Plain, Ordinary, Everyday Common Sense

Best-version transcript — the human transcription refined against a word-timed machine transcript of the cleaned audio. Spotted an error? Corrections are welcome.

To me, it’s really very difficult to believe that seventeen years have gone by since I had my realisation and discovered what I discovered. It’s very, very difficult for me to try and convince people that I actually found the secret of mind, the secret of psychology and how it’s related to the spiritual teachings of the world. I see how so many people that are involved in this field avoided it like the plague, even although they knew it worked.

There’s been all different types of people. There’s been the people who are very, very excited at what I was saying, who listened and heard as much as they could. Gave it to their patients, and their patients got well. There’s the other type of person who jumped on the bandwagon, trying to create a name for themselves for financial gain. These are the people who truly, truly lost it. These were the type of people that were involved with their own ego, as I say, trying to make a name for themselves. Those are the people who weren’t really interested in helping humanity. They were only interested in helping themselves.

And I’m sorry to say I’ve met many, many of those people. However, that’s the way it is, and nobody can change that. It is also extraordinarily difficult for me to believe that even though people saw the results, they still avoided it. This is why I had to go into writing fictitious books. It wasn’t to write fictitious books; it was the only way I could get the truth out because it was being held back. It is extraordinary, ironic that to get help out, you’ve got to bypass people in the helping field and go straight to the public.

This is the last thing in the world I wanted to do. I wanted to honestly help the profession, but then I found out it was almost impossible to do because the way it was all set up. I’ve met a lot of people, a lot of people, that either belong to or used to belong to Alcoholics Anonymous. Now, this is an organisation that’s incredible. It helps a lot of human beings. And it’s gone away from the spiritual beliefs that they originally had. It’s lost. It’s like everything else that gets lost in time; however, you can always reverse that. And believe it and believe it. The way you reverse it is look within yourself, look within your own consciousness to your common sense.

And here’s the answer is common sense. Plain, ordinary, everyday common sense. I talk to many people about this from different organisations that are in the helping field. And they’ll turn around and they’ll say, “I don’t want common sense. I want an answer.” Believe me, this is the answer: common sense. It’s too simple I’m told. People won’t believe it. But the people that say that, they are the nonbelievers because they’re not looking. And as I say, I honestly don’t want anybody to believe me. If anybody believes me blindly, then they’re puppets. They’re of no value to anybody in the world. They’re puppets. I don’t want you to believe. I want you to look. Look, and use your own common sense. Listen to what’s been said.

There’s a million different excuses why people won’t listen. And if you listen to those excuses, they don’t hold water. When I first started to write Second Chance, I admit I felt a little bit bad at the beginning because the last thing in the world I wanted to do was bypass the therapists that were coming to listen. But I had no other choice. And I’m really glad I did now because, since then, I’ve had literally hundreds and hundreds of letters from therapists, from doctors, from ordinary people, saying their lives have changed since reading the book. Because I was given help, in return I like to help others.

You see, what you’re actually looking for is a feeling. And as I say, my late wife Barbara and I, we devoted our entire lives to helping people. But when we saw the help there, it gave us a beautiful feeling. And that’s what it’s all about. If you can go through life with a good feeling, that’s what you call mental health. When you have a bad feeling, then you have a problem. And you have to get rid of that bad feeling. And that bad feeling, believe it or believe it not, all it is, is thought.

Once you realise this and your thoughts disappear, good feeling comes. And once again, you’re stable and healthy. You’ll be a far, far better person in every way. And this is what psychology’s been looking for since the beginning of time is an answer to try and help people who are suffering. And it’s almost like you get condemned for helping. And this really shocked Barb and I when this first started to happen. When therapists would scream at us about what we were doing, because it was working, because it wasn’t something that they were used to.

I remember one psychologist coming to me and saying, “You know, Syd, when I first graduated and was handed my diploma, I went outside. And I had tears in my eyes, tears of sadness,” because he honestly knew that he didn’t really know anything about mental health. All his teachings had been in vain. However, he said, “After listening to you and Barb, I now know that I have something that can help humanity. And I’ve seen it help my patients over and over again.” And again, he was condemned because of the positive results. He was condemned.

Now, to me, this is disgusting. It just doesn’t make sense. Somebody, somewhere along the line, isn’t looking at a fact. And if you see something that works, look at it and be honest and say, “It’s working. I should listen.” And somewhere along the line, if you hear, you won’t be hearing the words of Syd Banks or anybody else. You’ll be hearing a little voice within yourself saying, “This is right. This feels good.” And again, I’m back to that feeling. And as long as you get that incredible, beautiful feeling, then you know you’re on the right path. On the other hand, if you walk away from your work with a real bad feeling that you’re not helping anybody, then that’s the feeling that you’ll take home with you.

If you’re working and you think what you’re doing is futile and it’s all in vain, then again, you’re going to get that bad feeling. And that’s really quite natural. If you’re flogging a dead horse day after day and seeing no results, then that’s a pretty gruesome thing to look at. But how beautiful it is to even imagine, just imagine, that there is a cure. Then someday you can go to the office and when you walk home, you know you really helped some human beings. And you would take that good feeling home with you. That good feeling is yours. It’s yours. You’ve earned it. That’s what you earned that day was a good feeling.

You take it home and you take it to your children, take it to your wife. That’s what life is about: trying to spread good feelings. Not bad feelings like the Freudian do. Take you back into all that nonsense and rubbish. They take you back into the sickness. This is what you’ve got to be very, very careful about. You’re trying to give away good feelings. Good feelings bring mental stability. They bring mental health. That’s all I’m saying. And now, all I’m asking is that you look at this, not avoid it, and be honest with yourself. And if you’re being honest with yourself, again, you’ll have that good feeling. So please, look at it.

Well, I guess that’s about all for now. And again, I’d like to thank you for everything and all the best.