Nothing is more important than teaching children, the younger the better, about the Power of the Mind. Therefore, it was no accident that I should be placed in a position to teach a dozen youngsters simultaneously about their power.

One evening at a resort, the lodge was filled with the laughter and teasing chatter of a group of children and teenagers. All were gathered around the pinball machine, jeering at the present operator as he caused the machine to tilt. Next, a girl tried her luck and used up five balls so quickly it appeared as if the silver spheres were drawn toward a giant magnet at the base of the board. Ah ha! thought I. Here is a vehicle to be used in an object lesson: The Mind is a Powerful Tool.

I sauntered over to the edge of the crowd. "How's it goin'?"
"Lousy!"
"Unreal!"
"It's rigged to tilt easy."
I cleared my throat, then made eye contact with each of them. "Want to outwit the dilly thing?"
"With what?"
"Your minds."
"Oh, sure."
"Oh, yeah."
"Right!"

I pinned them with another challenging look and knowing grin. "It could be worth a try...unless you're chicken."
"Chicken? Me? Ha!"
"I'll try anything. Once."

I explained the Great Experiment to my dozen cohorts. We would form a close-knit U-shape from one side of the machine around back of the designated player to the other side of the machine. The "player" would do just that; that is, play the ball, hit the levers, keeping the ball in play BUT NOT USING FORCE, OR HITTING THE END OF THE MACHINE -- nothing that would cause it to tilt. We others would do the actual thinking. It would be Positive Thinking only. We would ignore the player, trusting him or her to do his or her job well. Instead we would stare at the one hole in the center of the lighted board through which the ball could drop, resulting in at least one free game won, willing the ball in.

This then was our game plan. And it worked! It worked so well, in fact, that the youngsters howled with heady success as the pinball board flashed and blinked and jangled and beeped. At the end of each game, a new player would take a turn. It did not matter if the player was a teen or a toddler. As a group, our Mind Power continued to win game after game until we had won 160 free games.

Suddenly the winning ceased. The silver ball refused to roll into the hole which would give us another free game, then another.
"Hey, what's happening?"
"Yeah, what's wrong? We've stopped winning."
I kept my eyes concentrated on the machine, though my periperal vision had caught sight of the resort owner, a sour-faced woman who seemed to be misplaced in her profession because she did not seem to enjoy people, as she joined the circle. "Someone here is not thinking positively. It only takes one person sending out negative thoughts to cancel all the good."

In one motion, a dozen pairs of narrowed eyes swivaled to the resort owner's person until she excused herself with a short nervous laugh and retreated, once more, behind the store counter.

Instantly the free game counter began to spin again. The roar from the winners nearly lifted the roof. At midnight the lodge was locked for the night, leaving 57 more free games on the pinball machine.

Not surprising to any of us, the next morning the machine was disconnected and bore an "Out of Order" sign. But the youngsters didn't really care. They now understood the Power of the Mind. And they immediately applied their knowledge to catching fish instead. And, do you know, they caught their limit before suppertime!

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Joan Bramsch is a mom, writer, and founder of EmpoweredParent.com HOW SMART DO YOU WANT YOUR CHILD TO BE? FREE! 8-Lesson Sampler Course for Children, Age 2* years to 7 years. Joan will give you everything you need to help your child - from Gifted to Special - learn the skills for success in school and in Life. Let her help you do your best. www.EmpoweredParent.com