Three Principles (self-help)

The "Three Principles" of Mind, Consciousness and Thought were first articulated by Sydney Banks, a 9th-grade educated welder, born in Scotland, living in British Columbia, Canada in the early 1970s. The Three Principles approach is also referred to as Health realization.

"Discovery" of the three principles

According to Banks' verbal accounts, as recorded at lectures, he realized the three principles while attending a marriage seminar held on Cortes Island, in British Columbia, Canada.

The seminar encouraged couples to let their feelings out, be honest, and argue with one another. Discouraged with the process, Banks and his wife prepared to leave the seminar. As they were doing so, Banks became engaged in conversation with a therapist also attending the seminar.

Describing himself as an insecure mess at that time, Banks began elaborating on all the ways in which he felt insecure. The therapist's response, I've never heard such nonsense in all my life, was a revelation to Banks:

What I heard was: there’s no such thing as insecurity, it’s only Thought. All my insecurity was only my own thoughts! It was like a bomb going off in my head … It was so enlightening! It was unbelievable … [And after that,] there was such beauty coming into my life.[1]

The three specific terms, Mind, Consciousness and Thought, were not clearly delineated during Banks' initial experience. The three words—and his definitions—would become clear later through his talks and lectures. Referring to them as the psychological trinity[2] Banks does not take credit for finding the Principles, rather the Principles found him. , January 2012  Missing or empty |title= (help)

Application

Roughly 40 years later, Mr. Banks' "insight" has been introduced in hospitals and hospital systems, correctional institutions, social services, juvenile justice programming, community housing, drug and alcohol prevention and treatment programs, schools, and multi-national corporations., January 2012  Missing or empty |title= (help)

Application of the Three Principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought has spread throughout the United States, and into Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Israel, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Spain.[3]

Definition

According to Banks, the three "formless" principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought explain the entire range of human behavior and feeling states. They are responsible for the creation of all human experience.[4]

The three principles are defined as:

Mind

The energy and intelligence of all life, whether in the form, or formless. The Universal Mind, or the impersonal mind, is constant and unchangeable. The personal mind is in a perpetual state of change.[5]

Consciousness

Consciousness is the gift of awareness. Consciousness allows the recognition of form, form being an expression of Thought.[6]

Thought

The power of Thought is not self-created. Thought is a divine gift, which serves you immediately after you are born. Thought is the creative agent we use to direct us through life.[7]

Three Principles Movement

The Three Principles have become the basis of a growing, international psycho-spiritual movement with centers in the United States and Europe. The fundamental premise of the movement is that life is spiritually generated into form from the formless, and that our experience as human beings is created from the interaction of the Three Principles; including the experience of self-identity.

Practitioners of the Three Principles believe that feeling states (and all mental states) are self-created (through Thought), and that beyond each person's limited, personal thought system lies a vast reservoir of wisdom, insight and spiritual intelligence. No one person has greater access to spiritual wisdom than any other. Mental health is the resting state, or "default" setting of the mind, which brings with it non-contingent feelings of love, compassion, resilience, creativity and unity; both with others and with life itself.[8]

It would be difficult to provide a comprehensive list of centers worldwide that are dedicated to sharing the Three Principles. However, some prominent organizations are the Center for Sustainable Change, Three Principles Foundation, Three Principles Movies, The Cypress Initiative and One Solution.

Founder and Students

Banks, who died of metastasized cancer on Memorial Day, in May 2009, contradicted many traditional notions and practices of psychotherapy. Specifically, that for mental wellbeing, it was not important to process the past, nor that the content of peoples' personal thought systems had to be "worked with" and analyzed.

Everyone in mental institutions is sitting in the middle of mental health and they don't know it.[9]

Banks was also averse to using techniques, or creating concepts, in order to share with others. These, he felt, contradicted the essential formless and original nature of the Three Principles, which emphasises kindness, "sharing, caring" and the simple gift of love.[10]

A number of therapists and psychologists showed an interest in the concepts, and the teachings were spread[11] into various private practices, social services, corporate training and consulting, psychiatry, education, community mental health and development work, and drug and alcohol treatment systems.

Notes on "Other Names" for the Three Principles

The Three Principles have been called by other names, including Health Realization, neo-cognitive psychology, Psychology of Mind, and Innate Health. The form of how the Three Principles has been taught has changed over the decades, with an increasing emphasis on simplicity, formlessness, and speaking from the heart. Some would say that the Three Principles is not a "technique" that can be taught but instead a paradigm that comes to be understood at increasingly deeper levels.

Bibliography

Works by Sydney Banks, currently published by Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

Books

Audio

Video

By other authors

References

  1. ↑ "The Truth Lies Within," Part 2 of the "Long Beach Lecture Series, Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton, Canada
  2. ↑ Banks, Sydney, The Missing Link: Reflections on Philosophy and Spirit, International Human Relations Consultants, p. 21
  3. ↑ See "threeprinciplesmovies.com"
  4. ↑ Banks, Sydney, "The Missing Link: Reflections on Philosophy and Spirit," International Human Relations Consultants, Publishers, 1998. Distributed by Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton. p. 26.
  5. ↑ "The Missing Link," p. 31
  6. ↑ "The Missing Link," p. 39.
  7. ↑ "The Missing Link," p. 47
  8. ↑ See books by practitioners, including Elsie Spittle, George Pransky, Roger Mills, Joseph Bailey, Jack Pransky, Richard Carlson, Ami Chen Mills-Naim, Robert Kausen
  9. ↑ "The Hawaii Lectures," DVD Series
  10. ↑ From tapes, lectures, etc.
  11. ↑ Oral and written testimonies from practitioners; Roger Mills' unpublished memoirs and Mills, R.C. and Spittle, E., "The Wisdom Within" pp. 16-25, Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton, Canada, 2001.
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