Book Review “The Genie Within- your subconscious mind” By Harry W. Carpenter.

Review by Meenakshi Nair.

Why Book Review? 

At Wellness Space, all the therapists in training, review books and relevant research, to grow their skills.  The reviews we post here are verbatim (i.e. no attempt is made to modify it or even change spelling errors).  The idea is to get meaningful insights not just for self but also others and hence, after the consent of the reviewer, we post the reviews verbatim.  Hope you will enjoy these insights.

I found this book very relevant, not only for hypnotherapy students and practitioners but for every human being on planet earth who wants to live a Happy life. We always wish there was a genie who could work for us to bring and serve happiness on a platter. This book reminds us that we have that genie within us, we need to realize that we are the master, take control and give the right commands to our genie. Right now since we are not aware of our own powers, we keep wishing for wrong things unknowingly and our genie, being our genie, keeps fulfilling our wishes. Our genie is very obedient and takes orders literally. For example, if I say “I might fail”, my genie will make sure that I fail. If I say, “I might miss my flight”, my genie will make sure that I miss the flight.

What a great reminder it is to reclaim our powers as a master and use our genie properly. So who/what this genie is and where does it reside in our body? Address please… Book goes on to explain that our subconscious mind is our genie. We need to go and claim it.

Really? How?

For that we need to Know your Genie, find what language it understands, how it functions, what powers or fuels it etc.. Know it thoroughly and befriend it to get desired results.

I am writing this review using my conscious mind which is only 8% of my brain. Rest of the 92% is my subconscious mind which is busy in keeping my body alive, for example, breathing, digesting the food, regulating body temperature, pumping blood and all other essential functions of the body which it does 24 hours, non stop, without needing any commands from me. What else is it doing now? It is absorbing information about the temperature of the body (through the sensation of cold), It is playing back the story of advertisement going on TV which plays daily, though I am not watching it consciously (but I am hearing), it is reminding me to drink water (by sensation of thirst), it is reminding me to get up and stretch (by sensation of stiffness in neck), it is reminding me to enjoy the moon (by sight of dark sky through my peripheral vision from side window), it is reminding me to switch off the gas (through the smell of burning food on stove), It is telling me to move and remove that piercing pen from my seat (by the sensation of piercing touch) and so much more….

So you see, unlike our conscious mind which can do only one thing at a time, our subconscious mind can do trillions of things at a time.

Did you notice that the subconscious mind is predominantly communicating through images, feelings and sensations, whereas the conscious mind is communicating through words?

Please also note that conscious mind is logical. It can think, think abstractly, reason, criticize, analyze, judge,select, discriminate, plan, invent and compose, using the sight and foresight. Subconscious mind is feeling mind. It is a source of Love, hatred, anguish, jealousy, sadness, anger, joy, desires etc.

Doing so many things at a time also tells that the subconscious mind has unlimited memory. It has the capacity to store each and every experience of your life. You must be saying, no I do not remember everything. Don’t blame your memory, rather it is your recall which is to be blamed.

Now the question is ; where does the subconscious mind get this much energy from, to store so much memory and do this many things? It gets the power from our brain which produces about 25 volts of power. Our brain functions 24 hours a day all of your life, hence the subconscious mind which constitutes 92% of the brain has inexhaustible power. The subconscious mind transmits this energy as urges, emotions, impulses, nervous twitches etc.

Since we figured out that the subconscious mind has power, it is time to inform that conscious mind has will. When two minds are in harmony you have WILLPOWER and you are single minded.

Emile Coue (1857-1926) said that when will and Imagination/power are in conflict Imagination always wins. That is to say when the conscious mind and the subconscious mind are in conflict, the subconscious mind always wins as it has the power. It has electrical and chemical power and it is bigger. As I am writing this, I noticed that my subconscious mind has just won. I have decided (will) that I will not eat any dessert but my urge for eating the sweet desert (urge is in my subconscious mind) won and I ended up eating carrot pudding (gajar ka halwa) which I ate effortlessly.

What should I have done instead of just deciding (using the will/conscious mind)? Have you ever noticed that what you resist ,persists? Why? Because our genie, our subconscious mind does not understand the language of resistance, it is literal. For example, I said , I will not eat dessert. My subconscious mind does not understand “not” so it got the message that I will (not is not registered) eat dessert. Oh My God, that is why I ended up eating carrot pudding. I know now. I should have said, “ I will eat only healthy food”. Is that enough? Is Just repeating this affirmation/suggestion enough? Is this suggestion right? Will it work? If not, Why? Answers to all of above questions is “NO” and the reasons why it will not work are given below along with method/technique to make our genie work for us in blue fonts.

  1. Conscious mind will create a conflict i) In order to bypass this rational critical conscious mind we need to attain an altered state of mind, alpha state by using relaxation and deepening techniques ii) We need to make friends with our subconscious mind instead of being authoritative. iii) Once you have done the work in alpha state let go, detach and do do not fuss about the results in normal state otherwise conscious mind might create the conflict and fear of failing. Remember fear is a very strong emotion- We will learn the significance of the strength and intensity of emotion/thought later)
  2. Subconscious mind does not know what do I mean by healthy food (we need to plant the description of healthy food in our subconscious mind by using

image/visual/feeling/poster/mind movie and use an anchor for example; image of a person who we think is healthy or any symbol, gesture.. )

  1. Subconscious mind does not know the past or future, it knows only the present. ( need to change the suggestion to present tense, I am eating healthy food)
  2. Subconscious mind predominantly works on feelings, sensations and images (attach strong emotion,feelings and images to your suggestion.Use all of your senses to see/smell/hear/feel/touch all the details in your mind’s eye as vividly as possible)
  3. Subconscious mind can hold many concepts (thought, habit, program) at the same time but it will accept only one concept to be true at a time. In other words it will give up on the dominant habit only when a stronger, opposing habit is impressed on it. (It simply

means that if we want to get rid of an old negative habit, we need to feed our subconscious mind with the opposite positive habit by suggestions powered by strong emotions,feeling, sensations and images, the only language it understands and as stated in point 1, this needs to be done in alpha state. This is called guided imagery)

  1. Just once is not enough (As the habits/thoughts/belief systems we want to work on are most likely created during the age of 2-8 years, It is important to keep repeating the guided imagery till it overpowers the old habit/thought/belief system, daily in the beginning and frequency can be reduced later).
  2. Set expectation (Prepare your subconscious mind to expect the results as it is done in placebo clinical trials of drugs. Use all of your senses, to visualise as if you have already achieved your goal, See and feel the changes in your body language, attitude etc. Visualise and feel the minutest detail . This is called guided imagery).

Is there any example where someone is using it in our daily lives and we are not even aware of it?

Yes, think about a TV advertisement. How many elements from the above list can you find in a TV advertisement? A couple or Everything? Each and everyone of them, right? Most of us are in a kind of zone, alpha state when we are watching TV. Conscious mind is taking rest and the subconscious mind is working as usual. So anything which is suggested to our subconscious mind repeatedly in this state with images, visuals, emotions, anchors, triggers, expectations, it is going to be planted in our mind. Notice the communication style. It is designed to target your subconscious mind, your genie.

If they can do it to sell their products, why can’t we use our genie to fulfill our own wishes for our own good, using the same knowledge?

Yes one can and that is why techniques like, self hypnosis and hypnotherapy which are nothing but using your genie are in the root of all the techniques used by psychologists, psychotherapists, spiritual group practices, sports trainers etc for treating chronic stress, emotional disorders, physical illnesses, chronic pains, phobias, bad habits, learning new skills, sports training, education, or simply for improving/enhancing the quality of life (positive psychology).

Ahh…I am feeling so calm and relaxed now. Just before I started writing this review I was mad at myself for delaying my homework (of writing the book review) though I finished reading the book weeks back. Everytime I start to think and formulate an outline in my mind, my son will come and suddenly ask for help with his homework. First 2-3 times I was calm as I was helping him. Then I was irritated but suppressed my emotion of anger and like a good mother I helped him. But last night I snapped at him. Later on, I realised it was not about him or his homework, it was my own anger towards myself which I was suppressing and it had to find a way out.

“Nothing remains a secret in the subconscious mind. Emotions/ideas/thoughts crystallize and find a way out”.

So before the energy of emotions finds a way out on their own in an undirected/harmful way, you better work on expressing them in a directed way/ in a constructive, safe and helpful manner. Emotional energy suppressed for a very long time leads to chronic physical and mental ailments.

For example in my case, today I have expressed my energy of anger by writing this review in the afternoon before my son comes back from school ( a directed activity) and now me and people around me are safe.

   MEENAKSHI NAIR