Three Principles as a Paradigm · Part 3 of 8
Discovering that We’re Living In the Feeling of Our Thinking
How seeing that thought and feeling are inseparable showed Keith and Valda that life is lived from the inside out, in the feeling of our thinking.
By Keith Blevens, Ph.D. and Valda Monroe21 July 20264 min read
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Sydney Banks taught us that there are constant principles at work in how we psychologically experience life. He taught us that thought and feeling are inseparable. The living truth of this statement kept proving itself to us over and over again as we began to have more and more insight into it. It became clear that no one could think one thing and feel another in the same moment. No one can think love and feel hate in the same moment. Nor can they think hate and feel love in the same moment. This meant that we were always directly experiencing the feeling of our thinking in each moment. Experiencing the truth of this means that we are not directly experiencing what we are thinking about: we are directly experiencing our thinking in the moment about what we are thinking about.
A paradigm difference
This is a paradigm difference. This meant that people and past thinking and circumstance did not have the power to dictate how we felt. This explained why we could have different responses to the same circumstances. It explained why everyone did not have the same responses to the same circumstances. We began to see that we needed to factor our thinking in the moment – and the feeling of our thinking in the moment – into our equation of what we were experiencing at any given time.
When we experience strong emotions, we are apt to blame other people, the past, present or future circumstances for the way we feel. When this blame no longer became a logically viable option it enabled us to take an honest look at what was really going on for ourselves in any given moment. It was as if we had been leaving out the first step of how we were experiencing life.
The means by which we experience life
In order for something to be on our minds it must be on our minds as thought. Whether it’s a loving feeling, a jealous feeling, a sense of unease or inexplicable anxiety, irritation, or impatience – it must be on our minds, in our lived experience, as thought. Thought is the means by which we experience life. We do not have another system that allows us to experience life.
Seeing the truth of this began to dismantle the illusion that it was possible our feeling could come from someplace other than thought. It showed us that life was an inside out experience – created inside the power of thought. We saw that the only reality that we could ever, and would ever experience, was the feeling of our thinking moment to moment. We were completely surprised that there was a pre-existing intelligent logic that emerged when we were not looking to something outside our thinking in the moment as the cause for our feelings. This was pointing us inside the logic and wisdom of the Three Principles Paradigm as a direction for learning and insight.
A greater intelligence
Learning to respect the power of how thinking works was an eye opener for us. When we saw that we were living in principles that pre-existed us, it reminded us of the deeper nature of life. There was something involved here which was beyond our known thinking that put us in the experience of being reminded of a greater intelligence.
Thought is a spiritual thing, it’s just a spiritual power, but on its own thought has really no power. Thought in itself is completely neutral. It is not until you put your ideas into that thought that that thought gets its power and whatever you put into that thought, whether it be negative or positive it will manifest itself as a fact.
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
Inside out, outside in and Feelings also come up in the recorded meetings, where members can hear them explored in conversation. See the ways in or sign in.
From The Hidden Cause · https://thehiddencause.com/articles/discovering-that-were-living-in-the-feeling-of-our-thinking/ · You may quote briefly, with credit to the author and a link. Please ask before republishing in full.
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Cite this article
APA
Blevens, K., & Monroe, V. (2026, July 21). Discovering that We’re Living In the Feeling of Our Thinking (Version 1.2). The Hidden Cause. https://thehiddencause.com/articles/discovering-that-were-living-in-the-feeling-of-our-thinking/
MLA
Blevens, Keith, and Valda Monroe. “Discovering that We’re Living In the Feeling of Our Thinking.” The Hidden Cause, version 1.2, 21 Jul. 2026, https://thehiddencause.com/articles/discovering-that-were-living-in-the-feeling-of-our-thinking/.
