@ossobuco,
ossobuco wrote:
Silva's thing was long after my dad's - which wretched association might have been around 1960. I remember the guy's name, but won't pursue that. Anyway, the better and better stuff was a mantra. Mantras bothered me even back then, before mantras got popular.
Jack Boland called it denial and affirmation. You become aware of your negative thoughts when you have them, and affirm who and what you truly are - a healthy, wealthy, and wise being. I was able to do certain things because nobody ever told me I couldn't, but after while I would begin to question, to think, "Good grief, I was raised in an orphanage, made bad grades, I must be a fake." (I still do and always will do that, even when I made 3.8 gradepoint in college). I couldn't continue living that way. On the way to my newspaper job, I begn to say to myself, "Lord, use whatever talent I have for the benefit of mankind." It could be called, just mind control.
I don't really know what is a "mantra" but it could help people stop the thinking, while meditating.
My sister told me not long ago that our father once said to her. "You are the smart one, and pemerson is the pretty one." Of course, we both took that to mean, "You are the ugly one and pemerson is the dumb one. Oh, God, parents!