How to Live Life: The Secret to Getting Everything You Want
The long con takes five minutes to explain and a lifetime to master. Like anything else it takes practice. The only problem con men face is that their practice runs can land them in prison and it’s extraordinarily difficult to run an effective con behind bars. The smart ones figure out ways to get around the prison problem. And it is in this way that Belief is the con man’s best friend.
Around 2004, Rhonda Byrne discovered an amazing secret: human beings are possessed of a power that allows them to manifest their heart’s desire. It’s something, apparently, mankind has always been able to do and it only took one plucky Australian to bring it to Universal attention -and the attention of Oprah- but she was far from the first one to be preaching such a message. As far back as 1910, in The Science of Getting Rich, a very similar message was preached by Wallace Wattles: that gratitude, being positive, and believing you will receive your heart’s desire is all that is needed to manifest great abundance in your life. In 1945, Florence Scovel Schinn said likewise in The Game of Life, that making statements of truth, such as, “God is my divine supply” and “Infinite Intelligence brings my greatest abundance to me” will result in abundance being your constant companion. Dr. Wayne Dyer, The Abraham-Hicks People, even a little of this shows up in Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now, but he mostly sticks to the message that you must release yourself from distracting thoughts and put your focus on what’s happening in the moment. He doesn’t promise you a new car. And that’s smart.
In 2009 I decided to take some of what I’ve read, along with other weird things I’d picked up from the likes of Edgar Cayce, Krishnamruti, even a little Lao-Tsu, and come up with my own crazy New Age philosophy. This was the result:
It resulted in 311 views and not much else, though if anyone would like to subscribe to my newsletter I am on PayPal. I wasn’t really trying to come up with some New Age philosophy, I just wanted to combine a bunch of things from childhood with fears about the Unknown and try to make a short film about it. But if I was trying to come up with a New New Age philosophy I was working with a deficit. I was lacking the very thing that made, and continues to make, The Secret so profitable. Making a promise to people that there is not exactly life after death but rather consciousness after death, a consciousness that travels throughout the Universe and into other dimensions, is just not sexy. What makes The Secret so irresistible is the very thing that puts the Con- in Confidence Game. Everyone thinks they are special.
Confidence is the name of the game and if you’ve seen David Mamet’s fantastic House of Games you’ll know that it isn’t a matter of the mark giving you their confidence, it’s a matter of you the Con Man giving your confidence to the mark. You make them believe you trust them implicitly, that you’re letting them in on a big money-making scheme because you believe in them. And unless the person you are conning is a sociopath, empathy and a certain self-centered belief in our inherent specialness will result in the con man winning the day.
And what a perfect con The Secret is! It’s the perfect snake eating it’s own tail kind of philosophy. Simply put, if you believe that you will receive a new car, believe it deep down in the core of your being, silence that pesky part of the brain that says, “Why would that happen?” and prepare to receive a new car (maybe go shopping for brake pads or a steering wheel cover) then the forces of the Universe, that you are able to channel mind you, will combine to bring about the proper circumstances in your life that will result in a brand new car in your driveway.
But what if you don’t get the car? What if you follow all the instructions laid out, vague though they may be? Simple. You just aren’t doing it right. Perhaps this new book, this audio CD, this ten-part course, etc. will help you unblock the energy that is yours by divine right. What makes it a perfect Con is that if your perfect car, perfect job, or perfect lover doesn’t show up then you’re doing it wrong, not believing strongly enough. Perhaps try with something smaller, it’d say, something that doesn’t have years of bad energy blocking the passageways. Maybe ask for a new pair of shoes, or a free ticket to the movies, or a pair of scissors, etc. Then you can build your base of belief so that you’re ready to tackle those big desires that, again, God wants you to have. And the snake eats its tail yet again.
So maybe you’re thinking, “So what? So this New Age-y bullshit is bullshit. I knew that. What’s the use in calling it a con, of making fun of other people’s beliefs?” Belief is malleable and for the most part we believe this malleability to be a virtue, one made possible by Truth. We, hopefully, believe in the power of redemption, that a sinner can become a saint once life shows them the Truth of kindness to others through kindness to oneself. This is not a selfish kindness. You must love yourself first so that you do not project your self-hatred onto others and seek to destroy them to destroy it in yourself. And once you realize that by the very fact that you are alive, that you are a child of this planet, you are worthy of respect and love, what would prevent you from sharing this love with others? If something is truly yours it cannot be taken away. Religion provides a Deity so that this inherent quality of man can be backed by some greater power but really you don’t need it. The glory of the Universe, as much as we can experience it with our limitations of sight, sound and touch, should suffice to give us the necessary sense of awe that we can use as proof that we are loved by something greater and should love ourselves and others with equal enthusiasm. I’m actually not saying The Secret is wrong. I think it is exactly how the Universe operates. The perfect Con is that the Con is actually the Truth, that life is a game, that we create the circumstances we find ourselves in. Of course we create the circumstances we find ourselves in! We are responsible for our lives in every way. Even when we find ourselves in the most obscene circumstances, when we are in poverty, when we are dying (we are all dying) we are the ones responsible. And we are thrown into this circumstance by a Silent God who laughs at our suffering. Does he laugh out of cruelty? No, he laughs because suffering is an illusion, according to Manifest your Destiny philosophy. The only power in the Universe is that of God’s and anything else is our own vein imaginings, that we are capable of doing anything without God. We are not.
So it turns out that this whole time the whole of humanity has been operating under a false pretense. Really what we should be doing is loving each other all the time and quietly believing in our ability to do whatever we want as long as it doesn’t hurt other people. But if we got everything that we wanted or needed why would we hurt other people? And if we all believed in the same thing then there would be no reason for war. And if the only thing that makes us unique is how we suffer then personal identity is a wash. And if we are simply the manifestation of a desire from God and we are created in his image then we are likewise capable of creating heaven on Earth. And if this is the sick joke of existence then I will laugh heartily, because I too think I’m special and now I’ll put this whole mishagosh to the test.
I put it to you, Universe, that I intend/wish/desire/ for this post to reach 100,000 people who will in turn tell another 100,000 and so on and so on. This idea of loving other people because you yourself deserve to be loved is the perfect snake-tail-eating philosophy but one for good. This message will spread far and wide as I call upon the power inherent within me, given me by your divine love, will make it so. A new era in mankind is upon us, one of love, one where everyone gets exactly what they want. Doesn’t that sound amazing? Give praise and thanksgiving to the one true God for giving us the power to make this happen. And please donate to my cause by giving me money at my PayPal address.
You can contact me under the “Ask me Anything” section of this blog to donate to this cause. When you donate you are making a powerful statement to the Universe, you are “digging your ditch” preparing the way for the coming of this new golden age. If you believe, say, more than others we would encourage you to donate even more. After all, why limit yourself with limited beliefs? Stand up for yourself and state loudly and clearly, with your generous donation, that you are ready to receive the glorious gifts that await you. And if you do not fully believe or are having difficulty in expanding your belief then donate in an even larger portion and greater belief, greater faith will be your reward. Find out what others are donating, through the power of your intention, and donate twice as much. This will break free the blockage that was preventing your Ultimate Good from manifesting. And if we get enough donations we’ll be able to publish the How to Live Life book to help thousands, no, millions of others to receive their divine abundance as well. After that will be Audio CD’s of the book and live conferences followed by a movie than another tour than an even newer book and it can all be yours now with your generous, faith-filled, pure believing, and Generous Donation to my PayPal address.
The Secret to How to Live Life is Yours.
