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Pscyho Cybernetics Book Maxwell Maltz
Pscyho Cybernetics Book Maxwell Maltz
CYBERNETICS,
A New Way to Get More
Living Out of Life
BY
MAXWELL
MALTZ, M.D.,F.I.C.S.
FOREWORD:
The Secret of Using This Book to Change Your Life
1. The Self Image-Your Key to a Better Life
2. Discovering the Success Mechanism Within You
3. Imagination—The First Key to Your
Success Mechanism
4. Dehypnotize Yourself from False Beliefs
5. How to Utilize the Power of Rational Thinking
6. Relax and Let Your Success Mechanism
Work for You
7. You Can Acquire the Habit of Happiness
8. Ingredients of the Success-Type Personality
and How to Acquire Them
9. The Failure Mechanism—How to Make it Work
for You, Instead of Against You
10. How to Remove Emotional Scars and
Give Yourself "An Emotional Face Lift"
11. How to Unlock Your Real Personality
12. Do-It-Yourself Tranquilizers That Bring
Peace of Mind
13. How to Turn a Crisis into a Creative Opportunity
14. How to Get "That Winning Feeling"
15. More Years of Life and More Life in Your Years
"Dr. Maltz's discovery
of Psycho-Cybernetics
is an important and valuable
contribution to man's knowledge
of himself and to his ability
to improve himself,"
—LEWIS GRUBER,
Chairman of the Board,
P. Lorillard & Co.
THE AUTHOR
A KANGAROO BOOK
PUBLISHED BY POCKET BOOKS NEW YORK
POCKET BOOKS, a Simon & Schuster division of
GULF & WESTERN CORPORATION
1230 Avenue of the Americas, N e w York, N.Y. 10020
ISBN: 0-671-80628-9
33rd printing
GENERAL PRINCIPLES
SCIENCE DISCOVERS
"SYNTHETIC" EXPERIENCE
WHAT IS SUCCESS?
Chapter Page
1. THE SELF IMAGE: YOUR KEY TO A BETTER
LIFE 1
2. DISCOVERING THE SUCCESS MECHANISM WITH-
IN You 15
3. IMAGINATION—THE FIRST KEY TO YOUR SUC-
CESS MECHANISM 30
4. DEHYPNOTIZE YOURSELF FROM FALSE BELIEFS 48
5. How TO UTILIZE THE POWER OF RATIONAL
THINKING 64
6. RELAX AND LET YOUR SUCCESS MECHANISM
WORK FOR YOU 78
7. You CAN ACQUIRE THE HABIT OF HAPPINESS 95
8. INGREDIENTS OF THE SUCCESS-TYPE PERSON-
ALITY AND How TO ACQUIRE THEM 111
9. THE FAILURE MECHANISM: HOW TO MAKE IT
WORK FOR YOU INSTEAD OF AGAINST YOU 129
10. How TO REMOVE EMOTIONAL SCARS, OR HOW
TO GIVE YOURSELF AN EMOTIONAL FACE
LIFT 149
11. How TO UNLOCK YOUR REAL PERSONALITY .... 168
12. DO-IT-YOURSELF TRANQUILIZERS THAT BRING
PEACE OF MIND 187
xvii
13. How TO TURN A CRISIS INTO A CREATIVE O P -
PORTUNITY 204
14. How TO GET "THAT WINNING FEELING" 223
15. MORE YEARS OF LIFE AND MORE LIFE IN
YOUR YEARS 245
INDEX 269
PSYCHO-
CYBERNETICS
CHAPTER ONE
PRACTICE EXERCISE:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Dehypnotize Yourself
From False Beliefs
Is Everyone Hypnotized?
Many people will find this the most relaxing of all. Just
go back in memory to some relaxing and pleasant scene
from your past. There is always some time in everyone's
life when he felt relaxed, at ease, and at peace with the
world. Pick out your own relaxing picture from your past
and call up detailed memory images. Yours may be a
peaceful scene at a mountain lake where you went fishing.
DEHYPNOTIZE YOURSELF 63
If so, pay particular attention to the little incidental things
in the environment. Remember the quiet ripples on the
water. What sounds were present? Did you hear the quiet
rustling of the leaves? Maybe you remember sitting per-
fectly relaxed, and somewhat drowsy before an open fire-
place long ago. Did the logs crackle and spark? What
other sights and sounds were present? Maybe you choose
to remember relaxing in the sun on a beach. How did the
sand feel against your body? Could you feel the warm re-
laxing sun, touching your body, almost as a physical
thing? Was there a breeze blowing? Were there gulls on
the beach? The more of these incidental details you can
remember and picture to yourself, the more successful
you will be.
Daily practice will bring these mental pictures, or
memories, clearer and clearer. The effect of learning will
also be cumulative. Practice will strengthen the tie-in be-
tween mental image and physical sensation. You will be-
come more and more proficient in relaxation, and this in
itself will be "remembered" in future practice sessions.
I.
2.
3.
4.
5.
CASE HISTORY:
CHAPTER FIVE
How to Utilize
The Power of Rational Thinking
Points to Remember
(Fill in)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
CASE HISTORY:
CHAPTER SIX
Victory by Surrender
Stop—Look—and Listen!
4. Sleep on it.
Points to Remember
(Fill in)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
I
CHAPTER SEVEN
PRACTICE EXERCISE
Points to Remember
(Fill in)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Ingredients of the
"Success-Type" Personality
and How to Acquire Them
S-ense of direction
U—nderstanding
C-ourage
C-harity
E-steem
S-elf-Confidence
S-elf-Acceptance.
(2) UNDERSTANDING:
(3) COURAGE:
• (4) CHARITY:
(5)ESTEEM:
(6) SELF-CONFIDENCE:
(7) SELF-ACCEPTANCE:
Points to Remember
(Fill in)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
CHAPTER NINE
(1) FRUSTRATION:
(2) AGGRESSIVENESS:
(3) INSECURITY:
(4) LONELINESS:
(5) UNCERTAINTY:
(6) RESENTMENT:
(7) EMPTINESS:
Points to Remember
(Fill in)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
CHAPTER TEN
Forgiveness Is a Scalpel
Which Removes Emotional Scars
Points to Remember
(Fill in)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
How to Unlock
Your Real Personality
Excessive "Carefulness"
Leads to Inhibition and Anxiety
Points to Remember
(Fill in)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
* Reported to the Pan American Congress on Sports Medicine
by Dr. Michio Ikai of the University of Tokyo and Dr. Arthur H.
Steinhaus of George Williams College, Chicago.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Do-It-Yourself Tranquilizers
Which Bring Peace of Mind
You can use the same technique to "hit the ball" in sell-
ing, teaching, or running a business. A young salesman
complained to me that he froze-up when calling upon
prospects. His one big trouble was his inability to properly
reply to the prospect's objection. "When a prospect raises
an objection—or criticises my product—I can't think of a
thing to say at the time," he said. "Later, I can think of all
kinds of good ways to handle the objection."
I told him about shadow-boxing and about the kid who
learned to bat by letting the ball go by with the bat on his
shoulder. I pointed out that to hit a baseball, or to think
on your feet, requires good reflexes. Your automatic Suc-
cess Mechanism must respond appropriately and auto-
matically. Too much tension, too much motivation, too
much anxiety for results, jams the mechanism. "You think
of the proper answers later because you're relaxed and the
214 PSYCHO-CYBERNETICS
pressure is off. Right now your trouble is you're not re-
sponding quickly and spontaneously to the objections
your prospects throw at you-—in other words, you're not
hitting the ball that the prospect throws."
I told him first of all to practice a number of imagi-
nary interviews—actually walking in, introducing himself
to a prospect, making his sales pitch—and then imagining
every possible objection, no matter how screwballish, and
answering it out loud. Next, he was to practice "with his
bat on his shoulder" on an actual live client. He was to go
in with an "empty gun" as far as intents and purposes
were concerned. The purpose of the sales interview would
not be to sell—he had to resign himself to being satisfied
with no order. The purpose of the call would be strictly
practice—"bat on the shoulder," "empty gun" practice.
In his own words, this shadow-boxing "worked like a
miracle."
As a young medical student I used to shadow-box sur-
gical operations on cadavers. This no-pressure practice
taught me much more than technique. It taught a future
surgeon calmness, deliberateness, clear thinking, because
he had practiced all these things in a situation that was
not do-or-die, life-or-death.
How to Get
"That Winning Feeling"