The Prosperity Code

BALBOA PRESS

Contents

Dedication...................................................................viiAcknowledgements.............................................................ixIntroduction: Why You Need This Book.........................................xiiiKey Number 1: What is Prosperity?............................................1Key Number 2: Your Order, Please.............................................5Key Number 3: It's Not Just a Good Idea, It's a Law!.........................9Key Number 4: Seven Steps to Using the Law of Attraction.....................15Key Number 5: Faith-You Must Believe.........................................27Key Number 6: Give, Give, Give...............................................37Key Number 7: The Secret Missing Link........................................45Key Number 8: The Dreaded F Word!............................................53Key Number 9: Have a Prosperity State of Mind................................61Key Number 10: Have A Regular Spiritual Practice.............................67Key Number 11: Examine And Modify Your Core Values...........................73Solving the Code: Putting it all Together....................................79Recommended Reading..........................................................85Afterword....................................................................87

Chapter One

In order to unlock the Prosperity Code, we must first come up with our own definition of prosperity, or abundance. It's probably safe to note that there are as many definitions of prosperity as there are people to define it.

I have been facilitating prosperity classes for more than two decades. Some years ago, I conducted a class where I asked my students to come up with a dollar figure at which they would consider themselves prosperous. After some extensive discussion and elimination of any number that included "a billion," the consensus was a relatively modest $500. The class all set this as their goal. They then did much the same work as you will do in this book to realize that figure.

I was conducting the weekly check-in as members of the class shared their prosperity stories some two weeks after we set the goal. We all applauded when someone had a successful event in his or her life over the previous week. I encouraged the class to report even if they found a penny on the sidewalk. Some reported receiving an unexpected amount of money, having a bill paid for them, or discovering a twenty-dollar bill used as a bookmark and forgotten long ago. It was always fun to hear how people found their abundance.

As the check-in time neared its end, one young woman stood up and announced, "I set my goal at $5,000, even though I thought it was out of reach." We all gasped, but she continued. "Today I was called into my supervisor's office. I was scared and wondered if I had done something wrong." She continued with an excited grin on her face, "I was wrong, all right! I was given a raise!" We congratulated her. But she put up a hand.

"Wait!" she cried. "Wait! The raise was for $5,000 a year!" We all went wild with excitement. She beamed and sat down.

And we never saw her again after that night.

To that young woman, her definition of prosperity was $5,000.

For the longest time, my personal definition of prosperity was to make $100,000 a year. A good friend of mine, when I shared my goal with him, said, "Why so low? God thinks you are entitled to more than a million dollars a year! You're limiting yourself!" So I revised my definition of prosperity drastically upward.

What's your definition?

"Prosperity" is more than having the most money, more than having the most shoes, more than having an unending supply of things, and more than dying with the most toys. You can be the richest person in the world in terms of things, yet you can lack any sort of human contact or meaningful relationships.

You can be apparently rich in things and impoverished in love. It's true that money can't buy real happiness—when we spend it exclusively on ourselves. (You may want to ask Howard Hughes the next time you're at a séance.)

One working definition of prosperity is being able to do what you want, when you want, with whom you want. This could include taking an exotic vacation to the Greek Isles on a chartered yacht; going on an unlimited, week-long shopping spree at Neiman-Marcus; or simply being able to take your clothes to the cleaners whenever you wished.

Another definition of prosperity is being able to give an unlimited amount of time and money to worthy causes. This may involve setting up a foundation whose name would be all over PBS. Or you may think of being like one very large player whose company name is a household word around the world, giving funding only on the condition that the company's name would not be revealed.

There is also prosperity of health and well-being. If you have an abundance of peace and harmony, anything else really doesn't matter. We may hear stories of Hindu mystics high in the Himalayas who contemplate infinity for many years. They could care less about the $500 goal of the prosperity class. They may spend their time caring about the natural world, which, of course, was here long before the $500.

As I have noted, financial prosperity is only one aspect of abundance. Abundance boils down to a sense of well-being. At any given moment, if you have a good sense of well-being, then you are prosperous and are experiencing abundance, joy, harmony, happiness, and fulfillment.

Think of a time when you felt really prosperous. It could be an early childhood memory when you discovered Santa had left you twenty-eight cents in your Christmas stocking, and you thought you were the richest kid in the world.

Or it could have been a time when you received an unexpected check or bonus and you decided to treat yourself and a loved one to a night on the town. It might be right after you moved into a new house, working at a new job, driving a company car, and living large on an expense account.

Abundance is often used interchangeably with prosperity. Abundance is a "gracious plenty" of the good things in life, as people would say in the Southern United States.

John Randolph Price defines abundance as "an all-sufficiency of supply, a full measure of infinite good. In the invisible, it is the creative energy of God In the visible world, it is that energy made manifest as money and every other food thing required for a free and harmonious life."

What's your vision of prosperity?

If you don't have a good working definition of prosperity, how are you going to know it when you get it?

Now, here's your chance to write in a book. Unless it is a library copy or an e-book, you can write your definition of prosperity right here. Take as much time as you need and as much space as you want (on an additional piece of paper) to write your definition. You will come back to it during the course of reading this book when you wish to modify and expand it.

It could be as simple as "I am prosperous when I can go out to eat six nights a week at great restaurants." Or it could be "I am prosperous when I can take my car to the car wash whenever it gets dusty." It can be as complex as "I am prosperous when I can take my family on a month-long, first-class trip to China and have a great time regardless of the cost."

So please fill in the blank.

I feel prosperous when ___________________________________.

How does being prosperous make you feel? I know that's the dreaded f word. But one day, you've got to get in touch with your feelings, especially if you want the techniques in this book to work for you.

Hold on to the memory of that feeling; you will need it later in this book.

Chapter Two

You have pulled up to the Universe's Drive Through Window, and the voice in the speaker says "Your order, please."

Are you going to order the same stuff you usually order? "Yeah," you say, "give me a helping of anxiety, some seasoned wretchedness, and a supersized cup of despair!"

"Ah, the usual!" says the voice. "We have a special going today: a heaping portion of unworthiness at no extra charge. Please pull ahead to the next window." So the Universe hands you more anxiety, wretchedness, and despair. Plus, a huge free helping of uselessness. With salted fries. And you are glad.

That's a simplification of how your life may have been going—up until now. You are getting exactly what you ordered.

"But," say you, "I didn't order that!"

I beg to differ.

At some deep level, you did.

The concept of taking personal responsibility for your life is one that is probably foreign to you. All your life you have believed that you were affected by the world out there. You believed that you have no more power over the course of your life than does a feather in the wind.

That sort of thinking is a mistake.

And mistakes, as noted in A Course in Miracles, are to be corrected, not punished.

That's one of the reasons why you are reading this book, or attending a class or seminar based on this material. You are going to find much of your present thinking challenged, and if you want to be prosperous, you will find that sort of thinking will need to be changed.

Here's a shocker for you: At some level, buried deep in your subconscious, you may truly believe that you are only worthy of worry and woe. You may have received an early massive injection of guilt. Somehow, you may have the idea that you were unworthy of abundance and prosperity.

Wouldn't you like to change that message?

Then crack the Prosperity Code and change your mind-set.

What's Your Mind-Set?

Your mind-set is your way of thinking about anything. It is the baseline for all your thoughts. It is from your mind-set that all your conscious and unconscious thoughts spring.

Your mind-set dictates the colors and flavors of your thoughts. Your mind-set is what tells you your place in your universe. Your mind-set is happily inhabited by your ego, which, by the way, hates change.

Take a look at your mind-set.

Do you have a scarcity mind-set or an abundance mind-set?

Someone with a scarcity mind-set sounds a lot like Daffy Duck at his most possessively manic: "It's mine! Do you hear me? It's all mine! Mine! MINE!" In the scarcity mindset, you create fear, desperation, depression, and anxiety. You are stuck in the rut of lack and limitation with no hope of ever digging your way out. In fact, the scarcity mind-set loves to dig deeper into your pond-scum filled reservoir of fears, frights, frets, and anxieties.

Resembling an out-of-control hoarder on one of those reality TV shows, you keep things you think are valuable. Before you realize it, you are trapped by all that "stuff" and negative thinking. "Never can tell when you will need a piece of string, can you?" asks the scarcity mind-set. "And save that rubber band with the thousands of others in your collection," it implores. Your scarcity mind-set believes the universe will take away everything if you don't hang on to it.

On the other hand, a person with an abundance mind-set knows deep down that the Universe is a place of giving, not taking. An abundance mind-set sees opportunities where others may not. An abundance mind-set sees life with a long-term outlook. Your abundance mind-set knows that your life is filled with opportunities and promise. And, yes cliché fans, that glass is half full.

What kind of mind-set do you have?

It's OK to acknowledge it. We're all friends here. What happens in this book stays in your note book, until the changes we are undertaking work their way into your sub-consciousness and then into your life.

After spending decades in the marketing industry, I observed that the Western-oriented mind is heavily stimulated by marketing. Marketing is the technique used to convince people that they need something they didn't know they needed. And they need it now. For example, men did not know that they could not live without a safety razor until King Gillette started giving the razors away, but charged for the blades.

It is interesting to note that our Western society is built on the scarcity mind-set. Pay conscious (versus unconscious) attention to advertising, and you will see carefully crafted examples of scarcity mind-set thinking. For example, you won't be popular unless you have the right underarm deodorant. Or people will hate you if you don't drive a particular kind of car, eat a certain kind of food or wear a specific type of makeup or hair dye.

Your children will be at a huge disadvantage unless they drink a particular brand of soda, eat a special cereal and wear the right clothes. Your beloved pet will have a stunted life unless you buy a special kind of food or toy or litter. Unless you have been friended by several thousand total strangers on your social network, you don't count.

How will you survive, your subconscious wonders, with all this lack and limitation? We must do something, says the scarcity mind-set.

Don't sit here, go out and buy something! Buy that underarm deodorant or coffee or cereal to be popular and loved and adored by thousands of people. (And, as an aside, be like everyone else, keeping up with the Joneses.)

Looking at the nightly news or listening to talk radio will also convince your subconscious that the world is going straight to Hell very quickly in a particularly grubby hand-basket. So, it urges you to do something about it: go out and buy a special antacid or luxury SUV and all will be well.

Well, at least the ride to Hell will be comfortable.

With a scarcity mind-set, mistakes are a Big Deal. The sky is in danger of crashing down on your head if you make even the smallest error. Punishment is right around the corner for even thinking of making the most minor infraction.

Can you identify with any of the above statements? Do you feel a sense of familiarity with any of the above? Your conscious mind may say not, but I'm betting that your subconscious mind is saying "You Betchya!"

When you change your Mind-set from Scarcity to Abundance, the world will change for you.

To change your way of life, change your way of thinking.

But first, you should study a little Law.

Chapter Three

We don't only live in a society of laws, we live in a whole Universe of Laws. These Laws are often referred to as Laws of Nature, Universal Laws or Spiritual Laws. We are not referring to physical laws such as the law of gravity; we're referring to laws that transcend and often trump the physical laws. Everything in the universe is affected by these principles.

This includes you.

And your vision of abundance.

There are many spiritual rules which cause you to live the life you live, and to know them is to unlock another portion of the Prosperity Code. There are many Universal Laws. Here are a select few for your consideration:

The Law of Oneness With All.

We are all One. We are the diverse parts of Source, all seeking to have our own experiences of good with Source. What happens to one of us affects all of us.

To understand this concept, we have to acknowledge that we actually operate on two planes or levels: the Physical, or Earthly plane and in Spirit, or Heavenly plane. We have our experiences of Source in two places: in the Physical plane, and in the Spirit plane. When we finish our experience on the Physical plane, we make our transition to the Spirit plane. This is where we evaluate our progress in achieving the goals we set for ourselves during the physical sojourn. Back home in the Spiritual plane, we set our goals for our next journey to the planetary plane.

The Law of Karma and Reincarnation.

This law essentially states that when you incur any kind of debt, you have to pay it back with interest. Here, I refer not to the debt on the credit card or to the mortgage company or the Student Loan program. I am referring to a debt which you incur to others which has little or no basis in things monetary. Remember, our actual Home is in the Spirit plane; we only visit the Physical plane (aka Earth) to work out problems or to help others work out their problems.

While having experiences on the Physical plane, we often become distracted from our goals because we will have forgotten them. These distractions may cause us to seemingly hurt someone or something we hold dear. If we have not agreed with the other soul prior to returning to the planetary plane that it was our duty to cause hurt, we will gather karmic debt. This debt may be discharged while still in the body through reconciliation, forgiveness and good deeds. If it is not, we will return to the physical with an obligation of karma to the other soul that we must discharge.

Again, we will have no memory of this karmic obligation because we have been given a dose of spiritual amnesia so we can discover our paths for ourselves, without a crib sheet.

The Law of Reflection.

The world without is a reflection of the world within. You may be familiar with the saying "As above, so below." What appears without is what has been found within. In the world within may be found infinite Wisdom, infinite Power, infinite Supply of all that is necessary, waiting for development and expression. If we recognize these potentialities in the world within, they will take form in the world without. Most of us live in the world without; only a few of us have found the world within, and yet it is our world within that makes our world without. That is why life is lived from the inside out.

The Law of Abundance.

We live in a Universe of Abundance. Everything and anything in the universe can be ours for the asking. The universe creates it to order. Everything which you find in your world without has been created by you in the world within. Inner thoughts of Abundance result in outer Abundance. Thoughts of lack result in outer manifestations of lack. As you think, so it is.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from The Prosperity Codeby Alan Batten Copyright © 2012 by Alan G. Batten. Excerpted by permission of BALBOA PRESS. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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