What are the Three Principles?
A user manual for our mind
The approach I work with is known as the "Three Principles" or as the "inside-out understanding". The Three Principles describe how our personal experience is created and how our mental-emotional system works. When you understand this description on a level that is deeper than mere intellectual understanding, you will automatically experience greater ease and a freer feeling in your life, without the need for any practice or effort. It's a bit like receiving an instruction manual for a piece of technology that you've owned for many years and that always causes problems. The operating instructions will help you understand the functions of the different buttons and switches on the device, making it easy for you to use the device effectively. It is not your effort that makes the device run smoothly now, but your understanding.
This is also where this approach differs from most therapeutic models or spiritual practices. When we work with the Three Principles, we do not go back in time, nor do we try to change our behavior or train our mindfulness. We simply recognize some basic facts about how our mind works. And through this realization, our behavior changes for the better, we reconcile with the past and naturally experience a greater presence in everyday life.
A revolutionary psychology
This may sound unlikely, but it works. For more than forty years, this understanding has been used by coaches and therapists in a wide variety of contexts - in prisons, schools, companies, in high-performance sports, in psychiatric institutions, in couples therapy, in organizations and much more. The universal applicability of this understanding lies in the fact that it reveals the basic workings of the psyche of all people, regardless of situation and circumstance.
In my view, this understanding of the Three Principles represents a real revolution in the world of psychology and will hopefully change the way we see ourselves and deal with mental illness on a large scale in the future.
The description of the Three Principles was first articulated in the 1970's by a man named Sydney Banks. Sydney Banks had a spontaneous enlightenment experience in which the workings of the mind were revealed to him. This experience transformed him so much that the insecure man who worked as a welder in a factory became a spiritual teacher who shared his knowledge with thousands of people until his death in 2009. Quite a few of the people who came to him worked in the fields of psychology, psychotherapy and coaching. They brought the new understanding they had gained at Sydney Banks into their practices and institutions and did much to spread it. There is one today worldwide community by people who work with this understanding.
Sydney Banks
What are the Three Principles?
"But what are those damn three principles we've been talking about all this time?" you're probably wondering by now...
The Three Principles are "Mind", "Consciousness" and "Thought". They symbolize three universal aspects of our being. Everything we experience is created through an interaction of these three aspects.
The principle of "Mind" describes the fact that we are alive. There is something that invigorates our bodies and minds, something that cannot really be grasped but cannot be denied either. One could describe it as a formless energy, as "pure aliveness" or as "pure being". You could also call it "nature," "god," or "essence"—whatever sounds right to you. The words are secondary. But in recognizing that this formless energy exists and that it is the source from which my life springs, there is great transformative potential.
The principle of "Consciousness" refers to the fact that we can perceive. This circumstance is absolutely existential, because without consciousness, without perception, we would not have any experience. Nothing would exist for us, not even ourselves. Although this is so, most of the time we are unaware of our consciousness.
When we become aware of the dimension of consciousness, we discover a space of stillness and openness within ourselves from which we can always draw new strength and fresh insights.
The principle of "Thought" describes the fact that we all think and that our thinking creates our subjective reality. No one sees the world the way you do. Thinking constantly creates a unique film in your mind and then projects it outward so that it appears as if you are perceiving a world separate from you. However, since this is just an illusion (albeit a very elaborate and convincing one), all feelings that you experience are a result of your thinking in the moment and are completely independent of circumstances and other people. When you realize this fact in your own experience, you tap into a whole new freedom, resilience and well-being that is independent of the external events of your life.
Your own knowledge counts!
The goal of working with the Three Principles is not for you to gain an intellectual understanding of these concepts. That would change little or nothing. But the more you really see for yourself how these principles work in your life, the more positive changes will happen naturally.
If you want to find out how this understanding can be helpful for your life and your specific challenges, then simply book a free consultation with me.