Chapter Three - My Story

How is it possible that a highly educated mental health professional would give up a well-established practice

and start a new practice based on something he learned from a ninth-grade educated man who had no training in

psychology? How is it possible that mental health professionals could walk away from a new approach to ther-

apy that they saw would benefit their own well-being and that produced therapy outcomes way beyond what

they would be producing in their old therapy?

The following chapter will explain how these anomalies came about.

Call me a dreamer, but I've had a vision that I could help people live happily ever after. That was the vision that

had inspired me to go into psychology. I like people. I like helping people. And people thought I was very

good to talk to. I figured if I got a graduate degree in psychology, I would really be able to do some good. I

had the idea that I could learn how to help people to live happily ever after.

After my graduate education in psychology, that vision was at best blurred. My education had led me to believe

that people's hang ups and pathologies were way more complex, formidable and deeply rooted than I ever imag-

ined. My schooling had taught me that there were formidable factors at play that conspired against peoples

ability to live happily ever after. You had genetics, childhood conditioning, the effects of childhood traumas,

life stressors and this seemingly endless list of problems and conditions that prevented peace of mind and well-

being.

Undaunted, I went into private practice with a psychologist named John Enright. I was very fortunate to be able

to be connected with someone as prominent as John. He trained directly with some of the best-known psychol-

ogists of his time -- Fritz Perls, Eric Berne and Claudio Naranjo. I met John in graduate school and was very

impressed with his knowledge. Later on I became his intern then his employee, and finally his partner.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

John had identified the three active agents in most if not all therapies: healing the past, dealing with negative

emotions and problem solving. He had cleverly devised techniques that allowed people to approach these three

things much more efficiently. What I didn't realize at the time was that if youre going in the wrong direction

shortcuts don't help!

Meeting John and learning his approach temporarily brought back some of my dreams of how I could help peo-

ple. Granted, my expectations were scaled down from my grad school experience but I still thought, now armed

with John's techniques, that I could help people.

Over time this hopefulness turned to discouragement. Clients would come in depressed about their job, leave

the seminar happy about their jobs and then come to the next seminar depressed about their home life. Even

then it was only a matter of time before they were depressed about their job again. It was clear that we were

"giving people fish and not teaching them how to fish."

Our courses in our therapy were like a single revolving door with people coming in with one problem, leaving

and returning with another one. I often thought to myself, "There must be a more leveraged, more permanent

way to help people." But if there was it eluded me and everyone I knew in the field. I shared my discourage-

ment with my colleagues but they were already resigned to the fact that people can't really change their ways.

They would tell me, "What do you expect? These people have had these habits conditioned into them for years.

How do you expect them to change?"

The more I looked into the effectiveness of therapy the more discouraged I got. Ultimately, almost every men-

tal illness was seen as incurable. Yes, you can help people to cope with their illness through medication and

therapy. They would feel better perhaps but they wouldn't live happily ever after. It was hard for me to feel

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

hopeful and good about my professional life given what I was learning. The entire field of therapy seemed

comfortable with a very low vision for how much they could help people.

So I wasn't a happy camper. My interest in my work waned. I started thinking about other occupations. Worst

of all, I started feeling badly about my clients. I saw them as stubborn and resistant to treatment.

Luckily for me a startling chain of events began in the fall of 1976. John Enright, my partner in my psychology

practice, called me and told me that he had met a man from outside the field of psychology who was apparently

having an uncommon therapeutic effect on people to whom he talked. His name was Sydney Banks. John had

attended a lecture given by Sydney Banks and he was astonished at the level of mental well-being in the audi-

ence that attended that lecture. John was a pretty clever fellow. He figured that if the people at this lecture had

such a high level of well-being, there must be some power in what the lecturer was saying. John wanted to me

to meet him in Salt Spring Island, Canada so that we could attend one of these lectures together.

It turned out that my wife Linda and I were already planning to go on vacation that week and John's plan sound-

ed like a good alternate vacation. My wife was all over the idea when she heard that it had to do with well-be-

ing. She and I were both unhappy in our own right and even more unhappy together. I was a type A stress case

living in constant anxiety, and my wife lived on an emotional roller coaster of mood swings. Our relationship

would have had to improve considerably to be considered very bad!

We went to Syd's lecture and we too were impressed with the level of mental health of the people in the audi-

ence. The people were so easy-going and yet they had an obvious vitality. They were from all walks of life and

yet they all appeared to love their jobs. The couples seemed very close. People seemed exceptionally enthusi-

astic about what they were learning. They told us remarkable stories about how their lives had changed along

with the lives of their friends.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

Syd's lecture was very puzzling to Linda and me. On the one hand, we were very much affected by his talk; it

really resonated with both of us. On the other hand, we didn't really understand what he was talking about.

How could we be so affected if we could not intellectually grasp what Syd was saying? It was bothersome to

me that I was so deeply affected by something I didn't even understand. It seemed during the lecture that every-

thing he said resonated as true; yet, for the life of me, I couldn't summarize his talk.

I did, however, understand enough of what he was saying to see that it flew in the face of what we were doing

in our therapy. He talked as if people's past, their personalities and their problems were irrelevant to the therapy

process. I asked myself, "If those aren't relevant then what is?" The only answer I got from Syd was something

about principles that one could learn that would help one to find mental well-being.

The most upsetting thing about Mr. Sydney Banks was his credentials. He didn't have any! He had a ninth-

grade education, and literally had done no reading in psychology or even in Eastern religion. He had not been

trained or educated by anyone in the field of psychology. That being the case, how did he know so much that I,

a well trained and experienced therapist, was impressed by what he said? How was he able to help all these oth-

er people more than I could help my clients without any education in psychology or training whatsoever? It

was very upsetting to me that I couldn't understand what he was saying and yet he was talking about the work-

ings of the human mind -- my area of expertise.

Furthermore, it felt to me that he was so presumptuous as to talk to educated professionals like myself with his

credentials such as they were.

Imagine a group of travelers freezing cold searching for a warmer climate. They were getting colder as they

walked but they continued in the same direction because they were originally misinformed that traveling

north would take them to a warmer climate. Along the way they meet a man who appears to have a keen un-

derstanding of geography. He tells them that to find a warmer climate they must turn around 180 and ahead

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

 due South. Imagine that one or two of the travelers turn around and head south while the vast majority button

up their coats and continue their northerly direction even as they continue to get colder.

To me, the story of these travelers is a perfect allegory for the reaction of mental health professionals who met

Sydney Banks. Although I was one of the first mental health professionals to listen to Syd, I was by no means

the only one. There were many mental health professionals -- therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, mental

health counselors -- that ended up in his audience. They ended up in Syd's audience through many different

routes. I and other professionals who had heard Syd suggested his lectures to our colleagues. They could tell

that we were deeply affected by our contact with Syd and that was intriguing to them. Other professionals saw

their clients change before their eyes as a result of attending a Syd Banks lecture. Still others just happened to

show up at one of his lectures.

All of the mental health professionals that had been listening to Sydney Banks had some reactions in common.

To a person they were upset by his lecture. Some found it merely unsettling while others were so upset that

they stormed out of the lecture hall. Most every professional said they had difficulty understanding what Syd

was saying. That fact was puzzling to them and also upsetting.

They were all impressed with the results they heard about and saw in the people in the audience. They all knew

how hard it was to cure chronic depression. Yet they met people who were previously on medication for chronic

depression who were now leading happy lives without medication. They heard stories of people who had got-

ten out from under their anxiety disorders. There were even stories of severely mentally ill individuals, people

with schizophrenia and personality disorders, who were no longer symptomatic.

It was both intriguing and puzzling to them that such profound changes could happen in a relatively short time,

through listening to someone talk. Most importantly, none of the professionals questioned the fact of these re-

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

sults. They questioned how it was possible that such results could occur from what they considered a very lim-

ited input.

Here is the most intriguing thing to me: none of the professionals that listened to Syd questioned that he had the

experience he spoke of and that he knew what he knew. Syd said that he had an extraordinary epiphany that

enabled him to discover the principles behind our psychological lives. He said that a knowledge of these princi-

ples was the secret to psychological well-being and mental health. No one questioned that he had this epiphany.

No one questioned that what he talked about resonated as true. No one questioned that the people that had been

cured by their contact with him were cured by his message.

How the contact with Syd Banks played out

for the mental health professionals

For every health professional that listened to Syd and went in this new direction, 20 or perhaps 30 just went

back to their old life and therapy practice. I find this puzzling given that they all felt an impact from listening to

these principles and given that they all saw cures that were of a whole different level of magnitude then were

present in their own practices. I would have thought that every professional that saw the possibilities implicit in

this new direction would have dropped what they were doing and pursued this direction.

Furthermore, I fully expected that this new psychology would spread throughout the world in a years time and

become mainstream psychology. I expected my peers to see that this new psychology would provide help way

beyond what was possible by the old psychology.

In additions, this now approach was very therapist friendly. It simply did not contain the accustomed stress fac-

tor present in the old therapies. When I was waiting in the lounge with my peers to take my oral exam, they

were all talking about what they would do in five years after they were burnt out from counseling people. They

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

all accepted the fact that five years is a long time to be a counselor given the stresses of the job. It is no wonder

that mental health professionals have among the highest suicide, substance abuse and divorce rates within the

population.

Given the stress factor acknowledged in the mental health profession, I thought my peers would flock to this

new approach if only to avoid this stress. Moving in this direction would guarantee continuously improving

mental health as a therapist to gain more understanding of these principles.

Why they had a difficult time with this new direction

There were many reasons why mental health professionals turned their backs on the direction that Syd suggest-

ed and went back to their old practices, business as usual. Some professionals found it difficult to listen or learn

from a man with inferior credentials. They felt insulted that a man with little education, even less degrees and

no professional training felt qualified to teach them about their area of expertise -- mental health.

Many of the professionals that accepted Syd's "credentials" had a big problem with the direction he pointed

them towards. The principles pointed people 180 from the direction of the old psychologies. It's obvious in

listening him that he had absolutely no interest in peoples specific problems, their personalities, their pasts or

even their illnesses. Yet, without any knowledge of these particulars, he thought he was in a position to help

them. For their part, the therapists had all their expertise tied up in the knowledge of those matters.

Their stomachs got tight when they contemplated how different this approach was from the one they currently

practiced. It didnt take a mental giant to realize that this new direction would render their education, their

training and their experience obsolete. This prospect of starting all over sent most mental health professionals

walking or even running back to their old practices.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

Some mental-health professionals heard enough that they were intrigued and tempted to give this direction a

shot. They went back to their old practice to "try out" these new principles. What they didn't realize was that

one cannot successfully combine the old with the new. They would continue to take clients back into the past

and back into their negative feelings and also attempt to teach them the principles of Mind, Consciousness, and

Thought.

Here is the rub! When the therapist took them back into the past and into their negative feelings and problems,

the therapist unwittingly lowered their level of mental health. From this lower-level the clients simply weren't

as open and receptive to new ideas. The clients werent set up to have a sharp learning curve and the new psy-

chology is all about learning.

Even more problematic was the fact that the therapists who mixed the old with the new were innocently contra-

dicting their own message. On the one hand they were attempting to teach clients that well-being lies in seeing

the impersonal principles behind life. On the other hand the therapists were focusing on the clients personal

experience of life. It was as if the therapist was telling clients to look beyond their own personal experience of

life to see the deeper principles while encouraging the clients to focus on their personal experience. Of course

the clients would end up confused without receiving the benefits of either therapy.

The therapists, noting a drop in their effectiveness, erroneously concluded that the new psychology simply

didn't work. They then discarded it and went 100% back into their old practice. In retrospect, we now know for

certain that you cannot mix the old psychologies with the new psychologies and expect to get positive out-

comes. The old psychology practices contaminate the well-being of clients just as dirty instruments contami-

nated the wounds of 19th-century surgery clients.

Some psychologists saw the validity in the new psychology but went back their old practice because they were

frightened to go in that direction. They were frightened by their erroneous ideas and the sacrifices they would

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

have to make in order to go in this new direction. For example, they might see a client 50 to 100 times. Conse-

quently, they would only take on three or four new clients a year. When they considered that this new psychol-

ogy would only require 10 or 15 sessions they reacted to the idea that they would need a huge number of new

clients per year to make a living. They didn't factor in that their referral rate would be much higher given the

results produced by the new psychology.

They also realized that this new psychology approach would require them to live in a high level of mental

health themselves. They were wise enough to see that they couldn't teach these principles if they hadn't grasped

them for themselves. They were used to using techniques that didnt require any understanding on their part but

merely an ability to follow the steps of that technique.

Because of their life experience to date, they lacked the confidence that they too could be mentally healthy.

Their vision for themselves was contaminated by the fact that their mental-health had suffered through the prac-

tice of the old psychologies. They didn't see that the practice of the new psychology would improve that mental-

health rather than damaging it.

This new approach wasn't about curing mental illness, rather it was about teaching mental health. They know

that they could not teach mental health if they didn't have mental health themselves. They didn't factor in that

they could grasp these principles for themselves and prove their own mental health. They didn't consider that

the requirement that the therapist be themselves mentally happy was a good thing.

Many of my colleagues didn't want to give up their old practices because they didn't want to give up the referral

base and the reputation that they had developed over the years. My partner John fell into this category. John

had a reputation as one of the top Gestalt therapists in the world. If he put his name on a brochure he would fill

a conference room. He suspected that if he went in a new direction, his referral base might not follow him. He

didn't think it prudent to give up a lifetime of building credibility in order to go in some new direction.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

 Some people went in this new direction

I will tell you why I went in this new direction, and I know from my conversations with colleagues that they

went in this new direction for a similar reason: I was hooked by the results. My mental well-being improved

significantly as did my relationships with my wife and family. I saw dramatic changes all around me from the

people who were affected by these principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought.

My personal experience gave me a vision for what was possible. I reasoned that if I learned more about these

principles, my own mental health would improve and I would produce greater outcomes in therapy. These pos-

sibilities were in sharp contrast to the results I was getting in my old practice. I saw that it was in the cards for

me to have a nice life with my family and, at the same time, have a nice life as a mental health professional with

all the satisfaction of truly helping people. This was a deal I could not turn down!

Sure, I could see all the drawbacks that my colleagues saw. My old training, education and experience would

be of no further use to me. I would have to start all over again learning about these principles. I could see how

some people might find it difficult to learn from a person like Syd Banks who had inferior credentials but his

credentials worked for me: he understood the secret to happiness. To me, Syd's credentials were his well-being

and the profound knowledge he had gained from his epiphany.

I wasn't concerned about my reputation because I didn't like my reputation. I didn't like the results I had pro-

duced in my old practice and I didn't want to be known by those results.

All things considered it was a no-brainer

for me to go in Syd's direction.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

The prospect of living a life of well-being and being successful in my practice greatly outweighed all those oth-

er concerns. It seemed obvious to me that the public would see the potential of this new direction and that the

demand for this approach would be substantial. This vision kept me confident and secure as I went about my

new life as a mental health professional.

I had my own journey from the old psychology to the new psychology.

The confidence that I had to go in the direction of the principles did not come to me during my first meeting

with Syd. In fact it was almost a year before I got out of my old practice and started my practice in the new

psychology. Like many of my colleagues I was very upset by my first exposure to Sydney Banks. I left Salt

Spring Island in a huff and went back to my practice. I had heard too much, however. I simply could not prac-

tice the old psychology that put people back into the pain instead of teaching them mental health.

I too was trying to mix the old way with the new and my results were even worse than before. I knew I had to

find out more about these principles.

My family and I spent a summer up on Salt Spring Island with Syd and many of the people who had learned

from Syd. During that summer we spent on Salt Spring Island, I did have a first-hand experience of the power

of these principles.

The summer in Salt Spring put my life in sharp perspective. The life I had lived until my contact with Syd

Banks was, unbeknownst to me, unnecessarily burdened with stress and distress. Im not saying that I had more

stress than the average person but rather I clearly had lived with way more stress than was necessary and this

was unhealthy. It was as if I had lived my life with a heavy body suit of stress and didnt know it. It was only

after I found the secret to some mental health and well-being for myself that I realized by comparison that I

lived in that stress. I was not alone in living with stress. Everyone I knew was previously in that same situation

and most people were unaware that they lived in unnecessary stress.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

Now, I knew that human beings are innately capable of rising above their circumstances, their mental illnesses

and their hang-ups to high levels of mental health and well-being. I had seen people that were on heavy doses of

depression and anxiety medications find their happiness and their peace of mind. I had seen hospitalized men-

tally ill people go on to live normal lives just because they saw the connection between their anxieties and their

thoughts in a very real sense. Finding higher levels of well-being is a level playing field available to all people

independent of their diagnoses.

The power to manifest these levels of mental health and well-being was somehow related to understanding how

the mind worked. I have seen many people from many walks of life and many different life circumstances find

this well-being for themselves. The only thing that these people all shared in common was an understanding of

the three principles Syd Banks discovered, principles that he predicted would change the field of psychology

forever.

What I learned that summer gave me a new vision for the field of psychology and psychiatry. I really saw that

the field of psychology and psychiatry had the power to change the world by changing the level of conscious-

ness of their clients. These principles were a vehicle for this change. Once these fields gained a reputation for

helping people to live in well-being, psychologists and psychiatrists would be swamped with people wanting

psychological help either individually or in groups. Psychology and psychiatry would become mainstream as

people saw that they could improve their mental health even if they were diagnosed as "pathological".

I saw that these principles would add a hope to the world badly in need of hope. It would provide the hope of a

life of well-being to people who felt that "modern times" relegated them to a life of stress and distress. It would

provide hope for people who had lost hope that they can have well-being in their lives even as well-being had

been elusive in the past. It would even provide hope for the so-called terminally mentally ill -- schizophrenics,

psychotics, criminal offenders.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

Graduate students in psychiatry and psychology would flock to an approach based on three principles. Not only

would the positive outcomes give them immense job satisfaction but also the process of therapy would be en-

joyable for them. The stress and burnout rates in the field of psychiatry and psychology would be dramatically

reduced. The respect for the fields of psychiatry and psychology would be raised significantly as people saw the

tremendous contribution they were making to society.

The field of psychology would also gain respect from other sciences because the introduction of principles into

a field turns that field from an art (a soft science) into a hard science. Both research and clinical practice would

be aligned on the same foundation and explore these principles to greater depth. The growth and development

of the field of psychology and psychology would occur at an expediential rate with the synergies made possible

by a common foundation. Ultimately, I would predict that the discovery of the three principles in the field of

psychology would be viewed in the same light as Einsteins discoveries in the field of physics.

In summary, my introduction to Sydney Banks changed the course of my life and my career. It touched me,

affected me deeply in a positive way. It ultimately took away my anxiety. Since I met Syd, my confidence in

my well-being has gone up continuously. My relationship with my wife turned around when we met Syd and

has improved ever since.

It was a no-brainer to me to take my life in this new direction. It was also a no-brainer to teach the principles

that Syd discovered in my role as a mental health professional. I simply gave my half of my practice to John

Enright and hung out my shingle, teaching the principles of Mind Consciousness and Thought as a therapy ap-

proach. The next chapter chronicles my professional life as I build my new practice.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

 Chapter Four Starting a Practice

You've got to love the situation in which we found ourselves upon our return from

Salt Spring in the Fall of 1976.

In one month our income went from the $5,000 a month I made working with John to essentially zero.

We had almost no referral base upon which to build a practice -- when we gave our 2,500 person mail-

ing list a choice of going with John's program or going with my new approach that I described to them

(granted, I couldn't describe it very well at the time) 2,497 of the 2,500 people stuck with John's pro-

gram.

This new understanding that was the basis for my new approach wasn't very well formulated.

In short, we essentially had no colleagues, no savings, no income, no methodology upon which to base this new

approach and no referral base upon which to build a practice. In addition I was in the area of the country that

had the most therapists per hundred people with the possible exception of New York City.

Throughout my adult life I had always been insecure about finances no matter how much money I was making.

Yet, in this situation, which could be seen to be extremely precarious financially, Linda and I had absolutely no

insecurity about finances. The principles helped us understand about how and why faith keeps people out of in-

security no matter what their external circumstances.

We believed in the adage that "if you build a better mousetrap the world will beat a path to your door" and at

the very least we had stumbled upon a better mousetrap. But what we stumbled upon seemed to us to be way

more than that. We felt like we had found the secret to mental health and peace of mind in a world within which

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

peace of mind and mental health were in short supply. We knew that ultimately there was nothing more impor-

tant to people than their well-being. In a way, we had stumbled upon the ultimate product for which the demand

would someday be inexhaustible.

Linda and I had been deeply affected by the understanding we had gained over the summer in Salt Spring Is-

land. So great was the change in us that some close friends and relatives thought we had flipped, that we were

living in denial in a rose-colored world. We had both become so easy-going and so relaxed about life.

An acupuncturist friend named Bob referred a client to us because he didnt know any therapist to whom to re-

fer. Bob was a very compassionate individual and he noticed a stress and distress in his clients. He was hoping

that we could provide the help that his client needed.

When that client called back two weeks later and thanked him profusely for the referral, Bob sent us several

other referrals. Each client we saw generated several other referrals as friends and families of these clients no-

ticed the positive changes in the client. They were thinking, If that therapist can facilitate that much change in

him, imagine what he could do for me! in this very modest way we started our practice and put to use what we

had learned on Salt Spring Island.

During our sessions we taught people how their minds worked and, as a result, they became much more resil-

ient, more able to take "adversity" in stride. They learned to be more understanding, less judgmental of other

people, less bothered by peoples personalities. Their relationships improved significantly with this change in

the perspective.

We put out our shingle to teach this new understanding. We felt the need to share what we had learned.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

Our own personal learning curve continued as well. We didnt understand what was happening in our lives, nor

did we know specifically what accounted for these changes but we did know that something good happened to

us and we were learning daily just as Syd had predicted.

One of the most amazing discoveries we learned was: immaterial of what problem our clients brought to us and

no matter what pathology they had, we taught them how peoples experience of life is formulated with in their

own minds. We taught them that we all live in a psychological reality created by our own thinking.

We explained how the role of Thought is to formulate each and every experience that we have in life, both pain-

ful and enjoyable. Thus, Thought is the central player in the psychological lives of human beings just as breath-

ing is a central player in our everyday physiological lives.

Metaphorically speaking, Thought is a steering wheel that is connected to our experience of life. Before we dis-

covered the principles we always assumed that circumstances and preferences were the steering wheel that took

us to well-being. We assumed that getting a better job, a better house or even a better car was some of the roads

to improve mental well-being. As a psychologist this was a fascinating discovery for me to learn that Thought

was such an important part of therapeutic counseling.

The very thought of educating people to this fact: that Thought, not circumstance was the steering wheel to

well-being would to be a tremendous service to humanity.

Everyone must live within the world created by their own thinking. Just as you wouldnt want to bring ugly

furniture and decorations into your house, the same goes that you wouldn't want to fill your mind with unpleas-

ant thoughts because you are destined to live in that atmosphere.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

We explained to people that their thoughts will always seem real to them no matter how unlikely and unrealistic

those thoughts might be. In fact, this link between Thought and well-being is the main link to mental health, a

link that the field of psychology was totally unaware of. Our thoughts will be brought to life to give the appear-

ance that the reality we perceive is objective and independently verifiable.

Many times we might have a powerful feeling or experience and not see the source from which that experience

was derived. We explain to our clients that

thought happens so fast and on such a moment to moment basis that we hardly see what we're thinking.

One important point that we make with clients is the fact that our internal feelings are an accurate compass to

guide us through life. If we are feeling upset and troubled, we may not be in touch with what thoughts are up-

setting us, but we can assume that our quality of thinking is not very good at that moment. If we suddenly feel

elated and we don't know what brought the mood switch on, we can be sure that feeling was accompanied by an

elated thought.

Showing the link between thought and feelings might not seem like much of a big deal to the reader but it had a

huge positive impact on the lives of our clients. Prior to learning about the role of Thought in our clients we

thought that the external world was the cause of their feelings. If they were upset or troubled they assumed it

was something wrong with the world. They would roll up their sleeves in this upset state and try to make their

world a better place to live in. Because of their troubled state of mind they would end up making things even

worse for themselves.

When couples didn't see their experience of life was created from their low mood thinking, they would take

their low mood thinking as an objective, fixed reality and think there was something wrong with their relation-

ship. They failed to realize that the relationship only looked that way from their low mood. People's ignorance

of the role of thought with regard to moods was by itself a major player in our societys high divorce rate.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

Here are some examples of some of my earlier cases just to give you a feel for what this therapy looked like:

A depressed client: Mike had been treated for depression since he was a teenager. His life was in shambles: he

had lost his job, his wife had asked for a temporary separation and his friends and family didn't want to be

around him.

Mike came in assuming that these life circumstances were the cause of his depression. I suggested to him that

they were the result of his depression. I explained that his continuous rumination about his bad circumstances

was lowering his spirits. Every time his spirits went down he became a less productive employee, a less respon-

sive husband and less desirable company to his friends and family. Conversely, if his spirits went up, his life

circumstances would begin to improve.

Mike asked me how was it possible for his spirits to go up until his circumstances changed for the better. An

explanation of the three principles of Mind Consciousness and Thought provided that answer. When Mike

grasped these principles, he saw that the way he felt in life would always be tied to the thoughts that were in his

mind. With the hope and empowerment he received from that realization, he raised his spirits and had the ener-

gy and state of mind to put his life back together.

A client with an anxiety disorder: Judy came in as a client who suffered from anxiety attacks. The principal of

her school told her she could no longer teach unless she got treatment for her psychological disorder. The prin-

cipal would no longer tolerate the aid car visits and the substitution problems caused by her frequent anxiety

attacks. Judy thought that she had to get rid of the anxiety attack symptoms which resembled a heart attack--

in order to be free from the ravages of panic attacks. I explained to her that her experience of an anxiety attack

would always come directly from her thinking even thought her thoughts might have been triggered by physical

symptoms. It was as if her thoughts were a mediator between her bodily sensations and her emotional experi-

ence of the attack.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

She didn't agree with what I was saying until she suddenly realized that her anticipation of an anxiety attack was

uncannily consistent with how the attack ultimately played out. When she anticipated that an attack might not

be problematic, it never was. When she anticipated that it would be catastrophic, it always was. She began to

see that the relationship between her thoughts of anticipation and the resultant experience of the attack was not

coincidental.

Judy gained enough knowledge of the power of her own thinking to maintain her calm during her next panic

attack. To her delight the symptoms passed uneventfully. The fearful thoughts that had exacerbated the panic

attacks were no longer coming to mind and the panic attacks were no longer a problem. They had lost their con-

trol over her life, at last she was free.

A client with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD): William had had some terrifying experiences during the

Vietnam War. When memories of these experiences came to mind William would have an emotional break-

down. he was unable to drop his haunting memories of his Vietnam experiences. Although he was a talented

architect he was unemployable.

I explained to William how powerfully Consciousness brings Thought to life to create a real-life momentary

experience of a memory. I knew for William his memory of Vietnam was happening in reality right now. Yet

in actual fact, the memory was just a thought carried through time brought to life by his consciousness and em-

powered by this thinking.

William explained to me how compelling these experiences were. I explained to him that they are only as com-

pelling as you make them by believing in their reality. I suggested that he has to see these thoughts for what

they are and realize that his memories are no longer "real". I suggested to him if he could see them as just

thoughts masquerading as reality then these memories would lose their power.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

It took a while for William to see the principles at work with regard to his post-traumatic stress experiences. He

did see the principles at work in the rest of his life and the lives of the people around him. During a subsequent

post-traumatic stress experience he suspected that, as he put it, "My mind is playing tricks on me." That was his

last experience of severe post-traumatic stress.

Marital counseling: Bill and Cindy had been married for 15 turbulent years. Bill tended to be very overbearing

and Cindy was very reactive to his overbearing nature. The more overbearing he became, the more emotionally

unstable she became. Like most couples, Bill and Cindy thought they were dealing with behavioral problems

not realizing that their problems came from their thoughts.

I explained to Bill and Cindy how their experience of life comes from within their own minds by their usage of

the principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought. Bill's thoughts made him think that he must be overbear-

ing and Cindy's thoughts made her react accordingly, making her feel emotionally unstable.

It occurred to Cindy that her kids were not affected by Bills overbearing nature. She saw that the difference be-

tween her reaction and their reaction was simply their respective ways of thinking. Her kids would often say,

dont mind dad, he just comes on strong. In contrast she felt threatened and upset by his manner. She enter-

tained fearful thoughts about how his overbearing manner might escalate. Cindy saw clearly that it was her

fears that took away her emotional stability.

For his part, Bill realized that he became overbearing because he thought he had to press through other people's

resistance to his ideas. As a therapist I began to see that his perception that his wife resisted his ideas was com-

ing from his own innocent insecure thinking.

Bill and Cindy continued to have that reaction pattern in their marriage but they no longer exacerbated it with

their fears. Over time that pattern would disappear as they saw it for what it was.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

 We grasped the principles deeper and changed our message

Linda and I had a learning curve in our own private lives. The understanding we had gained on Salt Spring Is-

land was deepening as we learned lessons from life and as we talked further with Syd Banks. We learned more

for ourselves and naturally passed it on to our clients.

At one point Linda and I gained a deeper understanding of the magical three principles that leveraged our life

and therapy in a big way. We realized the following: people didn't have to improve the content of their thinking

in order to experience more well-being. No matter what the quality of people's thinking, they will experience

more well-being if they can see the true nature of thought for what it is.

Let me explain what I just said using a movie as a metaphor. No matter how scary or unpleasant a movie

might be, the movie viewer is still able to maintain his or her own personal well-being realizing, Hey, its just

a movie! That movie viewer might experience feeling angry, upset, frightened, or despondent as the movie plot

takes them on an emotional roller coaster. Yet, these emotions don't have any permanent impact on the movie

viewers well-being because a movie viewer understands that the movie is just a movie.

When the moviegoers get really frightened during a war scene they dont feel the need to hide behind the seat

and pull out a weapon. All they have to do is remember that the battle isn't taking place in the theater, it's just a

movie. Understanding that it's "just a movie" enables people to enjoy the full experience of the movies emo-

tional roller coaster without ultimately sacrificing well-being. What's the difference between riding in a roller

coaster and riding in an out-of-control car? They both are fearful experiences but the latter gets you at a deep

gut level while the former is experienced in a context of safety.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

When I taught people about the fact of thought they were able to enjoy their lives in the same way they enjoyed

the movies. Somehow realizing that their experiences are "just their thoughts in action" gives them solace as

they ride the emotional roller coaster of life. Its one thing to suffer from your thoughts, thinking the whole

world is against you and quite another thing to realize the very idea of it is all created in your head by your inse-

cure thinking.

The field of psychology is now starting to understand that there is deeper dimension to human thinking. This

breakthrough gives us a look into this deeper dimension of psychology than the field has ever known. Instead of

talking about the contents of our clients thoughts we explain to them how negative and positive thoughts are

linked to our negative and positive experience of life we are now focused on people realizing the true nature

of their thoughts.

We found that seeing the true nature of their thoughts enabled them to take their thoughts and their experiences

in stride. People who see thought for what it is find an emotional resilience to their misguided thinking. The

people who dont see thought for what it is see it as an objective external reality, and are not very resilient.

We redefine mental health and mental illness

Traditional definitions of mental illness are oriented around symptomatology. We now see mental health and

mental illness on a continuum with the central variable being the realization of the three universal principles of

Mind, Consciousness and Thought.

Life looks like thought --------------------------- life looks like reality

Mental health end mental illness end

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

On the mental health end of the continuum you have people who see the subjective nature of perception. They

are more humble about their view of life and know when to trust their perceptions. They have the power to dis-

miss their own thinking according to their choosing.

At the mental illness end of the continuum you have people who never had a perception they didn't believe in.

For example, every single thought that the schizophrenic thinks, no matter how unlikely and unrealistic, is taken

as absolute reality.

As you move towards the mental health end of the continuum, people are able to have a thought and discard it

as just a thought. They do not have to deal with every thought as a reality as does the schizophrenic.

Everyone is somewhere on this continuum. Grasping the three universal principles of Mind, Consciousness and

Thought moves people towards the mental health end of the continuum. The deeper people see these principles

the farther they move towards mental health.

I had a client who was obsessive compulsive his entire 45 years of life. He had periodically gone through

treatment but his condition continued to worsen. His prognosis was that it was a lifetime condition but he could

show some improvement with a rigorous therapy program. He felt that under those conditions the therapy

simply wasn't worth it.

He became my client when I promised him that my approach would be very different from the therapy he had

previously received. He agreed to see me as a last resort hoping that something could be gained. I asked him to

come for four days in a row but he told me that would be too stressful. He agreed to come for two days of

treatment and then another two days a month later.

His obsessive-compulsive condition was so bad that he couldn't leave the house for all the rituals he would have

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

to go through to do so. To get him from Vancouver to my office he had his friend drive him down in a van in

which he slept. He showed up at the first session racked with emotional pain from all the anxiety he suffered

getting from his van to my office. Knowing the power of the three principles, I was very hopeful that he could

raise his level of consciousness and transcend his illness.

The first day he was completely unresponsive, spending the sessions telling me how scary it was to live without

his rituals. During the second day he seemed to listen well but his symptoms were unchanged. He came in to

my office the next morning to say goodbye and he looked like a different person. Instead of being serious and

anxious he was relaxed and joyful. He told me that the penny had dropped that night and he began to see the

three principles in action in his life. He said that all his obsessive thoughts looked like just harmless thoughts

running through his mind. He saw clearly that he did not have to take orders from this "bizarre" thinking.

He called me a month later right before he was scheduled to come back to my office for the last two days of

treatment. He was euphoric on the phone. "I don't have to come back to see you. I am doing just fine."

"Do you mean to tell me that you are no longer obsessive-compulsive?" I asked with surprise in my voice.

"I still have some of those crazy thoughts but they don't control me any longer. Day by day they're dropping

away and I'm starting to think like a normal person. I honestly think I can go back to work and have a regular

life."

"Why don't you just do that and never mind coming back here. If it doesn't last you can always come back for

your second visit."

He thanked me profusely and said he would call if he went back to his old ways. He was running a successful

business and his family life was everything he dreamed it would be. This experience showed me the power of

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

the principles. I shuddered to think what those two years would have been like for him had he not had that

awakening.

The objectives of this new psychology were now taking form:

Our focus was to show clients the resources they had within themselves and the positive possibilities

that these resources offered to them. In this therapeutic process we have very little interest in assessing

or addressing problems, limitations and deficiencies.

This is a teaching approach instead of an intervention approach. Instead of intervening on the personali-

ty and problems of the client we were teaching the clients generic principles with which the clients can

find their own mental health and solve their own problems.

During the therapeutic process the client should feel relaxed and secure. We now see it counterproduc-

tive for the client to be symptomatic or in a state of resistance during the therapeutic process.

Our objective is to empower the client rather than to create a dependency. Our goal is to help them to

find their own well-being and then send them off to live their lives.

Our practice grew

Although we were new at teaching this new-found understanding our practice grew very rapidly. We were hav-

ing a big impact on our clients and the changes in them were noticeable to their friends, family and coworkers.

Of the people who saw and liked these changes, x-percent became referrals -- they wanted similar changes for

themselves.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

It wasn't long before Linda and I could no longer handle the demand for our services. We brought practitioners

whom we had trained into our practice. In addition, other practitioners we had trained opened their own prac-

tices and set up their own training courses to teach this approach. It made perfect sense that this approach

would be appealing to an open-minded mental-health professional: it's brief; it's effective, it's enjoyable for both

client and therapist and requires no specialization. Let me further explain these attributes of this approach:

It worked like a "brief therapy. Our therapy approach usually took ten to fifteen sessions rather than,

say, a hundred. Although the therapy was brief, it usually had a profound therapeutic impact. This ap-

proach awakened people to their innate mental health and to their wisdom. In that sense it was very em-

powering. The therapists could truly feel that they were, "teaching their clients to fish rather than giving

them fish." It was refreshing as a therapist to see a client go off and have a happy productive life rather

than having them come back each and every week for long periods of time. For Linda and I it was nice

to see a variety of clients over a year's time rather than seeing the same old clients every week. In the

old methodology there were brief therapies that were used but they were relegated to solving a specific

problem in a client's life. These brief therapies weren't thought of as providing significant possibilities

for change. To the field of therapy, this new approach was an anomaly: a brief therapy that could pro-

vide significant, permanent change.

The therapy is enjoyable for both the client and the therapist -- in the world of therapy the words "en-

joyable" and therapy were seldom used in the same sentence. Almost all therapies assumed, as I did at

one time, that emotional pain was part of the therapeutic process and for the therapist it was no picnic.

The therapist would listen to all the clients problems and then accompany the client through the painful

process of therapy. The therapist would often commiserate to the point where he or she would go home

at night with a strong memory of each clients suffering. It's no surprise that psychotherapists have one

of the highest burnout, suicide, divorce and chemical dependency rates. This new approach was an edu-

cational approach. There was no need for the client to dredge up the past, get in touch with painful feel-

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

 ings or wrestle with their problems. The therapist would teach the client and then enjoy the client's

progress as they gained their own personal insight into an understanding of their own thinking.

This approach works across diagnoses and demographic groups -- the world of clinical psychology is

astonishingly specialized. It used to be that a therapist specialized in depression. Now a specialization

might be: seasonal affect disorder depression in middle-aged, Afro-American, single mothers. As the

field of clinical psychology has found itself unsuccessful with a specific diagnosis it assumed another

specialization was necessary. At the time of the writing this book there were over 400 therapeutic ap-

proaches and over a hundred branches of psychology in the American Psychological Association. For

the practitioners, specialization is a problem in terms of building a practice. Imagine how much easier it

is for a therapist to build a practice for a therapist who can offer help to any person no matter what their

diagnosis or demographic category. If there are 500 different diagnoses and diagnostic categories than

the therapist whos unspecialized has 500 times more potential clients. The reason that our approach

didn't require specialization is because the principles we taught were common to every human being.

Every human being's problem, notwithstanding their diagnosis, stems from an ignorance of the rule of

Thought. Once the person sees thought for what it is, the problems and the diagnosed illness must go

into remission.

I remember many years ago on Salt Spring Island Syd Banks telling me that psychological history was being

made and how some day our grandchildren will talk about it. It's now 25 years since I spent the summer on Salt

Spring Island. There are more people teaching these powerful principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought

than I am even aware of. The ones I am aware of are living extraordinary lives of well-being. They have the

job satisfaction of helping other people to live productive, fulfilling lives. They have all seen success with so-

called hopeless cases. They are all as enthusiastic about their work as they were the first day they realized these

principles for themselves and started teaching them to others.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

 The approach broadened to other applications

While all this growth and development was happening in clinical psychology, a colleague of mine named Roger

Mills was bringing this understanding to the world of prevention. Roger Mills had learned this understanding

from Syd Banks during the same summer we were up on Salt Spring Island. Roger took this understanding and

went to a crime-ridden, drug ridden housing project in Florida called the Modello and Homestead Gardens

Housing Projects. Roger taught the same understanding that we were teaching clinically to the residents of this

at risk project. The results were no less than astounding! At the end of this program the residents were actually

going back to school so that they could be more productive in society. The mental health level was so good that

the drug traffic actually dried up. Roger told me that some of the drug dealers even got interested in the posi-

tive changes in their former customers and asked if they could attend classes. An excellent book called Modello

by Dr. Jack Pransky was written researching the results of this work.

People in the prevention field were surprised by the results that Roger and his staff were accomplishing in these

communities. x-percent of these results surprised prevention workers so much that they went into Rogers train-

ing program to learn this new approach regarding the discovery of the three principles. The students of Rogers

programs and other people who learned directly from Syd Banks have brought this understanding to society

through a variety of prevention programs. Those programs have had a positive impact on schools, prisons,

homeless shelters, at risk communities, and countless other social institutions.

Most everyone who is involved in a specific therapy or prevention approach has some measure of enthusiasm

about it. You might be asking why I write as if this specific understanding that I learned from Syd Banks is the

answer for mental health. I think this understanding provides the knowledge that every human being has within

their own hearts. This understanding encapsulates the fundamental principles behind human psychological func-

tioning, and behind mental health and mental illness. It represents a rock-bottom knowledge that frees people

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

from the ravages of their own misguided thinking. It wakes them up to the fact that they have to think anew

thereby changing their perception and experience of life.

I honestly feel that the discovery of these principles represents a potential for dramatically improved mental

well-being in the world. This breakthrough seems to break all the rules. It has achieved unprecedented

outcomes and uses. Consider the following:

The principles have produced an all-ships-rise-with-the-tide change in people as their level of conscious-

ness increased. This change process has to do with epiphanies, moments of truth, insights -- whatever

term you might use to denote an across-the-board change. In addition this change process doesnt re-

quire will-power and reinforcement or even deliberate focus. Prior to the introduction of these princi-

ples, this type of change process was associated with crises such as near death experiences and

announcement of terminal illnesses. This type of change, though effortless and natural has been a rarity

in a world in which change is seen as requiring an intense focus and will-power or at least some deliber-

ate tactic or strategy such as psychotherapy, 12-step programs and self-help books.

The psychotherapy derived from the three principles works across diagnostic categories. To date this is

unheard of in the field of psychology.

This approach has also been effective across populations -- socioeconomic categories, educational lev-

els, cultural groupings, as examples.

The level of the results produced by this approach is also unprecedented in the field of clinical psycholo-

gy. People with drug addiction, anorexia and schizophrenia that have been cured by the principles live

normal, productive lives. Even the therapeutic centers that specialize in these illnesses would not even

hold out the hope that such a level of cure is realistic.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.

 It's also unprecedented that a clinical approach is used with equal effectiveness in prevention. The prin-

ciples work just as effectively in groups and lectures as they do one-to-one.

The principles have also had an impact across disciplinary and professional fields. Consultants are

teaching the principles in business, professional fields, and to the general public. Educators are teaching

the principles in their classrooms. These are only a few of the many applications.

Scientific disciplines like physics and chemistry have discovered that these three principles are as rele-

vant to the sciences as they are to psychology. When has any psychological knowledge been of interest

to any other science?

The uncommon level of mental well-being in the practitioners of the three principles is certainly an

anomaly in a world within which psychotherapists, Psychiatrists, teachers and consultants have some of

the highest stress and burnout levels. Mental health professional also have the highest suicide, sub-

stance-abuse and divorce rates.

Even though these discoveries have had a profound impact on the lives of many people, to date they are still in

an embryonic stage of development relative to their full potential. At the very least the reader will receive

personal mental health benefits from discovering these principles.

2008 George Pransky, Ph.D.