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greg dahlen

Alumnus, academy of achievement

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If you were to give a TED talk what would it be about? What points would you make about your topic?

Interested to hear what matters to people.

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Closing Statement from greg dahlen

Well, it wasn I saw that people have interesting ideas for TED talks. One wonders if everyone in the world has an interesting talk in them?

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    Gail . 50+

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    Mar 3 2013: I appreciate Devil's advocate but in this case, it won't help. I won't envision the most luxurious, wealthy lifestyle because I am in the process of down-scaling my former lifestyle. I've had years of travel, I've had a big and beautifully decorated house. Now I want something easier and simpler. I don't want to be owned by possessions. I am directing myself to a different goal that could not be achievable with all that money.

    What would all that money do for me anyhow? Certainly, it would complicate my life. I surely don't need that much money. I could give it away, but what would that accomplish? Sure, some could eat for a time, but only for a time. I am convinced that all of our social ills (poverty, crime, education, war, violence, the raping and pillaging of our earth that puts our lives at risk, etc.) are caused by money, which is why I have been advocating for a moneyless society. I would not want to be the person I would have to be in order to be so extremely wealthy. I would have to let go of my connection with that which allows me to manifest in the first place. I would have to choose to live in fear rather than peace, and having been there, will not choose it again.

    Is there a way around that? Possible, but I haven't found it. It would not be a barrier for some who are so comfortable in our current cultural paradigm that they don't probe the depths of the causes of humanity's man-invented problems. But that's not me. I will not trade my freedom for something as inherently unstable and pretend as money. Most people have never tasted freedom. Having found it, I treasure it.

    Being a believer in the multi-worlds theory of reality, I believe that there is enough, even if everyone asked for the same thing. But, if I want my days filled with peace and satisfaction, I must look at ALL the consequences and ask myself if I am willing to invest in the unintended ones as well as the intended ones.

    • greg dahlen 20+

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      Mar 10 2013: Well, that's a good, conscious answer. I'm still a little dubious about the power of manifesting, TED lover. Aren't there millions, or billions, of people who don't manifest, or visualize, and yet fulfill their basic needs, about like you're doing? Can you really prove it was manifesting, or visualilzing, that got your needs fulfilled?
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        Gail . 50+

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        Mar 11 2013: Can I "PROVE" it to you using scientific method? No. Because I can't be both me and the control. But I have proved it to my own satisfaction over and over and over and over and over again - with things both great and small. You might say (as some have) that I am the luckiest person in the world, but those who say that don't bother trying it for themselves. (And how does one explain the many years of being the opposite if I was simply born lucky?) Disbelievers certainly haven't done the work I have done in cleaning out my belief system so that it is no longer filled with contradictory beliefs, untested assumptions, and outgrown beliefs carried over from childhood. They are not aware of what they spend the bulk of their time thinking about. They don't know the difference between an emotion and a thought. They have never probed their emotions to see what they are made of and why they appear. They can't see the connection between what they have/want and how they habitually think.

        There are so many unbelieved manifesters around the globe - each having discovered their own power by following their own path to understanding. You may find my view odd, just as I find that the majority of the earth's population claim to be adherents to one of the Abrahamic religions - even though they have no proof, and there is abundant proof against - in that most prayers are not answered - which is the opposite effect of manifesting.

        You may be dubious. You may even ardently disagree. But if you have not tried it, then you have no way of knowing how really strange or seemingly impossible to find things are either given to me or I find for very little money soon after I choose to manifest them. How can SO many coincidences occur if I am not part of the process? I can't fathom any reasonable alternative explanation.

        Examples of this month alone:

        I have a small pass-thru in my house. I wanted to turn it into an alcove with a decorative grate.
        (continued)

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        Gail . 50+

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        Mar 11 2013: I have been shopping with friends for that grate an spent a fair amount of time on-line looking for one. But short of having one custom made, I couldn't find anything that was 20 5/8 by 48. So after much frustration, I decided to manifest one. Three days later, I knew that I should go to a certain store. I took my tape measure (and my husband) and there it was - a decorative metal grate that beautifully complements my Tuscan decor. 20 5/8" X 48", and it was only $12.99. The next thing I needed was sheetrock. The next morning, while walking my cat (she loves walks), it went into my neighbor's shed. She has just moved, so the shed door shouldn't have been open. I went in to grab the screen to close it so I could close the outer door, but a piece of sheet rock was leaning against the screen. She didn't want to go to the dump and gladly gave it to me. That was one.

        Next - I broke the glass table top on my sunroom table. My husband loved the table, so I went looking for replacement glass. (42 X 42 beveled with rounded corners). I could have custom ordered one, but it would cost me FAR less to buy a whole new set - including chairs. I looked for alternative top material with no success - even asking on Freecycle for anything that might work. I spent weeks looking for an alternative set, but hadn't found an acceptable alternative yet.

        Not thinking about that, I told my husband that I needed something to practice manifesting on. (I practice a lot) He asked me to manifest a new table top. So I did. The next morning, I wondered if Craig's List would have anything like that (I'd checked before but had given up). So I checked again. I typed in table top. Of course, Craigs List shows all things with the word "table" in it.

        My eyes first hit a listing for a coffee table. I know that 48X48 glass is huge/odd 4 a coffee table, but something told me to click on it. There it was.

        That's part of this month's manifesting. I'm out of characters 4 more.

        • greg dahlen 20+

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          Mar 12 2013: So, TED lover, what exactly is manifesting? Is it sort of like saying "I already have this thing I want, even if I don't see it"? I will say that it seems to me you are also doing a lot of the work to get these things, going on craigslist, etc. Is it really different from intuition, for example could someone simply have an intuition that a certain store had what they want?

          To some degree it makes me think of Jesus's lesson that life will provide, we don't need to worry, life even provides for the smallest, least-thinking-ahead creatures.
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        Gail . 50+

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        Mar 14 2013: I just gave you two examples. I could list a host of things that came to me through what you might call serendipity (How convenient that you are giving away that thing that I have been visualizing).

        It is to large degree that life will provide. But if you don't know what you believe and the consequences of those beliefs, life will provide some not-so-happy unintended consequences.

        When I set aside 20 minutes to visualize (pretend) my already having what I want, it comes. But it's not possible to do that if your belief set has a problem with your having what you are manifesting, which is why it's so important to get those conflicting beliefs and false indoctrinated programming beliefs out of your belief-set. That's why knowing how to think for yourself is important.

        This concept is the whole of Jesus' message. It has been turned into something very different. I love the teachings of Jesus even though I am an atheist. Jesus and Quantum Mechanics have a great deal in common. If Christians understood that Jesus was telling the truth, they would realize that Jesus wasn't a Christian - or a Jew for that matter - because he didn't believe in the God of Abraham. (But they prefer the teachings of Paul, whose teachings are mutually exclusive of those of Jesus)

        • greg dahlen 20+

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          Mar 14 2013: Is there any reason why manifesting would be a better way of getting what you want? When I want something, I try to think who might have it, then I go there and see if they have it. It seems to work out fine.
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        Gail . 50+

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        Mar 15 2013: Greg, if that works for you consistently, then how wonderful for you. I don't know enough people. Too many things seem to come out of the blue after I manifest, so I have proven it to my own satisfaction though I am well aware that I can never prove it to anyone else's because some things aren't provable and people who are not ready to hear do not hear.

        But it's more than just manifesting "things". I have faced an imminent death situation at the hands of an aggressor, and using peace, that I know is one of our powers, I diffused the situation and he left me unharmed. Something similar also happened when I avoided a rape, and the man walked out of the door locking it behind him.

        It's a worldview that works for me. It took me years to develop that worldview from scratch (after my worldview - the conventional wisdom one - crashed). I was stunned to discover how powerful humans are (beings are) and would not have believed it unless circumstances forced me to reconsider that error-ridden worldview. And had I not reconsidered my worldview, I would not have been able to see the inherent perfection of humans - no matter how many mistakes are made. And when I saw my own perfection, I was able to see yours, and my life changed so dramatically that it is nothing like the old life.

        But if you prefer the comfort of your own worldview, immerse yourself in it fully. Isn't that what life is about? It's not mine to judge your choices. I simply see our social and ecological systems in decline and want people to begin doing the work that makes manifesting "intended" consequences possible before it all comes crashing down and no one knows what to do. I think that you would be surprised if you knew how many people have found their own route to the same understanding that I have. It's global movement. It's growing (never to be organized). And the evidence that allows it to be is now available thanks to quantum physics.

        Cheers!

        • greg dahlen 20+

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          Mar 15 2013: so is there a set way to do manifesting, do you go in a room and visualize? Or are there different ways to do it? Is it visualizing, if so why not call it that? What is quantum physics? How does it relate here?

          I appreciate your explaining this to me. I believe the audience at your talk would be asking some of the same questions I am.
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        Gail . 50+

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        Mar 15 2013: Well, when I manifested the little white convertible sports car (turned out to be a Fiat Spider) that I couldn't afford (I could only afford another clunker), every time I got in my car to go someplace, I opened the windows, turned on the vent full blast and aimed the air at me, and pretended that my 9 passenger wagon was a little white sports car. I chose a blue interior because my car had a blue interior and it was easier to pretend. I LOVED driviing that little white convertible sports car. Driving to work was real pleasure.

        When, 28 days later, when I was working in my kitchen, I heard a throaty sound in my driveway. I dropped what I was doing and ran outside - knowing that my car was there. It sure was. And only 3,000.00 including tax, registration, and fees - exactly the amount I had in the bank already dedicated to buying a car when I found a decent one that cheap. I hadn't told anyone what I was doing. Who would have believed me? If a year before, someone had told me such a story, I wouldn't have believed what I was hearing.

        Other times, I sit on my porch and pretend that the thing I want is inside the house. I feel the joy of knowing that I have again manifested this. It usually takes repetition, but not always. One November day, I decided to manifest a strawberry, because strawberries were out of season. (Part of my practice) So I imagined holding a strawberry. I hadn't even finished my 20 minute session when my neighbor, seeing me on my deck, came over and interrupted me. She showed me a small piece of wallpaper she just bought for her dining room. In the center of the 3" square piece she handed me was a perfect strawberry. I wonder what would have happened if I had imagined myself eating a fresh strawberry?

        QM relates to the multiworlds theory that makes this possible. I don't make things suddenly "appear" in my reality. I use mind to move to where what I want already exists, as I choose from among probabilities my mind draws me to.
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        Gail . 50+

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        Mar 15 2013: Would you feel more comfortable if I were to say "I imagine it into my reality" or more precisely "I imagine myself into its reality"?

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