on the cheap and sleazy side (www.cheapandsleazy.net)

By G.D. Warner

Affirmations: The Broad Strokes

A Quick-and-Dirty Piece on Affirmations

 

Sometime back,I promised one of my readers for nearly a YEAR to write an article on affirmations ... but every time I planned on working on it, something always seemed to get in the way.

This week is no exception: I'm a wee bit under the weather, and frankly, I should be sleeping! But I did promise that reader that I would get SOMETHING to her THIS WEEKEND ... so this will be the "no frills" version of the still-unfinished abandoned article, "Affirmations 'r' You."

Of course, in preparing this "Quick and Dirty" version, some things will be lost ... for instance, I will NOT be explaining any of the theory behind why this stuff works -- not that I actually know, but I have some idea ... and I won't be explaining that too deeply, either.

Nor will I be expounding too much on the pitfalls on a badly-written affirmation ... which, by the way, is another reason for my not getting this done: Writing an affirmation improperly can have definite negative effects -- life threatening effects.

I will probably not mention too many of the tidbits I've picked up along the way ... like how you might include a statement or two for someone you may or may not know to succeed in whatever goal they're working towards, as they would (hopefully!) do for you, and how that would only serve to amplify your efforts (that's why Brian "Proofreadery Husband" is still with us).

I will probably not be mentioning anything about "binaural beats," which can be used to induce a specific frequency in the brain in order to produce a specific effect ... which, when mixed with an affirmation can -- in theory -- do amazing things --!

At least, that's the theory.

So let's get to it!

By the way, this piece is CLASSIFIED --

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T O P   S E C R E T   S L E A Z Y

 

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-o0o-

 

What This Article Will (Hopefully) Cover

 

In this article, I will (ideally) be discussing the following:

• How to construct a "well-formed affirmation"
• How to record that affirmation on your laptop
• How to add "white noise" (say "static") to that recorded affirmation so that you can't consciously hear it
• A precautionary tale or two
• Some thoughts from experts culled from a few of my Different Dictation sources
• How to reverse the audio file so that even if you did consciously hear it, your conscious mind would not understand what was being said (but your subscionscious mind would! See the Reverse Speech website for more info).
• Some other things that might pop into my head as I'm writing (relax! I get a lot of good ideas that way!)

 

Affirmations: What Are They Anyway?

James Goi, Jr., in his book, "How to Attract Money Using Mind Power," defines affirmations as follows:

"An affirmation is a word, phrase, or sentence designed and used to methodically impress the subconscious mind with the mental impressions of the way you want your circumstances to develop." (Goi, p. 40)

Dr. Adrian Calabrese, author of the book, "How to Get Everything You Ever Wanted: Complete Guide to Using your Psychic Common Sense" describes an affirmation thusly:

"An affirmation is nothing more than a few sentences that restate our desire. Doing this right requires a positive attitude and a belief that what you are asking for can be yours." (Calabrese, p. 73)

But First ... What do you Want?

Before you get started, you should have a good idea in mind of what you want. Dr. Calabrese's book goes into great detail about defining what you want, as does author Ken Welch in his (out-of-print) book, "The Master Key: Personal Applications of Subliminal Technology."

If you need help with defining what it is that you want, you can always ask me, but it might be easier to read through this article.

Writing the Well-formed Affirmation

In her (previously) mentioned book, Dr. Calabrese says a good affirmation consists of the following six elements:

•   Request

•   Express gratitude

•   Protect

•   Remove limits

•   Acknowledge

•   Finalize

She includes this affirmation that she used to get herself a new Jeep Cherokee:

I am the owner of a new 1993 black Jeep Cherokee. I am able to afford it, I have the down payment, I get credit easily, and payments are low and easy for me to meet. I thank the Universe for this Jeep, which is already mine and has come to me in a safe and loving way. I receive this or something better, in my highest and greatest good, and that of all concerned, in accordance with divine will and the free will of all concerned. And so it is!

Oh, and she wrote that this one worked within two days.

The Breakdown:

First, the request:

I am the owner of a new 1993 black Jeep Cherokee. I am able to afford it, I have the down payment, I get credit easily, and payments are low and easy for me to meet.

Next, the gratitude:

I thank the Universe for this Jeep, which is already mine ...

Now the protection:

... and has come to me in a safe and loving way.

Removing the limits:

I receive this or something better, in my highest and greatest good, and that of all concerned, in accordance with divine will and the free will of all concerned.

And finally, the finalization:

And so it is!

And yes, you can have more than one affirmation in the same audio file.

Recording the Affirmation

Once you have written your affirmation in the form Dr. Calabrese recommends, it's time to record it (the audio file should be about five minutes in length). The last time I did this, I read my affirmation in a whisper; makes it easier to mask with the white noise later ... so I highly recommend that you do the same.

I used Audacity to record the one or two affirmations I created, though that was quite a while ago now.

If you're not familiar with the way Audacity works, let's just say if you can cut, copy, and paste in a Word document, you pretty much know all you need to know to use Audacity. I do have a rather rudimentary article on how to use it, but I've been toying with making another, where I provide a link to two different versions of the same song, along with a few snippets from others, and have the reader make their own remix.

Well. One of these days.

Maybe.


Update (13MAR13)

Just made a happy discovery: The earbuds that come with the iPhone -- and yes, I mean the ones with the built-in microphone -- work perfectly with Audacity (on my Mac, anyway).


Once you have recorded your affirmation script in Audacity, check your audio file against this screenshot:

Loud and Distorted Sound File: Bad!

As you might guess from that caption up there, that's not what you want your audio file to look like.

You want your sound file to look like this one:

"Just Right" Sound File: Good!

Now play it back. You're checking the file both for distortion and any unwanted background noise: Angry neighbors. Fire trucks. Barking dogs. Farting gnats, etc. ... so perhaps making the recording in the Wee Small Hours is a good idea -- depending on the nocturnal habits of your neighbors, of course.

If the track is unsatisfactory, record it again. Ensure you delete the original recording in Audacity first by clicking the black X (top left in the picture below); otherwise, you'll end up with multiple copies of your recording!

here's the black X

Note the black X

When you're satisfied with the quality of your recorded affirmation, again, open it in Audacity, then do a Select All, then a Control-C to copy it, and click towards the end of the file and do a Control-V to paste a copy of the original, and repeat until Audacity shows that you have a file 15 minutes long.

Reversal Time

Now for the fun stuff: Reversing your audio.

Next, go back to your audio track, do a Select All, and copy your vocal track.

Next, click File and select New. This should give you a new window. Paste the vocal track into the new window.

Here's where the reversal bit happens: Click the Effects menu, then click the "Reverse" menu item. Audacity will put up a progress window, and when it disappears, your vocal track will be reversed! Feel free to play it to make sure it's actually reversed. If it is (and it should be), do a Select All, then copy it, and switch back to your original vocal track.

Next, click towards the end of your original vocal track, and paste the reversed track into that window.

This should give you your vocal track playing forward for 15 minutes, and backwards for 15 minutes. Try playing from the 14:30 mark to the 15:20 mark to ensure you have both the forward and reversed files in the track.

Add Some White Noise

Right-click and save this file. This is your white noise.

Once the file has been downloaded, open it in Audacity, and do a Select All and Copy (the white noise file is about five minutes long), then switch back to your audio file and add another track (Tracks --> Add New --> Stereo Track), click towards the beginning of the track and paste the white noise track into that new empty track.

Click Play and check to see how well the white noise masks your spoken audio file.

If you are satisfied, paste in enough white noise to fill the entire 30 minutes of your vocal track.

But Wait ....

Note that the white noise starts off low and gradually increases in volume. You might want to click the white noise near the point where it reaches full volume, hold the Shift key down, then locate the point near the end of the white noise where it begins to decrease in volume, and click there.

This should give you a selected portion of the white noise at a constant volume. Do a Ctrl-C to copy that section.

Click past the selection and paste that "constant-level" white noise in again, then re-locate the start point of that "constant-level" white noise selection, hold the Shift key down again, then click again at the end of the white noise wave form, and paste again.

Eventually, you'll end up with about 30 minutes worth of white noise (a few minutes more won't hurt!), which will hopefully match up with your 30 minute affirmation file.

If you like, you can switch back to that original white noise file, select and copy the last few seconds of it, and paste that at the end of the longer "constant-level" white noise waveform.

This will have the white noise fade out at the end of your affirmation.

Remember, the purpose of masking your audio is to avoid having your conscious mind grab onto the fact that it hears you speaking, thus giving it the chance to disagree with what you have recorded yourself saying.

The subconscious is funny that way.

Once you are satisfied with your vocal track, go to File --> Save As and select ".mp3." Fill in the information for the file, then click Okay.

When the file has finished exporting, add it to your iTunes library (on my Mac, that would be as simple as opening iTunes, creating a new playlist, then dragging and dropping that .mp3 into that new playlist) ... and from there, connect your iPod and add that playlist to it.

Easy-peazy!

"That's All, Folks!"

Like I said at the beginning, these are JUST the broad strokes ... and as such, please look over your written affirmation closely before recording it.

In fact, take a break after you've finished writing your affirmation -- long enough to clear your mind a bit -- and then look it over again.

Due to what I have had to leave out, I want to ensure your affirmation will not cause you or anyone else any harm in the future before you begin listening to it (and yes, that is a real possibility!).

"Harm? Whatchoo Talkin' 'bout, Warner Willis Spock?!?"

Whatchoo Talkin' 'bout willis

What You Talking About, Warner Willis Spock?!?

Ah, you want specifics! Okay. What is wrong with this affirmation:

"I will finish my book before I die."

One of the examples in Ken Welch's book, "The Master Key: Personal Application of Subliminal Technology" (pg. 8-2; out of print) told the tale of a woman who was writing her family history ... and (yes, you guessed it) she uttered that phrase every day to get some subconscious help in writing her book.

The good news: She finished her book!

The bad news: She died shortly after having done so.

That is one form of harm.

Ken finished that anecdote with this:

"Never refer to death, retirement, or any other timing mark that might refer to your own life span, without a very, very good reason."

Funny ... I can't think of a good reason!

Another form of harm is when you ask for something, and the attainment of whatever you asked for causes harm to another. I experienced this one first hand a few years ago ... but I didn't realize it at the time.

Long time readers of Cheap and Sleazy might recall reading that someone stole a laptop from me a few years ago.

Alas, that archived page is gone (after deleting it, I came up with the brilliant archiving strategy I use today!) ... but to make a long story short, I came home from work one day, discovered my laptop was missing from my "locked" bedroom, and I went NUTS! At the time, my oldest niece had a friend staying with us -- "us" being my grandmother, myself, the aforementioned niece, and her (~15-year-old) daughter, Buttmunch -- er, Jasmine.

So. I find that my laptop has vanished, the cops come, and this "friend" was helpfully pointing the finger towards a distant cousin, who had apparently stopped by earlier that day, as she did often.

The cops take me to the girl's house and she tearfully denies the accusation and I believe her ... but inside, I'm still seething.

The cops then went back to whatever they were doing before I called, and I am left with no laptop (did I mention I had bought it two weeks before?).

As you might guess, my thoughts that night were not exactly on the angelic side, and those thoughts continued until around the third night, when those non-angelic thoughts solidified into this one, crystal clear thought:

"I don't care WHO stole my laptop. I want them punished, and I want my laptop replaced!"

That thought occupied my mind for about two weeks, and then stopped.

Shortly after I stopped having those "dark thoughts," two things happened:

First, that "friend" of my niece's met an angry ex-boyfriend in a neighborhood park, and she ended up in the hospital.

Next, I got an unexpected large paycheck from the court reporting agency I was doing transcription work for ... and that check was large enough to replace that stolen laptop with a better one -- and yes, that laptop was *NEVER* left in that house alone!

Of course, I did not put these things together at the time; in fact, it took six months (and a visit from my niece, Buttmunch -- er, Jasmine), who shared with me her thoughts on what happend before I put those two incidents together.

By this time I had moved out of that house owing to the death of my grandmother, and was living with my "roomie." My niece came to visit me at that new apartment and she told me that the "friend" that was accusing our cousin was making an awful lot of noise while the cops were there -- which conveniently pointed their attention away from her.

She also told me that this girl was a crackhead.

In my defense, I didn't hang around that woman too much, so I had no idea she was so afflicted ... but once my niece told me that she was the culprit, I remembered those "dark thoughts" I was having, that incident in the park, her resultant trip to the hospital, that unexpected check ... and I finally put two and two together -- but I didn't mention that part to my niece.

So there you have it -- this stuff can be misused ... and I don't recommend that.

One More Example ... From an Expert:

In a Dreamland Halloween Special from 27OCT01, Whitley Strieber was interviewing his guest, John Michael Greer, a magician from the Seattle area ... and, at about the 71 minute mark, he started talking about "negative magic":

JOHN MICHAEL GREER (JMG): One of the problems with nasty magic is that it always comes around to bite you in the butt.

This isn't just a matter of karma. Magic -- using magic is like spreading raspberry jam without a knife: If you're going to get it on anyone else, you're going to get it on yourself, too.

WHITLEY STRIEBER (WS): Uh-huh.

JMG: And so, the evil magicians you get in fantasy fiction -- who is the guy in the Harry Potter stories, Lord Voldermort? He would burn out long before he got as far as he did in the books.

When you're handling destructive energies, when you're doing destructive things with energies, it comes around at you, very quickly.

There is a traditional law called "The Law of Three-fold Return," which argues that whatever you do to other people with magic, you get back three times as much. Thus it is a really good idea to do healings and blessings, and helping with magic to do very positive things, because you're going to get the payback for that.

But if you're using magic to hurt people, you're going to get the payback for that, too.

WS: Wow.

And that, ladies and germs, is why you want to avoid manifesting anything that might cause harm to another in fulfilling that which you desire.

Hope this works for you!

-o0o-

Update (01MAR13)

I've been listening to a guy who is a champion at manifesting by the name of Tony Burroughs. He had this advice:

"Highest good" clause: Very important.

Add "freely, easily, and effortlessly" to the end of each intention

Two power phrases:

"I always have enough to spare, and enough to share."

"In order for my intentions to manifest, they must serve the highest and best good of the universe, ourselves, and everyone everywhere. And we say 'so be it, and so it is.' That is sort of our saving grace, the 'highest good' clause. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't manfest anything if it wasn't in my highest good and everybody involved."

"'I am,' and 'I intend.' Anything you say after that, you're going to get it," he says.

I haven't tried using these as yet; next project, for sure!

You might also take a look at Christy Cannariato's article, Concentration. In that article, she describes how she used a combination of visualization and affirmations to get her CSR.

-o0o-

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