THE BASIC LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE

Some of the material for this essay comes from 3 taped lectures from Esther Hicks (1).

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“Universal laws” describe the relationship between consciousness and the universe at large. These are principles which, over thousands of years, have been discovered to be true over and over. It is possible (and desirable) to experiment with these principles by applying them to your life and prove or disprove them to yourself, but it is not possible to do so for anyone else. The Universal Operating System, strange as it seems, responds directly to individuals.

The First Principle

The First Principle, underlying everything in the universe, is consciousness.

(1) Consciousness is pure, positive, creative potential. Consciousness is the animating and directing principle of the universe.

(3) The product of consciousness is thought. A thought is a postulate, a consideration. Consciousness creates via thought, and can perceive what it has created. The fundamental characteristic of consciousness is choice. In other words, what consciousness does, in every moment, is choose, prefer, or decide.

(4) Thought is energy, the fundamentally smallest quanta of energy in the universe. All matter and energy in any universe is ultimately composed of thought.

(5) All thought is conscious, being a creation of consciousness; therefore, all things in the universe are, on some level, conscious. Consciousness and the thoughts of consciousness are entirely compatible; therefore, thought interfaces directly with everything in the universe.

(6) The decisions of consciousness are meaningful; that is, the universe and everything in it is responsive to the decisions you make.

(7) The quintessential nature of consciousness is a feeling of well being, a knowing of itself as perfect, and an understanding of itself as unlimited.

(8) Because consciousness is a pure potential, it cannot be quantified or directly measured, only the products or effects of consciousness can be measured.

The statements above mean that the decisions of consciousness determine its experiences.

It means that the natural and innate condition for the experiencing-of-itself, is well being. In other words, consciousness is inherently pure, positive and blissful in its native state. This is self evident to anyone who has felt a true connection to his or her inner self, for it evokes a feeling and an understanding of such powerful joy and confidence, that one is changed forever. Negative attitudes, beliefs and feelings simply vanish in the presence of such understanding, just as a light illuminates the darkness. It is impossible to prove this scientifically; for all answers to questions about consciousness is consciousness itself. In other words, the answer to the Question is the Question: “I am the alpha and the omega.”

Consciousness is eternal because it is a potential, and so cannot age or decay. Consciousness is eternal because it is self aware, and once self aware, is eternal.

These statements are appropriately circular, for something which is eternal has no beginning or end. (Draw a circle. Once it is completed, there is no beginning or ending point. That is to say, any point on the circle can be considered the starting point, or the ending point).

From this inherent knowledge of well-being, and the desire to experience itself in all possible ways, all of existence flows forth. The laws of any universe reflect the understanding of the consciousness that brought them into existence. What is perceived by consciousness is also a creation of consciousness. Therefore, the entire universe reflects the nature of consciousness: the universe is a self-reflexive mirror of the ideas and choices of every conscious being in the universe.

Matter and energy are created as thoughts combine with each other; physical laws come into existence based upon the unique character of those thoughts and the conscious beings which create them. Therefore, the universe is dynamic, constantly changing, and growing. It is never the same from one moment to the next!

The physical laws of matter and energy are the agreements between the particles which compose them, for all particles are ultimately composed of thought, and each thought is conscious, being a creation of consciousness.

Just as a culture is placed in a petrie dish and grows according to the nature of the culture and the medium to which it is inserted, so to does thought expand; but it does so at almost unimaginable speed! (the speed of light is pitiful in comparison to the speed of thought).

Because consciousness is pure potential, an inherent property or quality of itself is the ability to choose. Free will is an inherent property of any conscious being, no matter what universe it is experiencing in.

In our universe, consciousness has created an attraction based universe, based upon the law of 'like attracts like'. We shall go into great detail about this law below.

The Law of Free Will

(1) The Law of Free Will states that every conscious being is deciding and choosing, in every moment, and is the sole determinant of these choices. It is impossible for another to think, choose, decide, or feel, for us. In other words, every conscious being has the ability to decide for himself or herself, without interference from anyone else.

The choices of a conscious being are meaningful, because the universe is arranged so that it responds to the decisions of consciousness. This doesn’t mean that you can, through thought, turn the sun green or jump to Jupiter, or wave a magic wand and have a pot of gold appear before you, but it does mean, within the physical limitations of the earth experience, that it is possible to be a conscious creator, or orchestrator, of the things you experience.

The Law of Free Will is inseparably bound with its compatriots, the Law of Vibration and the Law of Attraction and together they guarantee ultimate personal freedom, if properly understood and applied!

The Law of Vibration

(2) The Law of Vibration states that all things can be considered to be vibratory in nature.

In order for something to exist, it must have an internal 'aliveness', otherwise it would be a pure potential. This aliveness manifests by an internal movement within it. In other words, something completely motionless is an impossibility.

The atomic model shows us that every atom is vibrating within itself, the electrons spinning about the nucleus, and so every atom may be considered to be a vibration. Quantum Mechanics has shown that subatomic particles also behave as waves, and these particles compose all matter and energy. A wave is simply a vibration, so everything in existence can be considered to be vibrational in nature.

For the purposes of this discussion, we will say that thought itself is a vibration. It can be considered to be a packet or quanta of energy.

The Law of Vibration states that all things in existence have a unique energy signature, or footprint, which distinguishes one thing from another. No two things in the universe can have an identical energy signature, else they would be the same thing. This tells us that every single thing in this infinite universe is unique unto itself! For example, we can say that even though there are 5 apples in front of us, each apple is distinct. None of the 5 apples are precisely like the other four.

This is true for anything, even ants! Or cells of the human body, all 10 trillion of them.

If thought is a vibration, then a conscious being, through thought, is also a vibrational transmitter. We are also vibrational receivers.

In the Universal Operating System, only activated vibrations are important. In other words, think of a tuning fork. In its deactivated state, a tuning fork has within it its own unique vibratory pattern, but a quiescent tuning fork sends forth no signal; however, when the tuning fork is struck, it emits its characteristic sound.

A sound is a vibration, carried upon the molecules of the air. An activated thought is also a vibration, carried upon the universal energy of consciousness itself, which pervades the universe. This energy has been traditionally called chi, prana, or life force energy, and has been known and understood for thousands of years by many cultures.

The implications of this are enormous, for a being may carry within him or her many different vibrations, but only the activated ones will have any effect.

For example, a person may have been negative his entire life, and the ratio of his thoughts and actions, may be 100 to 1. He may have thought billions of negative thoughts and only a relatively few positive ones. However, the universe does not hold this against him! For at any time, he may deactivate the negative thoughts by ceasing to place his attention upon them. Then, like the vibrating tuning fork, the vibration of these old thought patterns will gradually die away, and he will notice an improvement in the conditions of his life. It is simply a matter of using the inherent power of consciousness to shift focus from the negative to the positive; the negative vibrations will deactivate and the positive ones will become dominant. This is an important point, for it is often thought that if a person has been negative in the past, he or she will continue to have negative experiences. There is an idea that negative thinking and negative behavior are cumulative, and has led to the idea of karma. However, if you look at things from a vibrational standpoint, you understand that a newly struck note on the piano will quickly drown out the old, sour notes! In other words, a new thought or decision can vibrationally nullify old decisions.

The universal operating system is dynamic and instantly responsive to activated vibrational content. It is infinitely subtle and will respond to you according to the vibrations which you have activated within yourself, via your thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. Therefore, when a conscious being change’s his or her beliefs, he or she broadcasts a new vibration to which the rest of the universe responds. In accordance with universal principles based on the attributes of consciousness, every conscious being can be in control of his or her life!

There is one other very important implication of the Law of Vibration, namely, that it is impossible ever to deactivate a vibration. For as soon as one places one's attention upon something, in order to fix it, one has activated it. Try not to think of an elephant! As long as the tuning fork is continually struck, it will continue to emit a sound. Therefore, the only way to deactivate the tuning fork, or any thought, or any feeling, or anything unwanted, is to cease to pay any attention to it. This is what Jesus meant when he said 'turn the other cheek'.

This universal principle is enormously important in therapy, and in the study of problems and problem solving, which shall be addressed in a later chapter.

The Law of Vibration leads directly to the very important universal principle called the Law of Attraction.

This means that whatever you focus your thoughts, words, feelings, and actions upon will be drawn more and more into your experience. Thoughts are magnetic and so attract to them more thoughts like it. Emotions and feelings are powerful amplifiers to thought. It is an energy phenomenon. The twist to this law that is not understood by most people, is that it does not matter whether you desire the thing you are focusing upon. That which you are thinking, feeling, and talking about will be drawn into your experience regardless. That is why the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It is why the better it gets, the better it gets, and the worse it gets, the worse it gets. That is why fighting something you don't want will always draw it more and more into your experience. That’s why you hang out with people you like, and not with people you hate. Like attracts like.

This idea is mirrored in the physical universe, as particles come together to form the elements of the Periodic Table, and combine again to form molecules and the objects of our physical world.

Think of yourself (a conscious being with a physical body) as a large magnet that draws to itself that which it is focused upon, and you will have the concept.

You can understand this by making a list of the current conditions of your life: your health, your relationships, your financial situation, your job, etc. Then, without “editing,” list all of your thoughts, beliefs and ideas about each area (include the good as well as the bad areas of your life). If you are honest and don't bullshit yourself, you will find that there is a perfect correspondence between your thoughts and beliefs on a subject, and what you are experiencing in that area. In fact, if you simply observe how you think and react during the day, in all areas of your life, you will soon find that you do indeed, “create your own reality,” irritating as it might sometimes be! When I did this on the subject of money, I was shocked what came out of my head. and on to the paper. Stuff like “people who are rich are really screwed-up,” “money is filthy and is used to control people”, etc etc etc, and it is no wonder I was having so much trouble having money, I was mired in a consciousness of poverty and resistance to my own abundance.

Many people will laugh and say, “Of course there’s going to be a one-to-one correspondence! Because your thoughts naturally mirror the reality of your life.” But according to the principles of the Universal Operating System, it is just the opposite!

The above statement may seem obvious and trivial, but it isn’t! It represents an understanding of universal principles.

Another obvious but powerful statement: It is important to focus on what you want, and avoid focusing on what you don't want. Simple, idiotic really, to say but harder to put into practice. This is the underlying basis of the annoying metaphysical generality “You create your own reality.” Sometimes you just want to smack somebody who says that, but you can demonstrate to yourself the truth of it by applying the Law of Attraction in your own life.

For example, I want to lose some weight. But where do the preponderance of my thoughts go? To the fact that I’m fatter than I want to be, not to the idea of being thinner. By focusing on fat, I begin to feel more fat. Then when it comes time to exercise, I say, “What difference does it make? I exercise now and I’m still gaining weight.” That gives me a great excuse to sit home and do nothing. Of course, some people use the idea of fat as motivation to exercise even more. But I’ve found that if I exercise from the viewpoint of getting rid of fat, it’s no fun anymore. I find myself working and sweating real hard and getting no enjoyment from the process, and still not losing weight! The times when it’s fun is when I exercise because I really want to. And when I really want to, I’m not thinking about how fat I am, but about something positive, like being thin, or getting some fresh air, or simply the joy of movement.

The joy you get from any action is a result of your conscious orientation towards it.

How do you even know what you should want? I have often found myself saying “I don't know what I want!” The answer lies in the emotions. If you are focusing on what you want, you will feel positive emotion. If you focus on what you don't want, you will feel negative emotion. So if you are confused as to what you should be focusing upon, just consult how you are feeling about it. The easiest way to correct thinking which causes you negative emotion (and life experiences) is to change the thought to another which brings you positive emotion. This is an elegant little system which you can always use to bring yourself up when you are feeling down, but it requires knowing that your emotions are your communication line to your inner self. I have found personally that applying this system has improved my outlook and happiness considerably.

I have many times asked myself “Why are some people lucky, and why am I always unlucky?” It is because “lucky” people are focused on what they want, and I am focused on what I don't want. It's as simple as that. Luck, or happy coincidence, occurs when you remain firmly in the flow of your desire, in a state of positive emotion.

A corollary to the law of ‘like attracts like’ is that the more passionate is your emotion upon a subject, the faster you will draw it into your experience. This applies both to negative and positive emotion. The emotions are not only your inner guide to how well you are focusing upon what you really want, but also act as an amplifier, drawing to you even faster that which you are focused upon. And on the other hand, if you want something but you feel very strongly that it’s impossible, it can’t happen for you.

Another corollary to this law is, you cannot create for another. You cannot create anything bad for another, for the Law of Free Will tells us that every individual has the choice to go with something or not, to focus upon it or not, to activate within him or her any particular belief or idea. An observant person can find many examples of this from his or her own life, and the lives of others.

Some will say that these “universal laws” are just an excuse and a justification to trample over people and brutalize them, but that isn’t the way it works.

The victim of a crime, for instance, has attracted the victimizer, as brutal as that seems. The victim and victimizer are co-creators in the crime: the victimizer is looking for someone to take advantage of, and the victim is afraid of being taken advantage of. It’s a match, like a key fitting into a lock. The number of victimizers walking around is irrelevant, for if the victim is not fearful of being victimized, it is impossible for the two to come together. The rule is, ‘like attracts like.’

“Well,” you might say, “that is all well and good, but what about the guy who gets attacked by a mugger? Is he just to think a thought and make it all go away?”

The answer is, if you have attracted a mugger into your life experience, either directly or indirectly, you have already made it such a strong part of your conscious vibration that a manifestation has occurred. Now you are forced to take action! However, if you had spent the last year, or the last month, or even the last day, intending that as you go through your day you will only interact with those who are in harmony with you, you would not have drawn this situation to you.

These assertions can seem brutal, unfair, and ridiculous, but if you honestly look around at the world and observe your own experiences and those of others, you may begin to see the truth of it.

Many people have the idea that life is just luck, chance, and probability, but the Law Of Attraction and the Law of Free Will puts a conscious being in charge of his or her own life. Whatever is happening to you that you don't like, can be changed for the better. This law of 'like attracts like' is simply woven into the very fabric of the universe. Once you begin to apply this principle to your own life, there will be a feeling of confidence and power, because you begin to realize that you can consciously modify the conditions of your life. You will begin to realize that the Law of Attraction always responds to your free will choices and that it works every time!

I’ve found that the things I do not believe I can have, I can’t, no matter how hard I work at it. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve observed this phenomena in the lives of my friends and family as well. Last week I pulled in a big job in my contracting business, just a few days after I sat down in meditation and asked for that very thing. I made no phone calls, did no promotion work; in fact, I did absolutely nothing. When the client looked at the bids, mine was highest by far; yet I was chosen for the job. Coincidence? I don’t know; one thing I do know, this client is not rich by any means. When stuff like this happens to you over and over, you hafta start believing that consciousness does interface with the rest of the universe in some way. I had never seen the client, never heard of her before.

In life, the law of ‘like attracts like’ almost always works a little bit at a time. That’s because it isn’t possible, unless you’re some kind of genius or master, to completely alter your vibration in one quantum leap. I’ve heard cases where people made ‘miracle cures’ from tumors or some debilitating illness, but I’ve never heard of someone wishing for a Ferrari and having it turn up in his driveway the next day (I’m not saying it isn’t possible, I’ve just never seen it). I’d love to have a big house in the middle of the woods someplace, but so far it hasn’t turned up. Funny thing though, I’ve noticed my life changing for the better in many other ways that have nothing to do with a new house. My health is better, I’m working less and finding a lot of time to write and play piano, and things just seem to be going much more smoothly.

The law of ‘like attracts like’ works to line you up with what you’re wanting. In these essays I have described this process as vibrational matching, but only because I have to have some kind of rational explanation for the process. No one really knows how it works, just that it does. I explain it broadly by saying that the universe was designed by consciousness, and responds to consciousness.

How does the Universal Operating System help one to get ‘matched up’ with the people and resources you need? Well, lets take Moe and Joe. Both of them are tired of their job as salesmen for a big corporation, and both want to start a new business. Joe thinks it would be a great idea, but that it’s really impossible. Moe decides that although he has no employees, infrastructure, or money, it’s going to happen. On the way home from a conference in another city, Joe is sitting next to Bill. Joe is tired and grumpy, thinking about his crummy job and how he wants out. Bill leans over to start a conversation but Joe turns away, looking out the window, or to read his book. After the plane lands Joe is waiting for his ride when a woman bumps up against him. “Sorry,” she says, and is about to make chit-chat, but Joe is irritable and moves away.

When Bill leans over to talk to Moe, however, Moe is receptive. They bullshit for a while and Bill mentions that he’s about to retire after 30 years from a well paying executive position. It turns out that Bill, in his late middle age and with a fat bank account, finally wants to take some risks in his life; he’s tired of the corporate world and his easy job and is looking for a challenge. Bill, in his fantasies, has always dreamed of managing a small start-up but never had the guts to do so before. Now he’s ready. Moe and Bill get excited about Moe’s new venture and exchange emails.

Joe’s very strong desire for a new business put him within vibrational reach of Bill, but Joe’s decision that it’s hopeless sabotages the opportunity. The woman who bumped Joe is a software engineer who is also looking for a new opportunity, and might also have made a good employee or partner in Joe’s business.

That’s how the law of ‘like attracts like’ works. Through a series of seeming ‘coincidences,’ based upon the content of your conscious vibrational signal, you meet up with people with matching, or similar, desires to yours. It’s your free will decision to take advantage or not, but one thing is for sure: Moe is going to have a lot easier time of it than Joe creating his new company. This is what I mean when I say that the action required can be a lot less than you think, if you allow the Universal Operating System to work for you.

The thing is, you never have a clue about how this works unless you are vibrationally ready for it! A guy like Joe would say that it’s total nonsense. And for him, it is nonsense! For he has never allowed himself to experience it.

The Law of Attraction operates all the time, but for effective results, requires conscious application.

First you need to figure out what you want! Many people never get past this step; they’ll tell you all about what is not wanted, but will be unable to specify a positive goal or desire. Whatever is resonating within your consciousness will be drawn, so when you begin to really focus on what is wanted, that which is unwanted will slowly begin to disappear, like the vibration of a note which gradually dies away. You’ll notice it first in the way you feel, and gradually it will be reflected in the conditions of your life.

All I’m saying is that you can use the power of conscious choice and focus to make things better in your life. This really isn’t such an earth-shattering statement is it? People have been saying it, and doing it, for thousands of years. Successful people in any field understand this idea very well.

When you really understand the law of ‘like attracts like,’ you realize that no matter how crazy things get out there, you may lead a life of joy if only you will concentrate exclusively upon what you want, and neglect utterly all of those things you don't like. This is easier said than done, but really, would you rather focus on stuff that makes you feel good, or stuff that makes you feel bad? It's a no-brainer.

The hardest part for me is not worrying about what’s wrong. I’ve always been taught that if you ignore something bad, it will turn around and bite you. But according to the Law of ‘like attracts like’ the only way you can ever meet up with something bad in the first place is by focusing your attention upon it. I’m not saying that if you’re crossing the street and a car comes at you, that you should stand there with a shit-eating grin on your face and try to think it away. If you’ve gotten yourself in that situation, you better get on your horse real quick! But I am saying that the operation of universal forces is not random. Again, there’s no way to “prove” this, except on an individual basis.

“Coincidence,” you say. “You’re trying to say that everything that happens to you is your fault, and that’s crazy. There are 6 billion people jostling each other on planet earth, and sometimes shit just happens.” Yeah, that’s true. But why were you the only person in the path of that runaway car, and not one of those other guys? It’s something to think about!

The Universal Operating System responds to individuals, so the only way to test whether what I’m saying is bullshit, or whether it works, is to consciously apply it in your own life.

Fear, anxiety and worry is the best way to focus upon what you don't want, because you continually place your attention on the unwanted thing or situation, feeding more and more energy to it, making it bigger and bigger in your consciousness. If you do this for a long enough time, you get a manifestation in your life of that very thing you don't want! And vice-versa. Things which seem like “coincidences” become explainable, once you get a handle on what you’re thinking and feeling.

I used to be the champion worrier, until I finally realized it was wrecking my health. By just refusing to worry anymore about the myriad of things wrong with myself and the world, I was able to feel better about myself and others, and consequently improve my own health to the point where I have not been sick in quite a while.

When you first start to consciously apply these principles, you may not get big results immediately. If you have spent the past 20 years creating negatively in an area, you probably have ingrained habits of thought, and it is sometimes tough to envision something better when the reality of your life is completely different. Nevertheless, what’s the alternative? More of the same, continuously creating your life from what has already manifested; always looking around and noticing the stuff you don’t like. In order to get something different, you first have to get some new thoughts. Change always begins with a conscious decision to change. The good news is, the universal operating system exists to support your decisions, not thwart them!

People sometimes say, “What’s real is real and there’s nothing you can do about it.” But that’s like driving your car always looking in the rear view mirror. You’ve got to keep your eyes on the road ahead if you want to get anywhere.

Someone who truly understands the Law of Attraction can work in a leper colony and never get sick. It’s how a master can walk the battlefield, and never take a bullet. You don’t have to be a saint or a guru to get good at it, though. After you’ve practiced for a while, you never even meet up with people and situations which were anathema. In other words, you have purified your vibration to the point where you now interact with an entirely new set of people. For example, Barb decides she is tired of dating men who are good looking but only interested in one night stands. She reads somewhere about the law of ‘like attracts like’ and realizes that she likes attractive men but has a belief that handsome guys are always charming and shallow. She changes her belief just slightly and makes a new equation:

Barb’s guy = good-looking + deep. Lo and behold, at work a new hire gets assigned to her section and he pretty much fits the bill. Barb is astonished, for she has never seen a man like this, didn’t even know they existed! Sometimes just a little “attitude adjustment” can work miracles.

To Barb’s friend Kathy, Barb’s “new” discovery about men is laughable, for Kathy has been introducing Barb to wonderful guys without success for a long time, and has been happily married for years. She says to Barb, “Well, you finally get it.” But that’s the way it works: you can’t experience something you’re not vibrationally “in range” of.

A question arises which seems to contradict the law of ‘like attracts like.’ For instance, why is a shy guy sometimes attracted to an outgoing woman, or vice- versa? The answer lies in the fact that the shy guy wants to be more outgoing, therefore his focus is on an outgoing person, and so by Law of Attraction attracts the outgoing woman. The seller is focused on finding a buyer, and the buyer is focused on finding a seller, and so balance of energy is achieved.

In concluding this section, we say that successful application of the law of ‘like attracts like’ acts to reverse Murphy’s Law. Murphy’s Law says, “If something can go wrong, it will.” Although we can understand a lot about Mr. Murphy’s belief system from this statement, it does express, negatively, a fundamental truth. One should reword this law to say, “If you are constantly focusing upon negative aspects, you’ll get them.”

A more positive statement of this law would say, “If things can go right, they will.” We’ve all noticed how some people have a “magic touch” while others seem to cause train wrecks wherever they go. It can be explained by the Law of Attraction.

A consequence or corollary of the three previous laws is the idea of conscious creation.

In order to get what you want, you must deliberately create it, through the conscious exercise of your free will choices. If you do not, your life will be created for you by default, most likely through your own unconscious belief system reinforced by the thoughts, ideas and beliefs floating around in the mass consciousness, or by picking up and buying into the beliefs of others.

In order to deliberately create what you want, it is helpful to spend 15 minutes a day or so, thinking, visualizing and imagining your life the way you want it to be. You want to get to a point where you can feel just what it would be like to be actually living your ideal life. I have been doing this for a few moths now and it is really fun! I do it every morning for 15 minutes or so before going to work, so instead of going to work feeling grumpy, I at least start off on the good foot.

It is important that before you do this, you get as happy as possible. In other words, don't deliberately create from a state of negative emotion. I listen to music for a couple of minutes if I wake up in a bad mood, then start my creative 'workshop'.

The process of creative visualization is very powerful, and is not just 'positive thinking,' or the repetition of affirmations. It is, in fact, a conscious alteration of your personal vibrational makeup. It is a deliberate changing your point of attraction. (Your point of attraction really has little to do with what you say, but it has a great deal to do with what you think, believe, and feel. That is why some people can get away with saying one thing and doing another; for their words do not accurately reflect their true vibrational constitution).

One of the greatest geniuses of all time, Nikola Tesla, used creative visualization to design his turbines, engines and generators. He became so good at creative visualization, he did not need drawings of any kind in the design process! He knew every part, how it operated, and how the entire machine would work when assembled. His machines and designs are still studied today. Albert Einstein also used creative visualization to develop his theory of relativity. He called these visualizations 'thought experiments'. Any artist will tell you that a clear picture of what is to be painted, sculpted, etc., is vital to a successful result. If geniuses and artists successfully apply this process, then we can too, to an overall vision of our lives. We can begin to sculpt our own life as we wish it.

How do you know how detailed you should get in your visualization of what you want? The answer is, how much positive emotion is generated. If you find yourself getting into great detail in your visualization but begin to feel worse about it, that is the signal to back off and leave it alone. Or if you bring someone into your visualization that makes you feel bad, stop! Negative emotion is your internal guidance system telling you that you are past the point of effective visualization. It is better to create positively for 30 seconds than to spend 15 minutes creating negatively.

The emotions are our internal guidance system. Positive emotion = on the right track, negative emotion = off the rails. The emotions are an indication of internal resistance. In an electric circuit, too many resistors can cause a lack of power at the business end, or result in overload, and so it is in life. Too much resistance can cause stress, and even illness.

If you’re not really sure what you want, look around. Pick and choose from what others have created and bring it into your creative image, but only take the positive and reject the negative. If someone you know is wealthy but ill, that’s no reason to reject prosperity. If your boss is a jerk that’s no reason not to try for that management position. I did not grow up in a loving family, so in my marriage I decided that I didn't have to duplicate the travails of my parents, and so have enjoyed a very happy relationship these 25 years with my wife.

Appreciate what you already have that is closest to your goal. If you’d like a house on lots of wooded land, appreciate the trees you already have on your lot, even if it’s just an apartment complex. Do anything you can to raise your tone, for you will then allow the Law of Attraction to go to work for you. Become a magnet for positive things and therefore avoid drawing negative experiences.

A proper creative visualization will result in inspiration. You’ll feel like getting into action, and the work you do will be fun, and won’t seem like work at all! A proper creative visualization is a combination of mind and heart – clarity of thought about what is wanted, and the feeling of what it would be like to have it. This should always be accompanied by positive emotion, and actions taken in a state of positive emotion will be much more enjoyable and at the same time allow the Law of Attraction to work in your favor.

We’ve been emphasizing the spiritual aspect of creation because it is the starting point, but also because our society teaches us that hard work, sweat and effort is the only valid way to reach the goal. However, without the proper orientation of consciousness, all your hard work may generate little value.

You can do great in visualizing what you want, but if you do not allow it into your experience, you will squelch it. For example, say you want a new car. You go to the dealer and find the perfect vehicle, until you see the sticker price. “That's too expensive, I can't afford that.” End of creation. That is how most creations are killed before they have a chance to manifest. Or, you talk about a great idea you have and your friend tells you how unrealistic it is. You go into agreement with him and that's the end of that one as well. If you’re an artist, you might start piano lessons and not progress as quickly as expected. “I can’t play this damn thing,” you say, and you’re history.

Allowing what is wanted essentially keeps your attention on the wanted thing, and off of the fact that you don’t have it yet! This is important, because there is a time lag between your original desire and when it manifests.

I have found that creation comes in two flavors. The first kind, which I’ve mostly been discussing so far, is a project or a manifestation that is a quantum leap from your present position. Starting a new business from scratch, buying an expensive new house when you can’t even afford to pay your rent, attracting a new relationship when the ones you’ve had are uniformly horrible, etc. Here one will need the cooperation of others and since all have free will, how do you get them to go along with you? Here it’s especially important to understand the Universal Operating System, because you simply don’t have the resources, and there seems to be no way to attain your goal. People give up on their dreams because they seem grandiose and impossible; they go to work every day, pay the bills and try to find as much enjoyment as possible, but there’s no fire in the belly for life anymore!

The abandonment of joy is often explained by saying, “Well, you have to grow up and face reality.” This is how people get the idea that life is a trial, or a schoolroom in which lessons have to be learned to advance up the ladder of appropriateness. But the true reason one gets into this situation is that one abandons one’s dreams. When you abandon your dreams you also abandon the vibrational orientation which will, through the law of ‘like attracts like,’ provide the opportunities to reach for the things you need. Or even worse, one simply doesn’t even dare to dream, for one has been taught that it’s all impossible anyway. But you have to start somewhere. Gandhi didn’t lead an entire country to independence all at once; it happened gradually over time, and he kept true to his vision.

Keeping true to your vision is called having faith, but faith is a crapshoot; you may get what you want if God is feeling generous but if he’s not, you’re out of luck. We can understand from the Universal Operating System, however, that the laws of the universe are definite and are designed to respond to your choices. So no dream is too big!

The second flavor of creation is something you can do yourself; a painting, writing a book, composing a tune, etc. Here one may not have developed the necessary skill set, but one is not dependent upon others.

As artists, or businessmen and women, and even in relationships, you have to lessen your resistance to the goal anyway you can. You’re not going to advance by quantum leaps right off the bat, so when you sit down at the piano, or work on your business plan, or engage in a relationship, notice small wins and acknowledge them. According to Chick Corea (famous pianist) when you practice you go to a win and then stop. Almost always in my playing I have gone past the point of a small success, thinking it wasn’t good enough and pushed myself into overwhelm, and emotional disgust. You have to keep the goal in mind but not be a slave to it, or expect too much! You need to allow yourself the time it takes to get there.

(In a relationship, noticing the good facets of a person’s character and paying attention to those will draw them out in your lover. It is often difficult to resist the temptation to “fix” all those bad habits but remember that whatever you focus on is vibrationally activated within you. And if it’s active in you, the other person will pick up on it. My wife, for example, can sense my disapproval of her immediately, regardless of my words).

When you understand the Law of Attraction it’s a lot easier to just end off on a small win, no matter how tiny it is; for you have kept your vibrational signal, and thus your point of attraction, in a positive place. You’re not instantly going to learn to play like Trinity learned to fly the helicopter in The Matrix, but a positive point of attraction will keep you aligned to the goal, and interested in it. I don’t know about you, but when I’m down on myself it seems as if a million bummer thoughts cascade into my heart and mind, and I become more and more discouraged. Trying to sweat and strain through this morass of negative energy, I make no progress no matter how long I practice, and I wind up associate bummer vibes with piano playing.

This idea is called the ‘power of limits.’ People are uncomfortable with the idea of limitation, associating it with failure, or stopping short of the goal; but limitation is built-in to physical existence. Our bodies can only go so long without food and rest, daylight recedes and darkness falls, summer fades into winter, etc. Natural processes are all built upon the idea of limited cycles of action.

This is where allowing comes in. If you can feel good about every step you take, no matter how small, paradoxically your progress will accelerate! If you practice for 15 minutes a day to even a small win, you’ll go faster than if you practice every day for 2 hours, struggling and wrestling with the material. Try it and see!

Furthermore, if you can get off the idea that you have to do the thing perfectly every time, and allow yourself to make mistakes, you will learn much more quickly. Turn bugs into features!

The path to creation can be difficult, or joyful. Difficulty only arises when you begin to disallow, and put up resistance to the accomplishment of it. In other words, difficulty has nothing to do with the task, only your orientation toward it.

Most of us begin by being very excited about our ideas, but after a time, tend to become discouraged if they do not quickly happen as we have envisioned. It is the focus on “not having” that causes “hard work.” I have found this out the hard way in my piano playing. I have been taking lessons for almost a year and have made little progress. The other day I decided to apply these laws and just observe what I was thinking while playing. I soon found out that I was focusing almost completely on my lack of ability, on my clumsiness in finding the correct keys, and most of all, doubting whether I would ever be able to play at all. Thus, I have caused myself a year of “hard work.” In my contracting work I set a daily target and work until the goal is completed. Sometimes there is a lot of work to accomplish, but if I stay in the moment and take it one step at a time I remain positive and the stuff always gets done more quickly than I thought. When I’m thinking about all of the work that remains, I go slowly and the day drags on. The power of limits is a powerful concept and relies on the idea of allowing.

Allowing is the same thing as saying, being in the moment, which is the same thing as saying, going with the flow. There are probably lots of ways to express it, but they all have one common denominator: non-resistance. When you give up trying to frantically make it happen and relax into the moment, troubles disappear. This happens because, as we have said in previous essays, the default condition for consciousness is a feeling of well-being. You have to work at feeling lousy. And the funny thing is, when you get good at allowing in general, evidence of all that stuff that you’ve been wanting begins to slowly (or quickly) come to you.

When you get good at allowing, your task becomes easier. The best athletes, for example, are those who “make it look easy.” The best team are the guys who work smoothly together, even if they’re going hard. The professional in any field gets the most done in the least amount of time, and hardly even breaks a sweat.

The mechanics of the creative process require a knowledge of where you are, as well as a knowledge of where you’re going; putting a smiley face on your checkbook when there’s no money in it doesn’t increase your flow of dollars; on the other hand, it is absolutely vital, if you want to change your situation, to keep focus on where you’re going! If you spend too much time just coping with the mess you’ve already created, nothing will ever change. For the definitive explanation on the mechanics of the creative process, see Robert Fritz’s brilliant book, “The Path of Least Resistance.”

The Law of Free Will makes every single person a powerful co-creator of his or her experience. It makes us all sovereign, able to orchestrate the conditions of our lives. It also means, fortunately or unfortunately, that we cannot control the thoughts, feelings, and actions of another (although the history of planet earth is an attempt to do that very thing). The Law of Allowing says that it is essential to allow others to create their own life experiences, just as we would wish for them to do for us.

We look out at the world and wish others would just shape up. If only our obnoxious brother-in-law would stop whining about his problems, family get-togethers would be a lot more pleasant. If our stupid boss would stop giving orders and listen once in a while, the office would run smoothly and everyone would be happier. Funny, when you talk to brother-in-law, and the boss, , they say the exact opposite. “Joe is a control freak and he’s always butting in,” brother-in-law says. The boss thinks, “Joe is a good employee but he never seems to be able to follow simple directives. He’s always going off on his own.” The point is, trying to get others to do what you want is like herding cats, and it’s very stressful. People just seem to be stubborn, don’t they? The desire for freedom is built-in to consciousness itself, and trying to buck that current is impossible. Of course, you can coerce people using violence and get them to go along for a while; but soon people rebel. The rise and fall of empires is largely the attempt of some to gain power (or financial gain) over others, but it never lasts. Freedom, represented by the Law of Free Will, always reigns supreme because it is a universal law, and universal laws always supercede man-made rules and strictures.

“All right,” you say, “but what about all the misery and starvation and war we see around us? Are we just supposed to sit back and let it all happen?” The answer is, the Universal Operating System responds on an individual basis to consciousness, so we can always create a positive life for ourselves, spread our positive vibes, and be an example to others, but we cannot force another to experience the way we would like. For example, we can offer many job opportunities to our unemployed brother-in-law, but it is up to him to take advantage. We cannot force brothers-in-law to change their situation. We may try to change the behavior of our big-mouthed and obnoxious uncle, but most often we find that our well-intentioned efforts go unappreciated (sigh). When we are focused on changing something negative, very often we look at the non-optimum situation and try to fix it. By doing so, we begin to resonate to it ourselves, and we most often find our attempts at reforming another to be a frustrating experience. We draw out in the other person, more and more, what we dislike so much! It is a truism that in order to recognize something bad in another it must first be present in ourselves.

It is why so much of politics is a futile exercise. By attempting to change that which is not wanted, it is attracted to us instead.

Thus the expression “We have become what we despised the most.” “We have met the enemy and he is us.” “What you resist persists” etc. We are all sovereign beings and by law it is simply not possible to create another's life experience for them. There is a lot of truth to the old proverb, “You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him drink.”

Summary:

(0) Consciousness is pure, positive, creative potential. Consciousness naturally experiences itself (unless it decides to resist that experience) as joyful and full of well being.

(1) All conscious beings have free will. Free will is an inherent property of consciousness itself and can never be taken away. Our free will choices determine the status of our lives.

(2) Thoughts are energy, and are attractive to other energy of like kind. What you think, feel, and focus on will draw more energy like it to them, and so into your experience.

(3) It is impossible to deactivate or get rid of anything, for as soon as attention is placed upon the unwanted thing, it becomes activated within you (try not to think of an elephant). Deactivation is only possible by turning one's attention elsewhere.

(4) In order to get what you want, focus on what you want, not on what you don't want. It's idiotic to even say it, but it is profound in its application. Take 15 minutes every day, and visualize/create yourself and your life exactly as you want it. Get as happy as you can before doing this, as positive emotion is an impetus to manifesting what you want. Go through your daily life looking for things you like.

(5) The emotions are a sophisticated guidance system that will tell you whether you are creating appropriately. Positive emotion = appropriate creation or thinking, speaking and acting. Negative emotion = inappropriate creation or thinking, speaking, and acting.

(6) Momentum will build up in the area you are focusing on, whether that area be negative or positive. Staying positive emotionally isn’t some new-age bullshit, it’s vital to your peace of mind.

(7) In order to manifest what you would like in the physical universe, you must allow it to happen, must EXPECT it to happen. You must focus on having what you want, not on the lack of it, and allow it to become part of your life experience. Take small wins, rather than struggling and wrestling with your project.

(8) You are protected by the Law of Attraction and the Law of Vibration. You do not have to allow anything into your experience that you do not want. By paving the way each day with positive visualization, you can draw to you experiences you wish to have, and avoid those you do not want.

(9) The Universal Operating System works on an individual basis. Nothing I’ve said here can be proved broadly. You have to take these ideas and use them in your own life, and make up your own mind about it. What have you got to lose? If your life is messed up, then nothing will change and you will have lost nothing. But if there is such a thing as a Universal Operating System, maybe it’ll work for you.
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(1) From the tape set “The Basic Laws of the Universe” available at the abraham-hicks.com website.
copyright © 1997 - 2005
by Kenneth James Michael MacLean
http://kjmaclean.com/
"The Vibrational Universe - Harnessing the Power of Thought to Consciously Create your Life" By K.J.M. MacLean

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