The Secret About Dreaming

In a recent post, I shared some of my “Secrets about The Secret.” I am pleased (of course) to hear from so many of you that agreed with my observations. You shared your experiences as friends and therapists listening to people’s self-judgment for failing to manifest the perfect life, and you shared your own frustrations from trying to use the ideas of The Secret and The Law of Attraction to change your circumstances.

Let us not use these criticisms of the latest pop-culture ideas about how to strike it rich (in money, love, and body perfect) to obscure a very important reality: You do manifest the universe you live in through how you dream it. What do I mean, and why is that different than The Secret?

Basic “Dreaming 101:” You do not see “what is out there.” The light you perceive reflects off the objects in the universe, and enters your mind through your eyes and other senses, and creates a little virtual reality in your mind. The image you see is in your mind, not out there in the universe. That is an amazing and indisputable fact: You only see what is in your mind’s virtual reality, not what is out in the world.

In the Toltec tradition, we call this virtual reality in your mind your “Personal Dream.” You are dreaming reality. Your body is an organ of perception—it collects data from the world around you. That information passes through “channels of perception” in your mind, picking up stored information made up of biases, agreements, emotional memories, fears, traumas, desires, belief systems, and all the knowledge stored in your mind.

That stored information distorts the incoming messages carried on the light, and it is the distorted light that creates the virtual reality dream. You look at that dream and think you are seeing “out there.” You are not. You are dreaming. We could call your mind an organ of “deception,” since it creates the distorted dream of a world that has nothing to do with what is really out there.

“The Secret” says that (simply stated) if you can think the right thoughts you will attract to yourself the right things. The Law of Attraction says that like attracts like. Miguel Ruiz, in The Four Agreements, tells us: Always Be Impeccable With Your Word. He explains that your Word is every thought, action, spoken word, and your most deeply held beliefs.

In other words, your Word is how you dream. Your dream was programmed into your mind from the very beginnings of your awareness. You were taught what was right and wrong, good and bad, who was Us and who was Them. All that stored information and knowledge, which you continued to add to and refine all of your life, is the dream of the world you live in.

The dream in your mind out-pictures itself into what appears to be Reality. If you dream that money is hard to get, so it shall be. If you dream that love is dangerous, you will attract dangerous love. If you believe you are not worthy of kindness and consideration, you will attract abuse and hurt. If you believe you have a Parking Fairy, you will believe the Fairy finds you parking places. It has nothing to do with the nature of the world or your ability to create it, but you will accumulate evidence for the truth of how you dream by what your dream creates—in the dream! None of it happens out there. Am I making sense?

Yes, it is true that your thoughts create your reality—but only in your mind. That is the only place that the universe you live in exists. Yes, there is a universe there, but you cannot perceive it. You can only dream. Everyone lives in a distinctly different universe.

If you can do your deep inner work, clean out the memories, traumas, old belief systems and agreements, etc, from your channels of perception . . .if you can clear away the conflicting desires and the resistance in your programming . . .if you can let go of any attachments to the outcome of your manifesting . . .then perhaps you can make these laws of The Secret work for you. If you get that clear, you probably won’t care about manifesting riches.

Of course, there is always the issue of the Action/Reaction nature of the universe to deal with. Everything is in action all the time everywhere, reacting with everything else in the nonexistent universe. Where does your power and influence begin?

We can come back to that part of the conversation next time.

Thanks for reading.

This post was adapted from "The Weekly Word and News," my e-newsletter from Joydancer.com.

My Secrets About The Secret

“The Secret” and “The Law of Attraction” are the Big Buzz these days, and I am sure that many of you reading this are big fans. I think it is great that so many people are interested in ways to take responsibility for their lives using the power of their minds. I have a few thoughts to share with you about the other side of the teachings, and things to watch out for while practicing the principles.

In the book, The Secret, it says: “The Secret is the law of attraction! It has been . . .hidden, lost, stolen, and bought for vast sums of money. . .Everything that’s coming into your life you are attracting into your life. . .whatever is going on in your mind you are attracting to you. . . As you learn The Secret, you will come to know how you can have, be, or do anything you want.”

Here are some of my secrets about The Secret:

1. It is not a secret.

People have been writing books about how your mind affects your reality since the beginning of books. Jesus and Plato talked about it. Toltec Nagual and author of The Four Agreements, Miguel Ruiz wrote about it. Most of the authors and experts quoted in the movie and book have been writing about it for a long time.

That has nothing to do with the value of The Secret, it only points out the hype factor, which you may have noticed is pretty big. For many people, being able to have power over their lives and the choices they make is a big revelation. This is an important value of The Secret.

2. It does not always work.

If only it were as simple as “what you think, you get” and all you have to do is think good positive spiritual thoughts and your life would be devoted to what the book offers: “. . .eradicating disease, acquiring massive wealth, overcome obstacles, and achieving what many would regard as impossible.”

In The Four Agreements Miguel Ruiz invites us to be impeccable with our Word, because the Word is the creative force of the universe. He includes in the Word every thought, belief, action, and spoken word. It is the most deeply held beliefs and agreements that are this creative force. Affirmations on the bathroom mirror often do not change us, because there are other agreements that are held deep in the subconscious that are the creative forces in our universe.

It is true that our own personal universe is created by our thoughts, but we usually don’t even know what our thoughts are; or especially, how they are creating the world we live in.

3. It can be a big set-up for self-judgment.

If you see a movie or read a book and it tells you that you have the power to create any life you want, to create wealth and overcome disease and find the perfect relationship. . .well, it sounds great, of course, but if it doesn’t work. . .wow! This is a big set-up for The Judge. They say you can do this if you just do it right. You try, you apply the principles as you understand them, maybe some things work, and maybe you can’t get so much as a good parking space, let alone the riches and love!

The Inner Judge loves those moments, and will use them against you. Don’t let The Secret become another “should” -- like the latest diet you couldn’t stick with, or the gym membership that you never use.

If it were as easy as they say, everyone would be healthy, wealthy, and loved beyond measure.

This, to me, is the most important secret about The Secret: It is not that easy, and it is not your (spiritual) fault if it does not work the way it is advertised.

4. You might not actually have any choice.

This is really a subject worthy of a more thorough exploration than we can give it here, but let me say that The Secret works for those it works for. Their minds and belief systems are prepared in some way for what The Secret offers. For minds that are not prepared, the principles have no place from which to operate.

Again, if it worked as simply for everyone as advertised, we would all be there already. Enjoy The Secret and The Law of Attraction—and do it without any expectations that you should be able to quickly change your entire life and become rich and healthy because you changed your thinking. It is simple, it is true, and it is not easy.

Do your best, and accept yourself just the way you are. The rest is play.

Have fun!

The Hidden Power of Miguel Ruiz' Four Agreements.

It has been ten years since Miguel Ruiz, author and Toltec Nagual, released his famous book, The Four Agreements - A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom. Oprah has raved about it, movie stars quote it, and it is read in 32 languages around the world-- and yet many people miss some of the profound depths of this teaching.

Miguel Ruiz begins The Four Agreements by describing how each of us has been "domesticated" by our parents, relatives, siblings, teachers, church leaders, and others. We were expected to agree with their beliefs and agreements about good and bad, and right and wrong - and we did. We had no choice. It was "their way or the highway."

We agreed never to take the last cookie, to always put other people's feelings ahead of ours, to follow the rules, not touch ourselves there, and not talk back. We agreed to stay inside the lines, not be too happy, and always be nice. Following their rules helped us fit in and get our needs met.

Following their rules also had a price: We were required to abandon our truth and the freedom to express ourselves freely. We stopped looking inside for our direction, and learned to look outside to know what "they" wanted us to think and feel. This was a big price to pay for safety and belonging. We had no choice.

The Four Agreements have the power to break thousands of the limiting agreements that you made during your domestication, and set you free to be yourself. They are a wonderful gift. Unfortunately, many people misunderstand the deeper meaning of the agreements, or deny their power by imagining they are like some other philosophy or teaching. Let's take a brief look at each agreement here, and make sure you are using them as the powerful tools they are.

Agreement #1: Always be impeccable with your Word. Miguel Ruiz clearly explains that to be impeccable means to be "without sin," and he defines sin as "going against yourself." Therefore, to be impeccable with your Word is to not use your Word against yourself. Many people seem to miss this definition, and believe the agreement means they should always tell the truth, keep their commitments, and not cheat.

Your Word is a powerful force of creation in your life. How do you use your Word against yourself? The most common way is to judge yourself. The voices of your domesticators follow you around, critcizing what you do or don’t do, and how you do or don’t do it.

Can you imagine living without ever judging yourself for anything you say or do? Imagine your freedom to take action, to create, and to love with your heart wide open. Keeping this one agreement is all you need to go all the way to personal freedom. It is very simple, but not easy. The old habits are hard to break, but you can do it. The Toltec Path has many powerful tools that can help you identify and break the agreements that do not serve you, and I will be describing many of them here.

The other three agreements are given to us as support for the first.

Agreement #2: Don't take anything personally. The danger here is using this agreement as an attitude, rather than a ticket to freedom. The Toltec Wisdom teaches that we are all distorting reality based on our unique beliefs and agreements. Everyone is dreaming you, they are not seeing the real you. Therefore, anything they say to or about you is a description of their dream of you, and truly has nothing to do with you. Likewise, you are dreaming everyone else, and your dream of them has nothing to do with them. The universe it not personal. Be yourself, and enjoy your life.

Agreement #3: Never make assumptions. What a powerful invitation! Stay in the moment. Don't second-guess life. Don't assume you know what someone needs or is thinking. If you want to know, ask. This agreement will break all those lies that say it is bad to ask questions because you might embarrass or hurt someone, or you should know what other people are thinking and meet their needs before they have to ask. Many people think this is a minor agreement, but don't be fooled. Big power resides here. Stay in the juice of Life in this moment-- after all, this moment is the only time and place Life is happening!

Agreement #4: Always do your best. This agreement is often misunderstood to mean you should try harder, do more, and be better. Nothing could be farther from the intention of the agreement. Every choice you make is based on your programming, your previous experiences, and the information available to you-- and every choice is the best you can make in the moment. If you find out ten minutes or ten years later that you have other options, use them, act, change, and grow.

This agreement will break your belief in all the lies your inner and outer judges tell you about your failures, what you should have known or done better, and the grim prospects for your future. Without the voice of your inner judge you are free to be you. What a beautiful thing to behold.

Yours IN love and The New Dream,

Allan