My first steps into the depths of being, many years ago, rode the wave of "Positive Thinking", based on the works of the American author Joseph Murphy, particularly The Power of Your Subconscious Mind.
It was February 1991, somewhere on the east coast of Australia, when I first held that book in my hands and read a few pages. I wasn't a big reader, but those lines utterly captivated me, like a drug. It was the first contact, and without realising it, so much sprang from that moment.
Yes, it's almost comparable to that first cigarette – seemingly nothing – yet 30 years later, you're smoking three packets a day, coughing constantly, a slave to the tobacco industry, which rakes in the cash without a shred of shame.
I don't know if I need to mention it here, but that could have happened to me too, and by much grace and taking the right steps, I was able to escape that trap as well.
But back to Mr. Murphy. He spoke a great deal about God in his book, The Power of Your Subconscious Mind, and the related topics of Positive Thinking and autosuggestion, which is essentially another word for self-hypnosis.
I was completely unaware that by reading this book and implementing its ultimately esoteric content, I was slowly but surely initiating my first downfall.
Born into a good family, endowed with a sensible inheritance from my parents, I managed in the shortest time to disregard all security, all reason, and slowly but surely walk into ruin. It fits, doesn't it: to inherit, only to be ruined – what words.
With Joseph and my hereditary predisposition to depression, which always made me a little weaker and more searching, I was the perfect victim to get caught up in that nonsense.
So I went full throttle, and without even suspecting any danger, I visualised like a madman and gave my subconscious everything I possibly could, or rather, everything I wanted.
The result: an overblown project that completely trapped me and ultimately pulled the rug out from under my feet.
Perhaps in life, one seeks the meaning behind everything. After picking myself up again, it was valuable to recognise how currents, the so-called wolf in sheep's clothing, repeatedly emerge in waves.
Once I realised that I had, so to speak, opened the door to the 'overworld' and how we are all unintentionally influenced, it quickly became clear to me during subsequent 'eso-waves' that much of it simply reappears in a different guise, but the same approach always lies behind it.
To put it plainly, we are playthings of invisible forces and only have options if we can become aware of these circumstances.
Positive Thinking, in Mr. Murphy's sense, was not the way, and yet our thinking is a great key.
Anyone who has their head in order can live well; anyone whose thoughts are tossed back and forth like a leaf in the wind is a victim of life.
That's why I say: "Active Thinking" is the right term. We must become masters of our negative, destructive thoughts if we wish to become masters. If we don't understand what is happening to us, we are victims of life with its sometimes evil and difficult currents.
In life, you get very little for free; fears and negativity follow you like a puppy, and we are given them at every turn. The good and the true, however, we must actively bring forth, and in doing so, we can develop ourselves.
If you understand this, you have a good chance of leading an extraordinary life.
An ordinary life is also fine, but it is hard and more of a suffering than a Christian path in the footsteps of Jesus Christ.
He was a great master of thoughts, as we can read in the New Testament. His greatest strength was to get words, thoughts, and truth straight to the point. How else could he have been? He is the firstborn of the Creator and has redeemed us from that role.
Grace to those who can understand this, for the path from glory to glory in eternity is open to them.
Thank you for your attention and for understanding as much as possible, or for turning to Jesus Christ with active thoughts and thereby being allowed to immerse yourself in a deep understanding.