Do you remember in the beginning I had mentioned that I have never been very good at visualization? Well, it\u2019s getting easier for me with this information being poured in! How about you? I am find the daily practice (my theater) is helping to get a more clear, concise picture of my goals and intentions.<\/p>\n
Power On!<\/p>\n
Here is the content from today\u2019s reading:<\/p>\n
\nThe Secret of Hypnotic Power<\/strong><\/p>\n
In the 1950\u2032s, Dr. Theodore Xenophon Barber conducted extensive research into the phenomena of hypnosis, both when he was associated with the psychology department of American University in
\nWashington, D.C., and also after becoming associated with the
\nLaboratory of Social Relations at Harvard. Writing in Science Digest, he said:<\/p>\nWe found that hypnotic subjects are able to do surprising things only when convinced that the hypnotist\u2019s words are true statements \u2026. When the hypnotist has guided the subject to the point where he is convinced that the hypnotist\u2019s words are true statements, the subject then behaves differently because he thinks and believes differently.<\/p>\n
The phenomena of hypnosis have always seemed mysterious because it has always been difficult to understand how belief can bring about such unusual behavior. It always seemed as if there must be something more, some unfathomable force or power, at work.<\/p>\n
However, the plain truth is that when a subject is convinced 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. The mysterious force or power does not exist. (\u201cCould You Be Hypnotized?\u201d Science
\nDigest, January 1958).<\/p>\nNote that his comments were published in 1958. Today, hypnosis as a tool of therapy is widely accepted and used. For many, hypnosis and self-hypnosis to facilitate weight loss makes the surgical quick fix of liposuction unnecessary, a perfect analogy to my examples of emotional surgery versus actual surgery. In these cases, hypnosis is the scalpel. In dentistry, hypnosis is used to facilitate treatment of the phobic patient with virtually uncontrollable anxiety and, in many instances, proves to be a perfectly successful alternative to the problematic solution of anesthesia.<\/p>\n
With regard to the links between childhood programming, past experiences and peer programming on one hand, and the imagination:, the self-image and the servo-mechanism on the other, my conclusion is that people are literally hypnotized by their own self-images. In fact, many people virtually \u201csleep walk\u201d through their entire lives under unrecognized hypnotic suggestion. In Quentin Reynolds\u2019 book
\nIntuition: Your Secret Power, a hypnotist is quoted as saying: \u201cClients visit me hoping that I will put them in a trance and fix their lives. In fact many of them live in a trance and need a dose of reality.\u201d<\/p>\nIf you are stuck in a dark elevator for a couple of frightening hours as a child, you may still be fearful of elevators, uriable to get into an elevator forty years later, regardless of all the safety statistics, factual information, demonstration, observation of thousands using eleo vators, or even the daunting task of hiking up a dozen flights of stairs.
\nYou are still in the hypnotic trance from forty years ago!<\/p>\nStill, a little reflection will show why it is a very good thing for us that we do feel and act according to what we believe or imagine to be true. All of this does not mean the system itself is \u201cbad\u201d; it only requires learning how to better use the \u201csystem.\u201d<\/p>\n
Truth Determines Action and Behavior<\/strong><\/p>\n
The human brain and \u00b7nervous system are engineered 0 to react automatically and appropriately to the problems and challenges in the environment. For example, a man does not need to stop and think that self-survival requires that he run if he meets a grizzly bear on a trail.<\/p>\n
He does not need to decide to become afraid. The fear response is both automatic and appropriate. First, it makes him want to flee. The fear then triggers bodily mechanisms that \u201csoup up\u201d his muscles so that l;1e can run faster than he has ever run before. His heart beat is quickened. Adrenaline, a powerful muscle stimulant, is poured into the bloodstream. All bodily functions not necessary to running are shut down. The stomach stops working and all available blood is sent to the muscles. Breathing is much faster and the oxygen supply to the muscles is increased many fold.<\/p>\n
All this, of course, is nothing new. Most of us learned it in high school. What we have not been so quick to realize, however, is that the brain and nervous system that reacts automatically to environment is the same brain and nervous system that tells us what the environment is. The reactions of the man meeting the bear are commonly thought of as due to \u201cemotion\u201d rather than to ideas. Yefit was an idea-information received from the outside world and evaluated by the mind that sparked the so-called \u201cemotional reactions.\u201d Thus, it was basically idea or belief that was the true causative agent, rather than emotion, which came as a result. In short, the man on the trail reacted to what he thought, believed, or imagined the environment to be. The messages brought to us from the environment consist of nerve impulses from the various sense organs. These nerve impulses are decoded, interpreted, and evaluated in the brain and made known to us in the form of ideas or mental images. In the final analysis, it is these mental images that we react to.<\/p>\n
Note that I\u2019ve used the terms thought,believed, and imagined as synonymous. In affecting your entire system, they are the same.
\nYou act and feel not according to what things are really like, but according to the image your mind holds of what they are lik~. 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;<\/p>\nSuppose, for example, that the man on the trail had not met a real bear, but a movie actor dressed in a bear costume. If he thought and imagined the actor to be a bear, his emotional and nervous reactions would have been exactly the same. Or suppose he met a large shaggy dog, which his fear-ridden imagination\u00b7 mistook for a bear. Again, he would react automatically to what he believed to be true concerning himself and his environment.<\/p>\n
It follows that, if our ideas and mental images concerning ourselves are distorted or unrealisti\u201dc, then our reaction to our environment will likewise be inappropriate -Can these causative factors change?<\/p>\n
Certainly. Consider the child raised in an intentionally segregated environment by racists. The child could be a white person in a family of white supremacists who devoutly believe that blacks are
\n\u201cmud people,\u201d evil;and a threat to their well-being, or the child could be black in a family with comparable hatred for whites. Either way, the child is programmed with certain beliefs that will govern her\u00b7behavior.
\nIn her imagination, she constructs certain truths that will be very difficult to modify as she matures. However, some people make a 180- degree change in their beliefs and behavior at some point in their lives.<\/p>\nThese days, this has even become a\u2019 popular staple of the confrontation- style daytime TV talk shows. How does a person change?
\nThrough life experience broader and more diverse than her family upbringing, societal pressure, being befriended by people of the race she was programmed to hate, one way or another, challenging what she believed to be true, discovering it is based on illusion, and replacing that truth with another truth.<\/p>\nNow consider the child raised in a poor family, made up of people who profoundly believe that their unhappy circumstances are the fault of evil rich people and a corrupt government, who constantly program the child with class warfare ideas, and who insist that they just cannot get ahead no matter what they do. This truth may very well block that person\u2019s academic achievement, direct him away from college, have him blindly follow his father to work in the factory or the coal mine. (Well, I show my age with \u201ccoal mine,\u201d I suppose.) Yet even today, the basic path of accepting poverty as \u201cfact\u201d is prevalent in many, many people. But how does one person rise out of such a background to become a highly successful entrepreneur, for example?<\/p>\n
Through books he\u2019s exposed to, people he sees on television, the influence of a mentor, life experiences, one way or another challenging what he believed to be true, discovering it is based on illusion, and replacing that truth with another truth.<\/p>\n
Just as .the Knights Of Spanish Harlem I mentioned earlier transformed from street toughs to chess champions, from likely criminals to model citizens pursuing adult careers as doctors, lawyers, and businesspersons, you can change from anything to anything by changing your self-image, by providing it with new truth.<\/p>\n
From fat and flabby to fit and strong. From mousy and timid to assertive and confident. From clumsy and awkward to capable and graceful. New evidence-actual, experiential evidence and\/or vividly imagined, synthetic evidence and\/or reinforcement from other authoritative.influencers-convinces the self-image. In turn, it relays the appropriate new directives to your servo-mechanism, and a new truth exists, a new reality occurs.<\/p>\n
Why Not Imagine Yourself Successful?<\/strong>
\nRealizing that our actions, feelings, and behavior are the result of our own images and beliefs gives us the lever that psychology has always needed for changing personality.<\/p>\nIt opens a powerful psychological door to gaining skill, success, and happiness.<\/p>\n
Mental pictures offer us an opportunity to practice new traits and attitudes, which otherwise we could not do. This. is possible because, again, your nervous system cannot tell the difference between an actual experience and one that is vividly imagined.<\/p>\n
If we picture ourselves performing in a certain manner, it is nearly the same as the actual performance. Mental practice is as powerful as actual practice.<\/p>\n
When I first made this assertion, and when others began making it, it was a radical idea; that you could practice in your imagination and achieve comparable results to actual physical practice. Today, it is widely accepted, having been proved by countless trials and experiments.
\nAthletes of every stripe routinely rely on mental or imagination practice. For example, consider Dr. Richard Coop\u2019s advice to golfers, as follows:<\/p>\nBefore you play any shot, you need to have a mental picture of how you want the ball to react once you deliver the clubhead to the ball. You need to have a definite, positive visualization of what your shot will look like.
\nThe picture should indicate the trajectory, the direction, the spot where you intend the ball to land, and how far you want the ball to roll when it lands \u2026 if the flight of a shot is difficult for you to picture, try visualizing a strip of highway that curves in the manner that you wish your ball to travel. Your options in this visualization are limited only by your imagination.
\nYou might see the green as a pin cushion ready to accept your shot \u2026 pick visual images that work for you. Vzsualization is one of the most individual aspects of golf psychology.<\/p>\nJack Nicklaus has said, \u201cI never hit a golf shot without having a sharp picture of it in my head. First I \u2018see\u2019 where I want the ball to finish.
\nThen I \u2018see\u2019 it going there; its trajectory and landing. The next
\n\u2018scene\u2019 shows me making the swing that will turn the previous images into reality.\u201d Take note of the striking similarities between The
\nGolden Bear\u2019s description of what he actually does, Dr. Coop\u2019s instructions, and the instructions in this book.<\/p>\nIt\u2019s important to understand that imagination practice need not be restricted to your golf or tennis swing. The same principles of mental practice apply to virtually anything, including broader behaviors, such as speaking up confidently arid asserting your opinions in business meetings versus remaining intimidated and silent (and regretting it later), or directly asking prospects for orders rather than leaving sales presentations \u201changing\u201d with wimpy, vague endings. And so on.<\/p>\n
I have developed a very specific regimen for mental or imagination practice, using what I call The Theater of the Mind, which I will get to later. Dr. Coop also goes on to describe virtually the same
\n\u201cmental movies technique\u201d I first began teaching in the late 1950s and wrote about in the original version of this book. Jack Nicklaus uses the word \u201cscene\u201d; he is playing out his successful shot as a little mental movie, literally stepping out of actual play and into the Theater of the
\nMind to watch the movie, then stepping back out to experience the deja vu effect. In an article in Golf Magazine (July 2000), Jack Nicklaus said, \u201cThe more deeply you ingrain what I like to call my going-to-the- movies discipline, the more effective you will become at hitting the shots you want to hit.\u201d In his four-step \u2018 process, in step four he even says. \u201cSelect the club that the completed \u2018movie\u2019 tells you is the right one.\u201d<\/p>\nRemarkably, Jack Nicklaus has found his way to virtually the same mental movies techniques I prescribe, even going so far as to turn the pesky details of correct club selection over to his Automatic
\nSuccess Mechanism, rather than attempting conscious choice. I say
\n\u201cremarkably\u201d because, as far as I know, Mr. Nicklaus has never read this book, although he has likely been influenced by the many other golfers and golf coaches who have. However, it\u2019s really not all that remarkable, since it seems almost all peak performers find their way to this technique one way or another.<\/p>\nIn a few moments, we\u2019ll talk more about the specifics of these mental movies. Let me first\u2019 tell you about some of the scientific documentation that supports the entire idea of imagination practice. In one of the first controlled experiments I read about, psychologist R. A.
\nVandll proved that mental practice in throwing darts at a target, wherein the person sits for a period each day in front of the target, and imagines throwing darts at it, improves aim just as much as actually throwing darts.<\/p>\nResearch Quarterly reported an experiment on the effects of mental practice on improving skill in sinking basketball free throws. One group of students actually practiced throwing the ball every day for 20 days, and were scored on the first and last days. A second group was scored on the first and last days, and engaged in no sort of practice in between. A third group was scored on the first day, then spent 20 minutes a day, imagining that they were throwing the ball at the goal.<\/p>\n
When they missed they would imagine that they corrected their aim accordingly.<\/p>\n
The first group, which actually practiced 20 minutes every. day, improved in scoring 24%.<\/p>\n
The second group, which had no sort of practice, showed no improvement.<\/p>\n
The third group, which practiced only in their imagination, improved in scoring 23 %!<\/p>\n
This particular experiment has been widely reported and referenced, and since repeated at many universities over the years. Of course, none of this is infallible. After all, Shaq\u2019s problem with foul shots remains a mystery! However, while an inexact science, the use of imagination practice is nevertheless an effective science, a proven and practical means of improving skills or altering imbedded \u201ctruths\u201d in order to alter behavior.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Interested in your own copy? \u00a0Get it here<\/p>\n
And with that, we will meet again next time with a continuance of chapter 3 beginning at the section Mental Pictures Are Powerful Medicine<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Until then, keep smiling.<\/p>\n
Work With Prosperity Team \u2013 Your Opportunity<\/p>\n