The power of the mind:
From chemistry to alchemy, from lead to gold
Organisations that want to survive must transform and people make the organisation. These are two facts that hardly anyone disputes, but few people draw the conclusion that follows from this: if you want to transform your organisation, you have to start with the people.
Petra Groot helps people who want to transform themselves. Who want to bring their self-awareness to a higher level. So that they become powerful and flexible in spirit. And so that transformation is anchored in the core of the organisation.
A conversation with Petra Groot in four parts. (Read here part 1 and part 2)
Part 3: Receiving
Everyone experiences it. Wherever you look, you always come across the same number. Or while you’re pondering whether or not to take that new job, you suddenly look at an advertising poster that says ‘Just do it’. And since you’re driving around in your new Tesla, everyone seems to have one.
There are many ways to explain such events. Some let them pass unnoticed. Others dismiss them as pure coincidence.
There are also people who see them as a push in the back of the universe. A signal that you are on the right track. They speak of synchronicity: the meaningful combination of events that do not appear to be causally connected.
A universe that talks to us. Most people have little patience for such ideas: the only miracles are the miracles of science, and this endlessly successful science is based on an indifferent universe ruled entirely by cause and effect.
But is the idea of synchronicity really so at odds with science? Petra Groot doesn’t think so: “Physicists have known for a long time that everything is connected. Quantum mechanics shows that there are no separate objects at all. Everything consists of energy. When you see this, you begin to understand what is possible with a powerful mind”.
Bringing new things into the world
Let us take a step back. In the first two parts of our conversation Petra told us how we can make our minds stronger. By examining your consciousness, you free yourself from the compelling thoughts that are constantly going through your head. You learn to bundle the energy that you normally put into those thoughts. So that you become calm of mind and can focus all that energy on something that you consider worthwhile.
With this you are fully present in the here and now. But as Petra explained, that’s not all: “A calm, powerful mind increases your potential to create completely new things. To form a vision for the future and let it materialise in the world”.
Everything starts with a vision
Whatever you want to achieve in life – climb a mountain, learn to play the guitar, become a millionaire, travel the world, start a business or whatever – it all starts with a vision.
“Everything that materialises has once been a thought,” says Petra. ” Since childhood I have taken the time for myself to fantasize about the future. I still do that now with clients. I help them to create a vision board. On it you visualise what is not there yet. In this way you get a clear idea of where you want to be.
A clear mind is more capable of expressing such a desire in a clear vision. However, according to Petra, this is only the beginning: “Because you no longer waste your energy on meaningless thoughts, you can give all that energy to that one thought – to your vision for the future.
But a thought is nothing until you act upon it, right?
“That’s a persistent misunderstanding,” says Petra. “Body and mind are not separated. No one doubts anymore that thoughts can make you physically ill: stress is widely recognised as a cause of cancer. What far fewer people know is that it might as well work the other way around: if you send positive thoughts into the world, you get something beautiful in return”.
That’s why it does matter which energy you give to a thought. “The thought is the signal you send out. If this is a vision you are really in love with, you let a lot of energy flow through your heart, amplifying the signal enormously: then things will come to you much faster than when it’s just a cold thought”.
The way this works can be compared to a radio. “But instead of radio waves you send a vibration into the world. The more energy there is in the thought, the farther that vibration reaches. You send out a certain vibration, and people or things that are on the same frequency will start to vibrate with you: they gravitate towards you as if by magic”.
Synchronicity
It sounds nice, but also a bit abstract. How does that work in practice? Petra gives an example.
“Imagine you come up with a great idea for a new app, but you’re not a programmer yourself. Then you can immediately place an advertisement and go through piles of CVs. But you can also just keep doing your thing and keep that vision in your mind: you are simply present with the vibration of what you desire. That’s a completely different way of being in the world: you’re not working hard, you’re trusting that the vibration you send into the world is there and that other people are also feeling that vibration. Then, at some point, someone will come on your path who turns out to be good at building apps”.
That brings us back to the idea of synchronicity. “Thoughts materialise thanks to synchronicity,” says Petra. “Two things come together that can create something new. You have to be alert for that. You’re not working hard, but you’re present. This is exactly the state of a calm and powerful mind that feels when something deserves energy. Sometimes what you need even comes on your path before you even know you need it. A calm and powerful mind doesn’t let such a moment pass unnoticed.
Everything is connected
The idea that you can influence things in the outside world purely with your thoughts will be hard for many to accept. This was also the case in the last century for physicists who noticed that they influenced the outcome of experiments purely by observing.
“This phenomenon is known as the ‘observer effect’, and has become famous through quantum mechanics,” says Petra. “At first the researchers didn’t want to believe it. As a scientist you obviously want to observe your experiment as a complete outsider, without having any influence on the outcome. But of course, you are not standing outside the world and observing is never just observing – you are observing with a certain intention, and that is always accompanied by vibrations”.
Where sceptics like to appeal to science, they often get stuck in classical mechanics, which has long been refuted. “Einstein showed over a century ago that energy and matter are interchangeable. Quantum mechanics then abandoned the idea of separate objects. In the West, however, we still find it difficult to understand that everything is a whole. We think, ‘I am me, you are you, an apple is an apple and a pear is a pear – all separate objects’. But everything is interconnected on an energetic level’.
Taking a step back
When everything is connected, the idea of synchronicity is suddenly no longer all that crazy. But why wait until the right thing comes along when you can also just get straight to work – what’s wrong with hard work?
“Nothing in itself”, Petra says. “But it doesn’t necessarily lead to the best results. As people we quickly get the idea that we have to force things. We have to impose our will on the world. While the universe was able to manage for billions of years without us. All you have to do is look at nature to see what beauty it has produced. It’s not such a crazy idea to take a step back and let go of control a little bit”.
Going further by doing less. It sounds tempting. Certainly for companies that need to keep transforming, but already have their hands more than full keeping the shop running.
“Exactly”, Petra agrees. “But that doesn’t mean that it’s simple: doing less can be quite difficult. In business, we are so used to doing everything on the basis of reason that we soon get stuck in the impossibilities of what is, rather than forming a powerful vision of what could be”.
Petra explains in the fourth and final part of our conversation, how you, as an organisation, can fully benefit from a strong vision.
Already want to start with your own development or that of your organization? Contact Petra via petra@peoplechange.nl.