How We Perform Negative Miracles Keekoo Publications
First Published in 2005 Published by Lulu © Richard J W Gentle © Cover Design Richard Gentle e-mail: rich@keekoo.co.uk Website: www.keekoo.co.uk
In memory of Jane Jones 1938-2004 Thanks to Lisa and Amber for helping me to see myself Also to friends and family who have both helped and hindered in equal measure along the way
Keekoo Publications
Richard J W Gentle Richard was born in 1961 in Gloucestershire, England, UK. In 1966 the family moved to Leicestershire where Richard, together with his younger brother and sister, enjoyed a very creative childhood in countrified surroundings. It was here that he started building ride-in vehicles and inventing. He also became conscious of a spiritual side to his personality but was only able to identify it as such several years later. In 1972 a move to Yorkshire continued the same environmental trend but a stressful secondary school existence caused emotional pain and stifled his enthusiasm. However, out of this experience he gained some significant spiritual awareness and in 1980, whilst away at college, began attending talks and workshops relating to spiritual development in order to discover and understand more. The family also split up in 1980 and it was from this time onwards that life became more complex. Through a mixture of unconventional personal relationships, employment hardships, and general life events, Richard found himself in a place of material adversity and personal solitude. The first draft of the current booklet was written in 1988 when his close friend, Jane Jones (in a similar life changing situation), started writing ‘how to’ booklets on typing. The two encouraged each other on these and other projects, but neither made the ‘big time’! The years passed and in 2002 Richard was living and working in Bedfordshire. In another moment of personal crisis, he asked the universe for a tangible sign that there was more to life than hardship. A sign was duly provided a day later and he completely missed it - despite the fact it was quite literally placed in front of his office window and completely blocked his view!
In 2004 Richard returned to Yorkshire and, through another crisis of confidence in the universe, suddenly began to see where he had been ‘going wrong’! In a mammoth effort to claw himself out of the ‘pit of despair’, using personal belief-changing techniques, he began to turn things around by gradually selecting a new reality - positive miracles!
How We Perform Negative Miracles For various reasons, our outlook on life as individuals can often be negative and pessimistic. By this I mean that it is easier to think what might go wrong, than it is to think what will go right. How often have we complained that something may not go well for us? Why are we so surprised therefore, when things do not work out? We have actually performed, very successfully, a negative miracle. Many people who experience financial difficulties will find themselves performing negative miracles in abundance. Just when they are thinking: 'It can't possibly get any worse!' it does! And a number of unexpected bills and expenses suddenly come into their lives, which further add to and emphasise their hardship. Have you ever experienced an event such as, driving on an empty road for several miles when up ahead you see a parked car which you will need to overtake? Coming in the opposite direction is another vehicle which will meet the parked car at exactly the same time as you! Perhaps you will see this as one of life’s coincidences - or maybe you wouldn’t normally give it a second thought. Alternatively, you may be inclined to verbalise ‘how incredible’ or 'how typical'. You have in fact just experienced a negative miracle. Whilst helping to review this booklet, my friend P shared his ‘check-out’ experience with me. He said that no matter which shop check-out he queued for, something would always happen to slow his exit. Even after studying the lengths of queues and how much shopping people had, P still managed to get in a line where someone ahead of him would mislay their money; another shop assistant would have to be called to solve some problem; or the cash till would malfunction! In the meantime, all the people at 1
the other check-outs had long-since completed their purchases and left the shop! I am calling these situations 'negative miracles’ because, by and large, we associate such amazing events as not being conducive to what we would like to happen. We also believe that they arise from outside of ourselves - things that ‘happen to us’ rather than things that we create as a result of our own thoughts. We are the sum of all our experiences and through our experiences we have formed our beliefs. These in turn create substance in our individual realities. We must begin to expect the best rather than the worst. This will need working at, but the rewards will be phenomenal. If we can produce negative miracles with such ease then surely, shouldn’t we be able to produce positive, beneficial miracles with similar ease? Miracles are only miracles to us because they do not seem to be a regular occurrence in our lives. However, as you progress you will see that more and more miracles will happen to, around, and for you - so much so, that you will eventually take them for granted. You will even experience a certain joy and happiness when things go noticeably right for most of the time. So how do we inadvertently produce negative miracles? Well, quite simply, it is all down to the way we think about and react to things. You would be amazed at the amount of time we devote to worrying! Most of our worrying is derived from fear of some kind. If we fear spiders, we worry about coming across them. If we fear being without money, we worry about getting into debt. If we fear losing our security, we worry about how to keep ourselves safe. The list is endless. Have you noticed how well you attract the very situations that you worry most about? Learn not to worry. 2
The reason for negative attraction is due to the amount of time and energy we put into thinking about our problems. We tend to visualise in every detail, bringing our problems alive in our imagination until they become physically manifest in our reality. If we could learn to turn this around so that we devoted our energy to positive things in our lives, we would be much happier and more abundant in the broadest sense. We do not spend time thinking about what is going right because it is pleasant and therefore not a worry! Remember, it is easier to attract things to you than it is to keep things away. Therefore, you may as well attract the things you desire in preference to those you would rather not have or be involved with. In order to begin changing the way you think, identify something which you see as a problem or worry and, for a moment, imagine what it would feel like if the problem or worry no longer existed. You can apply this technique to anything which upsets or worries you or makes you fearful. The aim is to avoid attracting negative situations and things towards you. If you are finding difficulty accepting what you have read, think for a moment about some of the amazing negative things that have happened to you or people you know. If these negative things can happen against all odds, surely it is more than possible that equally positive things can happen against all odds too? Let’s have a look at the alternative.
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Positive Miracles Our problem arises when we see the same thing differently. It is easy to imagine for example, that someone could come to our door and offer us a bucket full of pebbles. However, we find it almost impossible to imagine that someone could do exactly the same with a bucket full of money! As soon as we place a value on something, many of us struggle with being able to accept it. So why is it so difficult to accept that someone might give us a bucket full of money and easier to envisage receiving a bucket full of stones? Well, there are several reasons and these may include any or all of the following: We don’t believe anyone would give us something of worth for nothing We do not feel worthy to receive money - but stones is okay To be given money for no reason is outside of our personal ‘comfort level’ We are suspicious of anyone who gives us something for nothing - what’s the catch? No one would bring a bucket of anything to our front door! In order to become more receptive to receiving, we have to take a look at our ‘core beliefs’. These are beliefs that we have created at an unconscious level out of an experience or event we have witnessed or been involved with in the past. Although we may have had new experiences that modify those past events, a part of ourselves is still living according to the original ‘programming’. One process for helping to change these deeply held and often hidden beliefs is NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming developed by Dr Richard Bandler and John Grinder (possibly 4
influenced by Maxwell Maltz - Psycho-Cybernetics) and written about by others such as Joseph O’Conner and John Seymour). There is one exercise called ‘Six Step Reframing’. In this process you ask to speak with various parts of your unconscious mind so that you can request a positive change in behaviour. In another technique (referred to as ‘The Root Diagram’ in her book ‘Beyond the Winning Streak’) Lynda Madden Dahl encourages the reader to write something down that they seem to have a problem with, e.g. money and then below this write down 5 feelings you have when you think about money. Then below that, under each feeling, list 3 beliefs you hold about those feelings to do with money. This is a very simple method of bringing into the open, ideas you hold in your unconscious for your conscious self to then acknowledge. An interesting thing I noticed while doing this exercise, was a reluctance to be really honest with myself about how I felt - even though no one else was in the room or ever likely to see my responses! I almost wanted to deny what I was feeling so that I didn’t have to acknowledge my problems! Following this up with the NLP exercise mentioned above (I recommend you either find a practitioner or obtain a book) you will be able to address each feeling and belief at an unconscious level and modify your behaviour to introduce more positive behaviours and responses. So let’s look at some other things that can help us create a better life for ourselves. I have been accruing a small list of simple but powerful words:
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Desire Imagination Visualisation Creative Intention Clarity Belief Faith Knowing Expectation Desire - Your inclination to want something - you can practically see or feel it! Imagination - The ability to form mental images of things or events Visualisation - A mental image that is similar to a visual perception Clarity - Free from obscurity and easy to understand Creative - Having the power to bring into being Intention - An anticipated outcome that guides your planned actions Belief - A vague idea in which some confidence is placed Faith - Complete confidence in someone or something (not used here with any religious connotation) Knowing - Clear and certain mental comprehension - beyond any doubt 6
Expectation - The feeling that something is about to happen Read through the words a few times and consider how they apply to experiences or feelings you have had when events have happened for you - whether perceived as positive or negative experiences. Try to appreciate the subtle differences of feeling that you experience when you concentrate on the words. Take one word at a time and notice any feelings that arise in you. Now start to use these words in your reality creating process. For example, I may desire to have a new piece of furniture - let’s say a comfortable arm chair. I imagine what sort of chair I want (colour, fabric, style) and I visualise or see it in a room in my house (in the corner facing the window next to the plant stand). I can see with clarity myself sat in the chair feeling relaxed and content (looking out at the view). I even create wider arm rests and a retractable foot rest (it’s turned into a recliner). I intend to find such a chair available at a price I can afford, somewhere local (not too far away). I believe that it is possible for me to find such a chair and I have faith in my ability (with the help of the universe) to obtain one. In fact, I know that I will find exactly the chair I am looking for and I expect to find it locally at a price I can afford. In doing this exercise, I am already setting into motion a probable event where I will manifest my imagined chair into my experience of reality. Obviously, the chair is simply one example of many that I could have chosen. It is also an example of something that fits into my comfort level of what is possible. When you are experimenting with creating positive miracles, it is important to play with ideas that are possible in your own terms. As you see results from your practice, and you know it will work, become more adventurous by all means. 7
If you think focusing on material objects for your own gratification is too advanced to begin with, have a go at day to day things like: Keeping the traffic lights on green Speeding up a queue of traffic Not being in a queue of traffic! Getting fast service from somewhere that has always been slow Being offered a reduction on an item of clothing not in a sale Finding a parking place where ever you go Seeing the slow person holding you up turn off from your route Knowing that you will arrive on time even when stuck in a queue They may be situations you are used to finding yourself in feeling victimised - but now you are going to change these situations when they arise. With practice you will see yourself as choosing every situation rather than having situations thrust upon you! When I first started to experiment with, and alter, circumstances similar to those mentioned above, I found myself taking one step forward and two back. In my first month I blocked and then unblocked two roads to my place of work (workmen with temporary traffic lights) and closed two fish and chip shops on a Saturday night! I also created a minor ailment out of ‘wrongthinking’, got rid of it with ‘right-thinking’ and then repeated the process all over again! The important point to convey here is: keep trying in a playful way. 8
Do not become disheartened. When things appear to go off track or revert to a previous condition, see this as a positive feedback sign. You are definitely creating change and this is the universe’s way of showing you how well you are progressing. For example: At the peak of my road work experiments, I started to drive in the direction of their location thinking to myself, ‘I wonder how my road works are today?’ Rather than, ‘I bet those bloody traffic lights are going to change to red just as I reach them!’ In the first example I embraced the road works. In the second example I allowed myself to be upset and stressed by them. Also, remember that you have spent quite a long time being negative about yourself and your life. Your immediate responses to any given situation are automatic. You have spent many years learning to react in a particular way to given signals. Retraining yourself to respond differently may take a little time. But rest assured, change you will. Even the mere desire to change will effect a change. Imagine cutting the top off a fresh lemon and then biting into the fruit. The physical response you may notice is indicative of the power of your mind to affect matter. As you play with creating a new reality for yourself, you trigger responses like these throughout your body and on a moment to moment basis. These responses feed back to your mind and the process continually evolves. Letting go Another interesting function of reality changing and creation is the ‘letting go’ principle. The tendency for many of us is to try and come up with all the possible and probable solutions to a problem on our own. I have sometimes spent not just hours, but days, trying to think through a way around what seems an 9
insurmountable issue. Finally, I have had to admit defeat and effectively ‘given up’ trying. This isn’t something you can pretend to do in order to speed up the creation process. You either have to be trusting in the universe to provide the solution for you from the beginning, or you have to ‘get out of the way’ so that the universe can help. By constantly coming up with new solutions, you a) change the possible outcome or b) negate an opportunity for an alternative that may be better all round. Let me give you another playful example of something that happened to me. Perhaps I should call it universal intervention: Occasionally I like to have a Gin and Tonic. To this end I had a small 35cl bottle in the cupboard. However, after about 6 months, I noticed it had almost been used up and I needed to get a new one. Despite visiting several supermarkets, all were out of small bottles of ‘own-brand’ Gin and ‘named brands’ were quite expensive. Therefore, after 2 weeks, I still had no replacement. At the end of the second week, I was attending a live Jazz event where a raffle was to be drawn for a number of donated prizes. Among the prizes was a cardboard box containing small bottles of Whisky, Rum and Gin, and a bottle of beer. I was sat at a table with 2 other people, my friend A and her friend B. A said: ‘I need a bottle of Whisky.’ So I mentioned my need for a bottle of Gin. I jokingly added that if I won the raffle I’d give her the Whisky, but if she won she could give me the Gin! I held an expectation that I was quite likely to win, but thought no further. The raffle started and the first ticket was someone else in the room. In the past, my first reaction would normally have been, ‘oh no! Lost it’! However, I still felt calmly positive. Both of us looked to see if the winner was going to choose the drink possibly the most expensive prize... but no, he chose something else. The second ticket was drawn. It was our table! 10
The box was passed across. Although the winning ticket strictly belonged to B, through much laughter, A took the Whisky, passed me the Gin and gave the Rum and beer to B. So I got the end result I wanted, but not completely in the way I would have imagined or indeed expected. This result is interesting on many levels. Firstly, despite an assumption that I would eventually get the Gin from a shop at a price I could afford, it showed up in a situation completely removed from a shop and with no price tag - apart from the cost of a raffle ticket. The secret of success here was possibly twofold: I had previously expressed a desire to have some Gin but after seeing the price, let go of the thought about getting any. Secondly, in the raffle, I had not tried to decide on how a possible outcome should happen. Merely accepted whatever outcome was appropriate. Interestingly, another thing I have found to be true about universal intervention, is how the result is always better than anything that could have been expected. It’s like baking a cake and then discovering someone else has put the icing on it when you weren’t looking. A further point of interest surrounding the Jazz event was that I had no intention of going out of the house on that occasion. It was very much a last-minute decision. So at what point did the universe supply the Gin and bring the two of us - me and the Gin - together in the same place at the same time? Surely it would have been a lot simpler [for the universe] to get the store to restock the shelves with Gin? But how then, would I have been given the Gin as a present [from the universe]? If I’d gone back to the store I would have had to find the money to pay for the Gin. As I had already decided that the Gin was too expensive, 11
the universe guided me in a direction to receive it free. I will leave the reader to ponder on the above. The main thing here is to demonstrate the humour and perfection of universal help and creation. Many people have written on the subject of creating reality and this is possibly just another piece of writing that will join the list. However, my experience as both a teacher and a student suggests that we all assimilate information in different ways. Two books can provide essentially the same information, but one person will gain insight and understanding from book one and another person the same from book two. Yet neither may appreciate the other’s book! My hope is that some of you will gain strength and a clearer understanding from this work.
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Bibliography Beyond the Winning Streak - Lynda Madden Dahl - Access Publishers Network 2000 Introducing NLP - Neuro-Linguistic Programming - Joseph O’Conner and John Seymour - Aquarian Press/Harper Collins 1993