The subconscious mind is a vast storehouse of information about ourselves, and about other people with whom we have had contact. Suggestions of Discovery can initiate a process of insight into this invaluable realm of subconscious information.

There are times in life and, more specifically, in personal development projects, when you just don't know what to do or how to get from point A to point B. Or even where they are.

The fact is, any project can be a problem. Let's say, for instance, you want to increase your income. (Who doesn't?) The problem is, how? "Just make more money" is not much of a prescription and it is certainly not the kind of suggestion that is likely to have any influence on your subconscious mind.

Or maybe you want to be a better student/teacher/parent/employee/boss/[you fill in your own desire here] but you don't know how to start from your own particular situation and set of circumstances or how to suggestion stepped goals that will get you there reasonably.

By the way, I did indeed mean to type "...suggestion stepped goals..." This semantic shorthand cuts through a lot of verbiage. Verbing the word suggestiongives better economy of words. Here is what "suggestion stepped goals" means: Conceptualize stepped goals in terms that lend themselves to the formulation of suggestions, then formulate appropriate and relevant suggestions.By the same token, to suggestion weight controlmeans to analyze the relevant needs and goals required to lose weight and maintain the loss, then formulate the appropriate suggestions.

By the way (again), by "reasonably" I mean getting there — achieving your ultimate goal-increments that do not go beyond your subconscious window of acceptance but that get you there as quickly as possible.

Each case, like each one of us, is different and therefore calls for a little different approach. But most of the fundamentals remain the same across all cases and can be used as a guideline. To present the fundamentals and show them in action, permit me to draw from a personal experience.

This experience involved teaching and my desire to become a better teacher. I was having problems with teaching, partly because of the relevant social, cultural and educational matrix of university teaching. It is interesting that in America, if one wants to teach at the grade or high school level, one needs a teaching certificate. A teaching certificate is awarded only at the end of an undergraduate training program. In most cases this means a college degree from a certified department of education at a college or university. The training for most teachers also involves an internship in which the would-be teacher spends half a year or so teaching in a classroom supervised by a certified teacher.

Contrast those requirements with the requirements in institutions of so-called "higher" education: There are none! To teach in a college or university you don't have to know anything about teaching. Most require advanced degrees from an accredited college. But not one hour of teacher training is required.

Teaching at the college or university level usually begins in graduate school. Most graduate students in this country are supported by their departments with either teaching or research assistantships. I was luckier than many in that I was granted a Teaching Fellowship, which meant I had full responsibility for preparing and teaching the undergraduate courses assigned to me.

When I first started I thought teaching would be a snap. I figured I would just have to write a good course syllabus, pick a decent textbook, know the material, present interesting lectures and reasonable assignments, and collect my accolades for being such a great teacher.

Boy, was I green! My first courses were disasters and I didn't have a clue what I was doing wrong. The students underachieved and complained about everything. No one liked coming to class, and most of the students disliked me. (It is not hard to tell, believe me!)

What to do? The first thing I did was try to analyze successful teachers I had had. But try as I might I could not remember many specifics about their styles or teach methods that I could use. Each teacher was different. Each had his or her own style, and the few things I could remember came off phony when I tried them in the classroom.

The same was true of those who were teaching the graduate courses I was taking. Some were distinguished professors with national reputations in their fields and local reputations as great teachers. And they were as different as night and day. Each had his own personality, each had his own methods and techniques, and none had anything I thought I could successfully use. Whatever they were doing to motivate students, transmit their own interest and excitement in their topics, and be popular was transparent. At least it was to me.

Eventually it became apparent to me that I was going to have to look within myself to find answers. I was going to have to embark on a process of discovery.

The subconscious mind has many limitations. It is limited to deductive logic and it perceives the world of imagination and dreams to be just as real as anything "out there." It is strictly focused on the self and appears to have no interests beyond preservation, protection and procreation. But one of the things it is really good at, one of the qualities that is almost mystical at times, is its perception.

The subconscious mind is phenomenal in the way it perceives, and in what it perceives. The way it perceives is largely subliminal. That is, it perceives things of which we are not consciously aware. It is as if each of our five senses is, say, five percent conscious and 95 percent subconscious, or subliminal.

Whatthe subconscious mind perceives or, more to the point, what it does with what it perceives, is equally phenomenal. There is evidence that we subconsciously read other people's emotions and thoughts. No, I'm not talking about ESP here. What I am talking about is the astounding ability of the subconscious to perceive and draw conclusions from changes in a person's odors, eye blink rate and pupillary dilation or contraction, facial expressions and gestures, stance, vocal qualities (there are at least 18 distinguishable qualities of voice according to my dissertation research), skin tone or color, and respiration rate. Each of these qualities is known to change with emotion and the subconscious mind is somehow able to perceive all of these variables and compute a conclusion based on them. Some people are better at this than others, but it is probable that everyone can improve with guided practice.