Before the development of speech, some 50,000 years ago, mankind was intuitively psychic and had far better non-verbal communication skills, writes Dr Stephen Simpson. Here, the bestselling author and Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine reveals three simple steps that we can all take to regain our lost psychic powers.
Dr Stephen Simpson writes for Female First
In this article I am going to show you how to turn on your success magnet, magnify your intuition, and discover that being successful is a lot easier than you might imagine. Success is a subject that has fascinated generations and fascinates me, too. I want to know why some people have more success than others. Because if they can do it so too can we.
During my research I talk to many people about success. A common response is ‘The harder I work the more successful I get’. Whilst there is some truth in this statement it is far from being the whole truth. Because the truth is that many people work very hard and have very little success to show for it.
So what are the successful people doing differently? Quite simply successful people spend more time thinking in their unconscious mind than in their conscious mind. The unconscious mind is the source of intuition and when we learn to trust our intuition the magic will flow. That is when we get successful.
It cannot be a coincidence that highly successful people have more developed intuitive communication skills than others, and that this may account for the success they experience. It could be as simple as being in the right place at the right time, landing that golden job or contract, having a breakthrough idea, or even scoring a hole in one when playing golf. These fortunate people are able to shift the odds in their favour.
We can all tap into our innate ‘psychic’ (or intuitive) communication powers. As a species we developed these powers as part of the evolutionary process, but most of us have lost these powers rapidly since we learned how to speak. All this need not be as bleak as it might sound. We should remember that humans prior to the development of speech, around 50,000 years ago, were able to work and survive in small communities perfectly well because they had advanced non-verbal skills and knew things without knowing how.
Sadly, our reliance on verbal communication works against us as we can only receive a fragment of the information that the other person is trying to convey. So our view of the world is to some extent deluded. As a result, we are all mildly psychotic, sharing a distorted view of reality. Even worse our attention spans have shortened over time and this loss has accelerated hugely in recent years, partly because of our obsession with social media.
Whilst the average person’s psychic ability is now poorer, the good news is that we all have the capacity to redevelop these powers. In short, we can make our own success in life, and we do this by developing the psychoic mind set.
I suggest that this mind set is the sweet spot of peak performance that makes people successful. It hides somewhere between the extremes of the psychic and psychotic states of mind, probably in our reptile brain.
A mild degree of psychosis is beneficial because it allows us to be mentally creative. When this is combined with our innate psychic skills the result is more intuition. The problem is that most of us live in our conscious mind, but unfortunately this represents only the smallest part of the brain.
To be successful we have to free ourselves from the dominance of the conscious mind. I recommend three simple steps to find this balance, and to regain your lost psychic powers:
1. Talk less, not only to others, but also to yourself
The person you talk to the most is you. You will be your best friend if your words are encouraging and overflowing with joy. When you allow your inner voice to be critical, whining, and full of doom it will be your worst enemy.
It will take about one month to boost your friend’s voice and drown out your enemy’s and this is how you will do it. Listen to your inner voice, say to yourself “from this moment forward I will never ever say anything bad about myself, ever again.”
In the first month you will have to repeat this mantra to yourself many times, but you will soon start to notice changes in yourself. Others will notice them more.
2. Listen more, both to others, and to your unconscious mind
Focus not only on the words that people use, but their non-verbal communication, such as body language. Daily practices such as meditation, mindfulness, yoga, or simple acts of creativity, such as doodling, will be beneficial for this process.
3. Let go of ‘ego’ and the mental attitude that everything revolves around you
Pause for a moment and think of all the things that have brought you the most success and happiness. I bet most of those were never on your carefully prepared plan and appeared from nowhere.
Though we try to control our lives through overthinking, overworking and over-planning, this is mostly just another illusion. We should let things happen and trust the fresh thoughts that rise up from the unconscious to the conscious mind.
The result of following this process and these 3 simple steps will be higher performance, more lightbulb moments, a lot more happiness, and a lot less stress.
Further information about these secrets of success are detailed in my latest book, The Psychoic Revolution. More information about coaching programs for those who are brave is available on my website www.drstephensimpson.com
Dr Stephen Simpson is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine and has practised medicine for almost 40 years. He is considered one of the world’s foremost experts on mind-coaching and has appeared as an expert on BBC, ITV, SKY, Voice of America, and in other major international publications. He is also a bestselling author and TEDx speaker and counts celebrities and sportsmen as clients. The Psychoic Revolution: Magnify Your Intuition for More Success and a Lot Less Stress, his seventh book, is out now on Amazon.
This Week’s Must Read - The Psychoic Revolution: Magnify Your Intuition for More Success and a Lot Less Stress by Dr Stephen Simpson
After attending a course with TV hypnotist Paul McKenna, Dr Stephen Simpson went on to become one of the world’s most successful mind coaches and in-demand TEDx speakers with celebrity clients in the world of sports, entertainment and business. Perhaps unsurprisingly, his new book – out now - packs a serious punch, discovers Lucy Bryson.
Some people seem to have all the luck. You know the type: they’re in the right place at the right time and they always come up smelling of roses.
But whilst those (irritating) individuals may appear to be brimming with good fortune, the habit of “being lucky” isn’t as random as first thought, according to Dr Stephen Simpson’s latest book, The Psychoic Revolution. In fact, success and advantage is determined not through the stars or by chance but by mankind’s innate intuition. What’s more, we all possess the natural ability to increase our luck, happiness and even income – if we know how to find and harness it, that is.
Sceptics, hush. I agree that one might be tempted to dismiss such a theory as baseless ideology, as yet another example of the self-help genre making outlandish claims. But Simpson’s professional pedigree is substantial and impressive: a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine; a practising physician for almost 40 years; a world-renowned mind coach; an in-demand TEDx speaker; a regular observer and commentator on BBC, ITV, SKY, and Voice of America; the iTunes no.1 bestselling author of Zen Hypnosis Confidence. He’s been there and has the T-shirt and initials (MB ChB MFOM MBA) to prove it.
The key to being lucky, then, lies in tapping into our ‘psychoic’ side – the middle ground between psychotic and psychic states. It is, he says, “The sweet spot of peak performance that makes people lucky, and lives somewhere deep in our reptile brain, somewhere between the psychotic and psychic states of mind”. By becoming more aware of life’s serendipities and by placing our trust in what he calls the ‘Invisible Giants’ - those unseen hunches that tell us what to say or do in a given situation, without us having planned our words or actions in advance – we become less-stressed, happier and, by definition, luckier individuals.
Unfortunately, evolution and the ‘modernisation’ of mankind’s thought-processes have damaged our psychoic skill, Simpson suggests. Today, our reliance on verbal communication has blinded us to body language and non-verbal cues. The rise of the machine, and in particular our reliance on social media, has and continues to exasperate the problem.
To kick-start our ancient ‘reptile brain’, the book provides practical steps about learning to talk less, to listen more, to relinquish ego, and to let things “just happen”. It’s a compelling argument that Simpson bolsters with neuroscience and biology throughout.
As a mind coach, Simpson counts the British professional poker player Chris Moorman, among his celebrity clients. If Moorman, whose earnings recently exceeded US$15million, relies on Simpson’s book and message, it has to be worth a punt. Highly recommended.
Exclusive Q&A with Dr Stephen Simpson
Female First grabs five minutes with the renowned TEDx speaker, bestselling author and internationally-acclaimed mind coach, Dr Stephen Simpson, to discuss his new book, the reptile mind, and the practical ways we can bring more luck and success into our lives.
Could you sum up the idea of the Psychoic Revolution’ in a nutshell? How did you coin the term?
We were born with a beautiful mind. Sadly it did not take long for other people to damage our greatest gift, often with the best of intentions. The result is that we were soon persuaded to trust our overthinking conscious mind. Therefore we increasingly ignored the hunches and lightbulb moments that previously surfaced when we most needed them from our vastly more powerful unconscious mind.
The overarching message of the book is that it is not too late to rekindle our hidden psychic strengths, and diminish the pervasive influence of our psychotic tendencies. I coined this mental sweet spot the ‘psychoic’ state, the optimum blending of our natural psychic and psychotic tendencies.
How do you think the lives of individuals - and society as a whole - could be improved by putting into practice the ideas outlined in this book?
Our lives would be improved because we would be more grounded, less stressed, and a lot happier. We would make cleaner decisions, have a better feel of who and what to trust, and raise our communication skills to a much higher level. This translates into greater social cohesion, less arguments, and dare I dream it, less wars.
Most people see a psychotic frame of mind as something alarming; in what way can we learn to embrace a ‘small amount of psychosis’ as a positive force?
Psychosis is a spectrum, and in extreme cases is very alarming indeed. Fortunately, most of us are at the opposite end of this spectrum. Over the years we have convinced ourselves that our mild delusion is our normal default state of mind.
This is no bad thing, because it gives free rein to our creative juices, and allows us to create compelling movies in our head, as if they were real. The problem is that these movies consume so much of our time and brain power that there is no room left for our psychic instincts to surface and make themselves heard.
What do you mean by the ‘reptile mind’? And what do modern humans have to learn from it?
It is a simple way to describe the deeper, and in evolution, the older parts of our brain, as opposed to the later and higher levels of our conscious mind. The reptile brain is the home of our instincts and primitive drives, and forms part of our unconscious mind.
It is useful to know where most of our thoughts come from, and why we act the way we do. This self-knowledge protects us from following the worst of our reptile thoughts, and at the same time valuing those thoughts that can be most useful.
Your book suggests that society is generally more anxious than ever before. Does social media exacerbate the problem and, if so, why?
It certainly can do, and in several different ways. At the simplest level it consumes a lot of our time and energy which might be better employed elsewhere. Social media can enrich our life, but it is all too easy to let it consume us. It can take our attention away from our creative projects, and drive our attention externally.
Social media can prompt potentially harmful thoughts such as, what are other people doing now, what do they think about me, what am I missing out on, why can’t I be more like them, why do they have more friends than me?
One of the results is that our attention span is shorter now than ever before, especially in children. It is a huge concern to teachers and the education system.
The result of excessive pre-occupation with social media can lead to more stress, anxiety, and sometimes serious psychological challenges. It can destroy our confidence, and positive self-image.
Exploit social media for the huge benefit it can bring to our lives, but do not allow it to rule us.
The book examines our dependency on verbal speech. How do you feel about other forms of social media, such as Instagram, which instead place an emphasis on visuals?
That is a great question! I don’t use Instagram but I am seriously considering doing so now. A large part of our brain is occupied with developing and processing images and we all have been told that a picture is worth 1.000 words.
So it is, not least because a picture is a shortcut that elevates a vague and invisible emotional energy to a conscious thought. This is a way our brain is supposed to work. Putting it another way we can usually have a lot more confidence in our response to a picture than we can in just words.
What can readers do right now to bring more luck, and less stress, into their lives?
Forgive my bias, but they could buy my book, not least because it is more than a book. It contains my email address, and every note is answered by me. It provides access to our Facebook page and an opportunity to join and contribute to a growing community.
The book is at the stage now where it is not what I say that counts, but the thoughts that others come up with. We can all learn from each other, and ignite the enjoyment of our life to at least the next level.
Do you have any recommended reading for those that have enjoyed this book and its content – including Jungian theories?
You could do worse than read any of the books written by my friend Paul McKenna. He has probably changed more people’s lives for the better than most people on this planet.
I definitely recommend Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich. This book was written in 1937, sold over 100 million copies, and has just been made into a feature film.
I can also recommend anything written by Carl Jung, but I do warn you it is not easy reading. I am not sure whether this is because of its translation from German, or because its concepts are just too complicated for me!
You mention that you wrote it without the weight of expectation, and without being ‘in a state of fear’ about how it would be received. As such, did writing the book prove to be a positive experience overall?
I enjoyed writing the first draft more than any of my other previous books. I gave free rein to my overactive imagination, probably too much freedom, and so it required a lot of editing to lick it into shape for a wider audience. In retrospect I just wonder what would’ve happened had I published it as it was? On balance I think I made the right decision.
You admit in the introduction that your last book was meant to be the last… but that your willpower cracked! Will The Psychoic Revolution really be the last, or is there an eighth book in the making?
That was my intention, but not for the first time, and probably not the last, my willpower cracked. Had it been just me I might have stuck to my words.
However, for about the last two years I have been sharing esoteric thoughts with my friend Hugh Shields. We first met when he attended one of my talks and he has published quite a few books in his own right.
To cut a long story short he has just generously invited me to co-author his latest title “Einstein, Jung, and the theory of everything.” We have had a huge amount of fun writing this book and it will be published on Amazon on 7 December, 2018, just in time for Christmas.
It can be a lonely experience being an author, but much more fun when working with a team. Two people always come up with a lot more original ideas than one, which can create torrents of creativity. I should have learned this much earlier in my life, but better late than never!