Beyond the Power of Your Subconscious Mind (6 page)

Thus, between the ages of 2 and 12 we are in the most hypnotizable-programmable brainwave states known to man. Why? Isn’t this when our beliefs are programmed and the roots of our self esteem and self concept are laid down? Thus, as we de-hypnotize ourselves from our negative belief trances with new affirmations, we create more empowering belief trances.

The fifth electrical language is GAMMA seen in high-performance states (40–200 hertz).

We learn from two sources

As small children, we primarily learn from two sources.

1. We learn by imitating one or both of our parents. Why? Our parents are our primary source of love. As small children, we need so much love that we will behave in such a manner as we believe will please mom or dad. We seem to get “rewarded” when we make them happy.

2. We move toward comfort and away from discomfort.

The bottom line is we come into the world as a totally empty vessel. We do, however, seem to have an insatiable curiosity and desire to learn. By the age of two we have learned some words and we quickly begin to develop our base or primary language. Almost all our data input is provided by our parents and older siblings. They share with us
THEIR
opinions of what is good or bad, right or wrong, and how we should behave (“good girl”) or shouldn’t behave (“bad boy”). By the time we are six years old, we have developed some pretty strong opinions of who we are, what our world (family and friends) is all about, and we have even begun to have some early thoughts about what areas we may be good at or areas we are not good at.

IMPORTANT: NONE OF THIS HAS ANYTHING TO DO WITH WHO WE REALLY ARE, BUT RATHER EVERYTHING TO DO WITH WHO WE THINK WE ARE OR SHOULD BECOME.

We didn’t come into the world with any predisposed thoughts about being a Catholic or a Protestant, a Republican or a Democrat, a doctor or a lawyer, etc. Most of the data about who and what we are is “inherited” in the beliefs (not necessarily facts or truths) of our parents, siblings, teachers, coaches and all those authoritative “role models” who as children, especially as small children, we look at with awe. Since we have no contrary data, we accept what they tell us as the
TRUTH
. By age six we are in school and now have additional teachers and coaches who help us clarify even further who we are and what we are good or not good at.

We have already introduced the notion of self talk, so with our own self talk we reinforce what we were told or experienced.

It is our self talk that creates and determines our self concept(s). So, it isn’t what mom or dad or others said to us that creates our self concept, but how we interpret what others said and how we feel about what was said. As we will learn, the purpose of language is to create or access an image or picture in our mind. Those pictures most often are accompanied by feelings or emotions. So, our own internal dialog creates pictures and feelings that are stored in the subconscious area of our mind and that influence our future behaviors. We will discuss this in depth in Chapter 7.

The following is from
Outwitting the Devil: The Secret to Freedom and Success
by Napoleon Hill.*

Have you ever heard a parent finish a child’s sentence? Or seen a parent complete a child’s homework? Remember those science fairs at school where it is obvious the kids had a lot of outside “help” with their science projects? Mom and Dad may have “helped” a little too much, but deep down they know that their child appreciates the help and recognizes what great parents they are. Right? Actually, the child may be thinking, “Mom and Dad don’t think I can do it on my own . . . so why bother!” Eventually this parental “help” will destroy the child’s self-confidence. By allowing children to be truly in charge, parents will help their kids develop the habit of thinking for themselves!

For now, simply understand that it is our own self talk that forms our self concept. What is our self concept? Our self concept is the way we view ourselves. By definition,

The self concept is the total and averaging of the value judgments placed upon yourself and those that have been placed upon you as children by parents and others---especially as small children in every area of your life.

We have an overall self concept which is “the total and averaging” of multiple individual self concepts.

We have hundreds of individual self concepts. Within “sports skills” we may have a high self concept as a skier, a low self concept as a golfer, etc.

THE OPERATING PRINCIPLE HERE IS THAT THE SELF CONCEPT IS THE REGULATING MECHANISM THAT DETERMINES OUR LEVEL OF PERFORMANCE IN EVERY AREA OF OUR LIFE.

There is always a one-to-one relationship between our self concept and our level of performance.

Most of us have been trained to believe that by working hard on our performance, once our performance improves we will allow ourselves to think better of our self in that area of our life. Or, we allow our self concept to improve. Fortunately, it doesn’t work that way. We are not discounting the value of instruction, training, and practice. But the cause-and-effect relationship is that the self concept drives how we perform.

Let me share an example that vividly illustrates this point.

Prior to 1954 it was believed to be the “truth” among world class runners that it was
impossible
for man to ever run the mile in less than four minutes. Since man had first invented the stop watch and for tens of thousands of races over decades, no one had ever been timed in running the mile under four minutes. Men had come dangerously close, within tenths of a second, but no one had broken the four minute barrier.

And then what happened?

In 1954 a medical student from Great Britain, Roger Bannister, became the first runner in history to run the mile in under four minutes. So what? So what is that
over the next 3 years, 16 others had run more than 40 sub-
four-minute miles
.
There was no change in the equipment (in this case running shoes or the surface of the running track), there was no breakthrough in technique or training methodology, there was simply the removal of the
self imposed
limitation that it was “impossible” to ever run the mile in under four minutes.

Participating in sports activities are good examples of people performing consistently with their self concept.

In the sport of baseball, the hitters have a batting average and the pitchers have an earned run average. And, most of the time the players’ results are consistent with their average, or self concept. When they perform better than their “average” (self concept), they are said to be “in the zone.” When their performance is less than their average, we say they are in a slump. The same is true with golfers whose scores are consistent with their
handicap
(interesting word) .

Why is it we sabotage our success when we start performing so much better than our self concept? Because our self concept, as we have said, is the regulating factor that determines our level of performance.

Remember, our self concept is how we view ourselves in any area of our lives. And, when we change the
picture
(positive or negative), we change the result of our performance (positive or negative).

If we want to improve our level of performance, we need to raise our self concept.

We have all developed conditioned responses that inhibit our ability to become all that we truly are. As we proceed through this book we will show you techniques to take personal inventory of what you like or don’t like about yourself; what you believe yourself to be good or bad at; and to recognize certain behavioral patterns that you might want to change. As we identify the things we would like to change or have different in our lives, we will then learn step-by-step procedures and proven techniques that will enable us to bring about changes more effortlessly than we could have ever imagined. “Change” is not a dirty word and doesn’t have to be accompanied by the discomfort we have been conditioned to believe must occur.

Now let’s look more deeply at the enormous power of our subconscious mind and then move into a better understanding of the relationship between our conscious and subconscious mind.

5

The Miracle-Working Power
of
Your Subconscious

The power of your subconscious is enormous. It inspires you, it guides you, and it reveals to you names, facts, and scenes from the storehouse of memory. Your subconscious started your heartbeat, controls the circulation of your blood, and regulates your digestion, assimilation, and elimination. When you eat a piece of bread, your subconscious mind transmutes it into tissue, muscle, bone, and blood. This process is beyond the knowledge of the wisest man who walks the earth. Your subconscious mind controls all the vital processes and functions of your body and knows the answer to all problems.

Your subconscious mind never sleeps, never rests. It is always on the job. You can discover the miracle-working power of your subconscious by plainly stating to your subconscious prior to sleep that you wish a certain specific thing accomplished. You will be delighted to discover that forces within you will be released, leading to the desired result. Here, then, is a source of power and wisdom which places you in touch with omnipotence or the power that moves the world, guides the planets in their course, and causes the sun to shine.

Your subconscious mind is the source of your ideals, aspirations, and altruistic urges. It was through the subconscious mind that Shakespeare perceived great truths hidden from the average man of his day. Undoubtedly, it was the response of his subconscious mind that caused the Greek sculptor Phidias to portray beauty, order, symmetry, and proportion in marble and bronze. It enabled the Italian artist Raphael to paint Madonnas, and Ludwig van Beethoven to compose symphonies.

Your subconscious is your Book of Life

Whatever thoughts, beliefs, opinions, theories, or dogmas you write, engrave, or impress on your subconscious mind, you shall experience them as the objective manifestation of circumstances, conditions, and events. What you write on the inside, you will experience on the outside. You have two sides to your life, objective and subjective, visible and invisible, thought and its manifestation.

Your thought is received by your brain, which is the organ of your conscious reasoning mind. When your conscious or objective mind accepts the thought completely, it is sent to the solar plexus, called the brain of your mind, where it becomes flesh and is made manifest in your experience.

Your subconscious cannot argue. It acts only from what you write on it. It accepts your verdict or the conclusions of your conscious mind as final. This is why you are always writing on the book of life, because your thoughts become your experiences. The American essayist Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Man is what he thinks about all day long.”

What Is Impressed In The Subconscious
Is Expressed