Principles of Success #11 – The Subconscious Mind
The subconscious mind holds our programming or paradigm. Paradigms are a multitude of unconscious habits that control our habitual behaviour. And 95% of our behaviour is habitual. We do things automatically, with no thought required.
Our beliefs create our paradigms. Most of our beliefs pass down from our families or develop from the environment we spend most of our time in. As discussed in a previous post, most of our beliefs are wrong! But we can change them, as is discussed in that post.
The subconscious is completely subjective. It has no ability to choose or make judgement. It must simply accept everything that the conscious mind gives it. That creates your feelings, as the subconscious is the emotional mind.
These feelings create the vibration our body is in.
This works for and against us because we can choose to use our imagination to see anything we want. This can boost our emotions, but we can also choose to think negatively which creates negative emotions.
Conscious Mind
Our conscious mind is where our senses connect; like little antenna. We can see, hear, smell, touch and taste and these inputs are wired into our conscious mind. Our higher faculties are also resident in our conscious mind, but very few of us are aware of these, let alone know how to use them!
- Will – our focus
- Perception – the way we see the world
- Reason – how we interact with ideas
- Memory – we all have a perfect memory!
- Imagination – anything you can imagine in your mind, you can create in your physical world
- Intuition – how we pick up other people’s energy, and that little voice in the back of our mind
We can develop each of these faculties to an infinite degree. But these are not the focus of this post. Please get in touch if you want to know more.
Our conscious mind has the ability to think, and choose what it thinks. It can think in past and future tense through memory and imagination. Nobody can make you think anything that you don’t want to think. Only you can choose what you think about any given thing!
The Body
As mentioned above, the body is merely the instrument of the mind. It is the physical manifestation of whatever our subconscious is feeling. Our thoughts dictate how we are feeling.
The manifestation of our feelings into actions causes a reaction from the universe. Universal spirit doesn’t care if your actions are positive or negative. It will return like energy to you! What you give out you will get back.
The action / reaction is dictated by the Law of Cause and Effect, and works equally in all of us. This is what creates our circumstances, conditions and environment, and ultimately causes our results. It’s not the other way round as we have been led to believe!
An Image To Make Sense Of This!?
Dr. Thurman Fleet developed the Stick Person image in 1934. He realised that the healing arts were only ever treating the symptoms rather than the cause of dis-ease in the body. Dr Fleet coined the idea that when the body is in dis-ease, it is caused by the mind.
Let me explain as that is pretty abstract!
Dr Fleet, and several authors before and since his time, write that the body is merely an instrument of the mind. Mind is not a thing, it is an activity. It is the control centre, and the brain is the electrical switching station that controls the body. Effectively, the mind controls the actions of the body.
However, no-one had ever seen the mind. We did not have a picture of it, and as visual beings that think in images we struggled. We can’t heal something we cannot see…
Dr Fleet drew the Stick Person graphic as a way of giving people a visual to work with. He explained that the top circle is the mind, split in half with the conscious mind above and the subconscious below. The lower circle represents the body.
What The Stick Person Helps To Explain
Our behaviours and habits control our results. They in turn are controlled by our mind.
A great power flows in and through us, into the conscious mind. We can use that power to build images of the life we want to lead and the person we want to become.
As we get emotionally involved with these images, they are impressed on and accepted by, the subconscious mind.
Our body expresses these emotions through our actions.
The universe then reacts to those actions and causes our circumstances, conditions and results to change.
We must understand that our current feelings, circumstances, conditions and results are all caused by our subconscious behaviours. Like attracts like. We can only attract that which is in harmony with our vibration, and that is influenced by what we think about.
If we think about debt, even getting out of debt, we will receive more debt; but if we think about earning and receiving money, then we will receive prosperity.
We need to be always aware of our thinking, and only focus on that which we want.
Focus Right Now With One Eye On The Future
Our current and past results are simply a snapshot of our feelings and thoughts at that point in time. They have no bearing on our future potential unless we let them. Unfortunately, we focus on our current and past results. That is how we are programmed. So we find it difficult to focus on what we want. We need to switch our thinking to working from the inside out, from the image of what we want rather than what is around us now.
We all have deep reservoirs of potential within us, to release it we must simply follow this process:
- Think of what you want
- Get emotionally involved with what you want
This impresses it on our subconscious mind, which changes our vibration, behaviour and actions. This changes the reaction from the universe and alters our results. Choose to focus only on what you want, do not let others or your paradigms sway your thinking.
You are in control of what you think about.
“We become what we think about all day long.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
How to Use The Stick Person Image
We must notice as often as possible how we are feeling, or what is going on around us. This will tell us what we are thinking. Pull up the image of the Stick Person as often as possible and use it as a trigger to remind you that what you think creates your emotions, vibrations and results.
Our physical body is a mass of energy in a constant state of high vibration. It is an instrument of our mind, so our mind controls our vibration.
The conscious, educated, thinking mind has the ability to accept, reject, ignore or originate ideas.
The subconscious, emotional mind, can only accept everything it is given.
Our conscious mind is hooked up to our outside world through our senses. We can see, hear, smell, taste and touch. All these inputs contain both positive and negative connotations, as dictated by the Law of Polarity. It is our thinking that dictates whether they are positive or negative and how they then affect us.
You Have A Choice!
We choose whether anything is positive or negative, we can choose to see the good in any situation or focus on the bad. No one can make us think anything we don’t want to think. We control our thoughts, so our thoughts are the last human freedom. Our thinking ultimately dictates our attitude.
“The greatest discovery of my time was that human beings could alter their lives, by altering their attitude of mind”
William James
Get emotionally involved with what you think.
Think you can lose weight? Imagine yourself in the body shape you want, feel the pride and happiness. Chocolate cake and biscuits? Use that image to say no thankyou!
Think you can earn your annual salary in a month? Build an image of your future self earning that money and let yourself feel the accomplishment and enjoyment every day. Act like that person!
This emotional involvement will change your vibration.
Remember, what you think sets up the vibration. The vibration causes the action. Action causes the reaction from the universe. Your results, conditions and circumstances change!
The Stick Person concept is key to understanding how our mind works and what controls 95% of our behaviour!
Now lets look at the 12th of the 13 Principles Of Success.
Principles of Success #12 – The Brain
Napoleon Hill in his book Think And Grow Rich states that every human brain is,
“both a broadcasting and receiving station for the vibration of thought.”
Napoleon Hill
The brain is also your electronic switching station. It receives signals from your mind and sends them to the body. And it can also receive signals from other brains through the creative imagination discussed in previous principles.
Thought Energy
When stimulated, the mind becomes more receptive to the vibration of thoughts from outside sources. This stepping up process takes place through the emotions, both positive and negative.
Thought is energy travelling at an exceedingly high rate of vibration. Vibrations of an exceedingly high rate are the only ones picked up and carried from one brain to another. Through the broadcasting machinery of the human brain.
It is for this reason that the emotion of sex is the mostly highly stimulating to the brain. Sex transmutation is the highest form of vibration because of the importance of reproduction to our species. It is a natural urge, in the same way as the need for food, water and shelter.
Not only does a brain vibrating at such a high rate send out and receive broadcasts from other brains and the Universe, but it is also these higher vibrations that give feeling to your thoughts. It is these feelings, this getting emotionally involved, that allows the thought or idea to be picked up and acted upon by the subconscious mind.
The Subconscious Mind
As discussed above, the subconscious mind is in control of 95% of your habitual behaviour. It is also the sending station of the brain, to the body to create physical feelings and also to other brains.
Auto-suggestion, the 3rd Principle of Success, also comes into play through the brain and subconscious mind. It is the medium by which you put your broadcasting station into operation. Auto-suggestion is one method by which desire may be transmuted to the subconscious in order to create the physical creation of your desire.
The subconscious mind, creative imagination and auto-suggestion are the only three principles you need to apply in order to use your broadcasting station. Your brain. The stimuli through which these principles are put into action were discussed in the 10th Principle, and the starting point for any of those ten stimuli is Desire. The first principle of success.
“The Dramatic Story Of The Brain”
Humans understand little of the intangible forces of our world. All of us are controlled by intangible forces which we cannot see. These include gravity, thunderstorms, electricity and others. All of which science knows about and can explain, but few of which we actually fully understand. Thought and our physical brains also fall into the realms of intangible.
Scientists at the time Think And Grow Rich was written, had discerned that the central switchboard of the brain has over one to the power of 15 million connections within it. Science has come on massively since then and there is a lot deeper understanding of the intangible things mentioned, including the brain. But there are still many unknowns.
Regardless, it is still quite inconceivable that such a network of intricate machinery is in existence for the sole purpose of carrying on the physical functions incidental to growth and maintenance of the physical body. The connections are orderly. Even when damaged the brain connections can rewire to allow the body to still function closely to how it did previous to any damage.
Telepathy And Clairvoyance
At the end of Hill’s chapter on the brain, he notes research at the time into telepathy and clairvoyance. He went on to discuss how he and two members of his staff were able to blend their minds into one in order to find solutions to a great variety of problems.
He describes the procedure as very simple, and similar to masterminding. They would simply sit down at a conference table and clearly state the nature of the problem to be solved. Then they would discuss it, each contributing whatever thoughts occurred, until a plausible solution appeared.
Now lets look at the last of the 13 Principles Of Success.
Principles of Success #13 – The Sixth Sense?
According to Napoleon Hill in the 14th chapter of his book Think And Grow Rich, the sixth sense can also be called intuition, creative imagination, or the receiving set. It defies description, and cannot be fully explained until a person understands the previous 13 chapters of the book. 12 of these I have covered over the past three posts.
The sixth sense is that portion of the subconscious mind which receives ideas, plans, flashes of inspiration, or hunches. It is probably the medium of contact between the finite mind of man and the Infinite Intelligence. This makes it a mixture of both the mental and the spiritual.
This principle is the apex of the philosophy. It can only be assimilated, understood and applied by first mastering the other twelve principles.
What The Sixth Sense Can Provide
Napoleon Hill said in Think And Grow Rich:
“Through the aid of the sixth sense, you will be warned of impending dangers in time to avoid them, and notified of opportunities in time to embrace them.
There comes to your aid, and to do your bidding, with the development of the sixth sense, a ‘guardian angel’ who will open to you at all times the door to the Temple Of Wisdom.”
Ever had de ja vu? Or a hunch? A random spark of inspiration? Or the sudden urge to get out of a situation or go a different way?
That’s your guardian angel. Your sixth sense.
I can give one example from my life. I was going on a ride out with a group of friends on our motorbikes. We split into two groups, and last minute I changed group because something felt off. The group I was meant to go with were involved in an incident, which I avoided. If I had not listened to my intuition I could have been seriously injured or worse.
Needless to say, I now always listen to my instincts and intuition!
The Organ Of The Sixth Sense
Somewhere in the cell structure of the brain is an organ that receives the vibrations of thoughts. Our hunches. But it had not been found at the time of Hill writing the book. However, it is known that humans do receive accurate knowledge from sources outside the physical senses.
This knowledge is generally received when the mind is overly stimulated. Any emergency which arouses the emotions, and causes the heart to beat faster than normal, generally brings the sixth sense into action.
When people face emergencies, including some so grave that there is a danger to life, they are miraculously guided by their guardian angel. They will receive guidance on what to do and if they follow it they will be more able to reach the best outcome. It is when people are not open to these suggestions, or do not follow them, that disaster and potentially death can follow.
I can attest to this guidance twice in my life! Once involved my bike on a motorway, and the other whilst hill walking with a group of army cadets. Both times, my thinking mind shut down completely and my guardian angel took control of my physical actions. Both times I, and others involved, were kept as safe as possible. I don’t remember a thing of what happened between the initial trigger and once things were safe again! But I am grateful to whatever it was that dictated my movements.
How Do I Tune Into My Sixth Sense / Intuition?
The sixth sense is not something you can take off and put on. The ability to consciously tune into it comes from putting all of the other principles of success into action. Hill also said that it is rare for anyone to come into the working knowledge of the sixth sense before the age of 40.
To be able to learn how to tune into it requires practice. Sitting in quiet places and letting your mind be calm and open to new ideas. You can also access it during mastermind meetings. Either way, it is only available to you when your mind is open and your paradigm quiet.
Meditation, self-examination, and serious thought are the ways Think and Grow Rich suggests to speed up the process, and the following can also help:
- Meditate or practice mindfulness: Take time to quiet your mind and focus on the present moment.
- Get in touch with your emotions: Pay attention to how you feel about different situations and decisions.
- Trust your gut feelings: Your intuition is often a quick, instinctual response to a situation. If you get a strong feeling about something, try to trust it and act on it.
- Pay attention to your dreams: Your subconscious mind can often provide insights and guidance through your dreams.
- Spend time in nature: Being in a natural environment can help you feel more connected to your intuition and the world around you.
Remember that connecting with your intuition is a personal and subjective process. It takes time and practice, so be patient and persistent in your efforts!
