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The Magnificent Experiment

Balboa Press

Contents

1. The Beginning of the End of an Ancient Journey.....................12. The Spiritual Experiment...........................................53. The Secret of the Universe Revealed................................74. On Synchronicity...................................................115. Walking the Tao for the First Time.................................136. Don't Worry, Be Happy..............................................157. Peace of Mind......................................................178. Opposite Day.......................................................199. Encountering the Peacock...........................................2310. On Desire.........................................................2711. The Fisher and His Wife...........................................2912. The Riddle of the Broken Lamp.....................................3313. Why to Eat Cake When You Diet?....................................3714. Enlightenment as a Fantasy........................................4115. Melancholy........................................................4316. A Spiritual Promotion.............................................4517. Rosetta Stone.....................................................4718. Destiny...........................................................4919. On Fate...........................................................5120. Just Sit There....................................................5321. Creative Tensions and Peace.......................................5522. On Dying Daily....................................................5923. The World as a Symbol.............................................6124. The Flow..........................................................6325. The Power of Positive Thinking....................................6526. A Christian Power of Positive Thinking............................6927. The Adventure of Bonnie and Clyde.................................7128. How May I Help You?...............................................7329. On Creativity.....................................................7730. The Interconnected World..........................................8131. The Moses Challenge...............................................8332. A Happy Bystander.................................................8533. The Climb.........................................................87

Chapter One

Whenever righteousness falters and chaos threatens to prevail, I take on a human body and manifest myself on earth. Lord Krishna, Bhagavad Gita

He was sitting in a conference room with a group of experts at the onset of the Global Financial Crisis. He was a macro strategist whose job it was to predict the coming melt-down of financial markets and economies that was just about to hit. His colleague from the troubled US mortgage area started the discussion and it soon became clear to everyone in the room that the first dominos of a vicious big chain were starting to tip over. Yet, somewhere in this group dialogue something strange happened to him; a wonderful energy rose up his spine and peace penetrated him in a way that he had never experienced before.

Many books on spirituality describe the state that you are likely to experience when you are 'there'. Few describe the process of waking up to a new reality as a transition to a new world. A spiritual awakening is a process and not an event. I was that financial strategist who experienced the onset of the Global Financial Crisis as a symbol of my spiritual renaissance. I am an expert in the analysis of transitions — changes experienced by societies, economies and financial systems. Perhaps that is the reason why I have been chosen to share with you the most magnificent transition of them all, the journey home to our Source. A spiritual transformation can happen in unexpected stages of our lives and in surprising situations, just as I discovered it. Given that this book has found you, a similar transformation is probably in store for you. This is how the Tao typically works. As they say, when the student is ready, the teacher shows up.

A spiritual journey seems mystical and magic when you first encounter it, yet at the same time it is carefully planned to the minute detail well ahead over decades. The Tao is a spiritual path that will stay magic for those who believe that it is, or a process that is explained to you in a language that every child could understand for those who seek rational answers. The Tao responds to you in whatever way it is most meaningful to you. I started my journey as a scientist. I have a Ph.D. in economics and have been a rational minded person all my life, but along my path new personality dimensions opened up. Today I would call myself as much an artist and connector as a scientist. I figure that is what traveling the Tao is all about — it is a journey towards wholeness.

You will hear the word experiment a lot in this book, just because I have lived my life for a number of years now as a big experiment and turned pretty much everything I learned upside down — not because it is fun, there actually have been a few scary moments along the way — but because I somehow had to. Once the Tao gets a hold of you, you no longer really have a choice. The analogy that comes to mind is that of a car wash. You spend your time searching for the 'beyond' very much as a driver looks out for the ramp at the car wash. But then you connect and after a little fine-tuning you suddenly realize that a different Force has taken over. At that time the best you can do is to let go of the steering wheel as you are no longer in control. Staying with the car wash analogy, a spiritual path is really a clean up process. All the aspects of the 'I' that are artificial are simply washed away until all that is left is the Core that has been around for thousands of years. This book shares my observations about this magnificent synchronization process with a Force beyond our comprehension. There is no leap of faith required, you can experiment with this Force along the way and you will be in for a ride that is very real and simply magnificent. Enjoy your journey!

Chapter Two

How can one have faith in God in today's modern world? A lot of people struggle with the concept of faith, you probably do as well. I hope that my book can help you put this faith question to rest once and for all. I observed that there is a Force out there that can be observed and studied. Sure, it is subtle, yet it is very visible. This Force encourages you to reposition your life all the time. It will unfortunately take a while to practice this communication with the 'beyond', but the few mistakes as much as the many successes are fun to experience. Faith is not really an issue just because you experience these lessons. If you can perceive the effects of this metaphysical Force, why on earth would you not trust it?

Heinrich Schliemann was a wealthy German businessman and decided after reading Homer's Iliad that the city Troy was real and he followed the geographic descriptions to track it down in today's Turkey. That's what entrepreneurial and scientific minds do; they follow a hunch, work under the assumption that their conjecture is right and discover their nugget of wisdom. Searching for the 'reality' behind the observed reality is like...