Intuition Training

Frederick Dodson

Copyright © 2015 Frederick Dodson All rights reserved. ISBN:1517195128
ISBN-13:9781517195120

CONTENTS
1 Living from Intuition 3
2 Intervention from Higher Sources 28
3 How to Discern Truth 53
4 Intuitive Consciousness 99
5 The Power of Appreciation 148
6 Higher-Self and Your Life Purpose 188
1
LIVING FROM INTUITION

Intuition is the ability to understand something instantly, without the need for conscious reasoning. The dictionary lists these synonyms:

hunch, foreknowledge, inspiration, perceptivity, premonition, presentiment, gut feeling, innate knowledge, insight

It also lists the following synonyms, although these are actually different than intuition:
clairvoyance, second sight, sixth sense, discernment, gut feeling, and instinct

As a humans evolve to their next higher version, they will live more from intuition than the old bodymind reactions. As we progress from animal consciousness (survival), to intellectual consciousness (information), and finally to spiritual consciousness (intuition), we place more trust in cosmic intelligence. Contrary to popular belief, intuition is more accurate than any other source. I owe much of my own success and happiness to it. Many of my decisions are made in contradiction to normal reasoning. The purpose of this book is to look at intuition from many different angles, so that you can attain a clear sense of this precious gift, and take a leap to higher consciousness.

Intuition does not explain or justify; it only points the way. Because it does not follow earthly logic, it doesn’t always look reasonable. Its whisper is soft. It says, “That direction,” or “This direction.” Sometimes, it is drowned out by the noise of daily life, and the circus of the mind. In a state of calm, it can be heard just fine.

Intuition is information from a higher perspective. It sees the big picture pattern. If you are a small character within a picture, you cannot see the big picture. As that small character, you might think that “event X” is bad. But seen from a broader perspective, you may someday realize that without “event X”, a good event -let’s call it “event Y”- could have never happened. For example, as a teenager, I was fired from my first job selling sports shoes. My parents considered this a disaster, I considered it a blessing. I intuitively felt my life was for something far greater than selling sports shoes. Had I kept the job, I might still be working as a retailer today, instead of being the author of 25 books and touring the world doing seminars.

I recall once not changing lanes on the highway, although someone was flashing his headlights for me to let him pass. I normally always move for faster cars, but not this time. My girlfriend asked, “Why don’t you get out of the way? Someone wants to pass.” This question was answered the very moment a car suddenly veered from the lane I was in, to the second lane, where I would have been had I switched. The accident would have been deadly. I gleefully responded, “That’s why.”

These kinds of insights happen when the mind is serene. You “just know”. People demand explanations, but you just know. The heart knows long before the mind does. A split second before you start thinking, intuition already knows. Once thinking begins, instant knowing is gone. This understanding is useful if you want to learn languages, computer skills, play tennis, choose a partner, knowing the next course of action, truth from lies, reading the energy of people, places, and things – anything really. Have you ever heard a professional athlete say, “The moment I start thinking, I lose the game”? That is because high-performance people operate on what they have programmed their subconscious with, as well as a touch of intuition – neither of which require conscious thinking.

It is commonly assumed that thinking equals intelligence, but I say this is a mistaken notion. Working as a coach in the field of self-improvement for 25 years has taught me that most problems are caused by too much thinking, while disregarding innate knowing. You already have this inner knowing and too much reliance on “knowledge”, including knowledge of this author. It is not only unnecessary, but a veil that blocks out your own light.

In my life, the instant I receive an email from someone asking to do business, I intuitively know whether I want to do deal with them before finding out more about the person, checking Google, or a face-to-face meeting. The instant new software is in front of me, I intuitively click around to learn how it works. The instant someone offers me a “great investment in the stock market”, I can tell whether it will work or not. The very instant someone hands me a book, I can tell whether it’s good for me or not. And so can you! How? By taking the first flash of insight, the very split-second before thinking starts, and trusting it. There is nothing your “higher-self” doesn’t know. It’s the lower-self, “the ego”, blinded by aversions, desires, confusions, and loads of indoctrinated beliefs that is perpetually perplexed. If you were to rely on intuition, you could grasp some subjects that normally take years to learn, in only a few seconds. For example, I was never at all interested in the stock market, never read books or magazines on it, wasn’t interested in speaking to an expert – and still, the stocks I do have, work very well for me. Intuition is a great time-saver.

At our current evolutionary level, intuition is not yet well developed within most of us. We only catch glimpses of this higher intelligence, beyond the outer rims of our human grasp. Many don’t believe this ability even exists. Doing a search on the internet, one finds the popular belief is that: Intuition is not always accurate; it cannot be relied upon. My rebuttal to this is: If it is inaccurate, then it’s not intuition.

If there is a question you don’t know the answer to, respond quickly and spontaneously because the moment you start thinking, intuition is already gone, drowned out by the analyzing mind. You can get a sense of a person’s overall state at the very moment you meet him/her, unless you start thinking, then you have already lost it. Trying to hear the soft voice of intuition with a turbulent mind is like trying to hear a pin drop at a rock concert. In meditation, we seek the “no mind” state-the letting go of conceptual thoughtto reduce that noise. This allows everything to be apparent and obvious without the need to filter it through definitions. Not that thinking is a bad thing, it’s just overrated. Much of our thinking is indoctrinated. Indoctrinated how? Through parenting You take-over all the positive and negative thoughts of your parents. Through schooling - You take-over all the thoughts of the teachers and educators. Through mass-media - You take-over all the thoughts of a society. The more often you reside in states of no-mind or less-mind, the more you just know, and the less you rely on the distorted knowledge presented by media and education.

Intuition sometimes makes suggestions that others wouldn’t understand if you explained it to them. I was at a seminar the other week, and a colleague of mine said I could have her balcony room because she was checking out. My room didn’t have a balcony and was smaller. I said, “No, that’s OK.” Nonetheless, when she checked out, she told the receptionist to reserve the balcony room for me. And again, I said, “No, I’d like to keep my room.” They didn’t understand because the other room was so much better. How could I explain to them that I am keeping the room because it’s room 160? You see, 160 adds up to 7. No big deal, right? But my hotel room before that, in another city, was 34, which also adds up to 7. And the room before that was 205, which also adds up to 7. And, I kid you not, the room before that was 232. I understood that rather than being a coincidence, it was indicative of being in some kind of higher pattern. Call me superstitious, but changing my room would have broken my positive flow. My ways are mysterious because they are guided by intuition and synchronicity, not by what one would normally expect. I do things for my own reasons, not the world’s reasons, and that has always served me well. Anywhere there is too much information and too much complexity, I disregard it and instead rely on intuition.

I have started making a list of paranormal or intuitive events that have happened to me, and this year alone, I count 30 unexplainable events. Just one sample from the list: I once fell asleep thinking about shooting a gun. My girlfriend suddenly woke up and said, “I heard a gunshot!” I told her, “Yes, I was just thinking about shooting a gun for some reason.” She had telepathically picked up on my imagination because she was asleep. Deep relaxation and sleep are highly receptive states to intuition and clairvoyance. Some of the items on my list are so out-of-this-world that I hesitate to write about them. People have shaken their heads in disbelief and dismissed these whole ideas just because some of my stories have been “too far out”. However, for intuitive people, the magical is a common everyday occurrence.

There are only two ways of having complete knowledge about something:

1. Examine it from hundreds of different viewpoints and study every single aspect and detail of it, or

2. Simply let go of mind and thought to receive and pick up intuitive knowing.

I love to read and study. I’ve read thousands of books on all sorts of topics. But I don’t have the time or attention to learn and study everything, so for all the rest, I rely either on outside experts or on intuition
- the universal data-bank of knowledge. You don’t have to know how a computer works in order to use it.

When you walk around town and look at someone, you can instantly pick up on who they are and what their life is about. When a path is not good for you; you instantly know it. Whether you follow your intuitive knowing or not is up to you, but ignoring this innate knowing is a mistake that comes with a price. And if you ask me, “How do I know whether this feeling I have is intuition?”It's already too late because you are thinking. In this case, clear your mind, relax, let go of everything you know and then look at the subject again, with no-mind. When you observe something without giving it any meaning, opinion, label, or judgment whatsoever, clear seeing returns.

On the difference between intuition and other definitions mentioned above: Spiritually speaking, clairvoyance, second sight, and sixth sense are psychic abilities that come from the “third eye” (the chakra located around the forehead), whereas intuition comes from the “higher-self” (the chakra located above the head). Discernment may be influenced by intuition, as much as it is influenced by knowledge and experience. Instinct is a lower-consciousness faculty that we share with animals. Many people use the word “instinct” when they actually mean intuition, as in, “Follow your instincts.” Instincts are impulses that come from the physical body. To put it bluntly, if your chakras in the sexual organs or your stomach are affected (“gut feeling”), you are going by instinct. Instinct is similar to intuition, but its source is different. Many will use the word “instinct” when they actually mean intuition.

The Difference Between Intuition and Projection
You’ve probably asked yourself whether certain feelings you have, are:
Paranoia or intuition? ( e.g. You have a bad feeling about someone.)
Desire or intuition? ( e.g. You think someone wants to get close to you.)
Jealousy or intuition? ( e.g. You think your spouse is having a secret affair.)
Wishful thinking or intuition? ( e.g. You think a certain investment will be good for you.)

Here’s the simple answer: When you’re in a positive or relaxed state, your hunches are mostly true (intuition). When you’re in a negative-state, caught-up in worry or strong desire, your “hunches” usually aren’t hunches, they’re emotion-based projections. For example, I once intuited that my girlfriend was text messaging in a flirtatious manner with another man. In fact, I intuitively knew that’s what she was doing. So how did I know this was what was happening? I knew it because I am normally not the jealous or emotionally needy type. If I were, I`d be suspicious of her flirting with other guys all the time. But it was the first time I felt as such, so I knew it was my intuition, not my lower emotions. I asked her about it, and sure enough she said, “Well yes! Wow! Your intuition is right! I feel caught in the act! I am text messaging with another guy, and it is getting flirtatious!” To a calm mind, nothing is hidden, everything is effortlessly apparent.

I recall a time when my supposed “intuition” was dead wrong. I had contracted a guy in India to help me solve a rather large problem. The man turned out to be a fraud and disappeared the instant he had secured my money. How could my “intuition” go so wrong? Well, it wasn’t intuition. My state in those days was actually one of desperation. I was desperately focused on a problem I wanted solved. Desperation is a quality of the body-mind, not of the higher-self. It blocks all intuition.

Through years of trial-and-error, you learn to tell the difference between information from the bodymind and the higher-self. I once entered a subway station and saw a guy standing there. I instantly felt a pang of dread in my heart. I “just knew” that this guy was trouble. On that hunch, I turned around and left the subway, opting to ride my bicycle instead. The next day, the guy was in the local newspaper for assaulting people in the subway! Intuition had spared me the experience.

I could tell that my fear was not projection or prejudice. Neither was it experience or knowledgebased. IN-tuition is something that just “comes IN” out of the blue, when you’re in a normal, balanced, attention-free, non-resistant, wakeful, pleasant, calm, and clear state. Projection or prejudice would have been in play, if I generally categorized people who looked a certain way as “dangerous”. If I did so, then I wouldn’t have been able to tell whether he was really dangerous because I labeled all people who looked like him that way. But since I don’t go around labeling people, and my mind is fairly open, the, “He is dangerous,” insight came from a higher source. An experience or knowledge-based reaction would have been in-play, if I saw him wielding a knife in front of people and spouting insults to the strangers in the subway. My idea that, “He is dangerous,” would then be based on prior experience or knowledge of erratic behavior – “postjudice” so-to-speak. Usually, we judge based on a mix of knowledge, experience, prejudice/projection, and intuition. But when the mind is completely calm, one is able to operate mostly on intuition – which delivers the most accurate data of all the options.

Here’s a scale from least accurate to most accurate perception:
Projection
Knowledge
Experience

Intuition
Previous experience or acquired knowledge can be helpful in judging situations, but it’s not always accurate because not all of the knowledge you have learned applies to the present. Intuition comes in, when you “forget everything you know”, and look at the situation as if seeing it for the first time. If I set you out on a lonely island, into an environment you know nothing about, intuition kicks in because you have no point-of-reference. Intuition is highly developed in children because they have little prior experience to base their decisions on.

Projection on the other hand, is just a biased reaction based on your own emotions and beliefs. For example, if I were to read a lot of books about serial killers, then everyone I see in the subway could be a potential serial killer, and my mind would look for “evidence” of such, and “see” potential danger in those around me. But if you have just read a book on sexual attraction, you might “see” signs of people being sexually attracted to you, even though they aren’t. If you get a hunch relating to something that is not already on your mind, you are most likely dealing with intuition.

When I get too emotionally involved in a thing–a business project for example–I tend to relax and release, in order to regain my intuitive faculty. For the same reason, I don’t watch much news. I read enough news articles to understand what’s going on in the world, but not so much that I get obsessed with the rollercoaster of projection, blame, and selective outrage that the news-media so much loves to wallow in. Distancing myself thusly, allows me to evaluate news-items from a more intuitive perspective and be able to spot things that an emotionally charged reader may not notice. The reason relationship-therapists are commonly successful is because they can view a conflict from a viewpoint that is not quite as involved, and make more accurate observations than a fighting couple. One would think that a couple knows more about their situation, but if they are only operating from projections, they see much less than the more subjective and calm therapist.

“How can I train my intuition?” people ask me. It is more a matter of un-learning things than learning new things. Intuition is not “done by you”, it’s something that happens without your conscious doing. Don’t take credit for it. In a recent phone session with a student, after having talked for an hour, I said, “The door in your room is light brown.” That was correct. Then I asked her to tell me what I was wearing. She said, “You are wearing something around your neck…or a highneck sweater.” And that was correct. What was going on here? Well, sitting together on the phone for an hour, we got a sense of each other, including each other's current environment. We had not seen each other's environments with our physical eyes, nonetheless we had an accurate intuitive perception of the general situation. But, and here is the big BUT: Had I started our session with the specific goal of remoteviewing or “intuition training”, it would not have worked as well.

Intuition is spontaneous, playful, and ego-less. It tends to fade away under expectations and mindscrutiny. “What is the difference between psychic clairvoyance and intuition, in this case?” the attentive reader might ask. Well, I admit that often the difference is not clear and does not really matter. My perception of her surroundings however, did not come from the forehead (third eye), it came from “out of the blue”. Telling the difference here is a matter of expertise, and I don’t expect the reader to grasp this yet.

I recently learned from a friend of mine, that something I had spontaneously said in his presence, while at a party, had caused him great upheaval and soul-searching. I had no idea this was the case. It was something that I had spontaneously blurted out, without thought. There were two gorgeous blonde twins at this party, and I said, in passing, “You know what they say about twins: One of them is always prettier.” It was not something meant in an offensive way, nor was there the intention to flirt. It was just something silly that came up. I had assumed it was a funny thing to say. Little did I know (until the friend told me), that the statement sparked hours of discussion and self-examination between the two ladies. They really had been carrying around this issue, and it was something they needed to let go of. In fact, intuition is so spontaneous, honest, real, and straightforward, that I now sometimes censor it before blurting it out.

I sometimes joke that the increase of intuitive capabilities may lead to a life of self-censorship. The reason is, you may experience heightened awareness of things, but that doesn’t mean the other is ready or willing to be aware of them. However, it is the direction that we–humankind–are heading towards: A world in which everyone spontaneously tells the truth. And that shall ultimately, set us free.

Stop Trying so Hard
Intuition never “tries hard”. If you try too hard at something, it’s because you don’t really believe it.

The other day I was in a shop purchasing my first “ebike”. It looks just like a normal bike, except it’s actually electronic; it can go all by itself. I got into a conversation with an elderly guy, who examined my new bike and said to me, “That’s cheating. I believe that one should suffer hard to make progress. If I were out bike riding, I`d be concerned about what other cyclists think when I'm going uphill. It`s like I`d be having an unfair advantage. They're going through all this struggle, while I`m just cruising up the hill.”.

The guy's attitude summarized the wide-spread mental limitation that “trying hard” is the key to success. I have found this philosophy to be true only if one is unfamiliar with the power of mind and spirit. At higher awareness levels, it’s entirely untrue. If you have programmed your subconscious with good beliefs, you no longer need to “try hard” to succeed. Positive inner programming regulates most everything. “Trying hard” is merely a compensation for maladjusted inner beliefs. Yes, you may succeed when you “try hard and even harder”, but you could have also succeeded with much less effort had you first adjusted your emotions…which are your energy vibrations…which magnetically attract the right circumstances into your life. Case in point: His face looked exhausted. Mine looked fresh. He said he couldn’t afford the ebike anyway; I could. My own health and wealth has nothing to do with hard work. It has everything to do however, with consciously adjusting my thoughts and emotions.

Another limiting belief apparent in his words, was about other people's envy. Succeeding BIG, without much effort, carries a stigma in society. People get angry that you don’t suffer like they do. But deep down inside, they would actually love if you did. So don’t worry whether others approve of your success or not. Even if they are angry at you (It's not really you they are angry at.), they will hopefully learn by your example and eventually improve.

In the first days of enjoying my ebike, I discovered that it’s untrue that it “makes you lazy”, as that man seemed to believe. I consciously chose to turn off the electronic boost many times, and ride it manually. I was able to cover vast distances with this bike…something I wouldn’t have done with a normal bike. Rather than seeing it as “a bicycle that cheats”, I saw it as, a motorbike that allows me to pedal and workout if I choose to. The device allowed for more options. Rather than it causing me to move less, I move more because I choose it over a car in the city.

Pushing a boat out to sea requires some initial effort. After that, it requires a little steering, but no more pushing. People generally try too hard at most things. That’s why they may succeed in what they focus on, but it will take longer. Actually, only amateurs of weak confidence try too hard. If you feel confident about something, you don’t try so hard.

For example, if you are trying really hard to convince someone of something, it’s because deep down you don’t really believe it either. If you are trying really hard not to make mistakes, it’s because deep down you are afraid of making them. If you are trying really hard to look good, it’s because deep down you think you don’t look good. If you are trying really hard to control your thoughts, it’s because you don’t control your thoughts. If you try too hard to impress someone, you have made external reality the source of relief. If you are trying really hard to make money, it’s because you believe yourself to be poor – and will remain so due to your belief. If you are trying really hard to lose weight, your weight loss won’t be permanent. There will be a relapse. Some things on the other hand, that require no super-effort, are so because they feel normal and natural to you.

Which areas of your life are you trying too hard in? And if you look a little more deeply, can you sense the negative beliefs behind them? Behind those negative beliefs there are negative emotions. You may not feel the emotions clearly anymore because they are suppressed. Then, you no longer feel the fear, shame, or guilt, you just feel a vague tension. But as you get in touch with and observe your negative thoughts, they may arise again. Then, you just feel them and relax into them, and do some emotional clearing.

When I teach this idea, some have a hard time accepting it (They are trying too hard to figure it out.). They`ll exclaim, "But then I`ll become lazy!" But that’s not true. Laziness is usually just a reaction to trying too hard. Laziness is the opposite polarity. Trying too hard leads to unnecessary exhaustion, the exhaustion leads to laziness, and the laziness leads to trying too hard again. It’s a negative cycle. Consistent but gentle and incremental improvement works better than occasional bursts of “trying hard”. A life guided by intuition does not “try hard”. Instead, the correct path of action becomes apparent effortlessly.

Which Inner Voice Is True?

We have many contradictory voices in our head. People ask, “ Which one is right?” “Which one is wrong?” The mind tends to see things in binary terms of “do and don’t” or “should and shouldn’t”. Consciousness on the other hand, has a broader perspective. It sees the upside and downside of any path, as well as seeing more than only two options.

Among the voices inside you, there is someone concerned about your health, (“Lose weight! Don't smoke! Go exercise!"), someone concerned about your security, finances and career, (“Stop meditating all day! Get up and contribute you lazy slob!”), someone concerned about your social life, (“Chill out man. It’s not about doing, it’s about being. Hang out with your friends! Have a smoke!”), an inner parent who judges and criticizes you all the time, (“You shouldn’t, mustn’t, can't…”), someone concerned about your spirituality, (“Why not meditate more? Why do you only pray when you are in trouble?”), etc. These voices often contradict each other; they like to argue. When the inner fighting becomes unbearable, instead of looking for the inner boss, people tend to look outside themselves for absolute answers and rules. Then some guru or religion, corporation or government (or any other parent-substitute) provides absolute statements and guidelines. This tends to make people feel safe and secure, while the contradictory voices in their head relax. It’s easier to just follow what someone says than take responsibility and make one's own choices. This outside source finally answers their “do and don’t” or “should and shouldn’t” questions. Living in this way is certainly easier, but it’s not truly empowering. Yes, it is more empowering than being a victim to your inner contradictions. But whether you are run by an outside source or run by these inner voices, it’s still something running your life rather than you defining, creating, and choosing it.

Where do all these inner-voices and personas come from? They come from childhood, where all sorts of information from all sorts of sources was simply programmed in. Not all of that information is false or unreliable; some of it is good. But some of it is also garbage. How can you tell which is which? If an innervoice comes from the lower emotions–fear, pain, shame, guilt, anger–it’s an untrue inner-voice. If it comes from courage, integrity, or love, it’s true.

So who is the Boss? The Boss is the one who is not identified with any of these personas. He can observe all the identities from outside. If you have the identity of, “I am a bad person,” then a part of you will try to prove that you are bad, and a part of you will try to prove that you are good. But neither of these are the Boss. The Boss calmly observes all these voices. When you can see all these voices, you are being the Boss. When you cannot see them, it's because you have identified with them. You believe you ARE these mindvoices.

You can check whether you are the Boss right now. Are you trying to “get” this book and worried about “doing it right” and “making no mistakes”? (That’s not you, that’s the scared inner-child persona. The real you is fine with making mistakes.) Are you wondering whether this book is worth your time? (That’s not you, that’s the career and finance persona. The real you is not worried about time.) Are you critical because all of this seems like too much work? (That’s not you, that's the social life persona. The real you is not overwhelmed by work.) Are you bored by this information? (That’s not you, that’s your bored persona. The real you is not concerned about boredom.) Are you labeling this article by what you already know and by what’s new? (That’s not you, that’s the categorizing self.)

The Boss is mostly an observer and decider. The Boss is not reactive, not analyzing, not defining, not justifying, not defending. The Boss will calmly hear the opinions of all of these personas but will not instantly act upon them. He may or may not make a decision based on those opinions. The Boss sees numerous options and possibilities, and he may or may not choose one. The Boss does not ask anyone, “Should I?” or "Shouldn’t I?” He does not think in binary terms as in, “Is this the correct way of living, or is that the correct way of living?” Fact is, sometimes option A is correct, sometimes option B is correct, and sometimes neither is correct.

Trying to apply option A to everything is a recipe for suffering because life is not fixed; it flows and changes. Being mostly an observer does not mean that the Boss is always passive, never takes a stance, or never goes into action. But his stances and actions come from a place more serene, so that once he makes a decision, he is committed to it 100%, not halfheartedly. Half-heartedness is what allows all these contradictory inner voices to get out of hand. Where there is no Boss present to make clear decisions, attention is easily swayed here and there. The Boss operates mostly on pure intuition.

When you don’t base your present-time choices on past experiences, external pressures, or mindvoices, what’s left? I practice “being the Boss” regularly. An example: At my last seminar, a student asked me why I wasn’t using any of the prepared slides I had used in my previous seminars, or as found in their booklet of course-materials. The reason was, that in this particular seminar I improvised from the present moment, instead of basing the seminar on my past experiences, my own inner voices, or others' expectations. Having let go of all past conceptualization, I went with what came up spontaneously and intuitively. This is actually the best and most effective way of doing things….unless you are insecure, unless you are not the Boss, unless you are operating from one of your personas instead of your higher-self. In those cases, good preparation and being experienced will help you succeed. Otherwise, if you have found a more true inner-self, beyond all those voices, you need nothing to hang on to, and things flow out effortlessly and surprisingly.

2
INTERVENTION FROM HIGHER SOURCES

What follows are inspiring real-life stories of higher-source intervention, paranormal events, and intuition, from my own life and the lives of readers and students who have written to me. They are reminders that higher realities pervade normal, everyday life, continuously.

The Prophetic Dream That Prevented Death

This happened to me a few years ago. I was about to cross the street at a green light, when I had a strange feeling, stopped, and stepped back; not crossing the street. At that very moment, a speeding car coming from around the corner, hit the brakes for the red light. Had I continued to walk, I would probably be dead right now. The interesting part is regarding what caused my “strange feeling”: A few nights before, I had a nightmare in which I died. In that nightmare, I lost family and friends after going to a BMW-Dealer and test-driving a BMW. I crashed the car with people in it. When I woke up, I was drenched in sweat, wondering just what on earth had happened. Nightmares are not common to me, much less ones this vivid.

Ten seconds before crossing that fateful street, I was listening to a message on my phone. It was a casting agency that wanted to book me for a TV commercial for BMW. As I listened to the message, I remembered the nightmare, and all my inner warning bells went off. “BMW! My dream predicted this! That’s the signal that I’m in danger!”, I thought to myself. It was then that I decided to step back from the street and not cross to the other side. A few seconds later the crash would have happened. That nightmare saved my life.

Wake Up Call

Every few years I hear a female voice, loud and clear, wake me up or call me to attention. The voice is pleasant, but it sounds like it is “coming through”; filtered through a backward and slow-motion voiceeffect. (There is a distinct air-swooshing sound often heard with filtered sound effects.) The voice most commonly occurs between waking and sleeping – when I’m in an altered state – but has also been heard in broad daylight. Unlike a psychotic state, where one may hear a voice/s, this voice only comes up in very important instances, that could be life changing.

Once, I was scheduled to take a flight from an island back home, and it was fairly important that I did so. For some reason, my alarm clock had not gone off, so one hour later a female voice said, “Wake up!”, at least twice. Had the voice not woke me up, I would have certainly missed my flight - which would have had several accumulating consequences, many of, which I`m probably quite unaware of.

Another instance was on a night drive. It was 4 o`clock in the morning, and I had been driving since the afternoon. I was falling asleep behind the steering wheel, while falsely believing I was still in control of the car. The voice manifested and said “He–llo!”, but with a humorous intonation on the second syllable of the word, as if to lovingly coax me into more awareness. Interestingly, the voice never says more than one exclamation, as if she is hesitant about intervening, or does not want me to become too aware of her guidance. After her wake-up call, I immediately woke back up and steered the car to the next gas station for a nap.

I’ve consciously heard this voice about seven times in my life until now. It will come up for a brief second, then disappear for another few years. I think this voice is a higher-self aspect (what others might call a “soul guide” or a “guardian angel”), making sure I don’t steer too far off the course my soul set for this life.

Heartbeat

This happened at a time when I was very much in love with a certain woman. We had finished our goodnight phone call, and I was slowly falling asleep, or so I thought. After a couple of minutes my heart began racing, and I had no idea why. I turned on the lights to check if there was anything wrong or spooky about the hotel room I was in. I got some water and tried walking around a little, but my heart would not stop racing. I tried breathing and meditating, but my heart continued to beat unusually fast. I had never experienced this before, and I couldn’t explain it.

The next day, my girlfriend revealed to me that she had spent the whole night on the phone with her ex-boyfriend. He wanted her back, and had been crying to her on the phone. She felt sorry for him and stayed with him for hours. It struck me as odd, but somehow my body must have reacted to her ex-boyfriend’s attempt to win her heart. I once again learned that even if the mind has no clue what is going on, one’s overall being always knows.

Lying in The Grass

My telepathic connection to the same girlfriend first revealed itself one day, when I was lying in the grass. In front of me there was a river. Behind me there was a theater in which a song by the artist Enya was being played. The song was called “Only Time”. While on the phone with my girlfriend later that day, she said that at yoga class, they had played the song “Only Time” while she was meditating. Instead of emptying her mind, an image came to her that she was lying in the grass with me behind a theater. It would be the first of many telepathic incidents between us.

Flight Premonition
This story was sent in by a reader:

I have had periods in my life when my intuition kicks into high gear for short periods of time. Usually for a number of weeks, and often times in superfluous, seemingly pointless ways, i.e. knowing what’s about to cross my path of vision a couple of seconds before it occurs. In general, when in that state, however it manifests itself, things begin to feel like they are sort ‘popping into my mind’, in a slightly sped up way.

One time while experiencing a high intuition period, I was working in Italy. The way it was manifesting was, that as things popped into my mind, I would blurt them out to whomever I was focused on — i.e., a man sitting at table next to me at a café; I found myself staring at his perfectly normal looking left arm and suddenly asking him, “What is in it?” To both of our surprise, he answered, “Metal screws…” There were other times where it was less comfortable for the person being questioned, as once when I found myself suddenly asking someone I was speaking with to, “Tell me about your grandmother and the kittens.” What emerged, was a sad story he had never told anyone and was ashamed of .

During this time, my future husband was due to travel and visit me. As I was working for an extended period, my employer had arranged for extra airline tickets as part of my compensation; so travel arrangements were being made through the office. As the date for his travel got closer- over the course of about a week- I kept trying to get him to fly one day later. This would happen at night, after I had finished work, had dinner and was in bed. I had no legitimate reason to insist he travel one day later, and it was a great inconvenience for him to try to accommodate this. Every night, I would rant at him, with various reasons he could easily ignore, as they made no sense, and would hang up on him, then go right to sleep.

In the mornings, I would wake-up and be appalled at my behavior. I told one of my co-workers what I was doing, and how I couldn’t believe I was carrying on like that. Nevertheless, every night as the travel day approached, I did the same thing in the same irrational manner. It got so extreme, that two days before he was due to fly, I called my employer's office in Los Angeles, threatening to quit if they did not change his ticket to one day later. This was after screaming at my future husband’s assistant for 10 minutes (wildly out of character and inappropriate). I was truly appalled at my behavior. The next day and once again, reported to my co-worker what I had done the night before. I was so remorseful, that I was trying to arrange for flowers to be delivered to the two women I had harangued and threatened, only to find myself, once again, that next night, raging at my spouse to be, when he said, “Look, I changed the ticket! I am flying the next day!” I calmed down, told him I loved him, and went right to sleep. That was one day after TWA flight 800 exploded off the coast off New York. He would have been sitting almost exactly in the seat where the explosion was estimated to have occurred. He still has the boarding pass for that tragic date... I have learned to be patient and grateful during periods of high intuition, no matter how inane or trivial it may seem when it manifests.

Invisible Rescue

At the age of 15, my friends and I used to swim in a white-water river with strong currents, that were normally the domain of kayaks. This was highly dangerous and forbidden, but we managed to keep our little “sports” activity a secret. At one point we got a little carried away, and started sliding through the shafts of a hydraulic power plant, into the whirling waters on the other side of the facility. I knew I overdid it, when one day I got pulled into a suction or whirl, from which it seemed I could not escape. No matter how hard I tried, I could not reach the ledge or any other place in the current. I gasped, swallowed water, and tried surfacing, but I was losing power. I had been in these waters many times before, but had always known to avoid this particular area because of its suction. This time I slid through the shaft in a manner that was unavoidable. And now, I was drowning, and I knew it.

My life flashed before my eyes; different pictures and scenes, and I felt how much I cherished life, even though I may not have realized it before. None of my friends were around. The one I had swam with was already a quarter of a mile ahead. In my last moments, I directed my attention toward a higher power and gasped, “Alright, I really, really need some help here. I promise never to swim here again. I can’t make it out of here alone, please help me. Help me!”In that instant of agony, a luminous presence and peacefulness engulfed me. I was still drowning, but I was no longer panicking. I felt completely at ease. I stopped struggling against the current and my attention softened; I noticed my surroundings again. The invisible force began moving my entire body out of the whirl and toward the ledge, where I calmly grabbed it and pulled myself up; back to dry land.

Visitor From Beyond
This story was sent by a reader:

As a young boy, I was in the hospital for two weeks. I don’t remember the exact illness I had back then, I only remember that I enjoyed my time there and that the following incident occurred:

There was another boy in the room, who was much worse off than me. He would die in the middle of the night in a few days. Sometimes his parents came to visit, and someone who I thought was his grandfather, would also stop by. The reason I thought it was his grandfather was because the boy said it was. Two days before he died, his parents gave their last visit; where they told the boy that hisgrandfather had died ten years ago and that he was "making things up". They then looked over at me quizzically, as if wondering whether I had seen an old man come visit too. Had they bothered to ask me, I’d have told them I did see the old man. His parents seemed to lack curiosity, dismissing their son’s claim of his grandfather's visits.

He seemed to be a warm-hearted old man. Once the boy died, he was silently removed from my room, and I never saw any of these people again. However, I later read that it is not uncommon for someone who is dying, to be visited by people nobody else in physical reality seems to be aware of. Some of them seem to be strangers, some seem to be relatives. The whole event, including the death of someone lying nearby, and the kindness of the old man (as opposed to the strange coldness of his parents), made quite an impression on my young mind.

Sudden Relocation
This is another account sent in by a reader:

It happened during the summer, when I was about four or five. I was at the lake with my family. There was a play area with a big playhouse; from which you could slide down a playground slide. I decided to not climb on the playhouse from the ladder, but to go up by the handrails of each floor. When I reached the last floor, which was about 19 feet high, someone stepped on my fingers; so that I lost grip and fell. I just remember that I had started to fall and the next thing I knew, I was sitting in the grass in front of the playhouse. Until today, I have no memory of the"falling proces". I often asked myself if it really happened, but I am 100% sure I climbed up that playhouse, and I know for sure I was sitting on the grass.

Intuition Averts an Accident

We were on our way to Florida for a vacation, when I had this urge to drive back to our house and move my laptop to another room. It sounded silly at the time, and my wife and I got into a fight over it because we were already 80 miles down the road. My entire business is stored on that laptop, and I had this feeling that there was something wrong with it being in the room it sat in. I wasn’t taking any chances. We arrived back home, and I brought the laptop to the bedroom.

When we returned two weeks later, a storm had caused a tree to collapse into the glass roof above my office; right around the area where the laptop was before I moved it. Since I hadn’t backed up any of my files (Big mistake!), all my work would have been lost. My wife was making fun of me about the laptop on our way back home, but when we arrived; she fell silent. I wasn’t too shocked about it because I’ve often had these premonitions about things. The roof and the desk were broken, but our insurance covered the damage. I’m grateful for having this gift of intuition, that is just there when really needed.

Till The End Of Time
This story was also sent in by a reader:

The last weeks have been tough because a lot of things have been going wrong in my business. When I went to bed the other night, I was feeling restless and burdened. I closed my eyes and tried to calm down, but couldn’t. There was a weight on my chest. So I tried one of your exercises; I concentrated on friends and foes, wishing them well, and sending them love and peace. Tears welled up in my eyes, and some of the weight was released off my chest. I then did something uncharacteristic of me – I prayed. You write that I don’t have to be religious to get prayers answered, so I thanked God for the people in my life, and requested to be sent a nice dream for the night. Then I fell asleep, and had one of the best dreams I can remember in a long time.

The dream took me to my early teenage days, and happy times I was having with a good friend. After that, I somehow dreamt that I was meeting him in present time (our ways parted 15 years ago), and I asked him, “Remember our favorite song?” And he did remember it. We were around 13 or 14 when he bought an album called Faith by George Michael. Our favorite song from it was called “Father Figure”, and together we sang it in the dream. It went something like, "I will be your father figure, put your tiny hand in mine, I will be your preacher teacher, anything you have in mind, I will be your father figure, I have had enough of crime, I will be the one who loves you, till the end of time". We kept singing it, and I woke up with the song in my head. Suddenly, it became clear to me that the song was an answer to my prayer.

I had not prayed in years, and had not dreamed that nicely in a long time. The dream was telling me that I not only have a good friend that I had forgotten about, but that he was also a "father figure", a preacher, and a teacher, and that he would love me until the end of time.

Today, I feel more awake. I haven’t felt like this in a long time. Stuff in my job seems to be sorting itself out. And if this wasn’t miracle enough – get this – the song was playing on the radio while I was getting groceries. How likely is that? I think it’s a song from the 80s, and today, in 2011, it just happens to be playing when I turned on the radio.

Intuitively Locating People

Sometimes, while traveling with people, I like to experiment with meeting them without the use of a location, time, or pre-arrangement. I was walking through Milan, Italy with a girlfriend, and we arranged to part ways for two hours, so that she could do some private shopping. When she asked where we would meet again later, I explained the concept of finding each other telepathically to her, and she reluctantly agreed. No specific place was agreed upon, only a rough time-frame of two to three hours later. I said, “Just trust fully that we will meet, and we will.” As I did not have a phone with me at the time, it made the exercise even more interesting. Sure enough, we did meet almost three hours later, after she had given-up looking for me.

We met in a store about half a mile away from the place we had originally departed. The likelihood of that, in a city of millions, is slim. How does it occur? Through inner/energy attraction only. I held her in mind throughout, and that’show we found each other. I have attempted this experiment several times. It has not always worked, but the times it has worked goes beyond any statistical probability…into the miraculous.

The Whole Room Lit Up

A former neighbor of mine told me that he knew when his father died before he got a call from the hospital. At the time of his father's death, he lie awake in his bedroom, when suddenly the whole room lit up in a blazing light for about five seconds. He told me the light had no specific source, nor were there any cars outside or other noises around. It was a soft and peaceful light, and he was convinced it was his father saying goodbye to him.

Fifteen minutes after the event, the hospital called him reporting his father's death. He had to bite his tongue not to say, “I know.” There was no grief or shock, just the peaceful realization that his father was alive and well “on the other side”. Even in the weeks and months thereafter, there were no feelings of sadness as there had been leading up to his death. A few months later, he remembered that he and his father had once, half-jokingly, arranged to signal the other, when one of them died. Both believed in an afterlife and had said, “Whoever dies first, gives the other a sign that he is still there. Deal?” This arrangement had been made more than 20 years before he died, and it was apparently remembered by his father upon leaving his body.

Into the Great Wide Open

When I was a teenager, I decided to go traveling through Europe with hardly any money and by bicycle. My spirit longed for adventure. So, my friend and I packed some t-shirts, jeans, and sleeping bags, got on our bikes, and just rode off into the great wide open; into the unknown. The uncertainty this created brought-up a sense of freedom and excitement. How would we fare without money? What would happen along the way?

Sometimes we slept out in an open field, at other times, in campgrounds. And sometimes we were invited to stay overnight in someone's home. Because of our trusting natures, (Even at this young age, we both believed in positive thought, and in always being provided for.), we were able to travel through four countries (Germany, Austria, Italy, & Switzerland), at the equivalent cost of $100. When people heard what we were doing, they kept inviting us over for free food, free lodging, free bike repairs, free showers etc. On this ride, everything was suddenly available for free. Out of nowhere, people appeared to help us.

It was August, and for the most part, warm, but there were some nights that got really chilly. One such evening, the temperature had fallen to a point where our t-shirts and sleeping bags would no longer be enough to keep us warm. This was in Northern Italy, and we were thoroughly exhausted from a day's ride. We just walked-up to a house, and in our youthful naivety, rang the doorbell and said, “Hello, we are backpackers riding through Europe, and we are looking for a place to spend the night.” Without hesitation, as if by magic wand, the elderly lady occupant let us in, gave us beds in her guestroom, and even made breakfast for us in the morning…although she hardly spoke any English. I explained to my friend, “My higher-self has our backs. We will always be provided for.” And so it was.

By the time we got from Italy back northwards into Switzerland, our money had run out…completely. We were penniless. There was a vending machine, but I did not even have the coins to buy something to drink. We were incredibly thirsty. Right then and there my friend spotted a mountain stream of fresh cold water. I had never drunk “real” water before, and it was quite tasty and digestible. Our thirst was deliciously quenched right at the moment we most needed it. It was in fact so good, that we went to get empty bottles at a small grocery store in the valley (which they gave to us freely), and filled them up for our trip. This we repeated a few times throughout our travels. And people still invited us for food and lodging everywhere we went. Not always of course, in which cases we simply slept outside under a fantastic ocean of stars.

As we left this mountainous region, our water supply was again getting low. At this point, my friend found the equivalent of a $50 bill on the street. We realized that when setting out into the unknown with a spirit of trust, the miraculous is one's constant companion. The $50 was enough for drinks to see us home. We arrived exhausted but exuberant, with the experiential knowledge (which is the only true knowledge), that we would never be short of supplies, if we let go of fear.

Paranormal Detective
The worst paranormal insight I ever had is as follows:

I take my bike to the woods quite often. At one time, I drove past a man who was standing on the side of a bike path. Looking at him I got the chills. I “just knew” there was something terribly wrong going on with him. I had to stop my bike because I had flashes of child molestation and subsequent murder pass through my mind. I felt sick to my stomach just looking at the guy's face. Without hesitation, I opened my phone and called the police. Surprising myself, I reported a murder at the location I had just passed. This was entirely uncharacteristic for me because I`m not the excitable or paranoid type, and I had no real evidence whatsoever that any such thing had occurred. But I was right. It had occurred. The police found the dead body of a child, and arrested the man on the same day based-on my description. When they asked how I knew she had been murdered, I lied and said I witnessed the man beside the dead body. In retrospect, I would not ascribe this event to “intuition” ("higher-self") but rather, to psychic insight (third-eye). It was the only time in my life I've received insight of something bad happening.

As a general rule of the thumb, psychic ability is frequently associated with knowledge of darker realities, whereas intuition is mostly concerned with that which is light and joyful. Intuition is sometimes felt at the top of the head or in the chest, whereas psychic data is often felt in the forehead. Hence, police officers usually employ psychics rather than intuitives, when they seek outside paranormal assistance.

Another indicator of psychic perception is the fact that I had “thought flashes” of what had happened; rather than feelings. Of course, the light/dark comparison is only a general rule. There are exceptions. I once had the psychic “flash” that a student of mine was pregnant (which was her greatest wish). This sense was accompanied by a pressure in my forehead and an inner “seeing” of her baby. In this case, the psychic data referred to a positive reality. But more often, it refers to impending death, illness, or tragedy. This is why I prefer to write a book on intuition rather than psychic ability – even if they are sometimes hard to differentiate. A Protective Glow

I was about 16 years old, and sitting in the backseat of a car. There were five of us in the car, and we were all drunk. It was around 3 o’clock in the morning, and we were driving from a party to an old defunct airport, that was always covered in ice in the winter. Our intention was to slide around on the ice with the car on the runway. It did not feel right to me, not because of the activity, but because the car belonged to the driver's dad, who probably wouldn't fancy his car being flung around an icy road. I communicated my concern, but it was drowned out in drunken jokes.

At one point, there was a hill of snow we were racing toward; intending to jump the hill, obviously inspired by movies, yet hopelessly naive. The car flew into the air and turned around. Hanging in the air was like slow motion to me, and I felt a strange calm and warmth enter my body, as if there was a protective shield around me. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought I noticed a shining glow as well. The car crashed down onto the ice; breaking the neck of the guy beside me and seriously injuring both the driver, whose face was covered in blood, and the person beside him, who jammed his leg. The father's car was totalled. I was the only person who remained completely unscathed.

I got out of the car and calmly walked to a telephone booth half a mile away to call an ambulance. The calm I felt was not the calm of someone in a state of shock or denial. It was the calm of knowing there was a protective force watching over me. I attribute this protective force to my belief in guardian angels or similar higher forces. Strangely enough, it was not the first teenage car accident I was involved in, and not even the first such incident at an old defunct airport full of ice! But it was the last because I had learned my lesson, and going forward, chose wisely who I rode in a car with.

Birds of a Feather, Flock Together

A student of mine told me of stories surrounding how he and his girlfriend (and future wife) always called each other “bird”, when text messaging with each other. They lived in two different countries, in a very long distance relationship, and could not be with each other yet. Eventually, they received numerous “signs” that were related to birds. He recalled that at their first private meeting, halfway from their home countries, they met in a hotel called The Nightingale. Another time, while she meditated on him and visualized being with him soon, a bird's feather floated down from her ceiling onto her bed, even though the windows were closed. He too found a bird's feather in his bedroom, one day while worried about her. Then, when he came home, he found a dead bird on his front doorstep. When he checked his emails, he found that her planned trip to him had been cancelled on that same day, due to dire circumstances. The theme of birds and feathers followed them throughout their long-distance relationship. They now, finally, live together.

A Knock on the Door

I had lived in separation from my ex-wife for a whole month. One night, I stood at her front door, ready to step back into her life. All I had to do was knock. Then I decided against it, and was just about to leave, when she opened the door. We were both quite surprised. “Why did you open?” I asked. “I heard you knock,” she responded. “I didn’t knock,” I insisted. “Well of course you did. Who else would have knocked?” she replied. She wouldn’t believe that I hadn’t knocked, so I let it go. But I knew that “something” had knocked in my stead, or at least made her think there was a knock. That “something” apparently wanted us to get back together, and we did get back together for a few more years.

The Stock Market

My ex-wife had countless books about the stock market and trading. She studied it meticulously. I, on the other hand, knew nothing about it. I simply told her “yes” or “no”, regarding a particular stock or company. My personal estimations in these matters never really failed. As an intuitive person, it seems easy for me to see whether the value of a share will go up or down. Those biased by greed and expectation, don’t see the same as I do. Because I don’t care much about stocks and have no personal vested interest in them; I can “read their energy” fairly easily.

In 1993, when AOL was at its very height I said, “AOL won’t last beyond the year 2000.” It was just something that was obvious to me based on current trends. “Nokia will go out of business within 10 years,” I said in the year 2002, when it was at its height. In the same year I said, “Google will be around for a long time.” At the very start of Amazon.com, I told my wife to put her money there. She did, and is happy that she did.

Having lunch with my former girlfriend at the top of World Trade Center in the year 2000 I said, “Someday they are going to attack this building. It’s a symbol for the center of the world.” Please don’t ask me how I know. In a deeply calm state, things are just apparent. Consciousness exists outside of time and space, and can sense the direction in which things are headed.

Years ago, there was all this hype about the year 2012, and people were asking me about the dramatic changes that might occur by that year. I kept telling them, “No dramatic shifts will occur in 2012,” and they kept telling me how clueless I was. I even wrote an article denying any special significance to 2012, in 2010. It can be found on my website. I also predicted as far back as the 1990s, that all these internet companies would be used by the NSA to spy on people. It was obvious. These things are obvious even without knowing the internal machinations of AOL, Nokia, or the NSA. They can be felt without being understood.

What I am trying to say here is: If your predictions regularly come true; you know that you are intuitive and properly applying this precious gift. If your predictions regularly fail; you are living from something other than intuition…from the mind perhaps, or from fear. I could list hundreds of correct predictions, but then I'd be venturing into the realm of bragging. When one starts bragging about this; the ability gets lost. Why? Because bragging is of the mind, whereas intuition is above the mind.

3
HOW TO DISCERN TRUTH

Pure truth needs no protecting, defending, or convincing. It is self-evident, self-revealing, and universal. Pure truth requires no persuasion, marketing, polemics, ideology, or repeating. And it is received as instant flashes of intuition, by everyone.

Someone says something that you disagree with. Instead of simply acknowledging a difference in opinion, you get extremely angry. If that is the case, it is because you are defending something you do not believe deep down, but something you were conditioned to believe. Some of it might be true. But that’s how to indoctrinate people; by adding a few seeds of truth to a lie so that’s its more appealing. Nobody would believe a complete lie. When someone questions an opinion you hold, and you get really angry, then look within. Whatever belief you are angrily defending must be at least partially false, no matter how long you have cherished it. If it were really true, you would not feel the need to defend it. To find more truth, allow your mind to become more humble regarding what you think is true.

The day I started writing this chapter, this gem from the Bible landed in my email inbox:

“Trust God with all your heart, and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”

– Proverbs 3:5-7

This verse is a reminder that the knowledge of the human mind is limited in scope. The mind can only communicate what it has recorded throughout life. Some of that information is universally true. Some of that information is only true in a certain perspective or context. And some of that information is false. The mind has difficulty admitting it was wrong about something, which makes it even more prone to error.

One reliable way to find out what is true vs. what is not, is to look at its effects. There is so much information flying around these days, it may become challenging to discern truth from falsehood. My job as a life-coach is to help people discern for the benefit of their well-being and effectiveness. For this purpose, I have to wade through many layers of falsehood to find the gems of truth. One method I use to find that out, is to ask:

Does it work?

Does it universally work? This is the true scientific stance and simplifies everything. The saying, “By their fruits you shall know them,” indicates that at first sight, we may not be aware of whether something is good and true. But that it becomes more obvious over time, by the results being created. If your intuition is intact, you may know the level of truth in something long before it shows. You may say, “I have a funny feeling about this,” and it may turn out that you were right much later. We are often wiser after the fact.

The more in-tune you are with the universe, the easier it is to give early diagnosis as to whether or not something will work. But if you are blinded by misemotion, you will not see truth and fall for anything. One way to regain clarity is by looking at something with the following attitude:

“I let go of trying to understand this, and allow the universe to reveal its meaning.”

Is the person you just met a good partner for you? If you are too full of ideas and presuppositions, you will not be able to see it. Therefore:

“I let go of trying to understand this, and allow the universe to reveal its meaning.”

Is the business deal you are about to make something that will contribute to the prosperity of all involved? If you are too invested in the project, you will not see clearly. Therefore:

“I let go of trying to understand this, and allow the universe to reveal its meaning.”
Is this book I am reading good for me?
“I let go of trying to understand this, and allow the universe to reveal its meaning.”

Which decision should I make? The mind does not see the bigger picture of life, only the soul does. The decision you think is right, may not be the decision that is right from a bigger perspective.

You know that your mind is not reliable when you lose a loved one and think it is “the biggest tragedy ever”, only to find yourself one year later in a much, much better relationship. The mind was convinced that losing that person was bad. But that was a falsehood, as you see one year after the event. But if you are silent and open to intuition, you can already see the truth today.

“I let go of trying to understand this, and allow the universe to reveal its meaning.”

Some people teach that you should “let feelings be your guide”. This is, in my view, inaccurate advice. It should read, “Let your innermost intuition be your guide,” not your day-to-day surface-feelings. Your innermost intuition arises when you are silent and direct your attention to your higher-self, the universe, or that which is outside the limited scope of the mind. (The mind only knows what it has recorded throughout life.)

Simplicity

Intuition shines through when excess baggage is removed. Simplicity is baggage free. That is one of my top success formulas. When you drop over-thinking and micro-controlling, and just trust that life will figure most things out for you, you become calm and life becomes simple.

Do you have to read dozens of books on how the stock-market works before buying stock? No, you just need to know whether a company is going up or down. Simple. Simple! Do you disagree? Then maybe that’s because you have had “bad experiences” with the stock market, and now believe you have to control, plan, and prepare everything meticulously, so that you are not “burnt” again. But then, you are approaching the whole thing from a fear-mindset, so it’s going to go south again.

Does the tax form look inscrutable to you? Well, actually they are just asking what you made and spent. Simple. All this complexity surrounding taxation is just smoke and mirrors.

Do you need to learn strange scripts and languages in order to build a website? No. It's only a matter of writing text and putting up pictures. Simple. Anyone who can write an email, can also make a website.

But what about marketing for your website? That’s simple too. There must be millions of books and sites about marketing, but you don’t need any of them if you follow these marketing steps: Step 1: Offer something people want. Oh, excuse me…it’s only one step! Could it really be that simple? Don’t you need to visit marketing-seminars, special retreats, onlinecourses, get a marketing consultant, and all that jazz? No. Unless you are offering things people don’t want. That’s when you need a lot of marketing. But if your product/service is valuable to others, you don’t need marketing. It sells itself. Truly, most of the “marketing advice” I have received from people, I rejected because it's too complex, too pretentious, too obnoxious. Some, for example, have “strongly recommended” that I send out an email newsletter every day, or at least every week. How obnoxious would that be? If that kind of “marketing” works, then it's only for people who like being brainwashed. So, I keep my marketing plan simple: Make stuff that you like and others like. End of story.

Do you need to process hundreds of traumatic incidents and past lives in order to feel well today? No, all you need is to become present. Simple. I have seen many who stop trying to heal themselves, therapize themselves, process themselves, find themselves, etc. become better remarkably quick. Sometimes it's the search for healing that makes you sick. Sometimes it's better to become more simple, more humble, more present.

Is it a complete mystery why there are wars in the world? No. It’s just unforgiveness. Simple. You could give me volumes of history books and political treatises, but what all conflict comes down to is unforgiveness. I don’t really need to know the rest of the story. The mind loves making up stories to justify certain realities. But those are just layers over the truth.

Do you need to amass a large quantity of data and material before you can open your own boutique on Main Street? No. You just need a room, a few clothes racks, and a credit card reader. Simple.

Do you need a 50 page contract in order to work for someone? No. A handshake or a one-to-two-page contract will do. Simple. Unless it's for corporate projects, these super-long contracts are for fearpeople. (People who think they have to prepare for every negative eventuality that exists.) Here in America, we have a fear-culture generated by lawyers who could sue you for offering coffee that is too hot. So, if you do not print on every coffee cup you are handing out: “Warning! This coffee cup could be hazardous to your health. Only touch after you are sure it has cooled down!” you could be facing serious fines. Such are the products of fear-culture.

But what if I go by handshake only, and then they don’t pay me? Then quit working for them. Simple.
But what about the money lost? It`ll come back somewhere else. Simple.

But wouldn’t it give me more peace of mind to at least have a little something in writing, rather than a handshake only? Sure. Sometimes that will give you more peace of mind. So go ahead and get a contract. Simple.

But what will they think of me when I request a contract after we have been working by handshake for years? Who cares what they think? Let go of the worry. Simple.

I see a lot of procrastination in my students when they over-complicate things or make them bigger than they are. Sure, there may be more details to doing some of the things mentioned above. But if you are holding all these details in mind, chances are you will never get started building your dream. Keeping it simple makes things manageable and easier to visualize. So if you want a house, visualize a house, not every detail of the “how, when, where”. Just keep the end in mind. Once the house is manifested, the details you will have to take care of will present themselves. No need to worry about them beforehand. You cross the bridge when you come to it.

It has been my experience that exaggerated complexity and truth are not good partners. Complexity often masks truth. “My relationship is so complicated, I don’t even know how to explain it,” someone recently told me. But after some talking, it turned out that it was not complicated at all. It was just two people who were tired of each other and were then creating all these mental constructs around it. Simple.

Some people are actually disappointed when I reveal to them how simple things are. A few months ago, I taught someone how to publish a book on Kindle (which is as simple as uploading a PDF-File). He wrote back to me saying, “This is so easy, I have actually lost interest.” I still wonder why he`d have preferred it to be difficult. But it showed me that many of the limitations people have are merely illusions of complexity; illusions about things being more difficult than they are.

For your dreams to come true, know that the laws governing them are more simple than you assume. If you want to win an Olympic Gold in swimming, you have to swim. You have to swim more than the others swim. It’s simple. I didn’t say it’s easy, I said it's simple. There is a difference between simple and easy. If winning an Olympic Gold was easy, anyone could do it. But even though it's not easy, the “how” of it is so very simple.

Any subject you put your attention on can be simplified to become more understandable to speed up your learning. When I learn a foreign language, the first thing I do is to simplify the whole thing. I drop all superfluous and redundant data, and focus on what is really important first. This is the 80-20 rule. Focus on the simple 80% and discard the complicated 20%. So I ask, “What are the 1000 most used words and phrases of the language?” They are the same in any language. And I start with those; not with grammar, not with the exceptions-to-the-rule, not with difficult words. Later in the game, I will get into the complexities and nuances of the language, but I will get there because I started with simplicity. And if I ever get lost in the complexities, I will go back to the simple basics, before I venture back into the complex. When you get lost, simply go back to the basics.

People who know me privately always remark what a “hard worker” I am. I have no idea what they’re talking about. I subjectively experience myself as someone fairly lazy, who works no more than 1 hour a day. But they don’t see it that way. “No Fred, you work all the time. I have never seen anyone work as hard or as often as you. You are constantly working, even on weekends, and even in the evenings.” Statements like these (and I have heard them often), puzzled me. Then I realized, I don’t even notice that I am “working” because I am doing what I really enjoy and really like. It doesn’t even feel like “work”. Because I do what I love and keep things very simple, my life feels like a perpetual vacation.

A few months ago, I did a series of seminars for a company in Italy. Due to misplanning, I did not have a weekend break, and was instead in seminar 12 days in a row. After the “mistake” was realized, the CEO apologized to me, and said, “I am so sorry. Next time we will make sure there are breaks in between the seminars.” I thanked him. What I didn’t mention was, I hadn’t even noticed I was working without a break because I was enjoying myself so much.

This attitude was developed from a simple question I asked myself long ago, “Fred, if you were already complete, and rich and everything, what would you be doing?” The answer was: Do seminars, research, and write. The answer was not: Hang around at the beach for the rest of my life. That would become boring rather quickly. So, if you simply do what you would be doing if you were already whole and complete; you are starting to make life simple, happy, and successful.

Simple Methods of Divination and Truth-Testing

We live in a society overloaded with information; much of it seemingly contradictory. I`m not a fan of tarot cards, crystal ball gazing, I-Ching, astrology, numerology, spirit boards, and similar because these methods are susceptible to manipulation and distortion by your own subconscious, or even, by unseen forces. They also tend to make one reliant on external sources. But there are a few more or less reliable methods of truth-testing I sometimes use. Their reliability is increased with the integrity and neutrality of the user. If you are using divination to gain personal benefit or information about yourself, the information you get may be distorted. If you use divination at all, always use it from a neutral mood, without any neediness. Never use divination when you are sad, afraid, or angry. And always ask your higherself:

“Do I have permission to ask this question?”

and check whether your divination tool answers yes or no. The cleanest divination tools are not complex, but have only those two main options: Yes or No. Any system of truth-testing that goes beyond those two questions, is too easily manipulatable.

The basis of divination is that everything is knowable. Consciousness exists outside of time and space. You are an aspect of the totality of consciousness. You can know anything about anything. You can find out anything. You can receive precise and true answers to everything.

What follows are five tools with which you can make anything knowable:
1. Two Fingers Technique

Rest your index finger and middle finger on a table. Then teach your body that the index finger means “YES” and the middle finger means “NO”, by tapping the fingers back and forth while saying “yes, no, yes, no, yes, no”. You can also tap the index finger several times saying, “yes, yes, yes, yes, yes,” and the middle finger several ties saying, “no, no, no, no, no”. You have now conditioned your fingers to those answers. You then ask, “In the name of the Most High, do I have permission to ask about…”. Wait and see which of the fingers moves first, involuntarily. It’s either a slight jerk, a slight jolt, an energy sensation, a warmth, or sudden movement of the finger. If the middle finger moves that indicates “No”. If the index finger moves that indicates “Yes”, then you can proceed with your question. If your fingers do not react after a few test-runs, this method is not for you.

Before writing this book, I tested this method on the topic of “spoon bending” (telekinesis), by the power of the mind. I was watching YouTube videos on people claiming to be able to bend spoons with their minds, and I was wondering how many of these videos were fake or real. While watching a video, I conditioned my fingers to yes and no, and then asked, “In the name of the Most High, do I have permission to ask about spoon bending?”My index finger got a jolt of energy, indicating “Yes”. I then asked, “Can this person spoon-bend with his mind?”to which the middle-finger indicated “No”. I went through 10 videos with these questions, and they ALL indicated “No”!

Disappointed, I then asked the question, “Is it possible to bend spoons with the mind?”to which I got a strong, “Yes!” This told me that spoon-benders are somewhere out there, but they are not necessarily performing on YouTube.
2. Pendulum

On a piece of paper or cardboard draw a circle with a dot in the center. It is above this dot that you hold the pendulum. Drawing a line through the middle of the paper, one side of the circle reads, “YES” and the other side, “NO”. Let the pendulum come to a near standstill above the dot. Ask whether you have permission to ask the question, "Do I have permission to ask about…?” If the pendulum strikes out to the “YES”, proceed with your question. If it strikes out to the “NO”, choose another question. Do not deliberately move the pendulum in any direction. If an involuntary twitch of the finger directs the pendulum to one of the sides, that’s your subconscious channelling the information through your fingers. Do not try to control the pendulum's movement in any way. The pendulum will swing back and forth, but you will notice the answer by which side it swings out to more strongly. Some people find this method of divination too ambiguous, and prefer the others mentioned here.

3. Muscle Testing

I’ve found muscle-testing to be reliable, if it is not distorted by one's own preconceptions. If you take on the attitude of a scientist who just wants to know the truth for the sake of truth, without any agenda, bias, or desired outcome, then muscle-testing will work for you. For example, asking whether “somebody loves you” is a loaded question that will likely not get a true response because there is an agenda within you for a certain answer. But asking whether a certain book is good for you is a more neutral question, and will likely get the right response. There are many ways to muscle test, but the simplest solo-method is to extend your index finger, and then press your middle finger on top of it (touching the nail of your index finger), and trying to push it down with your middle finger. Instead of asking a question, you make a statement. Then you tell your index finger to, “Resist!” while pushing down on it with your middle finger. If the index finger stays strong, the answer is “Yes”. If the muscles go weak, then the answer is “No”.

Taking the previous example, I would look at the spoon-bender-videos and state, “This person is bending the spoon with the powers of his mind….Resist!” and then press down on the index finger. If it stays strong, I know my statement is true. If it goes weak, I know my statement is false.

Another method is to take something heavy, such as a stack of books. You make a statement and try to lift the stack of books. If your muscles stay strong, the statement is true. If your muscles go weak and you are unable to lift the books, the statement is false. If you are a weight-lifter who likes to listen to music or audiolectures while lifting weights, you will have noticed that with some speakers and music, your muscles are weaker, and with others, they are stronger. You may have noticed the same in different environments, with different drinks, in different mental states, and with different foods. That’s because everything has a different level of energy that either makes you stronger or weaker. Your body never lies, it shows you what is truly positive or negative for you.

4. Dice

I once bought a cube made of wood. On it were six blank spaces. On the six blank spaces, I wrote the following:

YES
NO
MED (for Meditate)
WORK
?

RELAX
I asked a question, then rolled the dice. Whatever came-up, I took as the answer. Divination that is selfinvented/created is probably the purest because it is most aligned with one's own personality. Before you use any divination tool, you need to make sure you are relaxed and unattached to the answer. In this case, for example, you might ask, “Is he the right man for me?” and the dice will give you “No”. You might be upset by the answer, and roll the dice until it gives you the answer you want. But such behavior has nothing to do with divination.

First of all, as explained before, you should not use divination with emotionally-charged subjects. So that would probably rule out the question: “Is he the right man for me?” unless you can first dive-down into a deeply meditative state. That, ironically, is a state from which the “right answer” would come-up anyway, even before rolling the dice. Secondly, divination tools should never become more important than your own decision-making and common sense. For example, if this man has the habit of beating you, and you are still asking divination tools, “Is he the right man for me?” you might want to consider consulting common sense first.

5. Ask and Let Go

The simplest method is to send out a question in thought, and then let go. You send out a request for an answer and then forget about it. This is how to access the universal storehouse of information. Thoughtpulses have access to that which is non-physical, and by the strength of your intention, you can fish certain pieces of information out of the vast energy-field that supersedes our plane. This energy-field transcends time and space and can therefore provide any sort of information. The hard part is in receiving an answer. It can be given in a night dream, in meditation, through another person, in a synchronicity, or in any other form, so you will have to be receptive, and if necessary, ask again. As you focus your attention on one particular question for a number of days, the “cosmic-response team” gets active to provide data that matches your focus. Your own higher-self is actually knowledgeable of many of these things and may provide a nudge in the right direction. Sometimes I lie down in bed before sleep, and I say a simple prayer and add, “Please show me first thing in the morning.” Then I go to sleep. The answer will pop-up as an idea when I wake-up, may be in the first email I see in the morning, in the comment of a neighbor, or a headline I see on the street. Rather than being a vague guessing game, it will directly relate to the question I asked. One example:

A couple of years ago, the woman I loved was in a foreign country, and we were unable to see each other due to the confidential nature of her business. I missed her and asked, while falling asleep, when we would meet again. I added, “Please show me first thing in the morning.” When I woke up, I picked-up my phone. I had accidentally had my thumb on an app that opened a page with a quote for the day. The quote said, “Sometimes soulmates are kept far apart to strengthen their love.” It was the first thing I saw in the morning, and it was in direct response to my question.

6. Wikipedia & Google

Yes, this one is kind of obvious, isn't it? But sometimes, when we are preoccupied, we forget the obvious. I bet that around 80% of all questions you have about life, the universe, and everything else, can be found on Wikipedia, Google, and the rest of the internet; if you know how to ask and what to look for. Stupid input generates stupid output. But smart input will generate smart feedback. Some things are knowable by combining different pieces of information. For instance, writing my book Journeys in Spectral Consciousness, allowed me to combine various bits of information from different times and cultures to reveal a picture I had not known or understood up to that point. Of course the danger with tools like Google is you look to confirm your own beliefs and merely get back what you believe in. You could type in, “Are all people living on Mars dumb?” and you`d likely find pages that link to reports that confirm they are dumb. So then you ought to balance your view by requesting the other side of the story, “Are all people living on Mars smart?” The truth is often somewhere in the middle. You could say that Google has nothing to do with divination or intuition, but actually it does. In formulating your search terms and connecting the data you collect, as well as in recognizing patterns within the data, you are using your higher spiritual faculties. In other words, an intuitive person will get much more out of an internet search than others.

7. The Attention-Immersion Exercise

This is an exercise to solicit information from other levels of consciousness. It’s a written exercise in which the title of a page contains what you want to find out about, such as, “Is there life on Mars?” Then you draw a line in the middle of the page, letting one column be, “What I know," and another, “What I don't know”. You then shift your attention back and forth, writing down something you don't know about the question, and then something youdo know, then something you don't know, and then something you do know. You keep on going until the whole page, or even a second and a third page are full. While doing so, pay attention to intuitive insights and flashes of thought that just “pop up” out of nowhere, and make notes about them on a separate sheet of paper. The longer you do this, the more data will “pop up”. I know, it sounds like an odd exercise, and you are probably asking yourself why it would work. The answer is that anything that is examined closely, reveals more information about what is being examined. Attention to something brings up data about it. By putting attention on the known and unknown over and over again, you begin digging up new data. You also begin to see which areas are still unknown, which drives you to seek out data to fill your gaps of knowledge.

Once you wake up to the reality that everything is knowable by YOU, you are then ready for the next step. What is the next higher step? To realize that life is not about knowing, it's about experiencing.

8. Intuiting Truth

Write down 5 statements of which you do not know whether they are true or false. Looking at the five statements, disregard intellect, memory, and knowledge, and simply feel/sense whether the statement is true or not. If you become very silent, the truth of the matter should come up by itself. The soul knows a long time before the mind knows. If you let go of memory and go into neutral perception, you can immediately sense what a thing is. By writing the statements down and silently comparing them, you begin to feel a difference.

9. Receiving Answers

Turn the things you want to know into questions. Once you have written down a list of questions, check if there are any questions you would like to re-phrase. For example, “Why have I struggled with my weight all my life?” is not an ideal question. “How can I more easily maintain ideal weight?” is a better question, and, “How can I more easily maintain an ideal weight, and enjoy it?” is an even better one. Then, simply answer the questions yourself, to the best of your ability. Or, imagine a wiser perspective than yours answering them. Give multiple answers if you like. Don’t stop until you have gained a new understanding. If you have difficulty answering something, simply rephrase the question to something easier. For example, “How can I enjoy lighter foods?”

How to Find What Is Good for You

You can know the truth, falsehood, value, and usefulness of anything by its fruits. If you want to know whether some path is valid or not, look at the people who have been using it for a long time. What is the state of their lives? That is the simplest and quickest way to ascertain truth and value. Of course, if your perception is undistorted and allows for spontaneous intuitive-knowing, you can ascertain the truth of something long before its fruits show. But if you are not sure whether something is good for you or not, you`ll either have to try it out yourself and see what happens, or look at the people who have tried it. In looking for your ideal spiritual path, you are looking for people that you easily feel challenged and inspired around.

In my 20s, I visited hundreds of different workshops and investigated many different types of spiritual and religious paths as well. I did so to sift through what was best-for-me and to develop my own teaching materials. The more I saw, the more clear I became on what I did and did not want, on what was useful and what was not, and on which type of people I “belonged” to. Through a mix of experience, intuition, and looking at other's fruits, it is very easy then, to ascertain what is right-for-you. So ask yourself what you really want, and then look at the people who are already experiencing what you really want. But rather than merely copying their behavior or outside appearance, look at the underlying beliefs and values they hold. Spend time with people and at places where what-you-really-want is already abundantly present.

For example, let’s say your goal is to gain financial freedom, and you join a group that call themselves The Wealth Mentor Circle Meet-Up, or some such thing. After going to a few of their meetings, you notice that everyone there is broke. Even those that have been members for years are still broke. What you are seeing are the fruits of their works, which in this case, are not what you are aiming for. You should therefore not hesitate to leave that group, and instead join one in which there is evidence of prosperous fruits. This would seem to me to be common sense advice, yet so many people still think groups, people, organizations, objects, and places can be judged by what they say or proclaim rather than by their results. It doesn’t matter what someone claims, advertises, or promises. What matters are the fruits of their endeavors.

You Can Feel Truth in The Body

Your physical body reacts to energies, frequencies, as well as the emotions of you and others. If you are skilled, clear, and sensitive; you can actually feel truth within your body. This is similar to what I said about muscle-testing, where truth makes the body go strong and absence-of-truth makes it go weak. Not only your muscles but your whole body is a measuring device. If I give you extremely negative news, you may notice your knees go weak. If I give you extremely positive news, you feel happy in your chest. The very sensitive can also feel it when something is neither extremely positive nor extremely negative. They feel nuances. Fear is actually only felt when you are keeping a falsehood in mind. F-E-A-R stands for: “False Evidence Appearing Real” and shows that whatever you are believing, believing in, or intending, is neither good nor true. From my vantage point, the words “truth” and “good” are synonymous.

The ability to sense true/false is inherent within every human being. Feel truth. There are ways you can be led to lose this ability and ways in which it can be distorted. If you are not able to view something neutrally, without judgment, for example, you cannot really determine its energy-level as-is. You are instead viewing a judgment. That’s why it’s almost impossible to measure your own energy level with muscle-testing (because you are biased toward yourself), and I don't recommend you do it. To exemplify the difference between perception and judgment: If I say, “Don’t buy that company's shares, they are not in a good place right now.” I am usually doing so from an unemotional and neutral standpoint. That’s perception. If you however, come home from a hard day of work, stressed out, and say, “That company sucks! I hate them!” You are not reading the company's energy from perception, but rather from judgmentalism. Making a statement about something after long observation and personal experience, from a fairly neutral place, is not being “judgmental”. Bashing something without prior examination; that is being judgmental.

Rely on the truth you feel in your body when you are in a relaxed state. Rely on this more than on what people say. People say all kinds of things, many of them not universally true. Whenever you are not in a calm state, you cannot rely on the “truth” you feel in your body because it will be distorted by tension. So before drawing conclusions, it's advisable to relax. Your natural and “most true” state, is a relaxed openness that gently observes and is completely unworried. This is the part of yourself that was never touched by the ups and downs of life, the part of yourself that was there before life and will be there after life. This broader perspective is aware of truth. The ego-self/mind cannot discern truth because it is programmed. And it is easy to be programmed with all sorts of “information”. So to apply any sort of truthtesting, get in touch with the unprogrammed part of yourself that sees clearly.

The Relentless Manipulation of Reality by the NewsMedia If possible, avoid too much news media. I know some people who have the habit of relaxing while browsing news-sites. But in this day and age, both mainstream and “alternative” news on TV and the internet are heavily biased. Just like you are a miniature reality-creator, the mass-media is the grand sorcerer of reality manipulation. While that is generally known, I don't think it's known to what bizarre extent, especially the news-media, not only report on but actively participate in the creation of reality.

These are some of the different detectable levels of mass-reality-creation by the news-media, sorted by degree of manipulation:

Level 1: Filtering

From the millions of events that happen in massreality every day, the reporter has to filter and choose which ones to report. This is something normal that everyone does. I do it for my website by only presenting information relevant to the topic of the website. News-media however, tends to filter through negative bias. Why? Because at Earth's current level of consciousness, negativity (fear, drama, hatred) still captures more interest than peace, prosperity, and harmony. Desperate to sell advertising slots on their news programs, and to sell papers, all reports must be filtered by how much upheaval and action they contain. In addition to that, televised news-media follows the credo: "If there are is no footage (pictures/video), it doesn't matter." If the news-media were to portray a day of life on Earth accurately, the program would be about as boring as a documentary on the Discovery Channel. So, the camera zooms into the places where the most violence, mayhem, and tragedy occur. This filtering gives the audience the false impression that the world is mostly in a state of chaos. When, for example, is the last time you saw windsurfers in the Palestinian Gaza Territory, or a happy family having a barbecue in their Jerusalem garden on the news? Such events really do happen every day, but they do not automatically come to people's minds when they hear, "Israel!" or, "Gaza!" What instead comes to most people's minds are images of blood and gore. Where did they receive these automated mental images? From the newsmedia. I mean no disrespect to the people of the middle-east, I am merely using this extreme example to make a point.

This type of filtering causes a lack of balance in the mass-perception of the world, as well as a desensitization towards violence. Ideally, news-media would not only have to show something nice at the very end of their broadcasts, but something positive as well as interesting throughout, so that the viewers learn that the world is a balance of darkness and light. If the proper balance was kept, the audience would be more involved in the healing of darkness, rather than becoming desensitized and apathetic by it.

Level 2: Distortion

The next level of reality-manipulation is when deliberate distortion occurs by the journalists themselves because they wish to present something in a certain manner, or are partial to some political, religious, or philosophical ideology. Of course, there is probably no human being alive who is completely neutral and unbiased, nor is that expected. But one of the problems of modern times, is that there is virtually no mass-media outlet which is not widely known as being affiliated with some political, governmental, anti-governmental, or philosophical "side", and is very far from being "neutral".

Another form of distortion occurs when a journalist makes something better or worse than it is. He knows the editor will only accept his story if it's interesting enough, so he adds a few details here and there, knowing nobody will likely ever examine them more closely. From writing my own blog to a fairly large audience, I am somewhat familiar with the problem, but have always resisted the urge to exaggerate reports. I`d rather have some of my reports be understated ("boring"), than to report things that did not happen. Needless to say, I am not blaming the mass-media, as they only reflect the desires of the populace, who favors entertainment and excitement over what-is.

Yet another form of distortion occurs in that most news-stories are reported on without framing them into a wider context. Most things that happen are part of a greater pattern; part of a history, part of a mindset. Yet, the way stories are reported is as separate pieces having little or no relation to each other. When I report on my blog, I frequently like to put what I write into context and comparison with other things I've written, in order to present a congruent, overall, big-picture view of reality. For example, in my article titled, "The Mystical Significance of the Number Three", I could have reported on each of the items separately, as if they had nothing to do with each other, and as if reality were not connected. Instead, I put them into a wider context to help readers gain a new perspective and a better understanding. This is not the case in conventional news-media, where people think that the presidential elections in the U.S., the hurricane that happened just before the resignation of the head of the CIA, and the Israel-Palestine conflict right after have nothing whatsoever to do with each other and are separate bits of information. But they are interconnected, not only metaphysically, but also in a geo-political sense. Because news-media reports too much, and journalists write too quickly, ignoring context and connections, news-media breeds ignorance of the depth and meaning of things.

Level 3: Deliberate Fabrication

This is the most intense form of realitymanipulation which, fortunately, does not occur that often. But it does occur. I recently spoke to someone who used to work in the British Ministry of Defense. He shared the following story:

Some decades ago a group of reporters went to Northern Ireland to capture footage of the conflict. When they arrived everything was peaceful, so they went ahead and created some chaos themselves, just so they could return home with footage. They bribed a local to produce and throw molotov cocktails (amateur bombs) off rooftops into the streets, setting cars and trashcans ablaze. In this instance, the journalists literally created the news. They refused to go home saying, "The streets of Belfast are peaceful at this time."

The guy who told me the story lamented that this scandal of sorts was never revealed or reported on to this day.For a spiritually aligned person, it is important to at least be aware of how the news-media manipulates reality. Mere awareness immunizes you. You can then read and watch the news without being dragged down to victim-mentality or desensitized apathy. If you are interested in a story, you can read different news outlets to view the different viewpoints and versions of a story, thus gaining a greater picture. In no case is it recommended that you rely on only one news-outlet, or even news-outlets from only one country. Keep in mind, most of these stories are just the world-mind processing garbage, like in some kind of bad dream. None of it needs to have anything to do with you, your reality, or the reality of those around you. You experience only what you attract. You attract only what you radiate. In some cases, you will have a friend or relative who gets way too caught up in newsmedia, exaggerating the importance of various events.

Back in the 80s, some people believed that AIDS would completely wipe out the entire planet by the year 2000. But it didn't happen. Then they thought that swine flu would "wipe out civilization as we know it"; didn't happen. Then they thought that 2012 would enlighten humanity to a golden era of peace and bliss; didn't happen. And they thought that 9/11 would mark the beginning of World War III; didn't happen. I dare say that for most of us, life just went on like it did 10 years prior, and progressed or regressed in accordance with our personal level of consciousness. Note that such people (the ones who take the news way too seriously) very rarely do anything to actively help the situation. They prefer being worried and indignant to taking positive action. For them, daily preoccupation with the news is like an escape from their own lives, which may lack movement or excitement. But when the time comes when their own lives pick up, their interest in daily news recedes.

Paranoia Is Not a Higher Form of Awareness Ithas become en vogue to think that if you’re paranoid, then that’s some form of higher awareness, or of “being in the know” about “how the world really works” and about what “goes on behind closed doors”.
In the news it was “revealed” through the massmedia that the NSA and other Government Agencies use Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Apple, Verizon, AOL, and many other venues to spy on global and national communications. I`m not at all surprised about this. I joked about it as far back as 1995. In fact, many journalists, researchers, and civil liberty advocates have been talking about this all along, so I don’t really know why it's been cooked up to be such a surprise or scandal. Anyone with half a brain will understand that anything communicated on the internet or by phone is no longer private, but public. It is realized that anyone can easily hack into your iPhone or Smartphone and monitor where you go, who you talk to, what websites you browse, apps you download, what your interests are, etc. If your kids own the latest X-Box, it is understood that this device has a camera and microphone, as well as a movement-sensor, which stay on even if you turn the X-Box off and therefore monitors everything happening in your home. The XBox itself is a surveillance device masking as a “game console”. It is known that Microsoft has been secretly recording Skype calls for years. It is known that the mixture of webcams, Google Maps, Google StreetView, interactive TVs, and other such inventions are creating a world of total surveillance.

The Governments defend their mass-spying programs in the name of “safety” and “anti-terrorism”. And indeed, the only way to have the illusion of “total safety” is in a totalitarian state. The positive alternative is to simply accept that we don’t live in a perfect world, and not everyone can be safe all of the time. To let go of utopian and childish “perfect world” illusions, and accept life as a mix of light and dark, while still trying to improve it as best we can. That’s strongly preferred to giving up our privacies and freedom.

Interestingly, the populace willingly embraces a world without privacy. And the only way you could really implement this on a worldwide scale, is if people willingly embrace it. Hardly anybody who uses Google for instance, would want to get rid of it. They’d rather have all their searches recorded for a lifetime, than protect their privacy. It’s a “Faustian pay-off”: They'll give you all the information you want, and you'll give up your privacy for it. So if the internet itself were a conspiracy to enslave all of mankind, it would be a brilliant one, as, “Only happy slaves are good slaves.”

Is what I just wrote above paranoid? No. It’s just common sense, and it is written in a nonsensationalistic, non-threatening, and non-peddling tone, without fear or exaggeration. Paranoia is when information, such as that just written above, becomes mixed with fear and a feeling of paralysis, hopelessness, depression, doom-saying, and rampant negativity, as well as a daily preoccupation with such matters.

There is a fine line between intuition and paranoia. Let’s say you think your spouse is cheating on you. Is that intuition or paranoia? Intuition is a sacred spirit-skill. Paranoia is a negative, psychotic energy. Here’s the solution to the dilemma: If there is fear involved in the thought, and it occupies your mind all day, to the point of obsession ; it's paranoia. If it simply occurs to you as a slight concern or suspicion, without dominating your emotional and mental state; it's intuition. Of course, something may also start out as an intuition (correct insight), but then bring up one's own paranoia (incorrect data) added to it. So for instance, I might be aware that it is possible for someone to hack into my computer and monitor my activities. That’s knowledge. And if I think that someone is really doing it, then I have an intuition about it, and I try to get it fixed. But if it turns into paranoia, then I am obsessed by it day and night, and take exaggerated measures. I start installing numerous alarm systems in my home, spraying my house against chemical attacks, putting a blanket over my computer while typing in passwords (just in case some satellite is peering through my window trying to snatch it), burn and destroy my old computer, and build five different security layers into it, etc.

Paranoia is not a healthy space to be in. There are a great variety of paranoid visions of life and the world. According to such visions, we entertain secret bases on the moon, the world is governed by clandestine cabals, secret societies and royal families, the weather is being manipulated, extraterrestrial lizards dictate over us and siphon off our energy on the astral plane, 9/11 was a “false flag operation” orchestrated by the CIA, and Mossad and intelligence agencies are targeting hapless victims for “remote mind control”, secret experimentation, and illegal cloning of humans in underground laboratories. I am not here arguing whether any of this is true or not, but it is the tone with which many such theories are communicated that indicates that paranoids are advocating them. Being open minded, I`ll consider any theory, hypothesis, idea, and belief. However, when someone accuses me of being a “secret disinformation agent”, deluded, or stupid just because I say to them, “I don’t know if I believe that,” I know I`m dealing with a paranoid.

Paranoia is rampant in the mainstream too. For instance, if you believed the news-media, you wouldn’t be allowed to eat anything anymore. Supposedly food additives can kill you, milk and eggs will cause cholesterol, sweeteners will give you cancer, sugar will make you insanely obese, carbs will give you depression, artificial flavors are dangerous, meat is dangerous, caffeine is dangerous, nuts cause allergic reactions, and so on. Can you see the sheer paranoia in those ideas? What am I then allowed to eat?

I recently talked to a mother of two. There was a fountain nearby, and several kids were playing in it. She wouldn't allow her kids to play there because they “could become sick”. She started to ramble about numerous other things she does not grant her kids. They are not to eat any inorganic foods whatsoever. They never wore diapers because of the “chemicals”. (What in the world has “no chemicals” if I may ask?) And as they started running around, she told them to stop running…after all, they could fall, couldn’t they?

What we are dealing with in all of these cases are beliefs, not realities. Some of them may be based on objective realities, but all the fear surrounding them is beliefs. Sugar, for instance, is objectively and in reality not good for you if you consume too much of it. But to become paranoid about it; be preoccupied with the weight of your body, thighs, and stomach, or to forbid your children to ever touch sugar, or to feel a pang of guilt and shame when you eat cake. This is purely subjective and created by your beliefs. If you gain two pounds from eating a piece of cake, it's your belief that is creating the weight gain. If you believe you are allergic to apples and nuts, you will be. If you drop that belief, you will likely not be allergic anymore. I know this from experience, as I have coached quite a number of people out of their “allergies”, by having them eat very tiny pieces of the “bad food” while releasing their beliefs.

The Government may be spying on its citizens, but they will only spy on you personally if you believe they will, and you will attract this by being afraid of it. So, apart from the normal precautions, and computer and browsing protections, your best protection against any harm is lack of fear. I am an infinite being, not “a body”. And as an infinite being, I am not subject to illness, attack, spying, danger, or catastrophe. Infinite beings cannot be threatened, harmed, subverted, controlled, or killed. You can only be harmed by that which you fear and believe in. And that’s why, for more than a decade, I have been talking about releasing and dissolving your negative beliefs.

As negative beliefs are dropped, something mysterious occurs: All those mishaps, accidents, and tragedies that seem to be happening to so many people, no longer happen to you.

Long before Your Eyes Can See, Your Heart Can Feel

Recently someone told me that the thing about reality is that he can see how he created the events of his life in retrospect, but not while they are occurring. He wanted a method from me for how he could know what he is creating while it’s happening. I responded that this would defeat the purpose of belief and faith, which is to exercise trust before the eyes can see evidence.

On a non-physical plane it’s simple. You think of a place and you are transported there instantly. The physical plane vibrates at a slower rate than the nonphysical. That’s why 99% of something can already be manifest before your eyes can see it. Take childbirth as an example: You don’t see the child for 9 months but that doesn’t mean it doesn't exist. It’s already created, it just takes some time to show up.

If you have issues with trust and knowing what is being created, it is because you are relying on what your eyes see more than on what your heart feels. Don’t be fooled by current appearances. Let your heart determine what is true. When someone makes you an offer that looks fantastic, the way it looks is not the only criteria by which to judge it. Go within, and try to sense what it means in the long run. What you are creating for the distant future is not evidenced by what you are currently seeing, but by your current overall state – this includes seeing, but seeing is only a small part of it. If you rely only on what physical reality is showing you right now, it’s as if you are looking at the tip of a pencil and disregarding the whole pencil.

Do not alter your positive beliefs by what physical reality is presenting. For 10 years I saw no evidence that my books would succeed, but I kept writing in the firm belief that they would be of value. I acted as if they were. I could sense the distant future in which they would be read and appreciated by many. If in 1998 I had judged my success by the physical evidence, which was a ridiculous 2 book sales a month, I could have said, “Well, this isn’t working, I might as well quit.”But I prefer to see through the heart and not the mind.

The heart (not the physical heart, but the spiritual one) knows things many years in advance. The heart can tell you which path is good for you. It can tell you which people are good for you. It can also predict the overall and long-term state of the world, and is not persuaded by the daily sensationalism of the newsmedia. If you’ve been around long enough, you know the news-media is always talking of imminent disaster. Some of it is true, but most of it is not. In the past 10 years, the fear-mind predicted the world would go down through SARS, swine flu, earthquakes, the recent financial crisis, tidal waves, starvation, terrorism, and hundreds of other things. In retrospect, these things turned out not to be true. The media reflects the mind, which judges things purely by what it sees today. It is looking at life from a snapshot-view, instead of seeing the whole movie.

Seeing through your heart is a matter of closing the eyes. Closing the eyes symbolizes not taking what you see as your first point of reference. When you close your eyes and become deeply silent, you begin to feel the truth of what is actually happening and what is developing, in the un-manifest becoming manifest. If you are reluctant to close your eyes for a few minutes a day, perhaps that’s because you won't like what you sense and would prefer to be fooled by your eyes. But even in this case, it is smarter to close them, in order to change your inner navigation and to get into alignment with what you prefer.

4
INTUITIVE CONCIOUSNESS
Living from Consciousness

You probably have a memory of going to a restaurant with a group of people and there being at least one person who couldn’t decide what he wants. He sits there not making up his mind, while the rest of the group wait and the waiter is impatiently tapping his foot. Then, he finally orders, and the waiter goes to fulfill it with some relief. But just before the waiter leaves the room, our person says, “Umm….excuse me. I am not sure I really want that after all. I`d rather have something else.” Exasperated, the waiter returns, and some in the group roll their eyes.

Metaphorically speaking, the person who didn’t know what he wanted and didn’t choose, is living from the mind, not from intuition, from a part, not from the whole, from intellect not from consciousness, from complexity, not spontaneity, from worry, not from calm. Of course being undecided once in a while is no big deal. But the accumulation of indecisiveness, makes for bad energy and a difficult life for the person and those with him.

The mind is part of the whole but the whole is not a part of the mind. You can live from the mind or from consciousness. And when you live from consciousness, everything is easier. So taking the same metaphor, you would go into a restaurant and look at the menu. A menu is full of options. One option shines brighter than the others. You keep it simple and decide quickly; you take that option. Your intuition knows what is best for you because your intuition is part of a broader consciousness. The mind, being limited in scope, does not know what is best for you. The mind is only a recording device. Don’t let your life be run by your recording device. You do not know why intuition chose a certain meal. Maybe that’s not the meal that your ego says is best for you. But your intuition, your first impression, your first hunch, knows that this meal is the best. And maybe later it turns out that all meals were spoiled except yours. But your mind couldn’t know that. Only intuition could have known that beforehand.

You are living from consciousness when you are in a non-turbulent state, with not much attachment, judgment, or separation. Then, you perceive reality as it is, not as your mind distorts it to be. And then you see that this restaurant metaphor can be applied to everything small and big. Sometimes you will feel a congruency of mind, body, and spirit. Something that just “feels right” to all three. It is in those moments that you are living from consciousness.

“Are you out of your mind?” When we are asked this question, usually by angry people who want to know whether we are crazy, I sometimes answer, “Yes. Yes, yes. I'm out-of-my-mind.” And I mean it in a positive sense.

There are three basic levels of consciousness:
1. Animal/Survival/Reactive Consciousness
2. Intellectual/Mind/Mechanistic Consciousness
3. Spiritual/Higher-Self/Intuitive Consciousness

The first level is purely reactive-emotive, the second is about remembering, thinking and, in its “higher mind”, imagining, and the third level is all about intuition and observation. Anything can be approached from either of these levels. By your response to life you can ascertain which level you are operating from. This is why I don’t like solving math problems, reading operation manuals, long-winded contracts and bureaucracy, as well as meticulous planning. These things drag me down into the level of thinking. When doing seminars, I don’t allow discussions to drag on for too long, because they drag the seminar down to an intellectual level, away from the experiential and away from the present-moment.

On a recent trip to a seminar, I was asked if I wanted to know the train schedule. I said I didn't want to know it. I would travel intuitively, without all the thinking involved. I arrived at the train station right on time. The train was leaving. And the train right before that had been cancelled, leaving many people who had planned on that train irate. I had the hunch to enter first class even though I had purchased a second class ticket. The result? Nobody asked to see my ticket the entire trip. This is how life flows with continual pleasantness when you live from intuition rather than excessive thinking, calculating, scheming, avoiding, analyzing, and comparing.

Confronted with a problem, the reactive level will usually apply either the “fight or flight” response, as in aggression or escape, domination or avoidance. The second level will apply rational reasoning, discussion, and a whole lot of thinking. And the third will simply apply love, creativity, and intuitive guidance. If you have tried to solve things or achieve things through “thinking”, your results will be limited (unless you apply the “higher thinking” faculty of imagination).

If you look at a situation in your own life, you will see these three different approaches within yourself. If someone is angry at you, you will tend to get angry too (fight), or just leave the house (flight). These reactions are hard wired into our body-mind. You might try to approach it from a higher level and “talk things out” or use logic and reason, but if emotions are running high, the two fighting parties easily descend back to the lower level for the time being. That means it is better to re-visit the problem once emotions have mellowed. Just going for a little walk or leaving the room for some time can be helpful. You can then approach the argument at the cool intellectual level. Or, if you are up to it, you can approach it from the loving, forgiving, compassionate, and humorous higher-self level. If you find yourself in an argument with someone, you can look at the person, at yourself, and the situation with compassion. This requires more observing than speaking. Arguments can get heated, but if you stay calm, you can see through the issues brought up, and see that people are only angry when they are hurt or struggling.

The thinking-level is best when dealing with serious issues such as business contracts. Observation and intuition are brother and sister. Anything you quietly observe without rigid focus, over-expectation, or a hidden agenda, you intuitively understand to its fullest. So while the world struggles to “make sense” of things, you calmly perceive and receive, never acting on fear or worry, always acting from confidence. Fear is not a problem if you don’t act upon it. You let it subside before you act. When you act from a state of calm, your actions become intuitively guided.

A Quick Trick to Empty Your Mind Because I teach meditation, people are surprised to hear that I don’t meditate myself. I haven’t done a formal meditation practice in more than 10 years, and yet, I tell people to meditate. A little hypocritical, no? No. One of the main aims of meditation is to allow for higher states of awareness…inner calm, peace, lucidity, and bliss. I meditated off and on throughout my 20s, learning to access these states. After some time I noticed I wasn’t transferring the bliss to normal daily life outside of the meditation. So I progressed to the next step: meditating with my eyes open. Could I achieve those same wonderful states with open eyes? I could. And then the next step: meditating while walking. Could I achieve the same mindfulness while moving around? I could. Thus, it became easier to transfer high awareness to everyday life. Then the next step: meditating without meditating…being mindful and aware in daily life. And then the next step: being clear and calm in difficult situations, while being interviewed, shouted at, in downtown traffic, etc. I achieved that a lot more often than I had before. I'm still sometimes caught off guard, but that’s OK. The “being OK” with not always being aware, clear, and calm, is a part of that calmness. Demanding always to be calm is just another sort of unneeded tension. Then came the next phase: it didn’t even matter anymore in what state I was in. That put me into an almost permanent state of well-being. But you can see the stages I went through to reach that delicious state of true equanimity, where one is in a good state most of the time and when not…that too is accepted. Having no more resistance toward “bad states”, “anger”, “a cold” and whatnot, those “negative” states lessened dramatically.

Formal meditation is only needed at a certain stage of development. Furthermore, I know people who claim to be meditating but are still incredibly tense…subconsciously. They turn meditation itself into some rigid and tense form of practice, thinking they are “meditating”, when they are actually just sitting there with eyes closed, trying to concentrate or “achieve” something. “Meditation is not a means to an end, it is the end itself,” is my attitude in this regard. Another one is: “Meditate at least 15 minutes a day. Except if you’re busy or have little time. In that case, meditate 60 minutes a day.” But once inner calm has become normalized, you'll want to meditate without closing your eyes.

One of the goals of meditation is to “empty the mind”. One of my tricks for doing so…without having to actually sit down and meditate…is as follows: I simply put my attention on empty spaces. I have been using this little “trick” for many years. I originally learned it through meditation training. But it’s such a brilliant trick because it does in a few seconds what some meditators spend hours trying to achieve. When you rest your attention on air, on empty spaces or, on “nothing”, that’s exactly what is reflected in your mind: nothing, emptiness. And that state, beyond the circus of the everyday mind, is so pleasant and soothing. You see, humans have the conditioned habit to focus on objects and people…on solid things the eye can see. Putting attention in between those objects, to the empty spaces between them, instantly calms the mind (unless this is turned into another strict chore).

Consider a parked car. Consider another parked car. Now consider the empty space in between those cars. The empty space in between two people who are talking. The silence in between the chirps of a bird. Have you ever considered the empty space between your right foot and your left foot? Or between your computer and the wall? Or between the left wall and the right wall? Or between the uttering of a person and his/her next uttering? Have you considered the empty spaces within your body? In your nostrils? Have you considered the empty spaces before and after an emotion? Around an emotion? What about the empty space around your body?

Next time you feel a pain, try this: notice how you instantly zoom into that pain as if it were the ultimate thing and all else irrelevant. But then notice the empty space around the pain…the pain free areas. The empty space prior to and after that pain. While focusing on the center of the pain itself, remain aware of the wider empty spaces around it, as well as in the room you are sitting. Diffuse your awareness to include more than just the pain. What you will notice, is that the pain is then much less pronounced and sharp. If you master your awareness just a little, you can even learn to dissolve pain. Just with the information presented here. But you`ll have to experiment a little. This also goes for emotional pain.

Are you socially awkward? Then try this: While talking to a person, don’t zoom in on them or try to get everything they are saying. Let go of trying to make an impression. Instead, become aware of the greater surroundings. Open your awareness. You are still interested, still listening, still with them, but you are not fixated. Like in classical music or in sex, you have found the perfect equilibrium; the perfect state between tension (focus) and relaxation (de-focus). Correctly applied, your demeanor changes, and you are no longer quite as awkward, shy, or tense.

Are you trying too hard to do your job right? Then you’re bound to fail. Trying hard (focusing) is fine, but trying too hard will limit your awareness-scope dramatically. You can be a tough cookie, but not so tough that you crack. Humans tend to be in one extreme or the other. Either a person is smoking a few packs of cigarettes a day, thus polluting himself like crazy, or the other extreme, he is a germaphobe who is obsessed with cleanliness and won’t even leave the house. But the ideal state is usually somewhere in between these extremes.
Here are three methods for instant mind-calm:

1. Take a deep breath.
2. Let go of everything you know.
3. Put your awareness on empty spaces.

I recommend mind-calming as a lifelong practice. A racing mind is not perceptive, efficient, creative, or intelligent. If you have ever observed what society considers “dumb people” or “people who lack intelligence”, it's that many of them strain their foreheads. You see them wrinkle their foreheads, as if they are exerting a huge amount of effort into understanding or perceiving things. My view is that many of them are not actually “dumb”. They have merely been conditioned to objectify too much, to strain their awareness too much. People who don’t have that many wrinkles on their forehead, don’t strain their brain. They are either lazy, or they let intuition do the work for them. There is a fine line between laziness (dullness) and intuitive calm. Find that difference.

The practice of being aware of empty spaces can be done superficially, or deeply. When it is done deeply, you can release all kinds of subconscious tensions, many of which you didn’t even know you had. These tensions are stored in your muscles and nerves mainly. If you drink a lot of caffeine, you may have noticed that it heightens your focus. But drinking too much of it does not heighten your focus; it makes you irritable. You may start to have twitches, ticks, leg moving, finger tapping, or similar. Your heart may start racing. You may also notice that you rarely breathe deeply, and you are keenly focused on non-spaces. I`m telling you this so that you notice these things and become more aware of how you function in daily life, in various states of consciousness. Just look and examine. If you have these problems but do not drink caffeine or take other stimulants, then you ought to practice more relaxation. All this “stress” of daily life is not needed to move forward.

If you want an empty mind, look at emptiness. The universe is full of emptiness. It is serene and peaceful. In front of, during, and behind every creation there is void. There is more emptiness, space, and silence than there are sounds, matter, and objects. It may seem to you that your mind is incredibly loud and full of thoughts, but if you take a closer look, you can also see that there is a lot of empty space in between your thoughts. As you put attention on that emptiness, thoughts recede, and the emptiness grows. Then your mind feels as if you are sitting in a huge empty stadium, and the chatter of mind is merely a small TV running at the far side of that stadium, not all that relevant, no longer that loud. The benefits of such a crystal clear mind are numerous. An increase in perception and well-being is only the beginning.

It's Not Knowledge, but Awareness

It is generally believed that “knowledge is power”. Having been a success-coach for the last 20 years, I can assure you that this is not true. Society assumes that if there is an alcoholic, an obese person, or a smoker, they somehow “don’t have the knowledge” or “education” to know that drinking, smoking, or overeating is harmful. As any of them could tell you, that’s just not true. I smoked for many years when I was younger, even though I had been educated on the “dangers of smoking” many times. The knowledge of the ill effects of smoking was of no use to me. The Government wages endless “public information campaigns” to battle all kinds of “societal ills”. The socalled “War on Drugs” for instance, has had no deterring effect whatsoever, quite the contrary. Why? Because knowledge alone does not create change. One would have to be aware of that knowledge at the right time, of other behavioral options, as well as a commitment to act upon them. Awareness, energy, behavior, and action supersede knowledge every time it really counts. If knowledge and education really were the key, then the rise of the internet, where we have access to more information than ever before, would have radically changed the kind of choices people make. The internet and its knowledge are mere tools that can be used for good or bad. They are not the source or cause of change. It’s about the user of the tool, not the tool.

Our culture keeps teaching us that education and knowledge are the key, and that with just enough information, we can get the right job, find the right partner, be healthy, make money, and live a good life. But if you take a closer look, you'll discover that your boss does not care how much knowledge you have; your boss cares about the results you deliver. Your customers don’t care about your knowledge, but about the actions you take or products you have. Your future spouse does not really care about what you know, but about whether you can make him/her laugh and feel good.

Awareness trumps knowledge because it is that with which knowledge is acquired, sorted, prioritized, and applied. Without that awareness I could just fill you up with a bunch of false data, and you'd be unable to make the right choices.

Intuitive awareness means to know things before you acquire knowledge about them.

Recently, I read an article online. It imparted some strange knowledge, such as being able to tell how much alcohol someone can drink by their eye-color, their sexual orientation by the length of their fingers, their political attitude by the movement of their eyes, etc. But the article wasn’t all that interesting to me because I already knew all of that…through awareness. Nobody taught me; I didn’t know there were scientific studies. Instead, working with people on a daily basis, while being attentive, makes a number of things “clear”, even if you don’t consciously learn about them. Through intuitive awareness you know a whole lot more about a person than these few trivial details. As explained in my book, The Communication Course, you can know everything about anyone the instant you meet them. The method of doing so is to just observe and perceive without pre-judgment or expectation.

Therefore, it is more important to learn about awareness than it is to accumulate knowledge. If you have high awareness, there is really nothing you don’t already know. And if you already know everything, what’s left to do in life? What’s left is to laugh, have fun, and to feel. Learning happens all by itself, and much more rapidly if you focus on being alive and experiencing, rather than accumulating loads of data.

“If you subscribe to this philosophy, why do you read so many books?” someone who knows me might ask. The answer is: When I read books, I either do so to train my imagination (fiction), or to implement action based on the information (non-fiction). Neither is for mere knowledge acquisition. In addition, knowledge is only applicable when it’s true and unbiased….which rules out a big chunk of data right off the bat. Knowledge that is not applied, is not real knowledge. It’s just superfluous mind-stuff that has no consequence in daily life. Knowledge becomes a good thing when it is applied. And yet, many of us feed ourselves with inapplicable knowledge every day.

About a week ago, I read a newspaper article which said that Jennifer Aniston was hanging out with Angelina Jolie's father. It said that Angelina Jolie is not happy about the friendship between her father and Jennifer Aniston, because Aniston is Brad Pitt's (Jolie's husband) ex -girlfriend. Jolie has therefore not invited her father to join them on a trip to Europe. Other than showcasing the infantile mindset of some “celebrities” (Or, if untrue, the dishonesty of gossip-journalists.), of what applicable use is this drivel? None at all. So why did I read it? The honest answer: I was bored while sitting in a public waiting room and enjoyed the attention-diversion. You see, even if I don’t think that such data is of any value, I`m not going to turn my philosophy into a religion and forbid myself from a little garbage now and then. In the same vein, I don’t think alcohol, cigars, or sweets are of any value, but that doesn’t mean that I will guilt-punish myself if I try them here and there. That’s the difference between smooth non-judging attitudes and rigid right/wrong thinking (The moment you feel guilty for eating sweets, you set yourself up for doing it more often than is good for you.)

The evolution of human consciousness is to become increasingly aware of the universe. That includes knowledge but is not limited to it. Put a little differently: awareness is the cause; knowledge is the effect. Instead of emphasizing the importance of the effect, pay attention to the source. The other day I spent a few hours with people whose language I did not understand. One could say I was lacking knowledge of what was being said. But through awareness (cause), plenty of other types of knowledge were acquired (effect). So, instead of being upset that I didn't understand the language, I picked up on the tones of the voices, the mood, and mentality that generated such a tone. By the objects hanging in their house, I picked up on their spiritual beliefs. By seeing that the married couple never touched each other, I picked up a little on the state of their relationship. When I told them the price of my services, I could see by the movement of their fingers, whether they were comfortable with it or not. And all of that doesn’t even include psychic information, yet.

Some of you might be thinking: Isn’t it scary for people to be sitting with someone who is aware of all of that? The answer is: Not if the person is fairly nonjudgmental, non-manipulative, and open. Some people try to use heightened awareness to influence or manipulate. I know a guy who calls himself a “mentalist”, who is continually trying to use “Seduction Techniques” to influence and control. The problem with this is, people who are fairly aware themselves don’t feel comfortable around him. His circle of friends is therefore limited to people who want to be manipulated. People who are super-aware but nonmanipulative on the other hand, usually feel much warmer because we can let down our guard. Since we “know everything anyway”, there is nothing to hide and no fake-self to assert. I have sat with enlightened teachers who had this super-awareness. It is with those that I felt the most comfortable and at home, even though they “knew everything" about me. Why? Because they had the only quality that supersedes total awareness: total love.

Solutions out of the Blue

Some of the best solutions people have experienced came from unexpected sources, at unexpected times, and places. While we were focused on one thing, the solutions came from another thing. They came “out of the blue”. Just a few recent examples (These aren’t recommendations but simply what happened to work for these people.):

* A student complained to me about lower back pain. He had tried massage, gone to a doctor, and tried herbs. He had contacted me because he thought it might be a problem in his mind. The solution came a week later, from none of these. A relative had told him to stop taking showers in the morning and instead, take them in the evening. The seasonal back pain disappeared completely and never resurfaced. It made sense, considering the hot morning shower, followed by fairly cool winter temperatures constricts the lower back.

* Another student who was a retiree was struggling with debt. With his meager monthly income, it did not look likely he would be able to repay what he owed in his lifetime. After he had been through all scenarios and possibilities he could think of, he let go of the issue somewhat, not resigning, but letting it rest for awhile. That was until he had the peculiar idea of offering the property his house was on for sale. In all his worry about debt over the years, he had completely forgotten the fact that the property he lived on, his property, was worth a few times more than the debt he had accrued. He sold both property and house, got himself a nice apartment, and now lives in peace with plenty left over. His solution was there all along, but worry had blinded him to it.

* Another student found out that his cousin was a realestate agent, thus solving his problem of finding an affordable place to live in a crowded city of exorbitant agent-fees. He was stationed in this city for 3 months without his family because he could not find an apartment. After a lost cousin, who happened to live in that city (He did not know the cousin lived there either.) provided an apartment, the family could finally join him.

Such stories are frequent and they indicate that solutions are all around, but we sometimes fail to see them because we are too focused on the problem, too focused on “trying to find a solution”, “wanting to find a solution”, and “needing to find a solution”. To gain a more open and receptive mind, it can sometimes be advisable to let go of trying to fix it, let go of trying to find the solution yourself, let go of seeking, and once again become open for the information that comes out of the blue.

Children Try Things out until They Find What Works

At what age do people stop trying things out? What strikes me about children is how they just try all kinds of things out. They try this, they try that and thus learn how stuff works. I watched a kid try to turn on a TV. He tried all kinds of strange things. Tugging the cable. Pushing the screen. Scratching the button. Pushing a button (but not the one that turned it on). He did not get “demotivated”. He just kept on, ever curious and playful. He had seen his parents get the TV turned on, so he knew and believed it was possible. Finally, he went over to mommy to get her to turn it on. Asking experts for advice is great. But what then happened was even better: mommy asked the child to try again. She gave him the remote control and in doing so, gave him the understanding that it was possible to achieve the feat with that device. After trying out many more buttons to no avail (and not deeming himself a failure for it or his life “a struggle” because of it), he finally found the magic button. His face lit up with an ecstatic smile, and he blissfully giggled.

You can fail a thousand times, and you are still not a failure. You are just a human living life, trying things out. Don’t be afraid to try things out. Sometimes you will want to listen to what the experts who have already tried it have to say about something, but not always. Sometimes you will want to go through the experience yourself.

There is no fear of failure, no resignation, and there are no excuses in a child. There is only curiosity and the willingness to learn and find things out.

Life Is a Snapshot, Not a Movie

I hardly had any money in my very early twenties; paying the rent was often a problem. Friends and parents would urge me to get a “proper job”, but I wrote books instead. The books I wrote made zero income for me at first. Those well-meaning friends would berate me, saying I was wasting my time trying to be an "artist”, and again urged me to “get a proper job”. But I was always one to see life as a whole movie, not to focus on singular snapshots and specific scenes of the movie. Had I seen only the snapshot – having no money, then it would've made sense to fulfill the urgent needs of that snapshot, by getting any random job. But what would that mean for the whole movie? Nothing. Getting any random job would not sustain me for life. Now, more than 15 years later, my books are making money for me. Even if I lose all of my money this instant, my books will still be making money for me. Back in my early twenties, I accepted a few months of high discomfort for longer-term reward. I rejected short-term comfort, which would have led to long-term suffering.

Not giving in to the worries of the moment but seeing the big picture, will help you make better decisions, much better decisions. It does not pay to take advice from people who see only the snapshot. Another way to say this is, “Look at the overall context of your life, not only the immediate content,” or, “Take in a birds-eye-view of your life, gain some perspective.” The opposite of this is to have knee-jerk reactions to everything that comes up on a daily basis , trying to fix things so that instant and quick gratification is felt. What I call "snapshot-people" have no qualms about stuffing their faces with 3000 calories of McDonalds every day. Why? Because they are seeing only the instant gratification of today, not the long-term picture of their actions. A snapshot-person would look for get-rich-quick-schemes, while the movie-person would check what is sustainable longterm.

Look at what you are doing today and ask yourself whether it serves the whole movie or only the snapshot. Begin viewing your life as an holistic, interconnected, big picture, and don’t get too caught up in the singular puzzle pieces of daily life. Something you can notice is the incredible amount of people who have only short-term “success”, who are “one-hitwonders”. They have a short peak of high success, then disappear into obscurity. Why? Because they considered only the snapshot, only the one scene.

If you put a bicycle beside a car for a 100-mile race, but give the bicycle a 50-mile head start, for some time it will look as if the bicycle is winning the race. If you examine only the stills of the movie you might place your bets on the bicycle winning. But if you view the whole movie in time, you can see that the car will certainly overtake the bike and win the race. That’s why it’s wise not to rely on the way things look right now, but to be able to imagine/simulate/project and intuit the overall path of things, as well as research their respective facts.

The Day After "Happy End"

Literature and cinema create the impression that life is mostly about a “happy end”, about reaching a destination or goal. However, 99% of life happens in the in-between-times. The actual reaching of a goal could be over within seconds. Happy ends are all well and good, but what about all the time before the happy end and all the time after? Wouldn’t it be funny to show how movies continued in the days and weeks after that supposed “happy end”? At the end of a movie we see a couple who supposedly live “happily together forevermore”, or we see an action hero who says, “Mission accomplished,” as if from that point on no more exploration, challenge, or growth occurs.

A “happy end” is a myth. There is no “happy end”. And that’s a good thing. The expansion of consciousness just goes on and on and on, stretching out forever into infinity. Life is not about the goal but the journey. Goals are needed to put you on a path, but they are not what life is about. That’s why, once you set a goal (once you have programmed your consciousness with an intention), it’s good to re-focus on the actual path and make the best of the current, the here and now. It is no coincidence that the word “current” also means river or flow. It’s beneficial not to project all joy to some distant “end”. Even if you have actually achieved some of your wildest dreams, life still goes on. You will likely still wake up the next morning. Even if prince charming steps out of the TV screen into your life and wants to marry you…you will soon get to know his daily-life quirks. Prince charming can be charming for the two hours that a movie takes, but being human, he can’t keep that energy for the rest of the day, week, month, year, or lifetime.

And what happens after you’ve made your first million? Daily life is still there. What happens after you have healed that injury? Daily life still happens. But all the things you've learned on the path to that goal are where the magic lies.

When Reality Surpasses Imagination

Here’s an arcane fact: When reality surpasses imagination, you are riding on a higher frequency of consciousness. When it’s the other way around, when imagination surpasses reality, you are firmly rooted in the tick-tock-world of the mundane. For example, you might imagine having passionate and the most wonderful sex with your boss, but when it really happens, you are kind of disappointed. On the other hand, you might imagine gardening to be a real drag, but in reality, it turns out to be blissful. You might imagine travelling to Namibia to be the adventure of your lifetime, but it turns out to be a journey of sweat and toil. Or you might imagine babysitting your neighbor's kid to be a thorough waste of time, but it turns out to be the most fun afternoon of the week.

One of the best weeks of my life was about 7 years ago, and it came…like so many things…out of the blue and while I was not wishing, needing, or thinking of how things should be. My mind was empty, so I was open for anything that arose. Often when we leave things up to the universe instead of trying to micromanage our life, good things happen.

I was walking around a lake once, when I noticed a station that rented out boards and kites for windsurfing. I knew how to windsurf, so dressed in my shorts and t-shirt, I rented a board, and was on my way. It was a lake surrounded by high mountains, so my ride offered one of the most majestic views ever. I could have called it a most beautiful day then and there, but it went on. I decided to move further away from the station and beach than is normally recommended to surfers (This poses a risk because there is no saying whether the wind will get you back to the starting point.) In the distance, I spotted an island that was one among a few resting on the lake. I reached the island dry (a feat in and of itself), left the board at the empty clearing, and walked onto the island. Before me were woods and beautifully lush, green rolling hills. Walking for a little while, I came to one of the grandest and most beautiful castles my eyes had ever seen…as well as a stream of tourists I had not suspected to find while walking through the empty fields and trails. All of a sudden, I found myself amongst hundreds of camera-toting Japanese, Italian, American, German, and Dutch tourists, all admiring the impressive castle. (They had all apparently reached the island by ferry.)

To make a longer story short: on that day I got to know the tour-guide of the castle. As I was touring the castle, we got into a conversation that lasted well beyond closing hours. That conversation turned into a love-affair that only lasted a few weeks, but they were a few weeks on cloud nine. Actually, one of the perks of that affair was having access to the castle long after all visitors had left. It started by her giving me private tours of the place and thenlater, unbeknownst to the castle owners, we ate there, slept in king's beds, even played chess where the royals of bygone days had played. Interestingly, I tried arriving their by surfboard a few times, but the wind circumstances had changed, and it was always inconvenient or awkward to get there. It was as if, on that particular day, a tunnel had opened in which it was doable to reach the island on a mere surfboard. So, I mostly visited my princess in the castle by ferry and then on foot.

Yes, the circumstances were unusual, adventurous even, but I would not say that the paradise I experienced in those weeks was either a place or a time. It was a state of mind. Had I been in another country with that state of mind, I would have attracted other circumstances but experienced them with just as much wonder.

Why the Minds Censors the Spontaneity of the Soul

For maximum happiness, it is advisable to “follow your bliss”; follow your heart and soul. Doing so sometimes involves unexpected actions and words considered “completely inappropriate” in regular society. So half of the time, I allow my mind to override my soul's inclination; I allow my mind to censor my words and actions.

For example, because I teach intuition, people often ask me, “So what do you feel intuitively about me, Fred? What can you say about me?” And sometimes I just blurt out the truth – spontaneously. “Well, you are absolutely frustrated with your boyfriend and are instead highly interested in the guy sitting over there,” I recently said to someone in front of a group of people. I just blurted out what I had intuitively picked up. And even though it was spot-on true and received hilariously by the group, it was taken as “completely inappropriate” by the person who had asked the question. Not only was my answer completely inappropriate, but the audience following their true heart's desire was also viewed as completely inappropriate in the professional setting we were in. Seeing the commotion I had caused through telling the truth, I reminded myself to censor my soul a little, allowing a mind-override. You see, even though people constantly request truth; request soul-information; request reality, when you really deliver it to them, they realize they would rather not have it. They would prefer things to be safe. So we use the mind-override to respect other people's limitations and realityframes. There is nothing wrong with the mindoverride, nothing wrong with suppressing the soul. The problem arises when we do that too often. Then the soul and our true heart's desire get buried beneath the mind's need to “fit in”, need for approval, need for conformity, and need for safety. As long as you know what your soul is saying and feeling, as long as you know you are currently overriding it, it is alright, because you are in charge; you are the boss. You have mind instead of mind having you. But done too frequently, you may lose sight of that gentle and happy voice of intuition, guiding you toward truth and bliss. It is good to balance heart and mind, to sometimes follow your heart and sometimes follow your mind. You follow the mind to fit into earth-society, conduct business, look respectable and “legitimate”, but you follow your soul to be happy and joyous.

Silence the Inner-Critic

There is this inner drill sergeant you sometimes use to put yourself down, beat yourself up, criticize yourself, and tell yourself what you “should”, “could”, and/or “must” do. It is commonly believed that selfdoubt and self-criticism will motivate you to take action, to stop procrastinating, to get going, but I have found that this is not true long-term. Too much selfcriticism takes away energy; it does not provide it.

“I'm not good enough.”
“I'm a loser”
“I will never get going.”
“I make the same mistakes over and over.”
“I am boring.”
“I'm a burden to others.”

Such thoughts make it so. The moment you believe in and act upon these thoughts, you get that attitude, that sluggishness, that tiredness. When working with habitual procrastinators (people who put off important tasks), the inner critic is especially loud. We all have an inner parent and an inner child. The inner child is timid and shy, easily overwhelmed and hurt, and constantly looking to “feel loved” and “feel good”. It is important to outgrow the inner child, but this section focuses on the inner parent.

This is the one who always hoists new expectations upon you, is never satisfied, is always critical. A little bit of this is good, but too much is a nuisance. I recently met a man who had such a strict inner critic, he went jogging until he injured his muscles. It’s not the first time he had an injury from overdoing it. He now sees how ineffective it is to overdo things because he was out and injured for weeks. Had he treated himself more gently and moved upward more slowly, there would be no injury, and he could still be jogging. He criticized himself every day for not doing all the tasks he put on his to-do list. His inner critic had caused him to put way too many items on the list. “You better get going, or else!” exclaims the inner critic. Once I told him that “less is more”, and to slow down and put less items on his list, as it would be possible to fulfill all of his intentions for the day. And that’s what makes a success: Only making actionintentions that you know you can and will do. Then, when you do them, your subconscious learns that your intentions come true. Thus confidence is built over time.

One way to handle the inner critic is by seeing it as a frustrated and angry drill sergeant who is shouting at you. Seeing it this way unmasks it. This might be followed by patting the sergeant on the back, telling him to relax just a little. All that pent up frustration is hiding fear of mediocrity and fear of running out of time. But all that tension is not really helping because most people, in this day and age, are no longer driven and motivated by threat and fear. Trying to motivate them in such a way is no longer as effective because we are living in different times and in a different consciousness. Students I have had who had really, really strict and rigid parenting, became just the opposite extreme as adults: lazy. They are being lazy as a rebellious response to the drill sergeant. Lazy as a response to being indoctrinated and forced to act, rather than acting from one’s own free choice.

Another way to handle the inner critic is by calling up the “Inner Council”. This is done by making a circle of a few chairs, sitting on one, and imagining the various inner voices sitting on the other chairs. On one there is the inner critic, parent or drill sergeant, on another, the inner child, on another, the inner dreamer, and on another, the successful version of you (This is only an example. You can remove or add others you deem appropriate.) Then you simply have an imaginary conversation with each member of your inner council or observe how they have conversation among themselves. Imagination here is used as a tool to access the subconscious. Your job is to have a calming effect on the inner parent and inner child, so that they don’t bother you in daily life.

Yet another way to handle the inner critic is to send yourself love and approval, respect and attention, acknowledgment and confidence. Of course you could follow the inner critic’s advice and do more for your self-improvement. That sometimes gets the inner critic to shut up. That’s when the inner critic is useful. You cannot make your days longer, but you can make your day better. But if the inner critic is a chronic choleric, then it will stay the inner critic no matter how much you do and achieve, and he will never allow you to just relax. He will drive you to overstretch and hurt yourself. It’s also vital to know that “doing” is not the only or even main ingredient of success, reflection is. Taking some time each day for quality thinking and reflection is the most underestimated success tool there is.

It’s also helpful to know that you have the most energy in the morning, and many have the most creativity at night. And another important point, especially for procrastinators, is that sometimes getting into the flow of new tasks, requires a little nudge, a little breaking through resistance. Too many people I work with say, “Well, first I have to feel right, then I can work.” Their emotional state is dominating their lives. But if you get into action regardless of your state, your state soon changes for the better. This is a lesson I repeat so often because it is such a common mistake. That’s not to say you should work when you are terrified, exhausted, grieving, or completely frustrated. These are the best times to relax. But if you consistently shy away from acting because you “don’t feel like it”, you won’t get that much done at the end of the day.

Regarding the inner critic, it is paramount to know that guilt-tripping yourself for not acting is a huge waste of energy. If you failed to do something, failed at a project, or over-ate, it is important not to guilt-trip yourself. Because all that guilt is saying is, “I might do it again. I may have not learned the lesson.” So the moment you allow yourself to wallow in guilt over not having done something, you are setting yourself up for failing again.

“Failing” is not the failure…not trying, that’s the failure. The inner critic says that shooting the ball beside the goal, missing the goal that, that is the “failure”. But the real failure is, not shooting out of fear of possibly missing. To be a success, you need to shoot the ball at the goal hundreds of times – which includes missing hundreds of times. So you can see how missing the goal is NOT the problem. Not shooting, not practicing, not trying, not acting is.

How to Discover Your Real Passion

A useful technique for discovering your real passion and, perhaps even your life's purpose, is to imagine that you already have and own everything you've ever wanted. Then, from this new state and position you ask yourself: “What would I like to do now?” Whatever answers you get to that question from this “mountaintop position” indicate your true heart's desire and purpose. Answering the, “What would you like to do?” question from a normal, dailylife struggle position, will often not provide the real answers but merely provide survival-based secondary programs.

An example: In your imagination you transport yourself to a really beautiful or luxurious place and relax there; imagine living there. Once you have settled in, you have someone enter your space, perhaps a servant, and ask you: “Madam/Sir, what would you like to do today?” Whatever answer/s you have to that question should be written down after you awaken from your meditation session. The semi-hypnotic state of deep relaxation, coupled with guided imagery, access your subconscious. The imagining of “already having it all” accesses your higher consciousness or higher-self. To then ask: “What would you like to do today?” supposes that even though you already have everything, there is something that is simply true to who you really are, regardless of how much you have or own.

How Would Love See It?

One of my primary questions in coaching-sessions is: “How would love see it?” How would love see a problem you are facing? How would love approach a task? How would love decide? How would love behave? How would love rekindle a relationship? How would love deal with bodily pains? How would love…?

The question serves to instantly reframe any situation to a higher level, to improve your state within a few seconds of asking the question. I have applied this question for the last 20 years in many different variations in my coaching work.

Sometimes I apply the technique not from the perspective of love, but from a role that my student admires. One student, a man, had difficulty approaching women, so I asked him who his role model regarding women is. He said it's Hank Moody from a TV-series called Californication. So I asked in regards to women (flirting, approaching, talking, acting, living), “How would Hank Moody see it? How would Hank Moody talk to women? How would he dress?” and so forth. Naturally his demeanor, body language, vibe, emotional state, looks, and voice changed the moment he recalled the Hank Moody character.

In a recent session with a woman who is afraid of angry people and acts too submissively when others get loud, I asked what her favorite movie is. “The Last Samurai”, she said. So I asked her, “How would a samurai handle angry people? How would Tom Cruise deal with angry people?” etc. I told her, “The next time someone is angry at you, simply remember the samurai. Just by remembering the samurai, you will be steadier.” As she repeats this new reaction to people's anger and conditions herself to be different than before, she will gradually stop attracting angry people.

Movies and movie-heroes serve us to show ways of being and talking. Like children, we need to be shown possibilities before we can believe in them, then make them possible. The subconscious will not create a state it’s not familiar with. Where there is no frame of reference and no change. By teaching yourself examples that you can admire, you gradually become that way.

I use this technique in countless variations with myself and my students because I know that, “If you change your self-image, your reality changes.” And often it’s enough to merely remember who you would like to be, but some take it further by changing their hairstyle and clothing to more closely emulate a new self and corresponding reality.

Beyond identity-shifting and role-shifting is the true and infinite self. This is merely the loving observer. All else are roles. Even the “personality” you think you are is ultimately a role. Any role attracts certain realities. Anything that is not love and bliss, is a role, and is not the “true self”. So questions such as, “How would the samurai see it?” define a new role and reality, whereas the question, “How would love see it?” defines no reality; it instead takes you back to source.

Broken Trust vs. Total Confidence

Intuition does not work if there is a lack of trust in life and in oneself. Doubt and lack of confidence come from looking at how the external world behaves. Young children are fully trusting and equipped with exuberant confidence. Then, over time, the child sees how friends, parents, and teachers lie and break promises. As a person grows older, he/she sees how partners, the media, CEOs, and politicians lie and break promises. If there was an especially big break of trust, some will subconsciously attract more people who abuse and break their trust. A life of suspicion, paranoia, and lack of confidence, is the result. Why? Because the subconscious mind records all of these events and draws conclusions. It says, “So everyone is lying all the time, therefore nothing and nobody can be trusted.” Even if your conscious mind decides, “I will now start trusting!” the much more powerful subconscious mind will override your new decision, and simply continue not trusting.

Because intuition is simply a matter of trust and faith, let's now examine how to build it.

Obviously, the external world does not offer an abundance of cause for trust and confidence. If you rely on a politician, CEO, or spouse to save the day, your reliance is misplaced. The confidence you are looking for, can only be found internally. Your confidence can be built if you are able to trust yourself. You can teach your subconscious that the things you say are true, you will do what you say, and your actions are in alignment with that. So, it is integrity that builds trust. It is integrity that empowers you. If you say to me, “I will complete this project by tomorrow at 6 p.m.,” and you really do that, you have taught your subconscious that your word can be relied upon. The subconscious then thinks, “OK…this is something stable I can trust.” As you build your trust with integrity, the subconscious will also support you when it comes to bigger things: “I will make this dream come true by the end of the year!” Building this confidence over years makes you a powerful creator. When you think or say something, it comes true over time. Many incidents of broken trust, usually make very weak creators. Allow your word to be reliable, stop lying and pretending, honor the agreements you have entered into. If you become someone others can trust, you begin attracting and noticing people, places, and organizations you can trust.

The more true to your word you are, the stronger your word gets. This is not really as easy as it sounds, but it works very well. One of the keys is not to make any promises you aren’t 100% certain you can keep. So this involves saying “No” more often than is common in society. “Yes” is only said when it is really meant and can be kept. Even if it’s sometimes unpleasant to reject someone's request, I`ll say “No” if I am not sure that I can fulfill the request. Another key is to stay true to time. So if you say you will meet someone at 3, be there at 3. It is in small details such as these that your subconscious learns whether your word can be trusted. This is something you ask of yourself, not necessarily of others. Expecting others to be 100% true to their word will only make you frustrated. I see and hear people break their word every day, and they are not even conscious of it. “I'll write that email to you later this evening,” and they don't. “I'll transfer the money on Monday,” and they don’t. They'll say, “I absolutely enjoyed that movie!” and not mean it. They`ll say, “I will exercise every morning for the next 4 weeks,” but don’t. But this is not so much your problem, it’s theirs. By being untrue, they weaken themselves; they take the wind right out of their sails. Liars don’t need my punishment, they have punished themselves enough already. If you tell a lie, the subconscious registers: “Ah…so his words do not necessarily have anything to do with reality.”

You make a command, and it happens. You say a word, and it comes true. If you have a goal that you would love to manifest into reality, bring it out of the vague realm of mere thought by defining the specifics of that dream, then defining by when it should come true, and finally defining actions you will take toward it. Then, stay true and loyal to it. When you have high confidence and believe with the wholeness of your body, subconscious, mind, and soul, you magnetically attract what matches it.

Going a little deeper, into the phenomena of psychological projection: If you see liars everywhere in the external world, putting too much attention there, it shows that you are suppressing “the liar within”. That’s how I secretly know that people who are continually telling me about the “evils” of other people, the “evils” of various neighbors, colleagues, customers, ex-spouses, enemies, governments, organizations, corporations, and religions, are not to be trusted! I never do business with people who see evil everywhere. It’s one of the more obvious alarmbells. I am not saying that these evils don’t exist. However, “It takes one to know one,” and someone who has their attention focused on lies too often, is suppressing their own non-integrity, instead of owning it. Whatever is present but suppressed in oneself, is projected onto the external world. Therefore, only a liar notices liars everywhere. And so they blame all those liars and evil people, without even seeing their own untrue ways. If, on the other hand, someone sees grace, beauty, and truth all over the place, it’s because they are that way. They tell me about all those great neighbors, colleagues, customers, spouses, organizations, etc., and I know they are projecting their own greatness.

You see the world as you are. If you think the world is boring, you are. If you think the world is falling apart, chances are high that your own life is falling apart. If you think that God is a punishing and aggressive being, you are. You may not see it or be aware of it, but being punishing and aggressive is stored in your subconscious, and you've projected this onto who you think “God” is. If you think that God is a loving and caring being, you are. You may not see it or be aware of it, but being loving and caring is stored in your subconscious. If you think that the universe is full of life and of fantastically interesting and amazing places, it’s because you have such places within. It means you are a fantastically interesting and amazing person.

Having, Doing, Being

On a low to mid-level of consciousness, life revolves around “having”. You then define yourself over your material possessions, and trying to get various external objects and people for self-validation and well-being. When you meet a person at this consciousness level, they will tell you boring tales about what they “have”, “I have this kind of car, that kind of house, and I want to get that kind of girlfriend,” etc.

At a somewhat higher level of consciousness, life revolves around “doing” instead of “having”. You define yourself over your job/profession and the things you “do”. At this level, if nothing is being “done”, you begin feeling uncomfortable because you rely on doing-ness for self-validation and well-being. When you meet a person on this level, they will not tell you about what they have but about what they have been doing, are doing, and will do. Saying things such as, “I am working on this project at the moment,” “I participated in a marathon,” “I like to play the guitar," or, “I will go sailing this year.”

At an even higher level of consciousness, life revolves around “being” instead of “doing” or “having”. You define yourself over your inner-state, who you are, and make well-being and energy your priority, regardless of what you “have” or “do”. You rely on a proper state, and physical as well as mental and spiritual conditions first. When you meet a person on this consciousness-level, they will tend to speak more in terms of being present, being loving, states, energies, atmospheres, experiences, observations, and roles rather than what they “have”, or what they’ve been “doing”.

A natural progression up the scale of consciousness is therefore to first take care of your “havingness”, so that you indeed have the things you need for survival and to feel at ease. Once that milestone is accomplished, you let go of being too interested in what you have and become more interesting in your “doingness”. Focus on “doingness” of course, leads to easier material success than the focus on “havingness” because it’s one energy-level higher. Once you are really good at doingness and have a highly developed “action-muscle”, you naturally ascend, and your “beingness” becomes the predominant focus. Focus on “beingness” of course leads to better performance than the focus on “doingness” because it’s one energy-level higher.

The path of the world-mind is: “First I have to have X, then I can do X, and then I can be X.” The path of the soul/spirit is: "First I shall be X, and from that the right doing and having will naturally arise.”

Some examples of the thought-process of “havingness” people:

“I want to have a big house on the lake. Then I can go out and find the right partner. Then I can experience love."

“I want to have a partner. Then I can do my job in a more focused way to make money. Then I can relax."
Some examples of the thought-process of “doingness” people:
“I want to work hard. Then I can have money. Then I can relax.”
“I want to make my business website. Then I can have customers. Then I can be well-known.”
Some examples of the thought-process of “beingness” people:
“First, I will become relaxed and present. And from this state, I will decide what to do and have.“
“First I will be loving. And from this state I will decide what to do and have.“

Ascending to a place where your being takes first priority means leaving the world of enslavement, where your self-validation and well-being are dependent on all sorts of external objects, possessions, people, and actions. When your sense of self is only dependent on your mental and physical state, it gives control back into your hands. You cannot control others. You can’t control the world. But you can control who you are being. It is at this point that authentic living begins. And if you’re really honest…what good are the most fantastic and wonderful possessions or activities, if you are not in a good state to enjoy them?

5
THE POWER OF APPRECIATION

Appreciation, gratitude, and forgiveness will unblock the avenues of intuition. This chapter therefore focuses on developing these qualities.

Forgiveness Has Miraculous Effects

The effects of forgiveness are nothing short of miraculous. I have seen people restore bad eyesight, tumors reverse, a sudden influx of fortunes; I’ve stood in awe at the spontaneous disappearance of family feuds and grudges decades old, the termination of insolvency proceedings, and much, much more…just through forgiveness.

Resentment is a doorway to negative vibes. In phases of prolonged resentment, you weaken your body-mind, and open the channels for bad energies to enter your body and being, attach to you, and build a nest of sickness or inner oppression. That is why it is vital for you to release hard sentiments thoroughly and completely if you want goodness.

Forgiving people and groups does not mean you approve of what they did/do. This misconception keeps many from forgiving. They think forgiving is approval and say, “No way! How could I ever approve of that?” It is not the person's actions you are forgiving. You are forgiving the human, the soul behind the actions. You recognize that a human being is limited, prone to error and misunderstanding, and release your grudge against him/her. Nor does forgiveness mean becoming a doormat. You can set your boundaries and say “no” to people, without harboring resentment.

Of course, if there wasn't a seeming benefit of hate, there would be none. The secret “benefit” is that it gives the ego power. People “juice themselves up” with hard emotions. When we have been wronged, it sometimes feels “good” to have fantasies of revenge. But if you allow this to go on, it will turn into resentment, then rage, and finally cruelty. Not to mention what it does to your health. You get “energy” only at a very low level. So if you are down and out, apathetic and depressed, lost and lonely, then hate feels like coming alive and rising above the muck. But it also prevents you from addressing the issues you are covering up, and it takes away from your sense of aliveness. This is why all the big spiritual names in history taught forgiveness as their primary liberation tool.

The following exercise will help you start cleaning up on self-destructive resentment:
Resentment Release Technique
1. List the people and groups you resent or have not forgiven.

After every name indicate how much you resent them on a scale from 1 to 10. 1 indicates “OK”, 5 indicates a dislike, and 10 indicates hatred.
2. Hold them in mind until you feel their pain.

Think of the first person on your list. Hold that person in mind. Instead of holding what they did in mind, simply hold an image of that person or group. You do not have to approve of what they did or do. While visualizing, release your judgments and breathe softly. Try to feel the pain they are in. Were they not in pain, they would not try to harm others. Hurting people hurt others. Once you discover the hurt or ignorance they must be in to behave as they did…

3. Forgive them.
Mentally or verbally forgive them. If you want, you can use this statement:

I acknowledge that you are a human being limited in understanding and therefore prone to err. I forgive you
for what you thought, said, and did. I release all and any resentment, and wanting revenge or ill-will toward
you. I release trying to change or correct you. I release
all energies, emotions, and beliefs connected to this
from my whole body and being. May you find peace and happiness. I repeat: May you find peace and happiness. May you find peace and happiness.

Repeat the statement, directed at the person mentally, three to five times, and then let go. Quit concerning yourself with this person or group, and direct your attention toward the nicer things in life.

If during the process you feel sickish or have aches, these are parts of the process. Allow all of that stuckness to come up and release.

Repeat the process for each person or group on your list. You will experience a new surge of energy and possibly a kind of warmth or softness in the chest area.

You are releasing these emotions for your own benefit, so that you don’t hold them in your own field. Alternatively, if you prefer, you can use the following technique which addresses the same things but using slightly different words and steps.

The Forgiveness Technique

The subconscious cannot tell the difference between resenting others and resenting yourself. It is therefore recommended that you release all types of resentment. This technique is another way of doing it. Feel free to use your own variations.

1. Write down the name of a person you would like to forgive.
2. Write down which thoughts create the feeling of resentment toward this person.

3. What problems must this person have had in order to behave that way? What do you assume are those persons feelings, thoughts, and beliefs that compel him/her to behave in that way? And: If you were in this person's position, might you behave that way too? Write down your answers.

4. What negative energy came from you, prior to the other person doing that thing you haven’t forgiven? Can you see how you were complaining, blaming, or in a bad space prior to that person?

5. If you pretend for a moment that it's 10 years from now: Have you forgiven this person by now? How many years do you think is enough before you can forgive?

6. If you could forgive the person, how long would it take for that to feel natural?
7. If you could forgive the person, how would that make you feel?

8. Gently focus on yourself and the person. Ask yourself: Could I first forgive myself for resenting this person?
9. Focus on yourself and whisper, “I’m sorry. I forgive you. I love you.”

10. Gently focus on yourself and the person. Ask yourself: Could I forgive this person?
11. Gently focus on the person and ask yourself: Have I made similar mistakes before?
12- Gently focus on the person and ask yourself: When could I forgive this person?
13. Focus on the person and whisper, “I’m sorry. I forgive you. Thank you.”

You can also apply forgiveness to yourself. You can forgive yourself for your past mistakes and move on. If you have wronged yourself or others, you can also make amends to balance out the energy.

Your Critics Are Angels in Disguise

Who says criticism is bad? Who says that it’s a bad thing when your customers complain? Who says it’s a bad thing when your spouse blames you for things? Who says it’s a bad thing when your boss or employee tell you what they don’t like about you?

Where did we get the idea that those things are “bad”?

If you assume these things are “bad”, it’s time to fundamentally change your beliefs about how reality works, and quit walking around like a victim.

Can you see critics as angels in disguise? All criticism – whether valid or invalid – is an opportunity to learn and grow. Depending on the way you take it, you can let it drag you down or use it to become quicker, happier, more efficient, and more zestful. The following (metaphysically derived) concept will help you tremendously in achieving this and other things:

Pain and suffering are not the same thing!

“Pain” is an emotion, a passing energy, a brief “pang” in your chest or stomach. The suffering only comes in when you resist it. When you try to battle it. When you start resisting it, rather than accepting or even enjoying it, the pain not only grows but it starts sticking to you. But if you can break through the barrier of pain by non-resistance, you can “come out on the other side” feeling high.

I have experimented with this idea at the dentist, among other places. Unless the pain is excruciating, I normally won’t take anesthesia, so I can explore the dissolution of pain. Pain creates several layers of resistance, and if I can give them all up, onion-layer by onion-layer, I “come out on the other side” and feel vivid and high afterwards. If I did not manage to release and surrender, I feel exhausted and tired from trying. Resistance wastes energy; surrender gives energy.

It’s the same with criticism. There are various layers of your identity that despise criticism. These are layers of self-importance that can be given up to unveil a higher version of yourself. This does not mean that all criticism is valid – mostly, criticism tells more about the person criticizing than about yourself! However, that’s not the point. Whether they are “right or wrong” is not the point. The point is, every instance of complaint and criticism from outside is there to help you peel off another layer of victim-mentality and transcend your smallness. It therefore behooves you to look forward to criticism; it’s an opportunity to become happier. The untrained mind becomes more resentful with every complaint thrust upon it; the trained mind becomes happier and stronger with every complaint. But don’t be surprised if nobody complains toward you anymore. It’s no fun criticizing someone who truly appreciates it.

On the other side of the coin, you need not be shy of being a critic of others. It’s in the way you say it– the “carrier vibe” which carries the words–that determines the results of your complaint. You can carry a message with anger, which will cause counter-anger, or you can carry it with decisiveness, which will create respect. You can carry the same message with fear, which will cause the person to get back at you, or the carrierwave can be love, by which your complaint will be heard.

Fight Back or Forgive?

“I know I should forgive him, on the other hand it just feels like I have to fight back, otherwise he will do it again,” some say. The question, “Should I fight back or forgive?” is quite common.

The answer I usually give is not an either/or. It depends on what level-of-consciousness I and the other are in. If I am dealing with a complete psychopath, the question, “Should I forgive him or fight back?” ought not even arise because I have removed myself from their physical proximity long ago. But, if I am dealing with your everyday bully, here are But, if I am dealing with your everyday bully, here are 1000 levels-of-energy scale as described in my book Levels of Energy):

80: Groveling and Afraid of the Bully: Trying to gain his approval by doing what he wants, “Please don’t hurt me. I`ll do whatever you say.”
160: Enraged and Seeking Revenge (without taking constructive action): “How dare he bully me? I'm going to show him just who the *%$k I am!”

200: Avoidance and Denial: “Alright, never mind. I just need to shift my focus. C’mon. I can ignore this…again.”

300: Fighting Back: “I can play the games he plays too. I am going to fight for what’s right and not let myself be bullied.”

400: Neutral but Standing Firm: “I will not bow to his demands, nor react to his antics. I will remove myself from his presence when possible. I will try to talk things out with him, but will never compromise my integrity.”

500: Forgiving and Loving: “I can see his suffering. While I don’t approve of his actions, I forgive him and genuinely wish that he recovers from his emotional affliction.”

From this scale you can see that both the “Forgiveness” and the “Fighting” options can have positive outcomes. It is not “either/or”, with one being negative and the other positive, but simply about context. If, thus far you have always been afraid or angry, then actually Fighting Back is a step upwards. If, on the other hand, you are used to fighting back and restoring justice, then the next level for you is to practice Forgiving and Loving instead of fighting. Not all people want forgiveness instantly, even though it’s the most powerful option. Some want to learn to fight for what’s right first.

The best option for most readers here is probably a good mix of 300s-500s: to always forgive, but at the same time not becoming too passive. I can forgive and extend compassion, but that doesn’t mean I allow someone to scam me for thousands of dollars. He/She will probably be hearing from my lawyer…while at the same time I forgive. Of course, the high energy of forgiveness can often “miraculously” turn events so that lawyers are no longer necessary. The important point here is, that the external action of Fighting Back (with a lawyer for instance), need not be accompanied by feelings of resentment (thus producing bad vibrations for all involved), but can be done in a state of calm. “Be peaceful as doves but wise as serpents.”

It has become habitual for me to apply instant forgiveness when I am “wronged”. This is made possible by quickly seeing the hurt condition someone is in when they “wrong” or “attack” me. From a higher perspective, there is nobody who is actually “wronging” or “attacking” you. All they are doing is calling for attention. That loving attention can be sent, as a wave of acknowledgement and kindness, immediately. When you learn to do this strongly, you can wipe out someone's irate mood within seconds.

The Radiance of Appreciation

Appreciation is an actual energy. Its deliberate radiance benefits all endeavors, and its importance cannot be over-emphasized.

Think of a person, life-form, place, object, or thing that you appreciate. Now describe it in as much detail as possible.

Do that before reading on.

If you have done so, you just had a noticeable mood-shift upwards within just a few minutes. It awakens the heart, and detailed-focus allows the energy to accumulate.

A good exercise on any given day is to take note of things you like. To write lists of what you appreciate. To speak about and mention what you think is good. To get specific about what you like and why you like it. In those moments, you are sourcing energy directly from a higher realm.

In this field-of-energy, all takes care of itself – just the right contacts, projects, ideas and events flow into your life. There is no reason to withhold appreciation. It overcomes resentment, burnout, illness, exhaustion, emptiness, stagnation, and any other malady. The mini-version of appreciation is respect, which is also well worth cultivating. The premium version of appreciation is love.

Feeling unwell is due only to the contraction or stress you feel when you resist things. And you only resist things when you focus on what you do not appreciate, or on the aspects of something you do not appreciate (Every person, place, or thing has aspects of value.) The instant you condemn something, as in a strong, “No!” your attention sticks there. Appreciation is the opposite of that, it is finding things you can say “Yes” to, or even more powerfully, finding aspects to anything you can say “Yes” to. Lost your suitcase? That’s GREAT! It gives you an opportunity to radiate you more strongly, independent of the clothes in your suitcase. Such is the attitude of appreciation. The universe is non-dual, so it understands “yes” and “no” as the same thing – as a focusing of attention. So whatever you say “yes” or “no” to, you gravitate toward.

Falling in love with existence increases your handle over it. Pushing against it alienates you and makes you unable to have any effect on it. You cannot control a dancing partner that you push away. Your personal energy field lights up with the admiration and gratitude you radiate.

Regard vs. Neglect

I stood in front of two houses that were in stark contrast to each other. One was in a state of neglect, the other was well cared for. I enjoy contrast. It is rare that two things so dissimilar stand right beside each other. This was a few years ago. I was on a coachinghouse-call, and I thought I would be entering the nice house. The plants and garden were cultivated, the windows were spotless, the kids toys in front of the house looked friendly, and I thought, “Good, I look forward to this.”

Then I realized it was the wrong address, and my job today would be in the house that looked neglected. “Uh-oh,” I thought. In fact, it looked so run-down that at first I thought nobody was living there. Frankly, it looked like a haunted house. Shrubs were growing so tall and wild, they covered the porch. Windows were either broken or dirty. There was also a child's toy, but it was broken, dirty, and just lay there to decay in the shrubs.

For a moment I wondered whether I should even enter the house because what I saw spelled trouble. Why? Because when personal belongings are in a state of neglect, it indicates a lack of love. And where there is a lack of love, there is a lack of everything else. This has nothing to do with being able to afford a nicer house. Even without a cent of money, the owner could have thrown the broken toy away or cleaned the windows.

Compassion got the better of me, and I entered the house. Inside was no different than outside. It was a perfect reflection of the person's inner condition, which was resignation. After her husband died, she had lost the will to live. Having lost the will to live, she developed various illnesses. Having developed various illnesses, she no longer had the energy to get things done with the house or even ask someone else to help get them done.

The coaching-session proved difficult. At first, everything I suggested was only replied to with, “I’ve already tried that,” “I’ve already done that,” “That didn’t work, I tried that too.” Being familiar with lowenergy, these answers were not unexpected. When someone is depressed, it appears as if nothing will work and as if everything has already been tried. These are protective statements because on some level, no change is desired. Movement upwards would only bring up the painful emotions she was trying to avoid.

One way to get out of such states is to work oneself up the ladder, step by little step, allowing just a little more love into one's life on a daily basis. One way to do so is to cultivate regard instead of neglect. So, I did something I had actually never done as a coach (and may never do again) and started playing “cleaning-service”. While explaining to her the point of loving-ness as opposed to neglect, I cleaned one of her windows, threw piles of trash away, and swept the floor. She was flabbergasted, and I was surprised by myself. “You don’t have to do that!” she exclaimed. But in this case I really did have to do it. She did not need “coaching” in the normal sense, she needed someone to care. She did not need any of my mindtechniques. A picture that her daughter had painted that was just lying around, was dusted off and hung up. This made her cry because it transported her memory to better days. Sadness and grief are quite an improvement to apathy.

Some synonyms for “regard”:
Cultivate
Devote Oneself To
Cherish
Foster
Nurse
Respect
Nourish
Take Care Of
And these are some antonyms of “regard”:
Neglect
Disregard
Ignore
Not Care For
Indifference

Oversight As you neglect people, their relationship to you will deteriorate. The skills you don’t use, you may lose. If you don’t give a hoot about your house, it will start falling apart in due time. All of this can be reversed of course, with care, regard, and cultivation. Such love can be applied to anything for improvement. It can be applied to a garden or to a friend. It can be applied to furniture. It can be applied to a project, to your health, to a website, to anything at all.

Cherish the Little Things

Quality of life is amplified by increasing the amount of undivided attention given to things. Another way to say this: Savoring things increases your well-being. To intensify the point, here are some synonyms of the word “savor”:

Cherish
Delight In
Luxuriate In
Relish
Revel in
Sip
Taste
Experience
Feel
Appreciate
Enjoy
Honor
Treasure
Bask in
Regard

Many of us have no difficulty cherishing the big things. It’s the little things that are too often taken for granted. I was watching someone have coffee the other day in a most exquisite, 20s-architecture, poolside cafe. I`m not sure she even tasted the coffee because she was fondling her smartphone, while at the same time chatting to someone at the table. Her attention was split three-ways: the coffee, the chat, and the smartphone. The coffee was emptied in three large swoops. I wondered whether she was even aware of the magnificent setting she was in.

Lack of awareness-depth-diminishes one's perceptual experience. There are several levels of depth in which the coffee could've been tasted. At the most superficial level, you would not even take notice of the cafe because you are caught up in mind-stuff. One level deeper, you might take brief notice of it and comment, “Oh, it's nice here,” but that’s still superficial. At a few levels deeper, you would sit in silence for a few minutes and marvel at the beauty of the setting, and drink the cup of coffee as if it were your very first or very last. At a deeper level still, you would feel the entire history of the setting, and the coffee would make you ecstatic.

I sense that when we leave this planet to the afterlife, we'll miss those many “little things” that are so unique to earth and will wish to have more thoroughly savored them. Savoring things means to slow down, to allow yourself the luxury to expand time and become centered, to bring more quality to the present moment.

You Look like Who You Like

Have you ever noticed how couples who have been together for a long time tend to start looking alike? Well, you are not fantasizing, it’s true! A scientific study carried out by the psychologist Robert Zajnoc and his colleagues and published in the paper, “Convergence in the physical appearance of Spouses” (1987), details a long-term experiment that shows participants pictures of men and women in their first year of marriage, and the same couples after 25 years of marriage. The 110 participants of the experiment were asked to figure out which of the couples were married to each other. Judging by facial features alone, it was possible for most of the participants to correctly judge which of the faces were couples. The conclusions of the experiment along with further extensive research indicated that couples' facial features usually began to resemble each other the longer they are together. The researchers suggested that this is because of empathy. When you empathize with someone, you subconsciously begin mimicking and copying their behavior and facial expressions.

I agree with this but would like to suggest that there is a little more going on. Because psychologists don’t usually learn or use spiritual terms such as “the law of attraction” and “energy transference”, their means of communicating what is really going on is limited. But I have been teaching for 20 years that: “You become what you give your attention to.” What you put attention to for extended amounts of time, you become an energetic and vibratory match to. This is why you can read someone's character and personality best after the age of 40.

Of course, this also reveals that the secret of beauty cannot be found in cosmetics with its multibillion-dollar hype. You cannot purchase beauty. But if you give your attention to what is beautiful, you will become more beautiful. And you can make it much stronger if your attention is imbued with empathy and appreciation for whatever it is you're looking at.

You Are Loved

You are loved tremendously and probably don’t even know it. There are higher realms and higher beings that look upon you as you would look upon a child or a partner you love. Recall your feeling of love, and imagine that feeling 1000 times magnified, and you'll get an idea of just how much humanity is loved.

From this perspective, humans are seen as precious children that are in the infancy of their overall evolution. Humans big and small, good and bad, ugly and beautiful are all loved infinitely. Being aware of this nurture and protection increases your well-being throughout life.

Love is the energy the whole universe is created of and from, on and in. And like the miniature-god you are, you too can create new things by applying love. The bigger your heart, the better you can create. The soul-part of you sees merit in everything, and resists nothing. It sees merit in your friends and enemies, good times and bad times. Love life. Love the source of life. That is the prime key to a good life. Without love you are just mind-fucking, pretending to have knowledge when all you have is emptiness.

When you become love, whatever is good for you happens naturally. Love attracts health, money, and friends. Lack of love creates problems. As love accumulates, it gets its own dynamic and starts twirling, circling, oscillating, and turning to gold everything it touches.

The word “love” has been overused and abused by countless advertisers. So much so, it is mistaken with pretense or with the conditional love of relationships. But love is a real energy-field and can directly influence your surroundings. It can affect your computer, your car, your dog, your spouse, anything. Radiating love improves life for yourself and everyone around you. Stuff happens and gets done in the presence of love.

The higher you ascend in love, the more unconditional it becomes. First, it was only the love toward a partner, a child, or a pet. Then, it was toward a neighbor. Then toward a boss. Then toward an unloving person. That would not mean you support their behavior, but you have compassion for the fallible human they are. As you ascend, you begin to notice that others are full of love too, and as you radiate love, love will radiate back.

Reaching a state of unconditional love toward anything, anyone, and anytime is the goal and purpose of life on earth. You will have to repeat very harsh lessons in life until you “get it”, and can at last leave the rat-race.

Every day offers opportunities to either resist the flow of life, or to love. Every piece of criticism directed toward you, every problem that comes up, is either an opportunity to dissolve it in love or to fight with it. Love can occupy any viewpoint or position, at least temporarily. If you are unable to occupy the position of your fellow human being, be it a worldview, an opinion, a political or religious position, or antiposition, you still have plenty of resistance left. The soul can identify with anything. That is the defining characteristic of your essential self. It can de-identify and identify with various realities.

You can direct your intent, affirmation, or request at the higher forces that love you unconditionally, anytime. If you are firm and authentic in your request, you will be heard and responded to every time, no exceptions.

Love It or Leave It

A common block for people is doing something they don’t like. One of my current students keeps telling me how she is not enjoying her university studies at all. She relates it to a lot of boredom and frustration. So why won’t she quit? Probably because she has already invested too much and believes she needs those credentials for future success. If I don’t enjoy a movie, I get up and leave the theater. Some stay because they have invested 10 dollars for the seat, but that is a double loss because they are also wasting two hours of their lives. If I did not enjoy my studies, I´d either learn to embrace and love them, or I'd quit.

So if this student insists she is not going to leave her studies, then she should at least learn to enjoy them, embrace them, and to stop complaining about them. If she is not going to cut the ties, she could practice letting go of the subjective state of boredom, and mentally coax herself into enjoying, loving, embracing, and saying “yes” to what is happening there. Higher-self is capable of enjoying almost anything, that’s its special capability. In the grand scheme of things, everything that happens is perfect, and there is no reason to assume that whatever does happen to you in life is inherently bad for you. Even illness and accidents can turn out to be a blessing in disguise for deeper soul-exploration.

Another person who has been writing to me for awhile about a physical disability, has been communicating the many different things she has tried to heal it. I applaud her willpower and drive to find a solution and to really be able to say, “I’ve tried everything.” But her increasing frustration with not being able to find a solution, indicates that she is strong on “wanting to overcome” it but weak on the acceptance part. So I tell her, “Accept it or heal it.” Since she has been unable to heal it for over a decade, the time has come to accept it. Not as a sign of resignation, not as a giving up any hope, but as an acceptance of the way things are right now, so that she can get on with her life instead of being preoccupied with only the physical part of it. Disability is only a physical part of life. Being preoccupied with that means reducing oneself to the body. The lesson in this might be to be able to fully enjoy life in spite of a physical condition. To make the best of the cards one is dealt. To play the ball as it landed.

When you are no longer attached to the outcome of things, you become completely fearless and free. Your goal will come true, or it won’t. And both are alright. But that doesn’t mean “no longer caring”, that’s a misunderstanding of non-attachment. You don’t detach because you don’t care, you detach-fromthe-outcome because you are optimistic that whatever the outcome is, is for the highest good. You have goals and dreams, but you don’t ponder suicide if they don’t instantly come true.

“Love it or leave it,” can also be, “Get it or let go of it.” To someone complaining about not finding a girlfriend I said, “Then get the girlfriend already or let go of the idea for now.” It’s this in-between-state that causes trouble. It’s the needing and wanting rather than the having. If you cannot get something right now, let go of it. And if you can get something, then get it. But don’t go around lamenting how you want it but can’t get it. That’s just wasted breath.

Love or Leave Exercise
Here`s an exercise to teach this to your body/mind:
1. Write down things you want but do not have.

2. For each item on your list, write down either a) how you are going to get it in the near future, or b) deliberately let go of it mentally, and cross it out on your list.

3. Write down things you do not like in your life.

4. For each item on your list decide whether you are going to a) leave it or stop investing time and attention to it, or b) mentally focus on it, and try to embrace and love it.

Exercise: The Smiling Experiment

If you are of the reclusive and somber sort, you may want to try the Smiling Experiment. Choose 3 days in which to smile at all kinds of people…strangers, familiars, the old, the young, men, women, the rich, the poor, the in-between, the sad, the happy, and the neutral.

It can be a big smile, a soft smile or, if you do not want to smile openly, just a friendly glance with your eyes, an inner smile, or the sending of blessings to someone.

Also smile or send blessings when you are not in the mood for it, because “acting-as-if” you are in the mood will uplift your mood. It is not a “fake” smile if your intention is good-willed. It is not the smile of a salesperson, who only smiles because he believes he'll get something in return. Fake-smiles come from masking one's intentions. Deliberate smiling is done with positive intent.
If you already smile a lot, then try to extend your smile to strangers, sending them blessings or well-wishes.

The world is a mirror of you. If you notice stupid, evil, ugly people everywhere, this partially says something about who you are being. And if you notice smart, good, beautiful people everywhere this partially says that you are being that.

In any scenario of daily life, there are millions of things to notice. If you always notice the same things, it’s because you are always being the same attitude. You can see the very same scenario you saw yesterday, with brand new eyes. And that is something this exercise is meant to convey.

Having done the smiling-experiment for 3 days, notice: What has changed? What are some of the things that happened to you that are different from your regular routine? Why, apart from people in service-jobs, is smiling so rare around the globe? How would your life be if you treated all people kindly, without expectation of something in return?

Exercise: An Appreciation Walk

Take a walk and bless, appreciate, or acknowledge all that is nice, well done, well crafted, loving, beautiful, and representative of abundance and beauty. Deliberately bless, acknowledge or appreciate specific objects, people, places, parts of nature, scenarios, events, landscapes, buildings, pictures, cars etc. Take special note of nice sounds, colors, shapes, and textures, and hold them in observation for more than only a glance. The more you do this walk, the more your personal energy-field and aura expand.

Exercise: Giving Yourself Energy

Here is something to give yourself energy within only a few minutes: Place your right hand on your forehead and your left hand on your heart-region. Voice something you could forgive yourself for. Take a deep breath. Voice something you like or appreciate about yourself. Take another deep breath. Repeat. Continue.

Excessive self-criticism is self-defeating and unlikely to provide energy. Self-approval is rare with most people but will give you a real energy-boost. Some people have objected that self-love is selfish, to which I respond, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.”

Self-criticism should only be practiced in the context of an official exercise – such as writing a list of your weaknesses – with the intention of correcting them. Outside of that, there should be no putting yourself down.

Exercise: Count your Blessings

This exercise is great for anyone who experiences any kind of lack in his/her life. A great way to start and end the day is to count your blessings. Focusing on what you liked about your day and what you have already received, takes your attention away from lackconsciousness.

The mind/ego tends to take everything for granted after only a few weeks of owning it. Rekindle your sense of amazement and gratitude for all things you do have, and more will be given to you. If you focus properly, there is no limit to the amount of things you can list.

Exercise: Random Acts of Kindness
Examples for Random Acts of Kindness:
* Anonymously paying for someone's drink at a restaurant
* Helping an elderly person carry bags

* Letting someone pass you in the check-out line of the supermarket
* Paying the parking fee for the next person behind you

* Holding the door open for a complete stranger

In an Infinite context, there is no difference between big things and the little things. Even small acts of kindness go a long way.

All people are “children of the universe”. The universe and its many beings love it when you take care of its children.

Humor as a Higher Level of Consciousness

Humor – it can sway crowds, act as an aphrodisiac, close big deals, ease pain, and make things move along more smoothly. It is an actual energy-form with tangible relative strength and effect compared to other emotions and states. In my view, it is one of the strongest forces available to humankind and so much more than merely a nice distraction.

The implication here is not to become a clown. But, you can feel and transmit this energy even without making jokes, non-verbally, and it will bring a smile to people's faces. If you are radiating this vibe and ask someone, “Why so serious?” they might crack up.

The presence or absence of humor is a measuring stick, by which you can tell the consciousness-level of any group, activity, seminar, relationship, etc. Being a self-improvement coach, I used to visit a lot of seminars, workshops, retreats…and consistently got a good laugh at how grim many of these “teachers” were. If you see a teacher without humor or find yourself at some meeting without the slightest smile, my advice is to go elsewhere.

If any of you have had difficulty finding a partner, herein lies the key. If you can’t get a man/woman to laugh, you hardly stand a chance…unless you are comfortable with getting together with other troubled minds. Laughter is a very powerful aphrodisiac. That’s why the Casanovas of this world use humor as their primary weapon of seduction. That’s why laughter wins the hearts of reluctant men/women.

If you cultivate humor as an actual energetic-skill, as something you radiate outwards, you can nonverbally influence any situation, even while you are keeping a straight face. If there are a group of people having a fight or argument, and you stand there emitting gentle waves of humor, you can dispel their fight by the power of your energy. I`d argue that a comedian potentially has more healing-power than most actual healers out there.

Asking someone in a dark mood, “Why are you so serious?” immediately interrupts their mind/ego-spiel, and opens them up. Too much seriousness acts like a glue that keeps problems stuck in their place. Humor on the other hand, acts like a dissolvent that evaporates energies of hardness.

“Why so serious?” is a question you can also ask yourself throughout the day. If you knew the nature of the universe, you would not be quite as serious, you’d know the world is a stage, an epic theater-play, in which we are the actors of many roles. This does not mean you mock tragedies or make fun of suffering. But it does mean not to take the world as the only and most important thing there is. It does mean not to take yourself and the events that happen to you quite as seriously as someone who is too identified with the movie-of-life. Angels can fly because they take themselves lightly.

Lack of humor is rife in the fields of spirituality, psychology, and religion, and the main symptom of the decay of various movements/groups. From the perspective of Infinite Consciousness, the world and its little drama's a comedy. Humor cuts through the BS of the world-self (ego) that constantly takes itself too seriously. Lack of humor is also indicative that a person has something to hide. So do not trust anyone who is always uptight and grim. In the field of spiritual coaching, lack of humor indicates that someone is fixed in narrow positionalities and rigid rules/formulas, rather than connected with the spontaneity of reality in the here and now. Humor allows one to handle life's issues with more ease and clarity, rather than assigning overblown importance and fear to them. It’s the lubricant that keeps the engines of the body and mind flowing smoothly.

Watching comedy is a spiritual activity. Laughter releases vital energies and chemicals for your health and emotional well-being. Humor comes about when confronted with the paradoxical and with deviations from the norm. Evidence that there is such a thing as a universal standard or norm, is that we laugh when that standard is broken, when people and nature behave differently than they are “supposed to”. Failed comedy (comedy that does not make us laugh) is when too many deviations from the norm occur, so that the deviation becomes commonplace. That is, if you tell too many jokes, it becomes boring. If everything is crazy, crazy becomes the new norm. Humor then, only works in contrast to the normal.

Folks who lack a sense of humor have a lot of bottled up emotions and social insecurities, many of which they aren’t even aware of. Life is very amusing if you look closely, but I often find myself the only one laughing at its various scenes. It seems as though people, through hardship, become subdued. They then walk around and actually believe and feel that life is serious. But seen in a larger, more universal context, life is not serious at all.

Here are the top ten ways to regain your sense of humor in case it has gotten lost:
1. Get a series of intense massages to loosen up.

It may come as a surprise to some but one thing you can do to regain laughter is to relax deeply. Unwind and go get a massage. Some massages release so much tension, you feel light and in a smiling mood for hours thereafter.

2. Get into conversation flow with a circle of friends.

Sometimes you meet up with a circle of friends and not much seems to be happening. Then, there are those days where you are sitting together at a table, and your whole table is having one laugh after another, making other tables look over to yours in wonderment. Everyone feels giddy and “in the flow” with the group. This usually happens when people have given up their own self-importance, have given up trying to look good, and are just chiming in and going with the flow, going wherever the conversation happens to be going. The group talk then becomes like some kind of comedic brainstorming in which all participants feel elated and high.

3. Watch good comedy.

It can take awhile before you find comedy that really suits your character and the overall mood of your life phase. But once you find the comedian, standup-act, or tv-series that will make you laugh, you have a certain way to regain your hearty laughter.

4. Process suppressed emotions.

One of the best ways to regain a long-term sense of humor (which does not always express itself as laughter, but can also simply be a warm-hearted or light-hearted mood), is through emotional processing. Get all the emotional processing tools you can get your hands on, and release those fixed traumas, shocks, and resignations (See my audio product “The Bliss Course” for instance.)

5. Change your physiology.

The way you move your legs, arms, body, and facial muscles can make a difference between a low state and a high state. Deliberately smiling, even if you don’t feel like it, will positively affect your state. Try it. Smile. And smile some more until you actually feel the positive change. Now quit slumping your shoulders. Take in a straight position, puff-out your chest a little. You will feel better, now. Now try to move funnily or awkwardly and you will cause a new state to arise.

6. Break your routine.

Break your thinking, speaking, and acting routines. If your spouse is used to you getting up and taking a shower, instead get up and make him/her breakfast. If you are used to talking about how great and important you are, talk about the most embarrassing moments of your life. Breaking routines frees you from fixed and rigid emotions, freeing you up for the unexpected, the surprising, and the spontaneous. Humor cannot be faked because it is spontaneous. It’s real.

7. See life through a funny filter. Intend to go about your daily life with a funny filter: by looking for funny things, trying to see mundane things through an amused point of view, asking people what funny things occurred or happened to them today, and observing people and their behavior in a little more detached sort of way.

6
HIGHER-SELF AND YOUR LIFE PURPOSE

Intuition comes from your higher-self. The higherself is your soul: the part of you which has an overview of many lives, universes, and dimensions. It having a birds-eye-view, sees things with more tranquillity, compassion, and joy.

The Path to Higher-Self

Every here-now contains millions of options to choose from. Options of what to look at, listen to, think, say, or do. Being aware of the sheer endless amount of options can be quite refreshing. The accumulated options you choose over the years shape your reality. Choosing good options transports you to a reality in which the options become even better. Life is a choice. Your life is the result of all the choices you have made. The choices you make are conscious or subconscious. Sure, there are a few contexts that may be there without you having chosen them, but the way you deal with these frameworks is still your choice. You may have been born with a certain physical disposition for example, but whether you make it an advantage or disadvantage is your choice. Seen from a pre-incarnate perspective, even such dispositions may have been chosen by you before you entered this life.

Every here-now contains several options of what to focus on or what to do. Some “shine” more than others. That means they are more interesting, of more integrity, more joyful, more “the right thing to do”, or more loving. Below are six options or reality-bubbles. One of them shines the brightest, so that’s the best one to choose:

Why is it the best one to choose? Because it contains the most energy and because it leads you upon the “path of the soul”, the “path of the heart”, or the “path of the higher-self”. Too many people lead their lives not choosing one of the options that shine because of what they have been taught they “should do” or “must do”. When I was younger, I was told I “should” go to a university, but I chose not to. In retrospect, I am glad I didn’t because that would have only put me on the 9-to-5 treadmill so many others are on. But just because the option of going to college did not shine for me, doesn’t mean it won't shine for you. You mustn’t listen to what I say or anyone else says, but to what your heart says. If you are too easily influenced from outside, you will not find your own path, you will find another's path. I have found the path of the heart is often completely different than what the world, the media, academia, parents, friends, gurus, teachers, and experts recommend you do. And while all these sources are welcome advice, they should not replace what you know to be right-for-you.

Another lame excuse I often hear for not choosing the light is, “I don’t know which option to choose because several of them shine!” That’s like sitting in a restaurant, hungry, and saying, “I won’t choose anything to eat because there are so many good meal options.” If more than one meal option shines brightly, then simply choose one of them. Any one of them will do. For example, there are usually dozens of jobs you would be good at and a dozen partners that would be a good match for you, not only one. Your soul cares more about WHO you are BEING than what job, partner, and/or life you specifically choose (as long as it’s a job, partner, and/or life that shines). If you don’t choose any, you don’t start down your path. And if you are saying, “None of the options shine,” that’s also an excuse. There is always an option that is slightly more interesting, relieving, empowering, loving, or joyful than another.

Once you choose the shining option and go in that direction, you will start seeing other options from this new vantage point. Options that you could not see before you started on this path. That would look something like this:

Once you go in one direction and experience whatever reality shines forth, new sets of options open themselves up to you. Options that were not available or even known before. That’s why it’s so important to “make the first step” in your preferred direction, why it’s so important to choose and decide, to get going in whatever it is you like.

Once you have fully experienced a reality (the currently chosen option), it is time to move on to the next thing that shines. A place where so many of us get stuck is that we stay with a current reality-bubble, even though we have “experienced it to its end”. This means it no longer shines, but because “it used to shine”, we think we have to stay with it, instead of looking at a new set of options and continuing to move. Related to this error is the mistake of thinking that just because a current reality-bubble no longer shines, it was “pointless” to move in that direction. It wasn’t pointless, nothing is. It brought you to where you are now. But from here forward, it may be time for something new.

For example, a long time ago I owned a language school. That option shone for me for 7 years. But once it stopped shining and became dull, I let go of it and moved on to the next thing that shone: coaching. Even though my expertise, ability, and financial security lay in the language school, I gave it all up because there was no more happiness there. I knew the path to higher-self, and I knew that where something no longer shines, it will soon stop supporting me financially and even adversely affect my health. Back then people warned me that I was giving up something that I was good at and that I “should” and “must” stay with it, but such was not my path. You see, if you can succeed at one job, you can succeed at any job. Success is a consequence of focus and confidence, not of a particular job.

As you follow this “pearl-necklace of energy” (as I call it), you more and more end up at who-you-reallyare:

The longer you live, the more the puzzle pieces on the way to higher-self match and form a bigger picture in which it all makes sense. Even the difficult experiences fit into the bigger picture. All of this applies on a small scale and on a grand scale. A small scale example was this morning, I had several options: to stay at home and work or to go out kayaking in the ocean were two of those options. And there were millions of other options, but none of them shone. I could have flicked on the TV, gone for a walk, read a book, stuck-up a conversation with my neighbor, or done laundry. The list really was endless. I could have punched my neighbor in the nose. I could've meditated all day. I could've sprayed graffiti on the fence. I could've started a new project. I could've Skyped with friends. But I finally chose to go kayaking. That’s what I felt was the most in alignment to my primary intention of spending my summer in physical motion. Then, once that reality had been fully experienced and was “complete”, I looked at what options felt the best in the new here-now and went from there. This is how I spend a day, a week, a month, a year, and a lifetime. So, was I “neglecting my work” by going kayaking? No. Once kayaking was fully experienced, the urge to work returned – then work shone the brightest, so it was chosen.

If you go against what shines and choose a nonshining option, the first thing that comes up is an intuitive feeling that “something is off”. You do not feel quite yourself. If you ignore this hunch and keep moving in the wrong direction, you will gradually start feeling worse. If you continue to ignore the warning, bad things start happening. This is why mis-emotions are useful, they help you stay on path.

There are only two modes of operation: following your soul, or having excuses why you don’t. The mind is good at creating excuses. Just like it can create endless options, it can also create an unlimited amount of excuses: “Yeah, but I have a 9-5 job, so I have obligations, so none of this applies to me,” “Yeah, but I have children, so I have obligations, so none of this applies to me.” But it does apply, even within limited contexts. Any context you live in has limitations. In my reality-domain, I do not have the option to declare war on another country, or go overseas to negotiate a peace deal for Israelis and Palestinians (I would have those options if I target new reality-domains. And I still have the option to send prayer-vibrations in that direction.) But within my limited reality-domain, I still have trillions of options. Likewise, if you are bound by a 9-5 job or a family, you still have trillions of options. You can create a fun job or family, and you can create a mediocre one. There are so many different ways your day could go, no matter how many obligations you have. So within those bubbles there are still many bubbles that shine, and such that don’t shine. And if the job bubble or family bubble no longer shines, and there is no more love there at all…well, then it’s time to move on. “But I can’t just leave them! It would break my heart!” you might exclaim. To which I'd respond, “Well, then there is still some love there…it’s still shining. There is still potential, still something you can experience there. So you best operate from within that bubble.” “But I can’t just leave my job, it’s my only way to survive financially!” you might exclaim. To which I'd respond, "If you think a job (or anything else in physical reality) is the source of money, you haven’t read my material attentively."

Choose what shines the most. If you don’t know what shines, look at what feels good to you or interests you, without it being harmful to yourself or others, then do it. (For example, punching your neighbor in the nose might “feel good” to you, but it's harmful to him.) Experience it fully. Once the energy is out of it, take stock again and look at the options you have now. And what shines the brightest in the new herenow…go there. Continue until you are the one that shines brightly, and have found the path that is created by your own footsteps.

Exercise: Receiving Answers from Higher-Self
1.Write down your question.

Ask any question you like but phrase your question in a positive frame. For example, “How can I be happy?” is a more positive frame than, “Why am I sad?” Write down your question at the very center of an empty sheet of paper.

2. Circle your question.

To activate subconscious focus, take a pen and circle your question over and over again, until there is a thick circumference around it at the center of your paper.

3. Answer it from yourself, from higher
perspectives.

Ask, “How might a higher version of me answer this?” or, “How might my confident self answer this?” or, “How would love see this?” Then answer the question yourself, to the best of your ability, common sense, or intuition. Write down the answer no matter what it is.

4. Lie down and practice circular breathing through the top of your head.

Circular breathing is soft breathing without a pause between outbreath and inbreath. Imagine breathing in through the top of your head and breathing out through your nose. Continue for a few minutes or until you are fully relaxed, and feel no effort.

5. Imagine your higher-self, and ask the question again. Then let go.

Imagine a higher version of you, a higher being, or higher source, a mentor, coach or soulguide. Wait until you have a clear impression. Then ask that higher being the question again. The answer may come instantly, in a dream, or in signs throughout the next day. Let go of the question for now.

The Akashic Library Trumps the Internet

The Akashic Halls are a place where all the information of infinity is stored and sorted, as in a library, and can be accessed by cosmic researchers and angelic librarians. If you want any chance of accessing these hyper-dimensional halls of wisdom, you have to accept their reality as hard facts, not as opinions. Believing in it, opens access to it.

To me, the internet is a physical-world copy of the Akashic Records; you can access all the information you look for on the internet…at least all the information that is known (plus at least 60% falsehood in my opinion). The Akashic Halls are a supradimensional place (not two-dimensional like the internet, and without all the falsehood). To me, on the very rare occasions I have visited them, they appear as a library. A library in which “moving books” are pulled out showing 3-D like movies of various lives and topics. There is a book on YOU there somewhere. If I had the rank of librarian, I could probably even access it and look up some stuff on your various lives. To say that the atmosphere there is really, really, enormously wonderful would be a gross understatement. Having the records of all-that-is so neatly categorized and accessible, is a very peculiar feeling.

So, how to access this library? The easiest access is on the non-physical plane, because it is a non-physical or hyper-physical place. The two main ways humans access the non-physical is through lucid dreaming and astral travel. If you know one of those, then all you really have to do is: a) Know the Akashic Library exists and b) Target it while out-of-body or lucid dreaming. The amount of data you are able to access once there, does depend on your level-of-consciousness. At one level, you can walk around the library, at another you can read your own Book of Lives (with a lot of blanked out pages), at another you can read the whole thing, at another you can read about others' lives, etc. Of course, most of you do not habitually travel out of body, so accessing the halls may be more challenging.

But there are other methods of access. One is to pose a deliberate question to “the Universe”, then let go of it. By posing the question, you stretch the rubber band, by letting go of it, the answer can lash down to this plane. These physical methods do not involve actually travelling there and partaking in its splendors, but you can sift out data if and when it is really required for your growth as a soul.

One other method is to write down the question/s you have, then meditate yourself into the highest state you can get at the moment. Next, open your eyes and write down the answer/s from this higher perspective. This requires you to imagine being a higher-self, a soul, an angel, or being whatever you imagine a higher being to be. YOU do not have the answers, but another perspective does. So, in your meditation you first imagine that higher being. Then you merge with that higher being, and temporarily become it. And then, from that perspective, you write down the spontaneous answers that “just come to mind”, without filtering or censoring. Do not use language first, use what you feel first. The feeling that comes into your body is the answer. This answer must first be translated into language, translated into the physical. So if a language-based answer comes up first, disregard it and go for the feeling first. Then, see how that translates into an answer you can write down. Put differently: Don’t write down any answers, unless you are in a state where you are feeling things you had not felt before starting to meditate. Higher sources send their answers as packs-of-energy, and these are realized through feelings.

That’s it…that’s how many more things are knowable and accessible. That’s how I write my articles too, by the way: without listening to earthly advice, looking it up in earthly books, or using language first, but rather, by simply being open while placing my attention on a certain topic. After I have written an article, I may later look it up elsewhere or see what others have to say on it, but I rely on intuition first and external advice only, second. This has served me and many others very well.

Three Heads of the World-Self
The 3 heads of the world-self (my word for “ego”) are: the chicken, the pig, and the snake.

The chicken is the restless energy, pecking around here and there, never focused, always moving, pecking even if there is nothing to peck. This head runs rampant in our society, where the attention of the average human shifts from one thing to the next i.e. reading hundreds of news items but not going more deeply into any one subject, following this, that, and the other, but not learning anything. Trying this, that and the other, but not mastering anything. The chicken-energy of the world-self can be transcended through slowing down, focusing attention, and meditation, etc.

Then there's the pig energy. The pig energy is a heavy energy that is primarily concerned with indulging in food and sex. And after its desires are fulfilled, it is stuffed and complacent. This head runs rampant in our society, where the attention of the average human is hardly interested in spiritual matters but in the quick fulfillment of supposed “needs”. The content of earth becomes more important than its context. The main point of having dinner with others is then, not to join others and exchange information and energy, but to eat. The main point of making love to another is then not to join the person and exchange love and energy, but to gratify an addiction. The pigenergy of the world-self can be transcended through discipline, poise, and compassion.

Lastly, the snake energy is a cold-blooded, viscous energy that is primarily concerned with mindless and heartless attack and domination. This head runs rampant in our society, where the attention of the average human has no interest or concern whatsoever for anything but its small little self, and its small little world. Snake energy is void of compassion or understanding. Everything that it encounters it’s trying to calculate an advantage for itself. “What can I get out of it?” it asks. If someone crosses it in highway traffic, it literally wants to kill that person; it wants to rip off that person's head. The snake energy of the world-self can be transcended through relaxation, appreciation, compassion, and love of oneself and others.

I Am Totally and Completely Wrong

If you think you are not the soul but the body/mind, you will waste a lot of time trying to be right, asserting your rightness, and/or trying to make others wrong. This is the mind/ego fighting for its survival. If it is proven wrong or incompetent, it fears for its survival. After all, knowledge and competence ensure it has correctly recorded events and can protect the body/mind in case of emergency. This is all well and good, but too much of being-right and making-others-wrong in order to look good, feel reassured, or not leave one's comfort zone can become an obstruction to the enjoyment of life.

If you always have to assert that you are right in one area or another, that is a tell-tale sign that you are not actually right, but afraid of being wrong. If you were right about something, you would not have to keep confirming and asserting it, or waste your time trying to wrong people. Being able to consider the possibility that you are completely and totally wrong about something…or even everything(!)…opens-up a space and a clearing in which new things can be learned. Other words to describe this state are: receptiveness and humility. The other side of this coin is to have the ability to be totally and completely right and convinced. Mastering one side helps in mastery of the other side.

For example, I am willing to consider the possibility that everything I have learned, taught, and written in books and on the internet is completely and totally wrong. I am willing to consider that everything my life is based on is a lie. I am willing to abandon all of it any time, if it turns out to be so. This type of openmindedness requires some courage, but it breeds more knowledge. It is impossible to gain more knowledge with the belief, “I already know it all.” Maybe everything I think I “know” is only one LEVEL of understanding, that has no meaning at all on another level.

The willingness to be completely and totally wrong is extremely helpful in business, too. People who have succeeded in one thing or another, create a mental file labeled: “This is how to succeed. First you must do A, then B, and then C.” But what if the way you succeeded in the past does not apply to the future? What if, in order to progress, you need to open up to new information, information that has nothing to do with how you succeeded in the past?

Language learning is a great example of this principle: You can’t learn a new language by looking through the frame of a language you have already learned. If you think you can learn French while thinking in English, and using English grammar and sentence structure, you won’t be speaking good French anytime soon. In order to learn French, you have to forget everything you have learned in the past, and view the language as a little child…open and fresh.

Letting go of being-right is useful in resolving conflict. If you are waiting on someone else to let go of being right, your attention is misdirected. Nothing happens “out there”, your only place of power is “in here”. Is letting go of being right a sign of weakness? This depends on which level-of-energy you are on. These are the levels of energy from which it is recommended you assert more of your right-ness: Submissive

People-Pleaser
Groveling
Approval-Seeking
Needy-of-Harmony

If you never dare assert your right-ness because you're afraid to, it is recommended you practice asserting it. In my book, Levels of Energy, this would mean ascending from level 100 to 190. But if you constantly and only assert your right-ness, it is time to move beyond that level, and go higher into the acceptance of sometimes being just plain wrong, or both of you being right from different perspectives. Especially when there is a problem that keeps repeating itself in your life, look for instances of thinking you are “right” about something or “already know”. If an unwanted pattern keeps repeating, then there is something you do not know, something that requires deeper reflection that begins with, “I don’t know.”

Try this liberating exercise for a week, if you want. Allow yourself to think of, consider, whisper, or writea-sticky note that says, “I am completely and totally wrong.” Try to conjure up this attitude in various conversations and interactions you have with various people. Not as in putting-yourself-down or criticizing yourself, but as in the realization that just because you see it a certain way doesn’t mean that’s the way things are.

What if you are completely and totally wrong about a certain person? What if they are not as bad as you thought? Or, what if they are not as good as you thought? Can you take back the label you put on them, and look at them in a new light? What if you are completely and totally wrong about your job? What if it is not as bad as you thought? What if it is much worse than you thought? Or, what if it is much better than you thought? Could you open up a little and see things differently than your beliefs dictate? If you can see something from other viewpoints than only “your own”, you will see more.

“Don’t go searching for new landscapes, but see the ones you already know with new eyes.”
I Look Totally and Completely Ridiculous

You know which people make the worst impression? The ones desperately trying to make a good impression. This is because they are so preoccupied with how they look to others, things becomes tense and unnatural. To some extent, every human being has some of this “trying to look good” behavior in them. It’s a basic survival-pattern. But it does not really help if your goals are being at-ease with others (The side-effect of which really does make you look good.)

These are some variations of this particular pattern:
Wanting to make a good impression
Needy-of-approval
Overly status-conscious
Overly comparing yourself to others
Trying to be special or different
Trying to be the same as everyone
Trying to assert your superiority
Being afraid of someone being better than you
Trying to conform or fit in
Trying to resist conformity and fitting in

Seen from more honest eyes, all of these games people play look totally and completely ridiculous. Make peace with being a totally and completely ridiculous fool. Make peace with the fact that there are actually people out there that are more competent, stronger, more important, and better looking than you. Once you release some of your self-importance via “trying to be different”, and “trying to be superior”, or “trying to be the same and conform”, you will have dropped a lot of baggage, and energy is freed up. With the energy that is freed up you will discover your soul…the part of you that really is wonderful, beautiful, powerful, and unique. Whereas the part that is always wanting to be unique and powerful, never was and never will be.

Study human nature and notice how the “making an impression” game is happening every day with everyone. Some preoccupation with vanity will straighten you out. But too much of it will create an extremely narrow mask-self, that has nothing to do with your true nature that is spontaneous, funny, hilarious, relaxed, positive, joyful, and ready-to-go.

Narcissism Makes You Weak and Stupid
Ask yourself this:
Would you like you if you met you?

Think about it.
Narcissism is an exaggerated preoccupation with yourself, with the way you look, with your supposedly superior intelligence, ability, and knowledge. It is selfadmiration, self-importance, and the tendency to view everything and everyone only as it relates to you. The ego-self (as compared to the soul/spirit) is essentially narcissistic to some degree or another. It misses 99% of reality because its attention is continually preoccupied with itself.

Gradually letting go of your narcissism will make you more aware, stable, and powerful (unless you again become narcissistic about being more aware, stable, and powerful.) The first step to overcoming narcissism, is by knowing what it is, noticing it within you, and also being painfully aware of how unbecoming it is. You will also notice it in others and in how the entirety of their act, their words, and of their behavior is geared toward making themselves look good. Some people are better at hiding it; their narcissism is more subtle, but it is present in almost every human being.

Here’s a test: criticize someone. Question their self-importance. Then, a short time later, ask them to do you a favor or to put in a good word for you somewhere. Nine out of 10 people will not do you a favor or speak favorably of you after you've criticized them. That is the extent of pettiness on planet Earth.

Ninety percent of the “problems” and “limitations” in your life disappear once you let go of the inner narcissist. Yes, you are special and unique in the sense of being a magnificent and radiant energyform. But the part of you that knows its specialness is not narcissistic about it. The soul is special, not the ego-self. There is nothing at all special about the egoself, yet this part creates itself as “special”.

The second step to overcoming narcissism is to put yourself into the shoes of the people around you. To extend more interest toward others. To sometimes do something, say something, or see something that has nothing to do with furthering your own agenda. When was the last time you did something for someone else with no idea of personal gain whatsoever? Just for the sake of loving kindness?

It’s easier to be selfless when you are not suffering. I teach people they should be selfish on energy-levels 0-400 (see my book Levels of Energy for clarification). But above those levels, too much selfcenteredness becomes a limitation, narrowing your field of perception down to the little spot your own mind occupies. To progress on upwards, begin noticing that there is a whole wide universe out there to explore, a whole wide universe beyond the limited “body/mind”, you call “me”.

You Are Already Whole and Complete

You are already whole and complete. The struggle of life for many is to “get” completeness. Only very rarely does a human rise above this struggle and come from completeness, rather than attempt to “get” it. Someone who enters a meeting in a state already whole and complete will have a lot more to give to that meeting than someone seeking to “get” something from it. Someone approaching the weekend already whole and complete will experience the weekend differently than someone hoping to “get” something from the weekend. Someone who is already whole and complete and drinks coffee, will taste it differently than someone hoping to “get” more energy from that coffee.

What if you were already whole and complete before having sex? Not only would that make you a more attractive sex partner, it would also fully transform the entire experience. You would no longer be relying on someone else to make you whole and complete. Look at all the techniques people use to “get” a better sex experience, to “get” ecstasy. What if they were to already come from ecstasy, before sex had even begun?

Everyone is in a rat-race of “getting to”; always on the run, always trying to “get” somewhere else, be someone else, try something more, better, and different. But what if you were to first accept things as they are, then decide to come from those places instead of trying to “get” to them? That is what is really meant by living in the here-now. And that is an extremely powerful state that puts you in a flow unlike anything else.

We phase in and out of this state, depending on whether we are viewing life from the eyes of the soul (love) or viewing life from the eyes of the ego-self (resistance). Actually, life has nothing at all to do with your job, your money, or your partner. Life is not about what you can “get” from these things. It is about what you bring into these things, what you give, and who you are. This simple (and yet for many so mysterious) reversal is all that is needed for 100% flow.

People take their cues on how to live life from you. Can you sense the responsibility you have? They take their cues from you. Your partner, employees, children, bosses, friends…they take their cues from you. Understanding that opens up not only a sense of responsibility, but also possibility. If you come from a state of completeness instead of want (lack), everything changes. To come from completeness instead of going toward it, requires only two things:

1. Accept what is as-it-is fully and completely. Your current surroundings and situation are not lacking. They are exactly where you are supposed to be and full of opportunity.

2. Decide who you are, or which state-of-happiness you are in or coming from. It’s only a decision. Decide to come from that state instead of striving for it.

The Dream

We don’t stop dreaming because we grow old. We grow old because we stop dreaming. Layers upon layers of “daily life” may cover your soul and your heart's true desires, but a simple daydream can cut through all those layers and reconnect you to a higherself (that has the overview of trillions of light-years of existence and worlds too numerous to count). For those that have temporarily lost the power to daydream, movies serve the function of transporting you to another world for a few hours. But wouldn’t it be nice if you could transfer the ideas and emotions you get from movies into daily life, and experience similar amazement?

Daydreaming is discouraged in school, where the indoctrination process of focusing on what the teacher was told to think becomes habitual. After school, the demands of daily life attempt to distract you from the dream. By the time you are mid-aged, you may realize that you have lost sight of it many times. To never lose sight of your dreams, go into a daydream now and then. It will not only keep you elevated, but will also keep the compass of your consciousness aligned with the overall purpose of your life – to experience, to seize the day, to see, learn, hear, feel, grow, change, give, and to love.

What would you start doing if you knew you couldn’t fail?
What places do you dream of visiting?
What people do you dream of meeting?
What things do you dream of doing?
What were your dreams when you were very young?
What would you like to do just for fun?
What activities cause you to laugh so much you almost cry?
What is something not-of-this world that you would like to catch a glimpse of?
Dream the dream. Then live the dream.
Contacting Higher-Self

Here are more practical tools to contact higherself, or the more expanded, broader-perspective, innermost version of yourself, that is not incarnate. There are two ways of going about this: You can either communicate with higher-self as if it were a separate higher being, or, you can become more higher-self through soul-congruent behavior.

Beyond Limits

Write down instances you went beyond your normal limits in doing or achieving something you had not done or achieved before.

After completing your list, contemplate:
What initiated these ventures into the unknown or to a higher level than before?
How did you feel after the experience?
Where in your life would you go beyond your normal limits again?
Letter to Yourself

Imagine you are 50 years older and wiser than you are now. Write a letter to yourself from the future, with words of appreciation, advice, and inspiration, seeing your whole life from a bird's-eye-view. Put the letter in an envelope, and send it to yourself. When you receive it, open it and read it.

Deeper Intuition

For this exercise you need a journal, diary, or notepad. Your life is indeed a letter your higher-self is writing to you. Your soul is communicating to you every day, but you do not often notice. It communicates in the form of signs, omens, “coincidences”, name-and-number-synchronicities, meetings between people, and hunches. Without getting paranoid about it or putting too much meaning into these signs, spend a week of your life specifically looking out for communication from a higher source. Every time you think a higher source has communicated with you, write it down. Something might just fall in your lap; you might see something in a movie or newspaper; you might have a dream; someone might say something strange; someone you haven’t talked to in a long time might call you. Whatever it is you feel is from a higher source, just take note of it.

Because you are now paying attention, you start noticing more of this. There is a difference between the mundane and repetitive messages the egoself/mind creates, and messages from above. Enhance your understanding of life.

This is a technique I have used to help people receive new insight. The key to it is to raise your frequency, and take on increasingly higher and higher viewpoints. In order to communicate with your soul, your soul will have to “lower frequency”, and you will have to “raise frequency”, so that you can meet in the middle. You can understand the following technique as a “symbolic” means of contacting higher-self, but personally I see it as a true and real communication channel. Higher-self does not always communicate as straightforward as people expect. Sometimes, communication happens through “coincidences” that happen throughout the day, sometimes through hunches and intuition, and sometimes through dreams.

Preparation
Write down the following viewpoints/positions on pieces of paper or card:
Female Mentor in 500 years
ME IN 500 YEARS
Male Mentor in 500 years
ME IN 30 YEARS
ME IN 5 YEARS
NOW

Then lay out the cards on the floor throughout the room, but approximately in the order you see them above. The cards should be a few steps away from each other, so you have to walk to them in order to occupy their position.

Read and memorize how this technique works before applying it.

Begin by standing on the “NOW” card, facing north (or in the direction of the future “ME IN 5 YEARS”). Before you do anything, become fully aware of the present moment. Become aware of what you see, hear, feel, the objects around you, and your body. Once you feel fully present (and that may take anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes), look in the direction of the card “ME IN 5 YEARS”. With your mind, imagine a 5 year older version of you standing there. Take your time to visualize that older version of yourself (who is either facing you or not), and get to feel his/her presence. It can take a minute or even a few to really get a sense of that version of yourself. Don’t rush things. Once you have a clear image or feeling of that person, walk over there, stand on that card, and take on their position. Be that person in that moment, as best you can. Continue to feel and imagine yourself as that person; see through the eyes of that person. Once you have rested into this new viewpoint, look at the next card which says, “ME IN 30 YEARS”.

With the help of your imagination, get a clear image or sense of the version of yourself that is 30 years older. Then walk over and take his/her position. Really feel what it feels like to be that person, as best you can. Give yourself a minute, or a few (or longer) to settle into this viewpoint. And from here, look at the next position: “ME IN 500 YEARS”. Take whatever image of yourself in 500 years comes intuitively. It might be another body, it might be a light-body (soul), or anything else. Stand there and get a sense of what is there before you walk there and take over that position. Once you are ready, take in the position by walking over and standing on that card. Feel the exhilaration that goes along with shifting viewpoints.

Once you have settled into this version of yourself, and enjoyed its higher vibration (you should be feeling differently than you felt at the previous position of: “ME IN 30 YEARS”), look to your left and imagine a female mentor of yours, or what you would symbolize as a higher life form, standing there beside you. Behold that sight for awhile. Then, look to your right and imagine a male mentor of yours, and behold that sight. If you have any questions to either of the two, ask them mentally or verbally. Hear, sense, or imagine the answers. Finally, take in the position of the female mentor, by moving to that card and feeling what it would feel like to be her. Then take in the position and identity of the male mentor, and feel what it would feel like to be him. Even though you projected these beings as your “mentors”, they are actually representations of your higher-self.

Next, imagine you are integrating and taking all of the energy and insight from those positions with you, and go back to “ME IN 500 YEARS”. Imagine you are integrating and taking all of the energy and insight from all positions with you, and go back to “ME IN 30 YEARS”. Actually see or feel yourself in these positions, again. Now, take everything with you to “ME IN 5 YEARS”. Finally, integrate everything into the "NOW", so that while you go back to that card, you allow yourself to feel that improved version of yourself, even as you stand in the now. All viewpoints you just had are actually within you and can be accessed at any time.

If you write a diary or journal, now is the time to take notes on your impressions and memories. The everyday-mind-self can be forgetful of special insights. A sense of elation, goose bumps, and wonderment are normal throughout this exercise. You are using the power of imagination to access information from the soul-plane.

This is the actual purpose of imagination. The recording device called “mind” cannot access soulplane information. It can only access what it has recorded on earth. But, imagination can access it if used without distortion (Imagination distorted by fear for example, does not lead to insights from higher-self, but to delusions.)

This technique can be repeated any time you feel you have lost your soul-connection, or any time you want to regain perspective.

Soul Retrieval
Another technique to re-access the agenda of your soul is as follows.
Ask yourself:
When was the last time I genuinely smiled?
When was the last time I genuinely laughed?
When was the last time I sang?
When was the last time I danced?
When was the last time I told stories?

Intuition is a quality of the soul/higher-self aspect of you. If you’re in good spiritual shape, you can live by intuition all the time. You then “just pick up” what stuff means, how stuff works, what is going on, and what the right track is. Many people, for example, do not need to visit a workshop to learn how operating a personal computer works. They do not need to read a manual in order to surf the internet. They intuitively understand how it works, and learn as they go along. If, on the other hand, you are caught up in worry, you’d be concerned about learning stuff as you go along, and shy away from it. If you don’t dare click on some button out of fear that it could wreck your computer, there is a lot of fear in you. This fear causes compulsive thinking and lack of just doing.

When you live by intuition, you learn languages without requiring translation; you spend time in a country, and just pick up what words mean intuitively and by association without much thinking required.

When you live by intuition, you don’t need a timeplanner. You naturally do the right things, at the right times, in the right ways.

When you live by intuition, you know how to raise your children and make them smile…without the need for piles of instructional literature and consultancy.

When you live by intuition, you don’t have to try to be something or someone. You are naturally and effortlessly who you are.

When you live by intuition, you experience life without filters; you experience life as it was meant to be: very enjoyable!

Communicating with Your Future-Self

This is another way to playfully shift your viewpoint and state of mind. First, get comfortable somewhere.

1. As best you can, imagine a future version of yourself, your future-self. Take on the perspective of your future-self , as if you are slipping into that person's body. See the world from his/her eyes. How do you see your present-self from that viewpoint? Is there anything you have to say?
2. Remain in the viewpoint of your future-self, and look at a past-self, a younger version of yourself. How do you see that past-self? Is there anything you have to communicate to that younger self? Extend kind and forgiving energy in the direction of your past.

3. Remaining in the viewpoint of your future-self, look at another version of yourself who is even further in the future…a second future-self. See what that looks and feels like. Do you have anything to say to him/her? Does he/she have anything to say to you? Look. Feel. Hear.

Complete the meditation-experience, and if you like, write down any insights you may have had.
Your Unique Life Purpose and Mission

Having a life on earth is a rare privilege. It is an opportunity to practice such faculties as choice, love, and overcoming challenges in a strange environment. What an intrepid band of adventurers humans are!

You have incarnated to earth for a reason and with a purpose unique to you, with a set of intentions and talents that only you can give to the world.

Your life purpose normally reveals itself throughout a lifetime. You learn this and that, and many years later, you see how everything you did is useful for the overall plan of your soul. When you were younger, you may have had jobs that you didn’t like, but you will later see how the skills you learned there fit into what you later need.

If you are uncertain what your life’s purpose is, look at what feels right. What feels native to you? What comes to you effortlessly? What are things you are better at than others? Emphasize those aspects. You may have several life purposes. You may even have several careers. If you can succeed in one type of career, you can also succeed in others. Your life plan may or may not include sticking to one career.

A human is deliberately born with amnesia. You cannot remember what happened before this life; you cannot remember your life as a soul. This amnesia is in place for a good reason – so that you can focus on your life here. Otherwise, it would be like viewing several TV-sets at once – confusing and overwhelming. But there is a way to catch glimpses of the "Soul-Sphere". There is a way to “cheat” a little, and glean the ""soulplane, and the intentions you had before coming here.

Here is a technique you can try. It is about emulating the state of energy of the soul. If you can emulate that state, you can get information from that realm. Try the following:
1. Lie down and become deeply relaxed while staying awake

2. Once you are deeply relaxed, develop feelings of bliss and elation. In comparison to the earth-self, the soul is always in a state of bliss and elation. Combine your deep relaxation with high-feelings. Do this in any way that works for you, with the help of imagination, relaxation, and intention.

3. Finally, release all thinking and imagination. Don’t deliberately think anything. Allow a blank screen. Wait and see what flashes of thought or images spontaneously arise as a result of this state. What thoughts does your state attract? Practice staying in that high state and receiving ideas.

4. No matter what those ideas are, write them down after your session. Some may not seem to make sense at first; write these down too. Everything will make sense someday. Check whether any of the images received hint at any type of action you could take. If so, and that action is doable and positive, take that action to the best of your ability, no matter if it fits into your current lifestyle or not. Following the images received in a high state puts you right in touch with the path designed by your higher-self.

If you look at life through the eyes of the soul instead of through the eyes of the record and playback device called “the mind”, it is really easy to find out what your life's purpose and mission are; what the reason is you came here for. The question is whether you will act on what you know. Here is a little secret:

The job you would even do for free, that is the rightfor-you-job.

So now you know. And yet, I have told this basic truth to thousands of people, and only a handful have actually taken the advice to its fullest potential. What is it you don’t need to “motivate” yourself to do? What is it you’d gladly do all day? What is it you are eager to do again and again?

Someone recently invited me to lecture in front of a group. Before he could even tell me how much money I would be getting, I exclaimed, “Sure! I’m in!” I didn’t even care about the money. Little did he know, I also would have done it for free. Because I LOVE doing it. It’s fun. It’s natural to me. It’s what I was born for, and why I came to this planet. It’s my soul's plan and purpose. Will that job support you financially? Yes it will. It’s in the nature of those jobs to support you, but only if you trust that job, if you trust your love and joy. If you follow that but don’t trust it, you won’t make it. The way to do this is “paradoxically”, not to think about money and not to make your goal the most important thing, but the journey.

It is about the journey. If you are an athlete, your being-ness is not only about the championships at the end of the year, but about the rest of the year. If you are a painter, your being-ness is not only about the exhibition in a few months, but about your painting in solitude up till then. If you are a writer, it is not mainly about getting published, but about the joy of writing. If you are a coach, it is not about earning money, it is about the art of coaching. If you are a singer, it is not about the moment of fame in some future, but about loving the act of singing. It is good to have goals, but that is not where the joy is. If you cannot be joyful before the goal, you will not be joyful when you reach the goal. So do not only practice and work “for the goal”, practice and work for today.

1. Find what you enjoy so much you would also do that work for free.
2. Find out how you can make a job of it, how you can make something of it that is valuable to others too.
3. Once the goal is defined, focus on the journey itself.

There is a general life purpose for you as a human: to ascend in levels of consciousness, and go to a higher place in the afterlife. That’s everyone’s purpose. And then, there is a purpose for you individually (as planned by soul/higher-self). I can’t tell you what that purpose is, but I can keep asking the right questions until you get a vague or clear sense of it:

What work do you so much enjoy doing, you would also do it for free? And, is there any way you could make a living of that?

What things have sparked your interest all your life thus far?

What are a few things that are unique or almost unique to your person? What might some things be that only you can contribute to the world?

What would you be doing if you knew you couldn’t fail?
What are the things you do when you are in a good state of mind and body?
Put simply: Find your unique talents and turn them into something you give and express to the world.

Here is yet another technique you can use to get in touch with your life’s purpose and the intention or mission with which you came to this planet. Take a paper and pen and title your paper:

“What Is My Life’s Purpose?”

Then, just begin writing freely. Don’t over-think it, don’t over-analyze anything, just write and associate freely, Write whatever comes to mind. Do not stop after one paragraph, just keep on writing and collecting ideas. Some may make sense, some may not make sense, it doesn’t matter.

Write until you get tears in your eyes. Tears are an indicator that you have touched upon a deeper truth. Examine what idea brought tears to your eyes. This idea is connected to your life’s purpose. You can now end the exercise, or, if you feel there is more to learn, keep on writing. If there were no tears or even an inner stirring, continue this exploration at another time when you are more open.

I have taught you three simple techniques to get in touch with something that is slightly hidden beneath a layer of amnesia. The first is to get to a higher state, then see what thoughts come up, and write them down. The second is to do the job you would also do for free – but ask money for it anyway. The third is to write about your life’s mission, until tears come to your eyes.

As you practice these three techniques with the intention of finding your life's purpose, it reveals itself. Be willing to let go of the ego's ideas of what you are supposed to be doing. The purpose of life is a life of purpose.

By the way: If after all this you still cannot find your purpose in life, create one that inspires you.
Fearless

The universe is of total abundance. You have direct access to this abundance. The key to this is a fearless attitude. When I was younger, watching action movies sometimes frustrated me. They portrayed fearless heroes and adventures. But I wasn’t content with just watching others experience fearless fun. I noticed people around me seemed to be content to see it in movies, but never tried it out in their own lives. Soon, I discovered that when I acted without fear, no harm can come to me. Fearlessness acts like a protective-shield that wards off danger.

I was 18 when I moved away from home without a penny in my pocket, taking my first step into selfsufficiency. My dad told me I wouldn’t make it and would be home within a week, but I wanted to prove to myself that I could manage. The first weeks thereafter were a hard time. I didn’t tell my parents that I sometimes slept on the streets because I wanted to “win the game” and not return home defeated. I eventually emerged out of those hard times just fine. From that point forward, doing fearless acts in defiance of others' limitations became a habit.

Some years later, I was chosen to translate at a Tony Robbins seminar on the Fiji Islands. Being at an event of this famous self-improvement coach was a dream come true back then, but in those younger days, I couldn’t afford the ticket from Europe, where I lived at the time, to the Pacific. If I recall correctly, it would have cost me $8,000. (These were days prior to convenient last-minute booking on the internet.) So, I flew from London to Los Angeles for an affordable $800 instead, with faith that I would find a cheaper flight to the Fiji Islands from there. But I didn’t know for sure! I hadn’t even looked it up…it was just some idea I was making up in my head! I was just developing my abundance-thinking that, “All would be well.” And sure enough, upon arrival in L.A., I “stumbled upon” the ticket counter of New Zealand Airways, who were selling tickets to Fiji for only $1,000. So, I booked without a further thought, soon arriving in Fiji. But I had no more money left!

I found myself on the other side of the world with no return money and no money for lodging. But I was very happy about that because I knew I had done something courageous. I felt like an adventurer who just ventured out with no idea how things would go. But guess what? Everything worked out just fine. I was kindly provided for by the organizers when I confessed my situation. Some extra translating work in the evenings got me the cash to return. Because I never felt afraid inside, I did not end up as a beggar on the streets of a foreign country. And even if things hadn’t worked out, I could imagine worse things than being stuck on such a lovely island.

Many things I have done are so outrageous, I keep them secret. Only close friends know about them. This is not because I feel uncomfortable about them, but because I don’t want people to emulate me if they haven’t developed that degree of confidence. I’ve done crazy things for love, for students, and for business. One of them involved secretly crossing the border of Yugoslavia (back when the country still existed) to Italy through the Adriatic Sea. Another involved walking through a snowstorm at night, in the mountains, far from any civilization. And there are many others. But I won’t go into detail on them because if your confidence in yourself and the universe are not strong enough, risky operations will certainly fail. They will not fail however, if your faith is strong. However, even without doing “outrageous” things, even just a little fearlessness will help you advance greatly in daily life.

Fearlessness attracts abundance because it is rooted in the belief that you are provided for. It is irresistibly magnetic to an abundance of opportunities, relationships, people, money, experience, and whatever else this vast universe has to offer. But it does not mean you never feel fear. It’s about how you deal with fear. Never feeling fear means that you are actually avoiding situations that could cause discomfort. That’s not fearlessness, it's cowardice. Then you postpone important decisions, avoid people you’d rather approach, and choose the safest options only.

Fearful people prefer a false sense of “peace and safety”. But real peace and safety can only be found within, not through the avoidance of life and following your bliss. In fearlessness you confront situations; you stay calm enough to be able to act deliberately within them. Fear strikes as a sinking feeling in the chest or stomach. The fearless type of person does not automatically resort to fight or flight, but can stand it. Neither contracting nor reacting, neither fleeing nor attacking. In that peculiar state you may feel some trepidation, but your actions are not controlled by emotion, they are under direction of your conscious will.

For example, you’d like to approach someone you like. Fear will tell you not to approach them. If you approach them anyway, you are not dominated by fear. And when the other realizes you have overcome approach-anxiety – something which most people haven’t overcome(!) – they will find that quite remarkable. Most fear is illusion.

If you fear approaching strangers, it’s because you put them on an illusory pedestal. If you would see the truth – namely that all people are just humans like yourself and would often like to be approached and talked to – you no longer have approach-anxiety. The truth sets you free, and the whole issue just falls away as if it never existed. “Yes, but I have tried that and been rejected before!” the fear-person might exclaim. To which I'd respond, "So what? That’s their problem, not yours. Maybe they were having a bad day and didn’t want to be approached. What’s this got to do with you?" The fear-lens would see strangers as being somewhere on a pedestal, oneself as something smaller, and the approach as an act of begging for attention. The fearless-lens does not see any of this. It just sees a normal human being who – like any other human being – could use some appreciation.

Fear will usually tell you not to try anything new. And when you continually do so anyway, you eventually transcend fear. You do it often enough, and it becomes commonplace. You wake up and realize that creative force of the universe is so immensely powerful, it could transport you to Alaska and back in the blink of an eye.

The fearless don’t shy away from or deny anything. There is no escapism or fantasy about how things “should be”. Things are as they are…for the moment. And this “playing the ball as it lands” actually supports thinking positively and turning problems into opportunities. But before seeing positively, reality is taken exactly as it is, without denial. It can then be shaped into what is preferred. Put differently, you can’t guide a dance partner you deny. You can’t take a bull by its horns and ride it to nicer places if you run away from it. Some people are so deeply steeped in fear, they don’t even want to entertain certain thoughts. They deny that such thoughts are even an option. They deny both the what-is of the here-now as well as what’s possible.

The fearless type has difficulty working for others. They get restless when too much reliance-on-others is created. The fearful on the other hand, are only comfortable when they work under the wings of a boss. But their “safety” is an illusion. As if their boss cares more about their safety than they can. Hence, many fearless types are self-employed. Their main value is not “safety”, but freedom. And soon they come to realize that true safety cannot be provided by the world; true safety is actually an emotional state.

The fearless can handle most things on their own without dependency on employers, drugs, healers, gurus, partners, entertainment, food, culture, or people. That does not mean that the fearless type never asks for help. On the contrary. Because the fearless type no longer needs to pretend to be selfreliant, because he really is, he will have no problem asking others for support. Sound paradoxical? Give it some thought. Many people have been worn down by the perceived “harshness” of life, and very easily slip into or even embrace some form of dependency. In professional life, a fearless type strives to own what he produces. He understands his uniqueness, and does not seek to copy what others have done before him. This fear-based society on the other hand, tends to see people who fail to conform and copy, as “picky” and “difficult”, when actually they are just fearless.

The fearless have a different way of dealing with resistance and challenge. Resistance from outside does not equal failure. It is understood that roadblocks and dark moments can make one more creative and rise to the occasion. The heightened awareness in bad situations awakens slumbering powers within. Resistance from outside is merely a wake-up call for you to become better. If you are already getting better, then no wake up call, no adversity, is required, and life will seem easy to you.

Fearless people don’t wait too long before they take action. They don’t think they have to “be ready” or “receive the right sign” before they act. The fearless acts before he is “ready”. This is as if you are deliberately making things a little more difficult for yourself in order to rise to the right level of energy, which can handle whatever obstacle you are facing. When you are not quite prepared to move forward, but do so anyway, you become more alert and inventive. You must succeed, so you will.

Will “The Universe” Fix Your Life?

It has become common to refer to “the field”, “the universe”, and “source” as a spring of all the goodies we wish for in life. I admit when I first heard this idea, it sounded kind of childish. Little kids believe they can have anything they want, and they throw a fit when it doesn’t happen. However, taking a closer look, we see that kids can and do get much of what they want…if they don’t throw a fit! If a child asks in a friendly and relaxed manner, parents are happy to oblige (unless what is wanted harms the kid).

Understanding the metaphysical axiom “as above so below”, it follows that there is also some higher power that is happy to give us what we want if we asked for it in a friendly manner and believe we are ready for it. Throughout history this source has been referred to as God, “Heavenly Father”, and “The Most High”. Our modern times have replaced this more personal and parent-like being with impersonal terms such as “universe” and “field”, but what we want from “it” has remained the same. The reason these words have changed is because many people have negative associations with the word “God”, because the name has been misused for various less-than-holy purposes. So, if I say to someone who dislikes religion, “God will fix this for you. Just giveit to God,” chances are he won’t hear the message because he is caught up in his own negative ideas about religion. So using words such as “source energy” and “the universe” is my conspiracy to get the same old message through to people, a trick to lure unbelievers into a realm of abundance and bliss.

It’s a fact that none of us know the true nature of this source-power. Therefore, whether we call it “infinity” (my favorite word), super-source, universe, the field, the energy, or the power, is actually secondary. However, many people have difficulty relating to a vague and undefined, impersonal “something” called “all that is”, and prefer the up-close and personal God. What matters most here is that there is some force or power that has the ability to create…anything. Anything at all.

To fully understand the relationship between you and the universe, all you have to do is understand the relationship between a parent and a child. You have the ability to create various preferred experiences for your child. You want your child to learn, grow, and be happy, but you do not protect it from all the negative experiences, so it learns to make positive choices. So you accept the child will skin his knee if he gets too wild. Sure, you protect the child from most negative experiences – there is no need to allow him to rush into oncoming traffic, but sometimes you will stand back and watch how he does something wrong. Why? So that he learns not to do it again.

Nor will you, as a smart parent, bestow all riches at once. Why not? Because you would stunt the child's growth. With too many toys at hand, creativity would get lost and motivation decrease. Sure…your kids can have anything they want…but all in due time and only if it doesn’t harm them. All they have to do is ask, and it shall be given.

Many “manifestations” are a matter of timing. Your kid wants to drink coffee, have some wine, jump in a river, drive a car, ride a bike…but you can see how she may not be ready for those things, yet. A six month young toddler is not ready to ride a bicycle. She has to learn to walk before she can ride. It`s as simple as that. She`ll be pointing at it, crying for it, but you won’t “manifest” it for her until she is a little older. Maybe in a year she can ride a tricycle. And in another two years, maybe a bicycle. And in another fourteen years, a Vespa, if she so desires. And maybe in another few years, a motorbike. There is no reason to believe that whoever or whatever created you, your body, and your spirit, sees things much differently. Why should you be given a motorbike before you’ve even learned how to walk? However, once you are truly ready, a motorbike is no problem at all. Your “parents up above” can even deliver a private jet to you within a few minutes if you ask for it. Really! It’s not a big deal. “Your daddy’s rich, and your mama's good lookin'.”

Of course, understanding the earthly parent-child relationship, you also see that “wish fulfillment” is not the only or even main purpose of a parent. It's in the parents' ability and possibility, but the main purpose is to protect, nurture, and teach. So, if the parent sees you are only requesting, requesting, requesting, without giving anything back in return (to society, to others, etc.) and without learning or growing, goodies might be reduced for some time. Just like humans use a stick and carrot, so does source. It’s an automatic, default pattern of the energy-field we call “universe”. So once you show and demonstrate that you are learning, growing, making progress, showing up in life, taking care of others, and so forth, your “parents” will be more willing to manifest what you want.

I recently talked to this student of mine. He sold some type of alarm-system for private homes. He bemoaned that he didn’t have any customers for his system. I asked, “Why would you want more customers?” and he responded, “So that I can pay off my house and SUV.” This struck me as hilarious because that really was his main motivation. His motivation was not to “care for my customers”, “equip the world with great alarm-systems”, “protect people”, it was “pay off the SUV”. So I asked him, “Why should I come to you, as a customer, knowing you don’t give a hoot about my well-being? Your main care is to pay-off your car. So I'll go to your competitor, whose main care is to provide great service.” He got the message and changed. Soon his car will be paid off. But not because that was his main concern. Money is only a side-effect or spin-off. Of what? Of love.

Yes, the universe will “fix stuff for you”. It loves to. But as you know “God helps him who helps himself.” So, stuff will be “fixed for you”, if you first try to fix it yourself. And once you have reached the limits of your personal ability, “send it to the universe”, and it will be done for you. Essentially, you get back what you radiate out. This “field” is like a copy-machine that simply reflects who-you-are. If you feel completely ready for something, as if you truly deserve and own it from head to toe, it is magnetically drawn into your life.

2015, Frederick Dodson
www.realitycreation.org