Latest / Magic Thread Media / The Science of Wishing: How to Hack Your Brain to Manifest What You Want | Brownell Landrum

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The Science of Wishing: How to Hack Your Brain to Manifest What You Want | Brownell Landrum · Magic Thread Media

• 0:00
  Brownell Landrum: Wishes are this beautiful kind of middle ground, because they do include the things in your control, and then they also allow for what I call cosmic collaboration, which is with something outside of your control. And what's fun about it is, when you add the science to it, you know, regular wish, we all know what those are, but a lot of people think, you know, is that serious? Or do I repeat it, or did I forget it? Or, you know how important it is, but when you add the science, and you start understanding the science behind the wishing, then you get more in your control, then you can have more power over the outcome and the process of your wishing.
• 0:38
  Amy Lynn Durham: Hey, it's Amy, welcome to Create Magic at Work, where we cast visions for a future of work, where business decisions ripple outward to our teams, our communities, the planet and humanity as a whole. If you're ready to edge, walk instead of sleep, walk through your leadership, you're in the right place. So let's start making magic at work.
• 0:59
  Hey everyone. Amy here, welcome back to another episode of Create Magic at Work. I'm just so excited today because this one feels so uplifting for all of us. And I have Brownell Landrum here. Let me tell you about Brownell. Brownell is a storyteller, speaker, inventor and Change Catalyst with an MBA from Georgia State University, she's the author of over a dozen books. Today we are talking about the art and science of wishing, and her upcoming book, The Art and Science of wishing at work, she got curious about the sciences involved in wishing while writing a novel entitled A love story to the universe. This is so create magic at work today. Brownell combines her corporate and entrepreneurial background and logical business oriented skills with a compelling storytelling style. The motto for her stories is lose yourself in the fiction, find yourself in the truth. Brownell, thank you so much for being here with us today, and I can't wait to talk about the art and science of wishing for all of the create magic at work. Listeners today, welcome to the show.
• 2:20
  Brownell Landrum: Thanks. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, we're excited to have you. I'm going to speak for all of us. We want. We all want our wishes to come true, or do we? Well, that is, there's a nuance to that, right? You know how we make the wishes? You know what the responses are to wishes? The difference between wishes prayers and goals, there's so much dynamic. And then the whole idea of work and bringing it into workplace, which is what I love hearing about what you're doing, is that the thing about wishes is that everybody wishes, all over the world, every culture, everybody. And so for the people who are like really into a specific religion. It aligns for people who are more into the spiritual world. It aligns for the people who aren't into either, and they're total skeptics, but they follow the science. It aligns, right? Because the more you add the science, the more like I say, the difference between a wish and a cosmic wish is when you add the science to it. So yeah, fun stuff.
• 3:20
  Amy Lynn Durham: I love that the difference between a wish and a cosmic wish is when you add the science,
• 3:27
  Brownell Landrum: yes.
• 3:28
  Amy Lynn Durham: Okay, so I came from a corporate sales background. I mean, talk about goals we had to set all the time, and every month, if we hit that goal that month, we had to set a new goal that was bigger than the month before. It never stopped. I also have a deep spiritual I'm deeply spiritual. Obviously,
• 3:55
  on
• 3:55
  Brownell Landrum: your show and everything you're doing
• 3:57
  Amy Lynn Durham: is
• 3:57
  Brownell Landrum: definitely that vibe,
• 3:59
  Amy Lynn Durham: right? And I studied a few years ago the phases of the moon a little more deeply. And I'm a certified moonologist, and so setting intentions with the new moon and then releasing, and I even did some of that work with my teams when I was managing large groups where we would release something that no longer served us after a quarterly business review in front of each other, when it was the full moon, or we would set new goals for the next quarter, and we would use the growing new moon for that. So I always tried to do it. Tried to incorporate spirituality in that way into our goal setting, but you're saying there's a difference between goals and wishes, and what we just said a little bit before cosmic wishes, can you kind of break that down for all of us?
• 4:52
  Brownell Landrum: Yeah. And I mean, first of all, I want to make sure it's really clear, like and you said it, but I'm a storyteller, not a scientist. I am always open. Open so people have thoughts and opinions, or like, you got this right or wrong, or what about this? Brownell, I'm always open to hearing that. As you mentioned, like when I started researching, I was writing a novel, and then I was researching, I thought, Well, wait a minute, is there science I'm wishing? And it just turned into this, 70 different scientists that I quote in my book, and 400 research studies that are tied to it. And I went crazy about it to look at the science in it. And so I had to come up with some foundations of what is a wish, what's the difference between a wish, a prayer and a goal, and how are wishes answered? All those kinds of things. You kind of have to do that when you're I had to do it in writing the novel, and then I had to do it in writing the book. And so the way I look at it is a goal is something in your control. You set a plan, you make it happen, whether it's you know, like you set a sales goal, or whether it's a you know, you want to run a marathon or lose five pounds or take a vacation, or whatever, you put put the plan in place, and it's for the most part in your control, and then prayers are for the things outside your control, right? And you're just releasing it to another power or source or energy, whatever word you want to use, is okay with me, like, I'm pretty open on that and so but wishes are this beautiful kind of middle ground, because they do include the things in your control, and then they also allow for what I call cosmic collaboration, which is with something outside of your control. And what's fun about it is when you add the science to it, you know, regular wish, we all know what those are, but a lot of people think you know, is that serious? Or do I repeat it, or did I forget it? Or, you know how important it is? But when you add the
• 6:36
  science, and you start understanding the science behind the wishing, then you get more in your control, then you can have more power over the outcome and the process of your wishing. So does that make sense?
• 6:47
  Amy Lynn Durham: Yeah, okay, so you said prayer is when you, when you say a prayer to a higher power that you believe in, and you sort of release the outcome,
• 6:59
  Brownell Landrum: or you don't
• 7:00
  Amy Lynn Durham: really
• 7:00
  Brownell Landrum: have control over the outcome for the most part, right? It's like, okay, I'm praying for my child to get well, or something like that, right? And you've done everything you can do, and and you're praying for something. So that's when you know you're out of control, so that that's when you're releasing the control to to that other higher power, whatever, to
• 7:18
  Amy Lynn Durham: a higher power. If you believe, yeah, if you believe in it, yeah, yeah. I think sometimes people pray, but they're actually wishing. I think there's some crossover there, as I'm sure, since you've studied this, I'm very curious about wishing and where it crosses the line into I'm uncomfortable in this life experience, and so I want things to look different, because I'm not comfortable right now. Maybe somebody's going through a really hard time financially, and they're wishing for it to change. How does that work? If we are living through life lessons, spiritually or karmically.
• 8:04
  Brownell Landrum: Okay, we're getting deep. I like to get I
• 8:07
  Amy Lynn Durham: always get
• 8:08
  Brownell Landrum: deep. I get into really deep stuff, like in my novels, and in terms of fate versus free will and life lessons and all that kind of and I write my novels go into the, definitely into the woo, woo territory of reincarnation and life plans and all those kinds of things. So I I'm totally comfortable in that, in that vibe, too. And so let me try to put it within that framework of that when somebody is feeling sort of out of control and they're wishing for something, they're deep into some sort of question or issue, there's a lot of lot of ways I can answer that. Let's start with the simple thing that is that I say that wish, and this is one of the fundamentals of the program, is that your wishes should be peaceful, positive and purposeful. So I call that the three P's. That's really important. In fact, I've got a children's book where it's about showing kids the difference between what's a peaceful wish and not peaceful wish. You know, how do you make your wishes more positive? How you do make your wishes more purposeful? So if you're in that kind of vibe and mindset, then that gives you, I mean, there's science behind all three P's, right? For example, if you're wishing for something versus wishing against, wishing against, it's like, I wish this would stop happening. That's not going to be forward from a scientific mind brain kind of point of view, right? But if you are wishing for something, then that gives your brain something to work on to look for those solutions. For example, I'm sure you're probably familiar with the reticular activating system. Are you familiar
• 9:46
  Amy Lynn Durham: share with us? Yeah, okay, yeah.
• 9:48
  Brownell Landrum: So this is where it gets this is where I love the fact that it like you could have a spiritual answer for this. And also, guess what, there's a scientific answer for this, and it's looking at the same thing, maybe from a little bit different lens, but it's very similar.
• 10:00
  Amy Lynn Durham: Are
• 10:01
  Brownell Landrum: basically one thing you need to do is you need to repeat your wish, and by repeating your wish, and the beautiful thing about wishes, that is makes them really unique, is that they're usually tied to some sort of ritual. Now, you mentioned, you know, full moon and things like that. I'm going to say, how about a ritual every day? So maybe it's, you know, see the moon, and even if it's a new moon, you look for the moon. But the when you go back in history, the anthropology, which is one of the sciences, because every time you make a wish, you engage over a dozen sciences. Most people don't realize that wow, and one of them would be anthropology, and that's tied to a ritual. So if you have a ritual that you can do every day, and remind yourself every day, whether it's a time on the clock, or you see a star, the first star of the night, or, you know, whatever, brushing your teeth, it could be something really simple. So that is going to trigger you to do it every day. When you do it every day, it activates neuroplasticity, which rewires your brain. So when you're saying somebody's in a kind of a gnarly place. It you're rewiring your brain towards something positive, right? If you've got, if you, even if you, all you are is peaceful, positive and purposeful. For one minute every day, you can rewire your brain to find more peaceful, positive and purposeful. Once your wish is solidified in your brain, it triggers what's called the reticular activating system, and that is a part of your brain that looks for solutions and patterns. So as soon as you say, This is what I want, all of a sudden, you start meeting people who've accomplished that wish. And you start seeing articles and like, I was dealing with something, and like I went, I mean, it was a little medical. Wasn't a huge thing, but it was medical thing. Went to six different doctors, 12 different doctor visits, nobody. And it's like, wait a minute, to do my own stuff, which is to
• 11:43
  get connected to my body, talk to her, and then all of a sudden, like, we are so connected. Next day, I'm in the grocery store, I'm looking for something totally different. And there's, oh, wait a minute, that could be the answer. And then the next day, after that, I saw an ad for the solution. So like all these doctors didn't have it, but my brain was cued to look for that. Now you can say it's a spiritual thing, because also repeating your wish to your higher energy or power is saying, I want this. I really do like this isn't me just flipping around. This has helped me work with this, right? So you can say the cosmic collaboration for that could be the brain looking for those solutions, or it could be your higher connection, energy flow, all of those kinds of things. And another aspect of that. And then I'll let you kind of dig in further. Is the three selves, right? And that's your I mean, you have to make sure all three of yourselves, whether you call that mind, body, spirit or conscious, subconscious, super conscious. You know that when you make your wish, you need to make sure all of those three selves are aligned, because otherwise you could run into what I call subconscious sabotage. When your body is like, I don't want to do that. The mind says I want this goal, and the body's like, that's not fine. I don't want to know. I'm not I'm not, I'm not on board with that. You're just trying to force me to do something I don't want to do. So when you start working with that part of your psyche, whether it's your higher self, which is your purpose, or your body self, that's kind of in conflict. So that person you're mentioning that would be in that challenging space may be held back by their body, because the body's not alignment, because it's tough work, and they're not getting it the attention that they need. And if you make it fun, by the way, that's one of the big tricks, the body will go. Make it fun. The body's like, I'm with you. What do
• 13:33
  you want to do? Let's do this. And if you don't make it fun, then they can, you know, subconscious sabotage is a very real thing. I talked about that a lot in my first book, about five reasons why bad things happen, and then when your higher self is in alignment, then let's say, to use your example, that person is going through a difficult time, and it's a lesson they need to learn. This will put them on a more positive path, to learn that lesson, to get that message, to get an alignment, to solve it, and so that they can transcend it and get to the why, and then get to the next level. Does any of that make sense? Or did I Oh yeah, yeah.
• 14:17
  Amy Lynn Durham: Well, I love the framing around the peaceful, positive and purposeful as a reminder when we are wishing for things.
• 14:25
  Brownell Landrum: Yeah,
• 14:26
  Amy Lynn Durham: and the three selves you mentioned, what were those again? Can you clarify?
• 14:31
  Brownell Landrum: Yeah, I'll use a spiritual explanation that I talk about, which is, and I don't, I don't get into a whole lot of spiritual stuff in the artist side of switching, other than if this is where your belief is, this is how it fits, right? So it's not required, because, guess what? There's also a scientific answer to that. But basically, if you believe that you have a higher, I mean, this could be young or Freud, or, you know, any other terminology, but that you have some sort of. Spiritual part of your soul. For me, it's like a part of you that existed before you're born and will exist after you die. So something that's an internal part of you, and then that part of you chooses a body and becomes you. So one of the big revelations I had when I wrote my first book is the body is the subconscious. And now I'm like, of course it is. But then it was like, Okay, so the body has its own level of consciousness. It has its own thought process. I mean, this is, like I said, Freud and Jung and a lot of other great teachers. So that's where you have to know that it's got, it's got the genetic memory, it's got the family history. It's got the all of that kind of ancestral memories and energies, and so it has a little bit different goal and a different purpose and vibe than like your higher self, which is about your sole purpose. Does that answer? Yeah. So how do we, I guess, in part of the art and science of wishing is that helping both of those align your higher self with your subconscious? Yeah, the 3p really align really well with that especially purposeful, right? Because if your wish is purposeful, that means it's not just helping you, it's also helping others, right? And that's definitely going to be an alignment with your spirit or soul or higher self, and it also, there's also science behind that, because when you make your wish purposeful, then you are attracting other people, not only that you're helping, but also that can help you in
• 16:35
  manifesting that wish. So you're, you're kind of building this collective energy and the multipliers, and it's some of this is way over my head, but, like, it's not just what, like, if you and I were wishing together, that might be one plus one, but if we add another person, it's not adding one plus one. It's actually starting to do some multipliers that are higher. And then when you tell the story about your wish, then you're doing engaging something called mirror neurons, so that you're seeing my vision, I'm seeing your vision, and then we're like, okay, that's building on each other to make it bigger. It's like, simple and complicated, but it's complicated because there's, like, so many different scientific angles. There's the physical body energy of when you feel peaceful, guess what? It makes you more creative. If you're anxious, you're not going to be as creative, and you're not going to be as good at looking for solutions. So becoming peaceful while you're making your wish and making a wish for something that's peaceful is actually engaging physiological differences that make your body in alignment with it as well.
• 17:40
  Amy Lynn Durham: I always like to say if I'm setting intentions and maybe they, they are wishes. I always like to say this or something better, with no harm to anyone. Yeah, and I always like to keep that, the spiritual intelligence teaching in mind that I want to remain open to the unimaginable to appear in my life. Because who am I to even think that I could envision the amazing things that can happen for us? So I always set that intention. What would you say to someone who I literally have a client that's coming to mind that I've worked with in the past that was very, very good at every day, doing the work they were very good at in the morning, setting intentions, knew what they wanted, and just always felt like nothing was coming to fruition. What would you say to somebody that just feels like frustrated that they've done all of the spiritual work that they're doing and just nothing seems to be breaking through the wishes aren't coming true?
• 19:00
  Brownell Landrum: Yes, well, and that's where it gets into something interesting in terms of, well, first I want to back up the reticular activating system actually is, once it's solidified, it happens automatically. So it's not like you just have to make sure that you use your ritual, repeat your wish every day, that wires it into neuroplasticity, and then your brain will work and find the solutions. It'll just does it without even thinking like all of a sudden, like all of a sudden, like I said, I was at the grocery, I was looking for something else, and then, boom, there's the solution to my problem. So it wasn't like I woke up that morning going, I'm going to find the solution to the problem. You just you're more aware of the signs and symbols and patterns that it starts coming to you, and you feel like you're being helped from beyond. And that certainly is part of the answer, and it's also that your brain is looking for those answers. Because your brain, once you set a challenge and say, you know, I wish for this, then your brain's gonna say, Okay, well, we're wishing for this. I'm going to help you, and we're going to find that answer. To go further into your question, I love these questions, because this gets into really the challenging stuff, right? And to really. The nuances is to look at the four responses to a wish is one aspect, right? And the answers are yes, no wait or something better. So there's a lot of really interesting nuance to that. And then I'll kind of go earlier step to that and go, Okay, making sure you're making the wishes that are in your best alignment, that are your best purpose. For example, is it looking at what you want versus what you need? For example, I was working with somebody the other day and they said, I want a million dollar wish for a million dollars. And I was like, that's a piece of paper with a bunch of ones and, you know, one and some zeros on it, right? Let's make it that's not fun. You can't
• 20:39
  get excited in the morning. I mean, it's okay. I mean, it's not nothing wrong with that. But what do you want to do with it? Like, I want to wish for a million dollars for my kids education. Okay, then you're going to start really looking for solutions for that. And I wish for this particular person was, like, had this business idea that was really beautiful for the planet and was very helpful. Once you make that wish bigger and known, then people are going to like, I wish for that too. I'm going to help you. I'm going to help you along this path. I'm going to come in here. Oh, by the way, I can offer this, and it may be beyond funding, and it may actually get the wish or the goal accomplished, because you're getting clearer, and it's more to what you need versus what you want. And so that's really an important aspect, is to kind of look at that. And as a storyteller, this is what's fun for writers, is a lot of stories start with the hero or the protagonist wanting something, and then they find out by the end of the story, they needed something else, right? I don't know if you're familiar with the movie Legally Blonde, but it's a great right? She started out wanting to marry that guy. By the end, she didn't want to marry that guy at all. She learned how to but she needed us to learn how to stand on her own and find her own place in the world. So let's look at our wish. So that what I would probably do with that person is like, let's look at your wish and figure out, first of all, there could be an inner self or body misalignment, something that your body's going I know you want that, but I don't want that, so I'm going to sabotage you. So I would look at the some of that. I would also look at the want versus need. And how do you make it more fun? How do you make it something energizing? How do you make it fun, something that other people were going to want to support you in. So when this person was like, Yes, I have this vision and it's going to help the world,
• 22:29
  all this energy can come in and help you, versus I want a piece of paper with ones and zeros that that's not as exciting for people to come in and just say, I'm going to write you a check Yeah, and then to look at the four responses, because yes isn't always the best answer, right?
• 22:45
  Amy Lynn Durham: I'm so struck by how your work is aligned with our edge Walker archetype. Work at create magic at work. And the edge Walker is a specific archetype of change. And the edge Walker looks to the future with creative positive visualization, there's five qualities and five skills of an edge Walker, of which, some are playfulness, manifesting vision, all of those things, right? One of the shadows, I guess, I guess I could say, of an edge Walker is they could be, they could have such a strong vision, and they can see the vision beyond the vision that sometimes they struggle with bringing people along in their vision. So when you were talking about, oh, it's so much more playful and so much more fun when other people understand what your wish is, which, to me, is kind of like what your vision is too, right? And, yeah, I've experienced that myself, where I can see something so clearly and I'm so excited about it, and then I go to explain it to someone else my vision, like, come along like this is Oh my gosh, and they don't see it. And I know that sometimes innovators and leaders in the workplace run into that issue as well. They have trouble bringing their team along with their vision, because their team just doesn't understand it. And so then this change management kind of issue happens. What are your thoughts on all of that? When you mentioned, I'm working on the art and science of wishing
• 24:30
  Brownell Landrum: at work, right? And that's really targeted for companies going through some sort of transition, you know, whether it's a new launch or reorganization or merger acquisition kind of thing. And so that's really an important focus. Is one thing is you have to remember, everyone's the hero of their own story, so to be able to tell a compelling story. And there's science and storytelling, right? It goes all the way back to the mythology and Joseph Campbell, all the way to, you know, like I said, mirror neurons, where people are tracking and. So something's happening where the people aren't tracking to that story, right? That's the mirror neurons aren't connecting with the story that the person's telling. But when you realize that people are the hero of their own story, and you make them a hero of their own story, and you bring their wish into it, and so it's not trying to get other people to support you, but also knowing how you're supporting them and what's their alignment on that and obviously making it fun for them, making it something that they that you can relate to the different kinds of personalities that may or may not want. This I had a business and had the whole DISC profile. I'm sure you're familiar with that each disc style is going to want something different, so you need to make sure your story also is addressing their concerns. And so it's not rah rah, it's understanding they have to be the hero of their own story. And it's not just you being the hero, and also just knowing that sometimes what's one person wishes for, like, how are you going to make the wish? So it's so purposeful that everybody wants it like I used to work my corporate background. One of the corporate jobs was working for Kodak back in the big Kodak days, like number one brand in the world kind of thing. And I feel like they missed such a huge opportunity. Because if at that time, when you'd say, if your house was on fire, what would you take? You'd take
• 26:21
  your family, your pets and your pictures. That's how important pictures were, and they didn't tell us every day. Do you know how important this work is? This isn't just selling more film or processing more cameras or whatever. This means something to people. They missed that opportunity to make us feel really good about what we were doing every day. And so getting to that point of, you know, making sure that the purposeful is for you, the world, the company, the industry, the customers, the consumers, all of that in the chain, everyone has to be a hero in that story. What's one thing that you wish everyone knew about the art and science of wishing? I think the simplest thing, especially since we talked about it a lot today, is if you can remember the peaceful, positive and purposeful, even if you're just getting into that headspace of those three things, just spending a minute whatever you're wishing for, just wish to be peaceful, positive and purposeful. I think that would be really lovely thing for the listeners to get today.
• 27:30
  Amy Lynn Durham: I think that's such a good takeaway and a really great reminder to that will ripple out for the greater good. Yes, yeah, I think that's great. Okay, so this is going to be interesting to see what card comes up after this conversation. See what do we got? Here we got creativity. There we go. Creativity. Oh, okay, our reminder today, creativity. I make time to daydream and let ideas take shape into my reality. Gosh, for me, what a good reminder. I make time to daydream and let ideas take shape into my reality. This is such a good message for like, what do we really want to wish for?
• 28:23
  Brownell Landrum: Well, in fact, I can add something. It's got a good story to go with that, so if you
• 28:28
  Amy Lynn Durham: share
• 28:28
  it, please, yeah,
• 28:30
  Brownell Landrum: as I told you before we started, I gave my TEDx talk last week, yes, and one of the messages in there was related to that, and that's another part of your brain that is important to remember for wishing, and it's called the default mode network, and that's this. That's where creativity comes from. It's when one part of our brain turns off and another part of our brain turns on. And one of the stories that I told in the talk is I asked the audience, do you know how Einstein came up with the theory of relativity? Do you know? No, he was daydreaming about what it would be like to ride alongside a beam of light. He was in that mindset because it's literally a part of your brain that turns on when the other so other part turns off, and there are tricks to activating it, but that's the creative source. So it's allowing your brain to this part, to turn off and just get into this place where you can envision things, like imagining what it's like to ride alongside a beam of light. And that's where that inspiration came from. It's a tricky thing to learn how to access Aaron Sorkin. I don't know if you know him, but he's a like a well known writer, and a screenwriter. For him, it's taking a shower. And sometimes he'll take seven hours a day when he's in writing mode, because it's like, all of a sudden he's in the shower, and the idea comes to him. And I think we all know that feeling, so that something fun to kind of let people think about okay, allow yourself that time to be able to do that. And then the only. Suggestion I have is make sure you have a way to capture that information, because those ideas come in and go out, right? Yeah, yeah. When you can
• 30:09
  Amy Lynn Durham: voice note handy writing it down, such a good way, yeah,
• 30:14
  Brownell Landrum: so that people can have a way to recognize either the signs from the reticular activating system or the default and mode network, those ideas that come out of nowhere,
• 30:24
  Amy Lynn Durham: amazing. Such a good way to end just like, Oh, here's a way to open up to more of what you could be wishing for with peaceful positivity and purpose energy, making time to daydream and letting ideas take shape into reality. Brownell, thank you so much for having this interesting conversation with us on create magic at work, on the art and science of wishing and the upcoming art and science of wishing at work. Both of those books, we will drop links to connect with you in the show notes. But for everyone listening, where else, where can they find you to connect with you?
• 31:04
  Brownell Landrum: Yeah, I'm the only brown l Landrum in the world. So it's kind of easy to find me. My YouTube channel is going to start having some really fun stuff on it. And so please look out for that. And yes, and please look for my TEDx talk when that comes out in a few months. And just you can find me on all the other social, Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok. I'm all on all those too.
• 31:26
  Amy Lynn Durham: Oh, cool. What's the name of your TED Talk? Is it the art and science of wishing it is awesome? Awesome. We will definitely look for that. Thank you so much for being a guest today. Thanks. I enjoyed it. It was fun.