Three Principles
The field of psychology had encountered a genuine mystic, and Pransky and Mills were among several in their field who recognized intuitively that the profound inner change they had experienced personally was what their clients were looking for as well. They each set out to apply what they had learned to their practice, although neither had the slightest inkling of how to do so.
Sydney Banks' sessions were entirely without structure in the beginning. He simply expressed whatever flowed into his mind. Speaking with a distinctive and relaxed Scottish brogue, tinged with a puzzling humor, he spoke of realizing the impersonal mind, of discovering new levels of consciousness, of looking for positive feelings, and questioning negative feelings. He insisted that he had no answers that weren't available to anyone else, implored that what he was pointing to could not ever be expressed or learned, that it could only be realized. By anyone, at any time. He spoke of “hearing”, of “seeing”, of “knowing”. He spoke of love, and understanding.
There was nothing “rational” about any of it, yet it resonated deeply with those who listened. People started to realize their own level of consciousness, and to see it working in others. Yet, rather than judging, they began to see others as struggling with their own thinking, generated by their own level of consciousness, in innocence. That led to feelings of compassion, which in turn led to another level of consciousness, to deeper understanding. And so it went.
In the 2015 book Paradigm Shift: A History of the Three Principles, George Pransky discusses the challenges the early mental health practitioners faced in disseminating a decidedly radical new understanding of human psychology.
“I saw that awareness was kind of the currency of all these other approaches: for human beings to become more aware of themselves, of their thoughts, their feelings, their behaviors, and that was kind of like a horizontal dimension. And Syd Banks was talking about a vertical dimension called levels of consciousness. And improvement in levels of consciousness solved all the objectives of awareness; it accomplished all that greater awareness was trying to accomplish. And I also saw that awareness sowed the seeds of its own destruction, so to speak—undermined its own objectives, because when people became more aware they became more self-absorbed, more self-conscious, and that took them away from the well-being they were seeking.
“They put things on their mind, rather than taking things off their mind. and they were finding ways to leverage the level of consciousness they were on, and not only couldn’t it be leveraged, but it tended to lower their level because they went into thinking more and they became more in touch with their problems and their weaknesses. So the thing they became aware of was actually weighing on them, which made them likely to go to a lower level than to stay at the level that they were on at the time.”
Pransky, George. Paradigm Shift: A History of The Three Principles (pp. 15-16).
Over the next several years, Pransky, Mills and the other professionals that continued to discover Sydney Banks' teachings, and had experienced their own insights as a result, explored numerous approaches. Pransky and Keith Blevens wrote a pair of papers for distribution to the professional community, an organization known as the Advanced Human Studies Institute was established in Florida, originally led by another professional, Enrique “Rick” Suarez. Mills got busy applying his understanding to prevention work in disadvantaged communities with remarkable success, while Pransky began a clinical practice, that began to grow exponentially, requiring him to train other professionals to assist with the client load.
Many practitioners consulted frequently with Sydney Banks as to how to teach this new understanding. Banks was thrilled to see such interest in a professional field, but was insistent that he not be the figurehead. He did coin the original name for the approach of “Psychology of Mind”, which no one liked, but he wanted his understanding to spread through the mental health field via professionals who had realized new perspectives of their own. All of these practitioners had discovered elevated levels of consciousness themselves through their exposure to Sydney Banks, and simply sharing their personal experiences would have impact. Banks did not want to be seen as a guru leading a movement.
The Advanced Human Studies Institute began to have numerous successes in both clinical work and business applications. The first Psychology of Mind research studies were conducted. Rick Suarez soon partnered on a book with Roger Mills, originally published in 1982, and revised in 1987 with the assistance of Darlene Stewart, Sanity, Insanity and Common Sense, the first effort to outline Sydney Bank' understanding in print for a professional audience. Banks worked closely with Suarez for several years, but eventually a split would occur. Suarez was certain that what Banks had realized represented the future of psychology, but also recognized that the field wasn't ready for it. Consequently, Suarez focused exclusively on teaching levels of consciousness and the role of thought, but felt that the ethereal nature of mind itself would never be accepted by the intellectually oriented professionals that dominated the field. Suarez also recognized that there were similarities between cognitive therapy, which focused on the content of thought, and Sydney Banks deeper understanding, which was unconcerned with the content of thought but focused instead on simply the fact that we experience thought. Suarez wanted to introduce a new methodology, to be known as Neo-Cognitive Therapy, in the hopes of “riding the coattails” (in the words of George Pransky) of the established cognitive approach. Mind was to be “slipped in the back door”, if mentioned at all. Pransky recalls:
“Syd thought these restrictions compromised the message. Mind was at the very heart of the message, and Syd said leaving Mind out of the teachings lacked integrity. Also, speaking from the heart and talking about what people experienced was, to Syd, exactly the way to get the message across. He thought restricting teachers in that way was essentially tying their hands.”
Pransky, George. Paradigm Shift: A History of The Three Principles (pp. 32).
Rick Suarez eventually left the Advanced Studies Institute, perhaps discouraged that Banks had dismissed what he saw as an approach that had such promise to infiltrate the field. Other books followed. Pransky wrote Divorce is Not the Answer, (now published as The Relationship Handbook). Richard Carlson achieved great commercial success with Don't Sweat the Small Stuff. In 1982, Sydney Banks himself published his first book, Second Chance, a small novel involving an encounter with a mystical figure. He would publish several others over the next 20 years.
By the late 1980's, while now quite busy with numerous professionals in the mental health fields, Sydney Banks continued to hold talks and seminars of his own, many organized by George Pransky, others organized by other practitioners in the field. Banks found his approach evolving beginning in the late 70's, as he searched for a more organized way to express his understanding to those who attended. As many of the attendees were now professionals with advanced degrees, Banks felt his message needed to be tailored to reach a wider and more sophisticated audience.
In Paradigm Shift, Pransky speculates that Banks developed his approach indirectly. Pransky mentions that the 1982 book Sanity, Insanity and Common Sense explored “four principles”, but Banks recognized that despite the wisdom the publication contained, it also contained many flaws, including it's designation of four principles. Linda Quiring, in her memoir Encounters with an Enlightened Man, recalls a conversation between a follower of spiritual teacher Joel Goldsmith and Sydney Banks. The woman, Eileen Bowden, led The Infinite Way group in Victoria, British Columbia, founded on Goldsmith's message. Some members of this group had asked Sydney Banks to speak to their group, but others objected. Eileen and Syd eventually held a meeting, and Eileen mentioned that several of her group had attended some of Syd's talks and found him difficult to follow due to the lack of structure. She went on to mention that Goldsmith had elucidated three principles that he explored in depth in his talks, books, and tapes.
Whatever the origin, Sydney Banks eventually began incorporating Three Principles in his teachings: Mind, Consciousness, and Thought. From this point forward, his message would retain certain aspects of the free flowing approach of his early talks, but would do so within the framework of these three principles. As Linda Quiring writes:
I could see, as Syd spoke more and more publicly, and the crowds really began to come in earnest, that Syd knew he had to move away from the personal and teach in a way more people could relate to.
Linda Quiring, Encounters with an Enlightened Man (PP 151)
Psychology of Mind would evolve as well. The next incarnation would be known as Health Realization, in recognition of the fact that everyone had a profound, infinite health within themselves waiting to be realized. Eventually, in 2008 Sydney Banks became concerned that the term Heath Realization, despite what was now a considerable body of success and a fair amount of resulting name recognition in the fields of prevention and human services was innocently stunting progress. A letter sent to all practitioners in January of that year by Roger Mills elaborated:
“… I feel that inadvertently, in the quest for legitimization by the fields in which we work, I and others created a ‘form’ and then got stuck there. To me, it now appears that we were trying too hard to get an understanding of the principles out, and did not recognize that the world was taking our efforts as just another ‘strength-’ or asset-based ‘model’ offering less than what the principles explain about the nature of life. The name Health Realization originated with our work in communities and schools. Health Realization is now out in the research, but not purely as the principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought.”
Paradigm Shift: A History of The Three Principles (pp. 140-141).
Thus, Health Realization became known as the Three Principles.
All other approaches in human psychology are founded on Freud's assumption that all distress human beings experience can be traced to formative and traumatic experiences. Freud was not entirely wrong. Jung's focus on archetypes also builds on the same assumption. However, by focusing entirely on the personal mind, there is only one possible outcome. That is to alter the personal mind, to replace certain aspects of one belief system with another.
It rarely works, and further, those in the mental health profession find themselves often dealing with high levels of frustration and stress themselves as failures mount. Many leave the profession entirely as they find themselves unable to actually help other people, the reason they chose their career in the first place.
The Three Principles, in stark contrast, while founded upon the mystical realization of a single man, continues to build upon the elevated states of consciousness directly realized by what's now hundreds of practitioners and tens of thousands of clients throughout the world. The direct experience of seeing life from a different, higher perspective has the effect of weakening the hold of certain beliefs on the personal mind. Quieting the personal mind allows for fresh insights to arise naturally. As someone begins to recognize their own level of consciousness, they tend to rise to a higher level. Once they have this experience and inevitably slip back into a lower level, they recognize that what has changed is their own level of consciousness, not the external world. Eventually they begin to realize that while we all appear to experience an objective reality, wherever we find ourselves in any given moment on this vertical scale of consciousness is actually the determining factor in our experience of reality. What once appeared to be an “outside-in” world, begins to be recognized for what it truly is, an “inside-out” world.
Any readers interested in learning more are encouraged to explore the Three Principles Global Community website, and their YouTube channel is a valuable resource in and of itself. While there are dozens of practitioner discussions freely available on YouTube that may resonate with you personally, I find George and Linda Pransky, Jack Pransky, Bill Pettit, Mara Gleason and Aaron Turner all to be especially well grounded. Angus Ross is worth a mention as well, just from his highly amusing and entertaining take on things.
I suppose I have invested the last two posts in exploring Sydney Banks and Three Principles psychology for one simple reason. I don't know if mystics have a lineage necessarily, but I arrived at my realization directly as a result of my encounter with George Pransky, who had learned what he taught through Sydney Banks. I don't know if George himself has realized the levels that I have personally, nor do I know if George would describe himself as a mystic as I do. Although my realization occurred long before I'd ever heard of Sydney Banks, I think it's reasonable to assume that were it not for Sydney Banks, I wouldn't understand what I now do.
All that said, I want to stress that the purpose of these last couple of posts is not intended to promote Sydney Banks or the Three Principles approach, although I am quite certain that the Three Principles is the future of human psychology, irrespective of the form it may eventually take. The purpose here is to continue to demonstrate that the understanding realized by mystics throughout time is actually the only genuine understanding of reality itself. If there's one thing that distinguishes Sydney Banks message from all who preceded him, it's that he recognized that everyone on earth was living moment-to-moment on a vertical scale of perspective, which he identified and described as levels of consciousness.
There's nothing mystical about the mystic. The mystic is simply someone who finds themselves arriving at the very highest levels on the scale of conscious experience. In truth, the mystics are the realists, and they've been saying that to anyone who will listen for a long time now.
We'll start to explore the veracity of that statement in the next post.