Apparently, 10% of us have phobias. Whether it be fear of heights, spiders, public speaking or catching the train on time, the human imagination has the ability to create such vivid pictures and sounds that it can trigger a panic attack any time we think of the phobic subject. In the same way, the NLP fast phobia cure uses this power of the human imagination to free phobia sufferers from their self-created prisons. In the space of 30 minutes an NLP practitioner can use creative visualisation and imagination trickery to disassociate a person from the phobic experience and render it neutral. The human mind creates the phobia in a flash and destroys it in a flash. Wow.
When I think of this power of the human imagination I am both terrified and inspired. For the same imagination that can instantly create a phobia of spiders can just as quickly create a vision of putting a man on the moon. Like an out of control computer virus, the imagination endlessly generates new ‘thought code’ magnificent in its intricacy as well as worrying in its sub-conscious permanence. Handle with care you might say.
So what should we do with this most powerful of mental tools that is generously given to us all at birth? Ignore it? Lock it away? Bury it in facts and information? Dull it with drugs and intoxication?…..Or nurture it, care for it and develop it consciously in support of our higher goals? If we are to harness and channel the power of the imagination then we need to train our minds much as a racehorse trainer trains a twitchy and highly-strung two-year old thoroughbred that is brimming with talent yet still unruly and ill-disciplined. This takes hard work, routine and practice.
For many years I have used a simple, practical exercise to help me train and harness the power of my own imagination. The exercise I use is called ‘the magical creation box’ and I first came across it when reading Esther and Jerry Hick’s book ‘Ask and It is Given’. Simply put, I have an Evernote memo on my iPhone called ‘The Magical Creation Box’. In that memo I have captured all the goals I want to achieve. Whenever I am bored and my mind is drifting, I open the file and I open the magical creation box. Instead of daydreaming about all my fears and anxieties, I daydream about all the courageous goals I have captured in the memo, that I have put into the box. I play with the ideas, edit the goals, imagine their achievement and pass some time. Then I close the file, close the magical creation box, and get on with whatever comes next. In terms of the three-step process for setting courageous goals that Ian and I detail in our book (Dream! Share! Start!), this exercise is all about the first step – giving ourselves permission to dream.
Each time I open the magical creation box and play with the courageous goals that it contains, my imagination is stirred and my sub-conscious generates new ‘thought code’ associated with the goals I want to achieve. The more vividly I can imagine the goal the more it sticks deep in my psyche. The purpose is to create the opposite of a phobia; to use my imagination to inspire me rather than to terrify me. Instead of seeing a spider and running away screaming in fear, I want to see a vision and run towards it shouting with joy.
So think about it. Use your imagination. We’re always creating boxes in our minds and filling them with sights, sounds and feelings. We’re always generating new ‘thought code’ using our imaginations. The NLP fast phobia cure scares me. It should scare you too. For if phobias show us the power of the human imagination to create nightmares and if these nightmares can be fixed in 30 minutes then what does it tell you about the potential and fragility of our dreams?
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