6 Laws for a Better Life - School of Metaphysics

UNIVERSAL LAWS, overview

Our universe is governed by laws and truths
Metaphysics is the study of these Universal Laws

6 Laws for a Better Life

Experience is a great teacher
and the best illustration of the workings of the Laws in our lives

Just as there are physical laws like gravity and relativity that govern the physical world, there are laws which govern the mental world we create in. In all existence there is structure, order, and form. This is true in the realm of creativity as well.

The guidelines which define the order and structure of creation are called Universal Laws. They are universal because they apply to anyone, any time, any place. They do not discriminate. Because we all have minds and our minds are designed to work for us, each one of us has the ability to create our heart's desires by cooperating with the Universal Laws.

When you read books by or about successful people, you will find that there are similar ideas which permeate the literature. It doesn't matter what field of endeavor the notable person pursues–business, art, music, science, religion, communication — the same principles work. Even when someone does not know about the laws, even when they do not call them Universal Laws, they still use these universal principles. People who accomplish their ideals are cooperating with the Universal Laws whether they know it or not because the truth always prevails.

When you know about Universal Law, you will be more effective with your visualizing. You will be able to expend less energy and direct it more efficiently, enabling you to create always higher and greater achievements. You will invest your mental, emotional, and physical energy wisely because you will produce the results you desire. I will present some of the Universal Laws here for your use. Please understand that these are not all, and through the practice of daily mental and spiritual discipline you will develop greater awareness of the Universal Laws–what they are and how to use them. You will find these laws described in success literature, in the holy scripture of all religions, in mythology, in fairy tales, fables, and allegories that describe the essence and nature of man.

The Law of Believing and Knowing

This is a law practiced by many people in their everyday lives and stated in different words by philosophers of all kinds. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "They conquer who believe they can." Nobel prize physicist Arthur H. Compton declared, "Every great discovery I ever made, I gambled that the truth was there, and then I acted on it in faith until I could prove its existence." Believing and knowing encapsulates the essence of creative imagery. A belief occurs when you have completely imaged something. You believe it is going to rain because the sky looks dark and cloudy and you can imagine the clouds turning to rain. You may hear a weather forecast that predicts rain when it is clear and sunny outside and think, "Oh, I don't believe that. It looks too nice to rain." It is hard for you to imagine impending rain when the sky is so blue.

In order to activate visualization in your life, start with learning how to create belief. When there is something you desire, listen to your thoughts. Do you expect to have your desire? Or do you have difficulty believing it is possible? Creating belief means creating a clear, complete thought-form image, incorporating all of your senses in the creation of the image. You can imagine just what your object of desire would look, smell, taste, feel, and sound like. When the thought form is complete, you have created a belief! I guarantee you, it will be easy for you to believe in the reality of your thought when it is formed in detail. The difficulty most people have in believing is that they have never created a complete image of the desired result. Because their desire is vague, it remains "wishful thinking" rather than a strong, firm belief. The Law of Believing and Knowing states that when you believe an idea you accept it into yourself. It is real and all it requires is your physical activity to cause it to become physical. The knowing comes about through the physical activity, for once your thought is physical you know or experience it. The key to using the Law of Believing and Knowing, therefore, is to create a complete, detailed thought-form image and act upon it until your desired thought is manifested into physical reality.

Watch children and listen to them. In their innocence, they readily believe that they can have what they imagine. There was a young girl named Kathy who wanted more than anything in the world to have a pony. She had friends who had horses and from the time she was six years old she frequented the stables, petting the horses, learning how to take care of them, to brush their coats, and when she got big enough she learned how to ride. She asked her parents for a pony, and her father told her that they had saved money for her college education in a trust fund that would be accessible when she turned eighteen. If she wanted to use that money for a horse she could. Kathy was disappointed because she didn't want to wait so many years. The more time she spent at the stables, the more she wanted a horse of her own. She loved the way they smelled, she loved to touch their warm coats, she thrilled at the power she felt when she rode.

At seven years old, Kathy started finding ways to make money. She raised pet mice in her bedroom and sold them to the local pet store and to the neighborhood children. She did any odd jobs that she could and saved every penny she earned. Kathy also talked about her desire for a pony, and many of the adults she knew gave her gifts of money to put toward her pony. One summer, Kathy was given the use of a pony to keep and take care of and ride. It was used during the school year at a riding school and she was allowed to keep it when there were no classes in the summer. Caring for the pony, Kathy developed an even stronger image of having her own. She got up at the crack of dawn each day to feed it, brushed it regularly, cleaned out its stall, watered it, and loved it.

Finally, when Kathy was twelve years old, she had saved enough money to buy her own pony. When she rode it, she was ecstatic. It was exactly as she had imagined! Her story illustrates the importance of creating a strong image and holding on to it. It also shows that with will power and directed effort anything you imagine can come into being. Other children might have given up or they might have gotten distracted from their ideal, but Kathy continued to believe and invest her time and effort over a period of five years to fulfill her desire.

When you use Believing and Knowing the physical activity you put forth is worthwhile. If you find yourself at times becoming lazy or having difficulty motivating yourself to act on your desires, it is probably because you do not believe your actions will pay off. You think, "Why bother?" because you haven't imagined yourself receiving your desires, or you even imagine yourself being rejected or disappointed. When you initiate your creations with a clearly defined thought-form image, your time and activity is an investment which you know will pay off because it is directed toward the completion of your visualized object of desire. With practice you will discover that your thoughts are things and you will discover the reality of mind substance. Belief creates more belief, for the more you practice imagining first and following it with activity, the more you will know how to reproduce success in your life.

If you have difficulty believing in yourself, if you think that there are some people who live a "charmed life" and that you are one of the "unlucky" people who never achieve their desires, consider this. The Universal Laws are universal, therefore, if they can work for the "charmed" person they can work for you, too. You don't even need to believe in yourself as long as you believe in the efficacy of the Laws. They are unchangeable, and will work whether you are up or down, excited or depressed, feeling good about yourself or not. They are not affected by your changeable emotional states. They function equally for people of all ages, races, cultures, and religions. What security! You can rely on the Universal Laws through all the changes of your temporary physical existence. You do need to be willing to imagine what you want and to act in accordance with your visualized image. The Laws are no substitute for effort! The great thinker Thomas Alva Edison knew that "Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." Remember that when you are tempted to give up with the excuse that you are not good enough or smart enough or resourceful enough to fulfill your fondest dreams. With practice, you will discover that you can command the laws and you will build a greater sense of self respect and self worth.

Here is an example of how the Law of Believing and Knowing worked for me. Years ago, after having completed a first course of study in metaphysics, I wanted to teach others what I had learned. I did not have great belief in myself, but I believed strongly in the value of the teachings I received, and I had used the mental exercises and principles in the lessons to make some dramatic changes in my life. It was very important to me to share these teachings, to give to people what I had been given by my teachers.

I created a very strong thought-form image of what I had found to be valuable–the practice of concentration, the stillness and quiet of meditation, the profound awareness I had gained from learning to interpret dreams, the calmness I had developed from learning how to recharge and re-energize my body, the security that had come from the daily practice of mental discipline, the joy of creating my physical and spiritual desires. I visualized myself giving to everyone in the community, for I wanted everyone to know what I knew. I went over to the School of Metaphysics every day, sat in the teacher's chair, and visualized every seat in the classroom being filled with a student who was eager to learn. I made posters about the class starting, and as I wrote the phone number of the school on each one, I projected the image of the value of the class, so that I was permeating the paper with my strong thought-form desire to share what I had learned.

I believed that this was the best education anyone could receive. I wrote letters to people who had previously contacted the school for lectures and other services, introducing myself and the class. After I addressed the letters, I held each one in my hand. I visualized a light beginning in the center of my being, at my solar plexus region, imaged expanding it until I was flooded with brilliant light, then I radiated the letter with my light as I thought, "Welcome to the light" to the person receiving the letter. Then I imagined embracing the recipient with light, enfolding them in it while they absorbed its warmth. I imaged the person responding, "Yes! This is what I have been looking for." The first night of the class, I was sitting in the teacher's chair while the students were filling out a registration questionnaire. As I looked around the room, I realized that this image was exactly what I had visualized–every seat in the classroom was filled with a student who was curious and eager to learn! My belief had become a knowing.

Law of Abundance

He who aids others to abundance will always have abundance. This is an infallible law. You may have heard the folk wisdom, "If you feed a man a fish you've fed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you've fed him for a lifetime." This is another expression of this law.
Using the Law of Abundance will bring great joy into your life. It will ease your frustrations and give you the means to create the kind of world in which you want to live.

What is abundance? An overflowing, never ending supply of all that you need. When you use your resources to the fullest, you will have a rich harvest in your own life. When you aid others to do the same, they will also experience their life flourishing. When everyone reaches out to help his or her neighbor, the whole world prospers. Imagine a world with infinite, limitless resources. Imagine your own Self as a vast source of eternal truth. With unbounded resources within and without, it becomes easy to image that you can always find what you need to create what you want!

The Law of Abundance provides the means for you to receive into your life more than you have at the present. When you visualize, you are putting together in a new way energy and substance that is already present in your mind and your life. As you create, as you form images, you transform the energy and substance into a new form. Abundance means that you always have more than enough to fulfill your needs. As you use resources to their fullest, you will make use of all the energy and substance that is available to you. As you aid others to abundance, you will insure that the energy you use is recycled so that there is a continual supply.

How do you use resources to the fullest? There are many simple examples. Change the washers in the sink so that you use the water you need and do not have a drippy faucet that wastes water. Plan your shopping trips so that in one trip you buy groceries, get gas, and pick up the kids from school rather than running back and forth. You will save time and energy (your own and the car's.) Use scrap paper to write notes to yourself and use the good office stationary for business correspondence. Recycle glass and cans. Look for the ways that you can practice conserving energy. When you eliminate waste, you will be amazed to find out how bountiful the universe is! You will not worry about running out of time, energy, or money. Because you are fully using the energy available to you, you will easily imagine that there are copious resources to fulfill your desires.

Determine the difference between your wants and your needs. There is so much material substance available in the physical world, it is easy to become distracted by endless desires. Clothes, toys, cars, boats, televisions…the list of physical possessions could go on and on. Ask yourself, is this something I need to be happy? Or is this something I want? The more you learn how to cultivate Self awareness, the more you will evolve and learn what provides eternal bliss and what supplies a temporary reward. Why waste your time and energy pursuing desires that will soon become meaningless? It is wiser to invest in permanent treasures.

The understandings you gain become a permanent part of you. Offer the wisdom you have gained from your own life experiences to others. By aiding other people to abundance, you ensure that your influence extends beyond you. When you know how something works, teach this. Many parents want their children to have it easier than they had it themselves, so they do not always teach them how to clean or cook or take care of the mundane tasks of life. When the children move out on their own, they have a difficult time because they do not know how to take care of themselves. Although it may take a little bit more time in the beginning to teach a child how to perform theses tasks, in the long run it will save time for the parent (who will then have greater freedom to attend to other tasks themselves). It will also benefit the child who can then live more effectively and be a contributing member of society.

This is a simple illustration of the importance of sharing, one of the keys to abundance. Most of us have been taught to share our physical possessions. Children learn this from sharing their toys with friends or siblings. But how many of us are taught to share our knowledge and wisdom? The greatest gift you can offer to the world is you. When you pass on to other people what you have learned, you benefit the lives of many. Each person you touch in turn touches many other people. When all people share their inner wealth with one another we have a much more prosperous world.

Using the Law of Abundance will help you to create your desires for you will find that you learn more about what you know when you teach it to someone else. You will hear yourself say something, and as you hear it a light will come on in your mind. "Aha! So that's how it works!" These "Aha!" experiences create greater abundance in your own life, for you will discover truths that you did not even know you knew, and then you will be able to apply these truths to other areas of your life. Judy discovered this when she taught a writing class. Judy had been a writer for some thirty years, but had never had the opportunity to teach this. Her own practice of writing had evolved over the years, from learning vocabulary and basic grammar, to reading many different authors, to writing essays, learning to write poetry, and eventually writing short stories. When Judy had the opportunity to teach a class in creative expression, she drew upon memory to separate the steps she had taken, and was overwhelmed to discover that she had put together much understanding herself that had never been directly taught to her by a teacher. Judy found out through teaching her writing class that writing was not simply knowing words and knowing how to put them together. Good writing came from being attentive to life, using the senses to receive, observing people and determining their character from their actions, and then recording these perceptions with words. Judy had not even realized how perceptive and observant she was until she began teaching these skills. This was enlightening, as it helped her find out some of her strengths that she had taken for granted.

The Law of Abundance will give you the means to form the kind of world you want to live in. Have you ever wished other people were more kind, or more disciplined, or more truthful? Perhaps these are qualities you have and could show others how to develop. Maybe you know something they do not, and you can be of service through your example, teaching, or words of truth. When I was growing up, I was taught consideration by my parents. I learned to respect other people's time, their things, and their personal space. As I grew older, I found myself often in situations with other people who had not learned that same kind of respect. They would be very demanding, and I would become angry with them for being so inconsiderate. For many years I "stewed" when another person was inconsiderate. Finally, it dawned on me that some of these people didn't even know they were being inconsiderate. Some of them were oblivious to anything other than their own needs and desires. When I communicated my desires, it surprised them. They hadn't thought about someone else having needs, too. They had never learned to consider another person in their thoughts and actions. Although it wasn't easy at first for me to communicate in this way, it was productive. It put me in a position to aid someone else to expand their thinking, to include other people within the scope of their awareness. And it aided me to become more aware of what I was taking for granted in myself. Through giving I received enhanced understanding. Thus, as I aided another to abundance I received abundance myself.

All of the great masters, religious and political leaders were people who understood this concept. They were public servants who devoted time and energy to aiding their fellow man. Through service to humanity, dedicated people like these become enlightened. They learn that we are all part of the same creation, and as one individual grows and develops he or she enhances the whole. Each one of us can contribute to help others and in so doing all of us live a more exalted life.

Law of Proper Perspective

Too many things to do and not enough time to do them? Learn how to put first things first! The Law of Proper Perspective means determining what is most important to you and what will produce soul growth. Activating the Law of Proper Perspective starts with some deep thinking. What is life to you? Why do you approach it? What produces the greatest satisfaction and security for yourself? If you were to die tomorrow, what would you want to have accomplished and produced with your life? With these questions in mind, you can begin to decide what to do first. What desires will you need to accomplish first, second, third, and so on. This is a very important law because you can fulfill many desires in your life only when you put them in order. Without order, you become scattered and run around like a chicken with your head cut off!

Jane is a good example of a woman who had many desires and needed to use proper perspective to accomplish them all. She wanted a good education, she wanted to be married and to have children, and she wanted a successful career. To prioritize her goals, Jane examined the purpose for each one. Her purpose for receiving an education was to find out about the world, to learn more about other people's ways of thinking, and to become acquainted with areas of life she had not previously encountered. Jane decided that pursuing her education first would be proper perspective, as it would give her knowledge that would aid her in deciding what kind of career would be most fulfilling. Jane did know that she wanted to be married before having children, out of respect for them, to raise them in an established family environment. But she was not sure if she wanted to be married before establishing her career or get her career going first.

Jane determined that the purpose for a career was a means to express herself, a place to be creative, to establish her identity, and to learn about her own talents and skills. She decided, therefore, to pursue the career before marriage because she wisely assessed the importance of establishing security in herself individually before building a relationship with another. She wanted to bring a sense of individual wholeness into her marriage rather than attempting to seek fulfillment through a mate who would define her identity. Jane also believed that her education and career would help her to build the kind of maturity that would enable her to be a good wife and mother, thus those two goals needed to come before marriage and motherhood. Jane's purpose for marriage was to develop good communication skills, to understand how to become close with another individual, to learn to be committed, and to share herself intimately with another. She knew that developing these interpersonal skills would aid her in being a good parent. She wanted to establish a good relationship with her husband before planning to have children so that she and her husband would be united in their ideals once the children were born.

Jane's understanding of proper perspective aided her in determining the importance of establishing her own goals before bringing children into the world. She wanted to know how to fulfill her own desires and how to be creative and successful first, so that she could guide her children from experience and teach them with integrity. She wanted to learn to be disciplined herself before teaching them discipline, and wanted to let her children be individuals rather than trying to live vicariously through them. She created a life plan — education first, career second, marriage third, children fourth — by visualizing the kind of conditions and understandings she wanted to have.

With proper perspective you can learn planning. You can learn to use your time, money, and energy most efficiently. A good way to practice proper perspective is with cooking. In this modern day of instant coffee and microwave ovens, it is easy to forget that there are steps in any creation. Who knows what to do first when they have learned to pop a box in the microwave oven and that's dinner? When you practice cooking, you learn to start first with the foods that take the longest to cook. Second, you cook what will be the next longest. And so on. With the use of visualization, you can determine in what order to cook the foods so that they are all finished at the same time. The result is a carefully orchestrated meal. This is a simple, physical way to visualize a whole event (the meal) comprised of parts or steps. You can apply this to any endeavor that at first seems overwhelming. Visualize the whole picture and then break it down into parts. This can be a life plan, like Jane's, or a weekend plan that includes shopping, recreation, homework, and time spent with family. It can be planning for a big event like a wedding or a business seminar — any endeavor in life!

You can begin to practice this each day by making a "To Do" list. Write down daily everything that you want and need to accomplish. At first, you may want to write down the activities in the order they "come to mind." Then, go over your list and number in order of priority what is most important to do first, second, third, and so on. Perform each of these activities in this order, and as you accomplish them, cross them off the list. This will help you to build pride and confidence, as you watch yourself being competent and responsible. It will also help you to note when you are procrastinating. You may find that there is an activity you keep skipping over and adding to your next day's "To Do" list. This is a clue to you that you are putting off the activity! See if you can break it down into smaller parts so that you can take a first step in its accomplishment.

You will learn proper perspective by discovering how each individual goal or activity fits into the larger scheme of things. That is why it is important to consider what your life means to you. When it is all said and done, when you are about to rest for the evening or for the end of your life, what do you want to have completed? How do the daily activities that face you relate to this grander ideal in life? When you see how one step leads to another you begin to understand the importance of each individual step.

Law of Cause and Effect

In the metaphysical realm, thought is cause and effect is its manifest likeness. In other words, you are as you image yourself to be. You create your reality with thought. As we have shown, your subconscious mind can only reproduce what your conscious mind creates. Therefore, what you experience in your life is the effect (results) of your thinking.
Putting this law into practice will give you a way to understand true responsibility. The first responsibility you have is to your Self–to respond to the desires of your soul. Your soul craves maturity. Your conscious mind and physical self crave comfort. When you make choices that will produce maturity for your soul, you will be learning and growing and therefore content. When you make choices to feed your physical self only, you set yourself up for disappointment. For example, there were two men we will call Joe and Bob. Both Joe and Bob had worked for many years in the same company and both were offered the opportunity to transfer to a new city to open a branch of the company. Joe and Bob were excited at first. The prospect of meeting new people and facing new challenges was exciting. Both had become somewhat bored in their old jobs and had even thought about the need for a new stimulus to bring back the zest in life. Joe responded well to the challenge. In his new position, he got to develop leadership skills he had not used before. He learned how to investigate the community and to scope out resources for new client contacts. He visited many local groups, schools, churches, and community events and made new friends. He found out that he was a likable person and how he could use his sincerity to draw similar people to him. Bob, on the other hand, created a different attitude. Although he was excited at first by the prospect of change, he did not image how he wanted to be different. He felt like he had been abandoned all alone in a new city where he knew no one. He felt sorry for himself and waited for people to introduce themselves to him. When that did not happen, he decided that he had moved to an unfriendly town and resented his boss for placing him there. The two men faced very similar circumstances but the difference was in their attitude. Joe wanted to learn, to reach out and to meet new people. He wanted to learn about himself and what he could share in a new way and in a new place. Bob knew that he wanted a change, as he had been bored in his old job, but he never imagined how he would change. So even though he experienced a change in circumstances, he brought with him the kind of isolation that had contributed to his dissatisfaction in the previous location.

You may have heard about "karma." Karma is a Sanskrit word which means "indebtedness as an individual." The debt you owe is to yourself–to fill your soul with understandings of creation. When you continually repeat experiences and ask "Why does this keep happening to me?" it is because your soul or Self desires to learn. You keep creating a particular kind of situation and circumstance to provide conditions for learning. It is your duty to create learning to relieve the karma. Karma is caused by your intention and relieved by your understandings. In Bob's case, it was his karma to be in the new location where he knew no one, not because he was being punished by some cosmic force, but because his soul wanted to learn to give, to influence, and to share. Bob continually found himself in situations where he was alone. He was left by his wife, he had been transferred to different locations when he was in the army, and each time he thought that he had been abandoned. He missed close relationships, not because everyone left him, but because he needed to reach out to others. With a more positive attitude, Bob could begin to see these similar circumstances as an opportunity to give, to be himself, to create his identity as a loving and influential person.

To cause learning means creating an idea of what you want to change. For example, I found myself continually involved with individuals who had little money. I felt sorry for them, and loaned them money so that they could get back on their feet. However, after awhile I started to resent this, and also found that I did not receive back most of the money I was "lending." At first I got engrossed in self pity. "Why does this happen to me?" I asked, and I blamed the people to whom I was lending the money. Then I started to become honest when I realized that I was the one who kept lending the money. They didn't force me! Why? What were my intentions? I realized that in most cases the loans were my way of keeping strings attached to the people to whom I was giving the money. As long as I kept lending them money they were dependent on me. Furthermore, the pity I practiced (feeling sorry for them) was blatant lack of respect for them and for myself. If I could work to make enough money to lend it to them, they could work too. They were as strong and capable as I.

When I became honest with these intentions, I was faced with a choice. I could continue to practice disrespect ("Oh, you poor thing. You can't help it if you have overspent your money.") I could continue to practice disrespecting myself by being "victimized" by people who never paid back the loans. Or I could change. When I imagined myself being asked for loans, I imaged a different response from the one I had previously used. I visualized myself saying no, and completed the conversation in my mind. Thus, when the situation arose, I followed through by practicing what I had imagined. This caused a change in my behavior and set the stage for causing a change in my understanding of self respect and respect for others.

In using the Law of Cause and Effect, the more purposeful you are, the more control you will have. In the example related, I caused a change only after experiencing effects I considered unpleasant. It is more direct and more productive to cause change with foresight. Visualize what understandings you want to build and create the conditions and circumstances which will afford you the opportunities to do so. A positive way to direct the Law of Cause and Effect is to think, "I create my world around me." Be the kind of person you want to be (for example, good, kind, loving) and you will create an atmosphere conducive to its expression. You will learn to see that in every situation there is a gift for you — an opportunity to learn, to become more complete, to develop understanding, patience, compassion, self respect, and so forth. Every experience in your life will take on greater meaning and purpose.

Law of Attraction

A couple of years ago I was attending an exercise class at a health club near my home. I really enjoyed the instructor because her love for teaching and concern for her students was evident. After the class ended, I went up to her to thank her for teaching and to find out when she taught other classes so I could attend. I told her I traveled quite a bit with my job so I was not always in town to come to her classes. She asked me what I do, and I told her that I am a teacher at the School of Metaphysics and continued to describe what metaphysics teaches. Her eyes grew wide and she said, "Wow! That's amazing. I love that stuff. In fact, a couple of the other girls who work here keep a book behind the counter that lists dream symbols and when we have free time we talk about each other's dreams. One of the other women who had attended the class overheard us speak, and when she heard "dreams" she said, "You know, I heard someone on the radio yesterday morning interpreting dreams and what she said made more sense than anything I had ever heard before about dreams." I asked her what station she was listening to, and then smiled and said, "That was me you heard on the radio." She said, "Really?" and several of us discussed dreams and their interpretations for about an hour. Susan, the instructor, came over to the School of Metaphysics that evening to register for a new class starting. Was this some divine accident that caused all of us to be in the same place at the same time? Or was it a response to some mysterious plan?

What causes a coincidence to occur? How do seemingly miraculous events take place? The action of attraction is one of the forces at work! When you create a clear, complete, and detailed thought form, you have created a seed idea. With attention and concentration, you can cause a thought form to be planted in the fertile soil of your subconscious mind. In order for your seed idea to grow, you must release your attention from it. Once your thought has become embedded in the soil of your subconscious mind, it begins to grow. You water it with physical activity directed toward the end result you desire, and give it sunlight by bathing it periodically with your attention and love.

As your thought form grows, it attracts to it other energies and minds similarly conditioned. Have you ever heard the saying, "Like attracts like"? This is an expression of the Law of Attraction. When your thought form has been planted, it reaches out with thought waves to the entire universe. There is a universal mind in which all of our minds connect. There will always be other minds with desires and needs compatible to your own. These other minds are also creating visualized thought forms which reach out into universal mind. When these similar thought forms meet, the attraction produces a match. At the health club, my desire was to share with others what I have found to be true. The other two women who were interested in dreams had a desire to find a way to learn more about what their dreams mean. These compatible desires came together and we found each other by communicating our interests.

Like seeds growing in rich, fertile soil, a thought form that is developing in the subconscious mind is imperceptible to the physical senses. When a seed is within the earth, you tend it and care for it although you cannot yet see, touch, feel, or smell it. In the same way, there is a time to watch expectantly for a developing thought form to manifest in physical form. Knowing that you have created a clear and complete image, you watch for the signs that your desired object is coming to fruition. The Law of Attraction operates even when you do not know exactly how you will fulfill a desire. It ensures that you will be in the right place at the right time for things to "click" into place.

I heard a minister named John relate a story describing his faith in divine providence, a true tale which illustrates the action of universal law. John had recently moved from a city to a rural area with his family. A hardworking man, he had not yet obtained a full time job to support his family although he willingly accepted any work which was available. One evening as dinnertime approached, John knew that there was no food to feed his family, but he instructed his daughter to set the table nonetheless. John believed that his efforts would pay off in some way at some time, he knew that he was a good person, and he knew that his family was worthy of being fed. He had had seemingly miraculous events occur at other times in his life and he trusted that the universe would not let his family go hungry. The family gathered together around the table and John led them in prayer. As they sat holding hands, there was a knock at the door. John finished the prayer and answered the door. There stood his landlord with two grocery sacks in his arms. The landlord was a gruff man who usually said very little and rarely smiled. John greeted him, and the landlord said, "Our garden is producing so many vegetables my wife and I can't keep up. I hate waste, so I was wondering if you would use any of these things. Oh, and we just butchered a steer and there are certain cuts my kids won't eat, so if you think yours would eat them, you can have these, too." John smiled gratefully and thanked his landlord, assuring him that the food would be put to good use. This story demonstrates the action of several universal laws, including the "match" of compatible desires — John's desire to feed his family and the landlord's desire to insure that the food was put to good use.

When events "just happen" to occur fortuitously, the Law of Attraction is at work. Here is an example. When I was directing a School of Metaphysics in Ann Arbor, Michigan I set a goal to start a new class in applied metaphysics at that center. I created a very clear image of the benefits of the lessons — learning concentration to become calm and centered, dream interpretation for self awareness, mental relaxation, greater direction in life, peace of mind. I created a strong idea of love, for I loved what I was learning and wanted to share it with others. I made telephone calls to people who had come to lectures at the school, put announcements in the newspaper, announced it to all my students who put out the word to their friends, posted notices around the local university campus. One day, as I returned from work, the phone rang. It was a woman who was asking all kinds of questions about the school and its services. I answered her questions, and then asked her how she had heard about the school. "That's the funniest thing," she replied. "I had just been thinking about how it was time to make a change in my life and I didn't know exactly what to do. One thing I've always found is that when I need to clear my mind I'll clean the house. It gives me a way to get my mind off my problems. Well, I was dusting the bookshelf, and I knocked the phone book off. It fell open to the yellow pages, and I saw your ad there. What a coincidence!"

This shows the Law of Attraction at work. I had formed a clear image of my desire to teach and this woman had formed a clear image of her desire to learn. Both of our minds were reaching out, and the desires "met" in Universal Mind. I want to point out that in both cases there was a physical response to the desire; in my case I was putting forth activity so that people would know the class was starting. In fact, someone before me had responded to a desire to teach and serve by placing the ad in the yellow pages. The woman responded to her desire by picking up the telephone and calling once she saw the ad. At any stage this "match" could have been thwarted if one or both people had been passive, or said defeatedly, "Why bother. It's not going to work anyway. "

Using the laws means that you create the desire in your mind and respond with your physical activity. The Law of Attraction is fun to use, because in order to effect it you must watch expectantly. The thrill of discovery is apparent in every book you read, every corner you turn, every letter you open. Every time the phone rings, you may think, "Is this the one who is calling to come to class?" Every time you open the newspaper you can look for your job that will be advertised that day. Or whatever it is you desire — instead of wondering if it will happen, you look for when and where the signs of its manifestation are occurring. This makes living a joy, and exploring avenues of experience stimulating and rewarding.

The Law of Ten Fold Return

To have prosperity in your life you must expect it. Unfortunately, many people have been taught "it is better to give than receive" or "don't expect too much and you won't be disappointed." But when you think about this, does it make sense? If you give and give and never receive, you will soon be burnt out and resent giving. When you give, you benefit someone else and you receive rewards from the act of giving, for you give yourself a way to heighten your awareness of who you are and what you have to give. You may have learned to use the Law of Ten Fold Return in aphorisms like, "One good turn deserves another." When you do a good deed, you are giving, and you receive an immediate return in a heightened sense of pride, honor, and self respect. You do not expect your return from the person to whom you have given; you anticipate that you will receive a return somehow, from some source. It is easy to expect to receive from the abundance of the universe when you know that you have been generous.

Even when you give of your physical riches, you can expect to receive. The Law of Ten Fold Return states that when you give freely, you can expect to receive ten times what you have given, thus enabling you to give ten times more. Practicing the Law of Ten Fold Return will help you to create an attitude and experience of wealth. Start by giving an amount that you can easily release. Practice giving the same amount every day. Let's say you start by giving ten cents a day. Give this ten cents freely, anonymously if possible. When you give the ten cents, say out loud, "I hereby give this ten cents and claim my ten fold return for the goodness of all concerned!" Then, visualize yourself receiving a dollar bill. Practice this complete action, giving the money, releasing it, stating out loud the amount of your gift and claiming the ten fold return, and visualizing the return. You will then watch for how the money returns to you. As you practice receiving your return, you will find yourself having greater abundance and wealth and desiring to give larger amounts. Keep increasing the amounts you give as you increase the amounts you receive. It is said that the entrepreneur and millionaire John D. Rockefeller gave a shiny new dime to each new person he met, long before he had amassed his fortune. His life demonstrates his practice of the Law of Ten Fold Return. Even today the Rockefeller Foundation contributes large amounts of money to worthy causes.

Your ten fold return will come to you according to the value you place upon your gift and your expectation. If you think, "Oh, this is only a dime," and devalue its worth, you will have difficulty receiving a return. If you think, "This will never work," it won't. Even small amounts of money add up. Every penny you give will return to you tenfold. As you give, you will receive, and the more you give, the more you receive. The more you receive, the more you have to give. When you receive, give thanks for what you have received by giving. You will cause an infinite cycle of prosperity!

I have known many people who use the Law of Ten Fold Return. The first time I used it purposely, I was skeptical but was willing to try it out. I gave fifty cents to a charitable organization, and as I gave the money anonymously (so that there would be no strings attached), I said to myself, "I expect to receive five dollars." Then I forgot about it. Fifty cents was a small amount, so I was not worried about whether or not it would return, and my attitude was one of experimentation. A few days later, I went to a dance concert that I had wanted to attend for quite awhile. I hadn't bought a ticket in advance, and to my dismay, when I arrived the concert was sold out. I was standing in line with my friend, and we were discussing the situation. He decided to leave, since he was not particularly attached to seeing the concert. I decided to stay, thinking that maybe at the last minute there would be an extra ticket. The woman who was in front of us in the line overheard our conversation. After my friend left, she turned to me and said, "Do you need a ticket?" I said, "Yes, I do!" She said, "My husband was supposed to come with me but at the last minute he couldn't make it — here, you can have his ticket." I thanked her, and pulled out my wallet to pay her. She waved her hand and said, "Oh, no. It's yours. Just pass it on some time." I thanked her again for her generosity and thought no more about it until later that evening as I was walking home from the concert. The ticket had cost five dollars — exactly ten times the fifty cents I donated earlier in the week! When you use the Law of Ten Fold Return, give freely and watch for the return. Do not put conditions on how the return will come to you or you may limit how you receive.

Another example of tenfold return occurred with a group of people who were volunteering their time for a nonprofit organization. They had decided that they wanted to receive a large monetary donation to benefit the organization, but had not specified an amount. After considering the importance of creating clearly defined thought-form images, the director of the organization decided to start with a goal of $1000. She wrote this down and posted it for all of the members of the organization to see, so that all could participate in the visualization. Among the activities of this group was a fundraiser which the members created to generate money for operating expenses. They decided to hold a yard sale, but they needed items to sell. Several of the students read newspaper ads for other yard sales, and visited these sales requesting the leftover items for their own sale. The members of the group volunteered their time to pick up the items, and in a few weeks had collected enough items to hold a huge sale for their own group. The director of the organization instructed the members to tenfold the energy and time they volunteered.

When the sale was over, after having raised about $200, the participants wondered what to do with the leftover items. They called around to various groups and organizations to find out who could pick up the clothes, furniture, knicknacks, and other objects that remained. As they were calling, "coincidentally" a couple of young men came by who were members of a church that had a home for disadvantaged youths. These two young men asked if any of the items were available to be donated to their group. The director of the organization which had held the sale offered them all the items left over. The young men did not need all of it, but they offered their time and service to pick up everything left over, to keep what their group could use, and to bring what was left to the Salvation Army or Goodwill.

This was the first example of tenfold return. The time and energy the members of the group expended returned tenfold in the time and energy offered by the two men who belonged to the church. But this was not all! Two weeks after this event, a woman came over to the place which held the yard sale. She had been affiliated with this group at one time and had received many benefits from it. She spoke to the director for a few minutes, telling her how much she had received and how grateful she was. She said that she was going to leave a donation to show her appreciation. She dropped some bills in a jar that was labeled "donation." Later, when the director was about to make a bank deposit she reached into the jar and discovered that the "small" donation was thirteen one hundred dollar bills! This was even greater than the $1000 she had previously visualized and expected.

This story shows how visualization produces great success when coupled with the use of the Law of Ten Fold Return. When you give, you can always expect to receive, although you do not necessarily receive from the person or place to which you have given. When you think about giving, give freely, generously, and with love. Give as you would like others to give to you. This is the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." You will receive multiplied in the manner with which you give.

Knowing that there are Universal Laws will help you in your use of visualization. When you practice creative imagery, you can draw upon power greater than your own. Forces unseen to your eyes and heard not by your ears are at work, ready to aid you to fulfill your desires. In the beginning, trust that these mysterious energies are available to you and as you experiment you will become more familiar with their beneficence. The German philosopher Goethe described this process with great eloquence:

"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that moment one definitely commits oneself then Providence moves, too.

"All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.

"Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. Begin it now."