Mind, Consciousness, and Thought, by Sydney Banks

“During the last few months, I’ve been asked over and over again to try and explain in a deeper way how all our psychological thinking and processes are derived from what we call mind, consciousness, and thought, these basic three principles. So I’d like to try again.

I’d like to try and explain how our emotions, desires, habits, insecurity patterns of behaviour, personality traits are all by-products of mind, consciousness, and thought. One could say they are the very foundation and the building blocks to all psychological behaviour and thought. And without these principles, we’d be devoid of the five senses. And without our five senses, to us, reality wouldn’t exist. So this is what I’m saying turns psychology from a philosophy into a logical, practical, working science.

It is via the same three principles we determine if we live with low esteem or high esteem. These are feelings, and the feelings always are derived from these same three principles. No one on earth could function outside of these three principles: mind, thought, and consciousness. As a matter of fact, how we survey reality itself is a direct result of how we use these three primary principles.

For the past 20 years, I’ve asked many people to mention just one psychological function that doesn’t stem from mind, consciousness, and thought. And to date, no one has come up with an answer. This is why it’s virtually impossible to have another principle other than the ones I just mentioned. But what you have to try and realise is no one is evaluating or judging that anybody’s right or wrong or your thoughts are right or wrong. All I’m saying is this is where they stem from, and it’s up to you personally how you use them. That’s what you call your free will.

You see, mind, consciousness, and thought, are the three basic principles that take our five senses and put life into them because, without those three basic principles, there’d be no realisation of life itself. You’d have no feelings, no experience. You’d be void of consciousness and void of the power of thought. It’s what we could call logical cause and effect. It’s really very simple.

When the logic of mind, consciousness, and thought are expanded to, say, a fourth or fifth principle, which many people think is possible, then scientific logic has gone right out the window. We have lost it completely because we’re bringing in something inconsistent with the inherent logic. And once again, we are back into a personal, philosophical view of life with no concrete foundation to work from. Now, that is simplicity, and, as you know, in simplicity comes complexity. This is why it would take forever to try and solve the mystery of mind, consciousness, and thought. You know how in science you have elements, and these elements create compounds? Well, it’s the same as psychology. You could say mind, consciousness, and thought are the three elements of psychology. And from these three elements, all psychological compounds are created.

Now, examples of psychological compounds are our emotions, habits, jealousy, hate, desire, insecurities, love, all phobias. All these are derivatives of the same three principles. But when a child is first born and it starts to realise that reality exists and its five senses kick in, these five senses kick in via the same three principles: mind, consciousness, and thought. Now, because of our free will and our freedom of thought, we all see life differently. But this doesn’t dispute the fact that what we see, what we feel, what we taste, etc., all comes, all stems from, again, mind, consciousness, and thought.

Now, logic tells me if I’ve picked up insecure habits and behaviour from the past, then to reverse that procedure I have to go back to the basic element of thought. And once my thoughts reverse from negative to positive, then my behaviour in turn will turn positive. I remember when I first realised my thoughts were the carrier of my negative behaviour. Automatically, my thoughts changed to a more positive understanding of life. And years of torment and hell vanished from me overnight. And this, to me, was one of the most uplifting experiences I’ve ever had. Now, many doctors and therapists throughout the world are starting to realise that thought is the carrier of mental sickness. And of course, if this is so, then it stands to reason thought is also the carrier of mental health.

All my life I blamed my parents, the way I was brought up, my past negative experiences in life. I blamed all of this for my negative psychological outlook on life. And it wasn’t until I saw this that my outlook on life changed completely. And my thoughts towards my parents and my past as a whole changed from negative to positive. And this is where forgiveness and love will come into your life. And I mean this, never—and I mean never—will any relief come from the past traumas unless this is seen for a fact. You have to see that you are responsible for your own thoughts. And here lies the secret to mental health, when you can find the connection between thought and what you call reality.”

The above was transcribed from an original recording of Sydney Banks entitled, “Mind, Consciousness, and Thought.”