CHAPTER 1
WILL
Let's meet our first character, Will. He represents the decision-making aspect of our conscious mind. Will is a rather good-looking character, a princely type wearing tall boots who enjoys talking about himself.
"Hi there, Evelyne and Bruce. Thanks for dropping in. I am ready to meet the characters you were talking about ... you know—the ones you said were in my mind. Are they nearby?" Will asked.
"Yes, but before we meet the other characters, Will, please tell our readers your understanding of your role in the mind," Evelyne (the author) suggested.
"I would be delighted to share. I live in the conscious mind. I know there is an unconscious side that is a mystery to me. I am in charge of making decisions. I think I always do what is right for me at the time. Occasionally, the results are not what I expect. While I am in charge of my person, sometimes my person does things that I don't understand."
"Would you like to learn why that happens?" Evelyne asked.
"I sure would."
"As you meet the other characters, they will expose the forces influencing behavior so you can make more informed decisions for your person. Would you please continue sharing your role with us?"
"Well, I try to make myself happy by choosing activities I hope to enjoy, but there are times I get lonely, even when I am with other people. I am comfortable when I sense I belong at work or with friends, but when people criticize me, I resent it and feel rejected. I think it has something to do with my pride. Sometimes I am so hurt inside I find it difficult to forgive. In some situations, I just want to hurt someone back. I also tend to compare myself to others, which can either make me happy or sad.
"I have found I am always talking to myself. I have thousands of thoughts an hour. Many of my thoughts are negative and seem to be the same as the day before. Sometimes I think I might be a bad person capable of doing horrible things ... I choose whether to put positive or negative energy into my life almost every second of the day. I am very busy!
"Oh! I have noticed I do things like my dad did. Like when my car was in a parking lot last year, someone hit the passenger side door so hard I had to get a new door. I was really miserable and mad for days, just like my dad was when something did not go his way. I eventually decided to stop being miserable and focus my thoughts on the fact that no one was injured."
"Thanks, Will, for that great summary of who you are. You certainly are very important. You mentioned how the `unconscious' was a mystery to you. Most of the characters you are about to meet are in your unconscious. The more you know about them and how they are interelated, the better your choices in life will be."
"Great. l can't wait to meet them."
Bruce, the other author, suggested, "Before we meet them, Will, there are some things we would like to talk about to help our readers better understand your role."
Will's House
The main floor of Will's house primarily represents where the good activities originate, while the basement represents his involvement in not-so-nice behaviors.
The action center is on the right side of Will's house. On the other side of the action-center wall dwell the characters of the unconscious mind. Here we can see two bins holding "action pellets." The light ones are positive while the darker ones depict negative energy.
Will chooses between these two energies almost every second of his waking life. Every choice we make takes energy. The human will spends its time inputting positive or negative energy.
"Will," Bruce asked, "can you tell us more about how you use `energy' in decision making?"
"Well, there are two kinds of energy that I send or receive—positive or negative. Positive energy can be seen in any action or thought that supports life—for example, love, peace, joy. Negative energy includes any thoughts or actions that would cause bitterness, hate, despair, shame, or destruction."
"Can you give us an example of what happens when you make a decision to act?" Evelyne asked.
We have portrayed this exchange of energy, in our model, using "action pellets," which Will places into a tube that conducts the energy from the conscious side to the unconscious side.
"I send energy into my unconscious mind, and it acts for me. Let's say I am in a grocery store and I decide to buy a bag of oranges. This decision sends energy as a command into my unconscious. My unconscious keeps a lookout for the fruit aisle, walks me there, and makes my arm lift up the oranges. As you see, I don't have to think about each step in the process. My unconscious executes the physical commands necessary to complete the order I generated through my thought.
"Let me give you another example. One day I was in a hurry, but I chose to stop and help a senior who had dropped her groceries in the parking lot. I sent energy—actually, I sent a command into the unconscious, and it transformed it into many actions, such as bending over, securing my own parcels, smiling, and checking for danger such as cars. As you can see, there were many unconscious actions that followed my one positive conscious decision.
"The same applies to negative choices. I may also choose to put negative energy into the unconscious. When I get hurt emotionally, I may hurt back. I sometimes choose to eat something I know is bad for me, or I may lie to protect myself, or cheat. Here's an example of a negative energy in action involving my expense account. One day I decided to lie on my expense report. I changed the numbers. I thought it was no big deal. But later, I realized my heart was racing whenever my boss approached me, and it kept me awake at night. I regret doing that."
"We appreciate your openness about this, Will," Evelyne said softly.
Later we will discuss what happens to the action pellets inside the unconscious.
Lack of Knowledge Is Dangerous
"Will, do you remember saying you make choices based on the extent of your knowledge, but sometimes the results are not what you expect? Would it be fair to say that with better information, you would have chosen a different action, which might have produced more favorable consequences?" Bruce asked.
"That makes sense to me, but I can't know everything ..."
"True, but there are some laws in the universe with which we need to become familiar and follow, to prevent loss of time, health, money, and even life. Let me tell you what happened to a lady named Sabrina, who almost died from lack of knowledge. On a trip to Mexico, in a small town, she purchased a beautiful, handcrafted ceramic coffee cup. She returned home and used it every day for her coffee. After a year, she began to have shakes and confusion. Fortunately, one of her close friends observed the changes in Sabrina, and suggested she might have lead poisoning. Tests later proved that Sabrina had been unknowingly poisoning herself every day with each cup of coffee she drank. The cup apparently had not been fired to a hot enough temperature to prevent the leaching of the lead into her hot coffee and into her body. She would have died or become demented had she not stopped drinking from that cup."
"That lady was fortunate to have a friend who knew about lead poisoning," Will observed. "I guess I presume to act intelligently and safely to navigate my way through life. I would not harm myself voluntarily. I think I make reasonable choices and that I am in charge of my life, but I wonder ... am I really in charge? I remember starting a personal fitness plan that I quit, but I didn't want to quit. I started a diet to lose some weight but ended up heavier. I broke a promise to a best friend, and I never thought I would do that! There must be some things I don't know ..."
"You will find out soon, as you meet the characters in your mind, why your good intentions alone are not enough to bring lasting change."
Bible References
"This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19).
"They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval. With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction" (Hosea 8:4).
CHAPTER 2
LIFE VIEWS
"Will," explained Bruce, "we would like to bring to your attention the idea that there are probably some common approaches people use to navigate their way through life. We would like to share with you three life views, which we have identified, that appear to be basic ones people use to interact with the world either positively or negatively."
(Note to reader: There are many other ways to categorize different approaches to life, but to keep it simple, we will just discuss these three. It is our experience that these categories are foundational to understanding the existence of our next six characters.)
"We all have our own belief system. Most can be described by including the categories of vision, power, and relating. Each of these views can have a positive or negative orientation."
Vision
"The way we see or predict outcomes in our life, our view of the future constitutes our vision. We can either be hopeful for positive outcomes or pessimistic that nothing good will happen to us. Let me share a real life example," Bruce offered.
"The story of two journalists in prison in a foreign country, both falsely accused, serves to illustrate the point. They had separate cells, each with a small window. One morning, the two men woke up and each looked out his prison cell window. The positive prisoner was thankful to be alive, for the blue sky, the clouds, and his family back home. The negative prisoner resented the guards for having freedom and the chance to enjoy the blue sky and clouds with their families. One journalist had a good day while the other had a miserable day, but their circumstances were identical. The difference was in their choice of vision!"
"I have a quote for you from Abraham Lincoln that I think fits," Will offered. "He said, `Folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be.'"
"Great quote, Will," Evelyne said with a smile.
Power
"Our second category in our belief system represents the need to have power," continued Evelyne. "Positive power can be seen as love, caring, sharing, kindness, and gentleness. Negative power is seen in bitterness and is expressed through hate, resentment, revenge, and jealousy.
"Love power can be seen in the older lady who was robbed and beaten by a young man in his twenties. She not only forgave him, she went to visit him in jail, almost every day. She invested her time in his life. He emerged a changed man, ready to take his place in the world as a responsible citizen. Could this have been from the power of Love?
"The power of bitterness is destructive to the hater and the hated. Bitterness leads to broken relationships, sometimes violence, and even death. We know of a family where the mother and son did not speak with each other for twenty-five years, although they lived in the same city. The grandchildren were deprived of a grandmother's love. The mother and son are now talking, but they forfeited twenty-five years of family memories."
"That is terrible! What a waste of years when they could have enjoyed their children and each other." Will sighed.
"Yes, you are absolutely right."
Relating
"The third category in our belief system," Bruce added, "we call relating. Humans have a need to connect with other humans and with God who made us. Some choose to assume a role in society: be part of a family, a team, a club, a group of friends, and so on. Others can choose to feel alone, separate, to not care for others and not believe anyone cares for them. Positive relating results in a sense of belonging. Negative relating results in being alone and the sense of not fitting in. Our orientation toward relating is significant in determining the choices and opportunities that appeal to us."
"I presume," Will said, "that when people don't believe they belong in the community, they reject the best intentions of others to help them. I have noticed some people, while in the same circumstances as others, choose to belong, while the others think isolation is the only way. Is that because of their belief system?"
"Basically yes, and we have discovered that these three ways of dealing with the world—vision, power, and relating—have voices that we can actually hear putting ideas into our head!"
Will asked, "Voices? What voices? How do these voices communicate with us?"
"These voices," Bruce replied, "are either positive or negative, and they sound the same as our own inner voice. When a loving God made us humans, He put three (more or less) positive voices in us to encourage and guide us. The three positive ways, we think, are how God wants us to relate to Him, others, and ourselves."
"So if a Creator made the three positive voices—hope, love, and belonging—out of love, who made the three negative or destructive ones?" Will asked.
"Let's look at the human creation that God first made. The three positive characters were constantly sending positive thoughts to our will in such ways as, `You can do this; go for it; love one another; you are amazing; and God loves you deeply.' We knew we belonged. We had love for others, for nature, for ourselves, and for our Creator. We were in charge of the earth. We were responsible and confident. We had dominion over nature. We felt that we were loved and wanted. From those three voices we knew we were part of God's universe, God's kingdom. The source of our thoughts, in the very beginning of our creation, was God. Then betrayal happened in the Garden of Eden."
"Isn't the story of the Garden of Eden just a myth?" Will asked.
"Let's consider that ..."
Bible References
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer" (Romans 12:12).
"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love" (1 Corinthians 13:13).
"Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers" (Galatians 6:10).
"Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit" (Malachi 2:15).
CHAPTER 3
THE GARDEN OF EDEN—MYTH OR TRUTH?
"A lot of people wonder about whether the Garden of Eden is in fact real. May we comment in some detail?" asked Bruce.
"Sure, please," Will said.
"Modern Western society has promoted the position that man has created the idea of God and Satan. They say God is presented as a crutch for the weak and a spoiler of fun. Satan is described as an imaginary creature with a tail who is carrying a pitchfork, and Hell is a place we go to if we don't behave.
"It is time to shed some truth on this distortion of reality. Is there a God and why did He create humans?
"If you found a cell phone in your backyard, you probably would assume someone had dropped it. You would also presume some great intelligence created it ... and that it was manufactured ... that it was not there spontaneously because the elements in your backyard just decided over millions of years to become a phone. Would you agree it is logical to conclude that the phone has a purpose and was created by very intelligent beings?"
Will nodded.
"If a phone can have a purpose, then does it follow that an even more complex being—a human—would also have a purpose and would have been created by a very intelligent being? Will, you have a very important choice to make. Either you believe the world was one big evolutionary accident, or you believe God created you for a purpose."
Will asked, "Is it okay if I keep listening to all you have to tell me before deciding whether to believe everything you present?" "Of course. It is wise for you to keep your mind open as you meet all of its different characters, and then decide. There is lots of evidence to show an intelligent God created the universe and humans, such as the complex human body and mind, photosynthesis, design of the elements in the periodic table, and so on. Let us look at how it happened.
