A New Declaration Of Independence

Independence Day – July 4, 1776

July 4, 1776, is a monumental date in the history of the United States of America. It was on that date that representatives from all thirteen colonies approved the final wording of a formal and irrevocable severing of all ties to the kingdom of Great Britain. The Declaration of Independence, signed by fifty six representatives, was the document that officially changed the thirteen colonies into a new, independent country, the thirteen United States of America.

The United States Declaration of Independence subsequently became a model for similar documents all over the world. President Abraham Lincoln made it the centerpiece of his policies during the Civil War. One particular sentence in the document became one of the world’s most well-known statements of human rights. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness”. The word unalienable means “that which cannot be given away or taken away”.

What Happened Next?

The representatives of the thirteen colonies, now referred to as the Founding Fathers, then had the document published and distributed all throughout the thirteen colonies. Any remaining colonial legislatures still operating with nominal loyalty to Great Britain were declared null and void. New representative legislatures were established in their place.

The body of the representatives, the Second Continental Congress, sent the Declaration to King George III of Great Britain. Both he and Parliament immediately denounced it as invalid. He proceeded with mobilizing British troops as well as hiring German mercenaries to crush the rebellion. A state of war commenced. It took until 1783 for Great Britain to finally call it quits and put an end to the war. They recognized the United States as an independent and sovereign nation.

John Adams, the second president of the United States and one of the leaders of the independence movement, stated, in a letter to his wife, Abigail: “I am apt to believe that (Independence Day) will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the Day of Deliverance by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations from one end of this continent to the other from this time forward forever more”. And so it has.

Every year, throughout the United States, on the national holiday of the Fourth of July, there are parades, special events and games, picnics, barbeques, and especially fireworks displays (or illuminations as John Adams referred to them). As a child, I clearly remember that the crowning highlight of Independence Day was attending the fireworks display in the evening.

Your Own Declaration Of Independence

If you have not already done so, the time is now for you to put forth your own declaration of independence. I speak of a declaration of your own personal independence. Independence from the thoughts, the words, the emotions, the beliefs of other people affecting your thoughts, your feelings, your beliefs. It is time to fully claim your inalienable right to live as a sovereign human being.

The American people, by and large, have become dependent on other people, places, and “powers that be” to inform, control and direct how they choose to think and live their lives. You look at the obscene cost of housing, the obscene cost of health care, the obscene cost of a college education. You then turn to politicians and bureaucrats who are incapable of doing much of anything except receive large campaign donations and large fees from giving speeches. All they do is borrow more money from China to shore up the economy. Ignorance, violence and greed are in the process of manhandling America. In the meantime you await the next football game kickoff or the next clearance sale. You do this in between mindless drudgery at the workplace while you continue pedaling faster and faster just to remain in place. All the while there is a little tickle in the very recesses of your mind that pleadingly says “there just has to be some way out of this effing quagmire, there just has to be”.

Well friend, I bear good news. There is most assuredly a way out. It all starts by declaring within yourself your own personal declaration of independence. A glorious and fulfilling independence from the controllers of this world. I tell you this most earnestly from my own life that I have experienced brief tastes and sips of true freedom from the controllers of the world. It is a feeling of ultimate pleasure that cannot be described and should be felt by every human being on the face of the earth. It is life.

Why only sips and tastes? The answer to that is easy. I am a flawed individual who gets swayed by fears and illusions just like everyone else. It is something that I humbly work on each and every day. God has graciously given me the power to manifest despite those flaws. It is something that I will be continually working on until my last breath.

The Mystery Of Independence Thru Dependence

You can do nothing better than to rest each day in the Kingdom of God within. The more you relent and simply dwell on He Who Is All, the more free you will feel. The more that you release your grasp on using your own devices to solve problems, the greater will be your ability to find solutions. The more dependent on Universal Mind that you allow yourself to be, the more independent of a person you become – independent of the controllers of this world. It is an enigma, wrapped in a puzzle, wrapped in a mystery. The greater the dependence, the greater the independence.

From the biblical book of Proverbs in the Old Testament comes this statement: Trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not on your own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge God and He shall direct your paths.

Who is this Lord that you are supposed to put all your trust in? Who is this God that you are directed to acknowledge in all of your ways? It sure as hell is not the hundred and one limited false gods put forth by the world. God is unknowable and transcendent over all. God is Ultimate Intelligence, Ultimate Wisdom, Ultimate Power – the I AM that I AM.

You Can Do Nothing —– You Can Do Anything

So now July 4, 2022 approaches, the two hundred and forty-sixth anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the thirteen colonies from the authority of Great Britain. Whoever you are, wherever you stand in life, whatever your circumstances are, it is time. It is time for you to unequivocally declare your own declaration of independence. “Independence from who? Independence from what?” you say. Declare your independence from the control of any person, any group, any entity whatsoever that would block the doorway to your entrance to the Kingdom of God within. Declare your independence and then proceed to gain it by dwelling each day within the Kingdom.

OK, why should you? What’s in it for you? Anything and everything. Money. Relationships. Career, Health. Intercession. Peace. Abundance. Joy. Whenever you choose to follow Universal Law to consciously manifest your reality, it is not you manifesting it, it is Universal Mind. You are merely the conduit for expressing God. That is your purpose in life, to express the Divine. We are created with free will but only when we lose our life will we gain it. Yet another enigma. In the book of Matthew, Jesus Christ stated, ” with God all things are possible”. And so it is.

Through belief, faith in that which the eyes cannot see, you can receive anything that you believe as already received, from your dwelling place within the Kingdom of God.

Believe. Receive.

Grigori Rasputin – Reflections On The Mad Monk

Gregori Yefimovich Rasputin – The Mad Monk

Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who lived from 1869 to 1916. He was born in Siberia and lived there as a “muzhik” or peasant until the age of twenty-eight. During a visit to a monastery, he claimed that he underwent a spiritual transformation experience. He subsequently proclaimed himself a healer with the ability to see the future. He became what is referred to as a “strannik” or wandering pilgrim. All of his activities after his spiritual experience were on his own. He never had any official position with the Russian Orthodox Church.

He subsequently found his way to St. Petersburg. Through introductions from respected clerics, he ultimately gained a following among aristocratic circles. Through these contacts he was eventually introduced to Czar Nicholas and his wife, the Czarina, Alexandra. Their son Czarovich Alexei, heir to the Russian throne, was born with the affliction of hemophilia, a disease where the blood of a person does not clot properly. Hemophilia can cause spontaneous bleeding as well as uncontrolled bleeding after a cut or an injury. In 1906, Rasputin won the favor and friendship of Nicholas and Alexandra through his ability to stop the bleeding of their son Alexei.

Rasputin’s influence continued to grow ever stronger with regard to Nicholas and Alexandra. His influence over Alexandra was particularly strong. The upper aristocratic order and church hierarchy began to hate Rasputin as time went on and he gained many enemies. When Nicholas went off to lead Russian forces during World War I, it has been claimed that Rasputin became the controller of Russian state affairs through his influence over the Czarina.

Fearful of the ever-increasing disorder and chaos in Russia as well as Rasputin’s high level of involvement in the affairs of state, a group of nobles led by Prince Felix Yusupov conspired to assassinate Rasputin in December of 1916.

Dynamic Energy

So what was it about Rasputin that enthralled his followers, from aristocrats to peasants? It is said when his followers learned his body was found in the river, they got buckets of water from the river and treated it as holy water. There were always references to his “mesmerizing eyes”, which would cause those who met him to feel like he was penetrating straight through to their mind.

There was also the display of Rasputin at prayer. His entire body would vibrate as he turned his face toward heaven, bowing and crossing himself with great speed.

He was the personification of dynamic energy. At parties he could be unpredictable and even frightening. He could be talking eloquently for hours when all of a sudden he would turn to someone standing on the fringe, as though he had read their mind, and chastise them for their sinful thoughts.

He had a propensity for engaging in sex with the many women who visited with him to hear him talk. Rasputin claimed that the sexual activity was a manner of helping his female followers relieve themselves of their carnal passions.

It was said that Rasputin was a practitioner of magnetism, a kind of offshoot of hypnotism. When the hemophiliac son of the Czar and Czarina would have bleeding spells, Rasputin would be summoned. Rasputin would go into a trance-like state with accompanying gesticulations. When the child responded favorably, it served to increase his influence with Nicholas and Alexandra. The Czarina, who suffered from bad nerves and headaches, said she always felt relaxed and at peace in the presence of Rasputin.

Rasputin’s voracious sexual appetite and heavy drinking led him astray from the Orthodox Church bishops who had initially introduced him to the royal family. Those same bishops are said to have confronted Rasputin about his sinful ways. During the confrontation, the bishops grabbed Rasputin’s penis and started pounding him with a very large metal crucifix. They shouted at him that his libido was ruling over him, not God. When Rasputin reported to the Czarina that the bishops had tried to kill him, she had them banished from the city.

He Drank The Wine And He Felt Fine

During 1916, a group of high ranking nobles decided once and for all to get rid of Rasputin. Prince Felix Yusupov invited Rasputin to his castle to meet his beautiful wife. It was an invitation that the lascivious monk could not refuse. Yusupov had a driver pick up Rasputin and take him to the palace. Once they got there, Yusupov led him to the basement dining room. The room had been staged as if people had been having a late dinner.

While Rasputin waited to meet the prince’s wife, he was given cakes and wine that had been laced with massive amounts of poison. After waiting awhile and he saw the poison was having no effect on Rasputin. A panicked Yusupov excused himself in order to get more wine and ran upstairs to the other conspirators. He advised them that the poison was not working. He grabbed a revolver and headed back downstairs. Once there, he confronted Rasputin and shot him in the chest, who fell to the floor. He waited there a short time. After seeing no movement from Rasputin, he went back upstairs where he and the other co-conspirators celebrated.

Yusupov went back downstairs to check the body. As he stood over the body, Rasputin suddenly opened his eyes, jumped up and began strangling Yusupov (shades of the “Why Won’t You Die?” scene from the movie, V For Vendetta). Screaming and managing to escape Rasputin’s grasp, Yusupov ran back upstairs. When he informed the other conspirators of the situation, the doctor who supplied the poison, fainted.

Yusupov ran back downstairs with a revolver. He almost fainted when he saw that Rasputin was not there. Following a trail of blood, he saw Rasputin outside in the courtyard, screaming that the Czarina would hear about this. A nerve-wracked Yusupov caught up to him and fired twice at point blank range. The rest of the conspirators arrived and one of them shot Rasputin two more times, once in the back and once in the head. Another conspirator started hitting Rasputin all over with an iron fireplace poker.

When they bundled up the body to dispose of it, he was still breathing. They decided to take him by sleigh to a river bridge on the outskirts of the city. The river was frozen so they had to make a hole in the ice and stuff Rasputin’s body through, hoping that the river current would properly dispose of the body. Two days later Rasputin’s body was found. His arms had worked free from the ropes that the conspirators had bound him with and were in an outstretched position. An autopsy found a large amount of water in his lungs indicating that he was still alive when thrown into the river.

Rasputin And Conscious Manifesting

Rasputin definitely had some type of spiritual experience in his twenties when he visited that Siberian monastery. Exactly what happened, nobody really knows. Afterward however, he had possession of an energy which ultimately propelled him from a lowly Siberian peasant to intimate contact with the very pinnacle of Russian power. Like Balaam the prophet in the Old Testament book of Numbers, Rasputin definitely had a gift of prophecy, but with a disposition ill-suited to resist temptation. And just like Balaam, he ultimately paid the price with his life.

So what does the mad monk Rasputin have to do with the art of consciously manifesting your reality? What we know is that Rasputin was able to use his magnetic energy to bring the Czarovich and Czarina to a state of peaceful relaxation. Perhaps through his demeanor, perhaps through a form of hypnosis, perhaps through the dissemination of his inner energy, perhaps a combination of all three – he discovered the healing power of relaxation of an individual, inside and out. He used that knowledge of relaxation to bring about positive results in the health of both the Czarina and her son. Rasputin also used that knowledge to manipulate other human beings for his personal benefit.

Rasputin was also aware of the remarkable power of relaxation in self healing. When the body and mind are in a state of relaxation, without worries or anxieties, it helps to supercharge the immune system to do its thing. There is the story of the Czarovich having a serious bleeding episode as a result of his hemophilia. The Czarina telegrammed Rasputin who was away from the city. He contacted her back to assure her that the boy would not die. This put her at peace and eliminated fear from the situation. Just as the mind responds negatively to fear, so also does the human body. It is interesting to note that he also told her not to let the doctors give the boy aspirin. At that time aspirin was routinely given for pain. It was not until the 1950’s that its blood thinning properties were discovered. Blood thinners can be deadly to a person afflicted with hemophilia.

Relaxation Opens The Portal

Somewhere along the line, Rasputin discovered the secret of how potent that the relaxation of mind and body was to a person’s overall state of consciousness. How potent is it? It is the ultimate state. Ironically, if you are relaxed, you are in control. A state of relaxation will override fear derivative states such as anxiety and desperation. It is crucial in all aspects of the manifesting process. When you are relaxed, by whatever method that you choose, your mind and body are interconnected.

After you are relaxed and you view in your mind’s eye the end result of your desire fulfilled, if you choose to drag along anxiety, your subsequent imaginal image will be tainted. The anxiety that you refuse to let go of, will be the precipitator of yet more anxiety, causing you an endless cycle of frustration.

One way to describe the state of relaxation that you are going for is this scenario: You only got a few hours of sleep the night before. You wake up at your regular time. You go about your normal daily activities. At some point during the afternoon, you take a short break from your activities. You close your eyes for a few minutes and relax. After a minute or so, you are still awake and fully conscious but you are not far from dozing off. You are in a “betwixt and between” state known as SATS, state akin to sleep.

While you are conscious, but totally relaxed, that is when you want to create an image in your mind of your chosen desire already being fulfilled. Money. Relationships. Career. Health. Intercession. Whatever it is. That special time of relaxation creates a portal to your subconscious mind. Your subconscious mind perceives your belief of your desire already being fulfilled. It then goes to work at once bringing about the conditions to make real in the physical world your desire fulfilled.

Believe, Receive.

Robert B. Butler, 1950-1974 — A True Man Of Substance

My Much Loved Brother

It has been forty eight years now since my brother left this realm. He died suddenly and unexpectedly from a cerebral hemorrhage in June of 1974. My memories of him are still so fresh and clear that it is difficult to grasp that forty eight years, over seventeen thousand days, have passed by since his death. Even though his body ceased to function, his spirit, his energy, his essence, lives on in another realm of existence. It will be a time of true, unshackled joy when, after my body stops working, we are reunited again in that next realm.

I felt, at the time of his death, that there had to be some colossal celestial blunder regarding his death. He possessed so much good to offer this oft-times crappy world. They say that we all have “a number” and when your number is called, it’s “game over”. In my mind, I thought some careless cosmic clerk must have called out the wrong damn number. At the time I would have gladly traded my life for his if I was given that option.

About fifteen, twenty years ago I had a random conversation with a shop owner. The conversation veered briefly to what happens to us after we die. The shop owner looked at me with eyes that had seen suffering and said, “All I want when I get there is some answers.” Amen brother, amen.

Growing Up Together

My brother and I were three years apart in age. He was born in 1950 while I came along three years later. We grew up together in the era of the 1950’s and 1960’s. We experienced many things together and shared a lot, even sharing a bed (“move over, you’re on my side”) until the early 60’s. My sister was born in October of ’59. When she outgrew her crib in my parents bedroom, she moved into our bedroom. Separate bedrooms for my brother and I were cobbled together upstairs in the attic.

As the years progressed, we both developed our individual skills and personalities, our own strengths and our own weaknesses. We had our little squabbles as do all brothers, but we always remained close and loyal to each other. When he got involved in high school activities and later went away to college, I saw less of him but the brotherly bonds of affection were never in jeopardy.

Demonstrating The Presence Of God

As human beings, created in the image of the Almighty, we are privileged in this lifetime to get the opportunity to demonstrate the presence of God within us (the Kingdom of God within, Luke 17:21, KJV). We demonstrate by expressing different high frequency energy sequences emanating from the Divine – love, peace, light, intelligence, truth, abundance, power, compassion, imagination, creativity, impartiality, inner joy. Throughout his life, at one time or another, he demonstrated all of these. My brother had flaws as does every other human being. That he was a person of substance is not a hagiographic statement but merely a statement of fact based on my first hand observations. He was not just loved by his family members. His funeral brought out a multitude of souls who held him in esteem.

Riding In The Same Car As Job

The book of Job is a fascinating study in human emotions. I have always thought that there was more to it than meets the eye, namely a deeper meaning below the surface meaning. There is scarcely any suffering that a human can experience that the principal human in that book, Job, did not experience. Job pleads his case with raw honesty about the gross injustice of it all but refuses to curse God.

In chapter 28 Job states, ” Whence then cometh wisdom? and where is the place of understanding? ……. it is hid from the eyes of all living”. There it is in a nutshell. Until I proceed to the next realm, I will never know the why of the timing of his death. With that said, the rebellious part of me still feels that there should be some type of cosmic option whereby we are forewarned when someone we love is going to die to allow us the opportunity to make the offer to the grim reaper to substitute our life for theirs.

A Person Of Substance

What does it mean to be a person of substance. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the wealth you possess, the possessions you own, or the level of control you exert over others. If you take a look at our current crop of politicians, you can see what being a person of substance is not. A person of substance is defined by a series of lifelong choices, followed by actions to implement those choices. These are choices that add value to the world rather than subtract or merely present a neutral presence. Choices and actions, done by you, either consciously or unconsciously. Deciding what must be done now versus what can wait. Deciding whether to err on the side of caution or to take a risk and potentially opening the door to failure. Conforming yourself harmoniously to the dictates of the culture in which you live versus being true to your real inner self regardless of possible repercussions. Being the center of your universe versus being a part of the big picture of universal greater good. To know a person of substance is a delight to your soul.

Carl Jung

Carl Jung is recognized as one of the most influential psychiatrists of all time. He founded analytical psychology and was among the first experts in his field to explore the religious nature behind human psychology.

Let’s take a look at this statement from Jung: “In this overpoweringly humdrum existence, alas, there is little out of the ordinary that is healthy, and not much room for conspicuous heroism. Not that heroic demands are never put to us, on the contrary – and this is just so irritating and irksome – the banal everyday makes banal demands upon our patience, our devotion, our perseverance, our self-sacrifice, and for us to fulfill these demands (as we must) humbly and without courting applause through heroic gestures, a heroism is needed that cannot be seen from the outside. It does not glitter. It is not belauded, it always seeks concealment in everyday attire”.

If you take a close look at those who outwardly appear to be people of substance, oftentimes times what you find is a self-seeking egotist. Read that statement again from Carl Jung. True men and women of substance are often much closer than you think.

The Right Choices

In my brother’s life, I believe that he substantially made the right choices. He was a true man of substance. I was privileged to be his brother for the twenty-three plus years that he was on this earth. The bottom line of your lifetime when you reach the end of it comes down to this – Did you enhance life rather than subtract? – Did you fully use what you had to work with rather than waste what you had? – Did you give more than you received?

Wherever you are on your life journey, you have a choice. You can either be a human being of substance or a human being of smoke and mirrors, masks and shadows, illusions and facades. Whether or not you believe in an afterlife, making the choice to be a person of substance while you proceed with the remainder of your lifetime on this planet, will greatly enrich and enhance your life experience. The choice is yours. It always has been. Which do you choose?

Conceive. Believe. Receive.

In Case You Didn’t Hear — Tomorrow Is Here Now

What Is Time?

Eckhart Von Hochheim, commonly known as Meister Eckhart, was a German theologian, philosopher and mystic. He lived, taught and preached in the late thirteenth century, early fourteenth century At the time of his death, his teachings were attacked as a result of internecine intra-church intrigue.

While Meister Eckhart himself was never branded a heretic, the Avignon Vatican pronounced certain of his teachings as heretical. It was just another chapter in the never-ending human drama of one group of humans fearful of losing control over another group of humans. Recent efforts by Eckhart’s Dominican Order to confirm his theological orthodoxy resulted in a letter from the Vatican in 1992 to the Master of the Dominicans stating, “we are perfectly free to say that he is a good and orthodox theologian”.

Eckhart taught that God is a totally transcendent Being, beyond all words, beyond all understanding. From his writings, he stated that “Time is what keeps the Light from reaching us”. With regard to our reality and the “now” of it, he also wrote, “There exists only the present instant…….a Now which always and without end is itself new. There is no yesterday, nor is there any tomorrow but only Now, as it was a thousand years ago and as it will be a thousand years hence”.

Urgent Care Centers

A relatively recent occurrence in the field of healthcare is the proliferation of neighborhood clinics known as “urgent care centers”. When I was very young, the family doctor still made housecalls for urgent care situations. Then, as that era came to a close, the hospital emergency room became the option for immediate medical attention.

In today’s world, the urgent care center, open seven days a week, twelve hours a day, and has emerged as a viable treatment option when you need to do something now about a health related problem. There are even specialized urgent care centers now such as pediatric urgent care, orthopedic urgent care and mental health urgent care.

Awareness Of Being

In your life today, right now, you are in a situation that requires urgent care on your part. So many human beings, the overwhelming majority of inhabitants of planet earth, defer their awareness of being to tomorrow (or some later date). For example, if you do this, then tomorrow you will get that. If you go to work, you will get pay on payday to pay for your food, your lodging, your car, your clothes, your child’s braces, and so on.

All activity is geared to doing something today in order to get something or be something tomorrow (or some later date). It is a true blessing to be able to earn enough money to pay for your needs. The urgent care that you must attend to however, is the endless deferring of your Now awareness of being.

For just a few minutes, cut away all the layers of crap and focus in on exactly what you are aware of being right now. Not what you will be five minutes from now. Not what you will be tomorrow or next week or next year or five years from now, but what you are aware of being right now. This awareness of being, moment by moment by moment, is the very essence of your life and of your existence in this dimension. It is urgent that you realize this because everything that occurs in your life flows outward from your now awareness of being.

Smothers Brothers

Back in the 1960’s, the Smothers Brothers (Tom and Dick) were a very successful pair of folk musicians who specialized in comedy. At home we had one of their comedy LP albums and thoroughly enjoyed it. The brothers went on to have an hour long television variety/comedy show on CBS. While the show proved very successful, it was ultimately cancelled by the network in 1969 due to content that was considered too controversial.

On one of their shows, they had a short film segment that was brilliant. This film was entitled “American Time Capsule”. It was a film that consisted of a multitude of still photos presented in kaleidoscopic fashion and set to a vibrant, yet subtle drumbeat solo. It is actually available to watch on the internet if you choose to do so. It portrayed two hundred years of American history in three minutes.

A Lasting Impression

This short film made a lasting impression on me. From time to time, I reflect upon it as sort of a microcosm of how time flows in the life of a human being. The film commences with the events of the American Revolutionary War in 1776. It proceeds to display in brief but recognizable image flashes, thirteen hundred different images of American history in a chronological fashion until reaching the current date at that time, 1968.

One of the things fascinating about this short film was the subtly changing speed of the display of the images. If you take one hundred and eighty seconds (three minutes) and divide it equally by thirteen hundred (images), it would come to about thirteen hundredths of a second each. The film however did not display each image in equal time amounts. As the film progressed to the latter half of the nineteenth century and throughout the twentieth century, it moved ever faster as the amount of time allotted for each image was shortened. It is a remarkable piece of cinematography.

The sands of time of your life move past you in approximately the same manner as the images of the film American Time Capsule. As you get older, the time, the events, the circumstances of your life, move by with ever increasing speed. Time is the ultimate trickster in this regard. It moves turtle-like when you want it to speed up and then it becomes Speed Racer when you would appreciate it slowing down just a tad.

Time Is What Keeps The Light From Reaching You

So how exactly do you deal with this mischievous imp called time? There is only one best way. Focus. Make the irrevocable free will choice to focus. Focus on the present instant. Leave all temporalities behind. Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow is merely an illusion. There is only Now, your current awareness of being.

You say that you can’t. You have tried and you keep thinking about stuff that is “coming up” tomorrow, next week, next month. Try as you might, you keep ruminating over past events, past grievances, past mistakes. If that is the case, you need to go to your own personal urgent care center. You must generate a desire to “live in the end” right now with as much urgency, with as much feeling, as you are humanly capable of. If you do this, it will assuredly be to your benefit.

Discard Your Concept Of Time

When my youngest boy was around four years old, he became ill one day with a high fever caused by a childhood flu bug of some sort. All of a sudden his temperature spiked with such an intensity that he suffered a grand mal febrile seizure. I was in another portion of the house and immediately heard my wife shout in distress. I did not wait for an ambulance. I scooped him up, ran out to the car and drove at once to the local hospital emergency room which was fortunately only two minutes away.

Pulling up to the ER entrance, I jumped out of the car and carried him inside, imploring the nearest nurse to help my boy. They quickly took him and employed immediate measures to hydrate him and successfully reduce his temperature. He recovered nicely. During that entire urgent situation, there was no yesterday, there was no tomorrow. The entire focus of my life at that time was totally centered on one thing – getting my son help in that Now instant. I had no concept of time.

What Do You Desire To Be?

I now pose a question to you – What do you desire to be, to have, to achieve, to experience? In your Now awareness of being, be that – now; have that – now; achieve that – now; experience that – now. Commit yourself, once and for all, to choose your ever present Dwelling Place to be the Kingdom of God within. Humbly allow the Divine Presence to fill every part of you. Heed your intuition and pay attention to Divine inspiration. Do this with a peaceful urgency and every other thing in your life will subsequently fall into place naturally for you.

Believe. Receive.

Memorial Day 2022 — Thinking of The Dead From War

Normandy American Cemetery, Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy, France

Memorial Day

Memorial Day is a federal holiday in the United States. It is a day designated for honoring and remembering every U.S. military member who sacrificed their life in service to the nation. In 1971, Congress standardized the date of the holiday to the last Monday in May.

Some choose to observe Memorial Day by visiting the gravesite of family members lost in war. Many communities hold parades and special events. In my area of southern New Jersey it is customary for families to use the long weekend to head for the seashore or have family barbeques. In 2000, The National Moment Of Remembrance Act was signed into law. This law encourages all Americans to pause wherever they are at 3:00 pm local time for one minute of silence to remember and honor the sacrifice of the fallen military members.

The War To End All War…….Not

One of the most preventable, most pointless and most savage wars in history was World War I. Indeed, a case can be made that World War II was merely a continuation of the first world war. Even though the fighting in World War I had stopped in November of 1918, the war officially ended in June of 1919 with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. Originally World War I was called “The World War”. It was also termed “The War To End All War”. It was thought the utter magnitude of the slaughter and destruction would keep mankind from ever repeating it. How wrong they were! Just twenty years later world war would again erupt even more violently and destructive than its predecessor.

In World War I, there were an estimated twenty-four million deaths and twenty-one million wounded. Of the deaths, eleven million were of military personnel and thirteen million were civilians. World War II saw a marked increase in the killing and maiming. An estimated seventy to eighty-five million people died during this war. This represented three percent of the world’s population. Deaths caused directly by the war, including both military and civilian, are estimated at fifty to sixty million with an additional twenty to twenty-five million dying from war related disease and famine. Until this war, the record was held by Genghis Khan who was said to be responsible for the death of forty million people.

One April Morning

There have been countless movies made portraying the events of war. War movies showing the raw horror of war. War movies displaying incredible courage and bravery in the face of death. War movies as subtle or blatant propaganda for supporting the perspective of one side or the other. War movies from the perspective of poobahs, privates, and politicians. War movies from the perspective of non-combatant civilians. Many of these movies are engrossing in the story that they tell about the soldiers and various events of war. Two of these movies that I would like to comment on are: “One April Morning” and “Saving Private Ryan”.

The first movie is a relatively little-known film about the first military engagement of the American Revolutionary War. It took place in Lexington, Massachusetts and marked the beginning of war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the thirteen colonies in America, later to be known as the United States. The movie centers itself around one specific family household, the Cooper family, that was headed by Moses Cooper, portrayed by the actor Tommie Lee Jones. Also in the family were wife Sarah and sons Levi and Adam and Granny Cooper.

There is one scene in the movie that stands out in my mind. The British army regulars are marching through Lexington to Concord in order to capture and destroy Colonial militia military supplies reportedly stored at Concord. In Lexington, a small force of local farmers, merchants and backwoodsmen had formed an armed volunteer militia. They stood in the center of the Lexington green awaiting the British with the intent of displaying the colonial resolve against the show of force by the British. The militia was in place in three lines of of about twenty-five men per line. Moses Cooper was in the first line while his son Adam was in the last line.

The suspense and and intensity of the scene grows as the British professional soldiers slowly approach. At first they are out of sight, but the sounds of the drums as they march can be heard by the militia men. As the sounds of the drums get progressively louder as the British got nearer, the resolved yet anxious looks on the faces of many of the militia displays the seriousness of the situation. The British arrive at the green and the commanding officer imperiously demands that the militia disarm and go home. Suddenly, a shot rings out from somewhere. It is the famous “shot heard around the world”. The British regulars charge the militia men. Then Moses Cooper is shot and drops to the ground, dead. The look of abject horror on his son’s face as he looks at the dead body of his father reveals the grim reality of war.

Saving Private Ryan

To observe the horror of war, all you need to do is view the twenty-four minute sequence of the landings on Omaha Beach in the war movie masterpiece, “Saving Private Ryan”. It is the quintessential war movie, beautifully acted and breathtakingly shot. It is probably the most realistic battle scene of all time.

The basic premise of the movie is that three out of four brothers of an Iowa family named Ryan have been killed in the line of duty. One brother is known to be still surviving. He is somewhere in Normandy, France. Platoon leader Captain Miller is ordered to find the surviving brother and get him to safety so he can be sent home to his family.

The Omaha Beach sequence in the movie is hard to watch but necessary in order to get an approximation of what our soldiers had to experience in that landing. The evil that Hitler and Tojo had unleashed had to be countered. The slaughter and carnage on that beach was hellish. Behind every dead soldier is a heartbroken mother and father, decades of future life experiences lost, an opportunity to manifest attributes of God (love, truth, etc.) through a human body, tragically snatched away.

William Tecumseh Sherman, famed Civil War general, once said “War is hell”. I think even more appropriate would be “War is horror”. In war, attributes of courage, valor, sacrifice and bravery come forth from men and these are qualities that are not found in hell. War is horror. Utmost horror. Pure horror. The Omaha Beach scene in Saving Private Ryan is a realistic and heart wrenching portrayal of that horror.

Will War Ever Disappear?

If you look at recorded human history, from the Sumerians up to the present day, it sure looks like the one thing that human beings seem to do best is kill each other in wars. In our current era, there is the possibility that the use of nuclear weapons or biological warfare could potentially wipe out ninety percent or more of the earth’s population. And who among you do not believe that the remaining ten percent would wind up resuming wars “after the dust clears”, using swords and spears, if need be.

Within man is an implanted need to grow, to be more tomorrow than he is today. This urge has somehow been corrupted in that war is used to achieve said ends. The powers that be all over the world are masters at manipulating the minds of the masses to support the horrors of war. Those humans that they cannot manipulate, they coerce. I recall a scene in Saving Private Ryan where a small group of German soldiers stand up within a trench with their arms up. One of them shouts something that none of the Americans understand. One is shot and the others are taken prisoner. It turns out that the one who was shouting was speaking Czech and saying, “We are not nazis. We don’t want to be here. We were forced to be here”.

Wars will continue throughout human existence until one of two things happen. The first option is that the entire human species is eliminated and a new species subsequently takes over the earth. The second option is if mankind decides to surrender whole heartedly to the guidance and direction of Ultimate Love and Intelligence, the eternal I AM, God.

In Invitation To You

On this Memorial Day, Monday, at 3:00 pm, I invite you to join me in one minute of silent prayer for all of our soldiers killed in wars. Ask God to bless them wherever their spirits may currently be. I will, in the silence of my Dwelling Place, reflect on their suffering and sacrifice. When that minute is over, I will focus my attention, with all the energy I can muster, to live, to breathe, to have my being within the peace and power of the Kingdom of God within. The way to be victorious in the “War of Chaos” in the world today is to surrender to Original Source and follow where Universal Wisdom leads you.

A Beautiful Mystical Dwelling Place

Your Power To See The Unseen

Faith is the solid reality of what you hope for.

Faith is the solid proof of what is unseen.

What is hope? The dictionary defines hope as: “a feeling of confident expectation for a certain thing to happen”. Faith is your power to see the unseen. Faith is available to every single human being on the face of the earth. You do need to activate your faith however. You do this by going to a beautiful mystical Dwelling Place every day. This Dwelling Place is the Kingdom of God within.

For any problem, for any situation, for any decision, for any manifestation – dwell on the only true power – God, the universal I AM. Dwelling on God is dwelling within your place of power – the Kingdom of God within. Do not search for God up on Mt. Olympus nor do you have to travel to the peaks of the Himalayas. It is not mandatory to travel to an ecclesiastical building of some type. God is not some Jack and the Beanstalk giant with a long white beard peeking at you from behind the clouds or up on the planet Mars. The Kingdom of God is within you, right now, The price of admission is to focus your mind and your heart on what you are able to perceive about God.

Visiting the Kingdom of God within is about seeing only God if even for only a few minutes a day. Go beyond your problem or situation, whatever it is. Keep going until you arrive at the feeling that the problem does not even exist, you know nothing about it. “How can I do this”?, you ask, “I can’t stop worrying. I’ve tried”. You not only can stop worrying but you must stop worrying. Focus your mind on God. Dwell on God. Dwell in God. You were not created by Original Source in order to demonstrate worry and fear. You were created by Universal Intelligence so that you can bring to fruition in the 3D world the majesty and glory and attributes of the energy of Original Source. Fear and worry do not demonstrate the glory of God Almighty. All humans experience some degree of worry at times. To stubbornly continue however in a state of worry and fear about a problem is sin. It is a falling short of what God created you for. Valid concern is one thing. Prolonged worry is quite another. It is a “holding on” to your lack of faith.

The Photo Shoot

I am grateful over this lifetime to be the father of three precious children, two males, one female. Back when the youngest one, the daughter, was about three or four years old, we decided to take advantage of a big box store “photo shoot special” for all three children. The store had a small room that served as a photo studio. A professional photographer took a photo that was subsequently enlarged and suitable for framing.

In order to keep small children occupied while others were getting their photo taken, there were a few toys and what not there. Included was a lightweight, colorful ball, about the size of a basketball. While waiting, my daughter became enthralled with this ball. When it was her turn to get her photo taken, she steadfastly refused to let go of the ball. The photographer said that it would interfere with the quality of the photo. When we went to take the ball out of her hands, she started crying. Well, we did not want to pay a photographer for a photograph of a crying child so we let her have the ball and the photo was taken.

So it is with free will, faith and choosing to dwell on God. We can choose to just let go (for our benefit) and place our focus on God or we can stubbornly hold onto worry and fear (to our detriment). God allows us the total freedom to make either choice.

OK, So How Do You Get There?

The route to take in order to get to your mystical Dwelling Place is also the simplest route. Whatever your problem, whatever your frustrated desire, refrain from dwelling on it. Refrain from hanging around in that thought neighborhood. Instead, dwell on God. Whatever it is that you are desirous of manifesting, you place roadblocks in your path when you fret and fuss over how in the world you are going to satisfy that desire. Leave the details to God. Be sure that you are paying attention when Universal Intelligence subsequently provides you with the details.

One road that you can use to get to your Dwelling Place is this: once a day, or more if you choose, say to yourself, “I am turning this whole thing (name the specific problem or desire) over to God. Then for at least a few minutes, think of God and only of God. You can do this by making some statement of absolute fact over and over again with the utmost of earnestness.

Some examples of statements of fact that you can use are: “There is only one true power. It is God”; “God is with me, now and always”; “God is guiding me and directing me with love”; “I am grateful that God is with me now”; “Thank you Father, I thank you with all that I am”, “I am a child of the Most High God”; “The peace and presence of God fills me now”. No matter how mechanical it seems at first, keep at it. Commit fully, heart and soul, to the process. It will work, if you work at it. Refrain from struggling. If a fear or worry enters your mind, acknowledge it, then with quiet but firm insistence, substitute that thought with your thought of God. There is not room enough there for both of them. Whenever your mind starts wandering, just gently guide it back to the Dwelling Place.

Another Road You Can Use To Get There

Sometimes, the urge to think about the problem or frustrated desire can be quite powerful. The urge can be so bullying that you cannot even come up with the words of your chosen statement of fact. If you find this to be the case, here is another road that you can take to get to your Dwelling Place. Just say the word “God” and follow that up immediately with a word that describes an attribute of God. Since you are a child of God, created to manifest the I AM in 3D reality, they become your attributes as well by channeling through God. God is demonstrated through your faith.

A favorite acronym that I use to instantly recall a dozen of attributes that I can demonstrate through God and by God is “LILT*BAPC*ICIJ”. The acronym stands for “Love. Intelligence. Light. Truth. Beauty. Abundance. Power. Compassion. Imagination. Creativity. Impartiality. Joy”. When your mind just does not want to let up in conjuring up the problem or frustration, just say loudly in your mind (or out loud if you prefer), “God, Love”; “God, Intelligence”; “God, Light”; “God, Truth”, and so on for all of the attributes. If you have “let go” and allowed God to fill up your thoughts, you are allowing God to channel those attributes through you. In effect, you are those attributes as long as you dwell on God.

Some Further Details

How long per session should I actively use the Dwelling Place technique? A few consecutive minutes are sufficient as long as you are focused and not dealing with distractions.

How many times a day should I practice this form of scientific prayer? When you get to the point where you can go a few consecutive minutes very quickly, feel free to repeat the prayer several times a day with a period of time separating each session. It is important however, that after you have prayed in this manner, that you completely drop all thought of the matter until the next session. This is important to remember as this “in-between respite” gives your manifestation a chance to grow.

How many days should I continue with this technique with regard to a specific desire? Until its materialization is complete. This can range from a few days to a few years depending on the size of the manifestation and the fullness of your faith. Be alert and pay attention to what is going on around you. Be prepared to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. Be thankful when you receive encouraging signs and signals. Refrain from thinking of the probable means of achieving your desired end. Ironically, this will slow things down. Just consistently go to your Dwelling Place and when things present themselves, follow through appropriately on your end.

Can I use this technique to manifest more than one pressing need at the same time? While there is nothing per se to prevent you from doing so, if you can, focus on one thing at a time. Try to come up with one manifestation that will solve both problems at once. The greater the manifestation, the more elongated the time factor. That time lag is what really puts your faith to the test. The more elongated the time factor, the greater the temptation to lose faith. If you never used this manner of scientific prayer before, start small. Then as your results yield success, it will strengthen your faith, which is the fuel to your “rocket ship”. If you have two equal and critical desires, then go ahead but just name one desire at the outset of each Dwelling Place session.

You Are A Scientist

Put on your imaginary white lab coat, get your imaginary clipboard and run your own scientific laboratory experiment. Every day, like clockwork, for the next six months, spend some of your daily allotment of time going to your mystical Dwelling Place. Whatever your religious beliefs, from the very start, just check your doubt at the door. Better yet, throw it in the large trash can outside the door. Dragging around a duffel bag of doubt for this experiment will just be a self fulfilling prophecy for negative results.

In my personal experience in praying in this manner, the time frame for manifestation was longer than I originally anticipated but the manifestations were indeed created. I think my “backsliding” into subtle episodes of doubt served to delay the receiving of my order. In any case, this technique will not cost you anything but some moments of your daily time. As you faithfully await answer to your prayer, how can it possibly hurt you to spend time each day dwelling on God?

Believe. Receive.

Seventeen Seconds To Love, Health, Success

One Thousand One, One Thousand Two…….

When I was young, we used to play two-hand touch pickup football games in our neighborhood. Usually we either played in the street (“car coming”) or in the parking lot of a nearby VFW. In two-hand touch football, if you were on defense, you were not allowed to rush the quarterback as soon as the ball was hiked. You were only allowed to go after the quarterback after a five second count that you had to say out loud. You either said, “One Thousand One, One Thousand Two” up to “One Thousand Five”. The alternate was “Mississippi One, Mississippi Two” and so on. When you reached five, you could rush the quarterback and attempt to two-hand touch him to end the play or force him to pass the ball to one of his teammates.

In the amount of time that it takes for you to give a corresponding “one thousand count” to seventeen, you could be engaging in a life changing manifesting technique that could draw to you your heart’s desire. What is your desire? Love? Good health? Money? Having the ability to help a loved one who needs help? A new job? Maybe a combination of these or perhaps all five. If you are not just conning yourself with a bunch of fluff and you really and truly desire to do what is required to draw good stuff into your life, then read on. If not, go watch tv.

Plug Your Self Into The Power Outlet

Every single day of your life you either draw stuff to you or repel stuff away from you. The strength of your drawing power can range from extremely mild to extraordinarily strong. When nothing of note is happening in your life, it could be an indication that your connection to the power source is weak. If you are an atheist, you may say, “Nonsense and balderdash. All the power that I possess is within me so if nothing is happening in my life, I have to reach down and bring it up to the surface.” Ironically, as a believer in the existence of one true God through which we were all created, I am in agreement with that statement insofar as the power of the Kingdom of God is indeed within us all. It is up to us to make the connection with this power in order to use it.

You can own the most awesome stereo or refrigerator or television or microwave oven or whatever. If they are not plugged into a power outlet however, they are of no value to you. Even for something such as a tablet or laptop computer or cellphone that is powered by battery, at some point, in order to recharge the battery, it has to be plugged into a power outlet. If you do not have a strong power source for whatever device you are using, it will ultimately run out of juice. This is what happens to human beings all over the earth. They neglect to plug into the Universal Power Source.

The path of your life is determined by the frequency of the energy vibration that you put out from your inner energy. The higher the frequency of the vibration, the greater the likelihood that you will draw unto yourself the desires of your heart. Caution: outside of the realm of self-defense, if your desire is to inflict harm on another soul, this will inevitably boomerang on you. “For in the way you judge others, you will be judged and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

Where There Is No Vision, The People Perish

Proverbs 29:18 states, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. In order to fulfill your desires, you must have a vision of those desires. Using the “Mr. Chi” acronym, your desires will most likely fall into one of five general categories: money, relationships, career (or avocation), health and interceding to help another person.

Form a clear, discernable vision of each of your desires, starting with the strongest desire. If you need more money, visualize having more money. If you are searching for love, visualize how you would feel if you had it right now. Not a particular person per se, just the feeling. A feeling can be as much a vision as an image. If you are in good health, visualize remaining thus. If you have an infirmity, visualize being in good health. If your job sucks, visualize working at an occupation that you would enjoy. If you love your job, visualize and feel the gratitude. If you desire to help someone that is dealing with a problem, visualize helping them and seeing the happiness you create. All of these visions should be created in your mind. Be clear about your vision, not wishy-washy.

By creating the vision, you have created the conduit to plug yourself into the life’s Power Outlet. You have the plug in your hand. Now you need “juice”. You need to connect with the Universal Power Outlet, the Kingdom of God.

The Seventeen Second Technique In A Nutshell

One of the techniques that I have successfully used in my sixty-nine years of living is what I call the “Seventeen Second Technique”. This technique involves consciously and intentionally, focusing at will, on raising your personal energy vibration frequency in order to magnetize your intention. This technique, as in all conscious manifesting techniques, requires you to fully commit to the process. There can be no holding back. There can be no half-hearted attempts. There can be no keeping one foot in the door and one foot out. If you do not believe that it will produce results that will benefit you, move on to another technique. Perhaps at a later date you will feel differently. I have most assuredly used this method successfully. That it works is beyond question. The real question is: will you work? This is not some la-ti-da fluff process. To successfully use the Seventeen Second Technique requires real work on your part.

This technique is all about revving up your energy frequency for a minimum of seventeen consecutive seconds. You do this by creating a mind image. This in turn results in a “feeling good” sensation right down to the depths of your being. Sounds easy huh?. Hint: it’s not. If you make the choice to work at it however, and can get yourself to a point where you can do it at will, there is nothing in the world that will stop good things coming to you. Nothing.

Four Different Approaches To The Same Result

So how do you go about training yourself in this technique? There are a number of ways to do this. It may be best for you to get a pen and spiral bound notebook or legal pad and start writing. You may say, “Write what”? Good, you’re interested. One way to go about it is to write down at least a half dozen things about yourself that you like and admire. It could be a physical feature (such as your eyes, your nose, your hair, etc.). It could be a feature within your body such as your voice, your vision, your hearing, etc. It could be a particular skill (or skills) that you happen to be good at. It may be a particular inner quality of your personality that you look on as a positive asset. Take some time and think it over. Be sure that they are things that actually make you feel good.

When you come up with some choices, then write them down on an index card or post-it note. Keep it with you at all times. Start with the first choice on your list. Be happy that that item is part of you. Think of how that feature or skill or quality has fulfilled you or benefitted you or someone else in some way. Be thankful that it is part of what makes you, you. Enjoy enjoying it. Focus on your choice for a minimum of seventeen seconds. If your mind starts wandering around before that seventeen second time period, just reset and start again. As you get more adept at doing this, explore stretching out that seventeen seconds to a longer time period. The ideal is probably about two minutes but just start with seventeen seconds. If you are in a feel-good state for at least seventeen seconds, the coffee starts to percolate in the universal storehouse of goodies.

Another way of achieving this feel-good state is to dwell on a particular desire that you have “in reverse”. In other words, you have already traded in the “junker”. You are now driving around in a car of your choosing. You feel the texture of the seats. You handle the steering wheel. You turn on and listen to the stereo system. Your hear your passenger stating, “This is a really nice car”. You throw open the moon roof and feel the breeze. The car handles really well and suits your purposes to a tee. If not a car, then a new big sceen tv or a state of the art refrigerator or a new mattress for your bedroom or, well, you get the idea. Whatever floats your boat.

Yet another way of of achieving this feel-good synapse is through the retrieval of beautiful memories of achievements or experiences that have made your life worthwhile. Things that changed the world for the better, if only in a microscopic way, that you were personally responsible for. Make sure that it is “feel-good” only. There is no room in this technique for bittersweet memories tainted with regret. The whole purpose of the procedure is to raise your energy frequency, not lower it.

One more way of approaching this technique involves compiling a list of what brings forth a feel-good vibe from things that you enjoy doing. Eating a wonderful meal, listening to music, dancing, hiking, fishing, swimming, engaging in sex, playing a musical instrument, gardening, spending time in the company of friends and family, and so on. How do you feel when you are fully engaged in your choices? Once your have that feeling, hold it. Hold on to it for at least seventeen seconds. Lose your self in the experience that you have chosen to dwell upon. For a minimum of seventeen seconds, this is your existence.

Some Further Details

How long do you keep doing this? Until you have achieved the results that you desire. Do not be concerned with the means that Universal Intelligence chooses to bring it about. Your job is to continue with the process until the end is reached. If you are looking to manifest a Hyundai sedan, it is going to ultimately appear much sooner than than if you are desiring a Maserati or Mercedes. Before your intention is materialized, if you persist in the process, you will see signs and signals that your “order has been received”. Depending on the size and extent of your intention, it could come to you with “same day service” or in a number of years. Pay attention to everything around you and observe the signs and signals that occur.

One potential obstacle that can throw a monkey wrench into your efforts is doubt. Scripture states, “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like the wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord”.

This technique is something that you can do anywhere, at any time of day or night. You can do this at work, at home doing a chore, while sitting, while walking, while jogging, while laying down, while exercising, even when you are in the shower. Do it as many times as you like during the course of the day, whenever you feel like it. Raising your personal energy vibration will be an action that is always to your advantage.

When you have chosen a specific set of feel-good mood flippers, give it awhile to see how things go. If after doing it for a period of time and it is not feeling right for you, make an adjustment to another approach. If you are doing it right, you will after awhile observe things happening in your favor. Sometimes shifting your energy vibration, especially if it was low to start with, may throw your body out of whack for a short period of time. Continue with the process and this will pass. It is a form of your body going through a type of withdrawal as you cease injecting it with toxic thoughts. Again, feel free to experiment and make adjustments as you go along if you feel it necessary.

Bruce Lee — Martial Arts Master

On my personal list of most admired people is the martial arts master and actor, Bruce Lee. One of his most quoted lines is “I fear not the man who has practiced ten thousand kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick ten thousand times”. It is a quote that highlights the importance of focus and persistence in becoming skilled in something. Once you get in a groove with this technique, keep at it. Stay with it and you will open the door to a wonderful array of gifts and good surprises.

Believe. Receive.

Are You Placing Your Trust In The Right Place ?

The Sixty-Four Billion Dollar Con Job

You have a substantial sum of money which you want to intelligently invest so as to make a reasonable return on your investment. You are not looking at any “double your money in ninety days” type of schemes. Perhaps you are the manager of a pension fund or a trust fund or a non-profit foundation. Perhaps you are a private investor and would like to stay ahead of the inflation rate without risking any of your principal. As the financial manager, you have a fiduciary duty to investigate and research any investment of funds that you make on behalf of the person or entity that you are representing. As a private investor you have the fiduciary duty to yourself, your spouse and your family to handle your life’s savings wisely. These are logical and rational approaches to investing funds. You need to place your trust in someone who you can unequivocally trust with your money. I will venture to say that you would not place your substantial sum of money in the hands of the guy in the image above. While some people reek of cologne, this guy reeks of sleaze. The only thing missing is a pencil thin mustache. If you would lookup the definition of the phrase “sleazy con artist”, you might even see this guy’s image next to the printed definition.

The bottom line in allowing another person to invest your money on your behalf is finding someone that you can safely trust with your money. Someone with a rock solid reputation. Someone who is vouched for by people whose judgement you trust and respect. Someone who perhaps is well known for his philanthropy. Someone whose lifestyle clearly reflects the ability to be quite successful in financial investment matters. Someone like…..Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Of course I am referring to Bernie Madoff, aka Bernie the Con Man, aka Bernie the Sixty Four Billion Dollar Man, aka Bernie the Fraudster, aka Bernie the Liar, aka…..well you get the idea. Bernie Madoff, who ran the biggest Ponzi scheme in history to the tune of sixty four billion dollars.

A Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing

If you google the image of Bernie Madoff, what you see is nothing like the image of poor Mr. Sleaze above. What you will see is the image of a very respectable looking, well dressed, well groomed businessman. Such is the stock in trade of the classic con man. The word con man is short for “confidence man”. In other words, someone who has a high degree of skill in gaining the confidence of his targeted victims. The con man presents the impressive facade that puts the investor at ease. That part of the con is called “the front”. Once the victim is hooked, the con man is adept at gently reeling him in. Part of the front of the con man is having word of mouth testimonials from actual investors. You may not put much stock in a paid advertisement but a testimonial from your brother, your uncle, your friend, your business associate, your current financial advisor, is something that carries a lot of weight.

In Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, he generated extensive word of mouth referrals by paying in full to a number of investors who wished to redeem their investment. He did this by using “new money” provided by new investors. He likewise generated a “history of proven results” by providing all investors with quarterly statements showing steady and consistent returns on their money of between ten and twelve percent per year. At that rate the investors who “let it ride” would double their initial investment in just seven years. Of course those statements were as phony as a three dollar bill. It was definitely not a “double your money in ninety days” type of con. It was perceived as steady and reliable as the Rock of Gibraltar. He carried on with this scheme for a very long time until it all came crashing down in the recession of 2008. Large numbers of investors requested redemptions of their funds and Bernie wasn’t able to cover the nut any longer. In 2008, he plead guilty to his crimes. He died in prison in 2021.

It Has To Be Legit, Just Look At His Investor List

The Madoff con job fooled some of the top hedge fund managers and major investment banks. The magnitude of the con is staggering. Some of the most highly touted MBA financial advisors in the world got flimflammed. Some of the most respected names in global banking got bamboozled. One poor money manger committed suicide by slitting his wrists while another jumped to his death from the twenty-fourth floor of an office building. Average everyday people lost their life savings that they had entrusted to financial advisors. Madoff was a giant money vacuum cleaner sucking in money from all directions.

Television celebrities, movie stars, sports figures, politicians, charities, pension funds, hedge funds, universities, churches, financial management firms, banks of all sizes, they all got sucked into the Madoff vacuum cleaner. One investor told the judge at Madoff’s sentencing hearing – “He stole from the rich. He stole from the poor. He stole from the in between. He had no moral values whatsoever. He cheated all his victims out of their money so he and his wife could live a life of luxury.” (As to stealing from the poor, I would assume the investor was talking about the charities Madoff stole from. Said charities would have aided the poor).

A telling quote comes from another of the victims – author of fifty-seven books, Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor, Elie Weisel: “We thought he was God. We trusted everything in his hands”. Of course Weisel did not mean to infer that Madoff was believed to be God. He just used that as a figure of speech to indicate the utmost trust that the victims had in Madoff.

Seek Ye First The Kingdom Of God

Jesus states very clearly in the book of Matthew what the objective of every person on earth should be: “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness”. If you are able to free yourself somehow from the countless distractions of the world and center yourself in the Kingdom of God within, everything that you came here in this world to do, shall be done. Human beings throw themselves needless detours when they base their lives and place their trust on anything outside the Kingdom of God. Does this mean that we should neglect the reasonable and daily duties that help sustain us as well as the lives of our family members? Of course not. Surrendering to the benevolence and power of the Kingdom of God however, serves to sharpen your intuition, and thus allows enhancement of your intuition so as to guide you unto your best path in life, the path that is the most personally fulfilling to you.

So how do you go about seeking the Kingdom of God?

Prayer. Go into your inner place and in solitude ask, seek, knock. Ask for guidance from the Divine for any and all situations. After asking, seek the door to which your intuition subsequently directs you. Once reaching that door, gain admittance by knocking until the door is opened. Once inside and you see that your heart’s desire has been granted, then believe and receive with thanksgiving.

Meditation. Every day reserve some minutes to stop everything and just say to the world and everyone in it, “Quiet please”! Then say to your mind that is throwing thoughts around in your head like the wild man of Borneo, “Quiet please”! Then just sit in silence for your designated time and listen. You may be quite surprised at what you will hear. If you find it difficult to stop all the chatter inside your mind, conduct research as to the best way to have your mind be still. One suggestion is either aloud or silently just slowly repeat the phrase “Thank you Father”. Sometimes music can help. If you really want to, you’ll find the best way.

Surrender. Your ego’s job is to protect you and keep you safe based on its knowledge of everything that ever happened to you and everything that you ever learned or observed. Sometimes it gets a bit too bossy and dogmatic. When that happens, just say to it, “please just sit down and relax. I trust God. God has this, so relax”.

Listen. Pay attention to your surroundings. The first human tragedy is that many can hear but do not listen. Be confident yet humble in spirit and your “inner hearing” correspondingly sharpens.

Observe. Pay attention to your surroundings. The second human tragedy is that many look but do not observe. Be confident yet humble in spirit and your “inner vision” correspondingly sharpens.

Follow Through. If you have ever closely watched a pitcher in the game of baseball, you will see that his follow through when he pitches the ball “seals the deal” regarding the success of each pitch. He can be highly skilled in gripping the ball. He can be physically strong and possess great stamina. He can be perfect in his initial approach, called “the wind-up”. If however, the pitcher fails to properly follow through on his pitch (arms, legs, hips, torso), his pitch will be drastically reduced in quality. The pitcher has to do more than know the perfect style and approach for pitching the ball. He has to fully follow through with each pitch that he makes. So it is with your life, with my life, with all lives. Without true and consistent follow through, you will find yourself on life’s dreaded “hamster treadmill”.

Today, stop at some point for a few minutes and ask yourself in the quiet of your mind: “Where are you placing your trust”? Answer your question with raw, uncensored honesty. Nobody will hear you except you. Where you place your true trust in your life determines the tenor and substance of your existence.

Believe. Receive.

I Don’t Care — Now It’s Time For You To Stop Caring

Caring Can Be Counter-Productive

Take a look at that guy in the image above. If you wanted to get a look at a guy who has decided upon an act which encompasses an “I don’t care” attitude, there it is. Some may even call it a stupid or crazy or potentially suicidal act. I am going to go ahead and assume that beforehand he knew exactly how wide the crevice was and exactly how long he is able to jump with a running start. It looks like he is wearing shoes that provide him with good traction. Likewise I will assume he checked out the condition of the ground so he would not stumble on approach. It can be imagined that if he advised others what he was preparing to do, at least some of them would advise him not to do it. I know if he told his mother in advance, she would strongly object or at least tell him to put a secure, solid platform across the crevice. In any case, as you can see from the photograph, he obviously made the decision to make the jump and have someone photograph him doing so. For only reasons known to him, he felt that it was something he had to do despite the advice of others not to do it. In a somewhat similar fashion, when through prayer and meditation you have received Divine guidance about a decision, listen with open ears to others but place top priority on that which comes forth from the Kingdom of God within you. That – is what you should always be caring about, first and foremost.

During a job that I worked at for twenty years, I volunteered to be the union shop steward for a facility employing over two hundred employees. I held that position for ten years. The best way to describe the experience is that of being the manager of the complaint department within a large department store in Hell. The union employees that you represent always expect more and the management employees with which you interact resent you for making them adhere to the terms of the contract. This was an unpaid position that was done in conjunction with my hourly wage employment. In effect, you worked two jobs. Why do it? Well, first of all I knew it was something that I could do well due to my personal skill set. Second, management had committed a foolish error in management that affected me personally in a severely adverse way. It was a form of payback I guess you could say. Third, it was a way of having an active role in ensuring workplace justice, which I enjoyed. Many times someone would say to me, “If you go after management for that, they’re gonna really hate you.” My standard response would be “You don’t know how little that means to me. I don’t care”. If I adjusted my actions in accordance with caring whether everyone liked me as a result of those actions, that would have been counter-productive to the entire situation.

Regardless…..

One of those positives that came to me as a result of my experience as a union steward was that I evolved to more frequently seek out, follow, and have confidence in that Inner Light within us that gives us guidance. It became easier to proceed with a philosophy of “just do right, regardless”……..

Regardless of others’ opinions of me as a result.

Regardless of any attempted intimidation or implied threats.

Regardless of whether others would like me

Regardless of whether others would not like me.

Regardless of having an imaginary bullseye on my back as a result.

Following this Inner Light has allowed me to feel more free in my daily life;

Feeling more free in my daily life brought more inner joy into my life experience;

Experiencing more inner joy in my life experience helped me to feel more alive;

Feeling more alive awakened me more acutely to the power of the Kingdom of God within.

The opinions of others are the property of others. The dictates of others are the property of others. (I will like you if you do……../I will not like you if you do……..). Covet not the property of others. With the guidance of Ultimate Intelligence create and tend to your own property.

I have reflected on the causation of errors of thinking that led to negative results in my life. Some of those errors were caused by altering my thoughts, words or actions based on caring how I would be perceived by another person or other persons. There is nothing wrong with listening to the words of others and respecting their opinions unless you allow them to supersede the guidance and direction that comes from your Inner Light. God is supreme. God is first. As Jesus Christ states in Matthew 6:33, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God”. Through ongoing prayer and meditation, know what direction to take, then incorporate respect for the opinions of others into your everyday life. First things first, second things second.

Caring And Uncaring At The Same Time

The word empathy is defined as: the ability to understand the inner feelings of another. Although completely counter-intuitive, it has been my experience that the less that I focus my attention on how I am perceived by others, the more empathy that I have for people. I do not really understand exactly how this happens, but it does. It’s kind of weird. Perhaps it has something to do with a heightening of the perception of the Kingdom of God within.

I must confess that at times I find this enhancement of empathy somewhat disconcerting. I can be observing someone walking on the sidewalk or even seated in their car and all of a sudden I feel a sudden blast of pure empathy for them. Sometimes this even drives me to tears. It’s almost like I can perceive what is inside them. Sometimes it is feeling the adversity that a person is encountering. Sometimes it is feeling the goodness of that person’s heart. Whenever this happens, I immediately am compelled to send out a silent prayer on behalf of that person – “God bless this man richly today. Thank you. Amen”. Or “God bless this woman richly today. Thank you. Amen”. I send forth the prayer with the power of my energy and expect results with faith even though I may never be in a position to observe said results. Why certain people and not everyone? On any given day, I imagine some can use prayer more than others. Anyway, if those empathy blasts happen too frequently, I think my inner wiring would short circuit and smoke would be coming out of my ears in no time.

OK, So How Is This Related To Manifesting

Everything in your life is a manifestation. Manifestations reflect who you are on the inside. Don’t change the world. Change the assumptions that you perceive about yourself. Let others perceive however they choose. That is their property. Your property is how you perceive yourself. Tend to your own property. Whether someone hates you or loves you is their choice. Your choice is to make your life worthwhile and fulfilling, to love yourself unconditionally. Your job is to know what you truly desire, then have faith and believe persistently that you already have it. In an unseen dimension of reality, you DO already have it. That is the very heart of consciously manifesting your reality. Faith in that which is unseen (by others) and your belief in your fulfilling that desire. The strength of your faith – the naturalness of your belief – always supersedes everything else. Make these what you care about and everything else will fall into place for you.

Yet Another New Manifesting Recipe For You

Nuclear Explosion With Orange Mushroom Cloud

The Mind-Boggling Power Of Stored Energy

You, yes y-o-u, were born with a power that you probably never dreamed that you possess. It is the consciousness of the Kingdom of God within you. From this comes your God-given ability to utilize that energy to co-create, with your Creator as your constant guide. You were given this ability in order to be a living, breathing demonstration of the power of the Living God.

In science, the first law of thermodynamics states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only be transferred or transformed from one state to another. You were created by Original Source in order to transform your life energy into manifestations of the I AM. You were given free will to transform the energy in any way you choose because for the universe to continue its growth, it must come forth from sovereign beings, not puppets.

You have the same energy within you that is found in an atomic bomb. A nuclear bomb, unfortunately for mankind, represents energy that is to be used for killing and destroying. It harnesses the energy forces that hold the nucleus of a single atom together. The stored energy is released when the particles of the atom’s nucleus are either split apart or merged. There are two ways that nuclear energy can be released from an atom, nuclear fission or nuclear fusion. In nuclear fission, the nucleus of an atom is split into two smaller fragments by a neutron. In nuclear fusion, two smaller atoms are merged together to form a larger one. This is how the sun produces energy. While nuclear bombs use stored energy to destroy, you have the amazing ability, through imaginal creative manifestation, to create beautiful things using that same stored energy.

Different Strokes For Different Folks

The more research that I do, the more manifesting methods and techniques I come across. Why have so many different techniques for manifesting? There are about eight billion people in the world today. Each person is unique and has their own unique personality. What might appeal to one may not appeal to another. Beef and chicken are both highly consumed meats, but some people just prefer beef while others prefer chicken. One type of technique may not inspire much interest in a particular person while another technique may literally light up that same person’s imagination. The techniques that I present to you all work successfully. What activates the success in all of them is your belief in them. Do you feel that the end result that you desire is already yours as strongly as you feel the nose on your face is yours. Therein lies the heart of manifesting your reality.

A particular manifesting technique may sound to you like the stupidest thing on God’s green earth but if it gets the person that uses it to the mood of the wish fulfilled and its accompanying feeling, then that would obviously make it a valid technique. As the old saying goes, “the proof is in the pudding”. Manifesting is not begging. You can get on your knees and beg God all day long and you would get nowhere. It gets people all over the world who do it nowhere. God has already provided you the way out of any and all trouble. You are expected to do your part in the manifesting process. Believe, with gratitude, that you have received. Faith is the assurance of the unseen.

Choose whatever technique that you enjoy the most, that you feel the most proficient using. What matters with all the various techniques is that they create the feeling within you that what you desire is in fact already yours. Yes, there is that time factor that you have to deal with in this dimension, but in a realm you cannot see, your order, so to speak, has already been fulfilled. Let’s stop for a minute at that point. You are walking on clouds, feeling on top of the world, experiencing inner joy. That is what turns on the universal, thermonuclear magnet within you. The magnet says, “Damn, this guy is radiating some heavy duty gratitude and joy. I better start drawing some good stuff to him.” Then, you keep it switched on. It will be like that old Bugs Bunny cartoon where Yosemite Sam has Bugs cornered and is about to shoot him. Out of nowhere (remember it’s a cartoon) Bugs pulls out a huge magnet and points it at Sam. The magnet is so strong that it pulls the bullets out of Sam’s guns (yeah I know lead is not attracted to magnets – hey, it’s a cartoon), then it pulls Sam’s guns, then it pulls a knife Sam was going to throw at Bugs, then Sam’s belt buckle (his pants fall down), then the horseshoes from Sam’s horse (which of course all hit Sam in the head on their way to the magnet). It’s like a magic magnet that nothing can resist. That is what happens when you bring forth out of the Kingdom of God within you, the true feeling of your desire fulfilled, and sustain it.

Let’s take another example of you walking into a store and purchasing a lottery ticket. The next day you discover that you have won a substantial amount of money. How you would feel? You would probably be walking around with a smile from ear to ear. You would be thinking how can you express thanksgiving for this good fortune. Why? Because you have checked the ticket six times and you are sure that you have the winning ticket. You did it. As Mr. Wonka would say, “You’ve won, Charlie”! That’s the feeling that you’re shooting for. If it’s money you wish to manifest, your imaginal act does not have to visualize where the money came from. Your imaginal act is simply your feeling that you now have the funds to cover your needs. These funds could literally come from anywhere. God will handle the details.

What throws off a lot of people when manifesting is the time factor. They may say, “OK, I can feel that feeling but I can’t hold it indefinitely when the debt collector is calling six to eight times a day. That’s alright. When you go to sleep tonight, to hell with the debt collectors, they can’t call past 9 pm. Instead of lying there with your eyes open fretting over the quagmire you’re in, create our own little imaginal world where all your money worries are over. Feel it as your true reality and then fall asleep in that state.

I was walking to my car in the parking lot of the CVS drugstore recently. It was a warm day and many people in their cars had their car windows open. As I walked past one car, I heard a man talking on his phone, “Look I told you people that I just don’t have the money right now. Why don’t you leave me alone?” It is in situations like that where you simply have to find a way to switch off the feeling of “don’t got it” and substitute it with a created reality of “you got it”. It takes commitment to your chosen process. It takes discipline. It takes laser focus. It takes faith. It is difficult but if you can consistently convince your subconscious through your awareness of being, a way will be found out of the mess. As the lyrics to the song, “Testify” say, “Be still. Stand in love. Pay attention.”

The Gettysburg Address Method

In this technique, you are going to construct your own 271 word “Gettysburg Address” that you are going to present verbally to an assembled group of interested people. “What?!!” you say, “No way. I’m not good at public speaking and besides I don’t have the voice or the flair for it!” OK, calm down. The assembled group of people is going to be from your imagination. When you give your speech, you will be totally by yourself. Nobody will see you. Nobody will judge you. Nobody will hear you – except for the group that you have brought together from your imagination.

The Gettysburg Address is a 271 word speech that President Abraham Lincoln delivered during the Civil War in 1863, four and a half months after the Union army victory over the Confederate army at Gettysburg. It took place at the dedication of the National Cemetery where those killed in battle were interred. Ironically, the main speaker before President Lincoln gave a two hour long speech while Lincoln’s speech took less than ten minutes. Starting with the famous phrase, “Four score and seven years ago”, it is perhaps the best known speech in American history.

You can imagine a group of ten people in a living room, or a group of a hundred in a motel meeting room, or a group of a thousand in an auditorium. The speech will only be heard by the group that your imagination has assembled and, if done correctly, also by your subconscious.

It is essential that you give your speech when nobody else is around so that you have no distractions or interruptions to the flow of your speech. Comments from the peanut gallery can be fatal to your proposed manifestation. If this just is not possible at your residence, then get in the car and drive to a place where it is possible. If you have no car, put on one of those phone earpiece things on one of your ears and do it as you take a walk. With the prevalence of those earpiece things, the sight of someone talking to themselves is now a commonplace occurrence. Where there is a true will on your part to give this technique a whirl, you’ll figure out the best way.

As for the speech itself, the words you choose are important but how you feel while giving it is in fact “the secret sauce”. When writing the 271 words, take your time and think it over. You may start out by thanking everyone for coming to hear what you have to say. Then launch right into it. Explain that you had a strong desire to manifest your reality by creating the fulfillment of: here state whatever your desire fulfilled is. You fully surrendered yourself to the process. You created your own very personal “Gettysburg Address” and explain how you then believed that your wish was fulfilled. You put your faith in the assurance of the unseen. You actually felt the relief and joy that it actually came together for you. You are so thankful that you simply had to speak to this group today so that those of you in this assembled group can also use this technique if they want, to create fulfillment of their own hopes and dreams.

Take your time putting your speech together. Choose your words carefully. Make all the different words and phrases meaningful to you so that when you are speaking the words, you are also feeling the words. Give your speech once every day, preferably in the same location at the same time but if you can’t swing that, it’s OK, just give it. Continue to give it until you no longer have to give it. I have to admit that when I used this method, I got into it so emotionally that I got choked up during the speech and shed a tear or two. And yes, the manifestation I was going for did come to pass, just not in the way or in the time frame that I originally thought it would. That’s OK, that kind of thing happens frequently in creating manifestations.

Anyway, there you have it. Another manifestation technique for you to use. If you like it, try it. If not, move on to another technique. Different strokes for different folks. Refrain from standing still – always keep growing. Believe. Receive.