For those of you not old enough to get the full meaning behind the title; Memorex is a company that was a big player in the field of recording media. When cassettes were at the forefront of technology, the biggest issue was the quality of recording you could get. Memorex ran a series of commercials suggesting that recordings made on their tape would be so good you’d have to ask, “Is it real? Or is it Memorex?”
Here’s where I’m going with this. Our subconscious minds control our physical bodies, but our conscious minds can be used to program our subconscious.
For example, if you want to do something physical, like pick up a book, you may think that your conscious mind is controlling the action. Not so. Your conscious mind only sets the intention and monitors progress. It is your subconscious that controls all of the muscle functions required to walk across the room and reach for the book. You could not possibly do it with your conscious mind; there are far too many things involved.
Dr. Wayne Dyer uses the best example I’ve ever heard to demonstrate how the subconscious controls the physical. This works better if someone speaks it to you, but you can still get a feel for it by reading through the process.
Close your eyes and imagine you are standing at your kitchen counter. In front of you is a wooden cutting board. On it sit a sharp knife and a lemon. The lemon is very large – almost as big as an orange – and beautiful. The color is a deep yellow.
In your mind, pick up the lemon. Feel the weight of it in your hand. It has mass. It presses against your fingers as you move it in the air. Feel the texture of it. Its skin is tacky and full of large pores.
Now, raise the lemon to your nose and sniff. Smell the fresh citrus.
When you are ready, put the lemon back on the cutting board and pick up the knife. Use it to cut the lemon in half. See the juice squirt as you make the cut. This is the ripest, juiciest lemon you’ve ever seen.
Cut off a one-inch thick slice, and then cut that slice in half so you now have a couple of nice, thick half-moon pieces. Pick one up. Feel the juice run across your fingers as you raise it to your face. The lemon smell is even stronger. Now, open your mouth and take a big bite of it, filling your mouth with lemon pulp.
Right now, what’s happening in your mouth? Are your saliva glands working overtime? Can you taste the lemon?
But, wait! There’s no lemon! How is this possible?
It’s possible because you’ve seen, held, smelled and (probably) tasted lemon before. Your mind has recorded that information, and when you imagined doing those things again, that tape recorder between your ears simply replayed the experience.
But what’s truly amazing is that the physical world (your body, and specifically, your mouth) responded as if it was really happening!
This demonstration works as well as it does because of the strength of our bodies’ reaction to the sensations we experienced the first time we smelled, tasted, etc., a lemon. The same thing happens when we replay a recording of the same activities, only using something more bland, like a banana or a graham cracker. It’s just that the reactions are a lot more subtle, so they are harder to notice.
The physical body will react to the mental impression in exactly the same way it reacts to the physical impression.
So, what happens if you have no prior experience with something you are imagining? As an example, most people in the U.S. have never had any exposure to durian. It’s a fruit found in southeast Asia.
If you tried the above experiment, using durian as the subject, you would have very little, if any, reaction from your physical self. This is because your subconscious mind has no reference, no recording to play back.
On the other hand, if I gave you this description of it I found on the Internet…
“Walk through the vegetable stalls in Singapore or Bangkok during durian season and you’ll swear the city’s sewage disposal system is on the blink. English novelist Anthony Burgess, in fact, has said that dining on durian is a lot like eating vanilla custard in a latrine.”
…even though you still had never even seen it, you would have a physical reaction.
So, we now know why creative visualization doesn’t work for some people; they have no frame of reference. It’s virtually impossible for someone earning $300 a week to imagine what it’s like to make $1,000,000 in a year, and believe it’s possible for them. They’ve never done anything like that. It’s not recorded in their subconscious. There’s no tape to replay.
Even believing that they could make just another $100 per week can be difficult. After all, that’s a 33% increase in income. On the other hand, someone earning $50,000 per year can easily believe that they can find another job that would pay them $55k. It’s a much smaller leap of faith.
BUT! Visualization does work, and it can work for everyone. Here’s how:
First, we need to understand that – NEWSFLASH! – people are different. Some of us need only to be told that something is possible, and we will accept it completely. Others need to be shown the proof, in no uncertain terms.
If you are among the fortunate ones who can imagine yourself in a scenario, can invest emotion into it and believe in it, you need only create your desired situation in your mind and focus on it. See yourself in it, living it, enjoying it. Create a vision board. Use affirmations. Whatever ‘clicks’ for you (you’ll know it when it happens) is what you should use.
Those who need a more grounded technique will simply need more time. The same techniques mentioned above can work for you, too, but they will take much more time. Never-ending repetition (brainwashing) will slowly change your beliefs, but it’s not any fun, and few of us have the willpower to subject ourselves to it voluntarily. Instead, I suggest a baby-steps method.
Start by choosing an area of your life you’d like to improve. Since we were just talking about income, let’s use that topic.
Your objective at first is to bring more money into your life; not necessarily to be paid more on your job. Pick a believable dollar amount that would make you feel good, and a time frame that is reasonable. For example; $500 in 60 days. If $500 is too big to believe, go with $100, or $50. The specific amount is not important, but it should be just big enough for you to feel a little bit of surprise when it happens. And a little bit of pride, too!
Dedicate a few minutes (10-20 is all you need) a day to focusing on this extra money coming into your life. Make plans for what you’ll do with it, and imagine how you’ll feel when you get to spend the money.
Do not put any attention on how the money will appear. Do not try to plan a method to obtain it. Do not spend time questioning whether this will work, or coming up with reasons why it won’t. This exercise is about having fun, so focus on that. You don’t have to believe in it, and it’s OK to feel foolish doing it (a common issue in the beginning). You should be able to smile about it at the end of each session, so have fun with it.
This is a set-it-and-forget-it process. Focus on the goal during the appointed time, and forget about it the rest of the day. If you are diligent about this activity, you WILL see that extra money come into your life in the designated time frame.
* There are few hard and fast rules in this game, but I’m going to suggest that you abide by this one: You MUST spend this extra money in a way that makes you feel good. It MUST be used for something fun. No bill paying, unless it’s a final payment on a credit card or car loan, etc. – something you can celebrate! *
Try it, and let us know what happens.
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