Excerpts - Lock the door story

Excerpt from Tuesday Night Talks 7-1-80 - Reporting*
(*Audience participation is in parentheses--notations in brackets have been added for clarification )

[Dr. Bob often gives us some methods for circumventing the not "I's" diabolical schemes to hypnotize us and put us in a state of "fear" and "insecurity". This experience is one that could be applied to some of the situations we find ourselves repeating over and over and also demonstrates the difference between "free from" and "free to." We join the workshop with audience participation.]

(Someone states: "Somewhere I've heard that you create what you fear.")

I've heard that all my life. If you act upon your fears, you can probably create them. If I were constantly afraid that I was going to forget to turn off the light; I'd probably act on it someday.

One time I had a funny reoccurring fear--the not "I's got to working on me.

After work, I would lock up the store and go home to dinner. Everything would be peaceful. Finally I'd go in and go to bed. About 2:00 a.m. I'd wake up with a start. I couldn't remember locking the door. So then I had to get up, get dressed and go back down to the store. The door was always locked. So this went on for quite a while. I was like everybody else. I was fretting about ways to get over it.

So one night I deliberately left the door open. (Laughter.) There was $1,000 worth of merchandise in the store, but I just walked off, OK? So I slept very soundly that night. The next morning when I went in to the store the next morning, the cop said, "You forgot to lock the door last night!" He was just sitting there guarding the store--I knew he would! He was making the rounds and found the door open. There was no way he could call me--I don't have night phones. So he had to sit there the rest of the night.

The not "I's never did bother me anymore. So first you got to be "free" for the door to be open, you see.

I was free to leave it unlocked. I just walked off. I knew it was unlocked. Of course, if I woke up at 2:00 a.m. believing I had locked it, it wouldn't make any difference. The not "I's" had nothing to bug me with.

So that's one way to outmaneuver a not "I". The cop was ticked off, but that's ok, it didn't hurt him. The not "I's" never bothered me again.

But night after night I'd be going back down to the store at 2:00 a.m. to check the door. Then when I'd get back, half the time, I'd wake up again and think I hadn't pushed that little "thingy" down before I shut it. It was really messy for a while.

Not "I's can be very obnoxious. They are not very nice about that. Now what were they going to bug me about. So "be free" to have all your little "goodies" stolen, ok? "Free to" be broke, "free to" have law suits, "free to" do anything--then you don't have all this static.