Benjamin Franklin’s Brain Utilization and Human Happiness

Since last May, I’ve been on a 100-city lecture tour in the U.S. with the topic of “Change Your Life by Utilizing Your Brain Well.” I had to lecture as an Asian stranger on a matter unfamiliar to my audience, so I needed to try hard to get closer to the audience and to American culture. So I read an autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, a respected American historical figure who helped to shape the formation of this country. Benjamin Franklin was a self-made man: a successful printer, a scientist who discovered the principle of electric discharge, a diplomat who learned three languages by himself, a politician whom Americans respect as a ‘founding father,’ and a person whose face is on the 100 dollar bill.

I was extremely touched by what I read. What I particularly admired was how, rather than remain trapped in a disadvantaged environment and social system, Benjamin Franklin chose to use his brain continually for the absolute value of “completion of human character.” Born the fifteenth of seventeen children, he completed only two years of elementary school due to a lack of affluence. Such domestic circumstances spurred his employment at his brother’s printing press at the age of ten. However, in his twenties, he decided that the goal of his life was to cultivate his character. He committed himself tirelessly to self-development and eventually became one of the most respected figures in the United States.

One of his most notable accomplishments was his demonstration of lightening as electricity and his discovery of the law of conservation of electric charge. His work inspired many other scientists, including Thomas Edison many years later, who used it to invent the light bulb. As a result, the human race developed a convenient and comfortable material civilization. Even before Benjamin Franklin existed, lightening was a common natural phenomenon, but Franklin’s curiosity and challenge to “catch lightening” changed the entire history of mankind.

Now, however, the human material civilization, the growth of which was spurred by electrical energy, has reached the point where it is no longer enough to sustain the needs of human beings and the earth, and American society is facing many problems. Many experts say this is because the U.S. lost its original spirit, a spirit embodied by Benjamin Franklin. I agree that many people have lost their own innate value and conscience in a system of unlimited competition.

Over the past 30 years, I’ve been helping people find their value and realize that they can become happy, healthy, and great if, like Benjamin Franklin, they set a goal and develop themselves. To aid their development, I designed and taught the Brain Operating System (BOS)—three simple rules that tell you how to use your brain in the best way. To me, Benjamin Franklin is the perfect model for explaining BOS; he strove for balance and concentration and continually challenged his brain. If like him, all of today’s Americans set a goal of personal completion and cultivation of one’s character, I believe the problems in United States could be resolved naturally. In the same way, the problems in the world could be resolved as well. They cannot be resolved with the competition, new technology, or endless consumption that define our current material civilization.

For the sake of human happiness and self-development, we have to use the American spirit of innovation and sacrifice for principles to change the material-based way of life from its root. How to change it is an important issue. The method should be easy and sustainable, and it should help you keep your BOS functioning well. I’ve found the answer in the complement to electrical energy—magnetic energy. The answer is developing your BOS using meditation with magnets.

How can this work? Everything in the world is made up of energy. Your consciousness and emotions are also phenomena of energy. Physical and mental problems that you experience are caused by an imbalance of energy. If you can feel energy, then you will be able to correct your imbalances and manage and utilize your energy effectively. For the past 30 years, I’ve taught people to feel energy through meditation. With the help of magnets, however, you can feel energy easier and more strongly. If you focus on the feeling of magnets pushing and pulling each other, then your body will get warm within a few minutes, your energy will circulate well, and your brainwaves will calm down and your thoughts and worries will disappear. That’s when the answers to problems will come, and you’ll be better able to act on them. Because of this, I believe magnetic energy will be a key for shifting human life from a failing material civilization to a thriving spiritual one based on upright human character.

If you want to become a master of a healthy and happy life, I suggest reading the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It will inject you with a sense of the original American spirit. Then spend at least 5 minutes with magnets to bring your focus into yourself and release your thoughts and emotions. Play with magnets whenever you need to relax, center yourself, find a creative idea, or gain the courage to act. Imagine that this kind of small change will change your life and make society and the world brighter and more beautiful.