Reality is created by conditions and occurrences inside  you—in your mind. It is here that events  are turned into data , which are turned int o truths , which 
are turned into thoughts , which are turned into emotions , which are turned into 
experiences , which form your reality. Now if we could just change  one of those. . . . We are Lightbabies. Golden Grace. Wings, meant to Fly . We are delicate, an d pregnant  
with goodness. We are each made of such a quiet  
that the entire Universe  
can hear us. There is only the unfolding, the opening  
ever happening. All else are thoughts — 
lollipops for the mind. We, are Lightbabies  
parading  
as Humankind. —‘Lightbabies’  © 2007 Em Claire  6. THE SECOND CHANGE  
THERE ARE SIX THINGS  that create your reality in this physical experience that we call life. I 
just named them a moment ago. They are, again: Events, Data, Truths, Thoughts, Emotions, 
and Experience. If a ny of these six elements change, your reality will change. That means 
that if you want your current experience of the current change in your life to change, you 
have to change one of the elements. All of which brings us to . . . CHANGE #2:  
Change your choi ce of emotions  
What I want to tell you is that you can change your choice of emotions —and thus, change 
how you’re experiencing change itself. I can’t tell you all about how you can do that in this 
one chapter, because there’s more to it than I can put in a few lines here. And it’s all 
intrinsically tied in with Changes 3 and 4 —so we really  have to consider all three together. But for now, let me just say that you can change your emotions about anything. About 
what’s happening in your life right now, about yourself, about this book. About anything. Now you may not think this it is possible. You may even feel that it is bordering on 
smugness or arrogance for me to so much as suggest it. I also know that you’ve heard all 
this before, in “self -help” books, in lectures . . . so you may be thinking, listen, if it’s all that 
simple, why can’t the a verage person just do it? Isn’t it cruel to hold it out there like a 
carrot, when you know it’s on a stick and most people can’t get to it? Yes, if that were the case, it would be cruel. But I would never do that. I would never put 
something in front of yo u that it is utterly impossible for you to reach. I’m not trying to 
make you crazy, I’m trying to make you happy. So, even though you’ve heard some of this before, this time I’d like you to really think 
about it. No, really. I mean, please, just close your  eyes and think about this. Because what 
I’ve said here is one of the most important (and revolutionary) things anyone will ever say to 
you. And even if you have  heard it before, you may not have deeply explored the possibility 
of its being true. So, will you do that now? I mean, is it possible that this is something you simply do not completely understand . . . the understanding of which could change everything? This time I’m asking  you to stop reading. Just for a second. Just for a brief pause. Just 
time enough to decide how you want to feel about this. Did you catch the irony there? I want you to choose  how you wish to feel about the idea 
that you can choose how you wish to feel. So please go ahead. Close the book and think about it. Ask yourself some que stions. What 
would my life be like if I thought I could actually select  my emotions, rather than be 
subjected to them? Is it possible to change an emotion after I’m already having it? Not ignore it or operate “on top of it,” but actually, really and truly change the emotion I’m 
having . Can I do that? At will? Please ponder that question —and what it would mean if the answer were yes —and take 
some . . . Breathing Space  
Breathe into what you’ve just read, then . . . decide now if you want to go on, or rest wit h 
it for a while and meet with me here later . . . or not at all. If you’re ready to go on, drop down to . . . THE SPONSOR OF ALL EMOTIONS  
Okay, so we’re talking here about emotions. Well, I’m talking about emotions. Meanwhile, you’re having them. All that  you’re trying to do is deal with the changes that are 
occurring in your life, with the very threatening calamities that may be happening, while 
I’m launching into a small lecture on human psychology and what causes emotions and 
how we can change them. But you know what? I wouldn’t dare do such a thing, I wouldn’t even bring any of this 
up, if I didn’t think it was going to help you. Right here, right now . No matter what’s  going 
on. Yes, even if you’ve lost your job. Even if you’ve lost your house. Even if you feel you are 
in danger of losing everything. As I’ve said, I think I know a little about what you’re going through. I’ve been there. And 
it took me years to figure out what I’m going to be telling you now. I just didn’t get it. I just 
didn’t understand . Until I did. (With a little help from a Friend. . . .) So now, let me double back just a bit and reinforce the point I just made about emotions. And I promise you, you’ll see how this all ties together and how this relates directly to you . . . as well a s how it can make a real difference in this moment of your life. I mean, that’s the 
idea here, yes? That’s the point of us having this conversation, right? Otherwise I’m just 
flapping my gums here. So . . . let’s dive back in. Let’s look at that one specif ic emotion of fear (I use this one 
because it is so powerful) and see how we can change that. Fear is an emotion that you have that is sponsored by a thought that you have, which 
produces an experience that you have of an event that has occurred in your li fe. Most 
people think that fear is produced directly by the event . That is, most people think that the 
sequence is: event=experience. This is not true. The proof that it’s not true is that emotion 
does not arise uniformly. The same things do not produce fe ar, for example, in two 
different people. They sometimes do, but they just as often do not. A roaring lion can produce fear in one person and not in another (say, a lion tamer). Heights can produce fear in one person and not in another (say, the star of a high -wire act). Giving a speech can produce fear in one person (it has been listed in survey after survey as among the single biggest fears faced by many human beings) and not in another (say, a 
lecturer or an entertainer). So we can agree that no two peop le can be guaranteed to have the same experience 
(fear) when faced with the same exterior event, yes? Heck, the same event does not even 
produce the identical experience in the same  person every time. So what does  produce the fear? If it is not the roaring  lion or the height of the ladder or 
the audience waiting to hear you, then what is it? It’s something inside  you. It’s your ideas and your memories and your projections and 
your concepts and your apprehensions and your understandings and your desires and your 
conditioning and more. And all of these things fall into one broad category. Thoughts. It is your thoughts  that sponsor your fears, and nothing else. Thoughts sponsor all 
emotions. Now this is both a revolutionary and controversial statement that I am making here, 
because standard brain science says that is it just the other way around. Neuroscientists 
tell us that emotion comes before  thought, as a product of the brain’s limbic syst em, and 
that “thought” occurs in the higher regions of the brain, which analyze the emotions we are 
having. I am saying here that the opposite is true. I am saying that the limbic system 
produces what I call a Truth (an overall mental concept  of something) , from which emerges 
a Thought, which generates an Emotion. Every time you display any kind of emotion you can say, “And now, a word from our 
sponsor!” Like the sponsors on television, thoughts stop the show. That fact that thoughts sponsor emotions is the greatest news you could ever hear. If we accept the view of scientists that it is the other way around, we accept as a matter 
of fact that each of us has a built in handicap: an utter inability to decide objectively which 
emotions we are go ing to feel. We accept that we are subject to our emotional reactions  and 
then have to overcome them  with our thoughts if we want them to be different. My thesis here is that it is not a question of overcoming our emotions to get them to be 
what we want th em to be, but of creating them that way from the start . This idea may be 
new to medical science, but it is not new to spirituality, which insists that we are more than 
biological machines, and that the Mind is not the same as the brain, but is far more com plex 
and sophisticated —and that the Soul is even bigger  and more sophisticated than the Mind! In this moment, as you face all the changes that are occurring in your life, this is the best 
news you could ever receive. Why? Because it gives you tools you nev er thought you had. Because it reverses the standard medical model, putting thoughts before  emotions, rather 
than after them —meaning that we are in charge here, since thoughts are changeable. Just a while ago we talked about changing your emotions. I said that changing emotions 
was the way to change Change Itself. I’m now going to tell you how  you can change 
emotions. Change your thoughts. Whereas the Heart is used to being  
the only place where Love is found  
a Mind full of joy  
draws the Heart like a moth,  
into a surprisingly different  flame. A flame where nothing burns — 
no wings are forfeited. As if God stretches the length of The Home  
to abide in every room at once,  
simply  
because  
We 
can 
* 
—‘A Mind Full of Joy’  © 2007 Em Claire  7. THE THIRD CHANGE  
YOU MAY N OT BE  able to change the fact that things are changing, but you can change your 
thought  about the things that are changing. Not only is this possible, it is next on the list of Nine Changes That Can Change 
Everything. CHANGE #3:  
Change your choice of thoug hts 
Thought is an idea that you are making up . The change that is occurring in your life is not 
something you are making up, but your thought about it is. That thought often bears no 
relationship to ultimate reality, it often bears no relationship to observed reality, yet it 
often does bear a relatio nship to distorted reality. In fact, it often creates  it. Oh-oh, this is Something Big here. I’m thinking we should not just fly right past what was 
just said. Let’s look at it more closely. What I said was . . . “Your thought is something you are making u p. It often bears no relationship to ultimate 
reality, it often bears no relationship to observed reality, yet it often does bear a 
relationship to distorted reality. In fact, it often creates  it.” 
Now, I just introduced a whole new idea there. Did you cat ch me at it? I just referred to 
three different “realities” . . . Ultimate Reality  
Observed Reality  
Distorted Reality  
I have come to call this the Triune Reality —three versions of reality existing at one time. There is Ultimate Reality (what is “so” about what is going on, what is “so” about why  it 
is going on, and what is “so” about you), there is Observed Reality (what is readily apparent 
right in front of you), and there is Distorted Reality (what you imagine is going on). Which one of these realities yo u experience in any given moment is up to you. It depends 
on what your mind entertains prior to forming a thought. The sweet Unveiling is so becoming  
there is perhaps nothing  
more beautiful. The glide  that you once called  
“walking.”  Your fears  
dropped as g ently as lingerie. As Who You Are  
naked child  
turns every purpose  
Lightward  
toward what has always been  
right  
here  
shining  
as 
You. —‘The Sweet Unveiling’  © 2006 Em Claire  8. THE FOURTH CHANGE  
WE’RE MOVING VERY FAST  now, and I don’t want you to think that you’re hearing all I have to 
say about these changes. There is much  more to say, in fact. I’m just introducing Changes 
#2, #3, and #4 right now, to give you an idea of where we’re headed in this conversation. This is going to be quite a ride, and I want you to have a sense of the terrain. Really, these three changes are interlinked and, as I said a moment ago, they should be 
considered together. So the exploration here is going to be rather free -flowing, as a chat 
between friends would be, as opposed to following an outline and being more structured, 
as a lecture might be. I trust that you’ll see the close inter linking between Change #2 , 
Change #3 , and Change #4  as we go. So here, as we lay down the road map, is . . . CHANGE #4:  
Change your choice of truths  
Earlier I said that the event s of your life are created by conditions and occurrences 
outside you, but that reality is created by conditions and occurrences inside  you—in your 
mind. It is there, I said, that events  are turned into data , which are turned into truths , which 
are turned i nto thoughts , which are turned into emotions , which are turned into 
experiences , which form your reality. Now let me put those elements in a straight line, with plus  and equal  signs placed 
strategically between them, so that you can have a way to visualize  this. This allows us to 
focus in on the process of reality -creation a little more sharply. As I observe it, that process works like this . . . event+data+truth+thought+emotion=experience=reality  
I call this the Line of Causality, and I’ll be bringing it i nto our discussion again. This is the 
path the mind travels on its way to producing your reality. You’ll notice that on this line, Emotion comes before Experience, and produces it. Thought, likewise, comes before Emotion, and gives birth to it. Truth comes  before 
Thought, and gives birth to that . And we’ll get to the “Data” part later. What the line does not show is that there are three kinds  of truth. This is more than a 
little important to know, because it is the existence of these three kinds of truth th at leads 
to the possibility of a Triune Reality. Put another way, if there were only one kind of truth, 
there would be but a single reality. The three kinds of truth are . . . The Actual Truth  
The Apparent Truth  
The Imagined Truth  
In a bit I’m going to exp lain all of this, and I think you’ll find it fascinating. These are 
what I have called the Mechanics of the Mind. For right now, know that it’s really as simple 
as A -B-C. Each step away from “A” takes you farther from peace. If peace is what you are search ing for during this moment of change and turmoil in your 
life, if peace is that for which you yearn, you will want to journey upward from Imagined 
Truth to Apparent Truth to Actual Truth, so that you may shift your basis from Distorted 
Reality to Observed Reality to Ultimate Reality. This is what personal and global transformation is all about. This is what every human 
whom we have honored with the name of Master has done. And this is what you can do 
right here, right now, on this day. In your life, has eve rything changed? Then change everything . Start rearranging your 
thinking about “reality.” Reality is not static, it is fluid. (Well, that’s not exactly accurate. It IS static, but our experience  of it changes. And that, of 
course, is what this whole book i s about. The exploration here is about how to change your 
experience of Change Itself. Or, put another way, how to change your experience of 
reality —since Change is the constant  reality.) I have to tell you, I felt like I’d been awakened out of a sound sleep when I first “got” that 
there are three levels of reality, and that we can experience the things that are happening in 
our lives at the level of Distortion, the level of Observation, or the level of Ultimate Truth. It 
took me a long time to fig ure this out. It took me a long time to notice what I am telling you 
here so casually. I don’t want it to take you as long as it took me. I want you to be able to grasp this now. First as an intellectual concept, then as a functional tool . You need this to ol now, not ten 
years from now, not ten months from now, not ten weeks from now. Not even ten days  
from now. You need this tool in your hands now, because now is when you’re moving 
through incredible changes. If someone had told me this stuff in the moment  that I was going through big changes . . . what a difference that would have made. So here goes. Let me tell you all of what I’ve 
uncovered about this. Each of these “realities” that I’ve just spoken of is remarkably different from the 
others —not a little  bit different, remarkably  different —and the differences between them 
arise out of those three brands of truth that I referred to earlier. One of the biggest surprises of my life was learning that there is no such thing as absolute 
truth. Now that should b e on a billboard somewhere. Heck, everywhere. On every road and 
highway there should be a huge sign:  
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS ABSOLUTE TRUTH  Ever caught yourself asking someone, “Are you actually buying  that?” Well, this is about 
that. This is about what you “buy into” every day. When you go into the Supermarket of Life you’ll find Truth packaged in three brands. You can buy Actual Truth, you can buy Apparent Truth, or you can buy Imagined Truth. For right now we’re going to pretend that Actual Truth is no t on the shelf. I don’t want to 
discuss the actuality  of things just yet. (That’s what part 2  of this book is about.) I just want 
to look at Apparent Truth (what we have observed ) and Imagined Truth (what we have 
distorted ). On ly when we see these clearly can we understand Actual Truth. The Apparent Truth is based on what you have observed in the past to be happening 
when you saw something similar to what you see in front of you right now. It is what you 
think is apparently so, based on your history, about the physical event that is occurring in 
the present moment. Your relationship has ended. Or you got laid off. Or you lost your home. Or someone 
close to you has passed on. Or you’ve become an empty nester, with y our children suddenly 
no longer in your home after being a huge part of your life for twenty years. Or whatever. This is what’s going on right now in your physical world. It’s what’s happened. You know 
it happened because it is your direct observation. If you stay in your Apparent Truth, you 
will be okay, because your Apparent Truth will give you all the facts of a similar experience 
you have had in your past. But will you stay there? I mean in your thoughts, will you stay 
there? Or will you run to your Ima gined Truth? And, if you embrace your Imagined Truth 
rather than the Apparent Truth, will you have the tools with which to return to the 
Apparent Truth? I believe the Nine Changes That Can Change Everything could be those tools. Read on 
and see if you agre e. 
I left The Home so long ago now  
that I would not recognize my own face. I constructed the Boat of My Life  
and I set out  
into the open sea  
waving to all who knew  
that the seas would give me  
everything I could handle  
and everything I could not  
and yet the y waved, and I set out  
into the open sea  
in the Boat of My Life:  
built from Soul, crafted by Heart  
and with great innocence I pushed off  
into the open sea  
and have been away from my Home  
so long now that I would not recognize my own face  
but I know that Ho me— Home  
remembers me  
—‘Long at Sea’  © 2007 Em Claire  9. THERE IS ONLY ONE EMOTION  
SO, HERE YOU ARE  in the present moment, facing the changes that you’re dealing with right 
now, and there is no doubt that you are having some emotion around that. Strong emotion, 
perhaps. Emotion you may be having a hard time dealing with. It is this emotion that is produ cing your Here -and-Now experience. It is this experience that 
you call your reality. Why are you having all this emotion? Why are you so angry, or so frightened, or so sad? Mostly because you, like most people, do not come from your Apparent Truth when 
forming your thoughts about a present -day event. If you did, things would be a lot easier. But most people come from their Imagined Truth about what’s happening in their present 
moment. This is what most people buy into. A lion appears out of nowhere and roar s. You experience being petrified —because you 
imagine that you are in danger of being mauled. A mountain road takes a turn and you find 
yourself driving on the outside ledge, with a 3,000 -foot drop -off just outside the window. You experience being terrifie d—because you imagine that with one wrong move you could 
die. An audience is awaiting your entrance for a major speech. You experience being 
paralyzed —because you imagine that you stand a good chance of going out there and 
disappointing everybody while mak ing a fool of yourself. A spouse abruptly leaves. Or you get laid off from your job. Or you lose your home. You 
experience being stunned, angry, mortified. And, sooner or later . . . afraid. All of this is based on your Imagined Truth, which is that this i s “bad,” that you’re going 
to be “unhappy,” that lots of “struggle” lies ahead, or whatever. It’s okay to feel this fear, of course. In the face of the change that you’re moving through, 
it’s to be expected. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. It’s very normal. It’s how we’ve been 
raised. We’ve been told that fear exists, that fear is real. The Actual Truth is that there is no such thing as fear . In fact, there is no such thing as 
any emotion, other than one. All the other expressions are repackagings. There is only one 
emotion, one energy, in the universe: the energy, the emotion, that we call Love. When you 
know this, everything changes. Now I know all this may sound a bit “airy -fairy” or “new agey” to you, but when you 
know why  there is nothing but Love, every thing will become clear and your life will feel —
can I use this word? —healed. Remember, experience is produced by emotion, so 
understanding that everything is a demonstration of the emotion called Love can alter your 
entire experience of life. But how can change  be a demonstration of Love? Didn’t we just say, haven’t we been 
saying for quite a while now, that fear  is the emotion most people feel surrounding 
change —even change for the better? Am I seriously suggesting now that fear does not 
exist? Yes, I am. That’s exactly what I’m saying. Because (and here comes a wonderful 
revelation) . . . fear is a demonstration of Love. If you did not love yourself, you would not fear for yourself, you would not be afraid of 
anything, because you would not care what happe ned to you. You would not even care if 
you survived. The “survival instinct” is nature’s way of expressing love. If you did not love another, you would not fear for another, or be afraid of what might 
happen to that other, because you would not care  what h appened. Simple, isn’t it? And so we see with impeccable logic that Fear and Love are the same 
thing, expressed differently. Likewise, every other emotion is love in another form. There is 
only one emotion. That emotion is Love, expressed in a thousand dif ferent ways. It is the 
Actual Truth. When we talk more about that Actual Truth a bit later, this whole concept will 
come together more fully. Then you will see a quantum leap in your ability to deal with all 
change peacefully. But for now let’s do as I sug gested. Let’s look at two of the Three Brands of Truth: 
Apparent Truth and Imagined Truth. It’s important that we do, because this is the key to 
everything. So . . . as I was saying . . . . . . most people live in their Imagined Truth when things change, h aving been held down 
there by their past. This Imagined Truth births a thought, out of which arises an emotion, 
which produces an experience —which seems to them to be reality. As it turns out, it is a 
Distorted Reality. This gets us back to where you might  be right now. Because of what has just happened to you —this huge change that has been visited upon 
you that is not something you would have chosen, that is something that just came down 
out of the blue, out of thin air —you’re angry, or sad, or frustrated,  or disappointed, or 
disillusioned, or “all of the above” . . . all because you are afraid. And you are afraid . . . all 
because you are in love. You’re in love with yourself (even though you don’t think you are) 
and you’re in love with life (even though y ou say you hate it right now). You’re afraid of trading in a past that you knew for a future you do not. Afraid of what 
might happen. Afraid of how things could be. And afraid that you may never find this kind 
of situation again (this kind of job, this kin d of person, this kind of home); that you may 
never have this kind of experience again. Well, you may  never find this kind of situation again —but you may very well have this 
kind of experience  again. (For instance, you may never be with the same mate again , but 
you may very well have the same experience —the experience of joy and happiness —with 
another mate. It all depends on what you buy into: your Imagined Truth or the Apparent 
Truth.) Remember that the experience of happiness has nothing to do with a given situation. This is hard to accept because we are absolutely certain that it does. Yet there is no 
connection between exterior events and interior experiences, except in your head. Your capacity to know joy is not connected to this one person or to th at one place of 
employment, for instance. You just think  that it is. The Apparent Truth and the Imagined 
Truth are not identical. Ever. Ever. Events do not have meanings. Events are events, and meanings are thoughts. Nothing  
has any meaning save the meanin g you give it . And the meaning you give to things does not 
derive from any event, circumstance, condition, or situation exterior to yourself. The Giving 
of Meaning is entirely an internal process. Entirely. Know Your Self as Light . Bigger even, than Breath . Larger even, than the Whole. Quieter even, than the Quiet that holds You. Know Your Self as Held . Softer even, than as before;  
Deeper even, than any Darkness. When the Lightbody of You  
breathes without borders  
knows not  
even of the concept  
or of any bounds at all  
When you Know Your Self  
as only Light  
summoning the Mystery  
to move through You  
exquisite, innocent instrument  
of the long  
long eternity of song  
then  
Know Your Self as  
Life’s greatest Laughter;  
Life’s greatest Lover,  
beckoning the Mystery  
com e hither. . . —‘Know Your Self as Light’  © 2006 Em Claire  10. ALL ABOUT THE AFTEREFFECT  
WHAT WE’VE BEEN TALKING  about here is the technology of thought —or what I call the 
Mechanics of the Mind. And this exploration is more than you and I ambling down 
Philo sophy Lane. When you deeply understand how your mind works, you will understand 
how to make it work for you. This is something your mind does not want to do. Or, more accurately, it is something 
that your ego does not want you to do. Your ego is the part o f your mind that thinks that 
you are your mind . And it knows that once you figure out how the mind works, you will 
become very clear that you are not your mind —and that with that  knowledge will come the 
gradual disassembling of the ego in its present form. Because the ego knows this, it will work overtime to get you to take your mind off all this . Somewhere in the next few chapters, for instance, it will try to cause you to feel “bored” 
with this entire exploration. Or “annoyed” that it’s taking so long to be explained. Or 
“frustrated” that even after wading through the explanation, you’re still not through with 
gathering what you need to know to change everything about the way to change the way 
you are experiencing change. So watch your ego work here. Just watch your ego work on you to put this book down, to 
just drop this whole line of inquiry . If it succeeds, this wouldn’t be the first time that your 
own ego has been your greatest enemy. It is as that wonderful comic strip character, Pogo, created by the l ate Walt Kelly, used to 
say: “We have met the enemy, and they is us.”  
Now let me explain what the ego is and what it is not. The ego is the part of your mind 
that differentiates “you” from “everything else.” As such, it is a vital part of the technology 
of thought. It is that part that can conceive not only of a thought, but of the thinker of the 
thought. The ego is, therefore, one of your greatest gifts, because it allows you to experience 
“you” as you, and not everybody and everything else. The Actual Tru th is that you ARE 
everybody and everything else . . . but the Part Of The All that calls itself “you” must be able 
to experience Itself separately , or It cannot do what It became physical to do; It cannot 
experience what it came to experience. Therefore, It individuates  Itself —and the ego is the 
tool with which It does this. The ego knows that Who You Really Are is bigger than the part of your self -awareness 
that resides only in your mind. In this, the ego is a great gift, a wonderful device, an 
incredible  tool. Yet your ego can run amok, and when it does this it is like one of those 
runaway computers in science -fiction stories that suddenly thinks IT is your master , rather 
than you being its owner. When your ego runs amok it not only continues to do the jo b of separating you from 
Everything Else, it separates you from your Self . It makes you think that you are IT, not that IT is a part of you. Your ego has then confused its job, imagining that it must protect you 
from knowing your very Self. So when your eg o tries to get you to feel bored, or that this narrative is not moving fast 
enough, that is your signal to get out of your mind. You need to be out of your mind to 
understand the Mechanics of the Mind and the System of the Soul. So just step away from 
your  thoughts at that moment and keep reading. You will hear the incessant pleading of 
your ego to drop all this already, but pay it no mind. Now I have said here that experience is not an outward thing, experience is an inward 
thing. That’s why different people can have a different experience of the same event. Everybody’s experience is the same only when people don’t have time to think. Whoops, wait a minute . . . that  was an interesting idea. What was that —? I said  . . . when people don’t have time to think, they become identical. They are driven to 
react  rather than respond — as when people panic. Mass panic is virtually impossible to 
produce when people remain calm, stop, and think. While I was writing this book a US Airways plane leaving New York City had birds fly 
into its engines, quickly and totally disabling it. That jetliner, piloted by a genuine hero, 
Captain Chesley B. “Sulley” Sullenberger, was forced to ditch in the Hudson R iver. After a 
picture -perfect emergency water landing, all 155 passengers on board left the plane and 
stood on its wings, waiting to be picked up by nearby boats. All survived. It was called a 
miracle. But the survivors said it like it is. It was simple, t hey reported. Nobody panicked. Everybody kept a cool head. People were responding, rather than reacting. In an article in Newsweek  magazine a few weeks after the incident, Captain Sullenberger 
offered this personal observation: “We never gave up. Having a plan enabled us to keep our 
hope alive. Perhaps in a similar fashion, people who are in their own personal crises —a 
pink slip, a foreclosure —can be reminded that no matter how dire the circumstance, or 
how little time you have to deal with it, further acti on is always possible. There’s always a 
way out of even the tightest spot. You can survive.”  
Thank you, Captain. You captured the essence of this whole book in a single paragraph. Wow. So the answer here, in any unwelcome and difficult situation where thin gs are 
changing rapidly, is to stop and think. That whole process does not take long, by the way. Seconds, at most. Your mind is an amazing instrument. It can weigh all the options that are 
before you in nanoseconds and come up with a response. Yet it does  take time. Response  
takes time, reaction  is instantaneous. Of course, it will do you little good to “stop and think” if your thoughts are based in 
Imagined Truth. Then your responses will be not much more elevated than raw reactions. If 
the passengers on that plane imagined that this was “it,” this was the end, they were going 
to die, even if the plane landed safely on the water, they were soon going under, etc., etc., 
etc., panic would have ensued. Not enough can be said about the captain and the crew of 
that airliner, who kept people calm, cool, and collected. So the trick is to raise your consciousness from the lowest to the highest level of 
awareness, no matter what is going on  around you . Remember, reactions  are instinctive, 
responses  are thought out. That is, thoughts pushed outward. Yet your thoughts have no shape or form or substance. They are as wisps of smoke. Not 
even that. They are less than smoke. They are simply ideas  you hold. So, how to deal with 
that . . . ? The funny thing about ideas is th at they don’t even have to be true to seem real. When it 
comes to a thought, your mind does not know the difference between what is real and what 
is imagined, between what is happening “now” and what was happening “then,” between 
what is factually “true” a nd what is obviously “false.”  
So it is that you can watch a scary movie and your mind accepts the data as real, 
instructing your body to respond accordingly. Your heart starts racing, your breath 
becomes short, you may even perspire. Likewise, you can see a sensual photograph and 
experience bodily responses —even while knowing that the observed image is just a 
picture . It’s what your mind does  with the data, not the data itself, that produces your 
reaction. The event and your reality about it are not the sam e. 
Your mind really is a mechanism. It is like a computer. Your laptop doesn’t “care” about 
things, it merely responds to input —and to what has been put into it previously. There is a 
famous acronym used by computer techs: GIGO. It means, “Garbage In, Garb age Out.”  
Your mind operates in exactly the same way. It responds automatically to what you put 
into it —and if what you put into it is faulty data (that is, not based in Observed Reality or 
Ultimate Reality), your mind will come to faulty conclusions. Now,  if you base your response  on such conclusions, you could be preparing yourself for 
a journey to emotional hell. (Which is where you might be right now.) You could find 
yourself embroiled in thoughts having nothing to do  with what is true. And it won’t eve n 
matter to you —because you will not know  that your thoughts are not true. Until you do. That’s what this conversation is all about. What we are up to here is repeating, 
repeating, repeating the same thing; inputting, inputting, inputting the same data. Yo ur 
mind does  respond automatically to what you put into it —so what this book is about is 
putting into your mind what you want it to respond to automatically. I just said, if what you put into your mind is faulty data (that is, not based in Observed 
Reality  or Ultimate Reality), your mind will come to faulty conclusions. The reverse is also 
true. If what you put into your mind is accurate  data (that is, based in Observed Reality or 
Ultimate Reality), your mind will come to accurate conclusions. This will eli minate all 
manner of grief and anguish, turmoil and suffering, anger and fear from your life. So keep up with me now. As my mother used to say, “There’s a method to my madness.” 
This is all going to start coming together very quickly and you’re going to se e the elegance 
of the design, the perfection of how this all fits into one pattern, as you deal with the 
changes you are having to face now. (If you have some questions, or there’s something you’d like explained a little more fully, 
I invite you to go at a ny time to www.ChangingChange.net  and see if you can find out what 
you need to know. Remember, this is a joint exploration. This is not like most books . . . read 
it and “get it” or not. This is a new kind o f literature. This is living  literature. So for heaven’s 
sake, don’t plow ahead here if your head is spinning and you need some help right now.) Your thoughts create your emotions. We’ve now firmly established that. This means that 
you are creating your emotions. This is another very important piece of information. I can’t 
say it enough. Most people don’t think they create  their emotions. They think they just have  them. Like 
snowflakes or raindrops, they fall out of the sky. People ofte n say that they were just 
overcome  by emotion. In fact, emotions are chosen. The mind decides  to feel a certain way. Emotions are an Act 
of Will. Wow, that’s tough. That’s a tough one. That’s very difficult for people to accept. You 
accept this and suddenl y you’re responsible for everything; for how you feel, for how you 
act with others as a result of how you feel . . . so when people hear this, they look for an 
“out.”  
(“There must be some  way in which I am not responsible for how I’m feeling. I mean, I 
can see that I’m responsible for what I do with my feelings, but my feelings themselves? C’mon! I can’t be responsible for that . I feel the way I feel, dammit, and that’s just my truth .”) 
Have you ever told yourself some version of that? Yet the human race ca n never evolve 
until we see the role we all play in the creation of our emotions. So I will repeat: emotions 
are chosen. The mind decides  to feel a certain way. Emotions are an Act of Will. Now I will concede this much: your mind does what it does so fast  that it can seem  as 
though you have no control over your emotions. Your brain works faster than the fastest computer ever manufactured. (That may not be 
true in a few more years, but it is still true today . . . I think.) Your mind moves you very 
quickly i nto an emotion based on the thought it has formed. This is what is meant when 
people say, “I was very moved.” Indeed they were. Thought is energy , and your mind’s job is 
to move that energy into motion  (E+motion). Since this happens so doggone fast, so lightning  fast, it becomes crucial that we know, 
ahead of time , the answer to what has now become the central question: What generates 
the thought that creates the emotion? Where does the thought come from? If you can figure that  out you will have gone a long  way toward being able to change  
your thought about something. And if you can change your thought about something, you 
can create a different emotion around it —which will produce a different experience of it. As fast as the mind works, it still works only on the data it is working with . Garbage 
in/garbage out. Bingo. Bingo! Because producing an experience different from the one you are now having is precisely 
what you want to do. I promised  you that this was all going to get back around to you, to 
what is h appening with you, right here, right now. So . . . what creates a thought that creates an emotion? Where does a thought come 
from? It comes from your inner truth . And where does your inner truth come from? It 
comes from your prior data . So, knowing this ahead of time, can we change a thought that is 
likely to produce an unwelcome emotion before it produces that emotion? Probably not. Maybe, in some rare instance, but in most cases, probably not. Because it 
happens too fast. It all happens so darned fast. Even knowing ahead of time why  it’s 
happenin g cannot stop it from happening before you know it . (I meant that literally!) Not 
unless you’re a true Master. Not unless you’re His Holiness, the Dalai Lama or somebody. (And I’m not making fun of him. He really is a Master. But how many are there like hi m?) So what’s the point of all this . . . what’s the use of us discussing this, exploring all this, 
examining this every which way from Sunday . . . ? Fair question. A really, really, really  fair 
question. Such a fair, and important, question that it feels  like this might be a good time, 
before plowing right ahead, to give yourself some  
Breathing Space  
Breathe into what you’ve just read, then . . . decide now if you want to go on, or rest with 
it for a while and meet with me here later. . . . If you’re ready to go on, drop down to . . . IT’S AFTER, NOT BEFORE  
The point of everything I’ve been telling you here is that, while you may not be able to 
use it to control your thoughts ahead  of time, you now have an extraordinary tool, a 
powerful, powerfu l device, with which to change your thoughts after the  fact. Indeed, 
almost instantly  after the fact. And that is nearly as good as doing it ahead of time. Think about it. If you could have changed most of the thoughts that created the negative 
emotions th at you have had in the past twenty years within minutes, or even seconds, of 
having them, transforming them on the spot  into something much more positive and 
healing, wouldn’t you have loved to have been able to do that? I mean, do you think that 
would hav e changed some important moments in your life, or what . . . ? ?? Now think about this for your future —or even for the present moment in which you are 
now living. If you could transform negative emotions into positive emotions right now, and 
every day for t he rest of your life —even if you did it after you first felt  the negative 
emotion —wouldn’t that be a wonderful gift? I promised you at the outset —and I meant it when I promised —that when you’re 
through here you’ll be able to change Fear into Excitement, Wo rry into Wonder, 
Expectation into Anticipation, Resistance into Acceptance, Disappointment into 
Detachment, Enragement into Engagement, Addiction into Preference, Requirement into 
Contentment, Judgment into Observation, Sadness into Happiness, Thought into  Presence, 
Reaction into Response, and a Time of Turmoil into a Time of Peace. I didn’t say you would never have  fear, never have  worry, never have  disappointment or 
sadness or turmoil. I said that you would be able to change them . And you will be able to. You’ll be able to change them fast. As fast as they arise. You can watch them come up, and 
you can change them as fast as they appear. Or you can take your time with it. You can, as spiritual teacher Mary O’Malley suggests, 
just look at them with simple c uriosity, and observe how it feels to have that particular 
feeling. Then you can hang out with your emotion —and the Distorted Reality that it 
generates —for as long as you want. You are in total control. You can create whatever 
“aftereffect” you wish. After  you feel the first rush of emotion, how you wish it to affect you 
is up to you. By the way, you can trust yourself on this. You will know  when you’re “done” having an 
experience. You will know  when your period of mourning is over, your time of anger has 
passed, your veil of tears is ready to be lifted, your fear seeks to subside, your unhappiness 
feels complete. Again, you can decide that this will be just moments after the very first impulse of 
negative energy flows through you —or you can choose to take w eeks, months, or years. (We all know people who have been bitter for decades over an event in their past.) But 
now, at least, you cannot say that you have no control  over these emotions or the thoughts 
that create them, that you have no control  over the wa y you are experiencing your life, that 
you have no control  over the reality in which you find yourself. In my own life, I have reduced my experience of anger or frustration to about twelve to 
fifteen minutes. I just toss it away after that. Sadness takes a  little longer. Sometimes a half -
hour or more. Fear, longer still. I can hang out in fear, or waft in and out of it, for periods of 
time over days on end if I am not careful. And melancholy? Gosh, I could entertain 
melancholy as a Constant State of Mind gi ven the slightest encouragement. (It’s apparently 
too much fun for me to give up.) The point: I hold on to the experiences that serve me, and only as long as they serve me. And how I can tell when they are no longer are serving me? By my Happiness Meter. You see, I know myself pretty well. I can actually be happy  being angry —and I am willing 
to admit that. I can be happy  being sad, and I can admit that. There are certain times when 
it feels good  to feel bad. There’s a certain excitement attached to a partic ular kind of anger. (Self -righteousness is one of my favorites.) But when it no longer feels good to feel bad, I 
cut it off. I will not disserve myself. You do not have to disserve yourself, either. So look at what is going on in your life right 
now, and s ee how you’re feeling about it. As long as you feel good about feeling whatever 
you’re feeling —as long as you are, at some level, getting a payoff out of it, enjoying the 
experience you are having —it is serving you. (The question is whether you will be abl e to 
admit that, even to yourself.) As soon as you become clear that you are done feeling a certain way . . . when you hear 
yourself saying to yourself, I’m finished with this. I’m through with this. I don’t want any 
more of this! , then you can use the too ls that are being described on these pages to be done 
with it . Instantly. That’s the gift you’re giving yourself here. Let’s make no mistake about something. You brought yourself to this book. You opened 
it. And it’s you who’ve stayed with it through all o f these deep explorations. You’ve  done 
this. You have given yourself this gift. Nice going. Nice, nice going. You’ve needed it. You 
deserve it. And you got it. Now I am going to show you exactly how all of this works in real life. Not on paper. Not 
in a le cture. In real life. They don’t set out to do anything grand. They play, the three of them:  
Black and Burr -ridden,  
Speckled and Bright -eyed,  
Sleek and Questioning. Every morning the play continues,  
tugging one another this way and that  
along throughout a day. If He sits, scratching and gazing out across  
the great divide of valleys,  
She will bring Him an enduring piece of hat  
or garden hose or  
the last fourth of a plastic ball  
and drop it at His feet. If the One with the moon -colored eyes  
lies in the ivy, with sun on Her ribs  
and leaves in Her ears  
the other two will attack mid -dream  
with nip and tug at  
neck and tail. It is pure genius and heart. Three dogs living out the Mystery  
every moment  
while it slips like water  
thro ugh all of my grasping. —‘Three Dogs Knowing’  © 2005 Em Claire  11. NOTICE THE MOMENT  
I’M GOING TO DEMONSTRATE  to you how you can —how any person can —move to a new inner 
truth about anything; how you can upshift from Imagined Truth to Apparent Truth in 
minut es. You can use this technique either before  a moment occurs (as in the case of stepping into 
something that you know is likely to happen) or after  a moment occurs (as will be the case 
most often, I should think). Elevating your inner truth is a matter of changing your perspective, and this is easier 
than most people realize. In fact, it can be done very quickly. As my demonstration here I’m going to use an example from one of the Changing 
Everything workshops that I present around the world. In this worksh op I use a process 
with people that I call Notice the Moment . (It is just one of several processes that I have 
created to invite the mind to a new level of awareness.) The Notice the Moment  tool awakens the mind and allows it to restart the thought 
process  by inviting the mind to notice that Then  is not Now  and that Now  is not Tomorrow , 
but that Now  is NOW. In other words, the mind is invited to pay attention to what is readily 
apparent, rather than to what is clearly imagined. This process shows the mind t hat there’s nothing going on  except what’s going on . It 
instructs the mind to stop adding things to that. The data that is then considered is limited 
to the data that is observed, that is readily apparent. This creates a new starting point for 
thought: the  Apparent Truth. From this new thought arises a new emotion. The new emotion produces a new 
experience, the Observed Reality, to replace the Distorted Reality that is causing so much 
inner turmoil. All of this transformation is occurring in a person’s inte rior. The exterior 
event has not changed. I use the Notice the Moment  process when I find that someone in my workshop is 
continually using a false starting point for their thought about what is happening in the 
moment, thus creating a distorted experience of Now. Classic examples of this are the people in a retreat or workshop who become angry 
because something has changed in the room. They came into the workshop feeling all 
excited and happy to be there. They’re filled with the anticipation of having a pow erful 
experience. Then something happens. Something changes. Maybe I’ve said something that 
somebody doesn’t like. Or maybe I’ve exhibited a characteristic that rubs someone the 
wrong way. The mood of the room changes. You can feel it in the air. You can feel this 
change. It’s palpable and it’s real. All it takes is one participant to have negative feelings for the energy of the room to 
change. Sooner or later that participant will say, “I don’t like what’s going on here.” I will 
then ask, “What do you think is happening?”  My question often sounds strange to them. I explain that many people have a difficult 
time noticing the moment — and so when I ask them what is happening right now, they 
don’t know how to answer. So I say to that person, “You said there  is something you don’t like. What do you think is 
going on right now?”  
They might say, “Well, you’re starting to get real sharp in your tone of voice and very 
controlling,” or something like that. So I say, “Is that how you perceive what I’m doing? And ev en if it is what I am doing, so 
what?”  
“So, I’m not happy ,” they’ll repeat again. Right about then I’ll invite them to the front of the room by asking, “Would you like to 
heal that?” Often they’ll respond with something like, “Heal what? I’m totally fine. It’s you 
who’s acting like an ass.”  
The room chuckles and I chuckle (because it happens in every retreat that someone in 
the room turns on the facilitator) and then I say, “Well, maybe you can heal me. Would you 
be willing to do that? Would you be willing to help me be less of an ass?”  
Now even they are smiling. “I guess so,” they may allow. So I say, “Fabulous! Thank you! So let’s try something. Come on up here with me.”  
And they do. Warily, I might add. But they do. Because one thing about most people tha t 
I’ve met is that they are willing to “play.” Most people are pretty courageous. Most people 
are very brave. In fact, you’re like that. You know how I know that you’re like that? Because 
you’re reading this book right now . Only a brave person would do tha t. I’m talking about a 
person who is emotionally brave. That’s you, or you wouldn’t be looking at the stuff we’re 
talking about here. So thanks for being here with me. That’s just what I say to the person who has come to the front of the room, too. I say, 
“Thanks for being here with me.” Then I say, “I’m going to ask you now to notice the 
moment.”  
They usually respond, “I don’t know what that means. What do you mean?”  
“I mean, look closely at what’s happening right now, here in the room, while you’re 
standing here with me. This is a very safe process. Can I do this with you? Do I have 
permission to do this process with you?”  
I tell them that it may at some level be revealing or maybe even a tiny bit startling, but it 
will not be damaging in any way. If  they say yes, okay, you can run the process, here’s how 
it often goes . . . this is from an actual workshop transcript of my interaction with a lady 
who had become a bit put off —annoyed  might be a better word —by my energy:  
Me: Are you sure you are willing  to proceed with the process? Retreat Participant:  Yes, I am. Me: Absolutely  sure? Participant:  Yes, I’m absolutely sure. Me: And you won’t get mad at me, no matter what happens, so long as I don’t hurt you —
? Participant:  No, I won’t get mad at you. No mor e mad than I now am. (The room laughs.) Me: Great. So as I talk to you about this process I want you to understand that nothing is 
going to happen that . . . AAAAARG!! RAAAAAHHHH! I yelled  right in her face. I yelled very loud, a foot and a half from her. Less, actually. I got right in her face and 
screamed  something . . . just a sudden sound, an utterance. Of course, she jumped back. She was just blown away, and tears came to her eyes. I gently said, “What happened just now?”  
She looked at me as if I were from Mars. She was still weeping a little, and softly shaking. Again I said, very softly, “Notice the moment. What just happened here?”  
“You scared me.”  
“No, no, no, you scared you. What did I do? You scared you, what did I do?”  
“You yelled at me. You move d closer to me and screamed in my face.”  
“Okay, what does that look like to you? What exactly occurred? What do you observe  to 
have happened as opposed to what your mind is telling you about  what happened? What is 
apparent here, as opposed to what you imag ined?”  
“I didn’t imagine anything! You stepped right up to me and yelled in my face! You scared 
the hell out of me.”  
“No, I did not scare you. You scared you. Danger was the Distorted Reality. But what was 
the Observed Reality?”  
“I don’t understand what you’re driving at. I don’t know what you want me to say.”  
“What did you see? What did you observe?”  
“A loud voice, a loud sound hit my ear.”  
“Good. What else?”  
“I felt your breath. You were so close, I felt your breath in my face.”  
“Good. N ow we’re getting there. Did I touch you?”  
“No.”  
“Did I hurt you in any physical way?”  
“No.”  
“So what happened is that a loud noise reached your ear and you felt breath in your face. Is that what happened?”  
“Yes.”  
“So what? Why would that be scary? If it startled you for a moment, that’s fair. You hear 
a clap of thunder and it startles you, but after the initial start, what about that would cause 
you any level of trauma?”  
“You don’t get it . You scared the hell out of me.”  
“But you started crying. You broke  into tears.”  
“Yes! Because you scared the hell out of me!”  “No, you scared you. But let’s not argue the point. Let me ask you this. Have you ever 
been startled by thunder —like a bolt of thunder in the night?”  
“Yes, of course. I’m sure we all have.”  
“Good. And when that happened, did you burst into tears?”  
Silence. Then . . . “No.”  
“Okay. So we can establish that being startled for the moment, because something fell or 
you heard a clap of thunder or something happened, is normal if you weren’t expecting it. But only a baby actually cries when he hears the thunder —because he doesn’t know what is 
happening . You don’t cry when you hear thunder, even if it startles you momentarily. Why? Because you know what is happening. Your mind goes to the apparency of thing s. Not to the 
Imagined Truth, but to the Apparent Truth. After the moment of non -expectation has 
passed, what would cause you any level of continuing trauma?”  
Right about here I began to see the faint light of recognition crossing the retreat 
participant’s  face. I went on. . . . “The continuing trauma that you experience in any moment of Now is stuff that you start 
pouring into that moment, instantly, from somewhere else, not from The Here And Now. You reach for something that is not real, such as, for inst ance, ‘yesterday.’ Your mind 
knows: My dad did that to me when I was six. You start pouring yesterday into this 
moment. Pull the plug out from that tank of data and let them all drain out. Drain the 
Moment of Now of yesterday. Can you do that?”  
A pause. Th en . . . “Yes, I think I can —how did you know about my father?”  
“It was a guess. It could have been anything. The point is, your mind pulled something 
forward out of the past and into This Moment, and it’s that thought that created the 
emotion that produce d your experience of being scared as hell. Now, look again at the 
moment that just passed, right here in this room. What happened? What did you observe?”  
“I observed a loud sound, a loud voice, so loud that it startled me. I observed breath on 
my face. I f elt threatened.”  
“Good. That’s a good looking. You’re working well. Now tell me, are you afraid of me? Do 
you think that I, as the facilitator of this retreat, am likely to hurt you in any way?”  
“No. Probably not.”  
“Probably  not?”  
“Definitely not. You’re n ot going to hurt me.”  
“Are you certain about that?”  
“Yes.”  
“Then why would you feel threatened in any way?”  
“Because you remind me of my father, who did hurt me when he yelled like that.”  Here there is a long pause. She noticed this before, but now she rea lly gets it. The whole 
room  gets it. Finally I said, as softly as I could. . . . “I see. So you think that Now  is Then .” 
“I’m sorry. It was an automatic reaction.”  
“Don’t be sorry, it’s very normal. But let me ask you this: Do you think you can ‘un-
automatic’ it?”  
“Yes, I probably can.”  
“You mean I could yell in your face again and you wouldn’t feel threatened?”  
“I think so. Yes, that’s right.”  
“Could someone else?”  
“What?”  
“Could someone else, at some other time, yell at you suddenly and you not  feel 
threatened?”  
“I suppose so, yes.”  
“Why? Why do you suppose you would be able to do that in the future when you were 
not able to do that just now?”  
“Because I’ve just had it shown to me, through this process, what I’m doing. Because I 
see now that wha t I think  is happening is not what is happening.”  
“Great. So you’re managing to discern the difference between Then and Now. You’re 
freeing yourself of yesterday. You don’t owe it any more of your todays. You’ve given it 
enough of your now moments. So all you have to do to bring yourself this freedom always is 
. . . notice the moment . Look closely at exactly what is going on. Right here, right now. Don’t 
buy into the Imagined Truth, move into the Apparent Truth. Got it?”  
“Yes, I think I do.”  
“You think  you do?”  
“No, I do. I’ve got it.”  
“Great. Thank you very much. And later in this retreat, if I start to get excited and raise 
my voice or use a sharp tone, you’ll understand what is happening and what is not, right?”  
(Laughter.) “Right.”  
“Terrific. Please sit down.”  
(Applause.) Believe me, you don’t have to know. Not so much that you render yourself helpless. Helpless in the face of what Life brings next. So make peace with knowing very little. About Love. About Others. About how life should  be. Make amends wit h how things are. Not knowing a thing,  
walk with gentle knees,  
ready to drop to them, at any moment  
that Life dictates it. Keep an empty hand  
so that it can be brought to your heart  
when a grief arrives. Make up a bed that you can fall into  
as your own, comforting arms. _______  
We come to find that Life is mostly quiet. It asks us to live by our Knowing , while  
surrendering  that very same thing. It vibrates easily around us,  
candid and benevolent. You see, it’s only  
when we root ourselves solid in some knowing again,  
that Life seems to have to shout — 
rises,  
lovingly , 
from Its whisper. —‘Life Is Mostly Quiet’  © 2007 Em Claire  12. WHERE OUR TRUTH COMES FROM  
I HOPE THAT YOU  noticed that all I was doing in the process I just shared with you was 
simply e ncouraging that lady to start her thinking at a new Point of Origin. She was invited 
to place her Apparent Truth, rather than her Imagined Truth, at the beginning of her 
thought process. When I screamed in her face she actually had Three Brands of Truth to  select from as 
she formed her thought about what was going on. By choosing one of those truths she 
formed a thought which created an emotion which produced her reality. First she produced 
a Distorted Reality. Eventually she elevated her experience to the Observed Reality. She did 
it all by simply changing her mind. Do you see what else “workshop lady” was doing just then? She was doing what we are 
all doing all the time. She was creating her own reality. Reality is not what’s happening, it’s 
what we think  is happening. We don’t experience what’s going on outside, we experience 
what’s going on inside  about what’s going on outside. Many people think that “you create your own reality” is a spiritual doctrine. Yet this 
business of creating one’s own reality is not something that is done at what most people 
think of as a spiritual level. It is done at a psychological level. It is a function of the mind. It 
has to do with the Mechanics of the Mind. Now that you understand exactly how this happens, you will be able  to make  it happen. At will. And then . . . you’ll be free. Free of emotional turmoil, free of anguish and frustration 
and anxiety and fear —the unwelcome emotions that so often accompany unwanted change 
and life disruptions. When I was a kid in the fifth g rade there was this bully who would not leave me alone. Every day he’d find a reason to bump me in line or on the stairs or in the lunchroom or 
wherever. And every day I’d say something like, “Stop it! You’d better stop it.”  And I can 
remember to this day him sneering at me and saying, “Yeah? Whaddya gonna make of it, 
huh . . . huh? ” 
Of course, he was being very wise. Without knowing it, but very wise nonetheless. Because he was asking the quintessential question of all of life, and about every change that 
occurs within it. What are you going to make of it? This is life’s inquiry every time something happens on the outside of our mind. Every 
time any event occurs. Every time something goes down. Whatever it is. It doesn’t matter. It 
could be that a relative dies. It could be that you’ve lost your glasses. It could be that your 
spouse is in a bad mood. Or in a very good  mood. It could be that you’ve just been laid off. Or just been hired. Always, always, the question from Life is the same:  
What are you going t o make of it? Your answer creates your experience. Most of us don’t see it that way, but that’s exactly what’s going on every moment of our 
lives. We are receiving incoming data from the outside world and we are creating our 
reality out of it. We are creat ing that reality quite literally out of thin air. We are creating it out of pure 
thought, and that thought emerges from the truth  that we hold in our mind. All of which 
leads us to the next logical inquiry. Where does that truth come from? First we asked, where does reality come from? And the answer was: it emerges out of 
our experience. Then we asked, where does our experience come from? And the answer 
was: it emerges out of our emotion. Then we asked, where does our emotion come from? And the answer was: it emerges out of our thought. Then we asked, where does our 
thought come from? And the answer was: it emerges out of our truth. Now we ask, where 
does our truth come from? And the answer is: it emerges out of our data. And where does our data come from? W ell, it is generously supplied to us by many 
sources. Our parents. Our family. Our friends. Our neighbors. Our teachers. Our models. Our 
culture. Our religion. Our entertainments. Our games. And all of our own previous actual 
“on-the-ground” encounters wit h life —all of which have, in turn, been affected by all of the 
above. Then  we ask . . . what stimulates, what causes, the “bringing forward” of all this past data 
to our awareness? And the answer is: an Event. A happening. An occurrence outside of your 
min d. All events call up Past Data. And THEN we ask: What causes The Event? And the answer is: Our Reality. In other words, one thing leads to another . In still other words, the whole thing is a circle. Are you getting  this? That straight line . . . the Line of Causality? . . . that line is not 
straight at all. It is a circle. There are no straight lines in the universe. They only look straight. All lines ultimately 
curve in on themselves. Ever look “as far as the eye can see”? You’re looking into thin air! The earth is curved . Beyond the horizon, it curves . Everything is curved . Time. Space. Everything, not just the horizon. What I am referring to now is what is called the Event 
Horizon. Okay, here again is our Line of Causality . . . event+data+truth+thought+emotion=experience=reality  
Now, in your mind’s eye, bend this line around  so that the two ends meet in the back, like 
a watch band. Then you will see the truth. Events touch Realities which touch Events which 
touch Realities which touch Events which touch Realities which . . . They butt up against each other. Oh, boy . . . this is doing more than bending the Line of Causality. This is mind bending. Whew. Okay . . . I need a little break here. I really do. I mean, I’m writing  this an d I need a little 
break. How must it be on your  end . . . ? So . . . Let’s take a short break. Breathe into what you’ve just read, maybe review it a time or two . . .
When_Everything_Changes_Change_Everything__In_A_Time_Of_Turmoil,_A_Pathway_To_Peace.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        Reality is created by conditions and occurrences inside  you—in your mind. It is here that events  are turned into data, which are turned int o truths, which 
are turned into thoughts, which are turned into emotions, which are turned into 
experiences, which form your reality. Now if we could just change  one of those. We are Lightbabies. Golden Grace. Wings, meant to Fly. We are delicate, an d pregnant  
with goodness. We are each made of such a quiet  
that the entire Universe  
can hear us. There is only the unfolding, the opening  
ever happening. All else are thoughts — 
lollipops for the mind. We, are Lightbabies  
parading  
as Humankind. —‘Lightbabies’  © 2007 Em Claire  6. THE SECOND CHANGE  
THERE ARE SIX THINGS  that create your reality in this physical experience that we call life. I 
just named them a moment ago. They are, again: Events, Data, Truths, Thoughts, Emotions, 
and Experience. If a ny of these six elements change, your reality will change. That means 
that if you want your current experience of the current change in your life to change, you 
have to change one of the elements. All of which brings us to. CHANGE #2:  
Change your choi ce of emotions  
What I want to tell you is that you can change your choice of emotions —and thus, change 
how you’re experiencing change itself. I can’t tell you all about how you can do that in this 
one chapter, because there’s more to it than I can put in a few lines here. And it’s all 
intrinsically tied in with Changes 3 and 4 —so we really  have to consider all three together. But for now, let me just say that you can change your emotions about anything. About 
what’s happening in your life right now, about yourself, about this book. About anything. Now you may not think this it is possible. You may even feel that it is bordering on 
smugness or arrogance for me to so much as suggest it. I also know that you’ve heard all 
this before, in “self -help” books, in lectures. so you may be thinking, listen, if it’s all that 
simple, why can’t the a verage person just do it. Isn’t it cruel to hold it out there like a 
carrot, when you know it’s on a stick and most people can’t get to it. Yes, if that were the case, it would be cruel. But I would never do that. I would never put 
something in front of yo u that it is utterly impossible for you to reach. I’m not trying to 
make you crazy, I’m trying to make you happy. So, even though you’ve heard some of this before, this time I’d like you to really think 
about it. No, really. I mean, please, just close your  eyes and think about this. Because what 
I’ve said here is one of the most important (and revolutionary) things anyone will ever say to 
you. And even if you have  heard it before, you may not have deeply explored the possibility 
of its being true. So, will you do that now. I mean, is it possible that this is something you simply do not completely understand. the understanding of which could change everything. This time I’m asking  you to stop reading. Just for a second. Just for a brief pause. Just 
time enough to decide how you want to feel about this. Did you catch the irony there. I want you to choose  how you wish to feel about the idea 
that you can choose how you wish to feel. So please go ahead. Close the book and think about it. Ask yourself some que stions. What 
would my life be like if I thought I could actually select  my emotions, rather than be 
subjected to them. Is it possible to change an emotion after I’m already having it. Not ignore it or operate “on top of it,” but actually, really and truly change the emotion I’m 
having. Can I do that. At will. Please ponder that question —and what it would mean if the answer were yes —and take 
some. Breathing Space  
Breathe into what you’ve just read, then. decide now if you want to go on, or rest wit h 
it for a while and meet with me here later. or not at all. If you’re ready to go on, drop down to. THE SPONSOR OF ALL EMOTIONS  
Okay, so we’re talking here about emotions. Well, I’m talking about emotions. Meanwhile, you’re having them. All that  you’re trying to do is deal with the changes that are 
occurring in your life, with the very threatening calamities that may be happening, while 
I’m launching into a small lecture on human psychology and what causes emotions and 
how we can change them. But you know what. I wouldn’t dare do such a thing, I wouldn’t even bring any of this 
up, if I didn’t think it was going to help you. Right here, right now. No matter what’s  going 
on. Yes, even if you’ve lost your job. Even if you’ve lost your house. Even if you feel you are 
in danger of losing everything. As I’ve said, I think I know a little about what you’re going through. I’ve been there. And 
it took me years to figure out what I’m going to be telling you now. I just didn’t get it. I just 
didn’t understand. Until I did. (With a little help from a Friend. ) So now, let me double back just a bit and reinforce the point I just made about emotions. And I promise you, you’ll see how this all ties together and how this relates directly to you. as well a s how it can make a real difference in this moment of your life. I mean, that’s the 
idea here, yes. That’s the point of us having this conversation, right. Otherwise I’m just 
flapping my gums here. So. let’s dive back in. Let’s look at that one specif ic emotion of fear (I use this one 
because it is so powerful) and see how we can change that. Fear is an emotion that you have that is sponsored by a thought that you have, which 
produces an experience that you have of an event that has occurred in your li fe. Most 
people think that fear is produced directly by the event. That is, most people think that the 
sequence is: event=experience. This is not true. The proof that it’s not true is that emotion 
does not arise uniformly. The same things do not produce fe ar, for example, in two 
different people. They sometimes do, but they just as often do not. A roaring lion can produce fear in one person and not in another (say, a lion tamer). Heights can produce fear in one person and not in another (say, the star of a high -wire act). Giving a speech can produce fear in one person (it has been listed in survey after survey as among the single biggest fears faced by many human beings) and not in another (say, a 
lecturer or an entertainer). So we can agree that no two peop le can be guaranteed to have the same experience 
(fear) when faced with the same exterior event, yes. Heck, the same event does not even 
produce the identical experience in the same  person every time. So what does  produce the fear. If it is not the roaring  lion or the height of the ladder or 
the audience waiting to hear you, then what is it. It’s something inside  you. It’s your ideas and your memories and your projections and 
your concepts and your apprehensions and your understandings and your desires and your 
conditioning and more. And all of these things fall into one broad category. Thoughts. It is your thoughts  that sponsor your fears, and nothing else. Thoughts sponsor all 
emotions. Now this is both a revolutionary and controversial statement that I am making here, 
because standard brain science says that is it just the other way around. Neuroscientists 
tell us that emotion comes before  thought, as a product of the brain’s limbic syst em, and 
that “thought” occurs in the higher regions of the brain, which analyze the emotions we are 
having. I am saying here that the opposite is true. I am saying that the limbic system 
produces what I call a Truth (an overall mental concept  of something), from which emerges 
a Thought, which generates an Emotion. Every time you display any kind of emotion you can say, “And now, a word from our 
sponsor. ” Like the sponsors on television, thoughts stop the show. That fact that thoughts sponsor emotions is the greatest news you could ever hear. If we accept the view of scientists that it is the other way around, we accept as a matter 
of fact that each of us has a built in handicap: an utter inability to decide objectively which 
emotions we are go ing to feel. We accept that we are subject to our emotional reactions  and 
then have to overcome them  with our thoughts if we want them to be different. My thesis here is that it is not a question of overcoming our emotions to get them to be 
what we want th em to be, but of creating them that way from the start. This idea may be 
new to medical science, but it is not new to spirituality, which insists that we are more than 
biological machines, and that the Mind is not the same as the brain, but is far more com plex 
and sophisticated —and that the Soul is even bigger  and more sophisticated than the Mind. In this moment, as you face all the changes that are occurring in your life, this is the best 
news you could ever receive. Why. Because it gives you tools you nev er thought you had. Because it reverses the standard medical model, putting thoughts before  emotions, rather 
than after them —meaning that we are in charge here, since thoughts are changeable. Just a while ago we talked about changing your emotions. I said that changing emotions 
was the way to change Change Itself. I’m now going to tell you how  you can change 
emotions. Change your thoughts. Whereas the Heart is used to being  
the only place where Love is found  
a Mind full of joy  
draws the Heart like a moth,  
into a surprisingly different  flame. A flame where nothing burns — 
no wings are forfeited. As if God stretches the length of The Home  
to abide in every room at once,  
simply  
because  
We 
can 
* 
—‘A Mind Full of Joy’  © 2007 Em Claire  7. THE THIRD CHANGE  
YOU MAY N OT BE  able to change the fact that things are changing, but you can change your 
thought  about the things that are changing. Not only is this possible, it is next on the list of Nine Changes That Can Change 
Everything. CHANGE #3:  
Change your choice of thoug hts 
Thought is an idea that you are making up. The change that is occurring in your life is not 
something you are making up, but your thought about it is. That thought often bears no 
relationship to ultimate reality, it often bears no relationship to observed reality, yet it 
often does bear a relatio nship to distorted reality. In fact, it often creates  it. Oh-oh, this is Something Big here. I’m thinking we should not just fly right past what was 
just said. Let’s look at it more closely. What I said was. “Your thought is something you are making u p. It often bears no relationship to ultimate 
reality, it often bears no relationship to observed reality, yet it often does bear a 
relationship to distorted reality.
According to the author, emotions are not something that just happen to us, but rather they are chosen by our thoughts.
What is the author suggesting is the source of emotions?
The author is saying that thoughts produce emotions, and that we have the power to change our emotions by changing our thoughts.
What is the author's claim about the relationship between thoughts and emotions?
The author is emphasizing that reality is created by conditions and occurrences inside of one's mind, and that we have the power to change our reality by changing our thoughts and emotions.
What is the author's main point about the nature of reality?
The author is saying that the ego is not in control, but rather we are, and that we have the power to change our emotions and experiences.
What is the author's message about the ego?
The author is suggesting that there are different levels of truth, including Apparent Truth, Imagined Truth, and Actual Truth, and that we have the power to choose which truth to believe, which can change our experience and reality.
What is the author's main message about the nature of truth?