Today I received an email from Tom Vizzini one of the creators of the 3D Mind. It was about his cousin and how he had been brutally murdered just yesterday. The events that lead up to his death were easily avoidable, and yet they came to pass because his cousin refused to take control of his own life.

I have included a couple of very good paragraphs from his email, plus my response to them about an incident that happened to me today.

> The 3D Mind is not about making you feel wonderful ALL THE TIME. It is about
> helping you not get stuck and trapped by the crap that happens in life. You
> mind becomes fluid and adaptable. That is the goal.

> Out of control…….interesting thought. When I think about it, this is
> what we try to help people with. We teach how to take control of your life.
> We teach how to make better decisions on how to steer you life so that you
> avoid ending up like my cousin.

I agree Tom, very good points.

Today I could very easily have died. I say this with complete sincerity.

Of all my achievements over the last few years, saving my own life today was one of my proudest.

Scuba Diving is not necessarily a dangerous sport, if you educate yourself properly, and follow instructions and training you severely limit the possible disasters that can happen. Of all the bad things that remain, a panicked diver is probably the most dangerous. A panicked diver has no access to the creative adaptive area of the brain to allow them to think their way out of a problem. A panicked diver will usually remove the air source from their mouth and kick screaming towards the surface.

Last night I passed my Advanced Scuba Diver exam and today I finished off my last Advanced dive.

My instructor, dive buddy, and myself were at a place called Devil’s Den in Florida. It’s a cave. I have never wanted to be a cave diver, however the Advanced diver course requires an introduction to cave diving.

Having finished off the dive my instructor gave us the option to go back into the cave and go back over the ground we had already covered. It was a single roomed cave with no underwater exits. However there were holes in the wall that went on a short distance or went through some twists and turns, there were also boulders leaning against the walls that created interesting nooks and crannies.

Towards the end of the second dive I had found a small hole in a rock formation and though it was narrow it was large enough to fit myself into. It first went down a slope then came up again where I assumed it opened up back into the main cavern.

In truth, I was only about a length and a half in, maybe 2 lengths. I had hit the end. There was solid rock in every direction, my tank was getting caught on rock outcrops both going forward and backward, as was my air hose, every direction I could see in there was nowhere to go, just bare rock, and which ever way I tried to go my movement was impeded. I was underwater. There was no space to turn around or even look over my shoulder to see my exit.

At this point… I started to panic, it was a real nasty horrible feeling, not something I have felt in quite some time, in a matter of a fraction of a second in my mind I could see my own death.

I have been with Tom and Kim for 5 years now. In that time I have developed some great state control.

I recognised that I was just about to tip over the edge to where I had no emotional control. The point where other divers in the same predicament I was in have been found with their fingers rubbed down to the bone where they had tried to unsuccessfully claw their way out through the rock to get back to the surface.

I relaxed and focused. I used all my experience from the last few years to get myself out of danger, then I started to think again.

I realised I had to push myself back with my hands, my feet were useless as fins can only send you forward and I had to keep them up to stop them catching on the rock and impeding my exit.

Not being able to see where I was going was a good metaphor for the problems you can work on with the 3D Mind. Sometimes the filters in your own head block the route of success. People will live their lives wondering why they never make it to where they want to be when all they do is follow a path that leads them in another direction.

Sometimes you badly want to be rescued. My dive buddy had no idea I was in trouble, she couldn’t see what was going on for the air tank on my back and my legs that weren’t moving blocking the way. I was the only one that could get myself out of this. I was responsible. The same goes for your changes with the 3D Mind.

The fact I’m able to write this means I made it out. I felt my way out using my hands and the environment around me acting with or against my movements, I could only access my memory of my route thanks to being in control of my state. I had to follow the direction of my arse and not my head. It was following my head that got me into that difficulty in the first place. As with the filters of your mind sometimes you have to balance and remove an old filter and follow a different direction to get the outcome you desire.