Did you ever read that classic book which virtually started the personal development/success industry?

I actually attended a meeting at the Sydney Trocadero many years ago when Napoleon Hill was the featured speaker.

I was surprised and pleased to come across this old video of him describing his most controversial techniques for accessing intelligence from universal consciousness.

Let me know what you think of it. If you’ve ever done a Silva course, this will resonate with you.

“Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich has sold over 30 million copies worldwide since being published in 1937 and kicked off the entire personal development industry. In this rare footage, Napoleon Hill discusses exactly why “whatever the mind can conceive, and believe, the mind can achieve.”

?Watch Video Here…?

Today I was browsing the Sydney Morning Herald and chanced upon the following article extracted from a blog written by an American woman living in Sendai, Japan. It shows how, when extreme adversity calls, humans drop their false self (ego) and live and behave together in a totally different way. The way we could all live with a little effort.

Here it is:

Somehow, profound joy amid sorrow

American Anne Thomas has been teaching English in Sendai for a decade. These are edited extracts of an email she sent to family and friends this week to let them know she was alive and a blog entry she wrote.

THINGS here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend’s home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.

During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes. People sit in their cars, looking at news on their navigation screens, or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has water running in their home, they put out a sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.

Utterly amazingly, where I am, there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People keep saying, ”Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another.”

Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes.

No one has washed for several days. We feel grubby, but there are so much more important concerns than that for us now. I love this peeling away of non-essentials. Living fully on the level of instinct, of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival.

There are strange parallel universes happening. People lining up for water and food, and yet a few people out walking their dogs.

And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack each day, now to send this email, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. I see no signs of fear. Resignation, yes, but fear or panic, no.

My brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening. I don’t. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that much larger than myself.

In evacuation centres there are puppet shows for children. ”It’s to ease their minds,” my friend explained to me. ”That is very important.”

In another shelter, junior high school students got paper and paints and made a large bright, energetic sign that said, ”To have life is profound joy.” It was hung high overhead so everyone could see it.

We comfort one another as best as we can. We still say, ”Gambarimashou” (We must keep up our fighting spirit).

I want to close with another email from a friend who is a university teacher. It, too, is an excellent manifestation of the truly remarkable Japanese ”kokoro” (heart and soul).

”Today was supposed to be a graduation day which was postponed and might be cancelled. When I saw the students at the campus housing this morning, they served me a special breakfast that the juniors cooked for the seniors to celebrate the day. The meal was cold, but really special. I won’t forget the taste of it. I am convinced that my students will overcome this tragedy with the positive attitude. I intend to emulate them.”

You can read the full text of the blog article here:

http://odemagazine.com

Read the rest of this entry »

A way to dominate the mind is to drop in to the Self. You reach a place where it’s so delightful you just don’t want to do anything but remain in it. It gets to be very easy.

Once you get to the point that it’s easy, then just continue it. Stay with it until you go all the way. By the constancy of it, each day, you get quieter and quieter, and then the Self, as you see it, keeps scorching the ego, which further quiets the mind.

At the end of the road of releasing, you discover your grand and glorious Self.

Continuing extracts from “The Way to Complete Freedom”

In group releasing, support is lent one unto the other. The power is multiplied and you can get more deeply quiet as time goes by.

But the very best releasing is when you are by yourself and you need no group support. Then you are not confined to any time period. You get on with it and you might stay with it five, ten, even twenty-four hours. And this should happen.

When you get to like it so much that you stay up all night continuing it. It has become more interesting than sleep. Then you’ve got the momentum going.  Then you’ll get to see, and be, your real self.