There are lots of people teaching how to use your mind in more effective ways, and there are lots of various philosophies on the topic. Also, there are various flaws and misconceptions in what is currently being taught by the top spiritual leaders. Truly changing your life happens through the mind, and it requires a proper understanding of how this mind works. In the first part of this article, I am going to expose the most common flaws in what is currently being taught and the consequences of these flawed principles. Then, in the second part, I will put Dr. Thurman Fleet’s famous stick figure diagram of the mind designed around 1938 and really put it to the test. I will expose its flaws and limitations and propose a more complete diagram of the mind that will open you to new possibilities.
Because I am making challenging far-stretching claims here, I will ask you to be really skeptic and to put what I say to the test. Learn to think on your own. What brought you to consciously or subconscious buy into any of these flawed concepts is a lack of skepticism and a lack of critical thinking. In order to be a true skeptic, it is especially important to put your own thoughts and beliefs into question, which is where most skeptics get stuck. I don’t want to you get out of these flawed concepts just to buy into other flawed concepts, nor do I pretend to hold the absolute truth. If I can find flaws in the most advanced philosophical and spiritual concepts being taught today, I’m sure it is possible to dig into even deeper truths. So think on your own.
The quotes I will challenge may not be formulated exactly as the authors said them, and really these are concepts they said in lots of various different ways. What really matters is the ideas that they are preaching. I will write the quote, who teaches it, what the idea behind it is, why it is flawed and what the consequences of the misunderstanding are. First, I must say each of these people are positively impacting thousands if not millions of people, directly or indirectly. This is not to lower the value of what they do in any way. In fact, I only mention those I view with the highest respect because they teach the most advanced content.
Flawed principle #1: “It’s impossible to silence the mind” -Landmark Forum
When I did the Landmark Forum, one of the things they said is that it is impossible to silence that chatter voice in your mind. The exercise really was to become aware of that voice constantly running like crazy in the background of your mind. Well… meditation is all about silencing that noise and reaching a place of stillness. Technically, you can lower that noise to a very low level through meditation but you won’t completely silence it unless you reach spiritual enlightenment. The belief that it can’t be silenced is wrong. You can definitely silence it to 99% which is more than enough for practical use, and a few are able to silence it completely. You can actually access all the wisdom of the world through that stillness. One of the reasons they don’t view that as possible is that they view the rational mind as the driving force of your life. It’s not about getting rid of the rational mind, but rather about removing the gap between your conscious mind, your subconscious mind and stillness. Failure to do so cuts you off from spiritual strength, freedom, intuition and wisdom.
Flawed principles #2: “Life has no meaning or purpose” -Landmark Forum
Another of the exercises at the Landmark Forum was to reach a place where your life is a white board that doesn’t have any meaning or purpose and that you can create anything from there. The idea behind that is to detach you from your past stories that are holding you back and driving your life around in circles. However, what it also does is to cut you off from your spiritual nature and from your place in the global picture. They simply don’t believe there is such a thing as a spiritual nature to life, which can be a very damaging shift when integrated at a core level. Believing life has no purpose means you drive your mind from your ego, it detaches you from your soul’s purpose and it leaves a vacuum in your soul.
Flawed principle #3: “Stillness is all there is, everything else is mistranslation” -Eckhart Tolle
The idea behind most of Eastern philosophies is to reach that place of stillness where there is no suffering. Some call it Nirvana. But to say this is all there is would be inaccurate. I came to realize it through meditative experience and by trying to understand how the forces I was playing with were fitting with each other. Without going into the meditative experience, just think for a moment. If nothingness is all there is, how could this world be created? This would break the laws of physics. Energy can move into form, through form and out of form, but it can never be created or destroyed. One could argue that the physical world is an illusion, but whether you label it as illusion or not, whether it is subjective or not, it is there and you can’t deny it. One could also argue that nothingness contains unlimited energy, but then that wouldn’t be nothingness anymore. The answer is that there are rays of creation, the force of life that creates life THROUGH stillness. There is an unlimited source of power, energy and intelligence that exists beyond stillness and that you access through stillness. Believing stillness is all there is keeps people in a passive state of contentment, and it really prevents you from fully living your life. What’s the point of being born in a physical body if you don’t fully live that life?
Flawed principle #4: “It’s impossible to get rid of fears and anxieties” -Top pick-up artists
I remember back in the dating world, several of the top gurus would say that even they still had fears and anxieties when approaching people. I don’t have any such fears and anxieties since a very long time, so that’s definitely an inaccurate belief. They still have anxieties because they do things that are not aligned with their spiritual nature and they don’t understand how their subconscious mind works to overcome those fears. With the proper knowledge and by aligning your actions with a higher truth, you can definitely get rid of all fears. That being said, it’s a gradual process so there will always be more fears to overcome, in the sense that you can always bring your life to even greater levels.
Flawed principle #5: “Desire is the source of suffering” -Buddha
One of the fundamental principles of Buddhism is that suffering comes from desires. What I read about Buddhism so far also didn’t acknowledge that force beyond stillness, although I’m sure some branches of Buddhism probably do. What causes suffering is attachment, which comes from a sense of lack and not being whole. The word “desire” comes from the Latin “de sidere” which means “from the stars” or “from the divine”. A desire is a thought seeking physical manifestation through you. A plant has the desire to grow because that’s its divine purpose. This doesn’t cause any suffering. Suffering comes from attachment from those desires. Since we are all one and you are the whole universe, the thing you desire is already part of you; you just don’t realize it yet. Suffering comes from the illusion that the thing you desire is separate from you. That being said, there’s another type of desires that come from a dysfunctional place within you which I call cravings. Undervaluing or even transcending desires really prevents you from living your physical life and achieving your purpose in life. It would be like a plant that would decide not to grow because it decided growth is an illusion.
Flawed principle #6: “Emotions are controlled by the intellect” -David Neagle
One common principle in the self-development world is to control your emotions with your intellect instead of letting your life be driven around by your fears, emotions and past stories. What this does not acknowledge is that there are two types of emotions. There are positive emotions which are energies in motion that are really the force of life that is driving you forward and inspiring you, bringing growth and joy into your life. Then, there are negative emotions which are rooted in fears, limiting beliefs and past stories that are restricting that flow of pure blissful energy. Maybe your intellect influences your current state, but really the way you feel is dictated by the way fears and beliefs are programmed into your subconscious mind, which you can’t change with your intellect, so the impact your intellect has on your emotions is limited. Then, where do your thoughts come from? If you have the choice between chocolate and vanilla ice-cream, which one do you choose and why? If you really dig down into it, your thoughts either come from your programmed beliefs or from your inspiration. Trying to control your emotions from your intellect simply disconnects you from your authenticity and creativity. There’s not much difference between emotions and intuitions, these are just different frequencies of energies in motion. The key is to remove the gap between the conscious mind and the subconscious so that they work together.
Flawed principle #7: “Thoughts create things”
This is a core principle behind the law of attraction which has been used by countless people. It is true that the physical world is a reflection of the mind, except a few major details. First, your rational thoughts do not create anything. Your physical, emotional and spiritual states do. It’s only the emotional weight behind a thought that has any impact. As David Neagle said, if you want to manifest a desire, you don’t have to visualize it with your intellect. All you have to do is to reconnect with the emotional source behind the desire within your subconscious mind. That carries weight. Then, saying that thoughts create things is an oversimplification of what is really going on. Unless you live in an isolated bubble, you live in a world of co-creation. There is a spiritual plane that exists in parallel to the physical world which organizes chaos through time. Your mind is connected to that plane through your intuition, dreams and emotions. Since we live in a world of co-creation, there are complex energetic structures and dynamics going on within that plane. As a simple example, if you do something out of fear or lack, it will create a negative karmic link that will draw equally negative experiences to you no matter how much you practice positive thinking. Your karma, the thoughts of others around you and many subtleties within the structure of your energy field are influencing the creation of your life. Then, if your intention or path in life conflicts with other people’s intentions, this can create a situation where you have to claim the energetic space within the realm of thoughts which would have a direct impact on the other person. I have yet to hear anyone talk about these dynamics of co-creation.
Flawed principle #8: “In order to change your subconscious mind, you must first experience different results” -David Neagle
There are ways to directly change the way your subconscious mind is programmed at a very core level. However, most of the healing techniques currently being taught out there are not very effective. Otherwise you would see lots of people walking down the street with complete happiness, health and abundance. The fact that so many people are still broke, stuck, single and have health issues shows that most healing methods aren’t that effective. You can change your subconscious programming by taking different actions that will make you experience a different reality, but since this will only have an indirect impact on your subconscious and since it is your subconscious that creates your reality, this will not completely clear out the fears and limiting beliefs from your subconscious mind. Also, from what I have seen, this approach of taking actions in spite of the subconscious blocks is very challenging to go through and not everybody makes it through, but it does bring results. The truth is: you can directly alter the subconscious mind which will immediately transform your reality. Everything you need to achieve anything is already around you. All it takes is the proper understanding and the proper emotional state, which all comes from within. The only reason you wouldn’t get the external result is if you aren’t fully aware of what is truly holding you back. Awareness, in and of itself, transmutes limitations in the same way that light removes shadows from a room.
How did I come up with this awareness that challenges even the top spiritual leaders? I just didn’t take anything for granted. I’ve been a computer programmer for a very long time and I’ve always been very skeptic. I don’t just want the results but I try to understand the way things truly work. I put everything into question, especially my own beliefs. One of my students was a very skeptic and arrogant poker player. His life completely changed and he ended up being an extremely skilled psychic. He can look at your picture and tell you exactly what you strengths and weaknesses are without knowing you, and precisely measuring each aspect of your being from your energy field, in the same way that I do. The reason he progressed so fast is because he believes in himself and puts everything into question, which includes asking me the toughest questions. He detects whatever doesn’t feel right and doesn’t accept any bullshit. He’ll ask questions and go for the truth. If you truly seek the truth, this is the attitude you should have to get results. That being said, most teachers don’t like being asked questions going out of the boundaries of what they know.
In the next part of this article, I’m going to go through the famous stick-figure of the mind created by Dr. Thurman Fleet in (I believe) 1938, I’ll explain how it is limited and I will propose a more complete diagram that will open new doors of possibilities into your life. A fundamental shift in your map of reality can change absolutely everything else.
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