How Your Mind Can Keep You Well

by Roy Masters

Why are people unhappy? What makes people tick? Where do our thoughts and feelings come from? How can we find real happiness? In this explosive and revolutionary work, Roy Masters introduces possibly the most advanced psychological system known to man - Freud and the whole of modern psychology included. This introductory work explores the root cause of our unhappiness and suffering - living from our false self - and explains the self-knowledge, brought about by a simple exercise of objective awareness which restores our true identity. Every human being is searching for the same real happiness. Yet as Thoreau observed, "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." While we all anxiously search for this elusive state of happiness, the reality is that most of us are continually haunted by fear, doubt, confusion, anxiety, guilt, tension, and suffering through our entire lives. But occasionally, we glimpse that there might be something higher - a more real state of living, of true fulfillment. But how can we find it? How can we avoid a life of quiet desperation? In the modern world flooded with multitudes of therapies, gurus, drugs, medicines, and trendy psychological techniques, this simple but powerful system has for decades been helping hundreds of thousands of people find the happiness and confidence they had been searching for all of their lives. Discover the system and philosophy that has helped millions overcome drugs, alcoholism, and other various addictions, heal childhood and sexual traumas, solve relationship and marital difficulties, and answer personal problems of every kind. This book may hold the answer you have been looking for.

Genres: Meditation

201 pages, Paperback

First published December 12, 1976

About the author

Roy Masters—who in his 80s continues to broadcast the longest-running counseling show in talk radio history—started his journey toward understanding human nature in the most unlikely of places. Growing up in pre-WWII England, he watched a performer easily put his volunteer subjects under a hypnotic spell and induced each of them to do strange and outlandish things. How, the young Roy wondered, could a smiling, personable stranger cause well-dressed, educated, competent adults to forget their names? Puzzled by the mysterious power the hypnotist had exercised over his subjects, Roy distinctly remembers pondering the question: “Why can’t hypnotism be used to make people act sensibly, rather than foolishly?” Inspired by the idea of harnessing this baffling force for good, he later pursued the art of hypnotism and established a successful hypnotherapy practice. Over years of counseling as well as personal experience, Roy realized that the root of the power of negative suggestion lay in our wrong emotional response, and so he began to search for a way to help people overcome the hypnotic power of stress. After years of searching, he discovered a remarkably effective meditation method, and has been teaching it—with spectacular results—ever since. For over 50 years Roy counsels people primarily through his internationally syndicated daily radio program Advice Line, where callers discuss their most intimate problems and find genuine help and healing. He has served as a daily voice of sanity and conscience to his listeners, with the uncanny ability to zero in quickly on core problems. As the institutional home for his counseling work, Masters’ formed the Foundation of Human Understanding in 1961. Through his daily radio broadcasts, lectures, seminars, his 18 books, countless audio and video programs—and the Internet—he has helped millions worldwide. He has also established a successful prison outreach and an innovative private K-12 school. Beyond all this, and at a time in life when most people would have long since retired, an energetic Roy Masters is delving deeply into yet another long-time interest—physics and cosmology. He has authored “Finding God in Physics” as well as a more technical treatise, “Gravity Driven Universe” and has lectured on “Electricity from Gravity” at the American Physical Society in Denver. Roy Masters and his wife, Ann, have been married since 1952. They have five grown children and 18 grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Reviews

[William L Ingram · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book changed my life for the better. This is the foundational book that teaches the Judeo-Christian Meditation method I still practice and talk about in my own book: Finding Heaven In The Dark by William L. Ingram

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE MAJOR BOOK BY THE POPULAR RADIO SHOW HOST

Author Roy Masters (1928-2021) was the founder of the Foundation of Human Understanding, and hosted a talk radio show from 1951.

He wrote in the Introduction to this 1978 book, “This book is about a very special form of meditation---a rediscovery of a very ancient science that provides the answer to the serious problems of our time. Proper understanding of this technique is apparent only after you have submitted yourself to its discipline for a time. How short or long a time, the author cannot predict. To some, enlightenment comes with sudden intensity. To others it is a gradual unfoldment… The meditation will help you realize that any attempt to rationalize or analyze an emotional complex only adds to the severity of the problem.” (Pg. i-ii)

He continues, “The secret lies in the meditation exercise, a reverse principle to the hypnosis of life. All of us have within a potential inclination toward right action, such as helping one another. The exercise fosters this tendency to think and do what we perceive is wise for each moment in a naturally compelled manner, without the use of any pressure or suggestion to that end. The emphasis is placed solely upon improvement of the meditation exercise. The directions are designed to lead us to the ability to perceive clearly for ourselves and to have confidence in and act upon what we see to say and do; and so by not doubting, we can overcome emotionality we feel when we do doubt ourselves.” (Pg. vi)

In the instructions for the meditation, he says, “Remember, do not analyze. Ponder on it, within yourself. Do not worry. Cast our doubt. Bring your mind back again and again to the objective state of being in the now present and observe doubt flee from you. Don’t discuss this with anyone yet. There are no words. Just think it and feel it secretly and do it.” (Pg. 18)

He suggests, “positive thinking and well-being is a present you cannot give yourself. It comes as a gift from God---for remembering each moment to make allowances for your fellow man.” (Pg. 61)

He advises, “To live unto God we must accept the essence of grace to enable us to gaze unflinchingly into the face of our tempters and tormentors, unaffected by their flattery or criticism. We should not be threatened by wickedness nor should we covet apparent advantages or superiority.” (Pg. 74)

He says, “Anger, fear and intellect are not your protection. Understanding, or non-reactive love, is your amor for life. Face the danger before you without fear and anger, without dealing with it from your own ego. Be aware of the pains of your various problems, and the Spirit of truth will be stressed to reply for you,” (Pg. 155)

He notes, “‘If I were God,’ you may think secretly, ‘I could never forgive me for what I have done, so how could HE possibly forgive me?’ Do you judge the judgment upon yourself in hopes of rising higher than the judgment upon you---much as you do when you anticipate, or ‘judge,’ the judgments of other people to get above them? If so, you judge the judgment upon yourself that would not be judgment had you not believed and judged that way in your heart, all because you vainly attributed your short-comings to your Creator as though no greater justice and mercy than your own existed in the universe.” (Pg. 185)

He concludes, “It is ambition what sets us apart from the purpose for which we were created and makes us impatient and imperfect. We may not see this as long as we succeed in getting what we want, and obtaining ‘love’ from creatures and people. When your consciousness desires its true meaning and purpose again, and nothing is more important, suddenly your anxiety is gone. You will have discovered patience with people and things.” (Pg. 201)

This book will be of keen interest to fans of Masters’ teachings.

[Alexander Herrera · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book however its more of a study than a simple read.