E-Squared: Nine Do-It-Yourself Energy Experiments That Prove Your Thoughts Create Your Reality (14 page)

Augusten’s memoir
Running with Scissors
spent over 70 consecutive weeks on the
New York Times
bestseller list. At last count, it has been published in over 15 countries, and was made into a film starring the incomparable Annette Bening.

“Luck? The greedy wishes of a desperate man randomly filled?” says Augusten. “No. There are no accidents.”

Pray? Who, Me?

“It’s bigger than the both of us, Ollie.”

—S
TAN
L
AUREL
, E
NGLISH COMIC ACTOR

People often tell me, “I don’t pray. It’s a waste of time. It’s like believing in Santa Claus or the tooth fairy.” My response? It’s impossible to stop praying. Can’t be done. Thomas Merton, the Christian mystic, said that “we pray by breathing.”

Take Al Unser, for example. He didn’t call it praying, but when he won his fourth Indianapolis 500 race, five days before his 48th birthday, he demonstrated the true power of prayer.

That year—1987, to be exact—he had been unceremoniously dumped from his race team even though he’d won the Indy 500 three times before. For the first time in 22 years, it looked as if he’d be forced to watch the famous race from the sidelines. His sponsors and pretty much everyone else wrote him off as “all washed up.”

But in his mind, in every thought he possessed, Unser knew he was not too old to race. He knew he could still win. That “prayer” was so strong that when Danny Ongais, one of the drivers who had replaced him on the team, banged himself up in practice, Unser was brought in to race a backup car, a used March-Cosworth.

Nobody except him expected anything. Not only was he driving an older-model car, but when the familiar “Gentlemen, start your engines!” rang through the PA system, Unser was stuck back in the 20th position.

But that didn’t faze the three-time winner. In every fiber of his being, he saw himself winning. He expected nothing but victory. Finally, on the 183rd lap, he worked his way up the field, crossing the line for his fourth Indianapolis 500 title. Al Unser never had a doubt. Every single thought “prayed” for victory.

Or think of the mother who, having never before picked up anything heavier than a grocery bag full of frozen foods, suddenly lifts a two-ton Plymouth off her six-year-old son, pinned underneath. At that moment, she is so thoroughly engrossed in her urgent need to free her precious child that she has no room for other thoughts.
I’ve got to move that car
is the only “prayer” in her mind. She does not remember, anywhere in her mind, that such an act is impossible.

The Method

“We are powerfully imprisoned by the terms in which we have been conducted to think.”

—B
UCKMINSTER
F
ULLER
, A
MERICAN INVENTOR AND FUTURIST

In this experiment, using nothing but the power of your thoughts, you will magnetize something into your life. You will set an intention to draw a particular event or thing into your life. Be specific down to the exact make and model.

Since you’ve only got 48 hours, it’s probably best to pick something that won’t drive your thoughts back to “Biloxi.” For example, if you decide to manifest a BMW Z3 2.8 Roadster, it’s quite possible your predominant thoughts will be
Yeah right, eat my shorts.
Needless to say, thoughts like that won’t take you all the way to New Orleans. Not that you couldn’t manifest a BMW Z3 Roadster (there are gurus in India who pluck jewels from thin air), but, for the sake of paradigm shifting, let’s start with baby steps. Pick something you can get your mind around, like a front-row theater ticket. Or flowers from your significant other.

My friend Chuck tried this experiment, and decided to be a wiseass. He wanted to sleep with two girls at one time. Sure enough, by the end of his 48 hours, he met a new woman (whom he now dates) and ended up in bed with her and her six-year-old daughter, who crawled in for a quick snuggle with her mom.

That’s why it’s important to be specific. And to realize that the FP has a great sense of humor.

Lab Report Sheet

The Principle:
The Abracadabra Principle

The Theory:
Whatever you focus on expands.

The Question:
Can I pull things out of thin air simply by thinking about them?

The Hypothesis:
By making the following intention and focusing on its outcome, I can draw it into my life.

My Intention:
____________________________________

_______________________________________________

Time Required:
48 hours

The Approach:
I have scanned over the big catalog called the world and, for the sake of this experiment, have decided that this is what I intend to manifest in the next 48 hours. I will focus on it with all my being. And I will remember what Abraham-Hicks likes to say: “It is as easy to manifest a castle as a button.”

Today’s Date:
__________
Time:
__________

Deadline for Manifesting:
__________

Research Notes:
________________________________

______________________________________________

“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”

—W
ILLIAM
J
AMES
, A
MERICAN PSYCHOLOGIST AND PHILOSOPHER

EXPERIMENT #5

THE DEAR ABBY PRINCIPLE:
Your Connection to the Field
Provides Accurate and
Unlimited Guidance

“I have often wished that when … struggling with a decision or dilemma that the clouds would part, and a cosmic Charlton Heston–type voice would invite us to the second floor, where the Librarian of Life would sit with us for several hours, patiently answering all our questions and giving direction.”

—H
ENRIETTE
A
NNE
K
LAUSER
,
AUTHOR OF
W
RITE
I
T
D
OWN
, M
AKE
I
T
H
APPEN

The Premise

Inner guidance is constantly available. There’s never a time—never has been, never will be—when you can’t get inner assistance. For anything.

Relying on any other decision-making tool is asking for trouble. The “monkey mind”—a Buddhist term for the distractible rattle, buzz-buzz,
what-should-I-do-what-do-I-do?
—was never designed to solve problems. It’s like using a pair of fingernail clippers to cut the lawn. Yet, that’s where most of us get our guidance—from a left cerebral hemisphere that’s prone to misjudgment, faulty interpretations, and major fabrications.

The conscious mind was designed for just two things—to identify problems and formulate goals.

Anyone harnessing the mind properly would use it to define a problem or set an intention and then quickly jump back, Jack. That’s it. That’s all the cerebral cortex is good for. Planting seeds. But instead, the conscious mind decides to get involved, to weigh the pros and cons, to come to “rational decisions,” gut feelings be damned.

No sooner does the conscious mind define the problem or set the intention than it begins the yammer, the on and on about how big the problem is and why it’s not likely to get solved anytime soon and how that intention sounds cool, but …
Geez, I’ve been there, done that, and it sure as heck didn’t pan out last time.
Suffice it to say, this spin doctor in the brain is not your best resource. It judges, distorts reality, and causes unnecessary emotional distress.

Let’s say Jane uses her conscious mind to create the intention of improving her relationship with her husband. Perfect! Great job! Except that instead of pulling back and letting the intention flower, instead of temporarily shelving the conscious mind and turning to a source that could really offer some assistance, Jane’s conscious mind begins creating “rational” conclusions, begins considering options. Before long, it’s screaming, “Don’t get me started.”

And from there the cacophony of voices begins to sound as discordant as a band of rock-star wannabes jamming in their parents’ garage:

“My relationship with my husband is a charade.”

“My husband is needy and lazy.”

“I’ll never get what I want.”

In other words, the conscious mind starts interpreting. The problem is, it can’t see past its nose or past the preordained decisions it made before it was old enough to know better. The results can be messy, capricious, and cruel.

A better solution is to use those fingernail clippers for what they’re designed for, put them back in the medicine cabinet, and get out a tool that’s better equipped for mowing the lawn—inner guidance.

Once you get the hang of it, you’ll find it’s extremely reliable. Plus, its answers are far more peaceful, instinctive, and responsive to all the unpredictable factors that the conscious mind can’t begin to understand.

Inner Guidance Comes in Many Packages

“I have no idea what the source of my inner voice is. I certainly do not believe it is the voice of Jesus Christ, or a dead ancestor with a quavery Irish brogue, or a high-ranking Pleiadian sending me psychic data packets from a spaceship—although that last notion would be especially fun.”

—D. P
ATRICK
M
ILLER, FOUNDER OF
F
EARLESS
B
OOKS

Sometimes inner guidance comes completely unbidden. Like the night I was fretting about my newborn daughter’s 106-degree temperature. I was pacing the floor with Tasman in my arms, frantic with worry, and completely baffled as to how to bring the raging fever under control. It was around 3 a.m., and while my friends always say “Call me anytime night or day,” and probably even mean it, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Instead, I walked back and forth across our little apartment. Suddenly, a voice of startling clarity surfaced in my mind. It said,
I didn’t give you this great gift just to take it away.
I knew at that moment all would be well.

Sometimes inner guidance offers messages as distinct as those eight-ball fortune-telling toys. My friend Darlene had what at the time seemed like a rather foolish vision. She felt guided to apply for a music director position at her church in North Carolina. Sounded good except for one small detail: she had absolutely no musical training and could only play the alto sax—badly. Sure, she loved to sing, but loving to sing and getting a team of musicians to play instruments and singers to create harmony are two different record albums. Her conscious mind started its spin-doctoring:
Darlene, you are just plum nuts. Why would God—or anyone else—want you to lead a music team?

So she agreed to give it one last shot—a shot from half court, no less—after which time she reassured herself she’d file the vision where it probably belonged—in the local dumpster.

She made the following bargain with her inner guidance:
If you really want me to lead the music team, have me run into either the minister, the board president, or the pianist by the end of today.
Since it was Monday and church was already sealed and delivered for that week, she figured she was safe. After all, she worked all day, and the odds of running into one of those three people in her neighborhood were next to zilch.