Chapter 10 - The Subconscious Mind: A “Garden Of Eden” Or A “Purgatory”

What's your dream about an ideal place to live an ideal life? Is it a South Sea island, or a villa on the Mediterranean, or a yacht cruising around the world? Everybody has such dreams, and they are pretty alluring when we find ourselves trapped by the pressure and routine of humdrum living.

But let me ask you a pertinent question. Why do you think that such an escape would take you to a "Garden of Eden" in your life? Is it not true that there would be compromises to life even on one of those idyllic South Sea islands? I believe that if you probe such dreams a bit, you would find that you really want to hold a "round trip ticket" so that you could come back if things didn't work out right.

I would not suggest that you abolish such dreams entirely. Better yet, look upon your fondest dream as an adventure that could come along and highlight your life. And it is entirely possible that this can happen, if you really want it to happen and you establish it as a goal!

Escape from humdrum living

But escape from humdrum everyday living is another matter. You can do that without moving even a mile from your present environment. You can create a "Garden of Eden" of your own, right where you are now, by using the power of your mind for all it's worth!

You do want to use the power of your mind "for all it's worth," of course. In this, your book, you are in the process of developing the skill of so using it. Perhaps I appear to be a bit impertinent when I say that it is about time you decided to do this! But we are concerned here with that all-important item called "your life." The power of your mind has patterned your life in the past. How has this power done this patterning? What have the results been? How much skill has been related to the use of this power on your part? When I say "it is about time," it is a sincere, friendly observation, because that power has always been "turned on." It is "turned on" now, especially through that alert subconscious of yours. The point is that you can no longer afford to let this power go to waste, or be misused, or be directed toward non-constructive actions, not if you want to practice self-influence! How important this power is to self-control is obvious when you consider what can happen when it is uncontrolled. I am sure you will agree with me that "it is about time," for you!

For the next few minutes, keep that picture of your "trip into inner space" in focus. Especially recall that all-seeing eye that we described as a camera in your conscious mind and those voluminous files of what that camera has recorded in your subconscious mind. In this setting, we are going to make some more demonstrations of the power of your subconscious mind.

Your habits on display

First we will analyze a couple of habits of yours. I will arbitrarily name them. As I do so, you might be inclined to raise your eyebrows and say: "How do you know that those are my habits?" I do not know for sure, of course, but I am choosing habits that have had priority in the lives of most people I have worked with, so I know I am not likely to miss you by very much. You won't have to go very far afield of my choices to find habits of yours that are parallel. Make that parallel choice on your own, if necessary.

The first habit in the spotlight is that of putting things off. Call it "rationalization," "procrastination," or anything you will. This is the action pattern in your life that makes accomplishment and achievement too rare in your life.

Why you put things off

Just why do you put things off? There have been many times when your conscience has held up a warning signal, reminding you that it was morally wrong, or economically wrong, to act that way. But you still do it! Why? You do it, at this point in your life, because the power of your subconscious is influencing you to act this way! Recalling that we have defined the subconscious as your partner, you could be inclined to remark: "Well! that's a fine way for a partner to act!" I agree with you. That certainly is no way for a good partner to act, so it is about time you did something to bring this partner into line! There are two "keys" that I will give you in a moment that will open doors to a better partnership relations between you and your subconscious. Before you can use these keys effectively, you will need to know more about present conditions in that subconscious powerhouse of yours. So, let's return to that habit of putting things off.

You have always been able to give "reasons" for putting things off. You didn't have time, it was the wrong time, you were not "ready," you didn't feel like acting, the circumstances or the environment was "wrong." Those are typical of the "reasons" as you conjured them, even though the right term is "rationalizations." You were able to avoid acting, because in the conscious level of your mind, you do have a degree of control over that will of yours. As you know, that will is also affected by control from the subconscious. Actually there is no conflict here. Your will reacts to whichever influence is strongest in any situation; it reacts either to conscious or subconscious influence.

Watch out for negative influences

Some time in your "history" you exerted that conscious influence that enabled you to put things off. That camera in your mind recorded those actions, and a file began to build up in your subconscious that put more importance on not acting. Soon the subconscious and the conscious influences were about equal, and it was "no trouble at all" to be able to put things off. Eventually that "file grew so large that the subconscious influence became "automatic." And then it was just the "natural" thing to do, to put things off.

But there is much greater significance to this habit development than the fact that you permitted the power of your subconscious to become a negative influence. This negative influence of procrastination allowed other negative influences to appear and grow. Instead of those "on the surface" reasons that first prompted you to put things off, these other negative influences became the real reasons for this pattern in your life.

Fear took its place in the picture. Fear of acting progressively became a factor, because you failed to act consistently, so that lack of self-confidence became overpowering. And the expectation of no accomplishment came into the picture. You felt that you wouldn't succeed anyway, so why even start? These negative influences seemed to press in on you, as though you were surrounded by them, when the time came for you to act progressively.

Lack of control brings fear

All of this, too, was recorded in your subconscious files, until eventually your subconscious was influencing you not to act because of fear and lack of self-confidence. "Lack of time" was no longer the real reason for putting things off. All of this is an example of effect of the power of your subconscious when it is not controlled by positive self-influence. An unpleasant picture? Yes, but it can be changed. But only by knowing that such negative conditions do exist and how they came about can you know what to change.

Now let's look at one other habit. This is the habit of non-participation. I am not implying that you are a confirmed "wall flower" in life, but I am referring to that area of activity in your life where you are more of a spectator than a participant. It could be in relation to your community life, your social life, your vocational life, or even your family life. You choose the area where you don't have that real sense of belonging that could come from a more active personal association. I am going to use community life as an example, but the same principle applies to any relationship situation in your life.

Bystanders get no dividends from life

Why aren't you more of a participant in community life, since you really want to be? The answer can be traced back to a negative subconscious influence, that of the subordination of self-expression. Participation is dependent upon self-expression. In this case, a subconscious influence is insisting that the competition is too great for your self-expressed actions to have any value. Other people who are participants are too smart for you, and things are moving too fast! Subconsciously you are a spectator, so you act like one, passively!

However, you acquired this habit a bit differently than that "putting off" habit. This one probably had little conscious self-influence to start it off. It came about from outside influences that were recorded emotionally in your conscious mind; nevertheless they were picked up by your subconscious as important reactions. That competition is an example. You put a negative slant on it, even though you did not really know if this was justified, because you didn't test it by participation. Thus the whole energetic pattern of community life became a negative influence, an influence from the outside that allowed the power of your subconscious to build up. The same principle applies to the concept that other people are too smart for you, and that things are moving too fast. You let these outside influences become negative factors by not testing them. All of this is an example of uncontrolled outside influences being converted into negative subconscious influences. Unfortunately, this can happen too easily and comes from many sources. But the pattern can be changed and controlled.

Habits acquired in two ways

Considering your life objectively, you know that you now have many habits that have been acquired by both of these processes. The two examples we used were negative habits. Obviously you have many positive habits, and they were acquired by either of these processes, also. That is, both your positive and negative habits were acquired either by some conscious effort to create them or by letting outside influences shape them in your subconscious.

We can bring these facts to a significant climax by putting one question before you. How much of the habit pattern you now have came about according to a conscious plan, and how much of it came about casually or accidentally? The answer would tell you exactly what kind of a life you have been leading up to this point, and it would describe the kind of a person you are. In some later chapters we are going to turn up that answer.

Your life at the balance point

Just now, let's face the facts that have been revealed in this chapter. Your subconscious mind is the center of control of your life. At any one moment, whatever the balance point is between positive and negative subconscious influences, that's the kind of a life you are leading. The power of your subconscious mind is always turned on. Therefore, if there are more positive influences in action, your subconscious can be a "Garden of Eden" for you. If there are more negative influences in action, it certainly will be a "purgatory" for you.

Can you create and maintain a subconscious "Garden of Eden"? You can and you will, and I now give you the two "keys" that make this possible.

Your Garden of Eden

The first one is: Deliberately control your conscious actions, keeping them on the positive side, so that they are recorded subconsciously as being "noteworthy."

The second one is: Change negative habit influences by deliberately and consciously cultivating positive habits that offset negative ones. Remember, you can't erase anything that is in your subconscious. You can't do away with a bad habit that is recorded there. You can create and build up a substitute subconscious habit that will overpower the influence of a negative one by recording the new habit as "noteworthy."

You will use these "keys" by first concentrating on the work of your conscious will. This, in turn, will control what goes into your subconscious. Deliberate control and change, using these "keys," will inevitably make your subconscious the kind of a partner you want to be, and the kind it should be.

Keep these "keys" handy. More . . . more . . . MORE is just ahead where you will use them!

In Sum

Habits, good and bad, are acquired in two ways: through your own conscious effort and through the influence of outside factors.

You can deliberately control your conscious actions.

You can thus change the bad habits.
 
Result Getting Projects

In this project, I want you to have an experience with control of your conscious will. First, define and acknowledge one or two habitual actions of yours that are on the negative side. Don't flinch from this suggestion. Such habits have been acquired by you and you can't avoid them by trying to deny their existence. You are not being pilloried through this suggestion. What we are talking about is something you don't want, and our objective is to get rid of it. Let me help you pick an example. This might have to do with a driving habit. Perhaps you have the habit of driving too close to the car in front of you. It doesn't make sense and it doesn't get you there any faster but still you drive that way, even if it is dangerous and discourteous. What would it take to get you to correct this habit, a stay in jail, revocation of your driver's license? That's pretty rough treatment and it probably would only make you resentful. No, the way to do it is to decide that you will drive at the proper distance and then consciously check your action based upon that decision. The point is that you must first consciously decide to do something else and thereby replace a negative action with a positive one. This is an example of deliberate conscious control of your action; if you do it, it will make you feel pretty good about yourself. You will prove that you can do the best thing, if you want to do it. But more than that, this deliberate conscious control is going to make a big impression on your subconscious, and eventually it will take over control of this new positive action, and make a new positive habit of it. This isn't as difficult to do as it sounds because such a change is a good change, and that is something you always want to be able to do. Prove to yourself that you can do it, by choosing an habitual negative action of yours and putting a bit of conscious control over it. As a result, what happens in your subconscious will make a "Garden of Eden."

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