Anyone who suggests that you are a victim of others, is trying to victimize you.  Attempting to convince you that the outcome of your life is solely the result of the actions of others is actually an attempt to trick you to give up your power of self-determination and independence so that they may the take it from you and determine the direction of your life instead.

The difference between my warning and those who would make you their victims is that if you do give in to their persuasion, you are responsible for doing so, not the persuader.  I’ve debated similar points to this before, and it continues to be a belief I hold stronger and stronger with time.

Eleanor Roosevelt said “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.” I would expand that to “Nobody one can make you a victim without your consent.”

Next time someone tells you that it is some 3rd party’s fault that you are in the place you are in, and that you should join them in doing something about it, run the other direction.  They are not concerned with acting in your best interests, but are instead concerned with you acting in their best interests.

History is full of examples of individuals rising to power based on the platform of a scapegoat, and convincing the populace that they were not responsible for their plight, but that this scapegoat has caused them this harm.  The most classic example that comes to mind is Hitler and the Jews in Germany, but it doesn’t stop there.  Witch-hunts and mobs are the result of when individuals give up their right to make right choices.

Well, that is enough for now, but I will most likely write on this again.  What do you think?  Have you seen this before?

The other day Dawn and I were watching The Majestic with Jim Carey. I really enjoyed the movie. It takes place during the McCarthyism Anti-Communism hearings.

Watching how ludicrous the hearings and investigations were depicted it made me shake my head. It reminded me of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 America. I remember my father telling me that the real witches during those trials were the ones making the acquisitions (although not the kind of witches they were hunting for). So I figured the communists, or at least the anti-Americans (subversives, etc.) were the ones orchestrating the McCarthyism trials.

Anyway, I shook my head and thought to myself of George Santayana’s quote “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Naturally I was glad that modern America is beyond that sort of stillness.

Then I started wondering if we really were. Maybe this pattern it repeating itself. Salem didn’t invent it (look at the Spanish Inquisition), so it probably won’t end with McCarthyism. So could I think of an example today? The first thing I came up with was the detention center in Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo).

Lets look at the similarities between the three: Salem, McCarthy and Gitmo:

In researching this I discovered I am by far not the first to draw these parallels which is not surprising. I was surprised to find out that considering this now makes me a Liberal Democrat. Hmm . . . interesting.

The soul is that part of someone that is invulnerable.

I thought that was a cool definition, but then I got to thinking. . . .I believe the Soul is malleable – it changes and grows with the person. I’ve never considered the vulnerability of it, but being malleable would indicate it could be damaged. If it could be damaged then could it be destroyed?

I don’t think a soul can be destroyed. When someone’s frail physical form is destroyed then their soul lives on. I would say a soul is indestructable, but not invulnerable (am I being a nit picker?)

A person’s concious mind acts as the gatekeeper for their soul, so their soul is only damaged if they allow it be be damaged. Usually someone just doesn’t open their soul up for attact . . . it is a slow process consisting of small attacks. Kind of like boiling a frog – increase the temperature slowly, or the frog will jump out (not that I have ever cooked one, but that is how I hear to do it.)

What do you think?

Sometimes it may feel like we are bombarded with random thoughts – they just keep coming with no end in mind.  How can your possibly control them?

Think of yourself as a casting director for a play. You do not get to choose who shows up for auditions – the talent agency does that – but you do choose who ends up in the play. There will be many people whom you respond “Next” or “Don’t call us, we’ll call you.” Some of those who are auditioning may require some additional persuasion to leave the stage (imagine a big long cane that pulls them off the stage), but in the end the decision is yours who will stay and who will go.

When you do get a good audition, you will no doubt keep them on the stage and have them work with more material. Then you will be sure you have a great record of their contact information so that you can call them back to be in the production.

Now it may seem that it would be important to allow anyone audition who is interested, but that would not be the case. Sure, you are the one who makes the final decision, but the more time spent entertaining unsuitable auditions, the less time you have for the good ones.

Plus, remember the most important key:

You may not cast everyone who auditions, but you will only cast someone who does audition.

So if all your audition time is taken up with undesirable auditions, then you will be stuck with an undesirable cast. If you never make time for a desirable audition then you will never have the opportunity to cast them.

Another thing will happen if a casting director is very strict with who they let audition, they will get a reputation for what they want. Eventually the talent agencies will know what the director is looking for, and they won’t send anyone if they don’t have it. Sure, you may have some that think they have it when they don’t, but the number of inappropriate ones will decrease.

So what does this have to do with those of us who are not involved in theater? Everything!

Our subconscious is constantly sending thoughts to audition on the stage of our mind. It gathers these thoughts and ideas from many sources, some are our original creations, but most are a rearrangement or combination of external stimuli both past and present.
As we (our conscious mind) are more strict and disciplined with our thoughts – by getting rid of ones that do not suit us and celebrating the ones that do – we create more space for thoughts that will serve us. In addition we also train our subconscious to send us more thoughts that do serve us. While our subconscious and external stimuli seem random and chaotic, we can recreate our perception of them however we choose to.

Seem far fetched? It is actually quite easy. Have you ever noticed that if you are thinking about buying a new car of a certain model that all of a sudden you see cars of that model everywhere? Did the mix of cars change simply by your desire to buy a car of that model? Of course not.

What changed was you consciously conditioned your subconscious mind to pass along every time it saw a car of that model. Your subconscious mind is always noticing everything, it is incredibly powerful. Even when you think you are focused on reading the words in this post, your subconscious is observing everything in your field of vision, everything you hear, and anything else you are sensing. You also have a dialog going on in your head about what you are reading. You are debating if you agree with me or not. The only thing that changes is what you are aware of consciously.

When you see the model of car you want, you give it a label. Lets say you want to buy a Honda Odyssey mini-van. Before your mind simply labeled all the Odyssey’s it noticed as mini-vans, and rarely bothered to notify your conscious mind when one was spotted. Now that you let your subconscious mind know what to label this specific type of mini van as, it is able to group them differently. So occasionally your subconscious points out an Odyssey to you. You get excited, since that is the kind of car you are looking for. This excitement lets your subconscious know it did good, so soon it starts pointing out more and more of them. Eventually it is pointing out every single Odyssey it notices. You had no idea they were such a common car. You subconscious loves to recognize and categorize things, you just need to let it know what you are looking for.

Why is it so important that we choose our thoughts? As I mentioned before, not all thoughts necessarily become actions, but all our actions were first thoughts. So if all our thoughts are self defeating, then our actions will also be self defeating. As we train out subconscious to provide us with more thoughts that serve us then we will have a better selection to choose form.

What can we train our subconscious to recognize? How about opportunities? What if we trained our mind to take everything as encouragement or a compliment? I know I have known people who did exactly the opposite – look at Eeyore!

People generally find what they are looking for. The problem is most people don’t bother to tell their subconscious what they are looking for. Get clear on what you want and focus on that. If something comes along that you don’t want, then tell it “Next”.  Make space for what you want, and when you find it celebrate!

This is one of those universal laws that applies everywhere.  For example (again generally speaking) you don’t marry everyone you date, but you date everyone you marry first.  So if you are only dating losers then you will marry a looser, but if you set high standards for who you will date, then you will end up marrying someone who matches those standards.

Likewise you don’t speak every thought you have, but you don’t say something that was not a thought first.

As you train your subconscious mind to find and provide what you are looking for, you will find it more often and in more places.  You will continue to refine your ability to recognize and you will get closer to your goal until it is the only thing that is achievable.

Get clear on what you want and accept no substitutes!

• _____ become _____
• ______ create _____
• ______ build ______

Then the words: Thoughts, Actions, Habits, and Character. Now as I try to recall this I realize I don’t remember the specifics that well, but I think that is the general idea. The teachers started talking about the lesson, but my attention was on the board. In a few seconds I blurted out “Thoughts become Actions, Actions create Habits, and Habits build Character,” again assuming I remember correctly, but it was definately something similar to that. It was obvious by the teacher’s reaction I had jumped ahead, but for some reason that was a very memorable concept to me.

Years later I read As a Man Thinketh by James Allen. It mirrored the same concept. A great book and I highly recommend reading it.

Recently I was reading Matt’s Blog on Wordpress (my favorite blog platform) and he has the following quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson:

Watch your thoughts; They become words. Watch your words; They become deeds. Watch your deeds; They become habits. Watch your habits; They become character. Character is everything.

(Slight punctuation editing on my part.)

This reminded me of when I was listening to an interview with Joe Vitale recently the comment was made that if we become what we think about, then why are there not more porn stars in the world? I thought that was a pretty good question. We have all heard the statistics (which I suspect are greatly exagerated) in reguards to how often men think about sex. So if there are so many thoughts focusing on sex then why do we not see more people who’s character is defined by sex? There is a gap between thoughts and actions.

The explanation for the gap, I believe, is that not all thoughts become actions. The important point is no action comes about without first being a thought. If you want to change your actions, first change your thoughts.  By starting with thoughts the above quotes show how small things become great. It is important to realize that “thougts are things“.

Practice shows that some of each level don’t make it to the next level. Not all actions become thoughs, and even some of your habits are not influential in determing your character (although the gap gets smaller at each level).

Maybe a better quote might be:

Character is built from habits. Habits are built by actions. Actions are created from thoughts.

You can quote me on that.

There is no break down or fall-off in that chain. All character is determined by habits, actions and thougts. All habits are determined by actions and thoughts and all actions are determined by thoughts alone.
Before anyone points it out, there is a gap between a person’s actual character, and their precieved character, but they are two different things. Your character is personal, but your precieved character has to do with your relationship and the characters of all those who precieve you.

Even thought this chain does not break, you are still in control. You determine your character by choosing your thoughts.

She was coming at it from a purely civilzed point of view. She is a psychologist. At one point she says:

I am not a Christian, a Muslim, or a Jew. I am a secular human being. I do not believe in the supernatural, but I respect others’ right to believe in it.

This really irritated Dr. Ibrahim Al-Khouli, who was connecting with her via satelite. He started asking if she was a heretic.

Her comments about respecting other people’s freedom to worship how they please reminded me of when I went to see the Dali Lahma in Hailey, Idaho on September 11th, 2005. His life’s message is one of compassion, but one point he made was that (and I paraphrase from memory) anyone claiming to go to war in the name of their religion was not a true follower of their religion. He said whatever religion people choose to follow is fine, as long as they follow it and don’t use it as an excuse for violence. That we should all just get along. Look for commonality – reasons to come together, not to be divided.

Wafa Sultan’s interview:

1. Video in IE.
2. Video in Windows Media Player.
3. Transcript.
4. Transcript from eariler interview.