Three Principles as a Paradigm · Part 2 of 8
The Inseparable Nature of Thought and Feeling
Feeling can’t be separated from thought. Treating them as separate invents false sources for how we feel, and seeing they are one is life changing.
By Keith Blevens, Ph.D. and Valda Monroe21 July 20263 min read
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All feelings derive and become alive, whether negative or positive, from the power of Thought.
A pivotal point
There is a pivotal point in understanding thought that appears to be unimportant, but turns out to be profoundly important: we have the misperception that thought and the feeling of thought can be separated.
Actually, it is impossible to separate feeling from thought. The feeling of the thought defines the meaning of the thought. The fact that no one can think love and feel hate in the same moment, or vice versa, is a constant example of the principle of thought that is true every time we think.
Where we part with logic
When we artificially separate thought and feeling it creates the false idea that the way we feel (our perception, mood, attitude, state of mind, or experience) is coming from something other than our thinking in the moment. It is at this exact point that we part with logic. Immediately a false source for our feeling is created. It looks like something, someone, or the future or the past has the power to make us feel a way we do or do not want to feel. We are now focused on an illogical idea of where our feeling is coming from. We then become distracted by and reactive to these imagined sources. We think about them and we get preoccupied by them. We misplace power outside our present thinking in the moment and this immediately creates insecurity. We are actually in reaction to our own thinking.
When we are not imagining that our thought and feeling work in some way that it actually does not, we have an opportunity to more easily identify why we’re feeling what we’re feeling in the moment. We learn where our thinking takes us and what that feels like.
Self-correcting advocates for ourselves
Each time we understand it is always our thinking creating our feeling, it eliminates other possibilities as distractions and we naturally and logically experience the falling away of unnecessary and unwanted thought. We intelligently embrace some thinking and drop other thinking. This understanding itself empowers us to be self-correcting advocates for ourselves rather than being in reaction.
It does not appear that understanding this basic simple principle about the inseparable nature of thought and feeling could really matter or make a difference. But in fact, it is life changing.
Sydney Banks’s words are quoted with gratitude to his family and estate, who hold the rights to his books and recordings. Please quote him briefly, always with credit, and go to his books and talks for the whole. © The Estate of Sydney Banks
About the authors
Worked here 2008–2026
Keith Blevens was a clinical psychologist who met Sydney Banks in 1977 and was mentored by him for more than thirty years. He was Clinical Director of the Minneapolis Institute of Mental Health before giving his working life to the Three Principles, teaching alongside his wife, Valda Monroe, for more than forty years. He continued working until he passed away in February 2026, and passed his work on to his daughter, Mattie Blevens.
Worked here 2008–2022
Valda Monroe met Sydney Banks with Keith Blevens in 1977, and they taught the Three Principles together from then on. She brought no degrees to the work, but a love of logic and order, and created a way of teaching Syd's understanding as a paradigm that has been used in hospital systems, leadership training, coaching and counselling. Valda retired in 2022.
“Here” means The Hidden Cause and the work that came before it under other names: Three Principles Psychology (2022–2026), Three Principles Paradigm (2016–2022), and Keith and Valda’s work before 2016.
From the meetings
Feelings also comes up in the recorded meetings, where members can hear them explored in conversation. See the ways in or sign in.
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Cite this article
APA
Blevens, K., & Monroe, V. (2026, July 21). The Inseparable Nature of Thought and Feeling (Version 1.2). The Hidden Cause. https://thehiddencause.com/articles/the-inseparable-nature-of-thought-and-feeling/
MLA
Blevens, Keith, and Valda Monroe. “The Inseparable Nature of Thought and Feeling.” The Hidden Cause, version 1.2, 21 Jul. 2026, https://thehiddencause.com/articles/the-inseparable-nature-of-thought-and-feeling/.
