The Magical Effect Of Focusing Your Attention

by Bonnie Boots

Arthur C. Clarke once proposed that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I propose that any sufficiently advanced brain function is also indistinguishable from magic, at least to the normal, waking portions of our conscious minds.

As far back as I can remember, I've been a fascinated observer of human consciousness. And because I've always been wiling to push that envelope, I've seen and experienced many profoundly unusual events, enough to convince me that what we consider "normal" is really just a severely censored state of mind.

It's as if we're a race of eagles who've convinced ourselves we're really turtles. So rather than soaring to the heights we were born for, we plod along on the ground. But our latent ability to soar never leaves us. In fact, it leaps out in the most unexpected ways.

I'll tell you a story about myself that illustrates it.

I was born with an obsession for reading that couldn't be fed, at least not by the scant amount of paper that came into our house. I was punished often for sneaking away with a newspaper or a paperback before my parents had a chance to finish it. But I didn't dare snatch the two women's magazines my mother bought each month.

When it came to those magazines, my mother had a strict rule: she read them first, all the way through. When she was done, my older sister got them. My turn came last.

Often, two agonizing weeks passed before I got my turn to see those magazines. My lust for the stories, articles and recipes bound between those bright covers was so fierce, I sometimes felt it would overwhelm me.

And one night, it did.

My sister, who hated reading, began purposely hanging on to the magazines just to taunt me. Three weeks passed, and still she refused to give them up. I was frustrated, then enraged and finally in despair when I cried myself to sleep one night.

The next morning I awoke from a dream so vivid it seemed as if it had actually happened. I dreamt I'd read both magazines, cover to cover.

Later, when my sister began teasing me with the magazines, I ignored her. Bored with her game, she dropped the magazines on my head and left. I flipped through them and was amazed to discover they were exactly the same as my "dream" magazines. I knew every word in them.

From that day on, every month, I would dream of reading both magazines, cover to cover, the night before my mother bought them!

My clever brain had found a way to get me what I wanted, without disobeying my mother or giving in to my sister.

The first couple of times it happened I was thrilled, but also wary. I thought the experience might end as quickly as it had begun. But months passed and the dreams continued. In fact, they continued for years, ending only when I began baby sitting for neighbors. With money in my pocket, I could buy my own magazines, and barely noticed when the dreams ended.

That's just one of a thousand experiences that have convinced me our brains come hardwired to deliver to us whatever we focus our attention on. And when I say focus, I mean concentrating every fiber of our being on a single objective.

When you bring that sort of concentrated attention to anything, your brain will do anything it takes to deliver. If it cannot deliver the object of your obsession in a manner that fits within what currently passes for normal, the brain eventually unfurls its latent abilities and reveals them in a way that, as Arthur C. Clarke would appreciate, is often identified as magic,

It is magic, I assure you. Not the magic of fairy tale wizards, but the real magic of a brain whose functions are capable of delivering seeming miracles on a regular, daily basis. , You only need to know the secret word to open up the deeper levels of the brain and call forth its power. That word is "focus.""



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