SYNTHETIC" EXPERIENCE

"Another discovery, this time in the field of experimental
and clinical psychology, enables us to use "experiencing"
as a direct and controlled method of changing the selfimage.
Actual, real-life experience can be a hard and ruthless
teacher. Throw a man in water over his head and the
experience may teach him to swim. The same experience
may cause another man to drown. The Army "makes a
man" out of many young boys. But there is no doubting
that Army experience also makes many psycho-neurotics.
For centuries it has been recognized that "Nothing succeeds
like success." We learn to function successfully by
experiencing success. Memories of past successes act as
built-in "stored information" which gives us self-confi

dence for the present task. But how can a person draw
upon memories of past successful experiences when he has
experienced only failure? His plight is somewhat comparable
to the young man who cannot secure a job because
he has no experience, and cannot acquire experience because
he cannot get a job.
This dilemma was solved by another important discovery
which, for all practical purposes, allows us to synthesize
"experience," to literally create experience, and
control it, in the laboratory of our minds. Experimental
and clinical psychologists have proved beyond a shadow
of a doubt that the human nervous system cannot tell the
difference between an "actual" experience and an experience
imagined vividly and in detail. Although this may
appear to be a rather extravagant statement, in this book
we will examine some controlled laboratory experiments
where this type of "synthetic" experience has been used
in very practical ways to improve skill in dart throwing
and shooting basketball goals. We will see it at work in
the lives of individuals who have used it to improve their
skill in public speaking, overcome fear of the dentist, develop
social poise, develop self-confidence, sell more
goods, become more proficient in chess—and in practically
every other conceivable type of situation where "experience"
is recognized to bring success. We will take a
look at an amazing experiment in which two prominent
doctors arranged things so that neurotics could experience
"normally," and thereby cured them!
Perhaps most important of all, we will learn how
chronically unhappy people have learned to enjoy life by
"experiencing" happiness!