My friend texted me, “What you up to tonight?”
“Talking to myself pretending to be sane,” I joked.
As I did, I said to myself, “That sounds about right…”
I had just finished making a hypnotic recording, one of thousands I have made for me to listen to each day.
Someone said, it’s not crazy to talk to yourself, it’s only crazy when you respond back.
Yep, by that standard I passed crazy a long time ago.
It’s a professional hazard. You can’t observe and model human behavior, let alone change yourself and other people unless you are willing to get out of “normal” thinking.
I must be able to look at myself (take an observer position) and interact with that version of me like you would imagine rearranging the furniture in your living room.
I must be able to see Geoff Blades as an object and to interact with the doer as though it is not me.
I must be able to observe the thoughts in the head and feelings in the body independent of me, and ignore (apply equanimity) or change them at will.
I know some of these notions might sound crazy, but at least I’m in good company.
Every enlightened thinker that has ever walked the planet has lived this way—crack open the Dalai Lama’s The Art of Happiness and you’ll see it on every page.
Besides, I just do professionally what we all do anyways.
We all talk to ourselves in our heads. We all create mental pictures. We all have these internal dialogues going on all of the time.
And the real question is, how are they serving you?
Does your thinking make your life better?
Are the ways that you see yourself helping you be all you can be? Helping you live the life you truly want?
Is your self-talk making you more or less happy?
More or less empowered?
Does it get you thinking you can take on the world, or does it get you shrinking from your boss, spouse, or own shadow?
When you walk, talk, carry out a conversation, how do you see yourself? How do you imagine seeing yourself through the eyes of another? How do you want to be seen?
These thoughts we all have either serve to make us weaker or stronger, and when you become skilled at mind control you get to choose.
Call me crazy but I think it’s crazy to live any other way.