The Miracle of Transformation

The Miracle of Transformation

When I first started leading self-improvement workshops and guest seminars back in the 1970s, hands would go up in the room. Invariably, it was the same question. "What do you mean by 'transformation'?" It may be a common buzzword today, but back then, it was all new and groundbreaking. "It's like a caterpillar turning into a butterfly," I explained. The aim of my work all boiled down to simply shattering beliefs that were holding people back from getting in touch with their true selves and creating new possibilities for their lives.

Since then, I have trained over 300,000 people worldwide, from corporate leaders to celebrities and politicians, to ordinary everyday people. What I've noticed about all of them is that it all comes down to the same questions: Who are we really? Why are we here? How are we connected? And, what are we contributing?

My work is really to wake people up to who they truly are - a living, breathing miracle, with the potential to fulfill any dream we set out hearts on.

It all starts with the idea that all of us have three faces. The first one, which we usually show first to the rest of the world, is who we pretend to be.

We are pretending we're confident when in truth, we don't know what the hell we're doing. Behind that face of pretence is the face of the person we're afraid that we are, which is why we are pretending in the first place. We're afraid that we don't know what we're doing; we doubt ourselves. We're scared that we are not enough; we feel we aren't worthwhile and think we are not loved.

That face is where our fears and doubts about ourselves come up to be experienced. But, if we can look at, be with and confront those fears, then we will be able to get in touch with our third face - the face of who we truly are. That experience puts us in touch with our authentic selves – for we are powerful, allknowing and incredibly wise. And, when we are in touch with that reality, we don't have to pretend.

Our connection with that inner power and quintessential self allows us to make a powerful difference in the world, and opens us to true fulfilment and joy. This authentic self is the face that is responsible, purposeful and able to cause things to happen. I have a gift for making it safe for people to take a chance at looking at their fears and help them go through that experience and come out on the other side.

When a person gets in touch with and faces their internal fears, they begin to get in touch with their true self, which turns out to be precisely what they were pretending! But knowing it vs pretending it creates an entirely different experience. In doing so, they begin to experience their full power. And with that, they can start causing their future instead of being the victim of their circumstances.

Being in touch with their authentic selves allows a person to connect to their higher power and wisdom available to each of us if we are willing to stop pretending and face our fears.

In this process of waking up to our miraculous great nature, we begin to realize our consciousness evolves in much the same way that happens in our physical world.

Fundamentally, there are four stages of this evolution in developing our consciousness. The prevalent issue at the first stage is the state of being a victim of our circumstances. The world acts on us. Factors outside of ourselves dominate our lives, and we feel we are always at the effect of something. For example, our bike gets stolen as a child, and we're devastated.

As we get older, other such breakdowns happen - we get a divorce, don't get the promotion we hoped for, and lose a job or our money.

At that level of evolution of consciousness, eventually, we have a breakdown that is so big it seems everything in our world is broken.

The events that poke at us eventually cause our world to crumble and hurl us into an experience of crisis. The miracle is that, from the rubble, people can have a breakthrough that leads to the second level of the evolution of consciousness.

Breakdowns produce breakthroughs. People begin to realize they have the power to cause something to happen. And that they are bigger than their circumstances. We act on the world.

But at this second stage, people use this sense of power to get things primarily for themselves. They are mainly concerned with their own needs and desires: more money, a better car, a bigger house.

Then, after a while, in this stage, a question starts to emerge - "Is this all there is?" People begin to realize that all the houses, cars, and money in the bank don't make them happy, nor give them a sense of personal joy and fulfilment. Something is missing. People start to realize that all that 'stuff' doesn't produce what they truly want – a sense of purpose, pride and joy.

As you begin to move into the third stage, you yearn for a higher purpose. You begin to want to do something that makes a difference in the world around you – not just for yourself. And when you do that long enough, the universe notices.

In stage four, the universe picks you up and shows you where to go. And when you stray from something that's not on task, the universe will cut you down and give you a tweaking. From this perspective, the universe is using you —and that's an excellent thing. You are in the FLOW.

You can also think of it as if you are surfing. Sometimes, there are big waves, occasionally small waves and sometimes none at all.

How do we balance through all of that? So, through this evolution, we learn how to surf under all conditions. When the big wave comes and knocks us down, we no longer feel that we're running head-on against something. It is life. It's an adventure. And you are so curious about this adventure that you enjoy it even when it's painful.

One of the other gifts I've found I have is that I am willing to share in a vulnerable way - my story and my adventures, my ups and downs. When I do, it inspires people and gives them the courage to be bigger and better. Through sharing my own story, people laugh and cry and are encouraged to try on a different mindset.

They gain the courage to start thinking in another way. They start seeing the benefits at work as their consciousness expands, which helps the process unfold.

I share my failures and successes with them and the mentors that have blessed my life.

I had a very scary childhood. My father was an alcoholic, and we moved a lot. We mainly lived in poverty. When I was in my late teens, a distant cousin whom I called Auntie took me under her wings. She was a healer, studied metaphysics, and was way ahead of her time. She exposed me to all the world's religions and spiritual schools and the different great spiritual masters and great philosophers. She taught me from the beginning that my journey in life was to bring love and express love and show people how to love themselves and others wholly by being a model of unconditional love.

Under her guidance, I learned how to meditate and how the wisdom and the answers were already within me. So, against all the difficulties I faced, I became very much in touch with my personal power. From a very early age saw my greater possibilities. I knew I had to make it on my own. And to do so, Auntie taught me to be in touch with my inner power and helped me see a bigger, higher purpose for my life.

From there, it was no accident in my early 20s that I met Werner Erhard, one of this world's most significant human potential experts, just when he was starting out as a teacher.

I recognized that his teaching condensed what my Aunt had taught me about personal power, responsibility and contribution into an approach that could potentially reach millions of people.

Intuitively, I felt I should be working with Werner and helping this organization grow and succeed. What began by attending Werner's very first training, where there were only 20 of us; as an executive of the new organization, I helped attendance grow into 40, then 60, 120, 240 and soon, thousands of graduates in the USA.

Erhard Seminars Training (est - now known as Landmark Forum) grew into an international movement. Over the next ten years, I worked with Werner, travelling the world, organizing and leading events, training the trainers and seminar leaders and opening up new cities. Soon there were millions of graduates worldwide.

As an organization back then and similar to my purpose now, the aim was to create a critical mass of consciousness so that a significant turning could occur. Think of this turning like the tide. Long before it sweeps onshore, the turning of the tide starts invisibly at the bottom of the ocean.

Now, this growing tide is the need for humanity to wake up for what's coming. At this moment in history, we're already at the turning.

Transformation is not easy and is not safe. Our world has been going fast towards destruction without people taking notice. Now is the time for people to wake up and consciously take this world toward sustainability, connection, and care. That is what the growing human potential movement is really about - giving birth to a new life of new possibilities and choices that allow for a world that works for everyone.

A caterpillar becoming a butterfly is a strange and miraculous process where the caterpillar in the cocoon, dissolves into a soup – dismantling itself in the process. Within this vulnerable chamber, the 'soup' reconstitutes itself into a whole new species – a butterfly.

That is transformation. And transformation is happening now. We are in the midst ofthings that aren't working anymore; they are starting to break down and dismantle. Weare in the early stages of being the soup that can be the source of a new way of living.

People are waking up and noticing there is more than enough light for this turning.

I am encouraged that so many feel as I do, that we are at the dawn of a hugebreakthrough.

It is the Age of Aquarius – an era of profound universal change that the great avatarsof the world have foretold for so many thousands of years.

You are the miracle you've been waiting for.Now is the perfect time to spread your own beautiful butterfly wings and take flight.

Marcia Martin

Global speaker, corporate executive coach, transformational thought leader, and changemaker extraordinaire, Marcia Martin has trained over 300,000 people around the globe how to look in a very direct way at the prison they have created in life that limits them from reaching their full potential.

Dame Marcia (knighted in 2008) spends her time consulting entrepreneurial and corporate companies in leadership, communication, collaboration and championship performance including Capital One, Hard Rock International, Warner Bros., InterContinental Hotels, McCain Foods, and Evian Water.

As one of the Founding Members and Sr. Vice President of Erhard Seminars Training - est - (later known as Landmark Forum), Marcia Martin was personally mentored by innovative academic thinker Werner Erhard for 10 years in the art and technology of Self Transformation and Human Development, and helped take the est organization from inception to millions of graduates worldwide. She has consulted, trained or coached some of the greatest thought leaders and authors of our time including Jack Canfield, Tony Robbins, Lynne Twist, T. Harv Ecker, and Robert T. Kiyosaki.

Her programs teach all aspects of The Golden Triangle of Personal Power -Communication Mastery, Relationship Competence, and Enrollment Prowess.

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