Wow - what a book!

My pleasure.

What the book does, in essence, is use little stories -- he calls them mental pictures -- to illustrate each point. The notion is that our unconscious reacts to parables and metaphor better than simple exposition. And yeah, it seems to work out that way.....

I had never heard a thing about him. Saw the book (it's an old copy from the sixties with no dust jacket) picked it up and opened up to a random page. I read two paragraphs and knew I had to have it.

Thank you for sharing this.

This truly appear to be a previously hidden gem.

Phil

They are lots of Videos of Vernon Howard like these on YouTube........

Thanks for the tip.

Regarding Law of Attraction - yeah, there's a lot of spiritual crap around it, but the general idea is not bad. Thinking positively will bring you better results, always.

I went ahead and bought one, without researching or anything about it, the Warrior review is all I need.

Thanks for sharing this

My take on this sort of philosophy is that it's not claiming the world is illusory on a physical level -- it's that our perception of the world makes it illusory. It's an essential concept of Buddhism - typically called "Emptyness"

In short -- what we view as a tree isn't really a tree. The word "tree" is something we invented. The tree doesn't know it's a tree (in the same way your dog doesn't know he's a dog). Same goes for words like green, leafy, bark or concepts like shady or evergreen or whatever. It goes further. Most of us like trees. Most of us don't like weeds. But there's nothing inherently likable or unlikable about these things. It's our perception that places these things in one camp or the other.

Consider this: You look at the weeds outside your front door and think "gack! I hate those ugly things! I gotta get rid of them." Then you look at the old oak tree in the yard where your kids played and you feel a swell of happiness.

Along come someone who just arrived from, oh let's say, the Sahara desert. They've lived all there all their life and have never seen vegetation. They see the weeds (although they don't know they're called weeds or even how they got there) and think "my, these little sprouty things are charming! What beauty!" Then they look at the tree and think "what is that giant ugly and scary thing!"

So who's interpretation of the world is correct, yours or the visitors? Or is it possible that neither of you are viewing the world as a true reality?

It's our interpretation of the world that makes it an illusion, because we are incapable of viewing it without conceptualizing it. Thus the world, as we know it, is an illusion.

What's the practical value of thinking this way? It's not to discount the world and pretend everything is a dream. It's to be able to understand that "through our thoughts, we make the world". It's actually a powerful and liberating notion -- if you change the way you perceive the world, you can create a much happier place to be for yourself. The opposite is, of course, true, as the life of any miserable person will attest.

(I feel like I should be in a dorm room, listening to Pink Floyd and passing a bong around right about now :> )

[QUOTE=KDarden;2763224]I



BTW -gjabiz - interesting combination. Have been reading Mangan's book recently and while I'm not totally "sold" on his ideas, there is merit to the concept of using words (made-up or otherwise) as anchors and triggers.

Thanks for commenting. Um, ahh...(he stammers some more), er...

These books were part of a FOUNDATION which was put into place as far back as 1959. Now be patient.

When I was 9, a guy gave me two books. Elmer Wheeler's; Tested Sentences that Sell and Elmer Leterman's The Sale Begins When the Customer Says NO.

It was a beautiful Saturday morning in Tallmadge, Ohio and I was asked to pick some flowers in a field (a former nursery gone to seed) by a neighbor. I picked way to many. She suggested I sell them to other women.

A guy washing his car saw me, found out I was "selling" and started to mentor me. Basically, he told me to tell the ladies that answered the door about the SPIDERS, SNAKES AND MICE in the field.

I WITNESSED changes in physiology and behavior after using these "magic words" on these women. I was sold on the idea of WORDS being used to impact, influence and persuade people.

So began a life long search for other "magic words". At 15 I met Fran Renner, one of the great early hypnotherapists of the 60's. And a study of hypnosis began.

At 19 I was studying at the Edgar Cayce Center in Virginia Beach, and later in San Francisco Metaphysical Workshop run by Russell Thomas.

WHEW, thanks for staying with me. Let me bottom line this post...

I've seen the power of WORDS being used on other people. It made sense to me WORDS used on ourselves could also have great power. So, I've been studying WORDS for 51 years now.

YOU are right. Anchors, triggers, stimuli/responses. Attach a visceral metaphor to a Picture, and the words can take on incredible power.

I'll reduce one of the lessons which may have the most relevance in this forum to:

EMOTIONALIZED THOUGHTS, PICTURED AS COMPLETED REALITY, SOON ARE (or could be).

Some might say that is part of THE SECRET.

It is one leg of a three legged triad.

Won't bore you with the other two.

gjabiz

How fortunate you found the book and splurged! Vernon Howard is well-respected. Guy Finley of The Life of Learning Foundation in Oregon refers to Vernon Howard in much of his writings.

Thank you for reminding me of him.

Martha