Student. Be a student. Stay open and willing to learn from everyone and anyone. Being a student means you have room for new input. When you are green you grow, when you are ripe you rot. By staying green you will avoid the curse of being an expert. When you know in your heart that every single person you encounter in your lifetime has something to teach you, you are able to utilize their offerings in a profound way. The ability to create real magic involves first of all being a student of life.
Ready. Be a willing student. Your level of readiness to grow and become your own miracle worker is simply a state of mind. As a student you know that everyone and everything is in some way your teacher. As a student who is ready, you are eager for what it is that everyone and everything has to offer you. The “wrong turn” leading to a new and unexpected place is an opportunity to grow. When you are a student who is ready, the stranger who talks to you about how he overcame his addiction years ago becomes a guide sent to you to help you cope with your own personal addiction.
When I was ready to leave alcohol behind me, truly ready, the teacher appeared for me in a meditation with these words, “You don’t have to look any further. Do it now, you’ll have all the help you are ready to receive.” I had heard such words thousands of times, but my lack of readiness always interfered. This time, I was ready, and I was able to walk away from alcohol and never look back. Almost every magazine article I read in the next few days seemed to describe people finding the courage to leave alcohol and drugs behind them. Perhaps those same personal stories had always been there, but it wasn’t until I was truly ready that they served as powerful reminders.
Ready means willing. Genuinely, authentically willing. When you are this ready, you will discover your own personal teacher.
Teacher. The teacher is everywhere. The assistance you need will be provided by the universe as soon as you convert your readiness to willingness. Once you are willing you will find teachers in every niche of your life.
The teacher might well be an experienced soul who is ready to assist and guide you to the miracles you seek. That person showing up in your life now, at the very time you are ready, might be construed as an accident or a divine break on your part. But that wise soul, in one way or another, has always been available to you. Your willingness makes the teacher able to assist you.
Teachers appear in various forms. Your teacher might be a tape that someone “accidentally” leaves in your car and that you “accidentally” play at just the right time. Last week you might have played it for two minutes and rejected the contents; now your willingness allows your teacher to be there for you. Your teacher might be a book or an article that a friend recommends. It might be your unplanned attendance at a lecture or a church service to which someone gave you their ticket because he or she had to be out of town; the message of the speaker seems to be directed specifically at you. Your teacher might be a child who takes you by the hand and asks you a question that you hadn’t considered before, and your answer to the child is your answer to yourself. Your teacher might be invisible and show up as a thought that comes over you in a quiet, contemplative moment and encourages you to go in a certain direction now.
Hundreds of times people have come up to me after speaking engagements and told me how they “accidentally” showed up at one particular event or another and heard exactly what they needed at that time. For example, one woman was listening to a tape of mine while driving home. On the tape I was talking about the subject of “when the student is ready the teacher will appear.” Suddenly, as she was driving by the Unity Church where I was to speak, she saw my name on the marquee advertising my appearance there that evening at 7:00. The time was 6:45. She pulled into the parking lot, purchased a ticket and attended the event. At the conclusion of the presentation she was shaking as she approached me on stage to tell me of this incident. “I’ve never driven home this way before, ever. I was driving my girlfriend’s car and she happened to have your tape in her tape deck, so it was playing when I started the car. I’ve been thinking so hard about making some domestic changes in my life and after hearing you tonight I know that you showed up here in Chicago just so that I could hear you. I was ready and I was sent directly to hear you tonight.”
This kind of story has been repeated to me hundreds if not thousands of times. “I needed to hear you today, and I know you came just for me.” Yet I’ve been giving public seminars throughout the country for twenty years in virtually every major city over and over again. These people have seen the advertisements in the past, but their lack of readiness kept the teacher from appearing even though the teacher may have appeared right next door.
When you, the student, are ready and willing, the teacher will show up. You simply have to look around, open your new eyes and silently ask yourself, “Who is my teacher?”
Appear. The teacher is making an appearance in everything and everyone you encounter. As we’ve discussed, there really are no accidents. The universe is on purpose. When the teacher was there and you ignored that teacher, that was part of the perfection at that particular moment. The teacher, although there before you, wasn’t there for you. That was then and this is now. Today, as you are getting your life to purpose and gaining the ability to make miracles show up in your life, you will recognize the teacher.
When the wounded, dying insect becomes your reminder of the need to be compassionate, the teacher has appeared. When the homeless person with his soiled presence and outstretched hand reminds you of your need to be merciful, the teacher has appeared. When the soldier loaded down with his instruments of death and ready to kill his assigned enemy reminds you of your need to send love and peace where it is most difficult, again, the teacher has appeared.
As you ask the question, “How will the teacher appear?” meditate on James Broughton’s little ditty and you will have your answer:
This is It
and I am It
and you are It
And so is That
and he is It
and she is It
and it is It
and that is That
And that is that! The appearance of the teacher is everywhere, and without the teacher you will find yourself floundering.
Truly, no man is an island. We are all connected and we all learn and grow in this journey together. You will have all the help you need as you prepare yourself for miracle making and real magic.
You have now examined the idea of getting your life to purpose and setting yourself up for the assistance you will need in this endeavor. Yet the major premise of this book is that there is a realm of human existence that transcends what we have come to view as normal or possible. I am calling this dimension real magic. Once you genuinely feel yourself open enough to experience your own purpose for being here, and you have opened yourself up to receiving whatever divine assistance you may require by being a willing student, you will be ready to believe in your own capacity for becoming your very own miracle worker.
BELIEVING IN MIRACLES AND REAL MAGIC
When I write about the world of real magic and miracles I am not referring to developing a talent for turning rocks into gold, raising the dead or commanding the seas to part. When I speak of miracle making I am discussing whatever you have considered beyond your ability to create for yourself because of limitations you believe you have. In later chapters I will describe the major areas of life where real magic is available. For now, I want you to cultivate the foundation for creating real magic in any area that you would like. If you have lived your life believing that certain accomplishments or levels of achievement were impossible for you, then first you must begin by examining your life focus and beliefs before attempting to implement any real magic strategies.
Getting your life to purpose and creating an openness to being assisted are crucial to becoming your own miracle worker. Beyond these qualities of purposefulness and openness there are guidelines for putting yourself in the proper mental framework. These beliefs, or “knowings,”
are necessary to help you go within and literally manifest what you have previously believed impossible. I will be alluding to these “knowings” throughout the pages of this book.
In my own life, I have had to travel through a sequence of steps, all within my mind, in order to be at the point where I can write that I feel confident in my ability to manifest what I can only call miracles. I call them miracles because only a short time ago, before I experienced this inner awakening, the things that I can now create and manifest seemed to be impossibilities. I offer these sequential steps believing that if it is possible for me, it is certainly possible for anyone else.
I am reminded of the words of Christ on his own miracle making: “He that believeth in me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do….” Somewhere deep within you, you know that you have this kind of power. Even though you may not have an inkling of how to use it, or how to begin to tap into it, you still know that within each of us is a divine, invisible presence that has something to do with creating a state that can only be described paradoxically as real magic.
Christ went on to say, “… But ye shall know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” That’s correct, in you is that magic invisible presence that I am writing about here. It is not something outside of you requiring a lifelong search to attain. It dwells within you, in that invisible part of yourself, where the rules that pertain to the physical world simply do not apply. In your soul, your spirit or higher self, your mind or thoughts or whatever you choose to call it, lies that entryway to the world of real magic.
When you master the inner path of awareness presented in Part 1 of this book, you will not greet the application of this awareness with any skepticism, nor will you doubt that I am talking through that divine inner presence directly and unequivocally to you.
SEVEN BELIEFS FOR MANIFESTING REAL MAGIC
I have identified seven beliefs, or knowings, that can help you tap the power of real magic. They are presented sequentially and once you find yourself with the internal knowing that comes from adopting these beliefs, you will be on your way to becoming your own miracle worker.
1. There is an invisible but knowable life force within you. Try cultivating an awareness of the invisible life force that suffuses all form in the universe, including your physical body. This is the same universal intelligence that directs a rose to be a rose, a beetle to be a beetle, the planets to align and move through space, and you to be you. It is without boundaries or dimensions in the same way that your thoughts, feelings, imaginings, dreams, fantasies and emotions are. This universal life force that is a part of you cannot die. Death implies an ending, and ending implies boundaries. For this first step, just know that this powerful, divine but invisible force is within you. Trust totally that it is there. It is in fact what allows you to perceive and experience your physical body and this physical world in which you find yourself temporarily housed.
2. Your thoughts are something that you control and they originate with you. In You’ll See It When You Believe It, I wrote an entire section on the power of thoughts. Here I simply encourage you to realize that thinking is our way of processing and recording our human experience. Thought originates from within a nothingness inside of you and gives you your humanity. All of your past is in this realm of thought, as is your future. Your thoughts create your experience of your health, wealth and every detail of your world.
Ralph Waldo Emerson reminded us that “the ancestor to every action is a thought.” You live the life you imagine you are living. When you stop imagining or imaging or thinking, you cease actively participating in your physical world. As a step toward the awakened life of real magic, you must consider how your thoughts have contributed to a nonmiraculous, limiting approach to life. Then you will know that you can also produce the opposite. If, in fact, miracles are available for anyone, you can be one of those people who experience them. But they begin in that ancestor to all of your actions, your thoughts.
3. There are no limits. All of the things that you have become convinced are limits are products of the way in which you have learned to think. You probably were taught that logic and scientific verification dictate what is possible and what is not. Before the invention of the microscope most people did not believe in the existence of microscopic life. People who believe only what they can see or prove scientifically are limited by the current level of sophistication of our measuring devices.
You know that at some future time we’ll be flying from place to place on this planet in moments rather than in hours, and interplanetary travel will be a fact of life. The capability to do so is already here. That is, the universal force that is timeless already exists, only the technology is missing. Do you believe in this possibility now, or must you wait until the technology arrives before you can believe it? Only twenty years ago the idea of a remote control that would allow you to switch television stations was an impossibility. Renting a movie was unthinkable. Microwaving meals in a few moments at home was not at all a part of our consciousness. Although the capacity to create these miracles was available even at the time of Hannibal, the devices came along at their own pace. Be a person who accepts no limits in your mind. None!
4. Your life has a purpose. The entire universe is an intelligent system. The universe that is your physical body is a multitude of systems all functioning with amazing perfection, and it too is an intelligent system. The invisible parts of you, your thoughts and feelings, are also part of the system that is you. That intelligence is invisible and can be described or spelled in any way that you choose; thousands of terms have been invented to describe it. But the intelligence is not the label, just as the statue is not the saint and the menu is not the meal. You are that intelligence from which you can never separate yourself, and you have a purpose.
I have explained the necessity of getting your life to purpose and about getting yourself on that purposeful path. What I ask of you here is to simply know it. Know you have a purpose and you will be on your way to creating magical life in any and all areas of your choosing.
5. You overcome weaknesses by leaving them behind. You cannot outthink your weaknesses and limitations. You will not get yourself to the place of inner harmony necessary to create real magic by working hard to overcome your old self-defeating behaviors. What you can learn to do is leave that stage of your life behind you and walk through the gate into a new way of being.
This process of leaving behind old habits begins in your invisible dimension—that is, your thoughts. You see yourself truly letting go of the obstacles that you’ve chosen for a lifetime, you picture yourself no longer needing to rely on those self-defeating patterns. Then, the thinking part is complete. Now you move forward to a new you. When you leave behind the belief that you cannot change, or that you cannot create the miracle you want for yourself, you will leave behind the physical activity that has supported that belief. Picture it behind you, look back at it and know that you no longer live that way.
I can see myself at a distant time actually behaving in those old ways. And I smile inwardly, knowing that I have left that part of me behind. It started with a thought and then an action based on the new thought, and for me this is a miracle that I now live every day. I did it not by constantly trying to outthink the problem or by gradually sneaking up on it but by leaving it behind me. This is in fact the way all miraculous changes are made, when it gets right down to “How do I change?” or “How do I create the miracle that I want my life to be?”
After all the talking, counseling, support groups, medicines, elixirs, pep talks and proddings by others, one must ultimately leave behind that which is self-destructive or functioning as an obstacle to growth. Every single person who has ever overcome any difficulty or brought about positive change in their lives, when faced with the bottom line, has had to leave behind the old habit through their own will. Know this to be a truth and you’ll soon see yourself creating real magic in your life.
> 6. When you examine what you believe to be impossible, you can then change your beliefs. Take an inventory of what it is that you believe cannot happen in your life. Whether it is related to your physical accomplishments, relationships, health or finances, vow, at the very minimum, to rid yourself of these beliefs. I am not asking that you fool yourself or engage in self-deception. I am asking you to create an openness to the possibility rather than continuing to subscribe to the impossibility. That’s all. Just an openness to a new idea. And remember, you do not have to do anything different in your life at this moment, only change around some mental images. New thoughts will ultimately lead you to new and miraculous behaviors.
If anyone has ever overcome a diagnosis of “terminal,” then know that such a capacity exists within all of us. The universal force or energy that once created a miracle is still present. The force itself has not disappeared, even if the miracles themselves have. Stuart Wilde writes in Miracles, “Because the universal law is indestructible and therefore infinite, we can presume that whatever power was used by miracle workers in the past must still be available today.” And if it is still available, I am asking you to believe that it is there for you to tap into. This universal law that created miracles has not been repealed, and never will be.
This entire book is about helping you align yourself in such a way that this universal force or energy is something that you can know intimately, and use in your life, even if no one else around you knows what you are doing or believes in what you are talking about when you speak of miracles. Once you know and choose to use this force, your life will take on the flavor of real magic. I guarantee it.
At this point I am not asking you to begin performing miracles. I am asking you to simply open yourself to a new inner belief system that says maybe, just maybe, this is a possibility for me. Everyone who has ever come from dirt-poor origins to create abundance for themselves (including myself) has had to use the universal energy within their minds before it could happen in the physical world. If that miracle-making power was available to any impoverished soul, it is available to your impoverished soul should you decide that this is your truth.
Real Magic Page 3