The Law of Reversed Effect

There are many physical laws that we live by. For example , jump off a chair and we experience the physical law of gravitation. In the same way , there are mental laws, just as real that we can use them for our benefit or detriment. The law of reversed effect States: “The greater the conscious effort, the less the subconscious response” Or “Whenever the will and imagination are in conflict, the imagination always wins.” Conscious efforts or will power resides in our conscious mind. It is what we consciously do. Whereas imagination or what we imagine “to be true”, resides in our subconscious mind. Insomniacs show the law of reversed effect perfectly. The more effort and will power we use to go to sleep, the more sleep evades us. Forgetting a name is another example. The more we try to remember, the more we can’t. It is only after we have stopped all conscious effort that the name magically pops into our head. When I was young and learning to ride a bike, I consciously used all my will power to not hit a tree that was looming up towards me. To no avail, as my imagination of hitting the tree was stronger than my conscious effort to avoid it. Inevitably, I hit the tree.


Friends, if we imagine ourselves as having any type of fear or anxiety and there are thousand of them, no amount of conscious effort in facing this fear will overcome what we imagine to be true.

The same principle applies to Stammering too.

It is all about helping ourselves to imagine we are okay and that is ACCEPTANCE with whatever was fearful to us in the past.

I wanted to share it in the recent NC at Delhi , but time did not permit.