PDA

View Full Version : The "Mind's Eye" Key To Self Image


John Peterson
01-02-2009, 11:44 AM
Hey Friends,

Some of the most powerful sentences and paragraphs to be found in the entire realm of Physical Culture Classics are contained in Lesson One of the Charles Atlas Dynamic Tension Course. So powerful in fact that my friend Noel Johnson used a highlight pen to reinforce their meaning as he embarked on rebuilding his diseased, broken and unhealthy body at age 70 to become a virile, youthful man once again when he wrote his first book at age 80 which was titled : "A DUD AT 70, A STUD AT 80", Noel then followed-up a decade later at age 90 with his second book titled "The LIVING PROOF".

So What were those sentences and paragraphs that spoke to Noel and hundreds of thousands of other men that took their message to heart? Here are just a few:

"To overcome your past injurious habits and develop better ones, you must bring your entire ATTENTION to the matter, you must think intently of the motives and outcome involved and thus occupy your mind with better things, turning away from past habits toward freedom. REMEMBER, ALL EVIL HABITS CAN BE DESTROYED BY THE MAN WHO REALLY DESIRES TO CONQUER THEM."

"Therefore, your desire for Health, Strength, Increased Personal Power and Physical Magnetism must from now on, be greater than your desire to continue in the old way."

"Hold in the mind's eye AT ALL TIMES the ideal of Physical Perfection. Think of yourself as possessing a perfect body. Realize each time you are exercising you are arriving at still greater perfection."

These are just some of the thoughts conveyed in Atlas's Lesson One and which I re-phrase and try to convey in each of my books. The point is that each of us can and will become our own self fulfilling prophecy. The preeminent key is to control our own thoughts through positive thought reinforcement and and positive imagery. It may (and in some cases certainly does) mean that we will have to sever relationships with negative and unwholesome people that can only serve to drag us down. BUT if we want to live the best lives possible this is absolutely necessary to do and in doing so it opens the door to new and better possibilities.

Bottom Line: Control what goes in to your "Mind's Eye" it is literally your key to living the best possible future.

---John Peterson

aks801
01-02-2009, 12:11 PM
Man, hard to argue with that! We all certainly have the potential to become what we think about (as espoused by Napoleon Hill in the classic "Think and Grow Rich").

What I take away from the quotes provided is how important it is to control one's thought life as well as your associations. Keeping yourself "clean" is a foundation of keeping yourself focused. This doesn't mean that we sequester from the world: Jesus of Nazareth went out there amongst 'em! But we must be very protective of what we will allow to influence us.

Thanks again, John, for providing the spiritual and motivational "food"!

gruntbrain
01-02-2009, 12:23 PM
Avoiding CNBC's reporting of the Market's woes may help us enjoy life while we're still old & solvent

Andy62
01-02-2009, 12:26 PM
This is where the philosophy of Alois P. Swoboda really comes into play. His "Conscious Evolution" course taught that we all have placed within us by the creator the ablility to adapt to the everchanging universe and evolve to prosper in the new environment.

Keep your mind on the things that you want and off of the things that you don't want and practice DVR/VRT to speed those thought impulses along the neural highway to the center of the mind.

Max McKinley
01-02-2009, 03:59 PM
John,

Being absent from the forum for awhile and returning after the software upgrade and some turmoil, it seems there is greater "laser-like" focus on your part as well as others where the vision and purpose of Bronze Bow is. To me, this is a new and improved version of what I remember last year. To me there is greater focus and being on message than before.

What an outstanding post. Thanks John.

monty
01-02-2009, 05:04 PM
ALL EVIL HABITS CAN BE DESTROYED BY THE MAN WHO REALLY DESIRES TO CONQUER THEM."

What a great quote!!!

Monty

jan
01-06-2009, 08:14 AM
John,

isn't it remarkable that all successfull men in the early 1900's used the same idea to become successfull and rich? The idea so nicely put in "Secret of the Ages", "Think and Grow Rich", "The Science of Getting Rich" and so many other books written in that period? It certainly strikes my attention that that era produced so many like-minded people, people who believed in the creative force of visualisation, combined with action!

Jan

John Peterson
01-06-2009, 12:49 PM
Jan My Friend,

I could not agree more with what you have stated and the direct result of implementing those teachings was a time of incredible and unprecedented prosperity here in the USA known as the "Roaring Twenties". I personally see strong parallels between the "Roaring Twenties" (that actually occurred between 1919 and 1929) and the" Roaring 1990's" just as I see a strong parallel between what happened in 1929 and into the 1930's and what is happening right now in 2009 with the World economy.

Bottom line: Atlas brought the same concepts to the wholistic Physical Culture he taught as was found in "The Secret of the Ages," "Think and Grow Rich," "As a Man Thinketh," The Science of Getting Rich" "The Science of Mind" and many others. These concepts not only worked but literally transformed his students during the worst economic upheaval in American history known as the Great Depression.

BUT the man that inspired Charles Atlas and was the first to share this "Secret" was none other than Charles Atlas's own mentor Alois P. Swoboda. I'm certain that Atlas's method of self reliance helped many men succeed during the Great Depression because he was able to help them change their attitude. He convinced them that the stresses that each of them faced could be transformative and nothing to fear. And of course he was right. All that fear can do is to immobolize people.

Atlas's Course was about becoming the Master of Your Own Destiny and not being dependent on anyone else. The exact same message Swoboda taught. In fact, the biggest compliment a man could pay Charles Atlas was to learn everything that Mr. Atlas had taught and to no longer need him for anything other than as a respected friend and mentor.

---John Peterson

Andy62
01-06-2009, 05:35 PM
John, I find your last post really powerful. I have always felt that the greatest gift that anyone could give to anyone else is "self reliance"- it is the only true freedom. I have made it full circle. I first came across the Charles Atlas course as a pre adolescent in the early 1950s and ultimately found information about his mentor Alois P. Swoboda on this forum and in your books in the last few years. I can see how Charles Atlas was not only motivated and taught to exercise by Swoboda,but how he picked up Swoboda's philiosophy of self reliance and evolving through challenges and difficulties as well. Charles Atlas encouraged the development of physical strength,but he also encouraged NERVE FORCE. We may not know of Charles Atlas today if he hadn't taken the risk of making changes and accepting new experiences in his life. Ultimately he found the right situations to move him along in his career and he took a lot of criticism and abuse in the process. Ultimately that is what has kept this memory and his life principles alive so that we can benefit from them today.

Greg Newton
01-06-2009, 08:57 PM
In fact, the biggest compliment a man could pay Charles Atlas was to learn everything that Mr. Atlas had taught and to no longer need him for anything other than as a respected friend and mentor.


Respected friend and mentor? I like that. There is something manly about it. Thanks for carrying on that legacy.

Kevin Nickerson
01-06-2009, 09:08 PM
"The greatest gift you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own" Benjamin Disraeli

Big Bear
01-07-2009, 06:18 AM
Blown Away!

John that was an excellant post and really goes to the heart and core of Contemplative Physical Culture(trying this phrase out today as I have thought alot about this of late).

All the amazing feats that we see,all the seemingly impossible can be hung on this philosophy that you so eloquently present today.To sweep impediments away,to allow the mind to reach the full'pregnant moment',this is how we reach beyond the beyond.Thank you very,very much for this post!

peace,
jason

hal
01-07-2009, 06:22 AM
John you are so right! No one motivated like Charles Atlas. I read lession 1 over each month , or whenever I need a shot in the arm to keep up the good fight!

Hal

Andy62
01-07-2009, 01:36 PM
This thread is absolutely brilliant and it doesn't just apply to physical development,but to every activity and every goal you want to accomplish in all parts of your life.