Thanksgiving, Abundance, and Luck

Many people email me wanting to know how to increase luck and abundance, and how to speed up manifestation time, and perhaps even have what they need appear instantly.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, I wanted to a share few stories about the power of gratitude to change your experience of luck and abundance rapidly.

While luck seems to be an experience that happens entirely by chance, if you engage in experiments like I did, you'll discover that your thoughts, emotions and actions have a lot to do with how your life plays out.

Many years ago, a friend used to take me to a bingo hall. During the first year or two, I won nothing. I was convinced that it was not my destiny to win in any games of chance. I didn't expect to win, so I won nothing. I noticed, though, that some people seemed to almost always win, while others just as consistently won nothing.

One day while I was swimming I remembered the principle of gratitude and I decided to give it a try. For me swimming is one of the ways of going into a trance and programming my subconscious. As I kept swimming, in my mind's eye I saw myself winning a bingo game played on a green card, and I felt deep gratitude for my winnings - in advance. I kept swimming and visualizing myself winning for about 30 - 60 minutes. I went to bingo later that evening and I won $100 in the game I envisioned myself winning.

I wanted to find out whether I could win $1,400 jackpot. At the time if you won a jackpot, you'd get a plastic mug with inscription "jackpot winner", so I created an image of the mug with inscription "jackpot winner" on it, affirmed that I am a lucky jackpot winner and poured out gratitude for my winnings. Within a week I won that jackpot.

I made a similar experiment with a slot machine. Another friend took me to a casino to play at slot machines, and gave me $25 chip to go and entertain myself. I changed it into quarters and began playing. Again I envisioned myself as a winner, poured out gratitude for my winnings, and I won the jackpot on that slot machine.

At one time I urgently needed $200 and not having any idea where to get them, I went to bingo. A friend of mine showed up in the middle of the game that paid $200. Surprised to see me there, because he knew I didn’t have money to waste, he asked "What are you doing here?" I said, "I need $200." He burst out laughing, "And you came here to get it?" I nodded, and continued to play the game. Few more numbers were called. I raised my card, and yelled "Bingo" - I just won the $200 I needed. My friend was speechless, as I smiled and whispered to him "Mind over matter!"

Sometimes people ask "Well, how about winning millions of dollars?" Personally, I tend to focus on my needs being met at all times, - that is what I have programmed in my subconscious and it works for me. I never needed millions of dollars - though I do get emails from people who seem to have such needs. At times I was in situations where I needed more money than I had on hand. At such times, again I would program on the idea of the particular need being met and I’d pour out gratitude that it is met now. And whatever I needed would come in some form into my life, many times in interesting and unexpected ways. Sometimes what seemed to have required money, didn’t require any money at all. The need was filled in other ways. Those stories I will leave for some other time. Right now, I wanted to share few more ways of practicing gratitude.

Some people celebrate Thanksgiving once a year. Because the practice of gratitude is one of the most magical acts through which you can instantly create miracles in your life, I practice it in some form on daily basis.

When I desire to immerse myself in a multi-sensory experience to deepen that feeling of gratitude, I may light up candles. burn sweet smelling incense, and use aromatic oils that evoke the feeling of sacredness.

This method of getting into a trance has been used by most spiritual traditions through thousands of years and for a good reason. It engages many of your senses, it helps to create powerful imprints upon your subconscious mind and to anchor states of well-being. Each time you use them, you deepen that state of gratitude and well-being.

At times when you may be feeling down, you can rapidly trigger states of well-being by using those same stimuli, those same scents and sights, and sounds and even tastes you associated with feeling really good. Even when you work with hypnosis, subliminal or supraliminal plus recordings for example, you can use scents to anchor different states of being.

Among different ways of anchoring states, if you visit any bingo hall, you're bound to see many people having "charms" beside their playing cards, little figurines like trolls, or maybe a rabbit's foot, or an alligator's tooth. Perhaps you have your “lucky” clothes, or colors, or some little thing that is particular to your culture and beliefs.

In spite of the saying that "rabbit's foot wasn't lucky for the rabbit", and that we may view the practices of "folk magic" as amusing superstitions, just like Pavlov's dog, we all tend to pair our inner experience with whatever may be present in our environment, and sooner or later, an object, sight, sound, smell, taste or touch, becomes a trigger for the inner state. For example, you could listen to Become Lucky supraliminal plus recording and as the recording helps you to open your mind and heart to the experience of gratitude, abundance and luck, you begin to feel good each time you hear my voice and as you discover that the recording has a positive impact upon your life on many different levels of your being, you keep on listening to it over and over, because the more often you listen to it, the more those feelings of well-being and positive expectations become imprinted upon your subconscious mind. As you pair my voice with the feeling of well-being and experience of luck, you begin to feel lucky and expect good fortune to come into your life, and in turn you create a happy feed-back loop, where the sound of my voice becomes a trigger for the experience of gratitude, luck and abundance in your life.

And when it comes to lucky charms, recently I read about the man in Canada who won a major lottery prize for the fifth time - the last prize was about $17 million. Now, while some people win major lottery prizes by playing different kinds of lottery systems, the lucky winner said, he didn't play any system, he just picked the numbers randomly. He let his inner wisdom guide him. He was also wearing a pair of lucky horseshoes.

And now, I wonder just in how many different ways can you program your subconscious mind with the feelings of well-being, gratitude, luck and ever-greater abundance ...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Instant Results

Since the article on "Becoming Lucky" came out, several people have emailed me asking "But, how do I become lucky NOW, how do I get instant results?"

You get instant results by getting into a state of consciousness of oneness - where there is no differentiation between yourself and what you desire to experience. In that state of consciousness there are no obstacles, there is no friction between conflicting ideas, and consequently there is no time lag. In that state of consciousness you perceive the world as your Self, realizing that the subject (you) and the object (whatever you are perceiving or desiring), your inner and outer worlds are all one and the same.

To practice this, as you move around in the world of form, you maintain your awareness on the unity which exists beyond all physical appearances. You may look at the computer and still have an awareness that from the perspective of quantum physics it is ultimately made out of subatomic particles, out of pure energy, or if you like spiritual terminology, that it is made out of spiritual substance - out of the same spiritual substance that everything is created. You can think of it as the Light.

Many years ago I had some problem with digestion for several months. Nothing I ate seemed to agree with my stomach. I tried different ways of preparing food and some natural remedies, but none of it helped. One day I was fed up with suffering so I put a plate with food in front of me and took few minutes to contemplate the fact that on a subatomic level the food on the plate and my stomach are made out of the same substance and that therefore they must be harmonious. I perceived the food on a plate and my stomach as being made out of divine Light and then I ate the food with this state of consciousness and the stomach problem disappeared. It was instantly gone as I got into what I like to call "the right state of mind".

If you take some time each day to contemplate your oneness with everything, you will begin to accustom yourself to this state of consciousness and to impress it upon your subconscious mind - thus dissolving inner obstacles and conflicting ideas. In turn whatever crosses your mind will begin to manifest faster and faster and many times you will have an experience where one moment you think of something and the next moment you experience it in your outer world, because you are eliminating differentiation between the two, and you are consequently eliminating the time lag.

You introduce a time lag in the realization of your goals when you have conflicting ideas. Conflicting ideas create friction. You introduce a time lag in the realization of your goals when you start mentally comparing ideas and experiences - instead of just fully focusing on the present moment.

The ideal state of mind for practicing self-hypnosis is as if you were conducting an experiment. You don't know what is going to happen because even if you had hundred or thousand hypnosis sessions before, each one is unique, so you allow whatever is happening to happen. You are fully present in what you are doing and you are fully focused on your mind-experiment. You are in an open state of mind, filled with childlike curiosity. You are enjoying the experience and you are surrendering to the experience. You can analyze your experience as much as you like before or after the session, but NOT during the session. During the session you allow yourself to surrender totally and completely to a state of consciousness in which anything is possible, you are like a child in a wonderland, and whatever is happening is fantastic.

Many times people begin their explorations of self-hypnosis with this open state of mind, with childlike curiosity and have experiences that are more amazing then anything they could've imagined. When people participate in playing games of chance with this state of mind, they experience "beginner's luck". Note that the beginner's state of mind is totally open, like an empty glass waiting to be filled.

What makes this luck and wonderful experiences evaporate is that once a person has some experience or knowledge, he is now full of preconceived ideas and as he drags them into new experiences, he is like a full glass that doesn't have any space left to receive more. It becomes more challenging for the person to put all that he has experienced, all that he has read, all that he knows aside and to experience the freshness of each new moment, of each new experience, to experience fully the magic of whatever is present right now.

What makes hypnosis work is this one-pointed focus on the present experience, where you are so totally immersed in your subjective experience - in whatever is going on right now, in whatever you are creating right now with your thoughts and emotions - that nothing else exists in your awareness. It doesn't matter what you do with your body - whether your body is still or you are moving around, but your mind is so totally absorbed in your subjective experience to the point that you begin to experience yourself as the realized outcome of your session - as your goal manifested right now.

Become Lucky

Luck is a state of mind. People who are lucky, people who think of themselves as lucky tend to think and behave in different ways than those who think of themselves as unlucky.

Our thinking and acting may cause us to experience serendipitous events in some areas of our lives and to experience seeming obstacles in other areas. Changing the way we think may change our experience instantly.

For example, many years ago, a friend used to take me to play Bingo. During the first two years I played I won absolutely nothing. I believed that it was not part of my destiny to win anything playing games of chance. I didn't expect to win anything and I didn't win anything.

Then one day, the Law of gratitude crossed my mind, and just for the sake of experiment I began expressing gratitude - in advance - for winning a specific game at Bingo that evening. For about an hour that afternoon I kept on subjectively experiencing myself winning a specific game on a green card at Bingo and feeling gratitude for the winnings. I went to Bingo that evening, and I won exactly the game for which I was expressing gratitude. From that day onward I kept on winning consistently.

One day I needed $200, so I went to Bingo. A friend of mine dropped by in the middle of the game which paid $200. He knew that I didn't have any money to throw away, and he made fun of me and laughed at the idea that I came to Bingo to get $200 that I needed. Several numbers later, as all the numbers I needed came, I raised my card and yelled "Bingo!" - I just won $200 I needed. My friend was speechless. I smiled and said "Mind over matter!"

Later on I won jackpots at Bingo and playing slot machines, again giving thanks in advance for the winnings. While I don't believe in gambling as a strategy for creating financial wealth, I do consider playing games of chance as a fun way of conducting mind over matter experiments. If you play with money, play only with the money you can afford to lose even if you are 100% sure that you are going to win, or better yet, practice first playing games with fun money, until you develop some proficiency in directing the outcome of the game with your mind.

If you play games of chance, one of the things you may learn rather fast is the necessity of letting go, of detaching from the outcome. People often ask me how can you have a desire for something and detach from it at the same time. You do that by shifting into a state of an observer, as if you were observing a miracle that is being done through you, rather than you doing it yourself, of if you will, rather than you doing anything consciously.

Here is an example from the time I dealt a game of roulette at a casino. A player put me in the game by giving me a $25 chip. I could put it on any number, and what I win would be my tip. I picked number "8" - it was as good as any other number. My task was to spin the ball so it lands on number 8. That was beyond what I was able to do consciously, so I called upon that power and intelligence that expresses through my body, through roulette wheel, through roulette ball and everything else. You may call it unconscious, subconscious, Greater Self, God or whatever you like. I had merely silently expressed my intent, that the ball lands in slot with number 8, and then I surrendered my hand to this Greater Self, and spun the ball from the state of mind of an observer rather than a do-er. The ball landed exactly on number 8 and I got a tip of $900.

All instant manifestation of anything involves exactly the same process of expressing an intent and then surrendering yourself, letting go and detaching yourself from the outcome by shifting into an observer state of mind. Instead of doing anything consciously, you simply watch the miracle happen, you let your unconscious, subconscious, your Greater Self, God, or whatever you like to call it, do its thing.

When you are in a do-er state of mind, you experience some tension in your body, maybe the greatest tension is felt somewhere in the area of solar plexus. When you shift into an observer state, you experience peace and relaxation. When you are tense, you block the energy from manifesting, when you are relaxed you let it flow and you allow the desired outcome to happen.

This observer state of mind is also an ideal state to be in between your self-hypnosis sessions, when you are done stating your intent in some way, usually by subjectively experiencing your desired outcome. It is like a state of joyful expectation, a state of openness, a state of allowing.

You could say that people who consider themselves lucky tend to look for signs that affirm the manifestation of their desired outcomes, while those who consider themselves unlucky tend to look for signs that affirm that what they desire is not there yet and may never even happen.

If you walk through life with the belief that "something good comes out of everything", you'll always discover something good in every situation, something you can rejoice in and feel grateful for. These feelings by themselves raise your energy level, your vibration, align you, harmonize you with all power and what you desire to experience begins to happen spontaneously and effortlessly.

A couple of women here in Toronto won $1 million dollars on instant lottery tickets which they purchased during a shopping spree before their weddings. The forthcoming weddings put them into a state of mind of joyful expectation, into a state of mind where they were in love with life and everything felt wonderful and perfect and the lottery winnings manifested as natural expression of this inner joy.

If you pay attention to what happens in your life when you feel in love with anything, when you feel happy and blissful, you may notice that you are at such times in greater harmony with everything and good things happen spontaneously and effortlessly because you are allowing life to flow through your being.

Many years ago, a young man who reminded me of one of my spiritual teachers, invited me to go with him to a racetrack where the horse he was training and which was to race the next day, was staying. I've never been at a racetrack before, so I was curious. When we got there, the young man left me alone with the horse for a few moments, and as I gazed into the eyes of that horse, I suddenly felt my body and the horse's body dissolving, horse and I merging into one and expending all across the universe - as one, pure, formless spirit. The experience was out of this world and so overwhelming that tears came to my eyes. The boy and the horse, who were staying at this racetrack only for one race, left the city, but I kept going back to the racetrack, hoping to have that otherworldly experience again, hoping to again experience myself free of all boundaries.

At first when I went to the racetrack, I didn't bet on any horses. I merely went there, every day, just to practice experiencing that state of oneness with the horses. While I haven't experienced exactly that otherworldly experience I desired, I felt love for everything on that racetrack and all the smells, sounds and sights of the racetrack triggered a sense of delight in me.

I soon discovered that in this state of oneness with the horses, picking winning horses was effortless. Since I had no intention to bet, and no self-interest was involved, there were no obstacles to the free flow of energy and information. I was simply basking in the feeling of love. Sometimes before a particular race I would hear a song in my mind that contained the name of a horse that would win in the forthcoming race. For example, a song about a girl named Cinnamon would play in my mind before a race in which a horse named Cinnamon Toasted won.

If you practice increasing the feeling of love within you, you will notice that your intuition as well as your luck will increase. Through love you get in tune with everything, you step in harmony with everything. It doesn't matter what it is that you love, as long as you let this love flow freely, rather than offering it as a trade-off for something else. The latter is no longer love, it's bargaining. The difference is that when you let love flow through you freely just for the sake of love, the energy flows freely through you, you remain in an open, receptive state. When you are offering love so that you can get something back, your energy tenses up and you begin to close down, to cut yourself off from the wellspring of good fortune. The more open you are, the more blessings, abundance, good fortune you allow into your experience of life. The more open you are, the more expanded you become and the more things you embrace into your life.

You can pick as an object of love anything you feel you can love totally and completely - whether it is the Infinite Spirit as Divine Light, by whatever name you may want to call it, or it is some individual, or an object. It should be something that you can love just for the sake of feeling love in your being and expressing it, not because you want something in return. You can pick something that when you look at it, you simply feel so good all over, you feel happy and love naturally and effortlessly flows through you. When you direct your love toward such individual or an object, or even an abstract idea, that individual or object becomes a doorway to the infinite for you. Through love you align yourself with the infinite, because the essence of the infinite is love.

The Infinite Spirit, the Divine Light is contained in every speck of creation - beginning with yourself and in everything that is visible and invisible, including in all things and circumstances where you'd like to experience more luck.

In some cultures and traditions, people put statues or pictures of different spiritual beings and direct their love toward the infinite thorough those images or objects. If you recognize this Divine Light in yourself, you may as well use your own picture and love the Infinite through your own image. It is not the material image that you love, but rather the Infinite that expresses through it. People may choose pictures of saints, angels and other highly evolved spiritual beings because it is much easier being aware of the Infinite in something which already expresses pure love, rather than in something like a piece of dirt - but the point is that the Infinite Spirit is contained in everything and absolutely anything and everything can serve as a doorway to the infinite if you allow yourself to look beyond appearances.

When you fall in love with someone, you do not judge the person and whatever faults the person may be experiencing, all that you know is that you love. You overlook all the shortcomings and you are only aware of love. At that moment you are aware of that which is Divine, even if it were clothed in mortal flesh.

Whether you choose an object or an individual or anything material, the love you express is putting you in tune with the source of all power, with One Infinite Spirit, One Divine Light expressing through everything, regardless of the form it may take. When you communicate with the Infinite, it will take the form of whatever you have chosen, based on your background, beliefs and experiences, to be Divine for you. Different people can have an experience of the same miraculous event, and each person will see a different form - at the same time - one may see an angel, one may see Jesus, one may see Krishna, or Shiva, one may see mother Mary, or some spiritual teacher or anyone else. The Divine Light becomes translated into the form or name we have ascribed to Divine. The form is then only a doorway to the infinite, a reflection of the infinite love, power and wisdom which reside in you, which in effect are what you truly are.

For many people it seems easier to believe that the love, power and wisdom they desire to experience are in someone or something else, rather than in themselves - and for a while, until they discover that they there is only One love, power and wisdom present in everyone and everything - they find it easier to direct their devotion and faith into someone or something external to them. For a while this external object or individual acts as a mirror of that love, power and wisdom contained in every speck of creation.

Eventually, when you experience the Divine Light, then you know that the whole is contained in every speck of creation - within and without, and you are able to be aware of the Infinite, of Divine in everything - recognizing the Divine in a grain of sand just as in yourself, in any face or in any circumstance.

If you need a lucky charm - whether you pick Lucky Wanga oil, or rabbit's foot, or an image of a saint, or a guru, or some deity, or angel, or even your own image - they will all work equally well if you let them act as doorways to the Infinite through which all the power of creation can flow into your life. Acknowledge the Divine Light in yourself and in all life and love it with all your being and you will walk in tune with all the good fortune in the universe.

Glory to the Divine Light which resides in you and in all life everywhere!
May you walk with love and may luck always be with you!