I Was Handed A Banana

(It works. The power is there. For me, there was definitely a participation requirement.)

In the 10th episode of my podcast I narrate and commentate on the 6th chapter of Joseph Murphy‘s The Power of Your Subconscious Mind. This particular episode has a lot of “how to-ing”. One method in particular caught my attention. The Baudoin ‘ten day’ technique where Charles Baudoin, a professor at the Rousseau Institute in France, taught –” that the best way to impress the subconscious mind was to enter into, a drowsy, sleepy, state, or a state akin to sleep in which all effort was reduced to a minimum. Then in a quiet passive, receptive way, by reflection he would convey the idea to the subconscious. The following is his formula: “A very simple way of securing this (impregnation of the subconscious mind) is to condense the idea which is to be the object of suggestion, to sum it up in a brief phrase which can be readily graven on the memory, and to repeat it over and over again as a lullaby.”” –The Power of Your Subconscious Mind. Joseph Murphy

The ‘ten day’ portion comes from the example used following the description listed above where a woman who was having issues with her husbands children from a former marriage concerning complications about who gets what, if anything at all, in the Will, applied the Baudoin technique for 10 days. on the 11th her issue was resolved with everyone in the family coming to agreement. Hence the Baudoin ’10 day’ technique.

The ultimate end of this podcast is to explore and employ methods to mental mastery and manifestation. To expand the awareness of the endless possibilities carried within us all. To get us living the life we want. To be the most effective and affective we can be. So, during the podcast I threw myself into the deep end and subscribed to employing one of these techniques myself. 10 days is an easy ask so I jumped into Baudoin’s boat. In the podcast episode you’ll hear me figure I want to give it a go but keep it simple. I end up choosing, to wrap up the desire to employ the power of my subconscious mind for my podcast but also to not have anything too deeply related to my life and well being that I stress myself out for 10 days. I chose, in retrospect a very bizarre and not at all easily distilled statement to have drop into my reality, but as apparent inspiration I said “I am handed a banana”. So that’s what I went with.

As a reminder I wrote two sticky notes, one of which appears above, photographed for evidence of this experiment. One was stuck dangling on the lower left corner of my computer monitor, the other stuck to my bedside desk near where I place my nightly glass of water. For the next 10 days, from the nights of the 8th-18th of July, I would, very casually, repeat the phrase to myself in playful, rhythmic beat sessions, as I faded into sleep mode. I never set a timer to ensure I was on top of my repetitions and it really wasn’t top of mind at all until day Seven.

When day Seven rolled around that was when I started thinking “oh man first go is gonna be a fail” and a thought came into my head “you could goto the store and maybe buy a bunch. That way you’ll have some available at the house. Who knows maybe someone will hand you one at King Soopers.”

No one handed me a banana at King Soopers. Though they had plenty to purchase. I grabbed a bunch, a knot, a fist? what do you call a group of bananas? (we’ll go with Harry Belafonte’s “six foot seven foot eight foot bunch” precedent) I grabbed a bunch, acquired my other listed items, paid and went home. I placed them, gleaming yellow, on top of a bag of oranges so they would pop even more to the eye. The day turned into night. No one handed me a banana.

The next day, Day Eight, rose with the sun. I currently live with my brother in his house and the two of us were in the kitchen sipping coffee and allowing our second brains to figure out what they wanted to eat when another thought popped into my head “ask him to hand you a banana” The next thought in reply stated “wouldn’t that be cheating?” “how? You wanted to manifest someone handing you a banana. You created the very situation to arise where you being handed a banana is a 99% certainty..all you have to do is ask for it” I tell you readers there was this little bit of me that, like a spoiled child not getting his way, crossing his arms and pouting, a part of me whined “but I wanted it to be haaaaanded to me” surprised and defiant to this childish interior response, I asked “could you hand me a banana please?”

Now my brother did, briefly, try to see if there was any other way I might be able to get the banana myself without him just up and handing it to me. However shortly after his inquiry he congenially handed me a banana. Manifestation complete.

So that interior conversation that was happening was what I wanted to bring some more attention to. I definitely see this as a win. However it is a win with some interesting asterisks. *The first being the most obvious. I went and bought bananas and put them in a place where I knew I would have the opportunity to straight up ask for a banana to be handed to me. However, I had the thought, I listened to it, followed through with and didn’t fight my mind when it gave suggestions, and through a series of actions in direct response to the ‘seed’ thought “I am handed a banana” I was able to have my thought come into fruition…pun intended.

*Second the mind is going to take the path of least resistance. Why have a banana passed to me from a disembodied hand floating in a puffy cloud when it could be handed to me from a full bodied human and a family member at that.

*Third is that, and this is a definite recurring theme in books about thought and the part it plays in creation, thought isn’t everything. There must be accompanying action. The Seventh day rolled around and I started having anxious thoughts about this experiment. My mind offered up responses to this. I took action and followed through on a series of thoughts which lead to the cultivation of a situation that lead to a banana being handed to me.

I did take the ultimate action: I asked for it. I asked in a very specific way. That’s the biggest impact this experiment had on me. Asking, specifically, for what I wanted was challenged by a part of me that felt entitled to the outcome and deathly afraid of rejection. Yet all I had to do was ask, and it was given.

More to come for sure and more experimentation aplenty.

You try on the Baudoin ’10 day’ Technique. What will you ask for and repeat to yourself as a lullaby?

Here you can find the Podcast episode mentioned in this post.