THE BIG IDEAS The Power of Your Supermind

Switching
Great cosmic wisdom explained in a clear and practical way
On the light. BY VERNON HOWARD · NEW LIFE FOUNDATION © 1975 · 286 PAGES

Mental Movies
Quit playing bad ones!

Don’t Be Impatient
Practice and relax. “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
Detecting Negativity
Is positive. complex; it is quite simple. I mean the mental faculty which is above and beyond
Psychic Spankings the conditioned human thought. It is the same thing as awareness, consciousness,
Are helpful. esoteric thinking. It is what an Eastern mystic would call the silent mind, or what
Vanishing Pain Gaps the New Testament calls the Kingdom of Heaven within. It is your true self. Quite
Don’t argue with what is. simply, it is the force within every man that is as high above the ordinary mind as
Getting Out of Messes the sky is above the earth.”
Grow and stay out of ‘em.
~ Vernon Howard from The Power of Your Supermind
Psychic Meteorology
Let it pass. Vernon Howard is an amazing 20th century teacher.
Memorizing You may not’ve heard of him, but he’s sold over 7 million books and brings an incredibly lucid,
vs. Knowing.
old-school, straight-to-the-point kinda energy to his great books.
Causes & Effects
& Leaky boats. 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.
Start Telling Yourself
What to do.
There are way more Big Ideas in the book than I’ll be able to get to in this Note, so let’s jump
Your Grand Purpose straight in with some good news!
Is to wake up!

Spiritual Cats SWITCHING ON THE LIGHT

Just be real, yo!
“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! :)

“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
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? :)

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“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
“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
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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!
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.” :)
 “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
“Accept nothing as true
that is not *your* truth.”
~ Vernon Howard
“Human beings live the way
they *choose*, not the
way they *want*. A vast
difference lies between
the two.”
~ Vernon Howard
PhilosophersNotes | The Power of Your Supermind
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.”
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?
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?
3

“No one can enjoy a truth
for which he is unprepared,
any more than an ape can
appreciate a harp.”
~ Vernon Howard
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.”

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”?!?

“Is the beam from a Point: let’s grow to a higher level of consciousness and not even get into the messes that
lighthouse affected by currently pester us!!! :)
howling wind and rain? It
remains perfectly steadfast PSYCHIC METEOROLOGY
and unaffected by the “The basic idea is not to identify with a feeling of depression, not to take it as being part of the
storm. Your true self is essential self. Instead, stand aside with objective examination, just as a weather scientist might
like that. Nothing can ever examine a dark cloud. Such a cloud would not make a scientist feel gloomy. Neither should the
harm you once you are psychic scientist feel depressed over the observed depression.”
consciously aware that it
Lots o’ teachers talk about this Big Idea.
is so.”
We are NOT our emotions!!!
~ Vernon Howard
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
“At the start of your quest, simple, not always EASY to do!), but the moment we can actually just observe the state we’re in,
wisdom is a flash, not a its power over us diminishes immediately and significantly!
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

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 meaning comes when I admit I know nothing and then try, practice, succeed.”
“You know what is right.
Deep down, you know. The What a great way to put it in perspective, huh?!?
battle between your true We can memorize the instructions on a first-aid kit, or from our “bible,” but being able to parrot
wisdom and the counterfeit the words is VERY different than actually living them, eh?
wisdom of society is what
States obvious: It’s NOT enough to be able to cite the quote and give the page reference. We’ve
causes frustration. Refuse
GOTTA LIVE the truths!!!! So, let’s!!! :)
to compromise with what
you know is right—with what
CAUSES & EFFECTS & LEAKY BOATS
is right for you.”
“A fisherman in a leaky boat would not be content with bailing out the water day after day. He
~ Vernon Howard
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.
“Never sacrifice your
inner integrity to anyone,
Um, yah.

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

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?
“The genuinely spiritual
Because the greatest gift we can give ourselves is to be in integrity with our own, authentic
person is one who has
values and if we’re constantly following someone else’s idea of what we should do (whether that
lost all desire to be anyone “someone” is a parent or spouse or church/Bible/priest/etc.) we’re NEVER going to know what
but exactly who he is, OUR truth is.
without labels and without
As Vernon says: “Don’t look for someone in whom to believe. Believe in yourself. The only
apologies. He is what he
authentic authority is your own original nature.”
is and that’s all there’s
is to it. Such a man is
YOUR GRAND PURPOSE
undivided, uncomplicated
“If your grand purpose in life is to wake up, then whatever happens to you is good, for it can prod
and contented.”
you into self-awakening.”
~ Vernon Howard
Amen.

PhilosophersNotes | The Power of Your Supermind 5

 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.”

“How true are you to Imagine that. If our highest goal is to wake up, end our suffering and truly live our precious lives,
yourself? That is the degree then EVERYTHING is a gift, eh?

of your contentment.” What’s goin’ on in your life right now that you might be able to look at in a different way?!?
~ Vernon Howard 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.’”

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!

Brian Johnson,
Chief Philosopher

If you liked this Note, About the Author of “The Power of Your Supermind”
you’ll probably like… VERNON HOWARD

Thus Spoke Zarathustra Vernon Howard was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts on March 16, 1918. When
The Power of Now he was a boy his family moved to California where he lived for many years. He
began writing and lecturing there on spiritual and psychological topics. He
Loving What Is
eventually moved from Los Angeles to Boulder City, Nevada where he lived
Meditations and taught for many years. In 1979 he founded New Life Church and Literary
Harmonic Wealth Foundation.

The Enchiridion From 1965 until his death in 1992 he wrote books and conducted classes which
reflect a degree of skill and understanding that may be unsurpassed in modern
history. Human Behavior Magazine once said of him, “Vernon Howard is
probably the clearest writer on these subjects in the English language.” (from
ANewLife.org where you can learn more!)

About the Author of This Note

BRIAN JOHNSON

Brian Johnson loves helping people optimize their lives as he studies, embodies
and teaches the fundamentals of optimal living—integrating ancient wisdom
+ modern science + common sense + virtue + mastery + fun. Learn more and
optimize your life at brianjohnson.me.

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