I’ve been trying to figure out how the world works since I was old enough to read children’s books and then comic books.
Superman and The Flash were pretty easy to understand. Today I have to deal with science, religion, psychology and philosophy as well as my own mental wanderings.
Just when I think I have a handle on things, along comes another book to disturb my view of the world. This time I was reading Consciousness Speaks by Balsekar www.advaita.org when I started to get a headache.
IfI had to sum up its message in words from a man confused by reading the book, I’d say that nothing we do comes from free will. It’s all being prompted through us. We think we are the conscious actors. We’re wrong. That’s our egos talking. In some respect, we’re puppets with the divine as the energy up our butts pulling our strings.
Now imagine this —
I’m the guy who wrote the book, The Attractor Factor. It explains a 5-step process for having, doing, or being anything you want. I and others have used the method to attract everything from wealth to cars to spouses to health to jobs to, well, you name it. It’s all about declaring your intention and then acting on what comes your way or bubbles up from within to make it manifest. In short, you’re the puppeteer and the world is your puppet.
So how do I fit these two apparently conflicting philosophies in my head without going bonkers?
I think it works like this —
First, we are living in a belief driven world. Whatever you believe, will work. It’ll get you through the day, at any rate. It will frame your experiences into perceptions that make sense to you. And when something comes your way that doesn’t seem to match your world view/belief system, you’ll find a way to rationalize it and force it to fit. Or you’ll take valium.
Second, I can’t help but wonder if both philosophies are right: We’re the puppet and the puppeteer. But that only works when we get out of our own way. It’s our minds that drive us to over drink, over eat, frolic, steal, lie, and even spend too much time worrying about how the world works. Our minds get in the way of the natural flow of things. Our minds know it’s doomed and it can’t stand the thought of it, so it constructs feel good addictions to help it survive. In reality (whatever that is), your mind is the interference to experiencing the bliss of this moment.
If this is so, then all the techniques to get clear — whichI talk about as step three in The Attractor Factor — are there to help you take the interference out of the divine plan.
For example, when you use a method like EFT — the tapping your troubles away approach to life –you dissolve the issues troubling you.
But then what happens?
Then you take a positive action.
Well, weren’t you going to take that positive action anyway?
Isn’t that why you knew there was a problem to begin with?
In other words, the nudge to take action was sent to you from the divine, and your anxiety over it was the interference. Take away the interference and you’re back to being one with the divine, which means you’re puppet and puppeteer again.
So let me try to sum up what at least makes sense to me tonight:
You came into this world with a gift within yourself. You may know it right away or not. You may not even know it right now. At some point you’ll sense it within you. Now, your mind is going to judge it. If your mind judges it as bad, you’ll seek therapy or methods or drugs or addictions to handle it, hide it, resolve it, release it, or accept it. But once you have removed that interference preventing you from acting on your gift, you’ll act on that gift. In short, you’ll be the puppet of the divine but you’ll be puppeteer of your life.
Your choice is to go with the flow or not.
That’s free will.
Even the great showman and marketer P.T. Barnum, who I wrote about in my book, There’s A Customer Born Every Minute, knew this. He took action. He did things on a grand scale. But he was always obeying some higher order. His gravestone marker reads, “Not my will but thine be done.”
He acted on his ideas….without interference from his mind….and he allowed the results to be what they were, trusting that it was all part of the universe’s bigger picture. He was able to let go while taking action.
And that’s step five in my book, The Attractor Factor.
Tonight I have the world figured out. (I think.)
Tomorrow I’m not so sure.
I long for comic books again.
Expect miracles.
Ao Akua,
Joe
www.mrfire.com
PS — What does any of this have to do with marketing? Everything. As you are trying your hand at selling online, you are having experiences. Are you learning from them or beating yourself up over them? Also, you are getting ideas all the time. Are you acting on them or questioning them? Your mind can help you achieve your dreams (which are ideas coming from the divine) by agreeing with them; your mind can also destroy your dreams and take you out of the happiness and flow of life. I know this is all “Beyond Marketing” but hey, that’s the title of this blog, isn’t it?
PPS – The movie The Secret will be released this month, on the 15th. Three people somehow managed to see the premier and said I was “AWESOME” in it and that my appearance “lit up the screen.” Well, I can’t wait till I see it. If you still don’t know what this film is about, ask yourself where you’ve been for the last six months and then get over to http://www.WhatIsTheSecret.tv Hey, maybe it will explain how the world really works.
9 Comments
Haven’t read the book by Balsekar, but I wonder if your “puppet and puppeteer” idea isn’t another way of saying “omnipresence.”
If the Divine presence is within everything, then each of us is more or less a cell within God’s “body.” If the Divine is Divine, then we are also Divine, being an integral part of it.
Amazing how we keep tricking ourselves that we’re not.
Cheers,
Barb Casey
http://www.extremeniches.com
“Why are we here” postscript…
Did you see Stuart Wilde’s article of Feb. 2, 2006? http://www.stuartwilde.com/Articles/SW_articles_tales_lonelyrd.htm
From Camelot to surrender.
Blessings,
Barb Casey
It’s as if we are the puppet and the puppeteer at the same time. Like it’s an endless cycle when we affect and are affected by everything. While being “controlled’ to some extent by circumstances, we also control those very circumstances – they just come back around to try to “control” us once again, later on.
Thanks for your insights in all your work, Joe. You’ve helped me immensely.
Sorry, Joe, I can’t buy into pantheism, even with a touchy-feely, new age makeover.
As a Christian, I know that God has created entities separate from Himself and it is NOT his goal that they merge back into Him, but that they learn to fully express themselves within the confines of the laws of their own nature (i.e. the Ten Commandments).
Man is alienated from God, not by his ignorance, but by his sin.
I am NOT God. And neither are you.
And regarding free will: If you don’t have free will, then how can you know if you are speaking truth? The very existence of the concept of truth requires free will.
If you are God’s puppet, all you are left with are your sensations leading to a mindless rooting and groping after pleasure and away from pain.
That’s a slough I don’t want to step in! Try to avoid it yourself.
Tom Krueger
[email protected]
Research proves that we take actions before they register in our conscious minds. If that’s true — and it appears to be — then how can you possibly have free will? What you are calling free will is a self-deception, although a common one. The point here is to “awaken”. For more info see books such as “The Illusion of Conscious Will” or “Brain-Based Learning.”
“Research proves,” Joe?
Explain it to me, then. If there is no free will, how can “research” “prove” anything?
Proof requires making a judgment among available facts and evidence and “choosing” the correct one. Proof requires free will.
“If that’s true — and it appears to be — then how can you possibly have free will?”
Without the concept of “free will” there can be NO truth.
Come on, Joe, you’re too smart for this! To challenge the idea of free will proves the very proposition in question!
“What you are calling free will is a self-deception. . .”
I don’t mean to be rude, but. . . prove it!
Prove it WITHOUT making a judgment (choice) based upon evidence.
Sorry, Joe, You can’t do it. the very concept of “proof” necessitates the existence of “free will.”
“The point here is to “awaken”.
What point? How can there be a point if there is no responsibility to choose correctly (or “awaken,” as you say)?
And Awaken? How? Without a free will, how can anyone ever “awaken”?
People of your intelligence used to recognize nonsense when they heard it. What’s changed?
I suggest you read the books I already mentioned. They do indeed prove what I said. But rather than making a snap decision without any evidence, why not do a little research for yourself?
All the best,
joe
“I suggest you read the books I already mentioned. They do indeed prove what I said.”
Non-sequitur.
How do you know they prove anything if you lack the ability to freely choose to accept or reject the evidence?
“But rather than making a snap decision without any evidence, why not do a little research for yourself?”
ad hominem
Since you have repeatedly chosen not to answer my propositions in your responses aren’t you making snap judgments about me without any evidence, Joe? Assuming that I am addressing you from a position of ignorance of eastern philosophy and metaphysics?
In fact, not only have I studied eastern philosophy, in India, but I have also delivered addresses to several different philosophical societies in various parts of Northern India, to include Delhi, Uddar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.
Tom
P.S. In spite of our differences in philosophy, I am a customer of yours and enjoy your writings.
A military chaplain-friend of mine once said he, “enjoyed a good debate the way some men enjoyed a good cigar or game of chess!” :}
“All the best.”
And to you, Joe.
Tom
Tom, I didn’t ask you to read books on eastern philosophy or on metaphysics.
I asked you to read books on current brain science, especially the ones that prove your unconscious mind sends commands before you are consciously aware of them.
Since you obviously missed the books I already offered to you, here are the titles again:
“The Illusion of Conscious Will”
and/or “Brain-Based Learning.”
Now, do not write me again without reading them, else you are just venting from a position of ignorance.
Be well,
joe