This can, in turn, 
remove you a great deal of the time from fear. The process that I have created and use in my Changing Everything Workshop gives 
people a chanc e to do that. It offers participants an opportunity to move from Distorted 
Reality to Observed Reality in a very short period of time. I like to say that it can take you 
from tears to laughter in seven minutes. (I have seen this happen in our workshops!) We go farther, then. We take participants from laughter to the joy of awareness —which 
is a different level of happiness altogether. It is not just a place where you move away  from 
fear, but where you actually transform it, changing the very meaning of the w ord. We use 
this acronym:  
F-E-A-R = Feeling Excited And Ready. The person who is coming from Actual Truth, and therefore living on an even higher 
plane in the realm of Ultimate Reality, is always in such a space, is always “feeling excited 
and ready,” because that person does not even see the same things that a person  living in 
the Observed Reality sees —for the simple reason that the person living in Ultimate Reality 
is looking at everything from an entirely different perspective . . . from that third  reality 
that modern clinical psychology doesn’t even acknowledge exi sts. Do you remember this? The place from which you are looking determines what you see . Indeed, it does. And so the trick is to live as an integrated whole, with all three  parts of the 
Totality of Your Being —Body, Mind, and Spirit —creating, expressing, an d fulfilling your 
current notion of Who You Are and Who You Choose To Be —and with you gathering that 
notion not from your Imagined Truth, not from the Apparent Truth, but from the third level 
of truth: the Actual Truth. By moving to the Actual Truth as you r Point of Origin, you can use the Mechanics of the 
Mind to transform any moment . And you access this Actual Truth by using the System of the 
Soul to change your perspective. Is this real? Can this really happen? Those are fair questions. You may now be as king 
those questions yourself. I have come (or, more accurately, you have brought me to you) to 
tell you this: yes, it is real. This is how the soul and the mind work together in a synergistic 
process that allows the Total Being That Is You to do what you came here to do; to use this 
life as you were intended to use it. So far I have invited you to do six things. I’ve invited you to change your decision to “go 
it alone,” to change your choice of emotions, to change your choice of thoughts, to change 
your ch oice of truths, to change your idea about Change Itself, and to change your idea 
about why Change occurs. Now, with this background, I’m going to invite you to make a stupendous change, a 
humongous change, a mountainous, gigantic, gargantuan change. I’m in viting you to make  
CHANGE #7:  
Change your idea about future Change  
It may not have yet occurred to you that the System of the Soul can be applied to future 
change as well as presently experienced change, but it can. In fact, this is where it has its 
greate st power, because it can systematically change not only this moment, but your entire 
life. I have said now a number of times that change occurs because you want it to occur. You 
want it to occur because you are continually choosing the perfect people, plac es, and 
conditions with which to experience what you next seek to experience as you move 
forward in the process of the evolution of your soul. Now you may not feel that the change 
that is now occurring has been caused by you, but it has been, at a very hig h metaphysical 
level, through the process of synergistic energy exchange. In simple terms: thought in 
action. What some have called the Law of Attraction. Yet why would you attract something to you that you do not experience as being very 
welcome? Because it is only in your mind  that it does not seem welcome. In your soul it is 
very clear that the change now presenting itself is your simple and intuitive assertion of the 
Principles of Life (life is eternally functional, adaptable, and sustainable). But, you  may ask, how is what is happening now actually “good” for me? Well, you can experience that in two ways. You can either wait long enough for the 
passage of time to show that to you (which it inevitably will), or you can go to the place of 
knowing that rig ht now. That place is your soul, not your mind. Your soul will show you now what your mind will 
show you later. Later, as life unravels itself, you will see that everything that’s ever 
happened to you has happened for the better. What a statement! What a G od we must have! Now I know that it is compelling (and important) to bring this up right now: what about 
the unthinkable plight of those people who have endured unimaginable suffering in their 
lives? I know, I know . . . and I agree that it is very, very d ifficult for the limited perspective of 
the human mind to hold such suffering as acceptable, purposeful, or intentional on the part 
of the soul. Yet Conversations with God  has been very clear on this point. It says there are no 
victims and there are no vil lains in this world. Everything that happens is happening for the 
highest evolutionary purpose —and it is notable that sometimes a soul reincarnates at a 
time and for a purpose that serves the agenda of another. Such a statement could be made about the man named Siddhartha Gautama, who came 
to be called the Buddha. It could also be made about Moses, who led his people out of the 
desert and into the promised land. It could also be made about Jesus Christ, whose message 
has likewise impacted the world entire. It could also be made about Muhammad ibn 
Abdullah, bless his holy name, a diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator, 
reformer, military general, and, according to Muslim belief, an agent of divine action; a 
messenger and prophet of Allah . It coul d also be said of many other masters and avatars 
and saints, some known and some not known, but easily recognizable by their actions, by 
what they have given and what they have sacrificed in order to serve the sacred and holy 
agenda of others. (This idea, this concept, is described in beautiful terms easy enough for a child to 
understand —indeed, written  for a child —in the wonderful book, The Little Soul and the 
Sun, a children’s literature bestseller that emerged from the messages in Conversations with 
God.) Into this final category falls a multitude of contemporary figures, or what might be 
termed latter -day saints . . . which include, of course, more than the members of a particular 
religion. People such as Mother Teresa, Paramahansa Yogananda, Mahatma Gha ndi, Martin 
Luther King Jr., and even persons still closer to our present history, such as Nelson 
Mandela, who lived in captivity for nearly thirty years and emerged from jail to forgive his 
jailors —and to ask a country to do so as well. What kind of man is this? A man who has listened to his soul, not just to his mind, and 
who has thus recontextualized his experience  by adopting a perspective that opened him to 
a perception that produced a belief that impacted his behavior in a way that p roduced 
events that created data for the mind of man that resulted in a truth from which emerged 
thoughts that generated emotions that stirred an entire world, creating an experience that 
elevated humanity’s reality forever. And let me make it clear that s uch modern saints are not limited to persons who lead 
movements or nations. Your own mother may have been such a saint, or your father. Or 
both. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things have often sacrificed in order to serve the 
sacred and holy agenda o f others. We cannot guess what that agenda may be, but we can see that it takes modern saints to carry it out. Ronald Cotton is such a person. He simply led 
an ordinary life —much of it behind bars. You see, Ronald was found guilty of raping Jennifer Thomps on one night in 1984 in 
Burlington, North Carolina. I heard about Ronald and Jennifer in a story broadcast by CBS 
News on 60 minutes . The story recounted how Jennifer identified Ronald as her rapist, and 
how he spent eleven years in prison for the offense. There was only one problem. He didn’t 
do it. He said he didn’t do it, but nobody believed him. After all, as 60 Minutes  showed, 
Jennifer Thompson had identified him, and she was certain when she did so that she had 
found the right man. But in 1995 new DNA  evidence revealed that another man was the rapist. After eleven 
years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Ronald Cotton was set free. The story made 
all the news and was highlighted in March 2009 on 60 Minutes . Today Ronald Cotton and 
Jennifer Thomps on are friends. In fact, they have written a book together with writer Erin 
Torneo, Picking Cotton , in which they share their story. Most fascinatingly, they have 
become good friends. They speak regularly on the phone, and they travel together to bring 
to light the many problems with eyewitness evidence. As dramatically recounted on 60 Minutes , the first time Ron Cotton saw Jennifer 
Thompson after being released from prison, she told him with tears streaming down her 
face, “If I spent every second of every minute of every hour for the rest of my life telling you 
how sorry I am, it wouldn’t come close to how my heart feels. I am so sorry.” She said he 
just reached out, took her hand, and said, “I forgive you.”  
Cotton said that when he spoke quietly with the w oman in a church where she asked 
him to meet with her, he told her, “I don’t want you to look over your shoulder. I just want 
us to be happy and move on in life.”  
What kind of a man looks into the face of a person who falsely accused him of a crime 
that se nt him to prison for over a decade and forgives in an instant? Well, human beings, it turns out, are capable of such extraordinary responses to life 
when they expand their viewpoint beyond the limits of the mind to the perspective of the 
soul. They may not  even know, consciously, that they are doing this (or they may not call it 
that), but they are making a choice about life and how they are doing to live it, and I suggest 
that this choice comes from a place deep within, far past the reaches of the mind. When we use the System of the Soul (our higher knowing) with  the Mechanics of the 
Mind, we have combined the two most powerful tools with which human beings are 
endowed. Knowing that everything that has ever happened to you has happened in some 
way for your own higher good and fastest evolution is very, very empowering. For it means 
that everything that is going  to happen to you in the future is, likewise, for your own good. This radically alters your idea about future change. You no longer have to fear it. And by 
not fearing it you take control of it, because you now feel free to take the actions and 
decisions that are most desirous, rather than always opting for those that a re most 
cautious. It is desire that ignites the engine of creation, not caution. Never, never caution. Always, 
always desire. Look to see what you most desire in your life, then ride that feeling all the way to 
creation. If you do this you are using what h as been called the Law of Attraction. In simple 
terms: thought in action. At a very high metaphysical level: the process of synergistic 
energy exchange. Everything is energy. In this field of energy, like attracts like. What you think, you create. Yet what  you believe is what you think, and what you perceive is what you believe —and all 
of your perceptions depend on your perspective . . . AND . . . It is your current reality that creates your next perspective. It is a circle . I know you have already heard al l of this . . . but I want you to really “get it.”  
If you step out of a Distorted Reality you could carry that distortion into your next 
perspective, skipping right over the place of Pure Being from which the soul’s perspective 
emerges. This will affect yo ur next perception, which will affect your next belief, which will 
affect your next behavior, which will affect your next event, and so on around the clock of 
your life . . . to the creation of your Next -Moment -Reality. This is not good. Life is not going to go well if your Distorted Reality is so strong and 
feels so “real” that its energy affects your next perspective. That’s why you are urged to get 
in touch with your soul, which rests between your last reality and your next perspective (at 
“twelve o’cloc k high” on life’s Time Clock). What the soul brings to this process that the 
mind cannot is that enlarged perspective  I keep talking about. Once you have gained that new perspective, once you have made that New  Data part of 
your mind’s Past  Data, you can t hink a new thought about tomorrow, and how you want it 
to be. You do not have to come from worry or anxiety or negativity or any less than joyful 
vision of your future —no matter how  “bad” you think today has been! Knowing that all 
things turn out for the b est, that all outcomes are perfect for your evolution, gives you 
extraordinary confidence in tomorrow. And that’s where your power lies. Okay, enough for a while. I’m going to invite you now to just  
Put the book down for a bit  
Give yourself a chance to tak e all of that in. Read the notes you’ve placed in the margin. (You have  been taking notes, haven’t you . . . ?) Maybe do a little writing in your journal. (You are keeping a journal, yes?) Then . . . . . . when you feel refreshed, please go on to . . . YOU R NEW IDEA ABOUT TOMORROW  
What I’m saying here is that life is an energy that feeds on itself. Life produces more life 
through the process of life, and life’s energy duplicates itself. What I’m saying here is that 
thinking in a positive way about a present  event not only changes our present experience of 
that event, but sets into motion energies that create future events. What I’m saying here is that an extraordinary life emerges from a change in your idea about future change —#7 on 
our list. What you projec t, you produce. What you conclude, you create. And all that stuff. “All that stuff” is what spiritual teachers of every stripe and color, of every persuasion 
and belief, have been sharing with humankind since time began. All spiritual teachers say 
the same  thing. Don’t you think that’s a bit unusual? All religions teach the same doctrine. Don’t you find that interesting? On this particular subject, on the question of how life works 
and what makes the world go ’round, every dogma agrees: As you believe, so w ill it be done 
unto you. James Allen wrote an extraordinary little tract on this subject, titled As a Man Thinketh . I 
read this more than thirty years ago and it changed my life. The James Allen website [self -improvement -ebooks.com] says that this mystical  author 
(1864 -1912) wrote in his own powerful words what the Buddha taught: All that we are is 
the result of what we have thought. Allen’s text has it this way: “As a man thinketh in his 
heart, so is he.”  
Allen’s message “is one of hope even in the midst o f confusion. Yes, he says, humanity 
surges with uncontrolled passion, is tumultuous with ungoverned grief, is blown about by 
anxiety and doubt. Only the wise man, only he whose thoughts are controlled and purified, 
makes the winds and the storms of the sou l obey him,” the website says. This is, of course, exactly what I have been telling you here. Again I notice, it is what all 
spiritual teachers and writers have said forever and ever. In a striking affirmation of the 
very book you are now reading, James Al len wrote one hundred years ago:  
“Tempest -tossed souls, wherever you may be, under whatsoever conditions you may 
live, know this —in the ocean of life the isles of blessedness are smiling and the sunny shore 
of your ideal awaits your coming.”  
Thus, says the self -improvement -ebooks.com website, “Allen teaches two essential 
truths: today we are where our thoughts have taken us, and we are the architect —for 
better or worse —of our futures.”  
My grown sons have a way of dealing with whatever is going on in thei r life. No matter 
what happens they say, simply: “It’s all good.”  
You can’t make a scheduled lunch date? “It’s all good.” The car gets grumpy and won’t 
start? “It’s all good.” I like that. I like that a lot. What a perspective! What a great starting 
point! That’s how you create a wonderful tomorrow! You create from a new Point of Origin about today! The opportunity that we have every 
day is to look straight at what’s going on right now and smile and have a good laugh on 
ourselves and say, “It’s all good.” T hen add a huge thank you to God for making this life so 
magnificent that we can create a brand new experience of it  in any given moment. I have said that Observed Reality is a wonderful reality —it is a very high and rare state 
of experiencing, one which mo st people seldom reach. You would think that the Observed 
Reality would be the reality most often experienced by human beings, but it is, in fact, a 
very elevated state of consciousness that many people live their entire lifetime without 
entering more than  occasionally. Most humans most of the time come from their Imagined 
Truth, and therefore experience a Distorted Reality. You can tell if you are living in the Observed Reality because you will be clear that in this 
moment there is nothing going on  other t han what is going on. The moment you bring your awareness to just what is happening now, you realize that 
everything “bad” that you think about this “now” is stuff that you’ve added . It’s stuff that’s 
not really there. You’re placing  it there, with your th ought. All you have to do to get rid of the pain of what is happening now is to stop adding  the 
pain TO what is happening now. Pull the plug! Drain the moment of the bad past or the 
unwelcome future. Have a new thought about Right Now —and have it right now! It’s all good! How can you say that when I just lost my job? you might growl —and that wou ld be fair. Or, more sadly, How can you say that when my loved one has just died? Or when my 
relationship has just ended? These are difficult, stress -filled moments. I am not suggesting they are not. Events such 
as these challenge every belief we may have that we live in a friendly universe. Only the 
soul’s absolute knowing that, when all is said and done, everything is happening for the 
best of all concerned can bring us peace in a time such as this. Life (and every condition and circumstance and relations hip in life) is functional until its 
stability is threatened. In that case, it is adaptable. Thus, it renders itself sustainable by 
changing form. This is what is occurring at the moment of a loved one’s death —and at the moment of 
the death of anything . . . a relationship, a job, a way of life, anything at all. Nothing changes 
except for the better. Right now you may be scoffing at this. Yet I’m going to go back to this: I’m willing to bet 
that if you assessed things very honestly you would agree that some  of the worst things 
that ever happened to you were actually some of the best things that ever happened to you. A Master sees this truth in all things. I am not a Master, nor anything close to it. Yet I can 
see that in my own life this has been true. You a lready know that fifteen years ago I had an 
automobile accident in which I broke my neck, which sent me into nearly two years of 
rehab, which required me to stop work, which caused me to lose my income, which 
eventually reduced me to living in a tent for a n entire year, panhandling on street corners 
and struggling in all sorts of weather just to stay fed, warm, and dry. Worst thing that could ever happen to a person, right? The great human nightmare, yes? Well . . . yes and no. At first, it was terrifying. I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I 
would become A Street Person. And once I was out there, living in that tent, I couldn’t 
imagine how I was ever going to get back into a real house again. Yet now, as I look back on it, I see that this was one of  the greatest things that ever 
happened to me. It taught me lessons about life that I can’t imagine I could have learned 
any other way. It brought me to a place of the greatest understanding of my own inner 
resources. It took me to a higher level of compas sion and a deeper caring for every member 
of the human race. And it opened me to an awareness of God and the meaning of life that 
changed everything I thought I understood, carrying me to a new place of experiencing 
each moment as an unspeakable gift. Okay , now you might say that this is a lucky case of “all’s well that ends well,” but I have 
learned that everything  ends well if I let go and let God; if I simply allow whatever change is 
occurring in my life to occur without opposition. This doesn’t mean Do Nothing, but this does mean Do Not Resist. What you resist persists. What you look at disappears. That is, it ceases to have its 
illusory form. Non -resistance delivers us from what is Imagined and awakens us to what is 
Apparent, finally showing us the Actu al Truth. It is about “. . . delivering us from evil. . . .” 
Suddenly, options are open to us that seemed utterly blocked just moments before. Everything changes with a change in point of view. That is the true power behind Change  #7. When you understand that all change happens in order to sustain harmony in the 
universe . . . when you believe  that, even though it seems unbelievable . . . when you are 
certain that life was meant to be happy . . . and when you know that all stories can have 
wonderful endings if you do not block them with bitterness, anger, resentment, frustration, 
or non -belief in even the possibility  of a wonderful ending (for most, the biggest block of all) 
. . . then  you can change your thought about what is occur ring —and thus, change your idea 
of what will occur. Has your life not shown you that everything works out for your highest evolutionary 
purpose? Of course it has. The proof of this is that you’re still here. “Yes,” you might say, “but look what I had to do  to get here!” Agreed. It wasn’t an easy 
road. Yet that is because you did not have the tools that you have now. And yet, even 
without these tools, you came through it all. So . . . what makes you think it will be any different tomorrow? We see, then, that  the issue is not whether  you’re going to survive, but how . Will you be 
happy, or will you be sad? Will you be excited again about life, or will you be discouraged, 
disgruntled, and disappointed? Will you be a blessing to all whose lives you touch, or will 
you be a burden to everyone around you? The way you hold the present experience is the way you create the next. And that  is why 
changing your perspective about future change is so powerful. The trick for you now is to transform this insight  into fores ight . The trick is to know this 
about your tomorrow, today . The trick is to be very clear that life is on your side. This does not mean that everything always turns out the way you want it to. What it 
does mean is that sometimes what you want is not what i s best for you. What??? Can that be true? Is it possible to want something that is not even in one’s own 
best interest? Of course it is. People do it all the time. That’s because they do not always 
recognize  what’s in their own best interest. And that  is because they do not know who they 
really are, where they are, what they are really doing here on this earth, and what the 
purpose of all of this is, anyway. So answer those Four Fundamental Questions for yourself, then change your idea about 
future change. Drop the thought that you cannot affect the future. Tell yourself that the 
future is not coming TO you, it is coming THROUGH you. The change that is coming to you in the future is that change that you place  in your 
future with the thoughts, words, and acti ons of today. These are the three Tools of Creation, 
and if you would like more buttressing around this idea and an even deeper explanation of 
how you are the creator of your own reality, pick up a copy of Conversations with God, Book 
1 and give yourself t he treat of one of the most inspirational and life -changing texts you will 
ever read. If you have read it before, read it again. If you have never read it, do so now. Then see 
what you think. And take what resonates with you into your life as part of your own living 
truth. Yes, yes, yes . . . change your idea about the changes to come, even as you change your 
idea about the changes that have passed. Then you can change your experience of both. What is it that you were given? I mean from the loss. After, wha t was taken. That very thing you could never  
live without. The person or place;  
the secret, or circumstance — 
now that it is gone,  
or has been found out,  
and you can no longer call it foundation,  
what is it that you were given? You know, and I know, this:  
there is a hollowing out. Something comes and opens you up  
right  
down  
the 
middle  
and from that moment on  
you are no longer immune to this world. You wake, you wander,  
every familiar, now a foreign. You walk as through water  
until you make it back to  your bed  
and finally, even there — your sheets; your own pillow’s scent different,  
as if daily someone repaints your room, displaces something,  
disturbs a cherished memento. _______  
You see,  
sometimes we are emptied. We are emptied  
because  
Life wants us to know  
so 
much  
more  
Light. —‘What Is It That You Were Given?’  © 2006 Em Claire  22. THE EIGHTH CHANGE  
NOW LOOK, WE’RE GETTING  to the end of our visit here and I want you to know that I 
understand the impact of what has happened to you in this time of chang e. Whether you’ve 
lost a job or lost a house or lost a relationship or lost your health or lost a loved one 
through death . . . whatever has changed, I understand how that has affected you. I am 
willing to join you in moving through that, as are the other spiritual life coaches who are 
reachable through www.ChangingChange.net . Whether you use the support available to you in many forms there, or find assistance 
from other sources, I would advise you not to sid estep what you are going through right 
now. I would not want you to act as if it didn’t happen, or pretend it doesn’t matter that it 
did. I want you to neither hide from it nor minimize it, but look at it squarely, and allow 
yourself whatever truth, emotio n, and experience comes up for you around that —because I 
know that what you resist persists. Then I invite you to add to your processing of all this by using some of the tools I have 
given you here. I invite you to look at the Apparent Truth and not just t he Imagined Truth. I 
invite you to consider the possibility that your soul (and the soul of everyone else involved) 
knows exactly what it is doing, and that what it is doing is ultimately for the highest good of 
all concerned. I want you, as well, to under stand that the fact that this change has occurred does not 
mean that you cannot change this change —even possibly returning your life circumstance 
to something close to, and better than, what it was before (as in, for instance, a broken 
relationship that ha s been mended). No possibility for the future is off the table. I have spoken in my workshops to people who have lost millions, only to come back to 
make millions more. I have heard from people who lost their dearest relationship, only to 
come back to reco ncile and raise it to heights never before imagined. I have talked to 
people who have been given a death sentence by their doctor, only to come back to a health 
so robust as to inspire the word “miracle.”  
Yes, I have heard from these people and more. Their  stories are all different, yet there is 
one thing they all have in common. The end of their story was not the end of their story. You’ve heard a lot from me about my own particular adventure, but let me just add this: 
I absolutely thought my story was ove r, that the good times were finished, more than once. My oh my oh my, how wrong I was. If I only knew then what I know now. Or, as my father 
used to say: So old so soon, so smart so late. Let me help you get to where you want to be in life before you becom e an old person like 
me. Or, if you already are an old person like me, let me help you to ease your steps on the 
journey home. My wonderful friends, I urge you to consider the possibility that life was meant to be 
happy. Do you believe that? If you do not,  then run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore and 
pick up a copy of Happier Than God . This is one of the most exciting books I have ever been 
given the inspiration to produce, covering with incredible expansiveness the Process of 
Personal Creation (what  some call the Law of Attraction) and exploring aspects that have 
been largely ignored in other examinations of this life principle. It will explain it all for you! One of the ways that life demonstrates that it was meant to be happy is by giving us the 
tools with which to recreate  our experience of life whenever we wish, in whatever way that 
we wish. If you haven’t known what those tools are, pay attention to what life is telling you 
right now . Listen to what you have been hearing here. And now, having hea rd all of that, it is time for you to make the Eighth Change. This has 
to do with the largest umbrella under which you now stand in this present stormy weather 
. . . your umbrella theory about life itself. I invite you now to make . . . CHANGE #8:  
Change your idea about life  
Now it is time to consider the whole doggone process. Not just the process of change , not 
just the Mechanics of the Mind, not just the System of the Soul, but the entire episode that 
we are living from birth to death. What is th is here . . . what is going on . . . ? Yes, the mind has yearned for answers to these 
questions since the mind awakened you to your own existence. The problem is that most of 
our ideas have come from before . We take our collective ideas about today  from wh at 
somebody else told us about yesterday —and from our own encounters with it. But that makes sense, doesn’t it? Oughtn’t we be learning from our experience? No! Not 
if our experience has arisen out of an Imagined Truth rather than the Actual Truth. Not if 
our experience has led us to a Distorted Reality rather than the Ultimate Reality. So if we are not to listen to our experience, then what are we to listen to . . . ? Our soul. Our Being. Go back to the top of the clock. Go back to twelve o’clock high. We 
should be listening to the soul being, not the human being. And to the connection that our 
soul makes with the One Soul there is. I believe that when you make t hat connection (meditate, pray, allow yourself 
contemplative moments, quietly read, quietly walk through the woods, quietly bathe and 
soak in the warm water of life, quietly write, quietly eat, quietly sing to yourself a song of 
the soul) . . . I believe t hat when you make that connection, you will hear from the still small 
voice within that life was not meant to be a struggle. Nor was it meant to be a “test.” Nor 
was it meant to be a “baptism of fire” or a “trial” or a “school” or anything at all unpleasan t. 
I believe you will hear that, quite to the contrary, life was meant to be an overwhelming 
joy from first moment to last; a celebration of who you are and what you are capable of; an expression of glorious and wondrous proportion, the joyful explosion of  Life itself into the 
arena of Life itself, expanding Life itself through the process of Life itself. This is true locally, in your own life, and cosmically, in the life of the universe. On 
November 17, 2006, the Associated Press reported that the Hubble s pace telescope has 
shown that a mysterious form of energy first conceived by Albert Einstein appears to have 
been fueling the expansion of the universe for most of its history. Using supernova 
explosions to gauge the expansion of the universe, astronomers made a shocking 
observation. “It appeared that older supernovae, whose light had traveled a greater distance 
across space to reach the Hubble telescope, were receding from Earth more slowly 
than simple big -bang theory would predict. Nearby supernovae were receding 
more quickly than expected,” the Associated Press story said, adding: “That could 
only be true if some mysterious force  were causing the expansion of the universe to 
accelerate over time.” (Italics mine.) This “mysterious force” is Life itself. It  is God, Godding . And it is operating inside your 
life—inside you—in every moment. When you are quiet with yourself you can feel this 
“mysterious force.” Indeed, when you are quiet with yourself you quite literally let the 
Force be with you. Now here is wh ere things get interesting. This “force,” or energy, carries data . Indeed, it 
is the data itself . Okay? Got that? Energy is data. Data is energy. Have you ever heard anyone say that certain numbers contain “good energy”? It is true. The number nine, for in stance, and equations that produce the number nine (8+1, 4+5, 3x3, 
etc.) are all said to be very powerful. I’m not a numerologist, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Acquiring, or accessing, the Data of Life is a matter of quieting the mind so that you can 
hear the soul, where that data is stored. Meditation is one way to do this. Everyone has 
heard of meditation, yet many people do not really know how to meditate. I’ve been asked 
many times in our spiritual renewal retreats if I could offer instruction in the be st way to 
do this. Of course, there is no “best way.” My personal way of meditating is by writing. It is for 
me a very powerful meditation, and much of the time when I am supposedly writing I am 
actually staring off into space, not even thinking, but just being  with what is moving 
through me in that moment, and opening —without question, expectation, or 
requirement —to what is coming next. (This is, of course, a wonderful way to journey 
through all of life .) Although there is no one form of meditation that is  “better” than another, so -called 
“sitting meditation” is what most people are most familiar with and want to know more 
about. So let me share with you some of my ideas around that. Let’s start by doing a little “quickie” meditation right here and now, jus t to give your 
mind a rest. For a brief moment, allow yourself to  
Put the book down  Just close your eyes and breathe deeply, taking in three slow “sleeping” kind of breaths. Then just relax and continue being with yourself, quietly, for a while. When you’r e ready, pick up the chapter at . . . SOME IDEAS ABOUT MEDITATION  
One thing I might suggest to people who have a difficult time quieting their mind is the 
practice of quiet, sitting meditation twice a day —fifteen minutes each morning and fifteen 
minutes ea ch evening. Try, if it is possible, to set a regular time when you will do this. Then see if you can stick 
to that time. Yet if you cannot keep such a consistent schedule, know that any time will do, 
so long as it is at least twice a day, early and late. When you meditate you may want to sometimes sit outside, if it is nice and warm, 
allowing the morning sun to bake you, or the stars to sparkle above you. Inside, you might 
sit by a window and let the dawn sun pour in and the night sky enclose you. There is,  as I 
said, no “right way” to do sitting meditation. (Indeed, there is no “right way” to do 
anything.) One may sit in a comfortable chair, or on the floor, or upright in bed, for that 
matter. Choose what works for you. Some people sit on the floor, usually  with no back rest but occasionally against a wall or 
something, because floor sitting keeps them more “present” in the space. Some report to 
me that if they are too completely comfortable, as in an overstuffed chair or on the bed, 
they tend to doze off or  fade away from the moment; and if they are sitting on the floor, or 
outside on the grass, that rarely occurs. They are totally mentally “present.”  
Once sitting, begin by paying attention to your breathing, closing your eyes, and simply 
listening to yourse lf inhaling and exhaling. Be in blackness and pay attention only to what 
you are hearing. When you have “united” —that’s the only word I can find that fits here —
with the rhythm of your breath, begin to expand your attention to what your “inner eye” is 
seein g. 
Usually at that point this is nothing but darkness. If you are seeing images —that is, 
“thinking thoughts” of something and seeing those in your mind —work to fade those 
thoughts out, like a “fade to black” on the movie screen. Turn your mind to blankness . Focusing your inner eye, peer deeply into this darkness. Be looking for nothing in 
particular, but simply peering deeply, allowing yourself to search for nothing and need 
nothing. In my own experience what happens next can often be the appearance of what  appears 
to be a small, flickering blue “flame” or a burst of blue light piercing the darkness. I find that 
if I begin thinking about this cognitively —that is, defining it, describing it to myself, trying 
to give it shape and form or make it “do” something  or “mean” something —it disappears 
immediately. The only way that I can “make it come back” is to pay it no mind. I have to work hard to turn my mind off and just be with the moment and the 
experience, without judging it, defining it, or trying to make something happen or figure it 
out or understand it from my logic center. It is rather like making love. Then, too, for the 
experience to be mystical and magical, I must turn my mind off and just be with the moment and the experience, without judging it, de fining it, or trying to make something 
happen or figure it out or understand it from my logic center. Meditation is making love to the universe. It is uniting with God. It is uniting with Self. It 
is not to be understood, created, or defined. One does not understand God, one simply 
experiences God. One does not create God, God simply is. One does not define God, God 
defines one. God IS the definer and the defined. God is the definition itself. Insert the word Self wherever the word God appears in the above paragraph and the 
meaning remains the same. Now, back to the dancing blue flame. Once you take your mind off it, all the while 
keeping your focus on it, without expectation or thought of any kind, the flickering light 
may reappear. The trick is to keep you r mind (that is, your thought process) off it, all the 
while keeping your focus (that is, your undivided attention) on it. Can you imagine this dichotomy? This means paying attention to what you are not 
paying attention to. It is very much like daydreaming . It is like when you are sitting in 
broad daylight, in the middle of some place of great activity, and you are paying attention to 
nothing at all —and to everything all at once. You are expecting nothing and requiring 
nothing and noticing nothing in partic ular, but you are so focused  on the “nothing” and the 
“everything” that someone finally has to snap you out of it (perhaps by literally snapping 
their fingers), saying, “Hey! Are you daydreaming ? ?? ?”  
Usually, one daydreams with one’s eyes open. Sitting med itation is “daydreaming with your eyes closed.” That’s as close as I can come 
to explaining the experience. Now the dancing blue flame has reappeared. Simply experience it and do not try to 
define it, measure it, or explain it to yourself in any way. Just . . . fall into it. The flame will 
appear to come toward you. It will become larger in your inner field of vision. This is not 
the flame moving toward you at all, but you moving into, and inside of, the experience of it. If you are lucky you will experience total immersion  in this light before your mind starts 
telling you about it and talking to you about it, comparing it to Past Data. If you have even 
one instant of this mindless immersion, you will have experienced bliss . This is the bliss of total knowing, total experiencing of the Self as One with everything, 
with the Only Thing There Is. You cannot “try” for this bliss. If you see the blue flame and 
begin to anticipate this bliss, the flame will disappear instantly, in  my experience. Anticipation and/or expectation ends the experience. That is because the experience is 
happening in EverMoment, and anticipation or expectation places it into the future, where 
you are not. Hence, the flame seems to “go away.” It is not the  light that has gone away, it is you. You 
have left EverMoment. This has the same effect on your inner  eye that closing your outer  eyes has on your 
experience of the physical world around you. You quite literally shut it out. In my own 
experience this enco unter with bliss comes but once every thousand moments of 
meditation. Having known it once is both a blessing and, in a sense, a curse, because I am 
forever wishing for it again. Still, there are times when I can retreat from the wishing, 
remove myself fro m the hope, desert my desires, reject my expectations, and place myself totally in the moment, utterly without anticipation of anything in particular. This is the 
mental state I seek to achieve. It is not easy, but it is possible. And if I achieve it, I ha ve 
achieved mindlessness. Mindlessness is not the emptying of the mind, but the focusing of the mind away  from 
the mind. It is about being “out of our mind” —that is, away from your thoughts for a while 
(more on this later). This gets me very close to that place at the point between realms in the 
Kingdom of God, the space of Pure Being. This gets me very close to nirvana. This can carry 
me to bliss. So . . . if you have managed to find a way to quiet your mind on a regular basis —through 
sitting meditation, w hat I call walking meditation, or “doing meditation” (doing the dishes 
can be a wonderful meditation, as can reading, or writing , a book), or stopping meditation 
(again, I’ll get into this more later) —you have undertaken what may be the single most 
importa nt commitment of your entire life: a commitment to your soul, to be with  your soul, 
to meet  your soul, to hear  and listen to  and interact with  your soul. In this way you will move through your life not only from the place of your mind, but 
your soul as wel l. This is what Ken Wilbur, one of the most widely read and influential 
American philosophers of our time, refers to in his book A Theory of Everything  as Integral 
Transformative Practice. The basic idea of an ITP, Wilbur says, is simple: “The more aspects  
of our being that we simultaneously exercise, the more likely that transformation will 
occur.”  
That’s what we’ve been talking about here since our conversation began, of course. We’ve been talking about personal transformation —the altering of your individ ual 
experience of all of life, and particularly that basic, fundamental, essential part of life that 
we call change. We’ve been talking about integrating all three parts of the Totality of Your Being in a 
cooperating, multifunctioning Whole. Yet one cannot  do this unless and until one knows 
that one is a three -part being, and then understands thoroughly . . . 1. The Basics of the Body  
2. The Mechanics of the Mind  
3. The System of the Soul  
We’ve not talked about the first of these three aspects of the triune  expression of life that 
is you, and now is our time to do so. Are you ready to put the final piece of the puzzle into 
place? If your mind would like a little time to consider what we’ve just covered, you could 
always  
Stop here for a while  
It’s as good a p lace as any to take a breath and take a break, to push back from the 
banquet table for just a moment. Then . . . when you’re ready, pick up the chapter at . . . WHERE THE BODY COMES IN  
“Your body is not something you are, it is something you have.”  
My frie nd Dr. Ilchi Lee, acknowledged before in this conversation for his brilliant thesis 
on the human brain, is fond of saying this. Other wonderful teachers and philosophers such 
as Jean Houston, Ken Wilbur, and Barbara Marx Hubbard make the same point. More a nd more we are coming to understand that we are something other than  the body, 
other than  the mind, and yes, even other than  the soul. We are all three combined , and the 
Whole is indeed greater than the sum of its parts. The Whole Being that we are is pure energy —which might be called Spirit . Your body is 
an energy package. So, too, is your mind. Likewise, your soul. In short, you are a spiritual 
being having a physical experience. Physicality should be understood to be  illusory in the sense that it is neither where you are 
nor who you are. Where you really are is in the place of Pure Being. This is also who  you are. In the 
Kingdom of God, who you are, where you are, when you are, and what you are, are all the 
same thing. You need to consider the implications of that statement for a while. You really do. I 
mean, we all do. It is our failure to consider those implications that creates the illusion in 
which we live —and the misery in which humanity is daily enmeshed. I said tha t . . . who you are, where you are, when you are, and what you are, are all the 
same thing . I call this same thing “God.” You can call it anything you wish, but you cannot 
ignore it, nor pretend that this larger context within which Life expresses itself d oes not 
exist. We are talking here about your very Essence. This is the raw Energy of Life itself. That 
Energy, that Essence is not physical, but it became  physical in order to Know Itself in its 
own Experience. For this is the triumvirate expression of Divinity:  
 
The miracle of physicality is accomplished by The Energy and The Essence through a 
process that could best be described as “a quickening of the s pirit.”  
The primal sound of the Universe is the lowest note in the score of God’s symphony. It is 
the sound of om . . . a rumble so deep, it almost sounds ominous. In recent years, deep -space 
listening devices have actually been able to pick up this sound. It is the Original Vibration. It 
is The Energy and The Essence, oscillating at its slowest speed. When this speed increases, the pitch goes up, from a deep rumble to the gentle melody 
of life as we know it. Everything begins with the First Vibration. Ever ything begins with 
sound (“In the beginning was the Word. . . .”). And The Sound said, Let there be Light . And it 
oscillated Itself so fast that its very Essence became white hot . And Light was born. And then, through the simple yet elegant process of shif ting its oscillation between 
various frequencies, The Energy and The Essence produced other manifestations of 
physicality. And the deep sound of om became the sweet sight of life. (“And the Word was 
made flesh, and dwelt among us.”)  
The faster The Energy a nd The Essence vibrated —that is, the higher the frequency  of its 
oscillations —the more solid that which is not solid appeared. Think of it this way: if a point of energy can move rapidly enough in a straight line 
between Point A and Point B, it will appear  to be at neither Point A nor Point B, but at every 
point in between. Its incomprehensible speed makes it appear to the human eye to be 
nowhere in particular at any given moment, but everywhere at once —because it is moving 
so fast, we can’t “spot” it in an y single block of time and space. Therefore, the rapidity of its 
movement makes it appear as a solid line  between A and B. You can prove this to yourself with a little experiment. Paste a big black dot on the end 
of a transparent straw. Now hold the straw in front of your face and move it left -to-right 
against the background of a white wall. You will see the dot move, of course, and you will 
be able to point out exactly where it is at any moment. Now, increase the speed with which 
you move the dot, finally getting to the place where you are moving your hand back and 
forth so fast that the dot cannot be seen as being in one place or the other, but, in fact, in all 
places at once. If you squint just a bit this will appear to the naked eye to be a straight line . The human mind cannot compute the data that it is seeing fast enough to keep up with 
the new  data it is seeing. The data stream is faster than the mind’s ability to analyze it. Therefore, the mind does not know what it is seeing. The world is 2 percent m atter and 98 percent space, but it looks to us “for all the world” 
as if it is exactly the other way around. Thus, we live in a world of our illusion. Yet it was purposefully created this way by the 
Originating Intelligence. The mind is a device beautifull y designed to analyze a limited 
amount of data from an unlimited source. It was never intended  to comprehend all of it at 
once . That is the job of the soul. Likewise, the body is a device. Your body is the physicalization of Spirit in a particular form in a particular place at a 
particular time for a particular purpose having to do with the Particularization of Every 
Particle of The All. The All is that which is not particular . It is Everything —and therefore, it is nothing in 
particular . Yet The Everything could not experience Itself as Everything, since there was 
Nothing Else with which to compare it. So, It chose to individuate  Itself in order that All 
That Is could experience Itself as something in particular. This Process of Particularization created wha t I have here called the Realm of the 
Physical. Again, it is a process by which the primal vibration simply increased the 
frequency of its oscillation. The All of you is wonderful —that is, full of wonder —yet your body is the least of these. Next comes your  mind, and the most wonderful of all is your soul. Your mind is so wonder -
full that it can actually impact your body . . . and, indeed, all things physical. That is, your mind can create your physical reality. I said . . . your mind can create your 
physica l reality. Not only can it  do this, it is doing this. Your mind is creating your reality every minute of 
every day, whether you know it or not. The question is not whether the You that you are is 
creating your reality, the question is only whether you are doing it consciously or 
unconsciously. You make things physical in your reality through a quickening of the Spirit . This is the 
benefit of what you might call fast thinking . You know how people are praised for being a 
fast thinker? There is more to that ap pellation than you might have imagined. You would be amazed at how fast your mind can think. It can think twice as fast as it 
ordinarily thinks through the simple process of ignoring all Past Data . You might call this 
Skipping Past the Past. And the extrao rdinary insight is that you can instruct your mind to 
do this; you can train your mind to do this. How? How can you train your mind to ignore everything it thinks it knows about a 
subject? By making a quantum leap to the awareness of the soul. Always, in e very moment, the decision you get to make is, shall I consider the data of the 
mind or the awareness of the soul? When you move to the awareness of the soul you raise 
your consciousness to the top of the triangle, to the place of Being. To be or not to be, that is the question. Now here is the irony of how everything I’ve just described works . . . are you ready for 
the supreme irony? This is a secret of secrets; that which no one has ever told you:  
In order to access the awareness of the soul, you need to slow down. Now wait a minute! Didn’t I just say that you had to “think fast”? Yes! You have to think 
fast when things are happening around you . . . fast enough to tell yourself to slow down. The fi rst thing your mind will want to do when incoming data is deluging you is analyze 
the data  and present you with all your options for response . It does this very, very rapidly. In 
order for you to short -circuit this process you must “think fast.” So fast th at as your mind 
begins to take you deep into your Past Data about what is going on right now, you literally 
stop your mind from going there . You Skip Past Your Past. Then you re -route your energy (your mind, you know, is electrical energy! You can 
physical ly measure the impulses). You route your energy to Awareness rather than Data. This is like switching tracks in a train yard, from the track that just goes back around to where the train has just been , to a spur that takes it to a place of rest. You can do  this quite 
literally on the spur of the moment , moving from the mind to the soul. You know how some 
people are described as having a “one -track mind”? This is about changing that. There are 
times when we all have a one -track mind. We keep thinking about w hat we’re thinking 
about —going to all the same places over and over. As you would know if you rode an actual 
train through its entire route, this gets you nowhere . You wind up right back where you 
started. Soooo . . . to change all that, you have to be fas t enough to slow down. You have to be quick enough to stop your mind from racing on, and slow your process of 
particularization, dropping your vibe to the level of your soul -frequency. Your soul’s 
oscillation is so slow that you cannot see it. Now I know t hat this is the exact reverse of everything you’ve ever learned, everything 
you’ve ever been told. You’ve been told to “raise your vibration,” and that enlightenment is 
about “consciousness -raising.” Actually, it’s just the opposite. It’s about lowering yo ur 
vibration. It’s about slowing down to the frequency rate of the Invisible. It’s about getting 
closer to the Primal Sound. That is why monks and some others who meditate often sit 
together and chant the sound of Om in a deep, rich tone. It is about slowi ng down the vibe. It is about being out of your mind. The place of your body in all of this? It is, as I said, simply and only an instrument. The 
question is, are you using it as an instrument of the mind or an instrument of the soul? And 
what I am saying here is that, at best, it should be an instrument of both. I don’t want to paint the mind as the enemy here. It is not. Most decidedly, it is a miracle 
machine. Yet we must let the mind do what the mind was designed to do, and the soul do 
what the soul was  created to do. We must remember that we are tri -part beings, and that 
the body —also a “miracle machine” —is nevertheless the least of the three. It is a device , 
there to do our bidding. Do not, therefore, get caught up in things of the body. Take care of t he body, for sure —
just as you would take care of your car or your home or any other valuable possession. Yet 
do not confuse yourself about Who You Are. You are not the body. You are not the mind. You are not even the soul. You are all 
three —and more. You a re the Spirit that forms  all three. You are The Energy. You are The 
Essence. Please do not regret  
all those moments that have brought you  
Here. If you are reading this,  
then your perseverance has been answered,  
and a Grace is coming. So for now, hold on lo osely to where you are. And like knots on a rope that mark your reaching,  
hand over hand  
you will continue to climb — sometimes through ecstasy,  
sometimes through white agony,  
higher  
into evermore light. This same formula over  
and over again. Until that day  you find yourself  
just a beacon;  
only flame. In a place  
where even Love Itself  has come undone. —‘Love Itself’  © 2006 Em Claire  23. LIFE’S WONDER  
I HAVE KNOWN MANY  people who never really think about life. “I’m too busy,” they tell me. “I’ll leave that to writers and poets.”  
For this reason many people find themselves living in a world where stuff is going on 
that no one seems to want to have going on. How it is pos sible for six billion people to want 
the same thing and not be able to get it? they ask. What kind of a world is this? they want to 
know. Or, in the words of that heart -sinking song by Peggy Lee from so many years ago, “Is 
that all there is?” If that’s all  there is . . . somebody send in the clowns , because this has got 
to be a circus. But it’s not a circus, it’s a beautifully orchestrated symphony, with God as the conductor 
and all of us as the musicians. All we have to do to make beautiful music together is know 
the score. When we see life as it really is, it all suddenly makes sense. Then the changes that are 
occurring are seen as gifts and not burdens. And then future changes will be 
demonstrations of creation, not tests of endurance. Life is a process. It is not something that is “just happening,” it is something that is 
happening on purpose . There is something that life is designed to do. What is the outcome 
that life is trying to produce? That is the question of the hour. Indeed, of the century . The an swer can be offered at two 
levels . . . UNIVERSALLY: Life is the process by which God expresses  God, experiences  God, and 
expands  God. INDIVIDUALLY: Life is intended to produce for you a direct experience of who you really 
are—and then, an opportunity to g o to the next level in your expression of that. Put simply, the purpose of life is to know life and to express more life through the 
process of life itself, manifested through all the individuations of life —in this particular  
case: You. Life meets its purp ose through the process called  Change. That is, Life (God) is always changing in order to always be creating and recreating Itself 
anew, in a way that expands Itself. Many people in the world think that God (as opposed to humans) causes Change, in the 
sens e that God causes everything. Ah, but does God? Is there even a God at all (in the sense 
of a Supreme Being existing apart and separate from us) who would or could do that? And 
if there is, why would God cause one Change and not another? Why would God do “ this” 
and not “that,” favor this person or project and not that one? What are God’s criteria? Yes, there are those who believe that God is pulling the levers, for reasons known only to 
Him and, presumably, those who follow the One True Religion (whatever religion that 
might be in any particular case). So what is true about all this? Is “God” pulling the levers? Or is life a process that runs all 
by itself? The answer is no to both questions. “God” (as that separate, Supreme Being) is not 
pulling the levers . . . and . . . life is not a process that runs all by itself. Life’s wonder is that it is a process in which you, as a sentient being filled with the 
consciousness of self -awareness, have the opportunity to create your own experience and 
your o wn reality, to know yourself as you appear to be, to express yourself as you came to 
be, and finally, to recreate yourself as you wish to be in the next grandest version of 
yourself. Life’s wonder is that the whole human race, jointly , has the same opportu nity! We 
are, daily, co -creating our collective reality. Life’s wonder is that it is a glorious adventure and a sweet, sweet journey, and I know 
and understand that it does not appear to be that way for many, many people. Indeed, it is 
when I see the suffe ring of others that I am the most tempted to give up my idea about life’s 
wonder, about this being a friendly universe, and about God being a friendly God. We talked about this earlier, and I have been given answers to this riddle often. Yet there 
are stil l times when my mind is perplexed and my heart is heavy and only my soul is at 
peace in the midst of all of the travail that I witness being visited upon the lives of others, if 
not in my own life. Why the travail? I ask, even though I have been given the answer. Why the tragedies? I 
cry. And the One Soul replies . . . Once again, my sweet, caring, compassionate one, you do not and cannot know 
of the “soul assignment” which has been given to —and accepted by —another 
blessed Individuation of God. Yet can you not believe Me when I tell you that no 
Aspect of Divinity can be, at the soul level, victimized or damaged in any way? I 
know that at the human level, hurt and victimization exist. Yet I tell you this: 
outward manifestation is part of the inward journey of  all entities and cannot be 
fully explained or understood in human terms because of the limitations of the 
current human perspective. Yet this perspective can shift. And it will. All the human 
race needs is one more Shifter here and there, one more person committed to the 
Change that will Change Everything. The One Soul then inspired me to write this:  
Let me see if I can give you a speck of an insight into a much higher and far more 
complex truth than what you may have previously considered. Have you ever d one 
something for yourself or for another or for a cause that looked like it hurt or 
damaged you in some way —but you did it anyway, for the larger good? I thought about that for a while. I remembered things I have done for myself that “looked 
like” they hu rt or damaged me, but that really, in the long run, were “for my own good.” I 
immediately came up with a good -sized list. Then I took a look at things I have done for others that did me no good at all —that, in 
fact, actually damaged me in some way —but that  I did anyway, because I loved that other 
person, or that project. Again, I came up with a pretty healthy list. Now the One Soul inspired me to ask myself:  
Can you begin to understand how souls could be doing the same kind of thing? Does it seem to you pos sible that soul -beings would do this as part of their 
journey —to advance either their own evolution . . . or the evolution of another? I had to admit that suddenly I had a better conceptual understanding of all of this. Then I 
suddenly saw a “movie” in my head. I was caused to imagine an exchange between myself 
and another soul. In my vision I was walking down a sidewalk in some city and I came 
across a street person leaning up against a building, clothes a mess, hair oily from not 
having been washed in wee ks, and smelling . . . well, interesting . . . for lack of a better 
description. The street person held out a small paper cup as I passed by. “Would you have any spare 
change?” she mumbled. Oh, this same person is on this same spot six days out of seven, I said to myself. She’s got 
a real racket going. Why bother even looking for work when you can pick up who knows 
how many dollars a week just standing here asking for it? I passed her by without giving her so much as a look . . . but then I turned b ack and 
headed straight for her. “Tell me something,” I blurted. “Why don’t you just get a job like 
everybody else rather than standing here asking people for money?”  
“If I did,” the bag lady replied, “who would be here to let you see who you really are —?” 
I was stunned by her answer. Stunned into silence. I invite you, now, to move into that silence yourself. Consider her reply. How does it feel 
to you? What is your intuitive response? Please give this some thought as you prepare to 
move into the final cha pter of this book; as you prepare to embrace The Final Change . . . “Show yourself to me,”  
said I to God again. And this is what happened next:  
I became pregnant with Light. My eyes were sunrise and sunset, both. Freckles announced themselves planets and s tars,  
and beamed upon my cheeks. Each of my lips became a kiss to the other,  
my ears heard oceans of life. Between my eyes there was an indigo wheel,  
between my toes, blond fields. My hands remembered climbing -trees,  
my hair, each Lover’s fingers. And then  I whispered,  
“But why have you made me this way?”  
And it was told to me:  
“Because I have never had Your name before,  
nor heard the way You sing it. Nor stared into the Universe through eyes like These. Nor laughed This way, nor felt the path that These te ars take. Because I have not known These ecstasies  
nor risen to These heights, nor experienced  
every nuance of the Innocence  
with which you create your lows,  
nor how a Heart could grow so wide,  
or break so easily  
or Love  
quite so unreasonably.”  
—‘Unreasonably’  © 2008 Em Claire  24. THE NINTH CHANGE  
HERE IS WHAT  I now understand: Some souls co -create experiences that are clearly (on a 
human level) hurtful and damaging to themselves. Nobody can know why they are doing 
this. Maybe they  have come to their present incarnation in order to experience the “other 
end” of something they have done to others in a previous lifetime. Maybe they have come to allow other souls a chance to experience themselves in a 
particular way. Maybe they have co me to provide “players” or “actors” for some larger “scene” in the 
whole drama of life, the acting out of which will permit huge numbers of humans to come 
to a singular realization at once. (Those who were killed in the 9/11 tragedies come to 
mind . . . as  do the millions murdered in the Holocaust.)
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:

        This can, in turn, 
remove you a great deal of the time from fear. The process that I have created and use in my Changing Everything Workshop gives 
people a chanc e to do that. It offers participants an opportunity to move from Distorted 
Reality to Observed Reality in a very short period of time. I like to say that it can take you 
from tears to laughter in seven minutes. (I have seen this happen in our workshops. ) We go farther, then. We take participants from laughter to the joy of awareness —which 
is a different level of happiness altogether. It is not just a place where you move away  from 
fear, but where you actually transform it, changing the very meaning of the w ord. We use 
this acronym:  
F-E-A-R = Feeling Excited And Ready. The person who is coming from Actual Truth, and therefore living on an even higher 
plane in the realm of Ultimate Reality, is always in such a space, is always “feeling excited 
and ready,” because that person does not even see the same things that a person  living in 
the Observed Reality sees —for the simple reason that the person living in Ultimate Reality 
is looking at everything from an entirely different perspective. from that third  reality 
that modern clinical psychology doesn’t even acknowledge exi sts. Do you remember this. The place from which you are looking determines what you see. Indeed, it does. And so the trick is to live as an integrated whole, with all three  parts of the 
Totality of Your Being —Body, Mind, and Spirit —creating, expressing, an d fulfilling your 
current notion of Who You Are and Who You Choose To Be —and with you gathering that 
notion not from your Imagined Truth, not from the Apparent Truth, but from the third level 
of truth: the Actual Truth. By moving to the Actual Truth as you r Point of Origin, you can use the Mechanics of the 
Mind to transform any moment. And you access this Actual Truth by using the System of the 
Soul to change your perspective. Is this real. Can this really happen. Those are fair questions. You may now be as king 
those questions yourself. I have come (or, more accurately, you have brought me to you) to 
tell you this: yes, it is real. This is how the soul and the mind work together in a synergistic 
process that allows the Total Being That Is You to do what you came here to do; to use this 
life as you were intended to use it. So far I have invited you to do six things. I’ve invited you to change your decision to “go 
it alone,” to change your choice of emotions, to change your choice of thoughts, to change 
your ch oice of truths, to change your idea about Change Itself, and to change your idea 
about why Change occurs. Now, with this background, I’m going to invite you to make a stupendous change, a 
humongous change, a mountainous, gigantic, gargantuan change. I’m in viting you to make  
CHANGE #7:  
Change your idea about future Change  
It may not have yet occurred to you that the System of the Soul can be applied to future 
change as well as presently experienced change, but it can. In fact, this is where it has its 
greate st power, because it can systematically change not only this moment, but your entire 
life. I have said now a number of times that change occurs because you want it to occur. You 
want it to occur because you are continually choosing the perfect people, plac es, and 
conditions with which to experience what you next seek to experience as you move 
forward in the process of the evolution of your soul. Now you may not feel that the change 
that is now occurring has been caused by you, but it has been, at a very hig h metaphysical 
level, through the process of synergistic energy exchange. In simple terms: thought in 
action. What some have called the Law of Attraction. Yet why would you attract something to you that you do not experience as being very 
welcome. Because it is only in your mind  that it does not seem welcome. In your soul it is 
very clear that the change now presenting itself is your simple and intuitive assertion of the 
Principles of Life (life is eternally functional, adaptable, and sustainable). But, you  may ask, how is what is happening now actually “good” for me. Well, you can experience that in two ways. You can either wait long enough for the 
passage of time to show that to you (which it inevitably will), or you can go to the place of 
knowing that rig ht now. That place is your soul, not your mind. Your soul will show you now what your mind will 
show you later. Later, as life unravels itself, you will see that everything that’s ever 
happened to you has happened for the better. What a statement. What a G od we must have. Now I know that it is compelling (and important) to bring this up right now: what about 
the unthinkable plight of those people who have endured unimaginable suffering in their 
lives. I know, I know. and I agree that it is very, very d ifficult for the limited perspective of 
the human mind to hold such suffering as acceptable, purposeful, or intentional on the part 
of the soul. Yet Conversations with God  has been very clear on this point. It says there are no 
victims and there are no vil lains in this world. Everything that happens is happening for the 
highest evolutionary purpose —and it is notable that sometimes a soul reincarnates at a 
time and for a purpose that serves the agenda of another. Such a statement could be made about the man named Siddhartha Gautama, who came 
to be called the Buddha. It could also be made about Moses, who led his people out of the 
desert and into the promised land. It could also be made about Jesus Christ, whose message 
has likewise impacted the world entire. It could also be made about Muhammad ibn 
Abdullah, bless his holy name, a diplomat, merchant, philosopher, orator, legislator, 
reformer, military general, and, according to Muslim belief, an agent of divine action; a 
messenger and prophet of Allah. It coul d also be said of many other masters and avatars 
and saints, some known and some not known, but easily recognizable by their actions, by 
what they have given and what they have sacrificed in order to serve the sacred and holy 
agenda of others. (This idea, this concept, is described in beautiful terms easy enough for a child to 
understand —indeed, written  for a child —in the wonderful book, The Little Soul and the 
Sun, a children’s literature bestseller that emerged from the messages in Conversations with 
God. ) Into this final category falls a multitude of contemporary figures, or what might be 
termed latter -day saints. which include, of course, more than the members of a particular 
religion. People such as Mother Teresa, Paramahansa Yogananda, Mahatma Gha ndi, Martin 
Luther King Jr. , and even persons still closer to our present history, such as Nelson 
Mandela, who lived in captivity for nearly thirty years and emerged from jail to forgive his 
jailors —and to ask a country to do so as well. What kind of man is this. A man who has listened to his soul, not just to his mind, and 
who has thus recontextualized his experience  by adopting a perspective that opened him to 
a perception that produced a belief that impacted his behavior in a way that p roduced 
events that created data for the mind of man that resulted in a truth from which emerged 
thoughts that generated emotions that stirred an entire world, creating an experience that 
elevated humanity’s reality forever. And let me make it clear that s uch modern saints are not limited to persons who lead 
movements or nations. Your own mother may have been such a saint, or your father. Or 
both. Ordinary people doing extraordinary things have often sacrificed in order to serve the 
sacred and holy agenda o f others. We cannot guess what that agenda may be, but we can see that it takes modern saints to carry it out. Ronald Cotton is such a person. He simply led 
an ordinary life —much of it behind bars. You see, Ronald was found guilty of raping Jennifer Thomps on one night in 1984 in 
Burlington, North Carolina. I heard about Ronald and Jennifer in a story broadcast by CBS 
News on 60 minutes. The story recounted how Jennifer identified Ronald as her rapist, and 
how he spent eleven years in prison for the offense. There was only one problem. He didn’t 
do it. He said he didn’t do it, but nobody believed him. After all, as 60 Minutes  showed, 
Jennifer Thompson had identified him, and she was certain when she did so that she had 
found the right man. But in 1995 new DNA  evidence revealed that another man was the rapist. After eleven 
years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Ronald Cotton was set free. The story made 
all the news and was highlighted in March 2009 on 60 Minutes. Today Ronald Cotton and 
Jennifer Thomps on are friends. In fact, they have written a book together with writer Erin 
Torneo, Picking Cotton, in which they share their story. Most fascinatingly, they have 
become good friends. They speak regularly on the phone, and they travel together to bring 
to light the many problems with eyewitness evidence. As dramatically recounted on 60 Minutes, the first time Ron Cotton saw Jennifer 
Thompson after being released from prison, she told him with tears streaming down her 
face, “If I spent every second of every minute of every hour for the rest of my life telling you 
how sorry I am, it wouldn’t come close to how my heart feels. I am so sorry. ” She said he 
just reached out, took her hand, and said, “I forgive you. ”  
Cotton said that when he spoke quietly with the w oman in a church where she asked 
him to meet with her, he told her, “I don’t want you to look over your shoulder. I just want 
us to be happy and move on in life. ”  
What kind of a man looks into the face of a person who falsely accused him of a crime 
that se nt him to prison for over a decade and forgives in an instant. Well, human beings, it turns out, are capable of such extraordinary responses to life 
when they expand their viewpoint beyond the limits of the mind to the perspective of the 
soul. They may not  even know, consciously, that they are doing this (or they may not call it 
that), but they are making a choice about life and how they are doing to live it, and I suggest 
that this choice comes from a place deep within, far past the reaches of the mind. When we use the System of the Soul (our higher knowing) with  the Mechanics of the 
Mind, we have combined the two most powerful tools with which human beings are 
endowed. Knowing that everything that has ever happened to you has happened in some 
way for your own higher good and fastest evolution is very, very empowering. For it means 
that everything that is going  to happen to you in the future is, likewise, for your own good. This radically alters your idea about future change. You no longer have to fear it. And by 
not fearing it you take control of it, because you now feel free to take the actions and 
decisions that are most desirous, rather than always opting for those that a re most 
cautious. It is desire that ignites the engine of creation, not caution. Never, never caution. Always, 
always desire. Look to see what you most desire in your life, then ride that feeling all the way to 
creation. If you do this you are using what h as been called the Law of Attraction. In simple 
terms: thought in action. At a very high metaphysical level: the process of synergistic 
energy exchange. Everything is energy. In this field of energy, like attracts like. What you think, you create. Yet what  you believe is what you think, and what you perceive is what you believe —and all 
of your perceptions depend on your perspective. AND. It is your current reality that creates your next perspective. It is a circle. I know you have already heard al l of this. but I want you to really “get it. ”  
If you step out of a Distorted Reality you could carry that distortion into your next 
perspective, skipping right over the place of Pure Being from which the soul’s perspective 
emerges. This will affect yo ur next perception, which will affect your next belief, which will 
affect your next behavior, which will affect your next event, and so on around the clock of 
your life. to the creation of your Next -Moment -Reality. This is not good. Life is not going to go well if your Distorted Reality is so strong and 
feels so “real” that its energy affects your next perspective. That’s why you are urged to get 
in touch with your soul, which rests between your last reality and your next perspective (at 
“twelve o’cloc k high” on life’s Time Clock). What the soul brings to this process that the 
mind cannot is that enlarged perspective  I keep talking about. Once you have gained that new perspective, once you have made that New  Data part of 
your mind’s Past  Data, you can t hink a new thought about tomorrow, and how you want it 
to be. You do not have to come from worry or anxiety or negativity or any less than joyful 
vision of your future —no matter how  “bad” you think today has been. Knowing that all 
things turn out for the b est, that all outcomes are perfect for your evolution, gives you 
extraordinary confidence in tomorrow. And that’s where your power lies. Okay, enough for a while. I’m going to invite you now to just  
Put the book down for a bit  
Give yourself a chance to tak e all of that in. Read the notes you’ve placed in the margin. (You have  been taking notes, haven’t you. ) Maybe do a little writing in your journal. (You are keeping a journal, yes. ) Then. when you feel refreshed, please go on to. YOU R NEW IDEA ABOUT TOMORROW  
What I’m saying here is that life is an energy that feeds on itself. Life produces more life 
through the process of life, and life’s energy duplicates itself. What I’m saying here is that 
thinking in a positive way about a present  event not only changes our present experience of 
that event, but sets into motion energies that create future events. What I’m saying here is that an extraordinary life emerges from a change in your idea about future change —#7 on 
our list. What you projec t, you produce. What you conclude, you create. And all that stuff. “All that stuff” is what spiritual teachers of every stripe and color, of every persuasion 
and belief, have been sharing with humankind since time began. All spiritual teachers say 
the same  thing. Don’t you think that’s a bit unusual. All religions teach the same doctrine. Don’t you find that interesting. On this particular subject, on the question of how life works 
and what makes the world go ’round, every dogma agrees: As you believe, so w ill it be done 
unto you. James Allen wrote an extraordinary little tract on this subject, titled As a Man Thinketh. I 
read this more than thirty years ago and it changed my life. The James Allen website [self -improvement -ebooks. com] says that this mystical  author 
(1864 -1912) wrote in his own powerful words what the Buddha taught: All that we are is 
the result of what we have thought. Allen’s text has it this way: “As a man thinketh in his 
heart, so is he. ”  
Allen’s message “is one of hope even in the midst o f confusion. Yes, he says, humanity 
surges with uncontrolled passion, is tumultuous with ungoverned grief, is blown about by 
anxiety and doubt. Only the wise man, only he whose thoughts are controlled and purified, 
makes the winds and the storms of the sou l obey him,” the website says. This is, of course, exactly what I have been telling you here. Again I notice, it is what all 
spiritual teachers and writers have said forever and ever. In a striking affirmation of the 
very book you are now reading, James Al len wrote one hundred years ago:  
“Tempest -tossed souls, wherever you may be, under whatsoever conditions you may 
live, know this —in the ocean of life the isles of blessedness are smiling and the sunny shore 
of your ideal awaits your coming. ”  
Thus, says the self -improvement -ebooks. com website, “Allen teaches two essential 
truths: today we are where our thoughts have taken us, and we are the architect —for 
better or worse —of our futures. ”  
My grown sons have a way of dealing with whatever is going on in thei r life. No matter 
what happens they say, simply: “It’s all good. ”  
You can’t make a scheduled lunch date. “It’s all good. ” The car gets grumpy and won’t 
start.
The author's workshop gives people the opportunity to move from Distorted Reality to Observed Reality in a short period of time.
What is the purpose of the author's workshop?
The author emphasizes that change is a process that occurs because we want it to, and that we have the power to create our own reality through the System of the Soul and the Mechanics of the Mind.
What is the author's message about the nature of change?
The author believes that the universe is a harmonious and benevolent place, where everything that happens is for the highest good of all concerned.
What is the author's opinion on the concept of the universe?
The author suggests that people should not resist or react to difficult situations, but rather focus on the soul and the energy of the universe to find a higher perspective and move forward.
What is the author's advice for dealing with difficult life situations?
The author emphasizes that the soul and mind are interconnected and that the soul is the source of our true power and potential, and that we must learn to listen to the soul and not just the mind in order to create a positive and harmonious reality.
What is the author's message about the nature of the soul and the mind?