By Frederick Mann, 10/24/2000
What is your most valuable asset? Could it be the gray matter in your head, your brain with all its abilities and all the knowledge in it? What, more than anything else, determines your success, your health, your wealth, your happiness?
What if the levels of your success, health, wealth, and happiness depended primarily on the quality of the decisions you make? And your decisions depend on the quality of your brain and its knowledge? Isn't it obvious that if you improved the quality of your brain and its knowledge, you would make better decisions, and hence enjoy higher levels of success, your health, your wealth, your happiness?
What would happen if you continuously "upgraded" your brain similarly to the way Microsoft upgrades its software programs? Possibly even more important to consider, what would happen to Microsoft if the fired all their programmers, stopped issuing program upgrades, and stopped developing new programs? They would probably be out of business within a year!
What will happen as long as Microsoft can continue to upgrade its metaphorical "company brain" together with its personnel's brains and their products and services, so they remain a step or two ahead of the competition?
Just as Microsoft lives in a changing world where the competition is continuously upgrading, we as individuals also live in a changing world in which we can get left behind, or even degenerate disastrously, if we don't continuously upgrade our brains and lives.
"Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." -- Albert Einstein
"Who will argue that 98.6 Fahrenheit is the right temperature for man? ... It may be that we are actually freezing: hence the pervading stupidity of mankind. At 110 or 115 degrees even archbishops might be intelligent." -- H.L. Mencken
How often do you get emails similar to the following?
From: (withheld)
Subject: (no subject)
To: fm1@amug.org
Hello:
I am not proud to say that I have misplaced both my passwords that I was given, can you help????????
Thanks Tom
Passwords for what?
I ended up having to send $10 cash to you. Only sent it on the 20th. I spent most of the time trying to access e-gold. I now have two accounts there, one of them recently funded, for which my accounts and passwords absolutely do not work. I bought $100 worth of gold from one of the companies to fund the newer account with. They did so. But I cannot access the account and e-gold will not answer my email nor return the messages I leave on the phone, on which they leave no option but to leave your message. Inaccessibility has in the past spelled crookedness to me. I won't trust e-gold any longer. But the $10 is on the way if it hasn't already arrived. By the way, look at the return address on the envelope to know that you got my money. I forgot to put an identifier in the envelope.
The e-gold system works very well. Including the above, I've never heard of a case of a password not working. (You can open a free e-gold account at this page -- highly recommended.) Given the number of people who need to upgrade their brains so they can sign up for things, log into accounts, etc., a company like e-gold probably gets dozens of messages similar to the above every day. I suspect that from their point of view it's not cost-effective to respond to them. ("I forgot to put an identifier in the envelope" may be an important indicator!)
In my opinion, the e-gold system represents a huge upgrade, especially when compared to using government fiat currencies. Using e-gold is also less expensive and more efficient than using government-fiat-currency credit cards. E-gold is ideal for online transactions. That's why the use of e-gold is growing so rapidly.
Date: Tue, 2 Nov 1999 11:51:28 -0800
Mailing-List: list seattlesun@onelist.com; contact seattlesun-owner@onelist.com
List-Unsubscribe: mailto:seattlesun-unsubscribe@ONElist.com
From: (withheld)
I don't want to be a member of the seattlesun because you never send me stuff OK!
I want to unsubscribe.
The unsubscribe instruction is in the header.
Now, you may think the above emails are not particularly significant. Not so. In most cases, they reveal an underlying pattern of taking actions that are unlikely to work or produce desired results. The chances are high that in other areas of their lives the authors also don't take care to design their actions so they're likely to work. Such emails are a strong indication of a need for brain upgrade!
A member of one of my forums recently wrote:
I have been trying to promote stuff on the Internet without any success (about 3 months). I understand the numbers 'game' you describe, however, everything I have tried has only packed my emailbox with ads without ANY hits on my websites. I know that my ads wouldn't win any Pulitzer prizes but I've tried to use all the correct buzz words, etc. and I don't think that they are all that bad either. I realize that I haven't cracked the code yet, but my performance so far has really dampened my enthusiasm.
A brain upgrade, at least in the area of Internet marketing, will enable this person to become a successful marketer. See Failure Scripts and Where The Rocks Are.
"The superior man is distressed by his want of ability." -- Confucious
"I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor." -- Henry David Thoreau
"Our fundamental idea shall be that man as we know him is not a completed being; that nature develops him only up to a certain point and then leaves him, to develop further, by his own efforts and devices, or to live and die such as he was born, or to degenerate and lose capacity for development." -- P.D. Ouspensky
I have an old Macintosh Quadra with Netscape Navigator 2.02. I can still access websites with it, but it doesn't work very well. I also have a Compaq Presario with Netscape Navigator 4.7 and Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.50. Periodically, I upgrade my computer and software such as browsers and email programs. Most of the time, the upgrades include improvements that make the programs work better.
Dr. Michael Hewitt-Gleeson coined the term "necktop computer." He has also provided some pretty good software to upgrade your brain so it will work better. One of his books is called Software for your brain. It's available online at Thinkers.com and it's FREE. Among its many treasures, it includes two very powerful "upgrade formulas":
Dr. Hewitt-Gleeson also provides a FREE Brain Freebie! course.
In my opinion, by utilizing Dr. Hewitt-Gleeson's brain software formulas, you can lay a foundation (or create a context) that will make it possible for you to upgrade not only your brain, but also your body, your health, your wealth, and your happiness.
"All human beings, all persons who reach adulthood in the world today are programmed biocomputers. None of us can escape our own nature as programmable entities. Literally, each of us may be our programs, nothing more, nothing less." -- John C. Lilly
"Submission to genetic programming can become quite dangerous, because it leaves us helpless. A person who cannot override genetic instructions when necessary is always vulnerable. Instead of deciding how to act in terms of personal goals, he has to surrender to the things that his body has been programmed (or misprogrammed) to do. One must particularly achieve control over instinctual drives to achieve a healthy independence of society, for as long as we respond predictably to what feels good and what feels bad, it is easy for others to exploit our preferences for their own ends." -- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience
"In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended. In the mind, there are no limits." -- John C. Lilly, Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer.
Here's a report from someone who used the CVS/BVS formulas (among other things) to upgrade his brain and life:
I discovered your websites two years ago. At that point I was almost $20,000 in debt (my girlfriend was minus $50,000). I was convinced I had been effectively converted to slave status... Within two months I stopped all collection action on my girlfriend's debt. Within a year my own debt was completely eliminated and no longer did I view myself as a slave. As I approach the two-year anniversary [of my discovery of your websites], I can report that I now have $50,000 working for me, primarily offshore. My debt is zero! ...I'm not going to pretend that I owe it all to Frederick Mann or his websites, but at the same time... I can only encourage everyone to study diligently BuildFreedom, BigBooster, and their recommended readings. -- SC (9/28/2000)
Following are some emails from someone who, as far as I know, has not done nearly enough to upgrade her brain and life:
I lost all but $444 of my $4,000 investment. I've been taking a beating from my husband's family with the trust case for 2 years, then the interim trustee both lawyers hired recommended to the court that we pay their $66,000 in legal bills that they spent "trying to preserve the trust." We are appealing. More legal bills. $24,000 so far I owe 2 lawyers. Now I had hoped that SG [Stockgeneration] would help me pay the $5,000 I borrowed from my credit card to get my home out of foreclosure, and now that is gone. I wish I had the guts to just slit my throat, and the only thing that's stopping me is that I can't leave this whole mess for my daughter to straighten out. I wish I never got on to the email and the Internet. I'll never make this up. G... [her SG sponsor] and other Libertarians were making money, why should I think I wasn't going to. What a horrible place this planet is. I wish I was dead.
I am still trying to come to grips over the theft of my $4,000 by SG. I have spent my entire life working hard to maintain my independence, and all through that time I had to fight to protect what I had earned. My own father exploited my labor after my mother died. I was a slave for 5 years until I "escaped" into my first marriage. That was 12 years of physical and mental horror. I attempted suicide 3 times. But I again "escaped" into a second marriage to an alcoholic. That was 5 years of more brutal treatment. In the beginning things weren't too bad with D..., although he was causing me many business problems then. But then we lost our real-estate business, and the bankruptcy lawyers wiped out anything that might have been left. We lost our home in O... D... lost his license. My book about t... was plagiarized by a big distributor, which has all but destroyed my sales. It was my best-selling book. The trust battle is the most brutal thing that has ever happened to me. I sought to get myself out of the legal expenses by borrowing money from my children and scraping up every last dime I had. And now, its all gone. Nothing to fall back on. It is the straw that has finally broke me. Even my daughter is fed-up with me about giving SG $4,000. She hasn't spoken to me for over a week. Now I have no moral support at all. The only reason why I am still here is that I have to get my house in order so as not to dump this mess on my daughter. I didn't know how to do it right the first 3 times -- did you know a bottle of 100 aspirin doesn't kill you? -- Or that the slashed wrist thing doesn't work if you are caught? -- Or that if you stab yourself, you're not supposed to hit a bone? This time I'll get it right. Why stay on this horrible planet? Every time something horrible has happened, I used to say this is the last time, things are going to get better, but now I'm convinced it won't stop.
When this person originally tried to send money to SG, she sent it to the wrong company! Fortunately they sent it back. She most likely has a pattern of taking actions that are unlikely to work or produce desired results. I invited her to participate in a Prosperity Case Study, but she declined. I wrote to her: "If you're not going to spend the time to handle the psychological factors involved, acquire the necessary money skills, get to understand the programs you get involved with, etc., then you should look elsewhere to make money... It seems very likely to me that you've programmed yourself to fail with one or more self-destructive "scripts" (one might even be the classical "please kick me!" described by Claude Steiner). I empathize with your situation and I wish you strength." Last I heard, she was still battling on.
1. Ignore, ridicule or attack (without having open-mindedly yet critically examined) any new information (new to you) that may be used for self-improvement. (See How to Improve Your Information.)
2. As a child, draw conclusions and make decisions about how you can't do things right. (See Failure Scripts and Where The Rocks Are.)
3. As a child, in response to "injunctions" ("You can't do that!"; "Don't be crazy!"; "You'll never make it as a...!"; etc.), make defiant and despairing decisions. (See Failure Scripts and Where The Rocks Are.)
4. Attend a "compulsory government school" -- concentration campus for mind destruction. (See Wake Up America! - John Taylor Gatto.)
"Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education." -- Bertrand Russell
5. Accept the culture of your family, religion, society, and/or nation. (See Obedience to Authority by Stanley Milgram and The Unreality Imperative.)
6. Remain emotionally immature. (See How to Achieve Emotional Control.)
7. Get stuck in some cult, religion, ideology, or philosophy and regard it as the "only truth." (See Snapping: America's Epidemic of Sudden Personality Change by Flo Conway & Jim Siegelman and The Guru Papers: Masks of Authoritarian Power by Joel Kramer & Diana Alstad with Diana Alstead.)
8. Decide that because you're more intelligent and successful than your family, friends, coworkers, and contacts (or you have a PhD, MD, etc. and/or are a Mensa member), therefore there's no need for you to upgrade your brain. (See Doctors Are The Third Leading Cause of Death in the US, Causing 250,000 Deaths Every Year.)
9. Remain stuck in bicameral stage 2. (See The Bicameral Model of the Mind.)
10. Don't give yourself permission to succeed. (See Money Skill #9, Scripts: The Role of Permission by James R Allen, M.D. & Barbara Ann Allen, MSW, MPH, and 1998 Addendum by James R Allen, M.D. & Barbara Ann Allen, MSW, MPH.
11. Don't develop self-esteem. (See Nathaniel Branden and The Self-Esteem Institute.)
12. Remain stuck in a lifestyle such that much of the wealth you create is being extracted from you in the form of taxes, interest paid to financial institutions, gradual currency devaluation. (See Strategic Wealth Institute, Wealth Study, and Basic Money Skills.) You may be stuck in a corporate job which primarily makes the boss and/or shareholders rich, while you get little more than enough to "get by." One of the effects may be that you think you don't have enough time to upgrade your brain and life.
13. Remain stuck in a physically unhealthy lifestyle of inadequate diet and insufficient exercise. (See Health Freedom & Life Extension.)
14. Allow yourself to simply plateau or stagnate; don't make any conscious efforts to improve yourself, your body or your life in any way. ("Our fundamental idea shall be that man as we know him is not a completed being; that nature develops him only up to a certain point and then leaves him, to develop further, by his own efforts and devices, or to live and die such as he was born, or to degenerate and lose capacity for development." -- P.D. Ouspensky)
Maybe it never occurs to many people that they have software in their brains that can be improved. This may be particularly so for people who accept any particular cult, culture, religion, philosophy, or ideology as the "gospel truth" or "final answer." Many people believe that the world would be greatly improved if they could just persuade enough people to convert to their cult, culture, religion, philosophy, or ideology. In some cases, such beliefs are, in my opinion, valid. By upgrading their brains, such "persuaders" may be able to become ten times more effective in their "persuasion efforts."
To upgrade my personal computer I can buy a new one for $1,000 and have it working within a few hours. A browser can typically be updated in 30-60 minutes with only a few keystrokes and clicks. Upgrading your brain is much more difficult and takes a lot longer. A computer isn't attached (or addicted) to its software. You just click the "delete" button and for practical purposes the unwanted software is gone forever, never to return. Not so with the human brain. In general, most people can't just read a "self-help" book and radically change their thinking and behavior. For some people it may take years to upgrade some aspects of their software. In a world where many expect instant gratification, it's an obstacle for many to have to spend many years on upgrading their brains.
Some people believe that it's best to keep a lid on whatever "dark stuff" there might be in the hidden recesses of their brains. If they start digging to locate "bad programming" in order to remove it, they might go crazy. Introspection and self-analysis are dangerous! Better to not think about the "hidden horrors" that might lurk within!
In Scripts: The Role of Permission, James R Allen, M.D. & Barbara Ann Allen, MSW, MPH indicate that some people are subject to expectations like:
"Psychological reversal" -- see Millionaire Report #6 and Millionaire Report #7 -- may prevent some from upgrading their brains.
I suspect that for many people, after having learned to apply Dr. Hewitt-Gleeson's "software for the brain" formulas, the next appropriate step is to study The Path of Least Resistance: Learning to Become the Creative Force in Your Own Life by Robert Fritz. See also The Power of the Path of Least Resistance.
A few months ago, a correspondent wrote to me:
After four days of reading the materials online and starting the book, The Path of Least Resistance, I have been offered better paying jobs in 2 different states. The only thing my wife and I are wrestling with is which one to take. We are considering all of the pros and cons and basing our decision on that. If you have any comments or suggestions on what would be the best way to make our decision, please feel free to offer them all.
My wife and I, both, have read the information that you provided in How to Find Out Who You Are. It has been a great beginning of a new way of thinking and living for my entire family... Thank you again for taking a moment out of your time to assist me on this extremely exciting journey. It has been quite a while since I have been this excited and happy about all of my life... Thank you again Frederick for so much in such a short period of time.
There are probably some people who won't be able to benefit from Dr. Hewitt-Gleeson's "software for the brain" formulas nor from Robert Fritz's "path of least resistance," because they're in the grip of pervasively powerful negative scripts. The woman mentioned above who married abusive husbands to "escape" from an abusive father may be such a case. Such people may benefit from studying Scripts People Live: Transactional Analysis of Life Scripts by Claude M. Steiner. By far the most powerful, effective, and quickest way I know of to eliminate the problems caused by childhood scripts is called Idenics. If there are any "unwanted conditions" (chronic problems or things you don't like about yourself) in your life, I recommend that you contact Idenics. Please tell them Frederick Mann referred you.
Al Siebert's ThriveNet website and book The Survivor Personality may be useful tools for some to upgrade their brains and lives. ("Who survives? Who thrives? As a psychologist who has spent more than forty years studying the phenomenon of survival, Al Siebert has gained valuable insight into the qualities and habits that help human beings overcome difficult situations -- from everyday conflicts to major life stresses. In this book, he delineates the "survivor personality" -- including such recent examples as Scott O'Grady, the fighter pilot shot down over Bosnia -- and shows how survival skills can be learned, leading to better coping, increased success in work and relationships, and a vastly brighter outlook on the future.")
The sections above -- How to Downgrade Your Necktop Computer and/or Keep it Downgraded and Obstacles to Upgrading Your Necktop Computer -- may indicate areas some people need to tackle in order to upgrade their brains and lives.
You're also invited to join the Upgrade Your Life List.
I read somewhere that in a typical year about 50 American millionaires commit suicide! They probably didn't know how to upgrade their brains so they could be happy!
If your brain is your most important asset, then it seems obvious that it's worth enhancing. Suppose you spend 40 hours a week working for money. Suppose you spend another 5 hours a week handling money matters such as paying bills, balancing your checkbook, discussing (or arguing!) with your spouse about money, investing, etc. How much time do you spend on maintaining and upgrading your brain? How much time should you invest in upgrading your brain?
What kind of return can you expect from your time investment? By upgrading your brain, could you earn double the money you earn in half the time? Could you become healthier and happier? Above I quoted the example of "SC" who upgraded his brain by (among other things) applying the "Hewitt-Gleeson formulas." In two years he went from being $20,000 in debt to having $50,000 working for him. In my own personal case, as a result of improving my thinking skills, I could process the information necessary to improve my health, and upgraded from being at great risk from heart disease (and other health problems) to being superhealthy.
Suppose you're devoting considerable time to some worthwhile cause -- e.g., eliminating hunger, poverty, or war; creating a libertarian world; reforming the world's debt-money systems; spreading Extropian principles; etc. -- might it be possible to become much more effective if you were to continuously upgrade your own brain?
Bernard Shaw indicated that by the time we become wise enough to improve the world, we're usually too old, senile, and decrepit to do anything effective! What if, by starting with upgrading our brains, we could also upgrade our bodies, and extend our lives in terms of both quantity and quality? Maybe we can even "crack the mortality barrier" so our time available to improve the world becomes unlimited!
Looking at it from another angle, to what extent have you upgraded your brain during the past 5 years? Would you try to access the Internet with a 5-year-old computer using a 5-year-old browser?
It may be very worthwhile (and potentially very profitable!) to spend 5 hours or more a week on upgrading your brain and life!
If there were enough individuals in the world with sufficiently upgraded brains, would that increase the probability that "world problems" will be resolved more quickly? Could it be that some people tend to resort to violence in their efforts to solve certain problems because their brains are insufficiently upgraded for them to use more effective means? If any problem can be solved, upgraded brains would have the best chance of solving it.
Whatever benefits you're now providing, you can upgrade your brain and improve and increase the benefits you provide. One of the greatest benefits you can provide to people is whatever results in them upgrading their brains.
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