When you close your eyes, on the other hand, images and thoughts unrelated to the physical reality around you tend to flow through your mind. Your imagination can take you far beyond the limits of space and time. You may revisit the past in memories, or preview possibilities for the future.

Most people attach little importance to such inner visions. And along these lines, you may have been taught as a child that "Seeing is believing." In other words you need to physically see something with your own eyes in order to believe it is real.

But there is now solid scientific evidence that we actually create our reality with our beliefs and not the other way around. Researchers around the world have now clearly proven that thoughts have a very real physical reality and actually cause things to happen in the physical world. We now know from quantum physics, for example, that subatomic particles physically manifest IF there is someone there to observe them.

The new attitude that has been adopted by truly successful people today is: "Before you can see it, you have to believe it." This approach views the act of achieving success as based on FIRST creating a vivid, clear future vision of your desired reality.That "What you see, is what you will be."

What's the Real Truth?

This new view is actually a modern twist on the visualization tool recommended by almost all success mentors. We've long been told that if we practice seeing something in our mind's eye, it will actually manifest in our lives.

I have a solid training in the scientific method, and this dependence on *belief* disturbed me for many years. I wanted to know the real truth behind the process of visualization: How and why does it work?And just why is it so powerful?

The Power of Visual Programming

Early on in my pre-medical studies I discovered an important clue: Our eyes are actually a direct extension of our brain. The Optic nerve that runs from the back of your eyes provides a *direct* connection to your visual brain. As a result, vision is our most powerful mental programming tool.

Then later I uncovered yet another key. My early EEG biofeedback experimentation immediately revealed the physical reality of a thought, and how it can influence our physical reality.

More recent research has provided actual real-time pictures of how the brain creates new neural connections based on a thought and the fact that repeat the same thought (especially when backed by a visual involvement) physically strengthens the neural network containing that thought.

It has become apparent that our vision (both real andimagined) is intimately connected to the creation of our individual reality or *vision* of the world and our part in it. There are actually two components of such visual-based mental programming:Passive, and active.

Passive Visual Programming

Passive visual programming happens every moment of your life, and has been since birth. Your subconscious mind is actually a repository of every image you have seen since childhood. This is why it is so important to take an active role in what you will expose yourself (and your children) to.

Consider this: What about the thousands of images you see on your TV and computer? Your subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between what is real, and what is imagined. So those realistic TV images of are actually being stored in your brain as reality.

You can be certain this is affecting your behavior and social expectations. In other words, what you see really is what you get, regardless of whether you know it consciously or not.

But you can also be just lying on the sofa or commuting to work, and what you are visualizing internally has an equally powerful impact.

If you spend your mental-time-off reviewing your fears and problems, you are actually adding the power of visualization to strengthen the neural networks related to your problems. By allowing yourself to passively visualize a poor outcome to a business deal, you are in fact setting the stage for just such an outcome. Passive visualization works with uncanny power and accuracy.

How Active Visual Programming Works

On the other hand, by actively choosing to replay a vision of a positive outcome, you set the stage for a more successful result. And the more actively you engage actual visual images during this process- the more powerful your final results will be.

This process applies to anything from making a successful sales call or performing well in an athletic event to the effective motivation of your teammates and children.

Here is a real-life example of the power of active visual programming at work: A field and track athlete I worked with a few years ago wanted to blast past a performance plateau. We will call him Gino. Gino was a very bright fellow, and had tried everything he and his coach could come up with.

His problem, according to his coach, was that he *thought too much.* When I tried to introduce Gino to visualizing improved performance, he got stuck analyzing instead of visualizing. I had to find a way to sneak past Ginos extremely fast mind with some new images.

I decided to try an experimental approach, and borrowed some videos of his performing. I had Gino watch the videos in *real time* and picture himself in action. Then I increased the playback speed until he had difficulty describing exactly what he was seeing.

Then I replaced the videos with footage of top world class athletes performing his events and instructed Gino to just picture himself on the screen. But this time I ran the images so fast Gino could not describe the images. All he *saw* was a blur he was incapable of logically analyzing.

At the end of two weeks I went to the track to personally observe a performance test Ginos coach had arranged. None of us were sure about the outcome. The results were amazing. Several subtle, but very powerful, changes had occurred in his style. He effortlessly set three personal bests that evening all without *thinking* about how he did it.

This powerful tool does not just apply to athletic activities. It can be applied to any aspect of your personal or business life.