Going To Sleep - Tapping The Potential Of The Mind

Before you knew your ABC's and were still struggling to manage a knife and fork, your inner self had been making mathematical and chemical calculations far beyond the abilities of modern science. With the fuel of proper nutrition, our organs perform perfectly and we are rarely conscious of them or their functions, until we interfere with the work of the subconscious.

The more charitable of authorities say our conscious mind operates at about 10 per cent of its potential. This means that 90 per cent of our true intellect is dormant, unused, and out of conscious reach. Other experts, less generous, contend that 1 per cent conscious mind and 99 per cent subconscious are more accurate percentages. Obviously, we are far from efficient mentally, and something is very wrong with this situation.

A man is just as well and just as able and just as conscious as he is capable of directing his attention and concentration to the present now. Whether one worries about his tomorrows today or spends his time reliving his past yesterdays, of one thing he may be certain: he is scattering his forces (consciousness) and dissipating his attention, which is the very essence of life energy itself.

One may consistently dissipate his attention by directing it to his past, on the failures sustained or on the losses and sadness of past experiences, until he grows weary and forgetful. It is possible to experience physical and mental bankruptcy at any age. Chronic scattering of attention can produce neurosis. When the attention of the mentally disturbed patient is imprisoned by the past, leaving no attention for now, we recognize the symptoms of psychosis. A man without attention parted with his abilities, one by one, as he descended into the morass of effects, confusion, forgetfulness, ill-health, and failure.

The mind forgets nothing. No thought, no impression, no emotion is ever lost, for the mind, like a photographic plate, preserves and records everything that has happened to you since birth. True, your ability to recall may be dulled, but the memories are there, buried in that vast storehouse - the subconscious.

The more subjective a man's thinking becomes, the less he remembers. The less he communicates with others, the less able he is to communicate, and the more his memory suffers. Attention must be used if it is to avoid the hazards of deterioration. Attention and memory are interdependent and furnish the most accurate mental yardstick for determining man's well-being.

As long as we have command of most of our attention, we are outgoing, we are communicating well with others, and we are reasonably healthy. Should we experience grief, sadness, or defeat for a sustained period and lose ourselves in the sad reflections of yesterday's tragedies, we discover we are burying our attention as we continue to reflect upon the past. It is much as if we covered up a little of life with our bygone unhappy experiences and past mistakes. When we watch the grief-stricken wife or husband whose attention is caught in a whirlpool of sorrow, we witness the ebbing of life force, a striving toward death. Sustained grief can be fatal. In such cases there is no organic cause of death - just a lack of survival potential, much as if the force of life had been drained away. We hear it said: "He wanted to die," or "He lost the will to live."

Life energy flows from the highest levels of the subconscious mind and permeates our consciousness to the degree that we are able to receive it. Negative attitudes such as fear, grief, anger, insecurity, ill health, and so on inhibit and restrict this vital force of the subconscious and are the factors that dim and finally darken the flame of life. You will see how this life force, or buried attention, can be uncovered, restored, and again be put to use when you recognize the symptoms!

You will see why this inner man is not a mystical concept or philosophical probability, there is such a force! It is real, it does exist, and you are its master!