One of the most powerful ways to transform your mind and body is something I learned four decades ago from the classic self-help book, The Magic of Believing, written in 1948 by Claude Bristol. It’s called The Mirror Technique.
I’ll explain the basic method to you, and then give you my breakthrough hi-tech add-on to it. With this new combined and upgraded approach, you’ll feel like you have superhuman powers.
Imagine what you would aim for if you had the power of a super hero. Let that roll around in your mind as you continue reading…
Bristol wrote an entire chapter on The Mirror Technique in his famous book (which is still in print today). This excerpt gives you a clear idea of how the method works:
“Many great orators, preachers, actors, and statesmen have used the mirror technique. According to Drew Pearson, Winston Churchill never made a speech of importance unless he made it before a mirror first. Pearson also declared that Woodrow Wilson employed the same technique. It’s what I call a supercharging method of stepping up the speaker’s subconscious forces so that when he or she appears before an audience, those forces flow out also and affect the listeners. By using the mirror in rehearsing the speech as you are going to deliver it, you are creating a picture of yourself, your words, the sound of your voice, and your sight of the audience, to which the immediate future is to bring reality. By looking into the mirror, you increase the mental vibrations by which the force and meaning of your words will quickly penetrate to your audience’s subconscious minds.
“This mirror technique gives a possible clue to the power and personal magnetism of certain evangelists. I knew Bill Sunday in his heyday and often heard him preach, but in those days, knowing little or nothing about this Mind Stuff, I was puzzled as to how he and other great evangelists were able to influence people to such a remarkable degree. However, we now have proof that Billy Sunday was versed in the use of the mirror technique; it was given by Eric Sevareid in his book Not So Wild a Dream, published in 1946. Mr. Sevareid tells how he – as a young newspaper reporter – secured an interview with Billy Sunday: “’He bounded about the hotel room, now peering intently out of the window, with one foot on the sill, now grasping the dressing-table firmly in both hands while lecturing his reflection in the mirror.’”
In short, you stand before a mirror big enough to see your face and torso, stare into your eyes, and then speak out loud about what you want to have, do, or be. You give yourself the pep talk of all time. You reprogram your mind with your voice and your own authority.
I was reminded of the technique while watching J. Edgar, the movie by Clint Eastwood about FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. There’s a scene where Hoover’s mother coaches him to realize he can dance by urging him to look into his mirror and tell himself he could do so.
Believe me, this works. When you first look into the mirror, you may cringe or feel weak. But when you stick with it, and truly command yourself, you can transform into a powerful Law of Attraction super being.
But let’s not stop there.
Now, what could be better than The Mirror Technique?
Brace yourself.
During the recent making of my fourth album, titled The Healing Song, the band and I spontaneously created an original piece of music that is so engaging, it is virtually entrancing. It’s mesmerizing.
Just listening to it can put you into an altered state. I can’t explain how we actually created the music, as it feels like we were guided by Divine inspiration. Whatever the case, it is a riveting, mood altering track.
When we played the music back in the studio, famous drummer Joe Vitale — who has almost five decades of experience with rock and roll legends such as Neil Young and Joe Walsh — said the track wouldn’t allow any other sounds or instruments added to it.
Except one thing.
My voice.
“It wants you,” Joe told me.
At first I didn’t know what that meant. But that night, as I was driving home from a long day in the studio, I received even more Divine inspiration. I almost pulled off the freeway to write down my thoughts. But instead I turned on my iPhone and recorded the words coming to me.
When I went back into the studio, I told my music producer, Daniel Barrett, to cue up that mesmerizing track and turn on the microphone. I then recorded the most empowering commands of my entire hypnotic career.
These statements go beyond mere affirmations and feel-good self talk. These are truths about the almost supernatural power you have inside yourself to attract By-God miracles.
These commands move your attention from your little self to your all powerful big Self — yes, the Self with a capital S for Superhuman or Spiritual Human.
At the end of my spoken words, Daniel said, “Oh My God! That was phenomenal!”
With the original enchanting music and the empowering commands combined, I knew we had a track that could change lives. I knew it would be a stand-out on the new album.
But I wasn’t done.
I was inspired with one more step.
The morning I was to pick up drummer Joe Vitale from the airport, I told Nerissa how he is proof of a parallel universe. She was still half asleep and didn’t process what I said. She thought I was talking about some sort of mirror. I had to explain that since the other JV was coming, it was proof a mirror universe existed.
But her confusion led to a breakthrough idea.
I thought, “What if I created a mirror that you could look at yourself in, but that also had speakers and that empowering music track already in it?”
You could step up, look in the mirror, push play, and then listen to the most empowering commands of all time as the most entrancing music of all time riveted you on the spot.
This would combine the best of all self-help and self-improvement methods to truly re-wire your brain to attract and achieve amazing results.
And all you would have to do is look in the mirror!
Talk about easy!
Whew!
Right then and there, I knew this was a hi-tech improvement to Bristol’s famous Mirror Technique.
I knew I wanted “The Empowered Mirror” — the name I coined for it — right then and there.
When I told the idea to a couple of select friends, they said the same thing: “That’s brilliant! I want the mirror, too!”
I then did some in-depth Google searching but couldn’t find anything even close to my idea. I found some baby monitors that had mirrors and played soothing music, such as the Brica Day and Night Light Musical Mirror. That was for babies.
And I found a couple shower mirrors that could play your music via a wireless transmitter, which seemed complicated. And that was for in the shower.
Neither was what I wanted.
I wanted a portrait-sized mirror with built-in speakers and pre-programmed with my empowering music track. It might even have the capability to allow people to record their own commands, or to upload their own music. But my basic idea was to have a vanity mirror that could play Empowered!, the incredible track from my new album, The Healing Song.
What I needed was a manufacturer.
I then went and contacted the people behind the fitness equipment I love — the Nexersys — to ask their advice on how to create such a mirror. Terry Jones, developer of the Nexersys, is a genius at developing products and bringing them to market. I had interviewed him for my Hypnotic Gold subscribers, and knew he could point me in the right direction. So I told him my story.
Terry told me about the Alibaba site at http://www.alibaba.com, where I could post my need and manufacturers in China and other places around the globe could respond. I did just that. I received two dozen emails from people who didn’t know how to type or understand English. It was funny and frustrating.
But one woman in the pack of oddities seemed professional, persistent, and polite. I decided to wire her $120 to make a sample of what I had in mind. It took four weeks just to get the wire exactly right so her bank would accept the transfer. But you and I both know persistence is a key to success. I kept at it.
When her company finally made the prototype for me in China, and shipped it to me, I was disappointed. It was a clunky woman’s makeup compact case with a USB port and built-in speakers. I didn’t think people would want yet another heavy item to carry around. And the USP wasn’t as easy to use as it sounds to transfer music tracks. I decided to pass on the idea.
While there are still ideas I might play with — like creating an app that does what I want and plays the Empowered track for you — probably the best straight line to success is to simply suggest you go buy the album and transfer the Empowered! track wherever you want it. You could then play the track on your phone, or iPad, or any device you preferred. And you could look at yourself in the mirror as you did so.
Again, this is one of the most powerful tools you can use to transform yourself. Just look at yourself in the mirror and give yourself a pep talk as you listen to the music that inspires you the most. For me, the Empowered! song off my new album does the trick. But you can use whatever music makes your heart sing and your feet dance.
“Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?”
Check out The Healing Song.
Ao Akua,
joe
PS — You can listen to samples of all 11 tracks, download the title track, and/or buy the entire album on CD by going to The Healing Song.
A few weeks ago I met a tiny dog. She’s a Chiweenie, a cross between a Chihuahua and a Dachshund, and maybe one month old. If you follow me on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/drjoevitale), you saw the photo of her there. She’s in the picture with me here:
We already have a dog, an elderly girl named Wolfie who has a lot of pain and needs a shot every Friday to help relieve it. We also have a senior citizen cat, Nona, who has been on Animal Planet TV, and who likes to be the only feline in the house. After all, she’s a star.
Still, I was drawn to this little puppy in the photo. Turns out, she has a brother.
I asked about the brother and learned he needed a home. His mom was a stray who was rescued and then had a litter. The pups from it were being adopted. The sister was adopted. The brother was still available. Despite the circumstances in our home, I was drawn to him. The owner sent me a photo of him and I took it with us on a trip to Canada. Here’s the pic she sent to me:
I looked at him every day. I used to enlarge his picture so I could look into his eyes. Something told me to meet him.
When we returned from our international trip, we called and arranged to meet the little guy. We did and it was love at first sight. We brought him home and introduced him to the family. We called him Taco. I fell in love.
Not everyone was happy.
Our TV star kitty ran upstairs and moved up there. She wouldn’t come back down.
Our elderly dog didn’t like a little Tasmanian Devil snipping at her face and wanting to play.
After three days of this, we realized it would be a mistake to keep him. Even our vet told us not to have a puppy. It would hurt our great-great-grandmother of a dog. It didn’t help our cat. The writing was on the wall.
With tears in our eyes, we made some calls. As it turned out, the friend who introduced me to the little girl puppy told me that her friend visiting from Dallas was interested in the little brother. Within thirty minutes, they came over, met Taco, and fell in love. Taco now lives in Dallas, has a home that adores him, and is happy. His new name is Bugsy.
But here’s the rub:
Why did we take Taco to begin with?
Why was he led to us?
And why did we have to give him up?
This bothered me for a day or so. I look for the signs and signals in life that tell me where the flow is. I then usually follow that flow, and all is well. I felt in the flow to hear of Taco, meet him, adopt him and love him.
But letting him go hurt.
Why did it all happen?
I finally realized that our home was simply the stop over in an unseen chain to get Taco to Dallas. Had we not adopted him, we may never have been in a position to find the Dallas home for him. In a way, we were a delivery system. Our job was to get him for a weekend and pass him to the woman visiting from out of town that very same weekend.
Wow. There’s the flow. We just didn’t know it.
Some Divine current was directing me to do something, and directing the woman in Dallas to do something. It all worked out in Taco’s favor. It all ended up being good. Even great.
But during the weekend we had Taco, we didn’t know that. There was a script being acted out, written by an unseen hand, and we were playing our parts. We just couldn’t see the end result. We were caught in the moment and thought the moment was permanent.
The lesson, at least for me, is to trust the flow and the process.
It all leads to happiness, and is happiness, even when you think or want otherwise.
Just ask Taco.
Ao Akua,
joe
PS — Stay tuned for a blog post revealing the secret stories behind The Healing Song, my fourth music album.
You may remember that Daniel Barrett and I are coming out with a book tilted The Remembering Process (Hay House, Feb. 2013). It’s the first ever description of a breakthrough new creativity method for stretching your mind and altering time. It’s an advanced Law of Attraction technique. Recently I gave my first presentation ever on the subject, to my peers in the Transformational Leadership Council. You can watch the entire 45 minute talk right here. (It ends with a track from my new music album, The Healing Song.) I remember you loved it… 🙂
Filmed years ago for television and just put online in its entirety, you can watch it right here:
How do you attract more of what you want?
What do you do when it feels like nothing is working out for you?
Recently I interviewed Patricia Ryan Madson*, author of the book, Improv Wisdom. You might recall that I wrote about Patricia’s book on this blog on May 1st, exploring the question, “Without you, what would not get done?”
In my interview, Patricia said something that jarred me into a new reality.
She said, “In every moment, we are always receiving far more than we ever give.”
I had to reflect on her statement to truly get it:
In every moment, we are always receiving far more than we ever give.
Patricia went on to explain that right now you are receiving air, blood flow, support from a chair, technology from your computer or other device, light from the sun or your room lights, these words from me, and more.
But we take all of that for granted. All we stop and say thank you for is when someone gives you something or does something specifically for you. But what about everything else? The amount you are receiving right now is almost overwhelming.
Are you aware of it?
Are you grateful for it?
I had dinner one night with Paul Zane Pilzer*, author of The Next Millionaires. He explained over 300 people were involved in preparing our meal. He was referring to the farmers and pickers and distributors and carriers and restaurant owner and cooks and servers and more.
Imagine that. Over 300 people were working to deliver a meal!
I’ve been traveling a great deal again, for TV shows, movies, events, speaking gigs, music production and more. When I stop and think about all the “unseen helpers” who make sure me and my luggage get there on time, or all the “behind the scenes” people who do their jobs sight unseen so my face gets projected over the air to millions of televisions in homes nationwide, it is incredible.
In order to complete my fourth music album, more people were involved than just my band. I traveled to L.A. and Nashville so Grammy winners could mix and master the music. This is a lot to be grateful for, and can even feel overwhelming when you become aware of it all.
“Wake Up to the Gifts” is the ninth maxim in Patricia’s wonderful and wise little book, Improv Wisdom. She asks us to look for the “unseen” gifts, like the screen and processor allowing you to read these words, or the planet giving you all you need to live and breathe right now.
She also asks us to understand the interdependence of all things.
I can’t write these words without you. You can’t read these words without me writing them.
But it goes further than that. We need the folks who made the computers you and I are using, the Internet providers, the electric company, the people making or delivering our food, handling our flights and our mail, and more. We also need the elements of life itself, that provide both you and me with all we need to stay alive.
You don’t achieve or attract anything by yourself.
Are you aware of that?
Are you grateful for that?
In Improv Wisdom, Patricia suggests you make “Thank you” your mantra.
Of course, in the book I coauthored with Dr. Hew Len, Zero Limits, we suggest you make the four phrases of ho’oponopono your mantra: “I’m sorry, please forgive me, thank you, I love you.”
Either way, these methods are tools to help you see what you are receiving is a miracle.
It also is your opportunity to give back.
Since you are receiving so much, what can you do to give more?
You’ll never be able to give in a way that balances all you receive. That’s the miraculous imbalance of life: it’s stacked in your favor.
Think about this. You are receiving so much right now — most of which you were unaware of and took for granted — that you can never give enough to tip the scales. You can never give more than you receive. You are simply receiving way too much.
Think about it this way…
Every time you turn on your TV and flip through the hundreds of channels, remember that those shows were written, produced, directed and performed just for YOU.
Every time you go to the theatre and see a movie or a play, remember that it was made just for YOU.
Every time you turn on the radio and hear your favorite music, commentators, DJs, guest speakers, etc., for your listening enjoyment, again it was all created just for YOU.
When you think about the world honing its craft for YOUR daily entertainment, that’s powerful.
Can you appreciate how much there is to be grateful for?
It might make you think twice before complaining about having to pay $10 for a movie ticket nowadays. After all, the movie you are about to see probably had a budget of millions of dollars. Your investment is very small compared to what it costs to create a multimillion dollar motion picture…JUST FOR YOU!
The “miraculous imbalance” is also a gift to you.
But you probably never thought about it before today.
And here’s where you can begin to attract more of what you want.
Back to our opening questions…
It begins by noticing everything you have already attracted.
The thing is, most people focus on what they got that they don’t want, or on want they want that they haven’t attracted yet.
That’s hardly a practical approach to success.
And if you know anything about the Law of Attraction, you know that’s the wrong place to put your attention.
When you notice and acknowledge what you are being given right now, you morph your energy and your mood into something far more magnetic, compelling and loving.
Noticing the good you are already receiving tunes your being into a “good magnet.” You can start attracting even more good because you’ve awakened to the good you have and are continuing to receive. This opens your eyes to the magnitude of life; the magic and miracles all around you.
So the next time you hear anyone say, “I’m not attracting what I want,” realize they are declaring their blindness and deafness to all they have been given and are still receiving. Your job isn’t to correct them. It’s to smile, look around, acknowledge the gifts, and find a way to give back.
That said, what can you do right now to give more?
Well?
Ao Akua,
* I interviewed Patricia Ryan Madson (as well as Paul Zane Pilzer) for members of Hypnotic Gold. These are member-only interviews that I’ve been doing for more than seven years now, amounting to well over 80 interviews. For more information, and to find out how to become a member of this select group, just click right here.
PS – One more story of gratitude: When I was growing up, Clint Walker was the cowboy television star I admired. I never stopped to consider how his famous TV series, Cheyenne, entertained me weekly, for years, and yet I paid nothing. It was broadcast right into my parent’s home. Free. Today I realize how grateful I am for Clint and his show. (And my TV set.) He later appeared in many movies, such as The Dirty Dozen and Night of the Grizzly. You might imagine my surprise when I learned Clint Walker is still with us, alive at 85, writing his autobiography, working on a second novel, and selling signed photos and more off his website at www.clintwalker.com. I wrote to Clint, to thank him for all he did to give me a positive role model all those childhood years. I haven’t heard from him yet, and may never. Still, I’m grateful. I’m pretty sure he is grateful for the “miraculous imbalance” in life, too. In the spirit of giving back, here’s Clint Walker from a few years ago sharing life and death stories about listening to your inner voice: