The Power of Attention

Uri Geller can bend spoons with his mind. Yeah, right. And I'm Joan of Arc.

When it comes to parapsychology, I've always been a skeptic. But what I read on Saturday blew my mind. It seems that our consciousness does indeed have the power to affect inanimate objects.

I was reading Lynne McTaggart's The Field (HarperCollins, 2002). She describes mind-and-matter research carried out by eminent scientists. Take physicist Bob Jahn. The dean of Princeton's engineering school, he was renowned for his work on advanced space propulsion systems and high temperature plasma dynamics. Does he sound like a flake?

Jahn's life changed when a sophomore asked him to supervise her project. He was reluctant, for the project involved psychic phenomena. But she was a brilliant student, and tenacious. He became so intrigued by what her study showed that he established PEAR: Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research. This program has now been running for 24 years.

One of PEAR's first projects involved a machine that randomly produced 0s and 1s, churning out an equal number of each. People were asked to sit down near the machine and, just by an act of will, influence it to produce more of one number than the other. Thousands of trials carried out over many years showed that people could indeed affect the output.

Wow! Our consciousness can reach out and shape the physical world. So much for Descartes' separation of mind and matter.

But then again, why am I surprised? After all, I've long believed that we create our lives by what we give attention to.

I see this daily in my work. Some clients look for pathways that will move them forward. Others focus remorselessly on barriers: I don't have enough money. I don't have enough talent. I don't have enough family support. Whatever the mindset, it manifests in the way lives unfold.

What are you giving your attention to? If you want 1s, then be sure to give them plenty of mindspace. If 0s dominate your consciousness, that's exactly what you'll get.

Excuse me now. It's time for my Joan of Arc visualization.

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