Our Ghostly Halloween Post

The late plastic surgeon and author Maxwell Maltz who wrote the book Psycho Cybernetics said that the most important psychological discovery of the last century was the discovery of the self image. His views of success were very controversial at the time. He was a man who believed that we came into this world to succeed and not to fail. And he was derided by some who were surrounded by the masses which lacked the success they had desired to attain. But he discovered that the outer circumstances of those who were not meeting their goals could be changed by following one simple step: quit focusing on the current circumstances and past programming, and start focusing on the circumstances we desire to have.

In his book he talks about a lady who had come to him for plastic surgery. She was born with what she considered to be a very unattractive hook nose. And she wanted him to perform rhinoplasty to give her an attractive nose so she would feel better about herself. The surgery went better than expected, and the result was a beautiful nose. The swelling subsided, and the bandages were removed. When he held the mirror up to her face so that she could see the new nose, her response surprised him. He asked: “How do you like your new beautiful self”? And she replied coldly: “You know, I don’t see much improvement. I still feel ugly.”

She had conditioned herself over a thirty year period to believe that she was ugly. And even though her appearance was dramatically improved, her self image setting was still programmed at the lowest level because of the years of unhealthy, negative self talk.

Dr. Denis Waitley noticed an interesting phenomenon in returning veterans who had lost limbs in the Viet Nam war. He spent time at Walter Reid Hospital visiting with amputees and helping with their rehabilitation. “In reality, at the judgment level of thinking, their limbs were gone” says Waitley. “But for several months, and sometimes years afterwards, the patients would experience an itching or tingling, and even pain in the empty space where the arms, hands, or feet had been. During the night, some would try to get up out of bed and walk. Only after they had fallen would they realize that they had no legs”. These individuals had programmed themselves for many years to use their limbs. And now that the limbs were gone, the automatic response was to follow what they believed about themselves to be true. That phenomenon is called the “phantom limb” by many who have studied it.

We’ve all been programmed in one fashion or another! Maybe we weren’t conditioned to believe that we were ugly. But we might have been programmed to accept mediocrity, failure, or poverty. Possibly we feel the presence of the “Phantom parent” who told us we would never amount to anything, or hear the devastating taunts of classmates making us feel inferior. Maybe the trauma of abuse early in life has us reaching to please a “phantom abuser” who is no longer there. Or possibly the ghosts of failed businesses in the past still hover around, haunting us out of the success we so richly deserve.

Here is a quick test to see if you are being bewitched by ghoulish lies and devilish deceits of false programming from the past. Please take an honest and fearless inventory of what you truly believe about yourself.

1. Do you believe that you came into this world to succeed and not to fail?

2. Do you believe you deserve a better life than you have now?

3. Are you a good person?

4. Are you loved?

5. Are you capable of achieving much more than you are achieving right now?

6. Do you have a destiny that is waiting for your fulfillment?

7. Are you willing to strive, fight, show courage, be persistent, and do whatever it takes to fulfill that destiny?

8. Are you willing to start TODAY?

If you answered “NO” to any of the above questions, you might be just like the lady looking in the mirror. Everyone around her saw a beautiful face. She still felt ugly.

Here is what we see when we look in your mirror. We see someone who is capable of achieving their wildest dreams. We see a person who has reservoirs of untapped potential. We see someone who is strong enough to confront the past, and courageous enough overcome any challenges in the future. We see a champion! And that champion is YOU!

Be all that you were created to be!