All Episodes

June 8, 2023 50 mins
In this episode of The Mindset Mentor, Tania Kolar interviews John Walter, the creator of the world first optically accurate non-reversing mirror. You will discover how the True Mirror optically restores your true image from your mirror image, letting you see yourself not just as you look, but as you really are, in real time. John shares stories of personal reflection and deep insights revealed through the true mirror image.
Mark as Played
Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
The views expressed in the following programare those of the participants and do not
necessarily reflect the views of Saga ninesixty am or its management. Well,

(00:20):
hello and welcome to the Mindset Mentor. I'm Tanya Kola, helping you cultivate
a life you love. Well,today we're going to talk about self image,
self awareness, and it's so interestingbecause I think we go through life
sometimes you know, in reverse gear, and of course reverse gear has many
implications and consequences. But what ifyou were to look in a mirror and

(00:42):
actually see yourself the way that youtruly are, not in the reverse So
really fascinating because on today's show Ihave the creator of the first optically accurate
non reversing mirror, and I gottatell you is unbelievable when you look in
a mirror that truly reflects who youare. So let's just jump into the

(01:07):
conversation and get started and say helloto John Walter. John, it is
such a pleasure having you here onthe Mindset Mentor today. Thanks Tony,
thanks for having me really really happyto be here. Well, it's super
cool. I know the concept ofa non reversing mirror is not brand new,
but you were able to perfect it. But before we get into you

(01:30):
know the details and how how youperfected it, you know, I would
just love to explain to everybody whatexactly is a true mirror for those who
have actually never heard of it.Great, good question. Um, so
what it is? It's very simple. It's two mirrors at right angles.
Okay, that's the that's what itconsists of. To actually make it accurate

(01:51):
and usable is pretty tricky. Themain thing that makes a true mirror a
true mirror is the fact that whenyou look into it, there's no line
between the two mirrors. And that'simportant because the line goes right through your
eyes, both of them, asit turns out, and so you can't
really use it because eye contact it'snot really possible. So I have one

(02:15):
here just to show the audience see, and you're actually seeing yourself in this.
So it's actually funny because I'm actuallyzooming our mirroring our picture on the
laptop. Yeah, but normally itwould look like this, Oh I see,

(02:38):
So that's what you're saying without thatline, you know, coming down
the center. And for those whocannot cannot see the mirror right now,
and those who will be listening.You can absolutely have a look on my
YouTube channel watch the video there andalso check out John's website if you could
tell everyone your website John, Soit's true mirror dot com. And if

(02:59):
you forget that, just google truemirror or google nonreversing mirror. And I
thought right up, and there heis. Yes, you will see that
image, that incredible image. Youknow, it's really fascinating that you were
now able to come up with thisconcept to perfect um you know what it
is that we see because of courseyou know, we're we're very visual as

(03:20):
as humans, UM, but oftentimesUM our perception is skewed UM, and
it can be what we are seeingthat actually ties into that skewed perception.
So kind of fascinating. So I'dlove to talk a little bit about um.
You know, when we do lookinto a regular mirror, UM,
how accurate or inaccurate is the reflectionthat we're seeing. So so the the

(03:46):
inaccuracy is twofold. UM. It'sphysical and it's personal. And the physical
is the kind of known quantity ofthis kind of a mirror for since it
was first patented in eighteen eighty seven. But oh, it's actually seeing yourself
without being reversed. So, forinstance, if you looked into a reversing
mirror, you're going to see yourselfwearing a what would appear to be a

(04:11):
right hair part, but in factyou're actually wearing a left hair part in
real life. So when you lookin the true mirror, you're gonna actually
see yourself with the left hair part. And you know, that's a whole
other story, but that actually mattersfor the way you're actually presenting yourself.
And yeah, google hair part theoryif you want to have more information on
that. But the the the personalpart comes into play, and it's just

(04:38):
so much more important because the waywe actually perceive each other is both you
know what you physically look like,but who you actually are, who's actually
coming out from your physical features foryour face and your eyes especially, And
when we talk to each other,we read our faces really really accurately within
milliseconds. We cannot understand what someone'ssaying and thinking based on what their face

(05:02):
is saying, and this is justthe base of human communication. So what
I discovered is that when you seeyourself in a nonreversing mirror, again,
it's two mirrors at right angles,you can actually communicate with yourself, like
your eyes and your face actually workproperly and as a car lay they don't

(05:24):
backwards, like when you look atyour face in a reversing mirror, within
seconds, your face will stop communicatingand you tend to just stare. And
that's that's crazy. It's it's it'scrazy that this is the version of you
that all of us have had ofourselves since childhood. That's that's everywhere.
It's completely unconscious and unchallenged. Peoplejust believe it's them. And it's also

(05:46):
solitary. The only person that knowsyou with your features and your face and
the communication behind it in reverse.It's it's just the sort of thing that
that once you dig into it andyou realize that it actually matters that you
know, Wow, I can't reallytalk to myself properly in a mirror.
What am I saying to myself?What is that doing to my self image?

(06:10):
What it's doing to who I thinkI am and how I'm feeling and
what I thought about such and such? And it's just this strange, almost
Twilight Zone experience episode. We canmake out of this that everyone has this
different image in their head that's actuallynot real. Well is it's really fascinating?
So you know, and as youwere talking, I was thinking,

(06:31):
is it sort of like, youknow, a disassociation with the self when
you're looking at yourself in a regularmirror. So what is it? And
why is it that we don't reallyconnect with ourselves fully? Do we believe
that the person that we see issomebody else, that we are an impostor?
I don't like, like, whatdo you think is is really the

(06:55):
cause of that distortion? First ofall, the mechanism for why why your
face doesn't communicate properly is based oninformation. The idea that when we actually
are talking with each other, you'regoing to say something, and especially like
with the way you smile or theway you actually you know, your eyes

(07:16):
register, you know, like,oh I understand you. Oh there it
is. You know, this iswhat we do all day long with each
other. But if you look atthe different sides of the face, the
left side, the right side,they're different. They have a different feeling
to them. And the idea iswhen you flip them, you scramble up
the message at the person that you'reactually saying. And the thing is you're

(07:39):
in a feedback loop with yourself,Like instantaneously you're going to be seeing yourself
feeling and looking different than what's actuallyyou are feeling and thinking, which then
causes you to interpret. And thenyour interpretation and response then shows up on
your face and in your eyes andthen goes back out to the mirror,
comes back, and it gets reverse, comes back, you reinterpret it.

(08:01):
And this is this feedback loop that'sgoing at probably maybe fifty frames a second.
I think that's what our brain canperceive. And so the net effect
is that this lack of connection betweenthe actual version of you, which you're
actually feeling and thinking and expressing,gets shifted very dramatically to pretty much nothing.

(08:28):
Like you tend to just settle downand stare at yourself, like the
vitality just drains out of your faceand you're still there, but now you're
kind of communicating with this blank expression. And that when you talk about disassociation,
I mean, it's almost by definitiondisassociating, it's or it's dysmorphic.
It's by definition dysmorphic. And sowhere does that go? Why what does

(08:52):
that do? All these kind ofquestions, especially when you figure it's going
on in your entire life, andevery single time you look in the mirror.
Wow, you know, truly fascinating. I mean, and there's science
to back this up, and andand your background uh you know in math
and physics, I believe, rightin computers have really culminated to to create

(09:13):
that perfect uh you know mirror,the true mirror. And you know it's
fascinating because you're talking about that thatfeedback loop, right when we're constantly seeing
that in the reverse, it's kindof like the cognitive uh you know function,
right, It's it's sending us asignal. Uh, it's almost like
cutting the signal and then sending anothersignal. Right, So it's that feedback
loop that we're constantly experiencing. Andand that's really indicative I think of,

(09:37):
you know, how we can operatein life with uh, false beliefs,
limiting beliefs, and the perceptions thatwe um, you know have And it's
exactly sort of the same thing.But this is a physical manifestation of that
that's tied to that feedback loop,and that's tied to the misperceptions, right,

(09:58):
or even the person that we createout of what it is that we're
constantly seeing so really fascinating stuff.And it's so interesting because you would never
think that there would be such abig difference looking into a mirror because it's
familiar, right, this is whatwe're used to. And whoever thought that
there was anything different and weird aboutlooking at yourself in the mirror? And

(10:22):
in fact, I find that,you know, so many people have thought,
well, you shouldn't be looking atyourself in the mirror for too long
because then you're a narcissist or you'refull at yourself or whatever. But there
is, you know, an incrediblesense of empowerment when you actually can look
at yourself in the mirror and mindyou, whether that is a true mirror
or a regular like a reverse mirror, there is a power with being able

(10:46):
to connect with yourself. But whatI'm hearing John, is that there is
a completely different level of connecting withthe true self by gazing into a true
mirror. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And you're talking about self image and
beliefs. Um My understanding of thisis that the the lack of vitality that

(11:11):
you see in your face in amirror is feeds back into your sense of
self and you know, like,I am not the real full version of
me on this sort of reduced versionthat has these that that ends up sourcing
some limiting self beliefs, especially whenyou talk about socially in put about how

(11:33):
you see see yourself fitting in theworld. Um like, it's it's basically
inauthenticity to being fed back to youon a regular basis. How that actually
translates is the big mystery because everyoneis so different. So the the like

(11:54):
when you say it's it's empowering toactually gaze into your eyes and actually connect
with yourself, because a lot ofpeople don't. And again you go back
to say, well why don't you, Well, I think because the mirror
long ago ed you information. It'slike a it's not worth it. It's
not worth it to connect with myselfbecause I feel uncomfortable at some level because

(12:16):
because it's inauthentic. But you probablywere ten years old when you thought that,
you know it's not. It's it'ssuch a manufactured aversion to looking at
yourself in a mirror. It's notnatural because kids have all day long,
they'll spend time in the mirror.But at some point we start to pull
back and I don't like that,And so the amazing most amazing quality of

(12:39):
the True mirror is that when youlook into it, you go, wow,
I actually really like this person that'slooking back. Look at that vibrant
say, look at how powerful theyare, look at how present, look
at how how much joy is inthat in the eyes, Because if you're
feeling those feelings, you will seethem. If you're feeling powerful, you'll

(13:00):
see your power. One time Iscared myself. It's like whoa, you
know, like wow, that islike insane because we were human beings.
My god, they were the mostamazing creature we know of, and yet
we have these incredibly limiting self beliefsthat I think are caused partially and over
time by the mirror. So myadmission with the True Mirrors to kind of

(13:24):
fix the interface. So you stillhave to do your work, You still
have to kind of gaze into youreyes and become you know, connected with
yourself and work on your issues andstuff. But now your reflection is more
of an ally than a source ofdoubt and confusion. You know, you
can get compassion and empathy and andvalidation from yourself instead of the other.

(13:50):
Wow, it's so wild, it'sso wild, you know, And I
had the pleasure of, you know, as you know, John, you
walked me through the process of youknow, gazing into the true mirror.
And I found it absolutely fascinating becauseI mean, I love mirror work and
I've done mirror work for years.But I remember, so I'm talking about

(14:11):
a regular mirror, right, AndI remember the first time of you know,
doing mirror work, and it's asimple It was a simple process and
it's actually what I teach my clientsnow too, is to look in the
mirror and you say, you know, you say your name, and you
tell yourself that you love you.So it'd be Tanya, I love you.
And it sounds so easy, likesuper easy. Like I'm thinking,
who could not do that? Right? So I remember doing that. I

(14:35):
stood in front of a mirror,not a true mirror. I stood in
front of a regular reversing mirror,and I said, Tanya, I love
you. And I freaked out.I freaked out, John. I had
to literally jump out of the viewof the mirror. I just it was
the weirdest thing, and it shockedme because I couldn't believe that was my
impulse was to get out of themirror because I and so I kind of

(14:58):
connect with what you SA day isthat you know, it's this identity thing
and you think, who is thatperson? Because I didn't like that person
and I was judging myself and Ihad all of these things going through my
mind and it was very strange,so to speak great like that. I
jumped away because I did not wantto see myself right. And then my

(15:20):
theory is that you're, you know, you try to be that real and
deep and authentic, and the mirroris not doing you any favors by kind
of you know, changing the message, and so how do you process it
doesn't compute? You know, thisis this is why it's like, you
know, mirror work is sure,it's a good idea in principle, but

(15:41):
the interface is faulty. So sowhen you saw it in the in the
at the at the self Image Summit, did you did we do that?
Did you say I love you toyourself? So you know, it's interesting.
I don't think I said those exactwords, but um, well,
and now, by the way,I have a very different relationship with the
mirror and I can say I ofmyself and not jump and freak out.
However, when I found to bethe most extraordinary when I used the true

(16:07):
the true mirror is that I wascomfortable, very comfortable with myself. It
maybe not initially to maybe like youknow, in a minute, let's say,
right, because in that first minute, of course, I'm judging myself,
right, I was like, oh, you know this, I smaller,
and you know, there's these thingsgoing through through my mind. But

(16:29):
the real fascinating thing was is thata few minutes into it, and this
did not happen right away, butseveral minutes into it, oh my gosh,
I had such compassion. I hadcompassion for myself, like this true,
incredible compassion, and it felt amazingand I thought, wow, like
that was a kind of a polaropposite experience from when I, you know,

(16:52):
originally did mirror work and I hadto jump out of the way right
to truly seeing who I am,but connecting with that that you know,
soul so to speak. Right,Yeah, that's great, I mean absolutely,
this is what it's about. Andthe thing is, you know,
you you you saw compassion. Inother words, your face actually did message

(17:17):
compassion to you. You were feelingit, your face was conveying it.
And then again you're in that samefeedback loop where you go, oh,
and you feel more compassion, Likeit actually deepens and strengthens the feeling,
and your face then continues to reflectthat. And this is the whole power
of this is that you have acontinuous relationship with yourself and your emotions and

(17:37):
your feelings and some of these reallyreally powerful and positive ones, especially after
you've done the work like you said, you've done. You know, you've
gotten long pass that I'm afraid tosay, I loved that to myself.
And now it's like you just withouteven prompting, you've felt that compassion and

(17:57):
these deeper and high and you know, I believe all the other positive qualities
that you've kind of worked on todevelop about who you are and what you're
about, they're just there. They'rejust present for you to actually connect with
and validate yourself. You know,through them, I think your face suddenly
becomes your friend. Oh. Ilove that. That's so deep, so

(18:21):
good. Right, So we're goingto continue the conversation. We're gonna take
a short break and we're going totalk more about how you can become your
best friend look at yourself deeply withlove and compassion through the true mirror.
My special guest today is John Walter. He is the creator of the first
optically perfect, accurate reverse non reversemirror, which is just kind of like,

(18:47):
it's a little bit mind blowing whenyou think about it, right,
So, well, we'll talk alittle bit more about that when we come
back. Stay with us and morecoming up here on SAGA nine sixty No
Radio, No Problem stream is liveon Sugged ninety sixty AM dot CA.

(19:25):
Welcome back to the Mindset mentor I'mTanya Colo, helping you live your best
life. And sometimes you know,it can be difficult when we don't feel
our best, and we look inthe mirror and we judge ourselves and we
criticize ourselves, and of course wecan be our own worst critics. But
what if you could look in themirror and actually love the reflection that you

(19:45):
see the person that you are.While we are speaking with the creator of
the first optically accurate non reversing mirrorthat is helping people around the world love
the person that they are to experiencethemselves actually more authentically and through a mirror,

(20:06):
and that's really quite fascinating. JohnWalter, you are a genius for
creating the true mirror as you haveperfected it. I understand that you know
the concept of a nonreversing mirror datesback to you know, the eighteen hundreds,
right, but what you're now ableto do for people is truly life

(20:26):
changing. So you've I'd love tokind of talk a little bit more about
your experience with the true mirror andlike, how did this come to be?
How did you know that there wassomething not fully authentic when you looked
in a mirror, at yourself ina mirror. Sure, that's a good

(20:47):
story. How much time we have, we can always do a follow up
show, John. I know there'sso much to talk about here, right,
it is fairly simple, But Ihad had I had been struggling with
my mirror image for quite some time, feeling that something was slightly off.

(21:07):
And it happened to be as Iwas young. I was probably twenty two,
hanging out on the beach in Californiaat a friend's house at a party,
having a great time, and Iwalked into the bathroom and the mirror
just shot me down hard and justsaid, dude, you are you know?
I was out there okay, butI looked terrible, and this big

(21:30):
smile I had walking into the bathroomlooked terribly fake and forced and posed.
And it's like, I must befooling those people out there because we're so
we so identify with this mirror image. I mean, god, it's been
with us since we were babies.We really believe that's who we are.
And my eyes were just shooting daggersat me, like instantly, I was

(21:52):
talking about in five seconds, Ijust threw you know, five negative,
hardcore thoughts at me. You know, the biggest one is your there's something
wrong with you. And it wasn'tthe first time. I mean, this
has been going on, you know, Like I said, I'd had struggles,
but that something wrong with you wasa big part of it. And
then I just threw my hands atthe at the mirror and just you know,

(22:15):
turned the corner and there happened tobe a double mirror medicine cabinet at
right angles to the mirror that Iwas looking at. And this is the
thing. You can do this athome, Okay. You can take two
mirror as thin ones if you havepossible, and hold them up at right
angles. And this is what Isaw when I when I saw the medicine
cabinet. There's always a line inthe middle, and that line is very

(22:36):
difficult to actually look past because itgoes through both your eyes. But if
you kind of kind of look aroundand try to find yourself behind in this
reflection. At the time, Iliterally did a double take because I saw
something in my eyes that I recognized, and what I saw was the sparkle

(22:57):
in my eye. And what Irecognize was my happiness because I was really
having fun. I was things weregreat out there in the party. I
was walked in this smile Suddenly,instead of being fake and forced and somewhat
manic, suddenly was warm and genuineand happy because that was what was really

(23:18):
going on. And for the firsttime, the mirror, my mirror reflection
was reflecting it. And in aninstant, like literally the second I saw
that sparkle and recognize it, Isaid said, there you are, you
know, and it was like,so what you three sheets to the wind,

(23:40):
You're having a good time, AndI started beaming. I literally was
like, my smile was huge.I was like, whoa, you know,
just like like this, and itdidn't go away. And then I
turned back to the regular mirror,like it just disappeared again. So the
moment was super significant and as faras I know, brand new because in

(24:02):
this entire time of the mirror beingpatented in eighteen eighty seven, and there's
a bunch of patents since then onvarious design elements, no one ever talked
about that reflects myself practically. It'sit's a completely unknown and brand new concept
in the world of psychology and selfimage and self awareness. It's just it's
and to this day it still iskind of. Um, it's still just

(24:26):
me promoting this idea as Oh mygod, it's it's really you looking back
at you and from this mirror andthe other one isn't you know? That's
kind of the argent story. Ohokay, I love that story. It's
fascinating because you walked in to thatthat bathroom looking in the mirror or catching,
you know, glimpse of yourself,and that self judgment was there immediately,

(24:51):
and maybe even to go so faras they a little bit of self
loathing. Um right, um,And then all of a sudden and and
how how many times does happen toyou or to people in general? Yes,
like, oh my god, howcan you loathe yourself? I know,
right, I know, yeah,yeah, crazy, it's so crazy.

(25:11):
No one in your life loathes you, and no one and if you're
not in front of the mirrorge youreally loathe yourself. You know. It's
like, yeah, very common experience. We're extraordinary beings and you know,
we are absolutely magnificent, and youknow, I think that life sometimes prevents
us from seeing that. And it'sthat interruption, right, uh, with

(25:33):
with the mirror in a regular mirror, um that cognitive break. It's kind
of like that that loop as youwere talking about earlier. Right, so
when you can look in a truemirror and spend time with yourself, because
that's that's interrupted. It's not you'renot getting those brain signals that are saying,
you know, this is a wrongmessage. We're reversing the image.

(25:53):
It's like no, it's direct andit's deep and it's personal, you know,
and it's really that's so interesting becauseas I remember, you know,
doing the true mirror work, andas I had mentioned earlier, that I
had compassion for myself and that sparklethat you're talking about, you know in
the eyes, you know, Icould see that sparkle. And once you

(26:15):
see the sparkle. You can't unseethe sparkle, do you know what I
mean? It's there because now you'vefelt it, and so now you know
what that feels like. And youknow, it was interesting because and just
to give the listeners and yours alittle bit of context, you know,
John and I were at an eventand your most recent event in Toronto,
where you had an incredible assortment ofyour true mirrors and you were guiding people,

(26:40):
you know, through the process ofyou know, experiencing you know,
what the true mirror is like.As I mentioned, I had, you
know, this incredible sense of compassionfor myself. And I sat at the
table with a group of attendees atthe event and we were all discussing our
experience with the mirror, and oneof the ladies, you know, I

(27:00):
mean, everyone had these really great, you know stories, and this one
woman said she looked at us andshe said, how long did you spend
in the mirror? Because she waskind of surprised that she didn't have that
experience, right, And and thenyou know, fortunately there was a second
day of doing the same work inthat same process, and I what I

(27:22):
had said to her, I said, you just didn't spend long enough.
You know, you just didn't staywith it long enough, I said,
because I'm saying it. I saidthat because of my own experience, because
I didn't feel that compassion right away. I was still stuck in the judgments
a little bit like, oh,this looks crooked, this is not right.
But if you stay with it,that, I think is where the

(27:45):
magic happens. What can you sayto that? Absolutely, And first of
all, back to your other thing. Once you see the sparkle, you
can't unsee it, partially because itgrows. It's like whoa, it's actually
even more, and then you getthis light of recognition. And that point
is that that's light. That sparkleis actually light with meaning, and we

(28:06):
are conveying information with that for whywe're smiling, and that that is a
communication tool that we use all thetime with each other. And what makes
it genuine is the meaning behind thesmile, and that meaning is carried by
the eyes. So when you flipit, you lose the meaning, which
makes the smile a kind of fake, which makes you stop. That's the
mechanism. But back to what you'resaying about the spending time, it's it's

(28:30):
also that there's an on switch.Okay, I like to to analogize to
an electric bike. Here's an electricbike, and you say, got it
looks kind of big and bulky andkind of heavy, and and you get
on and it's like, this doesn'tfeel like a very good bike. I
don't really get it, and I'mcrooked in it, so it's even worse

(28:52):
than you know. And then Isay, no, there's a little switch
there. And the switch is basicallyto look in your eyes and gage try
to communicate. And the best,the best expression again is your smile,
which which will create that light inyour eyes, which will then, because
it looks naturally, you'll smile back. And that's where you suddenly go,
oh, oh, I get it. And then once you have this sense

(29:15):
of oh, this bicycle now actuallygoes really fast, you know, suddenly
these these emotions like compassion just showup and stick around and deepen, and
then the other ones and the otherones, and it's like here, it
is like forty years after I firstsaw this experience, and when I look
at my eyes in the true mirror, I just see myself today. You

(29:40):
know where am I at right now? You know what's going on now?
And it looks similar to how it'show it's been, you know, for
the last forty years. But thebut the message is just the normal me
that's going through my normal stuff,and it's just so so much more rich
and deep and powerful and enlightening.You know. I'll actually tell myself stuff

(30:03):
who I am and how I amfrom from my true mirror reflection, and
then I go back to the regularmirror and it's just like, ah,
it's the same old, same old. Yeah. Interesting wow. Okay,
So then do you think that havingum a true mirror is helpful for people
who are are really stuck and challengedwith the self judgments? Um, you

(30:26):
know, the critical eye, right, They always you know, beating up
on ourselves. Yeah. Yeah.Looking at it this way, the way
the person is with themselves probably haslike zero correlation with the way the person's
friends and family interact and like andlove them. And in other words,
it's completely in their heads, youknow what I'm saying. I mean,

(30:48):
if you're true true story, ifyou're a horrible person, you're going to
see horrible things in the true mirror. But most people are not that way.
Most people are generally good people andhave good qualities and they're they're they're
imperfect, but it's still they're stillbeautiful or you know, I mean,
there's all these kind of layers thatwe actually when we talked with each other,

(31:11):
we absolutely compensate for any of thatperceived physical flaws and we go to
the personal and the whole thing isthis big wrapped up thing that especially people
that know you, that like you, that love you, will see all
sorts of qualities that you never getto see in the in the reversing mirror.

(31:32):
Instead, you see someone that's criticalthat you pick apart your flaws you
have, you know, some someslight you know, you have a pimple,
and you think that's all people aregoing to see. Um. But
deeply, you know that the structuresin your mind that when you make eye
contact go so far deep into likethis sense of self which has kind of

(31:52):
had this warped thing going on againsince childhood, especially like the informative years,
like you know, during lessons andall that stuff, where your the
mirror is just telling you one thing, and everyone else has got normal faces,
normal sparkle, normal smiles, butyou don't, so must be something
wrong with you. And just thetranslation to to what your your actual relationship

(32:16):
to yourself is being continually messed withby this reverse mirror, And so yes,
the true mirror is designed to absolutelyaddress that. And once you have
that, so if you if youget one and you have it in front
of you, say okay, letme go and relearn who I am and

(32:37):
who I am being okay, becauseit's not just the way I'm staring at
the world, it's the way I'mactually interacting with the world. You know,
how how do I show up?Who am I when I'm smiling?
Who am I when I'm passionate?Who am I when when I'm I'm I'm
concentrated and focused? And and andlet your true reflection edge ucate you on

(33:00):
these really incredible positive qualities, andthen you can believe in yourself and then
you don't see your flaws. Yousee basically your beingness, which is just
the essence of the thing that peoplefind appealing and attractive about you, and
you can kind of start letting goof this negativity that's probably just just coming

(33:22):
from you and your mirror image.I mean, again, it's crazy that
this is just the norm for mostpeople everyone. Wow, you know,
it's truly that. I mean,it's so profound, um, you know,
because um, the way that wefeel about ourselves really dictates the quality
of our lives and how we showup right in all of those different scenarios
and you know, and sometimes createsthat facade and that that it really creates

(33:47):
a lot of blocks in our liveswhile we're not living authentically. And if
we can now really connect with ourselveson that deep core level, um,
it's it's like a spiral, um. You know, things start to spiral
in a good way, you know, and and can take us to the
next level of living to our fullpotential and starting to remove some of the

(34:10):
barriers and the blocks that we havebecause even if we um, you know,
look at the non physical our blocksand our perceptions. Again, Like
I mean, I know, Ipersonally had a ton of limiting beliefs,
right and I've learned to reprogram mymindset, optimize my mindset. And that's
now why I teach other people todo that. Um. But it's the

(34:31):
same thing. It parallels the physical, you know blocks right when we look
in that mirror, But they're allcorrelated and they all impact our lives,
you know, in such a hugeway, and how we show up for
others, how we show up forourselves, the beliefs that we have,
what we believe is possible for us, or what we falsely believe is not

(34:55):
possible for us, right right,I hear that. Um, that's amazing
because because again it comes back toyou need to do the work on yourself
to get past limiting self it beliefs. And and once you do, you
know, wow, look at thepower of this. Look at this,
this, this is I'm so muchmore than what I used to think I

(35:17):
was and what I was capable of. Um. And and so my my
idea, the true mirror is it'sit's another tool in your tool kit of
of of self self affirming and developingactions that you still need to take,
but it's a tool that suddenly canamplify and validate and and let you just

(35:42):
go, oh, I can totallylet go of that limiting self belief because
that's not here, you know,like you know, like you're if you
see compassion for yourself, just thinkabout, of course I'm compassionate with other
people, you know, because that'show you are, you know, you
see, you see these qualities thatyou end up sharing with yourself. That
makes it so much easier to bethose qualities out to the world. So

(36:05):
that's the idea. Oh I lovethat so good. All right, we're
gonna continue the conversation here on Saganine sixty listening to the mindset mentor.
My special guest today is John Walter. He is the creator of the first
optically perfect non reversing mirror, andmy goodness, I mean, there's so
much science there, but it's reallyfascinating to see the difference of looking at

(36:30):
yourself in a regular mirror, whichis a reversing mirror, to John's true
mirror. It's a way to geta true reflection of the self and how
other people see you as well.So stay with us and we're going to
continue the conversation stream as life atSaga nine sixty. Am. That's well,

(37:13):
hello, and welcome back to themindset mentor. We are helping with
your self image today and maybe helpingto shift how you see yourself. And
did you know that when you lookin a mirror right, gular mirror or
most mirrors are reverse mirrors, soyou're looking at yourself flipped right. And
that's kind of interesting because I thinksometimes we live life upside down in the

(37:38):
chaos, and so what would itfeel like when you actually would see yourself
upright, facing correctly and just howothers see you. Well, that's what
we're talking about here today with myspecial guest, John Walter. He is
the founder of the first optically accurate, non reversing mirror, so that when

(38:00):
we look at our image, weactually see ourself, our true authentic self
the way that others see us,not in the reverse. So, John,
such a fascinating concept. And Iknow that you know you're you've been
on a mission, Um, youknow, around the world. Um,
you're right now. You're joining mefrom New York. We had the pleasure
of meeting in Toronto on your lastvisit here, where I was able to

(38:23):
experience the True Mirror for the veryfirst time. And I gotta tell you,
I loved it. It's brilliant,Um, I and I before I
had experienced the True Mirror, John, I saw it on I believe it
was like social media somewhere and Ithought, oh, that's really fascinating.

(38:43):
I have to make sure that I, you know, check out your your
website, which is what it's Truemirror dot com is at the site.
Yeah and uh, and then youknow, things happened and I experienced the
True Mirror when you were here inToronto, and it's a game changer.
So I'd love to talk a littlebit more about, you know, some
of the benefits even like personally foryou that you have experienced, um by

(39:07):
seeing yourself authentically in the True mirroras you now have intended. But also
if you can give us some examplesof um, things that you've seen from
from the the um let's say,breakthroughs that people have experienced. Yeah,
that's great. UM. So soyou know, I think the biggest thing

(39:30):
I got within that first five minutesof of seeing it, um, forty
one years ago, UM, Iwas okay, like, there's nothing wrong
with me. And that was justso huge. Yeah. Um, you
know, I still have my issuesin terms of how you know, my
fears and my behaviors and my andmy you know, not reaching my full

(39:54):
potential. Those are all things Ican work with, but at the core
of my being is that I realizedand still realize I'm fine, there's nothing
wrong with me, you know.Um, And and that was huge.
So so that was a huge benefitin the practical sense um. Uh,
you know, you can certainly usethe true mirror to see which way you

(40:15):
want to part your hair. Again, you're you're wearing a left part,
but in the mirror it looks likea right and you're choosing usually based on
what you like, and yet you'renot presenting what you like to the world.
So maybe you want to put yourhair on the right side. And
if you want to google hair parttheory, there's a whole story about that,
and let's just not go there rightnow. It'll be another show.

(40:37):
And as part of the story isthat what it actually pre predated my discovery
of the true true mirror. UM. I wanted to mention um first off
that the the idea of understanding howI am as an expressive human being is
a big part of this um.When you look at yourself in the mirror,

(40:59):
very often expressions just fade or youhave a very limited range your positive
expressions, the one with that lightkind of the light goes out and you
stop doing them, but your negativeexpressions stick around. Like frowns look just
as frowny backwards as forwards. Infact, at some level they deepen,
okay, because then you get tingedwith like criticism and judgment about you know,

(41:21):
like look at how miserable you are, you know, and then and
so you have none of your positiveexpressions and all of your negative ones or
neutral you know, like you're juststaring at yourself and then picking apart your
face for all, just you seeingyourself as a physical So at a benefit
level, you get to see howyou actually animate yourself, which then helps

(41:45):
you when you're facing the world.What am I looking like to the world?
Okay, because that is a hugesuperpower we all have. It's like,
way more than just what my faceis doing is looking like? Is
what am I doing with it?Am I being forceful? How am I
being engaging? How am I showingup? Why would someone like me?

(42:06):
Why would someone listen to me?So a couple of things I wanted to
say on zoom you can un mirroryour image. Okay, So when I'm
looking at you, I'm seeing youwith a left part. But right now
on your little video, are youseeing yourself mirrord, Yes, like you're
seeing the right part. So thething is you can go to your video
settings and un mirror that. Andthe reason you would do that. First

(42:30):
of all, you can kind ofget a sense of what you look like.
You can't make eye contact, andthat's the biggest difference. In the
true mirrors, you can can connectand be present with yourself being present with
yourself being, but you know,you can get that really vital connection.
But in the zoom thing, ifyou're if you're if you're glancing over at
your picture as you're communicating, youwill see your natural expressions because we're doing

(42:54):
that with each other. But becauseit's not backwards, you know, it's
more continuous, so you can actuallyget more used to how you're actually communicating
just with this little zoom zoom trickyou can do. And so in theory,
when you're actually talking with people you'reyou're glancing over to your own face

(43:15):
won't be as discontinuous, do youknow what I mean. It won't have
that that shift to my my reversedself image that's kind of doing its little
number back here. You'll just beOkay, this is just me being me
being me, you know. Sothat's number one. And again it comes
back to you can see what youlook like unreversed by using a camera.

(43:37):
Someone takes a video and you seewhat it is. But you don't have
the interactivity, like the lens doesnot interact. So most times you're posed
or you're you know, someone takesa picture, Ah, that's an a
smile, you know, and youknow it's not really that that full animated,
real, genuine smile. But alsoeven if a video you and people

(43:59):
complain on social media the inverted filterwhich shows you actually not inverted. People
hate it because all they see isthe weird. This looks different, it
feels crooked, but they can't lookin their eyes and connect, which is
where the value comes from, becauseit's not in real time, right,
So uh, well you're not viewingit in real time when you're viewing yourself

(44:20):
in a video, right, soversus experiencing yourself in a true mirror.
You know, you're you're in thatmoment, right, Um, in that
present moment. I think that's youknow a lot of magic happens in the
presence in life when we can getpresent to ourselves, right, absolutely sure,
absolutely, yeah, there's no timelike the present, Yeah, for
sure. You know this is reallyfascinating and um, you know, I

(44:43):
just wanted to go back briefly toum, you know, I had mentioned
there was a woman um, youknow in my group who who When I
first tried the true mirror, andI was explaining how we all had a
conversation and she was saying, well, you know, how long did you
guys spend in front of that mirror? Well she did go back the next
day. Um. And it wasalso interesting because um, you know,

(45:06):
I made her go, you know, go back and and um. Then
she was looking at the mirror andshe would turn to me and she would
she would shake her head. She'slike nope, nothing like nope, nothing,
you know, And I said,go back, you know, and
she went back and and she spenta little bit longer. And then she
turned around and she nodded, andshe was like, I got it.
And you can see like her entirebody change, her physiology change, because

(45:32):
she did get it, right,she saw herself, um, and connected
with herself. And I know I'mnot talking about like, you know,
thirty minutes or anything, just afew minutes, right, And but it
was really fascinating to see that.And I was actually I had a little
proud moment. I was like,oh my god, wow. And she
was so grateful um and was thankingme. So I can't even imagine for

(45:53):
you, John, um, howhow fulfilling it is um to be able
to bring people to those experiences andbeyond. Yeah, oh absolutely, I've
probably done it about thirty thousand times, I think over thirty years. But
it's even more fulfilling and gratifying tohear you doing it and the other coaches

(46:15):
that were there. I mean tome, I'm only one person, and
you know, but to have otherpeople, you know, really guide people
through their experience because a lot ofeveryone needs it, and some people more
than more than Sometimes also, ifyou stand next to them make eye contact,
that's when they actually start to animate. But I want to tell you
the story. It was at BurningMan. You're familiar with Burning Man or

(46:38):
maybe Audience. It's a big festivalin the desert, and a woman came
in. She's probably in her midtwenties. She was maybe you know,
twenty pounds over her ideal weight forher whatever, you know, and she's
you know, almost six foot tall. She was a very big, large

(47:00):
woman. But she after she gotthe whole, you know, saw where
the switch was, she started jumpingup and down, okay and going this
makes me so happy. It waslike it was like it was like,
why, what's the going on?And she goes, I just don't get
it. Like back at camp,and generally all the time in my life,

(47:22):
guys hit on me all the time. They're always like trying to like,
you know, be my friend.This isn't it? And why?
Like she had no clue because whenwe looked at herself backwards, she looked
like a frumpy, middle aged youknow, blah human being, you know,
like like a housewife or something.I mean again not to disparage housewives,

(47:45):
but um, just but in reallife, she was like this firecracker.
She had such a sparkling energy,Like within five seconds you loved her.
Of course you don't look how beautifullyyou are amazing, and so she
she got to see that and tobe able to actually connect and be in

(48:07):
love with herself, you know.And and this is the idea. It's
like suddenly the way she related orthe way the world was relating to her
made sense, you know what Imean. And we talk about body dysmorphia.
I mean, there's so many especiallywomen have so much like negative self
image about their bodies. And tome, it's partially because you're not animating

(48:30):
it. You know, if likeyou said, even her physiology changed when
she actually started to show up,and like, instead of just this kind
of face and body, it wassuddenly a being. And so when you
get to see your being coming throughyour body and how it animates it,
it's just it's an entirely different picture. And I think that my goal is

(48:52):
that this will absolutely help with bodydysmorphic disorder, even though that if you
take away the disorder part of it, where it's become an obsessive thing,
it's body dysmorphia for everyone, Likeit's dysmorphic by definition, you've changed,
you've morphed over it into something otherthan what's real. So that's part of

(49:15):
my vision for this is that itkind of fixes a lot of that like
weird, weird stuff that's embedded deepin our psyche where we just see this
law version of us versus the actual, true, animated version. Oh.
I love that, where we canactually see our authentic, magnificent being,
our whole selves without the judgment,you know, without the belief that there's

(49:38):
something wrong with us. So ifyou're listening right now, let's be very
clear, there is nothing wrong withyou. You know, we go through
life with that belief and it reallyyou know, my goodness, it creates
so many barriers. So I loveyour mission, John, and unfortunately are
out of time. So I wantto say thank you so much for joining

(49:59):
us here on the mind Set Mentor. And again, just very quickly,
if you can let everyone know howthey can get in touch with you.
Thanks Tanny, thanks so much forhaving me so truemare dot com and do
do go to my social media,which is at True Americo or just True
Mirror will pop up and you seehundreds of videos of people going that's so

(50:20):
awesome. Well, thank you forshedding some light on our true authentic selves,
John, and again please follow JohnWalter and learn more about the True
Mirror, Stay with us, andstay tuned for the next Mindset Mentor Every
Thursday's at three pm. I'm talkingNicola, helping you live your best life.

(50:50):
No Radio, No Problem stream islive on Sunday ninety sixty am dot C
Advertise With Us

Popular Podcasts

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist

It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.

Crime Junkie

Crime Junkie

Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.

Stuff You Should Know

Stuff You Should Know

If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.

Music, radio and podcasts, all free. Listen online or download the iHeart App.

Connect

© 2025 iHeartMedia, Inc.