MASTERS LESSON #4 How To Activate Your AUTOMATIC SUCCESS MECHANISM - To Move Toward Your Goals With Zero ResistanceMASTERS SESSION #4 How To Activate Your - AUTOMATIC SUCCESS MECHANISM To Move Toward Your Goals With Zero Resistance Welcome to this MASTERS Session on energizing the Automatic Success Mechanism. ‘What causes someone to be accident-prone, happiness-prone, relaxation-prone, or defeat-prone; physically awkward or clumsy; or frequently stressed out, tense and ‘on edge; or apparently, frequently unlucky and plagued with one problem after another? The easy answers are ‘genetics’ or ‘environment’; to believe that somehow these things are beyond individual control. But I have seen too many patients who have massively altered their self-images, expressed personalities and life experiences to believe that. Since the first publication of the original Psycho- (Cybernetics books I have received very lengthy, detailed leters from thousands of people who have very deliberately engineered remarkable transformations. So I stand here as a medical doctor, a scientist, anda lifelong student of the mind-body relationship, to tell you that whatever way you believe you are “prone”... accident prone, unsuccessful relationship prone, poverty prone, whatever....you can totally change that with Psycho-Cybemetics. If you now believe you cannot express yourself effectively and persuasively in front of groups or in high pressure situations, [know that you can change that around. If you are a weekend golfer who has suffered with a wicked slice for years, I happen to know for fact that you can ‘change that around. If you are a salesman prone to frequent slumps and big swings in income, I know you can change that for the better. Psycho-Cybemnetics is a SCIENTIFIC, practical approach to change. Go into the Theater Of Your Mind with me and let me show you a few quick clips on your mental movie screen, First, thousands of birds high in the sky, flying in formation, from the wintry cold north, migrating to the warmer climate of the south. Second, a cute little squirrel! born in June is busy gathering nuts. Next we see itis January, the ground is covered with snow and ice, but the little squirrel is, in his tree, eating the nuts he gathered in June, Third, we see an infant trying to pick up a shiny coin from a tabletop. His little hand zig-zags toward the coin, be clumsily tries to pick it up, and finally gets it. Next we see this same boy, at age six, easily and instantly picking up the coin from a tabletop with no wasted motion, no frustration. What can we leam from these little movies? The migrating birds and 401.the squirrel demonstrate that animals have a built-in SUCCESS mechanism. The birds are directed to the warmer climate without a compass and the squirrel gathers nuts even before it knows winter exists. These animals have not been entrusted with the privilege of programming their own Servo-Mechanisms. Their Creator pre-programmed their Servo-Mechanisms to insure their survival and success However, our Creator gave us the power to choose our own objectives and do our own programming. Unfortunately, most people squander this power of choice. ‘Think back to the child. His experience reveals exactly how our Servo-Mechanism. becomes a Success Mechanism. The infant picks up the coin in an awkward manner until he becomes successful in the performance of this act. This success is now registered in the Servo-Mechanism It can be recalled and used to repeat that, success over and over again, Right now, your Servo-Mechanism is very well stocked with this kind of information, waiting for recall and use. Itis also very well stocked with images of past failures. Those two can be recalled and will govern present day behavior and results. Itis simplistic but possibly useful to say that, with regard to a particular activity, what you recall controls what you do and experience now. History repeats itself - but you have a choice over which history gets the nod. Let's take an example: the salesman who has no trouble selling the small deals to small accounts, but loses his cool and composure when talking to a really important prospect about a potentially large contract. Today he is scheduled to meet with Mr. Big and make a presentation that could provide the biggest order of his career. This salesman must make a ‘choice: what images will he recall and focus on as he tosses and turns in his sleep the night before, as he gets dressed in the morning, as he drives to an appointment? He can certainly dredge upall the images of past failures, when his hands have gone clammy and his tongue has tied itself in knots. But he COULD choose to search his entire memory and recall those times - and they ARE there - when he DID perform effectively under pressure. He can go into his computer and pull up those times when he has been under great pressure - maybe when he interviewed for his job, when he coached his son's Little League team in the championship game, ‘when he faced up to bully in high school. IF he chooses to call up these images, he will be giving a new and different command to his Servo-Mechanism: hey, look, | can perform under pressure, and this is the kind of experience I want you to provide for me today, remember the very first time I spoke toa large audience. I was used to sitting in my familiar, comfortable office and talking with my patients one ata time, person NOTES 402.to person, I had given some medical lectures to small groups at universities here and abroad, and I had spoken about Psycho-Cybernetics to a few small church groups. But tis day I was to speak to3,000 people. The evening before my speech, as I began to prepare, I had a choice, didn’t I? I could immerse myself in worry and anxiety. I could say: Maltz, what makes you think you can hold the attention ‘of 3,000 people? I could recall my earliest failures, being called upon asa student + in class, and embarrassing myself. I could energize my Failure Mechanism. Or I could call up the image I had of getting a standing ovation from a hundred or so people at the last church where I had lectured. I could remind myself that I had spoken about this very subject to 3,000 people; I had just done it one ata time. I could focus on the task at hand. I could energize my Success Mechanism. So why do people so often relive the same disappointment and unhappiness over and over again? The person who loses his temper, gets in a fight with his boss and gets fired not once but three or four times in a row? The person who has a decent ‘golf swing when practicing but has his game come apart at the seams as soon as heis playing for real? The person who has what he wantsto say at the next company ‘meeting perfectly rehearsed in his mind but then clams up and sits there like a stump? When you understand how the Servo-Mechanism works, this bebavior becomes perfectly understandable. And, finally, controllable. Changeable. Let's take the first fellow - Mr. Loses His Temper And Loses His Job. If you could open up his mind and look at what's in there, here's what you would find. You would see that he has recalled these unpleasant incidents often enough they have become ‘permanent part of his self-image. He now sees himself as “Mr. Lose My Temper ‘And Lose My Job.” Next you would see that, in order to ease the pain ofthis terrible self-image, he has piled up lot of anger and resentment, blaming everybody from bis parents to his co-workers to his S.0.B. bosses for, quote, making him mad. He isa boiling cauldron of unhappiness just waiting to explode at the next provoca- tion. He has no question if he will again be fired from his job after a violent argument; he just wonders when. He may try to control all this with teeth-gritted willpower... saying “I won't lose my temper; I won't lose my temper; I won't lose ‘my temper - but that can’t last, because his willpower is incongruent with his self- image. Almost everything he thinks of energizes his Failure Mechanism. Some people are bullies, as their response to a fearful, insecure and threatened self- image. Some people attract problems as if magnetized, as their reaction to an inferior self-image, damaged by constant comparison with others. What happens to you in life, good and bad, is largely the result of your own reactions because of ‘your self-image. If you have external, life experience matters you would like to NOTEShave changed, the most direct and dramatic way of accomplishing that is to face up to your present day self-image. This is what Creative Psycho-Cybemetics and Zero Resistance Living is all about. ‘The exciting thing is that, except in severe mental illnesses that require profes- sional help, this all-important self-image is something we can change, We can change it ourselves, without the help of doctors, without attending outrageously ‘expensive seminars, without finding a“ guru”, even without too much difficulty For most people, Creative Psycho-Cybemnetics Mental Training Techniques provide the tools for transforming life experiences through building a new, strong self-image ‘The most fundamental of the assumptions that make Creative Psycho-Cybernetics possible 1. We have the power to alter our own self-images. Itis within our power to set realistic goals and take action to achieve them. 3. We must identify, acknowledge, and understand our shortcomings and weaknesses, but also lear to accept them as stimuli to improve and rise above them. 4. The internal changes in us will begin to take root when we realize the degree of control we can exercise. Discovery of self-control (vs."citcumstances beyond our control") is very exciting and stimulating, 5. Weccan choose what images we recall and construct to program the ‘Servo-Mechanism as a Success Mechanism. Tome, this is very exciting: what cannot be accomplished with willpower can be, by altering the self-image and reprogramming the Servo-Mechanism. ‘You see, the secret of all human frustration is that we largely manufacture all the resistance we experience in life and victimize ourselves. ‘To activate our automatic Success Mechanism we must also understand the Power of Habitforce Some habits are culturally determined. Almost everyone shares them in a given society. If you live in the U.S.A., for example, I can predict that, when you wake upin the morning one of the first things you dois brush your teeth. Most Americans NOTEShave this habit - and it’s a good one. Your breath smells better, your teeth are healthier and your mouth feels fresher. Some habits are more individual. A friend of mine, with whom I now and then debate a philosophical question, invariably gestures with his pipe when he makes a point. He has done this for as long as I can remember, If your habits are wholesome, you must be a happy person. If they are not, you should make every effort to change them - so that you can live a fuller, more vivacious life. And good habits are crucial to maintain your success mechanism. We hear so much about “bad habits”, we begin thinking of all habits as bad. But habits can be good, even inspiring, and the whole art of living is to overcome bad habits and rise above them to habits that make for a good life. ‘Think about the importance of habits. ‘Your habits govérn your life, and you need them to function inthis world. To give an elementary example, upon waking up on a weekday morning, you habitually brush your teeth, wash yourself, put on your clothes, button them, and eat some kind of breakfast. If you hadn't developed these and other socially acceptable habits, you would not be tolerated in your community Without the aid of habits, you would be slowed down to a walk in your daily activities. You would be in conflict with yourself about the simplest functions. ‘You would need a full 24 hours to get your day's work done and you'd have no time for sleep. If you had to stop and carefully, consciously think about everything you do, you simply couldn’t live. Imagine wanting a drink of water. Now you must think: how dol get water? Ob yes, I can gotothe sink. Now what doI put the water in, If] try cupping it in my hands, it dribbles out before I can drink much. Oh yes, cup - that'll work. Now, where will I find one of those? How do you hold it? Which side do you drink out of? And on and on. Obviously, we don’t do that. We have the thought - command to the Servo-Mechanism -“I want a drink of water.” Everything else is already automatic behavior. Itis habit that takes you over to the sink, sends your hand into the right cupboard, pulls out a cup, fills it but stops short of spilling. This is clearly a pretty useful habit to have. But, useful as some habits are, others may be destructive. The person who automatically smokes three packs of cigarettes every day has formed a habit that is his implacable enemy. The person who instantly leaps to bullyish argument and confrontation to resolve any difference, be it trivial or serious, is his own worst 405.enemy. The person trying to lose weight who habitually “cleans her plate” 1s in trouble ‘Tounderstartd how to manage our automatic success mechanism we need to know how habits are born ‘The child, growing up, learns ways of doing things from his parents and later from his friends. Soon these actions and thinking tools become partof him; they become ‘automatic, He repeats them again and again for months and years, perhaps for the rest of his life Habit patterns operate not only in an action, such as tying one’s shoelaces or driving a car. Our emotional reactions and feelings also depend on habit patterns. ‘You can develép the good habit of thinking of yourself as a worthwhile, construc- tive citizen with goals for every day of your life. Or you can think of yourself as of thinking is a habit. a failure, a person of no worth - and this w: Inthe book, The Road to Emotional Maturity, Dr. David Abrabamsen writes: “All of our habits, in fact, express something basic in us, since they reflect our ‘unconscious feelings. This is the reason why we do not think of the way we eat, talk, or walk, or the way we carry out our daily routine. Pavlov's simple experiments with dogs were the first proof that habits were the result of pre-conditioned responses to given stimuli, and that these habits would continue even when the situation no longer remained exactly the same. ‘Topprove this theory, he held outa piece of meat toa dog and rang a bell atthe very same moment. Atthe sight of meat, the dogs salivary glands began to work. Each time Pavlov repeated this procedure, the dog reacted in this same way. Eventually, no meat was offered - only the bell was rung. The dog's glands stil secreted the saliva, because his reaction had become automatic and spontaneous - it was unconscious. It would be a long time before this repetitive pattern of action could ‘be disassociated from the original factors that related to it, [And so we see that while we accept our habits as a definite part of us which was always there, when in reality they were acquired as we grew up. Just as Pavlov's dogs were conditioned, so are people. You can think of yourself asa winner or a loser; either way of thinking is a habit pattern that can jet-propel you toward life or force you to retreat intoa shell. Itcan add fuel to your automatic suecess mechanism or drain your tank. NOTESTknow of a girl with great talent as a pianist who got into the habit of thinking that she was incompetent. She told me of how, when younger, she used to perform brilliantly at the pianokeyboard, her ability outstanding. Yet if she made one small mistake, her mother would scold her severely. Her mother rarely acknowledged her talent but harshly criticized her every error. Before long, she found herself to be error-prone whenever playing with her mother in the room. Alone she could play flawlessly. As soon as her mother entered the room, a rush of images of her making mistakes and being scolded flooded into her mind, her Failure Mechanism responded, and she goofed up. Soon this traumatized behavior expanded to playing with any audience. She could still play flawlessly and beautifully in private, but as soon as anyone else entered the room, she tightened up and made mistakes. ‘Today she criticizes herself for the slightest mistake, putting her wonderful talent ina strat jacket. Her negative habit of extreme perfectionism has ruined a career that had every possible potential. Her empowered Failure Mechanism has robbed her of all enjoyment from playing the piano. Can you see that she has manufactured her own resistance? Can you see how that resistance to success and happiness has gotien bigger and stronger year after year? Now her self-image is that of a talented pianist who cannot perform in public, ‘crumbles under pressure, is error prone and likely to embarrass herself if she even ties to play. ‘Can she change all this around? Absolutely. Yes she can. How? By altering her self-image. A healthy self-image allows us to acknowledge our shortcomings and accept our mistakes, but it also encourages us to work to improve, to be better than our shortcomings, and reminds us that we are not the same as our mistakes, so that wwe can rise above them. It is extremely important to understand that you are not your mistakes. You do make mistakes, but that is not the same as being a mistake. Do you have a habit of shutting down your Success Mechanism and energizing your Failure Mechanism by recalling only the images of past frustrations, by incorporating only those images in your self-image? If you will face up to this punitive habit, you can free yourself from its vicious grip. Itis interesting that there is an opposite sort of way many people strangle their ‘Success Mechanism. Just as self-image of inferority, anxiety and sequential failure energizes the Failure Mechanism and shuts down the Success Mechanism, so does an unhealthy, exaggerated - and therefore fragile - ego. On one hand, an unhealthy self-image. On the other, an unhealthy ego. NOTES 407. 2046 2882846020220462020280280 820882222 DDODO Oe‘An unhealthy ego commands us to blindly ignore and stubbornly deny our shortcomings, so there can be no honesty in our relationships or self-improvement, and to blame others for our mistakes, so there can be no corrective actions. That throws our guiding success mechanism completely out of whack! It cannot correct, and get back on course if we insist no correction is needed. Often when I lecture about Psycho-Cybernetics, I wll spot a husband and wife sitting together in the audience, and one of them will be frequently giving the other digs in the ribs, as if to say “That's you he's taking about. You need to fix that.” This rib-digger desperately néeds an honest talk with him or herself, looking in the mirror and getting the ego out of the way. Success and happiness achieved through Psycho- Cybernetics means that you point your Success Mechanism in a certain direction, then work with it to make corrections, to zig zag, to overcome obstacles, in order to getthere, Ifyou refuse to acknowledge the obstacles, including the majority that are self-made, you shortcircut this mechanism and it cannot perform for you. ‘Also, the unhealthy ego makes us very unattractive and uninteresting to others, ‘making it difficult to achieve everything from simple cooperation to emotional fulfillment. A healthy self-image is extremely, magnetically attractive. In fact, should you be interested in the secret to being almost irresistibly attractive to the ‘opposite sex, 1 would tell you that it is mastery of your own self-image, comfort with your own self-image. As you might imagine, as a plastic surgeon, I have encountered many people who wanted to correct some physical deformity they believed was standing between them and sexual attractiveness of love relation- ships. The person obsessed with a nose that may be “too big”, pug”, “fat”, and so on as the explanation for their not attracting a lover is almost always {oo small”, wrong. Instead of looking in the mirror and seeing that defect, they need to look inside their self-image and ask: why are MY eyes instantly drawn to the one thing about my physical appearance that I do not like instead of all my other features which are attractive orhandsome? THAT isa mostinteresting question. Anyway, ‘what we strive for with Creative Psycho-Cybemnetics is not superiority, although we do strive to wipe out inferiority. We strive for a healthy self-image that can respond positively to reality “Negative feedback” warns us that if we are not living properly we must change. ‘As with missiles and other mechanical homing devices, this principle is utilized to adjust our course. When we do not get the outcome we desire, we should ask: why? ‘The salesman who complains about his stupid, cheap or impoverished customers has his unhealthy ego in the way of corrective action. The husband who can’t seem to get through an evening at home without an argument and calls his wife a “bitch”has his suocess mechanism blocked by an unhealthy ego. Why is it so important to get the success mechanism unblocked? - because we are engineered for success. Man came into this world to succeed, not to fail. We were created by a power greater than ourselves which wishes none of usto fail. This has been proven tome, tomy satisfaction, virtually every day of my life ‘So, what can you do to energize this success mechanism? That is the $64,000.00 question. That is the key to happiness, accomplishment, fulfillment, whether you are an athlete, businessman, student. Ihave given you some of the answers. You can identify the success mechanism-strangling images that live close to the surface of your self-image and flood your mind at the most inopportune moments, then use the specfic techniques we've discussed to replace those images with more appropriate, currently accurate and useful ones. You can get your ego out of the way and see yourself as you really are - with kind eyes, certainly - but with a sincere willingness to work harder on you than on anything else, to secure your strengths, torrise above your weaknesses, to be, in essence, a better person. You are already a very worthy person. Every individual, no matter how troubled in the past and ‘uncertain in the present, has within him the seed of greatness You are great. But you can be greater. You can improve in actuality and you can improve your self- image. ‘The other thing you can do to spark the success mechanism isto furnish t with very sharply defined, clearly pictured, meaningful, worthwhile, inspiring goals. A vague objective will not suffice. It must be a real goal, not a matter of wishful thinking. Everybody WISHES for an almost endless lst of things, but your servo- mechanism is not Santa Claus. You cannot just hand ita listof gifts you want, then forget all about it and have these gifts magically appear under your tree. If it was this easy, nothing would have any value. You must work with your imagination and faith in order to activate and motivate your servo-mechanism. You must ‘exercise and strengthen and expand the self-image. And you must listen to your guide, accept your mistakes and use them as stimuli, to rise above them. ‘You must understand that your great automatic mechanism operates in terms of objectives. Give ita specific goal, and this guidance system will steer you toward it, But this goal must be visualized so sharply that your brain and nervous system accept it as real. Remember this: Your Servo-Mechanism cannot differentiate between an imag- ined experience and a real one. What you picture as true becomes data fed into the mechanism and is acted upon. Thus, if you image failure vividly, it assumes areality to your nervous system, which will give Gut failure-type responses, Similarly, if you see yourself as successful, you are on your way to success. So, here are five simple actions you can take to wake up and energize your success ‘mechanism: 1, Formulate worthwhile goals to feed into your guidance system. This process of goal setting is very important, and it is also important that you do not confine yourself to lifetime objectives but set daily goals, too, so that each day can stand on its own as a vital entity, as atime span in which you can achieve objectives for which you feel enthusiasm 2. Concentrate on results, Of course, the means are significant also, but you must ‘understand that the in-built automatic mechanism will supply the means when you specify the goal. 3. Lose vour dread of temporary failure. Everybody makes mistakes and suffers setbacks. If your fear of failure inhibits your setting of goals, you fail before you start 4, Rely on trial and error. This is how you lear skills and establish successes, Eventually, you learn to forget your mistakes and you assimilate your successful patterns into habits that will guide you toward added success and happiness. 5, Trust your great Creative Mechanism. What | mean by “trust” is that you must develop a faith that if you initiate a low of the correct type of data, this mechanism will work effectively upon it without conscious effort on your part. If you try to force it, you will jam up the mechanism and it will not function properly. ‘As a medical doctor, I have watched many people struggle with unhappiness with their weight. This sends many people on sporadic diets from which they emerge, hungrier than ever, to knife-and-spoon theis way back to their pre-diet weight or even more. Nothing demonstrates the inability of willpower to override the self- mage more clearly than the millions of Americans who go from one fad diet to the next, losing weight sometimes, but always putting it back on. Take a rubber band and stretch it out with your fingers. Then let it go. What does it do when you let it go? It snaps back to its true size. This is what happens to people who try to run past their self-images. They may stretch out fora litte while. But they WILL snap back to their true size, as defimed by their self-image. - ‘The answer to unhappiness about your weight lies in dealing with unhappiness ‘more than in dealing with weight. People whose lives are fulfilling do not eat toouch, they feed themselves with goals that are worthwhile and activities that are exciting. They nourish themselves with accomplishment, with happy relation- shipsto other people and with the feeling that each day is an adventure. They relax ‘with themselves and sleep the sleep of happy people. If you eat too much, and are overweight, your overeating habit is a result of an emotional grievance, conscious or buried. You overeat to make up for what you feel you are missing or have missed at some time in your life. You are trying to soothe all your frustrations with food, and it can’t be done. Keep listening and I'll «give you some hints on how to “think yourself thin” Now I'm going to get down to brass tacks and tell you how you can change your habits that strangle your success mechanism. Here’s what you do: 1, Self-awareness. What ARE your habits? If we are talking about weight loss, what are your harmful eating habits? Do you automatically head for the snack ‘cupboard or refrigerator after talking with your troubled relatives on the phone? Doyou snack while watching TV? If you are worried? Do you eat unhealthy foods to celebrate, because “you deserve a break"? Do not berate yourself for these habits. You are a mistake maker but also a mistake breaker. Now you are going to replace these harmful habits with different, helpful habits. 2. Believe that vou can change your habits, Have faith in your ability to control yourself and to bring about changes in your basic makeup. Remember that everything begins with the self-image. What image do you have of yourself now, in terms of being a disciplined person? A person of strong moral fabric? Of being a healthy person? If these images are negative or weak, you are going to very deliberately alter those aspects of your self-image, so that your goals can be congruent with your self-image. And count on this as absolute fact: do that and you WILL succeed at discarding old, unhealthy habits and replacing them with new, healthy habits, Congruency between goals and self-image eliminates ALL resistance, inner and outer. When you achieve this congruency, you become the giant heated knife cutting effortlessly through even frozen hard sticks of butter. ‘Stop and picture that. See yourself morphing into a giant silver knife that has been warmed in the oven. See all the obstacles, handicaps, past frustrations you possess formed into a stick of butter, hardened to the texture of a brick in the freezer. Now see yourself slice through that stick of butter as easily as waving your hand in the air. No resistance! 3. Fully understand the physical consequences of your habits so well that you're NOTES au.willing to invest effortin discarding them -so greatis your desire to change. Face the reality that being overweight puts a strain on your vital organs, that alcohol undermines your tissues, that overwork drives you into premature death, and so forth. When a patient who has been an unhealthy overeater and a sedentary person for decades is confronted by a stem, authoritative, forceful doctor who tells him straight out, after his physical exam, that unless he changes his eating habits and exercises every day, he is going to DIE, he changes. Until that moment, he does not Butthen he does. You need to create this moment, this realization that turns ‘yur ife around, Immerse yourself in education and information, so that you fully ‘grasp the severe, life-shortening harm your habits are doing to you and so that you Team all you can about healthier alternatives, Go and visit an old folks’ nursing hhome where there are many pitifully weak, sick, debilitated people, with virtually no quality of life, warehoused, waiting to die, Look at those people. Many are in the condition they are in because of very unhealthy habits. Call up THAT movie when you reach for the faty, preservative-filed plate of junk food 4, Focus on replacement habits. If an argument with your mother sends you right to the ice cream in your freezer, there are two things you can immediately do to remedy this situation. First, stop buying ice cream and putting law now it im the freezer! Put a less destructive low calorie or low fat product there, like yogurt. Or Jell-O inthe refrigerator. Butsecond, better yet, start new habit. After ‘your next argument with her, immediately walk out your front door and take a brisk walk around the block. Determine to burn off your frustration. Beyond all that, Jess instant, but equally important, is to analyze the patterns of conversation and behavior that take place between you and your mother-in-law, and alter the pattern ‘You.can’ tchange her but you can change you. You can strengthen your self-image so the need to bite back, to be defensive will disappear. Direct yourself toward positive habit patterns that will make your life rewarding. Set new goals for yourself. Get the feel of success in constructive activities that will bring out your ability and your enthusiasm. ‘5. Find something satisfying which will comfort you during the temporary period ‘of pain that you will go through while you are depriving yourself of a prop that has sustained you for a long time. While you are replacing old habits with new ones, and an old self-image with a new one, you will experience difficult times. This is ‘a wonderful opportunity to also give yourself the benefit and fulfillment of an entirely new use of time. A hobby such as photography or gardening or piano playing might help wean you away from, say, smoking too much. Physical ‘exercise has proven to work exceptionally well for this purpose \s a distracting NOTESand fulfilling new activity Never underestimate the power of habit. When you set out to install a new habit ~ say exercising - you will experience an enormous amount of resistance. Your ‘mind will resist. Your body will resist. Your family and friends may even offer up resistance. But if you can sustain this new habit for 21 consecutive days, the resistance begins melting away. You can help yourself stick out those 21 days by, "first, forming and acting out the new babit ONLY in the Theater Of Your Mind for ‘a week or two before even starting to do it physically. Second, by doing it at the same time, in the same place, in the same way every day - just like a habit. 6. Discover the basic problems that drove you to excesses. What is your frustration? Do you undervalue yourself? Why re you such an enemy to yourself? Come to grips with these problems. Realign your thinking; accept your failures and rediscover yous triumphs So, tote allthis together: take the immediate actions you can take, to take away ‘temptation and assist in replacing an undesirable habit with a desirable one but also take the longer, more patient path of honestly addressing the core reasons for your unhealthy habits; self-awareness; changes in the self-image. Finally, do not forget about the powers of your own imagination. Let us say that you are, by habit, a consumer of chocolate candy. A lot of it. Stress - you reach for chocolate. Bored - you reach for chocolate, Tired - you reach for chocolate, ‘You have accepted this habit as who you are. But you are not this habit. You can ‘gointo the Quiet Room in Your Mind, and construct a movie to show in the Theater of Your Mind of yourself as the kind of person who PREFERS healthy snacks. The kind of person who PREFERS, loves and relishes a fresh, juicy apple, a tangy orange or more exotic fruits like kiwi and pineapple chunks. In your movie, you will shop for, choose, prepare and enjoy these snacks. You can actually INSTALL A PREFERENCE into your servo-mechanism this way. Do you havea bicycle in your garage? Go out tothe garage, get on the bicycle, put up the kickstand, put both feet up on the pedals and try to stand still. It's very difficult. Virtually impossible. That bicycle was engineered to go forward. In a very similar way, you were engineered to continually move toward desireable goals. When you are not doing that, you are susceptible to bad habits, frustration, depression or anger. Your self-image shrinks to the size 6f a pea. If you want to energize your success mechanism, you must be looking forward and moving forward toward goals.41a. PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS STUDY GUIDE MASTERING YOUR AUTOMATIC SUCCESS MECHANISM Here is the secret to the Zero Resistance Living method. We differentiate between the person we are and the person we would like to become. ‘The Person We Want To Become ‘Zero Resistance Living plan involves: @ Self-awareness @ Sclf-understanding © Self-honesty Strengthen Our Self-Image Remove Old To Achieve Emotional Scars Congruency With Our Goals NOW iste ime to re-commit yourself to become the person you want to be.415. MENTAL TRAINING EXERCISE #73 "HERE IS HOW I HAVE BEEN MANUFA\ ING | MY OWN RESISTANCE........" (You may photocopy this page for future use.) 2 8 OO O28 28 @ © 6 O004629292206804802008060024466 A442.416. MENTAL TRAINING EXERCISE #74 WHAT I WILL DO TO REMOVE THIS RESISTANCE FROM MY LIFE RESISTANC) ACTIONS: (You may photocopy this page for future use.)Understanding..... IMPORTANT NOTES In the CREATIVE PSY CHO-CYBERNETICS 6-WEEK COURSE you were given very specific Psycho-Cybemetics Techniques for your use in Habit Replacement. This Week, ‘you might want to pull those Techniques out and use them to do a Habit Replacement. GOALS In the CREATIVE PSY CHO-CYBERNETICS 6-WEEK COURSE you were given instructions, Forms and Exercises for use in establishing goals. This Week you might ‘want to retum to those Forms, and prepare up-dated Forms.'PREPARE TO CONCENTRATE Virtually all ving creatures have the capacity to “concentrate,” or focus attention. Watch a cat concentrate on a bird in an open ficld, eyes and ears focused utterly on its prey, every muscle rigid, awaiting the moment when the bird begins to concentrate on ex- tracting a worm and neglects its own safety. Even houseflies “concentrate,” and you can prove it to yourself the next time one lands on your arm. If you try to swat it quickly, chances are youl miss. Wait until the insect has found an appetiz- ing portion of your anatomy and begins concentrating on dinner, brushing its hind legs together. Then, whack! Children have a wonderful capacity to concentrate, as all parents know. Call Joey for dinner when he's engrossed in play in the next room, and he simply won't hear you. Talk to him while he's con- centrating on a television program and he won't even know you're in the room. Every day we see examples of supreme concentration. In base- ball, hitters concentrate so intently on a ball’s progress from pitcher to home plate that in a fraction of a second they coordinate count- less nerve impulses to bring a bat in contact with a hundred-mile- per-hour ball. When concentration wanders, the batter is left flailing the air. We watch a field goal kicker as he closes his mind to sixty thou- sand screaming fans, the score, the other players, and focuses his entire existence on putting the ball through the uprights. One kicker, Ray Wersching, with the San Francisco 49ers, concentrates so deeply on “reliving” the physical coordination of his perfect kicks that, from the moment he steps on the field, he refuses to even look at the goalposts. The yard markers tell him how long the kick must be, and the player holding the ball indicates the direction. Wersching’s Job, as he sees it, is to concentrate on executing a perfect kick. Get- ting through the goalposts is the balls job, and Wersching refuses to weaken his concentration by worrying about that.For A Better Understanding. Next time you watch a great dramatic performer like Ingrid Bergman, Maureen Stapleton, or Alec Guinness in 2 motion picture, try to imagine what's really happening: Half a dozen cameramen, directors and their assistants, prop and costume people, stage and floor.managers, technical consultants, other performers all milling around a tiny set with cardboard walls in a big, dingy building not unlike an airplane hangar. Cold white lights glare on the actors; mi- ‘rophones dangle above them. Yet, when the director yells, “Action!” miracle of concentration unfolds. ‘The performers become oblivious to the confusion around them. So deep is their concentration that they literally become the charac- ters they portray. The circumstances of the script become their cir- cumstances, and the passions they reveal are the genuine passions ‘that prow out of their concentration. In all the manifestations of illusion and mind power that we will discuss hereafter, from ESP to suggestion, concentration is the key. 1 suspect that to a great extent the gift of telepathy is the capacity for profound concentration. My performances demand nonstop con- centration, beginning an hour before showtime, and the effort is so ‘exhausting that I lose as much as three pounds during a three-hour ‘concert and must eat five meals a day to regain the weight. ‘One reason for the great energy output is that I must concen- trate on many details with equal intensity at the same time. Here's what I mean: Some years ago, I was challenged to duplicate an escape that ‘Houdini had made famous. I'm a mentalist, not an escape artist, but the idea was challenging and so I practiced for several months. It was to be done on live television and before an audience, and I wanted to be certain I could do it within a very restricted time limit. ‘The night of the performance I discovered that Td failed to take {nto consideration several factors. One was the heat. Td never re- hearsed under thousands of watts of glaring spotlights, and there on the stage, with my hands cuffed behind my back, cramped into 1 fetal position in a small canvas sack that was sealed with a metalFor A Better Understanding..... bar and padlocks, the heat quickly became almost suffocating. It came close to wrecking my concentration. A second problem was that the police officer who volunteered to handcuff me had done it with a vengeance. He'd practically cut off the circulation, and by the time I had slipped free of the hand- cuffs my wrists were bloody. Pain, I assure you, threatens concen- tration. Finally, the presence of the audience, especially those who doubted that I would succeed and the few (there are always a few) who actually hoped that I would fail, was a distracting factor. Negative feelings in an audience affect me like one violinist playing off-key in a large or- cchestra. ‘The escape was a success, but when the curtain was pulled aside, the audience saw a Kreskin that must have resembled a half-drowned mouse. My clothes were soaked with sweat, my wrists injured, and my hair disheveled. And when we went to a commercial break, I simply sat on the floor, stunned. ‘The physical challenge explains only a part of the exhaustion 1 felt. A great deal was caused by the concentration required. Yet T had to continue to concentrate for at least an hour more, until ‘the program was over. I concentrate on the “messages” various mem- bers of the audience are sending. Someone is very happy, fondling a ring. The color red. A dress. Somewhere in the audience, I realize, a woman wearing a red dress has just become engaged or married. The color blue. Sky, water. Someone is looking forward to an ocean voyage. I visualize the beard. He's thinking about the boat. It has two sails. file these messages away for use later in the concert Tim also concentrating on traditional sensory input, particularly sights and sounds. Supernormal awareness of sensory stimuli is known. as hyperesthesia, of which Tl have much more to say later. This highly developed ability to concentrate on our ordinary senses might actually explain much “telepathic” communication. For example, some years ago, when I was performing at the Las Vegas Hilton, I heard a soft, continuous clicking in the audience. Jt wasn’ the tinkling of coins, or the dull sound of wood, but theFor A Better Understanding... lacking of plastic gaming chips. Finally, when the noise—for it be- came that to me—threatened to intrude on my overall concentra- tion, I stopped, walked to the edge of the stage, and addressed a ‘man in the third row who was playing with the chips in his pocket. “Your mind is on placing a bet. You feel lucky. Perhaps you should act on it.” He left immediately. I don't know whether he won or lost, but I know my concentration improved—and the audience thought I'd read his mind. It was at the Embers Club in Indianapolis that I decided some ‘years ago to find out just how sensitive my hearing really was. Bob Kaytes, maitre d’, cooperated. Every night for a week, Bob or a staff member dropped an object to the floor during a performance, and if the crowd was relatively quiet, making no more than the usual sounds of breathing, glasses clinking, and soft murmuring, I could detect the sound. ‘Untimately, I found that through concentration I could actually detect the sound of a needle dropping to the floor. Since then, I've done the same in large auditoriums—but I confess I haven't a chance if the floor is carpeted. ‘And now to one of the most important lessons you'll learn in ‘these pages—my personal method of achieving intense concentration. Don't just read this chapter—practice it. Then, keep on practicing it. And all the rest will fall into place, Step One: Clear the Landscape ‘Sometimes I really enjoy cranking up the Mercedes and driving to a distant city where I'l perform. I prefer it to flying if the distance isn’ too great and the directions are simple. What I dont like is confusion. The Baltimore Beltway is a per- fect example—six-lane expressways, traffic merging and exiting left and right, speeding trucks blocking the road signs. During my first experience on that road, driving from Harrisburg to Washington, D.C, I followed what I thought was the main highway only to dis-For A Better Understanding... cover I had entered another expressway and was heading toward ‘New York City. ‘The same thing can happen with thoughts. In the clutter of our lives the mental landscape gets confusing. Ideas, problems, decisions come and go from every direction. Distractions lurk everywhere, and our minds continually drift off in the wrong direction. The first step in concentration is to clear the landscape. Letting the Body Go You've probably heard the term holism. Dorland’s Mustrated Med- ical Dictionary defines it as “the conception of man as a function- ing whole.” It means that the body and mind are not separate enti- ties, but the body in some ways is actually a part of the mind, and vice versa, Cold, damp weather makes us emotionally moody be- cause our bodies are uncomfortable. On the other hand, our emo- tional problems can cause serious physical illness, including intoler- able pain. These are called psychosomatic or body-mind ailments— but even that term implies two distinct entities. Failure to recognize the oneness of body/mind is probably the major reason that some people can't relax completely. Tension in the body is tension in the mind. You can’ sleep if your muscles are tense, and you cant concentrate. For that reason—to relax the muscles of my body—I jog a couple of miles every morning. And before every TV show or concert I take a brisk one-mile walk. That walk is as important as any other aspect of my preparation. I can actually fee! the tension subsiding. Te usually begins in the muscles around my neck and shoulders. Then the liquid, flowing feeling seeps into those stubborn back muscles. My arms begin to feel more limp, and my legs move with an easy, flowing rhythm. Once the body is relaxed, I can detach myself from distractions and build up an attitude of deep introspection. Frankly, I don't know how I'd survive had I not mastered the art of relaxing, for the sche- dule can be torturous. In 1978, the last year I kept such records, I presented 613 performances around the world. In a four-monthperiod that year I flew an average of twenty-three flights every ten days, making several connections with only seconds to spare, my luggage often two or three flights behind. (The fine art of luggage- losing has been perfected by some airlines.) ‘The rigors of such a schedule have been the downfall of many great performers. A well-known comedian once told me, “I've cut my bookings in half—I just can’t stand the pressure.” An expensive ‘Psychiatrist had tried to help him relax his mind, but it didn’t work, I wasn’ surprised to hear that. Relaxation—clearing the mental landscape—staris with the body. The four primary muscle tension groups of the body are the legs, abdomen, back, and neck/shoulders. And next to an hour-long walk or twenty-minute jog, the best way to relax them is through stretch exercises. ‘Sitting Toe Touch Sitting on the floor with your legs outstretched, feet together, reach for your toes. If you aren’ very flexible, you probably won't be able to do this at first. Don’ strain, just reach. After about a minute, those stubborn, tense muscles in your back and lower calf will begin to relax. As they do, lean farther forward. If you're particularly stiff, you won't reach your toes the first day, perhaps not the second. ‘When you do, you'e halfway to the final goal, which isto touch your forehead to your knees. Long before that you will feel the ben- efits of stretching and relaxing those back, shoulder, and leg muscles. Back Bend Starting in a kneeling position. Siowiy and carefully lean back. The object is to touch the back of your head to the floor. This must bbe done carefully and cautiously, for the quadriceps (upper thigh muscles) of most people are not used to being stretched, and a fast ‘movement can tear them. This exercise is wonderful for stretching thigh muscles and those of the chest, neck, and abdomen.For A Better Understanding. Head Rotation The most obvious sites of tension in most people are the muscles of the shoulder and back that extend into the neck. We just don't sive these muscles much exercise, and the result is that when they grow tight with tension they remain that way. The best exercise for stretching and relaxing them is the old-fashioned head roll. Drop your bead sideways toward your left shoulder. (Unless you're more flexible than most, your head wont touch the shoulder.) Let it droop there, allowing the muscle to stretch. Roll your head back, slowly and gently, careful not to tear tight muscles, After a stretching period, roll it over the right shoulder and pause. Finally, let it hang forward, Repeat the exercise five times, then reverse the direction. Progressive Relaxation ‘When you've attained flexibility in the major muscle groups, the next step is progressive physical relaxation. It’ the most effective method ‘of muscle relaxation I know, yet it takes only a few minutes. Progressive relaxation is based on the simple fact that you can’. consciously relax a muscle unless you're consciously aware that it's tense. When you fee! the tension in the muscle, you can deliberately relax it, Make your hand into a fist. Clench the fist for three seconds, then slowly relax it and let your hand and arm go limp. Repeat it twice, then do it twice with the other hand. ‘That exercise was introductory only, to give you an idea of what ‘welll be doing with all the major muscles of your body. Now, close your eyes. Concentrate on the muscles of your forehead, tightening them as much as you can. Don't cheat—make them really tight. Maintain the tension for three seconds, then let those muscles relax. Move on to your jaw muscles, then your neck, shoulders, arms, chest, torso, buttocks, les, feet. If you don’t feel a dramatic release of tension as you relax the muscles, repeat the exercise—and continue the repetitions, concen-trating on both the tension and relaxation, until the muscles do dra- matically relax. ‘And you will relax. Much of the muscle tension we endure results from our not being consciously aware of the tension. Many of us 80 through each day with our muscles unconsciously contracted in Preparation for battle, but since most of our enemies in modern life are emotional and psychological, we never get the opportunity to ‘use those muscles and then relax them. Instead, they're in a chronic state of tension, and only by exaggerating that tension can we be- ‘come aware of it and allow them to relax. Letting the Mind Go ‘Now that you've leamed to relax your body in a few brief minutes, youte ready for deep mental relaxation. Start by getting comfortable —sitting in a soft chair or lying down, Avoid crossing legs or arms or putting your body in a position in which the circulation will be 1. Can you recall a time and place of perfect serenity? Most of us can if we try—gazing up at the stars on a warm summer night, lying on a beach while the waves splash a few feet away, resting near the trunk of a tall tree in a towering forest. Pethaps you can recall being a child in your mother’s comforting arms, falling asleep in her lap. ‘Whatever that scene of perfect peace, recall it now. This soene wil become the passkey to deep and rapid relaxation for you, so its worth your trouble to spend time selecting the most effective one you can. Or if you have a good imagination, you might wish to create your idea! scene, one that holds even deeper tranquil- ity than you've ever known—drifting on a rolling sea, lounging in a candlelit room where you hear only quiet music. Now, withous effort, without engaging your will, allow that scene to grow clear in your mind. Please note that I'm using a passive construction here—allow it to happen to you. Don’ try to force the ‘scene or you'll be working your mind instead of relaxing it. Allow yourself to dissolve into the scene. See the colors. Smell 060006004660006004600006002900060600402040%8424048the pine needles, Listen to the waves or crackling fire or music. Feel the sand or your mother’s arms or the carpet or the earth beneath you. With practice you'll be able to reach that special place in your mind in thirty seconds to a minute, and once there, the outside world wont distract you from it. 2. Now youtte ready to empty your mind completely. Think of 4 passive, tranquil color. Light blue and pale green work best for ‘me. Perhaps you will prefer gray or a soft beige. Allow the vision of your tranquil place to dissolve slowly in the color until there is nothing . . . nothing but that hue in your mind. 3. Slowly inhale deeply, then let the air flow out until your diaphragm is completely relaxed. Repeat two more times, and when ‘you exhale for the third time, allow your entire mind and body to ‘g0 completely imp. ‘You're now totally relaxed. You've cleared the landscape of the distracting traffic, junctions, merging lanes, and exit ramps. You're ready to concentrate, to re-create the one highway along which you ‘want your mind to travel. But before we go on, let me show you what you've already achieved. First, you've come to grips with the everyday stress that is part and parcel of modern society. While stress is essential to all forms of life, and some people flourish under it, there is no question that millions die every year from the high blood pressure, heart di- sease, and ulcers that are the by-products of our stressful life-styles. To combat stress with alcohol, tranquilizers, and other drugs seems to be on the order of treating a headache by dashing your skull against a brick wall. The solution is likely to be more destrue- tive than the problem. Every time I step out on a stage I face three hours of exhausting, withering stress, but I have not once taken a pill or a drink to relax. In fact, my staple beverage is grapefruit Juice, and an occasional cup of tea. Afier a couple of weeks of practice with the relaxation technique, youll be able to shed pressures in from two to five minutes, take a thoroughly restful vacation in the most tranquil environment you know, and return with enthusiasm and alertness, unimpaired by drugs or alcohol.Some people reach a point in total relaxation where they feel completely detached from their bodies. In fact, I believe that this sensation of disembodiment through relaxation has caused some peo- ple to imagine that they have actually separated from their bodies, or had what is known as an out-of-body experience. I consider the OBE a sincere misunderstanding, a figment of the imagination. If nothing else, it's a beneficial minivacation—and the price is right. What else can total relaxation do? A young college student sits facing a TV-like screen. From the metal cuffs around his arms, wires extend to a shiny box with gauges and knobs. Dr. Neal Miller of Rockefeller University in New York stands by, along with a few as- sociates. The room is silent, the young man totally relaxed. After a few moments the machine with the gauges and knobs makes a bleeping sound. The dark screen brightens to reveal a daz- ling landscape, a brief reward for the young man who has somehow achieved what has long been considered impossible: he has lowered his blood pressure, slowed his heart rate and even reduced the eleo- trical activity of his brain, achieving the conscious control of invol- ‘untary body functions after achieving complete relaxation. Serious practitioners of yoga have accomplished “visceral learn- ing” for thousands of years, and a few masters have slowed their ‘metabolic rates so dramatically that they have survived burial in a coffin for several days—the ultimate in total relaxation. Personally, I have never tried being buried in a coffin—it's just not among my top ten favorite ways to spend a weekend, But in a matter of minutes I can lower my wrist pulse from the normal seventy-two beats per minute to between fifteen and eighteen as I completely relax. ‘And at that party I described in the beginning, you too will decrease your heart rate by at least ten beats a minute. During the first, or threshold, pulse measure, think of something emotionally stimulating. Then request silence, spend thirty seconds establishing. your tranquil scene and another thirty seconds allowing it to dissolve to clear the landscape. Stay there, in the relaxed world of quiet color, allowing everything to slip away, oblivious of the time, the guests, the room.For A Better Understanding. Only when the guests announce in amazement that you've suc- ceeded will you return. Image Integration I do not exaggerate the importance of the remainder of this chapter when I say it is the key to all that you wish to accomplish through reading this book. Virtually every effect, from simple illusion to “foretelling” the future and being attuned to the subtlest messages, will require both a higher degree and a higher quality of concentra- tion than most people ever demand of themselves. Yet effective concentration doesn't require superior intelligence. Ordinary people can accomplish it with ease once they understand the objective and technique. I call my approach to concentration image integration, and for good reason: we enhance our concentration not by an act of will (remember the skeptic whose willpower only served to defeat him?) but by bringing together as many sensory “images” as possible into a single penetrating focal point of thought. If that sounds confusing, let me put it this way. One night your neighbor hears a stirring on the lawn. He turns on an outdoor flood- light, but because the rabbit that prompted his concern remains mo- tionless, the neighbor is unable to distinguish it from all the equally lighted surroundings. You, on the other hand, have money to burn. You like to watch rabbits on your lawn. So you've installed a sensitive electronic grid beneath the grass. Now every time a rabbit hops on the grid, half a dozen spotlights blink on, each trained directly on the same spot. The surrounding lawn is in total darkness, but the rabbit is bathed in light from every angle. Preposterous as the analogy is, it makes the point. Most people concentrate in floodlight fashion—they're unable to eliminate the peripheral and focus on the essential. ‘When you're done reading and practicing this chapter, you'll concentrate differently. Just as the rabbit, not you, triggered the light- 428.For A Better Understanding... ing on your lawn, so the subject on which you need to concentrate will trigger the images that will focus your full attention, while leav- ing the surrounding landscape in darkness. ‘When I speak of “images,” I'm talking about those of the senses: sight, sound, smel, taste, and touch. There are other senses, perhaps, the “extra” senses of so-called ESP. But I've never seen evidence that they're involved in concentration—and I suspect that what are con- sidered extra senses are really unusual applications of the five basic senses. Prepare to Concentrate 1 was in Reno, Nevada, in 1977, when a University of Nevada coed ‘was murdered. The police had four eyewitnesses, but each had only a moment to glance at the killer as they passed in a moving car. ‘None could give a useful description. ‘The authorities asked me to help. I felt that if I could get each ‘witness to concentrate, to exclude all the peripheral sights and sounds and to zoom in, so to speak, on the Killer's face, there might be a chance that at Ist one could give a clear description. In fact, three of the four had such vivid recall that they described the suspect in precisely the same way and detail Here's the exercise I led them through. It is the exercise you must practice regularly—once or twice daily if possible—for at least 20 minutes. Step One. Follow the total relaxation techniques until your mind is empty, its landscape a soft and passive shade of green, blue, or gray throughout. Step Two. Focus on a preselected scene or object, one that you can associate with each of the five familiar senses—but not the scene you use for total relaxation. Include movement in the scene if possible. In the next chapter Tl show you how vivid is our recall of that scene. I once knew 1 fellow s0 open to the suggestion of movement that we could blind- 22 OS @ © © @ @ 6 C @ @ @ OC O 00 222 6 0282S CO 06 0480400400668086| For A Better Understanding... fold him, place him on a rug, tell him that the rug was being pulled out from under him and watch him react. He would “fee!” the move- ment, adjust his balance to compensate and fall forward—where we would be waiting to catch him. Dont force the scene or object—allow it to come to you. Let’s assume you've chosen an orange. Against the void of landscape, you'll see the form take shape. The skin will glisten. Is there a drop of moisture on it? The orange color is rich and warm, the skin punctuated with pores. Is there a blue produce stamp on the side? Is the fruit perfectly round? ‘You'll smell the tangy aroma. It might make your mouth water. You'l feel the skin, so different from an apple's, rough and rubbery. Toss it in the air. Feel the weight of it as it lands in your hand. Feel it, open it. Apples go crack when the halves are pulled apart. The orange makes more of a squish sound. ‘The smell is richer now. Taste it. It tastes like it smells, doesn’t ittangy, sweet? ‘You can follow the same procedures with a scene, incorporating the motion of a moving car, your own arms and legs pumping while you walk. A scene allows for much more input, and if you give ‘yourself just a few extra minutes—tight now—you can have an ex- perience that will perhaps amaze you. Be patient as your scene unfolds. Some people keep a mental checklist in the corner of their minds, and as each sensory experience occurs they mark it off and go on to the next. Of course there's some benefit even to that, but they will remain forever amateurs in the art of image integration. You'te not out to keep score but to have a unique experience in concentration. Observe what's happening in the scene. Someone's cooking steaks on an outside grill and of course you can smell it. Certainly you can hear the sizzling fat as it falls on the charcoal. Your mouth wa- ters with the taste you'll experience. There are sounds everywhere—from the volleyball players, the street, the birds. As you open yourself to sensory imagery, it comes from everywhere. You're filling up with it to overflowing. You can even “zoom in” on details, recognizing things you hadn’ noticed whenyou were actually there before. You aren't remembering—youre re- living the scene. Of course, that's precisely how I enabled the Reno murder wit- nesses t0 describe the Killer, although none of them even realized they had seen him at first. Without using polygraphs, truth serums, or “hypnosis,” I used imagery integration to help them concentrate on every detail of the experience. So vivid was their recall that three ‘out of four were able to relive the scene in their minds and take the time to study the mental picture and describe the man they saw in it. The descriptions were virtually identical. Tt takes no special talent, no rehearsal. And the effect can be dramatic. Now you know how to relax and to concentrate—the bedrock on Which all the rest is built. From this point on I won’ refer to either of these subjects except when an unusual degree of concentration is required. Til say only this before we go on to the next chapter: if you find yourself failing repeatedly in the effects that follow, re- ‘tum to this chapter and master it before going on. Reprinted From: Secrets Of The Amazing Kreskin AaADBDA EG SD OB @ OO @ @ @ @ @ GC @ © © @ @ @ @ @ @ 6 @ 2 @ @ @ @ 2 24 244444.