Chapter 14 - The Subconscious Mind And Your Past

You have a past and whether you are proud or unhappy about parts of it every part of your personal history is permanently engraved like carving in rock. You can't erase what is recorded, and certainly you can't go back and live your life over again with the idea of making a revision in your history.

If some demanding authority were to tell you to display all of your recorded history, to lay it all out so that it could be analyzed and criticized, would you flinch from the thought? It could be a distressing experience since everything is recorded, the good as well as the bad couldn't it?

But you need have no fears, because, with the exception of a psychoanalyst whom you would trust, no one can order you to take stock of your past, except yourself! This is so because the only place where the complete history of you is recorded is in your subconscious, and you well know that your subconscious is a private world of your own.

Your past has great value

I am about to ask you to display all of your past history completely and objectively, but I assure you that it will be a private session, and a rewarding one. Let's first consider the reasons for having this unusual experience.

In the practice of subconscious self-influence the new skill which is about to have a "trial run" in your life you are dealing with the most outstanding subject in the world, your own life. Everything that you do in the practice steps will directly affect your life. As you reach that promised point of perfection in self-influence, every moment of your life will be affected by this concept of living. In other words, you are reaching the point where a predetermination of the fundamental pattern of your whole future is possible. Certainly this holds out the promise of a good life, the kind of a life you want.

Is life a privilege, or a responsibility?

This kind of a lifetime, under the star of positiveness, is one of the privileges accorded the person who is skillful in self-influence. But with privilege, always comes responsibility. With the privilege of "calling your own shots," and leading a self-influenced life, you must also accept the complete responsibility for your own life. This is a tremendous responsibility, affecting the most valuable thing in the world, as far as you are concerned.

There is no doubt of your ability to meet this responsibility, but since you are placing yourself in a position to be primarily accountable for your own life, I feel that I would not be meeting my responsibility if I failed to call some facts to your attention.

Consider your whole life

In this and the next two chapters, we are going to be concerned with your whole life, as opposed to segments of it. And we will be concerned with you in the sense of the whole person. You will recall that we talked about the "latest models" in human beings in Chapter 7. You were encouraged to make the obvious choice of one of the models as an ideal for yourself. Here you took a quick "look-see" at the whole life and the whole person. NOW our objective is to enable you to take full responsibility for the achievement of that ideal and to assure yourself that every individual action will support and complement your whole life and your whole person.

To do this we are first going to "turn around" and look at the past. Then you will turn once again and look at the present. And finally, you will face forward and look into the future. Each "turn" will prove that your interpretation of your responsibility for your life is directly related to self-influence and your subconscious mind. As we step from past, to present, to future, your sense of responsibility for your own life will be strengthened. Coupled with positive self-influence, a strong sense of responsibility forms a solid foundation on which to anchor that whole life that is yours to live.

Your past is a rich resource

Your past is history and certainly you cannot go back and live it over again, with new ideas. "The past is gone, forget it" has been oft-repeated advice passed along by well-meaning but ill-advised "philosophers." You can't forget the past, and you shouldn't want to. If you will accept full personal responsibility for your past, including the negative as well as the positive angles, you can make all that history of yours a valuable tool for shaping your future! I repeat, you can convert the past into a dynamic resource for the future, if you will accept the full responsibility for it.

Perhaps you, like many others I have advised, are inclined to be a bit indignant about the suggestion. You feel that you were not responsible for many of the conditions that were forced into your history, especially the negative ones. Well, I agree with you, up to a point. For example, you may have been injured in an accident that was not your fault, or you may have had property stolen from you, or you may have lost your job because your employer gave up the ship. None of them would have been your responsibility. But beyond this type of enforced condition, you were responsible for your own action! You may not have consciously accepted the responsibility, and it is that acceptance that I am asking you to consider now. As the value of this acceptance becomes more apparent to you, I know you will say, "I am responsible." So let's display the value.

Just what has happened in the past?

Facing the past, decide upon a sizable span of time. Make this period about a third of your present birthday total. Thus a person of 40 would consider the immediate past 13 or 14 years of his life. Considering the time span you choose, I want you to paint a word picture of everything of consequence that happened to you. This is not going to be too easy to do, and it will have no value as a practical resource if you try to do it as a mental exercise. There is a simple device that will serve most effectively.

Get a piece of paper and a pencil. Place the opened book and the paper in front of you, so that you can use them together. Now, draw a line down the middle of the paper, from top to bottom. At the top, and to the left of the line, write "Negative." On the right of the line write "Positive." Take your pencil and paint that word picture of those past years by making two lists. Letting your memory have free reign, list everything of consequence that happened under either the "negative" heading (as being undesirable, unwanted), or under the "positive" heading (as being desirable, approved).

A self-portrait of you

Take your time, and do a comprehensive job. This is an expansion of that personal inventory you first considered in Chapter 7. Make this a "self-portrait" of your whole life during that period, remembering that every item you list will have value, regardless of which side of the line it is on. Consider the times when problems and complexes were plaguing you and the times when progress and accomplishments were the keynotes. Consider the times when life was confusing and the times when it was inspiring. Consider your health and your experience with self-expression and recognition. Consider your vocational program, your home life and your relations with other people.

When you have finished this review of the past, and you are satisfied that it is a true picture, there will be a number of items in each column.

With your next action, you will take a definite practice step regarding self-influence. Depending upon what you do in this step, you will either influence yourself positively, and face-up to responsibility, or you will influence yourself negatively, and try to compromise with responsibility. Either way you do it, you put a value on the lists. Is there any doubt about the value you want to be on them?

The "zeros" in your past are important

Now go back over the lists and classify them, item by item. Put a check mark (ü) in front of every item that you believe you controlled the influences which made it real in your life. In front of every item that you believe you did not control, because of overpowering outside influences, place a zero (0). If you are in doubt about an item, pass it by for the moment. Eventually you will get them all classified. In fact, I predict that you will go back and change the classification of some, after a bit. You may go back and change some tomorrow, or even next week.

Assuming that you have taken the classification as far as you can at the moment, let's analyze the result. In the negative column you put some check marks. This is a display of commendable fortitude. Where you put zeros in this column, we will assume the decision is justified, but you may also decide to erase some of them later and make them check marks. There are probably more check marks than zeros in the positive column. This is as it should be, because you didn't want a full life then any less than you do now. However, where you did put zeros in this column, you might have been letting undue humility influence you, and you may want to change some to check marks.

Why your past is recorded as it is

Before you make any changes, and to complete the analysis, let your subconscious memory serve you again. Go back over both lists and mark each item with the reason it carries a check mark or a zero. To save you time, since you would eventually come to this conclusion yourself, let me suggest that one of four terms will describe the reason in each case. These are "planning," "decision," "judgment," and "action" (or "lack of action"). If you will agree with yourself which of the four describes the reason for each check mark or zero, this word picture of you will take on a most remarkable slant. Use your pencil and write the reason after each item.
Now take a look at the lists. The same reasons appear on both the left and right columns. "Decision," for example, appears in the negative column for items marked with zeros and check marks, and it appears in the positive column in the same way. Likewise the other three reasons are indiscriminately scattered through both columns, covering both zeros and check marks. There is great significance in this scattering of the same reasons. It means that there was a definite pattern to your past.

What you have been responsible for

The pattern shows that "decision" at different times brought about a positive or a negative result, whether there was control by you or outside influence. If, for example, there was a negative outcome induced by an influence you apparently could not control, the real reason it happened was because of your decision to let it happen or because the lack of good judgment allowed it to happen. These reasons, regardless of the source of influence, were your responsibility. Where there was a positive outcome, the real reason it happened was because you started with a plan and acted on that plan. And this, too, was your responsibility.

There is no reason for you to back away from the facts about this responsibility, because this realistic history of your past is providing you with powerful knowledge, knowledge of the picture of your life as a whole, of the whole person that is you. This knowledge is power in your hands, provided you frankly recognize that subconscious self-influence was not enough of a deliberate factor in your past and provided you know where it was, where it was not and why. This you now know.

Now you know the whys and wherefores

Now you know specifically where negative tendencies shaped your life, and you know what specific self-influence factors to apply to overpower such tendencies in the future. You know where positive tendencies did their good work, and you know that you will increase these tendencies by the deliberate use of more of the same self-influence factors.

So accept the responsibility for the past as being yours, and thus make it an invaluable tool for deliberate self-influence in the future. This acceptance will make a "noteworthy" impression in your subconscious mind. It establishes a positive attitude, one which lays the groundwork for continued responsibility for your own life.

Any change is your responsibility

You may now want to reconsider some of those zeros on your list. The point is, the more check marks there are on your list, the more realistically you are accepting this responsibility. You know that this is so, because "decision," "planning," "judgment" and "action" all have their source in yourself. You also know that positive subconscious self-influence was a casual, irregular factor in your past. Knowing all of this, you can face responsibility for your future with confidence, because you are perfecting the skill of subconscious self-influence. And you know that it can change your whole life and your whole person.

Don't destroy your "history." We will be referring to it again in the following chapters. Besides, your subconscious has recorded a curiosity about your lists, and it is waiting for you to make the next move in relation to this "first chapter" that you have written.

In Sum

Examine your past and analyze the influences that shaped it.

This will provide you with a powerful knowledge for more extensive use of self-influence.

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