"The conscious mind is connected with a large part of one's thinking capacity of which they are not normally aware. This larger part or subconscious is, in many ways, like a computer which can store information and can solve problems of a straight-forward kind. It also has the ability to repeat, over and over again, what it picks up from the conscious mind. The important thing to remember about the subconscious part of the mind is that it is the follower and not the leader. It always takes its cue from the conscious mind. There is, however, a process at work in many people which allows the subconscious repeating ability to greatly influence the thoughts in the conscious mind in a way that produces much damage and even physical illness."
"Let Us explore this concept further. In childhood, the wonderful discovery that some words sound like others and rhyme is very exciting. The reason why it is so delightful is because it represents the first real awakening of the dormant subconscious in the child. Until that discovery, the subconscious has little input into the conscious mind and merely collects data and memories. But the discovery of rhyme brings the subconscious into its own element. For the major job of the subconscious is to help one to remember, and remembering is always easier if there is a rhyme involved."
"Now, another important factor in the operation of the subconscious is the idea of repetition. Even without the help of a rhyme, the subconscious can recall things better when those things are repeated to it. This is why, in many teaching systems for children, the use of repetition is so stressed. It was realized that a child will remember something if he repeats it to himself a sufficient number of times."
"That is an extremely important concept, because this very advantage in terms of school learning becomes a decided disadvantage in cases of emotional stress where the person, as a child, has been told things repeatedly that have made him think badly of himself."
"The damage is almost always the fault of the parents. Many parents think that the only way to make a child good is to tell him that he is bad, or at least to stress the times when he has displeased them but to say nothing when he has been good. If the parents never tell the child that he is good and only point out the times when he is bad, then the child will get the message, at the subconscious level, that he is only bad."
"The worst damage is done when the experience of negative criticism happens repeatedly. If the damaging statements are of a repeating pattern in the child's life, then they will become, literally, a repeating pattern in the child's subconscious. In exactly the same way that the child learns the multiplication table, he also learns to accept subconsciously what his parents tell him -- either by word or by deed."
"This idea of action being the teacher is also extremely important. If, for example, a child is not made to feel loved through the actions of the parents, the pain and loneliness within the child will also become a repeating pattern in the child's subconscious, and this will tend to repeat endlessly to him like a broken record."
"One might think that they do not hear, with the conscious mind, what the subconscious mind is repeating to itself, but this is not true. The conscious always hears, although it often refuses to pay attention. But in off-guard moments, the subconscious messages are listened to carefully by the conscious mind, as when daydreaming or falling asleep. Do humans ever wonder where those song-fragments come from that they can't seem to stop in their ears? It is simply the subconscious humming to itself."
"Now, the damage done by implanting these harmful ideas into the subconscious can be corrected, if one knows how to go about it. The easiest way to do this is, firstly, to recognize precisely the nature of the damaging thought that the subconscious is repeating to itself, and then to start a program of positive affirmation in which the opposite of the harmful thought is forced into the subconscious."
"By doing this, the subconscious can be persuaded to repeat helpful and positive things rather than harmful and discouraging things. The most successful way to approach such a project is to utilize rhyme. Once one has discovered the nature of the thought that they wish to change, they can devise 2 lines of rhyming verse which say the thing they want to substitute into the subconscious repeating pattern."
"Repeat that rhyme 20 times before going to sleep at night and 20 times again upon awakening. After a week of that schedule, the subconscious will start to parrot the same thought back to the conscious mind, and when that starts, one won't have to continue with the conscious affirmation. If this procedure could be adopted by Mankind generally, then much stress, pain, doubt, and shame could be avoided."
|
