Just One Look Forum Archives

You may have noticed that our work with the looking and our manner of speaking about it has changed.

This is mostly because we have finally shed the last vestiges of confusion about how to present the simplicity and the power of this act of inward looking that we call looking at yourself.

We have always known that if we could just find a way to spread this idea broadly enough in the human community, it might just bring to an end the downward spiral of self-destructive madness that now threatens our very existence.

But until very recently, we had been held back by a persistent misunderstanding. We believed that, in order to persuade people to try it, we needed to present a fully developed understanding of its purpose, and of the cause and origin of the problem that it cures.

We see now that the less complicated our presentation is, the more certain it is that it will be heard and acted upon. The looking is, after all, no more complex a solution to the human dilemma than aspirin is to a headache. You don't need to understand how it works, or even believe that it will work to have it bring an end to your emotional and psychological misery, any more than you need to understand how aspirin works, or even believe it will work, to have it rid you of your headache.

So, in the same way, take just one look now and your misery will begin to fall away. The simple suggestion to look, stripped of all extraneous folderol whatsoever will, almost always, cause anyone who hears it to do it on the spot. It takes nothing more than the willingness to try one time, with one breath, to get a taste of you, what you call me.

This full realization of the simplicity of the solution that we have come to call look at yourself has been for us like the breaking open of a clear blue sky after a long, dark storm. Everything we do is in service to that one look, and nothing else.

All we want is to bring this simple idea of looking at yourself to the attention of enough people to ensure that it will spread throughout the human family, and that can be done easily enough with the technological means that are now used for marketing distractions and various false solutions in the mass media.

The Just One Look Project forums offer the opportunity to all who have taken the medicine and have begun to see some of its power to take part in the effort to spread this simple message throughout the world.

This will not be hard. The hardest part was to break free of old assumptions about what was needed and what was not needed, and waiting to see the proof of the pudding, which is all of you who are now free of the effects of the context of fear or are going through the recovery.

What we need from you

We need your eyes, your ideas, and your intelligence working with us on:

1. The content that is most likely to attract and hold the attention of people who are still trapped in fear's nightmare for just a minute or two so that they can hear the suggestion itself. We don't need developed argumentation, but ordinary attention-grabbing messages in a manner of expression people are accustomed to. No false promises or reference to the desires that the disease itself creates, but messages that can break through the mind's defensive barriers, and be heard at the foundation of the personality.

   It can be something as simple as this, or even simpler:

   Sick and tired of being sick and tired? Try this: move your attention inward, just once, for just one moment to the unmistakable sensation that you call ME. For more information and a community of people waiting to be of help to you, go to www.justonelook.org. Everything is free of any charge or any obligation.

   The best would be Twitter and AdWords-size messages. Also, short scripts for drive time radio spots.

   We would also like to consider billboards, TV commercials, and any other means of reaching people with the idea of the looking, presented in simple, arresting ways.

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2. Help us identify what sort of professional help we need to make this work. Not just publicity professionals, but also accountants, AdWords experts, fundraising professionals, graphic artists, and those with other practical skills that would help.

   And if you, yourself, have a skill set that could be useful, please let us know.

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3. The hardest part now is just getting the money needed to gain access to the range of technology and skills that will allow us to reach many millions of people with this simple message.

   We have signed up with a site that provides crowdfunding services specifically designed for the needs of non-profit organizations. We are working on developing a campaign there, and we would be grateful for your suggestions. We can probably give you access to it, if you're interested, before making it public.

   Please let us know here in the fundraising forum if you would like to play a part in the fundraising for the Just One Look Project, and we will be in touch with you. We will, of course, post all the pertinent information here, for all of you to see and comment on, as soon as the campaign goes live.

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4. Tell your stories about your personal efforts to bring this to family and friends here, so that we can all benefit from your experience. Please do not assume that you are on your own in this work. We are all in this together.

What we are about here is like nothing Carla and I have ever seen or heard of. The act of looking at yourself does not require enlightened teachers with special powers to transmit it. It does not require years of study and practice and self-denial to acquire it.

Rich or poor, powerful or powerless; filled with hate or seeking only love, violent or passive, saint or sinner. This is truly meant for all ordinary human beings burdened with the weight of dissatisfaction and distrust of life.

Thank you for all that you do.

John and Carla Sherman

July 23, 2014

I think this is great, so please sign me up! I have been waiting for this, so thank you for presenting this.

You have done a really good job with it.

I have a lot of thoughts and questions around this and I will soon begin to post them.

Niklas

Ha! I, haven't tuned in recently, but I'm happy to see that the mission has continued. The pragmatic emphasis is good.

I wonder what could catch on... Star power would help but I guess none of us are chummy w brad and Angelina... Funny, but I'm inclined to pursue the understanding of the mechanism of our human condition and the mechanism of its resolution.

I think there's real value in what will, come of that. I wonder if that pursuit is welcome here though. I see that you are trying to streamline the message. Maybe you don't want to muddy the waters?

If you want. I'll post some of my ideas... They are not complete. But they are grounded in basic and verifiable experiences and are in accord w scientific understandings. And they are friendly to the idea of the efficacy of looking at yourself.

You see, I think we can understand this thing in a way that doesn't descend into abstract speculation and which will allow us to address the human situation even more productively. Of course, I don't know... But in all other endeavors understanding is crucial.

Yeah, the sufferer of a headache doesn't need to know why aspirin helps, but studying and coming to understand how it works can yield great benefits. (Actually not the best example for my purpose here since we really don't well understand how aspirin works!). We want to spread this message widely, it seems an understanding may offer unexpected new inroads... It may also clarify why many of the posts here continue to express various frustrations with their personal efforts.

It clearly can work and had worked for some (and I take this site at its word that many have got free of suffering) but I also see here others who remain mired. I think the only way this approach will be one more generally effective is through a fuller understanding of how the evolved organization of our brain/minds have landed us where we are as a species.

I'll leave it at that. Please let me know if I should share my thoughts on things might work... enjoy, brezz

Some Suggestions

"Be the change you want to see in the world: just for one moment, move your attention inward to the unmistakable feeling you call ME."

"A simple way to a better life: put your attention inwards onto the sensation that feels like ME."

"Want a happier life? Just focus your attention inside you on the sensation that feels like ME."

"The easiest change you'll ever make..." "How to live life more fully..."

"Want to be free?" "The most important secret you'll ever discover..." "Discover the secret within you..."

"Want to enjoy life more?"

"The best kept secret of all..."

"Getting even more out of life..."

"How to make a great life even better..."

"Try this..."

Ironically, the most effective way to reach people is probably with the bare instructions. The moment you create a hook phrase, you will inevitably alienate whoever does not resonate with the hook. If you're not "sick and tired", you will ignore a message that speaks to this. Originally, I had thought that devising many hook phrases was the solution, but my guess is that it might be counterproductive.The instructions on their own will pique curiousity, and given that they ask you to try something so straight forward and innocuous, most people will at least try it- and that's all we need.

Hi all!

This new presentation does actually give some relief to a frustration I have had for some time now. I haven't had any great success in sharing the act of inward with family and friends. When I try I become tense and unnatural. That is strange, because my own understanding of this work is very relaxed and clear. So for me it is harder to tell about the act to people I know than to people I never have met.

And at the same time my wish to share this act with others has been really strong for some time now. And I have also struggled with how in the world one should present this in the best way. For most of us humans it seems very hard to listen to someone or something without interpret it with ones own understanding of things. This has frustrated me to the point of almost wanting to give up the whole idea of bringing this news to the world.

So I find the new understanding that communication is actually not necessary to present the act, as a really good news. Information is enough.

And this is kind of funny, because one night a couple of months ago when I couldn't sleep, I suddenly come to think of a possible solution to this. That was a time when I have had a lot of frustrations over the seemingly impossible task of communicating something so simple to so complicated minds.

My idea was: If the message should succeed to reach people, it must take its way thrue the minds defensives. The more direct, the better. And because we all know how irritating commercial can be I thought that it cant be a message that could be seen as something that wants something. It is even no point in being nice. And it all come down to that the perfect text must be to find a way to write the act in words. Nothing more, nothing less. The words must make the person reading the text to automatically perform the act.

And my suggestion at that times was these lines: (the word of choice and moving attention from the text was a inspiration from one of John e books)

MAY I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION

AS YOU READ THIS YOUR ATTENTION IS DIRECTED AT THIS TEXT

YOU ARE LOOKING AT THE TEXT

NOW, MOVE YOUR ATTENTION FROM THE TEXT TO YOURSELF

LOOK AT YOURSELF

You and I John talked about this then and I remember that you said that the word YOURSELF is not containing the direction to the feeling of "me". And I think you are right about this John. But if that line would have that personal reference like YOU for example, do you, or anyone else, think this would be worth working on?

Niklas

Good to hear from you Brezz.

Actually, we have a pretty solid understanding of the mechanism of human suffering and its resolution with the act of looking. We have been working to understand it for more than fifteen years now.

Simply stated, human psychology arises for most of us in a context of fearfulness and a deep, unstated assumption that there is something wrong with human life.

This silent context shapes the psychological mechanisms that constitute the personality - otherwise known as the mind - into instruments of defense and acquisition which, for all their apparent depth and force, are mere algorithmic mechanisms dancing to fear's tune. It can usefully be thought of as a kind of psychological auto-immune disease.

The implications of this view are profound, not the least of which is the discovery that there is really no one to blame for anything. If you haven't seen it, you might find the recent blog post, "Who's to Blame?"

https://www.justonelook.org/natural/

There is much more that could be said about this, but we see clearly what's needed is to bring an end to this scourge, and that the cure is so simple that prolonged discussion can only trigger the defensive mechanisms.

What is needed is to bring the cure to everyone we can reach, and let those whose addiction to postponement cripples their willingness to try such a patently harmless and easy act catch up when they can.

As to how it works, that too is obvious and utterly simple once the influence of the disease begins to wane.

1. It is perfectly clear, with just a little reflection, that there is nothing we can control in this life other than where attention goes, and even attention is mostly drawn mindlessly to whatever attracts it. Once the mind is free of the weight of fear and its symptoms it becomes possible to gain strength and clarity in our ability to direct attention, but first, we need to deliberately move attention to the simple feel of me, which is everywhere, but so faint as to be almost invisible.

When that one deliberate act of attention successfully touches the actual reality of you, it instantly vaporizes the silent context of fearfulness and distrust of life.

That's the cure.

2. What usually follows is a period of calm and clarity that may stay for a few weeks or even months, but which will sooner or later be replaced with even greater misery and confusion than before the looking. We think of this as a period of recovery from the disease, as the psychological instruments of defense, acquisition, and denial are triggered into a final frenzy of effort to save you from your life.

3. The resolution of this frenzy is gradual - I myself continue to be surprised from time to time by the departure of some neurotic viewpoint that had previously remained dormant in the absence of its particular trigger. But gradual or not in its growth, sanity can be depended upon irrevocably to fill the mind and bring real satisfaction in life.

So, you see, we have a pretty developed theory and understanding of what we are doing here.

You might also check out the paper written by a psychiatrist and two mental health professionals, "The Radical Act of Inward Looking". You can download it free of charge here:

https://www.justonelook.org/articles.php

In the end, when all is said and done, what is needed is not greater understanding, but a concerted effort to get the simple idea of the looking into the minds of enough people to ensure that it spreads throughout the entire human family before we destroy ourselves in the process of seeking more or deeper understanding.

I really am happy to see you here again Brezz, and we welcome your practical ideas on how to reach those who can hear it, but I urge you to consider what we do understand before calling for more.

Love,

John

P.S. I think it quite likely that if we can get the simple message spread far and wide enough we will most likely reach some of those with existing large audiences - maybe even Brad and Angelina - who will see and be drawn to the power and promise of this work and come on board