E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality (6 page)

Like Housebreaking a Puppy

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

—L
EO
T
OLSTOY
, R
USSIAN NOVELIST

If your brain is anything like mine (prone to procrastination, easily confused, and distractible), changing your mind can be downright challenging. I like to think of it like housebreaking a puppy.

You just keep taking it back outside and showing it a different reality until finally it realizes,
Wow, there’s a whole big world out there. And it’s a lot more fun to pee on trees and bushes and fire hydrants than on Pam’s ratty old house slippers.
Your mind will be astonished by the beauty that’s available when you put it on the spot. Deep peace will appear. Great ideas will materialize and expand. Joy will rise up.

The only thing you need do is devote your mind
only
to things you want. If you want peace, think of peace. If you want love, think of love. If you want Jimmy Choo pumps, think of Jimmy Choo pumps. Do not think about how peace looks impossible or that love seems fleeting or that there’s no money in your bank account for Jimmy Choo pumps. Keep your mind focused only on what you want. And anytime that puppy starts heading toward those slippers, pick it up and take it back outside.

In the movie
Man on Fire,
Denzel Washington plays an ex-Special Forces operative who becomes a bodyguard to the young daughter of a wealthy Mexican businessman. Despite Denzel’s attempts to stay neutral and uninvolved, he ends up becoming a father figure to Pita, tutoring her with her homework and helping her gain a place on the swim team, an activity she loves more than the piano lessons her father insists upon. Over and over in their swim training, Denzel shouts out the same question: “Trained or untrained?” And Pita shouts back exuberantly, “Trained!”

So I’ll repeat the question. Is your mind trained or untrained?

And I hope you’ll soon be able to shout back, “Trained!”

“The greatest discovery and development of the coming years will be along spiritual lines. Here is a force which history clearly teaches has been the greatest power in the development of man and history, and yet we have been merely playing with it and have never seriously studied it as we have physical forces. Some day people will learn that material things do not bring happiness and are of little use in making men and women creative and powerful. Then the scientists of the world will turn their laboratories over to the study of the spiritual forces. When this day comes, the world will see more advancement in one generation than it has in the past four.”

—C
HARLES
P
ROTEUS
S
TEINMETZ
,
INVENTOR OF THE ALTERNATING-CURRENT MOTOR

THE PRELIMINARIES

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.”

—R
ALPH
W
ALDO
E
MERSON
, A
MERICAN ESSAYIST

You don’t need a white lab coat, carbon nanotubes, or even those unsightly protective goggles to conduct the following experiments. All you need is an open mind and the ability to observe, record your findings, and be willing to frame things in a new light.

For those of you who flunked chemistry, let’s start with a refresher course.

Science Basics

“Nothing shocks me. I’m a scientist.”

—O
N A
T-
SHIRT BY DESIGNER
J. B
ERTRAND

1. What exactly is
science?
According to Webster’s, science is “knowledge attained through study or practice.” It usually starts with a theory.

2. Okay, so what’s a
theory?
To most of us, a theory is a vague and fuzzy fact. But when you talk about scientific theory, you’re talking about a conceptual framework that explains existing observations and predicts new ones. A theory is accepted, not based on the prestige or convincing powers of its proponent, but on the results obtained through observations and/or experiments that anyone can reproduce. For example, the theory of gravity can be proved by anyone, from a toddler jumping out of a bunk bed to a voodoo priest leaping over a sacrificial goat. In fact, most lab experiments are repeated many dozens and quadrillions of times.

The other characteristic of a scientific theory is that it’s falsifiable, meaning that an experiment could also prove that it’s
un
true. The theory that “Mars is populated with little green men who flee whenever we hunt them” is not falsifiable because in that theory the Martians always disappear whenever anyone tracks them. But the theory that “Martians do not exist” is scientific because you can falsify it by catching one and getting him an invitation to
Good Morning America
.

3. Then what is a
hypothesis
(hy-POTH-uh-sis)? Again, in common vernacular a hypothesis is a synonym for a guess. But to a scientist, a hypothesis is a working assumption about how the world works. Every experiment starts with one. You make observations about how the world works and then you come up with a hypothesis that can be tested to see if it has truth value. It’s usually cast as a statement that can either be refuted or proved. It’s often written as an “if-then” statement (if I do such and such, then such and such will happen): “If
x
occurs, then
y
will follow.” Or “As
x
increases, so will
y.
” We use it to form a scientific method.

4. Excuse me, a
scientific method?
The scientific method is universally accepted as being the best way for winnowing truth from lies and delusion. The simple version looks something like this:

   State a question.

   Collect information.

   Form a hypothesis.

   Test the hypothesis.

   Record and study data.

   Draw conclusions.

The great advantage of the scientific method is that it is unprejudiced. It works the same for everyone. The conclusions will hold, irrespective of your hair color, your religious persuasion, or your shoe size.

A Couple of Ground Rules

“You are doing this because you are fantastic and brave and curious. And, yes, you are probably a little crazy. And this is a good thing.”