law of attraction

When it comes to self-help, self-improvement, and personal transformation, a few teachers stand out. One of them is Debbie Ford.

Her 1999 book, The Dark Side of the Light Chasers, turned me inside out. It’s about the shadow side of ourselves – the part we don’t want to own, let alone talk about.

All of her work is to help us integrate the disowned parts of ourselves so we can be happy and whole.  Other books by her include The Shadow Effect (with Deepak Chopra and Marianne Williamson, and now a movie), Spiritual Divorce, Why Good People Do Bad Things, The Secret of the Shadow, and more.

While I’ve spoken to Debbie several times over the phone, and she gave me an endorsement for Zero Limits, I never met her until last month at the recent Transformational Leadership Council secret meeting in New Mexico.

There were many highlights at the event – including speaking to my peers about Advanced Ho’oponopono (and got a standing ovation, thank you) – but hands down one of the best memories for me was spending time with Debbie.

She’s beautiful, wise, heart-felt, and oh so loving. I loved relaxing with her, talking, sharing, and playing. When we met, she looked at me and said, “You’re gorgeous.” As if that compliment could be topped, one of the most flattering moments is when she said she wanted to co-lead a workshop with me.

Imagine how this feels: a great teacher I’ve studied wants to share the stage with me. (!)

I keep telling people that as long as you keep working on yourself, your life will blossom. Teachers I’ve studied years ago when I was broke, are now partners, peers and pals of mine. Many of them are in TLC.

I hope you see this as an inspiration. Keep growing. Keep at it. The sun will shine again – and even brighter than before.

If you haven’t read any of Debbie’s book, do so. Today. A new edition of The Dark Side of the Light Chasers comes out soon. Order it. Read it.

Debbie Ford’s website is here.

Other amazing people at the TLC event include Secret movie co-star Lisa Nichols and What the Bleep!? movie producer William Andz, pictured below with me:

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — Coaching is a key to personal change. Be sure to claim your 30 minute free Miracles Coaching call by clicking right here.

Which of these mistakes do you make with the Law of Attraction?

1. Thinking imagining what you want is enough.

2. Trying to attract a specific person.

3. Focusing on the material only.

4. Focusing on the spiritual only.

5. Working with affirmations only.

Truth is, there are many mistakes when it comes to using the Law of Attraction. It’s usually because most people don’t have a complete understanding of it. They saw the movie The Secret and thought they got it, when all they got was an introduction to it.

So what’s the truth?

1. Imagining what you want is a great way to program your unconscious but it’s only a first step. You still have work to do. That’s where the Law of Right Action comes into play. Do something to assist the attraction of what you want. Rhonda Byrne created the movie The Secret with more than the Law of Attraction; she didn’t just sit and dream about it. She took action. (She’s taken more action recently, as her next book, The Power, will be out in August.)

2. Trying to attract a specific person is a violation of free will. Your task is to focus on the qualities you want in a person. Then let the Universe bring your match to you. After all, it has about seven billion people (!) to draw from. It’s an ego trip to think you have selected the right person for you, when you don’t know everyone in the pool.

3. Focusing on the material, in attracting new cars and more cash, is fine, as long as you know it’s a temp high and a mask for the real juice of life: the Divine. Don’t focus on the car, but on the feeling behind the car. That is Divine. 4. Focusing on the spiritual or metaphysical often creates a nasty “spiritual ego” that judges everyone else as lacking and needing more meditation, spirituality, etc. It’s the worst ego of all. It gets mesmerized by the invisible and overlooks the visible; it judges the material as bad, not realizing that everything is spiritual.

5. Affirmations are one way to plant a new idea in your mind, but affirmations usually don’t go deep enough to create change. You need to get into the unconscious mind. To do that you may need deeper work, more clearing, or coaching.

Most people who try to use the Law of Attraction are basically wanting to click their heels together and have their intentions manifest before their eyes. While I believe in magic and miracles, I also know too many people self sabotage their own desires and deceive themselves; they trick themselves out of their own good.

The goal of life, as I’ve said many times, is to awaken.

One of the first steps is to awaken to the deeper aspects of the Law of Attraction.

Yes, you can most likely have whatever you can imagine, usually not by thinking about it alone, though, but by adding action, positive belief, and more.

I’ve covered this at length in recent books, and in recent audio programs, such as The Secret to Attracting Money. I’ll be doing it again in my new audio program, where I explain how to move from the Law of Attraction to the Law of Creation.

For now, yes, learn more about the Law of Attraction, but also be sure to actually use the Law of Right Action and do something. Life is a co-creation, which means it needs you to help attract the results you want.

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS —  As I mentioned above, Rhonda Byrne is still taking action. Her next book will be out in weeks. I haven’t seen it yet but the publisher ordered a first print run of two million copies. That’s staggering. Obviously, they expect it to do well. It’s called, The Power. And I’m sure Rhonda didn’t get it written or published by only thinking about it. She knows “the secret” alright, and it’s much more than just the Law of Attraction.

Recently I caught the classic 1956 movie, Moby Dick, based on the famous book by Herman Melville, starring Gregory Peck, directed by John Huston, screenplay by Ray Bradbury. I was reminded of how hypnotic and meaningful the movie is, with symbols about Divinity and messages about the Law of Attraction, and more. I loved it. Always have.

You probably know the Melville book is an American classic first published in 1851. You probably also never read it. At least not all of it. Even Ray Bradbury admitted he could never get through the thing.

I have read it. I’m a fan of the book. I read everything by Melville when I was in college in the 1970s, including Billy Budd, Typee, and The Confidence Man, and even his overlooked poetry, such as Clarel.

But I wouldn’t read Moby Dick today.

Instead, I’d watch the 1956 movie.

Here’s why:

Moby Dick is actually a story about the war between ego and, well, let’s say it: God. Captain Ahab is out to kill God. Yes, the great white whale is a symbol. But everything in life is. In this case, the whale represents the Divine. And Ahab wants it on a stick. Or at least a harpoon.

As Pip says in the movie, “That ain’t no whale; that a great white god.”

But why does Ahab hate God/Whale?

The movie cuts to the chase and tells the story best. Ahab went fishing one day, ran into God in the appearance of a huge white whale, and God/whale challenged him. Ahab lost a leg. Got a facial scar. And was royally upset. He devoted the rest of his life to revenge. Of course, trying to blame God for your life is a losing battle. After all, God’s in control, not you.

And this is Ahab’s problem.

Ahab thinks he can find and destroy God/whale. He bribes his crew with a Spanish gold coin to find the whale. He uses maps and math to help pinpoint the next appearance of the great white.

Along the way Ahab ignores another ship in need of help. Ignores his crew who needs to work. Ignores Starbuck, his first in command, trying to warn him of his choices. And ignores his own mission: to hunt for whales so the world has light from burning their fat.

Listen as Ahab declares how he would “strike out the sun” if it insulted him:

“Speak not to me of blasphemy, man; I’d strike the sun if it insulted me. Look ye, Starbuck, all visible objects are but as pasteboard masks. Some inscrutable yet reasoning thing puts forth the molding of their features. The white whale tasks me; he heaps me. Yet he is but a mask. ‘Tis the thing behind the mask I chiefly hate; the malignant thing that has plagued mankind since time began; the thing that maws and mutilates our race, not killing us outright but letting us live on, with half a heart and half a lung.”

Ahab is pure ego.

He’s hypnotic, as most madmen are.

He’s obsessed, as most madmen are.

And he’s going to fail, as most hypnotic, obsessed, madmen do.

He’s not going to be able to kill “the thing behind the mask” because that thing is God/Divine/Life.

How do we know Ahab failed?

The only reason we know of the story at all is that there was a lone survivor. Ishmael, played by actor Richard Basehart in the movie, is a detached observer. He’s a witness. He’s a reporter of the event. He lives to report the lesson back to us.

Why?

Because you and I need reminded that there is God and there is our ego. When you battle God/Divine/Life/Whale, you lose.

Here’s the lesson as I see it (with apologies to Melville, Bradbury, et al): Accept what happens to you in life as a gift, learn from it, turn it around if need be, and then get on with your life mission.

Feeling resentful, angry, unforgiving and driven by revenge is only going to do one thing: sink your ship.

The secret to living a happy life is to go with the flow. That doesn’t mean roll over and play dead. Put up your sails to use the God-given winds to get you where you want to go, but don’t blame God/Divine/Whale when you hit any bumps in the road. You attracted them as an unconscious dance of energies with life. Just adjust your sails and get back on track. Life goes on.

Beware The Ahab Syndrome.

It’s self-sabotage at the extreme.

What whale have you been fighting, anyway?

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — Here’s sci-fi legend Ray Bradbury giving a misleading (it wasn’t as easy as he claims in this clip) but fun account of how he wrote the screenplay to Moby Dick for egocentric director John Huston by becoming author Herman Melville:

The famous self-improvement company, Nightingale-Conant, just released it’s fourth product by me. I’m proud beyond words and had to share the news with you. The fourth program is The Awakening Course. Here’s the ad in their latest catalog showing my first three programs:

You can order by calling 1-800-525-9000 or by FAX at 1-800-647-9198 or online right here.

I just returned from my third visit to Poland. I love the country. The people are warm, generous, loving and lovable. They are into the Law of Attraction, the movie The Secret, and of course The Secret to Attracting Money. Here are some photos to give you a feel for the place. I’ll go back again in a heartbeat.

Here I am with Andrea Kulcsar, who wants to translate my book Attract Money Now into Swedish and Hungarian:

Here I am with my dear friend Andrzej Batko, NLP and hypnosis master and author of a bestselling book in Polish on The Secret:

It’s not all work in Poland.

Here Nerissa and I pose for caricatures at the Baltic Sea:

I’m presenting in Warsaw to a hungry crowd:

On a grounded Russian airplane turned into a diner outside of Warsaw:

Nerissa is taking a photo of her Polish food while I take a photo of her taking a photo of it and a friend takes a photo of me taking a photo of her:

Ao Akua,

Joe

PS — People in Poland, Russia, Italy, and Peru all want Miracles Coaching. Find out why by getting your free 30-minute taste of it at Miracles Coaching.