The Top Ten Things Dead People Want to Tell You (11 page)

Realizing that it’s no one’s job or responsibility to save or redeem another.

Considering that there’s no such thing as a one-and-only “soul mate.”

Discovering that self-love needs to come before loving others.

Finding that being happy and living in peace does not require sadness and violence.

Or literally an infinite number of other lessons and insights, as no two abusive relationships are exactly the same.

Similarly,
all
losses and suffering, illness and disease, disappointments and heartache, lives and deaths experienced within the jungles are of each adventurer’s creation. They offer customized opportunities for self-correction, balance, healing, growth, and absolute gain. The long-term (we’re talking eternal!) potential good always wildly exceeds short-term setbacks and suffering. When difficult situations are considered over time instead of simply as isolated, random incidents, their hidden gifts become apparent.

Yet there can be little healing, balance, or improvement if the pendulum isn’t allowed to swing
or a life isn’t allowed to be played out.
Wherever you are right now, it’s right; it’s where you’re supposed to be. Not because it’s destiny, but because of the choices you’ve made and the focuses you’ve chosen so far. And while there will be times when where you are feels uncomfortable or unpleasant, the trail you’re now on is inevitably leading you to more friends, more love, and more enlightenment. It is leading away from confusion and misunderstandings and toward clarity as you learn through trial and error of your profound power over every illusion in your life.

T
HE
P
LOT
T
HICKENS

Knowing that no one ever just randomly finds him-or herself in threatening or difficult situations is perhaps the first step in realizing that you are not vulnerable. The first step in knowing that life need not be seen as a scary place that sometimes randomly throws daggers at you. Everything that happens is “written in” by earlier thoughts, beliefs, and expectations—intentionally or, more commonly, unintentionally. The latter isn’t so much fun except that for this very reason (not being fun), people will eventually begin asking new questions, correcting old ways, and deliberately blazing new trails.

In the meantime, by understanding how everything comes together, you will more easily find meaning and acquire the inspiration to press on.

The story of every life unfolds in much the same way as the plot of a novel or Hollywood movie: everything with a purpose—vital, planned, and weighed—and with nary an unnecessary character. Not predetermined or random, but written spontaneously from behind the scenes in the writer’s lair, which is purposely hidden from view so you can fully experience each twist and turn.

Please don’t confuse random with spontaneous. Spontaneous rocks. It emerges from a field of probabilities that you control, maintaining choice and meaning. It involves instinct and urge, hunches and feelings, imagination and belief. Random implies the opposite. Empty and pointless. Maybe or maybe not. Chance and luck.

L
IGHTS
, C
AMERA
, A
CTION

Are there any random close calls, near misses, or “almosts” in a movie? Are there characters who almost get hurt, who almost fall in love, or who almost die? Of course not: it’s all scripted ahead of time. Characters are cast in advance. Decisions are made, remade, and made again. Narratives are born, edited, inserted. Dialogues crafted, rehearsed, performed. Nothing is left to chance—too risky, too wasteful. Although it sure seems as if there’s “chance” when you’re watching it from the comfort of your cinema recliner
because it’s supposed to seem this way
; only then does it become believable! Nothing else is more important to the cinematic presentation than maintaining the
appearance
of chance. Without an authentic appearance, including surprises, free will, and infinite possibilities, there’d be no emotional value and the production would be worthless. Like one’s life, eh?

Time is an illusion. So is space. But they create the “silver screen” for the reality you’re now directing. Everything first happens off screen in thought, imagination, behind the curtains, outside of time and space. Where massive logistical planning and coordination can take place in the twinkling of an eye. Where scripts are perfected and executed in the moment they occur, like lightning following the path of least resistance, no matter how shocking or mind-boggling an occurrence or performance. Not even the stray passerby, the distant barking dog, or the fire truck that goes screaming by exists accidentally without reason, design, choreography, casting, and more. And no one gets hurt, falls in love, lives, or almost “dies” without meaning and intelligence. There are no close calls, near misses, or almosts in life, no matter how close or near they seem.

Even the person who is the sole survivor of a plane crash in “real life” comes no closer to death than the person eating French toast surrounded by a loving family on Saturday morning. Not because of fate or destiny—neither exists—but because this is what they’ve “written.” Past and present thoughts and expectations summon the most probable available realities for them to experience, as divine intelligence weaves their scripts into those of 7 billion others, moment after moment, scene after scene.

See where this is going? Do you see that everything in the jungles is a
work in progress,
including your life, including your life today? And that even if you’re bored, scared, or feel like quitting, the fact that you still “are” is indisputable evidence that you’re not ready to leave the stage?

T
HE
U
NKNOWN
A
UTHOR

In spite of the mysterious props and moving sets,
which you need not wrap your head around,
you can always sense that everything is playing to the overall good of the story. You can sense this now about your life adventure, no matter what has happened so far. And you can get that when things appear that you do not like or want, change must begin with you, the unknown author who writes with pen marks of thought, belief, and expectation.

Divine intelligence is your responsive choreographer, formulating steps and routines in the form of life experiences that will bring about the vision you hold on to. Crafting experiences that, as they unfold, will seem to have absolutely no rhyme or reason, although in hindsight the perfection will be obvious and the meaning understood.

Your life story’s title could be the name you go by and your genre could be the strengths and interests you’ve developed over lifetimes, and as the star, you’re emotionally living out the main character’s role as you unknowingly create it so convincingly that you think you’re “real.” And your most avid reader is “God,” who’s following every word through the window of your soul.

Now of course you
are real,
just not in the way you think. And none of this analogy is intended to marginalize the human experience. To the contrary, it can be used to discern the truth and then help you revel in the glory of being at one with the Divine. Understanding that it was God’s sheer brilliance that dreamed of being Itself
through you, as you.
And thereby you can set out to live on purpose, joyfully shaping the world around you as you master the skills of imagination, patience, and manifestation.

C
REATIVE
W
RITING
101

Every good author has a trick, a great and mighty trick. She can choose to take the reader down a dark and spooky path that’s shrouded in mystery and suspense … while writing from the comfort of her den, with all the lights on and TV blaring in another room in which happy kids, furry pets, and a loving spouse also reside. The author gets to
make stuff up,
tosses in red herrings, leaves keys in hiding places, puts the villain on a beeline toward the quicksand, and, “coincidentally,” had earlier tossed the hero a hat simply to keep him warm, from which he’ll later “pull the rabbit” just before the bridge blows up … wow! The author has time on her side, or better, creates the story
outside
of time. It’s the reader who will experience the story in a logical, sequential order, as it’s being read on a time line. The author can go back to the beginning of the story after it’s essentially already been completed and add a new character, Colonel Mustered, who will solve some problem that only became apparent upon completion of the first draft! Yet the author is so masterful in shaping her narrative that the reader feels it’s spontaneously, naturally, and logically coming to life in the moment the words are read, which, of course, is long after the final draft was written, printed, and bound.

All of this is possible because the author thoroughly understands her role in the creation and accordingly pushes the right buttons at the right time for the results she wants the reader to find in the finished work.

Similarly, the author of a lifetime, who thoroughly understands her role in the creation,
gives serendipity its marching orders
based on whatever “is written” in thought, belief, and expectation for the results she wants in each finished manifestation. This is
your
great trick. Knowing you are not dependent, in any way, on the world around you. It does not have to be played off of, worked, or manipulated to bring about change. In fact, it’s futile to try to bring about meaningful life changes by manipulating life’s illusions of time, space, and matter. Instead, change their source! Go within to your thoughts and imagination. Envision, and thereby create, new possibilities to which the Universe will respond in the physical world, rearranging your life’s illusions.

Your part is the easy part. The Universe does all the rest.