Change Your Future by Changing Your Memory
(Written in 1997)
Here is an item for your "Strange but True Metaphysical Facts" file: your memory can affect your future and you can change your future by changing your memory.
Memory is an amazing thing, or so I'm told. I am not exactly famous for my memory. My mother used to tell me, "You would forget your head, if it wasn't hooked on to your neck." My mother was not averse to using parental clichés like that. Anyway, judging by how many times she made that comment, she may have been right. My mother lives in Wisconsin now, so she doesn't have to deal with my memory problem except on her birthday and mother's day. Now my wife has to deal with my memory problem. I am what might be called "recall challenged." I was going to take one of those "Improve your memory" workshops, but I forgot to sign up.
Our minds are in Nature and they operate like gardening. Our conscious experience is like someone sowing seeds. A seed contains information - a genetic pattern that determines the form a plant will take. The pattern cannot grow by itself; its energy and substance comes from the soil, sun, wind and rain. Likewise, every idea and experience that comes into our conscious mind contains information, a pattern of growth for future experiences. The idea is fed energy and substance by our conscious thoughts, experiences and acts of will that reinforce the idea. Conscious thoughts, experiences and acts of will are like the work of the sun, wind and rain on the garden. The energy of our subconscious, which includes memories, is especially important in nourishing ideas. The subconscious is the soil in which our ideas grow.
How well a particular idea will grow into an experience depends upon several factors. If we think about the idea persistently, if we seek experiences to reinforce the idea, and if we take appropriate action to manifest the idea, the idea will be nourished and have a chance to flourish. The condition of our subconscious soil - our memories - also can either contribute to the growth of an idea or obstruct it.
Let's take my own "recall challenge" as an example. The soil of my subconscious was receptive and unobstructed to the idea that I had a poor memory, because my experience told me that my mother loved me and she told me the truth. Now, I am not blaming my mother for my "recall challenge." I'm forty-six years old and have had plenty of time to work on changing my condition. I could have been affirming, "In my unity with Divine Mind, I have full and quick recall." I could have taken memory improvement courses. But instead, I just keep making jokes about it. I am trying to make a point here, but I forgot what it was.
Actually, my recall challenge has certain benefits. It provides a lame excuse for missing certain events and not accomplishing certain chores: "Oops! I forgot!" It also makes me a very reliable counselor when it comes to keeping confidences; you can't tell what you don't recall. As a Unity student, I like to look at the positive side of things.
Every time you take in a new idea and nourish it, you change your memory. Every idea established in your memory becomes a resource and habit for future experiences. You can even reinterpret memories of past experiences so they have a positive effect on your future experiences. Memorizing and nourishing affirmations of your unity with God's attributes would of course have the most positive effect on your future. This month I am going to persistently affirm: "In my unity with God, I have abundant life, light, love, joy and full and quick recall." If I can remember.