Books to read and absorb to find Self

And, of course, I'm sitting on the very books I should be studying.

It goes like this:

• Ancients/Huna
• Troward
• Haanel
• Hill
• Nightingale

who peripherally mentions:

• Claude Bristol
• Dorothea Brande

Their exact point - belief.

That particular line-up - if taken to heart - would and will take you to a completely new world.

The first point - and only point - is belief, AKA personal faith.

- - - - 

What you have to start doing is observing your own life, how your thoughts create that world around you. Every hour, every minute, every micro-second - each and every moment of NOW.

And as you do - they become even more powerful as you do. 

The world is just as you create it. 

Just.

It can't be described, but the above authors have tried.

I then leave it up to you to prove it to yourself. Because you are the only one who can.

Review of Lester and Me by Stephen Seretan

“Lester and Me” by Stephen Seretan
84 pgs. Available from http://lesterandme.com

When I read this, I was amazed at how much truth could be told so simply. Very, very few of us ever get to meet a real Master in the flesh – and Seretan has done so.

You only have to look up those people who are still around who did talk with Lester Levenson in his Sedona days to verify that this was one incredible being. As well, copies of Levenson’s recorded lectures are available, as well as some rare videos.

What Seretan offers as well is the personal glimpse into how Levenson affected his life – and what he went through on his own road to greater understanding of himself and why his own world was working as it did.

Now much of this book could be straight out of a sci-fi novel – and in fact, it has all the makings of a good movie. The characters, the pathos, as well as the ultimate triumph possible where Seretan actually did understand Levenson and took it to heart.

For instance, when he couldn’t get into an advanced class, Seretan applied the techniques he learned and got into the Inn where it was being delivered, then called Levenson – who arrived in his room and gave him more personal attention then he would have gotten in that seminar. However, Lester himself had to point out how much of a remarkable event Seretan just created for himself – and yet chided him that instead of getting that room at a sizeable discount (as he had) he could have gotten the room for free.

There are other tales of supernatural events, and out-of-body experiences, even UFO encounters. But there isn’t space here to tell these tales.

My own understanding of Lester’s work is simple, but indirect. And too many times, a person of this magnitude is simply lionized and sanitized for public consumption by those who would profit off their memories.

Seretan, in his own style, just tells about his friend and mentor as he met him and as he knew him. To him, Lester would pull no punches. One time, he told Stephen in front of a whole class that he would make better progress if he taped his mouth shut. But the meaning – even if it seemed to hurt – was obvious to Seretan, and assisted him to understand himself on a deeper level.

And for those who may be familiar with Hale Dwoskin or Larry Crane’s or others’ re-telling of Levenson’s story, it is really requisite that you get this book to get the honest, inside story of the very real Lester Levenson.

You might even see a new side of yourself.

What you run into when you start to change your mind...

Changing your mind will run you into some interesting fixed ideas.

Kinda like finding a pole in your way when you're driving down what you thought was a clear street. You can run into all sorts of things when you start to change your mind on purpose.

I've covered before how we are constantly re-programming ourselves - it's part of learning, which is something we never quit doing every second of every day and even while we sleep.

But I was even surprised when I started down this road -- surprised how many strong ideas I'd held onto which were in turn holding me back. Those can even be painful, it seems.

The stronger the idea, the harder it is to let go of. Critical thought is one. Being able to differentiate and find better ways of doing something is a valuable skill. Running people down or finding fault isn't. It's just how you view the same action and what you expect to gain as an ed result which determines how you are going to approach something.

But if you have this nagging, almost carping criticism going on in the background, it's really a hard addiction to crack. Because that is what it is - habits are addictions: you don't think you can live without them and you can't envision your life without them. But they are simply chronic ways of thinking which limit your abbility.

Of course, they come with their own justifications and emotional reasons to justify their existence. And these make perfect sense. However, you can't see how they need to be changed until you start seeing something's got to be in your own road. And then you see the outline of he beast, and WHAM -- you just hit something in that road in front of you.

Most often, it comes with a (cracked) mirror, since that is your own reflection looking back at you. You see, you put it there years ago to deal with something your life and now it's just not needed anymore.

But don't figure that just because you know it's there that it's going to be easy to deal with, or easy to move. Sometimes it just goes *poof* and the whole thing blows over like a single dark cloud. Other times, it has to be painfully-inched-out-of-your-way-with-incredible-effort-at-every-single-step.

And there's no particular sense as to why it moves or doesn't move. But the point is that you are really only going to get it moving if you start purposefully changing your mind.

Here's the kicker, though: evolution/learning is a constant process. So you are going to be finding these "instant roadblocks" from time to time as you move through life. Some will be easy to change and others not. The trick is to realize you are continuing a learning process and so are going to be getting "lessons" from time to time.

How to make your lessons easier

The easiest way is to take everything that happens to you as an additional lesson. Some inconvenience which occurs on your lines can be resolved, but it can also be learned from. Simply ask yourself, "What is the lesson here?" And intuitively, you'll probably receive some sort of hint about that.

Any situation, as Huna sages tell us, can be analyzed four ways: 1) Objectively, 2) Subjectively, 3) Symbolically, and 4) Holistically.

When you "seek the Silence" daily, you drop in your request to learn solutions to whatever problem you are running into. Then you are expecting an answer in some form or other.

This is simply another version of manifesting, which several people cover (like Joe Vitale's "Spiritual Marketing" and Jack Canfield on "The Secret" DVD):

1. Be still, relax completely.
2. Concentrate on the peculiars of the situation you want to resolve - all the details.
3. Simply request a solution to the Universe.
4. Consider next that your solution is here, applied, and the situation resolved.
5. Let go. Move onto something else.

Some find, as I do, that the best time for this is just before going to sleep at night.

Charles Haanel's "Master Key System" gives all the theory of this and 24 lessons to get these practical points into your own life.

Good Hunting!

9 Authors who have changed your life

There are 9 bestselling authors who continually sell and have changed your life.

You may or may not know their names - but someone you know has read their books and applied them to get incredible success, wealth, happiness, health - anything you could want, they have used the data in these books to find them.

Someone you know has read these authors and has changed their lives. And you look up to them or have been influenced by their own success.

These 7 authors comprise a personal development bible of sorts - composed of their books.

How to get inspired answers.

Here's how you would use them to take yourself to whatever heights you want, to achieve or acquire anything - anything at all - that you really want.

First, get copies of their books. This can be in any version, since they are all found in the public domain these days. I'd suggest you get the physical books, although you can also use digital versions.

Second, choose one book at random.

Third. in that book, choose a random point and start reading until you have an "AHA!" moment. This is where you suddenly have an insight on something you are doing, working at, or some way you have been acting.

Fourth, get a yellow pad and start writing down your inspired idea. Write down everything about it and don't stop until you've got it all down.

Fifth, put that plan into action - merge it into what you are already doing.

That's really the simplicity of it all. As you keep doing this, you will continue to refine your own purpose in life and the plan you are following to get it fulfilled.

It's just too simple. But it works - every time.

The 7 authors and their books.

Here's those authors and their bestsellers:

1. Napoleon Hill - "Think and Grow Rich", which was based on his 17 Volume "Law of Success" (Get both books.)
2. Wallace Wattles - "Science of Getting Rich"
3. Charles F. Hannel - "Master Key System"
4. Genevieve Behrend - "Your Invisible Power"
5. Dorothea Brande - "Wake Up and Live!"
6. Robert Collier - "Secrets of the Ages"
7. Claude M. Bristol - "Magic of Believing"

If you have the time to read all of these, you'll find (as I did) that they keep repeating the same basic data, although they give their own personal views of how this data applies to them and to people around them. You also get their distinct applications - how you can apply these into your own life, simply and easily.

I make no apologies for their writing styles or their influences.

I do tell you to keep an open mind as you read these. There are incredible data you are going to find for yourself that can make fantastic changes in your life if you let them.

A high-tech way to get inspired answers.

1. Get audio versions of these books and put them into an MP3 player or MP3-capable CD player.
2. Set this machine to play at random.
3. Play it in the background and keep your yellow pad to hand.
4. When you get that flash of inspiration - stop the recording and start writing.
5. When you finish writing, implement that new idea and it's plan into what you already have going.

Don't worry if you seem to find new things when you listen to these tapes. When you get an inspired moment, you tend to focus on that new idea and so quit receiving external inputs like listening or reading. What you should be doing at that point is writing down this inspired idea - so turn off that tape and bookmark that page so you have time to write it all down.

When do you do all this?

Probably you'd best be doing this at a set time daily - I like first thing in the morning, but it can be any time. If you are busy on your work - getting your plan done - then maybe you should do it at night when you're done for the day.

But you should do this daily and always keep your yellow pad to hand for the inspirations which strike you out of the blue.

And all the world's riches will become available to you...

Seriously.

Give it a try.

Update (9/27/08)

I would add:

Dale Carnegie: "How to Win Friends and Influence People"
and
Earl Nightingale: "The Strangest Secret"

Brings it up to nine.