The future creating the present is based upon the work of theoretical physicist, Fred Alan Wolf.  In his book, Starwave:  Mind, Consciousness and Quantum Physics, Dr. Wolf states that in order to experience anything consciously in our reality  it requires a double-wave of energy that is information contained in pure resonance or vibration.  These quantum waves are the products of our thoughts, desires and expectations that exist outside of time and space; they exist in what can be called the there and then.

For example, if you have a thought – “the economy is bad, I don’t think we will have a profitable year in my company”, that thought or quantum wave of energy travels from the here and now to the there and then of your future.  It then returns as a double-wave or echo wave from the future you cast out to your here and now.  Everything in our reality works on the theory of a double-wave action – the outgoing energy and the returning echo wave.  Every person in the world is casting out hundreds of waves of possibility with every thought, goal, dream or plan of action.

What I found most intriguing about this theory is the manner in which Dr. Wolf’s mathematics described the double action quantum waves to be very much like a spiraling hollow slinky – a hollow tube of light that is spiraling and twisting into the future.  However, it looks very much like the DNA double helix, which is the program of our biological future – an interesting parallel.

Thus, everything in your reality at the present moment, positive, neutral or negative – our relationships, incomes, our homes, vacation plans, education, a change of careers are all double action quantum waves of the future.  They have been cast forward by the consciousness of the present – to the there and then of the future – and back again as an echo wave into the here and now of your life.

Thus, we have all been casting out possible and probable futures since we were verbal.  For example, a dark future cast out in a moment of despair such as, “I am never going to be happy” or a brilliant future, “I plan to complete university just like my mother” are still resonating.  What about the adolescent with their dramatic absolutes – “If so and so doesn’t invite me to the prom, I’ll just die!” or – “who wants to live to thirty, I would rather die than get old!”

Yes, those futures are still out there but probably not influencing you anymore.

The best analogy of this very important concept is to imagine you are throwing hundreds and thousands of small pebbles into a pond or lake.  Some create big ripples – high amplitude, other are barely noticeable.  All your possible and probable futures are like the ripple waves of the pond.  Every ripple, like a hologram is interfering with and affecting each other to varying degrees.  All have impact, be it ever so slight, not noticeable, or it might be a giant ripple that could have the impact of a minor tidal wave.

Let us imagine that you have cast out a nightmare future – “my company won’t make it – I will be bankrupt in three months”.  The echo wave you will be experiencing in three months is on its way back.  However, something shifted in the economy and in a more inspirational and optimistic moment you launched a brilliant future – “this new marketing plan will turn things around – we will be profitable in three months.”  Of course, that double-wave is also echoing backwards in time.  Both waves are affecting you and the two waves are interfering with each other, like the pebbles in the pond.  Thus, all the positive and negative waves of the future are changing and strengthening or diminishing each other.  They are converging and co-mingling with the thousands of other energy waves you have lobbed into the future.  And, they are returning like a boomerang as a mish-mash or energy stew!  Every single future you have thrown out is having an impact on you, even those negative futures that you will never experience.

Some of you at this point may be thinking – “oh! oh!  I have sent out some terrible futures – what can be done about that?”  In my private practice, with certain clients, I will share and describe the concept of future creation as outlined above.  For example, a professional woman was referred to me who had experienced two failed marriages, recently had to declare bankruptcy and was diagnosed with a serious health problem.  As she continued with her despair and litany of failures in her life, upon reflection she said, “You must think that I am a negaholic.”  I agreed!

As we developed the idea of optimal versus nightmare futures, she caught on very quickly to provide the insight – “I think I have been making the present conform to my awful past.” From that moment on, she turned a mental corner and began breathing life into more optimal, encouraging and optimistic futures.  Our sessions are still a work in progress but, she now has a better paying job, she reconciled with her daughter who she had not spoken to in two years, and despite the former bitterness towards men, she is reaching out socially and is taking salsa lessons in the hope of meeting someone with whom she can redefine her perception of relationships.  The future creates the present against the background of some of our past.

Thus, as we begin mentally rehearsing and visualizing desired outcomes in different areas of our lives, we are breathing life into and creating an optimal, brilliant future – which will result in a returning echo wave that we will ‘step into’ – and collapse all the other possible futures.  The background of our past and our beliefs can influence the type of future we create.  I will have more to say about this in my next blog when I discuss one of the most successful books in recent times, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne.

But, how are our beliefs formed or created?

Our brain, based on electroencephalographic or EEG research produces four electrical signatures or electrical “languages”.  Between birth to approximately 20 to 24 months, our brain produces a very slow sleep wave – Delta, which vibrates between 0.5 to 4 cycles per second.  From approximately two to six years of age, our brain signatures speed up to a frequency spectrum of 4 to 8 Hertz (or cycles per second).  This is designated as Theta which offers greater access to creativity, sudden insights and to the twilight reverie state which is accompanied by an increase in dream-like imagery.  Between the ages of six and twelve, children’s brain wave frequencies accelerate once more to primarily an Alpha state, a faster resonance of  twelve Hertz, or cycles per second.  Alpha is characterized by a relaxed, calm rather unfocussed state and alpha becomes dominant when we meditate, daydream or enter into the lighter states of clinical hypnosis and highway hypnosis.

As children and our brain continues to mature – around the ages of eleven to twelve, the dominant brain wave pattern accelerates once more to the adult waking state of Beta – or from 13 to 50 plus cycles per second.  This is the familiar alert, eyes open focused on the world around us state so we can deal with the everyday problem-solving challenge of life.

But what does this have to do with beliefs?

Theta and Alpha are also states of consciousness in which people are less critical and discerning in their thinking and are highly suggestible to influences and suggestions from other people – very much like being in a hypnotic state.  When people are hypnotized, their brain waves slow to Theta-Alpha frequencies.  Thus, children between the ages of two and twelve are in Theta-Alpha, the most hypnotizable and programmable states of conscious possible.

But, why is that so?  Isn’t this when our beliefs are programmed into a highly suggestible-imaginative mind set?

Beliefs such as…”this is what marriage is about…this is what learning and school is about…this is what God is about…this is what work and life are about”…and, so forth along with the millions of bits of information children absorb during their formative years from parents and teacher.

However, this is also the stage where so-called “truths” about themselves are programmed and reinforced such as, “you are a stupid clutz”…”you can’t do anything right”…”you will never amount to anything”…”I am ashamed of you, you are a disgrace”..or “I am so proud of you”…

”I love you just the way you are”…and, so forth.

Thus, first we create our beliefs – then they create us.  One of the many “jobs” of the subconscious is to maintain consistency or homeostasis between what has been programmed into our “belief bank” and our reality.

For example, a good friend of mine is a salesman who frequently utters…”Damn! Nothing ever works out for me”. Recently, he began negotiating for a highly, profitable contract.  He was excited but one week before signing the contract, it fell through (“nothing ever works for me”).

Another friend, a very bright classy woman has had a series of failed relationships with untrustworthy men.  On many occasions, I have heard her say “All men will cheat – you can’t trust them”.  Of course, you can imagine what kind of men she subconsciously attracts into her life to support her belief – and that of her mother who married a man that constantly cheated on her.

Thus, your life is a printout of your beliefs.  Look at your life – health, work, relationships with partners and money.  If an area of your life is not working – too many speed bumps – what is the negative belief that is creating and maintaining that undesirable outcome?

You always get what you want (the underlying programmed belief – “nothing every works out for me”) which may not be what you are asking for (sealing and signing that profitable contract).

To summarize:

• Your reality is created by your beliefs
• Subconscious beliefs create the filters through which we respond to life’s challenges
• Our beliefs form our attitudes about the world and ourselves
• The ability to perform effectively is profoundly affected by such beliefs as:  “I am competent – I am powerful – I am worthy and deserving of…success…love” etc…

Whatever you believe of yourself will be true, so let go of the bad beliefs and who knows how far you might get. You might surprise everyone, including yourself.  I will have to more to say in a later blog on how to change beliefs.

As Henry Ford once said, “whether you believe you can, or you can’t, you are right“.

I am a clinical psychologist in private practice specializing in the applications of hypnosis, EMDR, Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) to a variety of clinical issues. I have also served as a Sport Psychologist with a number of world-class athletes and professional sports teams. Thus, a major underlying theme to most of my work focuses on how to overcome road blocks to achieving optimal or peak performance in different areas of our lives.

Regardless of one’s background, educational level, income or occupation – the hub of the wheel of life and success has to do with one’s self-estimate or self-esteem. Our self-esteem will vary and co-vary in different areas of our life and our effectiveness level, performance or success will correspond to one’s self-estimate on that particular level. For example, one may have a high self-esteem as a manager or communicator of ideas and their performance will correspond accordingly. Whereas, the same individual may have a low self-estimate when it comes to working with numbers or keeping track of business expenditures. Their effectiveness level correspondingly will be low or on “shaky stilts” in this area. Thus, self-esteem can be considered to be the immune system of the mind and genuine self-esteem is how we feel about ourselves when things are not going right.

But, what can we do on a conscious level without years of psychotherapy or psychological excavation to strengthen our self-estimate?

High self-esteem people have good boundaries. They can draw that line in the sand and say ‘no’ to what doesn’t fit or seem right to them. In other words, they choose to define themselves, their needs and beliefs rather than giving their power away and allowing others to define them.

Secondly and perhaps most importantly, they avoid all judgments of themselves or others. Discernment, yes – but whenever you judge someone else, you are judging a part of yourself in them that you don’t approve of in yourself. Thus, all judgments implicitly are self-judgments. Learning to love yourself and learning to love others go hand in hand.

Thirdly, our inner dialogue or self-talk carries on throughout our waking hours at 150 to 300 words per minute or 45,000 to 51,000 thoughts a day! Since all thoughts are treated like “prayers” by the subconscious (it does not judge), high self-esteem persons carefully monitor their inner dialogue as to whether they are “drugging” their minds all day long with good hypnosis or bad hypnosis thoughts. Are we planting weeds or flowers in the garden of our subconscious?

And fourthly, high self-esteem people feel worthy of both receiving from and giving to others. Generally, people with a low self-estimate will be over accommodating and pleasing so as to not risk being rejected by expressing their needs. In some instances, the only way pleasers can justify receiving is to subconsciously get “sick” or have an accident which makes it acceptable to be nurtured or taken care of.

Fortunately, all of the above can be controlled consciously – with mindfulness, giving from the heart and embracing one’s self without judgment. I will be expanding on this important concept in future blogs.

I wish you all a happy and healthy holiday season.