Jedi Mind Tricks
Mind Power Secrets - Lesson Six
Jedi mind tricks, do you want? I don't know anything about
the Jedi, unfortunately, and it is difficult to impersonate Yoda
in a written sentence. Using that title is just a way to spice
things up and get you to read this, but this lesson is about
learning mind tricks.
(Did you do the last assignment? Did you note some examples
of a sales techniques, business secrets, political manipulations,
creative short cuts, or any secrets of how things work?)
Personal Mind Tricks
As you find mind power tricks that work for you, it's important
to get into the habit of using them. Nothing is less effective,
for example, than a memory trick you forget to use (this has
happened to me). It is the developing of mental habits that makes
your mind powerful.
Also, experiment continually, in safe ways. If you hear that
a certain type of music helps brainpower, why not try it? If
a friend tells you about a yoga exercise that clears the mind,
have him show it to you and try it out. Be a self-experimenter.
It is good to have respect for scientific evidence, but it is
also good to keep in mind that everything science proves existed
before it was proven. Nobody had to wait for the scientific proof
to cure scurvy with limes, and you do not need to worry about
when the science will catch up if you find a mind-trick that
works for you. Here are three to consider:
1. Imagined Conversation
One of my most useful personal mind tricks is to have conversations
in my head. While explaining something in an imaginary conversation,
I often get ideas, even from the "person" I'm talking
to. If you like, you can even ask Einstein for advice. Some people
talk to their dead relatives and receive good counsel. This isn't
a way to reach beyond the grave though. It's just a means of
accessing the power of your subconscious mind. Through the words
of an imagined person, your mind will often come upon ideas it
would otherwise have missed.
2. Future Perspective
Another trick I use involves taking a future perspective.
When you're very upset, you can't think clearly. Think back to
any emotional episode in your life, though, and now you see it
more objectively, with less emotion, right? The trick, then,
is to stop during a stressful moment, and "see it"
from a year in the future. This should immediately diminish your
negative emotions, and let you consider things more objectively.
3. Personal Programming
When a friend looking for a loan swears she's changed, and
will repay me on time, my programming says: "However it
may appear at the moment, people usually don't change."
This isn't cynicism - people do change, and when she does,
I might be ready to loan her money again. In the meantime, it's
been a good rule for me, and it is so ingrained in my thinking
that I refer to it as programming.
The "trick" here, is to program your mind by explaining
a rule to yourself or others, repeating it, and consciously applying
it until it's a habit. Many cliches, such as "Everything
happens for a reason," are actually great "programs."
You can call these beliefs, too, but know that all of them are
wrong sometimes. It's just a way to put the odds in your favor,
like putting on a seat belt even though they sometimes kill people,
because they save lives far more often.
Subliminal Persuasion
When you're with a person, and you sit the same way as she
is sitting, use the same facial expressions, and generally mirror
her body language, you subliminally create a bond between you.
This is called "mirroring." After some time you can
test this bond by changing position to see if she unconsciously
changes as well, or otherwise "leading" to see if she
follows your lead. It's much easier to persuade a person that
you have bonded with.
Here's a fun one: As you watch your eyes in the mirror, vividly
imagine something pleasurable. It can be a beautiful scene, a
naked woman, or whatever will create desire in you. You'll notice
that your pupils get larger almost immediately. With a little
practice, you can make your pupils larger at will. Pupils enlarge
when a person is aroused, interested and receptive. Now, how
do you use this bit of knowledge?
Watch pupils if you want to "read" somebody's mind.
When your pupils dilate (which you can control after some
practice in front of that mirror), the person talking to you
subconsciously senses your interest in them or what they are
saying. They like that. They find it easier to like you, and
to listen to what you suggest. There are hundreds of these little
"subliminal mind tricks." You can imagine the possible
uses of this kind of mind power, right?
There is more about using these subliminal techniques in my
Secrets Package
.
Short Cuts
As a child, I didn't "show my work" in math class.
In my head, 97 x 16 became 100 x 16 (1600) minus 3 x 16 (48).
I just wrote down 1552 and couldn't explain very well how I arrived
at the answer. Teachers called that a problem. Only many years
later did such math shortcuts get packaged into seminars and
books. You might want to learn a few.
(For a decent e-book on this, see Fun With Figures)
No time to study? A good reading shortcut is to read the first
and last sentences of paragraphs. That's usually where you'll
get most of the important information. Training yourself to use
any shortcuts you can find or create is a great way to make more
efficient use of your mind power.
(I found this e-book useful: The Speed Reading Secret)
Neuro-linguistic Programming
If you imagine a scary scene in the distance, then imagine
it right in front of you, large and loud, your heart rate will
increase. The way in which you think about things dramatically
affects your experience of them, and affects how you deal with
life. Neuro-linguistic Programming, or NLP, is about learning
the language of the brain, and using that knowledge to reprogram
it in new and better ways.
Here's an NLP trick to try. Recall something traumatic from
your past that still brings up a lot of emotion. Note the qualities
of your memory. Is it colorful, large, loud? Change these qualities.
Imagine the scene in black and white, play silly music in the
background, and put a picture frame around the scene (is it wood
or metal? - see the details). In your mind, take the picture
to a basement and hang it on the wall.
Do this well - more than once if necessary - and you should
be able to recall the episode without the negative emotions,
or at least with a lower degree of distress. You basically changed
the way the memory is coded in your brain. Good NLP practitioners
claim to cure some life-long phobias in an hour. This is powerful
stuff.
A Luck Trick
Seek, and your mind power will find. Have you noticed how
when you buy a car, you start to see similar cars all over? They
were there before, but you see them now because of your reticular
cortex. In buying a car you have essentially told this gatekeeper
of attention that these cars are important enough to focus on.
Now try looking for something like luck. When you see the
good luck you already have, and watch for more, you are instructing
your mind to seek out opportunities (luck) or create them. You'll
have more luck, if you try this. For a fuller explanation, see
my e-book, How To Have
Good Luck.
Subconscious Anchoring
There's a phenomenon called "anchoring" by scientists
who study behavioral economics. To demonstrate it, researchers
asked two groups of people to guess the birth year of Genghis
Khan. Prior to the question, the first group heard the year 220
A.D mentioned, and the second group heard the year 1600 A.D.
mentioned. The comments had nothing to do with Genghis Khan.
They said something like, "I heard that a volcano erupted
in 220 A.D." The first group of people had much earlier
guesses as to Genghis Khan's birth date - without knowing that
the casual mention of a date had influenced them.
This tendency to "anchor" was found in the economic
realm as well. We might think that an item should have a certain
value to a particular customer, but humans are never so logical.
Why can you get $99 for an e-book online with roughly the same
content as a $20 book in a store? Partly because of the "$500
value" mentioned in the advertising. $99 seems cheap after
that, even though there is no real evidence for the value.
I'll let you figure out the implications of that one, but
don't limit your thinking to marketing. An "anchor"
of 100 pages per month in an author's mind could subconsciously
make him more productive, right?
Assignment: Use these mind tricks. Every day this week
use at least one of them, or watch how others use them. Take
notes.
Next Lesson: Be a master problem solver.
P.S. If you haven't subscribed to this
e-course, and you want to learn the other secrets of mind power,
you can go here to subscribe: Mind
Power Secrets
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