Three Principles (self-help)

According to Banks' verbal accounts, as recorded at lectures, he realised the three principles while attending a marriage seminar held on Cortes Island, in British Columbia, Canada.

The seminar encouraged couples to "let their feelings out," be honest, and argue with one another. Discouraged with the process, Banks and his wife prepared to leave the seminar. As they were doing so, Banks became engaged in conversation with a therapist also attending the seminar.

Describing himself as "an insecure mess" at that time, Banks began elaborating on all the ways in which he felt insecure. The therapist's response, "I've never heard such nonsense in all my life", was a revelation to Banks.

What I heard was: there’s no such thing as insecurity, it’s only Thought. All my insecurity was only my own thoughts! It was like a bomb going off in my head … It was so enlightening! It was unbelievable … [And after that,] there was such beauty coming into my life.[1]

The three specific terms, Mind, Consciousness and Thought, were not clearly delineated during Banks' initial experience. The three words, and his definitions, would become clear later through his talks and lectures. Referring to them as "the psychological trinity",[2] Banks does not take credit for finding the Principles, rather the Principles found him.

Roughly 40 years later, Syd Banks' "insight" has been introduced in hospitals and hospital systems, correctional institutions, social services, community housing, drug and alcohol prevention and treatment programmes, schools, and multi-national corporations.

Application of the Three Principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought has spread throughout the United States, and into Canada, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Israel, Scotland, England, South Africa, New Zealand, Australia and Spain.[3]

According to Banks, the three "formless" principles of Mind, Consciousness and Thought explain the entire range of human behaviour and feeling states. They are responsible for the creation of all human experience.[4]

The three principles are defined as:

The Three Principles have become the basis of a growing, international psychological movement with centers in the United States and Europe. The fundamental premise of the movement is that life is metaphysically generated into form from formless energy, and that our experience as human beings is created from the interaction of the Three Principles; including the experience of self-identity.

Practitioners of the Three Principles believe that feeling states (and all experience) are created (through mental activity i.e., thought). Scientific research by Lisa Feldman Barrett supports this notion that mental states (ie. emotions) are indeed constructed from within the human mind.[8] Practitioners believe that beyond each person's limited, conscious, and personal thought system lies a vast reservoir of wisdom, insight and spiritual intelligence. No one person has greater access to wisdom than any other. Mental health is the resting state, or "default" setting of the mind, which brings with it non-contingent feelings of love, compassion, resilience, creativity and unity; both with others and with life itself.[9] Research by George Bonnano, professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University, supports this notion that resilience, not recovery is a common response to difficult life events such as trauma and loss.[10]

It would be difficult to provide a comprehensive list of centers worldwide that are dedicated to sharing the Three Principles. However, some prominent organizations are 3PGC.org (Three Principles Global Community), the Center for Sustainable Change, Three Principles Foundation, Three Principles Movies, and The Cypress Initiative.

Banks, who died of metastasized cancer on Memorial Day, in May 2009, contradicted many traditional notions and practices of psychotherapy. Specifically, that for mental wellbeing, it was not important to process the past, nor that the content of peoples' personal thought systems had to be "worked with" and analysed.

Everyone in mental institutions is sitting in the middle of mental health and they don't know it.[11]

Banks was also averse to using techniques, or creating concepts, in order to share with others. These, he felt, contradicted the essential formless and original nature of the Three Principles, which emphasises kindness, "sharing, caring" and the simple gift of love.[12]

A number of therapists and psychologists showed an interest in the concepts, and the teachings were spread[13] into various private practices, social services, corporate training and consulting, psychiatry, education, community mental health and development work, and drug and alcohol treatment systems.

The Three Principles have been called by other names, including The Inside Out Understanding, Health Realization, neo-cognitive psychology, Psychology of Mind, and Innate Health. The form of how the Three Principles has been taught has changed over the decades, with an increasing emphasis on simplicity, formlessness, and speaking from the heart. The Three Principles are not a "technique" that can be taught but a paradigm shift that clarifies the field of psychology and forms a fundamental base for understanding mental health, mental illness and psychological functioning.

Works by Sydney Banks, currently published by Lone Pine Publishing, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

• Three Principles Global Community
• Center for Sustainable Change
• The Three Principles Conference
• Three Principles Foundation
• Three Principles Movies
• The Cypress Initiative