Stop the Brain: Enjoy Freedom from Intrusive Thoughts

By Jimmy Smart

In Stop the Brain: Enjoy Freedom from Intrusive Thoughts , author Jim Smart, PhD, PE, investigates questions critical to spiritual wellness: what is the mind, and where do thoughts come from? Most people think they have no control over their thoughts, but they can learn to control the release of thoughts for hours at a time. Stop the Brain shows readers how in a short, easy text (as opposed to years of therapy). Using powerful new tools and mindfulness techniques, the mind can be stabilized and rendered free of uninvited, intrusive thoughts. Enjoy profound spiritual results such as a calmer mind, less anxiety, a sense of peace, greater tolerance, radical forgiveness, deep sleep, increased focus, and less bodily pain.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gatekeeper Press
• Release date: Apr 16, 2024
• ISBN: 9781662944079

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The content associated with this book is the sole work and responsibility of the author. Gatekeeper Press had no involvement in the generation of this content.

Stop the Brain: Enjoy Freedom from Intrusive Thoughts

Published by Gatekeeper Press

7853 Gunn Hwy., Suite 209

Tampa, FL 33626

www.GatekeeperPress.com

Copyright © 2024 by Jimmy Smart

All rights reserved. Neither this book, nor any parts within it may be sold or reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023945940

ISBN (paperback): 9781662944062

eISBN: 9781662944079

To my wife, Kay

and

To all the great communicators

and motivators of human progress:

Jim Rohn, Earl Nightingale, Brian

Tracey, Denis Waitley, Wayne

Dyer, and Anthony Robbins.

Disclaimer

This book is not designed to replace or take the place of any form of therapy or professional medical advice. The recommendations and stories in this book reflect the author’s personal experiences. The author, publisher, and distributors are not liable for any personal injury or damage that may arise through application of information contained in this book or the failure of the individual to seek appropriate medical advice.

The information contained in this book has been compiled from sources deemed reliable and is accurate to the best of the author’s knowledge; however, the author cannot guarantee its accuracy and validity and cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. The reader is solely responsible for the use of the advice, exercises, and other information contained in this book. In the end, what may work for one person may not work for another person.

You are what your deep, driving desire is.

As your desire is, so is your will.

As your will is, so is your deed.

As your deed is, so is your destiny.

- Brihadaranyaka Upanishad IV.4.5

Dear Reader,

Statistics reveal that only 10% of the people who purchase a book ever read past the first chapter. Start at the beginning and this will read just like another self-help book. Flip the pages and browse. Soldier on to the juice at the beginning of Chapter 3, and the real gems are revealed in Chapter 4.

This book will show you how to make changes in yourself in a short time instead of years in therapy (not that you really need it ).

All the best,

Jim

Contents

Preface

Chapter 1. Overview of the Process

Chapter 2. Introduction to Mindful Technology

Exercise 2A. A Touch of Mindfulness

Chapter 3. Tools For Your Mindful Practice

Exercise 3A. Camping Out on the Shore of Mental Objects Arising

Exercise 3B. Turning Lemon

Exercise 3C. Melt and Poof

Exercise 3D. Get Out in Front

Exercise 3E. Preemptive Attack

Chapter 4. Ultimate Mind Slayer: NLP Models

Exercise 4A. NLP Visual Swirl

Exercise 4B. NLP Auditory Swirl

Chapter 5. Sleepless in Skedaddle: For the Insomniacs

Chapter 6. Stage One: The Focused Mind

Exercise 6A. Lock Box

Exercise 6B. Blue Sky Awareness

Exercise 6C. Seamless Breathing

Chapter 7. Stage Two: Animating the Etheric Body (Luminous Interface)

Exercise 7A. Light My Fire

Chapter 8. Stage Three: Abiding in the Presence of the Eternal

Exercise 8A. Radiant Mind

Exercise 8B. Stand and Feel the Power

Chapter 9. Off the Cushion (Mindfulness in Your Daily Life)

Chapter 10. Conclusion

Appendices

Frequently Asked Questions

Glossary

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

PREFACE

For one who has conquered the mind, the mind is the best of friends; but for one who has failed to do so, his mind will remain the greatest enemy.

- Bhagavad Gitā, Chapter 6, Verse 3

Nothing can harm you as much as your own thoughts unguarded.

- Buddha

Stop the Brain , or more specifically Stop the Mind . Is that possible? Yes, you can probably do that right now—oh, for say 10 - 20 seconds. After that, here comes the mind again. Buddhist monks and scholars say it is impossible to stop the mind. That is not true, and this book will teach you how to stop the mind, even for hours at a time. Wait a minute—you say, could that likely cause irreversible damage and permanently screw up my mind? No, it will not—I’ve been using and teaching these methods for over 25 years with no ill effects—read on. Can you permanently stop the mind? I don’t know the answer to that question and more importantly, why would you?

From the blue book of Alice A. Bailey to the red book of Carl G. Jung and many, many more, I read a lot of books, a lot of book reviews, and reader comments. Some readers will categorize this book as pseudoscience; some will be looking for lengthy scientific citations; some will call it unproven and unsubstantiated; while others will decry it as a downright dangerous practice. This book is none of these. This book consists of new ideas and exercises to help people calm down their minds, and ultimately lead to inner peace.

In one of my many lives, as a university professor, I often had students come to my office seeking help in their academic struggles. Occasionally, some students would comment how much they were enjoying my classes and what a good teacher I was. In order to keep my ego in check, I would often reply, Some students think I walk on water, while others would just as soon see me drown.

One of the greatest hurdles that folks deal with initially is the fact that they believe they are their minds. They believe that their thoughts and their mind are who they are—and these thoughts are inextricably wrapped up in their being. Descartes’ famous phrase, I think, therefore I am does not apply here. Descartes found that he could not doubt that he himself existed, as he was the one doing the doubting in the first place. So, maybe your thoughts and your mind do confirm your existence, but they are separate from who you really are. A more appropriate phrase would be, I am aware, therefore I am.

What is the mind, and what does it have to do with your brain? Is the mind located in the brain? Most people think so. We know the brain is not the same as the mind. We know we need a brain to have a mind, but must we have a mind if we have a brain? Now, that’s a crazy thought! Dogs have brains and minds, but their minds are not like ours. Their minds are more instinctually-based, and they don’t have the consciousness that we humans possess. But they do have minds.

Think of the typical mama bird who is purportedly not conscious and only relies on instincts, but uses her mind to carefully select a location to build her nest. That takes real skill, reconnoitering, planning, and processing information about options; what about this, what about that? I had a female cardinal who once built a nest in a chandelier on my back porch. At the time, I thought—genius! The nest was high off the ground not to be accessed by predators, and the nest was protected from all the weather elements. Unfortunately, the open top of the glass cups of the chandelier required the nest to be too small in diameter, and later after the eggs hatched and the baby birds grew in size, they became restless and ultimately fell out of the nest and plopped on the hard floor below. Back to the drawing board for the poor bird.

The brain is an anatomical reality located in the head. The mind is something intangible. We know we have it, but are not sure where it resides, where it comes from, and where it goes. It’s a thorny problem that is far from solved even today. Many books out there on neuroscience offer scant information about the mind. Stanley Finger is a leading historian of neuroscience, yet in his voluminous tome, Minds Behind the Brain, A History of the Pioneers and Their Discoveries, there is never as much as a scant discussion of the mind and how it relates to the brain.

There are many scientists and philosophers out there who wade into various theories of the mind, including such noted authors as Nicholas Humphrey and Rodolfo Llinas. These two gentlemen have made a lifetime study of the mind; Humphrey even has a book titled, A History of the Mind: Evolution and the Birth of Consciousness. These authors, as well as many others, seem to have missed the mark as they believe the mind is all about sensory perceptions and consciousness. We are led to believe that we humans are special because we are conscious. My dog may not be conscious, but he definitely has a mind of his own.

Some folks believe the mind is more than the brain and is located as a field surrounding the body. True, we do know the mind can be damaged if the brain becomes damaged. Eben Alexander (Living in a Mindful Universe: A Neurosurgeon’s Journey into the Heart of Consciousness, 2017) believes the brain is only a filter of consciousness. Most people believe that the mind dies with the brain, while others believe the mind survives death (See Emanuel Swedenborg, Heaven and Hell, 2007). The mind seems to be the software running your consciousness, processing information, making decisions, and so forth. We each have a conscious and a subconscious mind. Lots of things are going on in the subconscious mind—things we seemingly have no knowledge of or have no control over—and that’s pretty scary. Carl Jung proposed that there is a collective unconscious—a repository of the subconscious minds of all of mankind—like the universal fear of spiders and snakes.

To you, it would probably seem like a ho-hum moment. But to me, in my early practice, it was miraculous. Streams of thoughts just stopping there in my mind’s eye and hovering in midflight—slowly beginning to come apart at the seams, and then melting away into nothingness. What a profound moment of liberation for me—the realization that, hey, I can control this stuff!

The seeds of the methods for mind control have been grown by many people throughout history. Early on, we even learn the fundamentals of mind control. It is very simple—if a thought is unpleasant, we banish it from our mind and never think of it again—hopefully.

In 1935, Emmet Fox published a book called The Seven Day Mental Diet and various other authors have built and expanded upon his ideas. Basically, it is a seven-day regimen where you train your mind to not accept negative thinking, negative emotions, worry, and other debilitating thoughts. Of course, in the beginning, you cannot prevent negative thinking from arising. But the idea is to not dwell upon this thinking, and in time your mind will be trained to not even acknowledge negative thoughts. Consider this: you may have heard of the physical diet, you become what you eat. Similarly, you become what you think is a mental diet.

J. Smart 2024

Wilmington, North Carolina

Chapter 1.

Overview of the Process

Apteryx (bird) standing atop a turtle: So, why do you turtles get to live so long?

Turtle: Meditation, slow movements, and control of emotions. Apteryx: Ah, so the key to long life is boredom.

- B.C. (comic strip)

All of us are walking around with an accidental brain app. Our brain doesn’t come with a user manual—we just think how we think, and we are how we are. But like most things in life, our brains can change. We can redesign our brain app.

- Phillip John Campbell

Doubt is an incitement to research, and research is the path to true knowledge.

- Alexandra David-Neel

OK, some advanced mindful practitioners and potential critics want to jump to the chase—in a nutshell, just what am I proposing? So here it is: using powerful new tools and mindful techniques as described here, the mind can be stabilized and rendered free of uninvited thoughts. [Yes, that is essentially stopping the mind.]

There are numerous benefits associated with establishing a mindful practice. It is called a practice because it is something you do almost every day and is an ongoing process that is never completed. I have a list of the ten fruits of a mindful practice that I have compiled and carry around in my wallet. They are:

(1) Getting closer to the Source (sanctity of life)

(2) Improved mental clarity (focus, mindfulness)

(3) Inner peace (calmness, free of inner turmoil)

(4) Improved control of unwholesome impulses (anger, lust, judgment, hostility, revenge, and violence)

(5) Investigation of the science of the mind (how does the mind work?)

(6) Becoming more tolerant and having better relations with loved ones, friends, and strangers

(7) Sleep better, feel better

(8) Positive effects on the immune system

(9) Positive effects on mental health with reduction of stress

(10) Improved performance and efficiency in daily life

The following are benefits of mindful practice as