We have had lots of questions during our free NLP VidChats about critical thinking. In Part 1 of this article I addressed this issue from different angles and shared with you different aspects of how it works. It seems that this theme is not going to rest easily even so. So here is the rest of the article.
These people come to resemble solid matter. They take on the character of matter. For these people imagination is at least a misdemeanor, if not a felony. They will argue that it is only in your head, that it is stupid, and ultimately that it is not “reality”. These people can even go so far as to view imagination as a form of mental disorder.
These are the people who will tell you that you cannot construct reality with your mind. These are the people who will tell you not to bother with learning NLP because the mind dilemma has been solved a long time ago: it is just a bunch of molecules and electric impulses. Mind processes do not exist, NLP has been debunked (even Wikipedia talks it down irrespective of the fact that it has been in the Pentagon from the 70s…)
According to these people consciousness does not exist above and beyond the brain’s chemical and electrical reactions. These are the people who took Rupert Sheldrake off TED because of his sin of talking about the mind not being local (link is here for this 15 min great talk). To say that mind is more than something arising from your brain activity has become anathema for these people. They will never tell you that you are like a receiver – transmitter of vibrational information. I might add here that what you receive or transmit is based on your beliefs, values, attitudes, etc. Notice the connection with NLP and why it is so important to first find out what these are?
Most people don’t even know their own values and beliefs. They run unconsciously and haphazardly through life thinking they understand it. These are the people who want to turn you into a robot, fill you up with nano-bots and hook you up to the computer universal mind as in Project 2045. Poof! There is no more you. Now you’re just a piece in a computerized universal mind. A little drone in a gigantic hive. Nice!
But back to imagination and creativity. Like everything else it can be used for good or for bad. While you are told that imagination is bad, that it is not realistic and you’re disjointed from “reality”, but what do you think is used to imagine a future living in a way that more closely resembles machines than humans?
Let’s face it: there are many people who secretly wish they were machines that functioned flawlessly. Human life can be pretty messy and filled with a lot of negative emotions (if you don’t know Time Line Therapy® to get rid of them). A machine is perpetually … a machine. No feelings. No arguing with the operator, no need for time off, sleep, vacation, weekends, health insurance, superannuation…an ideal worker!
If you studied magic anywhere in the world, any shamanic tradition or western magic, you must realize that magic is accomplished because imagination creates reality. Any reality. And therefore, one universe, indivisible, is an illusion; a way of trapping one’s real Self (with capital S).
When you use your mind creatively and imaginatively, “consensus reality” begins to organize itself around you, rather than you organizing yourself around it. That’s a massive difference. Then you can really begin to Create Your Future® the way you want in spite of conditions in and around you and not the way others decide for you. Then and only then you can say you have a life well lived.
The old alchemists were working in this area. What was alchemy if not the transformation of consciousness? In this transformation your past, life experience, dramas, traumas, happy events and conflicts all become fuel for the fire of alchemical transformation. I can talk about this for weeks, but essentially only after that, you can become what you want.
Just one universe, one logic, one Time Line, one single way of thinking, one right against all wrong, one avenue of perception, one singularity … is all delusion. And eventually, this delusion becomes a fanatical commitment to what everyone else thinks and presumes and accepts and adopts as the only way. This is mental and otherwise slavery.
Arriving at the point to where you really make your own choices and free flow of your creativity and imagination is not accomplished through a mass movement. You will not be taught this in schools or by your television set. It’s a choice taken by one person. Is what makes you unique and you travel this road alone as a free individual.
Otherwise you can easily slip into the “be less than you are” mentality and everything will be just fine. Life will be easier, you don’t have to think. Sacrifice yourself for ________ (name here a worthy cause) and all will be well.
And here Master Practitioners of NLP you will recognize the Values Level 4 container with fuzzy values level 6 values. Sacrificial system. Nothing inherently wrong with a sacrificial values system, only that, if you never get to complete the expressive values level 5, and finding yourself first, you will never “come together” out of choice, but out of being forced, manipulated and constrained. This is not conducive to any benefit I can see, but surely leads to one thing: control. Control of your mind, behavior, choices and ultimately life.
Don’t think this idea is new – it is as old as the world. And breaking free from this mind manipulation game requires creativity and imagination. All right …. and some Time Line Therapy® to let go of the past burdensome negative emotions.
Until next time, be well.