CHAPTER 1
Cracking the Secret Code
Before school would begin and during recess and lunch, Sagaraand his friends would play on the "mountains"—mounds ofgravel that had been piled at the northern-most boundary of theschool grounds that separated the school property from the grove(a thickly wooded area known for its backseat sex) and the localcemetery. There were no Little League fields, goalposts, or concessionstands in those days. It was all sandlot. Those were happy days.
Amidst the gravel and clumps of tall, brown weeds that grew inthe open field, Sagara and his buddies would search for broken piecesof glass they averred to have magical properti es—this one green, thisone light amber, this one clear and smooth. "Look," Sagara said as heswooshed his piece of silicon treasure against a clump of weeds. "Seethe smoke? See the smoke!" And he did see it. It was magic glass thatproduced magic smoke and Sagara, King of the Mountains, held thepower right in the palm of his hand.
Letting Go of What You Don't Have
Some things in life we find. Some things we lose. Some things wegive up. And some things we get back. So it is with the power weinherently have and forget. Just like Sagara.
In this chapter, I explain the basic principles of the Law of Attractionas contained in Michael Losier's book Law of Attraction: The Scienceof Attracting More of What You Want and Less of What you Don't.Michael is my LOA mentor. I am a Certified Law of Attraction Trainerand Facilitator with his program, and his method is my starting pointin this chapter.
I want to point out something about the subtitle of his book,The Science of Attracting More of What You Want and Less of WhatYou Don't. This really has two meanings. Michael describes himselfas the "how to" guy in the Law of Attraction and tells you how todo it. So science in this context represents a methodology that Icall The Losier Method, but it also refers to the quantum physicsunderpinnings of the Law of Attraction that I will introduce in thenext chapter.
Studying the Law of Attraction and becoming a deliberateattractor have been transformational for me. I want to put this in abroader framework of other transformations I have experienced inmy life, some of which have been deliberate and some of which havenot been deliberate. This will illuminate the distinctions between theconscious mind and the nonconscious mind and between what canbe categorized as the four parts of a human being—physical, mental,emotional, and spiritual.
Keep in mind that what I am about to share is my experience. Youneed to reflect on your own experience. And you must own it. Also,I want you to understand that the various transformations that havebrought me to today, to this moment at the computer keyboard, didnot and do not happen in linear fashion. Yes, I can trace the stepsconsciously from A to Z, but the real work, the transformationalwork, goes on behind the scenes at the nonconscious levels of ourbeing (see illustration on page 14).
"I Want to be a Philosophy Major"
My intellectual (mental) transformation came at college. Prior to that,I had little interest in school. Although I did well enough academically,I lacked passion for most things intellectual (save for maybe publicspeaking and business law). When I attended Dickinson College, asmall liberal arts school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, all of that changed.I came alive intellectually. Pandora's Box opened, and I tasted worldstheretofore unbeknownst to me.
I had only read Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," but it so excitedand inspired me that one day I pranced into the chairman of thephilosophy department's office—whom I had never met before—andproclaimed that I wanted to be a philosophy major. Dr. FrederickFerré said yes. I then went on to graduate with honors in philosophyand received my PhD in philosophy from Boston College with thehighest distinction.
Who created this? Who attracted it? I did. This is not the sameas taking full or inappropriate credit for the good things that occurin our life (we are responsible for the "bad" things as well); it isacknowledging that we participate fully in whatever is going on. Sowhy not be deliberate about it? My energy created the space for theLaw of Attraction to unfold in such a way as to bring me my desire.
When the Disciple Is Ready, the Master Appears
Sometimes we go through periods in our lives that are particularlychallenging on multiple levels. I was in such a space about twenty-fiveyears ago where I felt psychologically and emotionally bankrupt.Breakthroughs can emerge out of near or actual breakdowns justas great opportunities can emerge from extreme adversities. It wastime for me to bottom out so I could reidentify myself with myHigher Self. Would I have consciously attracted the pain that was totake me to the next level? No. However, I did create the conditionsand specifics of my karma that brought about seismic change.
This was my spiritual transformation. I met my guru on July 15,1988, and I have never been the same since. Have I always remainedon the straight and narrow? No, I have not. But my profoundexperiences on the meditation path have put God back in my lifeand have taught me that God dwells within me as me, and that theheart of God is compassion. This is the Quantum-Heart.
It is not my intention to proselytize or convert you to a particularreligious persuasion. However you conceive "God" is your business.If you do not like or use the G-word, that is okay. If you choose tosee or not see a divine force underlying all of creation (and creating),this is okay too. But one thing is clear and certain: Scientists haveidentified an energy substratum that is as real, if not more real, thanthe world we perceive with our five senses. To become a deliberateattractor, you must find a way to tap into this Quantum-Heart, as itis from here that we create our day, our future, and our life.
"I Just Have to Do This!"
I am sitting at the top of Pike's Peak in Manitou Springs, Colorado,groping my way from boulder to boulder with altitude sickness. Iam waiting for my wife, Margaret, and sister-in-law to finish thePike's Peak Ascent, a grueling half marathon in conditions that canrange from extreme heat to pellets of sleet (and I have experiencedboth). And as I watch the runners—actually walkers by this time—maketheir way the last thirty yards or so to the finish line, tears ofadmiration well in my eyes, and I am hooked. I am going to do this!
I had always been a sprinter. Bursts of speed, bursts of power.A quarter mile was the farthest I had ever raced, and that had beendecades ago. Thus began a physical transformation as I successfullymorphed into an endurance athlete.
Having been an athlete all of my life, I was no stranger to trainingregimens. In my mid-twenties, you could find me working out fourto five hours a day in Isshinryu karate on my way to a second-degreeblack belt. I created that, and I created my metamorphosis to a high-altitudetrail runner. Not that I did this alone. No one ever does italone. I credit my wife for pushing me along—a coach, mentor, guide,guardian angel ... presumably like the one that brought me back tobody consciousness on one of my Pike's Peak Ascents.
Coming Full Circle
Which brings me to the current culmination of an emotionaltransformation many years in the making (in fact, all transformationshave some emotional component), when I was first exposed to theprinciples of The Losier Method of the Law of Attraction. You see, I hadseen the movie The Secret, which left me cold. I still have residual imagesof seemingly instantaneous manifestations that I did not find credible atthe time. And conventional affirmations never worked for me.
But Michael's approach made sense, and I decided to embrace it,become certified as a trainer and facilitator, and incorporate it intomy success coaching and business consulting. Michael is a brilliantcoach and mentor, and it is especially gratifying to know that at somelevel we attracted each other by being in vibrational harmony. Ourrespective histories on the conscious level are quite diverse, but onthe nonconscious level, we are quite "entangled" in the QuantumHeartand run on parallel tracks.
So what follows is a summary of The Losier Method, as it is thespringboard from which I dive into the mysteries of quantum. Thegoal is to become a Deliberate Attractor, to deliberately, consciouslycreate your day. The goal is to learn how to tap into the Quantum-Heartfor happiness and success.
Below, I explain the basics of what the Law of Attraction is, how itworks, why you keep getting negative things in your life, how to stopgetting negative things, and how to start Attracting more positivethings deliberately. (For more information on The Losier Method,visit www.lawofAttractionbook.com.)
Definition of the Law of Attraction
The law of Attraction, traditionally defined, presupposes that weand everything else in the universe are immersed, enmeshed,and entangled in a vast, pervasive energy field. And we attract toourselves whatever we give our attention, energy, and focus to—positiveor negative, wanted or unwanted.
In the world of Newtonian physics—the world of our senses,cause and effect, natural forces, electricity, gravity, and the like—ifyou dropped a pebble in a pond, the ripples would emanate outwarduntil they dissipated. This is my metaphor for an ever-expandingentropic universe.
In the world of quantum physics, on the other hand, the basis of theLaw of Attraction, a better metaphor might be that of a boomerang.Send it off sailing, and it returns home to its place of origin. It is thesame with every mood, feeling, or vibration we emanate—it returnsto us with exactly the same frequency with which it was sent. Apositive vibe engenders more positives; a negative vibe engendersmore negatives. And the Law of Attraction is neutral; it just matchesvibrations, regardless of frequency. Imagine you are a point of pulsatingenergy. Your world mirrors your predominant pulsations exactly.
This is a double-edged sword. As a "law," the Law of Attractionis both the sun and the rain; it doesn't discriminate. If we are in its"environment"—and we always are—we will experience our ownweather report.
How Does the Law of Attraction Really Work?
It is all about vibes. They are either positive or negative, and you canonly have and/or send one vibration at a time.
Every emotion, feeling, and thought has its correspondingfrequency that engenders more of itself. Our microcosm is self-spawning.But unlike the conventional understanding of karmawhere, metaphorically speaking, my ego hits you and your ego hitsme back, the Law of Attraction is more subtle and involves deeper,subtler energy levels. Each of us has a kind of Net Energy Index™ (ourNEI) that reflects our predominant "vibrational charge."
Is Your Glass Half Empty or Half Full?
This makes a big difference. As well known and overused as the riddleof the chicken and the egg, this metaphor speaks volumes aboutworldview and the conscious as well as unconscious belief systemsthrough which we filter (and create) our experience of reality. Ifyou see the glass half empty, you tend to operate out of lack, fear,pessimism, skepticism, cynicism, defensiveness, contraction, andnegativity. Collectively, these personality traits and their underlyingbeliefs and emotions are called poverty consciousness.
Of course, if this is you, you see yourself as objective and realistic.You tend to see those who view the glass half full as naïve, unrealistic,wearing rose-colored glasses, even delusional. As a critic, you mayeven feel superior to your glass-half-full counterparts because youknow how people are and how the world works whereas those otherpoor souls are living in a dream world that doesn't exist. Or so youthink.
The opposite cluster of beliefs, personality traits, and emotionsis called abundance consciousness. Positive thinking, optimism,gratitude, making progress, getting there, people are basically good,opportunity abounds everywhere—you don't understand why othersare so negative and always complaining. Neither do I.
Here is what I want you to get: The real significance of theglass-half-empty/half-full metaphor is the direction of the water ineach glass. The water in the glass half empty continues to go down,continues to evaporate, leaving a parched, dried-out vessel filledwith the sediment of regret, recriminations, and I-told-you-so's thatreinforce for our thirsty friend just how bankrupt reality is. Of course,what is bankrupt is the paradigm; it cannot lead anywhere else.
The water in the glass half full continues to rise. There is alwaysenough to quench one's thirst, nourishing and replenishing itself untileventually it overflows the brim, and the tipping point is realized in thematerial world as we attract abundance of all kinds into our life. This isthe paradigm of emotional compound interest. In both scenarios—glasshalf empty, glass half full—we get what we expect. What do you want,and what do you expect? Are they congruent?
Water Naturally Runs Downhill
In Newtonian physics, which governs in the macro-environmentperceived by our five senses, water will flow downhill unless it isredirected by a force or conditions strong enough to overcomegravity and/or inertia. It is the same with our emotions and thetendency some people have to love gossip, negativity, criticism,putting other people down, and a host of other emotional addictionsthat has the perpetrator unwittingly stuck in his or her own mire and,of course, dragging others down. That's the fun part for some or atleast what is required for their validation.
Misery loves company. It only takes one bad apple to spoil thebarrel. If you allow yourself to get sucked into this energy, even just bearound it, it can carry you away in a flashflood of mental, emotional,and spiritual destruction. Remember the glass half empty? Thereis no quicker way to empty it than to succumb to or participate innegativity, whatever its guise.
Why You Keep Receiving NegativeThings in Your Life
I want to share something personal with you. I used to be a cynicand a critic. I washed my mind with gallows humor and felt superiorto the rest of the world and too good for the "common" man. Iwas disinterested in personal development (I had OD'd on formaleducation, I told myself), embraced negative philosophies, shunnedpersonal responsibility for what I saw as my plight, and generally wason a downward spiral of burn and blame.
Why am I telling you this? To let you know that you can turn yourlife around in a heartbeat. The Law of Attraction isn't about keepingscore, and it doesn't require amends ("Jim, you've been negative forforty years, so now you have to be positive for forty years before Ican help you"). No. It is about who you are now, what your energyis now, what you are vibrating now. In fact, now is all there is ... butI will save that for a later chapter.
You keep receiving negative things in your life because you persistin giving attention, energy, and focus to what you don't want. Howdoes this work?
(Continues...)
