Rule Your World!
Finding Freedom & Living Profitably
by
Harry Browne

1. This entire course represents an integrated philosophy that is one whole concept. It has to be presented in pieces. And it's even better presented in pieces. This means certain points will be presented pending counterpoints to come further in the course. Withhold making any great application of this material, even if it makes complete sense to you, until the course is completed. If it’s a point you've been using all your life then that’s something else. But if it's a new point, I do suggest that you hold off a little bit. In other words, try out the ideas in small applications and see how they work for you. But save any major steps until the entire concept has been presented.

2. After session three, one person suggested that my view of reality is that it is bad, and you should build a wall around yourself and isolate yourself from the world. I'm not going to take the course to that conclusion. But I’m anxious that we start from zero - expecting no more from reality than it has to give. It won’t do you any good to think there's more that you can get out of reality than exists. But once having recognized what is there and what you can work with, you won't waste your resources trying to do what can never be done. I will turn the course around entirely at some point to the positive, and start demonstrating many of the ways that this understanding can be used to your advantage to immediate profit. But in the meantime, I will spend time tearing down what I feel to be misconceptions and building ways of replacement right off the bat.

1. We are dealing with a very imprecise science of communication. I employ every worthwhile technique that I know to make it as easy for you to know exactly what I'm saying. But all the techniques that I know on this subject still are not nearly enough. I can not communicate precisely what I'm thinking in each case. That means to profit from the course you’ll have to work a bit to overcome my inefficiencies in transmission. It isn't enough that I define my words. Because if I've defined a word that is in any way different from the way you've been using it before - it means every time I use it you have to make a translation. I recognize that’s not easy. So I try to make the definitions as close to the general usage of the word. But still, by the very act of defining the word, I'm going to use it in a little different way probably than you would define it. But I can not talk to each individual in the sense of your own vocabulary. The only common vocabulary we can use is the one I think that will aid us the most in communication. But it does have to be one vocabulary because of the nature of this kind of presentation.

2. I may say something that triggers an emotional response or reaction in you because of experiences you've had in the past. And this might cause you to miss something that could possibly be useful to you. It's easy enough for ones mind to wander during a lecture either because the lecture is not interesting, or because in fact it's so interesting that it triggers interesting thoughts in your mind that you want to take down while you're thinking about them. Either way, the more you can concentrate on what is being said during the session the more you can profit from the course.

3. Keep a notepad handy and as something occurs to you make a note. Then force your mind back on the lecture.

4. I have found that in attending lectures in the past, many thoughts of business value have occurred to me just from the mental stimulation of a lecture that had nothing to do with business. But the principle suddenly triggered an application in my mind of an entirely different nature. Try to compel yourself to stay on the track. Simply recognize the triggering process when it takes place.

5. If I say something that causes you to resent me or what I’ve said, recognize what's taking place and make a note. Then deal with it later. But right now be sure to get the practical application of the philosophy.

6. After the lecture is over, take off mentally in every direction that has occurred to you during the session. Look at your notes and see what you want to challenge and think about them. Then take the rest of the notes and begin to follow all of the ideas to their logical conclusion.

1. Go over the course lesson by lesson. Ask yourself what your attitude is. Determine it for sure. You may want to take several days thinking over all the ramifications of a single part. But make sure that it is your attitude you're coming to. And determine that attitude once and for all on each of these points.

2. Write down your findings. The fact that you're writing it down doesn't mean it's the final and complete truth forever. It can be improved upon. But you’ll always have this previous statement as a minimum upon which to build and add new insights. But writing it down will clarify it for you - make it much more a firm part of your own understanding.

3. Look over your points at random. Organize them into general subject areas. See how much you can generalize upon this mass of information. Create general rules that sum up many points in one single rule. (The limit of your generalization should always be the absolute truth as you see it - meaning that you never generalize beyond the point where exceptions come in. Any generalization should be complete in and of itself - not including any exceptions.)

4. Go over your notes periodically to remind yourself. Review them and improve upon them.

5. Six months from now set the notes aside completely (don't throw them away) and start all over again from zero. See if this produces any new conclusions for you.

Tip: This is an excellent joint project if you have a spouse. (Each one acting for himself with his own nature.) Joint discussions can materially improve your abilities to articulate your ideas and make them more meaningful. But don't feel that you have to come to the same answer on every subject. Obviously, the more you do the merrier. But it doesn't have to be that way. (I think it is especially helpful if you take a certain time each week to do this. I think it has a healthy affect on relationships in general.)

1) This 20-CD course includes brief question-and-answer periods after each session. A few of the questions are difficult to hear, but Harry's answers are worth taking the time to listen.

APPROVAL: A progress report saying that you are doing the right thing.

CODE OF CONDUCT: Method by which maximum happiness can be obtained.

COMPETITION: The process in which market elements are rearranged to bring about the ideal state - meaning maximum happiness.

CONTROL: Ability to impose a predictable cause and effect relationship.

COURT SYSTEM: An unnecessary attempt to inflict manmade justice upon the natural justice that exists.

EFFICIENCY: Ratio of happiness produced to resources expended.

EMOTION: Uncontrolled feeling.

EQUILIBRIUM: The mythical ideal market state where demand and supply are in absolute harmony.

FORCE & COERCION: Physical contact with another person or his property for the
purpose of frustrating the other person's desire.

FREE SOCIETY: A society in which no government exists in which coercion would be outlawed.

FREEDOM: The opportunity to act upon ones morality.

HAPPINESS: Mental feeling of well being.

HOPE: Having a vested interest in something beyond your control.

INDIVIDUAL FREEDOM NOT SOCIETAL FREEDOM: This is the only type of freedom.

INDIVIDUALIST: One who has had the courage to inspect his own mind to determine for himself the nature of life.

JEALOUSY: The belief that another individual's attraction is a threat to ones happiness.

LAW OF HUMAN NATURE: All individuals seek happiness.

LAWS OF NATURE: Systems upon which reality operates.

LIKE: To consider an object as a source for happiness.

LOSS: The decrease in happiness by replacing one situation by another.

MARITAL ARRANGEMENTS: Physical decisions that are made in order to enhance
the value of the marriage.

MARKETING: Locating those individuals with the proper profit motive and demonstrating to them that your product or service will satisfy that profit motive. It is not an attempt to change the desires, natures, or profit motives of other human beings.

MARRIAGE: A state of mind on both party’s parts, and the mutual recognition of romantic love between two individuals.

MIRACLE: Any event not fully explainable by present knowledge.

MORALITY: The code of conduct the individual believes will bring him maximum happiness.

OBJECTIVE YOU: The individual who is outside yourself judging you from your standards because his standards are so close to yours.

OPEN-MINDEDNESS: You consider new knowledge that comes your way and inte-
grate it into what you know.

PHYSICAL SENSITIVITY: When an individual touches you, you experience something far different from when your brother or sister touches you.

POWER: Unobstructed resources such as time, energy, knowledge, property, etc.

PRINCIPLE: A statement accepted as an unchanging fact of life.

PROFIT: Increase in happiness by replacing one situation by another.

PROPERTY: That which the individual can keep or protect.

RATIONAL: That which is understandable and comprehendible.

REALITY: The fixed nature of that which affects you and your life in any possible way.

ROMANCE: The "objective you" plus "physical sensitivity" resulting from a sharing of principles and values.

ROMANTIC: That which exists but is not completely understandable about the relationship.

ROMANTIC LOVE: The desire to devote oneself to one other individual on a romantically explicit basis.

SECRET OF SUCCESS: Find out what people want and help them get it.

SELF-ESTEEM: Individual satisfaction with his own progress towards happiness.

SEXUAL INTERCOURSE: Total and complete act of consumption is the act of love. A person consumes and does not produce.

SINGLE-MINDEDNESS: The state of mind that an individual has once he has made
a clear cut decision with regard to reality and the price he has to pay without spending resources.

STATE/GOVERNMENT: Any human entity that is more powerful than you.

TAXES: Property taken without the consent of the owner.

UNHAPPINESS: Mental feeling of discomfort.

VALUE: Degree of happiness you expect to receive.

WISH: Try to make reality other than what it is and conform to your desires.