There is an extremely powerful approach to life’s problems, which is to sit with the individual and have them think-up (invent, imagine, create) “a similar kind of problem” to the one which is bothering them. Have him or her come up with other trouble variants that are at least as complex and major as the one that’s bugging them.

It is capable of reducing the person’s pain and distress enormously. Yet it does not require an enormous insight into the workings of the mind to use effectively.

We are harnessing the person’s creative energy and not delving into negative areas of experience in the way that, say, regression therapy does. As a positive gain rather than a negative gain procedure which cannot easily be overrun, it can be used on a very wide variety of people and problems.

This makes it an ideal tool for what we jokingly call the car qualified practitioner (a “have a go” helper, not a professional; you know, the kind of conversation you could have with someone while driving along in a car).

When directed towards an individual’s fixed condition, (divorce, cancer, broken leg, etc), or even other long-term problems that the individual wants to get rid of, the person goes very thoroughly and immediately into session. He or she has an intense interest in getting rid of the problem and is almost invariably willing to talk to the practitioner/counselor.

One reason for this willingness, is that the individual does not have to dig out or reveal any damaging truths about themselves. Another reason this procedure is peculiarly suitable to car qualified work.

Here we are exercising a person’s creative ability to mock up or create mental structures, which can be done for ever, rather than trying to eliminate negative emotional energy from unpleasant memory. So it cannot easily be overdone, as some techniques can.

It enables the spiritual being or mental composite to rise above the mass of negative energy without viewing it in detail.  It simply moves the crushing weight of disempowering burden off the case.

How Is It Done?

Start by asking the person for a description of the problem. Encourage talk by saying “Tell me about it”.

Ask, “How could that be worse?”

Get the individual to tell you how far away the problem seems to be. If it is overwhelming, the person will be sitting right in the middle of the mass of the problem and will not perceive any distance between self and it. Then, as the remedy is run, the mental mass of the problem will begin to move away and the individual will perceive that it is gradually moving further off.

The mass of the problem doesn’t seem to get any smaller in doing this, but being more distant, it feels less important or threatening. The neuro-linguistic programmers noticed a long time ago that if you moved the mental construct of something away from yourself, its force or impact on you is diminished.

When you have worked the problem mass out to a good distance, i.e. several yards, ask the person to give you some solutions to the problem. This is an interesting experiment. He or she will soon notice that the mass is moving back in again!

So have him or her invent some more problems and the mass will move out safely once more. Point this out and warn the person against “solutions”.

Very quickly the person will come to realize that having to “solve” a problem glues it firmly to you.

More exactly, this mechanism of moving a problem mass out by inventing problems, and then solutions bringing it in, shows us that worry is what moves a problems mass in on an individual. Worry is composed of fear of unknown bad consequences. Worry is about trying to find “solutions” and the fear that we cannot “solve” the problem.

The real answer is to move the problem right away.

If a woman is pained by desertion of her husband, solutions can seem very scarce (they are!) But if she creates more problems, like having cancer, no legs, being blind and so on, pretty soon the absent husband won’t seem such a big deal!

Really, it’s that easy and that humane!

The End Result

The best end result to look for is that the person no longer has any need to solve or handle that particular problem. In other words, in ordinary parlance, it has ceased to be a problem. It doesn’t need a solution if it is no longer a problem.

It is inadequate to run the process to the point where the person says “I can now handle it” or “I have just thought of a solution”. Although this may be quite acceptable to the person concerned, the skilled car qualified operator would know that that an effective remedy has not yet been attained.

Only leave it at this stage if time is against you. Otherwise finish it up thoroughly.

Once the problem is gone, there may be another problem coming into view. But that is the end of that problem.

The truth is we need problems. Life would be very boring without them. What we don’t need is huge unsolvable problems that freeze up our thought processes.

Summary

Procedure for the creative problems process is as follows:

1. Have the person state the problem or condition he or she wants to get rid of (not “solve”, notice).

2. If not stated in problem form, (two opposing halves) the stated condition is not a problem.

3. Ask the individual how that problem could be worse.

4. Now have the person invent similar problems to that problem (at least as bad as).

5. Help the person, as needed, to invent such a problem.

6. Ask how the new problem(s) could be worse.

7. Ask a person to invent a problem at least as bad as new problem.

8. Repeat, 5, 6,7, at least ten times.

9. Ask the person how the original problem how seems to him or her.

l0. Repeat 3, to 9.

When To Intervene

You can help the person invent problems and even invent a few for him or her, or make suggestions of ways in which it could be worse, to get the person moving. For example, he or she suggests “I’m poor, I don’t have enough to eat” but can’t think how it could be worse, suggest having no hands, or perhaps leprosy.

However, you must not fall for entirely inventing for the person; this remedy has to come from the person’s own creative thinking, otherwise it is ineffective.

A good tip however, is to get them to invent problems that are bigger than the original problem.

Pretty soon, any problem in life can be made to seem less than it is or even completely unimportant.