No. 12 Interview With Harry Carpenter
Performance & The Subconscious Mind- Part 12 Interview With Harry Carpenter
Posted February 16, 2011 by Richard Matteson
Hi,
Accessing the Subconscious Mind
Harry Carpenter; Author of The Genie Within: Your Subconscious Mind—How It Works and How to Use It.
The journey to the “subconscious mind” continues and in this blog I have a special guest, Harry Carpenter, author of The Genie Within: Your Subconscious Mind—How It Works and How to Use It. There are many books about how the subconscious mind works and Harry’s book is one of the best. It is concise, well-organized, accurate, easy to read and factual. I’m blessed to have him answer some question about the subconscious mind for you on my blog.
Harry’s web-site is: http://thegeniewithin.net/ and here’s a brief biography:
Harry W. Carpenter is the author of The Genie Within: Your Subconscious Mind—How It Works and How to Use It. Learning how to use his subconscious mind has been his passion and avocation for 60 years. This passion began with a mental healing of a life-threatening illness at age 10. Harry distilled all that he learned into a rational and useful paradigm. He and his wife say that this knowledge changed their lives dramatically.
Because of his successes in using his subconscious mind, Harry was encouraged by friends to teach what he had learned. He taught his first classes 50 years ago but stopped teaching to pursue a career in aerospace engineering and raise four children. He resumed teaching after he retired in 1994.
The Genie Within: Your Subconscious Mind is a written form of this popular class. The impetus for writing the book came from his students who asked where they could find a book with the information he teaches. Harry’s response was that no book comes close because the information in The Genie Within: Your Subconscious Mind was gleaned from many books and teachers. The book is the distillation—the best of the best—from 60 years of reading, studying, practicing, and teaching.
The Genie Within: Your Subconscious Mind is written for the layman, easy to read, and simple to use. A lot of information is condensed into a paradigm that is sensible and easy to use.
The Genie Within: Your Subconscious Mind is not a book of inspirational stories; it is a complete manual on how to use your subconscious mind to achieve success, health, and peace of mind.
Since in our last blog we were looking at hypnotism here’s an excerpt from the first chapter Harry’s book:
I will start with stage hypnotists. Most of you have had an opportunity to see one perform. Essentially, all they do is plant a suggestion in the subconscious mind of the subject. But the results, to our conscious minds, seem extraordinary.
1) I witnessed a hypnotist tell a man that he just returned from another planet, and he asked the subject to describe his visit to this planet. The subject demonstrated a vivid imagination by describing the planet in detail. This person in a normal mental state would probably avow he has a poor imagination. Maybe his conscious mind has poor imagination, but his subconscious mind has a vivid one. Moreover, in a normal mental state he would, likely, not be able to vividly and spontaneously describe something in such detail from his imagination in front of a large audience.
2) Hypnotic subjects can exhibit extraordinary strength. I have a picture from a national newspaper that appeared many years ago of Johnny Carson suspended between two chairs. Kreskin, the well-known mentalist (he refuses to be called a hypnotist), planted a suggestion in Carson’s subconscious mind that he was super strong and that he could keep his body rigid. He had Carson place his head on one chair and the soles of his feet on another. Carson remained rigid even when someone sat on his stomach. If it was not for the fact that his subconscious mind accepted the suggestion, Carson could not have performed this feat. (Do not do this. You could strain a muscle.)
3) A suggestion planted in a subject’s subconscious mind can change his personality and make him or her do things they would not do under normal circumstances. I witnessed stage hypnotists make: an ordinary woman strut around the stage acting as if she had just won the Miss America contest; a man pursue a broom stick acting as if it were a gorgeous movie star, and; a man attack (he had to be held back) a larger man, who he knew was a muscled college wrestler, because the wrestler kicked an imaginary dog.
4) Hypnotized subjects can be made amnesiac. A woman volunteer on a PBS TV program was hypnotized and she told to forget the number 7. Later, when out of the hypnotic state, they took her to a stage set up like a game show. The host told her she would win $1,000,000 for answering this simple question: What is 4 plus 3? She could not come up with the correct answer. They gave her two more chances with two more simple questions in which the answer was 7. Each time she could not recall the number 7. They then asked her to count the fingers on her hands. She counted 1,2,3,4,5,6,8,9,10,11. She could not say the number 7. She was also confused about having 11 fingers.
5) Some doctors, dentists, and therapists use hypnosis for medical purposes. I recently read, for example, that hypnosis is being used on severe burn patients. Other examples include control of chronic pain, anesthesia, birthing, and eliminating phobias. On the same PBS TV show mentioned above, a hypnotherapist cured a woman of a lifelong fear of snakes in just a few minutes. She fearlessly held a boa constrictor and let it wrap around her shoulders. The hypnotherapist also cured a man with a lifelong fear of spiders. The man let a tarantula crawl on his shoulders.
6) Dr. James Esdaile, a Scottish surgeon, practicing in the 1800’s used hypnotism in operations before anesthesia was available. His rate of success was ten times above that of his colleagues. The hypnotized patients felt less pain and anxiety, which allowed their immune systems to repress infections. Dr. Esdaile also planted suggestions in their subconscious minds to expedite healing. The mortality rate for operations in the mid 1800’s was 50 percent. In 161 operations performed by Dr. Esdaile using hypnosis, the mortality rate was 5 percent.
7) A young man I knew was embarrassed about the thick glasses he wore. He read two books by Margaret Darst Corbett who wrote about the theory of ophthalmologist, Dr. William H. Bates. Dr. Bates believed that poor eyesight was epidemic in our society due to stress caused by our hectic culture. This stress tensed the eye muscles, which distorted the eyeball. The distorted eyeball shifted the focal point and blurred vision. Dr. Bates cited examples of aboriginal cultures, which were free of the stresses of modern societies, where the people seldom had poor eyesight, even at old age.
Dr. Bates’s cure was eye exercises designed to relax the muscles in the eye sockets so the eyeballs could return to their original shapes, making the use of glasses unnecessary. Eliminating eyeglasses was not popular with opticians, oculists, and ophthalmologists. It was not popular with anybody else either because the exercises were tedious, required dedication, and results were uncertain.
The young man used his subconscious mind (the method discussed in Lesson Eight) to relax his eye muscles. Within weeks he could read without glasses.
Now we’ll go to the questions that I asked Harry. Please understand that I asked Harry for short answers. To get the full answers buy his book!
1) A. What insights have you learned about how the subconscious mind processes information? B. In your excellent book “The Genie Within” you mention that the subconscious mind processes information in the present tense. C. Many researchers and NLP experts say the subconscious mind does not understand how to process negative statements. D. Bruce Lipton, for example, likens the subconscious to a “tape machine” in theta mode that doesn’t understand the commands from the beta conscious. Do you agree?
HARRY: A. The mind is the most complex thing in the Universe. There is a lot of research going on looking into this. It is only in the last few decades scientists have noninvasive instruments to study the mind. So a lot of information should become available to laymen. (There is always a time lag between scientific results and publication in books written for the lay person.) So far, I have not learned anything recently that changes anything written in my book.
B. Present tense. Every creditable author I have read agrees. The scm (subconscious mind) only processes information in the present tense. Your scm (subconscious mind) constantly seeks goals. Any way you state a goal in future tense, the affirmation is self defeating. e.g., “I will be well.” This implies you are not now well. First, the present tense translation is, “I am not well.” Thus, the concept about self is that the self is sick. Second, I will be well may be true but when will you be well? Tomorrow? Tomorrow is always the next day, and the next, etc.
C. Negative statements. As I said in the book, there are several reasons not to use negative affirmations.
a. Effective communication with your scm requires images and feelings. Negative affirmations can be difficult to picture in your mind. For example, “Kobe Bryant did not play basketball today.” How do you picture that? If you said, “Kobe played today,” you can pull up multiple images from memory.
b. Some thing pictured is hard to forget. If you say, “I am not afraid.” Chances are you think of some time you were afraid. Then it is hard to get it out of your mind and you are thinking about being afraid. That word evokes images ( from memories) and feelings. Fear is a strong emotion.
c. I read that a researcher claimed the scm did not see the “not.” Thus your scm reads, “I am afraid.”
d. I also read a researcher claimed any word in front of “afraid” emphasizes that word in the scm.
e. To forget something, you first have to think about it. Why force yourself to think about the thing you do not want?
f. It is just as easy to say, “I am brave.” “I have poise.” etc. These affirmations eliminate all the problems stated above.
D. Lipton’s book is seminal. Great book. Changes everything. This is my answer. Again, the mind is the most complex thing in the Universe and we know little about it. So, it can be described like the blind men describing an elephant based on what part of the elephant they are touching. I think Lipton and I are in agreement but the words we use to describe the scm have to be defined. For example, Lipton says the cm (conscious mind) is the creative mind. I say the scm is the creative mind. Both are correct based on what one means by “creativity.” Lipton, I believe, means critical, analytical thinking. Such as writing an affirmation or determining what to do today. I mean using all your brain, thinking globally, bringing in all your fields of knowledge to solve a problem in one field. I mean including imagination.
Lipton says affirmations do not work. I totally agree and say so in my book. Affirmations do not work when you are double minded. Coue’s law: When your cm and scm are in conflict, your scm always wins. Affirmations only work when you are single minded. Lipton does not talk about that part.
2) What got you interested in the subconscious? Do you consider Genie a law of attraction book? Do you have any influences like Neville Goodard or Wallace Wattles?
HARRY: “See pp 3 and 4 of my book. I was cured of a long, severe illness by a Christian Science practitioner. He taught me that the mind can do anything. I associated that with the scm. I did not know anything about religion, God.
There is, of course, validity in the Law Of Attraction. But within limits. First, as stated in the Answer to your Question #1, when you are double minded you will fail. The Law Of Attraction does not address that as far as I know. Two, thinking about your goal all the time can be counter productive because most of the time you will think of it in the awake state. Your conscious mind, your critical mind, will think of dozens of reasons you will fail. You should only think of your goal in an altered state of mind. Better to think of your goal once a day in an altered state than think of it all day in the awake state. I don’t think LOA addresses that either.
I listened to Neville once on uTube. His is a mesmerizing speaker. I don’t recall what he said. I think he was a little far out for me. I read half of Wattle’s book on the subconscious mind. Couldn’t disagree with what he said but I got bored. I’ve read the same thing stated over and over in many books.
3) A. What are some ways our conscious mind in beta state can communicate with our subconscious?
HARRY: With the pendulum and muscle response testing. Conscious mind can interfere when using the pendulum, but not with the muscle response testing.
A better question is how does the scm communicate with the conscious mind. Dreams, hunches, muscle response testing. When you get a hunch, how do you know it is from your subconscious mind and not from your conscious mind? Find out using the pendulum or muscle response testing.
Have you read Power Vs Force by David Hawkins? I recommend it.
3B. In a high stress situations like a performance situation or an athletic event what can the performer do to best direct the subconscious?
HARRY: a) Be prepared. Practice, practice, practice. Physically and mentally in alpha.
b) *Be confident. See a) above.
*Go over the music or athletic moves mentally in alpha or theta.
* Write an affirmation affirming your ability and poise (Lesson 8 in my book) Record it and play it back while in alpha or theta.
4) Some psychologists and even self-help guru Tony Robbins suggest changing beliefs in the subconscious are done more quickly by linking pleasure and pain to the belief and/or situation. Do you think linking pleasure or pain is important? Why?
HARRY: Never been interested in this. Never researched it. Can’t fault Tony Robbins. He is 1000x more successful than I am. He would charge you $1000 for this interview. I have two of his books. I started reading them several times but can’t get into them. I quit after a couple of chapters. So I’m not qualified to comment of this.
5) In NLP one way to change states is done by anchoring which allows you to shift quickly to different, more empowering states. What do you think about anchoring and triggers?
HARRY: I researched NLP once but didn’t find much that went into depth. So I gave up. It seems to be a powerful tool, but I just did not have the time to look into it. I have a local acquaintance [Gary Sinclair] who has studied it. He has an interesting background and you can download his first book free I just emailed the link to you.
I am not sure what “anchoring” is. I use triggers a lot and describe them in my book, pp189-192.
7) Is uncovering past limiting behaviors and beliefs important? Is it instead better to rewrite or create new and positive memories. Do you recommend using Maslow’s “4 steps of Learning” as a process to do this? To become “unconsciously competent”?
HARRY: I don’t think it is necessary to uncover past programs. Just overwhelm them with new ones.
6) Performance anxiety is a very real problem for many performers. Being the focus of attention and the pressures and expectations of the ego causes the body to assume a “fight or flight” response. In your experience what are some techniques a performer can use to combat the biological changes and emotional pressures? Is a solution one of focus?
HARRY: Here are some ideas:
a. Confidence overrides fear. Practice mentally and physically, particularly in the alpha state. Sit in a comfortable chair and mentally play to Carnegie Hall. Play perfectly, see the audience clapping at the end and yelling “Bravo.” Observe yourself relaxed and enraptured in the music.
b. Write an affirmation, record it, play it back while in the alpha or theta state.
Include items like, “I love preforming in front of an audience.” “Preforming puts me in the Zone (alpha state).” “I expect” etc
c. Attach it to a trigger. Place a picture of the trigger in a few strategic places, like on your guitar.
d. Condition yourself to relax using a guitar pick as a trigger.
e. You’ll find more ideas in the book.
One point I might add to preparing for performances is this. Fear of failure is a strong emotion. Emotions stem from the subconscious mind. To gain confidence, you must condition your subconscious mind with positive concepts/programs that instill confidence in your ability and desire to preform in front of large audiences. These feelings/programs must overwhelm fear of failure. You must expect a successful performance.
When many of us, myself included, write an affirmation to perform (as a musician, speaker, or etc.) we are mostly thinking of ourselves–of our feelings. We should also think of the audience. For example:
“The audience is eager to be entertained, informed, etc.
“I am blessed to be able to share. . .
“I love giving enjoyment, information, etc.
“It is a privilege to . . . .
“I enjoy being of service . . .
“It is right for me to share my talent, knowledge, etc.
“My audience is receptive . . .
Thanks Harry. All the best with your book!
More to come,
Richard