Something that has been known in other cultures for many centuries is finally becoming known in this one. Floods of books and tapes on Eastern religions, sub-atomic physics, quantum theory, and the metaphysics of becoming a millionaire, are all pointing to the same primal, spiritual, fact of human existence. There are even movies with the theme, movies such as Matrix, What the Bleep and The Secret.

Something that has been known in other cultures for many centuries is finally becoming known in this one. Floods of books and tapes on Eastern religions, sub-atomic physics, quantum theory, and the metaphysics of becoming a millionaire, are all pointing to the same primal, spiritual, fact of human existence.

Life is lived and created from the inside.

It isn't something that impinges on us from the outside. We are NOT victims of circumstances. We make our circumstances like a spider makes its web and then walks about on it. An action as simple (not easy) as changing an attitude can completely change a life, sometimes in an instant.

Leonard Feinberg PhD was a visiting Fulbright Professor to the University of Ceylon in 1956. While he was there he witnessed a major annual religious ceremony.

For three months, 24 hours a day, 80 people were strictly vegetarian and performed ritual worship and meditation on the god Kataragama. Their aim was to become so identified with the god that he would occupy their bodies, and enable them to walk a twenty foot fire pit without harm.

When the moment of truth came, Dr. Feinberg found it difficult to breathe within ten feet of the incandescent pit. He couldn’t stand near it either. To the beat of ritual drums the 80 people emerged from their preparation and walked the pit.

When the explorer Magellan was rowed ashore from his ship to land in the Yucatan, the natives were astonished to see him appear apparently out of nowhere. Captain Cook experienced the same phenomenon when mapping the coasts of New Zealand and other islands in the area. The natives were completely unable to see the great sailing ship anchored just off shore. It was out of their experience and therefore beyond their imagination. So they could not see it. It took a lot of work before the shamans could see the ships and pass on the experience to the tribesmen.

This is history. The same thing happens today when scientists embedded in the rational part of their brain cannot see things that don’t fit into their carefully built left brain categories. Intelligence and the ability to see are irrelevant. The natives had fine vision in the jungles and deserts, but they could not see what they could not think.