One person—I wish I remembered who—discovered you didn’t need to act out the sneeze with a fake “achoo,” as I had been doing. You can simply imagine sneezing. I tried that next. That worked, too! And it was a better method for public places.
And so it came to pass that the creator of the Dilbert comic strip and his friends cured the common sneeze. Or at least one type of sneeze.
I tell you the sneeze story to demonstrate how much power our thoughts have over our bodies. And more importantly, how quickly those thoughts can work their magic. It can happen in seconds. I will teach you how to reframe your ordinary experiences in ways that get you more of what you want—in every domain—and less of what you don’t want. Often it happens quickly—as with the sneeze cure—but other times you might have to reinforce the message with repetition.
If you have a chance to try suppressing a sneeze using the method described—and you discover it works for you—the experience will give you goosebumps. It will feel as if you just discovered you have some sort of superpower.
You won’t be wrong.
If the sneeze cure doesn’t impress you, that’s okay because it was only the teaser. In the late summer of 2022, I saw a message on X claiming a video I had created in 2020 to reduce anxiety—using only reframing and hypnosis—had cured someone’s daughter of debilitating anxiety. The father explained that prior to viewing my video, his daughter had tremendous trouble leaving the house because her anxiety was so oppressive. But her father reported that she not only managed to get out of the house, she had also recovered so well she was about to be married. The father credited my video for her turnaround.
During my daily livestream show—called Coffee with Scott Adams, at 10:00 AM Eastern daily—I asked my followers on YouTube and on the Locals subscription service if any of them had a similar experience of reduced anxiety after viewing that video. A wall of “Yes” responses streamed down the live comments, with a smattering more on YouTube. (Locals subscribers were more likely to have watched the video.)
I was stunned.
If the commenters were right, I had “cured” dozens—maybe hundreds—of people of a lifetime of anxiety. And I did it using nothing but a series of reframes strung together to cancel the anxiety program running in people’s minds.
I’m a trained hypnotist with decades of experience in persuasion and brain-hacking, so I had a strong hunch I could flip off the anxiety switch in some people. Probably not most people because people are too different. But I thought it was worth an hour of my time to test it by creating an anxiety reduction video in 2020.
It was time well spent.
I’ll include in this book in text form the reframes I used in the anxiety cure video so you can try them out yourself. Don’t skip ahead to them. You’ll find out why.
If you’re not excited about this book yet, here’s my favorite reframe success story. If my feedback from social media followers is to be believed, this reframe has helped hundreds—perhaps thousands—of people stop drinking alcohol. I invented this reframe in 2013 for my book How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. Here’s the simple reframe.
Usual Frame: Alcohol is a beverage.
Reframe: Alcohol is poison.
Some readers of that book lost all interest in alcohol and quit drinking forever because they read those three words “alcohol is poison.”
Really.
How do I know that reframe will work on some (smallish) percentage of readers? Because several times a week I receive a thank-you message from yet another internet stranger who embraced that reframe and removed alcohol from their lives. I don’t have to wonder if it works—I hear about it first-hand from people who quit a lifetime of overdrinking and credit three words: “Alcohol is poison.”
You have a few questions. I know. Here are your answers:
This reframe is not for alcoholics. Addiction is a different problem. Reframes work for breaking normal habits such as drinking socially or having a glass of wine each night.
No individual reframe works for 100 percent of people. Some work for only a few. Others are closer to universally useful. But if only 10 percent of the suggested reframes in this book work for you, your life will be transformed.
Perhaps you protest that it isn’t TRUE that alcohol is poison like arsenic or cyanide! Correct. Reframes don’t try to be “true” in a technical or philosophical sense. Reframes don’t even need to be rational or logical. We judge reframes by how well they work. Period.
REFRAMES DON’T NEED TO BE TRUE.
THEY DON’T EVEN NEED TO BE LOGICAL. THEY ONLY NEED TO WORK.
Is alcohol literally poison? No. Or maybe. Sort of. Depends. It doesn’t matter. Your brain will process a lie—or any form of fiction—the same way it processes a truth. That’s why a movie can make you laugh, cry, or feel inspired even while you know the story is made-up.
Our imaginations—whether driven by fiction or our own thoughts—have the same power as real experiences when it comes to rewiring our brains. You already know a dramatic experience in the real world can instantly rewire your brain to make you forever fear or love something that reminds you of that experience. But imagination—including reframing—can also rewire your brain over time. You simply need to focus and repeat the reframe in your head long enough for the hack to work.
In my case, every time someone offers me alcohol or asks why I don’t drink, I say, “Alcohol is poison,” either aloud or in my head. I have repeated the reframe so many times it has become my truth in this subjective reality in which we live.
Is it hard for me to resist drinking? It used to be. Now I am puzzled by why anyone would drink poison for entertainment. My story that alcohol is poison has become my reality. But is alcohol poison? Yes, definitely. And by that, I mean maybe. Or not. Doesn’t matter. I’ve reframed alcohol out of my life. That was the plan.
By the way, I’m not suggesting you need to stop drinking. That’s not what I do. I’m here to give you the tools to reframe your brain however you like.
Reframes Are Safe
I won’t ask you to trust me on the topic of reframing. I don’t need to. The nature of reframes is that they are so safe, you can try as many as you like. See for yourself which ones work. When we get to more reframe suggestions in this book, you’ll see they are all as safe as, “alcohol is poison.”
Don’t worry about accidentally breaking your own brain. We reprogram our brains all the time, to good effect. I’m just teaching you some ways to do it better.
For example, you wouldn’t worry that learning to play a musical instrument will harm your brain, but you know it’s rewiring your neural circuitry to develop those skills. Reframes are no more dangerous or exotic than learning a new skill. I’ll trust you to know if any of these reframes feels risky to you, just as I would trust your decision to play an instrument, learn a new language, or take a college course. Everything you experience rewires your brain. I’m teaching you how to do it strategically instead of randomly.
The Technique
The simplest way to get the benefits of a reframe is to expose yourself to it. That’s all it takes. And you’re doing it right now by reading this book. You’re doing a great job.
Any reframes that don’t seem relevant to you will be soon forgotten, but a few are likely to become sticky in your mind. That stickiness is all you need. It creates focus and repetition—with no effort at all—and that’s all it takes to rewire your brain. Adding some emotion helps, but it’s optional.