My Year in the Master Key System – Part Two

As I move further into my study of the Master Key System by Charles Haanel, I begin to understand how I could actually start controlling the process of creating in the outside world. 

Part Two of the Master Key System starts by explaining that we have a conscious and subconscious mind.  The conscious mind deals with and reacts to the outside world.  It sends messages to the subconscious mind, which quickly and effectively finds a way to provide what the conscious mind wants. 

What we often don’t realize is that we can choose what we react to and how we react.  Have you ever noticed that some days things come at you so quickly that you seem to respond as if you were a machine, processing each thing as it comes and reacting automatically.  This saves energy and allows our conscious mind to focus on the most important things.  I actually feel good on days like this, because I think I’m being efficient and dealing with everything effectively.  Except that my automatic reactions are not always conducive to giving me what I truly want.  I say yes when I should really be saying no to a project that I know won’t bring me any benefit.  I respond emotionally when I should realize that I am too tired to respond rationally to my spouse’s three teenagers.  I create a crisis when a few deep breaths might give me the chance to remember a solution I have already applied to a recurring problem. 

The conscious mind has the ability to discriminate, choose and reason.  This means that we can choose what we send to the subconscious mind, the instructions on which it will operate.  If we send “panic, this is a disaster!”, the subconscious very efficiently ensures that a disaster occurs so that it can panic according to our wishes.  If we send “find a solution to this before it becomes a disaster”, the subconscious will do just that: find a way for a solution to present itself to us so that we avert the disaster. 

Ok, so all I have to do is send positive messages to my subconscious and I’ll get everything I want, right?  Well, it’s not quite that simple.  First of all, we have to learn to discipline our conscious mind to send only positive messages.  In the Master Key System, Charles Haanel takes us through a series of exercises to start this discipline process.  In Part One, he tells us to practice being physically still.  And in Part Two, we start practicing being mentally still.  A form of meditation, we are asked to learn how to inhibit all thought and become quiet inside.  Quite a challenge!

But there is a second challenge to sending positive messages to the subconscious.  There is a filter between the conscious and subconscious minds.  This filter is made up of all the programming we have accumulated through years of being told what to do and all the internal messages we tell ourselves.  We can send positive messages about becoming financially secure, but if we have internal programming that says “rich people are snobs and I don’t want to be a snob”, our programming will sabotage the positive message before it reaches the subconscious. 

So I have two challenges: discipline my mind and dissolve all the negative programming that sits within the filter between my conscious and subconscious minds.  It’s certainly plenty of work for the next two weeks!