recipient. His parents and grandparents before him had lived most
of their lives on welfare. George was aware that his purpose in-
volved musical expression, but unconscious allegiance to his role as
a helpless dependent of the government stood in the way of making
his music pay.
George had produced a cassette of his music and was looking
for music gigs. After a few months, he had learned and applied
most of the methods described in this book, but he was still depen-
dent on welfare.
I was impressed by his diligence during this time and tried to
think of some way to help him free himself from his inherited pur-
pose. One day, in a group Training course, I suggested he try some-
thing radical. I suggested he recite and accept the very negative
thought that was holding him back. By observing him, I had de-
duced that this was “My financial problems are caused by geneti-
cally transferred character defects I can do nothing about.” He
agreed to do this and said the phrase once to each of the other par-
ticipants, who responded simply with “I understand.”
By the next week his business had taken off, and he was fin-
ished with the Welfare Department. I believe this worked for him
because the phrase he repeated was the exact thought that had
been holding him back. Simply acknowledging its negative truth
set him free from the role he had inherited from two genera-
tions. Much of his adult life had been a struggle to deny the
power of this thought. By allowing it to be expressed in the exter-
nal world and discovering nothing bad happened by doing so,
the negative thought lost its power over him. I don’t think this
would have worked if he had not been so highly motivated to
break free from his family tradition. If he were not so motivated,
it could have simply become another excuse.
I have included this story to show that sometimes it is necessary
to uncover new methods. Your motivation and desire to succeed are
what will get you where you want to go, and the methods are only
tools to do so.
From these three examples, you can see how the family role
becomes an identity with a specific personality and its own out-
look on life, habits, traits, and ways of thinking and dealing with
reality. Pretending to be someone else is hard work, if for no other
reason than the constant anxiety that someone may find out you
are faking it.88 Your Recovery from a Good Upbringing