(Continued from Part 2)

One way to cut some of this verbiage down is to use image suggestions. That is, form a picture in your mind of what you want, the way you want to look, what you want to be doing, how you want to be doing it, and so on. But you still need some verbal suggestions because images can be ambiguous, and some goals are difficult to "see." For example, what do you look like when you have quit smoking? What do you look like when you are not wanting a cigarette? No different from what you look like when you want one, unfortunately. So you will still have to formulate verbal suggestions for most achievements.

Organ language. Organ language refers to any semantic reference to any part of the human body. All languages abound in this kind of reference. Examples are expressions like "get a leg up" (gain the advantage), "up to my neck in (whatever)" (overcome by too much or too many (whatever), "butt heads with" (oppose someone), "lend an ear" (listen), and "elbow grease" (hard work).

There have been many cases reported in which organ language was ultimately determined to be the source of the problem. The subconscious mind's literal translation of body-related statements can lead to some silly sounding, but nonetheless severe, situations:

• A man who was prone to severe headaches whenever his brother-in-law was around. He had often made the statement that his brother-in-law was a pain in the neck.
• A young lady whose stomach troubles, as identified in ideomotor questioning, were related to her mother's frequent statements to her that "all you ever do is bellyache." (This case points out that organ language is not limited to oneself. Be careful about expressions you use repeatedly with your kids and with other people in general.)
• A woman's skin condition-a rash and persistent itch that resisted all pharmaceutical treatment-which was the result of an over-used cliché. She was a cleanliness freak and whenever someplace did not meet her standards she would say that it "made her itch."
• A man who, shortly after his fiancee jilted him, began to have serious chest pains. Tests found nothing wrong with him, but psychotherapy uncovered a relationship between the pains and the word "heartache." This illustrates the fact that organ language can cause problems without an expression being "said" over and over. "Heartache" is one of our prevalent cultural icons and need not necessarily be said to be a source of trouble.

The lesson from all of this is twofold: Carefully avoid any reference to body parts in the formulation of suggestion unless that is exactly what you want and mean, and check for the influence of organ language if you have mysterious problems (see Ideomotor Questioning below).

Subconscious Resistance

The subconscious part of your mind is there to protect you. It would not be doing a very good job if it changed willy-nilly all the time. It is difficult to accept when we want to lose weight or get rich and famous, but the subconscious mind actually does its job best by resisting all change.

It is this characteristic of the subconscious mind that helps keep people in the land of the living and the sane (well, some of us, anyway). It also this characteristics that drives you to distraction when you want to do something but your subconscious won't let you, like quit smoking or lose weight or any of the other things that seem to be so difficult.

Much of the talk above about making things worse with suggestion is really a reference to the resistance of the subconscious mind that can be triggered. Look at it this way. You represent a species of organism that has evolved over many thousands of years. You are the both the recipient and embodiment of innumerable genetic and cultural characteristics that have proved to be successful in the past. That is, you are here because your ancestors survived. (Just think: Going back all the way to the first humans, not one of your ancestors died before giving birth to the next level of your ancestry, down to you.) Therefore what you represent must be mostly good because you are the latest product of an immensely complicated evolutionary process. (Or near the end if you have already proved yourself capable of being an ancestor by having children.)

Now, don't get the impression that I am saying that the subconscious mind works its way through this kind of logic to arrive at its position. Frankly I don't think it could. What I am trying to present here is a rationalization for why the subconscious makes the best survival mechanism if it resists change.

(On the other hand, maybe life is absurdly simple and all living things including us are simply a gene's way of making more genes.)

So you can expect subconscious resistance to change. The best you can do is minimize the change when possible, and deal with it when it does block progress, or when it makes things worse.

Latitude of Acceptance

There is almost always a latitude of acceptance for change at the subconscious level. This is the window of possibility, the amount of change that the subconscious will find acceptable at any given time. If you confine your change efforts to these windows you will not trigger subconscious resistance.

Once the change you want is in place, the window moves up and you can start working on the next level within the window. In this manner you ratchet your way up the ladder of change one rung at a time, rather than trying to soar to the top all at once.

Think of it in terms of degrees of change. Let's say that you want to make more money and you are going to apply suggestions to that effect. Your suggestions, by the way, should be directed not just at making more money, but toward 1) raising the limits that your subconscious mind finds acceptable; and 2) the behaviors that lead to increased income. If you don't know what behaviors would lead to increased income, then you need to work on suggestions that you will learn and become aware of those behaviors. (I refer to this latter category of suggestion as Discovery Suggestions.)

Let's say further that you made $25,000 last year, just to pick a number. The fact that you made $25,000 last year and did not have a problem with it (we will assume) means that that figure is an acceptable one to your subconscious mind. Now you want to up the ante. But you definitely do not want to jump up to a figure that will trigger subconscious resistance. If you do, you probably will not even make as much as you did last year. The subconscious can be fiendishly clever about thwarting the achievement of goals that it finds threatening. You can almost be guaranteed that this will happen if you, say, double the figure and shoot for $50,000.

You have to do it by degrees. Get in a hurry and you will end up going backwards.

Click here to go to Part 4, Suggestion Formulation and Application.

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