Scientific Fact: Your Thoughts Are Real.

Talane's November 2009 Newsletter
Scientific Fact: Your Thoughts are Real

I just finished reading Dan Brown's latest work of fiction, The Lost Symbol, and noticed that he mentions in the beginning of the book that certain buildings are in fact real and do exist—buildings that I had never heard of or noticed in spite of having lived in Washington, D.C. for eight years. But what struck me as much more interesting was that he writes about a scientist who is doing cutting edge research to prove that our thoughts are real and interact directly with the physical universe as if this were the fiction when it is already a proven, scientific fact reported in the April 5, 1999, Newsweek article, “Thinking Will Make it So” by Sharon Begley. I quoted this article in Tip 101 of my first book, Coach Yourself to Success (McGraw-Hill, Jan 2000) because at the time I read this article I was absolutely blown away—scientific proof that thoughts are real! Wow! I couldn't understand why the war in Bosnia was getting the cover story when this seemed to be the really big news. Perhaps there were other earlier instances of scientific evidence proving this, but this was the first I had heard of it so it was news to me. To recap briefly, in case you don't have my book or the article on hand, Begley describes how thoughts are electrical signals that can be picked up by an electroencephalograph (EEG) to control mechanical equipment. Neurobiologist Niels Birbaumer of Germany's University of Tubingen has six patients with sound minds trapped in completely paralyzed bodies. Living with the aid of machines, these patients are wired to a “thought translation device” which amplifies their brain waves (thoughts) and enables them to select letters of the alphabet from a computer video screen and compose sentences. Here's how they did it: Tubingen's team placed electrodes behind the patient's ear and on the scalp. The electrodes are designed to detect brain waves and carry them to an EEG, which picks out a single type of wave from the many waves, much like you would tune in a radio to pick up a favorite station. After hundreds of hours of practice the patients learn to control their brain waves, by focusing on an audio tone. Once they master this they can spell out words on a video screen using only their thoughts. They were working on going wireless so I'm guessing they probably have by now, which would mean that these patients are using thoughts alone. I don't know about you, but I found this absolutely amazing and still can't figure out why this news hasn't been trumpeted around the world—our thoughts are very real indeed. So Dan Brown's book may be much closer to truth than he is letting on.
The next question is what are the implications of this fact? So what if our thoughts are real? What difference does that make? Well, for starters, now it is imperative to eliminate those negative thoughts. Our negative thoughts are our own worst enemies. One way to eliminate a negative thought is to catch yourself having one and then say, “Cancel. Cancel.” (You can do this silently so people don't think you are nuts.) Although now my husband even does it to me if I say something negative. The other way is to get to the source of the negativity and eliminate it. This is why it is so important to eliminate all those petty annoyances (Tip 1 in Coach Yourself to Success). Work through the steps of the coaching program and you will learn to attract what you want without much work—thinking will make it so. I'm still refining and simplifying this process, but most of my clients experience this as a natural by-product of the coaching program. It seems like magic to have the power to manifest what you desire just by thinking about it, but it isn't because our thoughts are real—and this isn't a secret! The steps I outline in Coach Yourself to Success are simple, practical and anyone can do them. The more you practice, the stronger and more powerful your thoughts will become—like muscle building.
Food for thought!
Talane
P.S. If anyone has read of other scientific proof that our thoughts are real, please send me the article as I'd love to learn more. In fact, I wonder if they did in fact go wireless in Germany? Does anyone know? Please email me at talane@lifecoach.com.
P.P.S. I've been working on an exciting, new interactive life coaching program to be released in January 2010

101 great tips can be found in the book Coach Yourself to Success by Talane Miedaner. Copyright © 2000 McGraw Hill
Also, exclusively from Talane Coaching Company – the Coach Yourself to Success Workbook, filled with tips, ideas and work pages. To order, visit www.lifecoach.com.