Psychology Has It Backwards

Most of us grew up being told that humility was recognition that we were "mere mortals," or that humility was a set of behaviors -- modesty, consideration for others' feelings and needs, being grateful.  The Principles describe a universal fact: we all come from the pure energy of life, and before we use our gifts to think and see our thinking as our reality, we are all the same.  P...

People are always asking us to "define" Mind, Thought, and Consciousness again, or put them in different words.  If you're trying to "figure out" the Principles by looking at the words, you can easily become frustrated and confused.  Definitions are the intellect trying to figure things out.  Look to understand how life works through us, from within us.  Experience the lif...

We've all done it -- looked for an expert, or a highly recommended source, or a certain book, or a guru, or a technique, to find the answers to our deepest questions.  No matter how hard we look, we end up still confused or uncertain.  For many, the search goes on for a lifetime.  Looking outside of ourselves for understanding will never lead us to peace and certainty.  The Principles explain...

The Principle of Thought describes the absolute power every individual has to create their own experience of life.  We do not experience anything we have not thought, whether it's a memory, a fear, a desire, a pain, a recognition, a profound insight.  Until it enters our mind as a thought, it has not happened for us.  The good news is we have free will, and we can allow thoughts to pass, thin...

A misunderstanding that arises from talk about the Principles is the idea of "listening for a feeling" or "following your feelings."  When we create thoughts, images in our mind, Consciousness allows us to recognize our thoughts and to understand whether they are helpful.  Our feelings provide feedback.  When our thoughts are producing negative feelings, that tells us it is tim...

Often our clients bring up some version of, "I understand what you're talking about, but knowing it just isn't helping me."  The Principles are not about "what," but about "how" life works, and SEEING what it truly means that we are the thinkers always creating our own experience.  What "works" is listening for the feeling behind the words, allowin...

Memories are stored thoughts, like all information we have accumulated.  They have no "power" until we focus on them.  Otherwise, they are like books we've already read on the shelf, unimportant unless we take them down and start reading again.  They have "invisible" power only because, when they come to mind, Consciousness brings them to life and we re-experience them.  I...

We often encourage our clients to "reflect" rather than "think about" or "figure out" life situations.  Reflection is a quiet mind in a peaceful feeling; it is when we turn off the spigot of our personal thinking and listen for the natural flow of the stream of wisdom.  Wisdom comes to us directly from the unknown, before thought, and it is our source of guidance, ins...

When we talk about living a happy life, we are not talking about living in denial of the facts of life events, we are not describing a life miraculously free of trouble, we are not suggesting a strategy of avoidance.  Happiness is a deep feeling of well-being, of confidence in our moment-to-moment access to the guidance of wisdom and insight, of faith that we have all our resources to address life...

Unlike other therapy approaches, The Three Principles has one primary goal for therapy: Happiness.  While that seems counterintuitive to people who seek therapy to address problems or resolve issues, it is the expression of the profound truth of the Principles: Before the formation of thought, we come into the world at peace and content and living from wisdom.  As our intellect gathers memories, w...

Continuing on our last podcast, since we are not analyzing what is wrong or problem-solving with clients, what DO we do?  Although every 3P practitioner works from their own wisdom in the moment, and there are no "techniques" or "processes," all of us listen as deeply as we can to clients until we "hear" their mental health in their stories and "see" where t...

Traditional psychologies diagnose what's wrong with clients and help them "fix" issues.  To us, that does not lead clients to a deeper understanding from which they can access their spiritual power to think, and to recognize our shared origin from the intelligent, formless energy of life, the source of wisdom.  We point to the deep feelings of peace and security that arise from touc...

Clients often say, "OK, I understand the Principles: Mind, Consciousness and Thought.  We create our own thinking and then see it as real via Consciousness because of the formless power of Mind.  But I still don't feel any better."  The Principles are words, metaphors that explain the logic of how human beings come to experience reality.  "Learning" that intellectually doe...

For 50 years, since Sydney Banks first shared his profound insight into how the intelligent energy of creation manifests in human beings as the power to think, to create our unique experience of life, some people have called us a cult.  Mr. Banks spent his life telling people not to be followers, but to find their wisdom and insight to guide them through life.  He shared what he saw about the inna...

"What do you mean by 'change is one thought away'?" people often ask us.  "Isn't change a hard, long process of working through stuff?"  As we come to understand the inside-out nature of thought, how our thoughts create the moment-to-moment reality we experience, we recognize that change occurs when we realize something we didn't know before.  For example, i...

Those who have spent their lives accumulating knowledge and working hard to figure things out have, without realizing it, gotten lost in the Memory Library.  Our personal thinking, a product of active, busy minds, lives there.  It can only work with already-thought thoughts, what we already know, which is why we get frustrated going over and over the same problems with no new solutions, or asking...

Many people mistake excitement, high-energy, cheerfulness as "the positive feelings" we talk about in the Three Principles.  They assume that having a good time, being temporarily happy, is the desirable state.  The Feeling we point to is deep peace of mind, a sense of connection to the moment and to the universe, a feeling that generates quietude, appreciation, love, and contentment, re...

Psychology is traditionally focused on solving problems.  Right now, there is a focus on working through past traumas.  We say that when you dredge up the past, you get trapped in something that cannot change.  Every time you think about it, you relive it, but you can't make it turn out differently.  With the 3P perspective, a Wisdom-Focused approach, we help people see we all create life fro...

We all have in common that we emerge into life from the power of Divine Mind, Thought, and Consciousness and we use that power to create our experience.  Every single one of us uses it differently, and builds their own unique personal thought system.  Even after we see that finding peace of mind and access to wisdom to guide us through life is the path to happiness and contentment, we still stumbl...

In traditional psychology, practitioners often see "resistance" in clients.  Resistance, from the standpoint of the Principles, is really hopelessness.  People lose hope that they have innate mental well-being, that they always have access to their own wisdom, that they are born with the gift of creating their own reality, and that peace of mind is always within them, even though they ca...

It's easy to get addicted to troubled thinking because our worst moments, or our most negative thoughts look and feel more significant to us than ordinary everyday thoughts.  We get frightened, embarrassed, discouraged, upset, angry, etc. about them.  In other words, they bring us bad feelings.  Bad feelings get our attention.  They're supposed to.  They tell us we're overthinking,...

Once we begin to notice how the power of thinking works and how we change as our understanding deepens, it becomes a thrilling lifetime learning experience to experience new insights and keep growing and changing.  We are taught early on that "figuring out" is the way to learn, but very few people are taught that insight is the way to grow and find deeper and deeper peace and contentment...

Parenting becomes challenging as children grow and develop their own thinking and start experiencing their own moods and reactions. It helps to remember that children are all individuals, with the same access to wisdom and mental well-being as grownups, and with the same free will and free thought to develop their own way of seeing life. It takes love and understanding, and not taking things perso...

Sexual abuse is a horrible experience for people of any age or gender, and often generates feelings of shame, fear of being damaged, unwillingness to seek help, hesitancy about any relationships.  No trauma, not even the worst personal trauma, can break our innate well-being, which is a spiritual truth, formless and invincible.  Only the way we think about trauma over time can obscure our natural...

This is part two of our discussion of brain disorders, focused on the common issue of ADHD.  Many people struggle with ADHD, and how to "manage" life tasks with it.  First, there are good medicines available that slow down thinking, and there is no shame in taking them appropriately.  Second, over time, we have come to recognize more and more that those with ADHD use the gift of thought...