Psycho-Cybernetics: Updated and Expanded (The Psycho-Cybernetics Series) - Softcover

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Dr. Maxwell Maltz received his doctorate in medicine from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University in 1923. After postgraduate work in plastic surgery in Europe, Maltz was appointed to head several departments of reparative surgery in New York hospitals over his long and distinguished career. He was a prominent international lecturer and on the psychological aspects of plastic surgery. He published two books on the subject, New Faces, New Futures and Dr. Pygmalion.

In the 1950s, Maltz became increasingly fascinated by the number of patients who came to him requesting surgery, who had greatly exaggerated “mental pictures” of their physical deformities, and whose unhappiness and insecurities remained unchanged even after he gave them the new faces they desired. In 1960, after nearly a decade of counseling hundreds of such patients, extensive research, and testing his evolving theory of “success conditioning” on athletes, salespeople, and others, he published his findings—then radical ideas—in the first edition of Psycho-Cybernetics, which went on to sell millions of copies and to be translated in dozens of languages.

Matt Furey, president of the Psycho-Cybernetics Foundation, a national and world title-holder in wrestling and martial arts, a bestselling fitness author as well as successful internet entrepreneur, has committed himself to preserving and extending the legacy of Maltz’s work. Furey headlines sold-out seminars and coaches hundreds of men and women in his highly successful MasterMind/Joint Venture Connection, as well as the Psycho-Cybernetics Coaching Program.
Learn more about Dr. Maltz’s work and Matt Furey at www.psycho-cybernetics.com.

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Title Page

Copyright

Foreword: How Psycho-Cybernetics Changed. My Life—and Can Do the Same for You, by Matt Furey

Preface: The Secret of Using This Book to Change Your Life

1. The Self-Image: Your Key to a Better Life

2. Discovering the Success Mechanism Within You

3. Imagination: The First Key to Your Success Mechanism

4. Dehypnotize Yourself from False Beliefs

5. How to Utilize the Power of Rational Thinking

6. Relax and Let Your Success Mechanism Work for You

7. You Can Acquire the Habit of Happiness

8. Ingredients of the “Success-Type” Personality and How to Acquire Them

9. The Failure Mechanism: How to Make It Work for You Instead of Against You

10. How to Remove Emotional Scars, or How to Give Yourself an Emotional Face-Lift

11. How to Unlock Your Real Personality

12. Do-It-Yourself Tranquilizers That Bring Peace of Mind

13. How to Turn a Crisis into a Creative Opportunity

14. How to Get That Winning Feeling

15. More Years of Life and More Life in Your Years

Afterword

Index

About the Authors

There are two kinds of self-help books: those you read and say, “What a great book,” and those you experience so profoundly your life is positively changed forever. When you truly experience a great self-help book, you can mark down the date and time you “accidentally” stumbled across it—or who referred you to it. You can also clearly determine the distinction between who you used to be, before you read the book, and who you are now.

This is what will happen when you read Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz, MD, the recognized classic in the field of self-help books. Since it was first published in 1960, Psycho-Cybernetics has sold more than 35 million copies worldwide. As a result of people experiencing this book, readers in all walks of life have succeeded at higher levels than ever before. The self-help industry itself was changed, too. Today, virtually everything written and discussed about visualization or mental imagery was directly influenced by Maltz’s work and is deeply rooted in the principles of Psycho-Cybernetics.

My Introduction to Psycho-Cybernetics

In February 1987, shortly after graduating from college and moving to California, I decided to go into business for myself as a personal fitness trainer. Because I had won a national title in college wrestling, and had been trained by Olympic champions Dan Gable and Bruce Baumgartner, I figured I had something valuable to teach young athletes as well as anyone who desired to be more physically fit.

Even as I was embarking on this career, I felt that something was holding me back. There was this inner voice telling me I wasn’t good enough, that I couldn’t make it.

To be honest: First, I had no business experience. Second, I had very little money. And third, deep down I felt like a failure—even before I started.

Imagine that. I wanted to succeed but felt like a failure.

Why did I feel like a failure?

When I think about that question, I recall that when I was in high school, my goal was to wrestle for Dan Gable at the University of Iowa. I fulfilled that goal—but I wasn’t the number one guy in my weight class. I was almost always number two. I got a lot of matches in tournaments and dual meets and won the majority of them—but I was not in the driver’s seat. And so, after my sophomore season, I transferred to Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, where I’d be on the varsity.

During my junior year at Edinboro, I set a single-season win record for the team (39) and won the NCAA II national title. After winning the Division II title, I was ranked seventh overall in the country and qualified for the Division I tournament. My goals were to not only win the tournament I’d already won, but the Division I tourney as well.

Well, I fell short. Way short. I was crushed afterward—yet fully committed to coming back as a senior and making up for my poor showing.

During my senior year, despite having far more skill than ever before, I fell short again. I took fifth in the Division II tournament and did not qualify for the Division I meet.

There were many reasons I can give now for why I fell short, but at the time I couldn’t put my finger on them. And when I began my business, I suspected that it was these same reasons that were causing me to worry and feel fearful about the future.

As fate would have it, in early May of 1987, when I was nearly out of business due to a lack of clientele, Jack, a successful 57-year-old entrepreneur, signed up for 12 lessons. Whenever he showed up to train, he’d scan to see what books I had in my office, which would lead to a lively discussion of what we were reading.

During Jack’s fifth session, when he was catching a breather between sets, he asked the following life-changing question: “Matt, have you ever read Psycho-Cybernetics?”

“No,” I replied. “Is it good?”

“Well, it’s sort of like the bible of self-help. You really need to read it.”

Over the next ten minutes Jack talked to me about success and the “self-image.” He told me that Dr. Maltz was a plastic surgeon who figured out that a person cannot rise above how he sees himself. “Our future,” Jack said, “is controlled by a mental blueprint we have inside our subconscious mind, and it dictates where we think we belong. If you want to get more clients and make more money, then you need to expand your self-image before you can have them. Trying to achieve without expanding your self-image doesn’t lead to lasting positive change.”

After Jack’s lesson, I got in my car and drove to the nearest bookstore, the Capitola Book Café. I pulled a copy of Psycho-Cybernetics from the shelf and drove back to my office to begin reading. In the preface, which appears in its original version in this edition, Dr. Maltz wrote, “This book has been designed not merely to be read but to be experienced. You can acquire information from reading a book. But to ‘experience’ you must creatively respond to information.” He goes on to advise readers to continue to practice the techniques in the book and reserve judgment for at least 21 days—the amount of time that, in fact, research now confirms it takes to effect change. He cautions readers not to overanalyze the techniques, critique them, or intellectualize about whether they could work. “You can [only] prove them to yourself,” he adds, “by doing them and judging the results for yourself.”

Okay, so that’s what I did. And soon I began to see exactly why I felt like a failure and how this poor “self-image” was indeed holding me back in my business.

In short, I felt like a failure because I was reliving my disappointments, my losses, my setbacks, my failures. Each day, when I felt badly about myself, it was as if I’d rubbed my face in the manure of bad memories instead of showering my face with clear-water memories of what I’d done well.

Here’s a snapshot of what I would say to myself: Yes, I achieved my goal to wrestle at Iowa and be coached by Dan Gable, but I wasn’t a varsity man. I was number two. Yes, I got a full-ride at Edinboro and won a national title, but I didn’t win the Division I national title and I didn’t win the Division II title as a senior. Yes, I set a...