Stop WANTING WANTING — and HAVE IT! IT! Crossing the Gap by Peter Michel
It's not easy undoing the mind. Particularly, when we have built up so many concepts of limitation. But, each of us who has taken the Abundance Course has embarked on that journey to undo all our limits and move into having, being and doing all of our highest and most noblest desires. There is nothing noble nothing noble in hanging out in lack, limitation, and suffering. It is base, ego, unworthy of the Being that you are. Are you ready to rise up and finally CLAIM, in a bold and courageous way, your birthright of Abundance, Freedom, Inner Peace and Security, and Unlimited Love? If not now, ask yourself, when would you be ready? Stop "playing" with your goals As I sit down to write this article, I have but one intention. That intention is to jolt you out of complacency, just in case you have inadvertently settled into a comfort zone with releasing, as sometimes happens. How often do you "play" at releasing? Do you release a little bit here and there and then stop? Often we play we play with with our goals, unconsciously not really wanting or expecting to actually achieve them. achieve them. Most of us are often afraid of both failing and failing and succeeding in succeeding in achieving our goals, and so we don't really make the decision to shift our consciousness into the consciousness of having our goals. We fear the ego backlash. We fear the "beating ourselves up" that has come so many times in the past when we tried and failed. Or, we fear the
consequences of actually getting what we want and then regretting it or realizing it doesn't really make us happy. Because of these fears, we haven't truly made the decision yet to create our life according to our intentions. Perhaps we feel it is safer to drift comfortably along with our unconscious programs rather than shake things up a little. Rarely do we dare take the leap into having our most lofty goals. But, DARE we must, if we ever wish to be completely free and without limits. Take a look. Where have you been playing with your goals? Pick one that you seem to have been "releasing on" seemingly forever. Can you see you could remain stuck and be releasing "on it" forever, instead of releasing "it" and finally claiming your goal as achieved NOW? If you've been playing around with your goals, take a check to see if you're ready to turn your weak wishes into solid intentions. We all get stuck in wishing from time to time, and it doesn't get us very far. This isn't to say that our little bit of "picking at our limits" is going to waste. It can certainly help us feel a little lighter and happier. But, is that what you're really after? To feel a little happier and a little lighter? Will that really satisfy you? No. Never in a million years. Why? Because you know in your Beingness that you are NOT LIMITED and you'll never be totally happy until you regain that natural state. Dare to Think Big So, DARE! Dare to go for HAVING your highest and most noble goals. With the achievement of each goal, you will undo a little more of the mind and begin to identify more and more with your unlimited Beingness. When we see clearly it is we who are creating every situation and every circumstance in our life and start to realize the power we have over such situations, then we begin to deeply recognize that the outer is merely much a reflection of the inner. When we really see this, the outer BECOMES the inner to us, and vice versa. The veil of illusion of separation begins to drop and we begin to feel that every atom "out there" in creation is really nothing
but our own Consciousness. It is our own thinking projected "outwards" on the blank screen of Being. It is really projected "inwards," actually. It is all in our minds. Like turning off a TV set, we can "turn off" the world Now, this might sound really strange, but if you take it for checking, you'll find it to be true. If you were to consciously turn off your mind—that is, put it to rest as you do in deep sleep every night— the world would vanish. Not one single person, nor one single object can exist if you did not have a subjective personal awareness of such in your mind. Think the "outer" can exist independent of your "inner" thinking? Prove it. Stop all your thinking, conscious and subconscious, and then offer one shred of evidence that there is someone besides yourself "out there." Even if the ego-mind completely evaporated, You... the "I " of You, remains. That is the permanent and perfect part of yourself... your Beingness, which never changes and can never be wetted, burned, cut, blown up, destroyed, increased or decreased. It is ever the same perfect Being. This entire universe is your own mental creation. It exists in one place and one place only—within you. Just as in a night dream when you go to bed at night and suddenly the room is filled with mountains and buildings and oceans and people. How did all that get into your bedroom? And where do they go when you wake up? In the closet? In your night dream, they are all very real to you. In the dream you have a dream body and others have dream bodies. You feel the entire drama to be real. If you are falling off a cliff or being chased by a madman with a knife, you feel afraid and your body secretes fear hormones. If you are having a sexual dream, the body gets aroused. It doesn't know the difference. Why? Because there is none. It is all in your mind. Perhaps the only real difference between the night dream and this day dream we are all living, is we don't wake up so easily from the day dream. Or, as Larry has so optly calls it, a daymare, for too many of us!
That is why we think it so real. Because we can't seem to wake up from it due to our mental tendencies. So few people wake up from it like Lester did, but more and more are awakening. Those using releasing on a regular basis are rapidly awakening to the unreality of the so-called "outer" world and to the reality of the unchanging, permanent and perfect Being within---the real Inner Self. "I only know that which I can do, not say ." - Lester Levenson The real proof of releasing is evidenced only by our achievements and our experiences of greater freedom and limitlessness. We only know what we can "do" not what we "theorize" as being possible. How limitless are you right now? Take a check. Have you let your limits keep you crammed up in a little box of mediocrity or do you dare challenge those self-imposed limits and boldly and impudently move into HAVING your desires? The danger of "familiarity" It's easy to get stuck in the complacency of wanting. It is very, very painful to desire things, but somehow it is familiar and almost feels safer than daring to assume the consciousness of having our desires now. This is like a woman being beaten repeatedly by her abusive husband. She knows she needs to leave, but she is more afraid of what will happen if she leaves than of the beatings. And so, she remains and continues to get beaten. That's like us and our egos. It whips us and beats us, but we remain with it out of fear, "Who would I be without my suffering and limitation? Oh, I'm too afraid to let that go." Or another example would be the prisoner who is set free from prison but who is reluctant to step outside the prison gates because it has become more familiar to be behind bars and he fears the world outside the prison walls. We all do this. We shut ourselves down. We thwart our limitlessness and feed our limitation with our "Oh, poor me, I'm limited" whining, instead of being bold, courageous and daring. We keep ourselves in a painful, mental straightjacket, whilst our Infinite
Being waits for us to identify with It, instead of with the mind and all its limits. The power of decision We allow ourselves to be trapped in the status quo —a lukewarm comfort zone that is neither here nor there —that is literally our deathbed, while we claim we "live." I must challenge this assumption. How can we truly LIVE if we are not actively and constantly pushing past our limits? We don't need to push past our outer limits, as that is futile. But, we must push past our perceived inner limits. Truly, that is all we can do. We do this not with an efforting "push." But with the power of our DECISION. We stand boldly and claim as ours now that goal that before seemed way off in some distant "hopeful" future. With the DECISION to have your goals now, and by releasing whatever your ego throws up at you by knocking out the three primary "wants", you collapse time and space and do away with all effort. You take the path of least resistance and move on to "hit the mark" and inwardly achieve your goal by assuming it is already achieved. And soon, the outer world matches up with the inner. Instead of moving through time and space and "waiting" and "hoping" your goals come to you "someday," you immediately and bodly assume the attitude of HAVING, BEING, or DOING that goal now . Call it "having faith" or whatever term you wish to use. I like the term impudence, which means to boldly, daringly and almost offensively ASSERT that what you previously desired is yours now , and that you absolutely, positively HAVE it NOW and won't settle for any other option. That's what a decision is. It is cutting off all other options and settling on only one. It is a concentrated thought. All concentrated thoughts are extemely powerful, like a laser as opposed to an incandescent bulb.
An example of pure impudence That's what Lester did when he decided to prove the principle. He left his home with the decision that he was going to Los Angeles from New York. He brought NO MONEY with him. He simply packed his bags and went to the airport without a ticket, confident that he was going. When he arrived at the airport he asked the woman at the gate if there were anymore seats available. She told him the flight that was about to leave was completely booked up, but if he waited, perhaps someone would not show up and he could get their seat. While he was standing there, another person asked her the same question and also waited on line behind Lester in case there was another person who did not show. Within minutes, the gate attendent reached right around Lester and grabbed the other guy and said, "We have an opening for you." Lester was completely unphased. He had already fully accepted he was going to L.A. A moment later the gate attendent saw Lester standing there and said, "Oh my goodness, what did I do?" She apologized to Lester and told him there was a seat open in First Class, which he happily accepted. He was put on a flight without money and the same happened for the return flight. He reminds us never to release to "get the money to get the goal" as then we might end up with the money and not the goal. We should go straight for what we want. Lester chose a first class flight to L.A. and he got it without money. When you make a decision the entire universe moves to support you. No, it is mine now! Once you have made your decision, although your mind tells you that your goal is off in some distant future and tries getting you to exert effort towards its "eventual" achievement, you say, "No. It is mine now." You simply accept it to be true, and you release the limiting desires and feelings the mind throws up, and boldy and confidently rest in that feeling of HAVING that goal right now.
If you are not doing this, then you are stuck in resistance. You are sheepishly going about "trying" to achieve your goals. The Goals & Resistance Course will help you move past that stuckness. Instead of standing in having the goal , and releasing the underlying wanting approval, control and security that get stirred up, we shy away from the goal entirely and get stuck in futilely "hoping" it comes to us. But, it never does come. Goals, goals, go away! Most of us hate goals. Why? Because they stir up our aversions, our dislikes. But, that's the point of doing goal charts in the Release Technique---to bring these aversions up to the surface so they can be released. There is no other way to release them. Continuing to suppress them sure isn't going to do it. Our passive timidity towards our goals is like boat drifting on the high seas without a sail, oars, or an engine. We are simply adrift . The Stand Are you ready to take a stand with me? A bold one? I made a personal decision on a goal today and now it is mine. It is mine for no other reason than because I have claimed it. Not because of dumb luck, an accident, a stoke of good fortune or anything else. The cause is always within. I'm not sure what took me so long to claim it other than an unconscious doubt, but when I began claiming it today by assuming it was mine and releasing any thoughts or feelings that came up contrary to having it, what a powerful feeling flooded through me. What joy and freedom —and knowingness that it was already mine. I felt it as a "done deal" the moment I made the decision. Want to know the decision I made? I made the decision to never, ever "have to" work for a living every again. Lost in space
Surprisingly, I never claimed this before today. I kept releasing "toward it" and kept figuring, "Well, someday it will come." Well, you know what? Tomorrow NEVER COMES for us when we keep our goals there. It can never come because things only show up for us according to the consciousness we assume NOW. That is the only time there is. I kept it forever in some safe distant future in my mind, reasoning it was "no big deal" to have to work for a living, and reasoned that it was somehow NOBLE to do so---which, I will now admit is complete and utter baloney. The future is where that goal would have remained forever had I not claimed it. It is a big deal Such a goal is a very big deal, not only for me, but FOR ALL OF US. Why? Because working for a living is a SLAVE MENTALITY. It is ego. It is not in our best and highest interest, nor in anyone else’s that we live as slaves. We were not born to be slaves to our minds, to other people's egos, or to outer circumstances. We were born to assert our Independence and claim our birth right of true Freedom—Inner Freedom—the ability to have, do or be anything we will or desire —or to NOT have, do or be something. And, to be 100% happy no matter what the outer circumstances. In the highest state, bombs could be dropping all around us and we could still be totally happy and at peace. That is the real treasure we all seek. Our reaction to the world is far more important than our circumstances. For instance, would you prefer to be in a prison cell and have Inner Freedom and Happiness — or to be miserable with painful programs of
lack and limitation, while your body sat in some tropical paradise? I know which one I would choose. I'd go for the inner paradise whilst my body was in a prison cell. How could the other possibly be paradise? "Doership" is a bunch of "doo doo" Is it okay to work? Certainly! But, it should not be required for survival. It should not be an "I have to work" or an "I should work," but rather an "I choose to serve and uplift others from a place of love." Our work should come from a place of non-doership, where we feel we are being not the doer , and simply "allow" the work to get done perfectly and without exerting mental effort. It is as if the work is being done "through" us. There's a saying along these lines, "I do without doing and everything gets done." This is the state Lester was talking about when he repeatedly said, "Be not the doer." No more effort. No more time. The time for the realization of all our goals is always only NOW, and it requires no effort. It is simply a "now" assumption of having. It's a DECISION. It is moving into being the person you wish to be—the person who already has the goal—whether it be freedom, prosperity, unlimited happiness, the perfect relationship, a career goal or a new house. How would it feel if you had your desire fulfilled right now? If you can't get yourself to feeling it is yours now, then you will never have it. It won't happen in ten million years. Micro vs. Macro goals We manifest "micro" goals all the time, but somehow always fall short on the "big" ones. I hear this all the time: "I'm seeing a lot of great little gains, but I don't seem to be achieving as many of my BIG goals as I would like."
Let me explain why this happens. Our "micro-goals" come to us effortlessly because we are already "hootless" about them. We simply take them for granted, and so we barely take notice when we achieve them. Hundreds of times a day we achieve these micro-goals. We take them totally for granted —such as brushing our teeth or making our lunch. These are micro-goals. They are intentions. But because we have no resistance to achieving them, they are nothing more than an effortless thought to us. We set an intention and simultaneously "assume" that that intention is fulfilled. Then, we very easily achieve that intention without struggle or effort. "Get to the place where you can just think and have things happen." - Lester Levenson Because we are hootless about these micro-goals and have no resistance to achieving them, they simply "happen" as if on their own. Yet, there is always a thought of having that precedes their achievement. So, why can't we do this with the "big stuff "? We can! Lester challenges us to think big. He points out that the same exact process we use to manifest a dollar is the same process to manifest a million dollars: "If you can demonstrate a penny, you can demonstrate a million dollars. The mind sets the size." Take note of how you are manifesting the dollar and then just add six zeros after it. By releasing... by doing attachments and aversions to your goals... you get to the place where the big stuff feels like micro stuff. In other words, you get hootless about it. How hootless are you about having an extra million dollars? Or about having perfect health, or perfect weight, or the perfect mate, or complete inner Freedom, or...?
Make the goal "micro" by releasing. Stop making it such a big deal, as your mind will forever keep it as "big stuff" and you'll forever feel it is outside your reach. I double dare you to think FROM your goal So, will you dare to turn a "big" goal into a "micro" goal through releasing? Think of how you would feel if you had your goal right now. Think "from" having it. That is, know that it is yours right now and feel the gratitude of having it now. "Never think of things as coming in the future, as the mind will keep it in the future. See it, feel it, taste it, possess it as yours now. Do not see it in its 'Will-be-ness'." - Lester Levenson As you move into the feeling of having it, notice the immense release from the painful bondage of wanting and then rest in the joy of having — which is really just resting in the joy of Being. Again, don't think "of it" but rather, think "from it." Be the end. Be the goal achieved without time or effort. Crossing the gap I've been pondering how to make it easy for releasers to cross this gap on a consistent basis. Here is an exercise you can use to make the "leap without distance" from wanting into having: 1. Relax your body as much as possible. You can close your eyes. A relaxed body leads to self-confidence. There can be little doubt/resistance when the body is fully relaxed, as the body is an expression of the mind. Ease in the body = ease in the mind. 2. Notice any general contractions in your feeling center (your stomach or chest area) and allow them to leave through a tube, window, door, etc. Let go more and more and more. 3. Once relaxed, bring to mind something that you already have that was once a goal. Perhaps you once wanted a home, a car or some other material gain. Perhaps you wanted to have a child. Perhaps it was your college degree or career. Notice the feeling inside. Notice
how it feels now that you actually have the goal. Is there any effort? No. Does it remain forever lost in some hazy distant future as something that you someday "hope" to have? No. Of course not. Because you already have it. It is yours right now . There is No Effort and No Time needed to achieve it, because it's yours. This is precisely the consciousness of having that you must assume to have any goal. That is the only way you ever achieved any goal. Okay? So take note of that feeling of having. 4. Now think of a goal you have been wanting very much. Allow yourself to feel how much you want it. 5. Now picture yourself , as if in a movie, achieving that goal. Keep it in the third person where you don't quite feel that you have the goal, but rather the "movie character" version of you has it. 6. Notice the feeling of desire and effort is still there. You still want it. It still feels like it is "out there" as you think "of it." 7. Now, begin releasing the clutch, the wanting, the underlying wanting approval, control and security, more and more. 8. And finally, make an inner shift of consciousness where you... DARE to ASSUME that it is yours RIGHT NOW. That's right. It is no longer "out there" as if in a movie or in the future. You are it now. With such an assumption, you've mentally collapsed time and space. You've dropped all effort. The goal is no longer in some distant future. It is yours RIGHT NOW. Feel the gratitude of having it, knowing it is yours now . Feel the ease and happiness knowing you can now finally REST from that painful desire. It is yours at last. Get a sense of that. It may feel like, "Ahhhh... thank you!" Notice the natural release that comes when you move from thinking of the goal into thinking from the feeling of already having the goal. Such is the difference between lack/wanting and abundance/having. Thinking "of it," as most people do, is nothing more than a weak wish and it will forever remain an idle daydream. Thinking "from it" is being CAUSE via your assumption/impudence and it will be demonstrated in your outer world very quickly. 9. Got it? Feel it is yours now? Congratulations! You made the leap across the chasm—the "gap" between wanting and having. It is no gap at all when you do it... but it's an infinite distance if you don't do it. It takes no time when you do it, and forever if you don't.
10. You're not quite done yet. Remember to PERSIST in this feeling of HAVING or BEING your goal. If doubts arise, use the Release Technique to let them go. Thoughts, tendencies, feelings and resistance may still arise. Allow them up and release them and return again and again to your controlled and focused feeling of having your goal in this moment without any effort. Then, go about your day without effort. Just keep releasing. The more natural and sustained your feeling of HAVING your goal now, the faster it will manifest in the outer world for you. It must. It is absolutely inevitable as your consciousness is the sole cause for everything you are experiencing. Everything! All these steps can be summed up in just one step. I have broken it down into the steps above to help guide you into the feeling of having or being your goal, as I often see releasers failing to get to this point---and instead they get stuck endlessly releasing "on" their goals. The one single step that is required to have anything you desire is simply this:
Feel the goal is yours right now without thoughts to the contrary . "Think only what you want and that is all you will ever get." - Lester Levenson
The most powerful action Put aside 30 minutes or more every day to take the most powerful and effective action you can ever take towards the achievement of your goals. That action is to release and be 100% ACTIONLESS; to be 100% EFFORTLESS; to collapse space and time and think FROM the feeling that your goals are already achieved, instead of thinking "of" them as some distant goal. Maintain a state of desirelessness. Mastering this ability, you become master of your life and world. There is nothing that will be impossible to you. The secret to your limitless achievement lies in only one place—in your ability to assume the feeling that you are already having, being or doing your goal. No power on earth can stop you from having anything you desire when you live this way. Such is the power of faith, and such is the power of releasing to destroy one's doubts.
So, have you done it? Think about your goal again. Do you feel it is yours now? Are you reveling in the happiness of having it? Are you feeling deeply thankful that it is yours now with a sense of peace and ease, now that the painful desire is released? If yes, perfect. Live in that feeling until it comes to pass in the outer and continue to release any objections your mind attempts to throw up at you. If not, then go through the steps again and again until you have fully assumed the feeling of having the goal. It will likely take some practice, as the mind resists change and is usually very unfocused. But, that is what the Method is for —to help knock out extraneous thoughts that keep you from being inwardly quiet and focused on the feeling of having your goal. Use it to your full advantage. Changing the reflection "out there" If you are out and about making all sorts of mental effort trying to "get things" and "do things" without first assuming mentally that "It is mine now. It is done," then you are spinning your wheels and will be wasting great amounts of effort where it will do you no good. If you are just releasing a tiny bit here and there and then going about your life using effort to "try to achieve" your goals, then you are working 180 degrees in the wrong direction. STOP! Don't waste another moment! Instead, invest your time wisely in an inward direction with releasing where you can get to the place where you feel your goal is already achieved. Then it will come of its own accord outwardly. Taking outer action before shifting the inner state is like looking in the mirror, disliking how your hair looks, and then spending days trying to "adjust" the reflection in the mirror! It is a complete waste of time and effort! In order to change the reflection, you must adjust the self-image you hold of yourself within. You must assume that you already ARE the one you desire to be and your outer world will begin changing
immediately— just as taking a comb or brush to your hair will change the appearance of your hair in the mirror instantly . It can be no other way. All change comes from within. The keys points to remember are: 1. No effort. Be effortless. Make ZERO mental effort in achieving any goal. Simply assume the feeling of "It is done I have it now. Thank you!" Take no outer actions towards your goal, except as they come effortlessly and spontaneously in a released state. No inner effort. It should feel as if you are floating. Simply, make your claim of having your goal within, and then release any ego resistance and allow your body to float through life without being the "doer." Allow . Allow things to happen. Be the witness. The outer will rearrange itself to reflect back to you your new inner assumption without further mental involvement. —
2. No time. Do not think it requires time to have your goal or your mind will keep it in the future. You must assume it as yours NOW. Ask yourself, "How would I feel if I had my goal right now?" You'd feel wonderful! You'd feel at ease. You'd feel grateful! That is the feeling. Assume that feeling of having. Enjoy the feeling of having the goal now , not in the future. The feeling of peace that comes from knowing that we already have our goal is the peace of resting in our Beingness, as the painful desire is released and we immediately feel whole, complete and satisfied. 3. Don't release "on it." Release "it." Releasing "on it" is often a way the ego keeps us stuck. We could forever release "on it," but it only takes a moment to release "it." So, when a feeling or a desire arises, see it as an "it" and release "it." Stop making a major project out of it, which only keeps your goal in a future that never comes. Think you can do it? You've done it millions of times in your life already , although most of the time you've done it unconsciously . Using releasing, you are now consciously steering your ship instead of letting your unconscious programs dictate what is best for you based on your suppressed so-called "survival" programs. Drill it into your computer
Aim to get it through to your computer mind that WANT=LACK. Get beyond the mere intellectual understanding of this. Really discriminate. Feed it into your computer mind that: "Wanting security is dangerous," as you are holding in mind LACKING security and thus pulling it in on yourself. It is why you feel so afraid. "Wanting approval destroys your ability to love and be loved." It is impossible to want love and have love at the same time. It is why you are feeling so unloved, lonely and separate. "Wanting control throws you completely out of control and into confusion and chaos." Wanting control is the home of chaos. It is why you may feel out of control and powerless to achieve your goals. The ego, in its effort to protect itself, leaves you feeling unsafe, unhappy, out of control, unloved and lacking. It destroys your ability to have approval, control and security, which are all wonderful things to have an abundance of. They are inherent in your natural state of Beingness. What's off is the ego keeping you stuck in wanting it. Unplugging "Hal" The ego, in its confusion, is keeping you locked in a mental prison every single day. The mental computer that was meant to serve you has gone haywire with viruses. It's not that the ego is "evil" or anything like that. It is simply confused . It doesn't know better. It is virus-laden. It is like the dangerous and out-of-control Halcyon 9000 computer ("Hal" for short) in the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey ," which goes about killing the crew in order to keep itself alive. The computer thinks it is a living being, when it is not. It is confused . The same thing with the ego. It is a non-entity thinking it is an entity. Yet, when you actually look for it, you can't find it. The ego is just a collection of programs that has no real substance. You are the original programmer, but you forgot you put the programs in. You need to go in and start pulling the programs out. In my experience, the mind will much more readily drop the wanting approval, control and security if it can clearly get just how stupid, counterproductive and dangerous it is to get stuck in
"wanting." But, it cannot discriminate on its own. It is virus-infected. The anti-virus program that is needed is releasing which opens up discrimination. You can enlist the ego's help by reminding it just how dangerous and lacking it is to "want" instead of "have." The subconscious does not like lack or danger , but it doesn't discriminate either. The moment we help the mind to discriminate, it understands and begins letting go quite quickly. "Every survival program is actually anti -survival. Feed that into that computer of yours." - Lester When your mind fully grasps the danger and stupidity of "wanting", it will begin letting go of its attachment to wanting much more readily, and allow you to slip more easily into the fulfillment of having. It will exit "fight or flight" mode and enter "stay and play" mode. When we release, we make the profound shift from operating from the ancient survival-based reptilian part of our brain, into operating from our frontal lobes, which are responsible for higher thought and Self-actualization. The hero is you So, my dear friend, are you ready? Will you take this leap with me? Will you be bold and claim what is yours NOW or will you continue sheepishly hoping it will come to you someday, as you continue releasing just a little bit here and there? This unlimited Being within calls out for freedom. It is the Hero within you. It beckons you. Will you ignore its pleas? Will you ignore your greatness and limitless nature and keep playing small? Or, will you symbolically "turn your cap around" to signify your seriousness and begin moving mountains? You can do it. You were born to do it.
