“It’s called The Awesome Science of Luck. I highly recommend it.”
Roughly a year before I got a job as a sign-spinner, I sat at a restaurant in the Colorado mountains with my friend Jim, stuffing my face with brownies and ice cream as he watched in delight.
During our conversations, Jim recommended a book by a man named Peter Ragnar. I liked the title – harnessing the power of luck resonated with me. For years I’d taken action, attempting to achieve the things I wanted, and was seeing the wisdom in the saying from China:
“Better to be born lucky than smart”
Well, if I could have my cake and eat it too…
Within a couple days, I bought the book and began reading. Soon, I was reading it over and over again. It felt… right somehow, to do so. I mused that doing so made me luckier. Of course, I also practiced most of the techniques revealed in the book.
Shortly after I got my sign-spinning job, I bought the audio version of the book, so I could listen to Peter’s stories over and over again as I worked. Later, even though it was a stretch financially (actually it was pretty insane) I bought recordings of a seminar he’d done. I listened to the audios as I worked, and played the videos as I relaxed at home on my days off.
I did this for months, and added a couple more products to my collection. Every single day, I listened to one interview about money, during my first shift at work. In fact, I used it to time when to take my first break. I still viscerally remember walking outside with my sign in one hand, balancing a cup of black coffee in the other… and setting the latter down so I could fire up my MP3 player to the interview… taking my first few sips… and starting the day with Peter’s words resonating inside me.
I did this perhaps one hundred times
I mused how this job gave me the opportunity to spend literally hours per day absorbing the information and, perhaps, a beneficial vibration. At the very least, it felt right to do so. So I did.
On a practical level, the idea of taking a more relaxed and emotionally and mentally centered approach to business and building wealth made sense. I’d already experienced the haphazard results of compulsive action. And I’d also seen the other extreme, where men and women curled themselves in a safe blanket of “I’ll just visualize abundance,” not seeing how they were suffocating themselves from actual wealth.
I’d also experienced how Taoist meditation improved my disposition more than anything else I’d ever experienced. So I wanted more.
Because I understood the value of an ongoing, exponentially-increasing energy transmission, I jumped at the chance to sign up for Peter’s monthly coaching calls. My first was October 2012, and I made sure to ask a question right off the bat.
From there, I took action on what I asked and learned
One of the marvelous things about the monthly calls, was I added the recordings to my MP3 player line-up. I listened to them over and over.
Time seemed to slow down and even crawl to a virtual standstill. My days consisted of nothing but interacting with one person, and then standing outside alone, listening to call recordings. In the evenings, I’d focus on meditation, eating, working on my business, and resting my body.
I feel slightly frustrated writing this because I know there were so many bizarre experiences and insights I had, on a daily basis… and I’d like to communicate the most impactful ones. It makes me feel better to know that you can almost certainly relate to this experience (the insights and breakthroughs). We’re all going through a spiritual journey and the mind-boggling synchronicities we’re experiencing… well, they happen so much that, at least in my case, their boggling effect ceases… and simply become the norm.
Like when I was listening to a teleseminar recording while standing outside, and listened as the host spoke about the man who visualized white dogs eating his cancer. I imagined white dogs eating the negative energy in me… and within seconds a truck drove by with a white dog in the back, who barked at me.
“Whoa,” I thought. “Sure, I get dogs barking every couple of days… but a white dog within moments? Amazing.”
But not as amazing as having it happen four more times in just as many hours
Not all the dogs were white, but I’d never experienced anything like that before. Coincidence?
Or perhaps how, whenever I’d start dwelling on negative thoughts, a honking horn would rattle me to my senses. But, cars honk all the time, especially when you’re on the street corner. But honking almost every time you get stuck in negative thoughts? And happening so much that you get used to the friendly reminder, and say “thank you?”
I remember how feeling a universal love for everyone became more than something I’d just read about… but an experience. I’d see a beautiful woman in a car driving by, and I’d feel love for her. Then I’d turn my gaze to her pissed off-looking boyfriend in the driver’s seat, and I’d feel equal love for him.
That’s how I knew it was truly universal!
This experiential understanding flowed to many Taoist teachings. Like your eyes crossing and locking during meditation… experiencing the sensation of your microcosmic orbit… marveling at your body relaxing and aligning at a level deeper than you could consciously control or even imagine, and understanding why years of practice is required just to get started, and why the dedicated practitioners measure their practice in hours per day rather than minutes…
I also observed how the people I met were so significant and beautiful. For the next year or so of living in a cocoon, I’d bond with them like I never had with any human being before in this lifetime. I’ll write about them next…
