suffered lack of self confidence because of physical disfigurement, he found that his operations to change the disfigurement gave the people no improved hope. They still lacked confidence, they were still damaged on the inside. Maxwell Malz found that he had to accompany his surgical work with a process of mental work as well, creating “imagined memories”, building in them the thoughts of a possible new life. Malz also describes cases in Psycho-Cybernetics where the patient has formed a negative image of something which is actually healthy, for example a nose. One patient came to him complaining that her nose was grossly oversized, so much so that she felt she was disfigured. It so happened that she also suffered a personality disorder.
Dr Malz managed to prove to her that her nose was normal and gave her a program of mental exercises to do so that she would come to believe this. She did the exercises for 21 days and slowly her mind changed until she perceived her nose as normal. As her bad image of her nose disappeared so too did her personality disorder. In my work I use the words, “the sub conscious mind does not know the difference between imagination and reality”. It is a similar concept to Malz's idea of imagined memories.
We are on the verge, or we have recently just begun, an era of new awareness of the potential of our inner strength. I don't believe that we should seek to overthrow the exciting advances that materialism has brought us. Who would want to do that? But I do believe that we will start to use our mental powers and the strength that comes from within in a much more deliberate way in our daily lives.
How then can we use it? How can we use our inner strength deliberately? What benefits can come to us if we can discover techniques to tap into this rich resource? The rest of this book will help you find the answers to these questions. I will give you a theoretical basis for your study and, more importantly, some really practical advice on how to get there. Remember, the aim is, Deliberate use, Deliberate use, Deliberate use.
A note from Sandy:
Michael is an inspirational example as to how he regularly uses his inner strength. He is the Youth Ambassador for the Hills Shire District, a trainer of ten Australian ski racing champions and founder of Seminar House Strategic Personal Training.
Michael is also the Junior Australian Coach for Ski Racing.
I awoke at 8am on 13th March 1993. It was a beautiful day as a few loner clouds sailed through the ocean blue sky, like giant icebergs. I was full steam ahead in the direction of my chosen destiny. I had established an honour's grade in the short time I had been attending college. I was winning a local ski race series in both my age group and the Open Men's Division, which was in line with my goal of becoming World Champion. I had a fantastic trainer, a beautiful girlfriend and a family that facilitated unconditional love like nothing you had ever seen. Life was a grand piano and I the great pianist.
At 8pm sundown that evening my life had taken on a slightly different direction. To begin with it was not my bedroom that was to be my point of refuge but rather a large white building, commonly known as a hospital. I was taking an arsenal of nine tablets and capsules every four hours in a poor attempt to deal with the torturous pain alone. It was not the most serene state that I had encountered _ not a time to begin reflection, but I was vaguely aware of a few facts. Firstly, continuing college was no longer a viable option for me. Secondly, my opportunity to chase after a world title had been robbed and lastly, my right arm which was so essential for me to not only achieve my goals but also continue my hobbies, was no longer functioning. I could no longer move nor feel it and that was something I had better get used to. Shortly after, the tests proved it would probably remain paralysed and painful for the rest of my life. High speed ski racing accidents can be very unforgiving _ very costly!
It was two years before this incident that I began a pilgrimage of personal development and it was here I had been introduced to Sandy MacGregor's work. The Peaceful Place concept which I believe is the genesis of Sandy's work, has been incredibly powerful for me. I have utilised it countless times to have pain literally vanish in seconds and it is here where I often turn to before making important decisions. Albert Einstein once said “Imagination is more important than knowledge”, but too few of us ever utilise our power within us, based on this simple truth. Sandy MacGregor is an exception to this rule and I would say Einstein's statement is the essence not only of his profound work that he delights in sharing with us, but also the basis of his phenomenal success in life.
Michael Dayes, New South Wales
2
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PATHWAY TO THE PRESENT
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It often takes a crisis before we discover our inner strength. What a pity that this quality so often lies dormant for years and is only activated when our backs are well and truly to the wall. This has certainly been true in my case. It is sad to reflect about the waste of human potential represented by these long periods of dormancy in all our lives.
So that you will understand how I have come to this position I would like to take some time to share some things about my life, my own journey, with you. None of the things I will tell you is for the purpose of blowing my own trumpet, or engaging in self pity, or in seeking sympathy. The purpose is so that, as you continue reading this book, you will know exactly where I am coming from. Later in this book I may say some things, about forgiveness for example, which you might find extremely challenging. By understanding my journey you will be able to see that I am not just repeating things that I have read in text books. I have really experienced the power of my inner strength and I have seen others also experience the same power in their lives.
To understand my background, I'm a military guy, a retired Colonel. I went through Duntroon, the Royal Military College in Canberra and graduated from there in 1960. When I was still a young officer the army sent me to Sydney University where I completed a Civil Engineering degree. This was necessary because, on graduation from Duntroon, I was allocated to the Army Engineers. Then I worked for a few years as an engineer, building roads and bridges and other field constructions and ....... Oh! ....... Here there was a minor difference from the work my civilian colleagues were doing, in the army we also learnt how to blow up our constructions once we had built them! Believe me you cannot get a more analytical, logical, prove-it-to-me, black/white person than a combination of being a military guy and being an engineer. It is, I think, simply impossible. I fitted the mould exactly and valued the concepts of logical thought, meticulous planning and careful analysis above the ideas of intuition, emotion and dreaming. All this was before the Vietnam War.
Then, in 1965 I went to South Vietnam with the Australian forces at the Bien Hoa airbase. I commanded 3 Field Troop – the first engineers to support the infantry.
We'd heard about the Viet Cong tunnels all over Vietnam but up to that point none of us had actually seen one. One day in October, 1965, in an operation in War Zone D the infantry soldiers found some tunnels and called me forward. I remember standing there near the entrance and thinking, “There's the tunnel, boys ... what do we do now?”
Up until that time tunnels hadn't been searched out. When a tunnel entrance was found the procedure had been to pump smoke and tear gas through the tunnel to expose more entrances, and then seal up the entrance by blowing it up. What we did was to actually go down the tunnels and crawl around in the silent blackness of the still dank air. Some of the tunnels were so small that you could not turn around in them. You had to keep on going until they opened out and then when there was another room off to one side, then you could turn around. But then again some other tunnels were just a little bit higher so that you could squat up in them and turn around. It was extremely frightening work
