When someone first sent me the link to "The Secret" before it came out officially, I was initially a bit down on it. While I was excited to see that it was bringing Attraction 101 to a mass audience, I was also a bit concerned about its focus on the material existence. I have since defended it more often than put it down in conversations with fellow consciousness players, as - while I think these tools are not there to attract a Lexus or a big villa - I think it is crucial for our time that people become aware of their part in creating reality.

It's a kind of magic...

My friend Zee once put it that way: there are four different kinds of magic (he said witches, but I am borrowing freely): white magic, black magic, brown magic and technicolor magic. The first is about using conscious creativity tools to help people, the second is used to fulfill ego desires. Had to some extent placed "The Secret" here, as it was showing soul refinement tools in the context of acquiring material riches.

There are two interesting aspects to this:

• Teaching people they can do magic
• Covering the basics

Becoming aware of conscious creativity

Most people, using Zee's definitions, are brown witches, i.e. they are stuck creating shit for themselves. Their acceptance of publicly advertised and preached scarcity left them believing that the world is a shitty place, where one needs things to be happy, those things are finite, and hence we need to compete and fight over them. Exposed to some of the concepts in "The Secret" one would hope that at least they are moving on to black magic, and if one can hope that this initial hit would get them more interested, further into white magic, and ultimately into technicolor magic, where we learn to use our consciousness to create a super fun filled reality for ourselves and everyone around us. So in that regard, I think the book/movie, is definitely doing something good. Together with Harry Potter and some of the other movies out there, it might just entice people to learn a bit more and go deeper (unlike the guy from some Long Beach familiy, who ended up sitting at home trying to visualize his new million dollar life and stopped going to work leading to a harsh financial situation for his family). My friends Chance and Vanese actually just published a series called "The Great Work", the intro DVD being called "The Secret behind the Secret". The series covers the material, the emotional, the intellectual and the spiritual plane. There is hope that people might actually want to jump of that cliff and enter the abyss of personal transformation...

Covering Maslow's basics

The second aspect really dawned on me this morning. Had the pleasure of having breakfast with Marc Victor Hansen and a couple of people I met last weekend at the Global Summit. Here was Marc, a multi-millionnaire thanks to his "Chicken Soup for the Soul"  and the many ventures since. And he wasn't talking about his yacht, luxury travels, or the expensive watch on his arm. Instead, the conversation revolved around how we could do something important to help this world, especially anticipating a world-wide financial crisis created by fear mongers and scarcity thinkers. Having his future days paid for, he did not revert to lazy idle luxury living, on the contrary, it seemed that he is as active if not more so than before, but now he is playing an even bigger game.

This made me think of Maslows pyramid of needs. In today's world it is somewhat ridiculous that we have not met the basic human needs on a larger scale. We have plenty of technology for it: Bucky Fuller calculated in the 1980's that we had plenty of technology to have everyone on this planet live like Mr. Rockefeller. Considering it's been thirty years since, it is pretty disgusting to think that half of the population on this planet makes less than $2 a day and that 70% of humanity do not have food, clothing and shelter every day.

A movie like the secret I think can help to eliminate scarcity thinking and help provide people with the material basics, that then allow them to move up in the hierarchy, ultimately toward self-actualization, in my mind the main reason for us being in this reality.

Dharma instead of careers

Each of us has natural gifts and talents. One reason I think that our world is so out of whack is that instead of discovering and fostering these in our children and enticing them to use them to create their reality, we try to press them into prefab careers. Not surprisingly, so many people are ultimately miserable in their jobs (think I mentioned before the connection of job to Job in the bible - a story of suffering).

Talking with Marc this morning made me think that maybe there is even more good in teaching people who to manifest material success as a first step toward opening up to the rest. If people no longer need jobs, I think, they will not become lazy, but on the contrary begin to use their gifts to follow their joy. Especially facing an impeding economic crisis, this is a beautiful thought.

Apologies to the makers of "The Secret"

So, my apologies if I have put you down because I did not get that people a) respond more easily to material pleasure and hence this movie can serve as a Trojan Horse for more conscious work and b) that I did not get the notion that if material things are taken care of, this might lead to people actually returning to their dharma and ultimately making this a better place.

Keep manifesting! 

It's been a while since I updated my blog. In part this was due to the last eight months spent commuting back and forth between LA and New York every week. Had a lovely time there, but am happy to be back in the sunshine world of Los Angeles. While in New York, I was working on a project for an international $5b fashion company and - due to my working on integration and finance systems - I got to learn about the whole wing-to-wing process in fashion. Another industry under my belt...

Each time, I work on a project like this, I wonder what I am supposed to learn and how that can help my overall mission of global transformation through authentic self-expression. Well, fashion is one of the original forms of self-expression. From the first humanoid who decided to put on special furs or animal horns to stand out, to today's multi-billion dollar fashion industry, the clothes we wear are an expression of who we are and what we want to share with the world.

While there, I decided that after years of wearing only plain clothing, it was time to express myself in new ways. Meditating on Yoko Ono's quote that you have not created art unless half of your audience is booing at the end, I went all out and elaborated on the "Fuck" theme I had started a while ago.

Hence I created scapegoat.us, a new label, and have been wearing my t-shirts on a daily basis. In addition to that, there is also a bunch of lovely other merchandise. Christmas is coming up, so get yours now!

Some people misunderstand the "fuck" as an aggressive or negative thing. This could not be further from the truth, it's about giving it up. Be done. Stop suffering, shame, fear, pain, anger, worry, all of those emotions that do not help in the least. You will feel them, sure, you definitely should not suppress them, but for fuck's sake, make them useful! Use them to grow and become more and more of who you really are...

So don't hesitate! Get your own personal reminder now! 

Life isn't about finding yourself, it's about creating yourself. In the face of a culture that worships material goods, nationalistic politics, and shallow pop entertainment, we figured it's time for something different. So a few of my lovely friends and I got together and created doxaworx - our own culturelab.

On doxaworx you will be able to find neat stuff we are coming across online, art, poetry, whatever we find interesting enough to put up there. Enjoy! 

After all the flying back and forth I ended up staying in New York last weekend. In part, because I wanted to meet some wonderful friends of mine, Bo and Jordan. Bo is one of the two masterminds behind The Bright Room (formerly known as Horror Crash Puzzle). They recently relocated to New York from LA thus I hadn't seen them in a while and wanted to check out their new digs. Had a lovely evening with them, synchronistically ending up in a restaurant the delightful stranger I met on the plane the week prior had recommended.

The other reason was that I wanted to go to COSM, the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors, a project by Alex and Allyson Grey, two amazing artists I cherish quite a bit. Enjoyed an inspiring tour by Alex on Saturday evening and highly recommend you check out his work if you are not familiar with it - and maybe even support his cause with COSM...



The prelude for the weekend was that with my being in New York, my friend deposited a check for me last week, which under normal circumstances should have cleared within the week. Well, the bank decided to hold it for two weeks, much to my dismay. I called them up Saturday morning just to be told that there was nothing at all they could do about this, and that the earliest ANY of the funds would be available would be a week later.

This was quite troubling to me as I was starting to run out of cash and could not fathom a whole other week in New York without these funds. I was actually quite pissed and angry, worried and frustrated about all this. Fortunately, I remembered that no matter what the circumstances, the only thing I can control is my state of being. So I decided to go for a walk in Central Park and talk to a tree about all this. If you have never taken the time to talk to a tree, I highly recommend it. I know it might sound somewhat insane, but then we live in a rather insane world, and logically, doing insane things in an insane world more often than not might be quite sane...

Anyway, as soon as I left the house I found a penny. If you did not read my post about pennies, I usually take them as a sign from the universe that everything will be just fine and that I do not need to worry. As I was walking I focused on my breathing and emptying my mind, and intuition guided me to a beautiful tree. I approached the tree and asked for permission to sit with it for a while.

Sitting on a root of the tree I closed my eyes and focused on emptying my mind, inhaling and exhaling. I vowed not to open my eyes or leave the tree until I felt completely calm again, and all the pissed off energy had left my body. Slowly but surely it began to dissipate and serenity began to take over.

After about twenty minutes I felt completely calm, knowing that everything would be just fine. Sure enough, as I opened my eyes, there was a penny, right in front of me laying by the root of the tree. I have no idea if it was there before, but even if - out of all the trees in Central Park I picked one with a penny right beside it... I laughed and knew that everything was going to be just fine. Walking back to the apartment, I had my normal joyous state of being back, bounced a little in my gait and knew that all would be well. Sure enough, as I arrived back at the apartment, I decided to check my account balance... The whole check had miraculously cleared (thank you tree!).

So, next time you are frustrated, angry, pissed off or worried, remember to adjust your thinking. That is the only thing you ultimately have control over. And if you can't do it by yourself, find yourself a tree and ask for help... Miracles do happen... ;-)

Coming back from New York to LA the other day I laughed as I walked down the hallway and picked up that week's LA Weekly. Love the wonderous ways in which the universe talks sometimes... (and there has been a lot of that including tons more pennies).

Am officially bi-coastal in that I now have apartments in both places and spend equal amount of time in each city, with an additional half-day of my week spent above the clouds (and another one in airports). Beautifully disorienting creating a very conscious imprint vulnerability...

What is particularly intriguing to me is that I get to have such wonderful cross-brain training: on the right coast I work on a finance transformation initiative a rather left brain focused endeavor (as much as it is an art as well) and I live in a corporate apartment. On the left coast, I live in an artist loft and am building an organization dedicated to conscious creativity...

Fortunately, balance is already in the making, the system strives for equilibrium thanks to connecting with some lovely friends in New York and to making some wonderful connections at work with the first conversations on yoga, life, meaning etc. already in full gear... Yesterday my friend Tammy from the Self Centered Tour and I met at COSM, a most wonderful place I recommend to anyone in New York. Experienced a beautiful story-telling based presentation on Ayuasca with presenters like Alex Grey and Daniel Pinchbeck from Reality Sandwich. Several of the stories that night were touching and it was great to see over 200 people assembled, intersted in expanding their human capacities through expanding their consciousness using age old traditions.

Then had a lovely new acquaintance on the airplane today who gave me a list of places to check out in New York (bizarrely enough, while I was waiting to board, I had noticed her and decided I wanted to sit next to her in the airplane - and sure enough did...).

Looking forward to exploring the conscious and art side of New York, while building c3 into a business in LA...