Specialists in Personal Development.
Article from Irish Independent, March 1998.
Patricia Devine meets Rod Briggs, whose Mindlink Seminars provide a survival Guide for modern living
Finding happiness Is all in the mind
Rod Briggs’ belief is not a theoretical thing; it has been tested at the deepest level. In 1990, off the Cape Coast, South Africa, Rod and three others were involved in an off-shore sailing accident. Their boat capsized, killing two of the crew, and Rod watched his best friend die while he clung to the crippled boat during a storm.
For nine and half-hours, he was sure he would also die, but a strange thing occurred during that vulnerable time, the ‘truth’ he lives by didn’t move. Because he says, “in any situation, the truth will stand up on it’s own, everyone can snipe and shoot at it, and when they are finished having their little chirp, it is still an eternal truth. As a child Rod was crippled – recurring bronchitis left his with only one working lung – which allowed him to retreat to a wonderful old library on his own while the other boys played sport. There, he found answers to the questions he was beginning to ask. “I was a miserable, weak, anaemic and spotty little Herbert.” But those hours, alone and without the usual cacophony of noise, allowed for inner exploration; “silence is necessary because of what comes through it”. Also trying to discover the meaning of his visions, having in the past received unsatisfactory answers from people, started his quest for meaning.
“It was good that I did not grown up in a religious home, because I would have gone in with preconceived ideas. Instead I was a bland canvas. My parents had not been prescriptive in any way.”
The formal side of his search took him through classical Christianity, Judaism, mythology – both Norse and Greek – and theology at the University of South Africa. He found a second home within the martial arts, the method he used to fix his lung and strengthen his body from the age of 13. It was the mental aspect of the art, the philosophy behind it that appealed to him: “Karate is not a way of defeating your enemies – it’s a way of finding yourself without enemies”.
This is the very essence of martial arts. “It deals with balance and how to stay in balance. When you sieve through the plethora of religious and philosophical teachings, you realise that everybody is saying the same thing, regardless of religion. The all deal with finding balance, and finding it at the centre of your life. That’s why the Mindlink symbol is the centre of the Tao symbol, for balance – the yin-yang.”
I completed an Alpha Mindlink seminar recently with Rod Briggs, and was struck by the calm energy emanating from him. The seminar is both impressive and revitalising, leaving an indelible mark on your life. He is a knowledgeable man with a natural ability to teach what he does, on a completely unconditional basis.
The Mindlink Foundation is dedicated to the emotional, physical and spiritual upliftment of humanity. It finds expression through seminars designed to integrate both the conscious and subconscious. Profits are channelled into social upliftment programmes.
The Mindlink Seminar is perhaps the most comprehensive and extensive course of personal development and mind training you can experience. From the first session, this thoroughly practical course teaches you how to easily and immediately access the full creative powers of your mind, at the Alpha level, and then how to apply those powers to all aspects of your life. In one weekend, it will teach you how to live your life as you have never lived it before.
People are always undertaking courses to improve work-related skills. School and university were academically orientated towards future work skills. But nobody teaches us how to have functional relationships, bring up our children, have healthy self-esteem, be emotionally intelligent, how to communicate with our loved ones, how to forgive ourselves and others, surviving constant change, healing our bodies, and loving unconditionally. We live in a rather individualistic age, where a sense of autonomy, of being on our own and having to make it on our own, is strong. Our major concern is with personal and local happiness. Mindlink looks from the outside, as if tailor-made to offer personal salvation. It buys in to the preoccupation with the well-being of the individual.
Many of us are involved in the pecking business, puzzled about how to live. Materialism has not assuaged the emptiness some feel, escapism through drink and drugs only compound the core issues. We constantly look outside ourselves, yet we have everything we need internally.
An Irish-based doctor invited Rod to Ireland after attending one of his seminars in South Africa, saying a lot of his patients would need it. Rod believes Ireland has the richest heritage in Europe. “It is something to be proud of, and we should do all we can to protect this.” He also says we are very label conscious, maybe because of our close links to America, and unfortunately there is a danger that our national psyche will become subsumed by something perceived to be better. Irish people need to believe in themselves and their country, he says.
Albert Schweitzer says: “The greatest discovery of any generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind.”
Rod will happily return to Ireland to run further courses if there is sufficient interest. If you are interested in receiving more information on Mindlink, write to Vere Wynne-Jones, Mindlink, 22 Merrion Sq, Dublin 2.
