Choices and Illusions (23 page)

deeper—as I have been doing—and you discover extraordinary

evidence to suggest that this really is possible, that our thoughts are another form of energy that impacts and influences the so-called physical.”

Great books have been written in just the past decade that

reveal a universe quite different from the one taught in high school physics. Charles Harper’s work
Spiritual Information,
Thomas Camp-bell’s
My Big Toe,
Fritjof Capra’s book
The Web of Life,
Michael Talbot’s work
The Holographic Universe,
Amit Goswami’s eloquent book
Physics of the Soul,
and so many more clearly convolute the expectation of most with a new worldview that has mind inextrica-bly connected with what we think of as matter and reality. I do not wish to slight any of the writers and scientists who are contributing to this remarkable revolution in physics, so please accept that the works just cited are but a few of the great ones now in print. (A

recommended list of readings is in the back of the book.) Suffice it to say, consciousness, mind, or whatever you wish to call the quintessential you, is not local, not body, not ego, not what you might

have believed in the past, but much greater than we can imagine.

In a very real sense, the quintessential you is, like Plotinus, ineffable. The bottom line is this: phenomena and miracles happen!

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Unexplainable Events

For my part, I have always known as much. As a small boy

I had experiences that cannot be explained other than by some

paranormal means. I somehow noetically knew things without

knowing how I knew. I was able to locate lost objects, identify

disturbances around people, and so on. In fact, I have found in

my years of traveling and lecturing that most young people have

similar experiences but learn to shut them down because of the

ridicule that comes in the name of “imagination.” It’s all in your

imagination, as if this were itself a bad thing.

As a teenager, I experienced something that I can never forget.

let me share that story with you, for part of making your choice

about whatever life you wish to have is influenced by your view of

this world and any possible afterlife.

One evening with my date, a beautiful young woman named

Connie Bennet, I set out to pick up some money due to me before

going to a dance. We were driving in a 1957 Oldsmobile on the

outskirts of the small town of Woods Cross, and I suddenly began

to tease Connie that we were running out of gas. It was very dark,

and I stepped on the gas and then let off quickly, thereby causing

the car to jerk and lunge. We were approaching several sets of railroad tracks, and as we climbed up onto one, the car engine died.

As if on cue, signal arms descended and lights began to flash. To

my left I could see the headlight of the train engine bearing down

on us. It seemed to be coming very fast so when Connie asked if

we should get out of the car, the only thing I could think of was

Connie stumbling and the car being dragged over her, so I said,

“no, let me try and start the car.” I turned the key, realizing the engine was flooded, and held the gas to the floor while I did so,

for the 1957 Oldsmobile we were in had a Carter carburetor, which

meant that when flooded, the gas pedal was to be down while the

engine was started.

Connie had her hand on my leg while I frantically tried to

start the engine. The next thing I knew, though, was not Connie

asking for me, because I was not in the car. To be absolutely clear, I 136

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Mind Is Not a Local event

was
in the car when the train smashed into us and
not
there when Connie was being freed.

As Connie was cut from the wreckage, and this took some time,

she asked about me. The driver’s side of the automobile had been

crushed under the cattle guard before the car was spun and dragged

down the tracks. As a result, the driver’s side was only three feet high or so. As it turned out, the train consisted of approximately

100 cars and was traveling at about 100 miles per hour. I know this because of the ensuing court case, for Connie was injured and for

years wore a neck brace.

The first thing I knew after the train hit us was that I was

standing alone in a field alongside the railroad tracks, perhaps 50

yards from many emergency vehicles, all with their lights flashing.

Several automobiles were backed up behind the now-stopped train.

Some time had clearly elapsed, because Connie was not still being

extracted from the car. no, she was in an ambulance, about to leave for the hospital. My first thoughts were about her, so I ran to the emergency vehicles, where I was questioned. I was taken to Connie

as soon as those in charge learned that I had been driving the car.

What I have just shared with you is not possible—but it hap-

pened. My mother suggested a few weeks later that perhaps I was

a walk-in, insisting that I had changed. (A walk-in is thought by

some to occur when a spirit of a being chooses to leave and another spirit steps in). I didn’t even know what a walk-in was at that time; what I did know was guilt for Connie’s suffering. I tried to shut out the whole experience, and to some extent was quite successful for

many years. However, the universe had different plans for me, and

one day decided to bring it all back.

Do Miracles Have Meanings?

Miraculous events, unexplainable phenomena—one thing I

have learned is that we have all experienced them at some time or

another, and some people have experienced many. At the time, the

event can be huge, but for most of us it doesn’t take long before the memory is relegated to the back corners of our mind, and lots of

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us simply forget them totally. It is as though we make a conscious

choice to disregard that which cannot be explained. I feel that this is a mistake. In fact, I believe that these events can hold important clues for us with regards to the
purpose
for our lives.

It took many such events for me before I started paying atten-

tion to them. I cover a lot of these in my book
What Does That

Mean?,
along with the process I went through to connect the dots in my life. My hope with this particular book was that readers would

use many of the same techniques to uncover deeper meaning to

their own lives.

As I said earlier, though, while we have these experiences,

most of us just forget them. By speaking about them, however, I

have been fortunate to hear from many readers about their own

fantastic stories.

One evening while sharing the train-accident story with George

noory on his popular Coast to Coast AM radio show, a listener sent

me this e-mail: “I am listening to you on C2C, and must tell you

another story like yours: In 1995, my roommate’s cousins were in

a car wreck. The cousin had her 2 small kids, ages 7 and 9, and her sister’s son with her in the car when it became airborne. Mom and

daughters were catapulted into a huge tree, killing them instantly.

The sister’s son, age 7, however, was not injured. He went to the

next house to get help. When asked what happened, he said, ‘Big

hands reached in and lifted me out and set me beside the road.’”

Here’s another: “Greetings . . . I had an experience like yours

back in the early 1980s on my way back from work on I-95 in South

Florida. I ran out of gas with an 18-wheeler tailgating me. I closed my eyes and prayed for God to ‘be with me,’ sure of my impending

doom. The next thing I know I am safely on my exit ramp as the

truck drove by. It had to have teleported
through
me and my ’76

Mercury Comet.”

I have received many, many more stories of life-changing mir-

acles since
What Does That Mean?
was published. If you have one, I invite you to write me and share your story. You can do so by

sending an e-mail to
[email protected]
.

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Connecting the Dots

There is a statement that had long puzzled me: live into your-

self.
What on earth could that mean?
I used to wonder. Today I have a fuller understanding of what it means, and it has become one of

my favorite sayings. It is very easy to dismiss our own experiences.

Everyone I have spoken to has at some time in their life had an

experience that defied our so-called traditional means of under-

standing. Call it a miracle, call it an anomaly, call it something

we are simply yet to work out and understand—that is of no con-

sequence to the real issue at hand, which is: what did the experi-

ence tell you? When we examine our experiences, we see stories

emerge. Repeated themes present errors, ambitions, weaknesses,

and strengths. Perhaps when we begin to think that we are not

worthy, some unexplained intervention in our lives occurs. What

does that suggest to us? Perhaps when we give up faith, something

takes place to rekindle our belief. Why these things happen is

relative and relevant to the person they happen to. It is a part of a larger narrative.

When we ignore or dismiss the unexplained in our lives, we

close the book on our story. How on earth are we ever to know

ourselves if we won’t even pay attention to our own story? living

into ourselves insists that we accept our experiences as our story

and listen and learn from that story, for it is the most important

story of our life!

look closely at your own life. What unexplainable events have

happened to you? Although in the beginning you may think that

there have not been any such situations, as you open yourself up

to them, and with some thought and time, you will find more

and more.

I believe that it is by paying attention to the miracles in your

life that you can find personal answers to the questions
Why am
I here?
and
What am I supposed to be doing?
When you are in the flow, you live with a sense of satisfaction. Even when things are

hard, you rest well, knowing that you are being true to yourself

and doing what is right for you.

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The Expansive Mind

My point here is simple: mind is not a local event. Whatever

mind is, we share it in many ways. Consciousness is not under-

stood, let alone properly defined. The rectorship of life, whatever life is, includes events and experiences that defy normal explanations and thus become paranormal. We are all much more than just

a physical body with an organic brain sending signals along neural

pathways like some sophisticated piece of machinery. Conscious-

ness connects all of us in some manner or another, and it would

appear to survive. As I once wrote in
The Little Black Book,
when we die we do not take with us our fancy cars, our houses, our awards

and diplomas, and so forth. no, the only thing that survives with

us is our relationships.11

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The suBTraCTion gaMe

“An error doesn’t become a mistake

until you refuse to correct it.”

— o . A . b A t t i s t A

It is a natural human characteristic to desire a certain quality

of life. As such, it is fair to ask,
What is quality of life?
Most, when thoughtful, consider quality of life to include at least the following three characteristics: 1) absence of fear, 2) loving relationships (support), and 3) fulfillment of necessities (food, water, shelter, and health care). Contrast these desired characteristics with the

typical self-image, and a couple of issues immediately emerge. First among them is the fear generated within ourselves over the risk of

exposure or rejection. next, the distance generated between people

when genuine and total honesty is not forthcoming in a relation-

ship. Third is concern over the most basic needs in life due to an

absence of self-confidence—confidence in the ability to provide,

especially into retirement. The common denominator in all of this

is obvious—fear.

What is fear but an emotional assumption that we lack the abil-

ity to negotiate a desired quality of life? When cast in the light of Singer’s four representations discussed earlier (actual self, ideal self, ought-to-be self, and desired self), where in the mental rehearsals of self does this fear arise? does it root itself in any of these selves, or is it rooted in the differential between them?

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The answer, in my opinion, is all of the above. Typically, our

mental rehearsals do not include reconciliation of the selves, so to speak. That is, the original childhood rehearsals are perpetuated in some form or another into adulthood. We rehearse what we might