I grew up attending the Roman Catholic church. Since then, I have given up that way of viewing my Spirituality. I haven’t abandoned the premise of Christianity, but I have changed my views that aligned with that particular version. I did not throw the baby out with the bath water, however.

When I was living in Dallas, Texas in my 20′s, I rediscovered my Faith through many different churches. Notice how I said my faith, not my church, and I moved through many different churches.

Almost every weekend, and even on some weekdays, I would attend every different denomination of church that I could find in the area. If you’ve ever been to Dallas/Fort Worth, you know I was pretty busy.

I attended some churches more than others.

One thing that I liked about Protestant churches was their enthusiasm. They loved their God like they liked their Dallas Cowboys. And after so many years of the solemn and serious attitude of the Catholic church, this enthusiasm was so refreshing and inspiring. I loved the feeling of being excited about worshiping God.

I didn’t worry so much about the black marks on my soul or the guilt that motivated me to seek the good side of this sometimes really mean God.

I gotta tell you it felt really good to express a version of Love towards God that didn’t rely on guilt or fear.

But then the theme of guilt and fear came back in subtle ways.

Sooner or later, the “our Way is the right way” came back to haunt me.

There was some message, sometimes big, sometimes little, that got around to how this church was the only way.

Even though they all agreed Jesus was the only way, their specific version of Christianity was the right message and others may set you off in the wrong direction.

Heck, I have been baptized three different times. First, the Catholic church when I was a baby. Then by the Baptists in my 20′s because they were unsure if the Catholics did it right. Finally, my friends at the Pentecostal church didn’t think the Baptists got it quite right.

None of that bothered me, I liked it, and more so if that’s what they needed to feel better, then God bless them.

Here’s what I learned:

We are, by our human nature, more apt to look for what is wrong. It’s part of our nature, in our genes, our conditioning, etc. We needed to spot the tiger immediately, so we sort our experience, our reality, looking for what separates us. It takes a relaxed opening for us to see what brings us together.

Each one of those Churches taught me a new way to Love God more. My entire intent in attending those various denominations was to explore, know and love God more.

In studying Eastern religions, the New Age movement, and other paradigms, my intent was always the same: how do I learn to know and love God more in my daily experience?

I knew from experience that the Baptists taught me more about some things, the Catholics taught me more about other things, and the Presbyterians, the Pentecostals all had their own flavor and wisdom to impart.

I learned how human beings can open up to God more. I learned how I could open myself more. I grew.

After so many churches, I stopped remembering all of the differences because I filled myself with new, amazing ways to love God in my daily experience.

I realized that it was much more important to experience new ways to open than to close myself. Learning to hold on to differences was an experience in my head.

Learning how to open came through my heart.

Learning to hold on to differences kept me stuck in thoughts.

Learning to open my heart keeps me moving, opening, flowing.

My recent intentions with ho’oponopono has been the same. There are different versions of it, different teachers. Some teachers claim that their version is “original” or “source.” Some claim that their teaching is secret and sacred.

Some teachers claim that bad things happen to you or your children if you don’t do it right, if you don’t do it the way they teach you.

Some people say that’s just data. Others might call that a curse.

I think it is a test to see if you will hold it in your head and get stuck. Or, will you open, go to the heart of the matter, let the Divine inspire you directly? Will you move to your own Divine Zero State within you or will you give power to a guru outside of you?

What an odd paradox, since it’s all you anyway.

My message is this: do not ever get caught up in another person’s way. Ihaleakala Hew Len says that every seminar he teaches is different, and he is teaching for each person each time. So his teaching changes, and so do you, so do we all.

Sometimes you will open a book that you read 20 years ago and it will speak to you as if it was a brand new book never read before. Sometimes a gospel from Matthew will resonate more than the gospel from John.

As you go forward with whatever journey you are on, there is a source of inspiration in you that does not change in location, tenor, or feeling.

I challenge you to find that place within you. Run everything you learn through your heart to see if it resonates with you. Get it out of your head. Test how it feels within your heart.

I recently had some beautiful experiences with the Catholic and Orthodox churches that may not have happened if I had stayed closed and in my head to my previous experiences with it.

While i am not attending services, I like to stay open to God loving me through all of his people and me doing the same back, even though it is all one.

There is a lot inspiration has to teach you if you will let it.

Don’t get stuck in your head. Your head will keep you in one place and dependent.

Keep moving. Move through your heart.

And if this message doesn’t resonate with you, keep moving.

But then our friend Eunice said, thinking the same thoughts, why not ask these core people who have read and contributed to the experience this week to do group intentions for other things?

Well, great minds are thinking, and that means we had better act.

We experienced something here that was quite amazing. A group of people learned about a situation that required healing, they held an intention of healing, and something miraculous took place.

This is how miracles happen.

Because I have been so haunted by the pictures and video coming out of the Gulf of Mexico, I’d like to ask you to focus your clearing energy on this situation from the time you wake up Saturday morning until the time you go to sleep Saturday night. Before you go to bed tonight, ask your unconscious mind to remind you of your intent to clear the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico throughout the next day.

As the thought occurs to you, as pictures pop in your head, focus your Divine and powerful consciousness on a clearing of the situation in the Gulf of Mexico in a way that supports the Highest Good of All. Say the four statements, “I love you, I’m sorry, Please forgive me, Thank you,” every time the thought appears. I would even suggest looking at all of the pictures coming out and say the four statements, feel love for the workers who are cleaning the mess up, feel love for the engineers working on the situation, the politicians on both sides, the officials, police officers, volunteers, the fishermen (I’m sure I’m leaving out someone, but ask your unconscious to bring forth people to clean for).

As you clean, let go of expectation for what the Highest Good of All is. There is no way for us to know exactly how the Highest Good for All will unfold, but trust that the Divine does.

You have a blessing in your hands with the gift of ho’oponopono, you can clean on anything and everything that comes up. You are more powerful than you think you are.

Please feel free to share here how the experiment unfolds for you… what comes up for you, what observations you have.

With great power, comes great responsibility.

What will you do with yours?

I first learned about ho’oponopono back in 1996 from some truly spiritual teachers.

Then, back in 2004, I was given a course guide and several articles on a different flavor of ho’oponopono by a friend of mine in Mt. Shasta, California. It was both different and similar to the first brand of the practice I used 13 years ago. I liked Dr. Ihaleakala Hew Len’s style and new angle right away. It added to the ho’oponopono I knew before.

The issue with what is happening right now now is the mix between ho’oponopono as a spiritual practice and marketing.

While I am happy that Joe got the word out about ho’oponopono to a wider audience with Zero Limits, I am not so happy with the marketing of it. I think that the marketing will scare people away from the beautiful concept within of making things right. I think it should stay as a spiritual methodology and not be used as a money making technique. That’s not to say it can’t help you with making money, but I think the focus should be on the original message.

I am in the process of writing a new book on it bringing it back to its spiritual roots and away from the magic goodies it might bring.

In my humble opinion, Zero Limits, which is Joe’s version of ho’oponopono, is not telling it all. There is a big gap. But I think that when people get it, they will experience something incredibly profound.

Again, I don’t mean to be critical. I am VERY happy Joe listened to me at the NGH convention the second time I talked to him about ho’oponopono. I am very happy Joe has spread the word about it. But right now, I think it is my turn to clean it up.

Without sounding superior to Joe, I think that we can only describe a spiritual philosophy from the level we are at. Joe understands it from his level, and I understand it from mine. And I am more interested in the spiritual aspect of it than the money making or magic genie effect.

I am sure Dr. Hew Len can get it to an even deeper level than I could. When Joe and I would talk, I knew he was missing a big piece. But as I got into it, he would get very defensive and I would back down. That is a clear sign in coaching that someone is not ready for it yet. This missing piece has been a big bone of contention between Joe and me. I still hope and pray he gets it because it means so much to so many.

What i think I offer with my new book and DVD is another perspective that will make it come alive for all. I have seen it happen and am excited about teaching and sharing this.

When I filmed and edited Zero Limits 3 for Joe and Dr. Hew Len, I had to watch it over and over again to get it perfect for viewing. Something pretty amazing happened as I watched over and over again. What I thought I knew years ago… Ho’oponopono transformed into a whole different meaning for me.

I realized it was not about whether the process is true or not. It is about how you do the process.

I will be telling more about this in the near future.

Even though I never was paid for production, speaking, and I never received any percentage (of the massive amount of money made from Zero Limits) by Joe for anything he has done with Zero Limits seminars or products (except the subliminal DVD I created), I am still thrilled to see its entrance into the world grow wildly because of my contribution and introduction to Joe.

And I am even more excited to be able to take it to the next level in 2010.

This is going to be fun!!!

Note: this post was inspired by Dorothy’s comment here.

This teacher not only wants to see you soar, but they place no limits on your growth and achievement. Your achievement becomes a joy to them, the same way a parent feels joy when their child learns a new skill. It doesn’t matter if you’re achieving past them or just learning how to walk.

Why is this type of teacher okay with your growth when others are not? First, he is comfortable with who he is. He doesn’t need or want to be better than you. Teaching is about your growth, not about competition. His goal is to be the best he can be for himself, and part of that self image and self esteem is helping others do the best that THEY can be, regardless of what happens to him personally.

He knows a secret. This secret is a by-product of his work with others to this degree. Remember, he knows it is a by-product, not a direct result. The by-product is that HE GETS FED. He gets fed first by the feeling that true giving can make someone feel. Second, from this magical place, he gets his cup filled. He not only feels good for others, he gets a wonderful feeling about how his contributions towards your growth. And then, he gets fed: he gets knew knowledge from this place of being a true teacher.

None of us are a completed work. We’re all a work in progress, all on our way someplace other than here. Nothing is static, we are all change. A teacher that is open to new knowledge from his students continues to grow. Contrast with the previous two teacher types that have at their core a need for constancy and superiority. They’re also on their way someplace else… but it isn’t growth oriented.

I have two teachers that I continue to work with that are in the 3rd category. I have one I think is in the middle or second category, and one who recently slipped into the first category.

Yes, they move about. And so do I, seeking knowledge wherever it is appropriate.

Why is the teacher who is in the second category still my teacher? Because I can separate out what we talked about in the last post. I can still find and appreciate knowledge and understand from his teachings, and I can subtract out what I know when I perceive his faults or find parts of him that I don’t want to integrate into who I am.

I think that once you separate out your teacher from his ethics or morals and look at the patterns that are useful to you, you can keep a great friendship. None of us are perfect. The category 3 teachers are rare.

The problem with the level 1 type of teacher. I find that the information and knowledge they have to share does not balance with the pull of the black hole of negative behavior. I think that the effort required to be involved, even as a friend, with the type of person who acts out in those ways far outweighs any type of benefit you might gain from the information. I have made a commitment to pull away from people who act out in those ways right away and spend time in contemplative prayer for some kind of revelation to come to them about how their actions affect other people.

My recent teacher who went that way in my experience still has a chance, but it won’t be easy. I was told by many people and had direct inspiration as I tried to reveal this to him. He quickly went in the opposite direction. It was difficult to watch someone I loved go this route.

At this point, I chose to pull myself away for 2 reasons. First, I cannot afford the negative pull in my life. Second, I want to keep distance as my presence and message seems to give him more of a reason to go farther into the dark side. And I chose not to have my brother fall any further.

I would love to see him excel again, even though he sought to keep me down.

So, let’s expand this a little more for next time.

Teachers… this can mean a friend, boss, mother, father, sister, brother. It can mean YOU. It can also mean your concept of spirit, the universe or God as you understand and experience it.

Go back and read all of these entries again while putting different folks from your life into the different roles. I promise that if you do this work, you will transform how you think about yourself, your community, and even spirituality.

Expanding upon yesterday’s post, the second type of teacher is the teacher that wants you to excel, but not past them.

This teacher will help you in varying degrees, until you get close to knowledge of how they work or their secrets.

I think most teachers — and for the most part, most people — fall into this category.

Personally, I think this is due to competition or fairness.

In regard to competition, we don’t like others beating us, being more right, better, or perceived as more “good.” We use others outside of ourselves to compete with instead of comparing ourselves to the internal standards we have set for ourselves. It is tough to note that even at our best, there is someone better. We don’t like to see it or experience it. This competition can happen in both men and women, but seems to be much more dominant in males.

Fairness seems to be a favorite in the fairer sex, but is well known in males too. If there is competition, it is always about who is more fair.

If someone excels too far away from the flock, then the flock can do all kinds of amazing things – little and big – to see to level the bifurcation of the one.

When you get to this level, it is sometimes good to seek another teacher. Retain a friendship with the previous teacher, but work on your growth with someone who does not feel competitive with where you are now.

Recently, I saw a peer of mine from a long time ago and saw him working on stage with 150 people. He was doing incredibly well, and I felt my competition revving inside of me, thinking of what I would have to do to outpace him. Part of this is healthy, but I also had to ask myself to feel positively, to feel pride for my friend and his growth. It didn’t take long, because I genuinely like and care about this man.

When we talked after his presentation, I told him about a seminar I had done in front of only 600 people in Moscow for 2 days. In my mind, I was disappointed, because we had expected 1,000 people. He jumped up and said “only? 600 people? Mate, this is fantastic! Congratulations.” He was excited and wanted to know more about what I spoke about.

He showed me that I needed to upgrade my thinking, beliefs and values about myself as well, since last September. I realized at that point I personally had not given myself credit for the work I had done both in Moscow and Novosibirsk.

I also saw that I needed to practice more gratitude and excitement for others if I am going to be the kind of teacher I respect.

I think of one spiritual teacher I know who is in this area, and it is funny, because it is his inability to push his students to the next level that keeps him from being a teacher who could be one of the greatest in history. His pride, his competitiveness, his insistence of being superior to all in his environment hidden within creative cracks in his psyche that keeps him from exactly what he seeks.

Here’s the huge lesson: It is within what we won’t or can’t GIVE that keeps us from attaining our own greatness. It is about power, how much we are willing to give, or how much we hoard and try to keep.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about teacher #3… the type of teacher that loves to see you soar to heights even you cannot imagine.

We’ll build a little on my previous post. Here are the three types as I see them:

1. A teacher who doesn’t want you to excel
2. One who accepts your excelling, but not past them
3. One who has a deep longing for you to soar, just as a loving parent wishes for their child

Who are teachers? They can be pretty much anyone… your friend, father, mother, sister, brother, a person you work with as a coach, a workshop leader, an author, a preacher, or your boss. Maybe even your neighbor. A teacher can be anyone we work with on our personal growth.

The Teacher That Doesn’t Want You to Excel
Here, we find that there is a difference between what you are told and the actions and behavior coming from that teacher.

You can tell quite easily by looking at how they reward you for your growth. A teacher who is afraid of you and your growth will do his best to minimize your accomplishments while maximizing your failures. They know that doubt and discouragement will keep you down, keep you in a submissive position. They’ve probably learned this technique very well because it was done to them at one time.

This teacher will also focus on you being less than, but more importantly, they will always bring the focus back to how big, how accomplished, how revered, how special THEY are. They enjoy keeping you, and others, in that “less than” position in order to have that ego rush of comparison readily available to them. These are the teachers that brag about what they have, what they’ve done, what others say about them. They will often weave the derogatory comments about you into passive aggressive statements sandwiched between positive statements about themselves as a comparison. Their intent is to elevate their status while keeping you submissive and subservient.

You will especially notice the threat expanding if you begin to excel in HIS area of expertise. God help you if you begin to surpass his expertise.

This type of teacher is an expert at keeping others in a feeling of doubt and discouragement. Even if he is a high school drop out and you are a PhD, this person can keep you from rising to your own greatness. And if he is a particularly nasty type, this type of teacher will take your own knowledge, your own insight, and your own greatness and claim it as his own. How many times do you hear of people taking credit for others’ ideas as their own?

This creates even further discouragement and doubt. And then, he’s got you exactly where he wants you.

If this type of teacher has a group of people around him that he has already done this to, they will expect you to act as they have. The additional peer pressure will come in many forms. Additionally, they will take delight in acting out towards you for the unconscious resentment they still feel from when it was done to them.

This is exactly how CULTS are created. And just because someone has not identified your group as a cult or its leader as a sociopath, it doesn’t mean that you’re not living in one, or experiencing the same type of emotional subterfuge.

Part of the trip here is that, because of competition, we seek to win even though we’ve lost. We want to find a way to win next time or sometime in the future.

However, in order for you to do that, you must become better than the teacher at what he does worst. In other words, you have to act as he does and try to win at that game. You find yourself in a loop, but this loop is a downward loop.

This is why you must get out of situations like this and learn to avoid them. It’s a dangerous game, and you have to escape the gravity. The only way to do so is to first forgiving yourself and accept the loss.

The group might say that your loss is your self destruction. However, if you look deeper and get help, it is a huge, momentous giant victory of self respect. You’ve escaped a situation that was holding you in a downward spiral game. It is counter-intuitive thinking and can be difficult, and often people don’t find a way to escape. This is why I really recommend getting help to see the situation you’re in from an external viewpoint. Those within the group will not be able to see it.

You see, they’re stuck in an echo chamber where the only beliefs they allow into their world are ones that they agree with. This often happens in politics, and individuals who do this in political situations often find themselves stuck in other areas as well.

I know of one person who goes around blocking people on social networking sites who have opposing viewpoints so he doesn’t get angered by them. This is also an individual who finds himself working with a teacher who won’t let him grow.

I will begin to dissect this nasty bugger with some clear examples. And if you’re wondering if you’re caught up in a similar situation, please write me and ask.

Tomorrow I’ll discuss the second type of teacher… the one who will let you rise, but not above them.

For an example, here is an excellent blog post describing an experience like what I describe. Remember, it doesn’t have to be this blatant, it can be very insidious and subtle and still be cult-like activity.

Note: I posted this as part of a 3 part series. Some people took this the wrong way and thought I was talking about them. I decided to post part 2 and 3 now instead of waiting so that you can see all three types contextually. Please take this knowledge for whatever it is worth. If it helps you, great. If it bothers you, I apologize. My intent is to help people extract themselves from difficult situations and prevent others from getting involved in them.

The person who gets blown up in a mosque or church while praying… they did not attract that. I’m sorry.

A buddy of mine was a crack head many years ago. He decided to go to the wrong side of town looking for a fix with a pocket full of cash. He got his head smashed in with a brick and nearly died. He surely didn’t DESERVE that, but he is certainly more responsible for what happened to him than the woman praying who was blown to smithereens.

I am not “playing God” passing judgment here. Look, at one level, we are all One and part of All That Is or God, the Universe, whatever label fits for you. But at another level, we are all separate, too. I leave the judgment to God, I leave the knowingness to God, but here at this level of separateness, where I am me and you are you, there are things that are apparent.

And if you refuse to believe that I am me and you are you, maybe I could just come live in your house for a while and eat your food and use your belongings however I want? It’s okay, right? Because I am you, and you are me, so it doesn’t really matter, right?

Look. We as humans can only handle about 7 bits of information at one time. Our surroundings, however, have MILLIONS of bits of information. Our universe? Infinite. How can you say with that minuscule awareness that we are All One? How can you really KNOW that? You would have to sift through all of the data in the UNIVERSE to know for sure. That is impossible from our limited human perspective. So we learn to trust based on the data we do have.

A few weeks ago, I was speaking with an expert in how the human mind works. He said how he recently did some mind expansion exercises with someone. That person got as close to enlightenment as this expert has ever seen. The person got extremely sensitive… all of their senses were working at high power to the point of extreme sensitivity. A funny thing happened. this person felt so good about the experience they were having, they fully believed that if they jumped from a building, they would be able to fly or at least glide safely to the ground.

My friend said that if he had agreed or encouraged him, the person would have tried doing so.

Maybe that situation WOULD have ended up miraculously. But as you and I know, the evidence we can see in this shared reality says otherwise. My friend wisely became his conscience and convinced him otherwise.

Karl Marx said that religion is the opiate of the people. He was right in a sense. Now, I am about as far from a communist as a person can be, but the man had a point. What does an opiate do? It makes you feel no pain. And when we feel no pain, we believe we can fly. Because without the teacher of pain, we believe in our mind that we can do things we cannot and we are subject to get hurt.

Kathy had been teaching Claire the concept of “hot” by explaining what things in the house were “hot,” like a cup of coffee, the stove, a pot of steaming pasta, the hot water faucet. Claire understood that certain things were “hot.” She could even point to those things and say, “Ha!” But it wasn’t until she felt the pain of putting her hand in Kathy’s cup of coffee that she really understood what hot meant. She needed to viscerally feel the pain in her body in order to fully understand what the concept of “hot” meant.

Without the consequence of pain, we try to bring into physical experience what works in our imagination. Sometimes the human body cannot handle the consequences.

I think of this lady, who was a little high on the “we are all one” cloud. She thought she could feed the cuddly looking sleeping bear that didn’t look harmful at all. She felt that, but it wasn’t long before she was overridden by the reality of severe pain.

My point is that we don’t really know the truth. Without experience, our pea-sized awareness or even an expanded awareness doesn’t know much at all. I am not saying that there cannot be miracles from higher states of consciousness. What I am saying is it might be safer to take the stairs than glide down to the ground, leave the bear alone, keep your hand out of the hot cup of coffee!

The idea that I want you to understand, the point that was so important in my last post: the guru makes you feel so good in that awareness of ‘all is one’, what are you doing or buying that you might not when you don’t feel so good?

We can play in the realm and have adventures in consciousness. We can experiment and grow in the spiritual realm. But for God’s sake, please don’t leave your conscious mind behind. Or at least bring others in who will care about you.

Go get the tests done on the lump in your chest instead of believing some magic pill cured it. Maybe it did, but double check and use the knowledge of science and measurement in physical reality to be sure.

As far as the limits of attraction, let me say one word: “Hitler.” Yes. Sorry I am invoking Godwin’s law here.

Now use your critical thinking here. Answer me these questions honestly, please.

Do you really think the poor little 7 year old girl attracted a rapist and killer? That her attraction was so powerful that this poor guy was pulled into her vortex and was made to commit this heinous crime against her? Come on, now. If you really believe it is a law of attraction, if you really believe and she attracted it and created her own reality, then the victim must be the poor guy who did that. (Really?!)

Do you really believe the German people in the 1930′s fell prey to those terrible Jews who, through the “Law of Attraction,” attracted the poor Germans to elect Hitler, give him free rein of power, and put to death between 11-17 million people, 6 million of whom were Jews?

Or maybe it was a “mutual pact of attraction?”

Be careful now. This is an incredibly slippery slope… answer these questions honestly.

If you really believe this, I am going to tell you something you will not want to hear.

In fact, I’ll bet money you cannot hear.

But that is only for those that believe… and hopefully I don’t get any of those responses. I hope we are all on the same page as this point.

Yeah right. LOL

Enough already!

It seems that everyone has a LOA box, and they’re all trying to fit something into it.

The thing is, the box isn’t very big. It may be shiny and pretty and hold a lot of promise, but it is extremely limited. Just by adhering to the Law of Attraction without looking beyond its borders, these proponents are limiting themselves.

Just think how hard people work to figure out: “How does this fit in with the LOA?” People ask this question all the time, and I hear them work hard to come up with solutions. They try to figure out how someone wealthy came into good fortune by attracting it, or why someone whose house burned down attracted that experience. And they usually end up to be pretty corny and simplistic solutions.

Why?

Because they want to believe so much that if they just do something in the perfect way, the magic will open up and they will have discovered how the law becomes a law. They’re willing to believe anything else that they’re told or that they logic-out for themselves just so they can believe in the promise of a shiny little box.

Wait …so there is something I have to do to make the law a law? Or do I have to believe something for it to go into action?

This scares me a bit. I know the brain is hardwired to protect us and we are 4 times more likely to sort by what is wrong than what is right with our world. We are wired that way because of big hairy creatures that were once on the prowl for us. So we had to look at everything as a possible enemy to be killed before being killed ourselves.

Now I know from doing so much work with people over the years that it may not be 4 times as much but it is close as an average….and might be 10 to 20 times more with some folks.

I am glad this law doesn’t bop me on the head with all of the negative thoughts I run in a day.

Some say it is 60,000 thoughts per day per person on average…so that means 48,000 are protective and mostly negative. (No wonder people have such a hard time trusting their inner voice!)

There must be an “Idiot Law” that works hard to protect me against the Law of Attraction.

Really, if you don’t believe me… get a pen and a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle. Put all your positive emotions on one side and negative on another. And you will see how many more words we have for negative emotions that positive.

And how many more times do you get as intensely happy as you have ever been intensely upset?

The LOA is more like a Proclivity of Attraction
Now I do believe there are many things you can do and think that attracts a PROCLIVITY to attract more good things in your life.

I have proven to myself over and over again…but a law…nope.

Sorry. When I throw a stone over a bridge into the water it always hits the water and always makes ripples and some kind of a splash – time after time – and over 49 years it still works perfectly every time. I can count on it… in time and action… now that is a law.

Even if it was a law, it could not be the ONLY law. Certain laws can be transcended to higher laws… a great example a wonderful Preacher taught me years ago was the difference between the law of gravity, and the laws of aerodynamics, momentum and inertia.

When we add momentum and inertia in context to areodynamics, we overrule gravity. You should be thankful for this during your next flight! As long as we continue to use all three laws together, gravity is superseded. Of course, take one part out and gravity does play a role again instantly.

So I look at my laptop and want it to levitate by using the LOA. I feel it. I believe it. I know it and 99.99999999….% of the time it sits right there with gravity doing its thing.

I might get upset that the LOA doesn’t work, so I add momentum and inertia and throw the laptop across the room. Anyone taking a snapshot of it in flight would swear I achieved my goal as they see it momentarily levitating without knowing it was traveling from left to right instead of up and down.

But sure enough, when momentum and inertia wane, aerodynamics gives way to gravity as the law of impact takes final precedent when pieces of laptop begin to levitate at high speed in different directions.

And in all the time it took for my experiment and to get the laptop fixed, I could have opened the laptop and created something.

As my friend Jerry Stocking says, “Why try and use energy to levitate this laptop with your mind when you can just go over and lift it up with your hand?”

A lot of people misuse the LOA. They think it is the end-all and be-all without considering other Laws that are higher…and more useful to you.

Examples are the Law of Change and the Law of Uncertainty. I promise if you begin to learn how to use these laws, you will have an infinitely sized box to put every learning into. And your life will be much richer and happier than you could ever extract from the LOA. A by-product is usually getting more than you ever expected…. and a lot less at the very same time.

I have been disillusioned recently with those who purport to be experts in the LOA or create products about the LOA. I’ve been disillusioned for a long time with people that I know privately think that the LOA is a bunch of “woo-woo nonsense,” but put out products to sell to people who believe in the LOA.

I have seen the dark side of LOA, and the bright and hopeful side from people who earnestly try to create a better life for themselves. And I have to tell you I don’t think LOA in and of itself has anything to do with money and success.

I have observed other things that are much more important to success. Stay tuned for more on this.

You’re Still Creating Your Own Reality
The big question is… who are YOU? Where do you stop and All That Is begins? You’re part of a giant whole, a drop in an ocean of consciousness. But none of us, as much as we try, really understands how we’re separate, what makes us that one drop. Does a drop of water cause it to rain? Does the droplet in the ocean create the wave?

But the consciousness in the water droplet experiences the wave, and the drop of water experiences crashing to the ground in a thunderstorm.

A group of individuals might experience a natural disaster together – a wave. One person might be exempted in a miraculous way, just in the same way a drop of water might shoot out from the wave and crash to the ocean again in a different way than the wave itself.

Of course, we can see the wave outside of ourselves differently than the water droplets can see the wave they’re soaking in. And it’s very difficult to see all of the rules of consciousness operating upon us.

It is limiting for one phenomenon like this to be labeled a law. It is next to impossible for this phenomenon to be the end-all, be-all of laws operating in our conscious reality.

It’s time to explore consciousness and conscious creation beyond the “Law” of Attraction. To find out who YOU really are, what consciousness is, and how to co-create a life beyond what you thought possible.

My heart and prayers go out to all those involved and their families. I cannot imagine the heartbreak that they are all experiencing from this loss and trauma.

I think one of the reasons we are so affected is that we realize: had we been there, we might have died, too.

Had I paid $10,000 to attend a seminar of this sort, had I been encouraged to push my limits, I would have likely pushed my physical limits beyond my comfort zone.

More importantly, I would have trusted that those I had paid money to would look out for me while I was pushing those limits. I would have trusted that they ensured that I would have been supported in every way while doing so.

I’ve been to many seminars, some of which charged large amounts of money, some of which made me push my limits.

I even experienced one seminar leader pulling a .308 rifle and put it to my head. (This is a story I will tell in the book.)

Yes, had I been at the James Ray Spiritual Warrior event, I might have died. I might have become seriously ill.

I’ve been thinking about this all week. It dovetails with some other recent events in my life, including certain aspects of my visit to Russia where I had to trust other people with my safety and well-being. I had to trust that those people who invited me on this trip had my well-being in mind during all aspects of the trip. (As many of you know, this didn’t exactly happen. More later on this.)

The most important lessons in life aren’t going come from a book, or a speaker, or a blog post. The most important lessons are things we have to go through viscerally.

I am working on learning from all of this.

All of this feeds into a book that Kathy and I are currently writing about personal boundaries, manifestation, and relationships. We’re furiously writing that book now and the information is pouring out of both of us. My experience in Russia crossed more of my boundaries than any experience I’ve ever had in my life… and those crossings were all pointing to me learning this lesson.

The biggest lesson, and it’s a lesson that I hope everyone gets from this shared manifestation, you must always trust yourself and your inner guidance. You might listen to a speaker, or even me, that says that you must trust yourself first, but also say some things that do not resonate for you.

When your inner guidance tells you to stop listening to that speaker, or stop reading a blog post, or stop anything that is happening outside of you that doesn’t feel right, your inner guidance must usurp any and all other information.

How many people stayed in that sweat lodge thinking, “Well, I feel so sick and horrible, but I don’t want to give up.” Or, “I don’t want to ruin anyone else’s experience.” Or, “I spent so much money, I am going to push as far as I can go.” Or, “I don’t want other people to be disappointed in me.”

(How many of us say these things during our day-to-day lives?)

You, me, all of us, we have ALL been given an internal compass. If our trust in the external world or in other people goes against our own internal compass, then we MUST stop what is happening and trust that inner guidance.

Pushing Your Limits
There are MANY ways of pushing your limits that do not require large sums of money, physical stress, fasting, or even a sweat lodge. And pushing your limits in your day to day life is going to have much more important and far reaching effects in your life. Here are some ideas:

Push your limits of forgiveness. Who do you hold resentments with today? Push your limits of what – and who – you think you can forgive.

Push your limits of love. Is there something you can do to go deeper into love with your spouse or partner? How about your PARENTS. There’s a good one. Can you show more love to your parents?

Push your limits of what you think you can do. Write a book. Write a blog post, record an song, play the piano, paint a painting, design a garden, stand up in front of an audience and speak, sing a song publicly. Take one thing you think you suck at completely and do it. Know beforehand you’re not good at it and then do it anyway. You’ll be afraid, you’ll doubt yourself, and then try it. This will be uncomfortable… hey, showing more love to your parents is going to be uncomfortable for most of us, too… but it will not be life threatening and it may even show you that you are not so bad at it… and maybe you even enjoy it when you thought you never could.

Not losing hope
Don’t lose hope on the self-help world. There are a lot of good teachers out there, a lot of skilled people who have plenty to give… and aren’t as expensive as you think.

Attending seminars can be a wonderful thing where you can connect with other like-minded individuals. Connecting with teachers who have more experience than you in certain areas of psychology can help you understand yourself in ways you can’t otherwise.

Look for those who give you one-on-one attention… attention that you can afford. Look for cost-efficient ways to get the most bang for your buck. Look for in-depth information on topics that interest you.

And more than anything else, trust that still small voice within. Stay connected to it, stay connected to Spirit AT ALL COSTS. Even if you’ve invested a lot of money (energy) with a teacher or person, if what they say doesn’t resonate with the Spirit within you, you must let go of the external investment and go within.

After all, the Divine has invested a lot of Spiritual Currency in YOU. And if a teacher (or a friend) on the outside insists that you go against the currency that has been invested in you, that is your first sign — and the only sign you need — that you need to stop and reconnect to the Spirit within yourself.

The entire goal of any experience should be to strengthen that connection, not break it or test it.

I could go into all kinds of discussion on how James Ray manifested this, or how the people involved manifested it, blah blah blah. All I know is how I manifested my experience of it, and what lessons I need to take from it.

The lessons I write here are for me as much as they are for you… take them for what they’re worth. If they resonate with you, take my lessons as a gift to you. If not, then look within yourself for the lessons.

That’s one thing you can always trust… that you have all that you need within yourself.

He, like many people, is working a full time job, but he feels within that is calling him to become an entrepreneur and do his own thing. His primary keyword was “freedom.” He had a number of questions about how to get there, and how Neuro-Linguistic Programming can help him.

First, other than knowing that his current job is not meeting his needs, I am not really sure what freedom means to him.

For some people, freedom does mean having a job. It means you don’t have to do everything an entrepreneur does (i.e., an entrepreneur needs to have an “MBA in life” and understand everything from accounting, cash flow, sales, marketing, project management, human resources and effective outsourcing, etc.) Being an entrepreneur does not necessarily mean success for everyone. I know many people who want to focus on one aspect of their talents, for example a graphic artist who only wants to design and the thought of invoicing someone for their work and doing sole proprietorship taxes is overwhelming.

What does freedom really mean to YOU?

Does it mean that you don’t have to do what other people say? Because if you’re selling your time to clients, you still have to do what they say. And if you’re selling products to the consumer, you still have to meet consumer demand. And if you’re looking to really become successful at sales, you’ll find other people who are successful and do what they do. Is that freedom?

Does freedom mean having a big pile of money? Because everything you own requires that you care for it, including that big pile of money. Money, like energy, goes where it is cared for, and if you want it to stick around, you need to care for it. That’s a responsibility, not freedom.

The freest man I know meditates for days on end, fasts when Spirit asks him to fast, and moves through life following wherever Spirit asks him to move next. For a long time, he has cared for the gardens in the city park at Mt. Shasta, California. Now, however, Spirit is moving to ask him to do something else. He does what Spirit inspires him to do whenever it inspires him. Most of the time, this involves talking to people, sharing his spiritual experiences. Of course, he is not necessarily “free” by the standards you might expect. He is homeless. But I’ve never known him to go without basic necessities.

The “freedom” you seek in financial wealth may be the golden handcuffs that bind you from being really free.

Some people think that freedom comes with success. But the biggest question is, what is success to you? I have a very good friend who worked very hard for success, rose to the highest position in a Fortune 100 company in her field. After watching the Subliminal Manifestation DVD, Attracting Wealth, she realized she was pursuing her family’s idea of success… the title. Even more egregiously, she realized that success in her family meant being busy, not necessarily wealthy or happy, just busy. So she had pursued success… only to find it empty… because she hadn’t done the work to find out what success really meant to her in her conscious and unconscious patterns.

The key to becoming what you want is to really flesh out in your mind what you think you want really is to you. Freedom, success, wealth, power… these things are all charged with emotions, conscious and unconscious images and beliefs.

If you’re going to search for freedom and success, you should first find out what those words mean to you… before you start investing all of your precious time and energy into creating something that you don’t really want.

One thing that I do with people in my coaching practice is to help people discover what is behind the goal, what is behind the desire. Often, it shifts a person’s goals, the words they use to describe their goals, and the images they use to envision their success.

What people really want in life is to be happy, to feel peace, and to feel some kind of fulfillment. It’s different for each individual.

If you’re looking to discover what you really want from life, let me know.