Founder’s Journey is a short summary of the journey I’ve travelled in order to live a good life.
It was presented as a mini-series in social media and is now one blog post.
In the series I share my thoughts on my philosophy of life which is the basis for the course I created in 2009. It is presented today as the basic course in DB-System®.
Founders Journey – Part 1: Near-death – a turning point
Thousands upon thousands have made great changes in their lives with the help of the basic course, and I am grateful and humbled that I was able to be on the leading edge and create a method that is so important to so many people. I do not know how I myself would have survived without it, and being able to give others the same opportunity is the greatest gift of all.
The basic course in DB-System® is not a miracle pill that solves everything, but rather a tool for development, using simple techniques to deal with whatever we encounter in life. It has also been important for me to be able to document the effects of the course, so three research projects have been carried out resulting in scientifically published articles.
I usually say that my journey started in 1986. I was about to give birth to my third child, this time by Caesarean section. The anesthesia did not work as it should, and I experienced what many call a near-death experience.
Until a few years ago, most researchers were sceptical about this phenomenon, which they believed was vivid imagination. But in recent years, researchers have mapped a wide range of chemical neurotransmitters in the brain on the border between life and death. It is the neurotransmitter norepinephrine, which rises to 30 times the original level in the frontal lobe, that regulates our consciousness, attention and alertness.
The great amounts of this organic chemical probably explain why patients who are on the verge of death often experience clairvoyance, researchers from the University of Michigan in the USA believe.
The experience was both frightening and fascinating, and in short terms, turned my life upside down. It was also the last drop. I became seriously ill, and hit the wall in a brutal way.
The near-death experience was a turning point for me. It became completely impossible not to take into account what I had experienced and the insight I had gained. Fortunately, I was able to start fighting for a good life, and there and then began my journey enabling me to live my life in a new way.
I read countless self-development books and attended many courses that were to help me to a better life. I often found that words and deeds did not match, and had to find another way to work.
In my experience I had discovered that we all have resources that we can bring forth. Not always easy to understand, because we have become so preoccupied with the superficial. The facade has become more important than how we feel mentally. Emotions are swept under the rug, where they eventually accumulate. At least that’s how it was for me.
Through my near-death experience, I saw that the key to success is within me. And not only within me, but within each and every one of us. We can manage to create a good life, by entering a good place within ourselves and by being the unique person we are, when we allow our inner strength to emerge.
In the part I will tell you about my inner journey to open up for the resources within me.
Part 2: My trip to India
One of the first things I heard about in regard to developing spiritually, was journeys to India to meet a guru. A guru is a person who has attained a high degree of spiritual insight, and who is therefore able to teach or act as a spiritual guide.
It wasn’t possible for me to travel to India, so I decided to make my own journey to India within myself. I “locked” myself in my own home and disconnected the doorbell, telephone and other disturbances. I planned for a few days in complete silence.
I sat down in a comfortable position, focused completely on my breathing, and let thoughts pass. It didn’t take long before I was confronted with acute awareness of my own attitudes. Attitudes I did not know that I had were examined and cleared from my mind. A more difficult journey than I had imagined, and I only took breaks for the most necessary needs.
Giving up was unthinkable, so I sat back down, took control of my thoughts and completed what I had decided to do. Gradually it became easier, and a comfortable calmness and silence replaced all thoughts that passed by. Along the way, I developed some elements as a template for guiding myself. Today they are part of the basic course in DB-System®.
When we choose to listen to our innermost being and the strength we all have, we will also contribute to others in a different way than previously. By listening to ourselves, we can lift each other. We are pack animals by nature. This does not mean that we should do the same things, but we can use the power and strength that is within each of us to lift each other.
We do not need to travel to India, or any other physical place to develop spiritually. The journey we need to make is a journey that goes within. This is also where we find a feeling of mastery, which is one of the most important things we can have.
We can get advice and tips, but we must make the journey ourselves. I often use the butterfly’s transformation from caterpillar to butterfly as a metaphor and an image for the development we humans must go through, to put an end to our suffering and create a profound change in our lives.
For me, it’s all about you and I being able to go within to a good place inside ourselves, and be the unique person each of us are. Gee yoU aRe yoU!
In the next part I will tell you how I accidentally discovered the key to how we can live a good life.
Part 3: A recipe for life
In 2002, I got a phone call from Nordisk Film, as they were looking for psychics who could participate in a new TV series. They said they had received a tip to contact me. At first I was quite sceptical of the program, and I had never considered myself to be a psychic. Even my own family began to wonder what I was doing in “such a TV program”.
At the time I was teaching Jose Silva’s course. I was training people to use more of their intuition and gut feelings, and through that to use more of the potential that is natural within us. I had already created the techniques found in the basic course, and the TV program gave me an opportunity to really put my techniques to the test. In addition, I was able to test my thoughts and theory that everyone has an innate ESP-sense, and that it is not something strange or special that only a few can use.
ESP is an abbreviation for extra sensory perception. It is a sense we use to perceive non-physical information. Non-physical means perceiving information from the subconscious, as we do when we dream and when we use our gut feelings or intuition. I want people to understand the ESP-sense in a new way, so that we can use it to find positive and good solutions.
Sensing murder ran for three seasons from 2002-2005. It was extremely demanding emotionally, and I was grateful that I had my techniques that I used to review experiences and process what I had been involved in. Such as relatives who were struggling with uncertainty, and what I myself had perceived and experienced. Anyway, I think I did something that was helpful after all. I have also experienced what it is like to be a relative who feels uncertainty and shock.
In one of the episodes we journeyed to a forest where I was to find the place where the victim was found. There were trees as far as the eye could see, and everything looked the same. No one told me where to go or what had happened. I had used one of the techniques to prepare myself. All I had to go on was a clear intention and a goal, and all I could do was to trust my intuition and gut-feelings. This episode in particular showed me how important it is to trust one’s own choices and decisions and not be influenced by external circumstances. I experienced it as “messing around in a seven-mile forest”, but in reality I had walked in a straight line from start to finish.
This was really thought provoking, and also gave me the answers I was looking for. I was able to confirm both the techniques and the theory, while at the same time it became clear to me that the way I worked is also the same recipe we can use in life. In order to use this recipe in life, we need the key that opens up our potential and our resources.
In the next part I will tell you more about this key that allows us to have a dependable recipe for our lives.
You can read more about it in the book Magical Moments: Discover How to Easily Create More in Your Daily Life.
Part 4: Creative brains are wired differently
From the very beginning of my journey, I have thought that we must stop complicating everything, while at the same time maintaining substance. Einstein’s quote “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler”, has followed me and become a motto for me.
The Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung also became an important source of inspiration for my work. – Jung said that “until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate”. I didn’t want that to happen to me, and I believe that we can control our own lives to a considerable degree.
So how can we reach the subconscious? This is where our brain comes in. The brain contains billions of nerve cells, that through complex interaction control thoughts, emotions, behaviours and movements, as well as processes all impulses received. Our brain is the key.
I used the brain as a tool to reach the subconscious, in order to have opportunities to create lasting results in life. Meditation has been used for more than 5,000 years to reach subconscious states, but for me that wasn’t enough. If I could use an active form of meditation, more like mental training, then I could manage to create changes.
In retrospect, I can understand that my intuitive part insisted on this, because studies show that the functional interaction in the Default Mode Network increases after the training of the brain. Default Mode Network is involved in a number of functions such as planning, memory, learning, social interaction and empathy. I consider these to be important qualities in order to feel good. It is through empathy that we can create a more peaceful world, which was what I saw when I had my near-death experience.
Everything we have learned and experienced from a young age is stored in the brain’s network. Some at conscious levels and some in the subconscious levels, and it is in the subconscious levels that we may create lasting changes. We can say that we run on autopilot according to what we have learned. We can also change unwanted behaviour.
I recently read a research report from Harvard University where they found, among other things, that creative brains are wired differently. Creativity is absolutely necessary in order to find good solutions. At the same time, they found that the brain engages different areas of the brain, although these areas do not usually work together. And that is much like what training of the brain in the basic course in DB-System® does. The whole brain is trained, functional changes in the brain are created, and consequently a new and broader network.
I believe that this is the key that allows us to have a recipe for our lives. The recipe I wrote about last Wednesday: Have a goal and a good intention. Sleep on it and then listen to your gut feelings in daily life in order to find the solutions that get you there.
In the next part I will share the technique that allows us to maintain a connection to the subconscious and find creative and comprehensive solutions.
Part 5: A network of possibilities
We can say that a human being consists of two dimensions – a physical exterior (the conscious) and a creative interior (the subconscious). One of the techniques I used in Sensing Murder to prepare myself was the Nightfilm technique. (Founders Journey Part 3).
By using this technique we can find answers and solutions, that we didn’t even know we had. This technique can sometimes have a wow effect. The scientists can’t quite put their finger on what it is with this technique, other than that they refer to the course participants experiencing several “mystical experiences”.
I think of these experiences in the light of my experiences while at near-death, and the state of consciousness that occurs there. (Part 1).
The technique maintains connection with the subconscious level within us – a connection to the non-physical dimension. The purpose is to reach even deeper than the deepest level of sleep. This is where we find resources such as empathy, strength, endurance and restitution.
At this deep level we gain access to smooth flow and we enter into the essence of ourselves, who we really are. You may have noticed that you and others sometimes say: “I’m not really like that,” or “That’s not really the way I want to be.” No, because we know at some level within who we are. We are by nature lucky and we have good fortune. It is natural for us to create smooth flow and live a happy life. We’ve just forgotten.
Some also call this synchronicity and coincidence. I do not believe in “coincidences” – I believe we can create coincidences ourselves by using this level. With the help of the Nightfilm technique, you simply connect to a network of possibilities.
I previously had loads of worries and I had a chaotic mind. I needed to clear my mind before I went to sleep at night, and that is one of the principles behind this technique. The other principle is to “sleep on it”. Many have experienced that solutions appears when they have “slept on it”. The Nightfilm technique is based on natural principles of humans. It helps to sort and clear thoughts, get an overview and find the solutions we need in life – both for ourselves and for others.
I discovered that it gave me a good night’s sleep and more “coincidences” in my life, which led me to what I wanted. It could result in random encounters, or most often thoughts that spontaneously appeared. I noticed that when I followed up on the good ideas I had, I immediately got closer to my goals.
In the next part I have written about how we can change an autopilot that limits us, so that we can open up for even more opportunities and good self-management.
Part 6: The technique that saved my life
On my journey I had to figure out how I could transform traumatic events and experiences, in order to manage being alive. I had to study the human mind and whether we are able to change thought patterns.
I already knew that we have about 60,000 thoughts during a day, and during my own “journey to India” (part 2) I quickly realized that many of these thoughts were inexpedient. I understood how important it is to have good structure, and I developed a technique where I could make changes myself. And not only change, but create lasting changes. The technique is somewhat similar to what is called cognitive therapy, but for me it was all about being my own therapist, clearing my mind and creating lasting changes. It gave me a feeling of mastering in life, which is absolutely essential for a human being. To feel that we can handle our own life.
In addition to creating changes, I also saw the importance of creating new things which helped me to hold a focus and a direction in life that were meaningful for me. Visions and goals are important for finding meaning in one’s own life. I will address this topic in the next part of my journey.
For a long time it was believed that it is impossible to change what has already happened, and with that belief in our subconscious mind, creating changes would be difficult. When I first started talking about the possibility of changing our past ourselves I was met with a lot of scepticism. There is one thing which is absolutely certain – I would not be alive today, if it wasn’t possible.
Last but not least. In 1998, research showed that the brain continues to reorganize itself by the formation of new nerve connections throughout life. This is called neuroplasticity. Meaning that today we know that everyone can change old learning and consciously create changes. We change emotions related to memories, and create new neural pathways (networks in the brain) that result in different behaviour and autopilot.
When I started my change, my starting point was that I reflect my surroundings and events. This means that every reaction I have is mine, regardless of whether someone said or did something I reacted to. I felt that this was most difficult to relate to because it is so much easier to blame others and point a finger of blame, which was something I had learned to do.
When I realized that my reaction is due to an autopilot – something I had learned with accompanying emotions, it became easier to understand that the emotion was mine. It was the emotion I had to deal with and change, regardless of whether what was done or said to me felt unfair and wrong. If we think logically about it, then it is quite illogical to give others responsibility for my feelings and what goes on inside of me. Balance between logic and emotions is the answer to many riddles and gives us the solutions we need.
The technique gave me lasting changes, and the same principle applies whether there are positive or negative reactions. It also means that when we create good things, we are the one who creates it and no one else. Therefore I use a variation of the same technique to reach the goals I want in life.
In the next part I will write about how I used my dream, set goals and put them into action. It was important to me to find a meaning with the life I was to continue living.
Part 7: A simple recipe for success
In part 6 I wrote about the technique I developed to make lasting changes in life. I use the same technique for goals. I had to find meaning and a direction for my life.
Ever since I was close to death, I have followed a simple recipe, which includes three simple questions that I can use for everything in life. They respond to fundamentally important choices and decisions I must make, whether privately or at work.
The first question is about my foundation as a human being. Morals, ethics, values or spirituality. There are so many different words for the same thing. For me, it’s about my basic values and who I really am and what I want to be in life, and perhaps the definition in a dictionary would be spiritual.
Why? (should I do it)
For this question I had to find what I call my vision. What am I passionate about and what do I want to do with my life, in addition to what actually was meaningful for me for what I am to do going forward in life.
Very simple, and in brief, it’s about love or fear. What do I want to choose? I chose love and contributing to make this world somewhat better than I had experienced. When the choice was made, I had to ask myself the question why? It is “this why” that is my driving force in life, and is what makes me get back on my feet again and again.
What? (can I do)
When I had made my choice, I had to ask myself the question: What can I do to contribute? This involves goals. I sat goals in relation to my vision.
I could teach others what I had discovered, through courses, books and lectures. Gradually, several other goals have been added, resulting in online courses and webinars as well as a certification program to bring it into the community in all areas.
How? (can I do it)
This question helps me to further concretize my goals, make a plan of action, activate the goals mentally, and then take step by step until the goals are reached.
I know that I’m the director of my own life, but I didn’t learn anything about that when I was young. That is one of the reasons why I am passionate about others recognizing their resources, opportunities and the potential that lies within each and every one of us.
Everything I do, is done in relation to my vision of contributing to a better world. Perhaps a cliché, but for me it is my driving force in life and it gives my life meaning, even though I don’t always understand.
In the next part I will share additional experiences from my journey, and how they have affected my philosophy of life and how I strive to live accordingly every day.
Part 8: Imagination – best friend or worst enemy?
In addition to going deeper into four fields of science to search for answers, I attended various courses and read self-development books in arenas we might call the alternative. As an economist, it was important to me to have an open mind, and see if I could understand a larger context of how we function as human beings. Everything from physics and chemistry, psychology, philosophy and logic to spirituality, mysticism and different cultures and traditions.
One of the first things I discovered was that everyone was sitting in their own corner with their beliefs (what they have learned), truths and autopilots, which made it difficult to suggest new angles and other perspectives. There were many times I was treated condescendingly, and not least, received strange looks, so I chose to investigate and experiment myself.
Among other things, I worked with healing for five years, to examine my findings in that context. Healing for me means wholeness, gaining an understanding of how things are connected and not just the old traditions and cultures that exist on this topic. I used the mechanisms of the brain and found, in short terms, that we have a basic mechanism allowing the body to heal itself when at the right balance.
The fact that the body can heal itself is one thing, but another question is whether we can heal others. Every single day we influence each other for better or worse, so yes we can help influence others for good health. That was confirmed during the five years I worked with healing.
Nevertheless, I usually say that we can only heal others to a certain degree; and again this is related to feelings that are linked to experiences in the emotional brain. If if we ourselves do not change our emotions and old autopilots, the emotions will reappear in other context. Not only as a disease, but as a problem in other areas of life.
In part 3 I shared some of my experiences from my time in the TV series Sensing Murder. I also chose to say yes when I was asked to participate in the TV series called The Power of the Spirits, because I considered it to be an opportunity to explain what was happening from my perspective and insight.
I do not believe that spirits have power or that ghosts exists. I do not believe that spirits are to blame for things that happen. I believe that it is we humans who create strange experiences through our imagination and the subconscious mind. People affect themselves and others negatively when fear and imagination are running wild. It therefore became important to me to train people to have a balance between reason/logic and imagination and emotions.
This doesn’t mean that we cannot have contact with our near and dear ones who have passed, but they no longer have a body. They have returned to the love and wholeness where we come from. Researchers call it cohesion, meaning a united whole. It means that we are connected on a deeper level, and we can feel what I call a presence.
I tried to tell the host of The Power of the Spirits series that this program is helping to intensify mental illness, and I asked him to consider stopping the series. My view and perspective are not always popular, but after many years of experience in helping people, the question becomes: Do I want to be popular or do I want to help people manage their lives and experiences?
I received phone calls from people who were terrified. Their fears were real, and they needed help, but not based on an incorrect premiss. Imagination can be our best friend or our worst enemy. Personally, I think it is sad that we use this type of program to create fear, instead of giving explanations about what is real. I addressed this topic in my book «Take charge of your life – before someone else does». (The book is currently in translation).
Some people will claim that I remove all the mystery and fun by demystifying the spirit world and the spiritual. But what I in reality do is show people the real magic by showing that the most magical experiences lie in the resources we have available in our lives.
In the next and final part of this mini-series, I will show you some of the everyday magic everyone can create.
Part 9: A magical daily life is possible for everyone
This is the last part of the mini-series about my journey that resulted in the basic course in DB-System®. I spent 24 years on this journey, because I had to find answers and document the results. Today I know that no matter who we are and where we come from, we all have the opportunity to use our full potential and our inherent resources, in a different way than we had believed was possible. The impossible is no longer impossible – a magical daily life is possible for everyone.
In part 8 I wrote about the experiences of using our abilities to create everyday magic, and I have experienced that for more than thirty years. I use the techniques I created daily, as tools to handle everything life has to offer.
As I wrote in part 6, balance between logic and emotion is the answer to many riddles, and at the same time gives us the solutions we need. I trained myself to have that balance. In short terms, it is a state of mind in the brain where we have access to all our resources while fully awake in daily life. It is also a creative sanctuary within ourselves, free from all outer disturbances of daily life. This means that we can relate to actual daily life and handle whatever we encounter, without outer disturbances and with inner peace.
This is about a zone within yourself, where you can stand strong and be present in the moment. Or what many call being in the Now. I got a lot of practice being in this zone, and I learned to adjust it as needed. I have encountered many different things in life, and not least, I’ve lost many of my loved ones and also my oldest child. It is precisely in such moments, that you can truly experience those magical moments, no matter how strange it may sound.
The fact that we can live in the present moment, where our resources are at their strongest, is something that in the future will be absolutely essential for us humans. We fail to create good and magical experiences, when we are stuck in fear and old beliefs. We must be wondering and listening, which opens up for our resources and the answers we need. But not just for the answers we need. It opens for a higher level of consciousness, spirituality and thinking as “we”, not “I”, and also for the empathy and love that lives in each individual.
We have learned to look up to others and as mentioned previously we are animals that flock together. This does not mean that we should do exactly what others do, or think that we do not have what it takes to have a good and creative life. We can look up to others and learn, and then look within ourselves and at all that is there. So my motto is: “Instead of looking up to others, look within yourself.”
– If we are to change society, we must start by changing ourselves. You are the one who is closest to your own insight, spirituality and your potential.
Then we can lift each other, have more empathy and create better solutions.
You can find our course calendar here: https://uniquemindesp.org/course-calendar/
Deborah Borgen
Founder
