You must begin by replacing
your old set of truths with a belief in the existence of a higher  self within
you. This is something that you may not have contemplated at an earlier
time in your life. Your concept of yourself that includes any limitations can be revised by
you, and only by you. Nothing I say or write will do that for you. I have
done it for myself and can assist  you along this path, but it is your decision
to change that creates the possibility of change within you. A new andhigher concept of yourself may be shocking and perhaps even  be rejected
by you, depending on the amount of conditioning you have absorbed
throughout your life. That is for you to ponder and contemplate  in the next
two chapters. At this point, simply allow yourself to imagine that you can
create a new and higher concept of yourself. Resistance is what will almost
immediately appear for most people, and I encourage you to recognize the
resistance within yourself. Overcoming Resistance
Making the transition from the level of ordinary consciousness to the
level of superconsciousness involves a fundamental renewal— a dramatic
change of personality . Very few are prepared to commit to this fulfillment
of their Divine purpose. What I’m inviting you to do, if you wish to be truly
fulfilled, is to overcome your resistance to including all that you are in your
earthly life. You have the ability  to enter higher regions so as to consciously
fulfill your highest desires here, now, for the greater benefit of all. This is
akin to doing a somersault and landing in a new reality—a reality in which
all things are possible, a reality where you no longer identify yourself with
all of those cultural memes and mind viruses that were programmed into
you as a young person, preparing you for an ordinary life. You begin this exciting adventure of changing your concept of yourself by
being willing to die to your present self. That’ s right, by relinquishing your
personal history  as the arbiter of your life, you cease to resist your fuller
potential. You simply no longer choose to form your identity on the basis of
what you’ve been taught. Remind yourself that everything you’ve believed
to be true has brought you to this point where you want to explor e rather
than resist your higher powers. Years ago while  reading Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, I recall
him saying that there’ s one distinguishing characteristic of those who live
life at a higher level with a richn ess that’s not just about monetary gain. It is
that these unique and rare individuals have a burning desire to succeed. Now , a burning desir e is much different from a regular wish or desire
because it burns inside—once ignited, it never goes out, regardless of what
transpires. This is a quality that I know well. Often it feels like an obsession
… and I have been labeled obsessive many times in my lifetime. Yet ithasn’ t been a curse, because it has always served me in the fulfillment of
whatever yearning I felt inside of me. I often think of it as an inner candle
flame that never even flickers, though the worst goes before me. All
transformation begins with an intense burning desire to be transformed. An inner knowing, along with a burning desire, is the prerequisite for
becoming a person capable of manifesting his or her heart’ s desires. In The
Power of Awareness , Nevil le emphatically explains that “To be
transformed, the whole basis of your thoughts must change. But your
thoughts cannot change unless you have new ideas , for you think from your
ideas.”3 How do you find the way to ideas that will help you change your
thoughts? Start by saying and writing an affirmation that appeals to you. Create your unique heartfelt affirmation, such as: I have a burning desir e—
an inner flame that will not be extinguished by outer forces—t o know and
live from higher regions, to be transformed so that my new concept of
myself will no longer include any limitations. I am willing to challenge and
change any thoughts that impede my having a higher vision of myself. Before closing this introductory  chapter , it will be helpful to explore your
beliefs about the nature of those  things we call thoughts, and how to change
them. Do Y ou Really Think? No one has ever been able to say from whence a thought come s, or what
that thought is made up of. It’s generally accepted that we think up things
and we make up all of our own thoughts. To be perfectly honest , for a large
portion of my life, I held these same views on thoughts originating with
each individual. But at this juncture I tend to see the entire process as more
of an act of observation, contemplation, and choice. I enjoy noticing that I
have a continuous stream of thoughts that come from … who knows where? They have no boundaries or forms to examine, and apparently are unlimited
in number and permutation! I think of the stock market ticker that runs
along the bottom  of a screen, with each stock price representi ng a simple
thought. You are capable of thinking many opposing thoughts in just a few
moments, jumping helter -skelter from one idea to another—exhilaration,
frustration, fear, ecstasy , worry , and so forth. Unguided and unguarded, youserve up an endless array of thoughts continuously from wakin g to falling
asleep. Even while sound asleep, your mind continues observing, grabbing,
and contemplating these omnipresent thoughts. There’ s very little respite
from this mental thought-producing process throughout your entire lifetime. If you really believe that you are the creator of all of your thoughts and
control the entire process, then simply stop. That’ s right, just try to stop
thinking. You may be able to slow the stream of thoughts down
considerably , but to simply stop thinking all day and stay in a thoughtless
state is quite impossible. I’m sugg esting you open your thought processes to a new idea that will
help you as you begin changing  your concept of yourself. You can think of
yourself as a Divine limitless being rather than a person who doesn’ t have
choice when it comes to your thoughts. Think of yourself as an observer ,
contemplating and selecting thoughts that you choose from that never -
ending stream of thoughts on your inner screen, 24/7/365. Watch thoughts
stream by from wherever they originate, and observe them rapidly
transitioning and combining and appearing and disappearing. Snatch a
thought from the running ribbon of thoughts and contemplate it. As you toss
it around , notice how you feel— sad, depressed, happy , frightened, and so
on. Every thoug ht going by has an imprint on your concept of yourself. First be the observer , and then the contemplator . Now become the choice
maker who can consciously decide to put that thought back into the running
stream and pick a different one, a thought that perhaps allows  you to feel
better . I am okay, I look fine, I will lose a few pounds, I am loved, I am Divine …
these and millions more like them are thoughts that you can opt for rather
than the ones you’ve become accustomed to choosing in the past. This is
how you begin a new process to change your concept of yourself. You
accept as irrevocable that it is not you setting the stream of thoughts into
motion, and that stopping thinking isn’t possible at this stage of your
evolution. At this stage the essence of your being is to observe,
contemplate, and then choose. This can all be done in a fraction of a
nanosecond. The thoughts will keep appearing on your mental TV screen
just like the stock quotations. But you’ll now be choosing the ones you
want to focus on, gather , retain, or let go.I’m encouraging you to initiate a habit of choosing thoughts and ideas that
support feeling good and power ful, and that elevate you to a higher level of
consciousness where your self-concept welcomes your higher self. I love Uell S. Andersen’ s description of this process in his book Three
Magic Words. I leave you to contemplate it as you prepare to befriend that
indwelling self that is desperately wishing to be fulfilled at the
extraordinary level, rather than at the ordinary where you have lived for far
too long:
We have assured the indwelling Self that it can be anything it accepts and has faith in, and
we are now about to develop in it the habit of choosing only those thoughts and ideas that will
constructively add good unto it. We are teaching ourselves to accept only good. … We are
deliberately compelling ourselves to accept all love, all kindness, all hope, all joy, all
expansion, all abundance, all health, all vigor. We are deliberately compelling ourselves to
reject all suffering, all sorrow , all depres sion, all morbidness, all inferiority , all aches and
pains. We are saying nothing is true but the great and the good and the beautiful, only these
will we add unto ourselves. This is your new way of choo sing thoughts that will introduce you to
what I am calling your highest self—keeping uppermost in mind that if you
want to accomplish something  (anything), you must first expect it of
yourself. Three Suggestions
— Redefine your self-concept by challenging everything that you’ve held
to be true about yourself up until now. Be open to examining everything
you’ve previously thought limite d you in any way. Affirm: I place no limits
and no restrictions on all that I intend to accomplish and becom e from here
on in. — Allow yourself to become aware of the nonphysical reality that you are
a part of. Reach out to the angels  or occupants of this higher invisible plane. Know that you can access guidance from those who’ve lived here before. Spend time in meditation accessing the feelings of a plane of higher
consciousness. — Whenever you’re experiencing discomfort or sadness, rather than
trying to change  the thought behind your emotional state, instead just put itback onto the never -ending conveyor belt of thoughts, and then select a
different thought. Keep doing this until you’ve selected a thought that
allows you to feel good, and you’re no longer condemning yourself for
creating unhappy thoughts. OceanofPDF .comCHAPTER TWO
YOUR HIGHER  SELF
“From the beginning I had a sense of destiny , as though my life was
assigned to me by fate and had to be fulfilled. This gave me an inner
security , and, though I could never pr ove it to myself, it pr oved itself to me. I did not have the certainty , it had me.”
— C ARL  JUNG
For the past 18 months or so I’ve been deeply involved in the study of
what is known as initiatic science , the principal goal of which is to help the
initiate/student (meaning you and me) know and trust in the higher self. These ancient teachings repeated ly explain that emphasizing only the needs
of our physical self, and ignoring the needs of the higher self, results in the
soul and spirit suffocating and dying of hunger and thirst. The initiates of
old insisted on the importance of the knowledge of the higher self because
this awareness opens up tremen dous possibilities for growth, progress, and,
yes—the ability to have one’ s wishes fulfilled. Perhaps it is difficult to imagine  yourself so divided as to produce both a
higher and a lower self. Very likely this idea of a self within yourself, which
is higher  than what you think of as your real self , is foreign to your way of
thinking. I have long referred to this lower self or false self as the ego—a
part of you that believes you’re defined by what you achieve, own, or win. It’s a belief that whatever status you’ve accumulated is proof that you’re a
separate being possessing particular strengths or limitations. It probably
isn’t a surprise that I suggest there are different beliefs that can and will put
you on the path of happiness, success, and health that you desire. This idea of having a higher self that transcends the self descriptor derived
from almost universal identifi cation with the ego may be difficult to
internalize. If you’ve read the first chapter of this book, then you know that
it’s necessary that you make the choice  to change what  you believe is true.Remind yoursel f that your curre nt concept of who you are has landed you
right here, reading a book on how to become a more powerful person. Are you willing to internalize radical new ideas that require a shift in your
concept of yourself? Are you receptive to the idea of having a higher self
that isn’t defined by ego concerns? Are you able to entertain the idea of an
unlimited highe r self that is within you? Can you imagine that you can
eschew ego’s limiting demands  that are keeping you stuck at an ordinary
level of conscio usness? In other words, can you approach the question of
Who am I? with complete unknowing? Conceiving the idea of a higher self
begins with this personal inner query. So let’s first examine this question of
who you are. Who Am I? Consider how many bodies you’ve occupied since birth. Who is the I that
continues to leave one body behind and then enter another? You know for
certain that you—the person that you call I, the one attempting to figure out
who you are—started out in a little baby body weighing somewhere
between five and ten pounds. The I that is you fully entered and occupied
that little baby body . Gradually  you began to discard that baby body and
move into a small toddler body that crawled, then walked, then ran, and
took on an entirely new appear ance. Your two-year -old self would find it
difficult to recognize the baby body that you’d now completely abandoned. You lived in this toddler body  for a while and then discarded it, too,
including every cell that was in your body at birth. The subse quent body
you entered was a prepubescent body that bore a similarity to your toddler
body but was completely dif ferent. The I in the question still hasn’ t been discovered, but it’s become
absolutely clear that you are obviously not your body . Why? Because the I
has remained, though it continu ously sheds the body that it occupies. This
strange phenom enon of you being an I that continuously enters, discards,
and reenters a new body has proceeded right up until this very moment. I am currently in a 70-year -old body that’s nothing like the body I
occupied 50 years ago. I remember well what that 20-year -old body I
occupied looked like, what it could do, and what it knew and didn’ t know ,
but I can’t find it anywhere—it’ s simply an illusion. It is gone from thisphysical world, as is every body that both you and I have occupied in our
lifetime. The I that I use to describe myself is not so obsessed that he insists
upon staying only in one body . In fact, that I that is me finally recognizes
the ancie nt spiritual truth spoken by Divine masters since antiquity: None of
us ar e really doing anything, rather we (our bodies) ar e mer ely being done. What is your body being done by? An invisible organizing intelligence
that takes the cells of your body , changes them into new cells, and discards
the old cells. The I that you think you are observes the entire process—for
the most part, helplessly . The physical body that you think of as you is
rearranged in a pattern designed by a formless intelligence independent of
your opinions. This I that you use to describe yourself isn’t the physical
form that you occupy and take with you everywhere. Quantum physics
states that the body you’re occupying, which is reading this paragraph right
now, is complet ely different from the body you were in when you read the
previous paragraph. Such is the nature of the physical world in which we all
live. The ancient philosopher Heraclitus put it this way several thousand years
ago, and it is true today: “All things are in motion and nothing is at rest. …
You cannot go into the same [river] twice.” A river is a constantly changing
phenomenon, as is a tree, a mountain, a goat, a human, and the physical
universe includ ing Earth. That which defines a thing, therefore, is not
physical in nature; it is metap hysical. When asked “What is real?” an
ancient spiritual  avatar responded without hesitation, “That is real which
never changes.” And since your body is in a continuous state of change, it is
not real. If you try to find that toddler body you once occupied, you realize that it
is not real, since it no longer exists. Even while you were in it years ago,
you couldn’t call it real, because  the moment you pinpointed and defined it
as real, it would  be something else, something new. What you’re calling
real would already have disappeared. Still, you know with all of this change
taking place that there is a chan geless component to who you are. The I in
that toddler body hasn’ t changed, it is in the body that you currently occupy . The I is your higher self, changeless and real. This higher self is who you
are. When you make this discovery and consciously befriend the I you are,
nothing is impossible.In Chapter One I explained the necessity of creating a new concept of
yourself: as an infinite spiritual being having a temporary , human
experience. As you read on, keep in mind that if it is changing, it is not real. The I in the question Who am I? isn’t anything that involves the physical
you, since that continuously changes and disappears. Therefore , to answer
the question Who am I? with any reference to your body and its various
talents, accomplishments, accumulations, or physical prowess is to define
yourself as unreal. Who you are, then, must be changeless , and therefore
birthless  as well as deathless. Who you are is a formless energy—a spirit , if
you will—with the capacity to be unchanged, and at the same time occupy
an infinity of bodies. Think about this—it is truly a bewildering phenomenon. You are
changeless and therefore real. What you’ve believed were facts explaining
who you are, are simply illusions—or what metaphysicians call unreal. You
were convinced by some well-intentioned relatives, teachers, and cultural
influences that you were really this ego of yours, when in fact everything
that the ego uses to define you is disappearing as fast as you can assess it. Your possession s, achievement s, reputations, trophies, bank accounts—
even your family members, including your children—are all aspects of a
world that is changing, dissolving to nothingness … all unreal. Here is how a brilliant scribe described this phenomenon poetically:
This quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies  
And Lads and Girls;  
Was laughter and ability and sighing,  
And fr ocks and curls. This passive place a summer ’s nimble mansion,  
Wher e Bloom and Bees  
Fulfilled their Oriental Cir cuit, 
Then ceased like these. In this poem, Emily Dickinson reminds you with her dazzling honesty
that all ceases and turns to dust—everything you may have believed was the
real you, includ ing the body and all of its accomplishments, and even its
laughing and sighing. But the real I that is you can smile at all of those
lower -self, ego-identified proceedings. Your higher self exists beyond that
lower , false self. It is in fact higher than all of your earthbound identities.You have a self that can look down from a more exalted position upon
that lower , ego-dominated self. So begin to know yourself as something far
greater than the ever-changing, ever-dying aspects that have dominated
your picture of who you are. Who am I? is then answered with, I am an
infinite being who originated not from my parents, but from a Source that is
itself birthless, deathless, and changeless. Your Connection to Source
We have all been created from the same Source, and it is my conclusion
that we must be like what we came from. It matters not what we call this
Source. The Tao that can be named, is not the eternal Tao is the message in
the opening lines of the Tao Te Ching. Call it Tao, call it God, call it
Jehovah, call it Divine mind—it matters not. You are merely interested in
recognizing that you originated from the Source of all life in a form you
know as your constantly changing physical body , which obviou sly contains
the creative ener gy that you came from. Read these words, recorded during a 1967 lecture given by an initiatic
science master , Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov:
The creator has planted within every creature a fragment of himself, a spark, a spirit of the
same natur e as himself and, thanks to this spirit, every creature can become a creator. And
this means that, instead of always waiting for their needs to be satisfied by some external
source, human beings  can work inwardly by means of their thought, their will, and their spirit
to obtain the nourishing healing elements they need. This is why the teaching I bring you is of
the spirit, of the creator and not of matter …
I love this quote because it speaks to a part of you that has been largely
ignored throughout all of your educational pursuits and accomplishments. The key words here are “a fragment of himself, a spark” that lies within
you, but has largely been left unexamined. This is a great image for you to
begin to understand the greatness of your higher self. There is a spark of
God within you that is the invisibleness I’ve been alluding to. It is that
which you cannot grasp with the senses—it beats your heart, grows your
hair, and keeps your lungs breathing in and breathing out. You’ve become
accustomed to taking it for granted while putting the major focus of your
life on the physical (unreal) you.My objective in this chapter and the next is to inspire you to recognize
that a spark—a tiny fragment of the creative source of the universe—is
located within you, and to help you increase the power of that spark so it
becomes the primary force in your everyday life. Review the first chapter
and affirm your willingness to change your concept of yourself  to help you
recognize and increase that spark. Then dedicate yourself to exploring this
higher self I’m writing about. Your higher self is that spark, but a spark is an infinitesimal portion of
your physical being. If you weigh 150 pounds, that spark weighs maybe
1/100th of an ounce. This is only a symbolic image (because the “spark” is
unchanging), but I’m encouragi ng you to conceptualize that spark of God
inside of you. Imagine it growi ng to double its size, then a tenfold spark,
then maybe a shred, then a segment, then a chunk, then a lump, then a piece
or a section … and just perceive that spark of God as the real you becoming
visible through your loving and inviting attentiveness, until you feel the
sacred presence of your higher self as the guiding light of your life. Ultimately , as I’ll discuss later, it will overtake the you that’s been
dominated by ego and your sensory apparatus. That former speck of a spark
will be the foundation of your life. You might conceptualize this former
spark as a sacred light inside of your head that is the same size as your
brain. Now you have a big piece of God to assist you in attaining a status
wherein the fulfillment of your wishes becomes a no-brainer , or perhaps
you’d call it a new-brainer . This new brain is comprised exclusively of
infinite God ener gy. Your Higher Self at W ork Every Day
I want you to seriously contemplate another observation made by the
initiatic spiritual master Omraam  Mikhaël Aïvanhov , in a lecture given in
January 1971: “Our higher self is perfect, omniscient and almighty , a
fragment of God Himself, a pure, transparent, luminous quintessence.”
This will very likely be a challenge for you as you consider a new concept
of yourself by accepting some truths that you have been raised to believe
are falsehoods. Yet I ask you to study this ancient spiritual teaching, which
is designed to familiarize you with a radical idea about the powers you
possess just by the fact that you are a living, breathing human being. If youare committed to accessing your higher consciousness, then you must be
willing to do what is required in order to integrate what this great initiatic
teacher is of fering. In order to accomplish becoming an almighty being, your higher self
(God) must be enlar ged from a spark to a more meaningful portion of your
essence. Since you are a piece of God and therefore have that within you,
you needn’ t doubt your own divinity . As Jesus reminds you, “Is it not
written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’?” (John 10:34). As a growing
spark of God, you must be willing to say, “That portion of myself that has
not edged God out (ego) must be perfect; it is all-knowing and it is
almighty . There is nothing that this higher self that I am cannot
accomplish.”
Once again, let’s look at someth ing Jesus told us: “With God all things are
possible” (Matth ew 19:26). All thing s are possible  leaves nothing out. As
my teachers in the initiatic sciences frequently reminded me, this higher self
—that portion of God that is us—only begins to notice us and give us the
attention we crave when we enlarge it from a tiny spark and invite the
energy into our life. Your awareness that God isn’t something external to you but rather a
portion  of yourself is truly a giant step in your spiritual evolution. You can
tell yourself with genuine knowing, I am perfect. (All forms of I am have
tremendous significance, as you will learn when you delve into the next
chapter on your highest  self.) In this chapter you are discovering your
higher  self. God no longer resides outside of you, and no longer plays
favorites. In short, you’ve revised humankind’ s image of a god created in its
own egoistic idea of itself. A god who knows how to heal yet withholds healing from some and
offers it to others who are presu med to have paid some kind of dues? A god
who is angry? A god who gives humans the pleasure of sexuality but
promises to burn in hell those who don’t follow rules devised by other
humans? A god who gives us eyes and remains invisible, but threatens
damnation for those who don’t believe in him? A god who demands to be
paid for services, with fancy temples and gold-lined costum es for his
highest representatives? This is a god of the ego. Your higher self is a piece of an all-loving, all-embracing creative Source. All you need do is accept that this is not something external to yourself. Itresides within you (the kingdom  of heaven is within)—in fact, it is you—
and all you need do is begin to align yourself with this Divine essence,
begin to act like it acts and think like it thinks, and you will begin the
process of manifesting just as it does. This is the true essence of living a life
in which your wishes are fulfilled. Give your Divine nature a chance. (The
second part of this book provides a step-by-step plan for allowing your
higher self to take over the process of fulfilling your desires.) In these opening chapters, I hope to jar you into an awareness of how
powerful a being you really are when you get past so much of the
nonsensical conditioning that has dominated your enculturation. Toss out
any self-limiting ideas about your Divine nature and what it is capable of
achieving. Befri end that spark, consult it frequently , nurture it, pay close
attention to it, believe in it, and practice describing yourself first as a
spiritual being— one who lives as frequently as possible from this all-
loving, all-givin g, all-joyful place called your higher self. Your higher self
is just what it says: higher than your false self, higher than your material
physical self. It is the part of you that is aligned with your very Source of
being. In the next chapter , you have the opportunity to consider an even more
unlikely assertion in light of all that you’ve been exposed to since
childhood. Not only do you have a lower ego-based false self, as well as a
spiritually based  higher self that is a piece of God, but you have a highest
self. A self that you have been trained to believe is not something that you
should ever claim. Y our highest self awaits you in Chapter Three . Three Suggestions
— Set aside multiple times during your day to stop and ask yourself this
key question: Right now in what I am about to say or do, do my desir es
stem from my lower or my higher self? The ego is all about self-serving,
ownership, winning, judging, and so on. The higher self is about serving,
loving, and being in a nonjud gmental state of peace. Ask yourself this
question, and create the opportu nity to align yourself more fully with God. You then have access to the same powers of manifestation as your Source of
being. This question, when honestly explored, helps you align with the
power to fulfill your wishes and desires. You don’t need to abolish your egoanimal nature. You do need to keep it tamed so it isn’t allowed to
overshadow or destroy your spirit. Give your Divine nature a chance by
asking yourself this question. — Spend some of your quiet meditation time visualizing a tiny spark of
awareness glow ing within your being. Practice seeing this God-portion of
yourself expanding its glow within your mind. See it grow ing into a
personally satisfying size. Continue this expansion exercise sensing the
spark/glow as your God essence . You will begin acting from this inner God-
realized image. — Use these af firmations frequently: I am all-knowing , I am all-powe rful,
I am unlimited. This helps you banish doubt and refer to this portion of
yourself that lives in a spiritual world of no restrictions. Simply affirm to
yourself without  explaining to others or demonstrating pride in what you’re
doing. You are ridding yoursel f of ego-dominated mental messages that
continue to want to convince you that you are primarily your body and its
five senses. OceanofPDF .comCHAPTER THREE
YOUR HIGHEST  SELF
“Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the
form of God, did not consider it r obbery to be equal with God.”
— PH ILIPPIANS  2:5–6
In the previous chapter you explored the idea that there’ s a spark of God
within you, which you can choose to expand into a consciously larger
component of your daily life. This spark is your spiritual essence—your
higher self. As your awareness increases that you are a God-rea lized being,
you will welcome it as the central focus of your life. The concept of your higher self will gradually evolve into your highest
self, which is truly omniscient, almighty , and capable of producing
miracles. Here you will see a new reality—a majestic idea of yourself that
previously seemed inconceivable. Your highest self is descr ibed in the
pronouncement in the display quote at the beginning of this chapter , written
by Saint Paul in his letters to the Philippians in the New Testament. You
move from being a spark or a fragment of God to being able to assert that I
am God  and not feel as if you’re commi tting blasphemy or a cardinal sin by
such a declaration. Here, the idea that you are equal with God was
promoted by Christ Jesus, and you are encouraged by him to “Let this mind
be in you …”
This isn’t the God created by humans—the ego-driven deity who plays
favorites, requires ostentatious places of worship, has temper tantrums,
demands reparat ions, and is filled with rage, punishing those who do not do
his bidding. Not even close! I am speaking here of the creative Source of all
being, a God Who is responsible for creating the miraculous movement
from nonbeing to being, a God Who is formless—Who does nothing yet
leaves nothing undone—a God Who is everywhere. This is a Divine
invisible presence that’s within you. This idea is at the basis of all great
spiritual teaching throughout all time.Much of organized religious teaching proclaims that God is an all-
powerful being outside of you. That idea has been thrown at you since you
were old enough  to process this absurd notion. God, you were told, watches
you and punishes you if you misbehave, but listens to your prayers and
helps you resolve your conflicts if you do the right thing and please Him. Perhaps it is a radical idea for you to declare, “I am God” and “God is
love,” or believe that “He who abides in love abides in God, and God in
him” (1 John 4:16) is who you are. When you are this God, this essence of
pure love, it is all you have to give away , and when you realign  yourself in
this vein (once again quoting  Jesus the Christ), “With men this is
impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Now , all things are
possible  leaves out nothing, including your ability to fulfill any and all
wishes that are aligned with God. You may find it difficult at first to be able to assert to yourself that I am
God. But when you put it into the context of God as love (and pure love
allows you to be almighty , all-knowing, and God-realized), you will, I
assure you, begin to regain the omnipotence that is your essen ce from the
moment of your transition from nonbeing (spirit) to being (human). I
emphasize these  teachings of Jesus to show that the declaration of I am God
is not only not in opposition to the teaching s of Christianity or other
spiritual practic es, but is fully aligned with these earlier teachings. The
reason it may seem blasphemous to say that I am God is because we’ve
adopted the God of the ego, created by humans from ego-base d ideas of a
God that imitates our most unholy human attributes. I’ve been studyi ng two great spiritual teachers in depth for several years
as I’ve prepared  to write this book. One of them is Uell S. Andersen, and
the book of his that I read, studi ed, meditated upon, and am now living and
teaching is titled Three Magic Words. The book is 323 pages long, and it
was not until the last chapter—after many specific meditations and
exercises; after many enlightening words on consciousness, intuition, faith,
love, success, immortality , and more; and after investing time and energy in
what is being taught by the author—that I discovered what the three magic
words actually are. Here is the beginning of the final chapter , titled “The Key”:This is the ineffable secret, the ultimate illumination, the key to peace and power: You are
God. If you will accept this towering truth, dare to stand atop this magnificent pinnacle,
universal consciousness will be revealed to you from within. God is there. It is He who peers
from behind your eyes, who is your own consciousness, who is your very Self. You are not
just a part of God; you are altogether  God, and God is altogether you. This is your highest self. It’s indeed a towering assumption—b ut one, if
used in context and alignment with the creative Source of all, that is the key
to mastering the ability to live a life of your wishes being fulfilled. After all,
with God as you, and you as God, all things are possible. This is not an
assertion limited to Western teachings or the Christian faith. In the Vedanta,
the ancient, pre-Christian teachings, we are reminded that we are not a part
of, but identical with, that absolute spirit of the world. Before we go any further , I want to share with you some words from my
other great spiritual teacher , Neville, regarding this notion of you and me
actually being God. Neville’ s book The Power of Awareness  contains 27 brief chapters—it’ s a
book you could easily read in a couple of hours. Yet much like the Tao Te
Ching, though it can be read in a brief amount of time, it could also be
studied endlessly and you’d repeatedly discover deeper meaning. (As I
mentioned earlier , I devoted a year to studying, meditating on, practicing,
and ultim ately writing essays on how to apply the wisdom of that tiny little
book of 81 verses. The result was published as a compendium titled Change
Your Thoughts— Change Your Life: Living the Wisdom of the Tao.) Neville’ s
brief book had the same kind of magnetic allure for me as did the Tao. It
was in my seventh complete reading of Neville’ s book, and after listening to
some of his recorded lectures, that I decided to write this book in an effort
to make his stupendous insights more readily available and applicable to
those of us now occupying this planet as temporary residents. I’ve taken exten sive notes on Neville’ s teaching and literally put them to
work in my own life. I have lectured throughout the world on the idea of
having our wishes fulfilled via the avenue of assuming the power of God
that is not only our birthright, but our very essence. Neville’ s words remind
me to seek my highest self, and whenever I make the decision to live from
this awareness, I am immediately at peace, and watch as Divine
consciousness seems to align with me in creating the fulfillment of all that I
ask for .As I finished the first 26 chapters in my seventh reading of Neville, I
heard once again the same holy refrain that U. S. Andersen offered in his
conclusion of Three Magic Words. Neville begins his final chapter , titled
“Reverence,” with these words:
In all creation, in all eternity , in all the realms of your infinite being the most wonderful
fact is that which is stressed in the first chapter of this book. You are God. You are the “I am
that I am.” You are consciousness. You are the creator . This is the mystery , this is the great
secret known by the seers, prophets, and mystics throughout the ages. This is the truth that
you can never know intellectually . … The important thing is that it is within you, it is you, it
is your world.4
This is a monum ental awareness—a knowing that you can only feel. It
manifests as a feeling of love that is ineffable, and incapable of being
known intellectually . Neville’ s conclusion explains this perfectly:
The knowledge that your creator is the very self of yourself and never would have  made
you had he not loved you  must fill your heart with devotion, yes, with adoration. … It is when
your feeling of rever ence is most intense  that you are closest to God, and when you are
closest to God, your life is richest.5
I conclude that the closest you can be to God is through recognizing what
this entire chapter is about—you can’t be any closer to God than to be God. When you realize this preeminent assertion, you regain the power of your
Source because you no longer  live as if you were estranged from your
Source. You see that God manif ests in a countless array of forms, and yes,
you are one of those sublime forms. In Neville’ s conclusion that you are God, he uses the phrase, “You are the
‘I am that I am.’” These five words are an absolutely crucial component of
the essence of this book. They will be extremely helpful in getting you over
the hurdle of truly knowing that you are God. Why? Because you’ve most
likely been conditioned to believe that such an assertion is blasphemous and
likely to incur God’ s wrath by daring to question His supremacy . A Journey into the I Am That I Am
As has always happened with my writing, there seem to be unseen forces
that direct me as I move forw ard on my own spiritual path, fulfilling a
dharma that Carl Jung also expressed about his life’s work. Like him, I’veoften felt that “sense of destiny , as though my life was assigned to me by
fate and had to be fulfilled.” Jung also said that this gave him an “inner
security ,” which I identify with as well. And though he couldn’ t prove it, he
said that “it proved itself to me. I did not have the certainty , it had me.”
Throughout my entire professio nal career , when I’ve felt tugged toward a
newer and a higher spiritual place, I too have felt guided. It’s as if angels
send me information related to what I will be writing and experiencing—
long before the actual writing/ speaking. Strangers send me a variety of
media to listen to or to read that awakens something within me. Repeated
references in conversation or reviews about movies will ignite an inner
spark of inquisitiveness, which leads to what I didn’ t know I needed for my
next step up on the ladder to enlightened living. This was true as I was preparing myself (or possibly being prepared) for
examining this idea of spiritual wish fulfillment. The work of Neville kept
knocking at my door in a myriad of ways, as did initiatic scienc e and U. S.
Andersen’ s Three Magic Words. But the teachings that I’d need to study ,
experience, and ultimately know had to penetrate my consciousness. How
was my council  of angelic immortals going to get this informa tion to me,
this ancient teaching that I had been almost totally removed from for my
entire life? As I’ve said many times, when the student is ready , the teachers
will appear . I feel that I was being made ready , and the teachers and teach ings were
showing up in just the right way to prod me toward the fulfillment of my
own dharma, and perhaps yours, too—since you are now reading these
words and are therefore connected to all that I am being taught as well. Obviously , we are all in this thing together . Your being in posse ssion of this
book and studying the messages herein may be just as mysterious to you as
how the teachings came to me. I had been away from my writing space on Maui for severa l months,
speaking and spending time with my family . When I returned, I received a
call from my yoga teacher telling me that someone had dropped off a
package at the studio for me. When I picked it up it was like a gift from
King Midas—wrapped in gold paper with a beautiful ribbon tied in a bow. I
brought it home and set the gift next to my eating space and looked at it
every day for three weeks, each time thinking it was just one more package
to open amongst the mountain of mail that had accumulate d over theprevious months  in my absence. But there was something unique about this
package, so I just left it there through all of my meals, telling myself, I’ll
open it later , yet feeling strangely drawn to it at the same time. One evening I finally decided to open it, and I must say I had a rush of
excitement that I couldn’ t understand at the time. As I undid the bow, I
discovered a note attached to the box, written to me by a Ms. Carol Ann
Jacobs, whom I did not know , nor had I even met. She had heard through
the grapevine that I practiced yoga at the Lahaina studio and simply left it
there to be given to me when I returned. The note said:
This gift of gold is a pearl of the highest wisdom on the planet,
handed down through the ethers from the Octave of Light. If taken up,
used, and made as a living flame  within oneself—it will lead them into
their ascension at the close of this embodiment. With sincer e love and gratitude for all the raising of the vibration
you have done for the earth, and for all the “beings of the elements.”
Lovingly ,
Carol Ann Jacobs
As I unwrapped  the gold paper , I saw that the box contained a small book,
which I immediately decided (I thought) that I couldn’ t possibly  read, since
I had at least 25 books from all over the world with requests for me to read,
endorse, or write a Foreword. Because of the volume of such material that
perpetually show s up at my doorstep, I always have a large number of
books that I donate to charities. I left the book on the table and said to
myself, I’ll put this with the others destined to be donated to a worthy
cause. I simply can’ t get to it. But this little package seemed to have an energy all of its own. I’d glance
at it, peruse it a bit, and then set it down, vowing to put it on the pile of
materials that I would never get to. Yet it remained next to me for several
weeks. One day while I was holding it, I felt a shaft of energy course
through me. I had goose bumps all over my body . And thus began a new
chapter in my life. I decided right there and then that I would read the entire
362 pages. The contents of this book led me to further inquiry , which
culminated in my? (probably not mine) decision to put these gold nuggets
of spiritual truth into my speeches and writing—and, most important, mylife. The book is Volume Three in the Saint Germain Series, titled The “I
AM” Discourses. In my daily reading of the material, I began to see clearly the message of
you and I and everyone else being God. The 33 discourses in this volume
were channeled directly from the ascended master Saint Germain and
others, including Jesus Christ, between October 3, 1932, and January 1,
1935—when they were published as The “I AM” Discourses . Guy Ballard was the man prese nt for these dictations, and he published
them under his pseudonym Godfre Ray King. He writes:
The thirty-three Discourses contained in this book were dictated over a visible Light and
Sound Ray in our home during 1932 by the Ascended Master Saint Germain and those other
Ascended Masters directly concerned with this Activity . The sound of His Voice was
physically audible to everyone in the room. … Never before, except in the Retrea ts of the
Great White Brotherhood, has such inten sified, transcendent Instruction concernin g the “I
AM” been given to individuals.6
I am simply presenting this to you as what is written in the Foreword of
the book. It is of no concern to me to delve into the veracity or authenticity
of channeled material—to me, everything is channeled from God. I don’t
know where these words I’m writing come from—I certainly don’t own
them, and I feel that they come fast and furious when I stay in spirit or
inspired. What I am concerned with is the magnificence of these messages
and my awareness that our world could be a world of love, peace, and joy;
and we have the power to access unlimited fulfillment of wishes that are
aligned with our source of being. And that is why I present the essence of
the “I AM” teachings and encourage you to dig deeply into their content. The essence is quite simply that I am is the full activity of God, and that
each and every one of us can realign ourselves so that our I ams reflect the
God that we are, rather than the ego that most of us have become. Here is one more very important observation from the First Discourse
offered by Saint Germain:
The first expression of every individual, everywhere in the Universe, either in spoken
word, silent thought or feeling is “I AM,” recognizing Its Own Conquering Divinity . The studen t, endeavo ring to understand and apply these mighty , yet simple Laws, must
stand guard more strictly over his thought  and expression—in word or otherwise; for every
time you say “I AM not,” “I cannot,” “I have not,” you are, whether knowingly or
unknowingly , throttling that “Great Presence” within you.7This speaks so directly to me and the message I wish to convey . Every
time you think of the expression I Am, you initiate God in action. Why not
continually remind yourself that I live, move, and have my being as God,
the I am that I am? I’m going to detour here for a few paragraphs to bring you back to a
transmission that is recorded in a book that you’re probably familiar with,
which is the Holy Bible—both  the Torah (the first five books of the Old
Testament) and the New Testament. If you’ve been raised Christian or
Jewish, you will see that these tidings of spiritual truth I’m delivering here
are dramatically harmonized with your core teachings. These five words— I
am that I am—contain a message that has been encoded in your soul. According to ancient spiritual teachings dating back 1,300 years before the
birth of Christ, the words I am align you with the Divine, and at the same
time remind you that you are the Divine, possessing the same power to
create as God. God Speaks as I Am
The infant Moses, you may recall, was put in a basket and left in the reeds
by the Nile Rive r because he was the son of an Israelite slave. The pharaoh
had ordered every male child born to Israelite slaves to be drowned in the
river. However , as luck or Divine intervention would have it, the pharaoh’ s
daughter discov ered the floating infant and rescued him to be raised as a
prince among his despotic enemies. As a young man, Moses witnesses an Egyptian soldier abusing an Israelite
slave and responds by killing the soldier and hiding the body . But his
adoptive grandfa ther the pharaoh discovers his misdeed and orders him put
to death . Moses escapes to the land of Midian and finds refuge with Jethro,
a local priest, whose daughter Zipporah he marries. Moses lives primarily
as a shepherd and husband for some 40 years. Now here is a man born to an Israelite slave, who was suppo sed to be
killed at birth by order of the pharaoh but was saved by the pharaoh’ s
daughter and raised as her son, and is now a shepherd. He’s out tending his
flock when he encounters a burning bush, which continues to burn without
consuming the bush itself. Mose s, then, the ancient scriptures tell us, hears
God speaking:And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So
he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. …
God called  to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I
am.” Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the
place where you stand is holy ground.” Moreover , He said, “I am the God of your father—the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:2–6). The story contin ues in the book of Exodus, and God was said to have told
Moses that he was to go to the pharaoh and free the childre n of Israel,
saying, “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may
bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (Exodus 3:10). Then Moses questions how he could do such an enormous task all by
himself, and God replies, “I will certainly be with you” (Exodus 3:12). Moses follows up by inquiring, “Indeed, when I come to the children of
Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and
they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” (Exodus
3:13). “And God said to Moses, ‘I AM THA T I AM.’ And He said, Thus
you shall say to the children of Israel, “I AM has sent me to you.” … This is
My name forever , and this is My memorial to all generation s’” (Exodus
3:14–15). This is also a memorial to you and me in this generation. The name of
God, which is you and me, is I am. This is the fundamental teachin g of The
“I AM” Discourses  and becoming acquainted with your highest self. Still having trouble seeing yourself as God? Try this: Imagine God as the
ocean. If you take a bucket of water out of the ocean, is the water in the
bucket the ocean? Yes, indeed, it is altogether ocean—and the ocean, even
though it is larger, is still altogether the whole of the ocean in the bucket. Now think of yourself as a bucket of God. Altogether God; and God is
altogether you. It is only when you stay separated from the ocean that the
water dries up. This is your task in grasping your highest self—staying
aligned and not separated from your Source, and remembering what God
says in Psalms 46:10: “Be still, and know that I am God.”
In The Moses Code , author James Twyman makes a powerful case for
getting to this truth—in fact, the subtitle is, “The Most Powerful
Manifestation Tool in the Histo ry of the World.” (I also encourage you to
read James’s fascinating book for a much fuller treatment of the power ofthe words that God reputedly spoke to Moses in response to his question
regarding His name.) The Torah is presumed to have been written some 1,300 years before the
birth of Christ. The holy place where God first manifests and tells Moses to
remove his shoes is where Moses discovers who he truly is by his very first
words to God: “Here I am.”
I say this to you with absolute certainty—the I am that has been with you
in all the physic al forms you’ve occupied since your birth is God. The two
words I am are God’ s name. How do you use these words? You strive to
know —just like God taught when He said, “Be still, and know that I am
God”—that with the use of God’ s name, you release all doubt about being
able to manifes t your desires, and you live from the exalted pinnacle of
your highest self. Just to reinforce this idea that you are indeed the I am that I am, or God,
consider moving  forward to the time when Jesus the man was on Earth. His
words let you know that this idea of declaring yourself as I Am God is not
some New Age interpretation, and in no way is offensive to Christianity . You are not guilty of blasphemy by allowing this belief to be alive within
you. If you’re experiencing pangs of guilt, reread the display quote at the
beginning of this chapter , whic h was written by Saint Paul. Yes, you are
equal with God. It’ s okay! Jesus Speaks As I Am
In the book of John, when Jesus is asked if he has seen Abraham, he
responds with these words: “Most assuredly , I say to you, before Abraham
was, I AM” (John 8:58). Here Jesus indicates that God, the creative Source
of the universe, defined as love, is called I Am. Throughout the New
Testament, many  of the most significant messages offered to all of us begin
with the name of God—a name that you too have come to use. All too
frequently , thoug h, you use it to define yourself as a part of, or distant from,
your Source: I am weak, I am sick, I am poor , I am sad , and so on. By using the words I am, Jesus tells us that he is one with God. He
doesn’ t just say the name, he claims it as himself, and, as you will soon see,
asks you to do the same. Here is James Twyman in The Moses Code:
“When Jesus came along and basically said, ‘I AM God,’ they responded inthe harshest manner. And yet, this is the essence of the Moses Code—the
realization that we’re all one with God, and once realized, to act with the
power and passion of God in the world. When Jesus did this, miracles
followed him everywhere he went.”
And I say to you emphatically that by internalizing this message and
knowing it, you too will have miracles occurring in your life. Here are some of those powerful messages from the teachings of Jesus, in
which he invokes the name of God as a prefix to his admonitions to all of
us. “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved” (John
10:9). “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:1 1). “I am the bread of life. He who comes to Me shall never hunger , and
he who believes in me shall never thirst” (John 6:35). “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in
darkness, but have the light of life” (John 8:12). “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father
except through Me” (John 14:6). “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser” (John 15:1). “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in
him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing” (John
15:5). “I am the Alpha  and the Omega , the Beginning and the End” (Rev
1:8). And perhaps the most significant I am statement of fered by Jesus:
“I am the resurr ection and the life. He who believes in Me, though
he may die, he shall live” (John 1 1:25). Note that Jesus did not say “I am the crucifixion.” He said, “I am the
resurrection,” meaning God is the resurrection, the being of light that is
eternal and resides in all of us. When my youngest daughter , Saje, was a second grader in a private
religious school , she told her mother and me that she hated going into the
chapel and seein g a dead body impaled on a cross. It bothered her so muchthat she asked the school officials to be excused from chapel, because the
image filled her with such sadness that she couldn’ t even concentrate on her
schoolwork. We were informed that attendance at chapel was mandatory . The end result was that we transferred her to another school, where such
images of suf fering did not exist. I often think that Saje’ s experience as a seven-year -old child is indicative
of a larger but identical problem on the planet. Jesus said I am the
resurr ection —the transcendent being of light made of love (God is love)
that is in all of us. Yet much of the world’ s Christian attention is focused on
the crucifixion of Jesus—the suffering being who has nails in his hands and
feet, a crown of thorns, blood dripping down his face, and a wound in his
side. This is an image focusing on the suffering, tormented soul in all of us,
which then prom otes more suffering and terror . It dwells on the false idea
that God is equated with suf fering. I prefer the artistic interpretations of Jesus as the resurrection, filled with
love and light, transcending earthly suffering and encouraging all of us to
love each other rather than the offerings that depict him as a tortured soul. How different our world might be if we focused on the resurrection, rather
than the crucifixion. Collectivel y, we might live out this mandate and see
the eternal resurrected light that truly defines our I am nature. We might be
taking a giant step toward the idea reflected in the words “On earth as it is
in Heaven” (Matthew 6:10). In reading the scriptures while doing research for this book, I noted that
the word me when used by Jesus is capitalized or italicized for emphasis. So
who was this great teacher referring to when he used words like “without
Me you can do nothing,” or “No one comes to the Father except through
Me”? If he meant Jesus the man who walked among us, then it would make
sense to idolize Jesus as the one and only anointed one who has all the
powers of God as His only son. Y et in his own words, according to the same
scriptures, he reminds us, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits
nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life” (John
6:63). This point needs your deepest attention. When Jesus says “Me” or “I am the way,” he isn’t talking about his bodily
self—the man who walks and talks. He is speaking as God, whose name he
has told us is I Am. He reminded us that the flesh counts for nothing, so we
can presume he is speaking about his own flesh as well. He further confirmsthis point by saying, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are
life.”
The person who was Jesus knew that the creative Source of the universe
is the words I am that I am. He was wise and holy enough to realize that the
words I am were the spirit of God speaking and not the human body
comprised of flesh and bones. This is the essential message of this chapter
on your highest self. You are God. Jesus later speaks to you in these words:
“Most assuredly , I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he
will do also; and greater works than these he will do”(John 14:12). There is that Me again; the same Me that is you, when you stay aligned
and know that you too can and will do great and greater work s when you
cast out all doub t about your own divinity and live as you are encouraged to
live, not just as a piece of God, but as God Himself. Yes, you need not
consider it robbery to be equal with God. This is the logical sequence that
can and will allow you to chan ge your concept of yourself and recognize
your Divine nature, and the fundamental truth that when you become one
with your creator , as co-creator you gain all of the powers that are inherent
in saying “I am God.” Meaning, of course, that God is love. As Neville so succinctly stated, “It is I AM’ s concept of itself that
determines the form and scenery of its existence. Everything depends upon
its attitude toward itself; that which it will not affirm as true of itself cannot
awaken in its world.”9
See if you can accept this logical sequence leading to a new concept of
yourself as God altogether:
•   God speaks  to Moses and announces his name for all future
generations to know . I am that I am. •   Jesus, some 1,300 years later , acknowledges God as I am. •   Jesus  remind s us that he too is God with his many I am the way
pronouncements. •   Jesus tells us that we are all equal with God. •   Jesus assures us that he speaks as spirit and that the flesh counts for
nothing. •   Jesus  tells us that we too can do all that he does, because we are
God also.•   You are God—the I am that I am. Know it and stay in harmony
with this Divine I am presence. Perhaps now it doesn’ t sound so foreign to assert your Divine nature. You
might want to start by being careful not to use the words I am when
describing yourself in any way that isn’t congruous with your newly
awakened God-realized self. I return to the poets to sum up that original meeting between Moses and
God disguised as a burning bush that resists being consumed:
Earth’ s crammed with heaven,  
And every common bush afir e with God;  
But only he who sees takes off his shoes,  
The r est sit r ound it and pluck blackberries
— ELIZABETH  BARRETT  BROWNING
Yes, indeed, Earth’ s crammed with heaven, and you are Earth , filled to
overflow with God. So take off your shoes and respect the holy space that is
you. Three Suggestions
— Beco me conscious of precisely how you are using the words I am in
your daily conversations. If whatever follows these two words is not fully
aligned with your perception of how the creative Source of the universe
would be speaking, then make the correction on the spot. Say to yourself “I
am the resurrection and the life in thought and feeling.” According to The
“I AM” Discourses  of Saint Germain: “It immedia tely turns all the energy
of your Being to the center in the brain which is the source of your Being. You cannot overestimate the Power in this Statement. There is no limit to
what you can do with it. It was the Statement that Jesus used most in his
most dif ficult trials.”10
— Notice how those around you, particularly family and close friends,
use and misuse the inherent power of I am in their lives. Observe that many
people say, “I am weak, poor, depressed, sick, sad, afraid, unlucky ,” and so
on, and they continue to attrac t that into their life. If they are willing tolisten and change, gently remin d them that there is no way to attract what
they prefer without acknowledgi ng and applying the active presence of God
in them. No arguments—just gentle reminders. By observing and teaching
the I am awareness, you will become more aligned with your highest self. — Rem ind yourself often that you have to send the old unworkable
fabrications about your highest self out of your life forever . Be able to say
“I am God” with pride and assur ance that you are not being blasphemous or
inappropriate. Believing in that ego-driven idea of God as a malevolent
superbeing who plays favorites and is filled with rage if you displease Him
is akin to believing in the Easte r bunny and praying to that rabbit to solve
your problems. Keep uppermost  in your thoughts the words of Jesus—“God
is love”—and that you are proud to be that all-powerful God yourself. OceanofPDF .comOceanofPDF .comCHAPTER FOUR
THE FIRST WISHES  FULFILLED  FOUNDA TION :
USING  YOUR  IMAGINA TION
“Imagination is mor e important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encir cles the world.”
— A LBER T EINSTEIN
While walking down a crowded street in London many years ago, I
noticed a window display devote d to the English poet William Blake. There
was a quotation on a sign in the window that I read over and over. The
words seemed to touch my soul, and I was prompted by an internal calling
to write those words on the back of an envelope. Blake’ s 200-year -old
words resonated strongly with me. I had a curious knowing that I’d one day
be writing about what he’d had to say . Fast-forward some ten years later to the day I began writing this chapter
about that most mysterious function of our human lives—our imagination. During the morning before settling in to write, I was searching for some tax
records in a desk drawer . Unsought, the Blake quote scribbled on the back
of an envelope, which had long ago been misplaced, appeared. As I grabbed
the ten-year -old envelope, I pondered for a moment how Divine
synchronicity is always working, moving the pieces around while our ego
believes we are in charge. Here  I was, ready to begin writing a chapter on
how to use your imagination, and today of all days, these scribbles
reappeared after a decade of being “lost.” How could I ignore this
synchronicity? So I share these words with you from my spiritual mentor back in the 18th
century:
The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a Green thing that
stands in the way . Some see Nature all Ridicule and Deformity … and some scarce see Nature
at all. But to the eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.The greatest gift you were ever given was the gift of your imagination. Within your magical inner realm is the capacity to have all of your wishes
fulfilled. Here in your imagination lies the greatest power you will ever
know . It is your domain for creating the life that you desire, and the best
part of it is that you are the monarch with all of the inherent powers to rule
your world as you desire. The essence of this great gift is found within another observation  made by
William Blake, the intuitive poet who lived at the time of the American
Revolution. Writing in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, he made this wry
comment that is the great secret for living a life of creative manifestation:
“What is now proved was once only imagin’d.” Allow yourself to
contemplate this. As this one line of great wisdom sinks  into your
consciousness, your imagination will then begin to take over . Look around you. Everything that you can experience with your senses
was once in someone’ s imagina tion. This is the great truth that you must
come to realize for yourself. In order for something to get into this world
where things exist and are proved , as Blake says, they must first be placed
firmly into your imagination. Without your imagination as the reason for
future creations , the process of creativity is halted.
_OceanofPDF.com_Wishes_Fulfilled_-_Wayne_W_Dyer.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        You must begin by replacing
your old set of truths with a belief in the existence of a higher  self within
you. This is something that you may not have contemplated at an earlier
time in your life. Your concept of yourself that includes any limitations can be revised by
you, and only by you. Nothing I say or write will do that for you. I have
done it for myself and can assist  you along this path, but it is your decision
to change that creates the possibility of change within you. A new andhigher concept of yourself may be shocking and perhaps even  be rejected
by you, depending on the amount of conditioning you have absorbed
throughout your life. That is for you to ponder and contemplate  in the next
two chapters. At this point, simply allow yourself to imagine that you can
create a new and higher concept of yourself. Resistance is what will almost
immediately appear for most people, and I encourage you to recognize the
resistance within yourself. Overcoming Resistance
Making the transition from the level of ordinary consciousness to the
level of superconsciousness involves a fundamental renewal— a dramatic
change of personality. Very few are prepared to commit to this fulfillment
of their Divine purpose. What I’m inviting you to do, if you wish to be truly
fulfilled, is to overcome your resistance to including all that you are in your
earthly life. You have the ability  to enter higher regions so as to consciously
fulfill your highest desires here, now, for the greater benefit of all. This is
akin to doing a somersault and landing in a new reality—a reality in which
all things are possible, a reality where you no longer identify yourself with
all of those cultural memes and mind viruses that were programmed into
you as a young person, preparing you for an ordinary life. You begin this exciting adventure of changing your concept of yourself by
being willing to die to your present self. That’ s right, by relinquishing your
personal history  as the arbiter of your life, you cease to resist your fuller
potential. You simply no longer choose to form your identity on the basis of
what you’ve been taught. Remind yourself that everything you’ve believed
to be true has brought you to this point where you want to explor e rather
than resist your higher powers. Years ago while  reading Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, I recall
him saying that there’ s one distinguishing characteristic of those who live
life at a higher level with a richn ess that’s not just about monetary gain. It is
that these unique and rare individuals have a burning desire to succeed. Now, a burning desir e is much different from a regular wish or desire
because it burns inside—once ignited, it never goes out, regardless of what
transpires. This is a quality that I know well. Often it feels like an obsession
… and I have been labeled obsessive many times in my lifetime. Yet ithasn’ t been a curse, because it has always served me in the fulfillment of
whatever yearning I felt inside of me. I often think of it as an inner candle
flame that never even flickers, though the worst goes before me. All
transformation begins with an intense burning desire to be transformed. An inner knowing, along with a burning desire, is the prerequisite for
becoming a person capable of manifesting his or her heart’ s desires. In The
Power of Awareness, Nevil le emphatically explains that “To be
transformed, the whole basis of your thoughts must change. But your
thoughts cannot change unless you have new ideas, for you think from your
ideas. ”3 How do you find the way to ideas that will help you change your
thoughts. Start by saying and writing an affirmation that appeals to you. Create your unique heartfelt affirmation, such as: I have a burning desir e—
an inner flame that will not be extinguished by outer forces—t o know and
live from higher regions, to be transformed so that my new concept of
myself will no longer include any limitations. I am willing to challenge and
change any thoughts that impede my having a higher vision of myself. Before closing this introductory  chapter, it will be helpful to explore your
beliefs about the nature of those  things we call thoughts, and how to change
them. Do Y ou Really Think. No one has ever been able to say from whence a thought come s, or what
that thought is made up of. It’s generally accepted that we think up things
and we make up all of our own thoughts. To be perfectly honest, for a large
portion of my life, I held these same views on thoughts originating with
each individual. But at this juncture I tend to see the entire process as more
of an act of observation, contemplation, and choice. I enjoy noticing that I
have a continuous stream of thoughts that come from … who knows where. They have no boundaries or forms to examine, and apparently are unlimited
in number and permutation. I think of the stock market ticker that runs
along the bottom  of a screen, with each stock price representi ng a simple
thought. You are capable of thinking many opposing thoughts in just a few
moments, jumping helter -skelter from one idea to another—exhilaration,
frustration, fear, ecstasy, worry, and so forth. Unguided and unguarded, youserve up an endless array of thoughts continuously from wakin g to falling
asleep. Even while sound asleep, your mind continues observing, grabbing,
and contemplating these omnipresent thoughts. There’ s very little respite
from this mental thought-producing process throughout your entire lifetime. If you really believe that you are the creator of all of your thoughts and
control the entire process, then simply stop. That’ s right, just try to stop
thinking. You may be able to slow the stream of thoughts down
considerably, but to simply stop thinking all day and stay in a thoughtless
state is quite impossible. I’m sugg esting you open your thought processes to a new idea that will
help you as you begin changing  your concept of yourself. You can think of
yourself as a Divine limitless being rather than a person who doesn’ t have
choice when it comes to your thoughts. Think of yourself as an observer,
contemplating and selecting thoughts that you choose from that never -
ending stream of thoughts on your inner screen, 24/7/365. Watch thoughts
stream by from wherever they originate, and observe them rapidly
transitioning and combining and appearing and disappearing. Snatch a
thought from the running ribbon of thoughts and contemplate it. As you toss
it around, notice how you feel— sad, depressed, happy, frightened, and so
on. Every thoug ht going by has an imprint on your concept of yourself. First be the observer, and then the contemplator. Now become the choice
maker who can consciously decide to put that thought back into the running
stream and pick a different one, a thought that perhaps allows  you to feel
better. I am okay, I look fine, I will lose a few pounds, I am loved, I am Divine …
these and millions more like them are thoughts that you can opt for rather
than the ones you’ve become accustomed to choosing in the past. This is
how you begin a new process to change your concept of yourself. You
accept as irrevocable that it is not you setting the stream of thoughts into
motion, and that stopping thinking isn’t possible at this stage of your
evolution. At this stage the essence of your being is to observe,
contemplate, and then choose. This can all be done in a fraction of a
nanosecond. The thoughts will keep appearing on your mental TV screen
just like the stock quotations. But you’ll now be choosing the ones you
want to focus on, gather, retain, or let go. I’m encouraging you to initiate a habit of choosing thoughts and ideas that
support feeling good and power ful, and that elevate you to a higher level of
consciousness where your self-concept welcomes your higher self. I love Uell S. Andersen’ s description of this process in his book Three
Magic Words. I leave you to contemplate it as you prepare to befriend that
indwelling self that is desperately wishing to be fulfilled at the
extraordinary level, rather than at the ordinary where you have lived for far
too long:
We have assured the indwelling Self that it can be anything it accepts and has faith in, and
we are now about to develop in it the habit of choosing only those thoughts and ideas that will
constructively add good unto it. We are teaching ourselves to accept only good. … We are
deliberately compelling ourselves to accept all love, all kindness, all hope, all joy, all
expansion, all abundance, all health, all vigor. We are deliberately compelling ourselves to
reject all suffering, all sorrow, all depres sion, all morbidness, all inferiority, all aches and
pains. We are saying nothing is true but the great and the good and the beautiful, only these
will we add unto ourselves. This is your new way of choo sing thoughts that will introduce you to
what I am calling your highest self—keeping uppermost in mind that if you
want to accomplish something  (anything), you must first expect it of
yourself. Three Suggestions
— Redefine your self-concept by challenging everything that you’ve held
to be true about yourself up until now. Be open to examining everything
you’ve previously thought limite d you in any way. Affirm: I place no limits
and no restrictions on all that I intend to accomplish and becom e from here
on in. — Allow yourself to become aware of the nonphysical reality that you are
a part of. Reach out to the angels  or occupants of this higher invisible plane. Know that you can access guidance from those who’ve lived here before. Spend time in meditation accessing the feelings of a plane of higher
consciousness. — Whenever you’re experiencing discomfort or sadness, rather than
trying to change  the thought behind your emotional state, instead just put itback onto the never -ending conveyor belt of thoughts, and then select a
different thought. Keep doing this until you’ve selected a thought that
allows you to feel good, and you’re no longer condemning yourself for
creating unhappy thoughts. OceanofPDF. comCHAPTER TWO
YOUR HIGHER  SELF
“From the beginning I had a sense of destiny, as though my life was
assigned to me by fate and had to be fulfilled. This gave me an inner
security, and, though I could never pr ove it to myself, it pr oved itself to me. I did not have the certainty, it had me. ”
— C ARL  JUNG
For the past 18 months or so I’ve been deeply involved in the study of
what is known as initiatic science, the principal goal of which is to help the
initiate/student (meaning you and me) know and trust in the higher self. These ancient teachings repeated ly explain that emphasizing only the needs
of our physical self, and ignoring the needs of the higher self, results in the
soul and spirit suffocating and dying of hunger and thirst. The initiates of
old insisted on the importance of the knowledge of the higher self because
this awareness opens up tremen dous possibilities for growth, progress, and,
yes—the ability to have one’ s wishes fulfilled. Perhaps it is difficult to imagine  yourself so divided as to produce both a
higher and a lower self. Very likely this idea of a self within yourself, which
is higher  than what you think of as your real self, is foreign to your way of
thinking. I have long referred to this lower self or false self as the ego—a
part of you that believes you’re defined by what you achieve, own, or win. It’s a belief that whatever status you’ve accumulated is proof that you’re a
separate being possessing particular strengths or limitations. It probably
isn’t a surprise that I suggest there are different beliefs that can and will put
you on the path of happiness, success, and health that you desire. This idea of having a higher self that transcends the self descriptor derived
from almost universal identifi cation with the ego may be difficult to
internalize. If you’ve read the first chapter of this book, then you know that
it’s necessary that you make the choice  to change what  you believe is true. Remind yoursel f that your curre nt concept of who you are has landed you
right here, reading a book on how to become a more powerful person. Are you willing to internalize radical new ideas that require a shift in your
concept of yourself. Are you receptive to the idea of having a higher self
that isn’t defined by ego concerns. Are you able to entertain the idea of an
unlimited highe r self that is within you. Can you imagine that you can
eschew ego’s limiting demands  that are keeping you stuck at an ordinary
level of conscio usness. In other words, can you approach the question of
Who am I. with complete unknowing. Conceiving the idea of a higher self
begins with this personal inner query. So let’s first examine this question of
who you are. Who Am I. Consider how many bodies you’ve occupied since birth. Who is the I that
continues to leave one body behind and then enter another. You know for
certain that you—the person that you call I, the one attempting to figure out
who you are—started out in a little baby body weighing somewhere
between five and ten pounds. The I that is you fully entered and occupied
that little baby body. Gradually  you began to discard that baby body and
move into a small toddler body that crawled, then walked, then ran, and
took on an entirely new appear ance. Your two-year -old self would find it
difficult to recognize the baby body that you’d now completely abandoned. You lived in this toddler body  for a while and then discarded it, too,
including every cell that was in your body at birth. The subse quent body
you entered was a prepubescent body that bore a similarity to your toddler
body but was completely dif ferent. The I in the question still hasn’ t been discovered, but it’s become
absolutely clear that you are obviously not your body. Why. Because the I
has remained, though it continu ously sheds the body that it occupies. This
strange phenom enon of you being an I that continuously enters, discards,
and reenters a new body has proceeded right up until this very moment. I am currently in a 70-year -old body that’s nothing like the body I
occupied 50 years ago. I remember well what that 20-year -old body I
occupied looked like, what it could do, and what it knew and didn’ t know,
but I can’t find it anywhere—it’ s simply an illusion. It is gone from thisphysical world, as is every body that both you and I have occupied in our
lifetime. The I that I use to describe myself is not so obsessed that he insists
upon staying only in one body. In fact, that I that is me finally recognizes
the ancie nt spiritual truth spoken by Divine masters since antiquity: None of
us ar e really doing anything, rather we (our bodies) ar e mer ely being done. What is your body being done by. An invisible organizing intelligence
that takes the cells of your body, changes them into new cells, and discards
the old cells. The I that you think you are observes the entire process—for
the most part, helplessly. The physical body that you think of as you is
rearranged in a pattern designed by a formless intelligence independent of
your opinions. This I that you use to describe yourself isn’t the physical
form that you occupy and take with you everywhere. Quantum physics
states that the body you’re occupying, which is reading this paragraph right
now, is complet ely different from the body you were in when you read the
previous paragraph. Such is the nature of the physical world in which we all
live. The ancient philosopher Heraclitus put it this way several thousand years
ago, and it is true today: “All things are in motion and nothing is at rest. …
You cannot go into the same [river] twice. ” A river is a constantly changing
phenomenon, as is a tree, a mountain, a goat, a human, and the physical
universe includ ing Earth. That which defines a thing, therefore, is not
physical in nature; it is metap hysical. When asked “What is real. ” an
ancient spiritual  avatar responded without hesitation, “That is real which
never changes. ” And since your body is in a continuous state of change, it is
not real. If you try to find that toddler body you once occupied, you realize that it
is not real, since it no longer exists. Even while you were in it years ago,
you couldn’t call it real, because  the moment you pinpointed and defined it
as real, it would  be something else, something new. What you’re calling
real would already have disappeared. Still, you know with all of this change
taking place that there is a chan geless component to who you are. The I in
that toddler body hasn’ t changed, it is in the body that you currently occupy. The I is your higher self, changeless and real. This higher self is who you
are. When you make this discovery and consciously befriend the I you are,
nothing is impossible. In Chapter One I explained the necessity of creating a new concept of
yourself: as an infinite spiritual being having a temporary, human
experience. As you read on, keep in mind that if it is changing, it is not real. The I in the question Who am I. isn’t anything that involves the physical
you, since that continuously changes and disappears. Therefore, to answer
the question Who am I. with any reference to your body and its various
talents, accomplishments, accumulations, or physical prowess is to define
yourself as unreal. Who you are, then, must be changeless, and therefore
birthless  as well as deathless. Who you are is a formless energy—a spirit, if
you will—with the capacity to be unchanged, and at the same time occupy
an infinity of bodies. Think about this—it is truly a bewildering phenomenon. You are
changeless and therefore real. What you’ve believed were facts explaining
who you are, are simply illusions—or what metaphysicians call unreal. You
were convinced by some well-intentioned relatives, teachers, and cultural
influences that you were really this ego of yours, when in fact everything
that the ego uses to define you is disappearing as fast as you can assess it. Your possession s, achievement s, reputations, trophies, bank accounts—
even your family members, including your children—are all aspects of a
world that is changing, dissolving to nothingness … all unreal. Here is how a brilliant scribe described this phenomenon poetically:
This quiet Dust was Gentlemen and Ladies  
And Lads and Girls;  
Was laughter and ability and sighing,  
And fr ocks and curls. This passive place a summer ’s nimble mansion,  
Wher e Bloom and Bees  
Fulfilled their Oriental Cir cuit, 
Then ceased like these. In this poem, Emily Dickinson reminds you with her dazzling honesty
that all ceases and turns to dust—everything you may have believed was the
real you, includ ing the body and all of its accomplishments, and even its
laughing and sighing. But the real I that is you can smile at all of those
lower -self, ego-identified proceedings. Your higher self exists beyond that
lower, false self. It is in fact higher than all of your earthbound identities. You have a self that can look down from a more exalted position upon
that lower, ego-dominated self. So begin to know yourself as something far
greater than the ever-changing, ever-dying aspects that have dominated
your picture of who you are. Who am I. is then answered with, I am an
infinite being who originated not from my parents, but from a Source that is
itself birthless, deathless, and changeless. Your Connection to Source
We have all been created from the same Source, and it is my conclusion
that we must be like what we came from. It matters not what we call this
Source. The Tao that can be named, is not the eternal Tao is the message in
the opening lines of the Tao Te Ching. Call it Tao, call it God, call it
Jehovah, call it Divine mind—it matters not. You are merely interested in
recognizing that you originated from the Source of all life in a form you
know as your constantly changing physical body, which obviou sly contains
the creative ener gy that you came from. Read these words, recorded during a 1967 lecture given by an initiatic
science master, Omraam Mikhaël Aïvanhov:
The creator has planted within every creature a fragment of himself, a spark, a spirit of the
same natur e as himself and, thanks to this spirit, every creature can become a creator. And
this means that, instead of always waiting for their needs to be satisfied by some external
source, human beings  can work inwardly by means of their thought, their will, and their spirit
to obtain the nourishing healing elements they need. This is why the teaching I bring you is of
the spirit, of the creator and not of matter …
I love this quote because it speaks to a part of you that has been largely
ignored throughout all of your educational pursuits and accomplishments. The key words here are “a fragment of himself, a spark” that lies within
you, but has largely been left unexamined. This is a great image for you to
begin to understand the greatness of your higher self. There is a spark of
God within you that is the invisibleness I’ve been alluding to. It is that
which you cannot grasp with the senses—it beats your heart, grows your
hair, and keeps your lungs breathing in and breathing out. You’ve become
accustomed to taking it for granted while putting the major focus of your
life on the physical (unreal) you. My objective in this chapter and the next is to inspire you to recognize
that a spark—a tiny fragment of the creative source of the universe—is
located within you, and to help you increase the power of that spark so it
becomes the primary force in your everyday life. Review the first chapter
and affirm your willingness to change your concept of yourself  to help you
recognize and increase that spark. Then dedicate yourself to exploring this
higher self I’m writing about. Your higher self is that spark, but a spark is an infinitesimal portion of
your physical being. If you weigh 150 pounds, that spark weighs maybe
1/100th of an ounce. This is only a symbolic image (because the “spark” is
unchanging), but I’m encouragi ng you to conceptualize that spark of God
inside of you. Imagine it growi ng to double its size, then a tenfold spark,
then maybe a shred, then a segment, then a chunk, then a lump, then a piece
or a section … and just perceive that spark of God as the real you becoming
visible through your loving and inviting attentiveness, until you feel the
sacred presence of your higher self as the guiding light of your life. Ultimately, as I’ll discuss later, it will overtake the you that’s been
dominated by ego and your sensory apparatus. That former speck of a spark
will be the foundation of your life. You might conceptualize this former
spark as a sacred light inside of your head that is the same size as your
brain. Now you have a big piece of God to assist you in attaining a status
wherein the fulfillment of your wishes becomes a no-brainer, or perhaps
you’d call it a new-brainer. This new brain is comprised exclusively of
infinite God ener gy. Your Higher Self at W ork Every Day
I want you to seriously contemplate another observation made by the
initiatic spiritual master Omraam  Mikhaël Aïvanhov, in a lecture given in
January 1971: “Our higher self is perfect, omniscient and almighty, a
fragment of God Himself, a pure, transparent, luminous quintessence. ”
This will very likely be a challenge for you as you consider a new concept
of yourself by accepting some truths that you have been raised to believe
are falsehoods. Yet I ask you to study this ancient spiritual teaching, which
is designed to familiarize you with a radical idea about the powers you
possess just by the fact that you are a living, breathing human being. If youare committed to accessing your higher consciousness, then you must be
willing to do what is required in order to integrate what this great initiatic
teacher is of fering. In order to accomplish becoming an almighty being, your higher self
(God) must be enlar ged from a spark to a more meaningful portion of your
essence. Since you are a piece of God and therefore have that within you,
you needn’ t doubt your own divinity. As Jesus reminds you, “Is it not
written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’. ” (John 10:34). As a growing
spark of God, you must be willing to say, “That portion of myself that has
not edged God out (ego) must be perfect; it is all-knowing and it is
almighty. There is nothing that this higher self that I am cannot
accomplish. ”
Once again, let’s look at someth ing Jesus told us: “With God all things are
possible” (Matth ew 19:26). All thing s are possible  leaves nothing out. As
my teachers in the initiatic sciences frequently reminded me, this higher self
—that portion of God that is us—only begins to notice us and give us the
attention we crave when we enlarge it from a tiny spark and invite the
energy into our life. Your awareness that God isn’t something external to you but rather a
portion  of yourself is truly a giant step in your spiritual evolution. You can
tell yourself with genuine knowing, I am perfect. (All forms of I am have
tremendous significance, as you will learn when you delve into the next
chapter on your highest  self. ) In this chapter you are discovering your
higher  self. God no longer resides outside of you, and no longer plays
favorites. In short, you’ve revised humankind’ s image of a god created in its
own egoistic idea of itself. A god who knows how to heal yet withholds healing from some and
offers it to others who are presu med to have paid some kind of dues. A god
who is angry. A god who gives humans the pleasure of sexuality but
promises to burn in hell those who don’t follow rules devised by other
humans. A god who gives us eyes and remains invisible, but threatens
damnation for those who don’t believe in him. A god who demands to be
paid for services, with fancy temples and gold-lined costum es for his
highest representatives. This is a god of the ego. Your higher self is a piece of an all-loving, all-embracing creative Source. All you need do is accept that this is not something external to yourself. Itresides within you (the kingdom  of heaven is within)—in fact, it is you—
and all you need do is begin to align yourself with this Divine essence,
begin to act like it acts and think like it thinks, and you will begin the
process of manifesting just as it does. This is the true essence of living a life
in which your wishes are fulfilled. Give your Divine nature a chance. (The
second part of this book provides a step-by-step plan for allowing your
higher self to take over the process of fulfilling your desires. ) In these opening chapters, I hope to jar you into an awareness of how
powerful a being you really are when you get past so much of the
nonsensical conditioning that has dominated your enculturation. Toss out
any self-limiting ideas about your Divine nature and what it is capable of
achieving. Befri end that spark, consult it frequently, nurture it, pay close
attention to it, believe in it, and practice describing yourself first as a
spiritual being— one who lives as frequently as possible from this all-
loving, all-givin g, all-joyful place called your higher self. Your higher self
is just what it says: higher than your false self, higher than your material
physical self. It is the part of you that is aligned with your very Source of
being. In the next chapter, you have the opportunity to consider an even more
unlikely assertion in light of all that you’ve been exposed to since
childhood. Not only do you have a lower ego-based false self, as well as a
spiritually based  higher self that is a piece of God, but you have a highest
self. A self that you have been trained to believe is not something that you
should ever claim. Y our highest self awaits you in Chapter Three. Three Suggestions
— Set aside multiple times during your day to stop and ask yourself this
key question: Right now in what I am about to say or do, do my desir es
stem from my lower or my higher self. The ego is all about self-serving,
ownership, winning, judging, and so on. The higher self is about serving,
loving, and being in a nonjud gmental state of peace. Ask yourself this
question, and create the opportu nity to align yourself more fully with God. You then have access to the same powers of manifestation as your Source of
being. This question, when honestly explored, helps you align with the
power to fulfill your wishes and desires. You don’t need to abolish your egoanimal nature. You do need to keep it tamed so it isn’t allowed to
overshadow or destroy your spirit. Give your Divine nature a chance by
asking yourself this question. — Spend some of your quiet meditation time visualizing a tiny spark of
awareness glow ing within your being. Practice seeing this God-portion of
yourself expanding its glow within your mind. See it grow ing into a
personally satisfying size. Continue this expansion exercise sensing the
spark/glow as your God essence. You will begin acting from this inner God-
realized image. — Use these af firmations frequently: I am all-knowing, I am all-powe rful,
I am unlimited. This helps you banish doubt and refer to this portion of
yourself that lives in a spiritual world of no restrictions. Simply affirm to
yourself without  explaining to others or demonstrating pride in what you’re
doing. You are ridding yoursel f of ego-dominated mental messages that
continue to want to convince you that you are primarily your body and its
five senses.
You must begin by recognizing and overcoming your resistance to the idea of a higher self.
What is the first step in changing your concept of yourself, according to the author?
The author believes that thoughts do not originate from within the individual, but rather are an act of observation, contemplation, and choice.
What is the author's perspective on the origin of thoughts?
The author believes that the self is not the physical body, but rather a spiritual, formless energy that is the creator.
What is the author's view on the nature of the self?
The author emphasizes that the concept of God as a malevolent, external force is incorrect and that God is actually an internal, loving presence.
What is the author's stance on the concept of God?
The author suggests that one should not try to change their thoughts, but rather observe, contemplate, and choose to focus on positive and empowering thoughts.
What is the author's advice for changing one's thoughts and emotions?