73000881 how to solve problems and prevent trouble

7/28/2019 73000881 How to Solve Problems and Prevent Trouble

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HOW TO SOLVEPROBLEMS

&PREVENT

TROUBLEby

RICHARD W. WETHERILL


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HOW TO SOLVEPROBLEMS AND

PREVENT TROUBLE

by

Richard W. Wetherill


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Revised editionCopyRight 1962, 1977, 1991

by

humanetiCs FellowshipRoyeRsFoRd, pa 19468

All Rights Reserved

the alpha publishing housepo box 255

RoyeRsFoRd, pa 19468

pRinted

in

the

united

states

oF

ameRiCa


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Preace

Many Unnecessary Problems

PRESSURES AND tensions o modern lie can be reducedenormously, and the inormation presented in this booktells how. The inormation has been and is being tested indaily use by persons rom various walks o lie.

They all say the inormation is correct and that it is im-portant.

They tell startling stories o what it is doing or them.

They say the inormation is new, and many o them say theyresisted some portions o it at rst. The evidence is that nogreat progress is made except by changing rom the old tothe new, and the pioneering work o changing is ordinarilyresisted at rst.

The person who resists is behaving naturally.I he persists through the initial resistance, however, he

makes remarkable discoveries. He becomes aware that prob-lems he thought were necessary are not necessary at all, andhe learns how various objectionable conditions in his lie canbe changed.

Soon he nds that his original resistance is replaced byan eagerness to learn more.

When a person really understands the basic message othis book, he experiences a happiness he had never known.

This book is a kind o behavioral textbook, and while theinormation is presented on a nonreligious basis, everybodyis entitled to seek God as best he can. Many persons say thatthis book helped them to nd God. When understood, it will

iii


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iv How to Solve Problems and Prevent Trouble

help people to nd desirable objectives o all kinds. The rea-

son is that it removes mental blinders that have kept peopleliving in unsuspected darkness.

The purpose o the chapters that ollow is to enable aperson to become ully logical, to think more clearly andsuccessully in all departments o lie, and to recognize andunderstand reality. It will enable him to learn how to iden-tiy and drop wrong thinking so that right thinking becomesinstinctive.

That is purpose enough or one book.At rst, that purpose may seem rather vague and inde-

nite because the results take so many orms that they deyany hope o simple description.

Actually describing them seems to involve wild exag-geration.

A selection o results includes the correction o personal-

ity faws and aults earlier not only uncorrectable but somethat were undetectable, destruction o bad habits and com-pulsive misbehavior, elimination o vague eelings o guilt orear, and even ending susceptibility to various sicknesses andaccidents.

I that seems too much to expect, study this book withhonesty and an open mind, and you will get some ascinatingsurprises.


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v

Contents

pReFaCe: many unneCessaRy pRoblems ............................. iii

oRigin oF pRoblems and tRouble.............................. 1

teChnique FoRsolving pRoblems ............................... 23

FoRmula FoRpReventing tRouble ............................. 47

CaReFully inspeCt youRbehavioR............................. 61

houseClean youRemotional liFe.............................. 76

impRove youReFFeCts on people ............................... 90

take youRbRains out oF Chains ............................. 113

.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.


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JOHN IS handsome. His youthul good looks are enhancedby the appearance o intelligence and an attractive person-ality. He impresses people avorablybut not or very long.

Why not? Because John has an unortunate tendency tolose his temper whenever he ails to get his own way.

Does he blame his outbursts o temper on himsel? Ocourse not.

He blames it on the people who seem to block him. Hehas made up his mind that they are goading him and tryingto deeat him. He becomes totally illogical whenever the sub-ject is mentioned.

John is mixed up in his mind, and he is not the only one.It is no secret that human beings are illogical because

the evidence abounds on all sides. But it is a secret rom eachperson that in many ways he is illogical himsel.

What is more important, he doesnt like to be told so.You can check that by considering any illogical person

you know. No matter how unortunate the mistakes his il-logic compels him to make, you know what would happen iyou tried to tell him he is illogical, so you do not try.

That is one o the great mistakes that people should stopmaking: Everybody is illogical in many dierent ways, and

nobody can easily be told.There is a strong reason why a person objects to being

told. The reason is that he is usually unable to detect what isillogical about his behavior because the evidence is somehow

Chapter

Origin of Problems and Trouble


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How to Solve Problems and Prevent Trouble

concealed rom him.

How that evidence is concealed and what can be done toexpose it makes a ascinating and, at times, a shocking story.

In the light o present-day events, it is important to tellthat story, because unless the story is told, people will not beable to solve their problems and prevent trouble. Why? Be-cause the vast majority o peoples problems and trouble arecaused by illogical thinking.

At rst, that may seem like an extreme statement, but iyou think the matter through, you will presently realize thatit is not extreme. You will be given inormation that will en-able you to make astonishing improvements in the way youdeal with problems and trouble o every kind.

Readers will be helped by two clariying denitions.Dene illogical thinking as the kind o thinking that leads

to illogical action. Dene illogical action as the kind o action

that leads to problems and trouble. Under those two deni-tions, illogical thinking is the kind o thinking that leads toproblems and trouble.

It is the kind o thinking a person should learn how toidentiy and avoid.

O course, he seldom thinks illogically on purpose be-cause nobody really wants problems and trouble. Neverthe-less everybody has problems and trouble, and that makes itclear that everybody is inadvertently illogical.

Because peoples thinking is illogical, that does not meanthey are stupid.

It means that because o inadvertent illogic a person otenaims his attention in a direction that leads to problems andtrouble. At such times, the more intelligence he has, the moreproblems and trouble are likely to result rom his eorts.

Another denition will also help.Illogical action may properly be dened as action that gets

some result that is dierent rom the result the person whotook the action intended. Oten a result that is undesirable.


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Consider the ollowing specic example:

A person attempts to back his car out o the garage. Heputs his oot on the accelerator and drives headlong into thegarage wall, doing extensive damage.

He certainly did not intend to do that.Because o inadvertent illogic, he put his car into orward

gear instead o reverse. It was the wrong thing to do and gota result he neither intended nor wanted. It led to problemsand trouble.

That is a air example o what is meant by illogic.Everybody is the victim o equivalent illogic on vari-

ous occasions during his lie. He gets into trouble with otherpeople as a result, but most o all, he gets into trouble withhimsel.

Usually he cannot understand that he caused the trouble.When he drives his car into the garage wall, he under-

stands that he caused the trouble, because his method ocausing the trouble is eectively called to his attention.

In a variety o other situations, he lacks that kind o clearevidence.

Suppose a person is engaged in a running confict withone o his relatives or associates. Others can see that he iscontributing his share to the confict, but he ignores his con-tributions and talks only o the contributions made by hisopponent.

He wont listen when anyone tries to tell him the confictis partly his ault.

He is unaware o his contributions and cannot believethat he is partly to blame. The same mental blindness thatprevents him rom avoiding his part o the confict also de-stroys his ability to detect it ater it has occurred.

That is what keeps conficts running at home and on thejob.

Each person tries to change his opponent instead o try-ing to change himsel. He could readily change himsel i he


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knew he needed changing and knew how to change, but he

cannot really change his opponent. So because he misunder-stands the cause, he cannot end the confict.

That is a air example o the problems and trouble thatresult rom inadvertent illogic hardly detectable by its victim.The average person gets into much more diculty o thatsort than he supposes and, at rst, more than he can easilyunderstand.

When a person does understand how he gets himsel intoproblems and trouble, he tries hard to avoid repeat peror-mances. A person who has paid to have his garage and car re-paired ater inadvertently driving into the garage wall givesclose attention to the proper setting o his gears thereater.

Unortunately he cannot similarly guard against otherproblems and trouble that he does not know were caused byhis own illogical thinking and behavior.

II

THERE IS a specic reason why illogical action leads toproblems and trouble and gets undesired results. Thereason is thatillogical action always tries to contradict na-ture in some impossible way.

That is what makes the action illogical.Everybody can see the contradiction o nature in an e-

ort to drive a car backward while it is in orward gear, but,in general, no one can see how he is contributing to a confictthat he would like to stop and cant. I he could, he wouldstop the confict.

Because he cant, he goes on trying to contradict nature.Enabling him to understand his own illogical contribu-

tions to the confict puts him in possession o the inormationhe needs. Giving that inormation to people everywhere willenable them to stop their conficts as well.

That is what has already happened or persons who have


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the inormation.

Not only does the inormation apply to the problems ostopping conficts, but it also applies to every kind o problemcaused by inadvertent illogic o any sort.

Consider the ollowing examples:A person who tries to make himsel believe that he can

get along on hal as much sleep as he needs is trying to con-tradict nature. He may succeed airly well or a time, but pres-ently his health will suer.

A person who believes that seven cocktails make him abetter automobile driver is trying to contradict nature. Hemay wind up in a jail or possibly in a hospital or morgue.

A person who decides he is going to get his way regard-less o the eelings o other persons active in a joint endeavoris also trying to contradict nature. He may get his way incertain respects, but in the process, he will do violence to

voluntary cooperation.Ask yoursel what might happen i you tried to explain

to any o those three persons just what sort o problems andtrouble he is inviting. You realize at once that any such eortwould be wearing and also probably utile.

That typical reaction brings out an important point.People suer rom problems and trouble o their own

making that they are incapable o blaming on themselves,and the task o enabling them to realize just how they causetheir problems and trouble is dicult to perorm.

That is the task attempted by this book.

III

THE BASIC obstacle that conronts this book should now

be airly obvious. It must convince the reader that hehimsel is personally oten illogical. In the past the averageperson has considered that inormation insulting.

There is nothing personal intended by the inormation,


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and when the person who eels insulted learns exactly what

process is responsible or his illogic, he stops eeling insulted.He starts eeling eager to do something to rectiy matters.In one o its simpler maniestations, the process is easy to

explain. Everybody will recognize that he himsel has gonethrough the process many times without understanding theserious consequences.

The ollowing paragraphs describe the process:Each person has motives that drive him. In his eorts to

satisy those motives, he oten encounters resistance. Some-times the resistance comes rom nature, as when he is thwart-ed by the law o gravity or when he wants tomorrow to cometoday. Sometimes the resistance comes rom another person,as when the other person regards him as dangerously com-petitive, bossy or otherwise disagreeable.

Those situations in which he is resisted lead to misunder-

standings.The act that the resistance comes rom another person

does not mean that nature is let out. It only means that theresistance coming rom nature is put into expression througha person.

Obviously every person is a part o nature.Whether or not the resistance comes through a person,

when it becomes overpowering, the result is rustration. Theperson who is blocked is not able to satisy his motive.

That is a situation everybody has experienced.Do not think o it as a situation that happens once in a

long time. For the average person, it happens oten, and it hasbeen happening ever since his inancy.

Not being able to carry out a motive has an unsuspectedeect.

When a person is rustrated in his eorts to satisy hismotives, he tends to rebel and express himsel in a burst oemotion. That emotion results rom his eeling o rebellion.

What he does or says is less important than what he thinks.


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Everybody has had many experiences with emotional

thinking that results rom rustration. He knows that in hisemotional thinking he tends to talk to himsel, usually notaloud, but he puts his thinking into specic sentences.

Consider the ollowing typical examples:No matter what I try to do, it doesnt work out. Ill orce

things to go my way. I I cant get what I want, Ill raise areal uss. This is one time Im not going to let mysel getpushed around. Nobody can make a monkey out o me!

Anyone can easily expand the oregoing list by makingcontributions rom his own private collection o memories.

The analysis o those sentences is illuminating.Every sentence is somehow illogical and unrealistic. It

puts into words something that no rational person would re-ally support. It suggests illogical action.

Usually the person who orms such a sentence has no real

intention o living by it. Even when he has, he soon orgetshis outburst.

He assumes that when he calms down his thinking goesback to normal.

A central surprise o this book is that his thinking doesnot go back to normal. Rather it tends to retain the favor othe emotional sentences. The diculty is that the individualthinks in terms o his conscious mind, and he does not allowor his unconscious mind.

When he indulges in a burst o emotional thinking, hedrops each rebellious sentence into his unconscious mind. A-ter his thinking has supposedly returned to normal becausehis emotion has subsided, those sentences remain lodged inhis unconscious mind.

Perhaps he changes his conscious mind. Perhaps he tells

himsel, I didnt really mean those things.But that kind o thinking does not change his unconscious

mind.Beore a person can get rid o the dangerous eects o the


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unrealistic and illogical thinking he does in his moments o

emotion, he must know how to change his unconscious mindwhere his distortions o logic are stored.

That is really the subject o this book.

IV

B

EFORE CONSIDERING how to change the uncon-scious mind rom wrong to right, consider the eects o

specic sentences that are lodged in the unconscious mind asa result o past emotional thinking.

Those sentences have been accumulating since inancy.They cover an astonishing range o dierent subjects. In

act, they cover every subject about which the individual hasever thought in one or more o his moments o emotion. Re-garding each o the subjects, those sentences are responsible

or subtle changes in his thinking that are undetectable byhim.

What happens is that in an outburst o emotional think-ing the individual substitutes unreality or reality on the sub-ject o the emotion. For him, the unreality thereater tends tocontrol.

Consider the next specic example:Suppose a man in a t o anger directed toward his wie

says to himsel, Someday i she makes me mad enough, Illkill her!

There are husbands who have ormed such a thought.Suppose that shortly aterward the husbands temper sub-

sides, and he decides that his wie is not really as bad as hehad thought while in his temper.

Thereore, he dismisses the thought.

He decides that he would not dream o murdering hiswie, even i she did make him very angry. What he doesnot realize is the seriousness o those words he has droppedinto his unconscious mind. He does not realize that he has


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changed only his conscious thinking. He does not realize that

his unconscious mind still intends to carry out the threat.The exact words o the emotional thinking determine

what his reaction will be under the conditions specied bythose words.

In eect, the words have become a command phrase, tell-ing him what to do.

I during ensuing years no similar outburst o temperever occurs, the husband may live out his lie without evercarrying out the threat. But i he ever were to be made madenough under the same emotional conditions, he would tendto execute the command. He would have given himsel anurge that may turn out to be disastrous.

Daily we read and hear newscasts about irresistible urgesthat drive people to commit illogical acts, including murder.Now there is a theory that explains the origin o those urges.

They cause all kinds o trouble: crime, drug addiction,environmental destruction, wars at home and on the battle-eld and so on.

The kinds o trouble are determined by the precise wordscontained in the command phrases that people have ed intotheir unconscious minds during their moments o emotion.

Some o those command phrases are quite obviouslydangerous.

Actually every command phrase is dangerous, becauseevery command phrase replaces reality on the unconsciouslevel o a persons mind. He cannot know that the change hasoccurred.

Virtually always, he loses all recollection o the commandphrase.

O course, his unconscious mind never orgets, but mere

unconscious remembering is not what is dangerous. The dan-gerous eature o a command phrase is that in the appropriatesituations it dictates behavior without the persons realizationthat anything is amiss.


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10 How to Solve Problems and Prevent Trouble

The reason or that result is worth considering.

Every command phrase becomes an unconscious premisethat gets used in the persons routine thinking. It gets mixedin with the premises that are conscious and, thereore, canbe checked, but because it is itsel unconscious, it cannot bechecked.

The command phrase compulsively gets used.Because every human being is naturally logical in his

thinking, a wrong premise that gets mixed in with rightpremises leads to wrong conclusions. Every conclusion thatis drawn rom thinking involving even one wrong premise issure to be as wrong as the premise and in exactly the sameway.

That is the explanation o the illogical behavior that isseen on all sides among members o the human race.

From early inancy, everybody has installed many com-

mand phrases in his unconscious mind during his momentso emotion. They give him wrong premises on many dierentsubjects, and cause his thinking to produce illogical conclu-sions that are undetectable as such by him.

A person can easily check those acts by observation.By remembering the conduct o persons he knows, he can

prove to himsel that people are oten illogical in what theysay and do. By remembering his ailures in getting people toadmit they are illogical, he proves to himsel that they are notaware o their deviations rom what is logical.

As a result, he recognizes the importance o getting theoregoing inormation into eective general use.

V

AT THIS point, the basic obstacle to comprehension othis inormation arises or urther attention. It is the ob-stacle mentioned earlier: The average person is likely to con-


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Origin of Problems and Trouble 11

sider the inormation insulting.

I he does, it is because he misunderstands the inorma-tion.

When he understands correctly, he sees it as the basis oa release rom tensions, rom rustrations, rom ears, romafictions o many kindseven rom blame.

The reason should make immediate sense.A person may be to blame or the rebellious emotion

under which he ormed his command phrases, but once hehas installed them in the recesses o his unconscious mind,he cannot control what they make him do. Why not? Be-cause he has no control over his unconsciously caused com-pulsions.

Once that act is recognized, it changes many earlier the-ories on the subject o behavior.

In a certain literal sense, what a persons command phras-

es make him do represents only a part o the penalty paid orhis earlier mistake. When more people understand that, avast number o public and private improvements will result.One improvement will be that our penal systems will teachoenders how to correct distortions o logic. Another will bethat people will stop blaming one another and start gettingrid o the causes o problems and trouble by identiying andreleasing the command phrases o their own distortions ologic.

A person who understands the cause-and-eect sequenceo distortions o logic sees the mistake o blaming anybodyor anything.

He does not even blame himsel.He blames the distortions. He knows that it is a persons

command phrases that get him into trouble even by trying to

be right.Everybody needs to recognize that important act and

learn about this new approach to the prevention and solutiono behavioral problems.


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VI

REALIZATION OF that importance is claried when aperson recognizes the extensive damage resulting romdistortions o logic installed in the orm o unconscious com-mand phrases.

Step-by-step he can consider how that damage develops.Starting in early inancy, a child is oten rebellious and

earul so that beore starting school, he accumulates a vastnetwork o command phrases on an extremely wide varietyo subjects.

In childhood, he is usually given discipline by others. Ihe is intelligent, he adds discipline o his own as he matures.But he cannot ever quite overcome the damage rom the com-mand phrases o his distortions o logic.

Whenever he tries hard enough, he can thwart the drive

o some unconscious command phrases, but he has to try.Usually he sees no reason why he should try because he hasno way to check his logic.

At best, he must work against internal resistance.He must try to resist temptation. He must curb every urge

he knows is likely to lead him into problems and troublewhich is dicult.

He does not succeed as oten as he supposes. He knowsthat he gets into various kinds o trouble, but he usually ndssome way o blaming the trouble on something outside him-sel. He has to. Because he knows nothing o his commandphrases, he can nd no sensible reason or blaming his ownthinking.

Only in unusual cases does a person blame himsel.When he is orced to because the acts o lie emphati-

cally call a mistake to his attention, he may try to avoid re-peating the mistake. That is what happens when he inadver-tently drives into the garage wall, but in other cases, he ndsit impossible to make the necessary changes.


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Consider, or example, some prevalent compulsions.

Millions o persons would like to stop smoking or drink-ing or using drugs but have discovered that despite their deci-sion to stop, they cannot. Millions more would make the samediscovery i they tried to stop, but their command phrases tellthem not to try.

Thereore, they do not know they are in trouble.Compulsive smoking, drinking and drug abuse quite ob-

viously are acquired behavior problems. Nobody was born asmoker, drinker or drug abuser.

Nobody intends to become victimized by those compul-sive behavior patterns. The compulsions develop subtly asthe result o many decisions, and each o those decisions canbe stated as a command phrase such as:

Everyone else smokes; Ill eel out o things i I dont.I do whatever I eel like doing. I want to have something

to keep my ngers busy. Smoking makes my work bear-able. When I watch the smoke curl up around my ace, Ieel dreamy. Sucking makes me eel comorted.

Such sentences have an illogical and unsuspected controlover the person who thought them.

Here are typical command phrases that make a compul-sive drinker:

I have to drown my troubles. Ater a ew drinks, I or-get my problems. At the end o a days work, I need somedrinks to relax. A cocktail picks me up when Im down.Im going to do everything I want when Im old enough.

Reasons to use drugs are ound in these command phrases:Everybody does drugs to eel better. With my prob-

lems, I need to eel better. I want to get on the ast track. Ax helps me handle my job. Needles dont scare me.

At rst a person may think those phrases seem too logi-cal to represent illogical thinking that has gained compulsivecontrol.

Whether a phrase seems logical is not the important point.


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What is important is whether the thought has gained uncon-

scious control o thinking and behavior. When the thought isestablished as a compulsive command phrase, it will be usedin an illogical way.

It will cause whatever problems and trouble it suggests.Oten it joins orces with numerous other command

phrases to cause a result that borrows something illogicalrom each. Oten it can have the eect o causing variouskinds o trouble on dierent occasions. Oten it is originallyinstalled in some situation that may have little or nothing todo with its uture use.

I like to drink all the time is a phrase that could origi-nally have been ormed by a child in relation to lemonade.In later years ater he starts drinking cocktails, it may help tomake his drinking compulsive. Usually compulsive drinking,smoking and drug use result rom a very large accumulation

o command phrases.That is shown by the obvious sequences o cause and e-ect already cited. But it is shown more powerully by the actthat when phrases o the sort described are properly detect-ed, they lose their eect, and the compulsive conduct stopswithout eort.

That same principle has been applied to many kinds owrong behavior.

At rst a person may have diculty realizing the enor-mous number o dierent kinds o problems and trouble thatare brought under control by the ability to understand andrelease the compulsive command phrases accumulated rompast emotional thinking.

When analyzed, the range is extensive, and apparently itcovers just about every kind o problem and trouble to which

any member o society is subject.There is, however, a limitation.Identiying and releasing command phrases cannot solve

a problem nor end a trouble i irrevocable damage has al-


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ready occurred, though it can do much more to repair dam-

age than might ordinarily be expected.

VII

THAT DAMAGE arises in so many and varied areas olie that it seems pointless to list them. Nevertheless, hereis a short list: dangerous driving; criminality; tendency toargue, quarrel or engage in confict; overeating; inattention,inability to concentrate; eelings o rejection, depression,anxiety, ear; memory loss; sluggishness; insomnia; mentalblocks to learning and communication.

All those conditions have been corrected by releasingthe compulsive command value o sentences installed in theunconscious mind, using techniques and methods to be ex-plained.

Many o the changes seem miraculous, but only becausethey were not previously understood.

Surprising to most persons is the benecial eect o cor-recting distortions o logic on mental, emotional and physicalhealth. Nothing ordinarily regarded as physical is needed toproduce that eect. All that is needed is a certain kind ochange in thinking.

The relationship between thinking and health has longbeen recognized in a general way. Now that relationship isbeing made specic in easily understandable detail.

VIII

ANYBODY SHOULD be able to see how the commandphrases cited earlier, i they gain unconscious controlover thinking, could cause smoking, drinking and drug useto be compulsive.

The connection can be made just as clear in relation tohealth.


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Consider the sort o command phrase that causes sick-

ness because it causes behavior that invites sickness.It might be excessive smoking, drinking, drug use, or it

might be a tendency to stay up too late every night or some-thing else already cited. It might also be a command phrasethat seemingly does not directly relate to health.

It might be a habit o long hours o overwork without rea-sonable health precautions. It might be indulgence in pecu-liar dietary habits or perhaps simple overeating. It might bethe excessive weight brought on by overeating. It might be atendency to worry or indulge in violent outbursts o emotionthat invite high blood pressure, ulcers or conditions leadingto a heart attack.

Any person who invites physical injury or illness by hisillogical thinking easily ends that invitation i he gets rid othe illogical thinking.

Those problems are not basically physical.Many o them can be counteracted by physical means, at

least, up to a point. For example, i a person is unable to sleepbecause o turbulent thinking, he might get relie by takingsleeping pills. The sensible remedy is to end the turbulentthinking that intereres with his sleep.

No person who understands how to correct distortionsneeds indenite dependence on any articial means o induc-ing sleep.

The same is true o every other problem caused by wrongthinking.

Correct the wrong thinking that is unconsciously prompt-ed, and the problem ceases to exist. Numerous problems andtrouble are really mental in origin, and there is just no sensein trying to control them with counteracting measures.

A certain stigma is attached to the idea o mental prob-lems, but everybody has mental problems. The person whoadmits it to himsel about himsel takes a helpul orwardstep.


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Thereater, he is ree to act on the admission, and he

solves problems and prevents uture trouble.A person who takes the position that nothing could be

wrong with his state o mind thereby stands between himseland solution o his mental problems. Nothing can be done orhim until he stops hiding rom reality.

O course, a person who has mental problems is not nec-essarily a mental patient, and a person who knows he hasmental problems is less likely to become one.

He learns how to solve those mental problems himsel.Gradually he learns the relationship between his uncon-

scious thinking and his physical health. He makes the appro-priate changes, and soon he also sees the direct relationshipbetween his unconscious thinking and his mental health. Hedoes not have to try very hard to see that command phrasescan have a serious bad eect on mental health.

Consider a ew phrases that cause poor mental health:I cant do anything right. I dont dare depend on my-

sel. No matter what I try to do, it always ails. Peoplehave it in or me. I have more problems than I can solve.When I get emotional, I just cant think. I know a lot othings I dont dare admit even to mysel. Im going crazy,and I cant help it. The people around me are driving menuts.

Everybody has done a great deal o thinking o the kindindicated. All that thinking tends to be a burden on him, buta bigger burden is the sort o thinking he cant rememberhaving done.

Everybody has done a large amount o that also.When emotional thinking is exposed by techniques ex-

plained in pages to come, startling things happen. Uncon-

scious burdens are shed and so are conscious burdens-in pro-usion.

The same is true o a persons emotional health.Command phrases that indirectly aect emotional health


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relate to many dierent subjects. In act, every command

phrase has a bad eect on emotional health. It requires theindividual to hide something rom his conscious awarenessand to go on hiding it.

Many command phrases directly invite emotional trouble.I cant control my emotions is a suitable example. That

statement might easily have originated in a situation where itseemed to apply sensibly, as when a serious emotional blowhad just shattered a persons composure. I he ormed it in anemotional reaction, the concept assumes command value insituations where it could not logically apply. In those situa-tions the person literally cannot control his emotions.

Other phrases that adversely aect emotional health ol-low:

I cant take it. Lie is just too much or me. Im at theend o my rope. I just cant help crying. Now Ill never

have another moments peace o mind. Ill try hard neverto orget what he did to me. I cant help being rightened.I cant get a hold o mysel.

Anyone can imagine the sorts o situations in which suchthinking might be done. Anyone can remember having donesimilar thinking, and whoever gets it cleaned out o his un-conscious mind enjoys much better emotional health.

He is only changing his thinking and is no more practic-ing medicine or psychiatry than a person who improves hishealth by reducing the number o occasions when he crossesthe street without looking or oncoming trac.

IX

THE TECHNIQUE or correcting distortions o logic is

not recommended as a substitute or needed medicalor psychiatric treatment. It is presented only as a means ochanging thinking rom wrong to right.

As such, using the command phrase technique oten gets


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astonishing results.

One result is that a person notices instant changes in hisconversation and behavior because the unconscious premisesthat had made his thinking irrational and unrealistic havebeen eliminated. Consequently they no longer get used.

The ollowing example explains how it works:Suppose a person has a large collection o command

phrases that have the eect o making him insist on convert-ing every conversation into an argument that he eels he mustwin.

You may know such a person.As is the case with every other deviation rom sane and

sensible behavior, that condition is caused by irrationalpremises lodged in the unconscious mind, tending to controlbehavior.

Here are typical command phrases that might be in-

volved:Ill prove Im the smartest person alive. Nobody can

beat me at anything. The winner always gets the prizes.Everybody keeps trying to prove I dont know what Im talk-ing about. Unless I really get steamed up, I cant talk at all.I cant agree with anybody.

Perhaps that would be a sucient number o phrases todetect and release in order to change an argumentative per-son. I more must be detected to get the complete change,then he will benet by doing the additional amount o neces-sary work.

Ater all the relevant command phrases are picked up,the person who ormerly had to turn every conversation intoan argument and then win the argument would be entirelyuninterested in continuing that behavior.

He just wouldnt have the necessary urges.The same is true in every area o lie, whether a prob-

lem relates to a persons thinking, conversation, behavior orhealth.


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The compulsive smoker is able to stop smoking.

He doesnt have to try to stop. He just loses interest insmoking. While he eels no aversion to smoking, he nds itunattractive and unnecessary. He makes no high resolvesagainst it. He just stops and thats that.

The same is true o a person with any other kind o com-pulsion.

Gone is his need or resolutions. Gone is his need or pillsor treatments o any kind. Gone is his need or sel-restraint.

The individual becomes able to do what he had oten er-roneously assumed he could do. He becomes able to use hisbrain to intelligently instruct his body. But in order to get thatresult, he must rst correct the distortions o logic that actu-ate him rom unconscious levels.

He cannot successully contradict those distortions bytelling himsel counteracting command phrases.

I he tries, he will generate internal resistance. He maynd the resistance appearing in the orm o tension or eort.He may nd his compulsions showing up in some other ormas when a smoker stops smoking by turning to candy whichincreases his weight.

The eort to contradict urges toward wrong behavior ismade unnecessary by making the needed changes in uncon-scious thinking so that the person can behave as he should.

Results in relation to physical health are oten amazing.Certainly nothing is more physical than overweight. To-

day most persons agree that overweight results rom overeat-ing. Despite that act, millions o overweight persons are un-able to reduce, because they cannot drop their compulsionsto overeat.

Many o them are well aware o the act that what they

need is a change o thinking, but even with that realization,they cannot change.

When they learn to nd and drop the distortions o log-ic they installed during moments o emotional, unrealistic


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thinking, they get their appetites under control.

They do not need to count calories, depend on exercises,ollow special diets, swallow pills intended to suppress theirappetites. They are able to eat what they want, but they donotice various dierences in the ood they want and the quan-tity they eat.

They also notice that their weight decreases.I overweight has the adverse eect on longevity that is

widely advertised, the person who brings his weight down tonormal presumably also lengthens his lie.

In addition he reduces the likelihood that he will needmedical attention or the various illnesses and problemsbrought on by overweight.

That is not the only way he can improve his physicalhealth.

Ater he discovers what he can accomplish by changing

his unconscious thinking, he may decide to deal with otherhealth problems more directly.

Some o his command phrases directly invite sickness.I want to be sick, so I can stay home rom work. Im

going to have something wrong, so people will take care ome. Unless I get my way, Ill take to my bed and be sick.

Some command phrases call or a sickness that is consid-ered to be incurable.

I want to go to bed and never get up again. My situa-tion is absolutely hopeless. Nothing can be done or me. Icant go on ghting or my lie.

Peoples experience with this inormation suggests thatno physical illness is hopeless.

Astonishing corrections o supposedly incurable diseaseshave sometimes occurred as a result o using the procedures

discussed here. No claim is made that any such correctionscan or will be repeated. However, a person who is sick is cer-tainly justied in trying to improve his thinking and to get acorrection i he can.


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I he tries to apply the appropriate procedure, he may be

startled by what happens just as a result o unthinking wrongthoughts. He is much less startled i he already understandsthe thinking by which people have inadvertently been invit-ing their problems and trouble.


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23

WHAT HAPPENS when a person installs a distortiono logic in one o his bursts o emotional thinking canperhaps best be described by saying that he catches himselin a mental trap rom which he cannot escape by any ordi-nary process o thought.

Consider the nature o that mental trap.A persons emotional thinking is physical as well as ab-

stract. Thinking occurs in the physical brain. The electronicimpulses o thinking move along electronic circuits com-posed o brain cells that establish contact with each other orthat purpose.

Repeated thinking o exactly the same kind may requireno new circuits, because the old circuits remain intact readyor use in every situation where they apply.

Every sudden reaction involves use o old circuits.When a person sits on a tack, he says, Ouch! and rises

beore he has time to decide what has happened. Only ater-ward does he collect the pertinent acts, and then only be-cause he has received signals telling him on the consciouslevel about what has happened.

The same thing occurs when the circuit containing a dis-tortion is used.

The reaction is sudden and automatic. It is not plannedand intentional. Usually it does not call attention to itsel inany way. It just makes the individual behave irrationally inaccord with his command phrases without his awareness that

Chapter 2

Technique for Solving Problems


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anything is amiss.

The oregoing explanation o the thinking process isbased on common knowledge taught to school children aslong as ty years ago. It orms the basis o a logical explana-tion by which a person o ordinary education and intelligencecan understand the process o installing a distortion o logicin the physical sense.

Start at the beginning o the process.A persons emotion is the orce behind his thinking. As

the response to an emotional stimulus, he starts ormulatingideas, some o which lead to action. Sometimes the actionsucceeds, and in that case it is logical action.

When a persons action succeeds, it satises the emotionthat stimulated the thinking and prompted the action. There-ore, the emotion subsides. The purpose o that emotion,among other things, is to close connections between nerve

cells in the brain so that thinking can travel along electronicpaths in the circuits used to eectuate the desired action.When the emotion subsides, those connections open and areavailable to orm new connections.

In cases o quick, seemingly instinctive action such asexclaiming and suddenly rising ater sitting on a tack, thecircuits remain closed. Or at least suciently closed that theycarry the electronic orce in the appropriate situations with-out having to orm the connections by means o consciousthinking at the time o the action.

That is a normal, natural procedure.In cases o illogical thinking that prompt wrong action,

a somewhat dierent procedure is used, and it will be de-scribed next.

Illogical thinking is previously dened as thinking that

does not succeed in getting a result that satises the emo-tional desires o the person who does the thinking. Thereore,a wrong result does not satisy the emotional orce that stimu-lated the illogical thinking. Because that emotional orce is


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not satised, the emotion does not ully subside. Thereore,

the connections between brain cells ormed to eectuate thethinking do not unorm. They remain or repeated use onuture occasions when the same emotion is restimulated.

They produce behavior as compulsive as the action o ex-claiming and rising ater a person has sat on a tack.

Consider the earlier example o the man who told himselabout his wie, Someday i she makes me mad enough, Illkill her!

Those words represent a burst o illogical, wrong thinkingdone in a fash o emotion. They cannot lead to action thatsatises the emotion behind them unless their command isexecuted. Thereore, the words o that command are trappedin a closed mental circuit that cannot be reopened by anyordinary process o thought.

The command to act waits or the day o specic restimu-

lation.The restimulation may never occur, but i his wie ever

happens to enrage him in the precise way necessary to causean upsurge o the same emotion, the husband will murder heras surely as he will exclaim and suddenly rise ater he has saton a tack.

II

BECAUSE EACH person has done a large amount oemotional thinking, each person has many closed mentalcircuits inviting trouble o various kinds. When the troublearises, he aces the problem o dealing with it. Basically thereis only one way to put a stop to recurring trouble.

He must reopen the closed mental circuits that send his

thinking compulsively through the illogical, wrong patternsset up when the individual rst did the emotional thinkinginviting the trouble.

Anybody can reopen his closed mental switches, but he


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has to know how.

O course, he cannot reach into his brain with his handand physically open or close mental switches so that the re-sults o his past emotional thinking are eliminated, but hecan throw the necessary switches in a physical sense just byusing a thinking process.

Nobody can think consciously without throwing mentalswitches. He orms and unorms them all the time. His di-culty in relation to his past emotional thinking is that hedoesnt throw the proper switches because he doesnt knowhe should. And also because even i he did know he should,the process o doing it, at rst, goes against his inclinations.

The reason is that the individual has strong urges to grat-iy his unconscious thinking. He does not have an impulse tochange it. Until he gets that impulse, he is helpless.

A purpose o this book is to give him that impulse.

When he understands the precise nature o emotionalthinking and what it does to him, he gains an intent to dosomething to rectiy the situation in which he nds himsel.That causes him to learn whatever he must learn to extricatehimsel rom the predicament he has not known he is in. Ashe gains understanding, the impulses necessary to lead himtoward correction take orm and actuate him.

III

THE PURPOSE o those impulses is to locate, identiyand release in succession all the closed mental circuitsthat are causing illogical, wrong thinking and behavior to becompulsively repeated.

Obviously, that is not how problems are ordinarily ap-

proached.Because the person who has problems has not known

about his distortions o logic, he tends to blame his problemson actors other than their true cause. Instead o changing


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his own thinking, he usually tries to change the people and

conditions around him. Oten that may seem to succeed, al-though actually it never does.

Consider the explanation o why it ails.Suppose a person has done emotional thinking that

leaves him with an assumption that he cannot get along withhis wie. Thereater he is miserable in her presence. Aterenough additional emotional thinking, he decides to leaveher. Separated rom her, he may eel that he has solved hisproblem, but actually he has only rearranged his lie to lethim ignore the problem.

There are many other illustrations that could be cited.Suppose a person orms command phrases telling him he

cannot eat certain oods. Seemingly he can solve his problemby eliminating the oods named in those command phrases.But actually his problem is not solved until he rids himsel

o the command phrases that cause him to be unable to eatthose oods. As has been proved by many experiments, cor-recting distortions enables a person to solve ood problemsand permits use o rational eating habits.

The same corrections occur when this inormation is ap-plied in other areas o lie.

Suppose a person has command phrases telling him thathe is unable to do a certain kind o work. In that case hemay assume he has no problem i he successully managesto avoid such work. Suppose a person has command phrasestelling him he cannot take certain action that is really essen-tial to his lie. I that happens beore he knows how to correctdistortions o logic, death could resultunless the problem ocounteracting his command phrases is somehow solved.

The usual problem-solving methods in common use sel-

dom do more than counteract a persons command phrases.There are innumerable ways o counteracting command

phrases available. One way is to use the power o contradict-ing motives. For example, i someone has distortions telling


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him to criticize his boss, he can use the power o motives to

keep his job as a means o holding himsel in check. Prob-ably those motives will work well enough that by restraininghimsel he can keep his job, but only i he avoids too requentemotion strong enough to override his sel-restraint. Whetheror not he succeeds depends on the strength o the motives tokeep his job in contrast with that o the motives to criticizehis boss.

A persons tendency to use articial means o counteract-ing the drives that result rom past emotional thinking is eas-ily illustrated in the eld o medicine.

Stresses o modern lie oten seem to be the cause o apersons inability to remain alert while at work. Thereore,millions o persons prop themselves up with pep pills, coeeand other more drastic stimulants. There is no doubt that thestimulants do have some o the desired eect, but it is also

true that the stimulants can be eliminated with no sense oloss i the distortions are corrected that translate the dicul-ties o lie into unreasonable dullness and atigue.

Those distortions might have the ollowing commandphrases:

Everything bothers me. I cant stand this pace. Nomatter what I do, I cant wake up until noon. I need some-thing to prop me up. I need my bottle to stay alive. I cantunction without a x.

At rst glance it may appear that the oregoing phrasesare normal reactions to a lie o stress, but that is not thecase. Each o those sentences is ormed in a moment o realor imagined stress, perhaps in childhood, and each then be-comes an irrational rule o lie. Analysis o the commandphrases quickly shows that none o them is logical.

For example, the statement Everything bothers meis not true or the person who ormulates it. There are cer-tain things in his lie that do not bother him: Sports, gettingdressed, eating a meal and so on. Putting that phrase into his


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unconscious mental circuits gives him an unconscious obli-

gation to live in accord with it.Thereore, he must react to everything as though he is

bothered.He is in a really dicult situation. He cannot solve his

problem by moving away rom a source o irritation, becauseeverything will bother him wherever he goes. He may eelinclined to seek pleasures with great determination becausesuciently keen pleasures, at least, tend to dull the edge ohis emotional discomort.

Many persons avidly seek all sorts o pleasures and balmsor that reason. They do not solve their problems, becausethey are always seeking something they never quite succeedin nding.

They cannot solve their problems until they learn to cor-rect the distortions o logic that cause them.

Because people have lacked knowledge o how to do that,they have done the best they could in a world lled with emo-tional stress. Increasingly they have tended to rely on balmsand diversions o one sort or another. In recent years peoplehave used mood-altering drugs. No doubt the drugs do takethe edge o some o the unpleasant emotion, but drugs do notcure anything caused by illogical conscious or unconsciousthinking. In act, the drugs allow thinking to go urther andurther o the track as more distortions are installed, becausethe eects o conscious and unconscious wrong thinking aremade more bearable by a persons drugged state.

When a problem is caused by wrong thinking, there isonly one way or a person to solve it.

He has to drop the illogical, wrong thinking.He should not try to counteract it by resisting the urges

it generates or by taking contradictory action. Those proce-dures cause the problem to become more and more seriousas time passes. Instead, he should take action that has theeect o reopening the closed mental circuits that constitute


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the physical embodiment o the past emotional, unrealistic,

illogical, wrong thinking.

IV

THERE IS no use trying to open those closed circuits di-rectly, because the appropriate circuits cannot be locateddirectly.

A person has to take indirect action.That explains why people are virtually unable to ace

disagreeable truth about themselves. The disagreeable truthtends to be concealed in their distortions o logic. No matterhow the individual tries to ace such truth, he cannot suc-ceed.

Asking him to try causes him additional rustration.You may be able to see how another person is causing

himsel some kind o trouble, but i he were able to see ithimsel, he would not stay in the trouble. Asking him to lookat that reality or truth is like asking him to lit himsel by hisbootstraps.

He cannot ace the appropriate reality or truth until hehas rst destroyed the distortions o logic that conceal it,because reality and truth are superseded by his commandphrases.

That is the nature o a persons mental trap.So long as a person retains a distortion, he is blind to truth

on the subject o that distortion. In eect, he would rather diethan ace that truth. Ater the distortion is released, he neednot be asked, because he aces that truth without even trying.

V

APERSON cannot ace concealed truth directly becausehis distortions stand in the way. Thereore, he mustace that truth indirectly. His logical procedure is to ace the


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Technique for Solving Problems 1

words o untruth that make up his distortions o logic and

release them.When he does that, their infuence on his thinking is

gone.A person is not dominated by a command phrase o which

he is aware and knows is illogical. Thereore, he should raisethe words o his illogical command phrases to the consciouslevel where they can be recognized or what they are.

It is important that he nd the exact concept.Unless he does, his mind cannot be reed rom the distor-

tion, because the words correctly duplicate the original think-ing. In that situation, he sends the necessary electronic orcethrough the same mental circuit that had remained closedever since the original unrealistic thinking was done.

The words that describe the wrong concept are the keyto his release.

All that is necessary is to give those words brie consciousattention without emotion o the sort that accompanied theoriginal illogical thinking.

I he gives attention to his command phrases with thatsort o emotion, he simply perpetuates the distortion.

What a person needs is a willingness to give up the con-cept expressed in the words o the command phrase. Free-dom rom emotion enables him to accomplish that, and hecan achieve reedom rom emotion in various ways.

One way is to remain calm while inspecting the words.Another way may make more sense to a beginner. He

should inspect the words with a willingness to see how theyare illogical and wrong. Nobody retains a distortion ater hesees that it aims in a wrong direction toward action that willrustrate him.

Oten the beginner assumes that he should eel a suddenemotional reaction or a sense o great illumination when adistortion is corrected. At times, he may eel a sudden releaseo tension, but usually the change is hardly noticeable.


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He has to make enough corrections that they begin to

show in his daily lie beore he becomes convinced that some-thing important is really happening to him.

Some persons get that result quickly. Because every dis-tortion is installed in an instant, it is also corrected in aninstant i it is corrected at all. It is a persons conscious recog-nition o the command phrases o the distortion that works.

When he understands the process, he corrects distortionsas ast as he is able to think o command phrases, and he canthink o them in quick succession in relation to most prob-lems he tries to solve.

The whole job is done by releasing his wrong thinking.Until he acquires skill in using the technique, his distor-

tions seem to hide rom him. He cannot approach them di-rectly anymore than he can directly approach the truth theyconceal, so he approaches them indirectly.

That is why people did not learn sooner to straighten outtheir illogical thinking accumulated rom the past. The nec-essary process is dierent rom procedures usually taught be-cause it necessitates thinking about something that tends toelude their minds.

The needed technique is one that enables a person rst tobring the elusive ideas into ocus, and there are certain waysto accomplish that.

VI

PERHAPS THE easiest orm o the technique a personcan use is to collect on paper a selection o strong ideas.He can select any subject at random on which he has

strong eelings and put those ideas on a sheet o paper as ast

as they come to mind. Each sentence should express the ideaexactlyjust as he has oten expressed his eelings to himselor others over the years.

Perhaps he may select the name o some person he dis-


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likes. I so, he should write the name o that person at the top

o his paper, and then list exactly what he has thought aboutthat person in the past.

He should not edit the list nor make it seem polite.He should write down exactly all the uncomplimentary,

critical remarks he has made to himsel and others about theperson involved.

The ollowing sentences are typical:Hes the most dishonest person Ive ever met. I couldnt

trust him with anything. Hes always trying to get me intotrouble. I I had my choice, Id never speak to him again.The sight o him makes me sick at my stomach. He givesme a pain in the neck.

Those sentences may seem extreme at rst glance, butthey are just typical o the thinking everybody does at vari-ous times in his lie. There are some people who do it virtu-

ally all the time.It is illogical and wrong or a person to orm those judg-

ments, because they stick in his mind and infuence his at-titudes. I he thinks about those sentences in relation to anyperson he knows and happens to dislike and analyzes thesentences careully in complete honesty, he will see that theymake little real sense.

Any brain inested with such sentences in relation to oth-er persons is a brain in chains.

Those judgments impair a persons eective intelligenceand make him compulsively antisocial toward anybody hedislikes.

For example, books on getting along with people usuallyadvise people to see the best in others. But anyone who hasinstalled the oregoing distortions in relation to other persons

is sure to see them through those distortions, and he certainlycould not see the best in them.

He would be mentally blinded to their virtues, and thatmental blindness would remain until the distortions were


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corrected. No change is needed in the other person to correct

the distortions. The change is needed in the person who hasthem.

Ater he corrects the distortions, he can see virtues.More important, his mind is no longer trapped by the unre-alistic thinking that magnied every ault and manuacturedaults where no aults existed. In short, his thinking becomesrational and ree fowing.

The way a person gets corrections is to inspect his distor-tions.

Ater he accumulates perhaps two dozen samples ostrong thinking about the person he dislikes, he should pauseto consider them. He should seek faws in the logic they ex-press. When he nds illogic in a sentence, he has released itspower to dominate his thinking thereater.

He may think some sentences seem logical even under

close inspection.For example, a person may be willing to admit that it

is illogical to think He is lower than a worm, but perhapsreuse to budge on He makes me sick. In that case he justhas to go on getting sick periodically until he is willing to letgo o that thought.

I he has to associate closely with the person about whomhe has that distortion, he may have some chronic illness as aresult o his determination to retain the illogical thought.

That may not become serious i he continues using thetechnique or correcting distortions.

Ater a person goes ar enough that he really understandswhat a distortion is and how it aficts him, he is glad enoughto release every distortion no matter how warmly he hascherished it in the past. Thereore, he should continue work-

ing on his list, crossing o the items he sees are illogical.Ater the rst inspection o the list, he should extend it and

add more items. At rst, he can draw on his memory, and a-ter he exhausts his memory, he can draw on his imagination.


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There is solid reason why that is eective.

Many o a persons most serious distortions were installedlong ago. He cannot consciously remember ever havingthought them or having put them into spoken words. There-ore, they are beyond his conscious recall.

The phrases he remembers thinking are easy to capture.But the phrases that have dropped out o conscious recall arealso possible to capture by the process o drawing on imagi-nation.

I a person considers the matter, he can see why.A persons imagination tends to ollow paths already es-

tablished. I he has ever thought a command phrase, he canthink o it again. Actually he can think o it more easily thanhe could think o a new phrase. Thereore, when he drawson imagination to extend his list, he tends to include all thepertinent phrases that would otherwise be out o reach.

Presently he starts recognizing some o those phrases.By using imagination to extend his memory, he gradually

enables himsel to stretch his memory. Whether or not heconsciously recognizes all the command phrases is not im-portant. What is important is to get all the pertinent phrasesinto the list and see how they are illogical and cause compul-sive behavior.

Some o them will have a strong grip on his emotions.When he has that diculty, a variation in the technique

is suggested to help him get started.Under that variation, in addition to looking at each phrase

to see how it is somehow illogical and unrealistic, he shouldnotice his emotional reactions. I he still eels strongly abouta sentence, he should keep it in the list; then go over the listdaily to add a ew items. In review, he should also look or

ormer items that no longer arouse his emotions. Those arethe items to cross out.

As long as a command phrase arouses a persons emo-tions, it can be assumed that he is not yet released rom .its


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power to control him.

I the process o giving daily attention to his list is contin-ued, he presently discovers that he has no items let to add orcross o. He also discovers that he no longer harbors thoseormer ill eelings.

I he applies the same treatment to his thinking in relationto every person he dislikes, he presently nds he is unable tothink o anybody he dislikes. He will not have changed anyoneexcept himsel, but the others will all seem dierent to him.

As a person realizes the signicance o the changes hehas made in himsel, he also begins to realize the signicantresults that can be accomplished by using the same proce-dure wherever it applies.

Instead o limiting the procedure to dealing with animos-ities, he applies it to other problems also. Perhaps a variety osituations he dislikes. To his surprise, he may discover that in

a short time he can change his thinking about many o thosesituations, too.

VII

THE USUAL approach to a disagreeable situation is verydierent rom the procedure just described. In the caseo animosity, or example, the usual approach is either to re-taliate or else to avoid the person disliked.

A person using either o those approaches never reallysolves the problem o his animosity.

When a problem is caused by illogical, wrong thinkingtrapped in closed mental circuits, the only way to solve theproblem is to reopen those closed mental circuits.

The procedures that have been described have that eect

as they throw the precise mental switches that need to bethrown.

There are other variations o the technique that may seemmore direct.


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VIII

NO VARIATION o the technique is really direct. Thereason is that by direct approach to a distortion, the indi-vidual guarantees that he will merely act on it instead o cor-recting it. The indirect approach enables him to inspect it.

As soon as he inspects it honestly, he drops it.No distortion o logic can stand honest inspection by its

victim, and he remains its victim only so long as he ails toinspect it with the intent to do the right thing.

When a person starts listing his strong ideas on paper,his direct eort is not so much to inspect those ideas as toexpress them. In that situation he is acting in accord with hisdistortions in a harmless way, with the result that he puts hisdistortions where he can see them.

I he applies the procedure correctly, he has a tendency to

eel that he is not listing distortions but is instead listing ideasthat he eels are justied. In act, the more logical he thinksa strong idea will appear under analysis, the more reason heshould include it. He later will discover that many ideas hehad long considered logical cannot stand the light o rigorousanalysis.

By the procedure o writing strong ideas, the indirect ap-proach is eectively illustrated.

Ater a person really understands distortions and the pro-cess o approaching them indirectly, he clearly sees how theyhave led him into problems. He sees why he has dicultycounteracting those problems and why he could never reallysolve them. He sees how to use the indirect approach in vari-ous ways.

Always the indirect element should be preserved.

No matter how much a person knows about distortions ologic, he cannot look at a distortion directly until ater he hasreleased it. That inormation also applies to distortions thathe accumulates in a written list.


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At rst each command phrase seems like a realistic

thought instead o an unrealistic, wrong thought. The indi-vidual believes that he is writing truth rather than untruth.But hidden under each distortion is the truth that it conceals,and that truth does not become visible until the distortion isreleased.

When does the release occur?It occurs at the precise instant when the illogic o the com-

mand phrase is detected. Thereater, it no longer deludes.Because every distortion deludes the individual, the pro-

cess o locating distortions can be dicult. At rst he doesnot know where to look, because he has no consciousness ohaving distortions. At rst, he may not be able to nd any.

It is important or him to learn how and where to look.I he is ortunate enough to know some person who un-

derstands distortions and how they work, he can be given

help provided he is willing to accept it. In the beginning thatsort o help is hard to accept until the individual has so muchcompetence in correcting distortions that his need or help isgreatly reduced.

Consider how such help works.Suppose a person sees someone who has distortions on

the subject o overeating. That is easy. There are many suchpeople and they are identiable by their size.

I he observes their behavior, he can see their distortionsgetting used. He can iner the distortions rom their behaviorand hear them being expressed in ordinary conversation.

People constantly voice their distortions.By watching peoples behavior, a person can accumulate

a list o command phrases or persons he knows. By listen-ing to what they say, he can extend the list, especially by

listening to what they say with strong emotion. When anyoneexpresses himsel with strong emotion, he is almost alwaysvoicing one or more o his command phrases.

Ater a person learns enough about somebody elses dis-


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tortions, he may be able to tell why he suers rom the prob-

lem o overweight.Here are typical phrases causing overweight:I have to be eating all the time. When Im not eating, I

just worry. I I cant eat what I want, lie isnt worth living.I have to eat or Id starve to death. I care more about myappetite than my weight. Nothing can stop me rom eat-ing! Id hate to be skinny. The smell o ood makes mehungry.

The person who has those phrases may try hard to reducebut nds he is blocked. I he restrains his appetite by greateort over a period, as soon as he relaxes the eort, he tendsto regain the weight he lost.

The person who understands about distortions o logicknows why, but he cannot easily tell someone who does not.

I that person understood distortions, he would know

what to do about his overweight. I he doesnt understanddistortions, he tends to resist being told.

Although he tries to counteract the promptings o hisvarious command phrases, he resists having them pointedout to him. I his attention is called to one o them, he tendsto become indignant or deensive.

He may deny the command phrase. Denying it merelyholds it intact, but that is not the only way o holding it intact.He can do it with a reaction exactly opposite to denying it.

He may agree with the command phrase.I he is told, You have to be eating all the time, he may

say, Yes, I do. Thats just my trouble! In that instance hedestroys his chance to get released rom the wrong thought.

Neither o those two reactions is a logical response.His logical response is to recognize that his thinking is

incorrect, that a command phrase should always be droppedand that i he denies or agrees with it, he is supporting hiscompulsion to overeat.

Obviously he cannot give that response unless he under-


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stands distortions o logic.

People who do understand are able to provide enormoushelp to one another as they work their way out o hiddenmental traps. But at the outset, a person may have to workalone.

Thereore, what has been said about detection o distor-tions in another person has been said mainly or illustration.

When a person attempts to detect a distortion in someoneelse, he benets by the act that he can easily be indirect inhis approach. He also benets by the act that he can learnto recognize his own distortions even i he approaches themdirectly, provided he does not have identical distortions. Inthat case he cannot recognize them in another person.

Why is that? Because every expression o that distortionseems logical to him. He is blocked rom recognizing its il-logic as eectively as in the case o directly seeking distor-

tions in himsel.His observation o distortions in other peoples conversa-

tion and behavior oers great value in his eorts to release hisown intelligence. By observing others he can learn valuablelessons about how to detect similar distortions in himsel.

For example, he can learn how a person looks and soundswhen he is acting under the promptings o his commandphrases. Those observations enable him to notice the wordso the persons command phrases by analyzing his actions. Hecan decide how a persons tone o voice is infuenced when heis putting one o his command phrases into specic words.

Then he can apply all that sort o inormation to himsel.Gradually he learns to recognize the emotional symp-

toms that tell him when he is in danger because he is think-ing through distortions. He can think back at once to what

he was saying or doing and try to remember his thinking atthe time.

From his behavior he can iner the wording o commandphrases. His ordinary conversation is also revealing. Oten


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Technique for Solving Problems 1

he will be able to isolate command phrases just by remem-

bering what he said, especially with strong eeling. His think-ing is even more revealing.

When under emotion, a person thinks in terms o com-mand phrasesthose he already has on the unconscious leveland those he newly orms.

Everything he thinks, says and does expresses commandphrases while actuated by emotion. The diculty is that heseldom supposes he is so actuated. Thereore, learning to no-tice it in others is important.

Whatever he learns in relation to them, he can apply tohimsel.

IX

SUPPOSE A person has learned that talking under emo-

tional strain is an indication that he is expressing distort-ed thinking. Suppose he has identied emotional strain byobserving it in others. I so, next time he detects such emo-tional strain in himsel he can take time out to analyze whathe was just saying.

Under careul analysis, he will detect faws in it by recog-nizing command phrases.

Every time he does, he corrects distortions. More impor-tant, he trains himsel to be alert to what he says. Presentlyhe discovers that sometimes he is able to detect and release adistortion beore he puts his command phrases into words.

That procedure saves him rom the consequences o thatparticular expression o irrational conversation.

Suppose you have learned rom the oregoing inorma-tion that when people around you get into trouble, it is be-

cause they have taken illogical action. I so, you can put thatinormation to good use in relation to yoursel.

When you get into trouble o any kind, you can thinkabout the distortions that led you into the trouble. Instead o


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blaming actors outside yoursel and trying to change them,

you are able to put attention on the real cause o the trouble:command phrases o distortions o logic.

Suppose you have learned how to translate someoneelses conversation and behavior into the command phrasesthat caused it. I so, you can similarly analyze your own con-versation and behavior.

You can think back to various situations in which you en-countered results that were wrong and unwanted. Rememberwhat you said and did. Look or command phrases you mayhave expressed in your conversation and behavior. Use thesame indications that you have learned to detect by studyingthe conversation and behavior o others.

In doing so, you apply the indirect approach to yoursel.

X

THERE IS a way o using the indirect approach that givesit almost the eect o a direct approach, and many per-sons are using it. While it requires skill and the condence oexperience to make it really eective, it is a quick method.

It is known as the command phrase technique.Every distortion o logic can be described in command

phrases that cause an unending series o problems. Thoseproblems can be counteracted, but they cannot be solved ex-cept by correcting the thinking that causes them.

Thereore, a person should begin with the recognition oa problem.

Any problem will serve, although he is wise to begin withsome problem he has reason to suspect was caused by hisown wrong thinking. I he is honest about it, he can identiy

several such problems with little eort.Perhaps he has diculty going to sleep when he should.Selection o the problem provides his lead and gets him

started. He may select the problem at a time when he is su-


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ering rom it. Thereore, i he goes ater command phrases

that keep him rom alling asleep, probably he is lying in bedat the time keenly aware o the problem.

In that situation nothing is lost and something is to begained by applying the technique. He may as well give hisinsomnia proper attention and get rid o it.

Giving the problem proper attention is certainly more in-teresting than counting sheep.

He should ask inside his mind what command phrasescould have the eect o keeping him awake. He may remem-ber various statements he has made on the subject o hissleeplessness. He can use his imagination to get more phras-es. Presently command phrases come to his mind almost e-ortlessly.

Some o them he may mistakenly consider too logical tobe command phrases.

For example, i the command phrase is I just cant sleepno matter how I try, he can easily delude himsel into imagin-ing that the phrase merely describes a condition that exists.

In the rst place, he has to recognize that his troublesomesleep pattern is a solvable problem.

The act is that the oregoing quotation involves a sentencethat was not logical at the time it was originally thought. Itwas probably ormed in exasperation, and it was incorrect.Many times aterward, that person did sleep. That act aloneproves that he was wrong when he said, I just cant sleep nomatter how I try.

The sentence was not logical then, and it is still not logi-cal. Even i he repeats it to himsel many times in the exas-peration o sleeplessness, it will still not be rational. Ater hegets tired enough, he will all asleep. Thereore, he should not

delude himsel by that statement any longer. By detecting itsillogic, he releases its hold on his mind.

That correction lets him cancel one reason or stayingawake.


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He can apply the same procedure to one command phrase

ater another so long as he remains awake. The phrases mostlikely to come to his mind are the ones that are keeping himawake. He can give each just enough attention to recognize itas a command phrase, and presently he will all asleep.

He may reach a permanent solution or his problem osleeplessness in his rst eort, but i not, no matter. When-ever he nds himsel unable to all asleep, he can try again,and by that procedure he will eventually get rid o all theresponsible phrases. He shouldnt be surprised i there aredozens o them, because he has spent a lot o hours ormingthem while he courted sleep perhaps or many years. All thatmental rubbish must be disposed o beore the problem iscompletely solved.

His sleep problem can be solved in just a small part o thetime he ormerly spent wrestling with it.

So it is with every other kind o problem. I a problem isserious enough to demand attention, it is serious enough tosolve rather than to go on trying to counteract it. He can justuse the time and attention he already gives the problem toget rid o it.

Doing that with one problem ater another gets startlingresults. Perhaps a person wont see those results in the rst dayor week, but some persons report desired changes at once.

To get started, a person should make a list o problems towork on.

At rst he may overlook many o his serious problems,but no matter. In due course they will come to his attention.A persons problems should be approached in the order inwhich they come to his attention so that they can be dealtwith as a matter o course while he goes about his daily a-

airs.In the process he is oten astonished by the degree o con-

trol over his lie and bodily unctions that is attributable todistortions.


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The ollowing is a list o the problems others have elimi-

nated:Boredom, restlessness, impatience, quick temper, shy-

ness, sel-consciousness, talking without thinking, elimina-tion o bad habits, inability to concentrate, tendency alwaysto be in a hurry, emotional tension, inclination to worry, eel-ings you must make every decision and cannot ever dependon the decisions o others, sour relationships, physical ills andaccidents.

There is no problem likely to be mentioned that doesnot belong in the list in one orm or another, but a beginnershould not arouse initial skepticism by selecting problems heconsiders impossible to solve. There are several problems inthat list a person could expect to do something about.

As he makes progress, he will get many interesting sur-prises.

He will detect problems where he thought no problemsexisted. He will discover that human beings do an enormousamount o needless suering o many dierent kinds. As aresult o that discovery, he will also change the course o hislie.

The average person advances rom one rustration to an-other and tends to consider it normal. He has to get up whenhe would rather stay in bed. He has to go to bed when hewould rather stay up. He tries to get solace rom balms thatail to satisy. He does all sorts o things because he has to,and he rerains rom all sorts o things because he must. Thatmakes his lie dicult.

Every rustration he encounters, he should realize, pointsto an example o illogic.

He can pause to think and ask himsel what sort o il-

logical thinking invited the rustration. He can pick up com-mand phrases and get as many as he easily can. I the neededchanges elude him, he should repeat the procedure and con-tinue until the desired change occurs.


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As he progresses, he nds that his lie simplies.

Gradually he discovers that lie is not so complicated aspeople are ond o saying. It is the mechanisms o lie that arecomplicated, and the purpose o those complicated mecha-nisms is to enable people to simpliy their lives. Unortunatelypeople devise their own complexities, but with understand-ing, they can be eliminated.

By using the command phrase technique, a person seesremarkable improvements in his mental, emotional andphysical health.

Those improvements are happening to the persons whoare engaged in a research project or that purpose.

They know that every phrase o illogical thinking placesan added strain on the person who harbors it and that eachphrase causes illogical behavior and hence rustration. Thoseresults also increase his tension, because many phrases de-

mand action that intereres with a rational way o lie. Inaddition, many phrases directly invite poor health by theirwording.

Consider the ollowing command phrases:My ather died o a heart attack, and so will I. When-

ever a bug starts going around, Im always one o the rst tocatch it. I just know Ill die rom some virus. Its normalor me to be sick every ew months. Im sick o my job.

Maybe you cant believe that such thinking can actuallycause sickness. I not, just use what you can accept rom whatyou are reading. Remember that nobody gets into trouble bytrying to correct distortions o logic when some sickness orother trouble impends.

By applying the technique to sickness, you may becomeone o those persons who has already produced a seemingly

spontaneous recovery o what is thought to be an incurabledisease.


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47

Chapter 3

Formula for Preventing Trouble

SICKNESS IS obviously a sign that something has alreadygone wrong, and once sickness has come into being, itconstitutes a problem to be solved. That is the old businesso locking the barn door ater the horse has been stolen. Thisbook

73000881 how to solve problems and prevent trouble

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