How Best Do I Use Focused
Intention?
Some research into the use of focused intention shows that
it doesn’t matter what technique you use as long as your intention is clear and the technique feels right for
you. If you believe in the technique, it has a better chance of working well for you. However, many other
studies have revealed subtle characteristics beyond belief that appear to make directed intention more
effective. Below we discuss some of these universal factors.
• Align your subconscious and conscious
beliefs. If deep in your core you don’t really believe you can heal yourself, then you probably will
not be able to, no matter how much time you spend using guided imagery or focusing on your body. We can
easily fool ourselves, as the placebo effect shows. People who claim they don’t believe in energy healing can
participate in a clinical trial, be given a placebo (a sugar pill, for example, or other substance with no
known medicinal effect) and still experience relief or a cure. This suggests that at a subconscious level,
they do in fact believe they can heal themselves. If they didn’t, the placebo effect wouldn’t-or
couldn’t-happen. As Herman Koning, MD, says in the documentary The Living Matrix, “If you think you
have an incurable disease, if you think it yourself, you are right. If you think your problem is curable,
then you are also right. It all depends on your intention.” However, what Koning fails to remind us is that
the subconscious belief must be alignment with the conscious one. Our bodies will not respond when our minds
(subconscious and conscious) are working at cross purposes.
• Quiet your conscious mind. Almost
all attempts to influence physical reality start from a place of inner calm, where our thoughts, worries,
expectations, and all the other aspects of “monkey mind” are released. A meditative state of mind appears to
be ideal for directing our energy and intentions out into the world or for healing ourselves. When we
experience inner calm by quieting the rush of our thoughts, we allow ourselves access to creative insight and
intuitive knowing. Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, president of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, talks about her own healing from a serious motorcycle accident.
Doctors had told her they might have to amputate part of her leg. One day, she spontaneously “knew” that she
should sit quietly and talk to her leg, asking her immune system to do what was best to heal her injury. The
point we are making is that the intuitive voice comes from the subconscious, and we have to dampen the noise of
our conscious mind in order to hear it.
• Be clear in your intention. The
subconscious mind is linear in many ways. It follows your instructions to the letter and it is always
operating in the “now.” Almost all metaphysicians and most noetic scientists counsel that before you expend
energy intending anything, you become extremely clear about what that intention is. Their general counsel is
to formulate a clear, simple and direct statement of intention. It is also best to word it in the present
tense and in a positive, rather than a negative, way. So, instead of saying what you don’t want or focusing
on the problem, say what you want to happen and focus on the solution. As an example, instead of saying, “Any
cancer cells in my body are dying” you might say, “My immune system is strong and restores my body to vibrant
health.”
• Access, feel and release emotions.
Using focused intention in healing is not a clinical affair. It can get messy emotionally. As we said
earlier, changing belief programs is crucial; however, emotions are often the way we externalize our beliefs.
So while sometimes we don’t have to understand the emotions that may underlie our illness or problem
in order to use directed intention to change it, we usually do have to access and feel
these emotions. Medical researchers are discovering that emotions are almost always a factor in influencing
the development of a health problem or disease, and so “healing” the emotions is crucial to healing the
disease. It can be challenging to root out the deep and often hidden emotional roots of disease, but reports
of “miraculous” healings almost always include the patient’s sudden emotional epiphany, in which he or she
uncovers and fully feels the emotions attached to the disease. This emotional revelation and release often
starts that person on the road to recovery.
• Increase inner coherence and
resonance. In other sections of this website, we talked about coherence and resonance and how
important they are, especially in healing. (See the Theory of Healing Intentions and Energies section of the
Healing tab of this site.) Meditation and similar calming processes help us become more “ordered” inside.
With greater coherence comes the possibility of increased resonance. Resonance is when two separate systems
begin to vibrate together, and this shared vibrational state increases communication between the two systems,
so that they act as one single system. Quantum biologists are exploring the body for coherence and resonance,
and they are finding it at all levels, from DNA and cells right up to brain-wave states. In addition, when
two people resonant together, it appears that any healing energy directed from one to the other is stronger
and more effective. One way to increase your inner coherence and resonance is through heart-based meditative
techniques, such as those taught by the HeartMath organization. No doubt there are many other factors involved in using
beliefs and focused intention to make changes in your life or your health. However, these are some of the
core ones, and they provide a solid starting place for your own experimentation with using directed
intention. We end this section by turning to
the work of Lynne McTaggart, arguably to most knowledgeable person in terms of the science behind intentions
and what makes focused intention work. In her book The Intention Experiment, she lists what she
considers the best protocol for undertaking intention sessions, no matter what the purpose (210-212). She
writes about three crucial aspects for increasing the efficacy of your
intentions:1. Use words or phrases that resonate with your most deeply held beliefs
2. Remember that you are a conduit for universal forces, so “move aside” by
releasing your sense of “I” and merge with the person you are attempting to heal or feel yourself as one with the
universe, from which all things originate and from which everything you want is created
3. Undertake your intentions during times of heightened geomagnetic activity.
(We haven’t talked about this influence on the efficacy of intention in this website, but many different studies
suggest that times of high geomagnetic activity seem to intensify “psi” effects and enhance energy healing and
intention results. You can find out about geomagnetic activity on the Internet, for example
at www.sec.noaa.gov/NOAAscales
.)
McTaggart, like many researchers, also suggests that you
create a space in which you regularly undertake focused intention sessions, as the space in which you work
can become imprinted with this energy and enhance its effects. (For more about how space can be imprinted
with energy, see the section Healing Intentions
II-Human in the Healing tab of this site.) Enter a quiet, meditative state or use a heart-centered
meditation to let go of worries, expectations and judgments, enter a place of gratitude and appreciation, and
stay focused in the present. Then make an energetic connection with the object of your intention, perhaps
through your heart to increase inner coherence and to set up a resonance with it. Be clear in your intention
statement and engage all of your senses as you focus your energy on your intention. McTaggart and others
suggest that you visualize your intention and the outcome you desire in as much detail as possible, vividly
engaging your emotions and senses. Then detach from the outcome, and, as McTaggart writes, “surrender to the
power of the universe. . . .”
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