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To my family, my readers, my subscribers and my friends who made Mind Alchemy possible.
Below is a list of people I would like to thank for making Mind Alchemy Bend Your Reality possible. Sharon, my gorgeous, loving wife: Without you nothing about the world would seem as exciting as it does today. Bradley and Lewis, my two handsome young men who have taught me more about myself and the world than I could have ever imagined. My mum and dad, who believe in everything I do and will be doing in the futureyoure amazing. Eddie and Maureen, who taught me the true meaning of Christianity. Dan Bainbridge and Keith Pincombe, who helped me overcome my fear of success. All the readers and subscribers of Change Your Thoughts Blog, who have made my journey from full-time worker to full-time entrepreneur possible. 1

Financial backers
Before Mind Alchemy was released I had to raise money to fund the project, so I built a website with an amazing deal of 100 Self-Help Ebooks that readers could buy and my joint venture partners could promote. Special thanks to Gillian Hood-Gabrielson, Geoff Wilkins and Khai Ng, who promoted the site so heavily for me and made Mind Alchemy possible. To everyone who bought 100 Self-Help Ebooks, over 160 of you: Diane OCherony, Ivor Doherty, Clare Richardson-Jarvis, Thomas Dunbar, James Milligan, Beane Locharte, Richard Drake, Julie Perry, Ruel Roco, Sandra Coia, Carmen Patricio, Ann Lunder, Debra Kronfeld, Allissa Gaul, Norma Gomez, Hare Krishna, Elizabeth E Bustamante, Rosemary Stade, A Bray, Per Tafjord, Katalin Holmgren, Devi Das, Dave Mattingly, Haydon Howard-Jones, Carla J Bailey, Volker Ellspermann, Patricia Blaine, Bernard Tierney, Neila Connors, Madelyn Mack, Earl A Purkey, Kimberly Hamilton, Vanessa Hammett, Gerhard Paulitsch, Mikki Waid, Mrs. B Davey, William Muhammad, Brian Mannian, KG Krivcevski, Leslie Prest, Lillian DiLaurenzo, Piper Burnett, Hima Alapati, Sherry Mountford, Andrei Niculaita, Fujio Nakamura, Celia Mullally, Sasa Cupic, Darrell Seibel, Robert Carroll, Jeffre James, Michael Rowland, Mark Searle, Paul Hughes, Andrew Wilkinson, Maree Brereton, Denise Mosby, Hughes Mileng, Ronald Husa, Judith Webb, Susan Maclennan, Angelique Hensley,

Stephanie Townsend, Kim Nagle, Douglas Mix, Rhonda Hill, Alexis Seibel, Amanda Kirk, Cheryl Wilson, Lyndall Briggs, Edward C Lee, John Hainsworth, Henry Butler, Ki Ngai Tsang, Tobin Knight, Bo Gan, Tommasina Marasco, Maira Arnaudo, Deb Chadwick, Cidarajan Sundaram, David Goddard, Megan McLaughlin, Kiran Singh, Nessa Gardiner, Sandra Bottoms, Ann Mason, Emil Moldovan, Narayana Swamy, Kevin Meehan, Luis Parra Stockebrand, Thomas Bennett, Lynda Ottey, Acie Turner, Truong, Tuan, Sulaiman Hakim, Jean-Michel Bernstein, Carmelina Pantalleresco, Carmen Carlile, Margaret Horgan, Robert Grant, Muhammad-Umar Fisher, Peter Owen, Don Hunt, Marilyn Dockery-Reece, Elizabeth Mouzakes, Mladen Susnic, Jean Greenholtz, Ahmet Mangane, Audrey Koenigsberg, Sylvia J Richards, Wendy Weaver, Richard Moore, Gary Stahl, Carlanda Meadors, Nicole Huddleslon, Roger Lewis, Vincent Hylton, Janet Mathers, Anamari Slavic, Patrick Barber Sr., Rudolf Stroessenreuther, Destrie Larrabee, Thomas J Lynch, Neda Chepinchikj, Robyn Ladinsky, Norberta Goncalves, Meindert Arends, Vikas Gupta, James Baxter, James Manning, Nick Kyriakoulias, Oluyomi Adebiyi, Rita Anne Stott, Evelyn Almgren, Jann Johnson, Elise Vik, Alfred Bellanti, James Howard, Jim McPherson, Ann Ng, Jack Bewley, Ang Wijaya, Avrohom Becker, Thea Westra, Paul Bixler, Catherine Hickman, Helen Humphrey, Bilal Shannak, Kate Smith, Rajan Guna, Ian Westwood, Karen Parsons, Erol Tambi, Jenna Robert, Avery Chong, Georgia Faubar, Dedi Menegazzo, Sunita Arora, Lawrence Campos and Judy McCluskey

Introduction
elcome to Mind Alchemy Bend Your Reality. This is for you, the one who seeks answers, the one who is wandering, lost, on a quest, the one who knows theres more to life, the one who feels somewhere deep down that you have a special place in life. You are an amazing soul, with amazing potential that is bubbling deep inside of you, and Mind Alchemy is the map to release that potential. You were born not just to survive, but to thrive, to live a life filled with love, desire, passion, wealth, intellectual stimulation and happiness. There is a reason you found Mind Alchemy. Dont let it be another program that sits on the shelf in your mindembrace it, challenge yourself, and I can guarantee you that your life will change beyond measure. 4

A bit about Mind Alchemy

This program has been a few years in the making, and was first released back in 2011 as an ebook and workbook course. Whilst I got great feedback on the program, life kind of got in the way and I didnt make the planned changes I knew it needed. I was working full-time as an addiction worker, had an active family life and was beavering away with my online business. At the same time I was using the lessons I show you in this program to bend my own reality what better way to prove that it works?! So I duly gave up my full-time job in September 2012 and became even more passionate about the work I do online, which is writing and marketing. Mind Alchemy kept niggling at me to do a rewrite, but there was just no way I could get it done, as I had been working full-time on another project called Guided Mind with two business partners, and it was going to be huge. Well, Mind Alchemy wouldnt wait, and in September 2013 we knew that Guided Mind wasnt going to be ready in time for a launch in October, so we put it back a few months andprestoI had a few months to write, record and make videos for a rewrite: Mind Alchemy Bend Your Reality.

So, why on earth call it Mind Alchemy?

Well, alchemy was a science used in the middle ages with the goal of changing ordinary metals into gold. My goal is to help you turn your ordinary thoughts into something more useful than
goldI would love to help you bend your reality and shape your own life with the power of your mind.

Sounds a bit airy fairy, doesnt it? Another one of those programs that promises the earth and doesnt deliver. Id like to guarantee you that by the end of this program you will be well on your way to a different lifea life you have chosen, a life decided by you, a life where you jump out of bed in the morning excited about the possibilities of the day ahead. This is the start of a journey, its the start of something you may have been craving for some time now, and Im not going to fill these pages with fluffy, airy fairy conceptsideas that I havent used myself or nonsense that is just not practical in your life. This is a hands-on, get down and dirty program that will help you change the way you think forever. 5

Mind Alchemy Symbol

This is a Celtic symbol called TriquetraLatin tri (three) and quetrus (cornered). It originally meant triangle and was used to refer to various three-cornered shapes. Nowadays, it has come to refer exclusively to a particular, more complicated shape formed of three vesicae piscis. It is also referred to as the Trinity Knot.

In the context of the Mind Alchemy program, it symbolizes past reality, present reality and future realitywhich we will discuss in depth in the program.

Program Overview
Mind Alchemy has been split up into 20 modules, and, depending on what package you purchased, you can work through the Alchemist Guide and Alchemist Workbook on your own. Or, if you have purchased the premium package, you can join the other alchemists online and watch each lesson via video, and work along at your own pace. You will also be able to interact with others and receive helpadvice from the others who have joined the group, and from me. Its up to you how you want to go through this program. You can do it over 20 weeks, or even 20 days. My recommendation would be to work on each module for two days. Read the guide, let it marinate in your subconscious mind and do the corresponding exercises. All in all, you should be able to complete it in 40 days, and then repeat it every three to six months, as your reality is bending all the time. 6

Its all about enjoying the experience

When it comes to learning, one of the best things we can do in life is make it fun. This course has been designed to be interesting and fun, but also extremely powerful in bringing about a shift in your thinking and changing your reality as you see it now. There will be times when it feels a little hard going, and maybe youll feel out of your comfort zonebut the only place we grow in life is when we are outside our comfort zone. If I can make living outside your comfort zone a little more enjoyable, then I have done my job well. If you can enjoy being outside of your comfort zone, then you will grow more quickly than you ever thought possible.

Reality is determined by your perception of the truth

Think about that statement for a few minutes and let it swim about in your head. Seriously, stop reading, re-read the statement above and just sit and ponder it, like a Zen koan. Did you really take a few minutes to let that statement swim about in your mind? If you did, you will realize that its a bit of a paradox: How can your reality be based on your perception of the truth? Reality is surely what we all see, hear, touch, smell or feelin other words, what our five senses can sense. However, if we gathered 200 Mind Alchemists together and asked them to describe this car:

How many different descriptions would we get? Beautiful, classic, petrol guzzler, impractical, no good for families, nice to look at, quite ugly and hundreds of other different comments. So, if our reality is based on the five senses, why do we not all describe the car in the same way? We all have different constructs in our mindssome people are highly logical and look at how much petrol it would take to run, the cost of insurance, the carbon emission etc., whilst others see it as a thing of beauty. Still others have no opinion on it at allits just a car!

Your reality is totally different from my reality!

You see, we all live in the same world, separated by our own realitiesand our reality is based on our thoughts, perceptions, feelings and beliefs. Now the weird thing is that our thoughts, feelings and perceptions are largely based on the beliefs we hold about ourselves and the world around us. BUT what is even weirder is that our beliefs were mostly formed by the time we were five years oldWHAT!?

Its true. Most of what you believe about yourself and your own life is based on beliefs that were formed as young as age five, and those beliefs were passed down from the people who were most significant to you at an early age: usually your parents, teachers and family. If that is the case, then some of the beliefs you have about yourself are literally hundreds of years old (well get into beliefs later on). So, the thoughts you think todaythe feelings you have and your perception of the worldare mostly based on what happened in the past. Thats a real mind punch, isnt it? But it really is true. We can bend our reality by changing the thoughts, feelings and perceptions we have about ourselves and the world around us. 10

Reality Timeline
Id like to introduce you to something called Reality Timeline. If we accept the fact that our thoughts, feelings and perceptions are based on our beliefs about ourselves and the world, and that our beliefs were mostly formed when we were younger, then we have to go back into our past and change them. At this point you might be thinking, Eh! Steve, we cant change our past, so how are we going to change our current perceptions? You are totally correctwe cannot change our past, but what we can change is our perception of what has happened in the past. If we can change that, then we can begin to loosen up our reality and start to change our current reality, and therefore our future reality. We know for sure that as we are growing up we change the way we think, the way we see the world, our reactions to the world. However, a strange thing happens when we think of past events: We immediately revert back to the thoughts and feelings we had from our past. So, in effect, our memories of ourselves do not grow as we grow. The parents among us will know the feeling we get when we have to visit a head teacher about our son or our daughterthe old feelings of being sent to the head teacher come back to us, and we immediately start to feel different. We feel the way we felt when we were in high school. When I think of the time I was bullied at school by two guys who killed a puppy just for kicks, I am reliving fear and seeing the world as a fearful place. Because I am becoming aware of that memory and the feelings, beliefs and thoughts of that time, it affects my current reality and therefore my future reality. But if I can change my perception of being bullied with the current

knowledge I have about myself, I can start to change how I perceive the world todayand that is indeed what I have done. When we do the exercise I am about to share with you, a lot you will see how effective it is in changing the way you perceive the world. What we are doing is putting a new perspective on our memories, from the perspective of the person you are today and not the person you were in the past. In the workbook I have used an example of feeling intimidated by certain types of people. However, this is only used as an example of how powerful this exercise is. There is also a guided meditation download that goes with this particular exercise for healing relationships. When youve completed the exercise start to think about other areas of your life that have been affected by your beliefs from the past. More will be explained in the workbook. So now its time to go to the Alchemist Workbook and do the first exercise. Remember to leave a message underneath the video for the first module, or ask a question. The important thing is that youre getting involved with the Mind Alchemy process. You can also leave a message in the Mind Alchemy Facebook Group. Congratulations! You have taken your first step to becoming a Mind Alchemist. Onwards and upwards :) 11

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Luck is born from the decision to play a more active role in life.
Okay, Id like to start this chapter by telling you a little story. Are you sitting comfortably? Good, then well start.
For years I had been dreaming about my perfect partner. I visualized a woman with long dark hair. She was petite, intelligent and able to stand up for herself. I pictured us having two children and I pictured the house we lived in, the type of dog we hadI gave it the works. I had this in my head for about six years. Every time I went out for a night out I would look for her. I dated in-between but never really found anybody about whom I could say, Shes the one. I eventually grew tired of looking, and on the 19th of July, 2002, I was walking along Argyle street in Glasgow on my way to work and I said to myself, Thats it. I love being a bachelor and that is the way I will stay for the rest of my life. And at that I gave up the fight to find my perfect woman. During the day I was saddened, as I hadnt found the one. Earlier on in the week I had been asked to go to a 40th birthday party from some colleagues at work and I had said maybe, but on the day I didnt feel like itI was feeling a bit down. Later on I was walking to the underground to go home for the night, after work. I walked with a few friends who were

going the same way but were going to the 40th birthday party, and the pub was on the way to the underground station. As we walked past the pub, my friend Tracy and a few others eventually persuaded me to go to the pub just for one drink. I got chatting to a few friends on the night out and had decided I was going to stay for a few more, and we were having a laugh. But at 7.30pm a woman walked in wearing a red t-shirt and a pair of brown cord trousers. I looked up just as she was entering the pub and said, Who the hell is that! I later found out it was a colleagues sister. Something inside me stirred. She was not interested in me at all at the beginning, but then a song came on that I loved. I held out my hand and asked if she wanted to dance, and it was electricsomething happened, a connection, a feeling, something I hadnt felt before. Her name is Sharon Aitchison, and we have been together for 11 years and married for 8, with two sons who are growing into handsome young, intelligent men (and I adore them!). Our dog Kara, a Golden Retriever, is an addition to our familyalthough shes a bit mental, shes lovely. What I had pictured in my head all those years ago had finally came to me, because I was ready and everything had been aligned to make it happen.

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Was it luck that I decided to go into the pub that night? Absolutely notit was my decision to interact with the world around me, which created a beautiful opportunity to meet and marry the woman of my dreamsquite literally!

Luck is not decided by fate, its decided by you and your decision to put yourself in front of as many opportunities as you can, without expectation.
How much would your current reality change if you were to become a much luckier person? It would change quite significantly, and it turns out you can change how lucky you are with a few mindset shifts. Changing your definition of luck and becoming luckier is crucial in your quest to bend your reality. Five years ago I wrote a post on my blog entitled 7 Ways to be More Lucky. A few years later a great book came out called The Luck Factor by Professor Richard Wiseman. That book proved scientifically what I was talking about in the postthat it is indeed possible for you to become significantly luckier than you think you are.

You might be saying, How the hell can someone make themself more lucky? If you can influence it, its not luck. As it turns out, its quite easybut first we have to change the way we perceive luck. Merriam-Websters definition of luck is: The things that happen to a person because of chance. The most important word in that definition is chance. At the moment you might think that luck is a random event that comes totally unexpectedly. So when we read about a person who wins the lottery, we are apt to think, The lucky git. But its nothing to do with luck, its about that person giving themself a chance by actually going out and purchasing a lottery ticket. 15

Luck is preceded by an action that brings about a chance for something to happen.
Do you consider yourself lucky that you happened to come across the Mind Alchemy program? No, its because you took some kind of action that enabled you to be informed about this program, either by signing up to someones email list, or visiting a blog of someone you admire, or clicking on a link that led you to sign up for the free videos for Mind Alchemy. You took action, thereby giving yourself more of a chance to be in a position to purchase this life-changing program. In Richard Wisemans book The Luck Factor he gives us some great principles that help us understand what it means to be luckier. Here are the four main principles: Principle 1: Lucky people build and maintain a strong network of luck. Richards research showed that the more social a person was, the luckier they were in life. That is not to say that if youre an introvert like me you cannot be lucky. I am actively social online and have lots of people in my networkhowever, this didnt used to be true. I used to think that I could do everything on my ownhave the ideas for products, build the website, create images, record, use video, market to my own list of subscribers. Its only when I realized that you need a good network behind you that things really started taking off in my business life, and my personal life as well. My luck increased a hundredfold when I started getting to know others in my niche, and even outside my niche.

Principle 2: Lucky people make successful decisions by using their intuition and gut feelings. Have you ever ignored your gut instinct only to find out later on that you should have listened to that feeling? I think we have all had an experience like that. Lucky people have learned to trust their gut instinct, and it serves them well when it comes to relationships and career choices. Principle 3: Lucky peoples expectations about the future help them fulfill their dreams and ambitions. Have you ever met someone who was just doom and gloom all the time? His energy would just totally drain you whenever you were in his company, he didnt expect anything to go right for him, he thought the worst about people and life in general. Do you think that person ever considered himself to be lucky? Probably not. If we expect good things to happen to us, then we are more open to the possibility that we will be put in front of opportunities that will make us luckier. Principle 4: Lucky people are able to transform their bad luck into good fortune. The program you are reading or watching just now would never have came about had it not been for a bit of bad luck. I have another product that is coming out very soon called Guided Mind. My two partners on this project and I have been working on it for a full year, and it was due to launch in October of this year. However, due to technical and programming issues, we knew we couldnt get it launched in timeSo we delayed it by two months. Some people might see that as unlucky. However, I seized the opportunity to write and record Mind Alchemyso out of bad luck came good luck. Okay, hopefully you can see that it is possible to become a luckier person. Now it is time to go to the Alchemist Workbook and do the exercises in the I should be so lucky section.

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Okay, today were going to be looking at one of my favorite topics, and that is beliefs. This is a huge topic and it deserves a lot of your attention. Changing your disempowering beliefs to empowering ones will literally change your life.

Beliefs and how to change them

One of the biggest gifts we could ever be given in lifeand I mean this quite literallyis knowing that we can change our beliefs. This is just an amazing piece of knowledge to have, to know that we can actually change beliefs that have been useless and lying unchallenged within us for years. We have certain beliefs within us just now that are disempowering us, and this is what we want to look at next to show you ways that you can disarm the disempowering beliefs or get rid of them altogether and install new beliefs into you own life. Our beliefs literally shape our reality. Your reality is totally different from mine. Its also different from your partners, work colleagues, your kids and the people around about you. Youre unique to you; the thing that makes you different are the beliefs you hold about your world. Think about that for a momentyou have created your own world. Yes, we share a lot of constructs, but effectively you have created the world around you, and the person that you are today. That might bake your noodle a little, but if you can get your head around that and really think about it, youll realize what it meansthat if you have created your life thus far, you can also change it, because you are the creator.

Dr. Bernard Siegel recounts stories of patients with multiple personality disorders who have literately changed eye color and gone from one personality to another. They have also developed physical symptoms such as diabetes within their bodies simply because they have changed from one personality to another, each having totally different beliefs about themselves. Thats a stark presentation of how deeply embedded our beliefs are, and there is lots of evidence to support this. If you read any of Dr. Siegels books, you will realize the power of beliefs. So, this not only shows that beliefs are in our mind and can affect our minds, but they can also affect our physical bodies as well. They are extremely powerful in and of themselves, so its important to learn as much about yourselfthrough your beliefsas possible. Then, if you feel its necessary, change them or install a new belief. Lets consider the placebo affect, which basically has two sets of patients who are given two sets of different pills. One of the sample groups receives a sugar pill and is told that the pill is going to help with their condition: pain, depression, etc. The other sample group is given genuine medication to treat the condition. What has been found time and time again since 1955 when the phrase placebo effect was coined is that 5060% of patients respond to the placebo tabletthat is, the sugar pill. So, it has the desired effect of positively addressing the condition. This is the power of belief. This isnt to say that human beings are stupidit just means that we are fooling ourselves with the power of the mind by believing that the sugar pill is going to help. This is reinforced within the hospital/medical setting and our acceptance that a doctor has prescribed the pill. So what this really means is that a beliefif taken down to its basic functionis something you hold in your mind. Its a conceptsomething you know with certainty is true, and that creates a deep feeling within.

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A belief is a feeling of certainty that something is true.

If you say that you are an intelligent person, what you are really saying is you feel that you are an intelligent person. That feeling of certainty allows you to tap into your inner resources, which will allow you to display a feeling of intelligence and, in turn, to think and take actions in a different wayfrom the perspective of an intelligent person, or at least your perception of how an intelligent person would behave.

Belief formula
For the purpose of this program, I have come up with a belief formula, based on my psychology degree research (both qualitative and quantitative). The belief formula is:

perception + evidence + time = belief

Now, to illustrate this formula, Id like to tell you a story about a girl named Sharon who is 22 years old. Sharon has never really believed that she is attractive, which is reflective of a lot of people in the world today, both female and male. One day whilst at work, a male friend paid her a compliment and said she looked really good and hot. This took Sharon by surprise, but she didnt really think anymore about it. However, when she went home that night, she looked in the mirror and thought about what her friend had said. And she thought that she was actually looking a bit better than she had been. A few nights later, when she was out with friends, she was approached by a good-looking guy who asked if he could buy her a drink. Sharon was really flattered but politely refused to take the drink, which caused a little stir among her friends, who joked with her about this. Again she was taken aback by this compliment. Sharon started to reflect on recent events and began to question and challenge her perception of her beliefs about herself. Other small things like this happened over the next few weeks and Sharons (self) belief started to take hold. A few weeks later, Sharon was out shopping by herself and she saw a nice pair of jeans and decided to try them on. She looked in the mirror in the changing room (which as you know can be traumatic for anyone!) and was able to recognize that she actually looked good. And she acknowledged that she liked what she saw in the mirror. This was the formation of a new belief about herself. A few weeks later, her mother said to her that over the past few months there had been a marked difference in her appearance, and she was looking wonderful. Now, it was unusual for her mother to pay her a compliment, and she was able to take this compliment in the positive manner in which it had been offered. So Sharon was able to take this belief obtained in the previous few months and let it set in her mind. Sharon had now formed the belief that she was attractive. Due to the formation of this belief (that she is attractive), which had been reinforced by the compliments of others, Sharon started to act, dress and even walk differently. This was all a result of her newfound belief in herself. She began to dress to accentuate her best assets, and she attended the gym to maintain this attractive figure. This change affected her thinking, and she started thinking more positively confidently. She began to take on bigger challenges in life.

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You see, Sharon had a perception of herself and the way she looks. This perception changed as external validation force her to look at her perception. More evidenceagain in the form of external factors and internal factorsproved to Sharon that she was attractive. With time and the continuation of building evidence she formed a new belief about herself: perception + evidence + time = belief The story of Sharon is quite simplistic in that a belief may be formed over years depending on what stage we are at in life. If you look at the transition for Sharon, she was able to challenge her misconceived perceptions and beliefs about herself through the aid of external reinforcers. This is what happens to you. Your beliefs are either positive or negative. If you are the type of person where your world looks bleak and dark and miserable, its purely because your beliefs need to be altered in relation to how you really are, and how the world really is. The event is irrelevantit is how you react to the event that matters. I know that there will be awful experiences that people will have been through, and the more traumatic the experiences, the more specialist help you will need. However, in general day-to-day life, if you have limiting beliefs in your life, you can turn them around (if you wish) purely by turning your beliefs around. Obviously you have to examine your current belief to know what areas you want to change.

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The table of beliefs

Tony Robbins uses a metaphor for building your beliefs called the table metaphor. Basically what this means is you have an imaginary tabletop that represents a perception about yourself. In Sharons case, the perception may have been planted when the colleague at work paid her a compliment. At this point, its just a tabletop. It doesnt have any support as such at this stage. As Sharon traveled through the following weeks she received further compliments that reinforced the positive image in her, which resulted in the formation of the legs for the tabletop, or her perception. It was now able to support the idea of her positive self-image, and that idea has now turned into a belief she has about herself. This is how we all form beliefs.

Belief formation
When we are young our beliefs are formed from external forces (i.e., parents, teachers, friends, peers and family). If we respect another person, then it is easier to believe what they saySanta Claus, anyone? In adulthood, we have transferred these childhood beliefs across, so its time to look at your beliefs, evaluate them and identify which ones you want to discard. Whenever you question something it means you are starting to doubt it. This will lead to more questions, which result in you being less likely to believe entrenched attitudes given to you by others.

However, you will be able to retain those beliefs that you actually trust in. Think about the belief that 99.9% of the world population holds true: that the sun is going to rise every morning. Think about that belief just now, and then question it. The possibility of the sun rising tomorrow morning is extremely high. How do we determine this? We look to the past. It has always risen in the morning. There has never been one single day that the sun has not risen at a specific time. These times have been recorded and we can trust in our past experience of the previous events. So because of the evidence, we have no foundation to say that this belief is not true. Obviously there are some people out there who may believe that the sun will not rise. The difference is that this belief will be proved unfounded within 24 hours, when the sun rises again. However, when we question beliefs about ourselves (and not external natural forces), we start to pick holes in our beliefs. When I was about five years old, I was told by significant people in my life (friends, teachers, etc.) that I wasnt really intelligentand I believed them. At the time I couldnt understand that this was correlated to an undiagnosed hearing impairment that appeared to reinforce this viewpoint. I had difficulty hearing the teacher in class (Math, English, etc.) because I couldnt hear properly. That carried on for another 10 years or so, and I still believed that I was quite thickthis was the phrase I used at the time, and its a phrase that I have never and would never use about myself or anyone else again. But the word represents how damaging the belief was. The reason I was so ready to believe this was because significant others in my life told me both verbally and non-verbally that I was slow, and I had no understanding or benchmark from which to challenge this assertion at the time. When I reached 14 years of age things changed. I questioned these beliefs that I had. The reason for this inner challenge was that I had taken a history exama topic I was really interested inand I achieved an A. This outcome made me question my beliefs about my intelligence as a whole. I then began to look for evidencethe legs of the table, so to speak. I carried on to achieve good results in English, math, and my geography exams. These were all clear external indications that the conditions of worth and labels that had been placed upon me as a child were wrong. I began to form other beliefs that culminated in me believing that I was intelligent, and I had the audacity to apply to university. Now, to apply to university I had to have some higher level math, physics and chemistry, and when I reflected back to high school I saw that I hadnt been able to achieve even the most standard grade in any of these subjects. However, because I had changed my beliefs and now believed that I was intelligent, and because I believed I could pass these higher exams, I went on to achieve all the qualifications required of me, on the first trywhich allowed me to secure a place in my psychology degree course. I graduated in 2000. This was one of my biggest achievements in life, purely because of my previous belief that I lacked intelligence. I know that intelligence is not equated to passing exams, as the exam system is inherently flawed, but it is an indication of commitment, belief and a degree of intelligence.

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It is this experience that triggered my interest in beliefs, and how they form our reality and worlds. This is an illustration of how challenging our beliefsand changing themcan change our future reality, and we can start to bend our reality when our current realitys beliefs are challenged.

How on earth do I find out what my beliefs are?

When I speak at seminars about beliefs, everyone gets it and really understands what I am talking about, and wants to put what I teach into practice. And then suddenly they stop and ask the question How do I know what I believe in? That may sound strange, but weve never had to question our beliefs before. We go along in our daily lives just going about our business, believing in this and believing in that, without it ever bubbling up to the conscious mind. Whenever we start to talk about beliefs, we are often left a bit dumbfounded as we realize that we dont consciously know what our beliefs are unless someone asks us specifically (e.g., Do you believe you are intelligent? Do you believe you are a success?). Its only when we are asked directly that we consciously think about our beliefs. So we need some way of extrapolating the beliefs that we hold unconsciously and bringing them to the conscious mind. One great way of doing this is to write down our outcomes for different areas of our lives. By that, I mean writing down something you want to happen in the future. This is different from a goal, as I will explain in another chapter. So, for example, you could have one of your outcomes as I am now 14 lbs. lighter than my current weight. So you would write down your current weight, have the outcome to be reached within six months and state an affirmation about that. Again, well discuss this more in depth in another chapter of the program about outcomes. Now we have an outcome, and we need to look at the beliefs that surround that outcome. Outcome: I am now 14 lbs. lighter than my current weight. Beliefs Do I believe I can lose 14 lbs. within six months? Do I believe that I can change my exercise habits to reach my outcome? Do I believe that I can change my eating pattern to reach my outcome? Do I believe that with every mouthful of food I eat I put on weight? 23

The above is just an example of the many beliefs we need to examine to reach our outcome of being 14 lbs. lighter within six months. Then, depending on the answer you give to each question, you would need to change your particular belief about that question. For example, if you believe that every time you sit down to eat you will put on weight, you will need to look at that belief and install a new one. I bet youve heard someone say, Oh, I only need to look at food and I put on weight! Guess what? That person WILL put on weight, because they are literally telling their body to put on weight every time they eat something. You may not believe that, but it is true. What you tell yourself, you tell your brain and body to obey. Ive experimented with this belief and I now know (not believe) that I can speed up my metabolism to lose weight. So I tell myself that every time I eat something I will burn it off very quickly as my metabolism speeds uptry it! I digress. You have to get to a stage where the word believe does not come into the equationyou either know something is true or you dont know if its true. So you will know that you can lose 14 lbs. within six months, you will know that every time you eat something your metabolism will speed up so you dont put on weight, you will know that you will be slim, you will know that you can change your exercise patterndo you see the difference between knowing and believing? 24

Installing a new belief

Once youve identified a new belief you would like to install, you essentially immerse yourself in the new belief until your subconscious accepts it as true and integrates it into your mental operating system. I love to use visualization with physical proof, but a lot of people use affirmations combined with strong emotion. So if you want to install the new belief that you can start an exercise routine, you would visit the gym just to check it out, and at the same time you would start to visualize yourself at the gym, feeling good about yourself, and seeing yourself 14 lbs. lighter than you are now. You wouldnt put pressure on yourself and tell yourself youre going to have to go to the gym for lifeyou just go once, and then you go another time, and then another. Theres no pressure. Pretty soon youll have been going to the gym or doing an exercise routine for long enough that youll start to miss it when you dont go.

So to summarize this part, you need to identify what beliefs you have and what new beliefs you have to install before you can reach your outcomes in life. Go to the section entitled Your Beliefs in the Alchemist Workbook and watch the corresponding video in the members area if you have bought the premium package.

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