Not only are the Sleepwalkers walking around with their eyes closed but their minds are firmly closed too. Since I started to transform into a Daydreamer I can tell you that the most infuriating thing about a Sleepwalker is their unflinching determination to keep their minds closed, despite offering up information that a six-year old child would see the sense in.
A mind is like a parachute, it doesn’t work if its not open – Frank Zappa
History shows us how wrong people can be and how important it is to keep that mind open – if only slightly ajar. People used to think the world was flat, Galileo was imprisoned for having the gall to say that the earth moved around the sun, women who dared to dance naked or defile one of the ten commandments were called witches and burned at the stake and the medicinal experts used to drive metal stakes into people skulls to cure them of mental illnesses.
Despite loathing cigarettes when I was a child I started smoking when I was eighteen. I still remember smoking that first fag and thinking to myself what the hell am I doing? It tasted disgusting, smelt disgusting and made me go a little dizzy. I was always a reluctant smoker but it didn’t stop me smoking twenty fags a day for the next seven years. When my son was born I gave up and have not smoked since. It was the first time that I had used literature to try and help me improve my life, and what better way to improve your life by extending it’s longevity?
I was able to give up smoking because I had an open mind. I never craved a single cigarette from the day I vowed to stop until the day I just finished typing this sentence. When you try to tell other smokers the simple truth: that smoking offers you absolutely no benefit whatsoever, they will look at you like you are stupid. This is because the mind shuts up shop and is not going to open for this subject matter anytime soon!
The mind of the Sleepwalker is a cunning little beast. It runs the show and it will do whatever it can you keep the human spirit confined and confused. The mind of the Sleepwalker is like a little Dynamo and it creates the perfect illusions. It makes you believe that issues such as smoking, alcohol abuse and changing careers are so complex and intricate, when in fact they are very simple matters.
As Flavour Flav used to sing, “Don’t believe the hype!”
All you need to do, in order to free yourself from the confines of your mind, is to prise it open and use a little bit of common sense. One thing the mind does have in its favour is the fact that most of the world will also support the belief that it is so difficult to change. Yes, it is true Sleepwalkers dominate the earth in the same way that the Dinosaurs did in the Triassic Period millions of years ago. The mind uses the word of the masses to help you keep your mind closed. Why do I need an open mind when you are quite clearly wrong Mr. Davy…just listen to everyone around you! Everybody knows everybody drinks and if you think that smoking will give you cancer then what about Lisa’s auntie’s brother’s son…he died of cancer and he doesn’t smoke! Well there you are then…
Please don’t follow the pack. Remember who you are. Open your mind and do not refute opinion based on the vote of the majority. You need to able to say to yourself that maybe they are wrong? Without having an open mind I would not have been able to give up smoking, give up drinking and leave my career after twenty years.
When I first started the planning process to achieve my breakthrough goal to earn $45,000 through poker the first thing that I did was make sure that I my mind was open and the results were amazing.
Inspiration
Even today I have to constantly remind myself to keep an open mind. I know how difficult it can be, but with a lot of practice it is possible to make it a way of life. When I started to look at problems with an open mind I always managed to find a solution no matter how lost I was. When I began to make great changes in my life I got excited and started to tell all my loved ones. A few of them supported me because they had an open mind, but the large majority of them just thought I was round the twist.
I quickly realised that people were scared of the changes I was making. When their minds were open, doubt would creep in and they would question the sanity in the actions they were taking. These questions would make them feel a little inadequate and so they would grab a brush, sweep the doubt out and close up their minds. I found this incredibly frustrating and this frustration is one of the reasons I wrote this blog post.
“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake up in the day to find it was vanity, but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible.” – T.E.Lawrence
Photos courtesy of jessica mullen, >WonderMike< & Serge Melki (cc @ flickr.com)
