Wednesday, January 19, 2011
NEW Radical Empowerment Membership Site
Many people have asked for some kind of ongoing program that will help them anchor Radical Forgiveness and Radical Manifestation deep in their consciousness so they might live and practice both in their daily lives. With 2012 just around the corner, they want to raise their consciousness to a level where they can remain peaceful and powerful, no matter what is happening, and be more helpful to others if and when things get tough. This program, which features a lot of multi-media resources and live monthly online meetings and events, will enable you to begin living more consciously and in alignment with the metaphysical paradigm that underpins both Radical Forgiveness and Radical Manifestation. It is also the paradigm that we will be beginning to live from, once the shift in consciousness that hopefully will begin in 2012 has begun. Being a member of this community will afford members a high level of support and sense of belonging to something bigger. The work is based on the regular use of the resources in the Radical Empowerment kit, and is supported by a series of monthly tele-seminars, webinars, group meditations etc. This membership site is still under construction, but we will let you know when we are ready to take subscriptions. Stay tuned.....
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Miracles Workshop Price Changes for 2011 (US Only)
We have scheduled four Miracles Workshops in the U.S. for 2011. They will occur on the first weekend of each of the following months: March, April, May and November. However, in response to changing economic conditions we have made some major adjustments in our pricing and organization that may be of great interest to you if you were thinking you would like to do one this year with me, but were worried that you could not really afford it. Well, at full price the Miracles Workshop used to be $697. We reduced it last year to $597.00 but with $242.50 added for room and board, it was still a lot for people to pay in this economic climate, even with a payment plan. Last year, for the first time ever we had to cancel one workshop for lack of participants.
So this year I am willing to take off another $150.00 and make the workshop $447 in 2011. (I can't do anything about the cost of accommodation). However, because we have to take a chance on booking the retreat center and guaranteeing a certain number of beds, I am willing to sell the workshop at just $227.00 if booked and paid for a full six weeks prior to the date of the workshop. Only eight places out of the 15 available will be offered at this low price. Once those eight places are taken, the price will revert to $447.00 no matter how far in advance the booking is made. So you will need to book early in order to save $220.00.
That way, we will know if we have enough participants to go ahead and sign a contract with the center six weeks out. If the workshop does not make and we have to cancel, you will receive a full refund. However, if you cancel the booking you made at the $227 price, no refund will be made. (Normal refund policy applies to those who book less than six weeks ahead at the $447.00 price).
NOTE: No one should book a flight until we have confirmed by e-mail, no later than two weeks before the workshop, that the workshop will definitely run. I regret having to do this but we are having to revise our business model in response to changing conditions.
Friday, September 5, 2008
A New Online Program "21-Days for Forgiving Your Parents"
All Parents Are Imperfect; But That Doesn’t Mean Your Life Has to Suck!
Forgive Your Parents Now — Easily and Quickly — and
Find the Happiness and Success You Deserve
Start the 21-Day Online Program Today and Break Out of the
Cycle of Unhappiness and Limitation!
Our promise to you is, if you forgive your parents for whatever you feel they did to you, your life will improve immediately and immeasurably. You will feel lighter, happier, more at peace with yourself and your life will simply zooooom forward!
You Have Nothing to Lose But Your Pain —
And Your Parents Gain As Well
Nothing keeps us stuck in our lives as much as an unhealed childhood wound. Such wounds can range from severe physical or sexual abuse, to that of simply feeling unloved, abandoned or unappreciated by one’s parents.
If left unhealed, these wounds become the touchstones for our sense of who we are, beliefs about what our worth is, what we deserve and how successful we will be in our lives. They affect every aspect of our lives and all our relationships.
A Wound Becomes a Repeating Pattern
We subconsciously act out these wounds over and over again, enfolding them into a subtle, but deadly, pattern of repetition. Each replay creates still more pain — until we say “enough is enough!”
“Well, Enough is Enough NOW”
Assuming they are still alive, the chances are good that your relationship with your parents will improve dramatically, as well. “Breaking Free” is not only for you; they feel the benefits, too. Their energy changes in line with yours. It can make a dramatic difference to the whole family dynamic. You will be amazed.
RADICAL Forgiveness is the Key
If you’ve ever tried to forgive anyone, let alone your parents, you will have discovered how difficult it is. Not so with Radical Forgiveness, which is totally different. At the end of the 21 days, it will have been achieved and it will have been easy and simple — a matter of devoting about one hour per day, doing the assignment we send you each day of the 21 days. It couldn’t be easier, quicker or more reliable. With traditional forgiveness, it would take years.
Newbie?
If you are new to this kind of thing, please don’t worry. After you have registered, you fill in a questionnaire. From what we learn from that, we design a program that fits your needs and speaks your language.
The Program in Two Parts
This part of the program consists of a number of modules giving you information about how Radical Forgiveness works. You can take as long as you like going through these modules.
Part Two
When you are ready to start Part Two, 21 days of assignments, you simply click a button and off you go.
You will have to make sure that you are going to be available to receive those e-mailed assignments, so pick your start time carefully.
Coaches
If you find yourself needing emotional support, at any time during the process, we have Radical Forgiveness coaches who are specifically trained to give help to people, like yourself, going through the program. This service is at additional cost to the program because it is optional. Alternatively, you might prefer to have a friend or a ‘buddy’ support you.
Look What Others Have Said
Dave E., Texas
“When I talk to my mom there is a generous softness to our conversion now. I would highly recommend this program to anyone. It really is like a pebble in the pond. It affects more just your relationship with your parents.”
Amy P., Georgia
"I can't begin to tell you how doing the "Breaking Free - Forgiving Your Parents" online workshop has improved and enhanced my life. It took a week or so after completion for me to notice how my attitude had changed towards my father. I can now speak to him on the phone without anxiety and, amazingly, he has not tried to push any of my buttons. We seem to be relating in a new, calmer and more loving manner. This is truly a blessing for me. Thank you so much!"
Barb B., Missouri
“After I started the program, I realized that pattern had to do with a perceived abandonment issue I had beginning when I was 5 years old. I am thankful for being able to do this program and for the amazing results I have achieved.”
Heather D., Georgia
Karla G., Texas
“My time I am spending with my mother in conversation and personally is more gentle and I am peaceful and look at her with love that is not cluttered up with all the demands. My head knows I love my mother, now my heart is feeling the love.”
Kathryne M., California
“I was blessed enough to do the 21 days to forgiving your parents online program. I was thrilled but still skeptical. Believing that nothing would work on her. That she was beyond help and these circumstances would never change. Within three days I was seeing big shifts of energy. I have had some amazing epiphanies.
“Each day things change. Not always in big ways but certainly significantly. I no longer fear her. I no longer fear each and every move I make is wrong. Guilt has lifted from my shoulders in such a way that I am making huge strides in my life. Weekends here used to be a nightmare. Today is peaceful. Her face looks like it has shed twenty years of pain and suffering. I have changed so much since the beginning of this program.”
Tammy D., New Hampshire
Your Investment in Your Happiness
We have priced this program very competitively so that thousands of people all around the world can have this extraordinary opportunity. At a cost of just $247.00, you will be getting extraordinary value from this program.
At the end of the 21 days, you will feel totally different and, from that time on, your life is certain to improve. Why? Because the energy you have expended holding onto the pain of the past will now be available to you as manifestation energy.
You cannot be a powerful creator in your life if you have so much of your energy tied up in the past. Once you have done this program you will have so much more energy and that means you have the energy to create more of what you want in your life – more abundance, better relationships and so on.
If that isn’t worth $247.00, I don’t know what is!
Monday, July 14, 2008
Anticipating 2012
(Note: I am writing this as if from what I think might be the very near future.)
Someone asked me a few days ago, why 2012? She was referring to my inclusion of that date in my declared mission, which I have for the past eight years stated as: “To raise the consciousness of the planet through Radical Forgiveness and create a world of forgiveness by 2012.”
My answer was, “Because if we haven’t done it by then it will almost certainly be too late.”
“Too late for what?” she asked, incredulously.
“To be part of the process of creating heaven on earth,” I replied.
She clearly thought I was crazy. Oh, if only Harley were here, I thought. He would do a much better job of explaining it to her than I ever could. [Harley was the Angel of Incarnation who, in my book A Radical Incarnation — Yours, prepared Jack for his upcoming mission on the Earth plane. Jack was to get elected President of the United States, become enlightened, heal America and then awaken the whole of humanity before it destroyed itself. No small feat!]
This woman was no fool and could see what was happening. She was acutely aware that the United States economy stood on the very brink of disaster and was only hanging on by a mere thread. She was obviously in a great deal of fear over it, too.
Her own life mirrored the larger situation. Her 3,500 square foot home was in foreclosure, she owned a Lincoln Navigator SUV she couldn’t sell at any price, her credit was shot, her bank had gone under taking most of her money with it, and she could see how the entire system on which the U.S. had based its existence and its way of life — cheap oil — was about to collapse.
At $7.50 a gallon, she couldn’t afford to buy gas to get to work and there was no public transport available so she was effectively without a job or money. Her employer was probably out of business anyway by now. All her neighbors were in the same boat having bought into the myth of the suburban lifestyle based on cars, freeways and cheap oil. Now they were all stuck.
In any case, even if she could afford it, many gas stations were posting cardboard signs on the pump — ‘Out of Gas’ and there were long lines stretching around block after block. Tempers had frayed and the guns everyone had been encouraged to own and carry as of right had come out and were being waved around and sometimes used as of right!
Since there were hardly any trucks on the road to carry food from one part of the country to the other, let alone from other countries, food was in very short supply and astronomically expensive. Her greatest concern was how she was going to feed her two kids. And it was all getting worse by the minute. And that doesn’t even factor in the local effects of global warming — floods, fires, tornadoes and hurricanes.
How then could I even begin to explain to her that it was all part of the Divine plan? Harley himself would have had a job to make her see any sort of perfection in it, let alone have her see it as an opportunity for her to awaken and become part of the great spiritual transformation now in progress.
The only way I could begin to talk about it in those terms was to frame what was happening as being a healing crisis, and that this was preparing the whole human race for a dramatic shift in consciousness. According to many sources, this was likely to occur around December of 2012. This shift would take us into a wholly different dimension where love and harmony would prevail as the dominant way of being. I did my best to explain all this.
“But why is America to take the lead in this?” she asked.
“Because the people have become so dependent on their modern way of life that they will have the greatest difficulty of any nation on earth adapting to extreme hardship and the inevitable shortage of everything. The breakdown necessary to create breakthrough will happen suddenly and will be total. Social order will break down and society as a whole will implode. Many will die.
“But the other side of that coin is that the people of the U.S. are extremely resilient and they will likely be the first emerge from the chaos enlightened and changed. They will then lead the rest of the world in creating the shift in consciousness I have alluded to. That’s how Harley had framed Jack’s mission, of course.
“But no matter who Jack is or was, (and the conjecture is fascinating), we cannot look to any president to create the shift for us. We all have to participate in that process. As times get difficult, we have to stay centered and clear. We need to stay out of fear and to hold the vision of a healed world emerging out of the debris of the old consciousness now in its death throes. If we give in to fear and resist the process it will be many times more difficult than if we surrender to what needs to happen and ride the wave.”
“Does that mean doing nothing practical to prepare for what is to come?” she asked.
“Of course not,” I replied. “In order to stay out of fear and to be of use to others who will need help, you would be wise to make careful preparations now for the breakdown to come. You can only be of assistance in this great endeavor if you survive, so it is your responsibility to do everything you can in order to do so. You should begin storing food and water, seeds, batteries, solar panels, cooking oil tools and other essentials. You might want to move to where you can find food and be in community with others of like mind. You should give a lot of thought to what you would need to survive a fairly prolonged period where virtually all supply of goods was stopped. It would be difficult to hold the high vibration during this time if you were cold, hungry and helpless to help yourself.”
“So why forgiveness? Why is that so important?” she asked.
“Because it will be through the use of the Radical Forgiveness technology that people like you and I will be able to hold and maintain that higher vibration, and the sooner we begin to practice it and the more people we can enroll into that higher purpose, the easier the transition will be for everyone. Each one of us holding the vibration of perfection no matter what is happening out there will counteract millions of people who are in fear. A relatively small number of people holding the vision of a healed world will make the healing happen a lot faster and a lot fewer people will perish in the process. That’s why my mission statement means so much to me.”
“How can I begin doing that?” she inquired.
“I have designed a special ‘Radical Consciousness’ worksheet, based on the Radical Forgiveness technology, for you to use any time something happens or you hear of something happening that ordinarily would send you into a spiral of fear and hopelessness. It is available as a free PDF download. It is very simple but it’s purpose is to remind you that everything is in Divine order and that what we are living through now is the prelude to something unimaginably wonderful.
“Thank you,” she said. “I get it now.”
Do you?
To download the worksheet click here. (Note: This is not the same as the regular RF Worksheet).
Someone asked me a few days ago, why 2012? She was referring to my inclusion of that date in my declared mission, which I have for the past eight years stated as: “To raise the consciousness of the planet through Radical Forgiveness and create a world of forgiveness by 2012.”
My answer was, “Because if we haven’t done it by then it will almost certainly be too late.”
“Too late for what?” she asked, incredulously.
“To be part of the process of creating heaven on earth,” I replied.
She clearly thought I was crazy. Oh, if only Harley were here, I thought. He would do a much better job of explaining it to her than I ever could. [Harley was the Angel of Incarnation who, in my book A Radical Incarnation — Yours, prepared Jack for his upcoming mission on the Earth plane. Jack was to get elected President of the United States, become enlightened, heal America and then awaken the whole of humanity before it destroyed itself. No small feat!]
This woman was no fool and could see what was happening. She was acutely aware that the United States economy stood on the very brink of disaster and was only hanging on by a mere thread. She was obviously in a great deal of fear over it, too.
Her own life mirrored the larger situation. Her 3,500 square foot home was in foreclosure, she owned a Lincoln Navigator SUV she couldn’t sell at any price, her credit was shot, her bank had gone under taking most of her money with it, and she could see how the entire system on which the U.S. had based its existence and its way of life — cheap oil — was about to collapse.
At $7.50 a gallon, she couldn’t afford to buy gas to get to work and there was no public transport available so she was effectively without a job or money. Her employer was probably out of business anyway by now. All her neighbors were in the same boat having bought into the myth of the suburban lifestyle based on cars, freeways and cheap oil. Now they were all stuck.
In any case, even if she could afford it, many gas stations were posting cardboard signs on the pump — ‘Out of Gas’ and there were long lines stretching around block after block. Tempers had frayed and the guns everyone had been encouraged to own and carry as of right had come out and were being waved around and sometimes used as of right!
Since there were hardly any trucks on the road to carry food from one part of the country to the other, let alone from other countries, food was in very short supply and astronomically expensive. Her greatest concern was how she was going to feed her two kids. And it was all getting worse by the minute. And that doesn’t even factor in the local effects of global warming — floods, fires, tornadoes and hurricanes.
How then could I even begin to explain to her that it was all part of the Divine plan? Harley himself would have had a job to make her see any sort of perfection in it, let alone have her see it as an opportunity for her to awaken and become part of the great spiritual transformation now in progress.
The only way I could begin to talk about it in those terms was to frame what was happening as being a healing crisis, and that this was preparing the whole human race for a dramatic shift in consciousness. According to many sources, this was likely to occur around December of 2012. This shift would take us into a wholly different dimension where love and harmony would prevail as the dominant way of being. I did my best to explain all this.
“But why is America to take the lead in this?” she asked.
“Because the people have become so dependent on their modern way of life that they will have the greatest difficulty of any nation on earth adapting to extreme hardship and the inevitable shortage of everything. The breakdown necessary to create breakthrough will happen suddenly and will be total. Social order will break down and society as a whole will implode. Many will die.
“But the other side of that coin is that the people of the U.S. are extremely resilient and they will likely be the first emerge from the chaos enlightened and changed. They will then lead the rest of the world in creating the shift in consciousness I have alluded to. That’s how Harley had framed Jack’s mission, of course.
“But no matter who Jack is or was, (and the conjecture is fascinating), we cannot look to any president to create the shift for us. We all have to participate in that process. As times get difficult, we have to stay centered and clear. We need to stay out of fear and to hold the vision of a healed world emerging out of the debris of the old consciousness now in its death throes. If we give in to fear and resist the process it will be many times more difficult than if we surrender to what needs to happen and ride the wave.”
“Does that mean doing nothing practical to prepare for what is to come?” she asked.
“Of course not,” I replied. “In order to stay out of fear and to be of use to others who will need help, you would be wise to make careful preparations now for the breakdown to come. You can only be of assistance in this great endeavor if you survive, so it is your responsibility to do everything you can in order to do so. You should begin storing food and water, seeds, batteries, solar panels, cooking oil tools and other essentials. You might want to move to where you can find food and be in community with others of like mind. You should give a lot of thought to what you would need to survive a fairly prolonged period where virtually all supply of goods was stopped. It would be difficult to hold the high vibration during this time if you were cold, hungry and helpless to help yourself.”
“So why forgiveness? Why is that so important?” she asked.
“Because it will be through the use of the Radical Forgiveness technology that people like you and I will be able to hold and maintain that higher vibration, and the sooner we begin to practice it and the more people we can enroll into that higher purpose, the easier the transition will be for everyone. Each one of us holding the vibration of perfection no matter what is happening out there will counteract millions of people who are in fear. A relatively small number of people holding the vision of a healed world will make the healing happen a lot faster and a lot fewer people will perish in the process. That’s why my mission statement means so much to me.”
“How can I begin doing that?” she inquired.
“I have designed a special ‘Radical Consciousness’ worksheet, based on the Radical Forgiveness technology, for you to use any time something happens or you hear of something happening that ordinarily would send you into a spiral of fear and hopelessness. It is available as a free PDF download. It is very simple but it’s purpose is to remind you that everything is in Divine order and that what we are living through now is the prelude to something unimaginably wonderful.
“Thank you,” she said. “I get it now.”
Do you?
To download the worksheet click here. (Note: This is not the same as the regular RF Worksheet).
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Spider-Woman to the Rescue
The race between Obama and Clinton to be the nominee of the Democratic Party has been fascinating, especially to the degree that it caught the interest and active participation of so many people. Young, old, rich, poor, black or white, people were truly invested in a way we have never before witnessed.
However, given that both candidates represented hope and historic opportunity to roughly equal halves of the population, it was inevitable that a vast number of people would be left feeling intensely disappointed and perhaps even resentful. We have seen a lot of understandable and, to some, even justifiable anger expressed on TV about Clinton's loss.
Doesn't this sound like a case where Spider-Woman needs to swoop in with Radical Forgiveness to save them all from a terrible case of victimitis? (Spider-Woman became a Radical Forgiveness Coach last year, but she's keeping it a secret.) After all, you put disappointment, anger and resentment together and you'll get a pretty strong brew of victim consciousness, right? And we (as well as Spider-Woman), know the antidote to that, don't we?
On the assumption that the people on our mailing list reflect the general population, we can imagine that half of you might be Democrats and the other half Republicans. Of the half who lean Democratic lets say one third were backing Hillary, and one third for Obama. The other third we might consider politically disengaged. (A lot of spiritual people are, unfortunately, but that's another issue.)
Power versus Force by David Hawkins you will get what I mean when I say that each person with a vibration of 350 on the scale of consciousness (which would be you if you were moved to do a worksheet, I would guess), would be counteracting about 200,000 vibrating below 200 which is where someone might be who is still in anger and resentment about the race. That means if just half of the 3,500 did a worksheet it would impact 3.5 million people. But even if just one of you does it, you will be helping 200,000 others. That's how much power you have to make a difference.
Who needs Spider-Woman? Click here to go to the NEW On-line Worksheet.
However, given that both candidates represented hope and historic opportunity to roughly equal halves of the population, it was inevitable that a vast number of people would be left feeling intensely disappointed and perhaps even resentful. We have seen a lot of understandable and, to some, even justifiable anger expressed on TV about Clinton's loss.
Doesn't this sound like a case where Spider-Woman needs to swoop in with Radical Forgiveness to save them all from a terrible case of victimitis? (Spider-Woman became a Radical Forgiveness Coach last year, but she's keeping it a secret.) After all, you put disappointment, anger and resentment together and you'll get a pretty strong brew of victim consciousness, right? And we (as well as Spider-Woman), know the antidote to that, don't we?
On the assumption that the people on our mailing list reflect the general population, we can imagine that half of you might be Democrats and the other half Republicans. Of the half who lean Democratic lets say one third were backing Hillary, and one third for Obama. The other third we might consider politically disengaged. (A lot of spiritual people are, unfortunately, but that's another issue.)
Who needs Spider-Woman? Click here to go to the NEW On-line Worksheet.
Monday, March 17, 2008
An Open Letter to Charles Griswold about Forgiveness
I thought you might be interested to read my letter to Charles Griswold, Ph.D., Professor of Philosophy at Boston University, him having sent me a copy of his book, Forgiveness. This is the most in-depth, rigorous and searching philosophical examination I have seen yet on the topic on (traditional) forgiveness that I have seen.
And yet I think the whole book, cogently and eloquently argued as it is by an obviously accomplished philosopher, is basically flawed. And that’s because his whole theory rests on an assumption that I think is fundamentally wrong. Read the letter to find out what that is and see where you might stand on the issue.
Charles and I have been corresponding back and forth and have developed a good relationship. He has been very gracious about wanting to read my book, Radical Forgiveness, and actually quoted from it in an article that he wrote in the esteemed Tikkun magazine. [They have since asked me to contribute an article. I am very happy about that since this a magazine that I really respect.] He is still trying hard to bring me around to his point of view! Here’s the letter:
Hi Charles,
I know I said I was going to save reading your book for my trip in December but I couldn’t resist dipping in a little bit. I have enjoyed reading the little I have read so far but couldn’t help but giggle to myself at how you might be receiving my book which, while yours is so meticulous in its academic rigor and commitment to all details of the argument about forgiveness as you see and define it, mine is so full of assumption and broad sweeps of metaphysical possibilities that no one can refute or support by any rational argument or logical analysis.
All that aside, we are clearly coming from very different angles on the whole topic of forgiveness, each based in entirely different cosmology.
As I see it, your entire approach is what I have referred to as traditional forgiveness, based in the traditional, objective, scientific-rational and psychological framework. This is of course exactly how I would expect the subject to be treated by a distinguished academic and most of what I have read in your book so far I would agree with, (bar one - see below), so long as we are talking about traditional forgiveness and all the other concepts that go with it.
Radical Forgiveness, as you will see, is not a religious approach but one that is secular/spiritual and metaphysical in orientation. That immediately puts it beyond ‘normal’ logical, scientific or even philosophical inquiry probably, though you might tell me of an acceptable form of such which would deal with it philosophically. I would say myself that it has its roots in Eastern philosophy which is anyway, as I understand it, closely bound up with spiritual interpretations of reality.
If you haven’t already dismissed my book as ‘new-age psycho babble,’ and you wouldn’t be the first to do so, so it wouldn’t hurt my feelings, then maybe it would be interesting to discuss these differences further. For my part I would be happy to.
I am very comfortable with most of what I have written though, as I tell people, I don’t really believe a word of it. None of us really know the Mind of God, or the reality on the other side of the veil, nor even whether there is a veil, or even a God. There is very little proof of either. I tell people straight out that I am making a whole set of assumptions for which there is no proof of their veracity. It’s just a story, I tell them.
However, what I am able to claim through more than a decade of observation of results in thousands of people who have used the Radical Forgiveness technology, is that in the practical application of these assumptions in everyday life, there are effects which are measurable, subjectively experienced, sustained, and anecdotally recorded. The results are very similar and consistent across the spectrum of intelligence, race, gender, country of domicile, and any other variable that one might apply.
The results which are anecdotally reported by people, even those who have simply read the book and done one worksheet, include such things as a marked decrease in feelings of resentment, anger, rage and all those emotions associated with a belief in having been victimized by someone, and a corresponding uptick in the opposite kinds of emotion such as a sense of peace, acceptance, understanding, empathy and even love. People also report feeling more energy, decrease in physical symptomology, regression of disease such as cancer, weight loss and other problems.
The problems that might have caused an upset between two people also seem to become dissolved (not solved) which indicates that the energy shift that occurs between people when forgiveness takes place in one or both of them (usually only one), then the energy has an effect beyond the two individuals and actually impacts physical reality and other people. This is why I am now teaching the technology to corporations so it can contribute to raising the culture of an organization if enough people use it.
I have also noticed that, in people who use the Radical Forgiveness technology regularly, that there is a tendency for them to begin operating at a higher level in terms of human virtues, such as humility, tolerance, integrity and honestly. The reason for this I believe is the development of a more profound understanding of and respect for spiritual law. They become answerable to a higher authority and more accountable for having created the circumstances of their lives. Once you begin operating from that idea, finger pointing and blaming has no validity at all. You are immediately out of integrity with yourself if you revert to those strategies.
The reason why I think Radical Forgiveness works so well on a practical level is that I believe that when we are using the tools, we are activating a faculty of mind that I call ‘spiritual intelligence.’ It therefore bypasses the rational mind and ignores the subconscious mind which harbors all the negative beliefs and attitudes we have learned over the years, and deals directly with Universal Intelligence and knows the truth of who we are at the spiritual level. This is why people who use the tools find forgiveness to be surprisingly easy, almost instantaneous, therapy free and so simple anyone can do it. Neither belief or high IQ is needed.
I contrast this with traditional forgiveness which by universal agreement is seen to be very difficult to do, takes years and years to achieve if it ever happens, and has no methodology attached to it to help people go through the process. Basically, you wait and hope that one day the resentment will subside. Those who do manage to forgive something serious usually end up on Oprah which is a good indicator of how rare it is.
If you were up for it, I would be willing to come to the University and have a discussion with your students about my approach and give them the opportunity to try it for themselves. In fact that would be a condition. Let me know if that is something that would be attractive.
Now let me come to one of your themes central to the book and your ideas on forgiveness with which I strongly disagree. It came up early, right there in the Prologue and it surprised the heck out of me. This was:
“forgiveness is to be understood as a moral relation between two individuals, one of whom has wronged the other, and who (at least in the ideal) [is that a get out clause?] are capable of communicating with each other.” You go on to say, “forgiveness requires reciprocity between injurer and injured.”
For me this is the definition, not of forgiveness but of reconciliation, which clearly required both parties to be in broad agreement to reconcile and therefore definitely requires reciprocity. Forgiveness, on the other hand, seems to me to be something that occurs primarily within the injured, and is not dependent on whether the injurer feels any obligation whatsoever to apologize, atone or even acknowledge the crime. This idea takes the power away from the forgiver by making his forgiveness dependent on the other, which for me simply compounds victim consciousness. “If it wasn’t for you, I could forgive!” Reciprocity in the form of an apology may help the injured person forgive, but I cannot see that it is required. This idea takes the power away from the forgiver by making his forgiveness dependent on the other, which for me simply compounds victim consciousness. “If it wasn’t for you, I could forgive!”
What if the person is dead or otherwise unavailable for the interpersonal moral relationship you say is required? You dismiss all such questions that are raised and cripple the very notion of forgiveness by calling them departures from the definition of forgiveness. In my workshops, even in the context of traditional forgiveness, I have a lot of people who wish to forgive God, George Bush, someone who is long dead and so on. What do I do with them? What chance do they have of having a moral relationship?
I look forward to reading more of the book and maybe this will become clearer to me but I have certainly found this to be the most difficult things in your writings to swallow so far.
I must resist the temptation to keep writing but I must get on with some work here. And I don’t need to labor the point, I’m sure.
Blessings,
Colin
And yet I think the whole book, cogently and eloquently argued as it is by an obviously accomplished philosopher, is basically flawed. And that’s because his whole theory rests on an assumption that I think is fundamentally wrong. Read the letter to find out what that is and see where you might stand on the issue.
Charles and I have been corresponding back and forth and have developed a good relationship. He has been very gracious about wanting to read my book, Radical Forgiveness, and actually quoted from it in an article that he wrote in the esteemed Tikkun magazine. [They have since asked me to contribute an article. I am very happy about that since this a magazine that I really respect.] He is still trying hard to bring me around to his point of view! Here’s the letter:
Hi Charles,
I know I said I was going to save reading your book for my trip in December but I couldn’t resist dipping in a little bit. I have enjoyed reading the little I have read so far but couldn’t help but giggle to myself at how you might be receiving my book which, while yours is so meticulous in its academic rigor and commitment to all details of the argument about forgiveness as you see and define it, mine is so full of assumption and broad sweeps of metaphysical possibilities that no one can refute or support by any rational argument or logical analysis.
All that aside, we are clearly coming from very different angles on the whole topic of forgiveness, each based in entirely different cosmology.
As I see it, your entire approach is what I have referred to as traditional forgiveness, based in the traditional, objective, scientific-rational and psychological framework. This is of course exactly how I would expect the subject to be treated by a distinguished academic and most of what I have read in your book so far I would agree with, (bar one - see below), so long as we are talking about traditional forgiveness and all the other concepts that go with it.
Radical Forgiveness, as you will see, is not a religious approach but one that is secular/spiritual and metaphysical in orientation. That immediately puts it beyond ‘normal’ logical, scientific or even philosophical inquiry probably, though you might tell me of an acceptable form of such which would deal with it philosophically. I would say myself that it has its roots in Eastern philosophy which is anyway, as I understand it, closely bound up with spiritual interpretations of reality.
If you haven’t already dismissed my book as ‘new-age psycho babble,’ and you wouldn’t be the first to do so, so it wouldn’t hurt my feelings, then maybe it would be interesting to discuss these differences further. For my part I would be happy to.
I am very comfortable with most of what I have written though, as I tell people, I don’t really believe a word of it. None of us really know the Mind of God, or the reality on the other side of the veil, nor even whether there is a veil, or even a God. There is very little proof of either. I tell people straight out that I am making a whole set of assumptions for which there is no proof of their veracity. It’s just a story, I tell them.
However, what I am able to claim through more than a decade of observation of results in thousands of people who have used the Radical Forgiveness technology, is that in the practical application of these assumptions in everyday life, there are effects which are measurable, subjectively experienced, sustained, and anecdotally recorded. The results are very similar and consistent across the spectrum of intelligence, race, gender, country of domicile, and any other variable that one might apply.
The results which are anecdotally reported by people, even those who have simply read the book and done one worksheet, include such things as a marked decrease in feelings of resentment, anger, rage and all those emotions associated with a belief in having been victimized by someone, and a corresponding uptick in the opposite kinds of emotion such as a sense of peace, acceptance, understanding, empathy and even love. People also report feeling more energy, decrease in physical symptomology, regression of disease such as cancer, weight loss and other problems.
The problems that might have caused an upset between two people also seem to become dissolved (not solved) which indicates that the energy shift that occurs between people when forgiveness takes place in one or both of them (usually only one), then the energy has an effect beyond the two individuals and actually impacts physical reality and other people. This is why I am now teaching the technology to corporations so it can contribute to raising the culture of an organization if enough people use it.
I have also noticed that, in people who use the Radical Forgiveness technology regularly, that there is a tendency for them to begin operating at a higher level in terms of human virtues, such as humility, tolerance, integrity and honestly. The reason for this I believe is the development of a more profound understanding of and respect for spiritual law. They become answerable to a higher authority and more accountable for having created the circumstances of their lives. Once you begin operating from that idea, finger pointing and blaming has no validity at all. You are immediately out of integrity with yourself if you revert to those strategies.
The reason why I think Radical Forgiveness works so well on a practical level is that I believe that when we are using the tools, we are activating a faculty of mind that I call ‘spiritual intelligence.’ It therefore bypasses the rational mind and ignores the subconscious mind which harbors all the negative beliefs and attitudes we have learned over the years, and deals directly with Universal Intelligence and knows the truth of who we are at the spiritual level. This is why people who use the tools find forgiveness to be surprisingly easy, almost instantaneous, therapy free and so simple anyone can do it. Neither belief or high IQ is needed.
I contrast this with traditional forgiveness which by universal agreement is seen to be very difficult to do, takes years and years to achieve if it ever happens, and has no methodology attached to it to help people go through the process. Basically, you wait and hope that one day the resentment will subside. Those who do manage to forgive something serious usually end up on Oprah which is a good indicator of how rare it is.
If you were up for it, I would be willing to come to the University and have a discussion with your students about my approach and give them the opportunity to try it for themselves. In fact that would be a condition. Let me know if that is something that would be attractive.
Now let me come to one of your themes central to the book and your ideas on forgiveness with which I strongly disagree. It came up early, right there in the Prologue and it surprised the heck out of me. This was:
“forgiveness is to be understood as a moral relation between two individuals, one of whom has wronged the other, and who (at least in the ideal) [is that a get out clause?] are capable of communicating with each other.” You go on to say, “forgiveness requires reciprocity between injurer and injured.”
For me this is the definition, not of forgiveness but of reconciliation, which clearly required both parties to be in broad agreement to reconcile and therefore definitely requires reciprocity. Forgiveness, on the other hand, seems to me to be something that occurs primarily within the injured, and is not dependent on whether the injurer feels any obligation whatsoever to apologize, atone or even acknowledge the crime. This idea takes the power away from the forgiver by making his forgiveness dependent on the other, which for me simply compounds victim consciousness. “If it wasn’t for you, I could forgive!” Reciprocity in the form of an apology may help the injured person forgive, but I cannot see that it is required. This idea takes the power away from the forgiver by making his forgiveness dependent on the other, which for me simply compounds victim consciousness. “If it wasn’t for you, I could forgive!”
What if the person is dead or otherwise unavailable for the interpersonal moral relationship you say is required? You dismiss all such questions that are raised and cripple the very notion of forgiveness by calling them departures from the definition of forgiveness. In my workshops, even in the context of traditional forgiveness, I have a lot of people who wish to forgive God, George Bush, someone who is long dead and so on. What do I do with them? What chance do they have of having a moral relationship?
I look forward to reading more of the book and maybe this will become clearer to me but I have certainly found this to be the most difficult things in your writings to swallow so far.
I must resist the temptation to keep writing but I must get on with some work here. And I don’t need to labor the point, I’m sure.
Blessings,
Colin
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Australia Says “Sorry!”
So, “sorry” is not such a hard word to say, after all. After many years in which the word Reconciliation has been on the lips of virtually all Australians, finally a newly elected Government down under has done what previous ones have steadfastly refused to do — to say “Sorry” to the Aboriginals. It’s an apology that the indigenous people of
The people of Australia have for a decade or more been thirsting for this gesture of reconciliation in a way that the people of America have not - for all that they feel deep anger and shame about slavery and segregation and the Native American holocaust. Both still await an apology and some semblance of reconciliation.
I wonder when we will demand it of our government like the Australians demanded it of theirs? When will we have a government that will say “Sorry” to African and Native Americans so that a genuine healing can begin. It is overdue. (Obama might be the one to do it!)
But in
We spent half a year in
They really made it an Aboriginal Affair. They had five separate stages set up in the field and the huge video screen that was used at the Sydney Olympic Games. They brought together, for the first time in history, aboriginal people from all over the country, and each tribe performed their own Creation Dance. All five stages featured these dances and it went on for two days, non-stop, night and day. While we were there in
It was while we were at Uluru that we heard the news about 9/11. We didn’t know what to do so we decided to walk the 3-1/2 miles around the base of Uluru in silent meditation and prayer.
Now you might be wondering why, if everything is perfect and nothing wrong ever happened — which is the basic tenet of Radical Forgiveness - why is an apology is even necessary and why would I personally join with others to push for it. The answer is that an apology can open to door to Radical Forgiveness. An apology is a act of compassion, regret and contrition and is appropriate even within the spiritual philosophy of Radical Forgiveness as being a part of the soul’s learning process. It is an act that might awaken us to the truth that separation is the myth. When I realize that when I hurt my brother I hurt myself, I begin to connect with the principle of oneness.
Let’s look at the difference between an ordinary apology and a Radical Apology.
The Ordinary Apology:
An ordinary apology recognizes that someone was hurt, disadvantaged or in some other way damaged because of something we intentionally did - and that what we did was wrong. It is a direct communication to the aggrieved party that we are in sorrow, guilt and regret that the event occurred and we wish that the party knows this.
The Radical Apology:
A Radical Apology recognizes in just the same way that, in human terms, someone got hurt and that it is something to be truly sorrowful and perhaps even ‘appropriately’ guilty about. We also accept full responsibility for what happened in human and worldly terms and are willing to be accountable for what we have done.
At the same time, however, we are open to the possibility that some higher purpose was being served and it had to happen that way for whatever reason. We are, in effect, seeing the situation from the perspective of both the World of Spirit and the World of Humanity at the same time. This has the effect of raising our own vibration while at the same time releasing the low vibration energy tied up in the situation itself — thus enabling a healing to occur for all concerned as well as a general raising of consciousness such that there will in the future be less need for such hurtful things to occur.
However, since it is still difficult for us — as the perpetrator — to really ‘know’ that there was a perfection in the situation, and probably even more difficult for the victim, it seems that a genuine expression of compassion and sorrow (rather than regret), might help us both. The sorrow is not so much because it happened but that the person (a human being) was hurt or damaged. If nothing else, it opens the energy up for Radical Forgiveness to enter into play — especially for the victim. Therefore a Radical Apology is a BRIDGE to Radical Forgiveness and Reconciliation. It is also a preliminary step in the direction of clearing one’s shadow.
Now governments can say "Sorry", and perhaps one day the American government will follow the example of the government of
But those of us who understand Radical Forgiveness can go one step further by making a Radical Apology on behalf of ourselves and
The Blanket Radical Apology
1. Even though I know that everything was, is and always will be in Divine order, I as a representative of
African Americans
American Indians
Hispanics
Chinese Americans
Japanese Americans
Other races discriminated against ____________________________
Women
American citizens wrongly accused, incarcerated and/or executed
American citizens subjected to witch-hunts by government agencies
The people of Nagasaki and Hiroshima
The people of
Thanks for being willing to say Sorry.
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