Ok, after the Super Bowl prediction thing, I’ve got a couple of nice people asking me if I’m psychic or if I believe in those things and on the other side, my magician buddies saying, appropriately, “Nice trick.”

I’m not psychic. I don’t know if anyone really is psychic, but if they were, their psychic-ness would likely have to follow all the laws of nature that the rest of the world routinely follows. In other words, being psychic wouldn’t be an amazing thing, it would just be a thing. And it would be measureable and consistent with what we know about the world.

Either way, this isn’t about proving or disproving psychics. This is about how I was psychic for 15 minutes in the year 2000. Well, kinda sorta.

I had a teacher who used to tell me that if you studied a certain form of meditation (called the Silva Method), you could do all sorts of psychic things. It is a three day course that cost a couple of hundred dollars.

When I finally did get around to take it, I was a bit disappointed. You sit in a room and listen to an audio recording of someone gently talking you into a very relaxed state. Then you do some simple visualization techniques. Mostly I would nod off asleep. I remember violently snapping my head forward a few times catching myself on the cusp of snoring.

On the last day you team up with another person and you do what’s called “working a case.” Your partner writes down the name of a friend or family member who has a physical problem. Then you go into a deep state of relaxation (the part right before the snoring) and talk about what you see. Just from hearing the sick person’s name you’ll be able to give a description of their physical state. Oh, almost forgot, after you see what’s wrong with them in your head, you then “psychically” heal them, also in your mind. This, I’m told by the instructor, works. A lot.

I sit down, close my eyes and start the relaxation process. After a few minutes of relaxation I tell the guy I’m ready. He gives me a name. I conjure up an image in my head and start describing what I see.

“He’s tall. He’s got a gut. I see some problems there.”

And the guy tells me that I’m right, his friend is tall and has a gut and drinks lots of beer so that’s probably why I see the problems in his stomach. Not impressive but maybe something?

I talk for awhile longer, pursing things when my team partner is encouraging and abandoning things when I can sense I’m way off. Now I realize I’m doing a very crude method of cold reading.

To finish,  I do what’s called Trying On Heads. It’s where you imagine you’re putting on the head of another person and take on their perspective. So I put on the imaginary head of this guy’s friend. Immediately I feel a pressure in my right eye.

“I’m feeling a pressure in my right eye. Like a tightness. I don’t know.”

Even now I can remember being vaguely dissappointed that the whole time nothing “special” was going on. I didn’t feel psychic just kind of sleepy. Like all I was doing was a daydream.

But the guy started getting excited. “Yes, yes,” he said. “My friend has glaucoma. In his right eye.”

I drowsily responded, “That’s awesome!”

And then I said, “What’s glaucoma?”

He explained that it was a kind of tightness inside the eye. This kind of tightness in his eye, that’s what his friend had. I had nailed it.

“Ok, that’s awesome,” I said. “Can I open my eyes now?”

So no, I wasn’t psychic. Unless you consider the way your horroscope or fortune cookie is always accurate because you look for things to match up. At the time, I was looking for evidence of this thing working. Evidence that I hadn’t wasted a couple hundred dollars and 3 days of my life.

Now I know better.

If you haven’t had a chance, check out How I Predicted Super Bowl 46, 8 Hours Before The Game.

I’ve written extensively about different methods and principles to predict future events and outcomes, so to speak. I am not psychic or anything like that. There are some principles that, once known, make it possible to guess future events.

For fun and as a challenge, I tried to predict the score of Super Bowl 46, 8 hours before the game. Was I successful? Check out the results here: twitter.com/jasonmessina

In an acting class I took, the first 10 minutes were always spent lying the floor, on our backs (separately), eyes closed.

Doing nothing.

Really doing nothing.

Making every attempt not to do anything.

No thinking, no doing, no nothing. Just breathing.

At first it was boring and seemed unnecessary. But after the first few sessions, I began looking forward to those 10 minutes of nothing. It was the only time during the week that I wasn’t doing something. I was just being for a ten minutes. And it felt amazing.

Ever since, I’ve always been a big fan of doing nothing.

What Happens

Your mind fights.

It resists.

It wants to do something.

It starts worrying.

It fantasizes.

It pleads with you not to ignore it.

But if you stick with it, just let your mind go and focus on the nothingness, within 6 or 7 minutes you really begin to relax. You start to feel pretty good.

Just by doing the opposite of something. Nothing.

How To Do It

There aren’t many instructions for this drill. Kick off your shoes (socks too), take off your glasses and find a soft place to lay down (anywhere but the bed). Close your eyes.

Set a timer for 10 minutes because you might fall asleep the first few times. You don’t want to miss doing something because you’re doing nothing.

The thoughts will come. Don’t fight them. Just remember the goal.

Do nothing.

Now just let go.

Some rights reserved by maria j. luque

I don’t know if any of this happened. I don’t know if he said that.

And I don’t want to know either.

Probably about 15 years ago I was told a story. I’m not even sure who told me. But they told me about how when the Beatles met Bob Dylan everything changed. That it was one of the greatest meetings in the history of music and pop culture. The Beatles music got deeper, more introspective. Bob Dylan’s music became more accessible, more pop.

Over the years, in passing, I’ve heard things about how Bob Dylan turned the Beatles on to smoking pot and that led them down all sorts of other paths. That they were essentially a pop band until Dylan lent his psychedelic influence.

Really, the truth doesn’t matter. At least not for me, about this. From listening to the music it all seems plausible. It seems like that’s what happened. But I don’t want to know. I purposefully avoid reading about the meeting. Because the story in my head has become too important to me.

When I tell it, the punchline is what Bob Dylan said after the meeting. Just the way the person who told me let that last line hang in the air, linger. According to the story, when they asked Bob Dylan what he thought of the Beatles, he said, “I like their music, but what are they trying to say?”

What are they trying to say?

In my head, a whole generation of music changed with that line. In a little way, I changed too. With that line, Bob Dylan set the bar in my head as to what music should and could be. About what any kind of art HAD to be. It stopped being enough for things to just be good. What was it trying to say? It changed the way I write, the way I perform, the way I express myself. I constantly ask myself, “What am I trying to say here?” All these years later that line still hangs in my head.

I don’t think anyone can go wrong following Bob Dylan’s advice to the Beatles. And if you’re already a bit heavy and deep or out there, it might not hurt to find that middle ground, to get more “pop.” The way Dylan did after his meeting with the Beatles.

Somewhere along the way I realized that it’s not the stuff that happens to us that’s important. It’s the stories about the stuff that make all the difference.

So I continue to tell this story, not because it happened, but because it’s true.

I’ve been reading The Meme Machine by Susan Blackmore. It’s a fascinating book that picks up where Richard Dawkin’s The Selfish Gene left off 30 odd years ago. Towards the end of the book, Blackmore talks about how our minds are constantly under attack by different ideas or memes. Actually, she contends that our minds are nothing more than various ideas fighting for dominance, and that there isn’t an “I” hiding in the middle of it at all. She contends that the “self” is just an illusion, a construct in the way that Buddhism talks about the illusion of the self.

In the last chapter she gives two methods for slipping out of the grasp of the memes and breaking free from the illusion of the false self. A recipe for escaping your mind.

1. Concentrate on the present moment
This means you focus on all of the sensations, sounds, smells, tastes, feelings, sights. When thoughts rise up you let them go without attaching to them. Really this means just looking at your experience. You stop labeling or classifying things. Let them be.

At first it doesn’t seem like a dramatic shift but after awhile you become very aware of the flowing experience of your senses. You stop living in the land of memes and you start living in reality.

When thoughts try to drag you away from the other senses, gently bring your awareness back to the way your shirt feels or the sound of a car driving by outside. And suddenly you’re back in the moment riding the wave to wherever it wants to go. With practice you spend less and less time in your head and more time out experiencing the world.

Blackmore says, “With a lot of practice the world looks different; the idea of a series of events gives way to nothing but change, and the idea of a self who is viewing the scene seems to fall away.” This has to be experienced to be believed.

2. Pay attention to everything equally.
This follows the first step perfectly in that, when you’re fully awake, standing in line at the bank is just as important as having dinner at your favorite restaurant. It’s all pure experience. It’s the mind that makes distinctions as to what is good or bad or right or wrong. Reality doesn’t care about any of that. Reality just is. According to Blackmore, it’s the memes all fighting for our attention every minute of the day. By paying attention to everything equally you escape from the pull. The memes will continue to fight for your attention but now you won’t notice as much.

Blackmore says of these practices, “The quality of consciousness then changes to become open, and spacious, and free of self. The effect is like waking up from a state of confusion – or waking from the meme dream.”

Troubleshooting
Ok, I’m free from my mind. My thoughts don’t have any hold over me. Now what?
Blackmore actually handles this problem pretty well. I’m paraphrasing here, but she talks about coming to a traffic light. If she turns one way she takes the scenic route home, if she turns another way she takes the quicker way home. One day, instead of deciding (since there really is no one to decide), Blackmore just lets the decision make itself without any thought. She lets her foot drop down on the pedal, her hands turn the steering wheel and she’ off.

Won’t important things seem unimportant now?
The reverse is true. Everything becomes just as important as everything else. And you get to experience all of it.

This sounds like an excuse to lead an immoral life with lots of sex and drugs and lying about in the name of meditation.
Actually, when you practice this stuff, you chip away at the illusion that there is some “self” hiding away inside. Instead of becoming more selfish you actually become more compassionate. The thing you thought was “you” that seemed so important just isn’t anymore. Instead of buying the latest iPhone for a self that doesn’t exist you might wind up donating the money or volunteering. When you drop the “I” you actually find yourself wanting less and less.

This doesn’t sound like a good idea.
It’s not an idea to think about but a practice to try out. If you don’t it’s ok too, the world will not end. But you’ll never know unless you test it out and see if it works for you (illusion or not).

These exercises are adapted from  and inspired by the first chapter of Prometheus Rising by Robert Anton Wilson.

Exercise 1
1. Go out to a party. Before you go to the party, decide that you’re going to pretend that you’re as ugly as you can imagine. Don’t dress down or be sloppy. Don’t change anything about the way you physically appear. Just change the way you think about how you appear.

2. Notice the subtle ways in which people react to you. Are they nicer? Do they wander off quicker than usual? Do they vomit in disgust at your atrociousness? Note the different reactions from people who know you and from people who don’t know you.

3. Once you leave the party you can drop the ugliness act and go back to being your normal hot self.

NOTE: If you happen to think that you’re ugly to begin with, this first exercise will be of no consequence to you. People won’t notice any difference. Please proceed to the second exercise you ugly thing, you.

Exercise 2
1. Go out to a party. Before you go to the party, tell yourself, I mean really convince yourself that you’re the best looking person to walk this earth. Just pretend that you’re oozing super hotness. Really convince yourself of this. If it means not looking in the mirror for the night than so be it. Please don’t overdress or do push-ups or get a special hair cut before you go out. The trick here is to behave differently, not dress or look differently.

2. Notice how people react to you. Do they treat you better than before? Are they jealous? Are people of the opposite sex falling all over you? What about people you meet for the first time? Do you get different reactions than normal? Are people more interested in you?

3. Compare your results with the results from Exercise 1. Is there a noticeable difference? Which one makes you feel better? Does it really matter how you look? How do you normally perceive yourself to look on a scale of 1 to 10?

NOTE: If you happen to think that you’re pretty hot to begin with, than skip this exercise but make sure to do Exercise 1 you hot little bugger, you.

This exercise is more challenging with a bit of a crutch. Every once in awhile go out and about unshaven, not showered  and clothes all miss matched. Then try Exercise 2. You really want to believe that you’re attractive. Keep building it up in your head and then what happens is you start to expect a certain response from people. If you can build this up strong enough, you may find that it doesn’t matter what you wear or how you look.

Exercise 1 is best done when you’re dressed to the nines and fully spruced. See how ugly you can imagine yourself. You may find that strangers in bars will buy you drinks out of pure sympathy for your melancholy little face. If you have an unwanted romantic caller you could always try this out and see if that turns them off. If they wind up running the other way, this thought experiment was a success.

Err, I Get It, But What’s The Point?
As much fun as it is to go around pretending that you’re an underwear model and seeing people respond to it, something much deeper happens when you really take this on. This is not a superficial technique but a way of peering through a crack in the wall. The wall is our perception of everyday reality. You might want to try other experiments like Smart/Stupid or Funny/Serious and see where they take you. How does the context you wrap around your experience change your actual experience? Maybe you’ll find out that there isn’t any set perceptions, that they’re all malleable and all this time we’ve been shaping them without knowing.

The next time you have to give a speech, maybe you could pretend that you’re really funny and interesting. Make yourself ugly next time you’re out with your friends and your significant other is at home instead of swatting away the other sex, as I’m sure you usually do. What could you lose by pretending you’re smart and understand new things quickly and easily the next time you have something new to learn? Use ways of being like you would different clothes, putting on the most useful ones for different situations.

I don’t remember much from high school. Mostly on purpose and mostly because I wasn’t paying a whole lot of attention.

But for some reason, two things stand out amongst the rubbish that is high school.

In my freshman year English class, every morning there’d be a different quote on the chalkboard. Most of the time they were forgettable and lame.

Then one morning I walked in during a rough week and plopped down into my seat. I looked around the room in a bagel-induced haze and the faint writing on the chalkboard caught my attention:

When You’re At The End Of Your Rope, Tie A Knot And Hang On

When things are really grinding you down, hang in there. Simple enough. Now, looking back on it, I’ve realized the little mantra has sung itself in my head at various crossroads. Sure enough, I’ve hung in there and things have gotten better.

Now here’s the cool part. There is no inherent logic behind this. I mean, when you’re at the end of your rope maybe it’s time to give up or get some help. Or do any number of things other than Tie A Knot And Hang On. This is the amazing part. Simply by taking some basic words and turning it into a colorful metaphor does it take on a kind of magic power. For no reason at all. It just seems like the thing to do when you’re At The End Of Your Rope.

Tie A Knot.

And Hold On.

It’s served me well and I hope it does the same for you.

*****

The other clever saying on the board (different day) is probably one of those things that somehow dropped down deep inside my head and became a part of the operating system that runs Jason Messina. Probably forever. I don’t think I’ll ever shake this notion. For better or for worse it’s there. I think in a way it’s helped to shape my entire philosophy about life and any notions I have created about who is responsible for my experience.

The quote itself is basic enough:

There Are No Victims, Only Volunteers.

The instant I read this I was free from the burden of ever having to be a victim of life’s circumstances. No matter what happened or could happen, I didn’t have to be a victim about it unless, of course, I wanted to. Unless I volunteered.

This is not to say that bad stuff doesn’t happen to people. Being responsible for your own experience doesn’t mean fault or blame. It means here’s what’s happened, now how are we going to handle it?

The other, more cliched version is, “It’s not what happens to you, it’s what you do with it.” Same thing, but it’s the metaphor of avoiding the victim attitude (that someone or something did it to you) that brings the whole thing alive.

Again, bad stuff happens and afterwards you always have a choice if you’re going to be a victim of it (lose power) or if you’re going to be a master of it (gain power).

Both of these phrases have been incredibly useful in my life.

They also serve as a reminder of the incredible power that words and stories can have. Maybe they have more power than what happens. So if a story you’ve been telling isn’t working anymore, you’re free to make-up a new one.

When you do, scratch it on a tree somewhere or better yet write it on a chalkboard. Leave it someplace where it can be read and I guarantee it will take on a life of it’s own (in other people’s heads).

Well at least that’s what happened to me.

ORIGINS OF THE MAGIC WORDS
I haven’t been able to determine the origin of the quote There Are No Victims, Only Volunteers.

It has been attributed to Dr. Phil but my knowledge of the quote certainly predates (18 years ago) any of his public use of the quote.

According to this WikiAnswers page, it has been also attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt and Jeff Cooper.

Ironically, after some quick internet research, When You’re At The End Of Your Rope, Tie A Knot And Hang On, appears to be attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt.

I’ve been listening to Rolling Stone’s John Lennon interview from 1970. It’s free on iTunes and was buzzing in my headphones for several days.

He says some really great stuff. You need to listen to it (after you read the rest of this thing here though).

The thing I really really liked, the thing that really settled inside my head, was just a line or two. He was asked something about being a genius and he said that he’s known he was a genius since he was like 12. He’s always been this way it was just a matter of everybody else finding out.

If genius exists, John Lennon was one at 12. And he knew it.

Really depressing, right? I mean, I’m no John Lennon and you’re no John Lennon. Unless you’re under the age of 12 and reading this there is no hope for any of us.

This guy was a genius at 12.

Or maybe what he really meant was……

John Lennon is and always has been a genius at being John Lennon. He is the perfect John Lennon. At any age. Even after death.

You? You’ve always been a genius too. At being whoever you are. The amazing thing is You are far better at being You than John Lennon could ever be.

Since he was 12 he’s been coming from this place of genius. I say that this idea of genius in John Lennon’s head caused the incredible output. He created the notion that he was a genius and then lived into that.

In other words, he thought he was a genius first. Then all his actions, ideas and behavior started conforming to the idea that he’s a Genius.

John Lennon wasn’t a genius first. He became a genius after he started thinking he was…..

Get that?

John Lennon was John Lennon. And You aren’t. You are You. The good news is that’s just as good.

As a matter of fact, it’s Genius.

Just like  John Lennon. But You.

The only difference is he started when he was 12.

How long will it take you to realize?

Or.

What are you waiting for?

Is this a dream?

Squeezed together in the movie theater, the guy next to me shoveling popcorn into his face. Mechanical.

Shovel. Shovel.

The theater, busting at the seams full of people. On the screen whole cities collapsing in on themselves.

Is this a dream?

If you want to remember your dreams, if you want to wake up inside a dream, they tell you to ask yourself, constantly, while you’re awake, “Is this a dream?”

A dream inside a dream inside a dream.

The theory is, if you condition yourself to always ask if it’s a dream, sooner or later you’ll ask when you’re actually in a dream. Once you answer it, you’re awake. In the dream.

Inside the dream movie of Inception, the rules are slightly different but close enough to make you think. Make you question your reality for a minute. This reality.

Is this a dream?

Popcorn Shovel Machine next to me burps, the guy next to him keeps getting up, walking in front of me while the laws of physics bend onscreen. And everything feels so real. Like in a dream. Before you wake up.

After the movie, my car is parked way back in the lot behind the theater. It’s just me. Alone in the darkness I wonder if me walking to my car is a dream. How do I know this is the real? What if the dreams are real, what if my fingers tap tap right now are really the dream? Will I ever wake up?

For a minute I’m paranoid. Helpless. Then I smile, because whether or not I’m awake, this is all I know. Because this, whatever it may be, is all there is.

Is this a dream?

Not anymore.

Likely, millions of people across the universe have scribbled or uttered that they’re going to make New Year’s Resolutions. Likely, millions of those people are going to screw it up in the following ways. Fear not, following each screw-up is an easy fix. It’s time to resolve to resolve your resolutions…..

You Will Take On Too Much

Quit smoking.

Lose 20 pounds.

Write a book.

Exercise an hour every day.

All great goals to aim for but probably too ambitious. You’ll be setting yourself up for failure.

Fix

Start small. If you aren’t exercising now, every day for an hour is going to be too much. Take it slow. Like way slow. Start with 10 minutes a day.

Want to quit smoking? Cut back 20% of the cigarettes you smoke each week and in 5 weeks you’ll have quit (or at least be a lot less dependent on the nicotine).

When you start small you can build habits that persist rather than crash and burn in the first week.

You’re Not Specific

You want to eat healthier.

You want to spend more time with your family.

You want to read more.

They’re all great goals but not very specific. How do you know when you’ve achieved them?

Fix

Peter Drucker is famous for his quote “What gets measured gets managed.”

The results you get have to be measurable for you to move from where you are to where you want to be.

Instead of eat healthier, eat one vegetable at every meal.

Instead of spend more time with your family, set aside an hour everyday of family fun.

Instead of read more, get up half-hour earlier and read.

It will also help for you to be honest about where you are right now, in other words what can you measure now, before you set your measureable results. If you have to be at work at 5:00 AM, getting up early to read may not be doable.

You Will Make It Complicated

You want to make more money.

And you want to learn how to play the ukele.

And you want to quit biting your nails.

And you want all of it done right now!

If this sounds like you chances are none of it will get finished.

Fix

Make it simple. Pick one thing and go after it with all your energy. Once you’ve made it a habit (eating healthy) or accomplished it (learn to play the ukele) then take on something else.

You may find it useful to make a list of all the things you want or want to do and ask yourself what the most important thing is.

Then do it.

You Will Not Publicly Commit

You might tell a friend or your family that you want to lose 5 pounds. They will tell you what they want to do. Then life moves on and everyone forgets about their commitment. Because it isn’t really a committment. It’s more of a thing that you’ll try to do.

Fix

Tell everyone who will listen. This will keep you honest. Get excited about it, get them excited about it.

And keep telling them. Tell them when you’re doing well. Tell them when you feel lazy and don’t want to keep it up.

Keep talking about it. Stay committed. Write a blog about it. Post it to the refrigerator. Tell the people you work with.

This way you create a small force field of people who will help you maintain your committment.

It’s a lot easier to quit on yourself than it is to let down 30 of your close friends, family, co-workers.

You Will Be Really Hard On Yourself

You might make a mistake. Or fall of the wagon. You’ll probably be really hard on yourself.

Or you might not make a mistake and still be really hard on yourself.

This is sometimes called discipline.

And it will work against you eventually, forcing you to fail.

Fix

Be kind to yourself. Reward yourself for finishing small tasks.

Finish a chapter of your book, go see that movie you’ve been putting off.

You’ve been eating really healthy for a whole week. Get a massage.

Reward yourself often and generously and one day you’ll find yourself writing or eating healthy for no reason at all, just because that’s what you do.