, rather than out of it, and make us unhappy and unproductive into the bargain.

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Self-Expression Is Not a Moral Issue

*****

Much mischief results from our taking a "moral" posi-tion on matters which are not basically moral matters at all.

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self-expression may become morally "wrong" as far as your conscience is concerned, if you were squelched, shut-up, shamed, humiliated, or perhaps punished as a child for speaking up, expressing your ideas, "showing off." Such a child "learns" that it is "wrong" to express himself, to hold himself out as having any worthwhile ideas, or perhaps to speak at all.

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he learns that expressing his real feelings is "wrong.

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when you inhibit bad emotions, you also inhibit the ex-pression of good emotions

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If every time a child comes up with an opinion, he is squelched and put in his place, he learns that it is "right" for him to be a nobody, and wrong to want to be a some-body.

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become too carefully concerned with whether we "have a right" to succeed in even a worthwhile endeavor.

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Many people, inhibited by the wrong kind of conscience, "hold back," or "take a back seat" in any kind of endeavor, even in church activities.

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They secretly feel it would not be "right" for them to "hold themselves out" as a leader, or "presume to be some-body," or they are overly concerned with whether other people might think they were "showing off."

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Stage fright is the fear that we will be punished for speaking up, expressing our own opinion, presuming to "be some-body," or "showing off"—things which most of us learned were "wrong" and punishable as children.

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you need to deliber-ately practice disinhibition.

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You need to practice being less careful, less concerned, less conscientious. You need to practice speaking before you think instead of thinking before you speak—acting without thinking, instead of thinking or "considering carefully" before you act.

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The world does need a certain amount of inhibition. But not you. The key words are 'a certain amount.' You have such an excessive amount of inhibition

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The Straight and Narrow Path Between Inhibition and Disinhibition

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the inhibited, worry-warty, anx-iously concerned personality "stutters all over."

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Balance and harmony are what is needed.

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The path to the goal is a course between too much inhibition and too little. When there is too much, we correct course by ignoring inhibition and practicing more disinhibition.

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How to Tell Whether You Need Disinhibition

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If you continually get yourself into trouble because of overconfidence; if you habitually "rush in where angels fear to tread"; if you habitually find yourself in hot water because of impulsive, ill-considered actions; if proj-ects backfire on you because you always practice "acting first and asking questions later"; if you can never admit you're wrong; if you are a loud-talker and a blabber-mouth—you probably have too little inhibition.

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If you are shy around strangers; if you dread new and strange situations; if you feel inadequate, worry a lot, are anxious, overly-concerned; if you are nervous, and feel self-conscious; if you have any "nervous symptoms" such as facial tics, blinking your eyes unnecessarily, tremor, difficulty in going to sleep; if you feel ill at ease in social situations; if you hold yourself back and continually take a back seat — then, these are all symptoms showing that you have too much inhibition — you are too careful in everything, you "plan" too much. You need to practice St. Paul's advice to the Ephesians: "Be careful in nothing"

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Practice Exercises: 1. Don't wonder in advance what you are "going to say." Just open your mouth and say it. Improvise as you go along. (Jesus advises us to give no thought as to what we would say if delivered up to councils, but that the spirit would advise us what to say at the time.)

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2. Don't plan (take no thought for tomorrow). Don't think before you act. Act — and correct your actions as you go along. This advice may seem radical, yet it is actually the way all servo-mechanisms must work. A torpedo does not "think out" all its errors in advance, and attempt to correct them in advance. It must act first — start moving toward the goal — then correct any errors which may occur. "We cannot think first and act afterwards," said A. N. Whitehead. "From the moment of birth we are immersed in action, and can only fitfully guide it by taking thought after."

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3. Stop criticising yourself. The inhibited person in-dulges in self-critical analysis continually. After each action, however simple, he says to himself, "I wonder if I should have done that." After he has gotten up courage enough to say something, he immediately says to himself, "Maybe I shouldn't have said that. Maybe the other person will take it the wrong way." Stop all this tearing yourself apart. Useful and beneficial feedback works subconsciously, spontaneously, and automatically. Conscious self-criticism, self-analysis, and introspection is good and useful — if undertaken perhaps once a year. But as a continual, moment-by-moment, day-by-day, sort of second-guessing yourself, or playing Monday-morning quarter-back to your past actions — it is defeating. Watch for this self-criticism—pull yourself up short and stop it.

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4. Make a habit of speaking louder than usual. Inhibited people are notoriously soft-spoken. Raise the volume of your voice. You don't have to shout at people and use an angry tone—just consciously practice speaking louder than usual. Loud talk in itself is a powerful disin-hibitor. Recent experiments have shown that you can exert up to 15 per cent more strength, and lift more weight, if you will shout, grunt or groan loudly as you make the lift. The explanation of this is that loud shout-ing disinbibits—and allows you to exert all your strength, including that which has been blocked off and tied up by inhibition.

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5. Let people know when you like them. The inhibited personality is as afraid of expressing "good" feelings as bad ones. If he expresses love, he is afraid it will be judged sentimentality; if he expresses friendship he is afraid it will be considered fawning or apple polishing. If he com-pliments someone he is afraid the other will think him superficial, or suspect an ulterior motive. Totally ignore all these negative feedback signals. Compliment at least three people every day. If you like what someone is do-ing, or wearing, or saying—let him know it. Be direct. "I like that, Joe." "Mary, that is a very pretty hat." "Jim, that proves to me you are a swell person." And if you're married—just say to your wife, "I love you" at least twice a day.

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Tranquilizers do not change the environment. The dis-turbing stimuli are still there. We are still able to recognize them intellectually, but we do not respond to them emo-tionally.

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Over-response Is a Bad Habit Which Can Be Cured Suddenly, the telephone rings. From

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187

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habit and experience, this is a "signal" or stimulus which you have learned to obey. Without taking thought, with-out making a conscious decision about the matter, you respond to it. You jump up from your comfortable seat, and hurry to the telephone. The outside stimulus has had the effect of "moving" you. It has changed your mental set and your "position" or self-determined course of action. You were all set to spend an hour, sitting quietly and relaxed, reading. You were inwardly organized for this. Now, all this is suddenly changed by your response to the external stimuli in the environment. The point I wish to make is this. You do not have to answer the telephone. You do not have to obey. You can, if you choose, totally ignore the telephone bell. You can, if you choose, continue sitting quietly and relaxed-— maintaining your own original state of organization, by refusing to respond to the signal. Get this mental pic-ture clearly in your mind for it can be quite helpful in overcoming the power of external stimuli to disturb you. See yourself sitting quietly, letting the phone ring, ignor-ing its signal, unmoved by its command. Although you are aware of it you no longer mind or obey it. Also, get clearly in your mind the fact that the outside signal in it-self has no power over you; no power to move you. In the past you have obeyed it, responded to it, purely out of habit. You can, if you wish, form a new habit of not re-sponding.

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Also notice that your failure to respond does not con-sist in "doing something," or making an effort, or resist-ing or fighting, but in "doing nothing"—in relaxation | from doing. You merely relax, ignore the signal, and let its summons go by unheeded.

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In much the same way that you automatically obey or respond to the ring of the telephone, we all become con-

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ditioned to respond in a certain way to various stimuli in our environment.

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Pavlov's well-known experiments

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His response made no sense and served no good purpose, but he continued to respond in the same way out of habit.

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There are a great many "bells," or disturbing stimuli in our various environmental situations which we have be-come conditioned to, and which we continue to respond to out of habit, whether or not the response makes any sense.

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The response of avoiding strangers serves a good purpose in small chil-dren. But many people continue to feel ill at ease and un-comfortable in the presence of any stranger

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Strangers become "bells" and the learned response be-comes fear, avoidance, or the desire to run away.

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In each case the crowd, the closed space, the open space, the boss, etc.,

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act as "bells," which say—"danger is present, run away, feel afraid."

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We "obey" the bell.

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How to Extinguish Conditioned Responses

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learn to ignore the "bell," and continue to sit quietly and "let it ring."

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say to ourselves, "The telephone is ringing, but I do not have to answer it. I can just let it ring."

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If You Cannot Ignore the Response—Delay It

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'I won't worry about that now—I'll worry about it tomorrow.'"

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Delaying the response breaks up and interferes with the automatic workings of conditioning.

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"Counting to ten" when you are tempted to become angry

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When she felt that she simply had to run away, she would say to herself—"very well, but not this very minute. I will delay leaving the room for two minutes. I can refuse to obey for only two minutes!"

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our disturbed feelings—our anger, hostility, fear, anxiety, in-security, are caused by our own responses—not by exter-nals. Response means tension. Lack of response means relaxation.

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you absolutely cannot feel angry, fearful, anxious, insecure, "unsafe" as long as your muscles re-main perfectly relaxed.

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Thus, relaxation is nature's own tranquilizer, which erects a psychic screen or umbrella between you and the disturbing stimulus.

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Relaxation means —no response.

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nature's own do-it-yourself tranquilizer,

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Protect yourself from disturbing stimuli by maintaining the relaxed attitude.

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Build Yourself a Quiet Room in Your Mind

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"Men seek retreats for themselves: houses in the coun-try, seashores and mountains; and thou too art wont to desire such things very much," said Marcus Aurelius. "But this is altogether a mark of the most common sort of men, for it is in thy power whenever thou shalt choose to retire into thyself. For nowhere, either with more quiet or more freedom from trouble, does a man retire than into his own soul, particularly when he has within him such thoughts that by looking into them he is immedi-ately in perfect tranquility; and I affirm that tranquility is nothing else than the good ordering of the mind. Con-stantly then give to thyself this retreat, and renew thy-self. . . ." (Meditations of Marcus Aurelius

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President Harry Truman

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"I have a foxhole in my mind." He went on to say that just as a soldier retreated into his fox-hole for protection, rest and recuperation, he periodically

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retired into his own mental foxhole, where he allowed nothing to bother him.

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Each of us needs a quiet room inside his own mind

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This quiet room within, which is built in imagination, works as a mental and emotional decompression chamber.

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a quiet center within, which is never disturbed, and is un-moved, like the mathematical point in the very center of a wheel or axle which remains stationary.

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find this quiet center within us and retreat into it periodically for rest, recuperation, and renewed vigor.

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learn to return into this quiet tranquil center

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build for yourself, in imagination, a little mental room

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Furnish this room with whatever is most restful and refreshing to you:

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The colors of the walls are your own favorite "pleasant" colors, but should be chosen from the restful hues of blue, light green, yellow, gold.

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The room is plainly and simply fur-nished; there are no distracting elements. It is very neat and everything is in order. Simplicity, quietness, beauty, are the keynotes. It contains your favorite easy chair. From one small window you can look out and see a beau-tiful beach. The waves roll in upon the beach and retreat,

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but you cannot hear them, for your room is very, very quiet. Take as much care in building this room in your imagination as you would in building an actual room. Be thoroughly familiar with every detail.

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A Little Vacation Every Day

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Whenever you have a few spare moments during the day

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Whenever you begin to feel tension mounting, or to feel hurried or harried, retire into your quiet room for a few moments. Just a very few minutes

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Say to yourself, "I am going to rest a bit in my quiet room."

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Then, in imagination, see yourself climbing the stairs to your room. Say to yourself, "I am now climbing the stairs—now I am opening the door—now I am inside."

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notice all the quiet, restful details. See yourself sitting down in your favorite chair, Utterly re-laxed and at peace with the world. Your room is secure. Nothing can touch you here.. There is nothing to worry about. You left your worries at the foot of the stairs. There are no decisions to be made here—no hurry, no bother.

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You Need a Certain Amount of Escapism

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Yes, this is "escapism." So is sleep "escapism."

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Our nervous system needs a certain amount of escapism.

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"get away from it all."

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Your mental quiet room gives your nervous system a little vacation every day. For the moment, you mentally "vacate" your work-a-day world of duties, re-sponsibilities, decisions, pressures, and "get away from it all" by mentally retiring into your "No-pressure Cham-ber."

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Pictures are more impressive to your automatic mech-anism than words. Particularly so, if the picture happens to have a strong symbolic meaning.

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every once in a while just has to blow off steam to stay healthy."

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mental picture of emotional steam and pressure coming out the top of my head and evaporating harmlessly.

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The ideas of "blowing off steam" and "blowing

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your top" have powerful associations built into your men. tal machinery.

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you must "clear" the machine of previous problems before undertaking a new one.

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retiring for a few moments into your quiet room in your mind can accomplish the same sort of "clearance" of your success mechanism, and for that reason, it is very helpful to practice it in between tasks, situations, environments, which require different moods, mental adjustments, or "mental sets."

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A business executive carries his work-a-day worries and his work-a-day "mood" home with him.

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Insomnia, Rudeness, Are Often Emotional Carry-overs

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Many people carry their troubles to bed with them when they should be resting.

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"emotional carry-over" from the one situation will be inappropriate in dealing with the other.

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This company directed all executives to pause five seconds—and smile—before pick-ing up the phone.

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It is impossible, as we have said, to experience, or feel either fear, anger, or anxiety, while completely relaxed quiet and composed. Retiring into your "quiet room" thus becomes an ideal clearance mechanism for emotions and moods. Old emotions evaporate and disappear. At the same time you experience calmness, peacefulness, and a feeling of well-being which will also "carry over" into whatever activities immediately follow. Your quiet time wipes the slate clean so to speak, clears the machine, and gives you a clean new page for the environment which is to follow.

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your own response and reaction.

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Your own response is what "makes" you

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If you do not respond at all but "just let the telephone ring," it is impossible for you to feel disturbed, regardless of what is happening around you.

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Ninety-first Psalm

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because he has found the "secret place" with-jji his own soul and is unmoved—that is, he does not emotionally react or respond to the scare "bells" in his environment.

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totally ignoring evil and unhappy "facts" to feel happy

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totally ignoring adverse situations in the en-vironment, to feel poised

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You are basically an "actor"—not a "reactor."

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Man, however, is not primarily a "reactor," but an "actor." We do not merely react and respond, willy-nilly, to whatever environmental factors may be present

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As goal-striv-ing beings we first—ACT. We set our own goal, deter-mine our own course. Then, within the context of this goal-striving structure—we respond and react appropri-ately, that is, in a manner which will further our progress and serve our own ends.

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If responding and reacting to negative feedback does not take us further down the road to our own goal—or serve our ends, then there is no need to respond at all.

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And, if response of any kind gets us off course, or works against us—then no response is the appropriate response.

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We must be sensitive to negative feedback data which advises us when we are off course, so that we can change direction and go forward

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"The same attitude must be maintained in spite of environ-mental changes."

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Stop Fighting Straw Men

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the bad habit of trying to respond emotionally to something which doesn't exist except in our imaginations

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many of us create straw men in our imaginations, and emotionally respond to our own mental pictures

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This or that may happen; What if such and such happens

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adverse mental pictures of what may exist in the environment, of what may hap-pen

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We then respond to these negative pictures as if they were present reality*

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Remember, your nervous system can-not tell the difference between a real experience and one that is vividly imagined.

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As far as your emotions are concerned, the proper response to worry pictures is to totally ignore them

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Live emotionally in the present moment.

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you must give all your attention to what is happening now

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Inner disturbance, or the opposite of tranquility, is nearly always caused by over-response, a too sensitive "alarm reaction."

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practice "not responding"—letting the tele-phone ring.

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practice delaying the habitual, automatic, and unthinking response.

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Relaxation is nature's own tranquilizer. Relaxation is non-response.

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Use the quiet room in your mind

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Stop scaring yourself to death with your own mental pictures. Stop fighting straw men. Emotionally, respond only to what actually is, here and now—and ignore the rest.

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Create in your imagination a vivid mental picture of yourself sitting quietly, composed, un-moved, letting your telephone ring

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Say to yourself, "I am let-ting the telephone ring" whenever you are tempted to "obey" or respond to some fear-bell or anxiety-bell

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practice non-response in various sorts of situations

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See yourself sitting quietly and un-moved while an associate rants and raves

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See yourself maintaining the same constant, stable course, in spite of the various "hurry-bells" and "pressure-bells"

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See yourself in various situations which have in the past upset you—only now you remain "set," settled, poised—by not responding

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your body maintains its own climate—a steady 98.6. It is able to function properly in the environment because it does not take on itself the climate of the environment.

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You also have a built-in spiritual thermostat which en-ables you to maintain an emotional climate and atmo-sphere in spite of the emotional weather around you.

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your spiritual thermostat is just as necessary for emotional health and well-being as your physical thermostat is for physical health.

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How to Turn a Crisis Into a Creative Opportunity

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each time he gets into a big tournament his game deteriorates. In the language of golf-dom, "the pressure gets him."

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On the other hand, many athletes perform better under pressure

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The manager frequently turns down the man with the highest batting average, for a player who is known to "come through in the clutch."

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One salesman may find himself inarticulate in the pres-ence of an important prospect. His skills desert him. An-other salesman under the same circumstances may "sell over his head." The challenge of the situation brings out abilities he does not ordinarily possess.

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There are students who do extremely well in day-to-day class work, but find their minds a blank when taking an examination. There are other students who are ordinary in class work, but do extremely well on important ex-aminations.

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It is largely a matter of how they learned to react to crisis situations.

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A "crisis" is a situation which can either make you or break you.

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both animals and men form "brain maps" or "cognitive maps" of the environment while they are learning. If the

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motivation is not too intense, if there is not too much of a crisis present in the learning situation, these maps are broad and general. If the animal is over-motivated, the cognitive map is narrow and restricted. He learns just one way of solving his problem.

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He de-velops a "one response," cut and dried, preconceived, and tends to lose the ability to react spontaneously to a new situation. He cannot improvise. He can only follow a set plan.

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p207 Pressure Retards Learning

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Dr. Tolman found that if rats were permitted to learn and practice under non-crisis conditions, they later per-formed well in a crisis. For example, if rats were per-mitted to roam about at will and explore a maze when well fed and with plenty to drink, they did not appear to learn anything. Later, however, if the same rats were placed in the maze while hungry, they showed they had learned a great deal, by quickly and efficiently going to the goal. Hunger faced these trained rats with a crisis to which they reacted well. Other rats which were forced to learn the maze under the crisis of hunger and thirst, did not do so well. They were over-motivated and their brain maps became narrow. The one "correct" route to the goal became fixated. If this route were blocked the rats became frustrated and had great difficulty learning a new one.

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The more intense the crisis situation under which you learn, the less you learn.

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trained two groups of rats to solve a maze to get food. One group which had not eaten for 12 hours learned the maze in six trials. A second group, which had eaten nothing for 36 hours, required more than 20 tries.

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Fire Drills Teach Crisis Conduct in Non-Crisis Situation

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People react in the same way. Persons who have to learn how to get out of a burning building will normally require two or three times as long to learn the proper escape route, as they would if no fire were present. Some of them do not learn at all. Over-motivation interferes with reasoning processes. The automatic reaction mecha-nism is jammed by too much conscious effort—trying too hard. Something akin to "purpose tremor" develops and the ability to think clearly is lost.

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let them practice a "dry run" fire drill when there is no fire. Because there is no menace there is no excessive negative feedback to in-terfere with clear thinking or correct doing.

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Their muscles, nerves and brain have memo-rized a broad, general, flexible "map."

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Practice without pressure and you will learn more efficiently and be able to perform better in a crisis situation.

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Shadow-boxing for Stability

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he had practiced throwing his left at his own image in the mirror more than 10,000 times

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he had practiced a certain routine 10,000 times in private before ever giving the per-formance publicly

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Billy Graham preached sermons to cypress stumps in a Florida swamp

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The most common form of shadow-boxing for public speakers is to deliver their speech to their own image in the mirror

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he would go through the correct motions in his imagination before making a shot, then depend upon "muscle memory" to execute the shot correctly.

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Some athletes practice in private with as little pressure as possible.

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Everything is arranged to make training and practice as relaxed and pressure-free as is humanly possible.

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The result is that they go into the crisis of actual competition, without appearing to have any nerves at all. They become "human icicles," immune to pressure

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depending upon "muscle memory" to execute the various motions

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"shadow-boxing," or "practice with-out pressure" is so simple, and the results so striking

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I walked down the room, shaking hands with innumerable imaginary guests. I smiled, and had something friendly to say to each one, actually saying the words out loud. Then I moved about among the 'guests,' chatting here and there. I practiced walking, sitting, talking, gracefully and self-confidently.

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Shadow-boxing "Turns On" Self-expression

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The word "express" literally means to "push out," to exert, to show forth. The word "inhibit" means to choke off, restrict.

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Self-expression is a "yes" response. Inhibition is a "no" re-sponse. It chokes off self-expression, turns off or dims your light.

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In shadow-boxing you practice self-expression with no inhibiting factors present.

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because your learning has been relaxed and pressure-free you will be able to rise to the occasion, extemporize, improvise, act spontaneously.

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At the same time your shadow-boxing is building a mental image of yourself—acting correctly and successfully.

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Dry-Shooting Is the Secret of Good Marksmanship

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A novice on the pistol range will quite often find that he can hold the hand gun perfectly still and motionless, as long as he is not trying to shoot.

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"purpose trem-or" sets in

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all good pistol coaches recommend lots of "dry run" target shooting

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He learns good habits calmly.

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"For the next ten pitches," I said, "don't even try to hit the ball. Don't try at all. Keep your bat on your shoulder. But watch the ball very carefully

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"Now for a while, watch the ball go by and keep the bat on your shoulder, but think to yourself you are going to bring the bat around so it will really hit the ball—solidly and dead-center."

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keep on "feeling the same way"

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and to "let" the bat come around and meet the ball, making no attempt to hit it hard

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The Salesman Who Practiced "Not Selling"

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You can use the same technique to "hit the ball" in sell-ing, teaching, or running a business.

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His one big trouble was his inability to properly reply to the prospect's objection. "When a prospect raises an objection—or criticises my product—I can't think of a thing to say at the time," he said. "Later, I can think of all kinds of good ways to handle the objection."

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to hit a baseball, or to think on your feet, requires good reflexes. Your automatic Suc-cess Mechanism must respond appropriately and auto-matically. Too much tension, too much motivation, too much anxiety for results, jams the mechanism. "You think of the proper answers later because you're relaxed and the

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pressure is off.

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imagining every possible objection, no matter how screwballish, and answering it out loud. Next, he was to practice "with his bat on his shoulder" on an actual live client.

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The purpose of the sales interview would not be to sell—he had to resign himself to being satisfied with no order. The purpose of the call would be strictly practice—"bat on the shoulder," "empty gun" practice.

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As a young medical student I used to shadow-box sur-gical operations on cadavers

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The word "crisis" comes from a Greek word which means, literally, "decisiveness," or "point of decision." A crisis is a fork in the road. One fork holds a promise of a better condition—the other of a worse condition. In medicine, the "crisis" is a turning point, where the patient either gets worse and dies, or gets better and lives.

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"I always think about what I am going to do, and what I want to happen," he said, "instead of what the batter is going to do, or what may happen to me." He said he con-centrated on what he wanted to happen, felt that he could make it happen, and that it usually did.

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maintain an aggres-sive attitude, react aggressively instead of negatively to threats and crises

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giant" of a Negro, who did what two wrecking trucks and a score of men could not do

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frail man who single-handedly somehow managed to carry an upright piano

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extraordinary powers—physical, mental, emotional

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and spiritual—which come to the aid of ordinary men and women in times of crisis.

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immediately we seem to unlock the unseen forces

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courage comes

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possessed by the power to en-dure

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we feel underneath us the strength as of the everlasting arms

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when great demands are made upon us, if only we fear-lessly accept the challenge and confidently expend our strength, every danger or difficulty brings its own strength —'As thy days so shall thy strength be.' "*

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the attitude of "fearlessly accepting the challenge," and "confidently expending our strength."

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This means maintaining an aggressive, a goal-directed attitude

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"No matter what happens, I can handle it, or I can see it through," rather than, "I hope nothing happens."

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Keep Your Goal in Mind

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The essence of this aggressive attitude is remaining goal-oriented. You keep your own positive goal in mind

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the purpose of emotion is "re-inforcement," or additional strength, rather than to serve as a sign of weakness

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there was only one basic emotion—"excitement"—and that excitement mani-fests itself as fear, anger, courage, etc., depending upon pur own inner goals at the time—whether we are inwardly organized to conquer a problem, run away from it, or destroy it

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"The real problem is not to control emotion, but to control the choice of which tendency shall receive emotional reinforcement."

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If your intention, or your attitude-goal, is to go for-ward, if it is to make the most of the crisis situation, and win out in spite of it, then the excitement of the occasion will re-inforce this tendency—it will give you more cour-age, more strength to go forward.

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Don't Mistake Excitement for Fear

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the mistake of habitually in-terpreting the feeling of excitement as fear and anxiety

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Until you direct it toward a goal, this excitement is neither fear, anxiety, courage, confi-dence, or anything else other than a stepped-up, re-in-forced supply of emotional steam in your boiler

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It is a sign of additional strength to be used in any way you choose.

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The term "spirited" is a good one. The excitement that you feel just before a crisis situation is an infusion of "spirit" and should be so inter-preted by you.

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It is not the excitement per se which makes the difference, but how it is used.

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make mountains out of molehills.

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we do not use our imaginations at all to "see" what the situation really holds

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A big excess of emotional excitement can harm rather than help perfor-mance, simply because it is inappropriate.

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"When some misfortune threatens, consider seriously and deliberately what is the very worst that could possibly happen.

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give your-self sound reasons for thinking that after all it would be no such terrible disaster.

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When you have looked for some time steadily at the worst possibility and have said to yourself with real conviction, 'Well, after all, that would not matter so very much,' you will find that your worry diminishes to a quite extraordinary extent.

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He was in a period of deep spiritual despair

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Then, in the midst of this spiritual bankruptcy, came a new way of life. "And I asked myself, 'What art thou afraid of? Wherefore, like a coward, dost thou forever pip and whimper, and go cowering and trembling. Despicable biped! What is the sum-total of the worst that lies before thee?

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Let it come, then: I will meet and defy it!'

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"And as I so thought, there rushed like a stream of fire over my whole soul; and I shook base Fear away from me forever. I was strong, of unknown strength; a spirit, al-most a god

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Most of us, however, allow ourselves to be thrown "off course" by very minor or even imaginary threats, which we insist upon interpreting as life-or-death, or do-or-die situations.

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the greatest cause of ulcers is mountain-climbing over molehills!

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"failure" to primitive man usually was synonymous with "death."

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Ask yourself, "What is the worst that can possibly happen if I fail?"

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most of these everyday so-called "crisis situations" are not life-or-death matters at all, but opportunities to either advance, or stay where you are.

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the key to any crisis situa-tion is YOU.

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learn to make crisis work for you by making crisis a creative opportunity.

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How to Get "That Winning Feeling"

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YOUR automatic creative mechanism is teleological. That is, it operates in terms of goals and end results. Once you give it a definite goal to achieve you can depend upon its automatic guidance-system to take you to that goal much better than "you" ever could by conscious thought. "You" supply the goal by thinking in terms of end results. Your automatic mechanism then supplies the "means whereby."

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If you need ideas, your auto-matic mechanism will supply them.

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Think in Terms of Possibilities

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"You" must supply the goal.

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you must think of the end result in terms of a present possibility. The possibility of the goal must be seen so clearly that it becomes "real" to your brain and nervous system. So real, in fact, that the same feelings are evoked as would be present if the goal were already achieved.

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We picture failure to ourselves, not vaguely, or in general terms—but vividly and in great detail. We repeat the failure images over and over again to ourselves.

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our brain and nervous system cannot tell the difference between a "real" experience, and one which is vividly imagined.

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The only information concerning the environment, circumstance or situation available to it is what you be-lieve to be true concerning them.

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Your Nervous System Can't Tell "Real Failure" from Imagined Failure

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On the other hand, if we keep our positive goal in mind, and picture it to ourselves so vividly as to make it "real," and think of it in terms of an accomplished fact, we will also experience "whining feelings": self-confidence, cour-age, and faith that the outcome will be desirable.

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we can determine its present "set" by our feelings. When it is "set for success" we experience that "winning feeling."

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one simple secret to the operation of your unconscious creative mechanism, it is this: call up, capture, evoke the feeling of success. When you feel suc-cessful and self-confident, you will act successfully. When the feeling is strong, you can literally do no wrong.

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When you experience that winning feeling, your internal machinery is set for success.

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simply define your goal or end re-sult. Picture it to yourself clearly and vividly. Then simply capture the feeling you would experience if the desirable goal were already an accomplished fact.

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the winning feeling is "everybody's secret of good golf";

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"I had the feeling when I got up that morn-ing I was going to have a good day,"

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There is truly magic in this "winning feeling." It can seemingly cancel out obstacles and impossibilities. It can use errors and mistakes to accomplish success.

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Henry J. Kaiser has said, "When a tough, challenging job is to be done, I look for a person who possesses an en-thusiasm and optimism for life, who makes a zestful con-fident attack on his daily problems, one who shows cour-age and imagination, who pins down his buoyant spirit with careful planning and hard work, but says, 'This may be tough, but it can be licked.'"

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I recaptured in memory the feeling of success and confidence I had had in talking to these small groups. I remembered all the little incidental details that had accompanied my feeling of poise. Then, in my imagina-tion I pictured myself standing before a huge audience and making a talk on human relations—and at the same time having the same feeling of poise and self-confidence I had had with smaller groups. I pictured to myself in detail

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"Something seemed to click in my mind.

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I had welded the feeling of confidence and success from the past to the picture in my imagination of my career in the future. My feeling of success was so real that I knew right then I could do it. I got what you call 'that winning feeling' and it has never deserted me. Although there seemed to be no door open to me at the time, and the dream seemed impossible, in less than three years time I saw my dream come true—almost in exact detail as I had imagined it and felt it.

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We have previously shown how electronic servo-mechanisms make use of stored data, comparable to human memory, to "remember" suc-cessful actions and repeat them. Skill learning is largely a matter of trial-and-error prac-tice until a number of "hits," or successful actions have registered in memory.

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mak-ing the human brain's capacity to learn and remember al-most limitless.

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When you reactivate successful action patterns out of the past, you also reactivate the feeling tone, or "winning feeling" which accompanied them. By the same token, if you can recapture "that winning feeling," you also evoke all the "winning actions" that accompanied it

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President Eliot of Harvard once made a speech on what he called "The Habit of Success." Many failures in elementary schools, he said, were due to the fact that students were not given, at the very beginning, a sufficient amount of work at which they could succeed, and thus never had an opportunity to develop the "Atmosphere of Success," or what we call "the winning feeling." The student, he said, who had never experienced success early in his school life, had no chance to develop the "habit of success"—the habitual feeling of faith and confidence in undertaking new work. He urged that teachers arrange Work in the early grades so as to insure that the student experienced success. The work should be well within the ability of the student, yet interesting enough to arouse en-thusiasm and motivation. These small successes, said Dr. Eliot, would give the student the "feel of success," which Would be a valuable ally in all future undertakings.

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We can acquire the "habit of success"; we can build into our gray matter patterns and feelings of success at any time and at any age by following Dr. Eliot's advice to teachers. If we are habitually frustrated by failure, we are very apt to acquire habitual "feelings of failure" which color all new undertakings. But by arranging things so that we can succeed in little things, we can build an atmo-sphere of success which will carry over into larger under-takings. We can gradually undertake more difficult tasks, and after succeeding in them, be in a position to under-take something even more challenging. Success is literally built upon success and there-is much truth in the saying, "Nothing succeeds like success."

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Weight-lifters start with weights they can lift and gradually increase the weights over a period of time. Good fight managers start a new boxer off with easy opponents and gradually pit him against more experienced fighters. We can apply the same general principles in almost any field of endeavor. The principle is merely to start with an "opponent" over which you can succeed, and gradually take on more and more difficult tasks.

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Pavlov, on his death-bed,

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on how to succeed

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"Passion and gradualness."

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Even in those areas where we have already developed a high degree of skill, it sometimes helps to "drop back," lower our sights a bit, and practice with a feeling of ease.

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Continually straining to go beyond the "sticking point" is likely to develop undesirable "feeling habits" of strain, difficulty, effort.

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He stops trying to make big sales; stops trying to sell "tough customers"; and concen-trates on making small sales to customers he has come to know as "push-overs."

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Everyone has at some time or another been successful in the past. It does not have to have been a big success.

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What you suc-ceeded in is not so important as the feeling of success which attended it.

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something that brought you some feeling of satisfaction.

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Go back in memory and relive those successful experi-ences. In your imagination revive the entire picture in as much detail as you can.

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What sounds were there? What about your environment? What else was happening around you at the time? What objects were present? What time of year was it? Were you cold or hot? And so forth. The more detailed you can make it, the better.

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find yourself feeling just as you felt then.

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Try to particularly remember your feelings at the time. If you can remember your feelings from the past, they will be reactivated in the present. You will find yourself feeling self-confident, because self-confidence is built upon memories of past successes.

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Now, -after arousing this "general feeling of success," give your thoughts to the important sale, conference, speech, business deal, golf tournament, or whatever that you wish to succeed in now. Use your creative imagina-tion to picture to yourself just how you would act and just how you would feel if you had already succeeded.

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Mentally, begin to play with the idea of complete and inevitable success. Don't force yourself. Don't attempt to coerce your mind. Don't try to use effort or will power to bring about the desired conviction. Just do what you do when you worry, only "worry" about a positive goal and a desirable outcome, rather than about a negative goal and an undesirable outcome.

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Don't begin by trying to force yourself to have abso-lute faith in the desired success. This is too big a bite for you to mentally digest—at first. Use "gradualness." Be-gin to think about the desired end result as you do when you worry about the future. When you worry you do not attempt to convince yourself that the outcome will be un-desirable. Instead, you begin gradually. You usually be-gin with a "suppose." "Just suppose such and such a thing happens," you say mentally to yourself. You repeat this idea over and over to yourself. You "play with it." Next comes the idea of "possibility." "Well, after all," you say, "Such a thing is possible." It could happen. Next comes mental imagery. You begin to picture to yourself all the various negative possibilities. You play these imaginative

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pictures over and over to yourself—adding small details and refinements. As the pictures become more and more "real" to you, appropriate feelings begin to manifest them-selves, just as if the imagined outcome had already hap-ipened.

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Faith and courage are developed in exactly the same way. Only your goals are different. If you are going to spend time in worry, why not worry constructively? Be-gin by outlining and defining to yourself the most desir-able possible outcome. Begin with your "suppose." "Sup-pose the best possible outcome did actually come about?" Next, remind yourself that, after all, this could happen. Not that it will happen, at this stage, but only that it could. Remind yourself, that after all such a good and desirable outcome is possible.

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You can mentally accept and digest these gradual doses of optimism and faith. After having thought of the de-sired end result as a definite "possibility"—begin to imagine what the desirable outcome would be like. Go over these mental pictures and delineate details and re-finements. Play them over and over to yourself. As your mental images become more detailed, as they are repeated over and over again—you will find that once more appropriate feelings are beginning to manifest themselves, just as if the favorable outcome had already happened.

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Don't Take Counsel of Your Fears

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General George Patton, the hell-for-leather, "Old Blood and Guts" general of World War II fame, was once asked if he ever experienced fear before a battle. Yes, he 236 PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS said,

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but, he added, "I never take counsel of my fears."

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it should not be taken as a "sure sign" that you will fail.

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If you listen to them, obey them, and "take counsel" of them, you will probably perform badly.

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First of all, it is important to understand that failure feelings—fear, anxiety, lack of self-confidence—do not spring from some heavenly oracle.

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"fate" which means that failure is decreed and decided.

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They originate from your own mind. They are indicative only of attitudes of mind within you—not of external facts which are rigged against you.

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They mean only that you are underestimating your own abilities, overestimating and exaggerating the nature of the difficulty before you, and that you are reactivating memories of past failures rather than memories of past successes. That is all that they mean and all that they sig-nify.

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They do not pertain to or represent the truth con-cerning future events,

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Accept Negative Feelings as a Challenge

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If we react to negative feelings aggressively and posi-tively, they become challenges which will automatically

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arouse more power and more ability within us.

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being tested in any other [way for telepathic ability. Praise, encouragement, "pulling for" the subject, nearly always causes him to score better.

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occasionally, a sub-ject will take such negative suggestions as "challenges," land perform even better.

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He was challenged before each trial with a wager that he would not get the next card right.

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Pearce called all twenty-five cards correctly!

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She was then placed in a minor "pressure situation" by being offered fifty cents, if she called all cards in the deck correctly.

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She

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p238 called all twenty-five cards correctly.

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she revealed her aggressive, positive attitude to the threat by saying, "I was wishing all the time that I could get twenty-five."

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"If you don't want Henry to do a thing, you had better not make the mistake of telling him it can't be done, or that he can't do it—for he will then do it or bust."

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Note: P260 p238 Wooed means : seek the favour, support, or custom of. To gain the love of someone, esp with the view to marry p238 Feelings cannot be directly controlled by will power. They cannot be voluntarily made to order, or turned on and off like a faucet. If they cannot be commanded, however, they can be wooed.

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A "bad" feeling is not dispelled by conscious effort or "will power." It can be dispelled, however, by another feeling.

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by substituting a positive feeling

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Remember that feeling follows imagery. Feeling coincides with, and is appropriate to, what our nervous system accepts as "real" or the "truth about environment."

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we should not concentrate upon the undesirable feeling

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Instead, we should immediately concentrate upon positive imagery—upon filling the mind with wholesome, positive, desirable images, imaginations, and memories

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We develop new feeling-tones appropriate to the new imagery.

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Jesus warned us about sweeping the mind clean of one demon, only to have seven new ones move in, if we left the house empty. He also advised us not to resist evil, but to overcome evil with good.

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Each time the subject finds himself worrying, he is to use this as a "signal" to immediately fill the mind with pleas-ant mental pictures out of the past or in anticipating

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pleasant future experiences

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As long as the mind is "set" or geared in a passive, defeatist, "I hope nothing happens" sort of attitude, there will always be something to worry about.

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practice positive mental imagery—immediately and "on cue," so to speak, whenever he became aware of negative feelings

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p241 All of us must do the same With our inner scars, our negative feelings, if we want to get more living out of life.

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Note: P263 (p241-244) "The choice is up to You" = Neville Goddard's Revision is a fact and enegrams are Bio-psychology. I suspect that Maxwell studied Bio-psychology at Taylor University. The Choice Is Up to You

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Within you is a vast mental storehouse of past experi-ences and feelings—both failures and successes. Like in-active recordings on tape

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There are recordings of stories with happy endings, and [recordings of stories with unhappy endings. One is as true fas the other. One is as real as the other. The choice is up [to you, as to which you select for playback.

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these en-grams is that they can be changed or modified, somewhat as a tape recording may be changed by "dubbing in" addi-tional material, or by replacing an old recording with a lew by recording over it.

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engrams in the human brain tend to change slightly each time they are "played back." They take on some of the tone and temper of our present mood, thinking and attitudes to-

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ward them

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This is not only very interesting, but encouraging. It gives us reason to believe that adverse and unhappy childhood ex-periences, "traumas." etc. are not as permanent and as fatal

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We now know that not only does the past influence the present, but that the present clearly influences the past.

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Our present thinking, our present mental habits, our attitudes toward past experiences, and our attitudes to-ward the future—all have an influence upon old recorded engrams. The old can be changed, modified, replaced, by our present-thinking.

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Old Recordings Can Be Changed

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Another interesting finding is that the more a given en-gram is activated, or "replayed," the more potent it be-comes.

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synaptic efficiency improves with use and diminishes with disuse

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Here again, we have good scientific ground for forgetting and ignoring those unhappy experiences from the past and concentrating upon the happy and pleasant. By so doing we strengthen those engrams hav-

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ing to do with success and happiness and weaken those having to do with failure and unhappiness.

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They go a long way toward restoring the dignity of man as a responsible child of God, able to cope with his past and plan his future, as opposed to the image of man as helpless, victim of his past experiences.

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The new concept does carry a responsibility, however. No longer can you derive sickly comfort from blaming your parents, society, your early experiences, or the in-justices of "others" for your present troubles.

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The past explains how you got here. But where you go from here is your responsibility. The choice is yours

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you can keep on play-ing the same old "broken record" of the past;

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Or, if you choose, you can put on a new record, and reactivate success patterns and "that winning feeling" which help you do better in the present and promise a more enjoyable future.

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When your phonograph is playing music you don't like,

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You merely change the record being played

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Change your mental imagery, and the feelings will take care of themselves.

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DOES every human being have a built-in fountain of youth? Can the Success Mechanism keep you young? Does the Failure Mechanism accelerate the "aging process?"

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William James once said that everyone, scientists in-cluded, develops his own "over-beliefs" concerning (known facts, which the facts themselves do not justify.

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Scientific research is possible only because of faith in assumptions. Research experiments are not helter-skelter or aimless, but directed and goal oriented. The scientist

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must first set up a hypothetical truth, a hypothesis not based upon fact but upon implications, before he can know which experiments to make or where to look for facts which may prove or disprove his hypothetical truth.

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there are certain "truths" which cannot be used by medicine, but can be used by the patient.

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Life Force—The Secret of Healing and the Secret of Youth

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I believe that the physical body, including the physical brain and nervous system, is a machine, composed of numerous smaller mechanisms, all purposeful, or goal directed.

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I believe that the essence of MAN is that which animates this machine; that which inhabits the machine, directs and controls it, and uses it as a vehicle

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Man him-self is not the machine, any more than electricity is the wire over which it flows, or the motor which it turns

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MAN is what Dr. J. B. Rhine calls "extra-physical"—his life, or vitality; his conscious-ness; his intelligence and sense of identity; that which he calls "I."

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For many years individual scientists—pyschologists, physiologists, biologists—have suspected that there was some sort of universal "energy" or vitality which "ran" the human machine, and that the amount of this energy available and the way it was utilized, explained why some individuals were more resistant to disease than others; why some individuals aged faster than others; and why some hardy individuals lived longer than others.

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fairly obvious that the source of this basic energy—• whatever it might be—was something other than the "sur-face energy" we obtain from the food we eat. Caloric energy does not explain why one individual can snap back

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quickly from a serious operation, or withstand long con-tinued stress situations, or outlive another. We speak of such persons as having a "strong constitution."

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the source of power is to be regarded as some im-pulse that works through us, and is not of our own mak-ing.

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'mental energy' is a force which ebbs in the neurasthenic and flows in the healthy man

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Jung speaks of libido or urge as a force which surges through our lives, now as an impulse towards nutrition, now as the sexual instinct; there is also the elan vital of Bergson.

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These views suggest that we are not merely receptacles but channels of energy. Life and power is not so much contained in us, it courses through us. Man's might is not to be measured by the stagnant water in the well, but by the limitless supply from the clouds of heaven.

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this "life force" has been established as a sci-entific fact by Dr. Hans Selye of the University of Mont-real. Since 1936 Dr. Selye has studied the problems of stress.

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Dr. Selye has proved the existence bf a basic life force which he calls "adaptation energy."

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it is something differ-ent from the caloric energy we receive from food, but this is only a name, and we still have no precise con-cept of what this energy might be.

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Dr. Selye has written twelve books and hundreds of articles explaining his clinical studies and his "stress con-cept" of health and disease.

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read Dr. Selye's book written for laymen, The Stress of Life.

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the body itself is equipped to maintain it-self in health; to cure itself of disease, and to remain youthful by successfully coping with those factors which bring about what we call "old age." Not only has he proved that the body is capable of curing itself, but that in the final analysis that is the only sort of "cure" there is.

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The adaptation energy itself is what finally overcomes the disease, heals the wound or burn, or wins out over other "stressors."

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This elan vital, life force, or adaptation energy—call it whatever you will—manifests itself in many ways. The energy which heals a wound is the same energy which keeps all our other body organs functioning.

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When this energy is at an optimum all our organs function better, we "feel good," wounds heal faster, we are more "resis-tant" to disease, we recover from any sort of stress faster, ; we feel and act "younger," and in fact biologically we are younger. It is thus possible to correlate the various mani-festations of this life force, and to assume that whatever works to make more of this life force available to us; whatever opens to us a greater influx of "life stuff"; what-ever helps us utilize it better—literally helps us "all over."

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Science's Search for the Elixir of Youth

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By far the most interesting and the most promising field of medical research today is the search for a "non-f specific" therapy which will help man "all over"; immu-nize him from or help him overcome any disease, in con-trast to "specific" or localized therapies for this disease or that disease.

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ACTH and cortisone are examples of non-specific therapies

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by operating through the body's own general defense mechanism.

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"Youth serum," made from spleen and bone marrow

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"cellular therapy" (CT)

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Embryonic animal tissue is obtained fresh from a slaughter house. These "new" and "young" cells are then made into a tissue extract and injected into the patient. If the liver is malfunctioning, embryonic animal liver cells are used; if the kidneys are ailing, kidney tissue is used, etc. Although no one knows just why, there can be no doubt that some rather startling cures have been obtained. The theory is that these "young" cells somehow bring new life to the ailing human organ.

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Is RES the Key to "Aging" and Resistance to Disease?

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My own "over-belief" about CT is that it brings im-provement and new vitality for quite another reason.

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the real key to both longevity and resistance to disease is to be found in the functioning of the cells which make up the body's "connective tissue," known as the reticuloendothelial

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system, or RES. RES is present in every part of the body, in the skin, the organs, the bones. Dr. Selye describes con-nective tissue as the "cement" which holds the body cells together and connects the various cells of the body with each other. RES also performs a number of other im-portant functions. It acts as a protective lining or shield. It envelopes, immobolizes and destroys foreign invaders.

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the protective role of the RES

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Instead of combating disease individually, the chemical stimulation of the body's own natural resistance system would thus provide a biological defense against disease in general, infectious as well as non-infectious, including the degenerative diseases that strike the greatly increasing older age groups

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RES cells also have a control effect on the growth and anti-growth mechanisms within the body.

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RES at present looks like the best bet as the body's own built-in fountain of youth. When RES is functioning properly, more "life stuff," or adaptation energy seems to be made available.

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found to be much more active

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when the body needs additional defense.

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the body's general defense mechanism is sometimes "shocked" into increased activity by general stress (infection, electric shock, insulin shock, a harrowing experience, etc.)

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My own over-belief is

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because the introduction into the system of a foreign protein "shocks" the RES into activity.

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Dr. Niehans' "young cells" do not seem to have this effect, possibly because they are young and possibly be-cause the extract is attenuated.

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I believe, however, that any mild innocuous foreign protein would stimulate the RES into activity,

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Nonspecific Therapy for Wound Healing Made Patients Feel Younger

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Back in 1948 I began experimenting with a nonspecific therapy in the form of a serum which I hoped might accelerate the healing of surgical wounds.

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Anti-Growth Serum Made Wounds Heal Faster

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My anti-granulation tissue serum was made from the scrapings of newly formed but full grown granulation tis-sue of a healing wound, which, after being suspended in solution, was injected into rabbits, to stimulate them to react against this granulation tissue.

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The serum, injected into the mouse at the point furthest from the wound, accelerated healing by about 40%. As might have been expected, "overdoses" of AGTS had the opposite effect and retarded the healing time.

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What I had not anticipated, however, was the number of patients who received the serum and returned several months later to report that they felt younger, had more pep and energy, and that some of their aches and pains had disappeared. In some of these patients the change in physical appearance was quite striking. There was a sparkle in the eye that had not been there a few months

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before; the texture of the skin appeared smoother; they stood straighter, and walked with a more confident step.

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As a layman, however, I do believe that these ex-periences tend to confirm my belief that any factor (emo-tional, mental, spiritual, pharmaceutical) which stimulates the Life Force within us has a beneficial effect, not only 'locally—but generally.

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How Your Thoughts, Attitudes and Emotions Act as Nonspecific Therapy

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I began to look for other factors, or common denomina-tors, which might explain why the surgical wounds of • some patients heal faster than others.

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The serum "worked better" for some people than for others.

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Frustration and emotional stress can be induced in mice, however, by immobilizing them so that they cannot have freedom of movement. Immobiliza-tion frustrates any animal.

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Laboratory experiments have shown that under the emotional stress of frustration, very minor wounds may heal faster, but any real injury is made worse, and healing sometimes made impossible. It has also been established that the adrenal glands react very

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much the same way to emotional stress, and to the stress of physical tissue damage.

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How the Failure Mechanism Injures You

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Thus it might be said that frustration, and emotional stress (those factors we have previously described as the "failure mechanism") literally "add insult to injury" whenever the physical body suffers damage. If the physi-cal damage is very slight, some emotional stress may stimulate the defense mechanism into activity, but if there is any real or actual physical injury, emotional stress "adds to" and makes it worse.

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our indulging ourselves in the negative components of the "Failure Mechanism" can literally make us old before our time. Philosophers have long told us, and now medical researchers confirm, that resentment and hatred hurt us more than the person we direct them against.

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What Is the Secret of "Rapid-Healers?"

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Among my human patients who did not receive the serum were some individuals who responded to surgery just as well as the average patient did who received it.

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There was, however, one easily recognizable characteristic which all the "rapid-healers" had in common.

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They were optimistic, cheerful "positive thinkers" who not only expected to "get well" in a hurry, but invari-ably had some compelling reason or need to get well quick. They had "something to look forward to" and not only "something to live for" but "something to get well for."

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"I've got to get back on the job," "I've got to get out of here so I can accomplish my goal," were common expressions.

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"Experience has taught me to regard pes-simism . as a major symptom of early fossilization. It usually arrives with the first minor symptom of physical decline."

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"Tests have been made of the effect of personality disturbances on convalescence: one hospital showed that the average duration of hospitalization was increased by forty per cent from this cause."

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induced optimism, confi-dence, faith, cheerfulness, emotional stasis

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accelerating healing and in keeping us younger

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our Success Mechanism a sort of built-in youth serum

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Thoughts Bring Organic as Well as Functional Changes

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We do know this much: Mental attitudes can influence the body's healing mechanisms. Placebos, or "sugar pills" (capsules containing inert ingredients) have long been a medical mystery.

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Students receiving

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placebos actually showed more immunization against colds than the group receiving a new cold medicine.

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Evidence was presented to show that placebos had worked in some cases, "just as effectively as vaccines against chronic rheumatoid arthritis."

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a similar type of "sug-gestive treatment" is the best form of therapy for warts.

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"Suggestion" Explains Nothing

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Patients receiving placebos, or suggestive wart therapy, must not be told that the treatment is a phony, if it is to be effective. They believe they are receiving legitimate medi-cine which will "bring about a cure." To write off place-bos as "merely due to suggestion" explains nothing.

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in taking the "medicine" some sort of expectation of improvement is aroused, a goal-image of health is set up in the mind,

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Do We Sometimes Think Ourselves into Old Age?

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the traditional idea, that a person is supposed to grow old and useless around seventy, is responsible in large measure for persons' growing "old" at that age, and that in a more enlightened future we might regard seventy as middle age.

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A recent study found that the "oldsters" at 45 thought of themselves as "middle-aged," past their prime, over the hill, while the "youngsters" at 45 still conceived of them-selves as being this side of middle-aged

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In expecting to grow "old" at a given age we may unconsciously set up a negative goal image for our creative mechanism to accomplish. Or, in expecting "old age" and fearing its onset,

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Dr. Selye has cultivated animal cell cultures within a living animal's body by im-planting a hollow tube. For some unknown reason bio-logically new and "young" cells form inside this tube. Untended, however, they die within a month. How-

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ever, if the fluid in the tube is washed daily, and waste products removed, the cells live indefinitely. They remain eternally "young" and neither "age" nor "die."

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"old age" can be postponed by slowing down the rate of waste production, or by help-ing the system to get rid of waste. In the human body the capillaries are the channels through which waste is removed. It has definitely been established that lack of exercise and inactivity literally "dries up" the capillaries.

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Activity Means Life

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When we decide to curtail mental and social activities, we stultify ourselves. We become "set" in our ways, bored, and give up our "great expectations."

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Note: P283 (p260/261) The 6 Basic Needs of Humans. I would also add the need for purpose, goals, the need to have something to look forward to, to live and strive for. Something that gives sparkle in the eyes. p260 Dr. John Schindler, in his famous book, How to Live 365 Days a Year

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six basic needs that every human being

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1. The Need for Love 2. The Need for Security 3. The Need for Creative Expression 4. The Need for Recognition 5. The Need for New Experiences 6. The Need for Self-Esteem [7. The need for purpose, goals]

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need for more life—the need to look forward to tomorrow and to the future with gladness and anticipation.

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p261 Look Forward and Live

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I believe that life itself is adaptive; that life is not just an end in itself, but a means to an end. Life is one of the "means" we are privileged to use in various ways to achieve important goals.

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The life force acts as a "means" to these ends, and provides the polar bear with his white fur coat.

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If life adapts itself in so many varied forms to act as a means toward an end, is it not reasonable to assume that if we place ourselves in the sort of goal-situation where more life is needed, that we will receive more life?

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think of man as a goal-striver

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think of

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Life Force as the propelling fuel or energy which drives him forward toward his goal.

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A stored automobile needs no gasoline in the tank. And a goal-striver with no goal doesn't really need much Life Force.

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we establish this need by looking forward to the future with joy and anticipation, when we expect to enjoy tomorrow, and above all, when we have something important (to us) to do and somewhere to go.

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Create a Need for More Life

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Creativity is certainly one of the characteristics of the Life Force. And the essence of creativity is a looking for-ward towards a goal. Creative people need more Life Force.

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As a group, creative workers—research scientists, inven-tors, painters, writers, philosophers not only live longer, but remain productive longer than non-creative workers. (Michelangelo did some of his best painting when past 80; Goethe wrote Faust when past 80; Edison was still inventing at 90; Picasso, past 85, dominates the art world today; Wright at 90 was still considered the most creative architect; Shaw was still writing plays at 90; Grandma Moses began painting at 79, etc., etc.)

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"develop a nostalgia for the future," instead of for the past, if they want to remain productive and vital. Develop an enthusiasm for life, create a need for more life, and you will receive more life.

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why so many actors and actresses manage to look far younger than their years, and present a youthful appearance at age 50 and beyond? Could it not be that these people have a need to look young,

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"We age, not by years, but by events and our emo-tional reactions to them,"

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how widowhood ages some women, but not others. If the widow feels that her life has come to an end and she has nothing to live for, her attitude gives "outward evidence—in her gradual withering, her graying hair. . . . Another woman, actually older, begins to blossom. She may enter into the competi-tion for a new husband, or she may embark on a career in business

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Faith, courage, interest, optimism, looking forward, bring us new life and more life. Futility, pessimism, frus-tration, living in the past, are not only characteristic of "old age"; they contribute to it.

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Retire from a Job, But Never Retire from Life

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Many men go down hill rapidly after retirement.

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They have nothing to look forward to

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and often suffer a loss of self-esteem because they feel left out of things; not important anymore.

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They develop a self-image of a useless, worth-less, "worn out" hanger-on.

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It is not retiring from a job that kills these men, it is retiring from life. It is the feeling of uselessness,

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The latest findings show that a man reaches his peak mentally somewhere around the age of 35 and maintains the same

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level until well past 70. Such nonsense as "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" still persists despite the fact that numerous researches have shown that learning ability is about as good at 70 as it is at 17.

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Outmoded and Disproved Medical Concepts

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Physiologists used to believe that any type of physical activity was harmful to the man over forty. We doctors are to blame as much as anyone for warning patients over 40 to "take it easy" and give up golf and other forms of exercise.

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Physiologists and M.D.'s, including the nation's leading heart specialists, now tell us that activity, even strenuous activity, is not only permissible, but required for good health at any age. You are never too old to exercise.

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if you have been comparatively inactive for a long while, the suddenness of strenuous exertion may have a powerful stress effect, may be damaging and even fatal.

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"take it easy" and "take it gradually."

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Begin by daily walking around the block. Gradually increase the distance to a mile; then two, and perhaps after six months —five miles. Then alternate between jogging and walk-ing. First jog half a mile a day; later a full mile. Still later you can add pushups, deep-knee bends, and perhaps training with moderate weights.

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Dr. Cureton has taken decrepit, "feeble" men of 50, 60 and even 70 and had them running five miles a day at

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the end of two or two-and-a half years.

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Why I Believe in Miracles

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Medical science does not pretend to know why the vari-ous mechanisms within the body perform as they do. We know a little bit about the how and something about what happens. We can describe what happens and how the mechanisms function when the body heals a cut. But de-scription is not explanation, no matter in what technical terms it may be couched. I still do not understand why or even the ultimate how when a cut finger heals itself.

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I do not understand the power of the Life Force which operates the mechanisms of healing, nor do I understand how that force is applied or just what "makes it work." I do not understand the intelligence which created the mechanisms, nor just how some directing intelligence operates them.

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Dr. Alexis Carrel, in writing of his personal oberva-tions of instantaneous healings at Lourdes, said that the only explanation he could make as a medical doctor was that the body's own natural healing processes, which nor-mally operate over a period of time to bring about heal-ing, were somehow "speeded up" under the influence of intense faith.

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I witness a "small miracle" every time I see a surgical wound heal itself by growing new tissue. Whether it requires two min-utes, or two months, makes no difference insofar as I can See.

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Medical Science, Faith, Life, All Come from the Same Source

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"The Surgeon dresses the wound, God heals it."

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I believe that medical skill, and medical discoveries, are made possible by the same Intelligence, the same Life Force, which operates through the media of faith healing.

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Medical healing and faith healing both derive from the same source, and should work to-gether.

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if you reduce the size of the mad dog trillions of times and call it a bacterium or a virus, the same father may refuse the help of his doctor-neighbor

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Don't Place Limitations on Life

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the prophet was in the desert and hungry, God lowered a sheet from the heavens containing food. Only to the prophet it didn't look much like good food. It was "unclean" and contained all sorts of "crawl-ing things." Whereupon God rebuked him, admonishing him not to call "unclean" that which God had offered.

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Some doctors and scientists today turn up their noses at whatever smacks of faith or religion. Some religionists

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have the same attitude, suspicion and revulsion concern-ing anything "scientific."

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Whatever your definition of hap-piness may be, you will experience happiness only as you experience more life. More living means among other things more accomplishment, the attainment of worth-while goals, more love experienced and given, more health and enjoyment, more happiness for both yourself and others.

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If we are to "Get More Living out of Life," we should not limit the chan-nels through which Life may come to us. We must accept it, whether it comes in the form of science, religion, psy-chology, or what not.

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Another important channel is other people. Let us not refuse the help, happiness and joy that others may bring us, or that we can give to them. Let us not be too proud to accept help from others, or too callous to give it. Let us not say "unclean" just because the form of the gift may not coincide with our prejudices or our ideas of self-im-portance.

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God has offered us forgive-ness and the peace of mind and happiness that come from self-acceptance.

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The most adequate and realistic self-image of all is to conceive of yourself as "made in the image of God." "You cannot believe yourself the image of God, deeply and sincerely, with full conviction, and not receive a new source of strength and power," says Dr. Frank G. Slaughter.

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19 November 2020