Periodically, readers ask me about science behind Secret Techniques for Controlling Sadness,
Anger, Fear, Anxiety, and Other Emotions. I suppose I could make a case using the
rhinencephalon and psychosomatic manifestations of emotions, but there are so
many books out there that discuss these topics at length. Scientists have come
up with great many theories, many of which are untested or difficult to use, and to an ordinary
person who has an emotion or two that are bothersome, these theories can bring little consolation. These theories are, however, often fun and interesting to read about.
The angle and purpose of my book was to offer readers
a practical method for controlling emotions. This method comes from more than
two decades of my experimentation and hundreds of years of combined
experience of several monks, nuns, and teachers who taught me over the years.
I’d like to point out that I’m not asking anybody to
believe me. The book was designed as a guide for tracking down your emotions’
formation using mental experiments, as well as experiments with subtle movements
and changes in breathing drawn from every-day observations. If you’re willing
to try these experiments yourself--and I do encourage you try them--you should get at least some results either
immediately, if the technique that you chose is simpler, or within a few
months, if the technique appears later in the book.
