What follows is a summary of some of the ideas that I like to explore in the various Manifestation or Creating your own Reality type workshops that I have given over the past ten years or so, both here at the Findhorn Foundation and outside the community.

Firstly, some people come to my workshops or presentations with the idea that I am going to teach them how to Manifest. The bad news is that I am not going to do that. The good news is that you already DO manifest everything in your life. You already DO create your own reality in every respect. And within the broad guidelines that your Soul set up with God before you were born, you have total free choice to create what you want. In saying that, I do not wish to imply that you live your life as a victim of what your soul dictates.

So, if we all already create our own realities, what we want to try and do is to slow that process down and see how we do it, so that we can adjust things and maybe create something different.

By the way, as I wander on with these explorations, I just want to say that this little paper of ideas, is based very much on my own experiences, rather than merely on theory. It is true for me, as far as it goes, and it is continually growing and changing, as I experience new and more exciting things. Those of you who have done an Experience Week or workshop at the Findhorn Foundation, and know all about the importance of making “I” statements, please assume the phrase “In my experience” before each sentence in this paper.

So if anything that I say rings true for you, Great, you’re welcome to it. If any of it seems irrelevant or silly or wrong fine, ignore it. If anything gets you really angry or upset, that’s the stuff for you to look at.

I know that my mind, which is a very sharp creature, can generally rationalise it’s way out of anything it does not want to hear. My feelings, on the other hand, are separate and not quite so easily or quickly held under by my mind. So as your mind shoots off in rapid reaction to something you’ve just heard, see what the feeling in your belly tells you. Maybe there is something to listen to in that last “Ridiculous Statement.”

The material for my workshops I beg, steal, borrow or pirate from many sources, I admit. There is no copyright on truth. We use exercises and meditations and guided image, etc. We are exploring. I see this work as an adventure.

I find a lot of wisdom in the words of some of the channelled sources which are around these days, such as Emmanuel, Bartholomew, Julian, Lazaris, Seth and so on. I first became interested in the subject of Manifestation while reading the words written and channelled by David Spangler in the book Laws of Manifestation which I highly recommend if you can get hold of a copy of it.

So, let’s get into the subject matter. First of all, there are many techniques of Manifestation, visualisations, meditations, affirmations, etc. but I would like to look first at what Lazaris calls the “Raw Materials.”

We create from our: Thoughts, Feelings, Choices and Beliefs. So let’s explore each of those a little.

I have a model that I find useful, which I call my “SubConscious Computer”(S.C.C.) For those of you who are not familiar with computers, they are very efficient beasts, these days. I started work in the computer industry some 25 years ago, when the early machines were enormous and very slow, lots of turning tape decks and flashing lights, and very unreliable. Nowadays the little box sitting on my desk is amazingly fast and powerful and reliable. If I feed in accurate information, my computer feeds out accurate information, when asked. If I feed in rubbish, it gives me back rubbish. There is an acronym in the industry which is GIGO = Garbage In, Garbage Out.

Now my SubConscious Computer is even more efficient than the Apple on my desk. My S.C.C. cannot tell a truth from a lie, has no sense of humour, always works in the present tense and always says “YES.” So all of my life my S.C.C. has been faithfully storing away information. Whenever any of my senses picked up a message that I was a good person, or a loveable person, or had done something well, my S.C.C. said “YES” and stored it away (as the police say “Will be taken down and may be used in evidence against you”).

Of course, any time that I picked up that I was a bad person, or worthless, or unloveable, or had screwed something up, the S.C.C. just says “YES” and stores it away.

So, I have a lot of data faithfully stored away, and what I think about myself is formed from that information.

There was a study carried out in the United States in which they planted little tape recorders on a number of kids and sent them on their way. When they analysed the tapes it was discovered that 80% of the input to the children was negative. “Don’t do this. Don’t do that. That is bad.” So, just imagine, the vast majority of the stuff going into their little computers is negative, so small wonder that when they grow older, their self-esteem may be a little on the low side. The more so, because little children have not yet learned the skills of discernment and screening out good information from bad.

So we end up with a society of people who’s belief systems are made up of empirical evidence that says “I am not good enough.” “I do not deserve.” “Don’t think you are anything.” and so on.

I remember one day, after I had been following my spiritual path consciously for some years and beginning to learn a little self-love, saying to my mother on one of my visits home, “You know, I’ve realised that I am actually a very good and a very nice person.” Her response was “You can’t say that!” “Why not?” I asked. “Well, you just don’t do that!” I imagine that many other people will know what I am talking about.

I imagine that this is a very common indoctrination given to us as kids, and not only in England. What is wrong with feeling good about ourselves? What’s wrong with saying, “I am a wonderful, loveable, Christfilled, shining child of God?”

Nothing! Say it now. Say it out loud. Say it every day, lots of times. ‘Cos it’s true.

So, what do we do about all this information? Well, let’s talk a little bit about loading up with some more data of a positive nature.

How about Affirmations? I know a lot of people use these and find them useful and a lot of people get bored with them. For me, affirmations are a way of building up a pile of positive information to counteract the negative stuff we got as kids. When the pile of good stuff gets bigger than the bad stuff, life takes on a new look. It takes patience. We spent a lot of years gathering the untrue, negative stuff.

All that stuff builds up a Lack Of Self-Esteem, and thus we become Losers in our lives.

There are many good books and articles on affirmations and different ways to use them. You can say them ten times (or a hundred) every morning into the mirror as you wash or shave. You can sing them in the shower. You can fall asleep murmuring them. You can shout them as you drive your car to work. (Make sure the windows are wound up when you stop at the traffic lights. The person next to you might not understand why you are smiling broadly and yelling “I love myself!” at him.) You can write them down with or without a response column.

You know,

“I am a beautiful Christ-filled being………Bullshit!
I am a beautiful Christ -filled being…………Rubbish!
I am a beautiful Christ -filled being……….Sometimes
……………………………………………………………………etc.

And watch them begin to change.

You can type them into your computer. Whatever feels good for you.

Much of our communication is done in words, so let’s take a look at the power of words. I’ve already mentioned using “I” statements. A nice idea for a week, but try doing it over a longer period of time. I’ve found that it makes a tremendous difference in my life. It empowers me to know that I am only expressing for me. It calls me on my desire to blame others.

How about substituting the word “Won’t” for “Can’t”. There is never a “Can’t.” There is always a choice. It is very empowering to use the word “Won’t.” If I say that I “Can’t” come to that party because I have to babysit, that is not true. I “Won’t” come to the party because I have chosen to babysit instead. It may sound silly, but it subtly empowers you just to say it the second way.

How about the word “Problem.” I try and use the word “Challenge” or “Opportunity” instead of problem. Once again, it may seem silly, but my S.C.C. registers the word and knows if I am feeling a victim of Life, God, the Universe or even my own soul. To me “Problem” implies something blocking me – a reason “Why Not”, whereas “Opportunity” implies a deliberate choice to face a situation and grow to move beyond it.

You may well have others that you might want to change. One of Peter Caddy’s was “Don’t say “If”, say  “When”. The people in Sri Lanka use the words “Not Yet” much more than just “No.”

How about the word “But.” I’m very well today, but…
My life is just great, but…
It’s a wonderful world, but…
Try using “And” in these places. Don’t compromise the positive statement with a “But”.

One or two tips on your affirmations. Always make them in the present. ‘I will quit smoking tomorrow’ is not good, because “Tomorrow” never comes. For that matter that is not a good affirmation anyway as it is in the negative. Make your affirmations positive. e.g. My lungs are clear and healthy. My body is totally filled with vibrant health.

Be aware of your own messages to your S.C.C. If you catch yourself saying, “Oh God, I’m absolutely crazy” or “I must have been mad,” remember your S.C.C. just says “Yes” and stores it away. It can’t tell truth from lies.

I think it was David Spangler who said that “Thoughts create and feelings bring alive.” It’s like thoughts provide a plan on paper, in two dimensions if you like, and feelings bring it off the paper into solid reality, adding a third dimension.

Let’s look at something that you would like to create in your life. How do you feel about it? Is it exciting? Is it scary? Is it wonderful? Is it sad? Does it frustrate you? Are you prepared to get up and be enthusiastic about this thing that you say you want?

A friend of ours, Lionel Fifield, who runs the Relaxation Centre in Brisbane, Australia, sometimes comes to visit the Findhorn Foundation and generally gives a presentation to the membership. He works a lot with affirmations and sometimes breaks up his talks by inviting the audience to say an affirmation together. You know, “I’m a wonderful being!” The response is usually half-hearted to say the least. A half-hearted, dull murmur from embarrassed people with red faces peering out of the corners of their eyes at their equally shy neighbours. So he’ll get the people to stand up and get excited about it and shout out that they are wonderful beings. Why not? Why should we be so shy about ourselves?

So if you really want something in your life, let your excitement out. Tell the world. You deserve abundance.

Look at the energy of “Fear”. Fear is the same energy as excitement. If you lean away from something, you get fear. If you lean towards it, you get excitement, enthusiasm. Years ago I used to spend my Sundays participating in motorcycle competition. Every Sunday I would leap out of bed, load up my bike on it’s trailer and take off to various parts of England and spend my day hurtling through the trees and mountains and rivers with very little thought of the risk of injury, because I was excited about it. But (in those days) the idea of getting deeply involved in a relationship with a woman was a different matter. That was really something to cause me to crawl back under the duvet and not get involved. That was scary.

Another little acronym. FEAR = False Evidence Assumed as Reality. Note the word False. Have you noticed how much more frightening things are at 4am when you can’t sleep (Oops – sorry – Won’t sleep!). The silliest things – the wild elephant in the bedroom corner shadows suddenly shrinks when the sun comes up.

Someone said, “In my lifetime, I have feared many, many things, very few of which have actually come about.”

If you deny the uncomfortable feelings (anger, fear, pain) then you also cut yourself off from the others like love, joy and peace. You either feel or you don’t. You stay on the long, straight line in the middle of the graph-paper, or you soar and plummet, to joy to fear to love to anger. The former (the straight line) is more comfortable, but you risk dying of boredom. The latter is scary and beautiful and exciting. When I was a kid, I used to say, “I just want to be happy!” But now I know that’s not enough. Now I want to accept whatever I feel as okay.

So, let’s turn that fear around, lean towards things and let the excitement out, let it carry us into the magnificent, abundant world that is our birth right.

I often meet people who do not manifest what they want to, because they are not prepared to make choices. They are so scared of making a mistake that they forever stand at the edge of the water and won’t try.

The universe responds to decisions. When you make a choice, the world responds either “Good one” or “Uh-Oh. Not so good, try again.” But unless we try, we will never know. The cosmos has no exercise book upon which to write it’s advice.

“A ship in a harbour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.” Human beings, hidden away from the dangers of the world are safe. They are also, usually, bored, and that is not why we are here. Our lives are meant to be an adventure.

Some of my favourite quotes (I love quotes. Had you noticed?):

This is not a mistake. It’s a teacher. Am I ready to listen?

This is the true joy of life.
The being used for a purpose recognised by yourself as a mighty one.
The being thoroughly worn out before being thrown on the scrap heap.
The being a force of nature, instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments, complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy.

George Bernard Shaw

Let’s think about driving. I love to drive. When you are driving, you are making decisions all the time, and you are getting feedback all the time, and making new decisions based on that feedback. You go round a corner too fast, the tyres squeal, oh dear, too fast, slow down… a bit too close to the kerb on the left, steer to the right, a bit too much, steer to the left, etc. You are making decisions, many of them life and death decisions, all the time that you are driving. As you drive to work in the morning, you have taken hundreds of risks, without thinking too much about it.

This is how we use the gift of feedback. We make decisions and then get the response. An interesting thing about feedback is that it seems difficult for us to take feedback from other people. We feel criticised.

Imagine that you wish to sail your boat from Scotland to New York. So you set out with your sail set at a certain angle and your rudder set in a certain position and off you go. After a few miles the wind changes. You would be very foolish to stubbornly refuse to adjust the sail or tiller. In fact, if you did not you could end up in the Antarctic or anywhere. Sailing, like life, is a matter of continually monitoring the current reality and responding appropriately. It requires sensitivity, flexibility and common sense.

One of my very special books is called Actualisations by a man called Stewart Emery. In that book, which I highly recommend, the author uses as an example the autopilot in an airliner. Along with the inertial navigation system, it forms what is called a closed-loop feedback mechanism. There is continual communication between the two. Unlike human beings, these two do not argue, or take things personally – they just cooperate. They are both specialists and they both trust each others’ skills totally.

Think about it. The aeroplane is actually off-course 90% of the time (and, of course, in the process of making adjustments 90% of the time). This does not make the plane stupid or inefficient. It actually does it’s job perfectly and gets to it’s destination safely.

So what is wrong with us making mistakes, as long as we are prepared to learn from them? Standing and angrily beating yourself up, or dwelling on how stupid you are after getting something not quite right is a waste. Just acknowledge it and decide what to choose differently next time.

Many people are just terrified of making mistakes, so they dither. So they never find out what is best or what is most appropriate to do.

I lived for a couple of years with a woman who had two children. I think they were seven and nine. I became a father to them. Now I am the sort of person who likes to read up on a subject before diving into it. When a job is needed on my car engine, I read up in the workshop manual, so I know what to expect rather than just pulling things apart.

So I asked their mother how to be with the kids, how to treat them, how to act? Where was discipline, etc.? She laughed and said, “I can’t tell you. Everyone’s different. You have to try it out. You’ll make mistakes. You’ll write your own manual on how to relate to your own kids. It will be yours and it may need to be changed for other kids or other situations. If we disagree then we’ll talk about it (or shout!). You’ll have to risk looking a fool, getting it wrong in front of the kids. Don’t worry. They are pretty forgiving. You don’t have to be perfect.”

Life is an adventure. If we had the map, the plan, the manual already written and memorised, what would be the point of taking the journey? There would be nothing to learn. And making mistakes rattles the old pride, which is good for the soul, which I believe is the main point of our having come to this particular holiday resort – the planet Earth.

What are beliefs? Well, we create beliefs, maybe from information taken in as children or as adults. The beliefs become very powerful and a large part of the structure of our psyches. Beliefs are not bad or good in themselves, but they are worth taking a look at once in a while. I found some of the Seth channellings instrumental in helping me understand beliefs.

Some of the beliefs I discovered in myself were things like, “I believe that material abundance and a life dedicated to spirit are incompatible.” “I believe that women abandon me.” “I believe you have to work hard for what you want.” “Lucky at cards, unlucky in love.” I believe that I cannot walk on water.” “I believe that if I jump off the top of a skyscraper, I will accelerate towards the ground at 32ft/sec. squared and be killed.” “I believe that there is a barrier between my conscious and subconscious minds, and that big, dark, ominous things (maybe from my past) can rise up from below that barrier and GET me.”

And, of course, the one that keeps all the others in place is, “I believe that my beliefs are difficult to change.” Now if I could shift that one, then I could change all the others very easily, but hang on, there is a security in all those beliefs. I like them. I know them.

They are familiar. Do I want to lose that good old solid security? If I lost that group of “Givens” (things that I know as the truth!) in myself, maybe there would be just me (Personality) and spirit. There would be no separation – me and God. Now, hang on. “That feels scary.”

Some of these beliefs are, I think, useful. Until I know that I can fly then the one about the law of gravity (jumping off a skyscraper) keeps my physical body alive. I think that’s useful, but its still worth examining once in a while. In the book Illusions by Richard Bach there is a section where the Messiah walks through a wall and the pupil wonders if he could have done the same in that moment if only he had not questioned it. After all we are 90% pure air in between the particles that make up our flesh and bones. We are not really solid at all and neither is that wall. Maybe I can fly or walk on water. I don’t often really give it a try to see if things have changed.

Anyway, beliefs are important to us. We spend a lot of energy proving them true. When one of them does not prove true, we get a bit uncomfortable. In the book Actualisations, the author suggests a 60/40 proposition. In this 40% of our communication happens through our words, and the other 60% is through other methods. These would be such things as body language and possibly telepathy.

Have you ever noticed that a person’s words are not always congruent with the message they put out? And then it gets strange, because you know what was said, but it did not fit.

Children notice when parents are dishonest. Johnny comes in from school, painting in hand, “Look what I’ve done, mummy”. Mother smiles and says, “It’s lovely” but is thinking, “You’ve kicked the toes out of those new shoes. Do you think I’m made of money?” Johnny gets confused. Why doesn’t she like my picture? Kids are innocent. They have not learned how to build defences and screen things out yet.

This 60/40 proposition is so clear that I believe we almost have a neon panel in our foreheads that tells the real truth.

I mentioned that one of my beliefs was that “Women abandon me”. Now I could say that my first ten girlfriends abandoned me, so it must be true. Or maybe the first one left me, so I tried again. Number two went off after a few weeks. Hm! 2 out of 2. Maybe that’s just bad luck. Let’s try best 3 out of 5. Number 3. And again! 3 out of 3. THIS IS A FACT. Women always abandon me. Maybe all women always abandon all men eventually.

Or maybe I had got hold of this belief and was wandering around trying to prove it was true. Maybe the neon sign in my forehead was flashing “Abandon Me!”. I would rather the pain of being abandoned than the insecurity of having my precious belief disproved. So I was creating what I did not want in order to hold onto beliefs that were not necessarily true.

After a while I found it less painful to head for the door first, to save being abandoned in relationships.

So how many of our precious beliefs do we unknowingly keep in place, creating unpleasant situations, rather than living a life of adventure and insecurity by dropping the beliefs and treating each situation as a first? Pretty scary, but very exciting.

So what beliefs of yours get in your way? What could you shift, change or drop? I have nothing against beliefs, but look at them once in a while. If your creative ideas don’t work, try a trick from one of our exercises.

Ask yourself, “What do I want? Why do I want it? and Why do I NOT want it? (What’s the pay-off for not having it?)

Obviously, if you do not have this thing, then up to now you have “Not wanted it” more than you have “Wanted it”. More of your energy has kept it away than has magnetised it to you.

If you want to discover how some of these beliefs get started, I’ll be looking, later, at how we get messages from our parents when we are very young and how powerful they are.

You can use affirmations to challenge and shift beliefs. Just negate the belief you want to change and say it to yourself over and over. I call these Belief Affirmations – you just say “I Believe…” instead of “I Affirm…”

 Try writing down a list of 20 successes that you have had today. What? You have to be joking! But, think about it. You got out of bed without falling over. You got dressed. You got washed, shaved, made breakfast, caught the bus to work, and on, and on. Now each of these is a success. Ask a 3 year old if tying it’s shoelaces can be considered a success. The fact is that when things become easy for us, we stop regarding them as a success. Once upon a time we were cheered and clapped by mum and dad just for walking 3 steps. Why should frequency detract from the glow of achievement?

Most of us lead very successful lives if we will just take the time to acknowledge our successes. When things are not going well for you, look at those little things and congratulate yourself.

I believe that my dear faithful Subconscious computer registers successes and failures, but it does not care about size.

So when I get out of bed it registers “One Success”. When I climb Mount Everest it registers “One Success”. Similarly with failures it does not care if I stub my toe or wreck the car. It just registers “One failure” or “One slip-up”. So at the end of the day my success rate is counted by the number of “S”s versus “F”s.

Watch your successes. Take time to pause. I know that when I reach the top of a mountain, I usually look at the next one, without even taking a moment to say, “I have done really well to get here.”

Turn round and look down the mountain. When the task ahead seems enormous and just too much (any task, your spiritual, evolutionary journey, whatever) turn around and see how far you have come already.

When life just seems too much, try racing an ant. The rationale behind this is that we need to start small, build up momentum, faith and trust.

When you train with weights, if you try the heaviest ones, you will only succeed in convincing yourself that this is not for you. If you start off with a light weight and gradually build up, each success leads you to try for a bit more. Building blocks. Start at the bottom. You build the muscles. It’s the same with creativity. You build the spiritual muscles gradually.

If you want to be a millionaire and decide to do it by next week, well everything’s possible, but I think it more likely that you’ll become disappointed and go back to selling insurance. Whereas if you start off going for something less daunting, you can build each success upon the previous ones. It is surprising how quickly these successes lead to each other, as long as we take the time to pat ourselves on the back and say “Well done, I was successful.”

Aiming too high is a very good way to create an excuse for failure and hence sabotage your creativity.

The point of manifestation is not to acquire things or money. This may well happen, which is very pleasant, but it is not the purpose.

No manifestation is complete unless there has been an equivalent raise in consciousness.

Sitting there with a pile of gold or bank notes in front of you is not the completion of the exercise. We need to stop and recognise our own ability and power to co-create with God. We need to realise our ability to do this consciously, rather than having it (or believing it to) “Just happen to us”.

Most people (especially myself) have found it pretty scary when they start to realise their own creative power. The first time a big “Something” comes about obviously by their own doing, can be very frightening.

The point of manifestation is to learn our own power. As David Spangler says, there is actually only one Law of Manifestation, and that is “TO BE”. To be our full, God-Centred, Spirit-Inspired selves.

Once I was complaining that I wanted some new clothes and a friend wisely asked where I would keep  them. “Well, in the wardrobe of course,” I said and went to look there. In fact there was no room in my wardrobe because it was filled with old things that I never wore, but did not want to get rid of “Just in case”. Of course my ability to draw things into my life was clogged up by unnecessary baggage. Try looking at your bookshelf, all those books that “I’ll read one day” or “So-and-so gave me that, I must keep it.” Try the tape collection. “Oh, I’d forgotten I had that.” You put it into the player, listen filled with nostalgia for a while and back it goes on the shelf, “I must make time to listen to music more often!” Familiar?

It’s a wonderful feeling to have a good clear out, because you clear out other things in yourself as you do. Keep it moving, freshen your life up. Also, as you pass things on, you become the source of other people’s manifestation. Maybe I should say “God’s channel through which others draw their needs or wants.” It’s amazing when I have a clear out, that something I pass on to a friend turns out for them to be, “Just what I wanted. How did you know?”

As you clear the shelves and cupboards, look inside your head and heart, and see if there are old thoughts and feelings that could be cleared out. Grudges, blames, antagonism to others or to ourselves (Guilt that is.).

When I see whatsisname, do I still recall the time they did so-and-so to me 15 years ago? Do I need that? “I’ll never forgive whatsisface” is a common expression. “So-and-so has always been a fool”. Do I need that? Clear it out, move it on, start afresh. Spring clean time on all levels.

If I want to manifest a new car in my life, how have I been looking after the old one? If I am not prepared to look after things in my possession, why would the Cosmos entrust me with more? If I want a new and wonderful relationship, am I honouring and cherishing my present partner or my friends? Am I being good to my own body? Think about it!

One of the most vital energies around creativity is to say thank you, to have an “Attitude of Gratitude”. Thank you God, thank you Cosmos, thank you me, thank you life-force. Thank you for all my blessings, my friends, my health, my country. “Thank you, thank you.” The best mantra I know.

Always take the time to say thank you after you have created something. Whatever happens, say thank you. Even if it does not feel like a positive thing that has happened, there is a gift there somewhere to be grateful for.

Everything is perfect in hindsight, in retrospect.

The way that I find most effective to work in a workshop situation, is to get the participants to work with a purpose throughout the time of the workshop. This enables us to try out and experience for ourselves what might otherwise just seem like theories and clever ideas.

If the particular purpose is one that is real and alive for you, then it will automatically bring up all your blocks and resistances, assuming that you are prepared to be honest and act with integrity.

So let’s look at purpose. Many folk, in my experience would rather skip over this and get down to the magic and miracles and meditations of manifestation. I should say here that manifestation is not magic, and miracles are just “God’s use of natural laws”, and as we are all one with God….

One of my models is to think of manifestation as mainly clarifying our purpose. Most of us have rather hazy ideas about what we really want. The various ways of getting clearer on what we want, automatically show us where and what we need to work on.

As we work on and clear our blocks, the vision or purpose gets so clear that the “Bringing about” or “Bringing into Form” happens very easily.

Purpose! Write it down. What do you want? Be precise. When do you want it? Give a time. Will you know when you have achieved it? (e.g. “Being more Loving” is a difficult one to measure!) Is it so big and impossible-seeming that you are sabotaging yourself straight off? Is it so insignificant that it’s no challenge anyway?

Start with I INTEND. The word “Intend” has power and direction which are not there in words like want, wish or try. I find it interesting how difficult it can be to get some people to say “I INTEND”. Decision making – setting out on the adventure is really terrifying for some.

I then find it useful for people to share their purpose with the group, which usually embarrasses some people. The idea of this is that however crazy you may think your idea is, just having it as apart of the awareness of others adds thought energy. Also people are often ashamed of wanting “Loads of money” or “A wonderful job” , “Superb health” or “A magnificent relationship”.

Thirdly, people get to see that they are not unique. Another of my favourite quotes is “If everybody shared their fears, the biggest complaint would be Lack of Originality.

I remember one workshop where the purposes chosen on day one were all sorts of silly, little meaningless things that did not challenge anybody or anything. Just one person wanted a new relationship. By the end of the weekend, after exploring our real blocks and resistances and lack of self-worth, everybody was going for a new or better relationship.

Why are relationships so important? And why are we so shy and embarrassed about wanting one? I believe that one-to-one relationships are the most readily accessible experiences of LOVE, which is GOD, which is SPIRIT, which is what our lives here are about.

One of my favourite ways of exploring and clarifying purpose is a model I call the “WHY TREE”. In this you write down your intention or purpose and then begin to ask the question WHY?

Example: I intend to create a joyful, on-going, one-to-one, loving, sexual relationship with a woman, now.

Why on-going? What’s wrong with one night stands?
Why one-to-one? I feel safer with lots of girlfriends and no commitment.
Why loving? Can’t we just be pals?
Why sexual? Platonic friendships are safer.
Why relationship? I can be fine on my own.
Why with a woman? I feel safer with a cat or my men-friends.
Why now? Can’t it wait?

Here we have seven questions from one intention giving seven answers. From each of those answers may come one or more new WHY questions to answer. As your WHY TREE grows and branches, it blossoms with information to fill out and focus your intention.

You need to be very honest in this exercise. I have been surprised at my own dishonesty with myself as I explore my creativity. It may be useful to work with a friend on this. Others often see subtle things that are key issues in our words and answers.

As you clarify your intention, you may discover that your initial intention was not what you really wanted. Some may say that the intention was wrong, but in fact this is not true. Discovering that this something was not really what you needed means that the manifestation is complete. You got what you truly needed, which was the information that you were on the wrong path. Bingo!

You always get what you need, not necessarily what you ask for, and not necessarily in the gift-wrapping of your choice.

Under every intention is a deeper intention, ultimately leading us to God, Spirit, Ourselves, growth and truth.

An exercise I find really helpful is a meditation going back into our childhood, back to a time when we were very small, maybe before we could even understand words. I then ask folk to get a statement from their parents on work, money, relationships/sexuality and health/sickness. When I say a statement, I mean that it is not necessarily words. For example if your parents turned off the television whenever there was a sex scene on, or if they never discussed money, those are powerful and influential statements.

Sometimes the parents gave contradicting statements. When I say parents, of course some people who may have been brought up by uncles and aunts or grandparents obviously need to use whoever were their early role models. Then we move forward to the time when you were first introduced to the church, say Sunday School or whatever, and get a statement from the teacher or preacher on these same subjects. In effect these people gave you what you may have taken on as “God’s Opinion”, as they represented religion and hence, spirit. People are often surprised at some of the deeply embedded beliefs that come from these “Statements”.

You also need to be prepared to deal with things that may come up from this exercise, so if you try leading it for others be warned.

Here are two exercises that I have found useful. One is about “Choices” and the other about “Excuses”. In the first case we get another person to act as our conscience and spend some time repeating to us a list of the “SHOULDS” we hold in our minds, as if they were our conscience. (You each compile a list of your own SHOULDS beforehand.) When your conscience is acted out by someone else you get to see how absurd those persistent thought patterns are and how much they can affect us. It is also a chance to see how to recognise them and choose to act differently.

In the EXCUSES exercise, we use two or three people to batter us with our favourite excuses why not every time we repeat our purpose. Another very useful way to see our patterns, and how much that early conditioning can still affect you.

Over the years, I have noticed what a powerful tool money is. After all, money in itself, is not good or bad. It is just an exchange medium. You can’t eat it, and the only way it can directly keep you warm, is if you burn piles of bank notes.

Money does not make you happy. It just enables you to be happy or sad with more style.

But it is very powerful as a tool to discover and explore our attitudes and belief systems. It is so deeply embedded in our society and our thoughts, that workshops and exercises involving it can point us very quickly and clearly to our blocks.

I use an exercise called “The Money Game” which was invented by a friend of mine, Daniel Ofman, who used to be a member of the Findhorn Foundation. This game is played with real money, and never ceases to surprise me in what it brings up for participants. People end up with either more or less money than they started with, and that is what they take home afterwards, which makes it very real and powerful. They also gain a lot of understanding about self-love, deserving abundance, self-esteem, ability to receive, trust, faith. Once again, unexpected things often turn up and can need a little counselling skill to deal with.

I believe that money is one of our most valuable tools. I think that when we have learned all the lessons it has for us, then the world will no longer need it. That could be a while yet, though! I think that the lessons of money are more and more coming onto the world scene these days as the differences between the wealthy and poorer countries, and national debt situations continue to grow.

Worldwide and national situations always reflect our own personal situations, and money is no exception to this.

I often try to bring in a little D.M.A. or Technologies for Creating – as it is known now. This is a philosophy based on the work of Robert Fritz, especially in his book The Path of Least Resistance. In some ways, it is at variance with my own ideas, but any study of creativity is of value, and I like and use some of the models he uses.

You may have already realised the LUCK does not have any place in this paper or indeed in my philosophy. If I create my own reality, then nothing is left to chance, fortune or luck. This can be a tough idea to change, as the idea of good or bad luck is so deeply embedded in our societies. Casinos, football pools, betting on horses, dogs, cockfighting, cards.

How often do we say “Bad Luck”, “He’s the lucky one”, “How fortunate” or “Good luck to you”? Many a horse would have a full set of shoes after a wedding if it was not for this idea that I can invoke special favour from Lady Luck, or blame her when I don’t like the way things have worked out. The longer we hang on to this idea of luck, the longer we have an excuse for not taking responsibility for what we create. It’s a way we have of making the energy of blame less severe, but it is still there.

I would like to tell you the story of Frodo. It is the tale of one of my earliest explorations into conscious manifestation. This series of events seemed to cover just about every aspect of creativity – a sort of crash course.

Frodo is a motorcycle, a red Honda. I have always liked bikes, ever since my dad found my brother and I crashing his moped into the wall at the end of our garden at the age of 12 or 13.

Some years ago, having given up riding motorcycles before coming to Findhorn in 1978, I decided that I wanted a bike once again. I find them very exciting ways of travelling, very freeing, I guess in the same way as riding a horse.

Now the model I had always liked the look of was a Honda CB400 Super Dream. (The 400 is the size of the engine.) So I began to work with this, as I was living on an allowance of £5 per week at Findhorn.

After a while, I thought that this was a bit extravagant. It would cost too much to run, and all I really needed was something to get me about, so I lowered my aim, reduced my purpose and decided that a Honda CB250 Dream would do.

Again, after some time, I thought, “Well, a 125 would get me around”.

Not having learned much about faith and vision holding, I decided to give God a hand by asking my mother if I could borrow £300 – to see if I could buy a bike, and I would pay the money back over the months. She said yes, so I hunted the newspaper advertisements for my bike.

Some time later, a woman who lived in the Foundation, who rode a bike said to me, “You like bikes, don’t you? Do you want to have a spin on mine?” Well, I leapt at the chance. After a happy half hour getting back in touch with my 16 year old boy-racer, she said to me, “I’m thinking of buying myself a brand new B.M.W. (This was the Rolls- Royce of motorcycles, and this lady could afford it.) Would you like the old bike?” I asked her how much she wanted for it and she said she did not know. What did I think it was worth?

I went away and thought about it for 2 weeks, and still could not figure out what I could or should offer. When we talked again, she said, with a twinkle in her eye, “If you’d accept it, I’d give it to you!” Major freak-out on my part. I couldn’t just allow someone to GIVE me a motorcycle.

After another week or two she gave me the keys and it was mine. I took it back to my caravan and stood it outside. It was winter and the bike soon got covered in snow. I realised that I did not have the time to look after my new friend, and it was cold and the roads were slippery. Quite soon the previous owner told me that she had changed her mind about the B.M.W. and would like the old one back, and that she would give me the money to buy a similar one.

My guilt and low self-esteem (I don’t deserve!) leapt at the chance to release my feeling of indebtedness, and gave back the bike and told her not to worry about the money for another.

Then came the spring, and I looked out at the warm sunshine and realised that I could find the time for maintenance and would really love a bike. Without my saying anything, the documents and keys arrived. It was mine.

Frodo, as he became known, had been crashed and needed some new parts, which used up the money my mother had lent me. When I called her to tell her my plans to repay her, she told me not to worry. Let it be a gift.

All the lessons seemed to be built in. There was the universe tapping me on the shoulder saying, “Hey, look. There’s a bike over here for you,” and I was saying, “Go away. Can’t you see I’m manifesting? Look at this money I’ve borrowed.”

When I was not prepared to be a “Good Custodian”, it was withdrawn, and then returned when my commitment and willingness grew again.

There was my inability to believe that I deserved to be given to, to have abundance.

There I was, whittling down the size of my project, thinking God and I were limited to small engine sizes, rather than sticking to my goal.

There was the gift from my mother for the repairs.

There was me thinking that I had to manifest money in order to “BUY” the bike and blocking out the possibility of a gift. God has a million channels of manifestation. It is only my lack of faith that causes me to feel that I need to tell him how.

I still have Frodo, eight years later. I look after him well and I am extremely grateful. Oh, yes! Did I not say? He is, of course, a Honda CB400 Super Dream. This is just one of many wonderful manifestations that I have co-created with God, and again I say, the machine is lovely, but all the lessons and learnings and awareness are the real gifts and blessings.

To finish, I want to mention a couple of topics that I know are important, that I am still working at finding a way to fit into the workshop material. One of these is to do with anaesthetics. I find here a perfect parallel.

As you know, a surgeon will use a little anaesthetic to take away discomfort or pain during surgery. If he uses more the patient becomes unconscious. If he uses too much, the patient dies.

I look at my own life and the lives of people around me, and I see us using anaesthetics, but rather than using morphine or whatever it is that doctors use now, we use alcohol, food, tobacco, sugar, sex, drugs, sport, meditation, work, money, material possessions. In fact, anything used to excess. A little of these takes away the discomfort. Too much makes us unconscious. Many of us spend our lives unconscious, unaware of life around us. As we seek to cut off the unpleasant feelings, we end up cutting ourselves off from everything. In effect, we can become almost dead, though still breathing.

When you want to create something in your life, have a look at whether it is maybe a pain-killer. Nothing wrong with that. It’s just good to be aware of it. I know I used to go and buy clothes when I was not happy, and often knew when I got home, that this was not the food to satisfy that particular hunger.

The second one is to do with blame. I want to explore how much of our thoughts and actions are based on blame. Blaming our parents, blaming our spouse, blaming germs for sickness, blaming the government, society, your kids, God, your own Soul. I notice myself, when things are not the way I want them to be, looking for someone or something to blame. If I can say, “It’s their fault!” then I can be a victim of them and not feel accountable for my own response to the situation.

Think how often we use sickness as an excuse. I know that “Burn-Out” is a choice, too, though I am careful when and how I say that.

I began exploring the concept of blame in Izmir airport in Turkey on my way back from holiday. It was a little chaotic and disorganised, and a lot of the passengers were getting very upset about “THEM”. Them is a collective term for airport authorities, tour operators, customs people, lack of toilets, too much sun, too much money spent, back to work on Monday, etc.

Rather than saying, “I’ve had a lovely holiday. Things seem a bit crazy and I’m rather tired and worn out,” they need to say, “It’s their fault! I won’t come here again! They did it to me! It was them! They always do it to ME!”

We have a game we play at the Foundation at Christmas time called Angels and Mortals. We do this for the 2 weeks before Xmas. We put our names in a box and secretly draw out a name. This is the name of your mortal. So everybody has an angel and a mortal. The idea is to shower your mortal with love and caring (not necessarily with expensive gifts) at this special time.

I like to use this in my workshops, as it challenges people’s ability to give and to receive, especially as it is anonymous, so you can’t stop your angel giving to you. I remember once making the remark that for 2 weeks at Christmas we become Angels and Mortals, and the rest of the year we go back to being Victims and Martyrs.

Just have a look at your feelings of blame, and that includes self-blame which is guilt.