* * *
POCKET BOOKS, a Simon & Schuster division of
GULF & WESTERN CORPORATION
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10020
Copyright © 1960 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Published by arrangement with Prentice-Hall, Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce
this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
For information address Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 07632
ISBN: 0-671-80628-9
First Pocket Books printing May, 1969
33rd printing
Trademarks registered in the United States and other countries.
Printed in the U.S.A.
* *
PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS
Your Key to a Better Life
resumption......Mechanism
makes use of stored information, or "memory," in
14 PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS
solving current problems and responding to current situations.
Your program for getting more living out of life consists
in first of all, learning something about this Creative
Mechanism, or automatic guidance system within you and
how to use it as a Success Mechanism, rather than as a
Failure Mechanism.
The method itself consists in learning, practicing, and
experiencing, new habits of thinking, imagining, remembering,
and acting in order to (1) develop an adequate
and realistic Self-image, and (2) use your Creative Mechanism
to bring success and happiness in achieving particular
goals.
If you can remember, worry, or tie your shoe, you can
succeed.
As you will see later, the method to be used consists of
creative mental picturing, creatively experiencing through
your imagination, and the formation of new automatic
reaction patterns by "acting out" and "acting as if."
I often tell my patients that "If you can remember,
worry, or tie your shoe, you will have no trouble applying
this method."
The things you are called upon to do are
simple, but you must practice and "experience."
Visualizing,
creative mental picturing, is no more difficult than
what you do when you remember some scene out of the
past, or worry about the future. Acting out new action
patterns is no more difficult than "deciding," then following
through on tying your shoes in a new and different
manner each morning, instead of continuing to tie them
in your old "habitual way," without thought or decision.
CHAPTER TWO
Discovering the Success Mechanism
Within You
IT may seem strange, but it is nevertheless true that up
until ten years ago scientists had no idea of just how the
human brain and nervous system worked "purposely" or
to achieve a goal. They knew what happened from having
made long and meticulous observations. But no single
theory of underlying principles tied all these phenomena
together into a concept that made sense. R. W. Gerard,
writing in Scientific Monthly in June, 1946, on the brain
and imagination, stated that it was sad but true that most
of our understanding of the mind would remain as valid
and useful if, for all we knew, the cranium were stuffed
with cotton wadding.
However, when man himself set out to build an "electronic
brain," and to construct goal-striving mechanisms
of his own, he had to discover and utilize certain basic
principles. Having discovered them, these scientists began
to ask themselves: Could this be the way that the human
brain works also? Could it be that in making man, our
Creator provided us with a servo-mechanism more
marvelous and wonderful than any electronic brain or
guidance system ever dreamed of by man, but operating
according to the same basic principles? In the opinion of
famous Cybernetic scientists like Dr. Norbert Wiener, Dr.
John von Newmann, and others, the answer was an unqualified
"yes."
15
16 PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS
Your Built-in Guidance System
Every living thing has a built-in guidance system or
goal-striving device, put there by its Creator to help it
achieve its goal—which is, in broad terms—to "live." In
the simpler forms of life the goal "to live" simply means
physical survival for both the individual and the species.
The built-in mechanism in animals is limited to finding
food and shelter, avoiding or overcoming enemies and
hazards, and procreation to insure the survival of the
species.
In man, the goal "to live" means more than mere survival.
For an animal to "live" simply means that certain
physical needs must be met. Man has certain emotional
and spiritual needs which animals do not have. Consequently
for man to "live" encompasses more than physical
survival and procreation of the species. It requires certain
emotional and spiritual satisfactions as well.
Man's built in
"Success Mechanism" also is much broader in scope
than an animal's. In addition to helping man avoid or
overcome danger, and the "sexual instinct" which helps
keep the race alive, the Success Mechanism in man can
help him get answers to problems, invent, write poetry,
run a business, sell merchandise, explore new horizons in
science, attain more peace of mind, develop a better personality,
or achieve success in any other activity which is
intimately tied in to his "living" or makes for a fuller life.
The Success "Instinct'
A squirrel does not have to be taught how to gather
nuts. Nor does it need to learn that it should store them
for winter. A squirrel born in the spring has never experienced
winter. Yet in the fall of the year it can be observed
busily storing nuts to be eaten during the winter months
DISCOVERING YOUR SUCCESS MECHANISM 17
when there will be no food to be gathered....
* * *
POCKET BOOKS, a Simon & Schuster division of
GULF & WESTERN CORPORATION
1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, N.Y. 10020
Copyright © 1960 by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Published by arrangement with Prentice-Hall, Inc.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce
this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.
For information address Prentice-Hall, Inc.,
Englewood Cliffs, N.J. 07632
ISBN: 0-671-80628-9
First Pocket Books printing May, 1969
33rd printing
Trademarks registered in the United States and other countries.
Printed in the U.S.A.
* *
PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS
Your Key to a Better Life
resumption......Mechanism
makes use of stored information, or "memory," in
14 PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS
solving current problems and responding to current situations.
Your program for getting more living out of life consists
in first of all, learning something about this Creative
Mechanism, or automatic guidance system within you and
how to use it as a Success Mechanism, rather than as a
Failure Mechanism.
The method itself consists in learning, practicing, and
experiencing, new habits of thinking, imagining, remembering,
and acting in order to (1) develop an adequate
and realistic Self-image, and (2) use your Creative Mechanism
to bring success and happiness in achieving particular
goals.
If you can remember, worry, or tie your shoe, you can
succeed.
As you will see later, the method to be used consists of
creative mental picturing, creatively experiencing through
your imagination, and the formation of new automatic
reaction patterns by "acting out" and "acting as if."
I often tell my patients that "If you can remember,
worry, or tie your shoe, you will have no trouble applying
this method."
The things you are called upon to do are
simple, but you must practice and "experience."
Visualizing,
creative mental picturing, is no more difficult than
what you do when you remember some scene out of the
past, or worry about the future. Acting out new action
patterns is no more difficult than "deciding," then following
through on tying your shoes in a new and different
manner each morning, instead of continuing to tie them
in your old "habitual way," without thought or decision.
CHAPTER TWO
Discovering the Success Mechanism
Within You
IT may seem strange, but it is nevertheless true that up
until ten years ago scientists had no idea of just how the
human brain and nervous system worked "purposely" or
to achieve a goal. They knew what happened from having
made long and meticulous observations. But no single
theory of underlying principles tied all these phenomena
together into a concept that made sense. R. W. Gerard,
writing in Scientific Monthly in June, 1946, on the brain
and imagination, stated that it was sad but true that most
of our understanding of the mind would remain as valid
and useful if, for all we knew, the cranium were stuffed
with cotton wadding.
However, when man himself set out to build an "electronic
brain," and to construct goal-striving mechanisms
of his own, he had to discover and utilize certain basic
principles. Having discovered them, these scientists began
to ask themselves: Could this be the way that the human
brain works also? Could it be that in making man, our
Creator provided us with a servo-mechanism more
marvelous and wonderful than any electronic brain or
guidance system ever dreamed of by man, but operating
according to the same basic principles? In the opinion of
famous Cybernetic scientists like Dr. Norbert Wiener, Dr.
John von Newmann, and others, the answer was an unqualified
"yes."
15
16 PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS
Your Built-in Guidance System
Every living thing has a built-in guidance system or
goal-striving device, put there by its Creator to help it
achieve its goal—which is, in broad terms—to "live." In
the simpler forms of life the goal "to live" simply means
physical survival for both the individual and the species.
The built-in mechanism in animals is limited to finding
food and shelter, avoiding or overcoming enemies and
hazards, and procreation to insure the survival of the
species.
In man, the goal "to live" means more than mere survival.
For an animal to "live" simply means that certain
physical needs must be met. Man has certain emotional
and spiritual needs which animals do not have. Consequently
for man to "live" encompasses more than physical
survival and procreation of the species. It requires certain
emotional and spiritual satisfactions as well.
Man's built in
"Success Mechanism" also is much broader in scope
than an animal's. In addition to helping man avoid or
overcome danger, and the "sexual instinct" which helps
keep the race alive, the Success Mechanism in man can
help him get answers to problems, invent, write poetry,
run a business, sell merchandise, explore new horizons in
science, attain more peace of mind, develop a better personality,
or achieve success in any other activity which is
intimately tied in to his "living" or makes for a fuller life.
The Success "Instinct'
A squirrel does not have to be taught how to gather
nuts. Nor does it need to learn that it should store them
for winter. A squirrel born in the spring has never experienced
winter. Yet in the fall of the year it can be observed
busily storing nuts to be eaten during the winter months
DISCOVERING YOUR SUCCESS MECHANISM 17
when there will be no food to be gathered....
* * *
