Power Number I:
Autosuggestion
The Power of Conscious Thoughts
Power of the Subconscious Mind
Abilities of the Subconscious Mind
Autosuggestion is Simple Psychology
Freud and Jung: Their Views on the Power of Thought
Review
This section 4,467 words (approx. 18 pages)
The Power of Conscious Thoughts
Whenever you hold something in the spotlight of your awareness, you are using the power of the conscious mind. Thousands of thoughts go through your mind every day, like a raging river of thought. However, if you do not pay attention to what you think, you may waste this valuable resource dwelling on useless negative things like worry and gossip. If you want to use the power of your mind for your benefit, you need to change your thoughts. To improve your thoughts, you first have to be aware of what they are. If you learn to change your mind through positive autosuggestion, you can change your reality too. Emile Coué said that suggestion uses you like a blind instrument until you become aware of it. Then it becomes autosuggestion. The thoughts and stories you tell yourself are the basis of autosuggestion.
Dr. Maxwell Maltz reminds us that our thoughts take palce in the conscious mind, the frontal cortex, which contains about ten billion neurons. Each neuron has numerous feelers that form synapses, or connections between the neurons. When you think, electrical currents move through the neurons in patterns. Emile Coué called the brain a "never-flagging recorder" and twenty-five years later, science confirmed that the mind is a recorder. When you learn something, your brain records a new pattern. You can memorize unlimited neural patterns because the patterns overlap. They are stored in the nervous system just as magnetic information is stored on a disk. To reactivate old patterns, you simply replay them, somewhat like selecting a track from a CD.
When you feel like you are reliving an experience, what you are doing is replaying a memorized neural pattern. Whenever you replay a pattern it links up to new experiences and becomes more prominent. The more you replay a pattern, the more associations it forms. On the other hand, when you let a neural pattern fade, it loses its power over you. Dr. Maltz cited this as a good scientific reason to dwell on positive experiences and let negative experiences fade away.
Memories change a little bit every time you replay them, because they take on shades of your present moods, new experiences, and changed attitudes. You can also reprogram neurons purposely through conscious autosuggestion. Since neural patterns overlap one another, you can change multiple patterns at once just by reprogramming a single neuron. That means that if you learn to see one thing in a new way, your attitude about many connected issues may change for the better. A common saying among psychologists is that if you change your relationship with your mother, all your relationships will shift. Neurons offer scientific support for this notion.
Conscious autosuggestion means that you decide how you will spend you mental energy. The alternative is to keep playing negative neural patterns like a stack of broken records.
Power of the Subconscious Mind
Conscious thoughts are only half of the autosuggestion equation. The rest goes on at the level of the subconscious. You can think of the subconscious as a filing cabinet or computer hard drive that stores millions of pictures, stories, emotions, memories, and bits of information. Located in the brain and body, it keeps records of everything you have experienced your entire life. It processes and stores data like a computer but, unlike a computer, it has real intelligence. It has opinions, makes decisions, and thinks of ideas. It functions according to its own ways, like an "other" in your own psyche. You cannot tell it what to do, but only cloud or clear your relationship to it. However, "it" is really "you." It is your intuitive self.
The subconscious mind:
Is the source of your dreams, intuitions, instincts, and emotions
Remembers things you've forgotten
Knows things you consciously deny
Does not see distance as a barrier
Does not divide time into past, present, and future
This subconscious self constantly tries to help you by showing you the truth. It is anxious to point out areas where you might be hurting yourself or situations where you are blind to some imminent danger. It will attempt to communicate its concerns through dreams or gut feelings. Its messages might be painful, like if you have a dreadful insight or nightmare, but the subconscious has its reasons for speaking to you as it does. It may be edgy at times, but it is a trustworthy friend. Usually it will only give you as much as you can handle.
The subconscious does its best to speak to you, but you can open up greater communication if you learn its language. The more you can get to know it and understand it, the better your positive thinking will work. First, you need to understand that the subconscious mind uses the primeval dream language of symbols, story, and emotion. It speaks in metaphors, telling stories that parallel what it wants to say. Suppose you have a dream about a roadblock. Most likely, the dream story and the way you feel about the roadblock reflect a specific situation in your waking life.
The subconscious is well versed in using symbols to describe things and it has an uncanny ability to pick just the right metaphors. You can start to learn its language if you study a symbol dictionary, but you also have to add your own personal meanings. If you lived next to a roadblock for fourteen years, the symbol would have additional meaning for you. If you just cashed through a roadblock in a car accident, the symbol would obviously have added meaning. Although there are universal meanings that carry from dreams to movies and classical mythology, every person uses a different dialect of the symbol language. When you translate a symbol to its verbal equivalent, you will feel the connection. If the definition does not make sense to you, then you have to keep searching for what it could mean. Intellectually, you may know that a dream about a roadblock represents a block in your waking life, but the message may be so cryptic that it could take a long time before you make the connection.
In addition to dreams, the subconscious may tell you metaphorical stories thorough bodily symptoms. Usually there is a word play or some other symbolic interpretation for a symptom. People say things like, "Just the thought of that gives me a headache," or "He's a real pain in the neck." If you get a headache or pain in the neck for no apparent reason, it could point to something your subconscious wants you to notice. This is the basis of the mind-body connection. Some disease is genetic or environmental, but many symptoms are psychosomatic messages from the subconscious mind.
The subconscious is ruthlessly honest, but the conscious mind may try to temper the truth to comply with social conditioning. If there is a big discrepancy, the subconscious might make you say things you did not mean to say. This phenomenon is commonly called a Freudian slip, named after the first Westerner to discover the subconscious. Humorous Freudian slips may appear in headlines like this one: "Navy changes skirt policy, making apparel optional." Subconscious errors of speech are not always subliminal sexual references. The subconscious makes all sorts of things slip out accidentally. Like you might say, "Aunt Fanny eats like a hog," but you meant to say, "Has a cute dog." Somehow the symbol of her dog and her eating like a hog got confused in your brain and the statement just came out. Usually these slips are ironic because they speak of something that everyone knows is true.
The subconscious mind may also make you do things unconsciously that may have symbolic meaning. For example, if you go out and buy a pair of shoes that are too small, you might be trying to tell yourself something. When you get home and try them on again, you might feel like the shoes are "restricting." Maybe it is a metaphor for a situation in your life, as well. If you pay attention to the feelings you get in accidental situations, they could contain clues about why you created the situation.
The subconscious makes us act out dramas all the time, but the messages usually go right over our heads. If you constantly say or do things to undermine yourself, it could mean that you have a long shadow. The shadow is an accumulation of repressed memories, feelings, and desires. Although you can try to drive certain things from your conscious memory, they never quite go away. They stay in the subconscious as psychic clutter to get in your way and confound you. It takes more energy to keep material hidden in the shadows of the subconscious than it would to process it and bring it back into your conscious life.
Once you realize that you create situations in your life through a subconscious process, you will understand why they say that the mind creates reality. You choose where you live, the work you do, and the people you have in your life. You may not choose these things consciously, but you somehow invite them to happen due to the weight of your subconscious desires and complexes. It's like pushing the bump down in a carpet. You push it out of your conscious mind, but it comes up again someplace you don't expect. If the subconscious wants you to pay attention to something, it will try every means it has: dreams, pains in the gut, slips of the tongue, and repeated mistakes. What other tools does it have? The subconscious mind cannot get cherubs to descend from the sky holding a scroll that says, "Do something about that problem with your neighbors."
Many situations you find yourself in are outside of your direct influence, of course. However, you can prevent a lot of Freudian-style drama in your life if you learn to communicate directly with your subconscious and listen to what it is trying to tell you. The first skill is to become fluent in its language of symbol and metaphor, then to be curious to notice when it is trying to tell you something.
The next skill is to learn how to express yourself in the language of feelings. You can speak in words, but words alone mean nothing to the subconscious. Only the conscious mind, or frontal cortex, relies on language. The rest of the nervous system barely even uses words. Your subconscious will only pay attention to words that match your feelings. If you say, "I don't want to be poor anymore," and you feel poor, it will hear the word "poor" and think being poor is your desire. Instead of feeling negative and using a double negative affirmation ("don't want . . . poor"), feel what you want and think straightforward words. If you say, "I create prosperity in my life," and you believe what you are saying, your subconscious will understand.
You can't lie to your subconscious. You are just like two people who understand each other telepathically. It will know if you feel poor, and it will ignore any contradictory words. Sometimes people think they're praying, but their heart isn't in it. If people say, "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us," but they're thinking about how much they hate somebody, hate and trespass are the only messages the subconscious will hear. The subconscious knows everything about you and records every thought, picture, and feeling you think. You need to be aware of your feelings and be responsible for them.
The main characteristic of the subconscious mind is that it will work to replicate whatever you think about. This happens automatically because of the way neural patterns replicate when you replay them. It does not matter whether you consider certain thoughts good or bad. It only matters which ones you replay the most. A positive person naturally finds positive thoughts more attractive, while a negative person may dwell on painful images because it feels normal.
The subconscious mind is a garden where you can plant any variety of positive or negative thoughts. Whatever you plant will grow. Suppose you constantly think about the worst mistake you ever made. Your subconscious will go to work to create a similar experience. You probably do not want to go through it again, but because you dwell on it, the subconscious mind interprets it as a metaphor for your desires.
Once you understand that the subconscious treats your conscious thoughts as a stream of requests, you will see why you need to learn positive autosuggestion.
Abilities of the Subconscious Mind
Autosuggestion is the art of getting the subconscious mind to work for you. The most obvious way you already use it is to retrieve stored information. You think of a question, then your subconscious searches for the answer. Suppose you are looking for your keys, then you remember they are in a coat pocket. You posed a question and received an answer. Everyone does this, but you can use this power even more effectively if you keep the right questions in your mind. For example, you may ask yourself every day, "What can I do today to make my life better?" The subconscious will troll all its resources to look for answers.
You can also use the subconscious to make decisions. Suppose you have three choices on how to spend the weekend. Take a few minutes to review each choice. This sends your thoughts and feelings about the various options to your subconscious. It then weighs these against your memories, preferences, desires, and goals. Once you have thought over the alternatives, just go about your usual activities trusting that you will make a good decision. It may take a few hours, but the subconscious will come back with an answer. Suddenly you will know exactly what you want to do. It will feel perfect, just like remembering where you left your keys.
Autosuggestion can also help you solve problems and think of ideas. Suppose you want more money. You can plant your desire by picturing what you want: a large order log, a booked calendar, a happy sales staff, a big bank deposit, or whatever represents abundance for you. Once you have the cooperation of the subconscious, you will start to receive ideas.
When you pose a question to the subconscious it may take anywhere from one moment to a week, a year, or even longer to receive an answer. It depends on the complexity of the problem, how creatively you work on it, and how open you are to receiving an answer. If you have inner conflict over a particular issue, you may turn down good ideas from the subconscious. For example, if you are in a difficult situation but do not want to acknowledge your part in creating it, you may feel offended over good advice. If you have low self-esteem, the subconscious may offer a perfectly good plan of action, but you may reject it because you do not feel worthy or qualified.
The answer may also get blocked. The subconscious may try to tell you something, but your creative imagination is closed down and does not receive the message. You can open communication simply by freeing your mind from tension and worry. If you get involved in a relaxing, repetitive activity, such as taking a walk, gardening, jogging, or playing a game, it will give your subconscious mind the freedom to work on the answer. The subconscious may also try to send messages through dreams, so get plenty of sleep. Workaholics miss valuable input from the subconscious because they try to solve every problem through stressful mental effort and unrelenting labor. As you open yourself to inner guidance, you will learn to trust your subconscious to help you even more.
Napoleon Hill compared the brain to a radio set with broadcast and receiving capabilities. You broadcast your request to the subconscious through autosuggestion. When it receives and processes the message, it will send back a stream of ideas and inspiration. The receiving set is your creative imagination. If you free your creative imagination, it will pick up messages from the subconscious. This is a valuable connection. When you get information from the subconscious mind, write it down. Capturing a good idea on paper is the first step toward making it happen.
It may take time to learn how to use the powers of the subconscious mind, so be patient with yourself. Also, be sure you are in contact with the subconscious and not something else. The subconscious does not speak to you in sentences. If you hear voices in your head, most likely you are channeling your inner critic or some other aspect of your subconscious life. The inner critic is a part of you that means well but can be too harsh at times. For example, the inner critic may say, "You have to find a better job. How about applying for that opening in Department B." If this was an idea from your subconscious, it would not speak in language. You would simply be overwhelmed with a feeling that applying for the opening in Department B is a good idea. Hearing voices in your head is not a good sign, since it usually indicates a mental imbalance. Some people claim to receive valuable information from spirits or other sorts of internal voices, but often that information is distorted and unreliable.
Autosuggestion is Simple Psychology
Autosuggestion may seem supernatural, but it can be explained with ordinary psychology. If you focus on your goals and think about what you want (instead of what you don't want), things will start to happen. If you develop self-confidence, you will make decisions and take steps to reach your goals. Positive thinking comes from personal integrity and is the goal of all clinical psychology. Nearly every branch of modern psychology recognizes the importance of thinking patterns. The words "cognitive therapy" literally mean changing cognition, awareness, or thinking. The word gestalt, a popular type of therapy, means a collection of memories that are all connected through the same neurons. Gestalt therapists help their clients change how they feel about disturbing events in their lives.
Rational thinking is another branch of psychology that uses autosuggestion. Dr. Albert Ellis (1913 - 2007) developed Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), which is a cross between rational therapy and behavior modification. REBT teaches people to take responsibility for their irrational thoughts and replace them with effective new thoughts. The basic premise of rational thinking is that anxiety comes from what you think about a situation, rather than the situation itself.
In rational thinking, you test your thoughts to see if they are true. For example, you may feel like you have to control people and situations to prevent them from hurting you. That is irrational. Obviously, you cannot control every situation, so this cannot be the correct approach to happiness. You might think that you have to do everything right to be a good person, but if you examine this strategy you will see that it is irrational. You can never do everything perfectly, so it is an ineffective approach to life.
Freud and Jung: Their Views on the Power of Thought
All Western psychology grew out of the work of Sigmund Freud (1856-1939). The Austrian doctor studied medicine in the nineteenth century with a specialization in neurology and psychiatry. He started out using hypnotism to treat hysterical patients, but noticed that they usually felt better just talking about their problems. From this discovery, he formulated his therapeutic method of free association and talk therapy, in which the patient reclined on a couch and attempted to recall emotional episodes.
Freud theorized that all humans had prurient sexual desire hidden just below the level of direct consciousness and that unsatisfied desires were the basis of neurotic behavior. He detected abundant sexual images in his patients' dreams and much of his practice revolved around helping them come to terms with unacknowledged sexual desire. Although people of the Victorian Age found Freud's theories shocking, they accepted what he said. In 1900, Freud published The Interpretation of Dreams, which was widely acclaimed. Despite the controversies surrounding Freud, he established psychology as a science. He is still regarded as one of the most influential men of his time, perhaps second only to Charles Darwin.
Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961), a Swiss analytical psychologist, became a student of Dr. Freud in 1908 and the two men traveled to America in 1909 to lecture and accept honorary degrees. They had a big influence on one another, but when Jung published his Psychology of the Unconscious in 1912, their relationship ended abruptly. In the book, Jung revealed the areas where he disagreed with Freud, especially the theory that all subconscious activity revolved around repressed sexual desires. Jung hoped the relationship would survive, but after a curt exchange of letters, Freud turned his back on Jung and never communicated with him or spoke of him again.
Jung went through a period of soul-searching, which he described in his autobiographical Memories, Dreams and Reflections (1963). During this time, he developed the concept of the shadow as the dark side of the self that carries fears and guilt, which people unconsciously project on the world in the form of conflict with others. He also developed the concept of the animus and anima, inner male and female parts of the psyche. Rather than trying to unravel long analytical histories, as Freud believed was necessary, Jung sought to integrate the shadow and other split off parts back into the psyche to attain meaningful wholeness.
Jung expanded Freud's notion of the unconscious to include what he called the collective unconscious, made up of universal elements of human experience, or archetypes. According to Jung, all of humankind shares an unconscious life through dreams and myth. He believed that symbolic stories and images are sources of power because they evoke feelings of awe, mystery, and purpose. He said that experiencing the higher (transpersonal) Self could connect people with their inner depths and help them find answers hidden in their own darkness. This is one aspect of Jungian transpersonal, or depth psychology.
While Jung became an explorer on the vanguard of the New Age, Freud grew more pessimistic. Historian Charles van Doren said of Freud, "He was always a nineteenth century thinker, although he lived until 1939." In 1915 during the Great War in Europe, Freud published the article, "Thoughts for the Times of War and Death," shocking his readers with discussions about the cruelties of German soldiers. He said that men crave war because they have an innate psychological need to prove themselves in a life and death situation fighting an enemy. He portrayed Germans as barbarians who secretly wanted to throw off society's restraints and fight. Many people in Europe, especially Germany, wanted to believe that the world had progressed into a new era of civility, but Freud proclaimed homo homini lupus, "Man is wolf to man." His depressing diagnosis lead to a pessimistic outlook in Europe that civil society was an unattainable illusion. Throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, Western culture continues to struggle with the same issues that divided Freud and Jung.
After Freud's death, Jung went further down the path of new thought, delving into the medieval writings on alchemy. He collected the entire body of literature dating back to the sixteenth century and spent ten years studying and interpreting the books. The alchemists' work was to turn base metal into gold, but they said, Aurum nostrum non est aurum vulgi, "Our gold is not the common gold." The alchemists' gold was enlightenment and Jung felt that it was a perfect metaphor for his own depth psychology, which focused on turning psychic weaknesses into strengths.
The books were illustrated with woodblock prints of the alchemist's laboratory, and phantasmagoric images of dragons, gods, and higher spiritual realms. Jung said the symbols illustrated the psychological processes for understanding the contents of the subconscious mind. For example:
The dragon represents the shadow.
The god Mercury symbolizes the divine manifest in matter.
The symbol of the king and queen coincide with Jung's theory of uniting the inner male and female (anima and animus).
A mirror, mirrored images, and crosses represent the union of opposites.
The philosophers' stone, often depicted as a mandala, is the symbol of emotional completion.
Jung also studied numerology, synchronicity, dreams, and Eastern religions. Some people say he was a victim of magical thinking due to his bout with depression. Others say he was psychotic or that he wanted to be a guru figure. Jung is somewhat controversial because his views were so radical and so far ahead of his time. Despite these flaws, Jung made remarkable contributions to the field of psychology. His relentless inquiry into the mysteries of life made him a de facto leader of the New Thought Movement. He investigated it and gave it legitimacy in the field of clinical psychology.
Review
The brain records memories as neural patterns. The more you replay particular patterns, the more power they have to influence your present life.
The subconscious mind tries to tell you things through the dream language of symbols, story, and emotion.
The subconscious mind pays more attention to feelings than to words and does not use words the same way as the conscious mind. When you attempt to talk to it, speak with positive emotions and straightforward language.
You can use autosuggestion to program your subconscious mind to help you answer questions, make decisions, solve problems, and think of ideas. You can literally plant questions and desires in your subconscious mind.
The subconscious may send up good ideas that come in the form of hunches, intuitions, or creative insights. Pay attention to messages from the subconscious and write them down.
Learn to trust your subconscious mind to help you so you can stop depending on mental effort and stress.
Many modern forms of psychology use aspects of autosuggestion.
Freud and Jung were pioneers in psychology around the end of the nineteenth century. Freud established the notion of the subconscious and Jung expanded that notion to include the collective unconscious.
Freud presented a negative view of human nature and said that all neurosis was related to repressed sexual desire. Jung explored new thought ideas and gave them legitimacy in the field of clinical psychology.
Go to the workbook section to practice autosuggestion techniques - click here.
Go to Part Two: "Positive Mental Attitude" - click here
