human fears. The ones that are reality based are based on the temporality of
human life and the vulnerability of the physical body, so they’re not
completely irrational. We’re not talking about eliminating normal survival
caution, but caution is different than fear. When you’re walking down
certain streets in New York City, if you don’t use caution, you won’ t be
around too long. Caution is a part of wisdom. But caution is different than
fear; caution has a rationality to it. Fear can arise, as everyone who has ever
had a nightmare knows, out of nowhere, with a sudden panic.
We’re not talking about eliminating normal self-preservation; we’re just
talking about irrational fears. A lot of them you get over by facing them. I
always tell people who have a fear of public speaking that I had a fear of
public speaking for many years. I couldn’ t speak. One time I was forced
into having to speak in front of an audience. I was really quite anxious.
Then suddenly I said something funny, and the minute the audience started
to laugh, my fear disappeared. So, I made the magic discovery, and I have
spoken hundred s of times since  then. That was because I discovered that
humor relieves all anxiety. Putting something funny in what you’re saying,
if it can be accomplished, will relieve your fear. The minute the audience
laughs, you feel okay. That’ s a magical moment, that discovery. I
discovered it by accident.
If there’s sufficient danger in the environment, as we said, exercising
caution is a rational, survival technique. What we’re talking about are fears
that have no basis in reality. Overcoming them takes a certain degree of
courage and a willingness to plunge into them. I think the average person
doesn’ t have any trouble differentiating the two. With any feeling, if you
stop avoiding it and plunge into it and say, “I want more of it,” and let it run
its course, you will eventually run it out. And sometimes you can do this
with imagination. You imagine what it is you’re afraid of, and you let the
fear come up and you let go resisting the fear. Well, there is a limitation to
the amount of any emotion. And if you keep coming up with what you’re
afraid of, eventually you’ll run out of fear, and you’ll find it’s almostimpossible to make yourself afraid of the next thing that you bring up to be
afraid of. You can run out an emotion by letting go of resist ing it—you
decompress it. Then you ask yourself, What else am I afraid of? What  else
am I afraid of? until finally you run out of things that you can imagine
yourself being afraid of.
One thing you can control is focus. For example, you can think about
your toes. I might tell someone who is afraid of public speaking, “When
you go up on that stage and are standing behind the podium, I want you to
think about your toes while you’re there.” Well, if you try that, you’ll find
you can’t be afraid because you’re too busy thinking about your toes. And
eventually that makes you laugh, and the minute you laugh, your fear
disappears. Thin k about your toes. Once in a while when I want to give a
lecture, there’ s some authors’ names I always forget. I picture those names
as being written on my toes. When I can’t think of them during  a lecture, I
look down at my toes, and suddenly I remember.
I’ve done this many times with people who have public speaking
phobias, and I have them practice at home and practice with me. Public
speaking is probably the most common phobia I’ve gotten requests for. I
take people through the whole experience—to keep imagining and letting
go until finally, they run out of fears. You’ll run out of fear. There’s always
so much fear that’ s compressed, but you can run it out.
AND THEN WHA T?
If you have a fear of something, use a technique I call, “And Then
What?” When you do this, you keep surrendering at each level.
For example, you say, “If I lose this job, then I won’ t have enough money
to live on.”
Then you say, “And then what?”
“If I don’ t have enough money to live on, then I’ll lose my house.”
And you say, “And then what?”
“Well, if I lose my house, then I’ve got to rent an apartment somewhere.”
“And then what?”
“And then if I don’t have any money at all, I’ll have to move out of the
apartment too.”
“And then what?”
“I won’ t have enough money to buy food.”“And then what?”
“And then I’ll starve to death.”
You think to yourself, How are you going to do that? Are you going to sit
on the sidewalk and starve to death?
“And then what?”
“And then I’ll get a tin cup and hold it up and beg for money.”
“And then what?”
“And then people will laugh at me as an idiot, sitting out there with a tin
cup.”
“And then what?”
“And then the cops will come and take me away.”
“And then what?”
“They’ll decide I’m crazy.”
“And then what?”
“And then they’ll put me in a mental hospital.”
“And then what?”
“And then I’ll have a psychiatrist.”
You keep doing the “And Then  What?” technique, and as you surrender
to the “and then what” scenarios, you disappear into absurdity and get to the
bottom of the fears. I’ll be poor and ugly, and nobody will like me and
nobody will hir e me.  And you keep going with “and then what” until you hit
the botto m of it. You’ll eventually run out of “and then what ” scenarios.
There’ s a stack, so work through the stack.
I had an unexpected experience  while riding in a hot air ballo on across
the Gran d Canyon. I thought I was going to be terrified the whole time.
What happened  was, as I looked over the side, I just let the fear keep
coming up. And I ran it out. I ran out of fear. I didn’ t know you could run it
out. I thought that it would be a permanent thing that I would  always be
afraid of a certain experience, but I discovered that you can run it out.
People are amazed—they think it’s going to be there permanently. It won’ t.
Keep running it, and sometimes by introducing music you can change the
emotional color ation of a mem ory. To review that memory in the face of
some kind of music that has the opposite effect; it can have quite a dramatic
impact that changes the entire field.
The thing that raises it the most, of course, is turning a situation over to
God. Prayer and turning a thing over to God is the strongest. I rememberwhen I was facin g a rattlesnake. There I was all alone, and I suddenly came
upon this rattlesnake, and he was all coiled up and ready to go. I
surrendered to God at great depth. I just let go and surrendered into the
knowingness of the presence of God, and a profound peace overcame both
the rattlesnake and me. It was like we were suspended in time, in a state of
peaceful tranquility, sort of a Shangri-La magicalness.
The snake was calm and peacef ul, and I was calm and peaceful. Both of
us relinquished our fear of each other, because the snake was afraid of me
too. But both of us were suspended, and there was a feeling of profound
stillness, calm, peace, and timelessness. W e managed to escape into a divine
state, and that divine state, the power of it, also tranquilized the rattlesnake.
Neither one of us moved; we were both absolutely just poised. It was a
great moment. It lasted on temporal time, a matter of seconds probably. But
in experiential time, it was timeless.
Invoking divinit y, of course, is the most powerful way to transform it. On
the other hand, you can’t dictate to God how you want divinity to occur.
That’ s what I think is tradition ally called outlining : telling God how you
want it done, when, and with whom. When you surrender, that means you
surrender the outcome and say, “Whether I get this job or not, I surrender it
to God.” Well, then, you can’t turn around and complain that you didn’ t get
the job. It would be okay if you got it, and it’d be okay if you didn’ t. If you
don’t get the job it’s because God wants you to work elsewhere. You win
either way.
OceanofPDF.comChapter 6
TRUTH
The next chapter serves to answ er one of life’s most profound  spiritual
questions: What  is truth? After all, in this age of the Internet we are living
in, you can find many, many blogs and websites from so-called  authorities
or gurus claiming to speak the truth on any number of subjects. And often,
these claims conflict or outright contradict one another. So again, what is
truth?
In the text that follows, taken from Dr. Hawkins


 chanting Brahmins.
In the middle of the melee stood Suddhodana, growing impatient. It was
the of ficial naming ceremony for his new son, and also the time when the
baby’ s birth chart would be read aloud by the court astrologers, the
jyotishis.  Siddhartha’ s destiny would be pronounced and his whole life
affected from this moment on. But pronounce was the one thing they
weren’ t doing. Instead, the four old men bent over the cradle, stroking their
beards, mouthing ambiguous commonplaces. “V enus is beneficly placed.
The tenth house shows promise, but the full moon is aligned with Saturn;
his mind will take time to develop.”
“How many of you are still alive?” Suddhodana grumbled. “Four? I
thought there used to be five.”
The implied threat was empty. Astrologers were strange but revered
creatures, and the king knew it was dangerous to cross them. They belonged
to the Brahmin caste, and although the king could hire them, he was only of
the Kshatriya caste, which meant that in the eyes of God they were his
superiors. After Maya’ s funeral Suddhodana had spent days alone, refusing
to unbolt his bedroom door. But there was a kingdom to look after, a line ofsuccession to hold up to the world and his lurking enemies. It would be a
sign of weakness for Suddhodana’ s entire lineage if the astrologers had
anything dark to say.
“Is he safe, or is he going to die? T ell me now,” Suddhodana demanded.
The eldest jyotishi shook his head. “It was the mother ’s karma to die,
but the son is safe.” These words were potent; everyone in the room heard
and believed them. They would deter a potential assassin, in case someone
had been hired to clandestinely murder the prince. Now the stars predicted
the failure of any such attempt.
“Go on,” the king demanded. The nearby clamor subsided in
anticipation.
“The chart belongs to one who will become a great king,” the eldest
jyotishi intoned, making sure that these words too were heard by as many
people as possible.
“Why didn’ t you say so to begin with? Get on with it. Let’ s have it all.”
Suddhodana was barking impatiently, but inside he felt tremendous relief.
The astrologers glanced nervously at one another. “There are…
complications.”
“Meaning what, exactly?” Suddhodana glared, daring them to take back
a word of their prediction. The eldest jyotishi cleared his throat. Canki, the
high Brahmin, moved in closer, sensing that he might have to intervene.
“Do you trust us, Y our Highness?” the eldest jyotishi asked.
“Of course. I’ve only executed one astrologer, maybe two. What do you
mean to say?”
“The chart foresees that your son will not rule Sakya.” Dramatic pause
as the king cursed under his breath. “He will hold dominion over the four
corners of the earth.”At this, general consternation broke out. Courtiers gasped, a few
applauded, most were stunned. The jyotishi’ s words had their intended
effect. But Suddhodana stif fened.
“How much am I paying you? T oo much. Y ou expect me to believe
such a thing?” He forced a bemused tone. He wanted to test the old man’ s
resolve.
Before the jyotishi could find a reply, however, there was a stirring in
the crowd. The oil lamps, which had moved back and forth in the air like
wandering stars, became still. Courtiers parted and bowed, making way for
someone who had just entered the room—an eminence.
Asita, Asita.
Suddhodana didn’ t have to hear the whispered name as it was passed
along. He knew Asita on sight; they had met long ago. When Suddhodana
was seven, he had been woken up by guards in the middle of the night. A
pony was waiting for him beside his father, who rode a black char ger. The
old king said nothing, only nodding for the retinue to move forward.
Suddhodana felt nervous, as his father often made him feel. They rode in a
pack of guardsmen toward the mountains, and just when the boy thought he
would fall asleep in the saddle, the old king stopped. He had the boy placed
in his arms, and they went alone up a scree slope toward a cave above their
heads. The mouth of the cave was hidden behind brush and fallen boulders,
but his father seemed to know where to go.
He stood in the dawn light and called, “Asita!” After a moment a naked
hermit came out, neither obedient nor defiant. “Y ou have blessed my family
for generations. Now bless my son,” the king said. The boy stared at the
naked man, who appeared by his beard, which was not yet completely gray,
to be no more than fifty. How could he have blessed anyone for
generations? Then the old king set him on his feet; Suddhodana ran forward
and knelt before the hermit.
Asita leaned over. “Do you really want a blessing?” The boy felt
confused. “T ell me truthfully.”Suddhodana had received many blessings in his short lifetime; the
Brahmins were summoned if the heir apparent had so much as a runny
nose. “Y es, I want your blessing,” he said automatically.
Asita gazed at him. “No, you want to kill. And conquer.” The boy tried
to protest, but Asita cut him short. “I am only telling you what I see. Y ou
don’t need a blessing to destroy.” As he said these words, the hermit held
his hand over the boy’ s head, as if administering what had been asked for.
He nodded toward the old king, who stood some distance away out of
earshot.
“Take death’ s blessing,” Asita said. “It’ s the one you deserve, and it will
serve you well in the future. Go.”
Bewildered but not of fended, the boy got to his feet and ran back to his
father, who seemed satisfied. But as time unfolded, the boy came to see that
his father was a weak king, vassal to rulers around him who dominated with
stronger will and greater armies. He came to be ashamed of this fact, and
although he never quite knew what Asita meant by death’ s blessing,
Suddhodana did not object when his own nature turned out to be fierce and
ambitious.
“You honor us.” Suddhodana dropped to his knees as Asita approached.
The hermit looked older now, but not three decades older, the time since
they had last met. Asita ignored the king and walked directly to the cradle.
He glanced down, then he turned to face the jyotishis.
“The chart.” Asita waited until the scroll of sheepskin was passed to
him. He gazed at it for a moment.
“A great king. A great king.” Asita repeated the words in a flat,
emotionless voice. “He will never be.”
Tense silence.
Asita replied, “What do I care about thrones?” He might have been
indifferent to the king, but Asita could not take his eyes away from the
baby.“Without a doubt there is a great ruler in his chart,” the eldest jyotishi
insisted.
“Do you not see that?” Suddhodana asked anxiously.
But the hermit acted strangely. Without replying, he knelt before the
baby with his head bowed. Siddhartha, who had been quiet up to now, took
an interest in this new person; he kicked his feet, and one of them brushed
the top of Asita’ s head. Suddenly tears began to roll down Asita’ s cheeks.
Suddhodana bent down to lift him to his feet. The revered ascetic allowed
this gesture, which under normal circumstances would have been a serious
affront to a holy man.
“What did you ask?” he said, seeming like a withered old man at that
moment.
“My son—why will he not rule? If he’ s fated to die, tell me.”
Asita looked at the king as if noticing him for the first time. “Y es, he
will die—to you.” The court stirred restlessly, but Suddhodana, who should
have asked all this in private, was beyond caring who overheard. “Explain
yourself,” he said.
Asita paused, seeing confusion and dismay in the king’ s face. “The boy
has two destinies. Y our jyotishis were right about only one.”
Although he was speaking to the father, Asita’ s gaze never moved from
the infant. “Y our will is to make him a king. He may grow up to choose the
other way. His second destiny.”
Suddhodana looked totally bewildered. “What is this second destiny?”
“To rule his own soul.” A relieved smile crossed the king’ s face. “Y ou
think that’ s so easy?” said Asita.
“I think only a fool would exchange the world for


 a metaphor
for your life. What is weigh ing you down? What in your life do you find
too heav y? What is weighty in your life that you must take very seriously?
Now think about the phrase “weight loss.” “Loss” signifies something
departing, and with loss comes sadness and grief. No wonder we don’t want
to “lose”  our weight! Try replacing the phrase “weight loss” with “weightrelease.” The word “release” connotes freedom and relief; and with that
comes joy and happiness.
Here are a few more questions to consider. What do you believe to be true
about yourself or the world or life because of this aspect of yourself that
you don’t like or find upsetting? What proof (events) do you have that this
aspect about yourself is true? What’s the self-talk now about your weight,
body image, or food? Do you feel desperate, hopeless, or other upsetting
feelings when you think about the diets you haven’ t maintained? Do you
blame and judge yourself as weak for not achieving your ideal weight?
Have you always considered yourself “the fat one” in the family or among
your friends? Have you been ashamed of yourself because of your eating
habits? Do you keep your feelings about your weight a secret out of fear
that people will find out “who you really are”? And try these: What are you
insulating yourself from with the weight? What does weight signify for
you? Is it insulating you from intimacy? Is it keeping you from being
vulnerable? What would happen if you did reach your ideal weight? How
would your life change?
Now, you have even more tapping targets, and that means you have a
chance to change it all. Tap on what you believe to be true or an event that
seems to “prove” that it’ s true, until you experience relief.
Others have used setup phrases like these as they step around the edges of
the issue:
Even though I’m a hopeless case and will never be the weight I want, I
love, honor, and accept myself.
Even though I feel so heavy all the time, I love, honor, and accept
myself.
Even though there must be something wrong with me, or otherwise I’d
stop eating like this, I love, honor, and accept myself.
Even though I have to be at my ideal weight to have the life I want, I
love myself no matter what.Even though I have so much despair around this, I love, honor, and
accept myself.
If you’re  having  resistance to acceptance, remember you can also tap on
the tail-enders or “yeah  buts” one at a time down to zero. As you do this,
specific events may arise. Tap on each of them and they’ll start to
generalize, so there aren’ t as many to do as y ou think.
More on Shelley’ s Case:
Weight Release and Core Issues
Shelley and I tapped on the unhappiness about her body and what it meant
to her. I asked her a series of questions to gain more awareness of the
history behind her body hatre d, weight despair, and negative self-talk
patterns as I looked for specific  originating events behind her weight and
body-confidence challenges.
She despaired when she thought about her weight problems in
relationship to others’ bodies. “When was the first time you felt that despair
feeling?” I asked her.
If she could not remember a specific event, I was prepared to ask her
other questions: “When did you first start feeling uncomfortable about your
weight?” “What’ s the earliest memory you have of feeling ‘fat,’
overweight, ashamed of how you look?” “When did you realize you felt
uncomfortable about your body?” “When have you felt like this before?
Who was there?” “What kinds of people ‘cause’ you to feel this way?”
In your own work, be persistent. Even if you don’ t get answers the first or
second or tenth time, you are working towar d resolving the upsets that are
keeping you stuck in this problem.
Shelley’ s first memory of feeling  despair was when she was six years old,
walking with a grown-up cousin at a community pool. Both young Shelly
and her adult cousin were in bikinis, but Shelley remembered feeling “fat,”
like the bikini was too small for her. Now she had in her mind a specific
picture; just a flash that lasted about ten seconds of the two of themwalking. She named the event “Six and Too Fat.” The feeling was despair.
She guessed it to be about a 4 in intensity.
Shelley and I tapped on this event using Tell the Story, which turned out
to have many aspects, including the feeling of being next to the cousin and
the color of the bathing suit. She noted an uncomfortable feeling and a
feeling of being exposed, being seen. An insight came to mind—it’ s about
being seen, fear of being seen. I said nothing, because I wanted to see what
would unfold first.
We tapped on each of the aspects of the event of “Six and Too Fat” using
Tell the Story until she had no charge and even had a hard time recalling
much detail. It took all of an hour, if that. After tapping, she reported
feeling lighter and more at peace regarding her weight.
When next she visited her hometown, she reported back that she had not
gone for the junk food at her parents’ house nor had she done any other
unhealthy eating behaviors. And she had tapped herself “off a cliff” when
she started to compare herself to the young, beautiful, and thin waitress.
We work ed over the next severa l months, and she stopped feeling like a
fraud. She started feeling good about herself and her life. She let go of a
relationship she’d been in becau se she thought no one else would have her.
She became involved in a relationship where she began to experience
emotional intimacy for the first time. Rather than feeling like a fraud, she
owned the wonderful woman and person she is.
Identifying the T riggers for
Overeating, Self-Hatred, Cravings
On the road to body confidence, Shelley identified more triggers that led
her to overeating in the first place. If you don’t get at the triggers that
stimulate overea ting, you won’ t root the problem out at its core—it can
always come back. But what if you don’t know your triggers? Most people
don’t, but you can use EFT to flush them out.
Here are some sample setups to practice addressing the problem of not
knowing your triggers or patterns of cravings or overeating. Customizethem to suit your own unique situation, then perform the EFT basic recipe,
remembering to take an intensity rating before and after each tapping round.
Even though I don’t know why I overeat, don’t see my own pattern, I
deeply and completely accept myself.
Even though I forget to look for my self-sabotage and don’t see things
that are obvious to other people, I love, honor, and accept myself.
Even though there must be a good reason I sabotage myself (and I’m
curious—I wonder what it is and I’d like to explore it in depth), I
deeply honor and accept myself.
Even though I have no idea what the triggers for my overeating are and
I’m asking myself to recognize the triggers and help myself become
more conscious ly aware of them, I deeply and completely accept
myself, all of me!
In Shelley’ s case, tapping on phrases like these and allowing herself to
experience her feelings began to lift a veil. She began to realize  there were
many times when she was triggered and in a number of areas. These made
her feel uncomfortable and out of control, craving and overeating. Here are
some we turned up, for example:
She had to finish the food on everyone’ s plates. It was almost a
compulsion. She literally felt like she had no choice, whether at a
restaurant or at ho me.
She had to stop at a certain cof fee shop and purchase at least two donuts,
and from that shop only. Again, she felt as if she had no choice. She
could not drive by—she had to have those donuts.
The minute she stepped in her parents’ door, she wanted to eat.
Just after a stressful test, she’d crave food. At the time, she was studying
to get her masters and working full time.
When she came to see me on this particular day, she was horrif ied, laden
with shame and despair. She had just gone out to eat and had ordered a lar gemeal from the menu. She then proceeded to eat leftovers from her friend’ s
meal, too. I was thrilled that she was experiencing the big old pattern
because now we had an opportunity to resolve it!
We tapped on this one experience, just using Shelley’ s own phrases about
her humiliation. I asked, “What does this feeling of humili ation remind you
of?” An early memory emer ged: She was very little, maybe four or five
years old, being “affectionately”  called “Big Belly” after sneak ing into her
mother ’s lunch box and nibblin g her sandwich. “Big Belly” was a term of
endearment she’d heard almost all of her life, but when she said the words,
tears welled up in her eyes. Clearly we were onto something. There was big
hurt there, and we’d found tapping gold. The


 h i t  m i d d l e  a g e,  f a c e  a  f o r k  i n  t h e
r o a d.  W h i c h  r o a d  t h e y  t a k e,  a s  R o b e r t  F r o s t  w r o t e,  w i l l
m a k e  a l l  t h e  d i f f e r e n c e.  O n e  r o a d  l e a d s  t o  g r a d u a l
d i s s o l u t i o n — a  c r u i s e  ( h o w e v e r  s l o w )  t o w a r d  d e a t h ;  t h e
o t h e r  r o a d  b e c o m e s  a  b i r t h  c a n a l,  a  p a t t e r n  o f  r e b i r t h.  T h e
o l d e r  w e  g e t,  t h e  h a r d e r  i t  i s  t o  c h o o s e  r e b i r t h.  T h e  e g o ’ s
g r a v i t y  s e e m s  h a r d e r  t o  r e s i s t.
W e  s t a r t  o u t  s o  e n t h u s i a s t i c  a b o u t  l i f e,  s o  e n t e r t a i n e d  a n d
d e l i g h t e d  b y  t h e  v e r y  n a t u r e  o f  t h i n g s.  B u t  t h e  n e w n e s s
f a d e s ;  w e  g r o w  j a d e d  o r  e x h a u s t e d,  a n d  w e  b e g i n  t o  l o s e
s o m e  v i t a l  a p p r e c i a t i o n  o f  t h e  p o s s i b i l i t i e s  i n h e r e n t  i n  a  d a y.
A s  I  w r i t e  t h i s,  I  h e a r  t e e n a g e r s  i n  m y  b a c k y a r d,  d e l i g h t i n g
i n  t h e  m u d  p u d d l e s  p r o d u c e d  b y  t h e  a f t e r n o o n ’ s  s t o r m.  I
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t h e  a b i l i t y  t o  h a v e  f u n  i n  t h e  m u d  i s  w h a t  m a k e s  b e i n gy o u n g  s o  w o n d e r f u l,  a n d  n o t  m a k e  a  s t i n k  a b o u t  t h e  f a c t
t h a t  m y  t o w e l s  a r e  b e i g e  a n d  t h i s  c o u l d  r u i n  t h e m.  M y
m o r t a l  t r u t h  i s  t h a t  I  w a n t  t h e  k i d s  t o  h o s e  o f f  b e f o r e  t h e y
c o m e  b a c k  i n t o  t h e  h o u s e,  b u t  m y  s o u l ’ s  t r u t h  i s  t h a t  I  w i s h
I  c o u l d  e n j o y  t h e  m u d  t o o.
S o  i t ’ s  c o m p l e t e l y  u p  t o  m e,  w h e t h e r  I  s t a r t  t o  b e c o m e  a n
o l d  b i d d y  w h o  c a r e s  t o o  m u c h  a b o u t  t h e  t o w e l s  o r  i n s t e a d
h o l d  o n  t o  m y  s e n s e  o f  a d v e n t u r e.  I  w a n t  t o  f o c u s  o n  w h a t ’ s
i m p o r t a n t  a s  I  g r o w  o l d e r.  S o  w h a t  t h e  h e l l,  t h e  k i d s  a r e
h a p p y  a n d  t h a t  i s  w h a t ’ s  i m p o r t a n t!  A n d  n o t  j u s t  f o r  k i d s,
b u t  f o r  a l l  o f  u s.

C h o o s i n g  t o  S e e

B i r t h  i s  a u d a c i o u s ;  c r e a t i v i t y  i s  a u d a c i o u s ;  t h e  s p i r i t u a l
q u e s t  i s  a u d a c i o u s.  W i t h o u t  a u d a c i t y,  w e ’ r e  m e r e  c o g s  i n
t h e  w h e e l s  o f  t h e  e g o ’ s  s t a t u s  q u o.  A n d  t h a t  s t a t u s  q u o  l e a d s
t o  d e c a y  a n d  d e a t h,  n o t  a s  a  p o r t a l  t o  g r e a t e r  l i f e  b u t  a s  a
m o c k e r y  o f  l i f e  i t s e l f.
I  w a s  o n c e  a b o u t  t o  t h r o w  o u t  w h a t  I  t h o u g h t  o f  a s  d e a d
p i n k  r o s e s  w h e n  a  f r i e n d  o f  m i n e  s a i d  t o  m e,  “ W h a t  a r e  y o u
d o i n g?  W h y  a r e  y o u  t h r o w i n g  t h o s e  a w a y? ”  I  s a i d,
“ T h e y ’ r e  d y i n g! ”  H e  s a i d,  “ L o o k  a t  t h e m,  M a r i a n n e!
T h e y ’ r e  b e a u t i f u l!  I  t h i n k  t h e  f a d e d  p i n k  o n  t h e m  t o d a y  i sa c t u a l l y  m o r e  w o n d e r f u l  t h a n  t h e  b r i g h t e r  p i n k  t h e y  h a d
y e s t e r d a y! ”
A n d  h e  w a s  r i g h t.  I t  w a s  n o t  t h e  l o o k  o f  t h e  d r y i n g
f l o w e r


 eventually finds itself hundreds
interactions of these variations within
evolved beyond consciousness to a state
consciousness itself rather than of anyof miles of f course. This phenomenon,
attractor Fields make up the history of
of pure awareness.16 Bohm postulates a
particular individual, as is shown by their
which we will refer to in more detail
civilization and mankind. (A side study
source that is beyond both the explicate
occurrence across lar ge populations over
later, is an essential mechanism of all
not herein reported indicated that the
and implicate realms, very much like the
long periods of time; independent of
evolution and also underlies the potential
animal and vegetable kingdoms as well
state of pure awareness described by the
testers or subjects.
of the creative process.
are also controlled by attractor Fields of
sages.17
(36) The evolution of consciousness and the
In overview, we can see that from time
hierarchic power.)The advent of artificial intelligence development of human society can
be immemorial, man has tried to make sense
Our study correlates well with Rupert
super -computers
has allowed the depicted in the mathematical terms of
of the enormous complexity and frequent
Sheldrake's "morphogenetic Fields"
application of the theories of nonlinear
nonlinear dynamics. Our study concerned
unpredictability of human behavior. A
hypothesis as well as Karl Pribram's
dynamics to be applied to the study of
itself with a limited set of parameters of
multitude of (37) systems has been holographic model of brain-mind
brain function through the technique of
consciousness which we calibrated from
constructed to try to make that which is
function.24 (Note that in a holographic
neurophysiologic modeling.18 The one to 1,000. The numbers represent
the incomprehensible comprehensible. T o universe the achievements of
every function of memory, especially, is being
logarithm (to the base 10) of the power of
"make sense" has ordinarily meant to beindividual contribute to the advancement
studied by means of neural models the respective fields. The entire field
or definable in terms that are linear: logical
and well-being of the whole.) Our study
17
18
observable phenomenon within the among which attractor networks have
phase space of consciousness itself is
and rational. But the process, and
measurable three-dimensional world. The
been identified. Conclusions of current
unlimited, going on to infinity. The range
therefore the experience, of life itself is
typical problems the world attempts to
research are that the brain's neural
of one to 600, representing the domain of
or ganic-that is to say, nonlinear by
deal with exist on the observable level of
networks act as a system of attractor
the vast majority of human experience, is
definition. This is the source of man's
AÆBÆC. But our work is to find thepatterns, and that stored memories act as
the primary scope of this study; the levels
inescapable intellectual frustration.
inherent attractor pattern, the ABC out of
attractors, so that the system does not
from 600 to 1,000, the realm of non-
In this study, however, test responses
which the AÆBÆC arises.
behave in a random fashion overall,
ordinary evolution--of enlightenment, were independent of our subjects'
belief ABC
- Attractor Pattern
although each individual neuron may
sages, and the highest spiritual states-will
systems or intellectual content What
↓ ↓ ↓ - Operants
behave in random fashion.19
also be described.
emer ged were patterns of ener gy Fields
A Æ B Æ C - Observable Event
Neuron models of consciousness disclose
W ithin the total field studied, sequentialwhich were aspects of consciousness
a class of neural networks called
patterns emer ged identifying the itself, irrespective of individual
identities.
In this simple diagram the operants
"constraint satisfaction systems."20 In
progressive powers of attractor fields in
In common left-brain/right-brain parlance
transcend both the observable and the
these systems a network of
which there were local variations, but
we could say that the test subjects reacted
non-observable; we might picture them
interconnected neuron units operates
global consistency. Strange attractors can
globally to an attractor Field irrespective
as a rainbow bridging the deterministic
within a series of limits and thus sets up
be of either high or low ener gy, and the
of the individual variation of their left-
and the non-deterministic realms. (The
attractor patterns, some of which are nowcritical point in our data appeared to be
brain logic, reason or sequential thought
existence of operants can be inferred by
being identified with psychopathology.21
the calibration range of 200, below which
systems. The results of the study indicate
asking the question, "What encompasses
This kind of modeling correlates
the power of attractors could be that profoundly powerful patterns
both the possible and the impossible, the
behavior with physiology and parallels
described as weak, or negative, above
or ganize human behavior.
known and the unknown?"-i.e., what is
the results of our kinesiologic muscle
which as strong, or positive. By the time
W e can intuit, then, an infinite domain of
the matrix of all possibility?)
testing, demonstrating the connection
we reached the calibration of 600 they
infinite potential, consciousness itself,
This description of how the universebetween mind and body.
were enormously powerful.
within which there is an enormously
works is in accord with the theories of
In terms derived from chaos theory, the
An important element of chaos theory
powerful attractor Field or ganizing all of
physicist David Bohm, who has clinical study described in the following
helpful in understanding this evolution of
human behavior into what is innate to
described a holographic universe with an
pages has identified a phase space,
consciousness is the law of sensitive
"humanness." W ithin the giant attractor
invisible implicate ("enfolded") and a
encompassing the full range of the
dependence on initial conditions." This
Field are lesser Fields of progressively
manifest explicate ("unfolded") order."
evolution of human consciousness.
refers to the fact that a slight variation
less ener gy and power. These Fields, inBut it is most important to note that this
W ithin this range numerous attractor
over a course of time can have the ef fect
turn, dominate behavior, so that definable
scientific insight corresponds with (35) the
patterns of increasing power have been
of producing a profound change,' much
patterns are consistent across cultures and
view of reality experienced through denoted. These patterns represent
ener gy as a ship whose bearing is one degree of f
time throughout human history. The
history by enlightened sages who have
fields which are qualities of
compass eventually finds itself hundreds
interactions of these variations within
evolved beyond consciousness to a state
consciousness itself rather than of any
of miles of f course. This phenomenon,
attractor Fields make up the history of
of pure awareness.16 Bohm postulates a
particular individual, as is shown by their
which we will refer to in more detailcivilization and mankind. (A side study
source that is beyond both the explicate
occurrence across lar ge populations over
later, is an essential mechanism of all
not herein reported indicated that the
and implicate realms, very much like the
long periods of time; independent of
evolution and also underlies the potential
animal and vegetable kingdoms as well
state of pure awareness described by the
testers or subjects.
of the creative process.
are also controlled by attractor Fields of
sages.17
(36) The evolution of consciousness and the
In overview, we can see that from time
hierarchic power.)
The advent of artificial intelligence development of human society can
be immemorial, man has tried to make sense
Our study correlates well with Rupert
super -computers
has allowed the depicted in the mathematical terms ofof the enormous complexity and frequent
Sheldrake's "morphogenetic Fields"
application of the theories of nonlinear
nonlinear dynamics. Our study concerned
unpredictability of human behavior. A
hypothesis as well as Karl Pribram's
dynamics to be applied to the study of
itself with a limited set of parameters of
multitude of (37) systems has been holographic model of brain-mind
brain function through the technique of
consciousness which we calibrated from
constructed to try to make that which is
function.24 (Note that in a holographic
neurophysiologic modeling.18 The one to 1,000. The numbers represent
the incomprehensible comprehensible. T o universe the achievements of
every function of memory, especially, is being
logarithm (to the base 10) of the power of
"make sense" has ordinarily meant to be
individual contribute to the advancement
studied by means of neural models the respective fields. The entire field
or definable in terms that are linear: logical
and well-being of the whole.) Our study
1718
also correlates with the conclusions without exception, the results were
Preventive (41) Medicine. A thorough Diamond used the technique to
research reached by Nobelist Sir John Eccles


generation is familiarized with the truth from th e start."
Max Planck
The new scientific truth and level of thinking abou t the human bod y that will empower p eople to become
practitioners of preventive medicine for themselves is as follows: It is the solvent— the water content—that
regulates all functions of the body, including the activity of all the solutes (the solids) that are dissolved in it. The
disturbances in water metabolism of the body (the solvent metabolism) produces a variety of sig nals, indicating a
"system" disturbance in the particular functions associated with the water supply and its rationed regulation.
Let me repeat: every function of the body is m onitored and pegged to the efficient flow of water. 'Water distribution"
is the only way of making sure that not only an adequate amount of water, but its transported elements (hormones,
chemical messengers and nutrients) first reach the more vital organs. In turn, every organ that produces a
substance to be made available to the rest of the body will only monitor its own rate and standards of production and
release into the "flowing water," according to constantly changing quotas se t by th e brain. Once the water itself
reaches the "drier" areas, it also exercises its many other most vital and missing physical and chemical regulatory
actions.
Within this view, water intake and its priority distribution achieve paramount importance. The regulating
neurotransmitter systems (histamine and its su bordinate agents) become increasingly active during the regulation of
water requirements of the body. Their action should not be continuously blocked by the use of medication. Their
purpose should be understood and satisfied by drinking more water. I have made exactly the same statements to a
body of scientists that had gathered from all over the world in Monte Carlo in 1989 for a conference on the topic of
inflammation, analgesics, and immune modulators.
The new paradigm permits an incorporation of the "fourth dimen sion of time" into scientific research. It will facilitate
an understanding of the damaging effect of an establishing dehydration that persists a nd continues to increase
during any duration of time. It will make it possible to forecast the physiological events that will lead to disease
states at som e later years, including wha t at present appears as genetic disorders. It will transform the present
"shot-in-the-dark, symptoms-treating" approach to the practice of medicine into a scientifically accur ate medical art;
it will make preventive forecasting possib le. It will establish excellent health and reduce health care costs t o
individuals and to any society that foste rs its sp read.
Since water shortage in different areas of the body will manifest varying symptoms, signals, and com plications now
labeled as diseases, people may think water could not be offered as a natural solution. Water cures so many
diseases? No way!
Speaking thus, they shut their minds to the new possib ility of preventing and possibly even curing so many different
"diseases" that are dehydration produced. It does not occur to them that the only remedy for conditions that come
about whe n the body begins to get dehydrated is water and nothing else. A number of sample testimonials are
published in different sections of this book to open the eyes of skeptics to the fact that the greatest health discovery
of all times is that wat er is a natural medication for a variety of health conditions.
Water Regulation at Different Stages of Life
There are basically three stages to water regulation of the body in the different phases of life. One, the stage of life
of a fetus in the uterus of the mother (left of B in Figure 1). Two, the phase of growth  until full height and width is
achieved (approximately betwee n the ages of 18 to 25). Three, the phase of life from fully grown to the demise of
the person. During the intrauterine stage of cell expansion, wat er for cell growth of the child has to be provided by
the mother. Howev er, the transmitter system for water intake seems to be produced by th e fetal tissue, but registers
its effect on the mother. The very first indicator for water needs of the fetus and the mother seems to be morning
sickn ess during'the early phase of pregnancy. Morni ng sickness of the mother is a th irst sig nal of both the f etus
and the mother.IT SHOUL D BE THOROUGHL Y UNDERSTOOD
It is now becoming obvious that because of a gradually failing thirst sensation, our body becomes chronically and
increasingly dehydrated, from an early adult age. With increase in age, the water content of the cells of the body
decreases, to the point that the ratio of the volume of body water that is inside the cells to that which is outside the
cells changes from a figure of 1.1 and becomes almost 0.8 (see Figure 2). This is a very drastic ch ange. Since the
"water" we drink provides for cell function and its volume requirements, the decrease in our daily water intake
affects t he efficiency of cell activity. It is the reason for the loss of water volume held inside the cells of the body. As
a result, chronic dehydration causes symptoms that equal disease when the variety of emergency signals of
dehydration are not understood—as they are until now not understood. You  see, these urgent cries of the body for
water are treated as abnormal and dealt with by the use of medications.
The human body can become dehydrated even when abundant water is readily available. Humans see m to lose
their thirst sensation and the critical perception of needing water. Not recognizing their water need, they become
gradually, increasingly, and chronically dehydrated with progress in  age (see Figures 1 & 2). Further confusion lies
in the idea that whe n we're thirsty, we can substitute tea, coffee, or alcohol-containing beverages. As y ou will see,
this is a  common error.
The "dry mouth " is the very last sign of dehydration. The body can suffer from dehydration even when the mouth
may b e fairly moist. Still worse, in the elderly, the mouth can be seen to be obviously dry and yet thirst may not be
acknowledged and satisfied.
WATER HAS OTHER I MPORTANT  PROPERT IES
Scientific research shows that water has many other properties besides being a solvent and a means of transport.
Not having paid attention to the other properties of water in the regulation of different functions in the body has
produced the pitiful confusions that are infrastructure to our so-called, scie nce-based modern medicine.
•Water has a firmly established and essential hydrolytic role in all aspects of body metabolism—water-dependent
chemical reactions (hydrolysis). Similar to the chemical powers of water that make a seed grow and produce a new
plant or a tree: the powe r of water that is used in  the che mistry of life.
• At the cell membrane: the osmotic flow of water through the membrane can generate "hydroelec tric" energy
(voltage) that is converted and stored in the energy pools in form of ATP and GTP—two vital cell battery systems.
ATP a nd GTP a re chemical sources of energy in the body. The energy generated by water is used in the
manufacture of ATP a nd GTP. These particles are used as "cash  flow" in elemental exchanges, particularly in
neurotransmission.
• Water  also forms a particu lar structure, pattern and sh ape th at seems to be employed as the adhesive materia l in
the bondage of the cell architecture. Like glue, it sticks t he solid structures in the cell membrane together. It
develops the sticki ness o f "ice" a t higher body te mperature.
• Produ cts manufactu red in the brain cells a re transported on "waterways" to their destination in the nerve endings
for use in the transmission of messages. There seem to exist small waterways or microstreams along the length of
nerves that "float" the packaged materials along "guidelines," called microtubules (see Figure 3).
• Proteins and the enzymes o f the body function more efficiently in solutions of lower viscosity; this is tr ue of all the
receptors (receiver points) in the cell membranes. In solutions of higher viscosit y (in a dehydrated state), proteins
and enzymes become less efficient (possib ly includes the recognition of thirst of the body). It follows that wat er itself
regulates all functions of the body, including the activity of all the solutes it carries around. The new scientific truth
(paradigm shift)—"Water, t he solven t of the body, r egulat es all functions, inc luding the acti vity of the solutes it
dissolves a nd circulates"—should become the basis of all future approach to medical research.
When the body is d ehydrated, apart from the establishment of a "locked-in" drive for wat er intake, a rationing and
distribution system for the available water in the body becomes operative according to a predetermined priority
program—a form of drought management,
It is now scientifically clear that the histamine directed and operated neurotransmitter system becomes active and
initiates the subordinate systems that promote water intake. These subordinate systems also redistribute the
amount of water in circulation or that can be drawn away from other areas. Subordinate systems employ
vasopressin (vays o-press-in ), renin-angiotens in (RA), pro-stagland ins (prosta-gl an-din, PG) and  kin


experienced earlier had drawn inward. I now felt a very
beautiful flow of energy up my spine to the middle of my
forehead. I had never experienced this before, and
almost all my awareness was drawn to that point.
Meanwhile, there was still great pain in my legs, but thatwasn’t a problem. It was ju st the quiet experience of
pain. No complaints, no mental dialogue about what to
do about it. There was simply awareness, completely at
peace with what it was aware of.
I manag ed to move my arms enough to unfold my legs
from th e lotus position. They were like dead weight, so I
lay on my side for a while until they came back to life. It
was so peacefu l, so comfortable lying there. In time, I
opened my eyes. What eased in through those openings
was like  nothing I had ever seen or dreamed of before.
The wetland area before me appeared like a Japanese
rice paper painting. It exude d gentleness and stillness.
The tall grasses swayed in the gentle breeze, but their
movement had a stillness about it. Everything was so
quiet, so serene. The trees w ere quiet, the clouds were
quiet, the water was quiet. There was absolute stillness in
the mid st of the movement of  nature. My body was quiet,
and there were no thoughts at all. I could have lain there
forever melting into the peace that surrounded my sense
of presence.
When I finally got up, the movement of my body was
unfamiliar to me. I had never been a graceful person. I
was definitely not the dancing type. But now every
movement of my body was like a ballet. There was a
graceful flow when my arms moved, and I really saw the
difference when I began to w alk. With each step I could
feel eve ry tiny movement of the muscles in my feet. I
flowed from one step to the next, and the movement
itself was intoxicating.
The amazing part is that th is state lasted for weeks.
When I rejoined my friends  that day, the state didn’t
change. I felt no need to explain or describe what had
happened to me during the  two to three hours I was
gone. I could hardly talk. Everything was so beautiful
and tranquil. The silence, the absolute silence, even
sounds outside did not disturb that stillness. The sounds
were out there, but they seemed so far away from where Iwas seated inside. A moat of thick peace allowed nothing
to reach the citadel of my elevated state.5.
F r o m  A b s o l u t e  P e a c e  t o  A b s o l u t e
T u r m o i l
S helly and I retu rned home from the weekend trip, but I
could not relate to the life I was coming back to. I had
changed completely in a matter of hours. My normal
inner state had been transfor med into a state of absolute
clarity. Neither desire nor fear could touch me in those
early days. Even thoughts faded away before reaching my
seat of awareness. All I remember experiencing at that
time was a powerful, unwavering sense of one pointed
intention— I will never leave this state. No matter what,
I will never allow anything to take me from this place.
No voice of my  mind had to say that to me; it was who I
was. I was no longer Mickey  Singer. I was the one who
would never betray that peace or allow anything to
disturb that transcendent stillness.
I w as like a ch ild having to learn everything all over
again. I  had to learn to eat in a way that was consistent
with th at pea ce. I used t o smoke pot; I stopped
completely. My  state was cry stal clear, and I didn’t want
to dull it one io ta. I had to learn to go to classes and take
tests while remaining perfectly centered. I was in a
doctoral program, on full fellowship. I had to learn to use
my intellectual mind without disturbing the peace that I
now loved more than life itself.
During those next few week s, I felt like I had been
born anew. I found myself y earning to go back beyond.
In f act, every t ime I sat down to meditate I was drawn
back into an elevated state.  Some veil had been torn
aside inside of me, and it was  now totally natural to passback through it. I started w aking up at three in the
morning to be able to d o prolonged meditations.
Throughout the day, I would sit whenever and wherever
I had the opportunity. Only a small part of my life was
about my outer existence. What I was really about was
learning to stay deep inside while my outer life passed
before me, leaving me at peace.
I wa sn’t able to stay that detached for long, however.
After two to three weeks, the unassailable inner peace
began to develop cracks. These cracks allowed the voice
of my persona l mind to leak  back into my sanctuary of
silence. I struggled to get it b ack. Oh, did I struggle. But
the stru ggling itself was inconsistent with the absolute
stillness. There  was nothing I  could do. I had to just sit in
here helplessly watching as the Land Beyond My Dreams
gave wa y to my noisy inner st ate. It never dawned on me
that I could tr y leaving my outer existence in order to
maintain the inner stillness. That effort would come a
little bit later.
Though my deep inner peace had begun to fade, I
never fully returned to my normal state. Even when the
personal mind and emotions started back up, I was much
further behind them than I used to be. There was also
another majo r change: I was now experiencing a
constant flow of energy risin g up within me to the point
between my eyebrows. It formed a vortex of pressure
that forced my attention to t hat point. For example, if I
was looking at something, it felt like I was concentrating
my gaze  throu gh my brow ra ther than through my eyes.
This didn’t affect my ability to see; it just kept me closer
to th e meditative state at all t imes. Note that focusing on
the energy flow was not som ething I was doing; it was
something that was happening by itself. I was just aware
that the  flow had never been there before, and now it was
always there.
The pull of my attention to the point between my
eyebrows became both my teacher and my friend. Whenmy mental voice had something to say, I now had a
choice—pay attention to the voice or keep focusing on
the inn er flow of energy. I eventually realized that if I
didn’t w ant to listen to the m ental chatter, all I had to do
was slightly increase my concentration on the energy
flow to my bro w. The thoughts would then pass right by
without disturbing me. Letting the thoughts go became a
game to me. A ll of life was a lighter experience than
before. My personal melodrama would still come up, but
it co uld not pu ll me down in to it. I had been gifted with
this inner flow of energy to help me work my way out of
myself. More important, I now knew what it would be
like to get awa y from my personal self. My intention was
firm and resolute—no matter  what it took, or how long it
took—I was going to find my way back beyond.
It didn’t take long, however, before outer changes
began in my l ife that rivaled the inner changes I was
going th rough. It started with Shelly. One day she told
me that  it was time to move on. That really threw me for
a loop. Though  we had only been married a year and a
half, th e found ation of my p ersonal life had been built
around her for years. I tried in vain to hold on to her, but
at s ome point I saw somethi ng I had never been able to
see before: the sheer strength of my personality and
intellect had not given her the room she needed to
breathe. If I tr uly loved her, I had to let her go. Right at
that tim e, I had a friend who needed someone to house-
sit whil e he was away. I moved into that house and began
the process of nursing a broken heart.
The sud den change in my outer life had a profound
effect on my in ner work. I was already totally committed
to my regular meditations. Exploring the inner state of
deep peace had become the purpose of my life. Now I
had another very powerful source of inspiration: I was
watching a human being in almost unbearable pain. My
heart ex uded pain all the time, and my mind was literally
broken. It was as though the foundation of my self-concept had been removed, a nd my personal self was in
free fall. I didn ’t know how to put it together again, nor
did I even want to.
If I concentrated very deeply during meditation, all the
turmoil melted away. There was silence and peace. The
silence was not as thick as it had been before, but it


 nature is spirit, awareness or being, from which all people,
animals and things derive their apparently separate and independent existence.
It is the revelation of the prior unity shared by everyone and everything.
     If the understanding that we share our being is the source of the healing of
conflicts between individuals, families, communities and nations, then the
understanding that we share our being with all things must be the source of the
restoration of the relationship between ourselves and nature or the environment.

This is the vision of the world that poets and artists try to restore. Art is to
perception what philosophy is to thought. Poets gives us a window onto this
world, artists a vision of this world. The English painter J. M. W. T urner was
said to have been returning home from a day’s painting on Hampstead Heath
in North London when one of the local residents stopped him and asked to
see the paint ing. The man surveyed the picture for some time and then
remarked,  ‘I’ve lived here for forty years and have walked on Hampstead
159you are the happiness you seek
Heath almost every day, but I have never seen a view like that’. T o which
T urner replied, ‘No, but don’t you wish you could?’ The world is not what
we see; it is the way we see.
     We have become so accustomed to perceiving reality through the filter
of our minds – the only way it is possible for us to experience anything –
that we believe and feel that the fragmentation and separation that we ex -
perience in the world is a real quality of the world. Such is the intimate and
participatory nature of the mind in the world that the world appears to con -
form with our belief about it. We do not think of the world because it exists;
it seems to exist, as a multiplicity and diversity of discrete and independently
existing objects and selves, because that is how we think of it.
     William Blake imagines a conversation in which he tries to explain to
his materialist friends the idea that there are no discrete, independently
existing objects or selves, but rather a single, eternal, infinite and indivisible
reality: ‘“What”, it will be questioned, “When the sun rises, do you not see
a round disk of fire somewhat like a guinea?” Oh no, no, I see an innumer -
able company of the heavenly host crying, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord
God Almighty”.’*

objects born, not made

In 1975, I was fifteen years old and had an experience which was to change
the course of my life. Michael Cardew, one of the founding fathers of the
British studio pottery movement, had a retrospective exhibition at the
Camden Arts Centre in London to celebrate his seventy-fifth birthday.
I knew of Michael through his wife, Mariel, who attended The Study Society
at Colet House where I had just been introduced to the non-dual under -
standing, and I visited the exhibition at her suggestion.
     Michael’s pots were raw, energetic and powerful. They seemed to me
more like brief moments of condensed music than physical objects. It felt as
if they were fluid, arrested only by the act of perception, as if my senses were
apprehending the energies of the universe and conferring upon them a tem -
porary, static form. However, I was not observing them from a fixed point.
160* ‘A Vision of the Last Judgment’ ( c. 1810 ), Selected Poems from William Blake, edited by P. H. Butter
(Everyman, 1982).
 the all-pervasive spirit
I too was part of the indivisible flux of energies out of which the observer
and the observed condensed in a reciprocal and mutually sustaining rela -
tionship.
     Little did I know at the time that this confrontation was to put an end
to my incipient desire to study medicine, or that five years later I would
spend the last two years of Michael’s life living and working with him at his
pottery in Cornwall. Suffice it to say that I left with a simple desire, ‘I want
to learn to make pots like that’.
     At the time I could not have known that such objects are ‘born, not
made’. Michael’s pottery was more laboratory than studio, where the energies
of nature were harnessed and condensed. One did not make things; one par -
ticipated in their emergence. And should one ever forget this, one could be
certain that Michael’s anger would re-establish the balance.

On one such occasion, after being at Wenford Bridge for about six months,
I had been making bowls all day and was beginning to feel that I was gaining
some mastery over the medium. Michael came into the workshop at one
end and made his way slowly through the long, narrow room, once used as
a skittle alley, attached to the former inn which he and Mariel had converted
into their home and the pottery. Michael surveyed the shelves of bowls for
an alarmingly long period of time and, turning to me with a withering
expression on his face, exclaimed, ‘You haven’t begun to take that shape into
yourself’. And with no further discussion he left.
     It was the first time that I was to experience the restorative power of im -
personal anger. Such outbursts were not infrequent, and no explanation was
ever offered. One was expected to take the medicine and make the necessary
changes. It was in this way that I gradually came to understand that the mak -
ing of a good pot involved a kind of sacrifice. How naïve of me to have im -
agined that the price of beauty was anything less than oneself.
     Later on, whenever I found myself in a foreign city, I would spend hours
in the ceramics department of the national or archaeological museum.
Looking at the pots there, I would often have the feeling of experiencing
them from the inside, as if I knew what it was like to be that object. I felt
its body as my own body. This capacity was no doubt partly due to a natural
affinity, but it had also been refined over the many years I had spent making
such objects.
161you are the happiness you seek
     It was as if my own understanding of the materials and processes that are
gathered together in the making of a bowl had given me access to the inner
life of the object I was contemplating. Over the years, I noticed that this
capacity extended beyond my chosen medium of ceramics and included,
to a greater or lesser degree, other art forms, such as painting, music, sculp -
ture, architecture and dance.
     The Greek philosopher Plotinus referred to this when he said, ‘In this
state of absorbed contemplation, there is no longer any question of holding
an object in view; the vision is such that seeing and seen are one; object and
act of vision have become identical’. *
     The German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer referred to the same
experience when he said, ‘Aesthetic pleasure in the beautiful consists, to a
large extent, in the fact that, when we enter the state of pure contemplation,
we are raised for the moment above all willing, above all desires and cares;
we are, so to speak, rid of ourselves’. †

the taste of nature’s eternity

Everyone experiences this collapse of the subject–object relationship many
times in their lives, although it is not always recognised as such. In fact, when
we seek an experience, we invariably do so not for the sake of the experience
itself but for its capacity to bring to an end the subject –object relationship,
and the inevitable feeling of separation that attends it, thereby giving us a
taste of the unity of being.
     In sexual intimacy, all one’s disparate energies are gathered together in
the intensity of the moment, suspending the thinking process which habit -
ually divides the intimacy of experience into the subject –object relationship,
and through which the apparently separate self escapes the now. There is just
the moment, no self and no other, no body and no world, no lover and
no beloved. Not even a moment, for without reference to thought, there is
no experience of time. We are taken to eternity.
     For the apparently separate self, this collapse of the distinction between
itself and the other feels like a death. Of course, in reality, an illusion cannot die.
162* Plotinus, The Enneads  v.1–8.
†  Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, Vol. 1, Sect. 68 (1819). the all-pervasive spirit
It simply ceases to veil its reality. However, the ego does not know this. Thus,
what it experiences as death is, in reality, the shining forth of our shared
being. It is the experience of love. This is why love and death are so closely
related in art and literature.
     It is for this reason that the poet Kathleen Raine wrote, in ‘Woman to
Lover’, ‘I am the way to die’. * Little does the separate self realise that in all
of its desires, and perhaps especially in its desire for sexual intimacy, all that
it is really seeking is to bring itself to an end, like the moth that seeks to
unite with the flame.
     When the separate self is reconstituted after its dissolution in eternity,
it emerges ‘trailing clouds of glory’, † still shimmering with peace and


’s	objective	of
“minimizing	risk	for	chronic	disease.”
2
	This	report	says	that	we	can	consume
a	diet	containing	up	to	35%	of	calories	as	fat;	this	is	up	from	the	30%	limit	of
previous	reports.	It	also	recommends	that	we	can	consume	up	to	35%	of
calories	as	protein;	this	number	is	far	higher	than	the	suggestion	of	any	other
responsible	authority.
The	last	recommendation	puts	the	frosting	on	the	cake,	so	to	speak.	We
can	consume	up	to	25%	of	calories	as	added	sugars.	Remember,	sugars	are
the	most	refined	type	of	carbohydrates.	In	effect,	although
the	report	advises
that	we	need	a	minimum	of	45%	of	calories	as	carbohydrates,	more	than	half
of	this	amount	(i.e.,	25%)	can	be	the	sugars	present	in	candies,	soft	drinks	andpastries.	The	critical	assumption	of	this	report	is	this:	the	American	diet	is	not
only	the	best	there	is,	but	you	should	now	feel	free	to	eat	an	even	richer	diet
and	still	be	confident	that	you	are	“minimizing	risk	for	chronic	disease.”
Forget	any	words	of	caution	you	may	find	in	this	report—with	such	a	range	of
possibilities,	virtually	any	diet	can	be	advocated	as	minimizing	disease	risk.
You	may	have	trouble	getting	your	mind	around	what	these	figures	mean
in	everyday	terms,	so	I	have	prepared	the	following	menu	plan	that	supplies
nutrients	in	accordance	with	these	guidelines	(
Chart	16.1
).
3,	4
CHART	16.1:	SAMPLE	MENU	THAT	FITS	INTO	THE	ACCEPTABLE
NUTRIENT	RANGES
Meal
Foods
Breakfast
1	cup	Froot	Loops
1	cup	skim	milk
1	package	M&M	milk	chocolate	candies
Fiber	and	vitamin	supplements
Lunch
Grilled	cheddar	cheeseburger
Dinner
3	slices	pepperoni	pizza,	1	16	oz.	soda,
1	serving	Archway	sugar	cookies
CHART	16.2:	NUTRIENT	PROFILE	OF	SAMPLE	MENU	PLAN	AND
REPORT	RECOMMENDATIONS
Nutrient
Sample	Menu
Content
Recommended
Ranges
Total	Calories
~1800
Varies	by
height/weight
Protein	(%	of	total	calories)
~18%
10–35%
Fat	(%	of	total	calories)
~31%
20–35%
Carbohydrates	(%	of	total	calories)
~51%
45–65%
Sugars	in	Sweets,	or	Added	Sugars	(%
of	total	calories)
~23%
Up	to	25%
Folks,	I’m	not	kidding.	This	disastrous	menu	plan	fits	the
recommendations	of	the	report	and	is	supposedly	consistent	with	“minimizing
chronic	disease.”
What’s	amazing	is	that	I	could	put	together	a	variety	of	menus,	all
drenched	in	animal	foods	and	added	sugars,	that	conform	to	these
recommended	daily	allowances.	At	this	point	in	the	book,	I	don’t	need	to	tellyou	that	when	we	eat	a	diet	like	this	day	in	and	day	out,	we	will	be	not	just
marching,	but
sprinting
	into	the	arms	of	chronic	disease.	In	sad	fact,	this	is
what	a	large	proportion	of	our	population	already	does.PROTEIN
Perhaps	the	most	shocking	figure	is	the	upper	limit	on	protein	intake.	Relative
to	total	calorie	intake,	only	5–6%	dietary	protein	is	required	to	replace	the
protein	regularly	excreted	by	the	body	(as	amino	acids).	About	9–10%
protein,	however,	is	the	amount	that	has	been	recommended	for	the	past	fifty
years	to	be	assured	that	most	people	at	least	get	their	5–6%	“requirement.”
This	9–10%	recommendation	is	equivalent	to	the	well-known	recommended
daily	allowance,	or	RDA.
5
Almost	all	Americans	exceed	this	9–10%	recommendation;	we	consume
protein	within	the	range	of	about	11–21%,	with	an	average	of	about	15–16%.
6
The	relatively	few	people	consuming	more	than	21%	protein	mostly	are	those
who	“pump	iron,”	recently	joined	by	those	on	high-protein	diets.
It	is	extremely	puzzling	that	these	new	government-sponsored	2002	FNB
recommendations	now	say	that	we	should	be	able	to	consume	protein	up	to
the	extraordinary	level	of	35%	as	a	means	of	minimizing	chronic	diseases	like
cancer	and	heart	disease.	This	is	an	unbelievable	travesty,	considering	the
scientific	evidence.	The	evidence	presented	in	this	book	shows	that	increasing
dietary	protein	within	the	range	of	about	10–20%	is	associated	with	a	broad
array	of	health	problems,	especially	when	most	of	the	protein	is	from	animal
sources.
As	reviewed	earlier	in	this	book,	diets	with	more	animal-based	protein	will
create	higher	blood	cholesterol	levels	and	higher	risks	of	atherosclerosis,
cancer,	osteoporosis,	Alzheimer’s	disease	and	kidney	stones,	to	name	just	a
few	chronic	diseases	that	the	FNB	committee	mysteriously	chooses	to	ignore.
Furthermore,	the	FNB	panel	had	the	audacity	to	say	that	this	10–35%
recommendation	range	is	the	same	as	previous	reports.	Their	press	release
clearly	states,	“protein	intake	recommendations	are	the	same	[as	previous
reports].”
I	know	of	no	report	that	has	even	remotely	suggested	a	level	as	high
as	this.
When	I	initially	saw	this	protein	recommendation,	I	honestly	thought
that
it	was	a	printing	error.	But,	no,	it	was	correct.	I	know	several	of	the	people	on
the	panel	who	wrote	this	report	and	decided	to	give	them	a	ring.	The	first
panel	member,	a	long-time	acquaintance,	said	this	was	the	first	time	he	had
even	heard	about	the	35%	protein	limit!	He	suggested	that	this	protein
recommendation	might	have	been	drafted	in	the	last	days	of	preparing	the
report.	He	also	told	me	that	there	was	little	discussion	of	the	evidence	on
protein,	for	or	against	a	high	consumption	level,	although	he	recollected	there
being	some	pro-Atkins	sympathy	on	the	committee.	He	had	not	worked	in	the
protein	area,	so	he	did	not	know	the	literature.	In	any	event,	this	importantrecommendation	slipped	through	the	panel	without	much	notice	and	made	the
first	sentence	of	the	FNB	news	release!
The	second	panel	member,	a	long-time	friend	and	colleague,	was	a
subcommittee	chair	during	the	latter	part	of	the	panel’s	existence.	He	is	not	a
nutritional	scientist	and	also	was	surprised	to	hear	my	concerns	about	the
upper	limit	for	protein.	He	did	not	recall	much	discussion	on	the	topic	either.
When	I	reminded	him	of	some	of	the	evidence	linking	high-animal	protein
diets	to	chronic	disease,	he	initially	was	a	little	defensive.	But	with	a	little
more	persistence	on	my	part	about	the	evidence,	he	finally	said,	“Colin,	you
know	that	I	really	don’t	know	anything	about	nutrition.”	How,	then,	was	he	a
member—let	alone	the	chair—of	this	important	subcommittee?
And	it	gets
worse.
	The	chair	of	the	standing	committee	on	the	evaluation	of	these
recommendations	left	the	panel	shortly	before	its	completion	for	a	senior
executive


 Function chart, Chapter 9). F ear also
eventuates into the fear of the emotional and physiological symptoms of
fear itse lf. Thes e can result in adaptive skills, but when out of control,
they can escalate to dread, terror, and paralyzing panic.
Although fear adds safeguards th at are woven into all aspects of ordinary
life, its operational fluctuation s are accepted as normal. F ear as a
prevailing mode of behavior is u ncomfortable and a hindrance that limits
reality testing, resulting in a decrease in the level of consciousness.
As a  predominant level of con sciousness at calibration level 100, fear
becomes a limitation and a h abitual, prevailing, subjective state of
expectancy, whi ch can then be projected onto almost any aspect of life.
This results in hyperarousal of the brain’ s survival mechanisms, which
results in a high er alert level of  the dif fuse ‘reticular activating system’
that triggers release of stress hormones expressed as the
adrenaline/cortisone balance, along with other neurotransmitters. Fears
that are related to protective countermeasures support survival.
Unrealistic fears, however, can become incapacitating.
From an  evolutionary viewpoin t, it can be seen that human life starts
with the infant’ s already experiencing fear (being dropped or the loss of a
maternal figure). Fear continues on throughout life and ends with the fear
of death  itself, along with fear of the unknown. In normal lif e, fear is
assuaged by myriad defense maneuvers and compensations that make
life toler able or even pleasant, yet, lurking in the shadows are f ears that
are inexplicable, including those of accidental or catastrophic events. Research literatu re indicates that religious/spiritual alignment w ith faith
is capab le of reducing overall levels of fear. The spiritual ener gy shifts
brain dominanc e to a more benign system processing by whi ch stress
hormones are replaced by endo rphins and levels of serotonin a nd other
neurotransmitters.

Pathological/Clinical Fear.
The clin ical deg rees of fearfulness are expressed as anxiety d isorders,
including phobi as, PTSD, inhibitions, or excesses of comp ensatory
mechanisms, such as withdrawal, dependency, or substance a ddiction.
W idespread use of tranquilizer s and alcohol attests to the problem of
uncomfortable and excessive anxiety, which also includes genetic and
other fac tors of both individual and group inheritance. In response to the
need, a variety of treatment modalities has arisen, including
deconditioning, individual and group counseling, and the  various
psychotherapies, including psychoanalysis. Morbid fear also underlies
other ps ychological dif ficulties, such as obsessive-compulsive d isorders,
hypochondriasis, and hysteria.

T ranscending Fear.
The processing out of negative  feelings is similar to that of recovery
from oth er negative attitudes and states. In this process, fears are allowed
to arise without resistance, and their emotional ener gy is surrendered as
it arises. A simp le technique is called “And then what?”In this process,
one start s with a fearfulness and then surrenders to a consequence if such
a fear should actually happen. For example:
“I’m afraid I’ll lose my job.”
 “And then what?”
 “Then I won’ t have any money.”
 “And then what?”
 “And then we’ll be thrown out of the house.”
 “And then what?”
 “And then we’ll become homeless.”
 “And then what?”
 “And th en we won’ t have any money for food and we could starve to
death.” “And then what?”
 “And then we’ll get sick and die,” and so on.
As each  fear consequence is surrendered (it can be, for multitudes do
that very  thing),  the train of fears always terminates and ends up with the
fear of physical  death itself. In terestingly, the ‘near death’ experience
subsequently eliminates all fear of death (also experientially true in the
author ’ s own life). Almost all s ocial, psychological, and physical fears
are unco nsciously just elaboratio ns of the fear of death, from which they
all arise. It may take only a sho rt time, or it could take hours, days, or
even lon ger to go through the w hole list of horrors. Finally, wh en death
is accep ted and  surrendered to God, the core of the fears dro ps away.
This final curative surrender obviously brings up one’ s contextualization
of D ivinity, and surrendering ph ysical life to God then brings up the last
stack of fears, which relate to  Destiny—fears of a punitive God and
anthropomorphic depictions and legends of Divinity. It is helpful to
remember that if God were no t All Merciful, we probably would not
even be alive today.
Even pr imitive belief systems of punitive, jealous, vengeful, and angry
gods also provide resolutions by  which redemption and salvation can be
granted. W ithin rational and confrontable realms, these include
absolution by confession, penance, acceptance of a Savior, institution of
a ma jor change of behavior, prayer, entreaty, and basically surr endering
one’ s will to God.
It is useful to re alize that all life, from moment to moment, is based on
faith by whatever name it may be called. Even the atheist clings to the
belief s ystem out of faith tha t the beliefs are authentic and valid.
Research on the calibrated levels of consciousness verified the validity of
the world’ s major religions and spiritual belief systems ( T ruth vs.
Falsehood, 2005).
Peace ca n be the consequence of surrender to the inevitabilitie s of life.
The relig ious/spiritual skeptic ca n look within and observe that the inner
fundamental irreducible quality of life is the capacity of aw areness,
consciousness, a nd the substrate of subjectivity. W ithout consc iousness,
the i ndividual would not ‘know ’ or even ‘know’ if they ‘know’, so that
consciousness is a priori awareness of existence, irrespective of the
content of that e xistence. Thus, consciousness itself can be accepted asan obvi ous reality, without the elaboration of being Divine (as
recommended b y the Buddha). T o ‘be’ is one thing; to know that one ‘is’
obviously requires a more transcendent quality.
All fear is a product of the ego as an evolutionary stage, conco mitant to
physicality. Nonsentient life continues on by means of design and
actualizing mechanisms that operate out of the predominant attractor
field, e.g., colonies of coral. But with the evolutionary awareness of
one’ s ex istence a rises a ‘me’ as separate from an animal class. Thus, fear
arises concomita nt with choice and the awareness of consequences. Fear
propagates in the individual by  resistance and recedes with ac ceptance
that can be facilitated by restructuring the fear so it is seen as an asset.
Upon ex amination, aside from the content of fear, fear itself is feared
because it is an unpleasant physiological, emotional, experiential
reaction. This is the basis for President Roosevelt’ s famous quote, “W e
have not hing to fear but fear itse lf.” Therefore, in processing out fear, the
physical concomitance has to be accepted through nonresistance. By this
means, the sensations themselve s expire (queasy feeling in the stomach,
shaking muscles, perspiring, rapid pulse, etc.). Thus, fear can be reduced
to physicality itself.
Clinically, fears can be transcended fairly easily in the hypnotic state.
One the rapeutic modality is to t each the suf ferer self-hypnosis, which is
a r elatively simple technique th at can be readily learned in one session.
Self-hypnosis is also a tool for past-life regression and recall. Sk epticism
remains until the actual past-life experience begins to rerun itself,
enabling the core issues to beco me apparent, thus bringing great relief.
Fears can be con verted to rational predictions and calculations that result
in th e pr eservation of life without resort to the emotionality of f ear itself.
Finally, there can be an addiction to the excitement of fear and the
concomitant imaginary melodrama.
Consciousness r esearch reveals that the precise timing of physical death
is set at the very moment of birth—not the ‘how’, but the ‘when’.
(Calibrates as ‘true’.) It is helpful to realize that the individual is linear
and thus limited, whereas the Self is nonlinear and unlimited. It is also
helpful to realize that actual, real death is not a possibility as life can
only shift from one dimension to another but cannot be extinguished.
That wh ich is linear (form) is the receptacle of life but not its source, forlife and the Source of life are no nlinear and therefore not subject to time
or dimension.
The elimination  of fear requir es subjugation of the imagination that
originated in childhood when dif ferentiation between reality and fantasy
was not yet developed. Emotionalized, fearful images are thus


 as well as drama in relationships. The pain?body is an addiction
to unhappiness.
It may be shocking when you realize for the first time that there is
something within you that periodically seeks emotional negativity, seeks
unhappiness. Y ou need even more awareness to see it in yourself than to
recognize it in another person. Once the unhappiness has taken you over,
not only do you not want an end to it, but you want to make others just as
miserable as you are in order to feed on their negative emotional
reactions.
In most people, the pain?body has a dormant and an active stage. When
it is dormant, you easily for get that you carry a heavy dark cloud or a
dormant volcano inside you, depending on the ener gy field of your
particular pain?body. How long it remains dormant varies from person to
person: A few weeks is the most common, but it can be a few days or
months. In rare cases
the pain?body can lie in hibernation for years before it gets triggered by
some event.A New Earth
H O W  T H E  P A I N? B O D Y  F E E D S  O N  Y O U R
T H O U G H T S
The pain?body awakens from its dormancy when it gets hungry, when it
is time to replenish itself. Alternatively, it may get triggered by an event
at any time. The pain?body that is ready to feed can use the most
insignificant event as a trigger, something somebody says or does, or
even a thought. If you live alone or there is nobody around at the time,
the pain?body will feed on your thoughts. Suddenly, your thinking
becomes deeply negative. Y ou were most likely unaware that just prior
to the influx of negative thinking a wave of emotion invaded your mind
as a dark and heavy mood, as anxiety or fiery anger. All thought is
ener gy and the pain?body is now feeding on the ener gy of your thoughts.
But it cannot feed on any thought. Y ou don't need to be particularly
sensitive to notice that a positive thought has a totally dif ferent feeling?
tone than a negative one. It is the same ener gy, but it vibrates at a
dif ferent frequency. A happy, positive thought is indigestible to the pain?
body. It can only feed on negative thoughts because only those thoughts
are compatible with its own ener gy field.
All things are vibrating ener gy fields in ceaseless motion. The chair you
sit on, the book you are holding in your hands appear solid and
motionless only because that is how your senses perceive their
vibrational frequency, that is to say, the incessant movement of the
molecules, atoms, electrons and subatomic particles that together create
what you perceive as a chair, a book, a tree, or a body. What we perceive
as physical matter is ener gy vibrating (moving) at a particular range of
frequencies. Thoughts consist of the same ener gy vibrating at a higher
frequency than matter, which is why they cannot be seen or touched.
Thoughts have their own range of frequencies, which negative thoughts
at the lower end of the scale and positive thoughts at the higher. The
vibrational frequency of the pain?body resonates with that of negative
thoughts, which is why only those thoughts can feed the pain?body.The usual pattern of thought creating emotion is reversed in the case of
the pain?body, at least initially. Emotion from the pain?body quickly
gains
control of your thinking, and once your mind has been taken over by the
pain?body, your thinking becomes negative. The voice in your head will
be telling sad, anxious, or angry stories about yourself or your life, about
other people, about past, future, or imaginary events. The voice will be
blaming, accusing, complaining, imagining. And you are totally
identified with whatever the voice says, believe all its distorted thoughts.
At that point, the addiction to unhappiness has set in.
It is not so much that you cannot stop your train of negative thoughts, but
that you don't want to. This is because the pain?body at that time is
living through you, pretending to be you. And to the pain?body, pain is
pleasure. It eagerly devours every negative thought. In fact, the usual
voice in your head has now become the voice of the pain?body. It has
taken over the internal dialogue. A vicious circle becomes established
between the pain?body and your thinking. Every thought feeds the pain?
body and in turn the pain?body generates more thoughts. At some point,
after a few hours or even a few days, it has replenished itself and returns
to its dormant stage, leaving behind a depleted or ganism and a body that
is much more susceptible to illness. If that sounds to you like a psychic
parasite, you are right. That's exactly what it is.A New Earth
H O W  T H E  P A I N? B O D Y  F E E D S  O N  D R A M A
If there are other people around, preferably your partner or a close family
member, the pain?body will attempt to provoke them push their buttons,
as the expression goes? so it can feed on the ensuing drama. Pain?
bodies love intimate relationships and families because that is where they
get most of heir food. It is hard to resist another person's pain?body that
is determined to draw you into a reaction. Instinctively it knows your
weakest, most vulnerable points. If it doesn't succeed the first time, it
will try again and again. It is raw emotion looking for more emotion. The
other person's pain?body wants to awaken yours so that both pain?bodies
can mutually ener gize each other.
Many relationships go through violent and destructive pain?body
episodes at regular intervals. It is almost unbearably painful for a young
child to have to witness the emotional violence of their parents' pain?
bodies, and yet that is the fate of millions of children all over the world,
the nightmare of their daily existence. That is also one of the main ways
in
which the human pain?body is passed on from generation to generation.
After each episode, the partners make up, and there is an interval of
relative peace, to the limited extent that the ego allows it.
Excessive consumption of alcohol will often activate the pain?body,
particularly in men, but also in some women. When a person becomes
drunk, he goes through a complete personality change as the pain?body
takes him over. A deeply unconscious person whose pain?body
habitually replenishes itself through physical violence often directs it
toward his spouse or children. When he becomes sober, he is truly sorry
and may say he will never do this again, and he means it. The person
who is talking and making promises, however, is not the entity that
commits the violence, and so you can be sure that it will happen again
and again unless he becomes present, recognizes the pain?body withinhimself, and thus disidentifies form it. In some cases, counseling can
help him do that.
Most pain?bodies want to both inflict and suf fer pain, but some are
predominantly either perpetrators or victims. In either case, they feed on
violence, whether emotional or physical. Some couples who may think
they have fallen in love are actually feeling drawn to each other because
their respective pain?bodies complement each other. Sometimes the roles
of perpetrator and victim are already clearly prescribed the time they
meet. Some marriages that are thought to be made in heaven are actually
made in hell.
If you have ever lived with a cat, you will know that even when the cat
seems to be asleep, it still knows what is going on, because at the
slightest unusual noise, its ears will move toward it, and its eyes may
open slightly. Dormant pain?bodies are the same. On some level, they
are still awake, ready to jump into action when an appropriate trigger
presents itself.
In intimate relationships, pain?bodies are often clever enough to lie low
until you start living together and preferably have signed a contract
committing yourself to be with this person for the rest of your life. Y ou
don't just marry your wife or husband, you also marry her or his pain?
body and your spouse marries yours. It can be quite a shock when,
perhaps not long after moving in together after the honey moon, you find
suddenly one day there is a complete personality change in your partner.
Her voice becomes harsh or shrill as she accuses you, blames you, or
shouts at you, mostly likely
over a relatively trivial matter. Or she becomes totally withdrawn. What's
wrong? you ask. Nothing is wrong, she says. But the intensely hostile
ener gy she emanates is saying, Everything is wrong. When you look into
her eyes, there is no light in them anymore; it is as if a heavy veil has
descended, and the being you know and love which before was able to
shine through her ego, is now totally obscured. A compete stranger
seems to be looking back at you, and in her eyes there is hatred, hostility,
bitterness, or anger. When she speaks to you, it is not your spouse or
partner who is speaking but the pain?body speaking through them.
Whatever she is saying is the pain?


 you let your mind drift. 62 The Secret
the flavor virtually disappears. I am convinced that if we can eat
our food in the present, entirely focused on the pleasurable expe-
rience of eating, the food is assimilated into our bodies perfectly,
and the result in our bodies must be perfection.
The end of the story about my own weight is that I now maintain
my perfect weight of 116 pounds and I can eat whatever I want. So,
focus on your perfect weight!
DR. JOE VlTALE
Another thing people wonder about is, "How long will it take
to manifest the car, the relationship, the money?" I don't have
any rulebook that says it's going to take thirty minutes or
three days or thirty days. It's more a matter of you being in
alignment with the Universe itself.
Time is just an illusion. Einstein told us that. If this is the first time
you have heard it, you may find it a hard concept to get your head
around, because you see everything happening—one thing after
the other. What quantum physicists and Einstein tell us is that ev
erything is happening simultaneously. If you can understand that
there is no time, and accept that concept, then you will see that
whatever you want in the future already exists. If everything is
happening at the one time, then the parallel version of you with
what you want already exists! How to Use the Secret 63
It takes no time for the Universe to manifest what you want. Any
time delay you experience is due to your delay in getting to the
place of believing, knowing, and feeling that you already have it. It
is you getting yourself on the frequency of what you want When
you are on that frequency, then what you want will appear.
BOB DOYLE
Size is nothing to the Universe. It is no more difficult to
attract, on a scientific level, something that we consider huge
to something that we consider infinitesimally small.
The Universe does everything with zero effort. The grass
doesn't strain to grow. It's effortless. It's just this great design.
It's all about what's going on in your mind. It's about what
we put in place, saying, ''This is big, it's going to take some
time." And, "This is small. I'll give it an hour." Those are
our rules that we define. There are no rules according to the
Universe. You provide the feelings of having it now; it will
respond—whatever it is.
There is no time for the Universe and there is no size for the Uni-
verse. It is as easy to manifest one dollar as it is to manifest one
million dollars. It is the same process, and the only reason why
one may come faster and the other may take longer is because you
thought that a million dollars was a lot of money and that one dol-
lar was not very much. 64 The Secret
BOB DOYLE
Some people have an easier time with little things, and so we
sometimes say start with something small, like a cup of coffee.
Make it your intention to attract a cup of coffee today.
BOB PROCTOR
Hold an image of talking to an old friend that you haven't
seen for a long time. Somehow or another somebody's going to
start talking to you about that person. That person's going to
phone you or you'll get a letter from her.
Starting with something small is an easy way to experience the law
of attraction with your own eyes. Let me share a story with you of
a young man who did exactly that. He watched The Secret and he
decided to start with something small.
He created a picture of a feather in his mind/ and he made sure this
feather was unique. He created particular markings on the feather
so he would know without any doubt that if he saw this feather,
it had come to him through his intentional use of the law of at
traction.
Two days later, he was about to walk into a high-rise building on
a street in New York City. He said he did not know why, but he
just happened to look down. There at his feet, at the entrance to a
high-rise building in New York City, was the feather! Not just any
feather, but the exact feather he had imagined. It was identical to
the picture he had created in his mind, with all of its unique mark-
ings. In that moment he knew, without a shred of doubt, that this How to Use the Secret 65
was the law of attraction working in all its glory. He realized his
amazing ability and power to attract something to himself through
the power of his mind. With total faith, he has now moved onto
creating much bigger things.
DAVID SCHIRMER
INVESTMENT TRAINER, TEACHER.
AND WEALTH SPECIALIST
People are amazed at how I line up parking
spaces. I've done this right from when I first
understood The Secret. I would visualize a parking space
exactly where I wanted it, and 95 percent of the time it would
be therefore me and I would just pull straight in. Five percent
of the time I'd have to wait just a minute or two, and the
person would pull out and I'd pull in, I do that all the time.
Now you might understand why a person who says, "I always get
parking spaces," gets them. Or why a person who says, "I am re-
ally lucky, I win things all the time," wins one thing after another,
all the time. These people expect it. Begin to expect great things, and
as you do, you will create your life in advance. 66 The Secret
You can use the law of attraction to create your whole life in ad-
vance, right down to the next thing you are doing today Prentice
Mulford, a teacher whose writings share so many insights into the
law of attraction and how to use it, demonstrates how important it
is to think your day in advance.
"When you say to yourself 'I am going to have
a pleasant visit or a pleasant journey/ you are
literally sending elements and forces ahead
of your body that will arrange things to make
your visit or journey pleasant. When before the
visit or the journey or the shopping trip you
are in a bad humor, or fearful or apprehensive
of something unpleasant, you are sending
unseen agencies ahead of you which will make
some kind of unpleasantness. Our thoughts,
or in other words, our state of mind, is ever
at work 'fixing up' things good or bad in
advance."
Prentice Mulford wrote those words in the 1870s. What a pioneer!
You can see clearly how important it is to think in advance every
event in every day. You will no doubt have experienced the oppo-How to Use the Secret 67
site of thinking your day in advance, and one of the repercussions
of that is having to rush and hurry.
If you are rushing or hurrying, know that those thoughts and ac-
tions are based in fear (fear of being late) and you are "fixing up"
bad things ahead for you. As you continue to rush, you will attract
one bad thing after another into your path. In addition to that, the
law of attraction is "fixing up" more future circumstances that will
cause you to rush and hurry. You must stop and move yourself off
that frequency. Take a few moments and shift yourself, if you don't
want to summon bad things to you.
Many people, particularly in Western societies, chase "time" and
complain that they don't have enough time. Well, as someone says
that they don't have enough time, so it must be by the law of at-
traction. If you have been chasing your tail with thoughts of not
having enough time, from now on declare emphatically, "I have
more than enough time," and change your life.
You can also turn waiting into a powerful time to create your fu-
ture life. Next time you are in a situation where you are waiting,
seize that time and imagine having all the things you want. You
can do this anywhere, anytime. Turn every life situation into a
positive one!
Make it a daily habit to determine every event in your life in advance,
through your thoughts. Set the Universal forces ahead of you in every-
thing you do and everywhere you go, by thinking the way you want
it to go in advance. Then you are creating your life intentionally. 68 • Like Aladdin's Genie, the law of attraction grants our every
command.
• The Creative Process helps you create what you want in three sim-
ple steps: ask, believe, and receive.
• Asking the Universe for what you want is your opportunity to get
clear about what you want. As you get clear in your mind, you have
asked.
• Believing involves acting, speaking, and thinking as though you
have already received what you've asked for. When you emit the
frequency of having received it, the law of attraction moves people,
events, and circumstances for you to receive.
• Receiving involves feeling the way you will feel once your desire
has manifested. Feeling good now puts you on the frequency of what
you want.
• To lose weight, don't focus on "losing weight." Instead, focus on
your perfect weight. Feel the feelings of your perfect weight