I have a worksho p at the house and love makingdollhouses for my children, nieces, and nephews.”
“Do you ever sell any of the dollhouses?”
He r eplied, “Oh, I never thought of that. I put so much time and
ef fort in them that I could never make money selling them.”
I made a simple suggestion: “W ell, for fun, why don’ t you take the
one you’re working on now , figure out a price that wou ld be
profitable, put a price tag on it, and put it on consignment in any  store
that will allow it —but not in a toy store, where it will get lost an d not
seen among the overwhelm of the other merchandise.”
And tha t is what he did. Surpris ingly , he knew someone in the hardware
business who was happy to put a dollhouse in his store window , and in fact
used it to sell stair treads (there was a little staircase in the dollhouse). The
dollhouse sold in short order . The next dollhouse was put in as “display
only ,” a nd orders were taken. Soon enough, the patient wh o had been
miserable was happily in the dollhouse business, selling them a s fast as he
could make them, and hiring out some of the work. They were absolutely adorable, handcrafted dollhouses and brought joy
to the hearts of children. That was the ABC he was coming from when he
said, “I want to bring joy to the hearts of children.” That is a universal
principle that hardly anybody can ar gue with. One of the tests of the
universal princi ple is whether it appeals to the heart. If your  product or
service appeals only to the head , it will have a limited success. It may be
quite pr ofitable, but the great s uccesses in the world are those  things that
you yourself love doing and believe in, and which change people’ s lives. STEP 3: SER VICEABILITY
Consider: Is what you want to d o actually needed by anyone? Is it truly a
service to the world? Y ou wan t to make sure that wha t you are going to throw yourself into is
not just a pet project or personal preference. Raspberry vinaigrette salad
dressing may be some chef ’ s idea of haute cuisine , but  that person al taste is
not n ecessarily going to be shared by many in the populace, who  may come
into a restaurant once or twice out of curiosity then never return, becausethey just real ly wante d regular ranch dressing and it was not even an option. W e will notice that such a business, as a consequence, m ay become
primarily for tourists and not appeal to locals, because the  demand is
limited. It does not serve any r eal need, other than just the idea of being
cutesy , unique, or dif ferent. W e  can apply this step to any arena of life by
asking ourselves, Am I imposing m y own pet pr efer ence, or is it something
that actually meets the needs of the people I am r elating to? STEP 4: AESTHETICS
Check out all the sensory modes , and cover the ones for eign to your own
personality by consulting with people who ar e experts in that ar ea. What is meant by that? The research of neuro-linguistic programming
(NLP) h as demonstrated that people process their experien ces of life
primarily throug h one sensory mode or another . Some people a re primarily
auditory . Some are visual. Some are feeling people. Of course , smell and
tactile senses are also important. Let’ s co nsider a restaurant that is very attractive. The woman who runs it
is obviously a visual person. When people look at the restaurant, they see
that the decor is  beautiful. She also does a great job on the food and the
price. But the ac oustics are abominable. People can hardly hear themselves
think, let alone have a conversation. The music is too loud, inappropriate in
style, an d plays  nonstop without a single break. Evidently , it is what she
likes; however , it turns everyone else of f from the place. If you are the opposite, if you d o not care so much about how the thing
looks as long as it feels right, then you would do well to call in some people
in your life who are primarily vi sual and ask them how it looks to them. W e
can tell how people process information by their language. People who say ,
“I se e what that  means. How d oes this look to you?” are probably visual
processors. People who say , “That doesn’ t feel good to me. That doesn’ t
feel right,” are obviously feelin g people. Auditory people will say , “That
doesn’ t sound right to me.” Just being aware of these cues will make the
modes apparent to us. Y ou want to ma ke sure you co ver the sensory modes that are not your
forte. It does not take long, only an hour at most, with an expert in the field
to co nvey the id ea. One restaurant grew from failure to success p rimarily bychanging the music in the back ground from loud, funky W estern to soft
baroque, which brought in high-paying and loyal customers. People w ant to relax for dinner . They want to have tablecloths, cloth
napkins, approp riate music, and the right lights. Bright fluorescent lights
and prim ary col ors may be great for a breakfast diner , but they will kill
dinner business. Although the fast-food chains would seem to belie this
obvious fact, people actually want dignity in their lives. They will reward
you and apprecia te you for supp lying it or providing the means of achieving
that state. Whatever you present, make sure it is featured in the best
possible style, with regard for all the sensory modalities, and that it pleases
as many of them as possible. It is well worth the extra trouble. Aside from the aforementioned sensory modalities, a high percentage of
the populace rank comfort very high on their list. Potential customers walk
out of stores for the simple fact that they could not find a chair to sit on. Many pe ople thi nk things over , and make up their minds about a purchase,
only when they are sitting d own. Customers appreciate th is kind of
caringness. STEP 5: A TTRACTION
Rely on attraction rather than pr omotion. Keep in mind that promotion with aggressive, forceful marketing,
advertising, and sales pitches is very outer -directed and takes time, money ,
and ener gy . Attr action, on the o ther hand, takes no time, ener g y , ef fort, or
money . Promotion come s from force. Th e rule of the universe is that fo rce meets
with counterforce. Persuasion m eets with sales resistance. The more money
you spend on p romotion, the higher you are going to have to raise your
market p rice. Hence, you will eventually create a price-resistance ceiling
and narrow the gap between your product and that of your competitor . What attracts and builds your su ccess without any time, ener gy , or ef fort? Y our reputation does that. Y our reputation is not a fake image that you hire
some m arketing corporation to fabricate but rather the real genuineness of
your end eavor , which shines forth and is evident to everyone in everything
that you  do. Some companies’ very names or labels evoke a w arm feeling
in u s be cause th ey have proved themselves over time to provide a productor s ervice that i s well crafted, trustworthy , and unique, with reliable and
responsive customer service. T heir reputation is the ef fect of a positive-
ener gy ABC. Whereas most corporations calibrate around 200 (the same as
government bureaucracy), these companies calibrate in the 300s, indicating
their resonance with human emotion (rather than mere functionality). The ABC that we hold in mind is the magnet that has the pulling power ,
and it costs nothing. If you are doing a good job, people will search you out. That does not m ean you should not let them know that you are there and
what services you have available, what your specials are this  week, and
what your hours are. It is an old axiom in business that a satisfied customer
is th e be st adver tisement . Ev eryone nods and says, “Oh yes, I know that,”
and then they proceed to ignore it. A good rule of t humb to go by is to ask yourself whether the te mptation
to take a certain shortcut is worth the risk of ruining your business. Consider the seemingly unimportant “cutting corners” e xample of
“yesterday’ s dou ghnuts.” At the close of the day you still ha ve a dozen
doughnuts left. The next day you put them in the glass case along with
today’ s doughnu ts. If instead yo u had said YESTERDA Y ’ S DOUGHNUTS  with a
little sig n that shows the discou nt price, you would sell them all and not
take any risk to  your business if the doughnuts were not completely up to
snuf f. The customer would no t have any complaint because they were
plainly m arked “yesterday’ s dou ghnuts.” If you put them in the showcase,
however , and sell them as today’ s doughnuts, you may make an extra dollar . But whe n the customer complains to the family—“I don’ t know ; there’ s just
something about these doughnuts. They’re a disappointment; they’re not the
same as usual”—you will have ruined your reputation with one whole
family . That family has friends and other relatives. Never ta ke a shortcut that is going to impair your reputation. If  you just
assume that your customers know what is going on, then you w ill be right. People in fact do  “ just know ,” e ven though they cannot say what it is. Rationalizing a departure from quality originates from force in such quotes
as “What they don’ t know won’ t hurt them.” That is true. “What they don’ t
know w on’ t hur t them,” but it sure will hurt you! They will not know it
consciously; how ever , they certainly do know it unconsciously . This is true
in every area of life.STEP 6: RELIABILITY
Offer consistency and r eliability . One of the grea test ingredients of success is people knowing that they
can count on you in various ways. A simple thing like changing  your hours,
such as closing early , can lo se all kinds of customers. They value
convenience and  respect for th eir time. When you come from  a level of
integrity on the Map of Con sciousness, you are concerned  about the
happiness of others. At the lev el of W illingness (cal. 310), fo r example,
your intention is to be reliable and friendly in your service to each
customer . Y ou put yourself in their shoes and do all you can to make their
experience as wonderful and easy as possible. It is important to  avoid all the little turnof fs—the answering mac hine that
does not work, the impolite employee, the long line with only one checkout
cashier , the dirty carpet in the restaurant, or the sign OUT T O LUNCH . Ask
yourself, How available is my business to pr ovide what is needed in t he
world? Many businesses fold because they are open only on weekdays and
close at 5 P .M. In counseling young doctors getting established in their
practice, I always told them: “Start by char ging fees that people can af ford,
and be available evenings and Saturdays.”
How much is convenience worth to people? The answer is: plenty . STEP 7: NOBILITY
Keep in mind th at ther e is only one customer , and that is huma n natur e
itself . Y ou cannot make a mistake if you keep in mind the basic rule  that you
only have one customer to serve, one customer to please, and that one
customer ’ s name is human natur e . No matter whose skin it may be wearing,
it is the same customer inside of everyone. It is easy to understand your
customer . Just ask yourself wha t qualities you look for in a prod uct. Notice
that the word is qualities . No  pri ce will sell it to us if it does not have the
qualities we are looking for in it. In this area you  have to watch the mind’ s tendency to pander to the
weakness in people’ s character . If you cater to negativity , there may be aprofit. Y ou may survive quite well; however , you will never be a success. Not coll uding w ith what is sick  and perverted is not being a “ goody-two-
shoes”; it is bein g realistic. Can you ever fool the universe? No , according
to the science of  kinesiology . Even if people have no conscious knowledge
of the facts, wh en we test complete strangers with no knowled ge at all on
the s ubject, we will find that if they focus on something where  integrity is
absent, they will go weak. Everything in the universe is co nnected with everything else. When we
first get that fact, we will be a little paranoid for a while, but it will be a
therapeutic para noia. If someone manufactured a “disembowe lment doll,”
there wo uld be plenty of strang e people out there to buy it, complete with
hari-kari knife, lifelike guts, electronic scream, and plastic blood ooze. Someone could also profit from it. The cost to the  panderer of s uch tastes, however , is enormous. It is
invisible to them but quite visible to everyone else. What we have been
describing in the last two para graphs is not human nature but inhuman
nature. W e kid ourselves if we think we can cater to what is weak without
becoming weakened ourselves. It is contaminating. Those w ho are violating human  decency and seem to be profiting by it
may look good f or a moment. However , when we study their lives in detail
longitudinally , th e devastation is staggering to comprehend. Do we conquer
a thi ng by oppo sing it? No. The way we conquer it is to grow and move
away fro m it. When it becomes clear that something in our lives is antilife,
immature, or superficial, this is really disguised vanity . When we discover
that ther e is no love or goodwill in it, should we feel guilty about it, punish
ourselves, or become reformers ? No. Rather , the resolution is maturity and
wisdom. Our consciousness evo lves beyond it when we do not give in to it
or fight against it. As we become more conscious and aware, killing ducks
just does not appeal to us anymore. W e switch to skeet. Birds that fly in a V
formation and honk are trying to  make it south so that they can survive and
raise a new flock for next year . One tim e, visiting a small town, I said to a local shopkeeper , “Where is
everyone?”
“W ell,” he said, “squirrel season  opens today .” Apparently , all t he town’ s
he-men had run out of wildlife to kill: bears, mountain lions, elk, moose,
sheep, deer , javelina, porcupines, beavers, foxes, buf falo, mustangs, swans,
ducks, pigeons, doves, and anyt hing else that moved. Now they were downto the squirrels. The sheer grotesqueness of what a high-powe red rifle or
shotgun could do to an itty-bit ty squirrel is incomprehensible . Dove and
squirrel hunting calibrates at 65. What is the cost  to the person who kills life willfully for monetary gain
or mom entary t hrill? What is the cost to the person who caters to the
negative in others? In the long-term cases that have been researched, the
cost to the perso n is enormous. S uch people have no real personal power or
magnetism. The y do not have the power to transform the situation just by
being who they are. People w ho are coming from inner power have the capacity to transform
the situa tion merely by their presence. Their presence alone m akes all the
dif ference. Whe n you have owned your inner power , it is not wh at you have
or w hat you do that counts. It is who you ar e . It is what you have become . Power i s greatness. Greatness is stature. Stature is presence. Presence
comes fr om the ABC that you o wn within yourself. It cannot be  purchased. It cannot even be earned. It is inspirational to others, who come to
experience the best in themselves just by virtue of this p resence of
greatness, which validates thei r inner nobility and nurtures their hidden
potential. The world acknowled ges the presence of this inner  power just
because it “is.”
Nelson M andela is a great exam ple. Coming from the ABC of caring for
all South Africans and not just his own racial group brought forth a unifying
spirit strong enough to disass emble, against all odds, a lo ng-standing
inhumane apartheid system. STEP 8: QUALITY
Decide on the q uality that you intend to serve in others, and be awar e
that what you serve in others is exactly what you will bring out in yourself. Y ou pul l to yourself that which  you serve. It is impossible to s erve two
masters. Y ou cannot become strong by catering to human weakness. Y ou
become strong by supporting strength. Y ou become dynamic when you
support the aliveness of others . Y ou become great when you support the
greatness of others. Y ou become beautiful when you support th e beauty of
life. If you are truly coming from the heart, you do not have to worry aboutsuccess. The world will love yo u, be loyal to you, support you, and for give
you all kinds of mistakes. T o demo nstrate, we can look at an exemplar of greatness. Mother T eresa
(cal. 710) is one of the great success stories of our time. She was a little 90-
pound woman who spent no money on advertisement, market strategies, or
promotion and had no sales crew , no Madison A venue image makers, and
no speec hwriters. Y et all she had to do was wiggle her little finger and she
raised multimillions. Throngs followed her . People would travel thousands
of miles, stand in the sun and the rain on tired and aching feet for hours, to
catch a glimpse of her . What wa s her magic? W as it tha t she was a celebrity? W as it that she was
famous? No. That is just the A
 B
 C of it all. Rather , people hoped for a
glimpse of her , or a few moments in her presence, in order to experience her
ABC. What they wanted to expe rience was her “presence.” No advertising,
marketing, image making—yet many books have been written  about her . She had a following of fans worldwide. She was a winner o f the Nobel
Prize and internationally acclaimed as one of the greats of our time. Mother T eresa’ s greatness and power arose because she addressed the
most noble qualities within human nature—unconditional  love and
nonjudgmental compassion. She exhibited the heart of all h earts, even
though she was small, wizened, hunched over , and with no money or
possessions of her own. There was a long waiting list to joi n her . As a
matter of fact, people had to go through an eight-year period o f trial, tests,
and hard work in service to see if they even qualified to join her
or ganization. Obviously , she was on the l evel of a master . She had outclassed
everyone. How did that happen? By charity? A lot of people in the world
are char itable. By do-gooderism ? No. There are plenty of professional do-
gooders. They do not win Nobel Prizes. By her kindness? No. There are
many kind people in the world. Why did she stand head an d shoulders
above th em all? It was because her alignment, commitment, ded ication, and
personal sacrifices reached a level that can only be described as devotion. When someone dedicates their life to carrying out the principle of universal
truth, that person becomes magnetic. They develop the power of attraction. What th ey have and what they d o are secondary to what they are. It is that
quality , which the world ackn owledges and brings them, that we term
success.What wa s it that Mother T eresa acknowledged in others and, by so doing,
magnificently brought forth for all of us to see in her? When she ministered
to the poor and the sick and the dying in the streets of Kolkata, was she
trying to save th em from death? W as she trying to raise funds for the poor? No. What she m inistered to and acknowledged was the intrin sic truth of
human dignity , worth, value, nobility , lovability , and greatness. Those
qualities are intrinsic in every human being no matter how abysmal their
external life situation may seem to be. She own ed for them and acknowledged for them that which they had not
owned in themselves. Consequently , she acted like a mirror to them. By
looking at her , they saw the reflection back of what they had denied—the
grandeur of the existence of their own beingness. Even the lowliest of the
low des erve the  respect of the recognition of the intrinsic dig nity of just
being a human being. Sharing the human experience is transformative. Having seen this within themselves, having witnessed it, and having known
the truth of it by seeing its reflection in her eyes, they died with a smile on
their faces in a state of beatitude. That is true power . STEP 9: SHARING
Recognize that the way to be a success is by sharing it with others. By not sharing your success with others, you deprive them of their
motive t o support your success. If by acknowledgment you give recognition
to th e im portant part othe rs have played in your  success, they will all join
you in supportin g it and in celebrating it. The way to make a lifelong enemy
is to have someo ne contribute to your life and refuse to acknowledge it. So
many pe ople do  this with their  spouses and fail to acknowled ge the part
their inspiration and ef forts played in achieving success. Many b usinesses are problematic, because the owners refuse  to share
their success with the employees, much less with the customers in any way . The em ployees are on an hourly wage, hired by an impersonal distant
corporation. It sure feels like that’ s the case when we go there. They
couldn’ t care less about us. Th ey are going to make the same amount of
money whether they knock our socks of f or not, and they kn ow it. The
motivation has been zeroed out. The basis for human endeav or has been
removed. They have been denied  dignity and worth as individuals. They aremechanical, joyless, going-through-the-motions employees. There are
mechanical foods served by mechanical people in mechanical surroundings
in a lackluster manner for a pr ice. Although it is supposedly cheap, it is
really very expensive when we compare our dollars with what we get for
them. T he ef ficiency experts and computers have really had th eir day and
have successfully dehumanized the whole experience. By cont rast, wh en I go into a certain local supermarket, I see the same
smiling employ ees, year after year . Customers in line are s miling and
laughing with the cashiers. Older customers are sitting in the front of the
market at little tables, chatting away , having their afternoon club meeting
there, in  the company of friends. Up over the manager ’ s counter  is an award
plaque. Surprisi ngly , what does the award plaque say? It is the annual
award to the “Friendliness Family .” It is not just recognizing an individual
but a family . I t acknowledges  that there is more than just one person
involved in their performance. T he award does not go to the em ployee with
the biggest sales but to the friendliest. Isn’ t that amazing? How lon g does it take to becom e a success? The answer is: exactly one
second . Th e second yo u decide to “be ” a certain way , you already got it. Success is yours the instant you get that it is not “out there.” It is not what
you have. It is not even what y ou do. Doing only contributes and having
only em bellishes. It is what you  ar e  that creates success. T o decide to be a
certain way is all that is r equired. No master ’ s degree , diplomas,
correspondence courses, boring lectures, or workshops are necessary . Once you decide to be a certain  way , you take on a new importance and
significance to people. It is not  what you do or say that attrac ts them but
your very “presence.” Whether you are in their lives or n ot makes a
dif ference to them. Whether you are going to be at their parties or not
makes a dif ference to them. People are proud to work for you. They start to
act like it is an honor to know you. Positive human qualities are contagious. What makes for success is that a  certain principle is constantly operating
for you 24 hours  a day , even when you are not consciously expr essing it. At
that point, you a re not aiming to ward that higher ener gy field on the Map of
Consciousness; you are living it. STEP 10: GRACIOUSNESSRealize that life is a feedback loop. Life is your fee dback loop. Y ou strengthen within yourself the identical
things that you strengthen in others. This clinical fact has enormous
implications. The obvious conclusion to be drawn, therefore, is that you
will do well to constantly support that which is positive in others. W e say that so me people are negative people and other pe ople are
positive people as though it were just accidental. It is not accidental at all. It
is the easily obs ervable demons tration of the clinical fact just mentioned. If
we listen  to people’ s conversati ons, we will hear some people engaging in
negative gossip, describing all the negative facts they can about other
people’ s lives or about world ev ents. What they don’ t realize is that they are
reinforcing these very same things within themselves. When I was very young, my gr andmother , who was described as saintly
by e veryone around her , used to say , “If you haven’ t got someth ing good to
say about someone, then don’ t say anything at all.” I puzzled over this for
many y ears. It was only afte r I became clinically experienced as a
psychiatrist that I could see the results of these principles in operation and
began to understand what she meant. That is the next principle: support the success of others in every little way
you can think to do. This means to also recognize and acknowledge their
successes, which tends to reinforce the positive not only within them but
also in yourself. It is not about manipulative flattery but rather genuine
appreciation for  the positive characteristics of everyone you run into,
including store clerks, servers, colleagues, family members, friends, guests,
casual acquainta nces, and people you might encounter only in p assing. This
is a valuable training that teaches you to look for the positive. This me thod moves you to a n attitude of “givingness” rather than
“gettingness.” Everyone around us unconsciously reacts di f ferently to
diverse attitudes. People know on a conscious or unconscious level when
someone is out t o “get” something from them. They are on guard, wary , and
resistive. If even animals can detect this, we can be sure that human beings,
who are far more evolved, also detect it. Many people resist adopting a  giving attitude because they have an
equation that “to give is to lose.” They do not understand this feedback
mechanism; therefore, they do  not try long enough to discover that we
always g et back  mor e than what we give. Success tends to automatically
amplify itself. It is like a snowb all that gathers momentum and increases insize as it rolls ef fortlessly downh ill. Every time you create a good feeling in
others, they feel grateful and develop a positive attitude toward you, which
completely changes the nature of your life. W e say that som e people seem t o lead a charmed life. W e for get that this
is b ecause they have taken the trouble to be charming to o thers. This
charmingness is  an inner attitude . It is not opportunistic, or manipulative, or
done for gain. T hey are not trying to charm us into giving them  something. Instead, it is a true reflection of those people’ s nature. T o u nderstand this quality , never do others a “favor .” Why  is that? Because doing a favor is really a manipulation. It is a bar gain in which you
expect something in return. If after having done something for someone,
you feel they are obligated, then you have missed the w hole point
altogether . Givingness implies no expectation of return. This latter statement is of crucia l importance. W e will easily ob serve that
what most people are really tryin g to do is purchase approval from others or
manipulate them into a debt. “I’ ve done this for you; now you’ve got to do
that for me.” T his manipulative, tradeof f, bar gaining position ends up in
resentments so that we often hea r , “After all I’ve done for him.” Who wants
“free” d ental work if you know it comes with the expectation that you will
take care of the dentist’ s dog while he’ s on vacation?! When you really do something  for someone else, you do it with no
expectation of return in any form , even by acknowledgment or recognition. Y ou do  it out of caring for  other human beings, because you are
contributing to the quality of life itself. This is an inner secret that we arrive
at on ly t hrough a deep inner un derstanding that when we support life, life
supports us in re turn. Granted, this sounds philosophical, but it  is a truism
that we will arrive at through inner observation and experience. EVER YDA Y SUCCESS PRACTICES
The simple practice that leads  to this awareness and can be tried by
anyone intereste d in becoming truly successful on a daily basis is this: in
traffic, always let others cut in fr ont of you . Does that sound sort of crazy? W ithin that practice is the hidd en, secret power of becoming a  successful
person. As you practice this technique, you will eve ntually discover the
pleasure of becoming a truly cou rteous person. What does courteous  mean?It m eans merely to support the life of others and their happine ss. Y ou will
shift from the sh ort-lived satisfaction of blocking others into the long-term,
inner awareness that comes from supporting others. If you let others  into traf fic, yo u experience yourself as magnanimous. Y ou notice that others wave to you in thanks. Y our life beco mes full of
thanks, kindness , gratitude, and win-win outcomes, because those are the
principles by which you stand and live. The nex t practice is to always be gr owing something  in the of fice,
apartment, hom e, or garden. T his can be tomatoes in the window , or a
bonsai plant, or little cacti, or whatever takes people’ s fancy . It should be
something for which you take  personal responsibility , even if it is just
watering the geraniums in the window box. It is noteworthy that Nelson
Mandela, even while in prison, grew tomatoes in a discarded trashcan and
gave the fruits of his labor to the prison guards and their families. ALIGNING YOUR COMP ASS
The cap acity for success resides with everyone. Any of us can make
others fe el good  about themselves. In so doing we begin to feel good about
ourselves. This begins to rub of f and points our compass in an increasingly
positive direction in which success is merely the automatic by-product of
what we ourselves have become. Advanced research has demons trated that within all happenings in the
universe there is a discernible pattern and or ganizing principle. In fact, if it
were no t for the or ganizing principle, no universe would even be possible. Or ganizing prin ciples have dif ferent levels of power . W e now have one of
the secrets of the success of powerful people. Their entire lives are
automatically and ef fortlessly or ganized by the complete and total
alignment with and commitmen t to very high and powerful principles. This
is how Mahatma Gandhi defeated the British Empire. Power comes from aligning wi th those dominant attractor patterns that
support life. W e see this orientation in the grace and friendliness of truly
successful people. They want to put others at ease, supporting their comfort
and well -being. Even their artlessness, naïveté, or clumsiness is done within
an o verall context of grace. It is  almost as though unconsciously they know
when it is most graceful to be awkward. That sheer awkwardn ess is whatsets the other people at ease. H ow often could we think back to a point in
our lives when w e just suddenly pretended we had for gotten something, or
were flu stered, and the sole purpose was to put the other pers on at ease? That wa s a good space to come from and assures us that our co nsideration
for others brings an automatic grace that fits the needs of the moment. Success is neither something that we have nor something that we do. It is
the automatic consequence of  what we are. Our lives and what we
accomplish in the world are mer ely the outcome of what we truly are within
ourselves and what we have decided to serve. This truth is what makes our
work easy . In s teering the ship, if we ch ange direction only one degree on the
compass, after a few days of sa iling we will be hundreds and hundreds of
miles from where we would ha ve been had we not shifted our course that
one little degree; therefore, a slight shift in inner attitude can have an
enormous consequence in our lives. Perhaps no one knows this  better than
the recovering alcoholic or addict.CHAPTER SIX
T H E  W A Y  O U T  O F  A D D I C T I O N
What we  are addicted to is not a  substance but the experience o f our true
Self, a state of inner peace and love for all life. The classic movie Lost Horizon  shows this journey of awakening to a
higher le vel of consciousness an d the subsequent drive to seek it no matter
what. Ronald Coleman plays t he hero, Robert Conway , who survives a
plane crash in the Himalayas and ends up in a beautiful v alley called
Shangri-La (a state of timelessness and unconditional lovingness that
calibrates at about 600). When Conway returns to his ordinary life in
England (a life that calibrates a round 200), he experiences success, but he
cannot find any satisfaction compared to that deep peace he experienced in
Shangri-La. This creates the desire to return to that stat e of inner
consciousness at any cost. He r isks his life to find the portal b y which he
can return to Sh angri-La (which  the movie depicts as a place, but which we
know is actually within consciousness itself). This is why the  alcoholic drinks, the addict takes drugs, or any of us
indulge in the o ther ways we ha ve found to “feel better .” W e are trying to
shift our level of consciousness from low to high. When we are paralyzed
by Fear (cal. 10 0), it is a great discovery that we can pop a pil l or down a
drink an d immediately experience our own inner Joy (cal. 540) , feel happy
and free, and even become the life of the party . In doing whatever we can to
“get high,” we are simply trying to find the portal to that inner Shangri-La. THE TRUTH ABOUT ADDICTIONWhen we are truthful about what we want to experience, what is it? It is
not t he s ubstance or anything external to us. Those are only the mechanisms
that temporarily  block the lower emotions and allow us to experience our
own innate Higher Self, which is what we are really after . In  fact, most
people g o through the day lookin g for pleasure, or at least some way to alter
their inner state of consciousnes s. Drugs and alcohol are a quick fix, for in
seconds we can be in a state of mellow and bliss. In the beginning, it works. If that were not true, no one would do it. But
the relief is only for a moment or so. W e operate on memory , so it takes a
while to  realize it is not working . But, over time, because it is an  artificially
induced experience of happiness, it has created an equal and opposite
indebtedness. The universe kno ws when it has been cheated. The pain or
discomfort or restlessness was m erely postponed, not resolved. The anxiety
or g rief or resen tment just got p ut away for a moment, to be reckoned with
later . Us ing artificial means to ascend the Map of Consciousne ss does not
work. W e transcend the lower levels by having the courage to face them and
work thr ough th em, and then o ur ener gy field becomes a carri er wave for
others longing to break free. Here is the crucial point: never be ashamed of seeking that higher state of
consciousness, and never be ashamed of the various methods us ed in trying
to experience it. The  goal that we are seeking through drugs and alcohol is
nothing to be as hamed of. The entire spiritual world is seeking that higher
state of conscio usness. It is the greatest aspiration we are capable of—to
experience the Higher Self and highest levels of consciousness—and
according to certain religions, it  takes numerous lifetimes even to reach that
desire, which is a spiritual awakening to go beyond the material world. Addiction is a path of spiritual awakening. For other people it  happens
through another kind of powerle ssness—losing a child or other loved one, a
terminal diagno sis, being plunged into the depths of despair . The Higher
Self is clever and will throw us over the precise clif f needed to  awaken us. Out of sheer hopelessness, we come to surrender , and out of surrender
comes humility and we go right back to the high state we thought we had
lost forever , only now without  th e drug, so it is more stable and truly
liberating. Because the ego has weakened, when we sit down to meditate or
pray , and (whether an atheist or not, makes no dif ference) we ask to reach
something higher , it happens. When we hit bottom, the ego cracks, and this
allows a ccess to that same space  that we used to reach through alcohol anddrugs, a lthough now it is infinitely better because there is no negative
ef fect. W e learn that what we sought with drugs or alcohol was always
within. W ithout striving for it, it is revealed. By clearing  away the
negativities, suddenly the beauty of everything shines forth. ENERGY FIELDS AND ADDICTION
Now we can und erstand what happens in the drug or alcohol ex perience. This powerfully attractive, joyfu l ener gy field, the ener gy field of life itself,
is like the sun that is always shining. The lower ener gy fields are like the
clouds th at block the experience of that inner sun. A drug or alcohol blocks
of f t he e xperience of the lower ener gy fields and allows the exp erience of a
higher ener gy field. If we could block of f all the ener gy fields below level
560, we would e xperience what is left, which is the ener gy field  of Ecstasy . There is even a  designer drug c alled Ecstasy created specifica lly to block
of f t he e xperience of the ener gy fields below 560. W ith the drug  experience,
something has pharmacologically blocked of f the lower ener g y fields and
allowed the unobstructed experi ence of a higher one. Thus, at the end of the
day , the person who is full of fear , grief, regret, and anxiety stop s in for two
martinis, and suddenly tempora rily jumps over the lower ener gy fields and
moves up to the ener gy level of about 500, which can be called “mellow .”
Mellow is that ener gy field where we feel love for everybody and are
willing to for give them. W e are generous and easygoing, and all the kids
love us when we are in that state; we take toys home for the children and
flowers for our spouse. This high-ener gy state is sought in the drug
experience because it blocks of f the lower ener gy levels. As said before,
these are  addicti ng experiences, because once having experienced the state,
the mind wants to return to it. When we ask the person who has had an alcohol or addiction p roblem to
look at what they are seeking, to look at the experience that has become
habitual and to which they wan t to return over and over again no matter
what the price, we find that they are seeking an inner state of consciousness. In re ality , they d o not even care about the drug itself. The drug  is only the
mechanics, the only way they know to access that state at the time. It is a
certain w ay of experiencing their own beingness, and it is a pleasurable,
highly ener gized state. This is what they seek, and if a drug does not blockof f t he lower en er gy fields, thereby preventing them from experiencing that
inner state of blissfulness, it is no longer used or valued. W e can  see that the
addiction is not to drugs or a lcohol, per se, but to the higher level of
consciousness itself. Certain psychol ogical explanat ions of addiction try to pres ent it as
though t he perso n is addicted to  alcohol or drugs because they are running
away from the lower experience of fear or depression. Ther e are some
excellent medic ines that eliminate the anxiety or depression but do not
result in addiction, as there is no “high.” Therefore, the al leviation of
depression, anxiety , fear , or anger is well handled pharmacologically by
traditional medicines that are not considered addictive substances because
they do not block of f the ener gy  fields at a suf ficient level to a llow people
to experience the higher state. W e can see that the person is ad dicted to the ener gy field withi n, to that
higher s tate of consciousness, w hich creates the desire to return  to it. That
person is willing to pay the price because the mind begins to  demand a
return to that experience, no matter what the cost. The willingness to pay
increases with time so that finally , in the end, it will ask for the body itself:
“If you keep on drinking like tha t, you are going to be dead within weeks or
months.” Y ou know what the person does about that? He goes across the
street to  the bartender , his old p al Joe, orders a martini, and says, “Guess
what the doctor told me today? ” At that point, the bartender hands him a
drink for the good old times, and they kiss the body good-bye. W e see the
price that people are willing to pay for the addiction to this state of
consciousness. It mystifies people who have not accessed that level of consciousness
through a drug experience. The addict or alcoholic is willing to sacrifice
everything in order to return to this ener gy field that we call Pe ace or Bliss
—the in ner Sha ngri-La. Lost Horizon  tells us the story of the motive of
addiction by showing the willin gness to sacrifice all life for a certain state
of consciousness. WHY GIVE UP AN ADDICTION? Addiction is merely a false start to experiencing the truth, because it does
not work. Thus, the reason for giving up the alcohol, drugs, or otheraddiction is not because it is “wrong” but because it does not work
anymore. It does not work, bec ause through drugs and alcohol comes the
progressive loss of inner self-respect, along with the adversities and
negativities of the lower ener gy fields. It is the beginning of e xperiencing
very negative events in one’ s life: loss of relationships, status, finances,
physical health, fulfillment of p otential, and functioning of bodily or gans,
all o f wh ich sign ifies the downhill course brought about by the denial of the
truth. The denial of the truth fro m level 200 on down is due to putting the
power o utside of oneself. In addiction, the person has give n away the
source o f their happiness and meaning in life by projecting it on to the outer
world and giving that power to some substance outside themselves. The drug in an d of itself has  no power at all to create the higher
experiences. Over several decad es of working in the field of ad diction and
recovery , we clinically tested the research questions with hundreds of
people i n lecture  audiences, and in classes for people who were right in the
middle of handling their addictive problem. Using the diagnostic method of
discerning truth from falsehood via muscle-testing, we tested the
proposition: “The drug has the power to create this higher e xperience.”
Universally , 100 percent of the people went weak with that statement,
proving that it is a lie. The drug has no power whatsoeve r . Then we
presented them with an opposite proposition: “The drug blocks of f the
ener gy fields that are coming fro m the ego self and allows me to experience
the joyf ulness o f that which is my real Self.” Instantly , every body in the
class went strong, indicating that the statement is true. (The research is
reported in Healing and Recovery , as well as the audio and video lecture
“Consciousness and Addiction.”)
The truth we ve rified is that the drug has no power whatsoever to create
these experience s, but it does have the pharmacological capacity to block
of f the negative ener gy fields, allowing a person to at least get into the
ballpark. The substance-induced experience is not the real st ate of Bliss
experienced by the person who has earned it through their own progressive
spiritual work. The ener gy is c lose to the truth of one’ s own being. Now
how do we u tilize this knowledge in understanding reco very from
addictions? THE PROCESS OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN RECOVER YThe beginning steps of recov ery , ironically , often look like failure. Attempts to break the habit lead  to discouragement at the failure  to do so, a
nameless terror ,  and perhaps hospitalization and paranoia. Going of f the
sedatives creates fear . Going of f the uppers leads to depression. Apathy and
grief arise as so on as the drug is taken away , because there is hopelessness
in the face of never being able to experience those incredible states again. When go ing of f the substance does not work, there are attempts to increase
the a mounts of a lcohol and drugs, cover up the growing dependence due to
shame and guilt, which further spread the negativity to every area of life—
work, re putation, finances, relationships, and personal care. Th ere may be
visits to recover y meetings, “just to check it out” or by court order , but the
scene provides no hope (“My case is dif ferent—it works for them but not
for me”) or triggers pride and denial (“I don’ t have anything in common
with those losers!”). The pers on is not ready until th ey hit their “bottom,” which va ries from
person to person but has a co mmon process within consciou sness. Life
confronts them with an inner agony or outer tragedy that finally brings them
to the first step, as phrased in the T welve Steps, which is to tell the truth that
they are “powerless over” the substance and their life has become
“unmanageable.”
Stating t he truth about something turns the negatives to the positives. At
the leve l of Courage (200), a person begins the journey of co nsciousness
and self-empowerment. Unexpectedly , the courage to tell the truth brings in
all the help that is needed. This is something not known to the person afraid
to face the truth . As soon as they have the courage to face the truth, which
is to say yes to the ener gy of life itself, then life says yes to them and
provides the way forward. But truth requires humility and le tting go of
denial, and many addicts actually die rather than make this step. The drivenness to reach the ulti mate state is something that we validate
in the addict and alcoholic. The person is addicted to that ex perience of
their own inner higher state of consciousness, and they have de monstrated
enormous drive to reach the hig hest states, putting their life on the line and
giving up everything for it. The goal is valid and noble. It is sim ply a matter
of chang ing the  technique and realizing that the inner state of peace does
not have to be sought; it is always within, just like the sun is always present,
but the ego acts like a cloud. W hen the clouds are removed, the  sun shines
forth. Recovery  is that process  of removing the clouds of despair , guilt,shame, fear , anger , pride—transcending all the lower ener g y fields by
facing them and letting go of them. When a person seeks treatment for an addiction, they are usually at the
bottom of the Map of Conscio usness, filled with self-hatred, regret, and
despondency . The ener gy field of Apathy (50), with its hopelessness and
despair , is one in  which the pers on cannot help themselves. Hopeless means
just that. For e xample, the president of a county bar asso ciation for
attorneys literally died of starvation while living alone in a rooming house. He was addicted to a combination of V alium and alcohol. He never picked
up the phone to  call anybody f or help. A person of that caliber has many
friends, all of wh om would have dropped everything to help him , but he felt
there was no po int in making the phone call because there was no hope. That hopelessne ss of one’ s condition often expresses itself as “Y ou may
well recover from this, but my case is hopeless.”
In the level of Apathy , God is dead for the person, and all we can do is
pour ene r gy into  them. The proc ess going on within consciousness is that of
the loss of ener g y . The person is de-ener gized, blank, and totally dispirited. The answ er is to pour ener gy into that person through concern, lovingness,
physical presence, nutrition, and  every other possible way to move them up
to the next ener gy field of Grief. Grief (75) has to do with the past, and when the person comes out of a
blank, shocklike state, they begin to cry and regret the loss that all the
addiction has cost them. There is regret, along with a feeling of self-pity
and sorrow for t he fact that they are in a rehabilitation facility or wherever
their add iction h as landed them. They are sad about life and the ir addiction
and feel completely abandoned by God. At this level there is regret ab out the past, so we move the person’ s
ener gy field up to the next lev el, which is Fear (100). At this point, the
person begins to fear the addicti on, aided by worry and anxiety . Fear has to
do w ith the futu re. The person i s no longer in an inflated state o f denial; on
the contrary , they are deflated. The world looks frightening, an d they may
feel that God is punishing them for their past sins. They misinterpret the
addiction as a punishment and fear more punishment and further loss in the
future. W e see h ow the ener gy of each level, if they work with it, can move
them up to the ener gy of the n ext. The person transcends the Fear of the
addiction by desiring something  better (Desire, at 125). Once they tire of
being a victim of wanting and craving, they move up to Anger .Anger (1 50) has a lot more ener gy than Fear or Desire, and so the ener gy
of Ange r can be very useful—n ot the form of anger itself but th e ener gy of
anger in  which they become angry over their predicament in life and being
the victi m. This  anger can be used in a constructive way as a tu rning point
away from defeatism. Pride (175 ) moves them out of hopelessn ess and into
doing so mething “as a matter o f pride” by taking action and beginning to
move up  into caring for themse lves and their position, and this then is the
move toward the next ener gy field of Courage (200). Courage to tell the truth is the crucial step in recovery . W e see the
powerful ef fect of the first of the  T welve Steps in Alcoholics Anonymous—
the admission that one is pow erless over alcohol or drugs—which now
allows for the capacity to face, cope, handle, and be appropriate. It
represents reempowerment. The world is then seen as an oppo rtunity , and
for the first time, there is the benefit of an open mind, and the truth now has
a wa y to enter the mind. Pride (175) can be utilized to move th e person up
into Courage (200) and to look at the facts. Doing so provides
encouragement to move up to the next position, Neutrality (250), that of
letting go of resisting the facts and being released from that resistance in
order to begin to view the world as an “okay” place. This inn er release allows the person to experience inner freedom to
explore, expand, and then move up to the W ill ingness (310) to say ye s to
life’ s opportunities, join in the exploration, and agree to align with it. At
W illingness, the person thus develops the capacity to see the whole
recovery process in a world that is friendly , and they view Alcoholics
Anonymous and other recovery programs as promising and hopeful. They
feel optimistic that, yes, they will recover . Acceptance (350) is a very pow erful ener gy field where they r ealize the
inner po wer to make these dec isions. Confidence, a feeling of adequacy ,
and transformation occur through experiencing that the world is
harmonious. On  the one hand, life has presented the person with a problem,
but on the other hand, it has a lso provided the answer . A merciful God
provides the solutions, so although they may have an addictio n, there are
hundreds of thousands of people around who have found the answers and
are only too wil ling to be helpful. The person moves up to Re ason (400),
and ener gy is poured into educa tion to understand the science of addiction
and its impact on mental health, incorporating many medical resources and
useful philosophies into one’ s self-understanding.W ith the  letting go of the intellect’ s focus on acquiring knowl edge, the
person begins to value their beingness, and an ener gy field of lovingness
(500) emer ges, which is in a co mpletely dif ferent paradigm of  spirituality ,
gratitude, and coming from the heart. The person has committed to an
ener gy f ield tha t is healing by joining one of the 12-step groups, whose
ener gy i s innately healing. (AA calibrates at 540.) The person’ s willingness
to a lign with i t and to accep t the healing is essential. Th rough that
willingness then  comes acceptance of the real necessity to be i n an ener gy
field that is nurturing, supportive, understanding, and unconditionally
loving. In that field, people know  they are in a safe space and that staying in
it en sures their sobriety and thu s survival. W ith that experience come the
Joy and the beg inning of experiencing an inner serenity and  seeing the
perfection and oneness of the e ner gy field of which the person is now an
integral part. THE TWEL VE STEPS: REMOVING THE BLOCKS
As was said, the  lower ener gy fi elds are like the clouds that block the sun
—the “sunlight of the spirit,” as it is called in AA. That sun is always
shining; it is sim ply a matter of removing the clouds that block it, and the
T welve Steps are a process of removal. The T we lve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous have been applied to every
human p roblem, to wondrous ef fect. It can be very beneficial to apply these
very same steps to overcoming addiction to anything. One can, for example,
substitute the word ego  for alcohol  i n step 1. In this chapter , we apply the
T welve Steps to the Map of Co nsciousness and show a typical process of
recovery . The T welve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous
Step 1:  “ W e admitted we were powerless over the alcohol—that our
lives had become unmanageable.”
Step 2:  “ Came to belie ve that a Powe r greater than ourselves could
restore us to sanity .”Step 3:  “M ade a decision to turn our w ill and our lives over to the care
of God as we understood Him.”
Step 4:  “Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.”
Step 5:  “ Admit ted to God, to ourselve s, and to another human being
the exact nature of our wrongs.”
Step 6:  “W ere entirely ready to have G od remove all of these defects
of character .”
Step 7:  “Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.”
Step 8:  “ Made a list o f all the person s we had harmed, and became
willing to make amends to them all.”
Step 9:  “Made direct am ends to such people whenever possible, except
when to do so would injure them or others.”
Step 10:  “Continued to take personal inventory and when we were
wrong, promptly admitted it.”
Step 11:  “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our
consciousness contact with God as we understood Him, praying only
for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.”
Step 12:  “Having had a spiritual awaken ing as the result of these steps,
we tried to car ry this message to alcoholics, and to practice  these
principles in all our af fairs.”
◆  The 1st step  o f the 12-step program is the willingness to admit the
truth tha t one is powerless over alcohol or drugs and that alcoh ol or drugs
are making one’ s life unmanageable. ◆  The 2nd step , t hen, becomes very significant  in that the “restoring us
to s anity” is b y a power gre ater than oneself. Thereby does the ego
surrender to God (the small ego self surrenders to the power of  the Higher
Self). W e look o n the Map and  see that the higher ener gy fields of Love,
Joy , and Peace start at about 500 and run all the way up to 600. Those
ener gy fields are like a powerful  electromagnet pulling the person back into
wanting to reexperience those high states within consciousness. The drug oralcohol gave them a tempora ry experience of those higher ener gies. Therefore, in order for them to h andle it, something with equal power to the
drug or alcohol experience will be needed to replace it. The group ener gy
field of AA (cal. 540), and othe r 12-step groups, provides an ener gy field
that kee ps the person magnetize d to the experience of their Higher Self in
its truest form. I n fact, some pe ople in recovery refer to their AA group as
their Higher Power (for example , GOD  stands for “Group of Drunks”). The
2nd step  is really the intuitive k nowing that something greater than the ego
or the limited small self is going to be needed to handle the attraction of
such a powerful ener gy field. ◆  The 3rd step  is the decision that comes out of that, which is the
surrendering and willingness t o turn one’ s life over to God, “as one
understands Him.” Out of willingness itself, the God of one’ s own
understanding is already a friend—a promising, merciful, and responsive
God. The willingness to be trusting sources the element of faith, so the 3rd
step of deep surrender really moves one into alignment with the ener gy field
of 540 and abov e. The rest of the T welve Steps now make sen se from the
viewpoint of the levels of cons ciousness. When a person aligns with the
powerful attract or field of 540, the ABC of Unconditional Love, then
healing on the external level of A
 B
 C is inevitable over time. ◆  The 4th step  s ays to honest ly look within oneself to discover any
defects of character and to take a fearless moral inventory , which entails the
willingness to look at and own  all that was negative in one’ s life and the
impact it had. ◆  Then follows the 5th step , a very healing  step by which to admit to
oneself, to God, and to another human being the exact nature of one’ s
wrongs. Those who make this step relieve the impact of pain on  themselves
by trust ing their deepest secrets with another person, such as a 12-step
sponsor . What they had been ashamed of loses its voltage when they speak
it out loud. A p erson can suf fer for 20 years over a single incident, their
self-esteem dest royed, and then when it is shared, it becomes a  “so what.”
Sharing it changes the ener gy field by removing the negative char ge from it. T aking o f f the negativity has not changed the history , but the w ay it is heldhas chan ged, making inoperativ e that which previously had the capacity to
corrode and destroy . Bill W ilson, the co-founder of AA, used to say that the correct attitude
about th e past is a “decent regre t,” which is quite dif ferent from  self-hatred,
shame, o r wallow ing in guilt. Instead, one then comes from the heart. AA is
the language of the heart, which heals with its humor , acceptance, lightness,
and willingness to heal the past. ◆  T he h ealing, t hen, proceeds out of step 5 and is expressed in r estitution
in steps 6–9 , which are reall y the reparative steps. In those steps, the person
takes re sponsibility to actually do something in the world to  repair any
damage that is repairable and to mend whatever fences can be m ended so it
is not just a mental intellectual  exercise. T o the best of one’ s ability , one
goes back into the world and tries to repair the damages tha t have been
done to the degree that they are  repairable. The healing then b ecomes real
in one’ s life and relieves the guilt about what one has done in the past. ◆  Step 10  says that taking  responsibility for the content of one’ s own
consciousness a nd having the w illingness to clean it up becom es a way of
life on a daily ba sis. The daily inventory makes note of what wa s lacking in
integrity , where one could have done better , and where one could have been
more loving. Step 10 is owning responsibility for the process  of spiritual
progress and committing to it as a way of life. ◆  Step 11  is  interesting be cause it says if one has thoroughly done steps
1–10, on e will reconnect with something that was sought in the first place
through drugs an d alcohol. It says that prayer and meditation will “incre ase
conscious contact” with the God of one’ s own understanding, “asking only
for knowledge of His will and the power to carry it out.”
Notably , step 11 does not say “ begin”; it says “increase,” and presumes
that con scious contact has already happened. It occurs through internal
surrender and honest commitme nt to lovingness as a lifestyle. One connects
with God through the heart beca use that which is Divine, that which is God,
and that which i s Love are all the same thing. By commitment to  lovingness
as a lifestyle, as  a way of being in the world to the best of one’ s  ability , one
reconnects with some rock-like, joyful inner experience that is similar to
what one sought through alcohol and drugs in the first place.◆  Step 12  r eve als what the whole addictiv e process is about and what its
nature i s in the field of consci ousness. Step 12 says that “having had a
spiritual awakening as a result o f these steps,” which af firms tha t becoming
conscious is a result of the entire addictive experience. Thos e who have
followed the process with integrity and dedication now have the  capacity to
“carry this message” to others and express it in every area of their lives. The 12th step says that the whole purpose of the addictive proce ss was to
awaken them and move them up from one level of consc iousness to
another; to go f rom being asleep and unaware to being awake , conscious,
and aware; to move from being unconscious, irresponsible, and the helpless
victim to owning themselves as being spiritually responsible for the
happiness and success within their life. This precludes putting th e source of
happiness outsid e of themselves. Instead, they realize that the source of
happiness is the same as the source o f life and comes from responsibly
owning oneself as a spiritually aware person. Addictions are progressively fat al diseases, and the only way to recover
from them is to become progressively spiritually aware and more conscious. Life itself depends on becoming conscious via major self-confrontation
with something that each perso n’ s Higher Self has chosen that will force
them to grow , because there is  no turning back. The only options are to
surrender their will to God (that  which is Higher than the ego), o r go insane
and die. There is no reprogramming of the brain cells once they are
programmed. Once someone is  into the addictive process, they are on a
tightrope and there is no turning back. There is only confrontation with
owning the truth about oneself. Recovery depends on accepting that
process, moving joyfully into it, and being grateful. THE HEALING POWER OF A LOVING GROUP
The ener gy field of the 12-step groups is Unconditional Love (540). The
way out of the pit is to be concerned about someone else. W e get higher
with every act of love, every loving intention, and our willingness to for give
self and others. Unconditional Love is not an emotional up-and-down
feeling t hat depends on someone else and what they do or don ’ t do. Love
does no t come from someone e lse into us. Love is an inner d ecision wemake ab out a state of consciousness that we want to choose a ll the time. From that level, people cannot do anything to make us stop loving them. People in recovery discover that Love is communicable, and they
experience it by osmosis—that is, hanging out with people who are loving. Around and through the physical body is an ener gy body that vibrates with
the f requency level of that ener gy . The higher the vibration, the greater the
power . The vibrations at the higher levels of consciousness on the Map of
Consciousness have much more power than the vibrations at the levels
below 2 00. It is not necessary to believe in God. All that is necessary is to
sit in a room with people sending out the healing ener gy , and one will pick
up the ener gy of Love. By analogy , if we sit in the sun, we cannot help but
be warmed! It is  a common experience to  walk into a 12-step meetin g feeling
depressed or “down” about myriad problems and then walk out at a higher
level, w ithout even having mentioned the problems. The group’ s ener gy
field of Unconditional Love lifts us into a space of “I don’ t even know why
I was upset.” W e  discover that t he facts of life mean nothing. It is only how
we feel about them that gives th em our experience of life, and how we feel
about th e facts depends on what our perspective is, which is de termined by
our leve l of consciousness. Thus every problem is eliminated by changing
the pers pective—that is, shifting  to a higher level of consciousness. W e do
not have to fix problems; we evolve beyond them. “Getting It by Osmosis”
The great advantage of joining groups that are loving is that we are
sitting n ext to people who carry evolved thought forms. The technique for
getting out of apathy , depression, and other negativities is to choose to be
with others who have resolved the problem with which we struggle. This is
one of the great powers of self-help groups. When we are in  a negative
state, we have given a lot of e ner gy to negative thought forms, and the
positive thought  forms are wea k. Those who are in a higher v ibration are
free of the ener g y from their negative thoughts and have ener gi zed positive
thought forms. Merely to be in t heir presence is beneficial. In so me 12-step
groups, this is called “hanging out with the winners.” The benefit here is on
the p sychic level of consciousne ss, and there is a transfer of pos itive ener gyand reli ghting of our own latent positive thought forms. It’ s  also called
“getting it by osmosis.”
Thoughts have a certain electrom agnetic ener gy form. When we sit in the
presence of people who have solved the life problems that we are
confronting, their inner accomplishment influences us nonverbally so that
our lower -level ener gy is replac ed by a higher thought form. That higher
thought form sees the problem as a golden opportunity . What we saw as a
loss bef ore the meeting, now w e see as a gain because of that nonverbal
transmission.
_OceanofPDF.com_The_Map_of_Consciousness_Explained_-_David_R_Hawkins.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        I have a worksho p at the house and love makingdollhouses for my children, nieces, and nephews. ”
“Do you ever sell any of the dollhouses. ”
He r eplied, “Oh, I never thought of that. I put so much time and
ef fort in them that I could never make money selling them. ”
I made a simple suggestion: “W ell, for fun, why don’ t you take the
one you’re working on now, figure out a price that wou ld be
profitable, put a price tag on it, and put it on consignment in any  store
that will allow it —but not in a toy store, where it will get lost an d not
seen among the overwhelm of the other merchandise. ”
And tha t is what he did. Surpris ingly, he knew someone in the hardware
business who was happy to put a dollhouse in his store window, and in fact
used it to sell stair treads (there was a little staircase in the dollhouse). The
dollhouse sold in short order. The next dollhouse was put in as “display
only,” a nd orders were taken. Soon enough, the patient wh o had been
miserable was happily in the dollhouse business, selling them a s fast as he
could make them, and hiring out some of the work. They were absolutely adorable, handcrafted dollhouses and brought joy
to the hearts of children. That was the ABC he was coming from when he
said, “I want to bring joy to the hearts of children. ” That is a universal
principle that hardly anybody can ar gue with. One of the tests of the
universal princi ple is whether it appeals to the heart. If your  product or
service appeals only to the head, it will have a limited success. It may be
quite pr ofitable, but the great s uccesses in the world are those  things that
you yourself love doing and believe in, and which change people’ s lives. STEP 3: SER VICEABILITY
Consider: Is what you want to d o actually needed by anyone. Is it truly a
service to the world. Y ou wan t to make sure that wha t you are going to throw yourself into is
not just a pet project or personal preference. Raspberry vinaigrette salad
dressing may be some chef ’ s idea of haute cuisine, but  that person al taste is
not n ecessarily going to be shared by many in the populace, who  may come
into a restaurant once or twice out of curiosity then never return, becausethey just real ly wante d regular ranch dressing and it was not even an option. W e will notice that such a business, as a consequence, m ay become
primarily for tourists and not appeal to locals, because the  demand is
limited. It does not serve any r eal need, other than just the idea of being
cutesy, unique, or dif ferent. W e  can apply this step to any arena of life by
asking ourselves, Am I imposing m y own pet pr efer ence, or is it something
that actually meets the needs of the people I am r elating to. STEP 4: AESTHETICS
Check out all the sensory modes, and cover the ones for eign to your own
personality by consulting with people who ar e experts in that ar ea. What is meant by that. The research of neuro-linguistic programming
(NLP) h as demonstrated that people process their experien ces of life
primarily throug h one sensory mode or another. Some people a re primarily
auditory. Some are visual. Some are feeling people. Of course, smell and
tactile senses are also important. Let’ s co nsider a restaurant that is very attractive. The woman who runs it
is obviously a visual person. When people look at the restaurant, they see
that the decor is  beautiful. She also does a great job on the food and the
price. But the ac oustics are abominable. People can hardly hear themselves
think, let alone have a conversation. The music is too loud, inappropriate in
style, an d plays  nonstop without a single break. Evidently, it is what she
likes; however, it turns everyone else of f from the place. If you are the opposite, if you d o not care so much about how the thing
looks as long as it feels right, then you would do well to call in some people
in your life who are primarily vi sual and ask them how it looks to them. W e
can tell how people process information by their language. People who say,
“I se e what that  means. How d oes this look to you. ” are probably visual
processors. People who say, “That doesn’ t feel good to me. That doesn’ t
feel right,” are obviously feelin g people. Auditory people will say, “That
doesn’ t sound right to me. ” Just being aware of these cues will make the
modes apparent to us. Y ou want to ma ke sure you co ver the sensory modes that are not your
forte. It does not take long, only an hour at most, with an expert in the field
to co nvey the id ea. One restaurant grew from failure to success p rimarily bychanging the music in the back ground from loud, funky W estern to soft
baroque, which brought in high-paying and loyal customers. People w ant to relax for dinner. They want to have tablecloths, cloth
napkins, approp riate music, and the right lights. Bright fluorescent lights
and prim ary col ors may be great for a breakfast diner, but they will kill
dinner business. Although the fast-food chains would seem to belie this
obvious fact, people actually want dignity in their lives. They will reward
you and apprecia te you for supp lying it or providing the means of achieving
that state. Whatever you present, make sure it is featured in the best
possible style, with regard for all the sensory modalities, and that it pleases
as many of them as possible. It is well worth the extra trouble. Aside from the aforementioned sensory modalities, a high percentage of
the populace rank comfort very high on their list. Potential customers walk
out of stores for the simple fact that they could not find a chair to sit on. Many pe ople thi nk things over, and make up their minds about a purchase,
only when they are sitting d own. Customers appreciate th is kind of
caringness. STEP 5: A TTRACTION
Rely on attraction rather than pr omotion. Keep in mind that promotion with aggressive, forceful marketing,
advertising, and sales pitches is very outer -directed and takes time, money,
and ener gy. Attr action, on the o ther hand, takes no time, ener g y, ef fort, or
money. Promotion come s from force. Th e rule of the universe is that fo rce meets
with counterforce. Persuasion m eets with sales resistance. The more money
you spend on p romotion, the higher you are going to have to raise your
market p rice. Hence, you will eventually create a price-resistance ceiling
and narrow the gap between your product and that of your competitor. What attracts and builds your su ccess without any time, ener gy, or ef fort. Y our reputation does that. Y our reputation is not a fake image that you hire
some m arketing corporation to fabricate but rather the real genuineness of
your end eavor, which shines forth and is evident to everyone in everything
that you  do. Some companies’ very names or labels evoke a w arm feeling
in u s be cause th ey have proved themselves over time to provide a productor s ervice that i s well crafted, trustworthy, and unique, with reliable and
responsive customer service. T heir reputation is the ef fect of a positive-
ener gy ABC. Whereas most corporations calibrate around 200 (the same as
government bureaucracy), these companies calibrate in the 300s, indicating
their resonance with human emotion (rather than mere functionality). The ABC that we hold in mind is the magnet that has the pulling power,
and it costs nothing. If you are doing a good job, people will search you out. That does not m ean you should not let them know that you are there and
what services you have available, what your specials are this  week, and
what your hours are. It is an old axiom in business that a satisfied customer
is th e be st adver tisement. Ev eryone nods and says, “Oh yes, I know that,”
and then they proceed to ignore it. A good rule of t humb to go by is to ask yourself whether the te mptation
to take a certain shortcut is worth the risk of ruining your business. Consider the seemingly unimportant “cutting corners” e xample of
“yesterday’ s dou ghnuts. ” At the close of the day you still ha ve a dozen
doughnuts left. The next day you put them in the glass case along with
today’ s doughnu ts. If instead yo u had said YESTERDA Y ’ S DOUGHNUTS  with a
little sig n that shows the discou nt price, you would sell them all and not
take any risk to  your business if the doughnuts were not completely up to
snuf f. The customer would no t have any complaint because they were
plainly m arked “yesterday’ s dou ghnuts. ” If you put them in the showcase,
however, and sell them as today’ s doughnuts, you may make an extra dollar. But whe n the customer complains to the family—“I don’ t know ; there’ s just
something about these doughnuts. They’re a disappointment; they’re not the
same as usual”—you will have ruined your reputation with one whole
family. That family has friends and other relatives. Never ta ke a shortcut that is going to impair your reputation. If  you just
assume that your customers know what is going on, then you w ill be right. People in fact do  “ just know,” e ven though they cannot say what it is. Rationalizing a departure from quality originates from force in such quotes
as “What they don’ t know won’ t hurt them. ” That is true. “What they don’ t
know w on’ t hur t them,” but it sure will hurt you. They will not know it
consciously; how ever, they certainly do know it unconsciously. This is true
in every area of life. STEP 6: RELIABILITY
Offer consistency and r eliability. One of the grea test ingredients of success is people knowing that they
can count on you in various ways. A simple thing like changing  your hours,
such as closing early, can lo se all kinds of customers. They value
convenience and  respect for th eir time. When you come from  a level of
integrity on the Map of Con sciousness, you are concerned  about the
happiness of others. At the lev el of W illingness (cal. 310), fo r example,
your intention is to be reliable and friendly in your service to each
customer. Y ou put yourself in their shoes and do all you can to make their
experience as wonderful and easy as possible. It is important to  avoid all the little turnof fs—the answering mac hine that
does not work, the impolite employee, the long line with only one checkout
cashier, the dirty carpet in the restaurant, or the sign OUT T O LUNCH. Ask
yourself, How available is my business to pr ovide what is needed in t he
world. Many businesses fold because they are open only on weekdays and
close at 5 P. M. In counseling young doctors getting established in their
practice, I always told them: “Start by char ging fees that people can af ford,
and be available evenings and Saturdays. ”
How much is convenience worth to people. The answer is: plenty. STEP 7: NOBILITY
Keep in mind th at ther e is only one customer, and that is huma n natur e
itself. Y ou cannot make a mistake if you keep in mind the basic rule  that you
only have one customer to serve, one customer to please, and that one
customer ’ s name is human natur e. No matter whose skin it may be wearing,
it is the same customer inside of everyone. It is easy to understand your
customer. Just ask yourself wha t qualities you look for in a prod uct. Notice
that the word is qualities. No  pri ce will sell it to us if it does not have the
qualities we are looking for in it. In this area you  have to watch the mind’ s tendency to pander to the
weakness in people’ s character. If you cater to negativity, there may be aprofit. Y ou may survive quite well; however, you will never be a success. Not coll uding w ith what is sick  and perverted is not being a “ goody-two-
shoes”; it is bein g realistic. Can you ever fool the universe. No, according
to the science of  kinesiology. Even if people have no conscious knowledge
of the facts, wh en we test complete strangers with no knowled ge at all on
the s ubject, we will find that if they focus on something where  integrity is
absent, they will go weak. Everything in the universe is co nnected with everything else. When we
first get that fact, we will be a little paranoid for a while, but it will be a
therapeutic para noia. If someone manufactured a “disembowe lment doll,”
there wo uld be plenty of strang e people out there to buy it, complete with
hari-kari knife, lifelike guts, electronic scream, and plastic blood ooze. Someone could also profit from it. The cost to the  panderer of s uch tastes, however, is enormous. It is
invisible to them but quite visible to everyone else. What we have been
describing in the last two para graphs is not human nature but inhuman
nature. W e kid ourselves if we think we can cater to what is weak without
becoming weakened ourselves. It is contaminating. Those w ho are violating human  decency and seem to be profiting by it
may look good f or a moment. However, when we study their lives in detail
longitudinally, th e devastation is staggering to comprehend. Do we conquer
a thi ng by oppo sing it. No. The way we conquer it is to grow and move
away fro m it. When it becomes clear that something in our lives is antilife,
immature, or superficial, this is really disguised vanity. When we discover
that ther e is no love or goodwill in it, should we feel guilty about it, punish
ourselves, or become reformers.
The man put a price tag on his dollhouse and put it on consignment in a store, and it was surprisingly successful.
Why did the man's dollhouses sell quickly?
According to the author, success is not about manipulating or forcing others, but rather about aligning with one's true nature and serving others.
What is the key to success, according to the author?
The author advises that the key to overcoming addiction is not to try to avoid or suppress the negative emotions, but rather to acknowledge and face them, and then move on to a higher level of consciousness.
What is the author's advice for overcoming addiction?
The author emphasizes the importance of reputation and advises that one's reputation is not something that can be fabricated or bought, but rather it arises from one's genuine commitment to serving others.
What is the author's view on the importance of reputation?
The author views addiction as a false start to experiencing the truth and advises that it is not about seeking external solutions, but rather about aligning with one's true nature and taking responsibility for one's own growth.
What is the author's view on the concept of addiction?