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The Power of Your Supermind

Great Cosmic Wisdom Explained in a Clear and Practical Way

by Vernon Howard

|New Life Foundation©1975·286 pages

How's your Supermind? Find out what Vernon's talking about and how to turn up your Supermind's power with this wisdom-packed Note. We'll explore everything from psychic spankings (codeword for suffering) to causes and effects and we'll see how detecting negativity is actually a very positive thing.


Big Ideas

“Since it is necessary to select a single word to indicate the Higher Force covered in this book, I choose to call it Supermind. The definition of Supermind is not complex; it is quite simple. I mean the mental faculty which is above and beyond the conditioned human thought. It is the same thing as awareness, consciousness, esoteric thinking. It is what an Eastern mystic would call the silent mind, or what the New Testament calls the Kingdom of Heaven within. It is your true self. Quite simply, it is the force within every man that is as high above the ordinary mind as the sky is above the earth.”

~ Vernon Howard from The Power of Your Supermind

Vernon Howard is an amazing 20th century teacher.

You may not’ve heard of him, but he’s sold over 7 million books and brings an incredibly lucid, old-school, straight-to-the-point kinda energy to his great books.

I was originally introduced to his work by Tom Russell who runs SuperWisdom.com (thx again, Tom!) and I *HIGHLY* recommend you check out the book if you’re diggin’ it.

There are way more Big Ideas in the book than I’ll be able to get to in this Note, so let’s jump straight in with some good news!

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Switching on the Light

“It is a mistake for anyone to think he has lived too long in his old, unsatisfactory ways to make the great change. If you switch on the light in a dark room, it makes no difference how long it was dark because the light will still shine. Be teachable. That is the whole secret.”

Well, that’s good news! According to Vernon, it doesn’t matter how long we’ve been living in darkness.

Let there be light! :)

Mental Movies

“A chief cause of unhappiness is what I call mental movies. Mental movies are a misuse of the imagination. You know how it goes. You have a painful experience with someone, then run it over and over in your mind. You visualize what you said, what he did, how you both felt. As awful as it is, you feel compelled to repeat the film day and night. It is as if you were locked inside a theatre playing a horrible movie.”

That’s such a fantastic image of what often goes on in our heads, huh?!?

Think about it: How many times would you go see a REALLY bad movie?!? You’d prolly walk out mid-way, eh? And you *definitely* wouldn’t rush back to watch it again and again and again! (Right? :)

So, uh, why do we literally rush back to the mental movie theatre to re-play that terrible painful experience with someone over and over?!?

Modern Positive Psychology research (see the Notes on Happy for No Reason for a nice overview) tells us that we’ve actually got an evolutionarily hard-wired tendency to see the negative and have it stick to our brains like velcro (vs. the positive stuff which researchers say slips away like teflon!).

The solution?

We’ve gotta literally re-wire our minds to become more inclined to notice and focus on the things we *want* to have swimming around in our consciousness.

For now?

Start noticing when you’re replaying that horrible scene for the 3rd or 300th time and see if you can observe yourself watching it. (That’s a HUGE step in the right direction.)

And then ask yourself, Self, is this really the movie we want to watch again?”

Then, if you’re feelin’ it, smile and give yourself a high five for the new habit you’re building and then focus on something you want to replay!

Supermind exists within everyone, but man is asleep to it. Our entire task on earth is to awaken to the unfoldments of Supermind.
Vernon Howard
Don’t be afraid to let go of this acquired, invented identity; this false feeling of ‘I.’ That is like being afraid to let go of a headache. That is what the imaginary ‘I’ is—one great big headache.
Vernon Howard

Don’t Be Impatient

“Do not be impatient with your seemingly slow progress. Do not try to run faster than you presently can. If you are studying, reflecting and trying, you are making progress whether you are aware of it or not. A traveler walking the road in the darkness of night is still going forward. Someday, some way, everything will break open, like the natural unfolding of a rosebud.”

Love that.

Reminds me of James Arthur Ray in his great book, Harmonic Wealth (see Notes). He tells us: “Everything has a gestation period, a time period that must pass before things will come into form. If you plant a carrot seed, it takes about seven weeks for the sprout to make its above-dirt entrance. Bamboo, which can grow up to thirteen feet in as little as one week, takes up to seven years to break through the surface of the ground. But for seven long years it looks like absolutely nothing’s happening. Now that takes some commitment.”

Isn’t that *amazing*??

According to Ray, it takes a bamboo up to SEVEN years to break through the ground at which point it can grow thirteen feet in a week!

*rubs eyes*

Wow. That’s cool.

I love the whole idea of patience and gestation periods.

It’s amazing how easily we can forget that EVERYTHING takes time, eh?

We’d *never* think to rush a baby in her mommy’s tummy—pushing for “results” in four months instead of nine! And we don’t get frustrated when a carrot seed takes seven weeks to sprout.

So, how about we apply some of that wisdom to our lives and bring a little more patience to our own evolution?!?

(And, Epictetus is always helpful whenever we’re a little too impatiently frisky: “No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.”:)

Rebel against everything within yourself that you feel is artificial. Become what you are!
Vernon Howard
How on earth can another’s thought harm you? It is your thought about his thought that harms. Change *your* thought.
Vernon Howard

Detecting Negativity Is Positive

“Encourage yourself by remembering that any detection of negativity within you is a positive act, not a negative one. Awareness of your weakness and confusion makes you strong because conscious awareness is the bright light that destroys the darkness of negativity. Honest self-observation dissolves pains and pressures that formerly did their dreadful work in the darkness of unawareness. This is so important that I urge you to memorize and reflect upon the following summary: Detection of inner negativity is not a negative act, but a courageously positive act that makes you a new person.”

Powerful.

Vernon reminds us that the (often not so) simple act of observing our own negativity is a POSITIVE event.

Why? Because most of the time we’re TOTALLY unaware of when we’re off! We can’t change something within ourselves we aren’t aware of, eh? Having the ability to more and more consistently SEE the negative aspects of ourselves is like turning on a flashlight in a dark room. We need the light of awareness to do the clean-up.

So let’s remember: “Detection of inner negativity is not a negative act, but a courageously positive act that makes you a new person.”

Please don’t go around trying to save the world. You have all you can do to save yourself.
Vernon Howard
Use this secret for developing receptivity: Learn to love situations which make you uncomfortable. That is the only way you can learn to be comfortable everywhere.
Vernon Howard

Psychic Spankings

“Suffering of any kind means one thing: We are out of tune with cosmic harmony. As we learn to harmonize, suffering ceases.

A small child who insists upon running into the street will be spanked. He is incapable of understanding any other language. His parents spank not to deliberately hurt him, but because they love him. As the maturing child understands, the need for painful punishment ceases.

That parallels the human situation. Suffering tries to tell us of the danger of running into the streets of unreality. But stubborn little man, who always thinks he knows best, refuses the lesson and gets hurt, day after day, year after year. By studying psychic spankings, he could grow to where they are unnecessary.”

That’s brilliant.

Have you been stepping into the street without looking (both ways!!!) and getting a little (or a big?) psychic spanking? :)

What’s the lesson the Big Guy in the Sky might be trying to teach you?

Accept nothing as true that is not *your* truth.
Vernon Howard

Vanishing Pain Gaps

“We can start to see that our pain lies between what we think should happen and what actually happens. Then, if we remove the secret demand for this or that to happen, the pain-gap vanishes.”

This is a huge theme with the teachers we study in these Notes.

My favorite thought on the subject is from Eckhart Tolle in The Power of Now (see Notes) where he says: “Accept—then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it. Always work with it, not against it. Make it your friend and ally, not your enemy. This will miraculously transform your whole life.”

Accept it as if you have chosen it. That’s HUGE!!!!

What’s stressing you out right now? Can you see how the suffering is the result of the gap between what you think *should* be happening vs. what is actually happening?

You want to close the pain-gap? Simple. Act as if you actually scripted the event to go just the way it is. Voilà! Pain vanishes.

Byron Katie tells us pretty much the same thing (see Notes on Loving What Is): “The only time we suffer is when we believe a thought that argues with what is. When the mind is perfectly clear, what is is what we want.”

And, remember, according to Katie: “If you want reality to be different than what it is, you might as well try to teach a cat to bark.”

Human beings live the way they *choose*, not the way they *want*. A vast difference lies between the two.
Vernon Howard
No one can enjoy a truth for which he is unprepared, any more than an ape can appreciate a harp.
Vernon Howard

Getting Out of Messes

“People ask, ‘But how do I get out of this mess?’ Mysticism replies, ‘If you were on a higher level of consciousness, you would not be in it in the first place.’”

Love that. :)

T. Harv says the same thing in his great book Secrets of the Millionaire Mind (see Notes) where he talks about you vs. the size of your problems.

Imagine you’re a size 3 person (out of a possible 10). You’re confronted with a size 3 problem. How do you react? You’re stressed, eh?

Now, imagine you’re a size 5 person dealing with that size 3 problem. Less stressed, eh? Continue your evolution. You’re now a size 10 person. Do you even see the size 3 problem and/or describe it as a “problem”?!?

Point: let’s grow to a higher level of consciousness and not even get into the messes that currently pester us!!! :)

Is the beam from a lighthouse affected by howling wind and rain? It remains perfectly steadfast and unaffected by the storm. Your true self is like that. Nothing can ever harm you once you are consciously aware that it is so.
Vernon Howard

Psychic Meteorology

“The basic idea is not to identify with a feeling of depression, not to take it as being part of the essential self. Instead, stand aside with objective examination, just as a weather scientist might examine a dark cloud. Such a cloud would not make a scientist feel gloomy. Neither should the psychic scientist feel depressed over the observed depression.”

Lots o’ teachers talk about this Big Idea.

We are NOT our emotions!!!

Anthony de Mello captures it well in his great little book, Awareness (see Notes): “Never identify with that feeling. It has nothing to do with the ‘I.’ Don’t define your essential self in terms of that feeling. Don’t say, ‘I am depressed.’ If you want to say, ‘It is depressed,’ that’s all right. If you want to say that depression is there, that’s fine; if you want to say gloominess is there, that’s fine. But not: I am gloomy. You’re defining yourself in terms of the feeling. That’s your illusion; that’s your mistake. There is a depression there right now, but let it be, leave it alone. It will pass. Everything passes, everything.”

So, next time you’re feeling depressed (or grouchy or angry or whatever), imagine observing (and maybe even playful commenting on :) your emotional state like a psychic meteorologist would comment on a passing storm on your TV news program. Might sound simple (well, it IS simple, not always EASY to do!), but the moment we can actually just observe the state we’re in, its power over us diminishes immediately and significantly!

At the start of your quest, wisdom is a flash, not a glow.
Vernon Howard

Memorizing vs. Knowing

“You see, knowing the words is not the same thing as living the meaning. Suppose I memorize the printed instructions on a first-aid kit. Does that mean I can give first aid? No. The full meaning comes when I admit I know nothing and then try, practice, succeed.”

What a great way to put it in perspective, huh?!?

We can memorize the instructions on a first-aid kit, or from our “bible,” but being able to parrot the words is VERY different than actually living them, eh?

States obvious: It’s NOT enough to be able to cite the quote and give the page reference. We’ve GOTTA LIVE the truths!!!! So, let’s!!! :)

You know what is right. Deep down, you know. The battle between your true wisdom and the counterfeit wisdom of society is what causes frustration. Refuse to compromise with what you know is right—with what is right for you.
Vernon Howard

Causes & Effects & Leaky Boats

“A fisherman in a leaky boat would not be content with bailing out the water day after day. He would search out and repair the cause of the trouble. So must we look at causes, not effects.”

A fisherman with a leaky boat would look for the cause of the leak and fix it. Funny how we often just keep on plugging up the holes with temporary fixes, *totally* ignoring the cause, huh?

Here’s another way to think about cause and effect and our often less-than-enlightened-responses: You’ve got water in a pot. You turn on the flame beneath the pot and the water begins to heat. Soon, it begins to boil. You don’t like the water boiling. Unfortunately, rather than identifying the cause and simply turning off the flame (or moving the pot), you drop in a couple ice cubes. Ahhhhhh. Boiling stopped. Problem solved.

Um, yah.

Cause and effect. As Vernon says: “If you don’t like the effect, don’t produce the cause.”

So… What “effect” or result in your life isn’t making you do the happy dance?

Are you looking at the cause or merely treating the symptoms?

Never sacrifice your inner integrity to anyone, anytime, anywhere.
Vernon Howard

Start Telling Yourself What To Do

“No one can tell you what is right for you except for yourself. So start telling yourself what to do. If you blunder for ten years while thinking for yourself, that is rich treasure when compared with living these ten years under the mental domination of another. The only true, honest and enriching authority is the internal authority of your own Supermind.”

* queue chorus of angels singing *

“If you blunder for ten years while thinking for yourself, that is rich treasure when compared with living these ten years under the mental domination of another.”

Why is it better to “blunder for ten years while thinking for yourself” than to live those ten years under the mental domination of others?

Because the greatest gift we can give ourselves is to be in integrity with our own, authentic values and if we’re constantly following someone else’s idea of what we should do (whether that “someone” is a parent or spouse or church/Bible/priest/etc.) we’re NEVER going to know what OUR truth is.

As Vernon says: “Don’t look for someone in whom to believe. Believe in yourself. The only authentic authority is your own original nature.”

The genuinely spiritual person is one who has lost all desire to be anyone but exactly who he is, without labels and without apologies. He is what he is and that’s all there’s is to it. Such a man is undivided, uncomplicated and contented.
Vernon Howard

Your Grand Purpose

“If your grand purpose in life is to wake up, then whatever happens to you is good, for it can prod you into self-awakening.”

Amen.

Vernon also says: “If it takes apparent misfortune to turn us into true philosophers and doers of good to receive good, then apparent misfortune is our greatest fortune.”

Imagine that. If our highest goal is to wake up, end our suffering and truly live our precious lives, then EVERYTHING is a gift, eh?

What’s goin’ on in your life right now that you might be able to look at in a different way?!?

While you’re thinking about that, how about a little Marcus Aurelius mojo on the subject as well? In Meditations (see Notes), he says: “So here is a rule to remember in future, when anything tempts you to feel bitter: not, ‘This is a misfortune,’ but ‘To bear this worthily is a good fortune.’”

How true are you to yourself? That is the degree of your contentment.
Vernon Howard

Spiritual Cats

“To be real is to be spiritual. A cat is normal because no one has fixed him with a neurotic notion that he should be a tiger. A man loses neurosis when he is what he is.”

Imagine a cat that’s been convinced he *should* be a tiger. Yikes!

Are you being who you *really* are?

Check in the next time you’re struggling and see if you’re trying a little too hard to be something/someone you’re not.

As we get our Supermind on, let’s remember we’ve *gotta* be true to ourselves!

About the author

Vernon Howard
Author

Vernon Howard

Writer and teacher on the way out of human suffering.