Mind Power: Touching the Mind of God

The true power of the human mind does not reside within itself. We cannot know the height or depth of the mind's power until we begin to think beyond our own experience; until we begin to contemplate the vastness of the universe; until we begin to contemplate the intellectual and creative power used to bring it into being; until we begin to contemplate the power of Will that the physical universe demonstrates. We are at the same time separate and one with the Supreme Intelligence of the universe. It is in this relationship with the Supreme Intelligence that the true power of the mind becomes evident. Touching the mind of God is a mountain-top experience.

Summers in the southern United States are brutal. By the time August arrives daytime temperatures hover in the mid to upper nineties and the humidity is high. Only a short time outside is enough to drench a person in sweat. The summer heat and humidity is an unpleasant experience that seems to last forever.

Benjamin Blevins had grown up in the south. He lived in Jackson Mississippi with his mother and father. He had lived in Jackson his whole life. He knew about southern summers. He had experienced 18 of them. His life had been pretty much uneventful. He was a good student, He had never caused his parents much trouble, but there had been the occasional spanking that he got from his mother for being disobedient when he was a young child. He went to church with his parents. He joined the church at an early age, and was an active member.

It was a bit of shock to his parents when he came home from school one day and announced that he had decided what he was going to do after graduating high school. "I'm going to join the army," he told his parents. Their first response was to try to talk him out of it. "You need to think about this long and hard," his mother told him, "because once you are in you won't be able to get out until your time is up."
He had thought about it. The thought of joining the army tugged at him. He tried to think of reasons not to go, but there were no good reason to stay. His parents had wanted him to go to college immediately after high school, but they didn't have the money to send him. He didn't want to put them in a financial bind. The army seemed like good way to get help with college. Besides, he was still undecided on a major. Joining the army would give him time to think.

Ben reported to basic training two weeks after graduating high school. The June sun was hot as he stood at attention while the drill sargeant barked at the new recruits. He could only image what the August sun would feel like.

The army routine was a culture shock. The demands were stringent. Most of the training wasn't hard, but he did have a problem with the physical training. The physical training was exhausting. The drill sargeants' pressure was relentless. They seemed to single him out. He was too slow, he gave out too quick, he wasn't pulling his weight.

To graduate basic training the recruit had to pass a PT test. If the recruit did not pass the test he would be required the training until he passed the test. He was afraid that he would not pass the PT test. It was a fear that hung in his mind constantly. He did not want to get "recycled".

"Dear,God," he would pray, "help me pass this PT test". He said the little prayer often as the weeks passed. It was usually the last thing he did before going to sleep at night. He felt a sense of peace as consciousness would gave way to sleep.

Ben didn't know how God would do it, or when He would do it. He only knew that he needed a miracle. There was no way that he was going to be ready. Physically, he was in worst shape than when he started. Ben's problem was a God-sized problem, and it could only be solved by God.

Ben walked into the barracks the afternoon before the PT test dejected. His platoon had just been dismissed after having completing the afternoon run. He was drenched in sweat. There was just enough time to stow his gear and get cleaned up to go to afternoon chow.

He put away his gear and grabbed a towel to go to wash off. He glanced out the window that was at the end of his bunk. The afternoon western sun was bright against a blue sky. Ben noticed a lone large dark cloud in the distance. It was the only cloud in sky. "i could use a bunch of those," he thought to himself, thinking that cloudy weather would be a lot better than the sun beating down on him as he took the PT test. Then he thought that if he was going to wish for cloudy weather then he might as wish for a hard rain that would call off the PT test altogether.

He began to pray. "God, send a rain storm. Please make it rain so hard that they call off the PT test. I need to pass this test". Silently, he repeated the words over and over with such intensity that tears started streaming down his face. His soul ached to reach out to God. It was all he had. At that moment he knew what needed to be done. he suddenly felt a certainty that he had not known before.

He went to bed that night thanking God for what he was about to do. He felt in his soul that God had heard his prayer and that He would help him in his time of great need.

In the morning Ben woke and looked out the window. The sky was full of clouds! The entire sky was overcast with rain clouds. It looked like it would start raining at any minute. He was amazed. He was over-joyed. But there was one thing missing. Where was the rain?

Ben finished breakfast. No rain.

Ben's training unit marched to the PT course. No rain.

The graders briefed the trainees on how the test would be conducted and how it would be scored. It seemed that the test would start on schedule. The air was full of moisture. But still no rain.

Ben's platoon was moving into position to begin the test when he felt the first drop of rain fall on his head.There was one, then another, then several. Soon there were raindrops falling everywhere. The first rain drops were small, but as the minutes passed the size of the drops grew larger until they were some of the largest rain drops Ben had ever seen. As the graders and the platoon stood there watching and feeling the rain the intensity of the rain changed from shower to deluge.

After 20 minutes of torrential rain the PT test was called off, and a soaked training company was marched back to the company area.

Two days later during company formation the company commander informed the trainees that due to the canceled PT test and lack of time in the training cycle to reschedule the test that each man would be given a passing grade.

Unlocking the Power of Your Subconscious Mind

 Here are several strategies to leverage the power of your subconscious mind to be more productive.

The key to making your subconscious mind work for you is in your attitude. Having a positive self-esteem and confidence in yourself can go a long way towards achieving the goals that you have set out for your mind.

While many people believe that confidence and esteem comes with your personality, which is determined at birth, it is not true. It is never too late to start cultivating and improving your inner image and resources, primarily that of your subconscious mind.

The subconscious mind is an amazing resource that is able to store memories that have been long forgotten. It has a strong effect on the conscious mind, although it is not able to think nor reason, taking direction from the conscious mind instead.

However, it is possible to reach the subconscious mind and make it work for you. Many methods are available for doing so, such as through hypnosis, subliminal programming and positive affirmations.

The most common and easy to master technique of reaching the subconscious is through positive affirmations. Whether for losing weight or increasing self confidence, positive affirmations can be applied to any aspect of your life. By inculcating a positive self esteem and confidence in your subconscious, you will be able to affect the conscious mind as well.

The subconscious mind is thus more powerful and effective than most people give it credit for. For example, positive affirmation simply activates the subconscious mind to allow it to function at its peak, handling the everyday matters. It is able to do so by imprinting messages into your subconscious through constant repetition.

By accessing your subconscious mind, you are strengthening the linkage between the conscious and the subconscious, allowing you to achieve many things. These include getting rid of negative thoughts, unhealthy habits, and boosting your self confidence and other abilities.

Unlocking the power of your subconscious mind is a simple process, requiring only your willingness and effort. Below are 3 simple steps you can take to start on making your subconscious mind work for you:

1. What Drives You
Identify the reason that motivates you to work hard and excel in life. Without knowing what makes you tick, you will be unable to recover the same level of drive when faced with setbacks or discouraged. Being able to unlock your subconscious mind depends on knowing what you want, before you can achieve it.

2. Create a Strategy
When you are able to identify what drives you, you will be better equipped to draw our your possible options and make the relevant decisions that will help you achieve your goals. Without a strategy, you will be unable to chart a clear path and risk going off track.

3. Perseverance and Passion
Once you have decided on a course of action, immerse yourself in it. With passion and a strong focus, you will be able to realize your goals, fueled by perseverance.

With these 3 steps, you will be well on your way towards unlocking the power of the subconscious mind and making it work for you.

How to Change Minds -- 20 Persuasion Tricks

Perfection is hard to achieve in any walk of life and persuasion is no different. It relies on many things going just right at the crucial moment; the perfect synchronization of source, message and audience. But even if perfection is unlikely, we all need to know what to aim for.

To bring you the current series on the psychology of persuasion I've been reading lots of research, much more than is covered in recent posts. As I read, I noticed the same themes cropping up over and over again.


Here are the most important points for crafting the perfect persuasive message, all of which have scientific evidence to back them up.


1. Multiple, strong arguments: the more arguments, the more persuasive, but overall persuasive messages should be balanced, as two-sided arguments fare better than their one-sided equivalents (as long as counter-arguments are shot down).


2. Relevance: persuasive messages should be personally relevant to the audience. If not, they will switch off and fail to process it.


3. Universal goals: In creating your message, understand the three universal goals for which everyone is aiming: affiliation, accuracy and positive self-concept.

4. Likability: ingratiating yourself with the audience is no bad thing—most successful performers, actors, lawyers and politicians do it. Likeability can be boosted by praising the audience and by perceived similarity. Even the most fleeting similarities can be persuasive.


5. Authority: people tend to defer to experts because it saves us trying to work out the pros and cons ourselves (read the classic experiment on obedience to authority).


6. Attractiveness: the physical attractiveness of the source is only important if it is relevant (e.g. when selling beauty products).


7. Match message and medium: One useful rule of thumb is: if the message is difficult to understand, write it; if it's easy, put it in a video.


8. Avoid forewarning: don't open up saying "I will try and persuade you that..." If you do, people start generating counter-arguments and are less likely to be persuaded.


9. Go slow: If the audience is already sympathetic, then present the arguments slowly and carefully (as long as they are relevant and strong). If the audience is against you then fast talkers can be more persuasive.

10. Repetition: whether or not a statement is true, repeating it a few times gives the all-important illusion of truth. The illusion of truth leads to the reality of persuasion.


11. Social proof: you've heard it before and you'll hear it again—despite all their protestations of individuality, people love conformity. So tell them which way the flock is going because people want to be in the majority.


12. Attention: if the audience isn't paying attention, they can't think about your arguments, so attitudes can't change. That's why anything that sharpens attention, like caffeine, makes people easier to persuade. And speaking of attention...


13. Minimize distraction: if you've got a strong message then audiences are more swayed if they pay attention. If the arguments are weak then it's better if they're distracted.


14. Positively framed: messages with a positive frame can be more persuasive.


15. Disguise: messages are more persuasive if they don't appear to be intended to persuade or influence as they can sidestep psychological reactance (hence the power of overheard arguments to change minds).


16. Psychologically tailored: messages should match the psychological preferences of the audience. E.g. some people prefer thinking-framed arguments and others prefer feel-framed arguments (see: battle between thought and emotion in persuasion). Also, some people prefer to think harder than others.


17. Go with the flow: persuasion is strongest when the message and audience are heading in the same direction. Thoughts which come into the audience's mind more readily are likely to be more persuasive.


18. Confidence: not only your confidence, but theirs. The audience should feel confident about attitude change. Audience confidence in their own thoughts is boosted by a credible source and when they feel happy (clue: happy audiences are laughing).


19. Be powerful: a powerful orator influences the audience, but making the audience themselves feel powerful increases their confidence in attitude change. An audience has to feel powerful enough to change.


20. Avoid targeting strong beliefs: strong attitudes and beliefs are very difficult to change. Do not directly approach long-standing ideas to which people are committed, they will resist and reject. Strong beliefs must be approached indirectly.


How to Change Minds

You should be aware that many of these factors interact with each other. For example when the message is strong but the source is dodgy, the sleeper effect can arise.


Argument strength is also critical. The basic principle is that when arguments are strong, you need to do everything to make people concentrate on them. When they're weak, it's all about distracting the audience from the content and using peripheral routes to persuade, such as how confidently or quickly you talk.

Weaving all these together is no mean feat, but look at most professionally produced persuasive messages and you'll see many of these principles on show. Incorporate as many as you can for maximum effect.

How Do You Know When You Are Rich?

Answer: When you have time to do what you want when you want and not have to worry if you have enough money to pay for it.

The Number One Time Saving Tip Of All

Everyone is busy these days. And so, they’re all looking for some way to free up time and make their lives run smoother and less frantic.  They would like for some time management guru to give them some time management tips.

If you had a blank piece of paper and had enough room on the sheet of paper to track each hour of the week (168 hours) on it, how would you fill your schedule over the next week?

Think about it.  Next week is pretty much blank -- just like the sheet of paper.

Time will pass. It will be filled with something; sleeping; eating; working; watching TV; etc. But what else transpires during the week will be a choice. Whatever happens during the week will be a consequence of a choice you make during that week, or the result of a choice you made at some time in your past and are experienceing the consequence now.

Choice is the most important time management tip there is. If you are unhappy with how you spend your time, you can, over time, choose differently. Why are you doing the things that you are doing?  Is there some social, economic or emotional reason why you feel you must to continue to do what you are doing? Sometimes going in a different direction requires courage.  Most of us follow the path of leaast resistance.  We want a comfort life.  We want a life that is free of strife.  Sometimes we can not avoid, and we must have the courage to face it and conquer it.

Changing your priorities will change how you spend your time. You can't create more time, but you can change how you use your time.   Instead of trying to do more, choose your activities more carefully. Don't fantasize about what you would do if you had more time, fill your calander with the things that matter to you. Do things that focus on things that nurture your career, family, and yourself.

Of course, none of this means the process is easy. Getting to a place where you are happy with how you are choosing to spend your time takes work. You may need to change jobs or careers. You may need to alter family roles. You will need to say "no" to time wasters.

Rather than complain about being too busy, review your calander, and hold yourself accountable for the way you spend your time.

Mind Control - Train Yourself to Ignore Distractions

Distractions are the enemy of mental discipline. Mind power is the ability to set priorities, and, by ignoring the distractions that come along, achieve the tasks necessary to reach an objective.  The expression "chasing rabbits" demonstrates how the undisciplined mind will allow any distraction equal time. Every distraction has equal value because the person chasing the rabbits does not have a dominate and defined purpose.

The only way to know a distraction is to measure against a defined purpose. 

Define your objective. Is it worthwhile? Is it something that you value enough to spend your time working for it?

It all begins with a mission that is so compelling that you will stop at nothing to succeed. Today, what is your life theme song? Have you found true meaning and purpose? Are you living it out each day inspiring others to buy into your vision? If not, what's holding you back?

Some people go through life not quite knowing what their purpose is. But you can know more about yourself by examining the things you spend your money on and the way you spend your time. These activities reflect the true priorities. Look at your checkbook and calendar and you can immediately see where your heart is.

Once you look closely at your life you may realize that most of your activities have been nothing more than a series of distractions keeping you from what you really need to be doing. Have the courage to change course and move in the right direction. You will begin to feel better about yourself, and you will find the strength to resist distractions because you will finally know what a distraction looks like.
Achievement is all about making value judgments, and some of the most important value judgments we make are about how we spend time.

Time is a medium of exchange; just like money. Time is money. We exchange our time for money. The money we receive in exchange for our time is the value that we place on our time -- our self-worth. How much should our time be worth? There is no intrinsic value of time. It is what we make it. We set the value of our life and it is reflected in the decisions we make. Giving in to distractions shows we do not value our time, and it also shows that we assume we will always have plenty of it to spend.

Are you making excuses for your lack of success? There is no conspiracy to make you fail. Failure is not final. Life is trail and error. Test and correct. Failure is a teacher. There is some success in every failure: if you are wise enough to look for it. Learn from every failure. Listen to what failure has to tell you, and it will lead you toward success. You are not a "failure" until YOU believe you are. It is your attitude that determines your destination.

One reason for failure is trying to do too many things at one time. Trying to do too many things at the same time means nothing gets done. Break your goal into tasks and assign a priority to each task. Go down the priority list, focusing on accomplishing that priority. Don't leave the task until it is complete, then move on to the next item on the list. Accomplishment builds confidence.

Achievement will become a habit.

WHEN ALL YOUR WISHES COME TRUE

Image yourself at an estate sale exploring the items for sale when you run across a brass oil lamp. Immediately your mind begins to manufacture images of an Arabian young man dressed in ragged clothing rubbing the lamp you have in your hand. The scene is from a cartoon that you have watched many times with your children. The images make you smile, and you think about buying the lamp for no other reason than the fond memories it conjures up.

You finally track down the person to give your money to. You know nothing about the people who are conducting the estate sell, nor do you know the person whose estate it is. You have been able to piece together that the person was a history professor at a nearby university. You marvel at the numerous trinkets that the person has accumulated. The pictures on the wall chronicle a life of travel and numerous acquaintances.

When you get home you take the lamp out of the bag and give it a closer inspection. There is no telling how old it is. The brass is tarnished and in bad need of polishing. Does it have some historical value? Why would an object of historical value be sold so cheap? If the price was any indication, the lamp was nothing but a cheap made-in-China dust collector.

You raise the lid and peek into the interior of the lamp just to make sure the resident genie is not inside. You are a little disappointed to find not even a small wisp of smoke. You think: what would I have wished for if the lamp had contained a genie?

The question is a good one: for all of us. What would you wish for? Would you wish for a large home, or a new car, or all the money in the world, or wish to be a monarch and live in a golden palace, or to be marooned on a desert island with the person of your dreams? Would you wish for all your wishes to come true?

Are you still in touch with your dreams and wishes? Are they real to you, or are they on a shelf somewhere collecting dust? Can you describe the dream? Can you put it or them into words? Can you visualize them?

More important, do you have faith in your dream? Do you believe that it will come true? Do you really want it to come true? Could you handle the consequences that the materialization of your dream would bring?

What if you had the power to make every one of your wishes come true? Wouldn't that reality force you to be careful for what you wished for, knowing every wish that came from your brain would materialize whether good or bad. Wouldn't that ability change the way you think?

The immediate reaction is skepticism. Why? Your disbelief betrays your thinking. You don't believe. You have no faith in yourself or your wish, nor do you have the understanding of how to use the lamp that is between your ears.