Visualization Technique to Lose Weight

DURING my series of talks in Sri Lanka and India, a number of participants asked me if I had a visualization or mental technique to lose weight.

I said yes. There is definitely a powerful mental technique to help people lose weight without having to do heavy exercises or following a debilitating diet.

But this visualization technique requires discipline and daily practice to obtain good results. It requires the use of one’s whole brain, meaning both left and right hemispheres of the neocortex, as well as the limbic system.

The left half of our brain is responsible for verbal thinking, analysis, logic and abstract ideas. The right half is responsible for nonverbal thinking, such as imagination, creativity, intuition, synthesis, depth and perspective, etc. The limbic system is involved with emotions.

Let’s talk about how to use the left, analytical brain in goal setting. Your goal must be stated in a very specific and concrete way. It should focus on the results you want; it must be time specific and measurable.For example, your goal may be stated thus: “I want to reduce my weight by 10 pounds in 30 days.” In just one sentence you have complied with the requirements of your left analytical brain.

Difficult but fun
Now comes the more difficult part, but which really is fun to do. It is this part that will spell the difference between success or failure in meeting your goal. I refer to the right brain’s role in goal-setting and achievement.

You should be able to see, hear, smell, taste, and touch (or feel) your goal once it is achieved. In other words, you should be able to describe in as concrete and as detailed a manner possible, the outcome when you achieve your goal.

You can create a form where you can write down your answers to the following right-brain questions:
1. What will I look like when I achieve my goal of reducing my weight by 10 lbs (sense of sight)?2. What will I smell when I have achieved my goal (sense of smell)?3. What will I hear (sense of hearing)?4. What will I taste (sense of taste)?5. What will I feel (sense of touch)?
If you cannot describe the outcome of your goal in specific terms or reply to all the above questions, you may have difficulty achieving it. This is what makes this whole-brain type of goal-setting different from others you may have come across.

Detailed notes
After this, you should write down in detail the emotions you will feel or experience when you have achieved your goal. The limbic portion of your brain is engaged here. Write every positive emotion you can think of when you achieve your goal.

Lastly, you should enumerate the pay-off you will get when you achieve your goal. What are the benefits you will get out of this? What is the return on investment or ROI? What good is it to you to reduce your weight by 10 lbs?

As pointed out earlier, this mental technique requires practice to take effect. How often should you do this visualization for weight reduction? You should visualize your goal or practice it for 15 minutes twice a day, once in the morning after waking up, and once in the evening before sleeping.

If you can answer all these questions in concrete detail and practice it daily as prescribed, you will surely achieve your goal, no matter how difficult or impossible it may seem.

The above goal-setting technique, however, is not only for weight reduction. It can be used to great advantage for any worthwhile goal. There was, for example, a group of nuns whose application for Social Security System loan to construct a building was disapproved.
Upon learning of this visualization technique, they reapplied but, this time, they did the visualization religiously twice a day. They got their loan this time, to their great amazement.Needless to say this technique should never be used to harm others, or to put others at a disadvantage. Try it and watch the results.

Note: Send e-mail to: innerawareness_2005@yahoo.com.ph. Listen to my Sunday radio program 7:30-8:30 p.m. on dzMM radio 630 khz. For inquiries about seminars offered by the Inner Mind Development Institute, please call 8107245, 8926806 or 0917-6193998.

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Two ways to be fooled

RECENTLY, a group of students from a well-known private college for women in Quezon City called me in connection with a research paper they were doing on telekinesis.

They had heard of my course on ESP (extra sensory perception) that covered telekinesis, among other psychic abilities.Their teacher, who did not believe in “such psychic stuff,” told the students to look up a certain website on the Internet about an offer of US$1 million to anyone who could prove telekinesis (or any other psychic powers, like telepathy, clairvoyance, etc.) was true.

They asked if I was aware of such a website. I told them I was aware of such an offer but had not seen the website. They must be referring to the challenge American magician James Randi (who calls himself the Great Randi) made to anyone who could prove that telekinesis was true.
I told the students not to pay attention to James Randi because he was just a de-bunker of psychic phenomena. When somebody comes up to prove telekinesis, Randi changes the rules. Randi always finds loopholes so that, in the end, he concludes nothing has been proven.

For years, Randi hounded and harassed well-known Israeli psychic Uri Geller, saying he was nothing but a fake psychic, that it was not true Geller could bend metallic spoons, keys and rings with his mind alone, despite numerous public demonstrations that the psychic was able to do so.After years of ignoring and trying to get away from Randi, Geller finally fought back. He filed a harassment suit against Randi and won.

The court ordered Randi not to come within a specified distance from Geller or he would be arrested. Randi was also asked to pay Geller a certain amount for all the mental torture and emotional trouble he caused.

Although Randi was forced to stop harassing Geller, the court order did not include other people. So Randi still manages to harass those who believe in psychic phenomena. He heads a small but noisy group called the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (PSICOP) and publishes the Skeptical Inquirer, the main purpose of which is to show that those who believe in such things are nuts!

However, serious academic and scientific researchers like Dr. Robert Jahn of Princeton University, Dr. Russell Targ, formerly with the Stanford Research Institute, among others, simply ignore the antics and wild accusations of Randi.

At Princeton University’s Anomalous Phenomena Department, for example, engineer Robert Jahn and psychologist Brenda Dunne have been quietly researching telekinesis for the last 15 or 20 years. They have proved, under strict laboratory conditions, that telekinesis exists. They did this by having subjects influence the fall of the dice on a roulette machine using only the power of their thoughts.

They meticulously calculated the mathematical probabilities to show whether this was purely by chance or if it was influenced by their minds.The two wrote a pioneering book, “Margins of Reality,” detailing the methodology they used and the results they obtained. Every skeptic should read this book before he/she opens his/her mouth regarding the reality of telekinesis.

I am not really interested in proving to skeptics that psychic powers and paranormal phenomena exist. This is not my job or my intention. I only want to share with interested people and readers strange but true events that are normally and routinely ignored by established science and the academic community.

Psychologist Gertrude R. Schmeidler of the City College of New York conducted a series of studies on the relationship between ESP and personality traits way back in 1975.

She divided people into two classes. Those who believed in ESP she called “sheep.” This group scored higher in ESP tests. Those who did not believe in ESP she called “goats.” This group did poorly in ESP tests. Randi definitely is a “goat” and thinks like one.

I told the students it was good to maintain a healthy skepticism, not to accept at face value everything a person told them, but to verify everything. This way they might learn something their teacher would never learn because she kept her mind closed to the true nature of reality.

As I have often said here, according to philosopher Soren Kierkegaard, “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what is not true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”

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22 fingers of 11 men lift heavy stone

A DAY before we went to the fabulous Ellora and Ajanta Caves in Aurangabad City, some five hours by car from Pune, India, our host, Ajay Mehta, told us about a heavy stone at the back of a Muslim mosque not far from Pune that can be lifted by 11 men, each using only two fingers.

“I was about to ask you that!” I exclaimed. I read about this mysterious stone in a book on extraterrestrials a long time ago. That story was confirmed to me by a foreigner who saw the phenomenon himself.

“Since it’s along the way to the Ellora Caves, I think you should not miss passing by to see it,” he told us. He instructed our driver to take us to the mosque first before proceeding to Aurangabad.

Near disappointment
The next day, excitement almost turned to complete disappointment when we saw the stone.

Why?
What I heard about that mysterious stone was this:
1. It is a boulder about six feet long and four feet wide and weighs several tons.2. If 11 men (no women allowed) place their right hand on top of it while chanting a certain mantra, the big stone will rise several feet from the ground.3. If anyone removes his hand or stops chanting, the stone falls flat to the ground.

I told this story many times in my class on ESP to illustrate the tremendous powers of the mind.
Some years ago, I met an Austrian spiritual seeker and adventurer named Alfonso, who had been all over India and confirmed the story was true. When I asked what they were chanting as the stone was being lifted, he said it sounded like “Ka ka ka ka ka!” I didn’t realize he merely invented the sound.

I had completely forgotten what I wrote in my 1978 book “Understanding the Psychic Powers of Man,” which was nearer the truth but still not entirely correct.

This is what I wrote then: “In this relatively unknown village called Shivapur, there stands in front of a mosque dedicated to the Sufi Saint Quamar Ali Dervish a big granite boulder weighing 55 kg. If 11 people simultaneously touch the boulder with their index fingers chanting ‘Quamar Ali Dervish’ in loud, ringing tones, the boulder floats into the air for a second and drops with a heavy thud.

“If there are more, or less than, 11 individuals touching the boulder, nothing happens. Or if the words ‘Quamar Ali Dervish’ are not shouted distinctly at a certain pitch, it will not move. The demonstration takes place six times a day everyday.”

I got that information from the book “We Are Not the First” by Andrew Tomas.

Different reality
That’s not exactly what my wife and I discovered in that Muslim mosque. Instead of a big boulder, what we saw was just an ordinary-looking oval-shaped stone about one and a half feet long, maybe a foot wide and half a foot in depth.

In broken English, accompanied by hand gestures, I told the men standing idly by what we were looking for and they pointed to that stone. Soon afterward, several men approached and placed the stone, which was quite heavy, on top of some smaller pebbles so that its bottom could be reached.

Then 11 men positioned themselves, placing their two fingers under the stone. As they shouted “Quamar Ali Darvesh” (not Dervish), they lifted the stone way above their heads. Then they scampered out of the way as the stone fell to the ground with a heavy thud.

I tried to lift the stone with both hands and arms. I couldn’t move it. One of the men whispered in my ear, “101 kilos.” He was referring to the weight of the stone. That’s about 220 pounds, I said to myself.

I asked if I could participate in lifting the stone. They all eagerly said yes. They showed me how to position my two legs. The right foot should be forward and the left foot behind. My index and middle fingers were the only ones that should touch the stone. They told me to shout “Quamar Ali Darvesh” while lifting the stone at the same time.

The first attempt was not so impressive. So we did it again. I told my wife to take pictures but the action happened so fast and so many men were lifting the stone that she couldn’t get a good shot.

After that, I let the other men do it while I took pictures. This time, they lifted the heavy stone so high I was able to take a good shot of it flying way above their heads. It was an impressive sight!

I tried to ask somebody about the history of the stone. Where did it come from? Who discovered the ritual? Who taught them the chant? Why only men were allowed to lift, etc. But no one spoke good English and we left the place after giving a donation to those who helped demonstrate the ritual.

Impressive
Here again is an example of reality being different from stories told by others. Although the stone was not as big and as heavy as I was made to believe, it was nevertheless an impressive demonstration because it was not possible to lift a 220-lb object with only two fingers of each of 11 men.

I wanted to have four, instead of 11, men try to lift the stone, each using only two fingers, but I couldn’t get anybody to understand me. So I abandoned the idea.

I thought of that alternative ritual because I taught students to lift a heavy person (weighing almost 200 lb)—four persons using only two fingers each. My gut feel is that stone in India can be lifted that way. I wish someday to have a chance to prove it.

Note: Contact Julie Ang at 0917-7061175 for Soulmates, Karma and Reincarnation seminar I will conduct Oct. 22 in Cagayan de Oro City, and Bong Amante at 0917-3252845 for the Inner Mind Development Seminar Oct. 28-29 in Cebu City.

http://showbizandstyle.inq7.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=27039

Teaching meditation in the land of its birth

I’M BACK, after nearly four weeks of grueling but highly successful lecture tour in Sri Lanka and India.

The hectic trip brought my wife and me to Colombo in Sri Lanka, and Madras (now Chennai), Bangalore, Hyderabad, Calcutta (now Kolkotta), Poona (now Pune), Bombay (now Mumbai) and New Delhi in India where I conducted workshops for the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) chapters there.

Remote viewing, self-healing through visualization and telepathy are topics completely outside an executive’s field of work and competence. But these mental exercises that I made them perform were very well received and highly successful.They were an extraordinary group of management people.

In Pune, for example, almost all participants successfully performed telepathy to their great surprise, the highest percentage of success I ever achieved. In remote viewing, over 90 percent of participants in each chapter succeeded in projecting their sense of awareness to a distant place and described accurately what they had never seen before.The percentage of success in the self-healing through visualization exercise was difficult to determine because laboratory analysis was required to find out some illnesses. But those suffering from physical pain like headaches and back pains, were relieved of their problem.

FascinatingI have always been fascinated by India because of its antiquity, mysticism and many stories of paranormal events. I’ve heard that in India, there are people who can make things appear out of nowhere, walk on fire or have their skins pierced by sharp knives without getting hurt. People can stay alive without any food or any liquid for months, and heal all sorts of illness at an instance.

I thought I would have a chance to witness these things, but I saw nothing of the sort. Mystic people with extraordinary powers are not found in the cities but in far places or remote villages hundreds of kilometers away. They shun the dazzle and noise of city living and prefer the quiet calm of country life.

Instead, what I found was a very modern, progressive and dynamic country with a robust economy. It is a far cry from what I had been told it would be.Before I went to India I was told that in some parts people were so poor and hungry that some literally died on the streets.

Nothing could be farther from the truth.In fact I’ve seen more poor people on the streets of Metro Manila than even in Calcutta. I’ve seen places here that are dirtier and more crowded. There’s nothing like being in the place itself to change one’s false impression about a country.

ModernizingBut it is true that in India, traces of an agricultural life can be seen side by side with modernity. I saw late-model cars running in the metropolis alongside cows and pedal-powered rickshaws.If one is not careful, one can easily step on some cow dung especially near Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim temples that are visible everywhere like fast foods are in Manila.

Just to show how modernization had eclipsed the ancient religious culture of India, in Bangalore we had to pass inside a big department store building to reach the big statue of Shiva in a temple behind it.There is no direct passage to the temple except through that department store! It is like entering a 21st-century building and exiting into a Jurassic Age edifice.

Although I saw almost none of the mystical and paranormal side of India, the trip had its own rewards. My wife had a grand time exploring the famous pearls in Hyderabad, the cheap but quality jewelry in Bangalore, and the magnificent silk and carpet products in Jaipur.

Cheap books
Me? I enjoyed visiting the bookstores with their unbelievably low prices. I couldn’t resist loading my luggage with a lot of them. I don’t know why the Philippines can’t have cheap books and cheap medicines like India.

Like most Asian countries, India is fast losing its battle to preserve its traditional cultural heritage against the onslaughts of modernization. I asked our licensed tour guide, for example, what he thought of Ayurveda, the traditional herbal healing modality of India. He said, “Well, it also works, but British medicine works faster.”

Here’s another example. I felt awkward teaching Indian executives how to meditate and reach the alpha level of their brain waves, because where did meditation come from? India! It was like selling ice to Eskimos.

But these modern business executives have, generally speaking, lost touch with their glorious ancient past, like wealthy Filipinos who have become so at home with western concepts and practices they get surprised when introduced to something their ancestors practised for thousand of years.

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