The Psychology of Positive Thinking, by Ed Nystrom.

“Cliff Notes” version

The title of my book is The Psychology of Positive Thinking. I have thought about how
to present this book to you, and decided that the best way would be to tell you:

How the book, The Psychology of Positive Thinking came into being.

The idea for the book began as a Senior Thesis term paper in my high school English
class at Princeton High School in 1959. I had been desperately casting about for a topic
to write about. Then my mother suggested I write my thesis on the subject of Christ’s
healing miracles! My reaction to this suggestion was NOT positive thinking! But it
was a measure of my desperation that I actually accepted her suggestion. Back in those
days English was not my favorite subject. Neither was religion! But it worked out all
right, because I got an A- for it- that was a miracle in itself!

The conclusion of the thesis was that it was the power of faith, of strong belief- a mental
power that somehow or other brought about, or helped bring about the miraculous
healings. This started a life-long interest in the power of the mind, and how the mind
works.

In college and Grad School I studied Psychology. During that time, at Ohio Wesleyan
University, Dr, Harry Bahrick, my Experimental Psychology professor, was pioneering
research in information theory, studying how the mind processes information. I even
participated in some of this early research. Man is an information processing machine.
When we are thinking, we are processing information. This may seem like a simple
statement, but really, it is astounding. How is it that we think??? When we are learning,
we are creating new connections, creating data banks of information in our brain. When
we are remembering, we are accessing this information stored in our brain’s data banks.
How do we do all this???

It occurs to me that this, our ability to think—our mind—is the biggest miracle of all!
Right under our very own noses… (or behind our very own noses)… is the greatest
miracle of all. Mark’s book, p 42(Charles Mark’s book, Spiritual Intelligence Charles
mark, in his book on Spiritual Intelligence puts this in humorous perspective when he
relates a story about an interstellar explorer who had just returned from visiting Earth,
and is reporting to his commander:

“They’re made out of meat.”

“Meat?”
“There’s no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took
them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They’re completely
meat.”
“That’s impossible. What about the radio signals? The message to the stars?”
“They use radio waves to talk, but the signals don’t come from them. The signals come
from machines.”
“So who made the machines?”
“They made the machines. That’s what I’m trying to tell you Meat made the machines.”
“That’s ridiculous, how can meat make a machine” You’re asking me to believe in
sentient meat.”
“I’m not asking you, I’m telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the
sector and they’re made out of meat.”
“Maybe they’re like Orfolei. You know, a cartoon-based intelligence that goes through a
meat stage.”
“Nope. They’re born meat and they die meat. We studied them them for several of their
life spans. Which didn’t take too long. Do you have any idea of the life span of meat??”
“Spare me, Okay maybe they’re only part meat. You know, like the Weddilei. A meat
head with electron plasma brain inside.”
“Nope, we thought of that, since they do have meat heads like the Weddilei. But I told
you, we probed them. They’re meat all the way through.”
“No brain?”
“Oh, there’s brain alright. It’s just that the brain is made out of meat!”
“So . . . what does the thinking?”
“You’re not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat.”
“Thinking meat! Conscious meat!”. . . (I can’t believe you are asking me to believe this!)

In college, I came across a theory that could account for how man (or the brain) could
process and store this information. Donald Hebb, a Canadian neurophysiologist,
proposed that neuron cells in the brain form cell assemblies (networks of neurons) as a
result of information being transmitted to them from the senses. Basically his theory was
that when one neuron transmits an impulse to another neuron a linkage is strengthened at
their connection. So that the next time the first neuron is active it will more likely
transmit its impulse to the linked neuron. The “data bank” in our computer/brain consists
of the way these neurons become linked to each other.

This was the beginning of the computer age, and these two theories together made for a
neat Psychology major Thesis about how the mind works: it works like a computer!
This time I got an A! In grad school I wanted to continue this research, and turn it into a
Master’s Thesis. But this was not to be… Rutgers Grad School in those days was all
about rats and mazes and behavior theory and, alas, there were no professors interested in
sponsoring my idea as a Master’s Thesis topic.

My interest in these ideas remained strong, and I have continued to inquire, study and
research how the mind works my entire life. It has become a research project that I have
pursued all my life. Subsequent discoveries about the human brain have further
substantiated Hebb’s theories, and these were integrated into my research. I guess, in a
way, The Psychology of Positive Thinking is my master’s thesis. What I’ve just given
you is the “Cliff’s Notes” version of it. Neurons do indeed change at their
interconnections when they transmit impulses. Today scientists estimate that there are
over a hundred billion neurons present in the brain.

PAGE 27quote
This is a truly fantastic number. We have enough interconnections- potential networks
among these neurons in our computer- to account for the universe of experiences that we
have in our lifetime. This is the data bank that each of us has in our computer/brain.
Actually, we possess two such brains: we have a left and a right hemisphere, and each is
quite capable of running the whole show.

This is a Super Computer- with infinite potential. Here is a “takeaway” for you: there
is an infinite, limitless part of you. Your mind has no boundaries. Yes, maybe we can
perform miracles- if we get it right! Maybe there really is something to the Power of
Positive Thinking. If only we could control this power, that is our own brain! But our
brain didn’t come with an “Owner’s Manual.”

Then I got hold of Norman Vincent Peale’s book The Power of Positive Thinking. And I
was hooked! I became a positive thinking junkie! This was a period in my life when I
read everything I could get a hold of on positive thinking, and motivational literature. I
attended seminars, listened to tapes, took courses…

Chief among these was a seminar entitled “The Magical Formula for Dynamic Living”,
led by Skip Ross. Skip taught that we bear a great responsibility for directing our own
thoughts. His “principles of success” deal with maintaining thoughts that are positive and
eliminating sources of negative thoughts. Skip says that we should screen out all sources
of negative inputs whether they are on the radio or TV, in books, in the news, in the
papers even negative friends! The idea is that if we fill our data bank with positive
thoughts, we will be positive. Likewise if we think negative thoughts we turn negative.
But WE are responsible.

In his seminar, Skip tells about some research on the differences between positive and
negative thinkers, “optimists” and “pessimists.” Apparently some researchers were
looking for developmental differences between optimists and pessimists. So they were
studying two little ten-year-old boys: Johnny, the little optimist, and Billy, a little
pessimist. They wanted to see how their environment would affect them, so they took
little negative Billy, and put him in a room filled with every kind of toy a child could
want, and they said:
“Okay Billy. You stay in this room for awhile, and do whatever you’d like.”
Then they took the optimist Johnny, and put him in a room filled with horse manure! And
said:
“Okay Johnny. You stay in this room for awhile, and do whatever you’d like.”

Ten minutes later they returned to little Billy’s room, and there he was, sitting in the
middle of the room with the toys strewn around him, crying:
“This one’s no good! That one is broken! The Wheel came off this on! . . . and there was
something he didn’t like about every toy!
The researchers shook their heads, and went down to look in on little Johnny. They could
hardly believe their eyes! There was Johnny, running around the room, laughing and
excited and flinging this stuff in the air.! They said:
“Johnny, why are you so happy, stuck in a room filled with horse manure?”
Johhny said: “WITH ALL THIS STUFF, THERE’S GOTTA BE A PONY IN HERE
SOMEWHERE!”

There is Christian contemporary song that is popular right now, that makes me think of
Skip when I hear it. It goes: Be careful little eyes what you see, be careful little ears
what you hear… be careful little mouth what you speak… The title of this song is “It’s a
Slow Thing, When You Give Yourself Away”. If negative thoughts begin to dominate,
your world becomes negative. The idea is, we are responsible. And… it’s a scary
thought! I am responsible. YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE. And that is takeaway thought
#2. You have the responsibility for your own life. And when you accept that
responsibility you also get to control it!

However, Skip’s formula was that these positive thinking success principles, plus a
proper positive self image, lead to a positive dynamic life. The self image part is the
multiplying force in his formula. If your self image is not positive then nothing else
works. Skip quoted from the scriptures when his self image wavered: What though the
mountains tumble into the sea, yet I will not fear … for God has given me a spirit of
power, of love, and of a sound mind.

Consider this: you, yourself, are aware of an entire world, an entire universe, are you
not? So in a way, (really, the way that matters most to you) you are the creator of your
universe, are you not? You have experienced this universe first hand. You have read
about, heard about, and watched this universe come into being. Your senses have
brought, and continue to bring, this universe of information to you- to your brain, your
super computer. Perhaps we have been made in the image of the Creator of the Universe!
And, as creator, you have the responsibility…

Hebb had something to say about the self image that is important here:
Page 50 quote

So to have a good self image, you should love others,- yes your neighbors, even your
enemies- to live, as Skip says, a positive, dynamic life.

Yes, I was becoming a positive thinking Junkie, and I may have over-dosed! (I think I
became quite a positive thinking bore!) I even tried conducting a mini positive thinking
lecture among some family and friends… I must have had rocks in my head! I was
pretty puffed up with positive thinking, but positive thinking doesn’t always work. I’d let
my guard down, and pretty soon my old self would take over again, and let the air out of
me! No, positive thinking does not always work. Old habits of thought take over. Old
fears, old emotions take over- and we’re cooked! Back in the old rut!
But we have this super computer, and these positive thinking principles. Yet we are still
not there. We need to be able to guide this super computer. Too often this super
computer guides us- based on the past- rather than the other way around. We need to find
the User’s guide for this super computer. We need to point it- point ourselves- in the
proper direction, a direction of our own choosing! We actually need to point this
computer towards the future—too often, it points to the past, and we get trapped in it, we
fall back in the old rut. Have you ever felt like you were in a rut?

Charles Mark puts it this way: (p. 118

• What do you suppose is happening in out brains when we engage in thinking the
same thing in the same way ten hours a day every day? Our neural pathways
might begin to look like the well-worn trails made by hikers on a popular route.
He goes on to cite some research indicating that we do create these paths- channels, or
main neural patterns that become established in our brain, and—presumably—in our
thinking. This can be a cause for concern, especially if you are approaching (or even
beyond!) my golden age (well into my sixties!)

Then I read a book by Ouspensky titled In Search of the Miraculous. As is often the case
with Russian writers, his is a long, often difficult to read book. (My wife thinks I might
be a bit Russian myself!) Ouspensky’s thesis was that we are creatures of habit. We
operate out of habit, and it is as if we are asleep. Out thoughts and actions are just instant
replays from the past! (Well, Ouspensky didn’t use the term “instant replay”—that
wasn’t invented until later.) To break free of the strangleholds of this habitual thinking he
would observe himself, and perform all actions consciously and purposefully. He found a
new, miraculous level of consciousness as he developed and continuously practiced this
self-observation.

The current best-selling book by Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, makes this point and
develops it further. (Have some of you read it, or heard about it?) We can break free of
our old habitual patterns of thinking- from the past- through the process of self-
observation. When, through self-observation, our old habitual thought patterns become
the object of our thought they are no longer “in charge” and we see ourselves from a new
point of view.

Eckhart relates that he was at a low point in his life, even entertaining thoughts of suicide.
He did not like himself, he did not like his life, he did not like where his thoughts were
leading him. His past, egoic-mind-self had developed dark, depressing thought habit
patterns; Eckhart had been a troubled youth, a product of a dysfunctional family and
upbringing. He lived with many past pains and fears which he termed the “pain body”.
Then he had a revelation: He was thinking about himself but who— was the “he” that
was doing the thinking? He understood it to be his Present self, in the “now”, that was
observing his past self (which he terms the “egoic mind”) that he had come to so dislike.

He discovered that by being his present self-- living in the “now”-- he could be free of
that past darkness. This was a life changing experience for Eckhart. He was born again!
(He might take exception to the term “born again”, not being a religious person) but it is
as if some holy spirit, if not The Holy Spirit, entered his life and changed everything.. He
shed his old way of thought and embraced his new self- his new “Observer” self that was
present in the Now, instead of being trapped in the past. He is now a spiritual counselor,
and his mission in life is to help others become free of the past as he has.

In a way, we are all seeking to be re-born: to change into a better person than the one we
are now. And here is another takeaway: The key to change, to break out of your old
self and thought habit patterns is to develop a new level of consciousness. In the
process of observing your old self you automatically become a new self, your new
present self, differentiated from the past. In that way, you are reborn!

You may well ask, “if we are this Super Computer- with infinite potential, where do
we go wrong, that we need to be reborn? “ I’m glad you asked, because I want to make
this next point! Computer programmers have a term: GIGO. It stands for Garbage In
Garbage Out. We have been programmed by our past experiences, some of which were
accidents, or mistakes: just plain garbage, if you will. And we all carry some of this
garbage around with us, don’t we? Programmers install what they call a “patch” to
bypass the garbage when it gets programmed in. We can do the same. NLP- neuro
linguistic programming is all about installing “patches”, and here is a technique to do just
that!

Think of a recurring situation that has bothered you in the past- that you have found to be
troublesome, and suspect there is some “garbage” from the past that keeps you from
acting resourcefully. OK, now when you identify it:
• Close your eyes, relax, and imagine yourself in a room. Look over at the left
hand corner of the room and mentally draw a circle on the floor near the corner.
• Walk over and stand inside that circle. As you stand inside that circle, allow the
garbage associated with that situation to fall off you, on to the floor in a ring
outside that circle.
• When the garbage has all fallen away, step out of your circle and over that ring of
garbage, and walk over to the center of the room, where there is another, neutral
circle.
• From your neutral circle, look over at the next corner of the room and imagine
your future self there. Imagine that future self having the resources and ability to
deal effectively with that situation.
• Now walk over to that corner and – step into and merge with that future self. Feel
the confidence and resources you now have to deal with that, and any other,
situation! Take those feelings with you as go out the door and leave the room.

So I learned about NLP- neuro linguistic programming. Finally, I found what I had been
looking for: an “owner’s manual” for the mind. The theory and practice of NLP
resonated with what I had come to believe about the human mind. NLP unified what I
had learned, and felt to be true about the power of the mind, and how the mind works. I
also learned the NLP tools for change. We can change those things about ourselves that
we wish to change. We can change anything that we want to change, by modifying how
we process, and select information.

The basic tenet of NLP is that all that we experience, the building blocks of behavior and
thought, is information communicated to us from our senses (does that sound familiar?)
Indeed, all human behavior and thought- are neural representations from our five senses.
We think in terms of sights, sounds, feelings tastes and smells. These are the parameters
of our experience of the real world. These sensory representations are all stored in our
brain, and they mix- integrate with- new sensory impressions as we experience them,
becoming the programs that are our thoughts and feelings.

Another fundamental principle is that these building block representations maintain the
sequence in which they were experienced, and are stored with this sequence intact. They
stay with “the program.” In fact they are a program, a neuro – linguitstic – program.
Sort of like a mental “instant replay”. And this makes intuitive sense- your memory of an
event is often like an instant replay, yet speeded up tremendously.

NLP further suggests that this information, these instant replay programs, can be
combined, and re-combined with other programs to effect change. In other words, we can
re-program ourselves! When there is something wrong with a computer program,
programmers install a “patch”. NLP has developed ways we can create and install those
patches ourselves! We can reprogram ourselves! We CAN re-create ourselves. We CAN
be, reborn.

In my book I present ten different techniques, such as the one I just led you through. I
encourage you to try them. You can experiment with these techniques, on your own or
better, with someone else whom you trust and would be open minded. Best of all would
be to read more about NLP, even attend some seminars on the subject- it’s a whole new
world!

Whether you decide to go further with this or not, however, I hope I have given you
something new to think about, a new way of looking at things. And perhaps, best of all, a
way to help you get out of a rut, should you find yourself in one!

Thank you for coming.