SHIFTING INTO RECEIVE MODE
Haanel strongly encourages us to enter into the Silence. But his guidance on what to do when we attain this inner quiet must be gleaned carefully from his writings, as he gives scant instruction at a practical level as to what to do right when we achieve a quiet mind. For many people who try various techniques based on his teachings, this step in accessing insight and higher guidance often presents a stumbling block that stops further progress.
Silent thought concentration is the true method of reaching, awakening, and then expressing the wonderful potential power of the world within.
This may be true, but what is “silent thought concentration,” and how do we achieve this? In this chapter I’d like to share with you both the psychological understanding and a pragmatic process that I’ve been exploring for many years, so that you will be able to not only enter into the Silence but achieve “silent thought concentration” each time you pause and move through a manifestation session.
First of all, let’s do a quick review of why Haanel considers the quiet-mind phase so important. Here is a compression of his teachings on this point:
Try to comprehend that Omnipotence itself is absolute silence. It is in the Silence that you get into touch with the omnipotent power of the subconscious mind from which all power is evolved.
Intuition usually comes in the Silence. Great minds seek solitude; it is here that all the larger problems of life are worked out.
Perception will come only in the Silence; this seems to be the condition required for all great purposes.
Inspiration is from within. The Silence offers an ever available and almost unlimited opportunity for awakening the highest conception of Truth.
The Silence is necessary in order to receive the information, inspiration, and wisdom necessary for the development of your purpose.
From this list, we can see that what we want to have happen when we enter the Silence is “to receive.” If we are receptive, something will “come” to us—insight awakening, information, wisdom, inspiration, power, intuition, perception, greatness, solutions to problems, and communion with the Divine. What an amazing list of what we can receive—but only if we’re open to receive!
For quite some time now, I’ve been exploring the very nature of “openness to receive,” and have coined the term “receive mode” to indicate that there are three modes of consciousness that we can be in: broadcast mode, receive mode, and turned-off mode. I want to talk with you about these three modes of consciousness, because your entire success with this manifestation process depends on being able to shift into receive mode when you enter into the Silence.
As a beginning hint, note that Haanel makes the following statement:
We have seen that every thought is received by the brain, which is the organ of the conscious mind.
He many times says that when we tune into the Universal Mind, we can “receive” inspired thoughts from this greater wisdom and intelligence. This is how we have a flash of creative insight that comes to us fully conceived beyond the bounds of logical deduction; this is how we experience “knowing” and spiritual realization.
There are indeed two sources of thought in the human mind: the biological ego’s associative deductive rational thought process, and the intuitive reception of inspired ideas that emerge from an integration of the personal mind’s creative function and nonpersonal spiritual inputs.
When in silence you come into possession of a sense of poise and power, you will be ready to receive the information, inspiration, or wisdom which may be necessary for the development of your purpose.
Haanel’s “sense of poise” has fascinated me because “poise” is defined as “a state of equilibrium, a dignified, self-confident manner; self-possession and stability.” To be poised means to hold a position where we’re ready to act at any moment, but are presently calm and balanced and awaiting—alert but relaxed.
To be in tune with eternal truth we must possess poise and harmony within. In order to receive intelligence the receiver must be in tune with the transmitter.
Here we have another hint about the quality of mind we want to nurture when we enter the Silence: We must have “poise and harmony within.” When we quiet all our usual disruptive thoughts and focus on enjoying the present moment, we shift into a harmonious mood, as we learned in the previous chapters. But here we have a new thought: “In order to receive intelligence the receiver must be in tune with the transmitter.”
Clearly, we must shift from being in broadcast mode, where we’re the transmitter, into receive mode, where we’re alert and receptive and focused directly toward the source of our inspiration and information.
How can you accomplish this goal, this shift into receive mode, each time you do a manifestation session? The answer is found once again in stating your intent as a very carefully worded Focus Phrase, so that your conscious mind turns its focus of attention exactly where needed: tuned in with the transmitter.
The best Focus Phrase we’ve developed to instantly provoke this shift into receive mode with attention fully aimed at the Source is this:
“I am open to receive guidance from my Source.”
This is a perfect statement of intent. It’s short, it generates a feeling of openness, and it aims your attention toward the inner wellspring of human inspiration and empowerment. You simply say the words to yourself and hold them in your mind and heart, and they will effortlessly resonate deep within your being and generate a unique inner experience.
Remember that Focus Phrases will have no power at all unless you continually remain aware of your breathing experience at the same time that you say the Focus Phrase to yourself.
You must “be here” as a physical presence if you’re going to receive, and breath awareness is the indicator that you’re here in the present moment, ready to receive.
Also, as we’ve seen, your mental chatter must stop in order for you to receive higher-order insights. When you’re thinking habitual everyday ego-driven thoughts originating in your own brain, you are locked in broadcast mode—and you cannot be in broadcast mode and receive mode at the same time; that’s one of the core laws of communication. Unfortunately most of us most of the time are busy thinking and therefore in broadcast mode, which means that most of the time, we simply aren’t in receive mode—and therefore insights cannot reach us.
That’s why regularly pausing for at least a few moments to move through the quiet-mind process can transform your life, because you’re regularly shifting into receive mode, where the real gold is found in consciousness.
The world within is the Universal Fountain of supply, and the world without is the outlet to the stream. Our ability to receive depends upon our recognition of this Universal Fountain, this Infinite Energy of which each individual is an outlet.
Haanel sees individual people as outlets for the divine flow of love and harmony, information and insight. All of life is a flow, and what is required of us is “our recognition of this Universal Fountain, this Infinite Energy.” And to recognize something, we must turn our attention toward it and experience its reality. “Be still, and know that I am God.”
First comes the act of silencing our mental chatter and shifting into receive mode. Then comes the remarkable human act of realizing what we’re seeing before us. From this realization comes the knowing, and from the knowing comes the inflow of exactly what we need in our lives to live the good life attuned to God. As we quoted in the beginning, a single idea may be worth millions of dollars, and these ideas can come only to those who are receptive, who are prepared to receive them, and who are in a successful frame of mind.
Again we come to this notion of the frame of mind, the prevailing mood and attitude that you bring into the Silence. We’ve seen that “successful” for Haanel means being in a “happy and harmonious” state of mind. As you practice the quiet-mind part of this manifestation process, you’ll find that the breath and whole-body awareness Focus Phrases will naturally help shift you into this positive frame of mind.
Then you say to yourself the specific receive mode Focus Phrase: “I am open to receive guidance from my Source.” Stay aware of your breathing and whole-body presence, and relax into the Silence as you wait in a state of poise for the inflow of whatever information and empowerment might be available to you at that time. Here’s another way Haanel explains this:
The next step is to place yourself in position to receive this insight or power. As it is omnipresent, it must be within you. All power is from within.
Again we return to the notion that the insight, information, power, or guidance you seek is not coming from somewhere off in heaven or outside of you. Insight is a function of consciousness, which as we’ve seen operates outside the space-time continuum. You must aim your attention directly inward to your own center if you want to find the Universal Center. Your personal center and the Universal Center are one and the same—that’s the whole point! This means that you are never separated from your Source, except to the extent that you fail to aim your attention inward and open up to receive.
You must be receptive, and this receptivity is acquired just as physical strength is gained, by exercise.
Often we assume that being receptive is an innate quality, but here Haanel states clearly just the opposite—that “receptivity is acquired.” I have found this to be entirely true. This means that the first time you do a manifestation session, you can’t expect the angels to sing instantly to you in four-part harmony. You must exercise and develop your ability to receive, just as you would exercise to develop a capacity in sports.
Opening to receive is not just a lofty idea; it’s a pragmatic process that you nurture and master. So your challenge ahead is to take time to move through a manifestation session quite often, perhaps three or four times a day, so that you develop your “receptivity muscle” and become strong in the art of receiving.
From this process of self-contemplation comes inspiration, which is creative intelligence.
When you look inward toward your inner Source, you are indeed contemplating your own higher existence. And this inward-looking will prove a process of continual discovery, because you and the Universal Mind are one, which means that you yourself are infinite. That’s giant notion. I challenge you to explore this concept through personal experience to discover if it is true for you.
As you open to receive while in the Silence, it’s important to let go of expectations of your ego and to shift into more of a sensory of feeling mode of consciousness. Don’t expect anything—just let yourself focus on feeling attuned to your infinite inner center of consciousness as you “touch the Universal Mind” with your own presence. Focus your attention not on the idea of your Creative Source, but on the actual feeling of being connected with this infinite presence that we call God or Divine Presence.
By whatever name, what’s key is that you turn your attention directly inward to your own center, which is the connection point with the divine, and actually tune into experience the feeling of your connection.
You’ll benefit here greatly by using the neutral word “Source” rather than “God” or any other religious term related to the ineffable Infinite Divine Creative Presence, because this neutral term sets you free to discover, through direct inner experience, what this Source truly is as an intimate inner feeling, not a traditional theological concept.
For Haanel, “feeling connected” is definitely key to success and deeper happiness, because our human feelings are the experiential passageway that energetically connects us with the Universal Mind. As we’ve seen, he identifies the subjective emotional realm of consciousness as our link with the Divine. Through this “feeling” link, transmissions from the Universal Mind flow in and are then processed by our personal minds and experienced as inspired thoughts, solutions, or realizations.
In this perspective, your challenge is to learn how to shift out of thinking mode into feeling mode more and more often. This is the manifestation-portal event.
As you shift from thinking to feeling, you pass through a portal into a new dimension. Here’s a perhaps startling psychological fact: Linear deductive reasoning is actually a collapsed reality of only two dimensions. If you reflect a moment, you’ll realize that there’s no volume to analytical thought, no sense of depth at all. As cognitive scientists point out, our everyday thinking is a point-to-point linear mental process—it’s a line through time.
Only when you temporarily quiet that habitual linear type of thinking do you pop once again into the volume of your senses and the experiential present moment, and regain the experience of real participation with the real world, which is where all manifestation occurs.
As you get good at quieting your mind and focusing inward in a receptive mood, you’ll find that you often pop spontaneously into a truly expanded quality of consciousness, where there exists an infinity of dimensions. And this isn’t just a way of talking; this can be a direct and utterly marvelous inner experience.
Spirit is omnipresent, ever ready; all that is required is a proper recognition of its omnipotence and a willingness or desire to become the recipient of its beneficent effects. Then you will find that the things you seek are seeking you.
I mentioned earlier the new vision and research of scientists such as Stephen Hawking who state that for the universe to function at all, there must be at least nine coexisting dimensions. They also postulate that every square inch of space throughout the universe is filled with matter and antimatter, and that the universe itself is a vast, intelligent, harmonious being in which everything is connected, beyond the space-time continuum, with everything else.
Haanel a hundred years ago seems to have had a direct vision of this expanded reality. He realized somehow that everything in the universe is connected with the Creative Source that brought this entire reality into being, and it’s this direct, intimate, organic sense of connection that he encourages you to open up and plug into so that you “become the recipient of its beneficent effects” where “the things you seek are seeking you.”
Let’s end this chapter focusing on the pragmatics of all this.
Let’s move through what you’ve learned thus far: the three main Focus Phrases that take you beyond ideas directly into experiencing the receive mode state of consciousness. In the next chapter we’ll explore what to do after you successfully enter into the Silence. (Please remember to move through the three breath/whole-body steps that quiet your thoughts to lead you into “I am now in the Silence,” until this quiet-mind process becomes natural to you.)