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By Cathy Eck

The new thought movement has convinced people that positive thinking is the Holy Grail.  But it is not.  It is simply a pretty good band-aid that will eventually come off and reveal the unhealed wound.

The Dark Side of Positive Thinking

Given the power of the new thought movement in the last century, and the fact that even fundamentalist Christians are thinking their way to riches these days, it is important to understand the difference between what has long been considered either positive or rational thinking and letting go.  People often confuse the two; and nearly every day, someone tells me how my perspective reminds them of some channeled material or some new age religious movement.  It is really the opposite.  Let me share a real example that will make this clear.

I was about four years old when I started listening to my mother’s telephone conversations.  Grown-up conversations fascinated me; and television was not as interesting or diverse as it is today.  My mother was very much a drama queen, and the conversations usually ended up with a discussion of someone with a horrible disease.  I would hear her describe the symptoms; and my young, impressionable mind would start to manifest those symptoms.  I didn’t yet have any discrimination ability (psychologists say that comes around age seven).  My mind simply produced whatever I put inside of it.  What I heard, I believed; and I manifested it.  This is how the child’s mind works, and it is not defective.  What is defective is the people that they live with who talk about reality rather than the truth.

I’m now convinced that if mothers would just stop talking about problems and diseases, their little children would not get sick or get into trouble.  We can’t completely protect our children from other authorities, but we can set a strong foundation.  But back to the story…

So by bed time, I would not be able to sleep.  I’d have full-blown symptoms of MS, cancer, tuberculosis, polio, or even lockjaw (Yes, I know it sounds insane, but I honestly convinced my jaw that it could not move.).  So my dad would walk into the room and see me unable to sleep.  I’d tell him I was dying; and he’d laugh and say something like, “You could not possibly have those diseases.  They don’t happen to young people.”  In other words, I didn’t qualify for the disease.  Moments later, I was free of the symptoms recognizing that I was not an acceptable candidate; and I’d fall asleep.

My Beliefs Went into Remission

Now one would think this problem was done, finished, complete.  My dad cast aside the dreaded symptoms in one sentence.  But my mind held my mother’s thoughts/beliefs for decades until I was no longer young in my mind.  For some reason, forty was the magic number in my mind that converted me from young to no longer young.  And guess what; all the symptoms started coming back when I was no longer young.  It was horrible.  I thought for sure I was doomed.  I knew that if I dared go to a doctor, I’d get a diagnosis that I would never escape.  So I went inside my mind.  I had to find a way to let go of my mother’s voice.  And I eventually did.

I have many articles on this subject on this website including my free e-course Unlocking Heaven’s Gate, so I won’t go into the details here.  But I trusted that the symptoms had value.  I trusted that my emotions had value.  I observed the energy in my body and followed the emotions and symptoms, trusting that they would lead me to the cause.  My emotions did lead me back to my four-year-old self.  My emotions connected my current symptoms with the belief that I had accepted four decades earlier from my mother.

It isn’t so strange that I would discover this since I had researched ancient initiation teachings for years.  My predicament forced me to try the ancient master’s techniques.  I didn’t have a teacher so I just used trial and error.  I didn’t look at my body for results; I looked to see if the quality of my thinking improved.  You see, the ancient masters said that all is mind; and the world, including our body, is only an effect of the mind.  But these masters didn’t talk about changing your thoughts or putting thoughts in your mind.  They talked about taking out what didn’t belong — the false self.

Consequently, I didn’t put thoughts in my mind.  I let go of whatever thoughts were not consistent with a healthy body.  The body is the effect of the mind; so until the mind is free of false thinking, the body won’t change (once we no longer use positive thoughts or drugs or therapy to fix our problems).  Now don’t get me wrong.  I don’t recommend going cold turkey on this.  You don’t have to give up anything while letting go of your false mind.  What people find is that suddenly one day, the drug or therapy looks ridiculous, even disgusting; and they simply stop taking it.

It is frustrating to do things this way because we are used to the seemingly quick relief provided by modern treatments and fixes to our problems.  But when the beliefs are finally cleared, the change is instant.  Eventually, I did let go of the cause, which was ultimately the whole complex of beliefs that any of these diseases my mother spoke of existed.  I know that sounds crazy, but diseases are labels that humans put on symptoms.  The symptoms are caused by thought or beliefs.  The label makes the disease solid and real.  And we believe the label since it comes from an expert, which causes us to get mentally stuck and unable to let go.  This all becomes very clear when you let go of symptoms in your body, which I’ve now done hundreds of times.  It definitely wasn’t a five-minute job, but it was a thorough clean-up of all the fears that I took on at age four.  And my body and mind relaxed once again.

Believe me when I say that this was not the end of letting go for me.  It was the end of that one challenge.  I was nowhere near fully cooked.  We are all stuffed full of beliefs; I still let go all the time.  I still have more body and life issues to disappear from my mind.  The good news is that it gets quicker and much easier over time.

Doesn’t Positive Thinking Fix Such Thoughts?

So how does this relate to positive thinking?  Positive thinking is just like my dad’s well-intentioned comment to me.  It puts a band-aid on the belief that is at cause.  But one day, that band-aid belief will come off.  If he had known the truth of life, he would have said.  “Honey, your mother is talking about things that don’t exist.  She believes in a world where problems and diseases exist.  People’s beliefs only affect them.  There is no disease unless you believe in it.  And you don’t, so let go of your beliefs in disease and be free.”  But that would sound like a fairy tale, wouldn’t it?  So you can see how far we’ve fallen into the rabbit’s hole of illusion.  The truth sounds like a myth to most of us.

The Cliff Notes History of Positive Thinking

Eons ago, rational patriarchal, positive thinking was invented.  The idea was that thought or beliefs meant everything; emotions sucked and were worthless.  God was no longer within; he was up in the clouds and took sides.  The war of beliefs began.  The game was to try to get your belief system to be the most powerful so you could rule the world.  (Sound familiar? People are still doing it today.)

So men in authority made themselves good, according to their own rules.  The masses of people were, of course, bad.  The people wondered, what did I do wrong?  It was a good question with no answer.  People are still looking for that answer today.  But they won’t find the answer because they didn’t do anything wrong except they started to listen to the leaders who supposedly knew God’s rules.  The made-up God was very angry at everyone except for the people who made him up.  Therefore, the leaders appeared positive and unemotional since they constantly fed their minds reminders of their superiority and their elite place in the world.  People held the leaders in high esteem because they realized that their own minds were not positive, and they were highly emotional.  Through the use of fear of God and punishment, people’s minds came to follow the leader’s rules instead of their heart, their true Self, or the real God.  Pride in their leader kept them chained to the false teachings.

At first, only the leaders knew how to create a superiority complex in their mind…it was called the Black Arts.  But in time, it became common knowledge.  And in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the new thought movement brought the idea to the masses as the positive thinking movement.  I suspect they just wanted to even the score.  Now everyone can affirm positive thoughts, and possibly win the game of life.  But that is not what we really want because this kind of winning includes losing.  We win, but someone else loses.  We get rich, but we also support poverty.  Our false self does want this; it loves games and loves to win at the expense of others.  But our true Self doesn’t enjoy games or winning at another’s expense.  It wants to love, create, and harmonize with others.  We will never be truly joyous in the false illusory world even if we win all the time.

So lots of people jumped on the positive thinking movement, and it seemed to work.  They were winning.  But then bad things would pop out of nowhere.  Why didn’t the positive thinking work anymore?  It was just like my fear of disease at four.   It went into hiding only to reappear when the band-aid belief failed to hide the wound.

Perhaps the person positively affirmed that they deserved money, and so their business took off.  But then life brought them a circumstance that caused them to feel undeserving.   The deserving (or positive cover) belief lost its power, and BAM their original beliefs were now running the show again.

The false self thinks it is protecting us from loss; when it is really protecting us from our rewards, our desires, our true Self.

Disappearing Negative Thinking by Letting Go

So you see, positive thinking is just a way to counteract negative thinking.  Our true Self is already positive, already good.  You don’t need to take the train to New York if you are already there.  All covered-up negative thinking hangs around waiting for its moment to shine.  Letting go means you let go of the negative thinking that is in your face; you move out of the illusory world of opposites and into the realm of the true Self where everyone wins and problems don’t exist.  Letting go creates real change; and while it may be much harder in the moment, it is a complete cure.

So you might say, but Cathy…I follow those motivational speakers, and they have great lives.  Just look at Tony Robbin’s teeth and unbounded energy.  What about leaders who deliver those speeches that move us or the preachers who inspire us?

You might notice that those people share their beliefs as if they are true, and they follow them to the letter.  They use their power of influence to get followers of their belief system.  It works for them just as it has worked for thousands of years, but it doesn’t work so well for the followers.  We all need to follow our beliefs or follow no beliefs.  What is in our mind must be our choice.

These charismatic leaders make sure that they are always in the position of power or authority; they make sure they are the guru, the Grand Puba of their club.  As long as they can stay in power over their flocks, their beliefs run the show.  This is why people want power — so their beliefs can rule.  The blinded followers see them as all-powerful and right.  Since we are wired from childhood to obey authority and follow, we listen to them in awe.  And when their advice doesn’t work, we think we did something wrong.  We never question the advice.

The illusion is a different sort of creative atmosphere.  It is there for those that want to play in it, who love fighting and competition.  I simply don’t.  But that doesn’t mean I need them to quit their games.  I just need to not believe them, and I’ll be the first to admit that is often extremely difficult.  The positive thinkers of the world have learned to say the same things that our true Self would say.  They have some very thick masks that hide their negativity.  It is often pretty hard to detect a true Self from a complete fraud unless you discriminate.  I still find myself at times stuck in another’s belief system if I don’t pay attention.

There are a few big clues.  People who live from their true Selves don’t compete except for fun.  They don’t want power over others.  They don’t take part in war or have terrorist opponents.  They could care less if you follow them or not.  So can you see how all the people running America and the world are living in the illusion?   They love war and games.  They want power, and they want to win.  A true leader leads with love and the heart.  But they are few and far between.

It is possible to get completely out of the illusory mindset if you keep letting go.  In my opinion, it is time that the power returned to the people.  We don’t need even one leader to let go, although it would be wonderful if they did.  If enough people do so, the whole giant pyramid of power will come crumbling down.  Life on earth will be Eden-like again.

Beliefs Lie; They Make Us Boring

Beliefs lie.  They make us uninteresting.  They veil our creativity and our ability to think original thoughts.  As people let go, they are often amazed at talents that they didn’t know they had or ideas that they could not see when their eyes were covered with beliefs.

I only share letting go so that people don’t have to stay suck in someone else’s belief system if they don’t want to.  I share it because I wanted this wisdom so desperately when I felt stuck.  It took me twenty years to find it and see it all clearly.  Not everyone has that kind of time or motivation.  But everyone deserves a great life and freedom from having to follow the false beliefs of others.

I see the potential of a perfect world where people set their own rules and their own beliefs; they follow them and live the adventure they want to live, or they drop them and go free.  No one tells anyone, not even a child, what to think in my world.  And we love each other by helping those who are stuck to let go.

From Curse to Cure

In the ancient world, wrong thinking was called a curse or sin.  In English, we have a very cool memory tool within the word curse.  If you take out the S for sin, snake, or suffering, you are left with the cure.  The cure means that you are fixing the cause, which is always a belief.  If you add positive thinking to the curse, you add another S or more sin, and you end up with curses.  The mind becomes a snake pit.

The way out of the illusion has a lot of snake pits; it is not easy only because we’ve accepted a lot of beliefs from others.  But the journey is worth it.  Each time you challenge a belief and let it go, rather than wrap it in pretty paper and a bow, your true Self fills the vacuum.  You start feeling more like your Self.  You start loving life.  And eventually, problems start to disappear.  But the best part is that you can’t screw this up.  You can’t let go of the truth; you can only let go of beliefs.  So as you let go of the lies in your mind, you see clearly the lies and beliefs in others; and you no longer get trapped in their spider’s web.  You remain free.

The best reading materials if you want support on letting go are my articles under the category of Freedom from Beliefs (Lies).  Click here for a good one to start with.